Rate-O-Rama: New Dawn Fades

Welcome to Rate-O-Rama

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Rate-O-Rama : Songmania is a reader participation game.

Every Saturday evening I will publish a Rate-O-Rama article which will feature three versions of a popular song.

The object is to listen to each of the music videos provided within the post.

After listening to each video you can rate each song in the comments section below.

(You must be a member to comment. If you are not a member you can join Vocal Media for FREE. You don’t ever have to pay for membership unless you choose to upgrade your membership)

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The rating method is easy. Simply give each song a rating of 1 to 100.

(The more you like the song the higher the rating).

If possible, please provide a brief comment explaination of the reasoning behind your ratings for each song.

After a week (Saturday evening) I will tally the ratings and in the next Rate-O-Rama post I will announce the average rating each song received from the previous post.

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The Raffle!!!

I am taking the Rate-O-Rama series to the next level. At the end of each month I will do a raffle in which the winner will win a $5.00 tip.

To enter all you have to do is participate in playing the Rate-O-Rama game. Since R-O-R is updated every Sunday night in order to qualify you must play the game during it's initial seven day period with Sunday evening being the cutoff period.

For each game you play you will receive a ticket for the raffle. Therefore if you play all four games in the month you will have four chances to win.

The winner will not only win the $5 prize but I will feature your Vocal Profile on Vocal + Assist on both Facebook and Discord and you will be featured in the first R-O-R game of the month after your win.

The November 2023 Rate-O-Rama Raffle Winner:

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Last week we featured the Country Music classic: "Crazy" as recorded by Patsy Cline (1961), Willie Nelson (1962), and Linda Ronstadt (1976).

The following are the average ratings for each song as resulted from the votes:

🥇 Patsy Cline: 98.4

🥈 Linda Ronstadt: 93

🥉 Willie Nelson: 90.5

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The Fifteenth Edition of Rate-O-Rama features three renditions of the Post Punk classic: "New Dawn Fades."

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Joy Division (1979)

"New Dawn Fades" was written by Joy Division, the song opens with a backwards and heavily modified sample from their song, "Insight". It's instantly recognizable when you listen to the opening of “Insight”.

The song is masterfully built around an ascending guitar riff coupled with a dark descending bass line. The guitar is brought to the forefront with two unique guitars playing, one distorted and one picking clean guitar chords. The song ends with a dynamic and passionate guitar solo. Ian Curtis wraps the song with his hauntingly moody dark baritone voice giving it a finish that digs into the soul.

Although the song was never released as a single it was one of Joy Division's most popular tracks. It closes Side One of the vinyl release of their debut album Unknown Pleasures and track five on the CD version. Unknown Pleasures is regarded as one of the greatest albums of all-time and has received many accolades. It's a shame Ian Curtis never got to experience the many accolades his music with Joy Division would eventually reap.

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Moby (1994)

Moby's rendition of the song was originally used as a track on the CD single of “Feeling So Real” and as the B-Side on the cassette single of the same song.” The song was also used in the film Heat.

The surviving members of Joy Division known as New Order were impressed with Moby's rendition and invited him to perform the song live with them.

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Eden and Noelle (2020)

Guitar and Cello duo, Eden and Noelle recorded “New Dawn Fades” in tribute to the 40th anniversary of the release of Joy Division's album Unknown Pleasures.

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My Thoughts

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Joy Division: Two things drive my love for Joy Division: The strong bass lines which were brought to the front of the music by Peter Hook and Ian Curtis's dark, deep, moody, and raw voice. Ian had a depth in his voice that always draws me in. “New Dawn Fades” builds from a dramatic somewhat pared down arrangement toward an understated yet passionate guitar solo at the end. My score is 100.

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Moby: I am 75-25 in my love for Moby's music. I really enjoy his pop and rock music in which he does the lead vocals. I'm not much a fan of his ambient music or his songs that feature other lead vocalists. That eliminates about 75% of his music. His rendition of “New Dawn Fades” falls into the “love very much" category. The hard rock guitar solo toward the end is outstanding. Musically Moby's rendition rocks solid and is much more aggressive than Joy Division 's moody arrangement. I do tend to prefer Joy Division 's pared down rendition to Moby's hard hitting delivery. Although both songs are outstanding in their own right. Moby handles the lead vocals fine, though, I feel Ian Curtis sings it better. I give Moby 98 for his very strong effort.

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Eden and Noelle: I was pleasantly surprised with this. The song works very well as a guitar and cello ballad. I especially love when E&N harmonize together. Their voices blend beautifully. I give this one a 98.

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I will be back next week with the results of this Rate-O-Rama Edition.

Last Week's Rate-O-Rama:

With Love, RHC ❤️