Tarja - A strong contender right out of the gate, this is like a hearty musical meal. Incredible textures from the piano and strings layer themselves on a firm bed of crunchy drums and guitar and never let up. I think the vocals are actually the weakest element - they aren't bad, not at all, but the lyrics are a bit bland and the singer's high choral voice feels exposed and like it doesn't quiiiite mesh together the way the instrumental parts do. The songwriting seems to be aware of this too, giving more spotlight to the instrumental solo around 3-4 minutes than it does to the vocal sections. The video contains some domestic abuse scenes, quite strikingly produced, which may add to the impact for some, but made it emotionally hard to watch for me. Despite these qualms, though, I came out immediately thinking this would be a hard one to top.
KHS and friends - Well... what can I say about this, it's kind of a gimmick. Well done, though. They clearly rehearsed well, they have nice voices and really great post-production sound stuff. Not to spoil the magic, but I can hear enough going on to be confident that that is certainly not unaltered audio from those mics in that videotaped session that we're hearing. But this isn't a bad thing, it takes a lot of skill to give the impression as well as they do. I think I actually appreciate it more being able to spot the tells. I can't give credit for songwriting or lyrics since they didn't do anything of note to the song itself, just came up with the pattycake routine. When all's said and done though, it's moderately ear-wormy and pleasant to listen to, but not earth shattering.
Lindsey Stirling - It's bold, it's sweeping, clearly some inspiration from the Game of Thrones TV show and Fury Road here? Amazing talent and production, sasuga Stirling-sensei. The drums are super spicy for my ears and almost manage to steal the show from the violin. The writing, on the other hand, is a little bland and falls back on "dramatic build into a sudden silence, then resume a softer solo violin line for a bit before the low end kicks back in." Good on its own, but after hearing many Lindsey Stirling songs, it feels like a trademark that's beginning to be overused. The last minute in particular is a lot weaker than the first three. Still top listening quality though.
Headhunterz & KSHMR - I dig the fusion of the musical styles! Not so much the video, that would've been better without the concert clips, imo, but whatever. The emphasis here is very much on the instrumentation, vocals, and surprise factor. If you strip it back and look at the writing, it's a pretty standard electronic track. There's also a lot of reliance on being Loud to deliver impact - when I turned the volume slider about halfway down, the track suddenly became a lot less impressive. I am still a sucker for the instruments and stylings, but... yeah second listen is confirming this wears out fast.
FEMM - I'm coming into this listening session right from a few hours of the awesome cyberpunk VA-11 Hall-A soundtrack, so my expectations for a track named "Neon Twilight" are high. Unfortunately this track does not meet them. There are no dynamics, in either the volume sense or the writing sense. You can click anywhere on the time bar and the song sounds exactly the same, except for the first 10 seconds and a couple of very brief mini-breaks. The heavy autotune might be a stylistic choice, giving it the benefit of the doubt, but it just doesn't sound good to me. It does carry a vibe serviceably well, and is probably good for prolonged listening *because* of the flat consistency, but not really what I'm looking for as a "Song of the Week" thing.
Plastik Funk - The "this exists" track of the week. "Paint by the numbers song, plus one unique or unusual instrument or sound" is a trend. Good percussion, moderately cute video, s'about all it's got for me. It does make an effort to sell itself on a "giddy first love" theme, I guess that's something, but I'm personally not much for that style of relationship so the theme just misses.
Yeah, pretty good week. I feel like I'm being a bit snobby to some of the tracks, but still didn't dislike any of them, and the top two are indeed very strong. It's Tarja vs Lindsey Stirling for the top spot, two very similar songs in a close race. I think the instrumental sections of Tarja are, dare I say, even better than the Stirling? But then the vocal sections drag it down a little... but then that piano comes back in and makes my heart race. But then the video is ugly and Stirling's is great... I think I'll ultimately go with Tarja here, with the big tiebreaker being the songwriting. Tarja seems to know its own strengths and weaknesses well, whereas Stirling feels like it's just delivering a standard Lindsey Stirling track. I certainly couldn't fault going the other way though. Also it's hard not to type Tharja even though I don't even play Fire Emblem.
Tharja > Lindsey Stirling > Headhunterz > KHS > FEMM > Plastik Funk
