Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8 - Round 1.8

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Brad
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Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8 - Round 1.8

Post by Brad »

Welcome to Round 1.8 of Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8!

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

Good-spirited comments are encouraged, but not absolutely necessary.
Deadline = May 2nd at 10am EST.

Here's a link to the bracket for the entire tournament:
http://www.bracketmaker.com/tmenu.cfm?t ... Albums%208

Match-ups:
1. The Antlers - Hospice vs. The Beach Boys - Sunflower
2. Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher vs. The Books - Thought for Food
3. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple vs. Agalloch - The Mantle
4. Cowboy Mouth - Are You with Me? vs. Weyes Blood and the Dark Juices - The Outside Room


Strike another match, go start anew!
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Bang Jan
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8 - Round 1.8

Post by Bang Jan »



Are You with Me?

6 | The Antlers | Hospice
2 | The Beach Boys | Sunflower

4 | Prefuse 73 | One Word Extinguisher
3 | The Books | Thought for Food

8 | Stone Temple Pilots | Purple
1 | Agalloch | The Mantle (My nomination)

7 | Cowboy Mouth | Are You with Me?
5 | Weyes Blood and the Dark Juices | The Outside Room

Favourite song of the week: Agalloch | In the Shadow of Our Pale Companion
"The first word in this song is discorporate. It means to leave your body."
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Honorio
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8 - Round 1.8

Post by Honorio »


1. The Antlers - Hospice (2009) vs. The Beach Boys - Sunflower (1970)


2. Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher (2003) vs. The Books - Thought for Food (2002)


3. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple (1994) vs. Agalloch - The Mantle (2002)


4. Cowboy Mouth - Are You with Me? (1996) vs. Weyes Blood and the Dark Juices - The Outside Room (2011)

Favourite song from every album:
Two | All I Wanna Do | One Word Extinguisher | Enjoy Your Worries, You May Never Have Them Again | Big Empty | In the Shadow of Our Pale Companion | Jenny Says | Romneydale

Favourite song of the week: All I Wanna Do



And, just like I did last year, these are the ladies featured on the first half of the game (a 26% of the total acts):


Shirley Manson (Garbage)


Brix Smith (The Fall)


Mitski


Agnes Obel


Baby Consuelo (Novos Baianos)


Janet Jackson


Kylie Minogue


Wendy Melvoin & Lisa Coleman (The Revolution)


Poison Ivy Rorschach (The Cramps)


Thereza Bazar (Dollar)


Gal Costa


Delia Derbyshire (White Noise)


Neneh Cherry


Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance)


Clémence Quélennec (La Femme)


Sophie Troudeau (Godspeed You! Black Emperor)


Weyes Blood
DaveC
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8 - Round 1.8

Post by DaveC »

1. The Antlers - Hospice vs. The Beach Boys - Sunflower
2. Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher vs. The Books - Thought for Food
3. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple vs. Agalloch - The Mantle
4. Cowboy Mouth - Are You with Me? vs. Weyes Blood and the Dark Juices - The Outside Room

Find of the week: The Outside Room - heading into my top 500 albums list where it will join Front Row Seat to Earth
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acroamor
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8 - Round 1.8

Post by acroamor »

Haven't been able to vote in a while getting everything in line for graduation, but got a chance this week:

1. The Antlers - Hospice vs. The Beach Boys - Sunflower
2. Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher vs. The Books - Thought for Food
3. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple vs. Agalloch - The Mantle
4. Cowboy Mouth - Are You with Me? vs. Weyes Blood and the Dark Juices - The Outside Room
Jirin
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8 - Round 1.8

Post by Jirin »

Sunflower 80 - Hospice 74
Thought For Food 77 - One Word Extinguisher 53
Purple 76 - The Mantle 57
The Outside Room 63 - Are You With Me? 53
Brad
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8 - Round 1.8

Post by Brad »

