Orange's "I got new headphones for Christmas" Walrus

General
#28

it’s not FoLrus and why are you only taking issue with people without FoL accounts now

2 Likes
#29

its basically folrus

#30

literally my first sub (quas) doesn’t have a FoL account

not to mention many others on the list

#31

i just thought it was funny that he subbed

#32

we should pressure him to join chair of deception, the setup that no one wants to play

#33

skill issue tbh

#34

Category 1: Homeworkout

F Tier

54

Infinity Guitars
Sleigh Bells

MissAmerica

Wow I hate the built-in compression sound here. It’s so sharp it’s outright painful to listen to. Not sure in what world I would ever listen to homework to this. It’s vaguely reminiscent of everything I didn’t like about the song “Birthday Cake” from the Jet Set Radio Future OST, which is tragic.

HOLY FUCK IT JUST DROPPED ARE YOU SURE THIS IS THE RIGHT CATEGORY FOR THIS SUBMISSION WHAT THE FUCK okay yeah this must be GGhana and also yeah this is not good for homework lmao. Figures he’d go from subbing surprisingly good music to FoLrus to whatever this is.

Right shame from a track called “Infinity Guitars” - I haven’t been this let down since MechAdragon, which, funnily enough, would absolutely have scored much higher than this.

E Tier

53

Lettin’ Go
Killaheadz

Step Gym Bro

Is this in Russian? Damn, this was a ballsy sub for this category - I respect it, but I also can’t imagine myself doing homework to it lmao. I do actually think the slower parts with the Russian singing are fine, despite what is potential hints of nightcore-esque vocal alterations, but the drops do not do it for me at all.

Unrelated to the song, really, but what the fuck is this music video? It goes from random clips to random TikTok clips to a live action Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Edit: I tracked down the original song (Отпускаю by МакSим) and it’s actually pretty good - definitely wish I’d gotten an actual Russian sub here, oh well

Edit 2: Now that I see this was Kane on StepGymBro, the fact that a bunch of the top comments are talking about sets, reps, and grinding makes a lot more sense lol

52

A Mask of My Own Face
Lemon Demon

Caspore I

Subbing Neil Cicierega is bold to any category, but especially this one lol. Not horrible per se, and I do like the repeating voices from channel to channel, but I definitely find it way more annoying than not in sum total, and I just can’t imagine doing homework to this.

51

Yasu Image Song - Coin Game
xaki

Caspore E

I don’t see any world where this does well, despite being Umineko. On that note, who subbed me Umineko??? I can’t tell if this is pandering or somebody who has absolutely no idea how much I love When They Cry as a franchise. Either way, massive lmao at subbing me this image song instead of something by zts, which certainly would have scored much much much higher. In summary, it’s an anime girl singing, it exists, it’s in E tier.

Edit: It got “Intellectual Rapist” to pop up in my recommended within like two days, so… thanks for that, whoever you are.

50

Vinca Rosea
MF DOOM

Kane

I have heard of MF DOOM before, but I don’t know that I’ve ever actually heard anything by MF DOOM.

Suffice to say, this is not what I expected.

Although on second thought I don’t really know what I expected.

While this isn’t awful background music to do homework to, it’s also very repetitive, and the female voice in particular draws attention in a way that places it a bit too forward to be pure background noise without bringing enough to the table to sell itself as a song I should pay attention to. Despite being an official upload, the compression is particularly painful on this one - Amazon Music has a better-sounding version, but it’s also 2:00 instead of 3:00, meaning it’s not what was subbed. Unfortunately, in this instance, the shorter version is appreciated.

49

Lagtrain
inabakumori

Caspore D

I saw somebody subbed Lagtrain and my first thought was “Wow, I can’t believe somebody actually subbed me Lagtrain. Lmao.”

This was followed shortly by my second thought - “Actually, come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever actually listened to Lagtrain.”

Unfortunately, having now listened to it, it’s vocaloid, which basically automatically makes it bad (and is probably why I have never actually listened to it despite knowing about it’s existence). Shame, because the rest of the song is not bad. Still can’t really get over the vocaloid. My sincerest apologies if you missed the part in the MU Discord where I was talking at more length about my likes and dislikes and mentioned that “vocaloid is very nearly always a complete turn-off.” Hope you didn’t sub any more lol.

48

Good Vibes
AMAS

nanook

This started, and I was like “oh no it’s a lo-fi song, I’m not gonna like it.” Then the horn cut in, and it made me think it had a chance. Then the song got all synthy and wound up for a stereotypical drop and it lost me again. I’m just hoping this doesn’t put xKito Music back into my YouTube recommended feed - it was hard enough to get it out of my recommendations once, I don’t wanna have to do that again.

47

Girl
world’s end girlfriend

BLOODYRAIN10001

Another one with a start that does not bode particularly well for it. I like the piano but the background droning is definitely not appealing. It does end up working a bit better as the song progresses, but it’s kind of reminiscent of the background tracks from Song of Saya that are supposed to portray disgust at the abject repulsiveness of that game’s world. I like a lot of the drum/tempo breakdowns, and the part in the middle where the background droning cuts out completely is actually very nice! I just can’t really imagine choosing to listen to this with the background drone over a similar song that imposes a similar atmosphere with a different method. I get that this sound is probably dope as hell to some people, but I just can’t get into it.

D Tier

46

happy hour
Sugar&Co.

Caspore M

This one is Chinese, yeah? It’s fine, I guess - kinda Moe Shop-ish, which is neither a compliment nor an insult but isn’t really to my taste. Don’t have much else to say. It’s short, it exists, then it ends.

45

Kung Fu Panda 3 - Oogway’s Legacy Epic Orchestral Cover
Kāru

Daeron

I have technically seen Kung Fu Panda 3, but it was both ages ago and I have exactly zero memory of any of the songs from it, so I’m going in mostly blind. I’m not sure if it’s the mixing or the fact that these are probably synthesized instruments, but something about it feels kind of flat in a way that I don’t know how to describe? Like there’s no soundstage at all, and the dynamic range feels low (I actually downloaded this track, pulled it up in audacity, and sure enough everything looks visually bloated in a way that lines up with my listening experience). Maybe it’s trying too hard to sound “epic” and overdoing it in the process? I love the erhu parts, but the main swell and brass don’t really do it for me in this track, especially given the audio issues. Plus, it’s a bit much for homework.

Edit: Wait how is this the kyo sub I was 100% positive something else was the kyo sub

44

Light Years
Droid Bishop

WindwardAway

Find this one on the bland side of average. The synths are cool but that’s also kind of all there is.

43

The Conqueror
Cougar Synth

Visorslash

Yeah, I can see why this would be called “Retro Wave.” It’s not bad, but it’s definitely not something I see myself going out of my way to listen to - this kind of synthwave music has historically had a hard time really grabbing my attention beyond just being fine background tracks. This one in particular is a fine track for that, and I could see myself doing homework to it if it came up on like YouTube autoplay, but I don’t know if I’d actually ever choose to put it on a homework playlist. At least it has a bit more depth than Light Years.

42

Labyrinth
Cryalot

staypositivefriend

From the picture alone I’m guessing this is the Daeron sub. Okay, correction - from the music I am guessing this is the Daeron sub. The voice definitely immediately falls into the “this is actively annoying” category for me. However, the chorus definitely works way better for me, and that helps push this back up relative to where it would be otherwise. Some of the synths are also really cool - I suspect I’d dig this song with another singer I find less inherently annoying. Tragic. If somebody ever covers this well hit me up.

41

Supernatural
Ken Ashcorp

Caspore B

Subbing Ken Ashcorp to me is very bold, for reasons that will become clear in the future. Unfortunately, I have heard the entirety of Ken’s discography (at least under that name), and this song has never made its way into my playlists not because I haven’t heard it but because it doesn’t really do it for me. Ken’s delivery here kind of grates, which hurts its ability to be good homework music, and nothing musically really wows me either. It’s not outright bad, but it is definitely not something I’d choose to listen to more than I have to.

40

Imagination
Foster the People

Caspore J

I have of course heard of Foster The People, but I don’t think I’ve heard any of their songs beyond Pumped Up Kicks lol. Unfortunately, this kinda falls into the “modern pop” zone I called out as being something I don’t really like in the OP, insofar as I hear it and don’t see much here that I think I should really like. Probably others will like this, and that’s fine, but it’s just not for me, and I can’t see myself choosing to do homework while listening to this.

39

Dating
Half Asleep Games

ignoramus

This started and I was unenthused, but the drop definitely transisitoned to a much more interesting set of sounds. Shame it’s so short before snapping back to the original melody and then just ending. Feels vaguely reminiscent of Ujico*/Snail’s House, in ways both good and bad. On that note, I’m surprised I got no Snail’s House music for this category. At any rate, I like the middle portion, the front and back are take it or leave it.

38

Closing Time
Semisonic

Squirrel2412

This is a meme, right? Surely this must be a meme, especailly in this category. Not that Closing Time is a bad song, but, it’s Closing Time, and this is a category for songs to listen to while doing homework. If it was Closing Time I wouldn’t be doing homework, now would I?

C Tier

37

Black-Winged Stilt
Woody Goss

Bloobird

I’m not sure whether or not calling this “Lo-Fi” would be correct - it feels similar to stuff that I’ve normally heard classified as “Lo-Fi music” but it also is not at all low fidelity in any way. I was very hopeful when it started that this might become a clear winner of the category, but it didn’t really bloom into anything I think is all that special. It’s a nice melody with cool instrumentation, and the bird noises make a cool motif, but the samples don’t really do all that much for me (like, yeah, it’s talking about birds, but I don’t really get anything further out of it) and ultimately it just ends up being a good enough background track. Sorry if this is you Bloo.

36

Cosmic Feeling
Flamingosis

KnightsofCydonia

This is fine. A perfectly listenable blend of synths and vocals that fades into the background of whatever I’m doing so much that it faded its way into C tier.

35

OMORI - Trees…
Pedro Silva

lendunistus

I’m torn, because on one hand the whistling sound is very cool and unique, and on the other hand it’s kind of annoying. I do really like the instrumentation, and the sounds that I can only imagine are reversed are a very nice touch, so I can’t dock it too much for that though. On the whole, maybe a bit too chill, but sets up a neat enough atmosphere that I can’t say I dislike it.

34

Wandersong - The Journey East
ashellinthepit

ElizaThePsycho

So clearly this is an Eliza sub, but truth be told, I don’t actually know what Wandersong is. Clearly some kind of game, and I really really liked A Shell in the Pit’s work on Rogue Legacy, so I’m excited to see where this goes. I can definitely hear telltale signs of this being the same composer as Rogue Legacy, and I’m definitely looking forward to other Wandersong songs in future categories, but this in and of itself isn’t doing enough for me to really put it high up my rankings. It’s reminiscent of the music from Rogue Legacy 2 that plays at your docks (World to Come), but I definitely prefer that to this on the whole.

33

Another Way In
Dan Croll

Caspore L

I really like the difference in singing between the left and right channels at pretty much all points of this song. Beyond that, it just doesn’t really do much for me in general, sadly. Nothing I can point at disliking, but also nothing else I specifically like.

32

Love Like a Sunset, Pt. 1
Phoenix

Chloe

I’ve heard a number of songs off of this album, but never this one - I do like the building, but once the initial build fades away into what basically sounds like DTMF tones it does lose me a bit. Luckily the second build is there to pick up the pieces, and imo it’s the more compelling half. Unfortunately, I think the peaks of the builds are almost too intense for good homework music, whilst the immediate drop to near zero intensity after reaching each peak is maybe a bit too jarring. Not bad, but not finding anything here that really jumps out at me and makes me want to listen to it either.

31

Marine Blue Garden
ZUTOMAYO

Caspore C

Wow, this sure got more energetic than I was expecting - but I guess given my first thought was “this sounds like an anime song” I should probably have expected that lol. I do really like the guitar in the right channel in particular, and the blending of the singer’s voice is very nice. Definitely a cool song, and it definitely doesn’t ever really become so energetic that I can’t see it being a good homework song, but on the whole I just don’t love this kind of lyrical delivery, and that stops this from reaching any higher.

30

Hey, Space Cadet (Beast Monster Thing in Space)
Car Seat Headrest

c4e5g3d5

The start did NOT hype me up for this basically whatsoever, but then it settled into its rhythm for a bit and I was much more along for the ride. This definitely falls on the intense side of things for this category (despite the generally slow tempo), but avoids becoming too much for homework listening. The part where it shifts things up once again at about the 8:30 mark is where I really start to appreciate what the song is doing. Some of the high-pitched noises are grating, but not for long enough to drag down my enjoyment of this segment. Unfortunately, I don’t really like the way it kinda just ends - it’s not as much of a breakdown as “classic j dies and goes to hell part 1” but it kinda hits similar notes and I still don’t like those notes here. On the whole, kinda cool song, but not my fave and probably not worth its 11:22 runtime. Sorry person-who-is-probably-nutella.

29

Pokémon Black and White - Undella Town Remastered
Zame

clonedcheese

I love some of Zame’s other work, so I was super happy to see this sub here - both his day and night covers of the Route 216 theme are fantastic, with the night one in particular being quite possibly my favorite cover of any Pokémon song ever. Despite this, I haven’t exactly sought out a ton of Zame’s other songs, and, having never actually bought anything from Gen 5 back when I was in, like, literally elementary school, I have no emotional attachment to the Undella Town theme going in (and all I know about it is that’s where Cynthia is lol). The piece itself is very nice - I wish there was a bit more evolution, and if I’m being honest it might be more likely to find itself into a sleep playlist than a homework playlist, but it’s definitely very calming. Not bad, but not really much that makes me want to listen to this at any point where I’d like to stay awake.

28

Rhenium
Engineers

nutella

Subbing a song from a band called “Engineers” to my homeworkout category feels almost like cheating lol. On the whole, this is a very nice soundscape, but as with many other songs in this category, I find it might be a tad too soundscape-y - a great homework song is soundscape-y enough to not be distracting, but still gives your brain something to latch onto instead of fading completely into the background, and although I like what this does have, it also gets a bit complacent with it. The ending I really do like though - it also has a very similar droning noise to Girl, but done in a way here that adds to the sound rather than actively detracting from it.

27

A Room Above the Shimmering Ocean
Christian Poynter

Keldi

Dammit Cheese, I can’t believe you’ve done this. Homestuck again. Drat. At least this one is, like, actually pretty good! Nothing that knocks my socks off in the way some vaguely similar tracks from artists such as Ghost Data have, but I still enjoy this as background music. Quite pleasant to have on. Fun, happy little melodies.

26

Dance Little Liar
Arctic Monkeys

Caspore A

I do like this, but as with I imagine many things in this tier, I can’t really find anything in here that jumps out at me as being particularly nice to listen to in the slow part. I like the drum break and what I’ll call the “drop” (even though it’s not really a drop at all), but as much as I like that I also think it starts to push the song out of good homework listening. Like, this guitar fluttering is kinda sick, and I’m totally there for it in general, but I’d probably be more receptive to scoring it highly in Headbangers than I am here lol (So, I actually checked the headbangers sub from whoever subbed this [to be sure they hadn’t subbed the links backwards], and it is actually the same band, so I guess that checks out lmao)

B Tier

25

The Ancient and Arcane
Varien

bad bunny

Let me start off by acknowledging that I do not like the singing here - feels like a blend of what I don’t like about electronic music singing with what I don’t like about theatrical production music singing. That aside, the rest of the track sets up a very cool soundscape, and I really like a lot of the instrumentation as well as the overall vibe given off. Whatever wood block-type instruments are used really round out the overall sound, and even where I don’t like the singing I do very much like how the voices are blended together. Also, for the record, my guess is that this is Wisty’s sub.

24

DREAMER DREAMER
moumoon

Caspore H

I have no idea what is being said here, and it’s definitely not the kind of music I’d generally throw onto a homework playlist (not by a long shot), but it does manage to be a good blend of calming and pleasing to listen to that makes it work well enough anyways. I like the blend of the electric guitar with the acousitc guitars. I don’t have much more to say.

23

Moonwinds
Purrple Cat

Marmot

I’m not usually a fan of the “lo-fi” aesthetic, which I know I’m probably going to get a fair bit of for this category due to the advent of the whole lo-fi girl thingy. Maybe I should have disclaimed that in the OP. Whoops. Luckily, the guitar-like synths in this manage to keep the song moving while the chime-like synths have an interesting enough melody to carry the backing track. Definitely homework-able. Guessing this is the Chloe sub, but could be way off on that.

Edit: I was way off on that.

22

One Shot - Niko And The World Machine
Nightmargin

Mistyx

From the opening notes, I was prepared to love this - with a title like “Niko and the World Machine” I was fully ready for it to build into something incredible. Sadly, it kinda just kept doing what it was doing for six minutes, and while it’s by no means bad on some level it does kinda just feel like a discount Midna’s Lament - in fact, I suspect a piano cover of that song would have done better than this one, as it just has more depth. It’s entirely possible that, in the context of the game, this track is perfect, and the sense of emptiness I get from it matches perfectly with what’s going on in the game - but I do not have that context, and so I’m kinda just left feeling like I’ve heard other similar tracks from other games that I like more (and, mind you, dirty secret - I haven’t ever played more than like the opening hour of Twilight Princess, so this isn’t just nostalgia speaking). Still not bad (despite the fact that I’ve spent most of this write-up comparing it to things I like more), and the more I listen to it the more I vibe with that empty feeling, but I was just really hoping for more - sorry Mist. Maybe I’m just spoiled by Kyle Gabler.

21

Sunset Park
Flamingosis

DatBird

Definitely more interesting than the other Flamingosis sub. This one has enough forward presence to draw attention to itself, which definitely helps compared to the other track (I can only imagine these are both Caspore subs). I like that this one does enough new things to avoid getting overly repetitive, and the central flute melody is catchy, and right when I think it’s starting to wear itself out it changes up. The lo-fi type backing is still not my favorite, but I definitely find enough to like in the strings and bass here that it manages to pull itself above many other lo-fi type songs.

20

Easy Money
Sant Andreu Jazz Band & Jesse Davis

SC_Mirad A

mf easy money lmaoooooooooooo

Okay this is actually a pretty good performance, especially for literal children. Unrelated to the music, but the hand-off from a little white girl on the trumpet solo to a massive black guy on the sax solo is very funny contrast. Okay this trombone solo is straight pandering lmao but I’m there for it. Just wish it was a longer trombone solo, the trumpet and alto solos were like four times as long. Piano solo super mid lol rip that guy. Bass solo alright, kinda unfortunate to end so quickly after that. Still a good song, still a good performance, but I feel like they frontloaded their solo talent WAY too heavily, and it suffers for it.

19

I villvind
Mette Henriette

MyNameIsNothing

Full disclaimer: This was MNIN’s late sub, and so I’m not grading it anonymously. I don’t expect that to affect my ranking at all, but I do want it to be known. I very much like the way the sax, piano, and I believe that’s a chello (correct me if wrong I’m not great with strings) all come together to make a really nice soundscape. I’m not entranced enough to push this higher in my rankings, but it’s definitely a nice song to have on.

18

Rigor Mormist
Ruscel Torres

Nerbins

Plants vs. Zombies is fantastic, and unforunately Laura Shigihara’s work on the soundtrack is REALLY hard to beat. That being said, this makes a solid effort at being a nice, smooth, jazzy cover. I love the sound of the mute on the trumpet, and the bass is also very nice. I definitely think this is something I’d be more likely to do homework to than the original Rigor Mormist, but I don’t think it’s a better song and that does stop this from reaching higher.

17

The Legend Of Heroes: Trails Of Cold Steel II - Dining Bar F
Yukihiro Jindo

Coffee Abuser

Okay surely this is a Caspore sub, having just had her talk about Trails in Netrunner FM. This is surprisingly solid for what appears to be a restaurant theme song from the game? And, if the letter F is to be believed, one of at least 5? Not sure I’d choose to listen to this 1:45-long loop for 15 entire minutes, but as long as I manually skip the rest once it starts to get too repetitive, I actually dig this. Good sub.

16

Sputnik (Live)
Public Service Broadcasting

shubaka17

My initial impression is that the clapping from the live version does not help this song fit into this category very well - luckily, it drops off pretty quick. The rest of the song is very nice background noise, despite the space-related samples (in many cases voice samples aren’t my favorite unless they play into the music exceptionally well, and these are only okay). Don’t really think I’d ever choose to sit down and listen to specifically this, but the instrumentation is quite nice, and I definitely like how the song evolves over its runtime, particularly the crescendo into the final third. Solid sub, if nothing that I can grasp onto that pushes it any higher.

