THRILLER - Michael Jackson (acapella) VoicePlay ft. J.None #halloween
This is scary good 🤯🧟 Might be my new favourite thing by VoicePlay, or it's certainly way up there. The arrangement, make-up, production, acting??? There could not be a more perfect cover of this iconic classic. I'm a little in love 😍 Speaking of, Geoff's take on the Vincent Price monologue??? That should not have been as sensual as it was 😅 Man knows how to put a purr into his voice. Run, don't walk to a good pair of headphones or sound system and treat your ears to this spooky brilliance!
Geoff Castellucci Song Of Durin - Thoughts/Commentary
At first I wasn't planning on making a post just about the vocals/music arrangement for this one, but then I ended up watching the video four times across the day that it dropped on Patreon and it turned out that I do in fact have Thoughts(tm).
So as I said in the Premiere post, I know the Clamavi De Profundis version a little bit - enough that I know what the original vocals for it sounded like, and yeah damn Geoff's voice works absolutely perfectly for this!
This is yet another case of "this feels like it's a very intricate arrangement, but I don't have the music knowhow to fully comprehend it." (Bring on the reaction/analysis videos!)
Tenor Geoff My Beloved! Like okay there weren't actually many high parts in this, but there was a bit right towards the end where I was like "oh wait that's so pretty"
Honestly there weren't actually any "super-duper low" parts either (or at least nothing that sounded that way), but that's totally fine! It was a perfect blend of bass, baritone, and tenor, and it sounded gorgeous! And the lower parts that were there felt so natural and suited to the song, like they had been part of the original arrangement too (I haven't heard enough of the OG to know for sure but I doubt it).
A couple of random vocal things that stood out to me that I liked:
The drop on the word "fall" on the line "in Elder Days before the fall"; it's practically a classic Geoff thing at this point to find opportunities to do low notes on words like "down", "low", and "fall" 😁
The way he sings "throne" on the line "a king he was on carven throne" - it's got a bit of a sort of lilt/accent to it? There may be other examples in the song too but that's the one that catches my ear the most. It's reminiscent of the Clamavi De Profundis version and also it just sounds nice <3
Honestly the whole vibe of it is actually kinda really beautiful imo in a way that's almost a little hard to put into words.
Like I guess you could say Misty Mountains had a sort of determination to it, with a slight kind of confidence that comes from hard-earned knowledge and experience. I See Fire had the vibe of "sombre resoluteness"; pre-emptive mourning, even - the awareness of heading into what you know will be your final stand.
But Song Of Durin, meanwhile, is not mournful; it's wistful, but sort of in a "mature" way? It's being at peace with the way things have turned out now, while still being able to reflect on happier times. It has a complicated sort of hope, almost, that isn't exactly saying "things will get better" per se, but it leaves you feeling stronger and lighter by the end of it regardless.
(I'm still not sure whether that fully makes sense or if I'm saying anything of worth here, but I typed that up on the Geoff's Patrons Discord the night after the release and then a couple hours later was like "actually that feels like it deserves to be put in a Tumblr post" so here we are).
So does this beat I See Fire for me? Unsure - it feels a little tough to compare them tbh, right now at least. But I still really enjoyed this, perhaps even a little more than I was expecting to!
Geoff said in the Patreon description that this video picks up where the short version left off, so I went and rewatched the short before I went to watch the Early Access, and I'm pretty sure he's wearing the same shirt in this video as in the short, or at least one that's very similar!
Oh btw I got this Early Access on the same day as I got Early Access to VoicePlay's newest cover/video (which I can't tell you about yet, but hopefully next week?) - I got the email for this just 2 and a half hours later actually! So it's been a good day for me as I'm typing most of this (though I've gone back and edited/added stuff after the Premiere showed up).
Anyway, the song is so good! Looks like I was right about the giant projector screen behind him and its purpose in my prediction post!
This video isn't filmed at PattyCake, it's at some other random unnamed studio like YDMAWJ was (I'm assuming the giant forest at PattyCake (for Villains Lair and Classical Chaos) was yet to be taken down when this was filmed) (EDIT: in the video description, it says this was filmed at "212 Video Studio", in Altamonte, Florida)
The song and video are kind of a mix of YDMAWJ and Unshaken ngl. You got Geoff and the 4 Geoff Clones/Geoffettes (Jeff, Jeoph, Goff, and Daryl), and it's a storytelling song (with similar plot points, no less), but also of course it's a Western song about cowboys and stuff!
(Oh btw take a look at the wristbands on "lead Geoff" compared to the clones! Lead Geoff has all his wristbands on his right wrist and just his watch on his left wrist, but the clones have one wristband on the left wrist as well as the watch!)
No "c'mon" in this one, but we got a "yeah"!
