The Playlist Game - WHAT'S MY THEME? - Results (pg7)

I’m unfortunately not going to be voting this time. I’ve been at a funeral today and I’ve not had (and won’t have) an opportunity to listen to anything beyond the first 6. Really sorry.

I don't think I was in the right headspace for this weeks game.

Positives - I absolutely loved my top 5 picks. I thought that even the playlists that didn't do a lot for me personally were well put together. I went with:

1st - A MODERN ELECTRONIC NIGHT RIDER
2nd - NEON POP FAVOURITES
3rd - FEEL GREAT WITH YOUR WONDER
4th - YEEHAW VIBES
5th - SHIMMERING BLUES GUITAR

Negatives - I've flipped backwards and forwards from loving my playlist to hating it (well not hating it but I have reasons for regretting submitting it). At one point I was considering asking for it to be removed from the competition.

Outrunner wrote:At one point I was considering asking for it to be removed from the competition.

Aw, don't take things this seriously dude. I know it's frustrating when you spend time making something and it doesn't quite turn out how you wanted, or you get some negative feedback. Have a read of Dan's post above, I think it's a really good way of looking at the competition.

I certainly don't think yours was bad at all this week, it didn't make my top 5 but I still enjoyed listening to it. At least yours wasn't referred to as yak vomit.

more heat than light wrote:

Outrunner wrote:At one point I was considering asking for it to be removed from the competition.

Aw, don't take things this seriously dude. I know it's frustrating when you spend time making something and it doesn't quite turn out how you wanted, or you get some negative feedback. Have a read of Dan's post above, I think it's a really good way of looking at the competition.

I certainly don't think yours was bad at all this week, it didn't make my top 5 but I still enjoyed listening to it. At least yours wasn't referred to as yak vomit.

Essay season plays havoc with my moods and as someone who has issues with regulating their emotions it's been a week of ups and downs in general. Earlier this week I was thinking of leaving university all together, now I'm back to riding the high ofbeing super excited for finishing the year and then going to HK to study. I'm fully expecting my thoughts on my playlist to do another flip. Gonna ride this emotional rollercoaster until my last essay is submitted in 10 days Plus not having my list called yak vomit is definitely a plus

But genuinely, I have been enjoying the game so thank you for running it!

I stand by my yak vomit comment .

There may of course have been a slight element of hyperbole involved.

My thoughts this week.

1. Aw, Dan. Always getting screwed by the votes. I actually really enjoyed this one, I think the quality is a bit variable over the listen, and I'm not sure the Zelda stuff adds anything, but it was pretty decent overall. Really liked Sounds Of Swami, Pester Power and Lilith Ai.

2. This was great, but the Celeste tune really did test my patience a little. I feel like the repetition was a neat idea, if the track had been 10-20 seconds. At a minute I was longing to get back to the real music. The rest of the playlist was great though, chilled and cool throughout.

3. I enjoyed this a good deal more than I was expecting to. Early Soundgarden isn't for me, but I thought the Deftones track and the Rage were both great. Tool overstayed its welcome by a good four minutes.

4. This is mine. I wanted to capture a 'hazy summer' kind of vibe. The GZM and Katy Kirby tracks came quickly, and I remember someone picking Tennis for the old album club. Kate Davis was found by randomly searching similar songs and listening to ones with garden related titles haha. The Flock Of Dimes song seems to have been a stickler for some, it absolutely doesn't really fit but I do love that album, so meh.

5. Liked this one. Remixes in general can be a bit hit or miss, so I was pleased to find I enjoyed this for the most part. The opener is a bit drawn out, but it builds nicely and I enjoy the melody of the original track. I think the Feeling Good one is a bit OTT, but the last track is great.

6. I almost went for YEEHAW VIBES, was going to go for some nice alt-country numbers. I like this one, the Morricone is always good and the other two tracks are bangers. Can't fault it really.

7. This is just insanely good from start to finish. It's just effortlessly cool, constant musical vibe throughout, and the climax is mind-blowing. Ace.

8. Yeah, Oasis is definitely a misstep. The others here are pretty cool, and fit the playlist title nicely. Haven't heard that Terrorvision track in ages, it's better than I remember it being.

9. Another great list of tracks. I feel like the theme is nailed on for the first three tracks and then goes off the rails a bit, but I like everything here apart from the AJJ song which was a bit odd. I especially enjoyed the opener and closer here, really good and interesting picks.