15

Played to Death
Fluorotone

Caspore F

This is not really the vibe I was envisioning for this category, but I find that it actually works surprisingly well! The guitars are groovy, and I love how they sound - it’s very reminiscent of a pipa in a very good way (I lack the technical knowledge about guitar music to explain this better lol). The singing is not something that I would normally see myself getting into, but for whatever reason I can get behind it here just enough to push this into low A tier. That does still kind of cap its ability to score any higher, but on the whole I do genuinely enjoy this, so long as I look past the vocals. Assuming this one in particular is a Cass sub as well.

14

Blue And Moody Music (Wendy’s Version)
Hiroshi Sato

Schiavetto B

This one is interesting, because the backing track is fine but nothing special, while the lyrics are definitely the most impressive piece of this song - an oddity amongst the submissions for this category for sure. I looked up the non-Wendy version, and I think I slightly prefer its overall tone and vibe, but in a head to head I do think this one wins out overall. I do really like when the male singer’s voice kicks in in the background, that’s a very cool effect, and for a Canadian-born Australian singing in a song by a Japanese guy, this definitely carries certain level of Mowtown-like lyrical delivery that I very much enjoy.

A Tier

13

Africa
TOTO

thepigeonnyc’s family

I’m torn. On one hand, this song is fantastic; on the other hand, it literally has over two billion plays between Spotify and YouTube alone, not to mention extensive airtime on the radio and surely other streaming sites as well. This is unquestionably the most well-known song I got subbed for this category, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the most well-known song I was subbed across all categories. Despite that, however, I still can’t in good faith score this any lower than A tier - while it gets no points for originality, and so lands at the absolute bottom of the tier, the instrumentation is fantastic (particularly the gong in the right channel), the lyrics are catchy, the guitar is used sparingly but very effectively, the synths really help pull the whole experience together, and in all it’s hard to say that this song’s popularity isn’t well-deserved. It’s definitely the most likely song here to end up on any of my playlists in general - that being said, I don’t think it’s really the best homework song, and even from Toto I still enjoy Rosanna more lmao. I’m probably gonna skip this during the live reveal because, let’s be real, we all know the song.

12

Someone Else’s Dream
Absofacto

Caspore G

I don’t know why I like this as much as I do. The bridge in particular is just really enjoyable for whatever reason I cannot put into words. Am definitely curious how I got subbed an unlisted video, but it does have 1.5M views, so it clearly can’t be that hard to find. On the whole, this kinda feels like a straight upgrade from Imagination, at least in terms of how much I enjoy it. If I’m right and this is Insanity, I’m impressed he ended up in the same general scoring zone twice now despite our seemingly wildly divergent music tastes.

Edit: It was not Insanity, and in hindsight Caspore subbing both Imagination and the “straight upgrade from Imagination” seems kinda obvious lol

11

Life in Garreg Mach Monastery
Keiko

Insanity

I have heard the original version of this song for WAY too many hours - and I’m only done with two of the routes. I love how this bounces back and forth from sounding plucky in an amateurish way to flowing and beautiful - in a way, it kind of captures the experience of being in the monastery, both in-universe and in terms of playing the actual game. This is also more than just a direct piano cover, expanding on the original theme’s motif in new and interesting ways. Despite the fact that the instrumentation of the original piece is one of my favorite things about it, this manages to grow beyond the original piece in many ways, and is certainly a solid rendition even if I think a lot of the nuance to Three Houses’s OST comes from the quietly blended in electronic elements beneath the more traditional orchestration.

Also, let’s be real, subbing the monastery theme for a playlist about studying is just fitting. Well played.

10

Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect
The Decemberists

Caspore K

After Shad subbed The Legionairre’s Lament to FoLrus, I did actually end up finding this song, and I do very much enjoy it! The chorus in particular is quite catchy, and the vibe is fantastic for doing homework. The lack of any surprise given I have indeed heard it before keeps it at the absolute bottom of the top 10, but I do very much enjoy this song and am happy to get to hear it here.

9

ghost//twin
Blksmiith

LordQuas

I really love the atmosphere here. The consistent switchups in the drums keep things interesting, while the oppressive and dark synths give it an industrial-like tone that I very much enjoy. Don’t really have too much to say at length beyond that, good track.

8

Mercy
Hiatus

Dobby

I love the dark sounds here, the background vocal samples are my favorite kind of vocal sample, and the very faint strings in either channel are a fantastic touch. Honestly, the atmosphere in general is just very strong on this one. Lots of really cool background noises blending together in unique and interesting ways that I really hope comes through on a Discord stream but probably won’t. Really cool soundscape, although to be entirely honest it might only beat ghost//twin because it’s twice as long and therefore can do twice as many things over its runtime.

7

The Fountain
Pendulum

Dragonclaude

What kinda homework do you guys do??? Despite that initial reaction I actually quite enjoy this, and after listening to the whole thing I think it would make surprisingly good homework music! I also get the feeling this is the Dragonclaude sub, but I have literally no basis at all for feeling that way, so I’m not sure why I do. I really like the post-chorus, and the song as a whole is just catchy enough to work. I like the blended piano a lot, and the synths on display here are just really solid. There’s not as much soundstage as I think I would like (not that these headphones have great soundstage in the first place), but on the whole it’s a very solid song for this category despite the fact that I would not have expected it to be, and it moved up more than anything else on repeat listens.

S Tier

6

Alleycat
Shoji Meguro

SC_Mirad B

This is pandering. I have never seen such blatant pandering in my entire life. I literally already had this in five other YouTube playlists, multiple Spotify playlists, and multiple iTunes playlists (because I have this song downloaded on my phone), including multiple playlists I rotate through while studying, I literally use this for some of my alarms in the morning, and I even specifically cited Shoji Meguro by name in my 10th category. It’s almost unthinkable that anybody subbing this would not know this is pandering.

It’s still a damn good song though.

The blend of the blues-y organ with the jazz-y piano is just fantastic. The bass, strings, and especially the quiet repeating organ whenever it drops out for a beat really help the listening experience come together into something I’ve always found just magical.

This nets an S tier rating, but because there’s no way in hell that anybody would have subbed this not knowing it would get an S tier rating, it’s possible some A tier songs might place above if they wowed me enough to earn it.

A Tier Continued

5

Legend of Mana - Title Theme
Yoko Shimomura

shanethedigital

I have actually never played a single Yoko Shimomura game - I obviously still know of her, and I’ve heard some of her songs (although apparently she helped compose the new Mario + Rabbids sequel so that’s cool), but I haven’t played any of her games, and I haven’t ever touched the Mana series. Despite this, I do absolutely love this piece of music. It’s definitely a late 90’s orchestral adventure game theme, and I’m 100% there for it. It starts off so simple but goes so far over the course of its runtime, always taking me somewhere new, and the overall instrumentation is excellent. Great sub.

4

Terraria Calamity Mod - The Devourer of Gods
DM DOKURO

Maxi

This comes right after somebody posted a Jetstream Sam version of some other Terraria Calamity Mod song in another server I’m in, but as far as I’m aware there is exactly zero overlap between the people who would have been aware of this walrus and the people in that server, so that’s quite funny timing. While I must once again ask what kind of homework you guys are doing, this song works quite well! I have actually never played Terraria, and outside of that aforementioned song had never even heard of whatever the “Terraria Calamity Mod” is, but this makes for a compelling suite that I could absolutely see myself grinding out a homework assignment to! Even without the context of what the game is like or where this might play, I find it to be a very fun ride, with plenty of variation across its four parts. Doubling up Servants of the Scourge was definitely the right move, helping to tie everything together and acting as a kind of leitmotif. I’ve always been a sucker for low-bit bells in music, for whatever reason, so I’m also really happy to see some of that here. It’s unlikely I end up checking out this Calamity Mod thing, but I’m still pretty happy with this track for this cat!

3

Mountain Lie On / Seamus and Chamois
Stephen Rippy

mansnicks

I love this. Not quite S tier, but the way the very disparate elements all come together to produce a wildly varied, interesting, and gripping piece of music really surprised me. I did have to go scrounge up a higher-quality version because the one uploaded to YouTube and submitted to me was noticably compressed (thank god for peer-to-peer file sharing), but once I had that we were off to the races. I’m not 100% sure if this is a harpsichord, but whatever it is I love how its complex melodies are overlaid over a sparing but deep percussion track. At different times it’s reminiscent of the music from Civilization III, Spyro, and Crash Bandicoot, but always in the best possible way.

S Tier Continued

2

Kiki’s Delivery Service
Joe Hisaishi

beancat

I have not actually seen Kiki’s Delivery Service (I know, I know, shame me), so I’m coming into this completely blind. I’m famililar with a fair bit of Hisaishi’s other work, but I have zero preconceived notions about what this will be. Turns out it’s really good! In the first movement, I love the part where the basoon and the oboe call and respond, and the usage of plucked violins and muted brass both add a really cool flavor to those respective parts as well. On the whole, though, I think I prefer the second movment - the marimba and harp parts are very well put-together, and the violin solo is excellent. Incredible performance all around, deserving of the S tier.

1

Sense of Life
Atjazz

Schiavetto A

This is incredible. I started off thinking it was gonna be a cool song and was super hyped up from the build. Then it just repeated that bit for long enough to make me think that I had gotten my hopes up for nothing, and I thought it was just gonna be the same few bars on repeat as a mediocre atmospheric song. Then the atmosphere dropped away and the vocals kicked in in a way that yet again subverted my expectations. After that emotional roller coaster, I just got an awesome song. This is genuinely incredible. The weird repeating noise whose composition I cannot describe, the occasional jazz elements, the driving percussion, the clapping, the singing, it all comes together into a piece of music that I just absolutely love. It’s also at a basically perfect intensity level for homework. Clear winner, even from the first listen. Immediately hit replay - three times.

#35

Category 2: War Never Changes

E Tier

46

Ain’tcha
Betty Boop

MissAmerica

Man this is annoying. The voice crack-like things just sound horrible. At least it’s vaguely a catfit?

45

Run, Rabbit, Run!
Harry Bidgood

Daeron

Wow, I was there until the instant the second singer started singing. That killed this for me. Their voices just do not work together at all. Real shame, because otherwise it was definitely looking decent, but it’s hard to overstate just how much I hate listening to the second singer here. Honestly it’s probably more annoying than Ain’tcha’s voice cracks, but the underlying song here has more potential, so it scores just above.

44

I Have Friends in Holy Spaces
Panic! At The Disco

staypositivefriend

God I hate the fact that it repeats the “You remind me of a few of my famous friends” bit twice in a row so much. You have less than 2 minutes, why are you repeating a single line so many times? It was moderately amusing the first time, by the fourth I’m like “I get it, please say literally anything else.” Rest of the song is thoroughly mediocre. Have never heard anything from P!ATD that I actually outright enjoyed, and this is doing them no favors in my mind.

43

The Siege of Dunkeld (In Hoots We Trust)
Gloryhammer

thepigeonnyc’s family

…are you sure this was the right category? I know I’m not usually super stringent on catfit, but in this case it’s also only an okay song so I have no qualms about docking it. Near the three-quarter mark it could kinda qualify for a classical station, but it still just doesn’t (sad I didn’t get more classical music subs here btw, they prolly woulda done well). Not sure what the thought process here was to be entirely honest. I also don’t know what Hoots is or why we place our trust in it. Somebody please tell me.

42

We’ll Meet Again but you’re at the start of a nuclear warfare
Vera Lynn

Kane

When I said to sub music that sounded like it could fit in a Fallout Game, I didn’t mean to literally submit a version with a nuclear alert siren and bomb sound effects lmao. Apparently this version uses a remaster from Far Cry 5, which is certainly not something I expected to see (but given I think that game leads directly into a post-apocolyptic sequel, I guess makes some sense?), and looking it up, that version isn’t bad - and I’d argue it’s actually a better catfit than the original version from a purely “would this feel right in a Fallout game” point of view. That being said, the original having part with just the main singer and then having the chorus join in for the latter half adds a lot to the song that I really think is missing from the Far Cry 5 version, and unfortunately taking that version, slowing it down, and then adding reverb does it absolutely zero favors. Really don’t like the effect of the slowing on the pitch, it’s unnatural and uncanny in a way that doesn’t make me want to listen to it at all. Not only would you have gotten farther by subbing the original Far Cry 5 version, but you would have gotten even farther by subbing the original original version. Sorry.

D Tier

41

Sweet Child O’ Mine
Guns N’ Roses

Coffee Abuser

I can’t believe you’ve done this. I love this song, but the catfit is just super super super super questionable-at-best. Plus I’ve heard it only like a billion times (literally probably up there in like my top 20 most-heard-in-my-lifetime songs). Plus Paradise City is better anyways. So yeah, can’t really justify scoring it well here, sorry. :(

40

Inkwell Isle 3 (Piano)
Kristofer Maddigan

Nerbins

It’s fine background music, I guess. I’m struggling to find anything else to say about it.

39

Strange Fruit
Billie Holiday

Marmot

Well this was unexpectedly dark, but although it’s extremely emotionally potent, it’s also not a very appealing listening experience. That is most certainly intentional, and I feel very conflicted about scoring it low because of that, but it’s also not a song I think I would specifically choose to listen to as music - my deepest apolgies. As an art piece, however, I very much appreciate what this song is doing. Thank you for submitting it.

38

Village Green
The Kinks

Caspore B

I actually find most of the independent elements of this song kind of annoying, but on the whole they do actually work together just enough that I can’t dock it a ton. That does still cap its ability to score well though. At least it’s short enough where it doesn’t also wear itself out? Sorry, person who is probably dobby.

37

Someday You’ll Want Me To Want You
Brenda Lee

Schiavetto A

Sorry to whichever of you who subbed this because your mother loves this song to death. It’s just fine. Singing is fine, instrumenation is fine, chorus is fine, it’s all perfectly fine, but I don’t walk away having thought any individual element was great, much less the sum total product.

36

Our Love
Curtis Harding

Insanity

I made the playlist before listening to things, so when this came on I was nodding my head and enjoying it before I clicked over, saw it was the League of Legends sub, and said out loud “oh God damn it.” Fair play, person-who-is-probably-Insanity. For what it’s worth, this song is basically fine. Instrumentation is good (hence enjoying the start), but the vocals and chorus are only fine.

Edit: I’m a dumbass, this is blindingly obviously a SC_Mirad sub, not Insanity, idk how tf I didn’t realize that immediately.

Edit 2: lol

35

I’d Like To Walk Around In Your Mind
Vashti Bunyan

Dobby

For whatever reason this singing doesn’t really click with me as much as I kinda think it needs to to love it. Like, it’s good enough, but I’m not walking away feeling entranced. I am sure a number of people listening to the reveal will absolutely love this voice, but I just don’t. The sparse instrumentation is nice enough, but doesn’t propel this any higher, and the violin kinda grates at a few points, which doesn’t help it.

C Tier

34

Coward of the County
Kenny Rogers

shubaka17

I’ve heard Kenny Rogers before a enough to know who he is, but still had that fun moment when I first saw this where I was like “The Danger Zone and Footlose guy?” before remembering that was Kenny Loggins. I don’t know what these percussion instruments are (some kinda woodblocks?), but I love them. Also, holy fuck does “His momma named him Tommy, but folks just called him yellow” go UNBELIEVABLY hard, holy shit. When the chorus hits, it definitely starts to become apparent that my general lack of affection for country music is going to hurt this, and I’m afraid that when paired with the rest of the story not doing too much for me, it’s in sum total only an okay song. Is it rude to say I’d just go listen to Cat’s in the Cradle instead?

33

Another Day, Another Dollar
Wynn Stewart

Caspore A

You know what you did. Not sure how to feel about it. As for the song, I like the sound that I imagine either is a railroad spike being driven or something meant to emulate that noise. Kinda reminds me of Gustav Holst’s “Song of the Blacksmith” from his Second Suite in F. The only issue is, that’s a rock-solid concert band piece, and this is a country piece, and while it’s not outright bad like pop country is, it still doesn’t reach super high on my enjoyment scale. I’m sure I won’t give you reason to hate me for saying that here later on in this category. :)

Edit: You don’t know what you did holy shit lmaoooooooo

32

It’s All Forgotten Now
Al Bowlly

ignoramus

It’s a perfectly fine older song, but also I don’t find myself latching onto any individual element of it. Pleasant to listen to, but nothing that makes me want to seek it out. The ending at least is quite nice, definitely a high point for the song.

31

When It’s Time To Go
Buddy Fo & His Group

Schiavetto B

I quite like the opening third of this song, but as it continues on I fall a bit out of love with it. Unsure why. When is this going to be a James Bond movie theme song btw

30

Sweet Home Chicago
Robert Johnson

Visorslash

Pretty good for a solo act, especially given the preservation quality being relatively low, but I don’t have much more to say about it than that. Based on the YouTube comments, it seems like this song is potentially deceptively difficult to actually play, but I know nothing about guitar so I can’t really know if that should change my opinion any lol.

Side note: wtf are these weird letters at the end of the video, and why does viewership spike heavily at the random picture of a rat just before them? tf kinda secret cult shit did I just walk into

29

642 Ways (Vintage Vinyl Edition)
Seycara

Maxi

For something from four months ago, this captures the vibe of older music quite well. However, I don’t like the sort of muted filter applied over things - it’s just clearly a digital effect instead of a byproduct of outdated analog methods, and it bothers me, especially since it sounds like it’s affecting the voice more than the instruments. I do quite enjoy the instrumentation, though, so I can’t dock it too too much for that. The clarinet in particular is fantastic. Edit: Apparently, there’s a non-“Vintage Vinly” version, and THAT is much better. Would definitely have been A tier, possibly high A tier. RIP. At least that’s the version I can add to my playlist. Seems like a cool artist, will probably check out more once this walrus is over with.

28

Ultrakill - Take Care
Morgan Russ

Keldi

At first I was like “Who the fuck subbed me Ultrakill???” but then I listened to the song and… fair play. This did actually lead me down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to find the original song - see, it’s attributed in recent Ultrakill discussion to Russ Morgan and His Orchestra, which another submission is actually by, but the original song, entitiled “Were You Foolin’,” was released in 1934, and Russ Morgan didn’t get an Orchestra until 1935, so clearly it was not him (although there are some who believe he may have been a session trombone player for the recording, I can’t find any hard evidence to substantiate this claim). The issue with just finding that original recording is that it’s attributed to “Bob Causer and his Cornellians,” which was an actual band, but may well not have been actually involved with this piece at all! Apparently, back in the early 1930s, the American Record Corporation (ARC) had multiple different record labels that they would release songs on, but each label would attribute the same song to a completely different pseudonym. The real issue is that for some inane reason, the pseudonyms they used were of other real artists and groups, so a song by the real band Joe Green and His Orchestra on one label would then be re-released as being by Freddy Martin and His Orchestra on another label. All we really know for sure is that the singer here is Chick Bullock, but unfortunately he was pretty label-agnostic, so that makes it hard to make an educated guess about who made this originally. It’s even possible the Russ Morgan mix-up for this particular track came from ARC themselves, if they at some point re-released this song and said it was by Russ Morgan and His Orchestra. All this is a long-winded way to say you shoulda just subbed the original lol. It’s nicer as a whole song, although this cut-down version is by no means bad.

27

Sh-Boom
The Chords

clonedcheese

Solid enough song, if one I’ve heard before. The vocal delivery does kinda grate a bit at times when paying attention solely to the song, which knocks a few points off, but the background vocals are very nice. That being said, on the whole it’s maybe a tad repetitive for me. As you can tell, I have some mixed feelings despite being mostly skewed positive lol.

26

It’s Just a Burning Memory
The Caretaker

ElizaThePsycho

I like this, and I’m impressed that it’s from 2016 - definitely a much more believable fake vinyl sound than 642 ways (yes that is now my baseline for a bad fake vinyl sound lmao), and if you had told me it was a recording from the 30s I might have thought it seemed quite odd but ultimately probably would have believed you.

Edit: Turns out there’s good reason for that - it heavily samples a 1932 Al Bowlly song, “Heartaches,” and the reason that it felt so odd to me was that it was actually slowing down the original recording, which messes with the pitch. The end result is still good, and unlike Take Care I think the final result is not strictly worse than the original (mainly because the singing isn’t my favorite - this is the same Al Bowlly who already flipped near the bottom of C tier, after all [although the instrumental latter half of Heartaches is quite nice]), so it does a bit better.

