Daniel's Song Race All Stars • S01 W01 • Judges' Critiques

What a glorious redemption! It's like watching one of those stray street dog transformation videos on Facebook: "Stop the Clocks" is the dog covered with fleas and on the verge of death, whereas "Riverside" is the happy, healthy and loving dog it wants to be. And not only was this a redemption, but you also sent one of my favourite songs ever so yassss girl, go snatch that crown!

It's a decent sounding song and all, but... I just don't see any sign of a redemption, dear. You certainly didn't have a good selection of challenges to choose from, but you need to make the most out of what you have, which I don't feel you did. Even for your challenge, there are some gems out there - but you either didn't look hard enough or you were looking in the wrong place. Still a good effort though!

A very nice song and certainly a redemption from "Fuck They", but we won't talk about that cretinous tripe. This song completely blows that out of the water, and you nailed the whole theme of redemption, so well done! I have one suggestion though: don't take the pretentious indie direction throughout the whole game - because this song does have that pretentious tryhard aura, and sending songs like this every week just isn't going to look good for you. Very well done!

It's an alright song. It just doesn't redeem Evelyn Evelyn (which was amazing in my opinion!) at all, and there were simply better challenges to choose from - especially Summertime Sadness, where you missed the idea of the challenge entirely. It seems like trusting your guts wasn't the right thing to do in this case, my dear. That being said, you still have the opportunity to improve!

Yasssss, we love our faux-Finnish queen Marika! A charming song, although in all honesty there's no need for redemption seeing as your first song for this challenge was pretty much perfect. I don't have much else to say, other than well done! I hope to see more of you.

Well, what can I say? You sent a truly beautiful gem, and this certainly broke my heart. In fact, it DISINTEGRATED it. I adore Broken Twin and the whole album that this song is from. Oh yeah, this is pretty much a fantastic redemption as well. Huge well done to you, my dear! I genuinely hope you can keep delivering like this; you will go far!