NUR EIN
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North Beach VampiresNur Ein XV
almost 6 years agoeliminated
2:02
North Beach Vampires
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Entry from North Beach Vampires in Nur Ein XV.

Include an a cappella section

LyricsShow lyrics

Liner Notes
Ok, so this is definitely a departure from my normal style. I figured my days are numbered on this, so why not do something new (what have I got to loose). I saw the challenge "include an a cappella section" and decided to make my whole song the section (I only just managed to resist the temptation of visiting my collection of VST plugins or picking up my axe). I've tried to stay as close to the style I picked as I can and actually did some research about it first. I felt I didn't do the synthwave thing quite right and wanted to at least have researched something before attempting said style (not giving it away this time, that way if I get it wrong I can just agree with whatever you say it is ❓ ).

I focused a lot more on the lyrics this time (because I didn't have to worry about arranging synths, guitars and finding some kind of beat). I had a couple of ideas which were either a vampire suicide pack as they walk along the beach, a hate song about how the vampires glisten in the Twilight films (one of the many things I hated about that film) or a social gathering where a vampire group entice, eat there prey and finally get caught. I went for the last option but I also wanted to add something about the madness that happened on the hottest day of the year in Britain where tonnes of people decided it would be a marvellous idea to descend on the beaches, totally ignore social distancing, leave all there trash (along with other things, as the toilets were not open) and then scarper, which I tried to get across in the 2nd verse.

Again big thanks to all the judges, the two points I have tried to tackle are:

Research the style and try and keep as close as possible.

Eq the vocals. I tried to emphasise the individual vocal harmonies and also add a little sheen to the higher frequencies.

north beach party ...

so bring your mother and bring your father
bring your friends and bring your partner
you have to sign a waiver and there's no hidden fees
but please dot your i's and don't cross your t's

in the dead of night
there's a party in this town
if you fancy a bite
in the dead of the night
we'll party on the beach
until the morning light

and you can't stop us we act like leeches
sucking all the life out of all these beaches
and when we've finished we'll leave the remains
for the locals to recover and to take the blame

in the dead of night
the party in this town
got a little out of hand
in the dead of the night
this party on the beach
made dark red sand

they caught us sleeping in the toilets by the peer
that were closed until further notice last year
they pulled us out to watch the sunrise
and for a brief moment it felt kind of nice

in the dead of night
there's party in this town
that went up in flames
in the dead of the night
and the locals didn't bother
to learn our names

we were the north beach vampires
we were the north beach vampires

Reviews

4 posted notes

GlennCase

Forum post

Promising start, but it falls apart quickly. We asked for an "a capella" section and you made it the whole song, which could have worked if the vocals were a little more on pitch. As it sits, this is a bit of a hot mess. Your intended chord structure doesn't come across clearly.

vowlvom

Forum post

It's a really bold take on the challenge and a fun listen, although I feel like if you're going full a cappella then you need more low / high frequencies, it feels like all of your vocal layers are in a similar frequency range which makes the effect a little samey. The pause in "take... the blame" feels awkward to me too. Impressive and ambitious but it doesn't fully pay off for me.

mo

Forum post

Bold choice, Cotton. I am fine with the choice actually in the abstract. The actual execution of the singing and the parts etc. is also fine. I am not into this much of this reverb, which to me made it a bit muddy, and I think the parts need some reworking to add depth to the chord changes. The first time I heard this I got bored because it sounded almost like just one chord for 2 minutes straight. I realized later this wasn’t the case when I got the headphones in, but you needed more strength in the bass voice to sell the changes, which would really have helped I think. There are some really great moments in the song, but the song itself is something that didn’t stand out to me this round. It may very well be that this song will be the kind that sticks around in my head longer, but in two days of listening, it felt more like the last song on an album to wrap it all up with something “off the wall” rather than something that competes with the other headlining songs in this round.

owl

Forum post

This is really bold and brave, and I admire your decision to go all a cappella. The little whoops and howls in the chorus arrangement are incredibly fun. The execution kind of sank this for me--it didn’t feel quite tight enough to carry a 100% vocals-driven song, it seemed to have the same intensity level throughout the whole thing without any big shift between verse and chorus or through the song, and the song itself didn’t feel very compelling as a whole aside from the idea of doing it all a cappella. The pause + “...ires” (ers?) echo at the end didn’t really work for me; it felt very unnatural. The lyrics are really cute--I loved some of the lines like “don’t cross your t’s” and “for a brief moment it felt kind of nice”--clever but subtle comparison to the social distancing issues. Very creative, very ambitious and charming.

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