25

Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream
Simon & Garfunkel

nutella

Bold of you to sub this song to notorious warhawk orangeandblack5 :P

Surprisingly enough, my exposure to Simon & Garfunkel is honestly pretty limited - I have Mrs. Robinson on my big playlist, and now that I’m checking The Sound of Silence absolutely should be there (massive oversight on my part), but outside of that I’ve heard a few of their other songs a few times and that’s about it. It’s good, but nothing crazy special - it’s pretty damn hard to beat Bob Dylan in terms of writing protest songs though, so maybe my bar is just unreasonably high. Like the instrumentation a lot more than the lyrics, and the delivery is good (duh), so it still works out.

24

Hit the Road Jack
Ray Charles

Caspore D

My hot take is that “Hit the Road Jack” is pretty low-tier Ray Charles. It’s a fine song, but there are a pretty large number of Ray Charles songs I would rather listen to, and the fact that this one is so famous isn’t making me want to go out of my way to do it any favors here in my rating. Get top of C tier and be happy with it.

B Tier

23

Sunny
Bobby Hebb

LordQuas

I feel like I should like this more than I do. I really appreciate some of the lyrics, in particular the opening line, but on the whole it fails to fully capture me in its actual delivery. Not sure why, which makes this a hard song to say more about. Sorry.

22

Put Your Head On My Shoulder
Paul Anka

SC_Mirad A

Not bad. Not bad at all. Nothing here that I love, but a lot of things that I like. The contrast between the deeper male choir and the higher female choir is quite nice, the main singer’s voice is nice but not to my exact tastes, and the instrumentation is good all around without having anything that I’m blown away by. Solid low-B-tier song.

21

Come A Little Bit Closer
Jay and the Americans

KnightsofCydonia

I should have banned songs used in Marvel movies. Whoops. This one is certainly not bad, but it’s really hard to mentally separate this from Guardians of the Galaxy lmao. I actually don’t much enjoy the first half of each chorus, which does keep this in low B tier, but that aside it’s definitely an enjoyable enough ride with no other big downsides. A fine song, in a certain mood I love it but most of the time it’s just good.

20

South Of The Border
Frank Sinatra

BLOODYRAIN10001

Yep, this is indeed Frank Sinatra. The arrangement is definitely very nice, and of course Sinatra’s voice is fantastic as per always, but I’m just not sold on the story being told here. Apparently it was written to be the theme for a film, and yeah, I can see that. Good not great.

19

Gaily The Troubadour
Tennessee Ernie Ford

nanook

I quite enjoy the clarinet and the muted trumpet in this one, the singing is definitely very soothing. As that’s pretty much all there is, it does pretty well, but it does fall a bit short of something I’d go out of my way to listen to, but is still a pretty enjoyable listen.

18

Just The Two Of Us
Grover Washington Jr.

lendunistus

At least unlike Sweet Child O’ Mine, this is an absurdly well-known and popular song that is at least also a good catfit. However, unlike Africa, I think the song is just good, not fantastic, so instead of getting bottom A tier it gets mid B tier.

17

Autumn Leaves
Nat King Cole

WindwardAway

Nat King Cole has some really good tracks. This one is fine. Feels closer to his Christmas music than most of the rest of his discography that I’ve heard, which isn’t strictly a bad thing, but it does mean that it’s running into direct comparisons with other tracks of his that carry that nostalgic baggage, and unfortunately it’s just not coming out on top. Still great instrumentation and of course fantastic singing, but it’s hard to get past that.

16

Chicken Shack Boogie
Amos Milburn

Chloe

Very groovy performance. I like the quiet scat singing in the background, and the blend of the saxophones is very entertaining. Pretty darn good catfit too. In a twist I did not see coming, this song existed before the restaurant chain Chicken Shack, and furthermore that chain is apparently way more local than I had thought prior to searching it up (just the Detroit area), so it’s definitely not an advertisement for a particular restaurant (which, to be honest, I had been expecting from the title and lyrics). That aside, though, very fun song!

15

Etrian Odyssey Untold 2: The Knight of Fafnir - Cherry Tree Bridge
Yuzo Koshiro

shanethedigital

Who subbed me Etrian Oddyssey for War Never Changes??? Why does it kinda work??? Not quite the most head-scratching sub I got, but it falls close enough to a blend of the types of music often represented on Fallout radio stations, so I’ll allow it. I love the flute, and the part where the more synthetic sounds take over the backing while the violin plays on top is just sublime. Sounds very reminiscent of some of Revo’s work on Bravely Default in a very good way. Bold sub, it paid off.

Edit: All of the above was written and this was scored BEFORE shane realized during my Cat 1 reveal that he had accidentally subbed me the songs meant for Mist’s walrus instead of the ones meant for mine, which explains why in the hell anybody would have subbed this to me and kinda makes me look like a fool for calling it “bold” - but I don’t care, I like it, I’m keeping it where it is, fuck you, fight me.

14

Folsom Prison Blues (Live)
Johnny Cash

bad bunny

Woah, this one is a classic. One I’ve only heard enough to recognize the lyrics and not the song itself, though (potentially due to my general avoidance of country music), so it doesn’t get docked anything for familiarity. I like the driving, vaguely train-ish drum part, and the guitars and singing are both more or less what I’d expect from Johnny Cash (which is to say they’re good), and on the whole it’s a good performance, with the guitar solo in particular being a stand-out element.

13

Stomping at The Savoy
Ella Fitzgerald

mansnicks

Ella Fitzgerald is a classic for good reason, but I have actually not heard this particular song before. It’s alright at the start, but once it transitions it really takes on a new life, and I’m not sure why I was surprised when Louis popped in, but it was still a nice surprise. It’s hard to imagine these two could ever truly miss, and although I think it’d be near impossible for anything the pair has done to top Dream a Little Dream of Me (their version is far better than The Mamas & The Papas, fight me). All told, solid sub, very pleasing to listen to, but I don’t love it enough to give it A tier.

A Tier

12

Jubilee Stomp
Tuba Skinny

Bloobird

This one is just fun. Lots of interplay between the different instruments, and it’s just enjoyable to listen to. Good sub.

11

Cicada Days
Will Wood

c4e5g3d5

THIS is the kind of bold submission to this category I can really get behind. I actually think it’s not a very good catfit, but it’s close enough to barely workable that I can’t dock it too much, and I love what it does with its runtime. Such a crazy escalation without ever feeling cheap or unearned.

10

Little Bit Of Rock
Lincoln Grounds

SC_Mirad B

This is probably the single best song I got subbed in terms of catfit. I literally cannot believe this HASN’T been used in a Fallout game. It would be insanely perfectly at home in a Fallout game. Utterly fantastic work finding something that fits the category this well. Unfortunately, I only think the song is fine, and that does cap it to the bottom of the top 10. Still, considering how good of a catfit this is, I can’t in good conscience score it any lower.

9

I’m a Member of the Midnight Crew
Eddie Morton

Mistyx

God dammit Cheese. I was actually pleasantly surprised by this one, then I read some of the YouTube comments and realized this is apparently a Homestuck song now. How do you people do this. Anyways, I wish the quality was preserved a bit better, but considering this is the single oldest song that was submitted, released in 1909 (that’s before WWI for those of you keeping track), I can forgive it. It’s pretty catchy, and even though I don’t really relate to the whole “go out having fun all night” thing, I definitely respect deciding to make this the message you convey through song in 1909 lol. Fun song, definitely a great catfit, I simply must score it well.

8

Room With A View
Russ Morgan and His Orchestra

MNIN

Definitely the best 30s big band song I got. The singing is quite nice, and the instumentation helps accent the higher pitch of Russ’s voice. Not much more to say.

7

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head
Dionne Warwick

Caspore E

I have heard the original song a number of times, but I do find myself enjoying this cover much more! Dionne’s delivery of the lines is fantastic, and the instruments do a good job of accenting her performance without ever getting in the way any. Great take on a classic.

6

Black, Brown and White
Big Bill Broonzy

Caspore G

See, this is the kind of song addressing racism that I think is also very enjoyable to listen to as a song. I definitely think it’s a much less impactful statement than Strange Fruit, but this is a walrus judging music, and I’d listen to this over that any day of the week if I’m trying to enjoy the experience. For a solo act this is quite nice, I like the singing, the message is meaningful and delivered well, and all told this is just a very enjoyable song.

5


Johnny Cash

Caspore F

One of the better Johnny Cash songs I’ve heard (although I will be the first to admit I’m not super familiar with his work). The chorus is quite catchy and I definitely love the contrast between Cash’s deep voice and the choir, the guitars work well, and for a truly and unapologetically country music sub, this is quite strong. Sorry to the other Johnny Cash subber, I like this one more lol.

4

Silhouettes
The Rays

beancat

Catchy, great singing, great jazz elements, and definitely a great story being told through the lyrics. What an inventive love story. Great sub.

3

Time in a Bottle
Jim Croce

Caspore C

This is very nice. Definitely on the slower and more somber side of the subs I got for this cat, but unlike some of the other ones I like every individual element of this song, and when you blend them all together it’s just a great listening experience. To be honest, my main complaint here is that I wish the song was a bit longer, which is, again, a hell of an issue to have with a piece of music.

S Tier

2

Swing That Music
Wycliffe Gordon

Squirrel2412

This is surely SC_Mirad. It’s also labeled as “Made For Kids” so I can’t add it to a playlist, which is the dumbest shit I think I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Genuinely who in their right mind at Google thought that that was the right way to do things. Anyways, this is a really good performance! It takes on a super different tone due to Wycliffe Gordon’s voice being a fair bit lighter than Louis Armstrong’s, but it works super well, and I was outright grinning when he got the trombones to play along with his scat singing. Add on some super varied and interesting solos and then throw in the soprano trombone to elevate an already great trumpet solo (is he double tonguing that thing???) as a cherry on top, and you have a fantastic song on your hands.

1

A Man Without Love
Engelbert Humperdinck

DatBird

“Engelbert Humperdinck” is most certainly a name you could have, I guess. (Edit: Apparently it’s a stage name, which is equal parts confusing and disappointing.) Despite what I said earlier about banning songs used in Marvel movies, this is entirely new to me and incredibly catchy. Basically exactly what I was hoping to find through this category, and given there’s 0% odds I ever touch whatever “Moon Knight” is, I can’t even be mad about it being a “used-by-Marvel” sub. Fantastic track, incredibly catchy, thank you very much for sending me this.

#36

Category 3: Soundtracks

E Tier

55

You Go Girl
Disgaea 4

Caspore J

Wow this is annoying. When the singing stops, the instrumental bits are actually pretty decent, but wow, do they have a mountain to climb to overcome that singing, and they do not get it done.

54

Empire
Monster High: Boo York, Boo York

MissAmerica

This is super not to my taste. It might be the best thing of yours I’ve yet heard though. Remind me to shoot any hypothetical children of mine that unironically listen to this. And then myself.

D Tier

53

Say No
Epithet Erased: Prison of Plastic

Simon A

This falls squarely into a zone of things that I generally dislike. The issue is, I’m having trouble putting what defines that zone into words. If I tried, I guess I’d say the lyrics and delivery are both super… cheesy? Childish? I’m not sure how to describe this, hopefully people listening get the idea. It’s like taking a Jeff Williams song and stripping out the sick rock track and leaving just the cringy lyrics behind. Okay, that’s a lie, there is still music, and it’s not awful, but it still feels secondary to the lyrical delivery, and even if I really like the flute a lot the rest of it feels pretty generic. I see that this is sung by Sapphire, who I recognize (mostly in name) as one of those people that makes english covers of anime theme songs, and yeah, I’d say that those both universally tend to fall into aforementioned zone I dislike and that I, as a general rule, don’t think I’ve ever heard somebody who makes those kinds of covers whose singing or musical style I have enjoyed.

52

No Control
Spongebob Squarepants: The New Musical

Simon B

…wut? What the heck is this credit list? Aerosmith, Sara Bareilles, Lady Antellum, Cyndi Lauper, P!ATD, Plain White T’s, They Might Be Giants, and David Bowie all did music for this thing??? Also in what context is this song ever played in SpongeBob of all things??? Unfortunately, musical music has never been my favorite, and I walk away from this more confused than I am entranced by the music. Also, wtf is this ending? I’ll probably skip past it for the live reveal, but seriously, it’s just the whole cast screaming and then pausing and waiting for a metronome and screaming again.

51

Moving On
Disgaea 5

Caspore K

This is a perfectly servicable song for what I can only assume is the end credits of this game. The heavily-accented “engrish” has never been my favorite, even in songs I think are incredible (looking at you, Persona), which definitely hurts this a lot without the emotional connection or context to want to look past it. Forcing myself to do so doesn’t really land on anything instrumental that makes me want to come back. Ultimately just not to my taste.

50

Only
Jobless Reincarnation

SC_Mirad B

fuck you alex. I do admittedly enjoy the instrumental start to this track a fair bit, but that’s only a small fraction of the song. The singing is just generic Jpop to me at best and grates at worst. If I was gonna like this, I would have at literally any point ever sought it out after an AMQ game where it came up, or at least remembered what it was for a future game. Actually, by that logic, perhaps it wasn’t Alex who subbed this? Nah, it probably still was.

49

Never Fear
Ningen Fushin: Adventurers Who Don’t Believe in Humanity Will Save the World

SC_Mirad A

Okay MNIN chill out with the long-ass title. Hold up, this is actually catchy??? Why am I getting into this as much as I am? Okay never mind the chorus lost me completely lol. But for a moment there, you had me. Really like the instrument mix in those first 40 seconds, but when the horns come in and the singer starts pushing her vocal range those two things really drown out the parts I liked so much about the start of the song. If you cut the chorus out this song gets way better, but really I’d just choose to listen to the first 40 seconds on repeat a few times before I listened to the full song. Real waste of a promising start.

Edit: Non-MNIN despite 2023 release year, interesting. Alex wtf are you watchin.

48

La Divina Tragedia
Umineko no Naku Koro ni

BLOODYRAIN10001

Lmfao. This song is such a meme. To be clear, I love it for that, but it’s still a meme of an ending theme. The guitars go hard, and it’s fun to listen to the 1:30 TV size version from an enjoyment perspective, but I don’t think I’d ever choose to call the full version a good song. Funny sub tho.

47

Scream
Final Fantasy XIV

DatBird

This vocally falls into a very similar territory as Say No did, but the backing track and vocal delivery are at least a bit more to my taste? On some level, this feels like it occupies the same zone in my mind as a low-tier Jeff Williams song would. I quite like the part about two minutes in where the strings cut in, but otherwise it’s kind of one-note, and again this vocal styling is REALLY not for me.

46

Happy Jack
Legion

nanook

This is certainly an interesting sub. You all watching are going to be very confused here, but to help explain, this is the actual intro sequence to the show, Happy Jack is just playing over it. While the song itself is good, it’s nowhere near my top The Who songs, especially not after being pitched down, and the constant sounds get in the way of actually listening to the song as a song and kind of force me to evaluate it in the context of what’s shown on my screen. As an intro sequence, I’m still not entirely sure what it’s supposed to convey - I walk away even on repeat watches having no idea what actually caused him to go from being a happy kid to a super rebellious teenager. In one clip he’s winning a trophy in soccer, then in the next clip he has a mishap in chemistry class, then in the next everybody hates him - I don’t see how these things connect? Also, maybe I’m just desensitized, but the fact that he ends the sequence by hanging himself really doesn’t do anything for me. I don’t feel like I’m invested in this character enough to care beyond the base fact that suicide is generally bad, but the shock value of that alone isn’t high enough to really push me into feeling anything particularly strong. Lastly, I’m aware that the usage of Happy Jack is definitely because of the extreme contrast between the lyrics and the on-screen narrative, but I just don’t think it’s a particularly strong usage of dissonance in this case, because Happy Jack is fundamentally about somebody who doesn’t let the actions of others, no matter how unhappy and heartless those actions may be, get them down, while here it kinda seems like both the character and the people around him are all not particularly happy - so it’s like, half dissonant and half not. Just a weird pick.

C Tier

45

Altars of Apostasy
ULTRAKILL

Keldi

From a game called “ULTRAKILL” I went into this really hoping for something… heavier? More metal? As it is, this is perfectly fine. I’ve just heard much more hype hype music. Maybe my expectations were incorrectly set, but I definitely felt actively disappointed by this one compared to the image of what I was getting into that the video art and game title put into my head. Even the ending doesn’t really manage to recoup this song’s losses.

44

Sugar Song to Bitter Step
Blood Blockade Battlefront

Caspore L

I’ve seen this before, technically, but I have no memory of the song (just the characters dancing in the spotlight) so it’s effectively new to me. There are some fun touches in the animation, and I can see why people think this ED is fun, but as a song it’s not really doing a ton for me? Also, sidenote, but be thankful I didn’t dock you a tier for subbing a 60fps version. Absolutely heretical. Still, of everything subbed, I get the feeling that it’s the one I’m most likely to check out eventually, because it’s probably a matter of when I watch BBB, not if.

43

Obstacles
Life is Strange

Dobby

I have never played Life Is Strange, and although I forget pretty much everything I might have ever known about it beyond the name, I do remember always thinking it wouldn’t be my type of game. Well, it turns out, this song is also not my type of song. I’m sure some MUers will call this incomprehensibly robbed, but I just think it’s okay, really. Nothing annoying, nothing great. The ending is kinda nice, at least.

42

Coasting
Transistor

Caspore C

I like the blend of acoustic guitar with the weird discordant background noises, and paired with the otherwise gentle instrumentation it creates a really interesting soundscape. Sadly, it also kinda gives me a headache to actually listen to lol. The guitar in the left channel in the latter half is such a cool sound, and I’m really glad for it, but I also don’t think this is making me want to listen to it any more, lest my headache get worse.

41

Koshaberi Biyori
Komi Can’t Communicate

clonedcheese

This is fine. I can see why people that are into J-pop/J-rock would like this song. I think it’s fine.

40

No Gravity
Pit People

Caspore I

I’ve heard good things about Pit People, but have never actually played it myself, so this was cool to get! This song falls somewhere between annoying and catchy, so it does work but doesn’t reach a high score either. Decently likely I check out the game though (if slash when I ever finish Three Houses).

39

Glider
Sable

Marmot

This feels like it’s so close to something I would really dig. The interesting repeating vocal samples are close. The soundscape is close. The voice… okay the voice is not that close, but it’s not awful. Still, everything ultimately falls just short of being in line with my tastes. Very valiant submission - close but no cigar.

38

One Track Mind
Dead By Daylight

ignoramus

I can see how this would be a good theme in a tense moment in the game, but as an independent song the first half does almost nothing for me. The latter half picks up a lot and definitely does a much better job of being interesting to listen to, but at the end of the day it’s still just kinda a background track.

37

life song
Age of Wonders 2

Visorslash

Perfectly fine background music, but definitely feels generic to me. I do like the horn segment a fair bit, but that’s kinda all that stands out.

36

Cinderella
Komi Can’t Communicate

beancat

Much like what I’ve seen of the actual show, the animation and direction here are both strong. Unfortunately for you, neither of those aspects are included in my rating here, and just about everything to do with the song is painfully generic. No part of this song stands out to me as anything special, except maybe that cool digital melody thingy for like 5 seconds on either end.

Edit: Okay I actually like that catchy digital thing enough to push this up the more I listen to it. Plus, I think I’ve gained more of an appreciation for the layered oddball instrumentation throughout the chorus. Still C tier, but higher.

35

Vendetta Non-Clique
Bully

Caspore G

Woah, getting a Bully song here is unexpected. I never played the game personally, but some of my friends were really into it WAY back in the day. I do like the atmosphere created by the singing mixed between the horn parts, and the overall instrumentation is quite nice, but I don’t have much else to say about it beyond that.

34

Terran Theme 1
Starcraft

mansnicks

Wow, I don’t think I’ve played StarCraft in, like, 15 years? It’s been a LONG time. Also never got that far, so no shot do I remember any of the music. This one is a fine backing track for an RTS. I like the more triumphant/upbeat parts, but the parts in between don’t keep my attention as much. I do quite enjoy the darker/heavier part at around 2:20 though.

33

Instrumental V2
Transformers Victory

Caspore B

This feels like it’s missing a vocal track. It’s not bad in spite of that, and I do like the horns, as well as the rhythm guitar in the right channel, but I can’t shake the feeling that it feels like this was written with the idea that there would be vocals that just are not here. That really hurts my ability to fully get into it as a song, because some parts just feel so empty, but it does at least still make catchy background music!

