I do like this. A lot. It's catchy, it's light-hearted, it's well-balanced without unnecessary complictaed things, it's a good pop song, and it's more than worth 5 stars!
Reviews for "Kids"
McGorilla42 responds:
Thanks for the kind words, RemileOduen. I'm glad you enjoyed it :) Also, thanks for listening to my stuff consistently and leaving comments!
This is legitimately one of my favorite NGADM tracks EVER. LIKE, EVER.
It's got the perfect instrumentation for its mood, a tried-but-true pop structure, a CATCHY AS HELL main melody, an awesome singer who uses super awesome vocal effects, crystal clear mixing... BUT MORE THAN THAT, without going into in-depth analysis, it's just A GOOd SONG!
I guess if you wanted to nitpick... the ending is a little weak in that pop songs don't usually leave the listening wanting. Also some transitions could use a little more lead-up, like 1:06. And the reverse piano kind of comes in out of nowhere (but I have a feeling I'll get used to it soon because of how obsessively I'm going to be listening to this track.)
Okay but let's go deep into why imo this is so good. The vocals aren't super processed; they're fresh and indie. And I know you said you wanted to re-record the vocals, but they have that "amateur quality" (which should nOT be mistaken for "bad quality"), which, when combined with the instrumentation, the choice of genre, and the description itself, CATEGORIZES YOU AS AN UNDERDOG. And when your composition is as strong and catchy as it is here, you've got people WANTING to root for you.
The mild kerfuffle regarding the somewhat elitist seeding of this year's NGADM has led to a lot of discussion about bracketed unfairness—but people like you, who started off closer to the bottom of the list but are still producing AWESOME TRACKS, create hope that the bottom half of the bracket can still prevail, and that this year WON'T be lower quality than other years. YOU EMBODY HOPE!
Anyways, sorry for the rambling haha. I haven't been this excited about a track in a while, and I hope that you make it a deservedly long way in this year's NGADM!!!!
*hums* I don't wanna be like any of those other kids....
McGorilla42 responds:
Wow.
I'm stunned by what I read from both you and johnfn. I'm really humbled by your words and it put a big smile on my face reading what you wrote. The fact that you took the time to write that lengthy response means a great deal to me and I appreciate all of the feedback and will take it into account during the creation of my next piece. I'm also happy that you liked my singing! I was INCREDIBLY shy of my voice for a number of years and didn't let anyone hear me sing until about two years ago, so although I've overcome that to a large extent, it still gives me a bit of extra confidence to sing more!
I'm not sure if you'd be interested, but I wanted to write a bit about this song in my Author's Comments, but I generally prefer not to say too much about my music in case it undermines someone's interpretation or perception of the song. I remember thinking while working on this that I would never upload it if it weren't for NGADM. I was feeling pretty bad during the last two weeks and honestly thought that I wouldn't finish this and would just give my competitor a bye...In fact, up until Saturday, this song just wasn't coming together at all and I only had a few hours to finish it up and fix it and I didn't think I'd make it. I feel like there are other things I'd like to write about this piece, but I don't know if it's totally appropriate for a public setting, haha. If for some reason you're interested, I can PM you :) Now I feel like I am rambling (you weren't by the way - I loved every second of your response).
Thank you so much for this. I'll always remain humble and self-critical and work to improve, but reading this sort of this helps with keeping going when I'm not feeling A-okay. Honestly, I was walking up the stairs before coming to read this, and that pang of self-doubt and defeat began to settle in again and I felt unmotivated to work on any more music for a while, but your comment lifted me up and I'm so excited to get to work tomorrow morning! :) It's 11:53pm...Sorry if this came across a little erratically. Good luck to you in NGADM! Thank you! :)
this is absolutely incredible. amazing melody, amazing production, amazing everything.
i was listening to the tracks from the top scoring auditions, but then my friend sent me this one and it is honestly better than almost all of them.
you killed it.
McGorilla42 responds:
I'm...I'm almost speechless. Those words coming from you, johnfn, mean so much to me and it's lit a fire under my butt to get cracking on a new song, whether I make it through to the next round or not. I'm so happy to have seen this. Thanks so much and I'll try to make the next one even better!
I really like the lighthearted tone of this song. Nice voice!
Good luck!
McGorilla42 responds:
:) Thanks, Pomic! All the best to you in Round 1!