I like the airy synths at the beginning and the mellow mood. The kick at :15 is a little too heavy, and kinda hijacks the mix there. I think the vocals could also come through a bit more prominently in the mix. I like the coughing noises you used for a percussive effect, and - much like your audition piece - you’ve done a good job with the distorted vocals at :39. The lyrics themselves are rather good, but are also hard to discern just by listening to the piece. The melodies at 1:00 are really cool, and I like the re-intro at 1:25 too. I like the addition of the hi-hats at 1:46, but I also think you could use some more gradual transitions in this piece at times. I appreciated how you upped the intensity of the drums during the final refrain at 2:22, but that section still felt a little short-lived. The atmospheric outro works well, but it also comes on a little suddenly after the big climax. I think you should work on your transitions and also on balancing the different elements of your texture in the mix, but overall this is a really enjoyable piece with some cool melodies and a fun mood. Keep at it, Drewpy! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
2/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
9/10

This is going on my running playlist

That work is awesome!

omfg i 5 starred this in like the first minute. it's so catchy!

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EDIT

I feel like I should say a few more words here. Having listened to a bunch more NGADM tracks, I'd say that in terms of raw songwriting/composition this might be my favorite of the bunch. This is mostly on the back of the really amazing pre-chorus section ("But all I see are stars..." into the chorus). I really really love particularly how you lead into the second repetition of the pre-chorus "now that I look back down" - it works REALLY well melodically. Also like the motif of clustered notes separated with breaks also works really well.

All these words basically to say that your melody writing is really amazing. I really hate saying stuff like "you're a natural" because I think that getting good at music is mostly just working really hard at it, but you have a really impressive grasp on this stuff - better than almost anyone else in the compo.

Another thing which really gets me and which I really appreciate is how un-ornamented the song is. A lot of people (like me...ahem) will try to dress up fairly uninteresting melodies in really complex sound design or add a bunch of notes or counter melodies or something. This song, though, is really sparse. It's especially surprising for an electronic song, IMO, where usually composers will just go bonkers - adding every random idea they have, or really filling out the mix to disguise the fact that they aren't actually doing anything interesting. This song is the complete opposite. The few details that you *do* add are really well chosen, IMO, like the weird "melody" thing that comes in at :19. Like WTF, where did you even get that idea from? It's such a neat idea, and it fits in really well (especially when you bring it back in the second verse at the 2 minute mark)! Anyways, my point is that you have a really good grasp not only on melody but only having exactly what's necessary to convey the idea of the song.

Of course, you might have noticed that I qualified this as the best in terms of raw composition. I feel like a couple of other aspects are lacking, and might drag down your NGADM score a bit. One issue is production, and the biggest issue by far there is your vocals - they're too quiet! I could barely even make out your pre chorus melody the first time I listened, which would have been a disaster because it's so good! haha.

The other big production issue IMO is that the drop doesn't really hit quite like I'd want it to. I think it might need a bigger build into the drop for it to really be effective? I wish I could give more accurate critique here but I really don't know exactly what the issue is.

All in all, great work. Really hoping you make it to the next round - I can't wait to see what you put out!