Edit: I was right, this is the instrumental version of the main theme [should have gotten that from the title tbh lol] and there are supposed to be lyrics.

Edit 2: The version with lyrics is NOT better lmao

32

Everything is New to Me
Pinocchio

MNIN

Del Toro made a Pinocchio movie? It was a musical??? It probably helps that I have a much easier time understanding the story behind this song than I do the Spongebob one, but it’s definitely much easier to get over that confusion and just listen to the song. Musical music is still generally not my favorite, but the instrumentation here is very strong, and I will certainly admit that the vocal delivery here is very impressive.

Edit: Didn’t realize this was apparently a 2023 thing. Interesting.

31

Main Theme
No Straight Roads

Maxi

This is an energetic and kinda fun piece. In the right mood I could probably go for this. As of right now, however, I just think it’s a cool rock piece. Had never heard of this game before, and I still have no idea what it’s about, but it’s cool to see something take this kind of musical stylings, even if this is not my personal favorite.

B Tier

30

My Blaze, My Truth
Tokyo Xanadu

Caspore H

I like the driving bassline with the overlaid piano a fair bit here. By the end, it does feel like it’s been a bit one-note, but on the whole not bad at all! Can definitely see this working very well as a soundtrack piece, and for that it sneaks into the absolute bottom of B tier.

29

Bug Fables Original Soundtrack
Bug Fables

Squirrel2412

Okay so. Yes. I did listen to this entire OST. Twice, even. However, there’s no shot I was ever going to sit down and listen to the entire 2.5 hour thing while not doing other work. As such, I mostly experienced it as background music to late night debugging of a robotic arm, rather than as an actual music piece I was paying attention to. Anyways, I’m sure some of it was the fact that I was already familiar with the track and so I paid more attention when it came on, but I think His Friends Call Him Spuder (Don’t Call Him Spuder) might actually be my favorite track on this soundtrack. I think it makes better use of being MIDI than a lot of the rest of the soundtrack does. When I asked if he could narrow it down, Squirrel provided The Usurper, Grasping for Power and Transcending, Overpowering, Everlasting as the two songs he thought were the best picks, but to be entirely honest the new track that I’ve walked away liking the most is actually In the Halls of the Ant Queen, which I’ll skip this to play instead because I don’t need to add literal hours onto my reveal for a single submission. On the whole, MIDI music has never been my favorite - I tend to prefer either low-bit chiptunes or full orchestration, the middle ground has never been super appealing to me, and I didn’t walk away feeling like any of the tracks had blown my mind, but I also didn’t really dislike any of them, and I’m sure with the context of actually playing the game they probably work better. Not bad. Probably would have done better with just subbing Halls of the Ant Queen, because this is a LOT of time to spend for only a few tracks I specifically like, but still, low B tier.

Edit: For the record, the official upload for this track is titled “In the Court of the Ant Queen” but the full OST upload and the actual image on this very video both say “In the Halls of the Ant Queen” so I’m sticking with that title, despite what YouTube says.

28

Gris, Pt. 2
Gris

Chloe

This sounds very reminiscent of some of Kevin Penkin’s work. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s reminiscent of his best works. Still, very nice build, and the vocal delivery falls just short of grating, actually becoming something I actively enjoy once it takes on the lower tone in the latter half and then blends back with the higher tone in a sort of duet (unsure if this is a second singer or the same one twice, but either way it’s cool). Nice piece, I’ve heard good things about Gris but know next to nothing about it and was happy to get this here.

27

Revenge of the Reaver King
Ruined King

Kane

Yeah, this is definitely a Gareth Coker piece lol. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of this game (oh, it’s League of Legends, so yeah I definitely haven’t lol). I like the instrumentation blend here, but the peaks do feel a bit repetitive, which keeps this from reaching any higher.

26

Eclipse Duet
Wandersong

ElizaThePsycho

This isn’t a duet you liar. Which, personally, I’m actually greatful for - it gives the song some very cool and unexpected evolution over its short runtime. It’s possible I’d like it more if I had context for the instrumentation and potential leitmotifs at play, but without it I just think it’s a fun enough track.

25

Gate Of Steiner
Steins;Gate

KnightsofCydonia

Man, I haven’t seen Steins;Gate in a hot minute, and I have no memory of this track whatsoever. Definitely kinda cool, but I’m not feeling it really move my heart in a way that makes me think of it as truly special. Considering I still remember specific certain songs from other shows I watched before and around the same time as Steins;Gate, that probably isn’t me just misjudging this apart from the work. It does a good job conveying the vibe of the idea of time travel musically, but it kinda feels like it’s trying to be too many things at once to accomplish them all super well. There’s the mysterious bits, the despondent bits, the melancholic bits, and even the “hype moment” bits, but if it focused on being just one of those things really solidly I think I would like it more than with it kinda trying to do all of them in under 4 minutes.

24

Akuma no Ko
Attack on Titan: The Final Season, Part 2 of 3+

Schiavetto A

I’m confused who decided that, off all the AoT endings, the one they’d most like to submit was Akuma no Ko? Listening to it here, I do actually have to admit that the singing is great, but I still feel like it works much better in the slower part where she’s carrying the pacing of the song than the more grandiose/loud part where the horns and strings kick in and overpower her ability to do so. As for the second half of the song, which I have never heard before, I really like the drums and layered pianos, and that flute at the end is sick but I’m still not sold on the grandiose part lol. Even if it’s nowhere near my favorite ending from AoT, and probably not even from the Final Season, it’s by no means a bad song on the whole.

23

Paper Boats
Transistor

nutella

I love the interplay between the three singers at the start here. Most of the rest of the song is good not great, and there are a few points where Barrett’s voice kind of grates for me. If it wasn’t for that this would probably be low A tier. Seriously though, please be less sparing with the backup male vocalists, they add so much to this, why are you showing them off at the start and then shelving them? Yeah I know there’s that other higher male vocalist providing some harmony for a lot of the rest of the songs, but he’s so quiet (I suspect most listeners probably won’t even hear him) and doesn’t really hit the same incredible tone as the two deeper voices do. Nix the grating, add those guys in in more places, and this is easy high A tier at least. Also, I’m going to go out on a limb, and not only guess that nutella is one of the Transistor subs, but is in fact exactly this one.

22

Pishon Dry Lake
Rogue Legacy 2

LordQuas

So, despite the name being “Pishon Dry Lake 1,” I actually recognize this song from the tutorial level, where it is also used (not far enough yet to have explored Pishon Dry Lake in any meaningful fashion). I like the sense of unease and tension this track delivers, befitting of the story delivered throughout the tutorial area of the game AND the actual danger present in the final area of the game, while still communicating a catchy melody over top of driving percussion. This would probably not have been my first pick to submit out of songs I have heard thus far in Rogue Legacy 2, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still a solidly atmospheric piece of music.

21

Crypteque
Crypt of the NecroDancer

Dragonclaude

Wow this reminds me of the Borderlands 2 Moxxi bar theme. Like, a lot. If you told me this was a remix of that, I would believe you. On the whole, this kind of music is not my favorite, which is part of why I’ve never felt compelled to seek out more Crypt of the Necrodancer songs than I’ve already heard, but this one has a lot of cool variations over its runtime and manages to be engaging in spite of that fact.

20

Main Theme
Angel

bad bunny

…a Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff? Weird but alright. I really like the strings and dissonant chorus mixed into what is otherwise mostly a pretty conventional rock sound. The guitars have some really sick moments, the strings have some really sick moments, and I respect choosing to sub this a lot, even if I don’t think I truly love it due to the lack of the vocals doing much for me. Still, the amount I can buy into those musical peaks is really what pushes this up above Crypteque.

19

Stained Glass
Transistor

Caspore D

Probably my favorite Transistor sub, if mainly by virtue of not having any part that hurts me to listen to. Without the very short segments where the voice is kinda painful, Paper Boats would definitely beat this, but because it has those this edges out the top spot for the Transistor subs. Like the groovy dueling guitars, the backing synths add a lot of interesting depth to the piece, and the subtle background percussion elements really help round it out, with the weird glassy sounding bits providing some intriguing sounds to really push this up to something I like listening to. Solid high B tier song.

18

Fuushun
The Twelve Kingdoms

WindwardAway

I really like how this sounds vaguely like an Irish jig but with heavy asian influence. Shame it’s so short, and also shame that the one bit has some kinda off-putting repetition - as if the track was layered on top of itself but way too close and way too loud to not serve as a distraction. It does definitely give the piece a much different quality, and I don’t hate said quality, but it is still distracting and that does constrain it to B tier.

17

Thank you for your kindness
I Shaved. Then I Brought a High School Girl Home.

Coffee Abuser

Double fuck you alex - okay wait this is actually an OST and not an OP or ED theme, you get a pass. Okay what the fuck this is actually good? I had never heard of Tomoki Kikuya before this and it turns out he’s composed for almost nothing I’ve ever heard described as good but a lot of shows I’d avoid at all costs (Eromanga Sensei, Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World, and Cat Planet Cuties, to name a few), but this piece carries a pretty solid emotional weight even for somebody who’s never seen the show. Good use of strings, and the acoustic guitar in the left channel really helps tie it all together.

16

Papermoon
Soul Eater

Caspore M

Great opening. Haven’t actually watched Soul Eater since, like, 2014, probably, but both of the (original) openings are solid, earning spots in my Top 100 OPs/EDs video I made back in 2020. (This one came in 60th place there, and the first opening to Soul Eater came in 27th.) The singer’s voice, despite falling very close to what I would generally consider to be annoying or grating, doesn’t actually cross into that territory at any point for whatever reason, the guitars give the song a very good sense of pace, and the lines in english are delivered well enough that they don’t seem entirely out of place as they often can. Still kinda disappointed to get any anime themes for this category, and the fact I’m so familiar with this one definitely doesn’t help it score high, but at least it’s a good one?

15

Opening Titles
Transformers: Robots in Disguise

Caspore A

Damn, definitely very different from the english version of this show’s theme (which is still more iconic, fight me), but surprisingly this might be the best anime theme song sub I got? The chorus is catchy, the guitars are cool, and the “car robots!” section works better than it has any right to. For real though, I love the start and end of this. Technically, I probably will ultimately end up deciding I like Papermoon more in the long run, but I know the words to that and I’ve never heard this before, so it’s hard to justify scoring this lower.

14

Köppen As Fuck
Risk of Rain 2

shubaka17

I do not like this as background music, at all, and so on a first listen in the middle of running through all of these songs I really didn’t appreciate it. A second listen paying more direct attention helped a LOT. I like the off-tempo rhythms and the guitar for their ability to inject a sense of uncertainty into the music. Very unique take on a heavy video game soundtrack. The metallic instrument in the back of the quieter parts is great, I really like the whiny synth sounds used throughout this piece, and when they kick in the guitars do their job, although I do get a bit tired of them, which is what keeps this at the very top of B tier instead of getting into A. Also, VERY clever title, props.

A Tier

13

World’s End Valentine
OMORI

Insanity

This is definitely far, far more interesting than Trees was. I can only imagine this is from some sort of boss fight, but I know intentionally very little about OMORI for when I inevitably someday decide to pick it up and play it, so there’s no chance I actually look that up to confirm (on that note, fuck you for the music spoilers lol). The harpschicord-sounding instrument is very engaging, and layering it on top of the low-bit drumkit works surprisingly well. I really buy into the energetic parts, and all in all my biggest complaint with this piece is that just fading out is a very weak way to end a song.

12

blacklight babe
Guilty Gear [Korean Version]

Caspore E

I actually haven’t heard almost anything from GG games before Xrd, and this is definitely a sick track for a fighting game. I believe I’ve seen some buzz somewhere about the Korean versions of certain GG games’ music being awesome, and if this is at all representative then that general buzz may just be correct. I know nothing about I-No’s character beyond her being a mild pain to fight in Xrd (and her design not being much to my personal taste), so I can’t comment on the fit, but the guitars are cool enough that I don’t really care.

11

dead angle
Umineko When They Cry

Caspore F

Remember back in category 1 when I said that if you were going to sub me Umineko you should have just subbed me one of the soundtrack songs by zts? This is what I was talking about. My favorite track is still worldenddominator, but dead angle still gives me ptsd lmao. Good sub, no points for unfamiliarity though, sorry on missing out on the Top 10.

10

Space Lion
Cowboy Bebop

c4e5g3d5

This is illegal. This is also probably Bloobird. Seriously though, subbing Yoko Kanno is basically cheating. Not by as much as Alleycat for Homeworkout was, but like, still feels like bringing a gun to a boxing match, lol. Especially so since this song is pretty much forever ingrained into my brain. Unfortunately for you, I maintain the belief that Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex matches or exceeds Cowboy Bebop in nearly every way, and that includes the music. Space Lion may be burned into my brain, but there are a number of Yoko Kanno songs from Stand Alone Complex I would much rather listen to. So maybe it’s bringing a 2mm Kolibri to a boxing match. As such, absolute bottom of the Top 10.

9

Number One
Bleach

Schiavetto B

I had no idea Sagisu was the composer for Bleach! It’s not a show I ever envision myself even attempting to pick up, but this song is definitely a fantastic track for a shonen battle anime. It’s energetic, it’s fun, the guitars are cool, the vocalist was a SICK pick for this track, and all in all I’m just impressed I’ve never heard this before. Good sub.

8

vs. DJ Subatomic Supernova
No Straight Roads

Mistyx

This is groovy and energetic and just fun. Love the blend of the synths, synthesized strings, bass, and the more chiptune-y elements. What a unique direction for what is presumably a boss fight theme based on the title of the track. I do wish there was a bit more evolution over the course of the track - imagine if that electric guitar in the second half went a bit harder than it does. As it is, it feels like the mix kind of falls off more than not. Still, dope sub.

7

Terra’s Theme
FFVI: Pixel Remaster

thepigeonnyc’s family

FFVI has been on my backlog for literal ages, but I’ve never gotten around to it and so I’ve never heard any of the music from it. I quite enjoy the flute and guitars here, as well as what I think is a harp (but I’m not positive on that) but without the emotional attachment to the game’s story I feel like I’m probably missing some weight that would really push me to loving this. Still, catchy piece of music, definitely fits the general vibe I get from FF in general. Also, for the record, I think my gut take is that the GBA version of this song is actually better than the Pixel Remaster or SNES versions.

6

Neverending Song
One Step From Eden

Daeron

So apparently this is a boss that plays the violin, and for that I think this works quite well as a fight theme, especially given it seems her attacks sync up with the music, which is always cool to see. Unfortunately, I’ve never really enjoyed the Mega Man Battle Network style of game, so I don’t think I’ll check this one out, but definitely a cool theme that works quite well thematically and is very entertaining in its own right!

5

Penumbra
Judge Eyes: Testament of the Shinigami

Nerbins

This is clearly trying to be intense in a very cinematic way, and at that it most certainly succeeds. I really appreciate the blend of what I’m going to call “Black Ops 2” synthetic/guitar sounds with techno and orchestral elements - definitely works for the piece. I have never played any of the Yakuza games, but this piece definitely leaves a strong impression on me, even if I’m still salty I lost to Like A Dragon in Marl’s FoLrus category.

4

Paradise (Stay Forever)
Paradise Killer

Bloobird

I quite like this! The singing is nice and the instrumentation is catchy. I’ve never heard of Paradise Killer before, but it seems quite unique. Appreciate how groovy this song is, and despite the lyrics being obviously shaped by being tied to the game, it still manages to stay out of the cringe-inducing zone a lot of stuff that scored low fell into. Love the instrumentation, especially the sax solo, and I don’t really have any specific critiques that come to mind beyond just taste.

3

Swing Me Another 6
Dicey Dungeons

lendunistus

I had a writeup for this calling it hard-capped at low A tier due to the large amounts of musical downtime, but I deleted the whole thing because this has just been stuck in my head like literally nothing else submitted to this category. The chorus bit is ridiculously catchy. If it was in this song three times across its 5:33 runtime instead of merely two, I’d probably put this up in S tier and it might well have won. As it is, the main thing holding it back is that some of the space between these highlights feels kind of dead in comparison. Also, is that a fucking Redline sample? Hey yo??? Great sub. Eliza in shambles rn.

2

Birth of a Wish/Become a God
Nier: Automata

staypositivefriend

…does this count as vocaloid? If so, hey MNIN, we’ve finally found a vocaloid song I enjoy! This is genuinely super engrossing. The repeating robotic lines work within the context of the song, and obviously probably do within the world of Neir Automata from what little I know about it. The chorus adds a fantastic sense of weight to the track, and the instrumentation really pours on a thick sense of urgency that I imagine would work utterly fantastic for the buildup to a climactic moment in a game. You know a song is good when I simply must beat time while listening to it.

S Tier

1

Diving
Waterworld

shanethedigital

Are you sure this is Waterworld and not Hydrocity?

Are you sure this isn’t Donkey Kong Country?

Jokes aside, actually listening to this, this is REALLY good for the SNES what the hell? Like yes, I know that DKC was also a SNES game, and that game had utterly fantastic atmospheric tracks, but this still almost belies belief that it was actually from the SNES. The constant evolution of the song over its runtime means you always have something to latch onto, the bassline is catchy, the percussion really gives a sense of underwater exploration, the synths are super soothing, and when the more traditionally chiptune part kicks in it’s just like “wow.” I love basically every part of this, and especially given the hardware constraints in play here, it’s an incredibly impressive piece of music.

Hats off to whoever submitted this, what a find. I don’t know why you’re listening to the soundtrack from random 1995 PAL-only SNES games, but thank God you are.

#37

Category 4: Live It Up

E Tier

53

Naomi
Neutral Milk Hotel

Bloobird

I had actually just been talking with some friends about Neutral Milk Hotel over winter break, right before I posted this walrus, so that’s actually really funny timing considering I had never heard about them before that and had never heard any of their songs before this. This recording isn’t great, and I cannot hear a word the singer is saying because of it lol. Once the rest of the instruments kick it, it’s even more apparent that the recording quality is going to tank the fuck out of this. This sounds awful basically purely on the fact that I can’t hear anything clearly except the drums and the guitar, and they are NOT enough to carry the song when even their quality is outright bad. Disappointing, and, after looking it up to be sure it wasn’t supposed to be like this, also definitely worse than the non-live version.

D Tier

52

Brother’s Blood
Kevin Devine

Dobby

Wait, if the other one (which you haven’t seen yet) is the obvious dobby sub, whose sub is this? Anyways, this suffers a LOT from the fact that I don’t gel with the singer’s vocal delivery basically at all. Some people listening will probably love it, but it is just not for me whatsoever. Sorry, rip, can’t wait for the MUers to complain about this placement, but if it hurts my ears that’s a pretty easy low score, and the last third really dropped this from C to D tier. Unsure if I’ll fullplay this during reveal for time reasons, but if I don’t I do recommend checking it out on your own and seeing if the last third gels more with you than it does with me.

Edit: This was the dobby sub, the other “dobby sub” was Wind, all is right with the world (well, except dobby nodium-ing, oof).

51

Heather
Conan Gray

Caspore L

Really not my style of music. Guitar is nice enough, singing and lyrics are not compelling whatsoever.

50

Psycho Killer
Cage the Elephant

Kane

Bold submission. The Talking Heads’s original song is a certified classic, and I’m not sure if Cage The Elephant is physically capable of beating it. Yeah, not gonna lie, they can’t, largely because the lead singer’s voice to me just sounds hopelessly, how do I put this… TikTok-y? Zoomer-y? Like I know that, logically, this guy is older than that, but I still think his voice fits right in and I don’t think it really blends well with the space in my head that this song occupies. The bass is cool, but on the whole I’d just take the Talking Heads over this any day of the week.

49

So Dark
Dan Croll

Caspore J

Not a fan of when he takes his voice higher, instrumentation is merely fine, top of D tier.

C Tier

48

Mad Sounds
Arctic Monkeys

Caspore A

This song exists.

47

Give A Little Love
Noah And The Whale

nutella

Feels like a more laid-back Mumford & Sons in the first half, but I do kinda like the guitars and how they blend with the violin in the second half. Not enough to get out of low C tier tho.

46

…And If I Did, You Deserved It.
Will Wood

Mistyx

This is fine. “The only label that I’ll sign is in the DSM-5” is a great line, but most of the rest of the first half of the song just kinda feels like it exists and nothing else. The last quarter picks up a bit, and I think I like Will Wood’s voice more when he’s going after it, but it’s still ultimately just fine.

