Moderately Acclaimed Albums 5 - Round 1.10

[Brad]

Welcome to another round of Moderately Acclaimed Albums!

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 = May 19th at 10am EST

Matchups:
1. Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring vs. Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
2. Roy Orbison – Mystery Girl vs. Counting Crows - August and Everything After
3. The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World vs. Certain General - November's Heat
4. Nina Simone - Pastel Blues vs. Gal Costa - Gal Costa (Não Identificado)

Catch A Fire!

[Honorio]

1. Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring vs. Joanna Newsom - Have One on Me
2. Roy Orbison - Mystery Girl vs. Counting Crows - August and Everything After
3. The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World vs. Certain General - November's Heat
4. Nina Simone - Pastel Blues vs. Gal Costa - Gal Costa

Hardest decision of the week: Simone vs. Costa
(anyway almost every album of this week was fantastic -at least 6 of the 8-, particularly "An Empty Bliss Beyond This World" was a surprising discovery, a mesmerizing listen)


45'40" 123'57" 38'09" 51'37" 45'21" 42'58" 35'36" 39'25"

[DocBrown]

1. Talk Talk - The Color of Spring
2. Counting Crows - August and Everything After.

I don't know if Counting Crows is a guilty pleasure, or if I just like cheeseball pop-rock, or what, but it is consistently the album I play most often digitally, although I never throw the CD on, and never owned the vinyl. I don't even have the album ranked that highly, I just play it often, like comfort food for the ears. The posthumous Roy Orbison releases (both this and the Traveling Wilburys) are certainly "better" albums by any objective yardstick, but I'm gonna throw my vote to my man Duritz round here.

[PlasticRam]

1. Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring vs. Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
2. Roy Orbison – Mystery Girl vs. Counting Crows - August and Everything After
3. The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World vs. Certain General - November's Heat
4. Nina Simone - Pastel Blues vs. Gal Costa - Gal Costa (Não Identificado)

Closest Call: Definitely fourth pair. Didn't like the Nina Simone album of the last competition, this album is much better, her voice didn't bother me this time for some reason. So what I'm saying is I liked it, 8/10. That being said, I really liked Gal Costa's voice, and her album is on my all-time list now.

Edit: I suspect from the predictions that Nina Simone goes through and I don't mind that. Might vote for her on the next rounds.

[Jirin]

Nina Simone - Pastel Blues 86
Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me 83
The Caretaker - An empty bliss beyond this world 83
Gal Costa - Gal Costa (Nao Identificado) 82
Talk Talk - Colour Of Spring 80
Roy Orbison - Mystery Girl 76
Certain General - November's Heat 76
Counting Crows - August And Everything After 65

[jamieW]

Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring
Counting Crows - August and Everything After
The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World
Nina Simone - Pastel Blues

Favorite album I didn't vote for: Gal Costa - Gal Costa
Favorite song off any album: (There were a lot of great songs this week; still, this was no contest.) Nina Simone - Sinnerman

[Blanco]

4. Nina Simone - Pastel Blues vs. Gal Costa - Gal Costa (Não Identificado)

[Stephan]

1. Gal Costa - Gal Costa (Não Identificado)
2. Nina Simone - Pastel Blues
3. Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring
4. Counting Crows - August and Everything After
5. Roy Orbison – Mystery Girl
6. Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me
7. Certain General - November's Heat
8. The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World

[DaveC]

1. Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
These are two of my favourites in the game so it is tough to have to choose in round 1, but I just think that Joanna Newsom's lyrics knock it out of the park.

2. Roy Orbison – Mystery Girl

3. The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World
Like the soundtrack for a steam-punk reinterpretation of Inception. There is that exact same sense of losing touch with the real world in abrupt steps and then clawing your way back from somewhere alien.

4. Nina Simone - Pastel Blues

[antonius]

1. Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring
2. Roy Orbison – Mystery Girl
4. Nina Simone - Pastel Blues

[Brad]

My picks:

1. Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring vs. Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
2. Roy Orbison – Mystery Girl vs. Counting Crows - August and Everything After
3. The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World vs. Certain General - November's Heat
4. Nina Simone - Pastel Blues vs. Gal Costa - Gal Costa (Não Identificado)

Thanks!

[nicolas]

1. Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring vs. Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
2. Roy Orbison – Mystery Girl vs. Counting Crows - August and Everything After

[Michel]

1. Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring
2. Roy Orbison – Mystery Girl
3. Certain General - November's Heat

[Nassim]

1. Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring
2. Counting Crows - August and Everything After
I was considering passing this one since both are enjoyable but very uneven, but since Roy will win easily anyway I pick Counting Crows (not because it is going to lose, but because will it's pretty much a tie, Counting Crows is a good surprise while we could have hoped better from Roy Orbison)
3. The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World
November's Heat is the one I enjoyed the most on first listen, but I am more likely to go bad to the Caretaker album, even in very specific circumstances only.

[Brad]

23 hours left to vote!

[Henrik]

1. Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring

[Brad]

14 total voters:
antonius
Blanco
Brad
DaveC
DocBrown
Henrik
Honorio
jaimeW
Jirin
Michel
Nassim
nicolas
PlasticRam
Stephan

Winners:
1. Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring over Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me 10-3
2. Roy Orbison – Mystery Girl over Counting Crows - August and Everything After 8-4
3. The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World over Certain General - November's Heat 6-3
4. Nina Simone - Pastel Blues over Gal Costa - Gal Costa (Não Identificado) 6-3

Round 1.11 up next!