I don't particularly like the horn that plays through the verses. The guitar solo sounds like it is filling up a section rather than serving a purpose in the song. The sax solo is a bit more enjoyable, but the guitar and sax solos both feel like they go for about twice the length that they should. Outside of those issues I like this well enough. I like the lyrics, and I like the a capella section.

This one has bounced up and down my rankings like crazy, there are things about it I love and things that I dislike. The lyrical theme is really fun, but in practice some of these lines feel so clunky - the wordplay is impressive in writing but sounds forced when set to music. The sax is a really fun addition, I enjoyed hearing it honking away through the verses (although maybe a little high in the mix). The guitar solo feels sloppy and overlong to me and going straight into ANOTHER solo afterwards really tested my patience. The a cappella section is solid, although doesn't feel as well integrated to me as some of the other songs that went for the layered Beach Boys-style breakdown. A mixed bag, in other words, but you never take the easy option and I appreciate that.

Great take on the City Lights crew. Love that bookstore. Last time I was up there I got a couple books there like I always do, even though I was a manager at Green Apple, and we all felt a little competitive with each other in the independent bookstore scene hahaha. The harmonies are nice. I like the horn, it provides a very different texture to the song. The chorus blasts in perfectly, has a great change in feel. Come on, Glen I know you want to melt my face more than this hahahaha. The design of the rhythm part in the solo break is excellent. The horn solo is a good idea but I think it would be more effective if I wasn’t listening to the horn all the way through the song. Nice a cappella break, I’ve already commented on the pronunciation of “jiangshi”—you can’t trust the internet when it’s little white kids pronouncing Chinese! But the harmonies and the lines are very effective here again.

I didn’t get a chance to shadow for this round, but I had this whole idea about writing a kind of love letter to San Francisco via a framing story about my college roommate going LARPing with this Vampire: The Masquerade group. You put a lot of the same kind of lyrical ideas and ultra-specific city-love into this song that I was hoping for, so I was happy to see all those little details and characters popping up here. I was entertained by the Chinatown nod despite the pronunciation issue mo mentioned (as an aside, I highly recommend Mr. Vampire to anyone who likes slapstick Chinese vampire kung fu movies. Who doesn’t?!) I like the rhymes and sounds of your words in general, but some of the actual phrases sounded really awkward to me--loved the cloves/prose/rose stuff, hated the Google goggles and the clunky fanged philosopher lines. The backing vocals in the chorus are cool, love that high harmony part! (It seems a bit flat in a few places, though...) The a cappella part works nicely in context. I agree with Glenn’s notes about the solos, the guitar solo in particular didn’t seem like it had a real purpose, and they felt too long to me. I really didn’t like the sax honking away constantly, I found it intensely distracting and I think it would have been much more effective deployed in only key parts of the song. Maybe if you turned the level down a bit, but I felt like it really drew attention to itself in the mix. I like the melody and chord progression in the chorus, it has a good groove.