45

Fire
Bruce Springsteen

Visorslash

Sorry, but I only find this fine. Singing is good enough, and the guitar riff is catchy, but at the end of the day the song just doesn’t hold my interest musically or lyrically.

44

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
The Newfangled Four

Squirrel2412

Interesting to get barbershop quartet. I was about to write “this has never been my personal favorite style of music” but then they started building up to an electronic-style beat drop and literally said “Get ready fam, here comes the drop!” and I physically cringed, so maybe it’s worse than that. I did ultimately appreciate the Gandhi line because that joke is a classic, and by the end I was more okay with it than I had been at the start, but I just don’t buy into most of the humor or the singing. Cool if this is your thing, but it’s not mine.

43

Gold Rush
Basia Bulat

Schiavetto A

I can already see the MUers racing to call this robbed. It’s just fine, get over yourselves.

42

My Type
SAINT MOTEL

Maxi

Oh, I’ve definitely heard this sax line before. I assume the fact that I couldn’t have told you that beforehand means I don’t like the original song? Unsure. Singing’s alright, chorus is definitely not to my taste, and man the longer this goes on the more I’m starting to get tired of that riff. Lyrics also do nothing positive for me. Weird shot of the girl in what appears to be underwear peeking in from the background, lol. Yeah, ultimately the main riff isn’t bad, but when it’s repeated basically the entire song, it starts to become annoying, and a lot of the other elements aren’t doing it for me.

41

Piano Trio No. 2 (4th Movement Allegretto)
Greenwich Trio

lendunistus

Calling this a “piano trio” feels like kind of a lie, but I’m not necessarily complaining. The dissonance extracted from the cello slapping and violin plucking is outright impressive, and I definitely appreciate the atmosphere of this piece, but I can’t say that I really feel myself wanting to sit down and listen to it for fun. Definitely suffers from being interesting but not in a way that makes me want to listen to it more on my own time.

40

London Girls
Barns Courtney

Caspore H

Decently stereotypical-sounding, but the ehh-ing is still a catchy enough sound, and the guitars are pretty nice. Not enough to pull it out of mid-C-tier, but on the whole not bad.

39

Crimson Oath
Yoshiki Fukuyama

BLOODYRAIN10001

Oh, this is a JAM Project guy, that makes sense. This is apparently the opening to “Buso Renkin” which appears to just be discount FMA? Although the plot description does sound kinda metal in a potentially good way, so maybe it’s cool, who knows. Anyways, this performance is definitely a J-Rock song, and for that I don’t think it does enough to really jump out to me as somebody who’s not an explicit fan of the genre. Has some cool guitars, but that’s about it.

38

Have You Ever Seen The Rain
Rod Stewart

Caspore M

No shot is this one Caspore, right? Anyways, I may admittedly not be the most familiar with Rod Stewart, but I just have a hard time seeing why I’d listen to this over the CCR original. Maybe it’s better than the studio version of Rod Stewart’s cover, but like, I don’t know I can count that as being “better than the original” in good faith. If the original version wasn’t such a classic, this may have done better, but oh well. Points for being a good song, no points for being a better live version than the original.

Edit: It’s Caspore, lol

37

Julie-O
Patrick Laird

clonedcheese

Good enough piece, but I’m not finding it truly moves me one way or the other outside of that one cool part in the middle with the slapping. Basically, my opinion fluctuates 1:1 with the YouTube watch time graph.

36

Dangerous
Big Data

Caspore E

Not a big fan of this song, good luck on having the live version be better. What an unorthodox drumkit setup. Or maybe some of it is added in in post like some of these synths HAVE to be. Still not my favorite song, but I do agree that this is better than the studio version, so points for that.

35

Do I Wanna Know?
Arctic Monkeys

Caspore I

OH WAIT THIS SONG I’ve heard this song before and just never knew the name of the band that made it. Unfortunately for you, I actually don’t like this song much. Fortunately for you, I think the live version is indeed better. The light instrumentation blends well with the light vocals in the pre-chorus, and on the whole even if it’s still not a ton more to my taste it’s definitely closer than the original, despite the fact that I actually like the electric guitars and especially the bass from the original.

34

Stop And Stare
OneRepublic

Caspore F

Definitively not a OneRepublic fan, so this will be interesting. Really cool buildup at the start, love the way more sounds layer in. Singer definitely not my favorite, not by a lot, and that does hurt this, but it’s not by enough to completely tank it and the song is certainly better than I was expecting going in.

33

Army
Ben Folds

Chloe

Sounds kinda like Bo Burnham, who I don’t really like, and by extension this isn’t really for me. The piano solo is kinda cool, and I do like the part where the audience sings the multiple parts of the song over top of one another - it’s no easy feat to get that level of coordination from an audience, which I do respect, and by the end the song has grown on me somewhat, but it’s still just ultimately not to my taste.

32

Presumably Dead Arm
Sidney Gish

staypositivefriend

I like some of the sounds here a lot, with the instrumentation and singing both sounding quite nice, but some of the lyrics and especially the flow really don’t gel with me. Hard to judge, but I think it nets basically the top of C tier.

31

Moonshine
Caravan Palace

ignoramus

This is the Lone Digger band, right? Would have never guessed that if you just showed me the video. Sadly, the phone recording quality definitely hurts this a lot - I can hear the bass clearly, but everything else is muted when it’s playing. I like the bright synths, and the bari sax/trombone part is quite nice, especially when the alto adds in on top along with whatever tf stringed instrument that is, but I suspect I’d like it way more if it didn’t sound like it was underwater. Probably a much better performance in person than is coming through here. Listening to the album version, I can definitely see the appeal of this performance - the instruments sound cooler live, and I think the female vocalist adds a lot to the song that is completely absent in the album version. Shame the recording quality kills the listenability so hard. Would definitely have scored much, much higher with a better recording - very potentially podiuming based on how much this was already in my head despite the abysmal quality. Unfortunately, I can only judge it as it exists, and that leaves it stuck at the very top of C tier. Truly, truly sorry. Hit me up the exact millisecond a better recording drops.

B Tier

30

Hallelujah
Leonard Cohen

Caspore K

I’ve heard so many versions of this song by this point that this is gonna have a hard time standing up to them despite being the original (or perhaps because it is the original). While I do love the electric organ, particularly the solo, and the sax is a nice touch, on the whole I just think I prefer more modern versions of this song’s flow. Still, good performance, just hard to look past that. Bottom of B tier.

29

Holiday
Green Day

Coffee Abuser

Asking the crowd in Tokyo if they want to “start a fucking war” is a tad adventurous. At least it’s not Berlin. Still a good song, but I’m once again not sure what’s supposed to make this significantly better than the studio version, which we’ve all heard a thousand times. Maybe if the guitar solo was unique? Some of the crowd interaction elements, such as turning off the lights and using a spotlight to light up one thing at a time, are kinda cool, but they don’t add much to the experience of listening to this live recording after the fact. At least there’s the explosions for the bang bang line, and that’s cool?

28

The Sound Of Silence
Disturbed

Daeron

Bold to sub me a cover of such a recognizable song. I went into this expecting to hate it - the name “Disturbed” and the singer’s deep voice were both immediate red flags. However, the singing is actually very well done for being so deep, even if that’s still not my favorite (although I actually like it less when the singer goes higher lol), and the instrumentation is actually very nice, especially the subtle guitar. When it gets kinda screamy it definitely loses me even more, but I still can’t say it’s bad. I’d definitely take the Simon and Garfunkel original over this. Still better than Down With the Sickness though.

27

I Will Always Love You
Dolly Parton

MissAmerica

I’m so used to the Whitney Houston version that judging this feels weird, even though I did know that Dolly Parton wrote the original, and I have heard both before. Dolly Parton has never been to my personal taste, but I definitely must admit that her singing is objectively very skillful. I still think Whitney did it better, and the rating here will indeed reflect that, but this is still good.

26

September
Earth, Wind & Fire

Nerbins

This is an INCREDIBLY ballsy submission. Let me remind you that the description for this category is, and I quote: “Live versions of songs that are better than the original.” Although I don’t think this is definitively worse than the album recording, I also can’t say that anything in this jumps out as being all-around significantly better than the original version. Earth, Wind & Fire is fantastic as always, and this would have been cool as hell to see live, but the experience of listening to this recording is not significantly improved relative to just pulling up the song on my phone, and for that it gets kneecapped even if the song itself is obviously fantastic.

25

Until it Doesn’t Hurt
Mother Mother

Caspore G

The soundscape at the start is super cool, and I really like the pair of female backup vocals layered on top of the lead higher-pitched male vocalist. The bridge is definitely not something I enjoy, but the chorus itself isn’t bad, and all in all it’s a fine song.

24

Best Part
Jacob Collier & Daniel Caesar

SC_Mirad A

I really like the piano here, and the duet parts are nice, but I actually don’t think I like either singer’s voice all that much individually, and the lyrics do very very little for me. The back and forth with the crowd is engaging, and that does net some points, but by the end it does get a fair bit repetitive. Low mid B tier.

23

The Foolish Frog
Pete Seeger

shanethedigital

To be honest, I’m much more familiar with Pete Seeger as a songwriter than as an actual artist, so I haven’t heard this before, but it’s cool to see it here! I think this arguably could have been a good sub for the Comedy Sketch category, but I do respect subbing it here. As something that I would argue is kinda discount Alice’s Restaurant, it’s absolutely children’s music, but it’s quite fun to listen to nonetheless. I don’t think I’d add it to a playlist with “normal” music, but I do appreciate the sub! Rip bullfrog. Truly a tragedy for our times.

22

Sick of the Silence
Mother Mother

Caspore D

I really like the way the two female vocalists bounce off of each other, even if I don’t like the lead male singer’s voice all that much. Most of the rest of it is just fine, but the way the backup vocals sound is worth a lot because it’s just a cool and unique sound.

21

Blues Etude
Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass, and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen

LordQuas

Pretty good jazz track. Not much more to say.

20

Romeo And Juliet
Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris

c4e5g3d5

I’ve never actually followed any of Mark’s stuff outside of Dire Straits, who I do enjoy, so this was a pleasant surprise to see. Good song, but to be honest I’m not sure why I don’t like it more than I do. That makes this write-up kinda inevitably disappointing, but it just isn’t really hitting me hard even though I kinda feel like I should really like it.

19

Black Fly
Circuit des Yeux

MNIN

I like this, but I don’t love it. I’m definitely impressed by the vocalist’s range - she spends most of the song singing quite deep, but can hit some really high notes when the situation calls for it. The vaguely fly-ish synthesized noise is also a really cool touch. Cool instrumentation, cool sound, just not my own personal favorite.

18

Piggy
Nine Inch Nails

KnightsofCydonia

Never got really into NIN, so I don’t believe I’ve ever heard the original version of this (and if I have I don’t remember it). I really appreciate the restraint shown here, building up bit by bit to something genuinely quite cool. I think the bit where he sings without the mic to let the crowd carry it works infinitely better if you’re there than if you’re watching a recording and you don’t already know the song, and although I get that the dissonance is intentional I’m still not a big fan of the lead singer stopping singing to go play a very, uh, interesting piano part, but on the whole I was pleasantly surprised by this.

17

Once Again (Reprise)
Joe Hisaishi

beancat

Very good performance, with some really nice singing, but on the whole I don’t find myself buying into the orchestration as much as I think I would were this instead an instrumental track with no vocalist (as in, from the ground up - removing the vocalist here would NOT be an improvement with no other changes). I just preferred the Kiki’s Delivery Service medley, basically.

16

She Heals Everything
Porter Robinson

SC_Mirad B

Why doesn’t this guy just ditch the vocaloid? This is way better than his previous songs I’ve heard, even if my biggest single issue with this song is the “She Heals Everything” line, lol. That aside, the rest of the song has got so many changes that it’s honesty kind of hard to, like judge. I think some parts are really onto something, and others lose me nearly entirely. Overall good, but too much of a mixed bag to rate it super highly.

Edit: Did NOT expect this to be you. The Jacob Collier sub was obviously you. This I did not expect. In hindsight, it’s not that surprising, I just didn’t expect it.

15

Lec, saulīte!
Raimonds Tiguls & Rasa Bugavičute-Pēce

mansnicks

How big is the choir for this??? Holy fucking shit that’s like ten thousand people. Maybe more. That’s insane. The technology it must have taken to set this up is certainly impressive - on this scale, the speed of sound literally starts to be a factor in your music as the people in the back have to be slightly ahead of those in the front. Fantastic use of silence at the end, even if I think the ending flute bit is really out of place, and the rest of the song is definitely good, so it scores well mainly on the power of the scale of the performance.

14

Spirited Away
Yotsume God

Insanity

…a mobile game theme song??? Okay, sure, I guess. I actually quite like the instrumentation here, and the singing is also very relaxing and pleasing to listen to. Surprisingly nice song, pulls ahead of the Hisaishi piece by virtue of both having a singer whose voice I prefer and by doing a comparable job with significantly less.

Edit: Should have known this would be Insanity as soon as I saw this was a mobile game theme.

13

Bonny Ship the Diamond
Longest Johns

ElizaThePsycho

I absolutely love the idea behind this sub - roving around in Sea of Thieves with your bandmates and filling the downtime by playing thematically-accurate music is super inventive and fun. I really like the banjo part here, and the vocal harmonies are super nice. Solid sub, mostly falls out of A for taste reasons.

12

Cold Wind to Valhalla
Jethro Tull

nanook

I wish the recording quality here was better, but it’s over twice as old as I am, so I guess I can’t really complain too much. I really like the interplay between the guitars and the flute, I just wish it was a more studio-like quality with the same live sound, I guess. Ah, to be spoiled by modern recording equipment and processes. Ultimately, I do agree with the two top comments that the live version is better than the studio version, so points for that, but man do I wish the live version also had the production quality of at least the studio version. All in all, that recording quality is probably the main thing keeping it just shy of A tier, but still quite a good song.

A Tier

11

Blue Lotus
Xu Wei

Caspore C

The instrumentation here is quite nice, but the live mix is definitely problematic insofar as I feel like I can’t really hear the singer’s voice over the other instruments a lot of the time. I’m unsure if that’s just a consequence of not knowing a lick of Chinese, or if he was actually just too quiet to anybody who didn’t already know the words. Possibly both. Anyways, this stadium is ABSURDLY packed for somebody I have literally never heard of before and whose english Wikipedia page is basically blank. The vocals issue aside, I actually really love the instrumentation here - that guitar solo is sick, and I just find myself enjoying the song. Even if this doesn’t end up placing the highest of anything Cass has subbed (I know for a fact this is her lol), it still does make me the most glad she decided to sub a fuck ton of things out of anything from her I’ve gotten thus far.

10

Midnight
Lianne La Havas

Schiavetto B

Pretty darn good for a solo track! The singing is very expressive, and the simple guitar accompaniment does a great job. Good audience participation too. Lots to like here.

9

Sailor Man
Ewert and The Two Dragons

WindwardAway

This is the most Dobby sub thumbnail I have ever seen in my entire life. For being such a simple and dare I say repetitive song, I actually like this quite a lot. Despite bringing only five instruments (and using only four of them), there’s a lot of depth to this song, mostly in the percussion - the muffled drums offer a really unique sound that really fits the open-air recording environment and the brush adds a nice touch that I really appreciate. Definitely still unsure whether private recording sessions with no audience really count as live music or not, but in this case I’ll allow it happily.

8

Black
Pearl Jam

Marmot

Surely this must be Chloe. Not the best recording quality, but not bad enough to really tank it like some of the other submissions. Vedder’s voice in particular still comes through clearly and really helps to carry the song. As per always, he’s great here. The backup vocals also work very well here, coming through even more than in the studio version. Wait, hold the phone, it’s not the recording quality here that’s trash, it’s the YouTube version - this same performance is on Amazon Music and it’s much, much clearer - and wow does it help. Great performance of a great song (and thank you for helping me realized I somehow missed this in my big Spotify playlist).

7

No Quarter
Led Zeppelin

thepigeonnyc’s family

This guitar solo is sick. I’ve almost certainly heard the studio version of this, but not recently enough to remember it definitively, so I have no real point of comparison. I love the sounds here. Great sub. LZ haters in shambles.

6

Television Rules the Nation / Crescendolls
Daft Punk

DatBird

The fact I wasn’t born for Alive 1997, too young for Alive 2007, and there was no Alive 2017 is probably genuinely one of my least favorite things about when I was born. Despite that, I haven’t heard Television Rules the Nation in a long time. I definitely think the focus on the synthline being deeper, darker, and louder here does a lot for the song compared to the studio version, even if I don’t necessarily think the Around the World samples do much for the song (although, to be fair, they also don’t hurt it any). I do wish the transition to Crescendolls was a bit more blended - as it is, it kinda just stops one song and starts another instantly, which (even as a fan of Crescendolls) is massive tonal whiplash. I understand that tonal whiplash is kinda par for the course with EDM, but it’s one of the reasons I don’t like the genre much in general. I do however really like when the TRtN dark synths come back in under the Crescendolls celebratory sound - it’s a really cool sound mix that you would never find in a single song but makes for a great experience when mashed together at a live performance. Great sub, person I can only assume must be Dat.

5

Landslide
Fleetwood Mac

bad bunny

Someday a live Fleetwood Mac performance will miss with me. Today is not that day. I’m literally 100% positive I’ve heard this song before, but I’ve not ever liked it enough to intentionally seek out on my own - luckily, this is great. The slight echo of Stevie Nicks’s voice, the fantastic resolution on Lindsey Buckingham’s guitar, this performance and recording are just a joy to listen to. Even the new acoustic guitar solo works wonderfully for the piece. This is a submission that understood the assignment.

4

Dean Town
Vulfpeck

shubaka17

Despite being technically an Ann Arbor band, I am actually very unfamiliar with Vulfpeck’s music - nothing I’ve heard from them in other walruses or stuff like Thingyman’s 1612 cover have pushed me to seek out more of their music. That being said, this is actually really nice! Might help that it’s an instrumental, lol. The bass is super nice, and it’s genuinely super funny how the audience is singing along with the bass solo. The guitar sounds awesome layered on top, the piano is used very well. and the keyboard is a really nice touch. Fun performance, best I’ve heard out of the band ever. I later looked up the studio version, and no, I agree this live performance version is much better. Great sub.

3

Bohemian Rhapsody
literally just the crowd at a Green Day concert

Dragonclaude

Unorthodox. Incredible. A+.

2

Ouroboros, the Serpent That Devours the Horizon
Revo

Keldi

YOOOOOOOOOOO. I will fully admit I am biased beyond belief with this one. This game is one of my favorites of all time, and certainly in my top 2 out of everything on the 3DS. Revo is a composer I love (he was on one of my example tracks for cat 7), particularly for this soundtrack, which I have downloaded on my phone, and from which this song is one of my favorites. However, at exactly no point in my entire life had it ever crossed my mind that there might be a live version of any of the music from this game - easy to forget when you don’t play anything else Final Fantasy that technically this is part of a massive multimedia franchise with the budget to perform live shows (even if just in Japan). I won’t say this is without flaws - I prefer the chorus from the original soundtrack version, for example, and they could probably do with, like, two or three fewer violins, but on the whole the longer this went on the less I cared about any of those nitpicks and the more I was just getting fully immersed in the song. The character instrument solos in particular are incredible live, and the ending of the song is definitely brought to the next level in the live recording. Fantastic sub, whether targeted at me specifically on purpose or whether it’s just a happy accident, but because this was basically always going to podium by merely existing I don’t think I can give it S tier in good faith. Also screw you for making me sad I missed out on this concert lmao.

S Tier

1

Hometown
Xu Wei

Caspore B

Damn, I love these guitar solos so much. Why did you not sub this guy to the headbangers cat? (Don’t tell me if you did, but I hope you did.) I’ve always found the various dialects of Chinese (I cannot actually tell them apart) to be weirdly aurually pleasing to listen to (despite their relative lack of a natural-sounding flow to an english speaker), and although I don’t understand a word of this song I do think that comes through here quite well. Relative to Blue Lotus, it helps a lot that I think the overall audio mix is a lot more balanced, with the piano, acoustic guitar, percussion, electric guitar, vocals, and bass all coming through pretty clearly in the mix. Sick song, and to be honest my main feeling walking away from my first listen is that I wish the song was longer, which is always a fantastic sign. Great sub, having listened to the studio version I would also classify this as knocking the catfit out of the park - the live guitar solos are like a billion times better and really push this up to being awesome instead of just good. Congrats Cass, well-deserved win.