My picks:
1. The Antlers - Hospice vs. The Beach Boys - Sunflower
2. Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher vs. The Books - Thought for Food
3. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple vs. Agalloch - The Mantle
4. Cowboy Mouth - Are You with Me? vs. Weyes Blood and the Dark Juices - The Outside Room

Thanks!
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luney6
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8 - Round 1.8

Post by luney6 »

3. Stone Temple Pilots
"God grant me the serenity to accept things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
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spiritualized
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8 - Round 1.8

Post by spiritualized »

1. The Antlers - Hospice (4.0) vs. The Beach Boys - Sunflower (3.0)
Good discovery with Hospice - I enjoyed Peter Silberman's 2017 solo, his previous work is worth investigating. Sunflower has however been downgraded in my rating upon a new listen
2. Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher (4.5) vs. The Books - Thought for Food (3.5)
Quite enjoyed listening to The Books, I like this brand of folktronica, in the line of the Beta Band, although more instrumental. It however faced the groundbreaking One Word Extinguisher (top 500 for me)

3. Stone Temple Pilots (3.5) - Purple vs. Agalloch - The Mantle (3.5)
Grunge vs Folk Metal - rather an even match. Purple has very good songs but is overall uneven. The Mantle is a sprawling effort, I do however have difficulties with the growling. Nostalgia wins

4. Cowboy Mouth - Are You with Me? (2.5) vs. Weyes Blood and the Dark Juices - The Outside Room (2.5)
Are You With Me starts exceptionnally well with the first song - but quickly becomes rather generic American rock. Weyes Blood is unsettling, long but may have redemption lurking upon further listens.
Last edited by spiritualized on Tue May 02, 2017 10:57 am, edited 2 times in total.
Brad
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8 - Round 1.8

Post by Brad »

Looking like another really light week in the voting department... 25 hours left to vote!
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spiritualized
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8 - Round 1.8

Post by spiritualized »

Brad wrote:Looking like another really light week in the voting department... 25 hours left to vote!
I think everyone's listening capacity is stretched with all the games available at the mo. The genre game + B Sides + Yearly All Time lists + Weekly Chart.
It's a shame, MAA gives the opportunity to everyone to listen to unknown gems and it should (in my humble opinion) always take precedence !! :music-listening:
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notbrianeno
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8 - Round 1.8

Post by notbrianeno »

The Antlers | Hospice
Agalloch | The Mantle
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Rob
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8 - Round 1.8

Post by Rob »

5. The Antlers - Hospice vs. 6. The Beach Boys - Sunflower
I consider The Beach Boys one of the best bands, but have up til now always ignored Sunflower, perhaps because it contains one of my least favorite songs of theirs: Tears in the Morning. Still, it turns out that it is overall a rather strong effort, with lots going for it and quite a few great songs that, if not quite of the quality of their best works, at least come close enough.
I still go with Hospice, though. Sometimes it is a little to calm for me, but it for the most part it is beautiful and somewhat unique. It is worth repeated listens.

3. Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher vs. 4. The Books - Thought for Food
Very difficult choice, especially since the pleasures are somewhat similar, namely the discovery of sound and the play with sonic textures. They also both use unexpected samples in a creative way. Of course, Prefuse 73 are based in hiphop and The Books in folk, but these albums could be brothers. That makes it a cool match-up in a way. I go for One Word Extinguisher, because it is the most consistent. It's quite a bit longer than Thought for Food, but constantly surprises. The Books have a lot of great moments, but sometimes things flag a bit.

7. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple vs. 1. Agalloch - The Mantle
The easiest choice of the week. Purple is ambition-less, straight-ahead rock. I like the genre and I can have fun with this album, but really, it never stands out. In fact, it sounds strangely held back compared to its grunge brothers, as if the band didn't there to go all out.
The Mantle is another matter, a great way rethinking metal music in a fresh way. Very atmospheric. One of those albums that I'm surprised of isn't acclaimed at all, but I take that is because of the blind eye metal is given by a lot of the critics.

