I'll See Your 45...

Just to warn everyone, there may be several music posts this week. Actually, since it's Wednesday already, there may only be music posts this week! But hey, it's either that or more Nightingale so what you gonna do?

I was already planning on a regular "What I've Been Listening To Lately" post for Friday because it's been a fortnight since the last one and the damn songs keep piling up. 

(Can we say "fortnight" now without having to explain it, by the way? I feel like, since Fortnite became such a thing, everyone must know what it means. I used to avoid it as a confusing Britishism but like "wanker" it seems to have gone global now. That said, I never did get what Epic thought the pun was supposed to be...)

Anyway, there was that and then yesterday I got sight of this year's long list for the Glastonbury Festival Emerging Talent Competition and for some hard-to-explain (Even to myself.) reason I decided I'd probably better do something on it. I do realise no-one cares but as the years go by the blog seems to be acquiring traditions like that ball in Katamari Damacy picks up objects and I'm nothing if not a traditionalist.

Having made the decision, then naturally I had to listen to them. All ninety! Luckily, there's a playlist showcasing what I assume is the specific song each of them submitted. Or maybe it's just a representative number. I dunno. I haven't read the rules.  

Whatever, it's more than four hours of music. I'm halfway through now and I thought it would be wise to stop there and split this thing into two parts. I also thought it would be fun to make notes as I went and then print them verbatim like a weird kind of time-delayed live blog.

Finally, in case that wasn't convoluted enough, I decided to give them all a grade. Everyone loves a grade, don't they? I mean, I know I do. As a reader, that is. If I was the artist I'd probably want to come round and have a quiet chat with any dick on the internet who thought they could sum up my work with a single letter. And maybe not so quiet, at that.

On that note and on the extremely unlikely chance any of them ever read this, I'd like to offer an up-front apology to anyone I've given what looks like a failing mark to, while taking a moment to explain that all I'm grading is the degree to which these songs did or did not intrigue, impress or excite me. I'm not making any judgments about objective quality. Well, not in the grades. In the comments, though...

Just to nail that down:

The grading process is based for the most part on a first impression from a single play. As we all know, songs and performers can grow on you or you can go off them, so take that under advisement.

A - There might be something special going on here and I advise you not to miss out.

B - I liked it, maybe you will, too. Worth keeping an eye on, for sure.

C - Solid choice if it's your kind of thing. Wasn't really mine.

D - Either made no impression on me or I actively disliked it. Could be either. Check the comment.

E - Really did not like this at all.

Plusses and minuses add nuance but the letter is the prime signifier.

Finally, I've embedded videos for some of the ones I like but for the sake of layout it does depend somewhat on where they fall in the list so I couldn't get all my favorites in. Plus, I pulled my #1 choice out and stuck it in the intro so as not to bury the lede. 

Finally, I did consider adding links to every entry but that would be a lot of work. Just use the playlist provided!

Let's get to it!

1. Who Is Jack - without - 50 seconds until it actually starts! Way too long to get to a dull ballad. - C
2. Marie Naffah - Rust&Blue -  Great video (Says it's a visualiser but it's a video), strong song, vocals sound like they were slowed down (Assume that's just her voice). - A-
3. Saina - Listen to my Voice - nice, unremarkable - C+
4. Slip Martin - Wallflower- dull - C-
5. Ella Tobin - The Ghost - Very pleasant neo-folk. This sort of thing does sound old-fashioned now - B
6. Nate Brazier - Feels - unremarkable - C
7. J Aliya - Not The One - Good. Sonically satisfying. Trippy. - B
   
   
8. Call Me Loop - Self Love - Bouncy! Fun. Kinda old-fashioned but not retro - B
9. Who Ate All The Crayons - 5 Seconds - Annoying melodic indie-rock. Very not like you'd expect from the band name. D
10. Lo Rays - Die Beside You - Sounds like a Eurovision entry - C-
11. Mirrors - Echoes- Pleasant, ordinary. Maybe building to something different but didn't have the patience to wait - C+
12. Talk Show - Closer - alright. Nothing special. - C
13. lau.ra & Surya Sen - Do That - Decent club track. C
14. Bryte - Zongo Boy - Toasting, although I imagine there's another name for it now. Not terrible. - C
15. Daniella Dee - Stutter - Smooth jazz! Sade/Erika Badu etc. Nice! - B
16. Re Teu - Glas - Most original song so far. Couldn't put it in a genre. Starts off kinda dance, goes all post-rock - B+
17. Jessie Reid - Let Your Love Run Cold - More neo-folk or maybe even anti-folk. Mildly reminds me of Peggy Sue. Good. - B+
18. retropxssy - Fading - chill lo-fi hip-hop or something - very much my thing - B+
    
