Liontamer Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 (edited) CREDITS: colorado weeks (Colorado Weeks): main arrangement, production, drum programming, synths, backing vocals CivlaCivla (Alvic Plan): lead vocals, vocal arrangement, backing vocals bjkmenu: lead electric guitar, rhythm guitars, additional synths This was our entry for Dwelling of Duels' Free Month in July 2024. "The Natural Playboy" is such an iconic track from a real hidden gem of a game. After working with The Vodou Queen on a New Jack Swing track for GSM1, I knew I wanted to dip my toes in the genre again. This arrangement has been on the to-do list for a while, but it didn't get done until recently because I need a proverbial gun to my head to finish my damn tracks (a.k.a: a firm deadline.) I was never great at fighting games as a kid, and Bust a Groove was no exception. Luckily, I had a much more skilled kuya (CivlaCivla) that I could watch play. Because of his skill, I was able to experience all of the great music as well as the colorful cast of characters. Considering how much of an influence he was in my musical journey and my love of video games, it really meant a lot that I was able get Civla to record vocals for "Playboy Philosophy." To add to the emotional heft, we recorded the vocals in one session in our childhood bedroom. I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention bjkmenu's influence in making this track happen. I was in a creative funk for a good couple of months until bjkmenu posted a couple of versions of "The Natural Playboy" in ThaSauce, including this extremely funky cover by The Consouls. As a novice guitar player, I have significant blind spots in guitar arrangement due to only being limited to what I am able to play. bjkmenu was truly a font of knowledge in this regard, even providing feedback and suggestions for the arrangement, the performance, and the mix. Again, a huge thanks to CivlaCivla and bjkmenu for lending their talents to this track, and to The Vodou Queen for all of her New Jack Swing recommendations! LYRICS: [VERSE 1] All the people everywhere Everybody wants to hear My playboy philosophy 'Cause I look like a star when I'm smoking my cigar They wanna be just like me It's true, my gold ring is beautiful And everyone wants one Everyone wants to have my style [VERSE 2] In a club or on the streets Everybody that I meet Wants to learn and play my game And they watch the way I move From my head to my shoes And all the girls know my name [PRE-CHORUS] I know in their hearts they wish and dream That they could be like me But if they want to know the truth It's true [CHORUS] That I'm the natural playboy of town And I am blowing every mind 'Cause I'm one of a kind And I'm the coolest dancer around The lights are shining down on me So everyone can see The natural playboy [VERSE 3] All the people everywhere Everybody wants to hear my Playboy philosophy 'Cause I look like a star when I'm smoking my cigar They wanna be just like me [PRE-CHORUS] I know in their hearts they wish and they dream That they could be like me (Could be like me) But if they want to know the truth It's true [CHORUS] That I'm the natural playboy of town And I'm blowing every mind 'Cause I'm one of a kind I'm the coolest dancer around The lights are shining down on me So everyone can see The natural playboy Games & Sources The source tune is "The Natural Playboy" from Bust a Groove. According to the Bust a Groove wiki, the music was composed by Tomoki Ishizuka and was written and performed by Kaleb James. Edited October 30 by Hemophiliac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 fun vibe at the start of this one. track feels like it's missing some compression and i don't hear a pad either, so the electric guitar's carrying the chord work. civla's voice fits the original's style really well. it's a touch ahead of the beat most of the time, and there's a bit of mid that could be scooped out, but i love the slow vibrato on some of the words like 'style', and the backing chord work in the vocals is perfect. coming back to the backing elements, i noticed that the electric guitar's a bit bland in tone. i would have liked to have a bit more verve on the tone. separately, there are several transitions that i felt didn't have much in the way of fills or anything (like between the first two verses). the second chorus's solo vocal part (the one doing fills, not the one doing the melody) was pretty hard to differentiate in situ. i think overall the vocals in this song are a bit loud, and there's not much you can hear there besides voices with three distinct parts going on. 2:51's a bridge section with guitar solo and some scratching. there's some fun ideas in the guitar solo, like for example the descending diminished chord riff. there's a chorus recap and then a fadeout, which normally i don't like but in this case really fits the style and how similar songs often end. this has a fun feel throughout! from an arrangement perspective this is very conservative. it's essentially the same song in an adjacent style with the same melody and several of the same major arrangement elements like the backing vocals. the best things about this remix are the vocals (which are note for note the same despite a great performance) and the melody (which is note for note the same). same chords, similar instrumentation, similar genre, somewhat lacking in a chorded element for some of the song (pad, comping piano, etc), less interesting drums and backing elements. it also has less dynamic range than the original, and feels pretty similar from start to end. from a mixing perspective, i called out a few of the issues with the vocals earlier (they're a bit dense in the mids, a bit loud as well). beyond that i think the track is mixed fairly well in that it's pretty easy to hear everything that's going on once it gets going. the first verse or two is a little thin. from a mastering perspective, the track is undercompressed to my ears and there's some density in the low mids (probably from the voice) that makes the bass not speak as well as you'd want. i might be picking here, but i feel like the lack of arrangement combined with a lot of disparate little elements on the technical side are pulling this down. if it was righteously mastered and sounded super good i'd still complain about the arrangement being so conservative, though, so i think my main concern is just that this is more of a cover than an arrangement. it's just too similar. i'd need to have seen more variation in melodic material, harmonic backing, or structure to say that this is more than that. it's still a fun song to listen! but all of the best parts are Bust-A-Move. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted October 29 Share Posted October 29 Ah, here we are in the 90s! I love the orch hits. The vocals are very well done, lead and all backing vocals sound great to me. The instrumental though, by comparison, sounds weak. The instruments are quiet compared to the vocals, and as proph pointed out there isn't any kind of padding, the guitar is carrying the burden of backing chords, and it is barely audible. The piano is only ever playing whole notes. The bass is very quiet in the mix. The guitar solo is nice though! The pacing and groove of the piece is very static; the drums play the same pattern over and over with very few changes or fills. Fadeout ending, boooooo! This mix has a lot going for it, I think with some mixing tweaks the soundscape could feel much more full and balanced. But the arrangement is repetitive, and the bigger issue is that it is a straight cover of the source song. It has the same pacing, energy, general feel, same lyrics. Other than being in a lower key, and the addition of the fun 90s elements, it is the same song. That's way too conservative for OCR. Fun listen though, and really nice vocal performance and processing! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemophiliac Posted October 30 Share Posted October 30 We need more new jack swing! Severely under represented genre with VGM. This is a fun track with excellently sung vocals by Alvic. I'm also a sucker for well used orch hits! For me there's two major issues and one less so. One, the arrangement is too conservative and close to the original source. Now, you've nailed the genre adaption, but it's still too close. The second major issue is the drums don't have enough variation and are stuck and static on the same pattern for most of the track. Nothing wrong with the pattern itself as it feels very appropriate for the genre. It just doesn't change or have parts added or subtracted as the song progresses. Give us some variety to change things up and give a sense of progression aside from section changes. For me the minor issue is the lack of weight in the bass, and that could be because it's quieter then the other parts. Compression might help bring it out and give it the beef I think of when I think of that particular 90s sound. The other production feels mostly solid to me, the vocal processing was handled very well in particular. The fadeout ending isn't great but it doesn't bother me either. Wish I could give this the nod, but the closeness to the source and autopilot drums kept this playboy out of the club. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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