My two favorites / fit the category were two songs I knew. Good 4 U and Pumped Up Kicks. Pumped Up Kicks is getting my vote. The main reason is it best fits the theme. I mean, most people have no idea it’s about school shooting, they just think it’s a catchy jam.
On a second listen through there was a clear winner (spoilers, vote first)
The punk rock-style song about the Holocaust, still digging it today, but I liked my John Wayne Gacy one. It wasn’t fully divergent between music and lyrics, but I could have seen it as a romantic song with the right lyrics and was… not
Alive with the glory of love was my submission. Its essentially his grandparents love story from the Holocaust. I always like those points of views where its like life is going on even during these times of atrocity.
Okay ill be busy tomorrow so to make sure I won’t miss it, here’s round 3.
Round 3: Submit a song without a 4/4 time signature
This means any time signature that is not 4/4. I’ll also accept songs in 4/4 that add beats in different spots when it’ll make you screw up if you try to count along in 4/4.
Have no training in musical theory but want to guess at signatures. Don’t read until voting.
Bloodmeat: 7/4 mostly? Starting with 8/4. (Listening to it some more I think they transition between 8/4 and 7/4 more frequently than I realized.)
Death Valley Queen: 6/4
Heaven: 3/4
Nothing Else Matters: 6/4
Solsbury Hill: Dafuq? Like 7/something?
Take Five: Must be 5/something because the title primed me for it. My brain wants it to be 6/something and then gets slapped down every time.
The Becoming: 14/something?
The Eleven: I assume 11/something, my brain’s broken and I need to do work
My thoughts on all the songs - spoiled in case you haven’t voted yet.
Bloodmeat - new to me, liked the song Death Valley Queen - not new to me, like it quite a bit, Drunken Lullabies is in the top 10 of albums I have listened straight through the most. Heaven - I submitted, and I do like this one Nothing Else Matters - new to me, obviously heard of Metallica but haven’t listened to much of their songs and never heard this song before. Really enjoyed it. It got my vote. Solsbury Hill - not new to me. The best use of this song is in this video - The Shining Recut - YouTube Take Five - New to me, did not enjoy it. The Becoming - Not new to me, though it has been a long time since I listened to this song. Not a huge fan, though I liked a fair number of other NIN songs. The Eleven - Another “I’ve heard of this band but not this song”. I did not enjoy this song, and yes I listed to the entire 11 minutes.
Guess I’ll also give my review (after you’ve voted):
Bloodmeat: My submission. Think it’s good for its genre and pretty enjoyable although not what I usually listen to.
Death Valley Queen: Have been to Flogging Molly concerts, enough said. More of a younger-me, but I like the nostalgia still.
Heaven: New, pretty good. Not a new favorite.
Nothing Else Matters: New, considering this for my vote still. Not my favorite but enjoyable.
Solsbury Hill: New, not horrible, yet not a fan.
Take Five: New, I like deep cuts. This has my vote today. Might swap it to Metallica.
The Becoming: New song to me. Not a fan despite technical skill.
The Eleven: New, definitely fits the theme, I just don’t like it.
I think I’ve narrowed it down to 3 songs. I only knew two other songs that were submitted, but they both made my final 3 list. Kind of a meh week overall.
Bloodsport - Interesting but just nto a genre that I care for that much.
Flogging Molly - I like this song. I could see me exploring this band much further - strong contender
Nas - A genre I typically do not like. But the chorus has me hooked and and I find myself humming along to the rest of it. Another strong contender.
Metallica - I’m familiar with some Metallica but not this song, which seems very different from much of their catalog that I am familar with. I like this song quite a bit, another strong contender.
Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill is my favortie Gabriel song and I almost submitted it myself. If t here weren’t newer to me songs that I like I might vote for this one.
Dave Brubeck - This a song my wife’s boss put on our iPod years ago so it comes up from time to time. It’s a decent enough song, just not a genre I like very much.
NIN - Was kind of expecting March of the Pigs to be the NIN submission if they showed up. The Becoming just isn’t one of my more liked NIN songs.
Grateful Dead - Yeah blame me for The Eleven, which was named for it’s 11/8 time signature. I just love this late 60s jam song from the Dead which completely went out of their set rotation after 1970 until they played it at one of their final 2 shows ever performing under the Grateful Dead name. But even among Dead Heads you’ll probably find folks who love or hate this song. My wife who I originally met at a GD concert is not a fan.
2 songs I considered submitting that I’m a bit surprised weren’t submitted at all were Golden Brown by The Stranglers and Schism by Tool.
I don’t know how to blur but I can hide, so I’ll do that here.
I submitted Flogging Molly and they are one of my favorite bands of all time. The song I submitted is definitely not one of my favorites by any means, but I was struggling with the time signature category. They are absolutely worth looking into more. Their early 2000’s albums Swagger, Drunken Lullabies, and Within a Mile of Home are awesome.