Favorite Song Tourney Matchup #23 Still Alive vs. I Feel Fantastic
Still Alive beat out Octopus to get here
I Feel Fantastic has had two previous matchups though, beating both First of May and Re: Your Brains.
Does the roll stop here?
Favorite Song Tourney Matchup #23 Still Alive vs. I Feel Fantastic
eta: Now in extra innings! Break the tie!
eta: Tie Broke! I Feel Fantastic wins this one. The Final is 22-21
I Feel Fantastic has had two previous matchups though, beating both First of May and Re: Your Brains.
Does the roll stop here?
Favorite Song Tourney Matchup #23 Still Alive vs. I Feel Fantastic
eta: Now in extra innings! Break the tie!
eta: Tie Broke! I Feel Fantastic wins this one. The Final is 22-21
Comments
But Still Alive got into my head and stayed there!
Still Alive gets my vote for this one.
Instead, I'm going to go with "draw-in" factor. I have no doubt that Still Alive has created a ton more new fans than IFF has, so it gets my vote by a narrow margin.
It's also in Rock Band, so there's that.
IFF it is.
If I had a nickel for every damn time I have used that phrase....
Since you guys beat down Code Monkey, Still Alive it is.
"I feel fantastic and I'm still alive..."
... I think I'm going to go with Still Alive. I've played Portal and it just has this great, twisted feel to it that I really like.
Also I think I Feel Fantastic is a much better, and catchier song. The chorus is infectious. Maybe I just like quick singing.
Also, what three08 said about context. IFF holds up much better on its own as a song, whereas Still Alive is kind of dependent on its source material to produce a full effect.
Also, I'm way over Still Alive. In fact I've gotten sick of it.
And if I were to try to introduce JoCo to a non-geek who's never played Portal IFF would probably be one of the first few songs I'd have them hear.
I love the fact that "Still Alive" drew so many people in, but honestly it's never been one of my favorites; it's got pretty strong lyrics, but oddly, of course, the only line that really sticks out for me is the one where it namechecks its competitor.
And "I Feel Fantastic" is just an awesome song, musically and lyrically -- the one JoCo song that I'm most apt to set on "repeat" and listen to for an hour. I've been overexposed to "Still Alive" quotes, but it's "I Feel Fantastic" that to me is so tremendously quotable -- on top of the wonderful chorus, every line just gets funnier and funnier until we hit that spectacular "steak-tastes-better pill". And I can't end this post without linking to the video Encubed mentions by sporksmith and blackcatbonifide, which you haven't lived until you've seen.
Besides, all y'all who talk about "Still Alive" being your introduction to JoCo make me feel really old.
PS: Also, "I Feel Fantastic" was the subject of one of my favorite wiki-edits ever.
I feel like IFF is a pretty generic song, which is a pretty hard hit, I know, but it doesn't have a very original subject or unique melody. I feel very strongly that "Still Alive" is a very good song from a melodic standpoint asnd is also ludicrously funny, even if it's licensed fanfic music.
I still preferred ot to IFF.. only slightly, but we're into the "matter of tiny degrees" decisions now !!
I thought the use of language and music in Still Alive beat out IFF, (mostly because the bridge in IFF bugs me) but there is an odd emotion behind Still Alive that IFF doesn't have.
The the beta/data lines need no context and I love them and dream of being able to say them truthfully some day. Also, 'there's no use crying over every mistake, you just keep on trying till you run out of cake' is my motto. My friends often ask me for the secret of happiness and I often respond that it's sugar, which is not entirely a lie. Cake is a great delivery method.
But you know what happens when I'm doped up on sugar? I feel fantastic!
"Still Alive" doesn't have any line, really, that grabs my attention except because it's been overplayed or overquoted (and I mean outside this forum). Reading over the lyrics now, I find them entertaining but not a patch on even the second-string punchlines in "I Feel Fantastic" ("All I know is driving on drugs feels better when they're prescription" etc.).
And it's somewhat ironic to me that you're slamming "I Feel Fantastic" as generic when the song itself is about how generic the narrator's life is -- besides being a clever tongue-twister, the chorus is about how the narrator never has to have any fluctuations in mood, and all the little understatements that hint at how miserable the guy's life probably ought to be besides the medication. (Not saying that I feel "I Feel Fantastic" is actually generic, which I don't, or that I think it was intended to be, which I don't.)
Really?
You don't find the "So go on and leave me.. I think I prefer to stay inside..." line, heart breaking?
I thought that line only spoke of underlying greed and *i'm alright Jack I don't actually care if she comes or not*.
He's too miserable to know how sad he is...
So he's happy!
But... Poor GLaydos!
:- (
(My least used emoticon!)
HE thinks he's happy...
Glados IS sad !!!
(kinda)
The line ("Go ahead and leave me / I think I prefer to stay inside") actually reminds me of another of JoCo's great passive-aggressive anthems (besides "Soft Rocked By Me", or "Make You Cry", or... wait, shouldn't this be a JoCopedia theme?), namely "Take Care of Me" -- "I see you're busy with something / Go ahead and finish, I swear it's all right."