2. Cowboy Mouth - Are You with Me? vs. 8. Weyes Blood and the Dark Juices - The Outside Room
The Outside Room disappoints me. I expected it to be one of the best albums of the week and I do here hints of an album that I might actually love. But the sound is so muddled, every hint of beauty drowned by sounds that don't really add anything for me. People might love it for this experiment, but for me it really comes across as an album that's a failed first attempt, with slight hints of better things to come.
Cowboy Mouth is far more straightforward. In fact, like Stone Temple Pilots they are just happy to play straight-ahead rock. How Are You With Me? differs with Purple though, is that this album does have a real identity of its own. Like Sound Affects in the first week it has the appeal of a greatest hits record, as every song here sounds like it could be a great single for the radio. Literally every song here is catchy and the album is great fun. It's not the type of thing that will go far in a tournament like this, but I hope people who still need to vote catch up to it. It's just to joyous to ignore.
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8 - Round 1.8

Post by jamieW »

The Antlers - Hospice
Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher
Agalloch - The Mantle
Weyes Blood and the Dark Juices - The Outside Room

Favorite album I couldn't vote for: The Beach Boys - Sunflower

I agreed with pretty much everything Rob said - right up to the final match where I loved the Weyes Blood album and just couldn't get into "Are You With Me?" at all.
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8 - Round 1.8

Post by StevieFan13 »

Rob wrote:
2. Cowboy Mouth - Are You with Me? vs. 8. Weyes Blood and the Dark Juices - The Outside Room
The Outside Room disappoints me. I expected it to be one of the best albums of the week and I do here hints of an album that I might actually love. But the sound is so muddled, every hint of beauty drowned by sounds that don't really add anything for me. People might love it for this experiment, but for me it really comes across as an album that's a failed first attempt, with slight hints of better things to come.
Cowboy Mouth is far more straightforward. In fact, like Stone Temple Pilots they are just happy to play straight-ahead rock. How Are You With Me? differs with Purple though, is that this album does have a real identity of its own. Like Sound Affects in the first week it has the appeal of a greatest hits record, as every song here sounds like it could be a great single for the radio. Literally every song here is catchy and the album is great fun. It's not the type of thing that will go far in a tournament like this, but I hope people who still need to vote catch up to it. It's just too joyous to ignore.
I'm so glad you liked it, Rob! It was actually my nomination. Jenny Says is one of my favorite songs.
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8 - Round 1.8

Post by hectorthebat »

1. The Antlers - Hospice vs. The Beach Boys - Sunflower
2. Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher vs. The Books - Thought for Food
3. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple vs. Agalloch - The Mantle
4. Cowboy Mouth - Are You with Me? vs. Weyes Blood and the Dark Juices - The Outside Room
Brad
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8 - Round 1.8

Post by Brad »

A whopping 12 voters this week:
acroamor
Bang Jan
Brad
DaveC
hectorthebat
Honorio
jamieW
Jirin
luney6
notbrianeno
Rob
spiritualized

Winners:
1. The Antlers - Hospice over The Beach Boys - Sunflower 7-4
2. Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher vs. The Books - Thought for Food ***Tie! 5-5. Next Vote from someone who hasn't already voted in this matchup WINS!***
3. Agalloch - The Mantle over Stone Temple Pilots - Purple 8-4
4. Weyes Blood and the Dark Juices - The Outside Room over Cowboy Mouth - Are You with Me? 7-3

***TIE Alert!!! Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher vs. The Books - Thought for Food. Next Vote from someone who hasn't already voted in this matchup WINS!***
Kingoftonga
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8 - Round 1.8

Post by Kingoftonga »

I thought I posted last night but I guess I didn't? Anyway, I can break the tie, because I listened to the first two rounds of albums> My vote wouldn't have changed Bracket 1.

1. The Antlers - Hospice vs. The Beach Boys - Sunflower
2. Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher vs. The Books - Thought for Food

In both brackets I voted for the album I wasn't expecting to vote for.
Brad
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8 - Round 1.8

Post by Brad »

Thanks KoT... Prefuse 73 takes it!
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