Moderately Acclaimed Albums 7- Round 1.5

[Brad]

Welcome to another round of Moderately Acclaimed Albums 7!

Vote for your favorite album in each match-up.
Remember, anyone can vote as long as the voter has heard both albums.

Comments are encouraged but not absolutely necessary.
Deadline = April 26th at 10am EST.

Match-ups:
1. Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns vs. The Gun Club - Fire Of Love
2. Amon Düül II - Yeti vs. Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream
3. Julee Cruise - Floating into the Night vs. Jeff Mills - Live at the Liquid Room, Tokyo
4. Kevin Coyne - Millionaires and Teddy Bears vs. Exuma - Exuma II

Who Loves The Sun?

[Bang Jan]

Live at the Liquid Room, Tokyo

Amon Düül II | Yeti
The Gun Club | Fire of Love
Joni Mitchell | The Hissing of Summer Lawns
Julee Cruise | Floating into the Night
Exuma | Exuma II
Kevin Coyne | Millionaires and Teddy Bears
Jeff Mills | Live at the Liquid Room, Tokyo
Miguel | Kaleidoscope Dream

[Honorio]

1. Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns (1975) vs. The Gun Club - Fire of Love (1981)


2. Amon Düül II - Yeti (1970) vs. Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream (2012)


3. Julee Cruise - Floating into the Night (1989) vs. Jeff Mills - Live at the Liquid Room, Tokyo (1996)


4. Kevin Coyne - Millionaires and Teddy Bears (1979) vs. Exuma - Exuma II (1970)

Favourite song from every album:
The Jungle Line | She's Like Heroin to Me | Archangels Thunderbird | Do You… | Falling | Segment2 | The World Is Full of Fools | Baal

Favourite song of the week: Falling

[Jirin]

Lots of non-Spotify this week, are there YT links for the last three?

Joni Mitchell 89-85
Miguel 87-83

[Bang Jan]

Lots of non-Spotify this week, are there YT links for the last three?

Live at the Liquid Room, Tokyo
Millionaires and Teddy Bears
Exuma II

[DaveC]

1. Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns vs. The Gun Club - Fire Of Love
2. Amon Düül II - Yeti vs. Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream
3. Julee Cruise - Floating into the Night vs. Jeff Mills - Live at the Liquid Room, Tokyo
4. Kevin Coyne - Millionaires and Teddy Bears vs. Exuma - Exuma II

[luney6]

Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns vs. The Gun Club - Fire Of Love

I wasn't expecting Joni Mitchel to be so good. I even revisited Blue and Hejira, both of which I'd found mediocre on first listen. Now I love both of those. This album is rather solid, with a string of fantastic songs opening it. Unfortunately, it's rather weak in parts. Fire of Love is Psychobilly at its best, and hence wins out, relatively easily.

Amon Düül II - Yeti vs. Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream

When I think of Yeti, I'm also immediately reminded of Tago Mago, for some reason. Both albums have a sort of mystic atmosphere to them. It's more dense in Yeti, though. Fantastic record. Miguel's seems like an above average pop record, ambitious in parts, but it still fails in my mind because of how it is contained within the walls of the genre, in terms of predictability.

[spiritualized]

Yet again, Luney and I seem to be in phase

1. Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns vs. The Gun Club - Fire Of Love

I already listened and rated both albums. I find Joni Mitchell particularly boring and uninspiring. It brings visions of end of the sixties campfires with a single acoustic guitar and no drive at all. On the other hand, Fire of Love starts brilliantly and never lets up. This album is a gem, top 500 easily for me.

2. Amon Düül II - Yeti vs. Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream

Again, both albums rated before - and Miguel didn't stand a chance against another one of my top 500. However, surprisingly, I raised an ear to Kaleidoscope Dream. It goes beyond the R&B label and provides interesting ideas. Not enough to beat a classic Krautrock album, though.