[Oh, just realized Joe quoted it as "Go on and leave me", which is a much better metrical fit -- that's going to be my preferred version of that lyric now, the same way "Gambler's Prayer" now reads, "The day that they wagered their dogs and their wives."]
This crazy computer that has showed either no emotion, ignorance of emotion, or pain and hatred, for the first time in the game shows a brighter, emotionally functional side.
In my opinion, this is not a song that can be rejected just because context is needed. Context may be needed to enjoy this song, but that is just it. This song takes the context of the game, exemplifies it with a basic message that could be understood out of context, and applies it in a way that makes both the game and the song better than the original parts. Context makes the message stronger, the emotions more real, the moment more savored, but the song is not great just because of the game.
;' )
What makes you think that GLaDOS is actually happy? What leads you to believe that any of its expressed emotions are real? What makes you say that expressing satisfaction about running experiments with callous disregard for human life, expressing happiness about getting dismembered and set on fire, and mocking the player-character about her eventual death are signs of a "brighter, emotionally functional side"?
JoCo did indeed, to my reading, put a double meaning in "Go ahead and leave me" -- the entire stanza is far from a sincere attempt at telling the player-character to spread her wings and fly. I should start with the previous verse, "I'm not even angry" etc. The only reasonable reading of that one is as playing the martyr: "You did all these awful things to me and tried to kill me, but I'm just happy for you even though you're a mean, terrible person." Its purpose behind even saying the "even though" part is clearly to bring up all the ways in which the PC hurt it, just to make the PC's actions sound like atrocities and its own like benignities. GLaDOS is painting itself as the victim of some kind of abuse, as some kind of innocent who hardly deserves its treatment at the hands of the player-character.
Back to "Go ahead and leave me": the stanza parses, very obviously, for me as, "if you're so ungrateful to me for everything I've sacrificed for you, sure, go ahead, I'll just sit here in the dark then with no one helping me turn on the light; good luck finding someone else who's as willing to go through as much trouble for you as I do. Oh, and don't let this influence you, but if you come back, I've got cake." You can try to find some argument that GLaDOS is being sincere, and if you do I promise to sit patiently through it, but you'll have to work pretty hard to convince me of something when the entire song points to something else.
[edited to fix clumsy word-repetition]
Go ahead and leave me = The games over you can get up from the computer now.
I think I prefer to stay inside = I'm just a computer game character. You're real.
Maybe you'll find someone else to help you = Either in real life, or else go find another game to play if you must.
Maybe Black Mesa = In fact, if you're gonna play another game, go play one of *our* other games, like Halflife. (PRODUCT PLACEMENT)
That was a joke... = Okay, enough with the OOC.
Of
Character.
Though OCD would probably work too. ;-)
If you are TOTALLY anal and have to check everything out in games... (not that anyone in here fits that description)
IN portal, it is shown through a powerpoint presentation that is running away to itself in a room you cant get to but can see through a window.. Black Mesa has stolen GLaDOS' job ! Which is why, I think, she/it has gone mad. So you don't even need to know there's any *link* (or, Portal, if you would), to the other games... Which I have not played yet, so am in sweet ignorance of!
Also, everyone seems to be forgetting that the 'character' in the game is not only female... but an android!
Its LESBIAN ROBOT LOVE, people!!!
How more Coulton-esque can you GET !
(And... ultimately... there IS cake!)
VOTE for Still Alive.. don't make me come after you ! ;' )
How much more Coulton-esque can you get than THAT??
And now the voting is going to take attention away from that link I posted.
(no, it's not mine, I just like it)
Let's hope it remains so...
(See what I did there !?)
But the song is a surprising twist in that it is not completely only about the emotion faking, twisting that has been her character throughout the rest of the game. It is not about her wanting to now come and hunt you down. She is more sincere than she was previously.
The song is about GLaDOS though, so the other elements of her personality are still present in the song.
Of course, you could make the argument that she is exactly the same as before, that everything GLaDOS says is a lie and manipulative, in which case my argument would be made void. In this interpretation, yes, her saying that she wants to stay is just her trying to manipulate your humanity.
ETA to Cov's ninja: He voted!?!?!11!?1/1!!??!1/1!/1?!?!oneone11!!backslash!/one
I had to go with Still Alive, because randomly finding the song online led me to both play the video game, and discover Coulton. So personally, I've been much more influenced by it.
That said, I won't be sad if IFF wins. It's one of my favorites (and my Mom's favorite -- she's a nurse as I mentioned previously), and it's one of the first I share with others. When I tried sharing Still Alive with some non-gamers, I gave a long explanation about a video game with a gun that shoots portals, a passive-aggressive psychopathic AI, and cake. It didn't go over to well, and I almost ended up losing the mood I had just established with the likes of IFF, SM, and Someone's Crazy.
(ETA: And by the time I finish typing, SA has pulled ahead 7-6)