March 2010: Rock/Alt Category
Click on the title in the player to listen to this month's song. The evaluation of the song examines its originality, structure, melody and lyrics and will give you insight into how the SongDoor judges listen to your entry.
We can see the band now, with their tricked out emo 'dos and neon Skechers. This is rock/alt for the masses, an homage to Green Day, all full of angsty lyrics and just enough raunch to tick off their parents. So is that bad as it sounds? That all depends on your point of view.
This band is probably known to some of you screamo fans; this song was actually a moderate hit a couple of years ago. Used to be that a song had to be well-written to make the charts (with the exception of novelty songs like Guitarzan and La Macarena), but strung-together sample loops and this-one-goes-all-the-way-to-eleven "compositions" routinely sell records these days. This song falls into the latter category, as you can hear. Interesting use of the screamo as the backing vocal and the lead vocal as the underbed. The attempt to distinguish the guitars punches the song up and it comes across crisp and tight.
Coupla problems: while we're certain the lyrics are deep and meaningful, the listener can't comprehend them. Lyrics still matter, though not as much in this genre. Song is also too long without having enough to say to justify it.
There is an attempt at some differentiation and dynamics in the bridge, but it's contrived and seems plopped there for the sake of being plopped there.
Even though this song got some attention, it wouldn't get far in a SongDoor competition because the writing is so slim. That's why we don't have an emo or a punk or a metal category; writing isn't as important as it is to other genres, so we focus on those. It's just our opinion and point of view, but we'd give it:
Grade: C- | Publishability Score: 8 (out of 10)