Cinerama Cup: Group C

      

A reminder of how the point-scoring works:

• The panel must award a total of 36 points
• No song may receive more than 12 points
• At least one point must be given to 5 songs (i.e. no more than three zeros) 

Group C

• Ears
• Manhattan
• Sly Curl
• I Wake Up Screaming
• Maniac
• Get Up and Go
• Lollobrigida
• Comedienne

The first two groups - despite being more highly regarded than the preliminary round material - didn't exactly set the panel's pulses racing. Which suggests that my blog ranking averages, which had A and B down as the two weakest sets, wasn't too far off the mark.

Group C, on the other hand, was the second strongest by the same measure...

The Results

This time, it was much tighter at the top, but there was a very clear winner of the wooden spoon. Johnny thought 'Lollobrigida' was 'as sexy as hell,' but for most, this was the element that particularly turned them off. 'Sex is really hard to portray realistically in songs,' declared Ian, 'and this fails.' Kirk ('cringey') and James ('sickly') were also far from seduced by the lyric. Dave was particularly blunt: 'awful stuff.'

'Sly Curl', featuring the much-missed Sean Hughes, gained decent marks from several of the judges, and Gricey enjoyed a 'wave of fond nostalgia,' but it was Keg that was its biggest fan:

'It's achingly sad. Gedge does heartbreak so well in Cinerama. The rueful regret of losing something that really mattered... drips from this song. The presence of Sean Hughes in the end section adds to the poignancy.'

Kirk, on the other hand, considered it no more than an 'acceptable b-side,' and although a few commented positively on the use of the word 'philanderer', Bob thought that it 'really grates.'

Despite being shunned by Harry and being marked down for the falsetto vocals by Marc, Dave and Derek, 'Manhattan' topped the group. Quite rightly, in my opinion (it was in the top ten on my blog ranking). 'Quintessential Cinerama,' thought both Kirk and Keg; ' sumptious, glorious, luxurious,' was Johnny's verdict. 'Ears' (a 'beautiful song' according to Joanna) was not far behind, with much praise being directed towards the DLG / Emma Pollock vocal combination. Although it picked up four zeros ('pointless in more than one sense of the word,' sniffed Ian), 'Get Up And Go' also qualified with relative ease. Harry described it as 'gorgeous'; Gav M's comment was 'dark, sleazy, treacherous… Cinerama perfection!'

It was a hard-fought tussle between the remaining three songs for the final qualifying spot, all of them spending some time in the top four as the votes came in. I surprised many by placing 'I Wake Up Screaming' at number nine in my blog ranking. Keg was one of them: 'It's nothing special in my opinion and I strongly suspect you won't get much backup from the other members of the jury.' On the contrary, Keg, it had plenty of fellow supporters: 'a great song' (Kirk); 'massively underrated' (Gricey); 'an under-the-radar stonker' (Marc). It did, alas, fall short in the end - but only by five points.

I was a little surprised to see the sprightly 'Comedienne' finish in sixth place, although it did only fall six points short. It garnered plenty of praise (an 'infectious little tune,' thought Dave; Harry found it 'joyous'). However, other than Ian's 12, it lacked the big scores it needed to go through.

In the end, it was the 'perfect pop' (as Johnny had it) of 'Maniac' that claimed the final slot. 'The song that made my partner realise David Gedge wasn't just that guy who burst guitar strings,' commented Harry, 'it was beautiful then and it's beautiful now.'

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