10. This went down really well but it was a little bit too on the nose for me. I chuckled listening to it but I didn't feel like it stood up musically compared to the other stuff. Closer really is a stonewall masterpiece though.

11. Clever interpretation of the theme, but as I said in the thread I would have preferred some deeper Stevie Wonder cuts. Still a nice listen.

12. dmin comes good again. Simon and Garfunkel! Nick Drake! Townes Van Zandt! An effortlessly class selection of acoustic greats, really very good indeed.

13. Not really my musical bag here unfortunately. I liked the KALEO song here a fair bit, but the rest left me a bit cold, and yes I realise that includes Hendrix. Sorry, it's just not for me.

14. Four decent tracks here but not a consistent enough listen to trouble the points for me. Taylor Swift song was very good though, and I don't hate the November Rain version like everyone else seemed to.

15. Again, five blinding good tracks but a little bit too 'big hits' for me. Jenuall should be put down for not liking Raspberry Beret.

16. This suffered big time in the order here I think, sandwiched between two massive lists right at the end. I think the songs here are fine, and it was an enjoyable listen, but I don't think any of them were memorable enough to score highly.

17. Really great synthwave playlist. I think it's pretty easy to make this kind of music sound good together, but it still ticks all the boxes. Difficult to fault.

Another great week of competition comes to an end, and Cora's groovy synth soundtrack takes the top spot! I really enjoyed this week's selections personally, thought there were some terrific lists that didn't score particularly well here, don't be downhearted if yours didn't place like you hoped. Final week's theme will be posted shortly.

1st. A MODERN ELECTRONIC NIGHT RIDER by RetroCora

5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 3 + 2 = 32

2nd. SHIMMERING BLUES GUITAR by Lotus

5 + 5 + 4 + 4 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 29

=3rd. BADASS DISCO by Liam

5 + 5 + 5 + 3 + 3 + 1 + 1 = 23

=3rd. NEON POP FAVOURITES by Rex Kramer

5 + 5 + 4 + 4 + 3 + 1 + 1 = 23

=5th. BREAK SCREAMS by Ironhide

5 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 1 = 18

=5th. THOUGHTFUL BABY MAKERS by Knoyleo

4 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 18

7th. YEEHAW VIBES by Fortune-West with the header!

4 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 15

8th. I'M JUST A LONELY BARD ON THIS GUNFIRE by SpaceJebus

5 + 5 + 3 + 1 = 14

9th. FEEL GREAT WITH YOUR WONDER by mcjihge2

3 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 12

10th. THIS IS GARDEN by more heat than light

4 + 3 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 11

=11th. SEXY WAVES by Dowbocop

4 + 4 + 1 = 9

=11th. YOUR ACOUSTIC by dmin

4 + 4 + 1 = 9

=13th. HELL IS FULL OF MUSICAL AMATEURS PEOPLE by Herdanos

5 + 2 = 7

=13th. STRAIGHT AHEAD BOOM by Jenuall

5 + 2 = 7

=13th. NO-ONE REMEMBERS OCTOBER by Outrunner

3 + 2 + 2 = 7

16th. THINK OF DUETS by Tomous

2 = 2

17th. THE REAL REMIX by jiggles

3 + 1 - 5 = -1

Oh wow cool! Thanks guys!

Aye.

I chucked the xx and Daft Punk remixes down first as foundations, expecting to drop one as I leant towards either a more ambient chill vibe or an EDM-bangers vibe when I found more remixes in my library to add to it. Because there’s no possible way you could have a coherent playlist with both.

Then I remembered “wait, there’s that Nina Simone one that turns into a dubstep track halfway through”, and thought the Jekyll/Hyde nature of a list that starts off nice and mellow before suddenly turning into a monster mid track was just ridiculous.

The playlist is gooseberry fool, though, a deserved last place. It just tickled me too much to not submit. (And still does)

Glad that people liked my list

Surprised to be so high up on the scoreboard, but for once I think my tastes aligned with other people

Joint 5th, really pleased with that as I was expecting everyone to hate it.

Have to admit, I went for the easy option with my acoustic pick. However, I did try to choose some different styles and non-obvious tracks to mix things up. Only a mid-ish table placing this time round, but hopefully the odd tune struck a chord!

My votes:

1. Playlist 9 - I'm Just A Lonely Bard On This Gunfire
Really well thought out and a good match to its theme. I loved everything on here, so it was definitely going to be my #1! Interested to hear how you found the L'elan Vital track SpaceJebus; I really enjoyed it.

