Moderately Acclaimed Albums 4 - Quarterfinals!

[Brad]

Quarterfinals
Here are your final 8!
Vote for your favorite album in each match-up.
Remember, anyone can vote as long as he or she has heard both albums!
Comments are encouraged but not absolutely necessary.
Deadline = October 7th at 10am EST

Match-ups:
1. Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin' vs. Miles Davis - A Tribute To Jack Johnson
2. Donovan - Sunshine Superman vs. Nico - Desertshore
3. Eels - Electro-Shock Blues vs. Nina Simone - Wild Is The Wind
4. Anais Mitchell - Hadestown vs. Jacques Brel - Olympia 1964

Listen to the music playing in your head.

[Stephan]

1. Miles Davis - A Tribute To Jack Johnson
2. Anaïs Mitchell - Hadestown
3. Jacques Brel - Olympia 1964
4. Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin'
5. Donovan - Sunshine Superman
6. Nina Simone - Wild Is The Wind
7. Nico - Desertshore
8. Eels - Electro-Shock Blues

[Michel]

1. Miles Davis - A Tribute To Jack Johnson
2. Nico - Desertshore
3. Eels - Electro-Shock Blues
4. Jacques Brel - Olympia 1964

[Dan]

Listen to the music playing in your head.

Thanks, I did. And...

1. Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin' vs. Miles Davis - A Tribute To Jack Johnson
2. Donovan - Sunshine Superman vs. Nico - Desertshore
3. Eels - Electro-Shock Blues vs. Nina Simone - Wild Is The Wind
4. Anais Mitchell - Hadestown vs. Jacques Brel - Olympia 1964

[Brad]

My picks:

1. Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin' vs. Miles Davis - A Tribute To Jack Johnson
2. Donovan - Sunshine Superman vs. Nico - Desertshore
3. Eels - Electro-Shock Blues vs. Nina Simone - Wild Is The Wind
So close. I have Eels ranked #700 all-time and Nina ranked #706
4. Anais Mitchell - Hadestown vs. Jacques Brel - Olympia 1964

Thanks!

[PlasticRam]

1. Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin' vs. Miles Davis - A Tribute To Jack Johnson

This is a tie for me. Both get 0,5 votes!!!

2. Donovan - Sunshine Superman vs. Nico - Desertshore

3. Eels - Electro-Shock Blues vs. Nina Simone - Wild Is The Wind

Those two match-ups weren't close for me.

[DaveC]

1. Miles Davis - A Tribute To Jack Johnson
2. Nico – Desertshore
3. Nina Simone - Wild Is The Wind
4. Jacques Brel - Olympia 1964

[Jirin]

Doh! The only two left I really like are against each other!

I vote Bob Dylan, Nico, Nina Simone and Anais Mitchell.

But Anais Mitchell and Jacques Brel really should both advance.

[jamieW]

Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin'
Donovan - Sunshine Superman
Nina Simone - Wild Is The Wind
Jacques Brel - Olympia 1964

[Honorio]

Quarter finals? Time for comments again...
I'm glad that three of my nominations got to quarter finals, hope that at least one of them could get also to semi-finals.
I love the remaining 8 albums and I'm also glad to see these three ladies on quarter finals.


1. Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin' vs. Miles Davis - A Tribute to Jack Johnson
"Your old road is rapidly agin' / Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand / For the times they are a-changin'"
"Seven shots ring out / Like the ocean's pounding roar / There's seven people dead / On a South Dakota farm"
"If God's on our side / He'll stop the next war"
"An' the silent night will shatter / From the sounds inside my mind / For I'm one too many mornings"
"My children will go / As soon they grow / Well there ain't nothing here now to hold them"
"And the Negro's name / Is used it is plain / For the politician's gain"
"The diamonds from the deepest ocean / I'd forsake them all for your sweet kiss / For that's all I'm wishin' to be ownin'"
"Like the stillness in the wind / 'Fore the hurricane begins / The hour when the ship comes in"
"William Zanzinger killed poor Hattie Carroll / With a cane that he twirled around his diamond ring finger"
"Oh all the money that in my whole life I did spend / Be it mine right or wrongfully / I let it slip gladly past the hands of my friends"
I told it on Round 2. Protest music can't get better.

