Unacclaimed III Group Stage, Week 7

[whuntva]

Here's another week of Unacclaimed. Only this week and the next and we can move on to the elimination round.

Let's keep this train rolling!

Vote 1-4, with four points going to the top, 1 to the bottom. Top Two advance and ties broken by #1 votes.

You are allowed to skip groups. Comments strongly encouraged but not required.

Voting closes at 11:59 UTC on Nov. 20.


BELA BARTOK GROUP
Balthazar-This is a Flirt
Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi-The Rose with a Broken Neck
Joan Armatrading-No Love
Half Man Half Biscuit-Dickie Davies Eyes

ANTONIN DVORAK GROUP
AR Kane-Lollita
Type O Negative-Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity
Counting Crows-Accidentally In Love
Local H-Bound for the Floor


I also feel it appropriate to send my thoughts and prayers to Paris tonight. It was such a devastating event the likes of which have not been seen in a while. And it just sickens me to know how strong ISIS is. I just hope all my European friends on AM are safe tonight. Thank you and let's hang in there as an AM community.

[Bang Jan]

BELA BARTOK GROUP
Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi-The Rose with a Broken Neck
Half Man Half Biscuit-Dickie Davies Eyes
Balthasar-This is a Flirt
Joan Armatrading-No Love

ANTONIN DVORAK GROUP
Type O Negative-Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity
AR Kane-Lollita
Counting Crows-Accidentally In Love
Local H-Bound for the Floor

What a mediocre week!

[Honorio]

Bartók group:
2. Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi - The Rose with a Broken Neck (2011)
3. Half Man Half Biscuit - Dickie Davies Eyes (1986)
6. Joan Armatrading - No Love (1981)
7. Balthazar -This Is a Flirt (2007)

Dvořák group:
1. AR Kane - Lollita (1987)
4. Local H - Bound for the Floor (1996)
5. Type O Negative - Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity (1991)
8. Counting Crows - Accidentally in Love (2004)

[jamieW]

BELA BARTOK GROUP
3. Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi-The Rose with a Broken Neck
4. Balthazar-This is a Flirt
6. Joan Armatrading-No Love
7. Half Man Half Biscuit-Dickie Davies Eyes

ANTONIN DVORAK GROUP
1. AR Kane-Lollita
2. Local H-Bound for the Floor
5. Type O Negative-Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity
8. Counting Crows-Accidentally In Love

[whuntva]

BARTOK GROUP

Half Man Half Biscuit - Dickie Davies Eyes
Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi - The Rose with a Broken Neck
Balthazar -This Is a Flirt
Joan Armatrading - No Love

"Dickie Davies Eyes" is no question one of the best songs of the 80s. It has a lithe, happy tone and just the right sarcastic lyrics. It sounds like a proto-Super Furry Animals, and the whole album does not disappoint either.

Actually a little surprised the Danger Mouse album Rome is unacclaimed, as I remembere hearing it when it first came out and it got good reviews at the time. This wasn't my favorite track from it, but it was enough to take #2.

Balthazar sounds like dance-punk made after dance-punk was a thing, so it sounds a bit worn. Armatrading is also a bit too generic.

DVORAK GROUP

Local H-Bound for the Floor
AR Kane-Lollita
Counting Crows - Accidentally in Love
Type O Negative - Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity

Local H is a late 90s classic. Regardless of your opinion of post-grunge, this song basically started that subgenre and has one of the best riffs that decade. Almost every big rock song from the past 19 years owes something to this song. You hear those opening notes, and you know what you'll do for the next four minutes.

"Lollita" makes me think of Have a Nice Life and some other drone/post-rock outfits. Maybe it deserves to win the bracket, possibly even be a favorite to win it all, but I just had some I picked over it.

"Accidentally in Love" isn't terrible, but seems a bit out of place on AM.

I had long heard of Type O Negative, but after hearing this song, I don't think they are for me.