[bonnielaurel]

1. Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns vs. The Gun Club - Fire Of Love
2. Amon Düül II - Yeti vs. Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream
3. Julee Cruise - Floating into the Night vs. Jeff Mills - Live at the Liquid Room, Tokyo
4. Kevin Coyne - Millionaires and Teddy Bears vs. Exuma - Exuma II

Song of the week: Julee Cruise - Falling

[spiritualized]

3. Julee Cruise - Floating into the Night vs. Jeff Mills - Live at the Liquid Room, Tokyo
Criminally, I never rated Floating into the Night. I listened to it quite extensively when I became enamoured with "Twin Peaks", but never took the time to listen to it on its own. Sadly, Jeff Mills faced this excellent album. The atmospheric tunes, beautiful voice from Julee Cruise, words from David Lynch - it was doomed to be a great record.

4. Kevin Coyne - Millionaires and Teddy Bears vs. Exuma - Exuma II

Would have rather had Jeff Mills move forward than any of these two. Nothing tickled me, except maybe the goofyness of Exuma. Not strong contenders, I am afraid.

[PlasticRam]

1. Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns vs. The Gun Club - Fire Of Love
2. Amon Düül II - Yeti vs. Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream
3. Julee Cruise - Floating into the Night vs. Jeff Mills - Live at the Liquid Room, Tokyo
4. Kevin Coyne - Millionaires and Teddy Bears vs. Exuma - Exuma II

[luney6]

Julee Cruise - Floating into the Night vs. Jeff Mills - Live at the Liquid Room, Tokyo

Both are just about average, or maybe sightly above. Floating into the Night is a well arranged that generally doesn't wander into very pretentious territory. Jeff Mills probably has better studio albums. This album has some interesting moments, but because of how it is a live album, it is generally of lower quality.

Kevin Coyne - Millionaires and Teddy Bears vs. Exuma - Exuma II

Neither album is very good. But Exuma has some really terrible lyrics, I think.

[antonius]

1. Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns
2. Amon Düül II - Yeti
3. Julee Cruise - Floating into the Night
4. Kevin Coyne - Millionaires and Teddy Bears

[PlasticRam]

Neither album is very good. But Exuma has some really terrible lyrics, I think.

I like the lyrics cos I look at it in the context that he's playing a character, voodoo priest (obeah man), and he actually believes the crazy stuff he says.

[luney6]

Neither album is very good. But Exuma has some really terrible lyrics, I think.

I like the lyrics cos I look at it in the context that he's playing a character, voodoo priest (obeah man), and he actually believes the crazy stuff he says.

Hmmmm...yeah. I guess that does makes more sense.

[Jirin]

I really like Millionaires and Teddy Bears, haven't gotten to listen to Exuma II yet. Though it annoys me whenever I find a really good album in this game only to find out it has an absurd Amazon price.

[jamieW]

Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns
Amon Düül II - Yeti
Julee Cruise - Floating into the Night
Kevin Coyne - Millionaires and Teddy Bears

Exuma is one of those artists who I don't personally enjoy, but I find morbidly fascinating somehow. The clear winner for me this week is Julee Cruise's incredibly atmospheric "Floating Into the Night," one of my favorite albums of the eighties.

[DocBrown]

Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns
Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream
Julee Cruise - Floating into the Night
Kevin Coyne - Millionaires and Teddy Bears

[Kingoftonga]

Winners in red.

1. Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns vs. The Gun Club - Fire Of Love

Maybe it's because warm weather is finally thawing the area where I live, but Joni Mitchell's album completely won me over this week. It's an album that just seems so colorful, lively, but suitably mellow. The Gun Club has never really been my kind of band.

2. Amon Düül II - Yeti vs. Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream

I'm a big Krautrock fan, so this wasn't much of a contest.

3. Julee Cruise - Floating into the Night vs. Jeff Mills - Live at the Liquid Room, Tokyo

Probably my closest match of the week. I love "Falling," but ultimately the rest of Cruise's album didn't manage to impress me as much (although, to be fair, I probably shouldn't expect every song to be as effective as "Falling"). But Jeff Mills was a nice change of pace, as I don't think techno really shows up in these tournaments all that much. I'm thankful for whoever nominated this one; I hadn't listened to Mills before, but I'm going to have to find more of his stuff.

