Netherlands - I really enjoy the different sounds here. Kind of fusiony which I always find fun. feels like the song never really lands though. 6/10
Isle of Man - This was my entry. Obviously I liked it. It's a fun, tight, pop-punk song with strong production.
Norway - I really, really, really enjoyed this. I liked the studio version better because it's cleaner and better performed (obviously). Something that's neat about this is that rather having a normal construction it has like, zones of sound that it switches between instead of sounding like a verse-chorus-etc structure with normal harmonic sequences. Always fun to hear something different. Also the chanting is a good juxtaposition with the electric elements. 8/10.
Latvia - Video game music is always going to have a ceiling for me because it's not really meant to be heard in isolation and is usually repetitive and not very tune-y. Also in older VGM the sounds were limited to the hardware. I like this because it leans into being instrumental electronic music. It's nice, energetic background music. 3/10.
Estonia - More video game music! This one is closer to something I'd enjoy on its own simply because I like the sounds more and it's constructed more like a power ballad than an EDM tune. 4/10
Hinamizawa - For me, this song really works well during the rap-vocal sections. I'm not a huge fan of the combination of the backing track and the regular singing. Something about how those two sound together just doesn't work for me. 6/10
Ankh-Morpork - Hell yeah 90s rock. Listen to those tinny drums
. That really takes me back. The only thing I don't love about this is the rhythm guitar in the choruses. Feels like it belongs with a different singer. Competes too much sonically. Overall this is fantastic, simple rock music. It's just a couple of simple ideas jammed together. 7/10.
Flavortown - The opening reminds me of Scale the Summit, a band I love. I wish this had more low end during the scream vocals but I really enjoy the sound they ended up with anyway. Makes the scream vocals be atmospheric instead of front and center. Overall I really enjoy this. 9/10.
Seleucid Kingdom - The atmosphere of this is great! The production with the (I think?) acoustic instrument patches is really good. I like how her voice blends in with the synth sounds. You're never going to fool people into thinking synths are real, so it's a neat trick to take a modern torch song and put a patch on the vocals to make them match the synths. 8/10.
France - Wow, this cat can really whistle! I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that the lyrics are doing a lot of the lifting here on emotional message? I think this is a good performance, musically speaking, but I'm not 100% sure what they're trying to communicate since I don't speak this language. 6/10.
Anguilla - She's got a nice voice. This is another one where I feel like I'm missing most of what I'm supposed to get from this because I don't speak the language. 3/10.
Llanowar - More VGM, but this time it's metal. It's fun, energetic metal. 4/10.
Nepal - More VGM! I like the choral parts. Well-written, clear, nice voices. 2/10.
Ireland - This is like if a manic pixie dream girl was a song. I really like all of the instrumental stuff. 3/10.
USA - More VGM.... the mood is great and I love the sounds. 3/10.
Monaco - There's a lot of things I like individually about this song. I'm not sold on the mixture, but I enjoy it moment to moment. 6/10.
Iraq - This sounds like a dystopian version of Classical Gas, Gentle Giant, Bach, lute music, and Rush all thrown in a blender. This is just fucking great. 10/10.
New Zealand - This song answers the question "what would Fleet Foxes sound like with a lot less production?". Apparently the answer is "pretty good, I guess?" 6/10.
Central African Republic - Mood. 7/10.
Poland - Yes. 8/10.
Armenia - I feel like I've heard a million versions of this exact song and I've loved every single one of them. I'm a sucker for the audio version of a dame with legs that go all the way up that's wearing a trench coat, smoking a cigarette, and probably killed her husband. 8/10.
The Underground - Hey look, more video game music. The music from Undertale and Deltarune was famously great, and this is no exception. 4/10.
Chad - I interviewed the guitar player for Genesis for my college radio show, and he told me that one of the ideas they were going for in early prog rock was making the listener question which instruments they were listening to by changing up their roles and playing with the timbre. I love the way they use violin here, I guess is what I'm saying. Blending it with the lead guitar is a really neat idea. I also really love how metal often juxtaposes the speed of notes with tempi that are actually pretty slow. This song does that well. I don't love that there's about a minute on either side that's basically just filler sound, but the middle is really great so I'll take it. 9/10.
Niger - Yes! This is fucking groovy. 10/10.
Indonesia - I saw people complaining that this song was so short. I think it's the perfect length. 7/10.
Canada - lol uncomfortably numb. what a great name. This strikes me as a song that probably hits you like a ton of bricks if you relate to the lyrics. I don't, so I like this as being some moody, gentle emo music. Absolutely love these singers, too. 6/10.