#38

Category 5: King For a Day

F Tier

52

Buddy Holly (Hatsune Miku Cover)
jax mix

Marmot

I would hope I don’t need to justify this placement.

E Tier

51

i am literally just doing this for a walrus
Eliza Turkey

ElizaThePsycho

Uh, okay? I’m not sure what the intent is here. It both doesn’t really fit the category at all and also isn’t very funny imo.

50

Crocodile Chop
Neil Cicierega

Caspore D

This is one of those classic Neil Cicierega mashups that gets a chuckle out of you when you realize what it is, and then from there it’s all downhill as the rest of the mashup plays out long beyond the point where it stops being funny. In this case, it does net some points for the “Die” being vocoded to the Crocodile Rock “wah” sound, which is also funny, but like, everything outside of those two moments is only a very meh listening experience.

49

Friday (Remix)
Rebecca Black

MissAmerica

I don’t want to listen to this. Literally I don’t even want to hit play. You don’t understand just how much physical aversion there is to the thought of me giving this song any sort of chance. Well, I have now clicked on it, and there are no words to describe this music video holy fucking shit. This has to be seen to be believed. You are not ready for this. Seriously, go pull this up. Also, have I horribly overexaggerated in my head just how much I hate this song, or is this version actually, like, more listenable than the original? Probably the latter, my memory is that Friday is an incredibly low bar and although I find nightcore-ish vocals annoying in general it may literally be better than the original in this exact case. For hating it significantly less than I thought I would, it barely escapes nodium.

48

Lord of the Flamingoes
Lyle Ugleman

Mistyx

Holy shit, this song. I think I’ve heard this on like dumbass TikToks. Never in my life would I have imagined I’d be thanking God for Death Grips coming on. I genuinely hate the Flamingo part of this mashup. The Death Grips part is actually workable. I’m sure there will be people that really dig the extreme difference in musical styles here, and I will admit that it’s very likely that I find this more listenable than I would the original Death Grips song on its own, but as somebody who isn’t a Death Grips fan to begin with it is kinda hard-capped by both parts of the mashup being songs I strongly suspect I would strongly dislike individually. Definitely tired of it by the end. Death Grips mashed into something else I like I can find funny, mashed into something else I don’t like is, sadly, a miss with me.

D Tier

47

TheFatRat mixing video game music with EDM
TheFatRat

WindwardAway

Let’s get this out of the way - the name “TheFatRat” has only negative connotations in my head. My hopes are not high. Indeed, the EDM stuff ends up feeling very stereotypical, and I’d rather just go listen to From Past To Present than something that uses it as a trap beat. Super generic, zero points of interest.

46

POP/STARS 𝐯𝐬 MEGALOVANIA
Dj Cutman

Daeron

Okay, this is probably the Kyo sub. This suffers dramatically from the fact that I think POP/STARS has literally no appeal whatsoever (something I didn’t know before watching this because this is, as far as I can tell, my first concerted effort to ever listen to it). None of the VFX, music, singing, or lyrics do anything for me. I’d rather just listen to straight Megalovania. And that kinda sucks to write, because as far as I can tell this is a well-executed mashup in all respects, and so I know I’m objectively robbing it as a mashup. But subjectively I just don’t want to listen to or watch this anymore. Edit: I no longer feel as bad about dropping it this low, there’s an instrumental version that means I at least don’t need to deal with the original singing, and they even put funny red X’s over the characters’ mouths in the video, which is at least amusing.

45

Never gonna give you up but it’s a barbershop quartet
The Newfangled Four

Squirrel2412

Ok squirrel. Barbershop quartet still not my favorite style of music. As a pretty straightforward cover, the first half is not bad, but I’m still not sure what the weird part in the middle was about. Maybe it’s some other song I just don’t know? Either way, this is fine, but that’s it, and no matter how I slice it it’s not an internet mashup, and that definitely drops it.

44

Go Your Own Way Tomorrow
Triple-Q

Caspore I

As will become apparent, I’ve heard most of Triple-Q’s work - however, I’m not sure whether or not I have heard this one. I do at least recognize both songs, even if the Konosuba 2 OP has never been something I’ve sought out to listen to at any point ever (I also have not seen Konosuba). Frankly, this just feels like heavily discounted Nyanderwall, and I’m not sure it’s going to be able to recover from that even with the hype injected by the “You can go your own way” lines making a quick appearance. Perfectly fine Triple-Q-style mashup, but nothing in it that makes me want to come back to it over just listening to Fleetwood Mac.

43

Ed Sheeran - Megalovania
maki ligon

beancat

Ugh, Sheeran. He has like one song I don’t dislike, and this one is definitely not it. Putting it over a re-insumentalized Megalovania doesn’t really change that. The novelty of the Megalovania inclusion wears off pretty quickly too.

42

Somebody Heavy Used to Know
Casual Jeff

Nerbins

Was NOT expecting the Scout lines. That being said, just having TF2 characters straightforwardly “sing” the whole thing does get old relatively quickly. Even swapping to the Medic’s voice doesn’t really shake up the core of what this song is. At least the ProZD Goofy covers have some evolution and constant one-upsmanship, while this kinda just is what it is. Has some interesting moments, but points are mostly given for initial absurdity because my desire to listen to this is pretty low.

41

Dr Wiley
“Studio” Steve Wallace

Schiavetto B

It’s an alright song, but it really seems more like something that’s sampling MM2 than a meme mashup.

C Tier

40

CaramellBoxWarrior but it just gets worse
Will Wood Memes

Keldi

At least I think this is the original Swedish lyrics? Still, I’m just mightily confused about what this is supposed to be, like, doing, lol. At least it gets more unhinged as it goes on, which does both match the title and give it some semblance of a point to exist, despite being too unhinged for me to really, like, enjoy listening to as a song, especially as somebody with no familiarity with the original.

39

American Football - Never Meant But It’s A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton
William Maranci Mashups

Schiavetto A

I’m pretty sure I haven’t heard the original American Football song here, but I’ve definitely heard A Thousand Miles, obviously (albeit probably not for years). The mashup between the two is decent - the tempo-shifting artifacts are definitely noticable and distracting, but the underlying instrumental track is nice. The end really does come out of nowhere though.

38

Proof All Nickelback Songs Are the Same
SoaringMoon

thepigeonnyc’s family

This reminds me of that video from, like, 2004 where somebody put How You Remind Me in the right channel and Someday in the left channel with only a key change and very slight tempo change, and the resulting listening experience is still pretty damn coherent. (this is how you remind me of someday - YouTube) This is arguably simultaneously stronger, since it includes way more songs, and weaker, since I think it’s a less coherent overall experience to listen to this mix. That does definitely hurt its score, but it is quite funny nonetheless.

37

Shut Up and Dance in Paradise
Triple-Q

Caspore J

I lowkey needed to hard-ban Triple-Q main channel uploads lmao I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them all. This one might be the roughest quality of the lot, and it mashes two songs I don’t particularly like that don’t really add to each other, and even the random clips from Fly in the Freedom and Let’s Watch the Show do nothing for me, so it gets mid-C tier’d.

36

Hailing Frequencies
Silvio Rossi

mansnicks

Surely this must be mansnicks. Much like Dr Wiley, I’m pretty sure this is just a song with clips rather than a true mashup - I just like this one more. All of the Starcraft voice clips do add a cool layer to what would otherwise only be an alright song, but I can’t help but think Basshunter did it better.

35

Numb Circus
SmadaLeinad

Caspore K

I can’t believe they used the Hybrid Theory album art, Numb is from Meteora not Hybrid Theory smh. This is, like, fine. I have no idea what Circus is supposed to sound like tbh, but it’s not doing a good job selling me on it being a better backing track than the original.

34

An Animated Description of Mr. Maps
The Books

c4e5g3d5

I don’t know what I’m listening to, but it’s kinda entrancing? I’m unsure whether this counts as a mashup, and the disjointed volume swings that line up with the drum hits during some of the broadcast segments definitely take me out of the experience, but on the whole I don’t dislike either of those elements enough to tank it. That being said, I also don’t love it enough to overcome those things and push it to a high ranking. Still, probably the best sub that’s just a song using some samples.

33

Fredhammer
Neil Cicierega

Caspore A

The more this went on, the less I disliked it, and by the end I think it’s, like, fine, I guess. I do appreciate the Mario sample. Still not really my style, but it did get better.

32

Life is a Highway × Comedy
Taur_Aux

Caspore G

Hey, I’ve seen this one! Not literally, but Triple-Q did the exact same mashup (this was said before I saw just how many Triple-Q things had been subbed). It’s not bad, but the quality is definitely noticibly (and distractingly) lower than the Triple-Q version, and I don’t think that including more of the lyrics from Comedy really does any favors. All in all, I’d rather just go listen to the Triple-Q mashup than this any day of the week, but even then I wouldn’t go out of my way to listen to it. However, the underlying music of Comedy is still good, and it does still kinda work with Life is a Highway, so it’s still listenable even if I know there’s a better version a click away.

31

Harder Better Faster Oatmeal
mpgiii

staypositivefriend

Shoutouts to simpleflips. I was actually not aware of the 1, 2, Oatmeal meme before this, and while it is moderately amusing, and while this is decent, I’m not really finding myself wanting to come back to it. Not to imply that the original 1, 2, Oatmeal is aurally pleasing (it isn’t), but stretching out the voice clips isn’t doing it any favors, especially because it would be very hard to understand had I not looked up the original. Points are mostly given for the effort in the second half - commendable, for sure.

30

Boyfriend Complex
Triple-Q

Caspore H

I have, indeed, also heard this one. Blame YouTube autoplay for that. I have not seen Bocchi the Rock, I have not sought out its songs, and I don’t think the singing here is anything more than fine. Frankly, the BTR part of this song is the more compelling part, which is not something I thought I would ever say. Sorry Bocchi fans.

29

City Down Under
Mighty Mike

MNIN

Straightforward but workable mashup. Definitely not something I would have expected anybody to do, and it works decently given that. Would still probably just listen to Down Under though.

28

Superkiller
Neil Cicierega

Caspore B

Still better than the Cage the Elephant cover. I wasn’t really on board with this, but the “You start a conversation, you can’t even finish it” into a long pause, followed by just repeating the line “Say something once, why say it again?” a few times was genuinely amusing. For Neil Cicierega, not bad, but most of the reason it’s not lower is due to the strength of the underlying songs rather than the strength of this version.

27

Start Lifting Dumbbells, and Your Life Will Change
Triple-Q

shubaka17

ALEX YOU FUCKER THERE’S NO SHOT THIS WASN’T YOU. I have, of course, heard this, and it would be silly to expect I wouldn’t have heard not just any Triple-Q mashup, but a Persona 5 one. If you know literally anything about me whatsoever, you would be able to tell that nothing in the How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? opening theme song would appeal to me, and that therefore I would find this an absolute bastardization of one of the best video game soundtrack pieces of all time. Unfortunately, it’s a bastardization that has some sort of weird, transfixing energy, like watching a trainwreck in slow motion where you just can’t bring yourself to look away despite the knowledge that thousands of Ohioans are probably about to get cancer. That’s probably mostly a result of the fact that the songs are the same key and BPM, so the mashup just kinda naturally works out in a way you don’t often see, but it’s also awful enough to be like “oh god” without being so atrocious as to instill a need to click off of the video ASAP. High C tier.

26

Wu Tang vs. The Beatles - Run
KraljSveta

LordQuas

Not gonna lie, I don’t even know what the Beatles sample is here. According to the description it’s from the demo version of I Am The Walrus, which, sure, maybe, but I couldn’t have told you that from listening to this song without specifically seeking out the demo version. In that way, this might almost work too well - I wouldn’t ever question this if it played in the middle of a playlist of non-mashup rap. Kinda defeats the point, y’know?

25

16BIT Magic
BotanicSage

Caspore L

Pretty standard mashup, but although the songs here work together, there’s not really anything that makes me feel like they should. Now, I love BotanicSage as much as the next guy, but I find his best work comes when things either sound like they belong together anyways or are so musically different that the act of making them work together is in and of itself impressive. This falls into neither camp, and is merely alright.

B Tier

24

Bacon Pancakes - New York remix
jbat

SC_Mirad B

Short enough not to overstay its welcome, funny and surprisingly workable mashup, very bottom of B tier.

23

SexyBack x Home Depot
Evan Haines

Caspore F

This is definitely more amusing than it is good, but it is amusing enough to claw its way out of C tier. The Home Depot theme is way better than it has any right to be, and this is a universally known truth, so any mashup with it is, by the transitive property of bangers, also better than it has any right to be. I’d definitely have personally cut it off 2/3rds of the way through instead of repeating again, but it’s still funny this exists. Ending is also fun.

22

1 BASS, 20 ANIME MUSIC
Davie504

Coffee Abuser

I wish this was more than like two seconds per song. Pretty good selection for sticking to only super popular stuff (except the “three” Initial D songs and Beastars S2). Never mind, he “played” Blend S, his selection sucks. The otamatone accompaniment for the Naruto bit was pretty funny as well, to be honest. Not bad. ALSO WAIT THE TITLE IS A FUCKING LIE HE USES A DIFFERENT BASS FOR THE JJK PART.

21

Super Sonic Racing
mklachu

clonedcheese

Why, lmao. Not bad though. I’ve never heard the original song, but this is a decently catchy rendition on the otomotone. Unsure whether it’s really a mashup, but I’ll allow it.

20

Happy Liar
Adamusic

Maxi

I’ve probably heard both of these original songs, but I probably don’t like either whatsoever. It took me until the chorus to figure out that the lyrics were Imagine Dragons and the music was Marshmello instead of vice-versa, although I think some of the lyrics are Marshmello so maybe it wasn’t just me being out of touch? On the whole, this works surprisingly well given all of that. Definite points for the production quality on the mashup here. The ending is super abrupt, and I don’t really like either part on its own, but it’s well-done enough where I’ll take it in low B tier.

19

80s Remix: Linkin Park - Numb
Jerry Galeries

bad bunny

Despite the fact that Numb’s vocals still sound basically nothing like an 80s new wave pop song, this backing track makes a very valiant effort at it. Solid play.

18

Call Me, Beep Me (If You Wanna Reap Me)
Triple-Q

Caspore E

If there’s any Triple-Q mashup I’m more likely to have heard than the Persona 5 one, it’s the Calliope Mori one, lmao. Definitely should have just banned Triple-Q submissions. Shoutout to that time I got banned from Triple-Q’s Discord for a week - and, in going back to look at that, it looks like, of the two people I thought seemed super stuck-up in that whole interaction, one has deleted their account and the other has left the server entirely. Lol. Anyways, as for the song, it’s a pretty standard Triple-Q style mashup. If I hadn’t heard this before (and a number of times, at that) I’d probably rate it higher, as it is it’s just a good song mashed up with an unexpected-but-cool throwback theme. Solid, but I’m so familiar that it has no surprise value to ride any higher on.

17

Kahoot! OST - One-Winged Angel
Choinkus

lendunistus

The longer this goes on and is still taking itself seriously the funnier it gets, up until the chorus kicks in. After that the novelty does wear off, but it’s still a cool cover I guess lol. This would be super funny to use for the final question of a quiz though.

16

Rap God with Banjo Kazooie Music
William Maranci Mashups

Chloe

Simple but interesting enough to work. If Rap God itself continued to spit bars at the same speed throughout, the strength of this mashup would be much improved, but even with Rap God falling off the underlying Banjo track is still fun enough to work as backing.

15

Ballad of the Goddess
SiIvaGunner

Insanity

Not gonna lie, there was a point a few weeks back where I saw this had been subbed, but it wasn’t intentional and so I didn’t know what category it was for and so I thought it was the original subbed to the Soundtracks category. I forgot about having seen it before I got to that category, and it stayed completely forgotten until this exact instant, as I now realize I lowkey kinda played myself. Well played, stranger. WAIT I HAVE A COMMENT ON THIS VIDEO LMFAO. Oh yeah, this is the FE Fates mashup riffing on the line from BotanicSage’s Waters of Megalovania [Genocide Papyrus Remix] that I submitted to DatBird in FoLrus. Now that I think about it, that’s way too specific to not be an intentional callback to my sub there, surely? Given that, points for creativity for sure, definitely a good riff on my TAIOS subs. And yes, it does sound like Skyward Sword. However, it probably could have been 1:30 instead of 5:30 - the length of the original Ballad of the Goddess is a better pick for this meme than the length of the original Lost In Thoughts All Alone. High B Tier for you.

14

EXTREME SOUNDCLOWN MEGAMIX V
Gyrotron

ignoramus

This sure is what it says on the tin. Because some bits got cut out from the YouTube version, I swapped over to the Soundcloud upload. In all, definitely great representation here, and I’m glad stuff like this exists, but as a megamix I find it inherently has less listening value than a more focused mashup. It would still do well, but I think the prevalence of nightcore in the final few minutes is what ultimately drops this down to B tier for me. Incidentally, this also marks the second time in my life I’ve heard Wild Wild West. :curtain:

13

Black Tar (Uncensored Version)
SiIvaGunner

DatBird

Holy fuck I did not realize just how Sawano the soundtrack for this game would sound (I, like, knew he composed it, but I’ve never heard any songs from it so I basically forgot). Even with the mashup, this song, immediately from the opening notes, SCREAMS “I was composed by Hiroyuki Sawano” lmao. I have never played Sonic Frontiers, so I didn’t recognize the song this was mashed with, but although it’s definitely noticably a mashup it comes surprisingly close to the “I could see this being an actual Sawano song” territory. Not the best work I’ve seen on SiIva’s channel, but also FAR from the worst. Also, can we talk about the fact that a song used in a Sonic game has the lyrics “Fuck the pain away, my bed is in ruins”? Like yeah sure a censored version plays in the game, but, still, that’s a, uh, interesting thing to roll with.

12

Rogueport Sewer’s Answer
BotanicSage

Caspore M

Surely this must be the Quas sub? I think Fly Like a Mettaton is a better BotanicSage JSRF mashup, ultimately, but this still makes a much better case for mashing the two songs in question together than 16BIT Magic did and so it gets rated much higher. Definitely a case where two songs in a mashup are able to add to each other, being both entertaining for fans of the original media properties and yet also working on its own as a song.

A Tier

11

Daft Road
Vic

shanethedigital

Catchy and funky beat. Have never heard of C2C, but this works pretty darn well on the whole in terms of being genuinely good to listen to.

10

Never Gonna Wake You Up
NilsOfficial

Dobby

Was not expecting the Bon Jovi or the Tubthumping. Respect it. On the whole, pretty well-executed mashup. Plays things a bit safe, mostly, but does a good job at it, and really nets that top 10 spot by encapsulating the idea of the cat.

9

Tetris - Type A (Western Release)
maki ligon

nutella

This one definitely made me chuckle when the meme kicked in, which is better than a lot of the subs in terms of my initial reaction to hearing them. It also works as a meme mashup pretty well, blending such disparate musical styles in a way that ultimately does work. Would I call it unironically good? No, not ever. But it’s a pretty meme.

8

TOKIMEKI September
Mahado

BLOODYRAIN10001

Actually pretty good. I really like the way that one synth sound bounces from channel to channel. I recognize that this is iDOLM@STER, but I’ve also never heard this “Tokimeki” song before in my life. Ends up mashing up decently well with September. Both are upbeat and funky and so it kinda works in a way that grew on me more and more the more times I listened to it, which is what really secured it a spot this high up. It’s just eminiently listenable.

7

Terry’s Athletic Bodywash
MowtenDoo

Kane

I can’t believe StepGymBro didn’t sub this. Missed opportunity, Kane. The video for this sure is something else. It’s upbeat, energetic, memey as hell, and all in all I just think it’s a good sub to this category in particular. Edit: This is actually Kane, lmfao. When I said that I didn’t think he’d missed the opportunity himself.

6

RULES OF TEKKEN
BotanicSage

Dragonclaude

Do I think this is as hype as any of the MGRR songs on their own? No. However, it’s still a sick mashup, even not knowing the Tekken 7 song that serves as the main underlying basis. Anything that combines MGRR music with DMC music is automatically starting off in a good place, and this does a pretty good job capitalizing on that footing, with enough evolution that it never gets stale. Not my personal flavor of hype music, hence being very low A tier, but still quite cool. Also, for the record, I think I’m technically a Lili main, if that means anything to anybody.