Okay but seriously the musicality of this one is so amazing! I didn't think/know how it was possible to improve on something that already started off so good, but Geoff just seems to be getting even better in his covers! The range! The harmonies! The runs and riffs! Man!
ADDITION: All that plus extra lyrics?!?! Yeah, I was reading through the lyrics of the original song (wondering how long it's gonna take me to memorise this one, lol), and I was like "hang on a minute, this doesn't have any chorus - Geoff's definitely had a chorus, right?" so I listened through his cover again while following along with the lyrics, and yeah guess what, Geoff wrote original lyrics so this song could have a proper chorus section as well! This! Man!!
And yes I know that the video description says "additional Music and Lyrics By Geoff Castellucci", but those of us on Patreon weren't actually told about it, Geoff just left it for us to figure out!
Oh yeah also this is my first Early Access video I've gotten on Geoff's Patreon since joining (not counting the early access video for the Shorts released during June), so it's extra special!
It's another VoicePlay Cook off! Which idiot-sandwich reigns supreme?!#burger #cooking #food #yummy Credits:Filming and Editing - Kathy Ca
Absolutely nobody made any posts about this yesterday (we were all too distracted by Geoff's new cover, lol), but it's fine, I wasn't planning on posting about it till today anyway!
I said after I watched the Scrambled Egg Challenge that I'd love to see a few more of those kind of videos from VoicePlay, and well, they delivered!
I watched this yesterday morning, before I watched YDMAWJ, and honestly it was hilarious (though the fact it was 6:30AM for me and I had only just woken up probably added to the hysterics, lol). The banter, the aprons, the vibes, just all *chefs kiss*.
Also I have to share this iconic exchange in their Instagram comments for this video 🤣
Black Hole Sun - VoicePlay ft. Anthony Gargiula (acapella) Soundgarden #...
This is just mind-blowing 🤯 As someone who loves the original and ADORES the cyberpunk aesthetic, it's like VoicePlay put this piece of art together for me specifically. Treat your ears today and give it a listen.
Inspired by Geoff's cover of Unshaken by D'Angelo (from RDR2)
The song has such a great mood and build to it, and that lighting was so fun to work with!
As IF I was ever going to skip over this video!!!!
Voiceplay's cover of Hellfire was released on the 7th of October, 2023 (being their Halloween upload for the year), and, fun fact, it was the first Voiceplay video I watched after a sort of personal "hiatus" of 1-1.5 years, where they had somehow fallen off my radar for a while (which can happen when A, you weren't originally subscribed to them and mostly just relied on the Youtube algorithm/recommended section, and B, you previously only watched videos for songs you were already familiar with (I know better now though, obviously), plus a few other random factors). Geoff's cover of Jack's Lament was the first from his channel I had seen in quite a while (thank you YouTube algorithm for actually being helpful!), and I stumbled upon Hellfire the following day. And man what a video to bring me back into the fold!
Both video and arrangement were done Layne, and although this is another "guest feature" for J None (he did 5 full-length videos with Voiceplay in 2023!), he's only a backing vocalist for most of this one. Who took lead vocals? Geoff! Apparently Layne was wanting Voiceplay to do a cover of Hellfire for quite a while, and had always envisioned Geoff as the main singer for it, but Geoff, for a long time, said no. I don't know/can't remember what his exact reasoning was; whether he just thought the song was too dark or he thought he wouldn't be able to do it justice, but obviously Layne eventually managed to persuade him (made him an arrangement he couldn't refuse, I'm guessing, because seriously this arrangement is STUNNING), and quite frankly I am forever in Layne's debt for it!
I have no estimate of how long this post might be or how much I'll actually have to say about the screencaps I share, but I'll try to make this worthwhile, and so without further ado, let's get into this!
Pretty "basic"/"simple" visuals here, but honestly that's all that's needed for this one! For one thing, the vocals/arrangement are amazing enough to shine on their own (kinda like with Nothing Else Matters), and for another thing, this may be a Disney villain song, but at the same time it's not really a "Disney Song", y'know? This ain't Friends On The Other Side, or Poor Unfortunate Souls, or Be Prepared; this is a song about deep internal conflict, "burning desire", and attempts to suppress said burning desire, which only leads to more trouble. This is a villain song taken completely seriously, and boy oh boy do Voiceplay nail it!
(I feel like I should also mention that I've never actually watched The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, but I know the characters, I know the story, and this song speaks for itself tbh.)
I mean of course all the guys understood the assignment for this one but Cesar really Understood👏The👏Assignment!👏
I can't believe I'm having one of my "hang on a minute-" moments on freaking Hellfire of all videos, but somehow I never noticed the purple gemstone ring that Eli is wearing here before now! (And Cesar is wearing a red gemstone ring as well, which I only just spotted in a previous shot).
Yep, Layne's got a gemstone ring on as well!