    
19. Room Service - JCVD - Tribute to Jean Claude van Damme - funny in a kind of Pop Will Eat Itself way - very late '80s - Good riff. - B
20. Buoy Meets Krill - Sweetbreads -- quirky indie folk-jazz? - If this makes the short list I'll eat my fox hat - B+
21. Dogsbody - Let It Die - incredibly slow to get going but quite unexpected when the jazz sax appears - Builds nicely but I fear if they were playing live you wouldn't be able to hear most of it for the sound of people chatting - B-
22. Brian Grogan - Your Name - fine of its kind, not my thing at all - C
23. Maddie Ashman - 6AM - more pleasant neo-folk - B
24. Theo Bleak - It's Not Doing Me Any Good - Shoegaze. Pleasant. Unremarkable. Also, it's a band, not a person. - B
25. Meduulla - Limbo feat. The Mouse Outfit - pleasant lo-fi hip-hop - B
26. FINCHES - NOTHING FIXES ME LIKE YOU - Britpop revivalists! Interesting accent. Decent of its kind. - B
    
    
27. Maya Lane - Bump Into Me - Indie, almost twee-folk. Nice video but the van's the wrong color. - B
28. Eighty Eight Miles - Sophie - OMG! See above! So tweefest c. 2016 it's not true. Third on the bill to Camera Obscura - B+
29. Juju - Just Okay - indie/pop-rock not very much to say about it - C
30. George Houston - In Aeternum Vive - ffs! He looks about 12 and the video looks like it was made by 15 year olds for school assembly where they wanted to be as transgressive as they could get away with... and it's all for a really strong, classic-rock vocal performance with striking lyrics. Astonishing. He could be a star, the video already has ten times the views of anything else so far (180k+) - A
    
    
31. Georgia May - Guessin' - lovely R&B - A
32. Joe Winter — Laughing for the West - and more lovely r&b, very 80s except for the heavy auto-tune - B+
33. Frances And The Majesties - All Of Time - synthpop of some stripe, also a bit 80s - C+
34. simon a. - FERMI - slick r&b - smooth! 70s inflected - B
35. E. M Kane - Wasted Time - old school soul/r&b extremely retro - bit of a tour de force vocal, impressive! - B
36. Neckbreakers - Waiting On Your Call- 90s indie-pop - I was listening to it while reading a news feed and I came to write this comment after it finished I literally couldn't remember anything about it and had to go back and hear it again - C
37. alessi rose - eat me alive - good pop music although it's getting so I feel I've heard this same song a lot of times now - B
38. Home Counties - Bethnal Green - post punk pop, mildly frenzied. Weird to hear a band called Home Counties singing a song about Bethnal Green... B
    
    
39. Darla Jade - Broken Armour - more slick pop - B
40. Euan Stamper - Fast Fashion - Ivor Cutler without the jokes. Mesmerising. I really hope he makes the shortlist. - A (I would have embedded it but the video is unlisted on YouTube so you can only see it via the playlist. Or this link.)
41. Tommy Down - Mrs Blue  - old-school(ish) soul/r&b - very nice 90s vibe - reminds me of David Gray - B
42. The Ayoub Sisters - The Scottish Egyptian - Is it folk? Is it classical? Do I care? Way outside my abilty to assess meaningfully - No rating 
43. Kynsy - Simple Life - Wow! One of those songs they don't make any more. Except apparently Kynsy does. Would get radio play across five decades. - B 
44. KID 12- Dreams - Rich, thick sound. Satisfying. Would listen again. - B+ 
45. Olivia Nelson - Oblivion - More solid, professional modern R&B - not much more I can say - B 

Forty-five down, forty-five to go. Geez. Wish me luck.