Rocksmith Songs Review: When I'm With You and Plug In Baby

Now that I've unlocked the last Secret Squirrel song, I've just got two more guitars to earn and playing events will be just for the glory of all those screaming cloned fans. Since I can't piss and moan about not getting second encores any more, I've decided to focus on individual songs. And so I bring you the first of my Rocksmith Song Review posts -

When I'm With You - Best Coast

This song is deceptively difficult. It's very easy to play but very hard to get a great score. Even the combo arrangement is mainly chords, but trying to level this song up can be aggravating. The trick seems to be getting the timing down exactly, especially on the intro. Forcing the mastery level up in Riff Repeater helps. There are several strum strokes missing from the lower mastery levels which makes it difficult to hit things at the right moment. Forcing the mastery up to 100% in Leveler makes it a little easier to get credit.

Moving back and forth from the 3d fret G-chord to the E5 at the 12th fret can be tough if you aren't good with chords. The C5 and D5 aren't so bad, but dropping to a proper G-Maj. at the 3d fret requires some quick movement and accurate fingering.

There is a solo, but it's one of the easiest solos in RS. All on the 3d and 4th string, mainly the 4th, and pretty much all on two frets. No double-stops (or "harmonic intervals"). My kind of solo!

I've played this song 13 times (possibly a handful of times before I restarted my journey but not many) and have it up to the maximum qualifying level - 90k. My high score is 93,368.

Despite having all levels maxed (with a little work in RR), I haven't Mastered this one yet. I believe this is one of those songs that is so easy to play that RS made the scoring really tough.

Plug in Baby - Muse

Another fairly easy song, but there is a fairly tricky riff to it. It's not really hard to learn, but it's hard to get up to speed. It moves fast and it sounds really cool. Learn it and impress your friends!

Most of the song is chords - easy chords: Bm, F#, G, and D barres. And, plenty of rests.

No solo. So, once you get the riff down pat you've pretty well got this song nailed. I really like this song. Fun to play and sounds harder than it is.

I wouldn't classify it as "easy," but maybe "medium" on my ranking of RS songs.