I'm guessing J has got a matching ring as well, but I'm fairly certain Geoff doesn't, because he's got this gemstone necklace instead, which of course helps to further identify him as the lead vocalist/"main character" in this one.
(And even though Voiceplay seem to wear black/dark colours a fair bit (and Geoff does a lot), I still really freaking love the costuming in this video. They all look so good!!!!!)
Yep, there it is! J has a ring as well!
"BURN IT"
((If you've been reading/paying attention to all my Voiceplay Visuals posts, you might have picked up that usually, Geoff is the only one who gets bold font for quotes, but I'm more than willing to make an exception this time, because goddamn))
"This fire in my skin"
The way he looks down at his hands and arms as if feeling himself changing, as if there really are flames coursing right underneath the surface of the skin!!!!
"This burning desire, is turning me to
s i n"
Not here to make fun or tease this time, certainly not! Geoff did a fantastic acting job in this one, and his delivery of every single vocal line was just absolutely *chefs kiss*
Everyone else was brilliant in this too, and Cesar absolutely had some attention-grabbing moments of his own! 😄
The "it's not my fault!" section of the song is really cleverly done here imo. (it's technically visual as well! I can talk about it!) It gives other members a bit more of a chance to shine, in a song which (aside from the Latin chanting in the background) is only meant to be a one-man performance. And the video (arrangement included) does this by turning Layne, J, Eli, and Cesar into a sort of Greek Chorus, or more specifically, a "singing chorus" (yes, that's a real thing, which I learned about when I was double-checking to see if I actually remembered the correct meaning of Greek Chorus). Singing choruses are sometimes incorporated into musical theatre and grand opera, and are "used frequently to interpret the mental and emotional reactions of the principal characters, after the manner of a Greek chorus."
And while Eli and Cesar are taking over the lead for this bit here, Geoff becomes a little bit more subdued, head slightly bowed, just doing some little self-conducting hand movements as he holds down the bassline (I'm assuming, though I can't really hear him at all in the background until his arpeggios(?) when J takes over (look, sometimes you really can't fully describe/talk about what's happening on screen without talking about the audio that goes with it!!!))
Cesar with the sick air guitar! (Not all reactors seemingly noticed this moment, which is a damn crime tbh (you can actually see him doing it in the group shot just a few seconds before this too, though that part I myself didn't pick up on till just now))
I can't remember seeing a single reaction video (out of the ones I've watched at least) that actually figured out who the Guard was, even though it's in the description of the video! (Though I guess those who were watching from Patreon have more of an excuse). It's Tony! (Also, this means that this video featured 4 "generations" of Voiceplay baritones - Layne, Tony, J, and Cesar!)
I've heard one or two reactors say they wish they could have seen the guard's face, but nah, I don't think it's necessary. He's there to provide Relevant Information for progression of the plot/song/scene, and that's it! His identity is irrelevant!
(But still, shoutout to Tony!)
"what" (hhhhhh)
"I'll find her,"
"I'll find her and I'll find her if I have to burn down all of PARIS!"
(He did so well! <3 <3 <3)
At first when I watched this video I was like "wow I really love this video, but should I like this video so much? Considering the context/meaning behind the song and all that?" That lasted for like maybe a week maximum. I adore this cover and this video and I make no apologies about it!)
*swoon*
Very cool flame effect in the eyes! According to one reaction video I watched, that likely was not easy to do, but it's a great addition to the already-very-awesome video!
The zoom-out on Geoff is done brilliantly for dramatic effect here as well!
Do I even need to say it at this point? 😂😅
Well anyway, obligatory "he's so pretty!" comment
(Here's a slight shot of Cesar's ring btw)
Man I love it when he belts <3
Firstly, the absolute power and feeling that Geoff put into this, like it's absolutely amazing to watch and it delights me to no end. Secondly, I wasn't going to include that third pic above, but turns out Geoff is wearing a gemstone ring as well! (maybe more than one?) I knew he was wearing rings in the video, but I just assumed they were his wedding/engagement rings, as he pretty much always wears them in videos (unless he can't for costuming purposes), one on each hand, but now I wonder if he was in fact wearing them at all in this video?
Excuse me while I just- *muffled yelling into pillow*
As I type this, Voiceplay's cover of Hellfire is just 4,700 views away from reaching one million hits on YouTube! I hope it gets there, it certainly deserves it (and more!). (UPDATE: As of the morning of the 20th of February (AEST timezone), it's now at one million views! Can I hear a wahoo!?!) (SECOND UPDATE: and it's now at over 1.1 million, as of the 25th of March!)
It's not exactly a typical Halloween-type video for Voiceplay, no super-elaborate character costumes or coloured face/body paint, but just like practically everything Voiceplay did in 2023, this was EPIC!
