Survival Of The Fittest

So... this is a surprise. I returned to the songtest on a whim after being away for a long time, and just kept on going (Vertigo is a jam, so thank you all again for blessing me with your votes). With everything going on in the world - both the world at large and my own personal world, I've had a lot of time to ruminate on what's important, and what times in my own life I treasured and for what reason. As I'm getting closer to another trip around the sun and inching ever-so-slightly towards 40, I find myself missing the simplicity and the lowered responsibility of one stage in particular.

That particular stage of my life is going to encompass the theme for our next songtest. It's admittedly a little self-indulgent, but it doesn't overlap as much with a lot of other themes, so I hope you'll all approve.

For our next theme in SOTF's 101st Songtest, the theme for this upcoming songtest is: Dodd's Post-Secondary Years (9/1/04 - 06/23/11).

[+] Specific Theme Rules

So, a few small rules for the theme itself.

1) The theme can be from any genre, however you'd like to do it is fine - country, pop, rap, electronic, movie themes, video game themes - whatever you want is gravy. Provided...
2) The song must have been released between September 1st, 2004 and June 23rd, 2011. Anything before or after - too bad! You're out of luck for this time around.
3) No Eurovision Covers - regular covers are fine though.
4) No reality show/competition covers.
5) Please don't use anything we've used in a prior songtest (Master Songtest Sheet here).
6) If a song doesn't happen to your cup of tea, try not to slag it relentlessly in chat if you can avoid it - these things are all for fun and we all have wildly different tastes, which is why these are so fun!

Here are rules that I've copied and pasted from the last time I hosted songest, a thousand years ago. I don't think anything's majorly changed outside of there usually not being a need for a semifinal. Please yell at me if I've gotten anything wrong.

[+] Songtest Rules

Songs will be randomly divided into 2 or 3 semifinals or just a straight up final, depending on turnout. if you're going to be away at some point in the next couple of weeks, let me know and I can try to put your song in a round when you'll be here.

Listen to every song and give points to your top 10 favorites: 12 to your favorite, 10 to your second, 8 to your third, 7 to your fourth, and so on down to 1 point for your tenth favorite.

If your song is in a given round, you must vote that round or you'll be eliminated. if your song isn't in that round (or you aren't in the contest at all), your vote will be counted as a public vote, which counts for half points. If you're doing a public vote in chat, tag me in Discord with @Dodd so that I can find them.

Public votes will all count as half-votes like we've been doing lately. I like this way so much better than the old system.

The top songs will move on to the final; the number of top songs depends on the number of contestants. Repeat the process for the finals and we get a winner.

The winner gets to hold the next contest, or they can pass the job along to 2nd place if they don't want to. 2nd place can pass down to third, etc, until someone wants to host.

Each semifinal (if necessary) and the final will last for three days.

If you know at the start of your semifinal that you won't be available to vote for those four days, let me know and I can move you to another semifinal, if we aren't on the final one already.

Signups will run until next Tuesday, March 8th at 7:00pm EST or whenever I get home from work.

Contestants: (Red has yet to submit)

1. Cactus
2. RandomStranger
3. RC
4. Slam
5. Cicada
6. Laurels

Let's go back to high school (let's not).

Thanks for the patience everyone, this week ended up being a bit of a doozy for me; next week will be a lot easier so the results at the end will come a lot more promptly. But enough of that, it's time to throw it back to a time when I didn't have to worry about having too many meetings and the only pandemic that came to mind was the black plague.

This contest will consist of the following contestants:
And here are their tunes - (in alphabetical order by artist) many of which I remember hearing as I roamed the halls of York University (and Seneca College). Those were the days...




You all know how to vote, so I'm not going to throw a ton of voting mumbo-jumbo at the end. Hit me up via board pm or Discord private message (I'm not gonna go searching through voice to find your votes).

These are the finals, so we'll see how things go once voting is complete!

You have until next Thursday, March 17th - we have the weekend plus a few so that should be more than enough time for everybody. If I get all the votes early, I'll end early, unless anyone expressly wants to send a public vote.

Good luck and happy listening!

Hello everyone, thank you for your wonderful songs! The nostalgia for better days definitely sustained me this week as I've gone and aged. Now I suppose that it's time to go through and crown a champion!

Without further ado...

[+] Withdrew

Welcome to the Circus - Skittish (57 points, including three 8s): submitted by LOA

[+] 13th Place

Bamboo Banga - M.I.A. (23 points, including two 8s): Submitted by Laurels

[+] 12th Place

Queen of Denmark - John Grant (28 points, including two 8s): Submitted by RC

[+] 11th Place

Determinate - Lemonade Mouth (36 points, including one 10): Submitted by RandomStranger

[+] 10th Place

Symphony X - Paradise Lost (37 points, including one 10): Submitted by DN

On to the next...

We continue on...

[+] 8th place - tied

Drumming for Pistols - Puerto Muerto (39 points, including one 10): submitted by MurderWeasel

[+] 8th place - tied

I Turn My Camera On - Spoon. (39 points, including one 10): Submitted by Rugga

[+] 7th place

Original Fire - Audioslave (45 points, including one 10): Submitted by Skraal

[+] 6th Place

My Job Here Is Done - Tub Ring (51 points, including two 10s and two 8s): Submitted by dmboogie

And then there were five...

[+] Final Five

Songs:

Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Finger Eleven - Paralyzer
John Legend ft. Andre 3000 - Green Light
Metric - Collect Call
The Fray - Over My Head (Cable Car)

Contestants:

Cactus
Cicada
Maraoone
Midnight_twelve
Slam

Let's get down to the final two, shall we?

[+] 5th place

Green Light - John Legend ft. Andre 3000 (51 points, including two 12s and one 10): submitted by Cicada

[+] 4th place

Over My Head (Cable Car) - The Fray (64 points, including two 10s and two 8s): Submitted by Slam

[+] 3rd place

Paralyzer - Finger Eleven (74 points, including two 12s and two 10s): Submitted by me (Cactus)

So without further ado... please welcome our final two!

[+] Final Two

Viva La Vida - Coldplay - Submitted by midnight_twelve

VS

Collect Call - Metric - Submitted by Maraoone

The thrilling conclusion to come!

Well, this is it! I went a bit image-light this time around and I'm admittedly regretting it a bit. Alas, I'll have to try and win again and rectify my unsatisfying post design choice!

But anywho...

The winner of the one hundred and first annual SOTF song contest...































... with 101 points...
















... including four 12s...























... and one 10...
































...is...

[+] The Winner

Viva La Vida - Coldplay, submitted by midnight_twelve!

Congratulations to our runner-up!

[+] Runner-Up

2nd place: Collect Call - Metric (99 points, including five 12s and two 8s): Submitted by Maraoone!

Congratulations to everyone for the wonderful submissions - I really enjoyed the glimpse back into my school days. There were some real bangers in that era. Thanks for allowing me to join you once more for songtests! Cactus out!

Votes: