Father John Misty - “Bored in the USA”

Pitchfork top tracks for 2014
Next up Father John Misty - “Bored in the USA”. Number 84

It’s an understated singer songwriter type song. The guy has a good voice and it’s a pretty good tune. But it fails lyrically. It’s supposed to be simultaneously sad and satirical, but it’s just too unsubtle to really pull off either well. It hits its points hard and flat and in the clearest and most obvious ways it can. I’m sure he would say, “It lacks subtly ironically.”

Vince Staples - “Blue Suede”

Pitchfork top tracks for 2014
Next up Vince Staples - “Blue Suede”. Number 86

The music behind the lyrics is somewhat dubstepy with a bunch of very base sounds. Its mixed with some higher pitched stretched out siren sounds. It achieves the effect of being atmospheric and unnerving while still being rhythmic. Its not my thing, but its well done.

The lyrics are mostly boring and repetitive without being catchy. At times it moves away from the repetitive “hook” to spend some time being violent and misogynistic. Thumbs down.

iLoveMakonnen - I Don't Sell Molly No More

Pitchfork top tracks for 2014
Next up iLoveMakonnen “I Don't Sell Molly No More”. Number 92

This is surprisingly bland. It doesn’t do anything interesting musically or lyrically. I’m kind of perplexed as to how this made it to a top 100 list. There are many songs that I hear, and I don’t like, but I still know why someone would like them, that there are things the song objectively does well even if they are not the things that appeal to me. Here, I just can’t find anything the song does particularly well. It’s not musically interesting. The lyrics are dull and repetitive. The guy doesn’t seem to have great delivery or great “flow”. The song isn’t built on great beats. Maybe he knows somebody…

DJ Quik - Pet Semetary

Pitchfork top tracks for 2014
Next up DJ Quik "Pet Semetary". Number 96

Its lyrics are needlessly violent, homophobic, somewhat misogynistic, and serve to memetically entrench and perpetuate all manner of social ills. That said, for a song with those characteristics, I think this is better than average. The musical part of the song is quite good and has a smooth slow retro feel while still being kinda catchy. The lyrics are, at times, clever.

Taylor Swift “Out of the Woods”

Pitchfork top tracks for 2014
Next up Taylor Swift “Out of the Woods”. Number 94
Pure crap. I'm not even going to bother linking to it.

Copeland - “Advice to Young Girls” [ft. Actress]

Pitchfork top tracks for 2014
Next up Copeland - “Advice to Young Girls” [ft. Actress]. Number 97

The beats are repetitive and at times boring. Its “put on make up and dress up” message is a negative social message of conformity and mass market hetero-normative socially constructed consumerist femininity. On the bright side it does have some interesting noises used throughout the mid portion and its an acoustically interesting track in its mid to late parts.

Terry Francis - Fabric 02

Terry Francis - Fabric 02 This one is a miss. It’s not interesting enough to be listening music. It’s also not fast or energetic enough to be good running music or gaming music. So all in all it’s in an anti-sweet spot.

Watamu Beach by Sebbo (Moritz von Oswald remix)

My first randomly selected song for review is Watamu Beach by Sebbo (Moritz von Oswald remix), number 94 on RA's top 100 tracks. Its also my first negative review. So I'm a fair guy, I really try to take songs in the most charitable interpretation possible. So I'll say that I probably just don't get the song. It may well be good and I'm at fault for not "getting it," but man this is one of the least engaging songs I've ever encountered. I couldn't even give you holistic impression of the entire thing. It's over 10 minutes and really despite multiple tries (all in good faith) I was not able to pay attention for the entire 10 minutes until I played it very loud. There's just not enough happening. I appreciate minimalism, and I appreciate restraint, I really do, I'm fan of being understated but its not working for me here.

My rating system (as applied to techno)

I don't presently give out numbered ratings because the goal of this series is to be exploratory rather than judgmental.  A large part of what I'm doing is exploring genres I don't know anything about, or at least don't know much about. So an attempt at fine grained ratings would be inappropriate. 

For people who are looking for some kind of evaluation, I'll point out that every post has tags / labels.  For content I endorse, which is pretty much everything so far, the label section contains a '+ ' tag.  For content that I'm actively not recommending (one coming up very soon) the labels will include a '-' tag.  It's possible that later on when I'm talking about stuff where I'm more knowledgeable or have a firm view on, I'll make it more precise ratings. For now, discussion will mostly be qualitative.