5 hours ago, supaspaz said:

BE SWEET

 

Average score: 7.98

High score: 10 (@ultraviolence.xx, @MP2K, @Ewan Chaos, @Invisibility, @Reverie)

Low score: 3 (@Insanity)

 

 

When her publisher set her up in a writing session back in 2018, Michelle Zauner and Wild Nothing frontman Jack Tatum grumblingly crafted a mainstream pop song that they ultimately planned to sell to another artist and make some money. But Zauner grew so attached to “Be Sweet” that she kept it for Japanese Breakfast, releasing it as the lead single from Jubilee. This ebullient burst of ‘80s electropop about taking a chance on love, which Zauner compared to Madonna and Janet Jackson, became one of the breakout indies hit of 2021, reaching the top 40 on alternative radio, winding up all over critics’ lists at the end of the year and even getting translated into Simlish for The Sims 4 Cottage Living.

 

Best bit: shouting along to the “I wanna believe in you, I wanna belieeeeeeve” refrain, which also inspired a cute music video based on The X-Files

 

ATRL says...: “Please indie artists sell out and make 80s pop, I’m begging you!” @madonnas pleaded. “It’s always good!” @Ewan Chaos effused, “Best chorus ever? Best chorus ever.”

Ya'll ****** up. Badly.

I don't know these Billie songs left.

Oh wow, Billie really held up this round

  

8 hours ago, supaspaz said:

BODIES (INTRO)

 

Average score: 7.80

High score: 10 (@Ace Reject, @Reverie, @Born to Run)

Low score: 5 (@Norte)

 

 

Heaux Tales kicks off with a moment of uncomfortable self-scrutiny: Jazmine Sullivan has fallen into a terrible pattern of going out, getting ****** up and then going home with men she can’t even remember the next day to get ******. “*****, get it together, *****,” she demands of herself over a groggy organ synth. “My mama wouldn't like it if she knew.” But the “Bodies” keep piling up as she explores sex, love and heartbreak over the course of her Grammy-winning masterpiece.

 

Best bit: “Was he a four? Or was he a ten?”

 

8 hours ago, supaspaz said:

SLIDE TACKLE

 

Average score: 7.83

High score: 10 (@supaspaz, @madonnas, @Ewan Chaos, @Reverie)

Low score: 1 (@Insanity)

 

 

Wanting to be happy and actually feeling it are two very different things, a conundrum that Japanese Breakfast contends with on this airy plea for compassion from Jubilee. Michelle Zauner tries to navigate the hate in her heart and “Slide Tackle” her mind into compliance over an indie dance track, featuring a fabulous saxophone solo, that would have been playlisted at all the Williamsburg house parties a decade ago.

 

Best bit: “I want to feel it/But with the feel, there is an ache I meet/To desire living”

 

ATRL says...: “This just feels like an amalgamation of ‘80s indie rock subgenres put together in a blender and everything turned out perfect,” @madonnas said.

 

8 hours ago, supaspaz said:

DEJA VU

 

Average score: 7.90

High score: 10 (@ultraviolence.xx, @Insanity, @Invisibility, @Born to Run)

Low score: 5 (@Saddy, @BnPac)

 

 

Sour’s second single proved that the Olivia Rodrigo phenomenon was real, not just a flash in the pan. Debuting at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, on the way to an eventual #3 peak, it made her the first artist to launch their first two singles in the top ten. “Deja Vu” also showed a different side of Olivia musically, despite continuing the scorned lover narrative from “Drivers License.” Softer, but with a venomous streak that complicates her victim status, the song floats along on fantastically intimate details (“Now I bet you even tell her how you love her/In between the chorus and the verse”) and unusual production flourishes (a dose of fake laughter in the first verse) as Olivia watches her ex replay their relationship with a new girl. The anthemic bridge was inspired by Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer,” and following the album’s release, she, along with co-writers Jack Antonoff and St. Vincent, retroactively received a writing credit. Though overshadowed by the singles that preceded and succeeded it, “Deja Vu” did become some people’s favorite flavor of Olivia, earning spots on year-end lists from Pitchfork, NPR and Rolling Stone’s Rob Sheffield.

 

Best bit: the distorted guitar drop post-chorus is everything

 

ATRL says...: “Doesn’t sound ANYTHING like ‘Cruel Summer’ nn,” @Ewan Chaos asserted, “but get that cash money St. Vincent.” @BnPac couldn’t “decide if I like this or dislike it. Maybe the latter, because the chorus does nothing to me. The way she sings ‘you’ annoys me, but that instrumental behind is a killer. So very Taylor! I feel like I'm repeating myself.” @creativity. heard a different influence. “This is right out of Pure Heroine,” he said.

That was brutal

 

 

12 hours ago, ultraviolence.xx said:

CANT WAIT TO BE RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICH

 

 

This GIF…

I want to see the predictions. Who do you all think is winning at this point?

8 minutes ago, supaspaz said:

I want to see the predictions. Who do you all think is winning at this point?