2. Playlist 2 - Sexy Waves
Loved all but the last track (a bit forgettable) and the laid back sci-fi vibe, but the musical interludes ruined it a little; had to skip past them each time. Now, if only they had been a short sound of a crashing wave instead...

3. Playlist 7 - Badass Disco
I didn't really get the disco theme tbh, but again, it was a well thought out list. Started well with the Metallica-y opener and the Zimmer track put me in the mood for watching Dune! The Ghost track reminded me of Castlevania for some reason!

4. Playlist 13 - Shimmering Blues Guitar
Hendrix, Kaleo and Alabama Shake all good, but Mayer's noodling didn't do anything for me.

5. Playlist 10 - Thoughtful Baby Makers
Again, fits the theme well. The highlight of this list was the Slayer track; so good and gave me the chuckles!

Highlights outside of my top 5: Sounds of Swami, Kate Davis, Daft Punk, Morricone, M83 and Gunship. All those John Carpenter tunes were great! The obvious lowlight was that horrible GnR November Rain rendition!

Thoughtful baby makers missed out on points for me because it didn't feature the most thoughtful of tracks, and The Playlist Game's breakout hit, Have a Sad Cum BB

My thinking behind my selections for the FEEL GREAT WITH YOUR WONDER were; Yes i got late to the list and most options had already gone. I spotted "wonder" and thought yeah i can put in a Stevie Wonder song. My initial intention was to build a 70 funk themed list, but the repeated lyric "You can feel it all over" repeated lyric got me thinking to try for a literal connection to the theme title. Hence the signed sealed delivered im yours. I struggled with Great - hence the sister sledge (MHTL got that right) which was era suitable and kind of fit. Overall it was a bit disjointed with Sistersledge in there, i probably should have gone with my first idea.

dmin wrote:
2. Playlist 2 - Sexy Waves
Loved all but the last track (a bit forgettable) and the laid back sci-fi vibe, but the musical interludes ruined it a little; had to skip past them each time. Now, if only they had been a short sound of a crashing wave instead...

I wanted a short wave, but if you just type wave into Spotify you get a load of eight hour white noise jobbies - I couldn't find a shorter sound effect one (not saying one isn't on there, I just couldn't find it!) so had to go with a wave based interlude song.

I'm glad people got the idea I was going for with the repetition creating both a sense of familiarity and also difference (it's like poetry, it rhymes). I also tried to include the four fundamental waves of the universe - mathematical, electromagnetic, watery, and synth.

I changed my mind on the direction for the I'M JUST A LONELY BARD ON THIS GUNFIRE playlist many times while putting it together, but I'm happy with where it ended up. At first I was thinking along the lines of 'The Artful Escape Game' and was going to open with 'The Vagabond' by Air but as I started building it I realised that it had nothing to do with the gunfire part of the title. So then I started again looking for tracks that mentioned guns and other related words in their titles but that also seemed to go to far in the other direction, but a couple of them really worked as someone telling stories involving guns. So I started putting songs together in that vein, someone mentioned that 'Folsom Prison Blues' would fit into some of the playlists and that was in consideration but it had already been used before. The Beatles were in and out with 'Rocky Racoon' and 'Happiness is a Warm Gun'. I was looking at the ordering and some of the tracks really stood out in an escalation of violence or a changing view on guns and I really liked it as a hook. For the escalation at the end I looked for post-rock songs about war and found a Reddit thread on the topic and that is where I found out about the L'elan Vital album.

So the playlist starts with the Lonely Bard being pretty blasé about gun use ('I see the smoke from a revolver/Will I get hit?/I hardly care') and this then changes through the playlist with each song saying more about the role of gun use and violence throughout society. This leads to the warnings in 'Our History Will Be What We Make It' and ultimately ends with the bard singing about the justification of going to war that might end in nuclear combat. There is some hope of redemption though in the last song name-checking Stanislav Petrov, who played an instrumental in seeing that the Russian nuclear false alarm didn't end up with missiles being launched.

So yeah, I really overthought this list I also wanted to put this up before the new playlists went up but I didn't have much time over the weekend so missed doing that.

I really enjoyed that playlist Jebus, I thought the theme was really strong through the first half but I lost it a bit after then, so I enjoyed reading your explanation. Some really cool and interesting stuff in there which I'd never have discovered without this game, so thanks for that!