[bonnielaurel]

Bartók group:
Joan Armatrading - No Love (1981)
Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi - The Rose with a Broken Neck (2011)
Half Man Half Biscuit - Dickie Davies Eyes (1986)
Balthazar -This Is a Flirt (2007)

Joan Armatrading's voice and the saxophone solo create a delicate atmosphere. Danger Mouse takes off slowly but becomes more interesting when Jack White starts singing.

Dvořák group:
Counting Crows - Accidentally in Love (2004)
Type O Negative - Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity (1991)
Local H - Bound for the Floor (1996)
AR Kane - Lollita (1987)

Counting Crows is a happy song with stimulating rhythms, subtle use of a piano after the climax and the best line of the week: "I surrender to the strawberry ice cream." Type O Negative is a metal band with a theatrical style. Local H sounds like an imitation of Nirvana.

[phil]

BELA BARTOK GROUP
1. Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi - The Rose With a Broken Neck
4. Joan Armatrading - No Love
6. Half Man Half Biscuit - Dickie Davis Eyes
8. Balthazar - This is a Flirt

ANTONIN DVORAK GROUP
2. AR Kane - Lollita
3. Counting Crows - Accidentally In Love
5. Local H - Bound for the Floor
7. Type O Negative - Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity

Probably the weakest week overall in the game.

[Maschine_Man]

BELA BARTOK GROUP
Balthasar-This is a Flirt
Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi-The Rose with a Broken Neck
Joan Armatrading-No Love
Half Man Half Biscuit-Dickie Davies Eyes

ANTONIN DVORAK GROUP
Local H-Bound for the Floor
Counting Crows-Accidentally In Love
AR Kane-Lollita
Type O Negative-Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity

[Brad]

BELA BARTOK GROUP
Joan Armatrading-No Love
Half Man Half Biscuit-Dickie Davies Eyes
Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi-The Rose with a Broken Neck
Balthazar-This is a Flirt

ANTONIN DVORAK GROUP
AR Kane-Lollita
Type O Negative-Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity
Local H-Bound for the Floor
Counting Crows-Accidentally In Love

Thanks!

[spiritualized]

BELA BARTOK GROUP
Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi-The Rose with a Broken Neck
Balthazar-This is a Flirt
Half Man Half Biscuit-Dickie Davies Eyes
Joan Armatrading-No Love

ANTONIN DVORAK GROUP
AR Kane-Lollita
Local H-Bound for the Floor
Counting Crows-Accidentally In Love
Type O Negative-Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity

[Romain]

BELA BARTOK GROUP
Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi-The Rose with a Broken Neck
Half Man Half Biscuit-Dickie Davies Eyes
Balthazar-This is a Flirt
Joan Armatrading-No Love

I'm sooo happy to see the love for this song (The rose...). I seemed to be the only one here to love this amazing album (Rome), one of the best of the last ten years. Clearly a favorite for this game for me.


ANTONIN DVORAK GROUP
AR Kane-Lollita
Type O Negative-Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity
Counting Crows-Accidentally In Love
Local H-Bound for the Floor

[DaveC]

Going for the humour this week

BELA BARTOK GROUP
1.Half Man Half Biscuit-Dickie Davies Eyes
2.Joan Armatrading-No Love
3.Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi-The Rose with a Broken Neck
4.Balthazar-This is a Flirt

John Peel played HMHB relentlessly in the 80's. They never struck a strong chord with me, but there is a sweet nostalgia to the humour here.

ANTONIN DVORAK GROUP
1.Type O Negative-Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity
2.Counting Crows-Accidentally In Love
3.Local H-Bound for the Floor
4.AR Kane-Lollita

So a Goth Metal Darkness. Like the Darkness the gloss will no doubt fade as the joke becomes over familiar.

[Sweepstakes Ron]

BARTOK:
1. This Is a Flirt - Really fun rock!
2. No Love - A pretty strong performance, if not very unique.
3. The Rose With the Broken Neck - Nicely produced, just didn't stick out to me very much.
4. Dickie Davies Eyes - The humo(u)r is lost on me.

DVORAK:
1. Accidentally in Love -
2. Bound for the Floor - Sounds like a wannabe Nirvana, but... somehow it works?
3. Lolita - Failed to leave an impression. It feels weird to think that these guys were partially responsible for "Pump Up the Volume".
4. Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity - Nah, bruh.