5

Alberto Balsalm (Super Mario 64 Remix)
on4word

Visorslash

This has to be Visor’s sub. I have never heard the original song, but it works pretty darn well in the M64 soundfont! Bonus points for apparently replacing a chair scooting sound with the chain chomp sound, that’s quite creative. Definitely skews more towards the “unironically good” side than the “meme” side, but I’m quite happy with it nonetheless. Main complaint is that I do think it could be half length and be fine for it, nothing is really gained from the extra time. May check out the original later.

4

Decade Mix: 1962-1972
Flight Facilities

Bloobird

Okay, you know, this was really intended as a meme mashup category, but re-reading the actual words I wrote to describe what you should submit I guess I don’t see any reason this cannot qualify for full points. Feels kinda like cheating since at some point this is really more of a radio show, but it’s cool so fuck it we ball. It’s a really cool way to take yourself through the decade, listening to some of the biggest hits of the time interspersed with some of the biggest news stories, and although I was obviously not alive for any of this I do appreciate the experience a lot.

S Tier

3

Terraria Underground theme but its all sung by me
Osoch

SC_Mirad A

Admission time: I have never played Terraria. However, I did give this the benefit of looking up the underground music and listening to it before this, to get a baseline, but I don’t have any emotional attachment to the original. Okay, this cover is really good what the fuck??? I was not expecting it to be this good. Some of the electronic elements are recreated incredibly well for being mouth noises, making this incredibly fun to listen to. This also stirred up a six-year-old Siege clip memory (Plane flanking with jäger - YouTube), so thanks much for that! Great sub, my main complaint is that I wish it was longer. Apparently somebody put it on the Steam workshop, so all y’all Terraria players can go download that.

2

Wow Wow
Neil Cicierega

Caspore C

I like this WAY more than I should, considering in hindsight I should have banned Neil Cicierega entirely lol. So many of the details are well-crafted - the little boing sound effect when the singer says “I bounce into the” is a super nice touch, for example, the “bees” parts really land with me-in-particular, and a lot of the electronic elements here are quite catchy. I have no idea whether those are from the original song, or if they’re new here, but it still works nonetheless. Although I would have never expected it from this source, this is a meme song that I think is actually unironically fun to listen to. Not only the least bad Neil Cicierega song I’ve heard, but also the best.

1

Earth, Wind & Ozzys
DJ Cummerbund

KnightsofCydonia

This works way better than it has any right to. Hell, even the fucking songwriter who wrote September commented her approval for this mashup, which is fucking insane. This is basically the peak of straightforward, no-frills, only-two-songs mashups. The small touches like the backing vocals really tie it together and are what push this to being my favorite thing submitted. Great sub.

#39

Category 6: Homegrown Talent

F Tier

52

Wonderwall
Oasis

DatBird

What the fuck? This is literally THE stereotypical “everybody knows this song” song. Hard catfail.

51

Super Sonic Racing
Sonic R

Nerbins

Hey, I’ve seen this one! Lowkey the otamatone cover was better, lyrics are pretty basic/cringe-inducing. Also a massive catfail, unless I’m really missing something.

E Tier

50

THORN
SPURR

LordQuas

Noise.

49

DOLPHIN SHOALS
HYPEMOM

Schiavetto A

Wow, the effects on these vocals REALLY take me out of this song. It’s kinda like the live version of Naomi from Cat 4, where the guitars come through way more than anything else and it just kills my ability to listen to the song.

48

SHAKE IT
vze

MissAmerica

This is either going to be awful or unexpectedly fantastic. Okay, now that I’ve listened to it, it did actually manage to fall into the “not utterly offensively bad” category, which is at least better than I was expecting?

47

Night Race
Eli Orona

Squirrel2412

I like some of the background noises here, but unfortunately this suffers from just definitely not being for me on a genre level. The repetitive chorus is just not something I personally want to listen to, regardless of which kind of beep or boop it happens to be playing in.

D Tier

46

Good morning, morning beauty!
Crowd Lu

Caspore J

Well, this is sure a thing that exists. The music video is very creative, if not somewhat offputting.

45

Toddler with a Slingshot
Bug Hunter

Simon A

This exists. I don’t really get the point of the song, to be honest - it’s not really funny, but it also seems like it’s trying to be funny rather than meaningful, I think?

44

Is You Is
High Step Society

Marmot

This one is interesting - I do like the instrumentals, but the electronic elements have me significantly less sold. Guess that’s kinda par for the course for electroswing for me. Bass line is meaty in a way I do like and appreciate, but the singing isn’t for me, particularly the chorus. On the whole, I’d probably not choose to listen to it.

43

Trucks and Tractors
Luke-$

SC_Mirad B

What even? The sad part is I can’t even rate this all that low just because the guitar part is actually, like, kinda good, for some reason. Still definitively bad, but like, it could easily be worse without the guitar. Weird af, especially given based on the location this must be SC_Mirad.

42

I Wanna Get Better
Bleachers

Caspore K

I don’t dislike this until the chorus hits, then I do definitively dislike it.

41

Nevermind
Phoneboy

SC_Mirad A

Feels like a kinda generic pop-rock type song. For some reason I feel like I’ve heard this one before, but I don’t know that for a fact - maybe it’s just the aforementioned feeling that it’s generic coming through.

Edit: Ah, this is probably why I feel like I’ve heard this one before, lmfao. You subbed it.

40

Leave Luanne
Ryan Scott Oliver

ElizaThePsycho

Ngl this runs into the taste barrier pretty hard. Theater-type music really not for me. I do like the changeup going into the second half, but that doesn’t last too too long before we’re back at same old same old. I can definitely see why somebody who’s into this kind of theatrical music might really like this, but I just don’t.

39

CREATIVE FREEDOM (Remix)
yeeo

Mistyx

I didn’t enjoy Undertale, so I never picked up Deltarune, and therefore I have never heard the original version of this song. Wait, never mind, it’s a remix of a fan song, so there’s no shot I would have heard it anyways. The chorus with the guitars isn’t bad, but I feel like I’ve heard boss themes that go harder, even if we constrain ourselves to ones that blend older low-bit music into their sound, and on the whole I just find this okay at best. Way the hell better than anything I could do, and the instrumentation choices in the latter half are definitely quite cool, but I’m struggling to see this as good without being the kind of person that would be into listening to fan-made Deltarune songs in the first place, which I am decidedly not.

38

Summer of '69
Georgia Tech Glee Club

clonedcheese

Oh why hello there cheese. Terribly sorry to do this to you. This is basically just a good solo with the backing of an alright choir, and it doesn’t really do much for me. For an acapella cover to really grab me, it probably first needs better recording quality, and then it needs to do something cool with the song that I can’t get from the original. This just feels like a downgrade from the original, even if I don’t think the, like, one person actually singing here is doing a bad job by any means. Again, this is also probably taste barrier on some level as well. Sorry not sorry.

C Tier

37

New World
SoundBlock Studios

shubaka17

Oh, I don’t like that mid-song shift. It had a good thing going, and I’m not a fan of shaking it up so drastically. Remember cat 4 when I said that “tonal whiplash is kinda par for the course with EDM” - this also has that, and, just like there, I’m still not a fan of it. On the whole, not bad, but the first half was much better than the second imo, and that drops it to the very bottom of C tier.

36

Drink
Alestorm

Daeron

Alestorm is definitely a bit bigger than I was hoping for from the “small local band” cat, but it’s not so massive as to be unworkable. Never been a massive Alestorm fan, and despite this one falling definitively on the metal side of “pirate metal” I still can’t say I’m really able to get behind it, especially as somebody for whom alcohol has approximately zero draw. That being said, it is still a funny music video idea to have pirates break into a home in the dead of night just to throw a party instead of doing any harm to the homeowners. Catchy enough to stay in C tier, but not much more than that.

35

More Difficult Than It Seems
Tiger Huang

Caspore I

This is basically fine, definitely not my style though, and without being able to understand the lyrics I can’t extract much emotion out of it personally rip.

34

Numbers
PSYCHOSTICK

Caspore M

Heard this before, although it does make me wonder who tf is from Phoenix. I was living in Mesa over the summer, definitely shoulda said hi at some point. Decently funny parody, but not the kind that makes me want to put it in a real playlist. If you haven’t seen this before, by the way, the music video is quite enjoyable - give it a glance (I Can Only Count to FOUR - Psychostick Numbers Bodies Drowning Pool Parody - YouTube).

33

MIRAGE
NEGUL NESHAI

Keldi

This feels pretty generic to me, not gonna lie. I don’t dislike any part of it, but it also basically fails to grab me beyond that.

32

The Hills
Li Zongsheng

Caspore L

This is another song that I feel like might mean more to me if I understood the lyrics. As it is, I find the song fine, with a bit of a weird music video given the lack of context. I do like the way more instruments add in throughout the second half, but it doesn’t do enough to carry this higher.

31

This Is The Life
Amy Macdonald

bad bunny

A little bit pop-y for my taste, but not bad. I do think I’d like it a bit more if it were a bit more… raw? Acoustic? Unsure what the word I want here is. Feels overly produced compared to what I’d hope for. Still, not bad.

30

Lai Būtu Tā
Dazadi Izpilditaji

mansnicks

Catchy, although I do wish the background choir ever changed up even a little bit - would help keep it in catchy territory and out of annoying territory. This music video is kinda weird - idk what the words are saying, so I can’t tell if it fits, but uh, devoid of that context I have no idea how to feel about this video lol.

29

My Buddy (there’s no way this is the title it has to be a translation error)
ANGELA

Caspore G

Admittedly, I have literally no idea what this song is about, and once again it’s possible I’d like it more if I understood the lyrics. Or maybe I’d like it less - looking at you, Vava. Decent guitar, good singing, but nothing that really jumps out to me as only being available in this song.

28

Straight Ahead
Dom Fera

Caspore A

Yeah, this falls into the generic category. I don’t dislike any of the elements, but none of them stand out, beyond maybe the piano, which is blended in well enough.

27

Please Enjoy Yourself
GoziU

Maxi

This is better than I thought it was going to be. Guitars are nice, and the singing is better than I would expect for this kind of music. Not bad.

26

Neighborhood
Dom Fera

Caspore E

For some reason, the sound feels imbalanced with this one - like, I want to turn it up to hear the background instruments, but when I do the foreground elements are too loud. Unsure why that is, but it does make this one kinda hard to judge well. This isn’t a YouTube problem either. Still, song’s decent enough to stay in the higher part of C tier.

25

Sisikat Ka Iha
Bita and the Botflies

ignoramus

Not bad, but although I definitely can’t say the sound is generic, it’s also not quite up my alley, unfortunately. Some of the guitars are pretty cool though, and I do like the singer’s voice. Not judging based on this, but the music video is also pretty cool.

24

Titania
Night Palace

MNIN

I prefer Oberon tbh. Oh, this was supposed to be a joke, but they just namedropped Oberon, so never mind. This is not bad, but I don’t really have any strong feelings for it beyond that other than really liking the clarinet/oboe/bass clarinet part near the end, but that’s stupidly short.

23

Alex Puf F s
BLOODYRAIN10001

BLOODYRAIN10001

Why does this have to be the first thing I hear from this category, lol. This is also not the only person to sub their own work, which does indeed count as local. As a straightforward mashup, this works better than it really has any reason to, and the editing isn’t bad at all. Solid work, if not something I would start jamming out to every day. Probably putting this too high, but I respect the ballsiness, what can I say.

22

Satan Said Dance
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

staypositivefriend

Wow, this intro is kinda unhinged. But like, not exclusively in a bad way. A lot of these individual sounds are really cool and the way they’re layered together is unexpected and yet aurally pleasing in most cases. The singing is definitively not my favorite, and I think I might prefer if the unhinged-ness was a bit more constrained - some of the sounds are a bit harsh on the ears. On the whole, I do appreciate what it’s doing enough to not drop it too much for all that, but it does cap it into the top of C tier.

B Tier

21

Käpapuu
Puuluup

lendunistus

This is a super unique sound! I’m not sure it’s my favorite, but it is cool. I really like the reverb on the vocals, it adds a lot of warmth and depth to the song effectively for free. Apparently this band is “nu-folk” and although I think I’m walking away strongly preferring normal folk, this is still a cool sub. Barely edges into B tier.

20

Travelers Insurance
Their/They’re/There

nutella

I like the left channel guitar a fair amount, but most of the rest of the song doesn’t really do a ton for me. Okay, I guess the bass part is cool too. Fair enough.

19

Actions Speak (Louder Than Words)
All From Nothing

KnightsofCydonia

Kinda-generic-sounding-but-still-good rock song? Sure, why not.

18

Easy Thing
Dom Fera

Caspore B

This is a kinda fun, kinda chill, kinda pop-y song, with the synths in particular just being a vibe. Not my favorite style, but certainly does a good job at what it does.

17

Darn! II
Sam Slater

Bloobird

This feels like a cross between a Kevin Penkin song, a Minecraft Caves and Cliffs song, and Echo’s Answer from my FoLrus cat. Not quite sure where that leaves me - if it went full Kevin Penkin on me, I’d probably like it more, I think. The ending is super sudden, so it obviously flows into the next song on the album, which, to be honest, I may check out. Solid base here, but falls a bit short in execution as a standalone track.

16

Side Face
Leslie Cheung

Caspore H

This is the most 80s-sounding thing I’ve heard in a hot minute. I appreciate the “pop” sound in the left channel, and the overall vibe is definitely very 80s, with some really cool sounds throughout the song. Not really the kind of 80s music I like most, but still a cool blend.

15

Knowledge In Hand
The Forms

thepigeonnyc’s family

Short but nice. I like how it’s clearly communicating a sense of passion/urgency but is nonetheless restrained in its delivery - it’s cool contrast.

14

Princess
Jam Hsiao

Caspore F

I do quite enjoy the guitar riff here, even if the song ends up feeling a bit anime-opening-y in the chorus. The rhythm guitar is also really nice when it appears. Still not the biggest fan of the chorus, but on the whole pretty happy with the song.

13

Nothing To Say
Dom Fera

Caspore D

I really like how layered the sound here is - there’s just so much going on at once, it’s kinda crazy, but the individual elements are all individually cool, notably the guitars. On some level it does start to feel a bit busy because of it, but it’s still a net positive. The singing isn’t my favorite, which is concerning because this guy got subbed like five times, but it’s not bad at all either, and I can really appreciate the overall flow of the song.

12

Wonderkid.
Wonder Kid

Kane

I like this, but I definitely don’t love it. Singing is good, instruments are good, exactly no element is great. Interesting message for a self-titled song by a guy called Wonder Kid, but I’ll take it. Actually, to be honest, this guy himself is a hell of a character for somebody called “Wonder Kid” and man does he not look like his voice would lead me to believe. Hell of a stache.

11

Neutrogena Spektor
Origami Angel

c4e5g3d5

This guy’s voice feels pretty darn melodic for the almost punk-rock vibes the guitars are giving off. Luckily, I’m there for the punk-rock vibes. Just a fun and energetic piece, with some nice changeups for the chorus to cut in and slow things down. I can’t say that the lyrics do anything for me, but considering if you had asked where I thought a song from an album called “GAMI GANG” would have placed, I would have said “probably no higher than D tier,” pretty damn good result. The ending isn’t my favorite, but it’s not scream-y enough to pull me out of the experience or drag down my opinion by too much. Barely misses out on top 10.

10

Mothers and Fathers
Dom Fera

Caspore C

Once again, I like the instrumentation here a lot, but the singing is, for whatever reason, not fully doing it for me. Luckily, the part where the chorus jumps in helps a lot, and, again, I don’t think it’s an active detriment either. This song is pretty simple and straightforward, but I do quite enjoy it. Definitely the best Dom Fera song I got.

9

Fear No Darkness, Promised Child
Timo Räisänen

Dobby

I really like the instrumental here. Singing’s only aight, but that means in sum total I like the song a fair bit! Chorus’s focus on the vocals is, by extension, not my fave, but man if I don’t like the guitars on display throughout.

8

To Hell With Georgia
Georgia Tech Glee Club

beancat

Hi other cheese. HOLY SHIT I WAS NOT READY FOR THE KU KLUX KLAN TO MAKE AN APPEARANCE IN THE VIDEO. Anyways, that one image in the video aside, I had no idea “To Hell with Georgia” was a phrase, but I’m there for it. The main thing keeping this from being higher is that it’s just a parody cover of Battle Hymn of the Republic - I understand why that makes sense in the context of the song, but it does mean that I’m less impressed than I would otherwise be. Still, solid digs, solid performance, respect. In particular, in comparison to Summer of '69, I appreciate that this has multiple parts, with multiple singers, harmonizing, making a song - don’t think Summer of '69 really did that for me.

7

Moody on a Saturday Evening
Coffee Abuser

Coffee Abuser

Counterpoint: weeb. Although I do wish the instruments felt a bit less synthesized, I do understand that that’s kinda a big ask, and so I’m not really gonna dock much for it. On the whole, definitely a chill piece of music - I think the piano line feels a bit straightforward, but the backing winds (at least I think that’s a synthesized wind instrument and not just a synth) do add some nice depth, and the first electric piano part in particular has a cool sound that’s somewhere between a classic jazz piano, a rhythm guitar, and a harpshichord that I do quite enjoy.

A Tier

6

9 augusti
Folk’Avant

WindwardAway

Not gonna lie, it took me a few seconds to realize this wasn’t English. I quite enjoy all of the elements of this song, but I don’t think I truly love any of them. Still quite nice, but not quite getting me to buy in completely, which does cap it at the very bottom of A tier. Still, whatever high-pitched string instrument that is is quite nice. Apparently it’s called a “Kantele” and I had literally never heard of it before this, but boy is that a cool sound. I wonder what else I’ve heard it in, if anything. Thanks for introducing me to it.

5

Is Anybody Out Here (Live Version)
JAE SOTO

Schiavetto B

This is nice. Soothing yet energetic in the vocals and chirpy synth-sounding guitar in the latter half (on that note, how the hell do they get the guitar to sound like that???). This song does a fantastic job of setting an atmosphere, and it really does earn its spot in A tier through pure simplicity and nailing what it does choose to do.

4

Wayfarer
No Party For Cao Dong

Insanity

In what seems to be becoming a theme for this category, the lyrics don’t have me for most of the song, but boy does the instrumental part. I love these guitars. The chorus in particular goes so hard and I’m 110% there for it. Great sub.

3

Talk Is Cheap
Ideateam

Chloe

Now this is fun! Singer’s voice isn’t my favorite, but he does a good job in spite of that, so I won’t dock points for it. The horns are funky and blended quite well with the guitars and sax, and the background instruments (particularly the percussion) really help round out the sound. What really secures this placing in the podium above Wayfarer is the fact that that has over 15 million views and nearly 150 thousand subs, while this has 76 views and 30 subs. Fantastic pick for the category.

2

Sunsets
Powderfinger

Visorslash

In a good way, the instrumentation here sounds pillows-esque for much of the song. Not quite boring into my soul to the same extent, but still, that’s a good place to be. I’m not a big fan of the repetition near the end, but it’s still a catchy piece with nice guitars, and mostly just a good time.

S Tier

1

???
Time Machine Modulus

shanethedigital

How does he get the guitar to sound like that??? The playing may not be perfect, and the recording quality may not be great, but I’ll be damned if this isn’t a fantastic sub. This is actually incredible for a high school band to just come up and drop onstage, I’m actually in shock. The intro line is just about the funniest thing you could possibly say before dropping a 10-minute prog rock jam on everyone out of literally nowhere, too. Not to mention that the production quality on this video is actually insane for a high school battle of the bands from 2009, there are multiple camera angles and close-ups on the performers and everything like actually how the hell is this so good I do not physically understand. If only the recording quality were as insane.

1 Like
#40

You’ve heard of Orange’s “I got new headphones for Christmas” Walrus

Now announcing the trilogy, Orange’s “Help I just ran over someone in my solar vehicle” Walrus and Orange’s “Why aren’t catboys covered by car insurance” Walrus

7 Likes
#41

Foreshadowing?

#42

Category 7: Fusion Collab

F Tier

50

ringtone (remix)
100 gecs ft. Charli XCX, Rico Nasty, Kero Kero Bonito

staypositivefriend

This needs to burn.

49

The Last Huzzah (Remix)
Mr. Muthafuckin eXquire ft. Despot, Das Racist, Danny Brown, EL-P

Kane

What the fuck is this start??? I was really hoping that once the actual rap started, I would like it more, but unfortunately I decidedly do not. Both the “shouty rap” and the what I’ll call “Snoop Dogg-like rap” styles have never been my favorite, so the fact that this has both in full force is not helping. What I understand of the lyrical content also does nothing for me, and I’m not particularly tempted to look up the lyrics or listen for understanding. Decidedly not anything I’d ever listen to.

