:!: :!: :!: :!: :!: Heartfelt and driven. Nice vibes in this town.

this has early-2000s kinda soft-grunge vibes, which is not my favourite genre but you do it well and it does feel uplifting in a different sort of way to the way most people approached the challenge. Very cool that you've got the duetting vocals going on too, although there are a lot of bum notes in the male vocal which is my only real critique of this.

I definitely have time for a bit of emo as long as it stays the right side of the line (i.e. not My Chemical Romance style emo). This is pretty much in the right ball park thanks to some nice twinkly guitars and plaintive vocals. One issue with the genre is I don't feel it squares with the challenge much at all. This is energetic for sure, which gives plus points, but I'm not sure if I'd call it upbeat. Either way, it's well executed and fairly memorable.

This was my favorite at first. It's cute. The female vocalist is amazing. The emotional delivery from both of you get this a lot of points. In the end, however, the music felt a little templatey. Execution: A, concept: A-, hooks: B

I'm really quite surprised no-one else went for an anthemic vibe with this challenge! The female vocals on this are absolutely superb and, while the male vocals are weaker, it's nothing that a few more takes and some comping couldn't solve. There's a real 90s alternative feel to this one, particularly the Incubus-style drumbeat in the verse. This track feels like you're just starting to warm up, so I'm looking forward to what you'll come up with over the coming rounds.

I was intrigued by trying to figure out where this fit genre-wise, seems like a kind of mix of AOR, country, early-2000s indie, emo...? I like the duet structure but the male vocal performance doesn't hold up well to the female vox--feels off key and off time in various places, not as fluid, and the delivery seems too gravelly in parts to fit in well--it was a bit jarring when the male vox first came in. My husband heard this while I was listening through the first few songs and said he could imagine this being a huge commercial hit with a bit of tweaking to the performances. Aside from a few off harmonies, I love the closing chorus where you're singing together, very epic and joyful feel. The lyrics feel a bit generic overall, but all work in service of the song, but the venom and sugar lines are great and interesting turns of phrase. This is one of the songs that stood out to me and stuck with me after listening to everything, nice work.