Favorite songs?

Okay, I've come back to this dead place after I don't know how many months of not touching it because I saw something here that I just can't let escape my sight.

Your list has got some pretty cool songs in it. Supernova is absolutely fantastic, and dimension is also great. But the one thing that I see first is First of the Year (Equinox) by Skrillex is number 1 on this list right here.

First of the Year is the second Skrillex song I've ever listened to. I will completely agree here that the buildup to the drop is absolutely incredible. I think this is one of the songs in which the vocal chops (it's called vox, by the way) actually worked really well, and I think a really underrated aspect to this are the background strings that are playing and supporting the melody gently but gently creating and aura around it. The piano is also very strong in this aspect.

Directly after this we come into the an interlude where the melody is varied from the beginning, which is something we don't see very much in EDM songs nowadays. Here, growls complement the vox. I think this is one of the coolest and best executed usages of these growls in any EDM/dubstep song I've heard, because it really complements this whole idea of an eerie, powerful force under this aura of peace and calmness.

And just as we prepare for an epic drop to continue to develop the melody after this interlude, we are suddenly hit with "CALL 911 NOW!", which first of all is completely out of nowhere, and (while relevant to the music video) seemingly completely random, completely breaking the rhythm of the previous parts. But this is fine, as it appears (from the video) to be used for artistic effect to show a sudden break in flow/expectation in the song's development. Up next we expect a drop that will develop a different melodic sentence to continue the story. Perhaps a phrase to break the major-minor progressions from the starting sections?

But we're wrong.

Instead, what we're hit with is a series of detuned growls all playing the same note over and over again, at a different octave. But that's fine, because it's a bass, and should not be the focus. Instead, in the drop, I'm looking for a melodic variation to develop the ideas from the front. But we're greeted not just by the growls, though. That would have been okay. We also have a bitcrushed lead here, with an LFO that makes the note value increase every time the envelope is retriggered. That sounds like a cool concept. But guess what? This lead ALSO plays the exact same note over and over again. What does this mean? We're literally hearing what you would hear if you gave a 3 year old child a single piano key to play with. That's right. Rhythmic tapping of the same note over and over again.

"But Hundotte, the note DOES change after the first 4 bars!"

Yes, it does! IT GOES OUT OF TUNE INSTEAD!

Instead of following the chord progression from the opening idea which we were introduced with (the opening idea of a song should always set the expectation of the KEY that the song will be in, and in the case of an EDM like this, the CHORD PROGRESSION that it will either FOLLOW, VARY THE MELODY BASED ON, VARY ITSELF, or CALLBACK to), the lead decides that it's a good idea to step a few semitones up! Instantly the simplest form of tonic harmonisation falls into chaos and dissonance, and it makes one cringe internally.

And what follows in the next 4 bars? The same lead, upped yet another octave, detuned even more than it already is, and repeating the same note 10 times in a row with no change in its chord or melody whatsoever.

At this point Skrillex was probably thinking "Oh no, I've just made a pretty bad melodic development here (what even is melodic development lol spamming the tonic over and over again?) how am I going to continue this?" So he sat down and thought for days and nights and months and years...

And finally, he comes up with the great idea! To develop a melody, lets move the tonic ONE OCTAVE DOWN, BACK TO THE LEAD THAT WE STARTED OFF WITH AGAIN! Because that's a really original idea!

Let's put this into context with a song everyone is familiar with, Despacito. (yes, I'm about to explain why Despacito is a better song than First of the Year.)

The "drop" of Despacito has the following chords: Em, C, G, D. This will be the bassline that melody development will be based off.

The melody is developed in the following structure: basic idea, variation of basic idea, variation of basic idea, imperfect cadence.

Whilst getting repetitive, this is a perfectly fine way to provide melody development. Now, let's take a look at Despacito, composed by Skrillex.

These are the chords we'll be using for the drop: Em, Em, Em, Em. This will be the bassline that melody development will be based off.

The melody is developed in the following structure: basic idea, basic idea but out of tune, our bass notes but repeated at intermittent high and low octaves, imperfect cadence.

Let's see this in perspective. Despacito's basic idea is: F# F# F# F# B B B B B A B G.

With Skrillex writing this, Despacito's basic idea becomes: F# (high) F# (low) F# (low) F# (low) F# (low) F# (high) F# (low) F# (low) F# (low) F# (high).