48

Starboy
The Weeknd ft. Daft Punk

DatBird

Wow holy fuck do I hate this. Assuming this is you Dat, you shoulda just subbed literally anything off of Random Access Memories. I don’t care that I’ve listened to that album 20 thousand times, it’d still do WAY better than this.

E Tier

47

Roll Me Up
Willie Nelson, Snoop Dogg

shubaka17

I did not need to hear Snoop Dogg in a country song.

46

Elevate
DJ Khalil ft. Denzel Curry, YBN Cordae, SwaVay, Trevor Rich

ElizaThePsycho

This is pretty bad. The intro is actively awful, as is what I suppose is the chorus, and even though I like, like, the first individual rapper well enough, pretty much the rest of the song just makes me want to turn it off. The lyrics being super cringe-worthy certainly doesn’t help.

45

Dial Tone
That Kid ft. Ayesha Erotica, Slayyyter

MissAmerica

The fact this isn’t the very bottom of this tier is a testament to how much I hate the stuff below it. Unfortunately, some of the repeating vocal samples are kinda cool, and most of the song is bad but not painfully so - the male rapping and the lyrical content are both near that level, but they don’t quite cross the line.

44

No Flex Zone (Remix)
Karmin, Watsky

KnightsofCydonia

The more a rap song sounds like modern pop, the less likely I am to like it, and this falls pretty hard into that category. Still better than Elevate, especially in the chorus, but it’s still bad.

43

Gaston (parody)
The Newfangled Four

Squirrel2412

Squirrel really did get 2nd place and then throw it all away by subbing only this single barbershop quartet for the rest of the categories, didn’t he. This might be my least favorite yet. It’s moderately amusing to pronounce “Jackson” like “Gaston” and when they’re singing normally it’s not bad, but on the whole this is mostly just a bad comedy sketch. Oh god, I’m gonna get these guys next cat too aren’t I?

42

Enemy
Imagine Dragons & JID

Caspore K

WHO DID THIS. You’ve actually got to be shitting me. This is probably SC_Mirad, which is honestly just tragic. Imagine Dragons is already not good, and the rap here is also just not good. I seriously question who the hell subbed this.

41

Cell Block Tango
Chicago

Daeron

This is sure a thing. I literally don’t know what to say about it, except it’s not for me literally at all. I get why it would be well-regarded in the space, but from just the song, I just don’t really, like, like the stories, delivery, or choreography all that much. Objectively this is probably robbed, but it’s kinda where I land. Sorry.

D Tier

40

In Case I Lose Myself in the Crowd
Quelle Chris, Denmark Vessey, Cavalier, Goose, Iman Omari

LordQuas

Well this is definitely a rap track. It’s not abysmal, but it’s also not doing anything that I personally like from rap. The background instrumentation is kinda cool, but it’s not enough to make me ignore the very heavy vocal focus of the song, and that is just not doing much of anythng for me lyrically or in its flow.

39

Red Flags
tom cardy ft. Montaigne

Caspore G

What an oddly specific song. It’s a goddamn miracle this made it as high as it did. Unfortunately, it also got stuck in my head way more than I like it.

38

Wishes
Grant ft. McCall

SC_Mirad B

Oh, this song. Somebody’s been playing too much Rocket League. Wait, this might be SC_Mirad for that. Anyways, definitively not my style, pretty hard miss.

37

Hold Me Closer
Elton John, Britney Spears

mansnicks

I’ve heard this before, but I never once thought “man, this is so much better than the original Tiny Dancer” and that remains here. Literally just a downgrade.

36

West Coast Smoker
Fall Out Boy ft. Doborah Harry

Caspore F

Yeah, I’ve never been a Fall Out Boy fan (and in fact it may be more accurate to say I actively dislike his work), and although I can tell this is a collaboration at least, I’m not convinced that changes my fundamental dislike of Fall Out Boy’s style. Mediocre at absolute best. The recroding quality on the provided YouTube link is also dogshit, but I’m not holding that against the song because it’s not its fault and there are better versions elsewhere.

35

Androgynous
Joan Jett, Miley Cyrus & Laura Jane Grace

Chloe

Joan Jett has honestly never been my favorite. Her well-known megahits are good enough, but beyond that I’ve never been at all tempted to listen to more from her. Adding in Miley Cyrus does NOT help. Whoever the third singer whose name I don’t recognize is might even by my favorite of the bunch in this one, lol. In all, this song does basically nothing for me.

34

Trepanation
millennium parade & Friday Night Plans

Maxi

Okay, that drill at the beginning going into either channel was kinda cool. I know millennium parade is known for those kind of sound tricks, but still. Unfortunately, a lot of parts of the song are both kinda unhinged in a way I don’t particularly like and also have lyrical delivery that is decidedly not to my taste, a bad combo for me liking the song. The parts that are much more “normal” (which I believe are sung mainly by the millennium parade vocalist while the unhinged parts are mainly by the Friday Night Plans vocalist?) are actually kinda good, leading to this placing this high in D Tier, but I’d still just rather go listen to No Time to Cast Anchor if I was specifically seeking out millennium parade. Some kinda cool sounds, which net it points, and it’s possible it would grow on me if I kept listening to it for weeks on end, but at this moment I’d never put it on a playlist, and certainly not before No Time to Cast Anchor. Which, to your credit, I did in fact just add to my playlist, so at least I got that out of this.

33

C’mon
Panic! At The Dico ft. Fun.

Keldi

Better than I would have expected given it’s by P!ATD and Fun. To be clear, that is not a high bar, it’s just not awful.

32

Preserved Roses
T.M.Revolution, Nana Mizuki

BLOODYRAIN10001

Have I seen Valrave The Liberator? No. Have I heard this song before? No. Am I familiar with Nana Mizuki? No. However, I am familiar with not only T.M. Revolution, but also this album, for ~obvious reasons. Ultimately, I find this falls into that low-tier-J-rock category of being just a lot of noise at once and hard to follow properly, which pulls me out of the experience pretty hard. I also don’t think the singers’ voices really blend together very well. Still better than everything below it though.

C Tier

31

Lilith In Starlight
Homestuck

beancat

Dammit person-who-is-probably-Keldi. I like the instrumentation at the start, particularly the ear-to-ear bouncing synths, even if the overall quality does feel a bit amateurish, but the accordion-like part after the change does very little for me. Not sure why that repeats for so long before the violin comes in. Same with the drum break that’s just a repeat of what the drum is doing anyways. Feels like wasted time, y’know? Anyways, this was fine.

30

Skies Forever Blue
Toby Fox, Itoki Hana, insaneintherainmusic, FamilyJules

Insanity

I was immediately off-put by the start of the song, where the digitized voice is really not something I like. I do think the digitization fading out is cool, and fundamentally the underlying instrumentation is good if not great, which helped keep me from immediately writing it off just for the intro. Although this strained english isn’t my favorite to listen to, it’s not actively bad at any point, and in spite of the fact I think the overall lyrics are pretty cheesy I couldn’t help but think the overall idea of the song is pretty clever, and I do think that some of the individual lines work well even if most don’t really do it for me. The mid-point breakdown is cool even if nothing fundamentally changes afterwards besides adding a few more instruments, notably the cymbols and horns, and I don’t like the ending going back to the style of the intro whatsoever. Mixed feelings, net ever-so-slightly positive.

29

Loved You A Little
The Maine ft. Taking Back Sunday, Charlotte Sands

SC_Mirad A

This is definitely not my thing. Hard to explain why, but I guess mainly it comes down to the male vocal delivery being too pop-y for my taste. Whoever the woman is is better, but she’s really only accents and so can’t really save this. A bit Casey Lee Williams-ish.

28

Return
Brian Eno, Karl Hyde

MNIN

I struggle to come up with words for this song. It’s there, but I’ve listened to it three times and I still have nothing to say. Guess that means it’s C tier.

27

The Wolf (Remix/Cover)
CG5 ft. Cami-Cat, FamilyJules

Mistyx

I’ve heard The Wolf, but the only Siamés song I’ve liked enough to add to my playlist was Mr. Fear, so I’m interested to see how this stacks up. Initial impression is pretty good instrumentally, but the lyrical delivery doesn’t seem to me to be an improvement over the original. Yeah, after listening to the rest with nothing else to add, I think I like the instrumentation here slightly more than the original, but the vocals slightly less, and considering I wouldn’t put the original on my playlist, that leaves this in an overall similar spot. Edit: Wait that was fucking Megalovania

26

Scorpion Queen
Ace of Hearts ft. Johnny Manchild and the Poor Bastards

Caspore D

Huh, I knew Ace of Hearts existed but I have never once even attempted to listen to any of their music. Kinda jarring to hear Alpharad’s voice in a song. I don’t dislike his voice normally, but it’s definitely not my favorite for music. The other vocalist, presumably Johnny Manchild, definitely sounds a lot better to me personally. The chorus bit is fine, as far as chorus bits go, and the horns are a nice addition, but they don’t really do enough to make me actively like this. The instrumental outro isn’t bad, but the guitar parts do a lot more for me than the synth parts do. On the whole, not bad, but that’s about it.

25

Silk Chiffon
MUNA ft. Phoebe Bridgers

Nerbins

Not really my style, but not offensive. Definitely falls into the “modern pop” zone I don’t like, but is still executed well enough to keep it in mid-C-tier.

24

Hidegen Fújnak A Szelek
The Ex + Tom Cora

Bloobird

This is a super unique sound, but I’m not really getting into it in spite of that. Like, it’s a cool set of sounds to hear, and I’m like “woah that’s interesting” - but I’m noticably not like “woah that’s good.”

23

Renegades
ONE OK ROCK, Ed Sheeran

Coffee Abuser

Hold up, this is the band from that one Sonic Frontiers song from Cat 5. Anyways, J-Rock isn’t really my thing in general, and this is mostly just a fine song rather than anything special to me.

22

What A Catch, Donnie
Fall Out Boy

Caspore C

Still don’t like Fall Out Boy’s style or delivery, but I do like this a little bit more than West Coast Smoker, in spite of it being even more Fall-Out-Boy-ish. The guest appearances are a neat touch, even if I have zero emotional connection to the other Fall Out Boy songs they’re quoting from. All in all, I wouldn’t complain about this, which is above average for Fall Out Boy. Barely edges out Renegades, which is in and of itself pretty Fall-Out-Boy-sounding, mainly by being more authentically Fall Out Boy, funnily enough.

21

Strong Enough
Porridge Radio, Piglet

Dobby

In what’s becoming a theme for this category, this vocal delivery is really not for me. That being said, it does blend in well enough to the rest of the harsh sounds on display here, and so I can’t say I walk away disliking the sum total experience of listening to it in a song. Do I like it? Not really. But I can appreciate how others might.

20

Kira Killer
ZUTOMAYO, Mori Calliope

Caspore M

I haven’t heard this yet, which is mainly because the longer she’s been producing music under the name, the less I’ve liked most of Mori’s stuff and the less effort I’ve made to seek it out. Despite that, her parts in this song are definitely my favorite - the other singer’s voice is annoyingly high-pitched at many times, and it’s kinda piercing to listen to. I much preferred her delivery in Cat 1’s Marine Blue Garden. Give me a version without ZUTOMAYO singing (or at least not singing that high-pitched) and this probably outperforms the entirety of Mori’s discography for the last year and a half.

19

The Jungle Line
Herbie Hancock, Leonard Cohen

Schiavetto A

This is certainly an… interesting song. I’m unsure if I feel comfortable calling it that, because tbh it’s kinda just a story with a piano solo, but if 4’33" counts I don’t see why this wouldn’t. Really, I think I’d probably prefer this if it were just the piano part, quite possibly significantly so. That would have definitely gotten B tier, possibly top 10 in this category in particular, if how much I like the ending after the story has stopped is any indication. Instead it lives here.

18

Bubble Tea
Rush Garcia

clonedcheese

This is more like a cover than a collab, no? I haven’t ever heard the original song, but it feels like it must surely be some kinda electronic piece from this orchestrated version (in particular I’m getting massive snail’s house vibes), and I’m just walking away feeling like surely that must be better? This doesn’t really play to any of the strengths of orchestral music, making it really easy to see how the original could be better even though I’ve never even heard it. I do like the final third or so, where it starts with a loud, brassy part and then falls away into a longer, sweeping part with a heavy focus on the strings, which then falls away to a smooth jazz with focus on bass and piano, which then falls away to a flute melody, but the entire buildup to that is kinda not worth it.

Edit: Yeah, the snail’s house vibes were right. I’ve looked up the original, and I think I’ve heard this before - probably got fed to me on YouTube autoplay at some point. Don’t like the lyrics much, and the rest of the original isn’t my favorite, so maybe this did actually do a decent job, and I think I just might like it more. Still suffers from being an orchestral adaptation of an electronic song, but it did a better job than I initially gave it credit for.

17

Bloody Mary
KANKAN, FAKE TYPE.

Caspore L

Kinda catchy. I’m aware that FAKE TYPE exists, but I’ve never been drawn to anything I’ve heard that they’ve done enough to want to seek them out more. This is similarly not making me want to go out of my way to check out more of their stuff, or more of KANKAN’s stuff, but it’s not bad at all, barring maybe that key change. Compared to Kira Killer in particular, I just find the singer less annoyingly-high-pitched, which helps even though without that knock against it I would definitely prefer Kira Killer.

16

COLOURS
Ichika Nito, THE TOYS

ignoramus

I like the intro here. Singing feels J-pop-y in a way I don’t like, and it’s a bit short outside of that, but the solos are cool enough that I still like it on the whole.

15

Dearest Friend
Matthew K. Heafy, Jonathan Young

bad bunny

This feels like it’s constantly riding on the edge of being something I would really like. It could go in so many different directions to get there, but instead it landed in the exact middle of like five things I probably would have liked more. Doesn’t help that the piano part is a bit unhinged, lol. Still, it’s overall solid enough to net top of C tier, kinda feeling like a more collected version of Hailing Frequencies from Cat 5. I have no idea why Magic: The Gathering has music, but this is honestly not bad.

B Tier

14

ice cold.
half·alive ft. Kimbra

Caspore H

This feels like something I shouldn’t like, but I can’t say I actually dislike it for whatever reason. Doesn’t make it my favorite ever, but it is definitely scoring better than I expect most things that sound similar to this would. The rap parts in particular don’t do much for me, but the more traditional singing and what I’ll call “choral” parts are cool, and the repeating vocal sample bits are quite nice-sounding. I also really like the attention to detail with the background instruments; I don’t think I’ve ever heard a song swap which channel the shaker is playing in halfway through, it’s just super unorthodox but cool that somebody took the time to be like “yo we should change this up” and then they just did it. Neat song, edges into B tier.

13

Mind Eraser, No Chaser
Them Crooked Vultures

Marmot

I did not like this much on my first listen. On my second, I was wondering wtf I missed the first time around, because it’s really not bad at all. Supergroups are a bit borderline for this category, but they do end up meeting the criteria, so. The screech-y guitar sound is not my favorite, but the rest of this is pretty decent, and even though I think it’s low B tier, I do definitely think it’s B tier. Ending is still funny and kinda dumb tho.

12

Stranger In The North
Namewee ft. Wang Leehom

eevee

Honestly, pretty good. Definitely the best rap song I got subbed, and WAY better than the last time I got a Chinese rap song (My New Swag from FoLrus). I don’t like the ending as much after the key change, but before that it’s just a pretty solid collab, with good contrast between the smoother background vocals and the rap.

11

Another Heart Calls
The All-American Rejects ft. The Pierces

Caspore J

I really love the instrumental intro to this song, but most of the singing doesn’t move the needle for me very much. Ultimately, pretty standard-but-good piece that falls just short of top 10.

10

Anhedonia
Chelsea Wolfe, Emma Ruth Rundle

c4e5g3d5

I really like the two voices kinda whispering into each ear, and the reverb on the lyrics really adds a lot of depth to the song, which would otherwise be very simple. Cool sounds abound, even if this isn’t right up my alley it’s still interesting and good.

9

Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
Joni Mitchell

Schiavetto B

Have never heard this cover, and woah it has lyrics! Lots of cool elements, particularly the bass trill, and it’s just good smooth listening all around. I don’t tend to fall in love with these kinds of songs, but I do tend to enjoy them well enough, and that’s true here as well.

8

Mr. Frosty
μ-Ziq & Aphex Twin

Visorslash

I like the sounds here. Cool mix. I do think it could stand to be, like, half the length and not really lose anything of much value, but I still think it’s got enough evolution where I don’t think the runtime hamstrings it or anything.

7

I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)
George Michael, Aretha Franklin

thepigeonnyc’s family

I actually don’t think I’ve heard this one? Solid old pop song, but doesn’t jump out to me as anything exceptional, despite the talent involved. Still, all-around well-executed and entirely devoid of any elements I dislike, so gets a solid high-B-tier rating.

6

Somebody’s Watching Me
Rockwell, Michael Jackson

Caspore I

I always feel like, Gabe Newell’s watching me. Tell me is it just on Steam? This song is a classic, and for good reason, but at least it is a collab and a good song. I actually didn’t know this was Michael Jackson before this was subbed here, but in hindsight that makes perfect sense. Catchy synths across the board, Jackson’s vocals really add to the chorus, and in all it’s just a fun song. It’s hard to judge something like this, because it’s such a recognizable classic, but that’s not without reason, I didn’t know it was a collab, I overlooked this in my massive playlist of everything so it wasn’t really on my radar, and I do still enjoy it enough to put it at the top of B tier. If that makes you upset, you should have subbed something better.

A Tier

5

When the Moon’s Reaching Out Stars
Shoji Meguro, Yumi Kawamura

lendunistus

OKAY ACTUALLY WHO DID THIS. Not gonna lie, you stood a really good chance at podium if you had just subbed the Hideki Naganuma remix of this song. I haven’t heard that very much, and it certainly fits the category better than just subbing this does. I also literally used another P3 soundtrack piece as an example song, so I’m afraid I can’t give this full points in general. Still confused who subbed this, but after playing somewhere over 300 hours of Persona 3, my favorite video game ever, how could I not love this song? It simply must go bottom of A tier. If that makes you upset, you should have subbed something better.

4

Bury The Light
Casey Edwards ft. Victor Borba

Dragonclaude

Who did this. This song is obviously fantastic, but uh, also lol for subbing it? Especially compared to the acapella intro edit version? (Which I’ll probably play at the reveal anyways lol.) Well, so long as I get to nitpick it anyways, this song would have been better at 6 minutes than at 10 to be entirely honest (and don’t tell me about the game edit version, I know it exists and is 6 minutes long but it’s worse). I cannot not put it in A tier, but I also cannot put it in podium, so it goes here. If that makes you upset, you should have subbed something better.

3

If System of a Down Were From India
Nooran Sisters x SOAD

WindwardAway

Lmao. This is way better than it should be, considering it appears to just be two Indian women singing for some local TV program layered over a metal track. The original singing is done very very well, and the metal instrumentation is also not bad on its own, but it’s the way they combine that really makes this cool and unique. Definitely a great example of things from two very different cultues that fuse together well, and honestly I like that interpretation of the category even if this is definitely more of a mashup than a collaboration. If that makes you upset, you should have subbed something better.

2

Electric Masada
John Zorn

shanethedigital

The start to this is very promising. I am a bit cautious at calling it a “collaboration” since Masada is technically a single entity, but since the entire schtick is that the people in it are always rotating in and out, I’ll call it close enough. This is a really cool blend of jazz elements with rock elements, and not in the traditional jazz-rock way - it’s really cool how the jazz remains laid-back while the guitar starts in a similar place and ends in a similar place but in the middle just goes absolutely ham. I don’t much like the sort of “breakdown” part around the three-quarter mark, but it’s not enough of a detriment to pull this down by much when the rest of it is just so cool.

1

Attaboy
Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile

nutella

Finally, some good fucking music. This is such a cool blend of classical and folk-type instrumentals. I’m not as big of a fan of the transition into more of a jig near the middle, but once the other instruments add back in I’m with it again. Imagine this with some pipes or pan flute or maybe some singing, could be really incredible. Even without those elements to push it over the top into S tier, this is still a very solid sub to an overall disappointing category.

#43

no s tier lol

1 Like
#44

You hate music

3 Likes
#45

I hate bad music

#46

hey orangeandblack5 can you add the ability to dislike posts on the forum

3 Likes
#47

image

2 Likes