Happier Than Ever or Good For You

hoping Happier Than Ever takes it 

20 hours ago, supaspaz said:

BODIES (INTRO)

 

Average score: 7.80

High score: 10 (@Ace Reject, @Reverie, @Born to Run)

Low score: 5 (@Norte)

 

 

Heaux Tales kicks off with a moment of uncomfortable self-scrutiny: Jazmine Sullivan has fallen into a terrible pattern of going out, getting fucked up and then going home with men she can’t even remember the next day to get fucked. “Bitch, get it together, bitch,” she demands of herself over a groggy organ synth. “My mama wouldn't like it if she knew.” But the “Bodies” keep piling up as she explores sex, love and heartbreak over the course of her Grammy-winning masterpiece.

 

Best bit: “Was he a four? Or was he a ten?”

Not my favorite!

19 hours ago, supaspaz said:

SLIDE TACKLE

 

Average score: 7.83

High score: 10 (@supaspaz, @madonnas, @Ewan Chaos, @Reverie)

Low score: 1 (@Insanity)

 

 

Wanting to be happy and actually feeling it are two very different things, a conundrum that Japanese Breakfast contends with on this airy plea for compassion from Jubilee. Michelle Zauner tries to navigate the hate in her heart and “Slide Tackle” her mind into compliance over an indie dance track, featuring a fabulous saxophone solo, that would have been playlisted at all the Williamsburg house parties a decade ago.

 

Best bit: “I want to feel it/But with the feel, there is an ache I meet/To desire living”

 

ATRL says...: “This just feels like an amalgamation of ‘80s indie rock subgenres put together in a blender and everything turned out perfect,” @madonnas said.

The nasality of her timbre... yeah it put me off most of her stuff! Open your throat woman!

18 hours ago, supaspaz said:

THE OTHER SIDE

 

Average score: 8.05

High score: 10 (@ultraviolence.xx, @Fitzswiftie, @creativity., @Reverie)

Low score: 4 (@Lucas32)

 

 

Can’t knock the hustle of a ho who’s just using her assets to snag a millionaire and get out of her drab existence. On this soaring aspirational ballad from Heaux Tales, produced by JoeLogic, Gee and Dilemma, Jazmine Sullivan pines for a future of expensive gifts and plastic surgery, a house in the suburbs with a pool in the back and vacations to Bora Bora. She’s tired of her basic life, with the job she doesn’t care about and the rent she can’t afford, so she’ll spend every night dolled up at the club if that’s what it takes to find a rapper or baller to call her own. “And I'll never be broke again/Strugglin', God as my witness,” Jazmines declares, channeling her inner Scarlett O’Hara. It’s all rather lovely and surprisingly moving – though not quite enough for a spot in the top ten. “The Other Side” missed out by less than three points.

 

Best bit: “I'm hoping these titties can get me out the city/I know I'm too pretty to not do nothing with it”

 

ATRL says...: “Almost psychedelic!” @madonnas marveled. “So beautiful!”

REALLY should have given this a ten!

On 7/29/2022 at 2:00 AM, supaspaz said:

I'm frankly shocked how well "Jealousy, Jealousy" did, given the lashings that Sour got earlier in the rate.

That undeniable even the OORH's love it.

Planning to start the finale in about a half hour. Hope you can be here!

 

Spoiler

@ultraviolence.xx @Insanity @Saddy @MP2K @madonnas @Lucas32 @Ewan Chaos @Fitzswiftie @Invisibility @Ace Reject @BnPac @McNulty @creativity. @Eric. @Taemira @Norte @Quicksand @Reverie @Born to Run

12 minutes ago, supaspaz said:

Planning to start the finale in about a half hour. Hope you can be here!

 

  Reveal hidden contents

@ultraviolence.xx @Insanity @Saddy @MP2K @madonnas @Lucas32 @Ewan Chaos @Fitzswiftie @Invisibility @Ace Reject @BnPac @McNulty @creativity. @Eric. @Taemira @Norte @Quicksand @Reverie @Born to Run

Of course!! I'm so excited 

I would like PUYF Oxytocin or FME to win.  

Am here! Honestly might be rooting for one of the Billie songs at this point

Spoiler

@ultraviolence.xx @Insanity @Saddy @MP2K @madonnas @Lucas32 @Ewan Chaos @Fitzswiftie @Invisibility @Ace Reject @BnPac @McNulty @creativity. @Eric. @Taemira @Norte @Quicksand @Reverie @Born to Run

Okay, let's start this. Finale coming your way now!

 

Ok, for once I'm here! 

First up is one of the ladies with the most songs left.

Just now, BnPac said:

Ok, for once I'm here! 

Yay! I was trying to do it at a time that would be slightly less inconvenient for my international participants.

1 minute ago, supaspaz said:

Yay! I was trying to do it at a time that would be slightly less inconvenient for my international participants.

I appreciate that.

PROTECT MY ENERGY

 

Average score: 8.16

High score: 10 (@madonnas, @Ewan Chaos, @creativity., @Reverie)

Low score: 4 (@BnPac)

 

, 

 

This one is for the girls with a small inner circle of close friends. Who just don’t feel like talking sometimes and prefer to spend the night in. Who will be dancing around their rooms by themselves to this ‘80s funk statement of insularity and self-preservation. When Little Simz says Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, “Protect My Energy” is what she means.

 

Best bit: The bridge goes off! “Rather be alone with my only ones that carе for me solely”

 

ATRL says...: “This was unexpected!” @creativity. admitted. “Love the vibe shift!” @madonnas was excited that “she gave us a boogie track omg.”

Am I crazy or would Fergie slay "Protect My Energy"?

Of course ..

It did nothing for me. I did like the message though.