Development for original Despacito: G G G G B B B B B C# D A.

With Skrillex writing this, development becomes: F# (high) F# (low) F# (low) F# (low) F# (low) F# (high) G (low) G# (low) F# (low) A (high).

Are you beginning to see the difference? And this is why just the first 16 bars of this drop already fall flat. After the painful 14 bars of the same note playing over and over again, we have a 2 bar-long transition with 2 growls and some arpeggiated vocals. Finally, some variation. Perhaps it may get better from here. And what are we greeted with directly after?

THE EXACT SAME THING.

Ouch.

Okay, the first 32 bars were bad. Let's give Skrillex the benefit of the doubt and move on.

In the next 4 bars, there's melodic development! I'm so excited! Finally, something actually sticks to the chord progression, but takes a seventh on it to give it a sinister feeling. Perhaps this song might be saved after all.

Oh.

OH GOD.

WHAT IS THAT?

Directly after the only section thus far in the entire drop that has proper melodic development, what are we immediately faced with? Another absolutely out-of-tune and now ever more overly bitcrushed lead. This literally hurts your ears and makes you want to cry inside. Why? You were hoping for this melodic idea to be developed, perhaps end on an imperfect cadence, follow with some variation, and then end on a perfect cadence to resolve the underlying scene portrayed in the song. Instead, we get a completely dissonant and unpleasant lead that just completely destroys the section that came before it. And then we get the same tone tone tone tone tone tone tone tone tone pattern again.

Okay, okay. Deep breaths.

Oh. It's the same 8 bars again directly afterwards.

My ears are already bleeding enough.

OH FINALLY THE DROP IS OVER. Whew.

Now, we're back to the powerful melodic interlude. Perhaps some change in the melody to reflect a development of the song as a whole? But no, Skrillex simply copy-and-pastes EXACTLY what he wrote in the front. But that's fine, at least we get a break from the bad first drop. I'm just hoping the second drop could perhaps be a little better. Maybe a change in chords? Or a change in the root note? Maybe even some variation in melody?

But we are hit with "CALL 911 NOW!" again. The exact same sentence, for the exact same drop AGAIN.

BUT WHAT'S THIS? IT'S DIFFERENT?

Skrillex has put a Half-pipe rock drum rhythm over his original copy-and-pasted drop for variation! Incredible! Skrillex finally did something differently! But why? What artistic purpose does the rock pattern serve? Where are the ingenious drum fills that we are used to hearing in a rock song using this drum pattern?

Nowhere to be seen.

Oh. And the pattern is completely back to the same thing after 8 bars again.

oh.

oh

GOD THIS IS THE EXACT SAME THING I'VE HEARD 34 BARS AGO

and it's just as bad.

I want to die.

so.

badly.

Oh? Impossible!

A MELODY!

I'm at 3:20 in the song right now, and something suddenly perks me up. FINALLY! THE GROWLS ARE WORKING IN UNISON WITH A PROPER MELODY!

Perhaps the third drop will be great, and develop this melody, with the bass Actually working as background support for the melody, like bass was defined and created to do. I think this third drop will finally have a melody over it! Some proper development in this song! Maybe asking for a chord change is too much, but...

oh. There's no third drop.

oh.

Well, at least the outro was better than the entire song. But even those strings were too compressed and overwritten by the drums.

So, um, overall...

First of the Year - Skrillex

**Melody: 2/10** (Um, what melody, exactly?)
**Creative/artistic elements: 4/10** (Whilst structurally, the song supports the video, none of the choices of effects, growls, leads, sound design, or even drum design supported the underlying message or intended mood of the song.)
**Mixing: 3/10** (Blending between the different synths in the drop was very very cutty and iffy, and the only good instrumental sections were drowned out by a lack of volume control on the drums.)
**Mastering: 5/10** (There was an attempt. But this only made the drop even more painful than it already was.)
**Overall: 3.5/10** (Pretty good for a Skrillex song.)

Now, back to my original point. Not that I mind you putting First of the Year as your number one on your list; it's actually a really good Skrillex song. But when songs like Supernova exist that did the exact same genre but did none of the mistakes mentioned above and instead innovated its genre, I am really, really upset that you did that.

Thanks. I hope you agree with at least some of the things mentioned here.

Oh, at least we can agree that Dimension is the best Creo song.