Re: AUSTRALIA 2019
With all the songs out, it's time for a proper ranking! Here's my list of personal favourites:
#01. Electric Fields - 2000 and Whatever
I'll start by saying that this definitely isn't a perfect song. For example, the choruses are a bit of a generic letdown after the brilliant verses, the structure fades towards the end, and I think it'll be hard to pull off live. But beyond that, it's creative, fun, unique and a whole lot of other things I want in our Eurovision entries. We've gone with safe, polished blandness for years now – I want to change tracks and go with the flawed stand-out.
#02. Mark Vincent - This Is Not the End
Mark has my favourite vocals of the NF, and
damn I like those chorus melodies. Basic, cookie-cutter instrumentation and the lack of a proper bridge means that this loses a couple of points in my eyes, but it'd still be a choice I'd be proud of, even if only for the vocals and occasional melodies.
#03. Leea Nanos - Set Me Free
This kind of feels like something we'd send internally, but with a darker tinge to it and kind of just a stronger sound on the whole. I honestly have a hard time criticising this one; it's pretty solid overall, so if I was going to say anything against it, it'd just be that it doesn't have those
wow moments that some of the other songs have. No idea how Leea will go as a performer, since she's the least experienced of the bunch; I'd like to see her do well with this, though.
#04. AYDAN - Dust
I'm not entirely sure
why I have this placed so high up my list. This is the sort of safe radio pop that I've been hoping we'd get away from, and there's no big climax or anything... but it's probably the one song from the selection that I find myself replaying the most. Perhaps it's the melancholic, dramatic tone of it, which I usually like; I'm not quite sure. Nonetheless, despite liking this, I'd prefer we choose something else – even something a little lower on my list – to stand out some more in Tel Aviv.
#05. Kate Miller-Heidke - Zero Gravity
I still really enjoy this track, so I feel a bit weird putting it at #5. It's a strong NF, I guess, which I can't complain about! This one's taken a while to grow on me, but it's steadily making its way up my list with repeated listens. I'm not sure I'll ever be huge on the sparse choruses early on, and melodically it doesn't amaze me too much, but I love how it fuses all sorts of different genres while growing steadily throughout. I imagine it'll be good live, and I could possibly grow to love it; so I'd be happy enough with seeing it chosen as an out-there pick for Eurovision.
#06. Alfie Arcuri - To Myself
For whatever reason, this one's gone a little under the radar for me. It's the kind of thing I usually go for, but I just haven't gotten around to listening to it as much as the others yet; it could probably grow on me a little more as a result. There's some beautiful build here, especially in the pre-choruses – if the song kept that quality and sound throughout, it'd probably sail its way into my #1 spot with ease. It mostly loses a bit of ground in my eyes with the "hey-yeah, hey-yeah, hey-yeah" chorus, which is a lot weaker than the stuff surrounding it and feels awkwardly shoehorned in.
#07. Sheppard - On My Way
This is a fairly low ranking for one of the acts that I was most looking forward to before the NF. And it's not that they have a bad song – On My Way is one of the best-produced entries in this selection, and the verses build things up in a way I like, at least as far as safe pop songs go. But the choruses, despite sounding nice, are very much a "been there, done that" sort of issue – it sounds like a bunch of songs that I've seen before from the band, the radio charts and our ESC history – and there's nothing interesting to latch onto. I'd still probably get behind this more than some of our past ESC entries, but I'd rather choose something fresher while we have the chance.
#08. Courtney Act - Fight For Love
There's quite a sudden step down at this point of my rankings, going from "generic but nice" to "ehhhhh." I was optimistic when I saw Courtney Act announced for our NF, but despite some passable verses this just sounds like a slightly modified, slightly weaker version of We Got Love from last year (and I wasn't huge on that to begin with). Add in some heavily autotuned vocals and a structure that goes nowhere, and I'm hoping that I'm right when I say this doesn't have much of a chance at winning the NF.
#09. Ella Hooper - Data Dust
This has a very indie, amateurish feel to it in a field of generally well-produced songs. Which I suppose makes it stand out, if nothing else... but the whole thing kind of just comes across as lame and ineffective. I get the notion that it's all supposed to be a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it ends up feeling corny in a bad way (and trust me, I love corny when it's done well). At the very least, it escapes last place due to having some catchy sounds and a bit of attitude, but I can't say much for it past that.
#10. Tania Doko - Piece of Me
This might be last, but I don't hate it by any means. It's just not at all my cup of tea; it's middling, midtempo, middle-of-the-road, all those "mid" words that can so often translate to "it's kind of just there and I don't quite get what it's trying to do." It passes nicely enough through one ear and out the other, but when it's a mostly-boring amorphous blob of elevator music in the middle of an otherwise strong selection, I can't see it making its way out of the bottom few spots in either my personal rankings or the eventual results.
The actual rankings I've got here might be a bit deceptive, since things are spaced weirdly in parts. My top 5 are all super close to each other for the most part; I think they could change order completely with live performances, some more time or just a different mood. Any of them would be a step up from our last couple of Eurovision entries, in my eyes.
The next two (so #6 and #7) are still pretty good songs as well, I think; they just have issues that I find are slightly harder to overlook. And then the last three on my list are... well, they're not actively
bad, but they've got plenty of issues and not a whole lot going on the positive side of things as far as my preferences go, so I'd rather see us stay far away from them in the NF (which I think we should manage, barring a major surprise).
Anyways, that all got a bit longer than expected. But TL;DR, I'd say we have five good songs, a few mediocre ones and then a couple in the middle territory of "this is decent but we've got better stuff available so I'd rather go with that instead." Don't let me down, my fellow Aussies
Great song, great voice, touches me endlessly.
Like seriously, can we not go a single NF without him lurking somewhere in the background. At this point I feel like he is paying them to let him take part rather than them asking him. So many countries can't be that thick to think asking the head of one of your competitors is a good thing. My eyes rolled back so far they're almost looking at my brain.