4. Kevin Coyne - Millionaires and Teddy Bears vs. Exuma - Exuma II

The spoken word interludes in Exuma are kind of annoying, but everything else reminds me of Dr. John, a favorite of mine.

[acroamor]

1. Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns vs. The Gun Club - Fire Of Love
My introduction to the Gun Club was Japandroids' stellar cover of "For the Love of Ivy" on their last album, Celebration Rock. I was a little disappointed to hear the original - no intensity. Not that that's necessarily true of the whole album, because it's quite good. But The Hissing of Summer Lawns is a masterpiece from start to finish, a perfect encapsulation of the late-period experimentation that Joni got into, when she herself thought that she reached her peak. Also, the Hissing of Summer Lawns was a favorite album of Prince's, so it's only appropriate to vote for it now.

[sonofsamiam]

Great week

1. Amon Düül II - Yeti
2. Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns
3. The Gun Club - Fire Of Love
4. Exuma - Exuma II
5. Julee Cruise - Floating into the Night
6. Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream
7. Jeff Mills - Live at the Liquid Room, Tokyo
8. Kevin Coyne - Millionaires and Teddy Bears

[notbrianeno]

1. Joni Mitchell | The Hissing of Summer Lawns vs. The Gun Club | Fire Of Love
2. Amon Düül II | Yeti vs. Miguel | Kaleidoscope Dream
3. Julee Cruise | Floating into the Night vs. Jeff Mills | Live at the Liquid Room, Tokyo

Kaleidoscope Dream is absurdly underrated, easily stands with House of Balloons, Black Messiah, and channel.ORANGE as a modern R&B classic

[babydoll]

01 | Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns vs. The Gun Club - Fire of Love
This has always been one of my favorite Joni records.

02 | Amon Duul - Yeti vs. Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream
To be honest, they're both records of equal quality. What sets Miguel apart is probably Adorn.

03 | Julee Cruise - Floating Into the Night vs. Jeff Mills - Live at the Liquid Room, Tokyo
Julee's debut is absolutely one of the greatest of all time. Plus Falling is a phenomenal song.

[BleuPanda]

The Hissing of Summer Lawns
Kaleidoscope Dream
Floating Into the Night

[Brad]

My picks:
1. Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns vs. The Gun Club - Fire Of Love
2. Amon Düül II - Yeti vs. Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream
3. Julee Cruise - Floating into the Night vs. Jeff Mills - Live at the Liquid Room, Tokyo
4. Kevin Coyne - Millionaires and Teddy Bears vs. Exuma - Exuma II

About 22-1/2 hours left to vote!

[GucciLittlePiggy]

1. Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns vs. The Gun Club - Fire Of Love

Strong competition between two artists I'm new to, but Joni's album is just a bit more up my alley.

2. Amon Düül II - Yeti vs. Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream

I am not well-versed in krautrock, though I was led to believe Can's Tago Mago was the pinnacle of the genre. As great as that album is, I never imagined an album "toiling" at #2073 on AM could best it, yet here we have an incredibly exciting 60+ minutes of the best German rock I've heard (well, ok, its only competition is Can but my point is this record is impeccable). Still, it posed no actual threat to my #55 album of all-time.

Kaleidoscope Dream is absurdly underrated, easily stands with House of Balloons, Black Messiah, and channel.ORANGE as a modern R&B classic

Word up

[Brad]

19 voters this week... thanks for maintaining the excellent turnout!:
acroamor
antonius
babydoll
Bang Jan
BleuPanda
bonnielaurel
Brad
DaveC
DocBrown
GucciLittlePiggy
Honorio
jamieW
Jirin
Kingoftonga
luney6
notbrianeno
PlasticRam
sonofsamiam
spiritualized

Winners:
1. Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns over The Gun Club - Fire Of Love 14-5
2. Amon Düül II - Yeti over Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream 10-8
3. Julee Cruise - Floating into the Night over Jeff Mills - Live at the Liquid Room, Tokyo 14-2
4. Exuma - Exuma II over Kevin Coyne - Millionaires and Teddy Bears 7-6

Round 1.6 up in a little while!