2. Donovan - Sunshine Superman vs. Nico - Desertshore
I'm surprised (and delighted) about the excellent performance of "Sunshine Superman." Creating some controversy and winning with narrow margins but Donovan is passing round after round. And here he is, in quarterfinals with chances to go to semi-finals (five votes so far!). Now he faces Nico, both artists boarding medieval music with very different tones, the ominous chants of Nico versus the dreamy ballads of Donovan. May the best one win.

3. Eels - Electro-Shock Blues vs. Nina Simone - Wild Is the Wind
The Eels album has been one of the discoveries of the MA4, I enjoyed a lot the "introspective and haunting" atmosphere and the variety of sounds. But Nina Simone's album is simply too good despite having some lows. Anyway the highs are so high ("Four Women," "Lilac Wine," "Wild Is the Wind" or "Black Is the Colour of My True Love's Hair") that it easily gets my vote.

4. Anaïs Mitchell - Hadestown vs. Jacques Brel - Olympia 1964
Anaïs has been THE discovery of the tournament, an ambitious tour de force (a "folk opera" about the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, no less) that widely succeeds. I like specially the parts of Greg Brown (Hades, splendid in "Why We Built the Wall") and the Haden Triplets (The Fates, gorgeous in "Nothing Changes"). Anyway (and after listening again both albums) it was not enough to outplace my favourite live album ever.

[sonofsamiam]

Nico - Desertshore
Nina Simone - Wild Is The Wind
Miles Davis - A Tribute To Jack Johnson
Jacques Brel - Olympia 1964
Eels - Electro-Shock Blues
Anais Mitchell - Hadestown
Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin'
Donovan - Sunshine Superman


4 clear-cut winners this week. I don't get what people are seeing in Sunshine Superman, and I like Donovan well enough (in fact, if this were Barabajagal I might have an entirely different opinion. Sunshine Superman has 2 very good songs ("Season of the Witch" and the title track), but nothing else on it stands out (to me at least). Just a dissenting opinion here, as many people who I respect have been voting for Donovan.

[nicolas]

Jacques Brel - Olympia 64 5
Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin' 4
Nina Simone - Wild Is The Wind 4
Miles Davis - A Tribute To Jack Johnson 4
Eels - Electro-Shock Blues 3.5
Anais Mitchell - Hadestown 3.5
Donovan - Sunshine Superman 3.5
Nico - Desertshore 3

I'm not a huge fan of Sunshine Superman either, but it's against my least favorite album of this week, so it wins

[Kingoftonga]

1. Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin'
2. Nico - Desertshore
3. Eels - Electro-Shock Blues
4. Anais Mitchell - Hadestown

[HRS]

1. Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin' vs. Miles Davis - A Tribute To Jack Johnson
2. Donovan - Sunshine Superman vs. Nico - Desertshore
3. Eels - Electro-Shock Blues vs. Nina Simone - Wild Is The Wind
4. Anais Mitchell - Hadestown vs. Jacques Brel - Olympia 1964

Number #4 wasn't easy. So, Hadestown is a decade top 20 for me, in a decade with too few albums as solid as it, and Brel is terrific live, but he has plenty of great efforts over this particular one. I'll support Mitchell, but I'll be glad with whoever passes to the next phase.

[Brad]

only 24-1/2 hours left to vote your favorites into the semi-final round!

[Stephan]

I don't think I've ever rooted against Bob this much. Come on guys, we need a few more votes for Miles!

[Brad]

Results
13 total voters:
Brad
Dan
DaveC
Honorio
HRS
jamieW
Jirin
kingoftonga
Michel
nicolas
PlasticRam
sonofsamiam
Stephan

Winners (on to the Semi-Finals!):
1. Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin' over Miles Davis - A Tribute To Jack Johnson 7-5
2. Donovan - Sunshine Superman over Nico - Desertshore 7-6
3. Nina Simone - Wild Is The Wind over Eels - Electro-Shock Blues 9-4
4. Jacques Brel - Olympia 1964 over Anais Mitchell - Hadestown 8-4

Clean sweep for the 1960's!
And now Donovan takes on Dylan head-to-head... revenge for that awkward segment in "Don't Look Back"?
Stay tuned...

Semi-finals will be up soon!

PS - Sorry Stephan!