Dec082009
Best Song Winner Announcement! Finally!
Filed under Music by Kim at 8:11 pm on Dec 08 2009
First of all, THANK YOU everyone who participated in my Best Songs I’ve Never Heard contest. Almost everyone had songs I had never heard, and I have a hard time breaking out of my little box so it’s really good to get some listening time to new things. I was so psyched to line up this playlist and dig into it, even though my enjoyment was a little interrupted by sickness and hospitals. It was fun. OK, thus ends… the niceness.
If I have learned one thing from this little experiment, it’s that “best” is a suitably vague term to let people recommend just about anything. If I have learned a second thing, it is that I have very different tastes from my friends.
Of the 30 songs I gathered for the best song contest, here is the ratings breakdown:
- 5 stars – 0 songs
- 4 stars – 3 songs
- 3 stars – 11 songs
- 2 stars – 12 songs
- 1 star – 4 songs
Yes, I actually kind of detested four of your suggested best songs. Ouch! More telling, probably is that 12 more songs are in the two star category, which I would describe as “tolerable”. So that’s over half the songs right there! Now, if the song you suggested was your super favorite, I want to make clear that this is not an indictment of the actual quality of the song, just a reflection of how much I personally liked it. Which was not very much, but that’s OK – I bet if you heard my suggestion you’d shrug your shoulders and say “what’s the big deal?”
So! Without further ado, the winners, who will recieve a $10 gift certificate to the Amazon mp3 store:
- TAO with “Insatiable (Two)” by …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead: It helps that I already liked this band a little (though per the rules, had not heard this song). They are a band that have covered two of my favorite bands in the past, and I like the way they use percussion. It’s like my internet friend TAO knows me or something.
- Christie with “Darlin’ Do Not Fear” by Brett Dennen: I never would have guessed, actually, that this would be in my favorites. I tend to give mellow singer-songwriter types of the Mraz-Mayer stripe the stinkear. But the words to this song got me and it’s pretty and I give up.
- Deb F. with “I Lagornas Sken” by Nordman: Uh, hello. It’s from Sweden! But no, really, I just – it’s the folk music influence and the epic sound. I definitely like the metal bands that use this folk influence, so this was a good choice.
But that’s not all! I would like to offer an honorary prize to the person who offered the song I thought was the worst song I had never heard, and hopefully they are willing to be a good sport about this, but will also get a $10 gift certificate!
- Pam! You are the unwinner with Lone Justice’s “Sweet Sweet Baby (I’m Falling)”! Maria McKee’s voice may be nice in other contexts, but this song was perfectly concocted to make me shiver with bland chills of pop music discomfort. I think, to be fair, that there are songs out there that are just as cheesy that I like, but it’s through the lens of nostalgia.
Winners: Please send me the email address where you would like to receive your gift certificate and I will get that to you post-haste! You can leave it in the comment form or you can email/FB message me.
1 Fred Hickson 08 Dec 2009 at 8:15 pm
Go Christie!
I think your song selection got a little skewed, too, by your request that folks offer up the best song you *haven’t* heard. I know that sent me thinking about my more obscure favorites rather than any favorites which might overlap with your extensive library.
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Kim Reply:
December 8th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Well, I wasn’t trying to be super scientific about it. I wanted to hear something well outside my comfort zone… and I sure did! If I do it again I’ll do it differently. If everyone’s not mad at me for trashing their songs.
Incidentally, Psapp got a perfectly ordinary 3 stars.
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2 Meganon 08 Dec 2009 at 8:21 pm
You give us the rating system but not the songs themselves. No fair. I want to know how much you detested the song I suggested . . . . whatever it was . . . I can’t actually remember. I think I picked more on the “what are the chances Kim has ever heard this” category than on the “my favorite songs” category. Anyway, I want the songs that go with the stars.
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Kim Reply:
December 8th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Looking back, I only got the Solas song. I rated it two stars but honestly on a second listen I think it’s a three star song, maybe I was just in a bad mood. I really like this kind of music, generally, and have a moderate collection of celtic and celtic inspired songs. So I think you got short-changed!