But anyway, I'll be skipping over Whiskey In The Jar, and I'm not doing any posts about Christmas videos (for now), which means that I'm finally onto the first two full-length uploads of 2024! (And I really would have expected there to be a third 2024 upload by this point, but it seems we're just gonna have to keep on waiting.) Stay tuned!
UNSHAKEN | Red Dead Redemption 2 | Low Bass Singer Cover | Geoff Castellucci
This is gorgeous and heartbreaking, especially to fans of RDR2. Do yourself a favour and soak in the immaculately captured vibes and low rumbly bass tones. One of my new favourites by Mr. Castellucci.
Hoist The Colours was uploaded on September 18, 2021, and features Jose Rosario Jr in his second collaboration with Voiceplay. This one stunned a lot of reactors (one of them, Dennis King of King Family Reacts, literally got up and left the room after the video was finished because he had been rendered speechless by it!), and the video currently sits at 4.6 million views (close to 4.7!) (EDIT/UPDATE: as of the night of the 8th of March, it's now at 4.7, close to 4.8!). So without further ado, let's get right into this one, and hope I don't have to start paying attention to my screenshot count!
Can you believe this was only Cesar's second (full-length) video as a full-time Voiceplay member? Because wow
(Also interestingly enough, Rick Underwood is credited with makeup in the video description (shoutout to Rick!) but no one is credited with costuming, so did everyone just acquire their outfits themselves or what?)
Geoff was in charge of the video creation for this one, as well as doing the arrangement, and he worked together with Eli for the lighting design, so big shoutout to Geoff! (And as always to Eli the lighting whiz)
OKAY a few things to talk about here
First of all, love the set design, it's like the Little Mermaid Medley but on steroids and more pirate themed! Also love the horn-playing skeleton on the left-hand side of the screen (took me a while to notice it ngl 😅)
And of course the outfits/costuming! I can't really think of a lot of things to say individually right now, but there was 100% a lot of thought and effort that went into the clothes (even if the description won't specify who acquired the clothes. I'm going to assume Geoff, since the overall video credit goes to him.)
Oh hey it's my blog banner/background, or close enough to it at least! (Hoist The Colours has a decent few very cool visual moments that are totally screencap-worthy, and of course that's what I'm here for - to point them out!)
Geoff may play the villain (or otherwise just-generally-creepy/spooky/scary guy) a lot in videos, but as of the last few years at least, Eli's often been looking like the one that you really don't wanna pick a fight with. (Also cool ring, and is that fake scar tissue on his head?)
This is a better shot of everyone's outfits actually. A few notes on everyone (except Eli, who I just talked about?)
Cesar: Very ghostly, especially with the cloudy contact lens in one eye. Love the white coat/jacket, and love the pop of colour with the red sash! Also what is he holding/shaking? I thought it was a set of old-fashioned keys, but it doesn't look like it.
Jose: The "captain" of this "motley crew", obviously. Cool coat, and love the sword.
Layne: Not too much going on with his outfit, relatively speaking, but I love the bit of eyeliner under his eyes, and the fake scar on his cheek! (Seriously Rick did a great job here, as he always does)
Geoff: Wearing at least two necklaces, and in true Geoff Castellucci fashion, he's got the top two buttons of his shirt undone (well, gotta show off those necklaces! 😉😁). ALSO, bonus thing that I literally only just realized after taking this screencap, is that Geoff has "VP" on his right arm, done in a way that makes it look like like scar tissue I believe.
That is seriously a very cool and very smooth transition. Who edited this? Was that Geoff too? (Also Crazy Eyes Layne!)
As I figured, one of the necklaces Geoff is wearing, the gold one, is for costume purposes, and the other one, the silver one with the diamond-shaped pendant, is the necklace from Kathy that Geoff basically never takes off (bless him <3 )
I think Cesar's holding old-fashioned shackles/handcuffs or something?
Hang on that skeleton on the left lost his little horn/trumpet and got stabbed?? 😅😂
Yeah Layne had fun in this one I can tell 😁 (also his vest is more detailed than first appears! Very nice!)
What a really freaking awesome shot/moment. In terms of "money shots", these two might in fact be two of the most awesome stills from any Voiceplay video ever (or so far, anyway).
He's got charisma, I'll give him that (also cool necklace!)
How are they just an independent acapella group that make YouTube videos that we can all watch for free? Like seriously, this is top tier stuff (both in terms of the video and the song cover itself), but this wasn't even Voiceplay at their peak! Voiceplay doesn't have a peak! They don't stick to a lane, they take "risks", they get creative, they will sing pretty much anything, and it works
Voiceplay says in the description "we may have gotten a little carried away with this one", but honestly would it really be Voiceplay if they didn't?
Anyway, I've got many more awesome videos ahead of me to write about, so stay tuned!