[sonofsamiam]

BELA BARTOK GROUP
Half Man Half Biscuit-Dickie Davies Eyes
Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi-The Rose with a Broken Neck
Joan Armatrading-No Love
Balthazar-This is a Flirt

ANTONIN DVORAK GROUP
AR Kane-Lollita
Type O Negative-Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity
Local H-Bound for the Floor
Counting Crows-Accidentally In Love

[luney6]

ANTONIN DVORAK GROUP

Type O Negative-Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity - Sounds so angry that it's really funny, especially considering the lyrics and the title. This also goes really well with the music, which, what with the riffs and the chorus, sounds like it could have been a catchy classic rock song.
AR Kane-Lollita - I like everything but the vocals.
Counting Crows-Accidentally In Love - Really Boring
Local H-Bound for the Floor - Something does not seem to click.

[whuntva]

Last Call!

I am going to be a little late on Friday Night, so deadline is extended a bit.

Votes submitted after 11:59 UTC Friday will still count.

[Moonbeam]

I'm sorry that I've missed the previous 4 weeks - I will catch up to them when I can!

BELA BARTOK GROUP
Balthazar-This is a Flirt: 8
Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi-The Rose with a Broken Neck: 7.5
Joan Armatrading-No Love: 7.5
Half Man Half Biscuit-Dickie Davies Eyes: 5

Strong group! The synthesized fun of "This Is a Flirt" gets a slight edge over the moody wonder of "The Rose with a Broken Neck". Joan Armatrading is pretty great - this song reminds me that I should dig into the compilation of hers I have again.

ANTONIN DVORAK GROUP
Type O Negative-Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity: 6
AR Kane-Lollita: 6
Local H-Bound for the Floor: 2
Counting Crows-Accidentally In Love: 2

Much weaker batch here. There were parts of the Type O Negative song that I really didn't like, but the slower, moodier passages were enjoyable. The tiebreaker over "Lolita" comes because of the hilarity of the line "I know you're fuckin' someone else" followed by the fellow bandmates chiming in "He knows you're fuckin' someone else". It made me think the guy needed his friends to confront his girl about her cheating with aggressive harmonizing.

[Chilton]

BELA BARTOK GROUP
1. Balthazar - This Is a Flirt
2. Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi - The Rose with a Broken Neck
4. Joan Armatrading - No Love
6. Half Man Half Biscuit - Dickie Davies Eyes

ANTONIN DVORAK GROUP
3. AR Kane - Lollita
5. Type O Negative - Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity
7. Local H - Bound for the Floor
8. Counting Crows - Accidentally in Love

[luney6]

The tiebreaker over "Lolita" comes because of the hilarity of the line "I know you're fuckin' someone else" followed by the fellow bandmates chiming in "He knows you're fuckin' someone else". It made me think the guy needed his friends to confront his girl about her cheating with aggressive harmonizing.

Yes, this was also something I was referring to when I said the song was really funny. There are several other such instances in this song that come to light with repeated listens.

Edit: And not to mention that the chorus, along with numerous other segments of the song get stuck in one's head.

[whuntva]

The results are in!

This was for all groups the closest week since I took over Unacclaimed.

BARTOK GROUP
Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi - The Rose with a Broken Neck (48, 6)
Half Man Half Biscuit - Dickie Davies Eyes (35, 3)
---
Balthazar - This Is a Flirt (34, 4)
Joan Armatrading - No Love (33, 2)

No question who would finish #1. Danger Mouse led early and by a lot. HMHB was lucky to hang on until the very last vote.

DVORAK GROUP
AR Kane-Lollita (50, 8)
Type O Negative-Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity (39, 4)
---
Local H - Bound for the Floor (37, 2)
Counting Crows - Accidentally in Love (34, 2)

Two niche songs vs. two mainstream pop hits. In the end, the niche songs won out, but only with the last two votes. Type O Negative, which held on to advance, was at one point tied for last.

Again, please check for errors!