I thought about listing them all out but it’s so many! I figured people would ask if they really wanted to know how their songs rated.
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PMMJ Reply:
December 9th, 2009 at 9:17 am
I totally want to know how my song rated.
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Kim Reply:
December 9th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
That would be a 2.
3 TAOon 08 Dec 2009 at 8:45 pm
Wow. That’s cool you like it. The whole album is great and I got into the “play the album over and over till I can’t stand it” place with it.
I hope one of my backup songs was on the “horrid” list. I find it cool to like things that people react strongly one way or another about. 😀
I had fun thinking of this for your post and must admit I did try to envision what you might like from the very, very little I know about you. Still, someday I think it would be fun to go to a concert with guys even if the band turns out to be on my “detest” list. LOL!
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Kim Reply:
December 9th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Floorian was a 2, and Brian Jonestown Massacre was a 3. So not quite horrid but I wasn’t a huge fan either.
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4 Cecilyon 08 Dec 2009 at 8:50 pm
I haven’t been on LJ or reading blogs for so long I didn’t even know you were doing this. Which is a shame cause I probably could have had a contender! *lol*
I added your feed now though, so maybe I will be able to keep up better.
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Kim Reply:
December 9th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Yay feed adding! Thank you!
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5 Pamon 08 Dec 2009 at 9:00 pm
FYI: I’m not a fan of Lone Justice really but I knew it was one you hadn’t heard before as you didn’t recognize her name when we were talking about female singers. So I thought I would give it a try as it would definitely be new to you! I agree it’s really ’80’s poppy. I’ve long ago stopped trying to predict what you may like as past experience has taught me I have about a 70% chance of being wrong. Ok, maybe 60%.
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Kim Reply:
December 9th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
OK, if you’re not a fan then I feel a little better about ragging on your choice! I’m sorry to call you out like that!
Come to think of it I think I would be kind of bad at predicting your musical tastes as well! That’s just not right. I will have to have you fill out a survey.
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6 Ian M. Irelandon 09 Dec 2009 at 12:24 am
I don’t know, looks like you’ve got a fairly normal distribution there, from 0 – 5, centered at about 2.5. My question, with these kinds of rating has always been … is 5 ten times as awesome as 4? Two times? Or only one sixth more awesome?
My offering appeared on the random again today, and I’m still as happy with it as I was when I submitted it, so I’m not worried about you slagging it. 😉
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Kim Reply:
December 9th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Keeping Warm rated a solid 3! I think if I recall it was on the “high side” of 3 in my mind.
I do my ratings where there is one level of not-like, and then four levels of like. I think if I had to state it mathematically 5 would be in the top 20th percent.
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7 angela-la-laon 09 Dec 2009 at 4:36 pm
I don’t even remember what song I recommended to you, but I am curious about how you rated it.
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Kim Reply:
December 9th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Miike Snow, Animal. I put it at a 2, but I think it was only because I felt it was a little repetitive – I liked the sound OK but I felt it went on too long.
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8 Christieon 09 Dec 2009 at 8:22 pm
Wow! I did not expect that. While I generally hate John Mayer, I have liked the Jason mraz I’ve heard and mellow jack johnson stuff is right up my alley, but I was pretty sure that wasn’t your thing. But the chorus was so compelling.
The really funny thing is, I have no idea how I came to own the song. I don’t own anything else from him, it’s not part of a soundtrack, and I dint remember buying it. But I realy like it. It was one of the few songs that stands out in my memory from my birth mix cause I really needed to hear and believe those lyrics.
All of that is a long way of saying Yay! I’m really glad you liked it!
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9 Ben Sternon 12 Dec 2009 at 4:44 pm
So, how did my suggestion do?
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Kim Reply:
December 13th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
A solid 3 stars! I liked it, probably would have liked it even more had I heard it at the time!
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Ben Stern Reply:
December 16th, 2009 at 10:25 am
Woo! Well, happy listening.
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10 Amir Thompsonon 05 Jun 2010 at 10:20 pm
Fantastic song. I love it!
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