Moderately Acclaimed Albums 8 - Round 4.1

[Brad]

We've reached the Round of 16 in our 2017 Moderately Acclaimed Albums tournament!

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 = September 26th 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 Jam - Sound Affects vs. The Kinks - Face To Face
2. Novos Baianos - Acabou chorare vs. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part
3. Nilsson - Aerial Ballet vs. Dead Can Dance - Spleen and Ideal
4. Fishmans - Long Season vs. Godspeed! You Black Emperor - Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress

Up on heaven hill is where I wanna be
That girl that bottle that mattress and me

[Bang Jan]

Long Season

6 | The Jam | Sound Affects
5 | The Kinks | Face To Face

1 | Novos Baianos | Acabou chorare 
4 | Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | No More Shall We Part

2 | Nilsson | Aerial Ballet
7 | Dead Can Dance | Spleen and Ideal 

3 | Fishmans | Long Season 
8 | Godspeed! You Black Emperor | Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress

[StevieFan13]

The Jam - Sound Affects

[Madzong]

The Jam - Sound Affects
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part

[EmilienDelRey]

The Kinks - Face to Face
Novos Baianos - Acabou chorare
Dead Can Dance - Spleen and Ideal
Fishmans - Long Season

[DaveC]

1. The Jam - Sound Affects vs. The Kinks - Face To Face
2. Novos Baianos - Acabou chorare vs. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part
3. Nilsson - Aerial Ballet vs. Dead Can Dance - Spleen and Ideal
4. Fishmans - Long Season vs. Godspeed! You Black Emperor - Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress

[jamieW]

The Kinks - Face To Face
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part
Dead Can Dance - Spleen and Ideal
Godspeed! You Black Emperor - Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress

Favorite album I couldn't vote for: Fishmans - Long Season

[Jirin]

Sound Affects 95 - Face To Face 80
No More Shall We Part 83 - Acabou chorare 73
Aerial Ballet 82 - Spleen And Ideal 76
Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress 88 - Long Season 82

[Romain]

1. The Kinks - Face To Face
2. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part
3. Dead Can Dance - Spleen and Ideal
4. Godspeed! You Black Emperor - Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress[/color]

[spiritualized]

The Kinks - Face to Face
Novos Baianos - Acabou chorare
Dead Can Dance - Spleen and Ideal
Godspeed! You Black Emperor - Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress

[Honorio]

Back to the four-line comments...

2. The Jam - Sound Affects (1980) vs. 3. The Kinks - Face to Face (1966)
Ray Davies and Paul Weller. The master and the pupil. Two icons of Mod culture, two big names of British Pop on their peak period (separated by more than a decade), two poets with a particular ability of dissecting their contemporary English society. A close call, both albums are excellent but I'm going to choose the pupil. And I can't explain why, maybe it's the way The Jam combine melody and energy (Power Pop, you know), maybe I have a soft spot for the brilliant first decade of Weller's career.

1. Novos Baianos - Acabou chorare (1972) vs 4. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part (2001)
Unlike the previous bracket, now we have (again) two excellent albums but this time with almost opposite approaches. "Acabou chorare" ("Stopped Crying") is a spontaneous and vital album about joy amidst the adversity, created by the band living in a commune during the hardest times of the Brazilian dictatorship. The Bad Seeds album is a complex and emotional album about love as redemption, meticulously rehearsed and soberly (and brilliantly) played. Me? I just stopped crying...

5. Nilsson - Aerial Ballet (1968) vs. 7. Dead Can Dance - Spleen and Ideal (1985)
Sunshine and moonlight. Baroque and Gothic (well, in fact 60s Baroque Pop and 80s Gothic Rock). Nilsson going back to the 1920s Music Hall sounds but Gerrard/Perry going way back, to the Medieval European sounds. I appreciate a lot the "soundscapes of mesmerising grandeur and solemn beauty" that Dead Can Dance displays (quoting Ian McFarlane) but I'm a sucker for Sunshine Pop in general and early Nilsson in particular, here with immortal tunes like "Everybody's Talkin'" or "One."

6. Fishmans - Long Season (1996) vs. 8. Godspeed! You Black Emperor - Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress (2015)
"Long Season" has been a pleasant surprise, an album and band I've never heard of before the game but it's a kind of cult favourite (one of the four remaining albums with a RYM rating higher than 4). Mellow and hypnotic sounds simultaneously uplifting and melancholic, putting you on a nostalgic but peaceful mood. After this ear candy the atmospheric drones of Godspeed! sound too solemn, too serious, too aware of its importance, even if the finale "Piss Crowns Are Trebled" is amazing.

[Brad]

Great to see the comments back, Honorio!

My picks:
1. The Jam - Sound Affects vs. The Kinks - Face To Face
2. Novos Baianos - Acabou chorare vs. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part
3. Nilsson - Aerial Ballet vs. Dead Can Dance - Spleen and Ideal
4. Fishmans - Long Season vs. Godspeed! You Black Emperor - Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress

Thanks!

[prosecutorgodot]

The Kinks - Face to Face

I think this is my first vote in MA.

[Brad]

13 - 1/2 hours left to vote!

[Rob]

No time for comments this week, but I do want to ask the question who are what I have to pay to get Aerial Ballet eliminated from this game so that I don't have to listen to it for yet another round? Most of these album are growers, but this one becomes more insufferable to me with each new listen.

5. The Jam - Sound Affects vs. 6. The Kinks - Face To Face
2. Novos Baianos - Acabou chorare vs. 1. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part
8. Nilsson - Aerial Ballet vs. 3. Dead Can Dance - Spleen and Ideal
4. Fishmans - Long Season vs. 7. Godspeed! You Black Emperor - Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress

[luney6]

The Kinks
Nick Cave
Dead Can Dance

[Kingoftonga]

Winners in red:

1. The Jam - Sound Affects vs. The Kinks - Face To Face
2. Novos Baianos - Acabou chorare vs. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part
3. Nilsson - Aerial Ballet vs. Dead Can Dance - Spleen and Ideal
4. Fishmans - Long Season vs. Godspeed! You Black Emperor - Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress

[Brad]

15 voters this week:
Bang Jan
Brad
DaveC
EmilienDelRey
Honorio
jamieW
Jirin
Kingoftonga
luney6
madzong
prosecutorgodot
Rob
Romain
spiritualized
StevieFan13

Winners (On To The Quarter-Finals!):
1. The Jam - Sound Affects over The Kinks - Face To Face 8-7
2. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part over Novos Baianos - Acabou chorare 9-4
3. Dead Can Dance - Spleen and Ideal over Nilsson - Aerial Ballet 7-5
4. Fishmans - Long Season over Godspeed! You Black Emperor - Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress 6-5

Round 4.2 already up!

[Rob]

Really a last minute comeback for Dead Can Dance. Three hours earlier it would have lost!

[StevieFan13]

Really a last minute comeback for Dead Can Dance. Three hours earlier it would have lost!

Lucky you!

[jamieW]

No time for comments this week, but I do want to ask the question who are what I have to pay to get Aerial Ballet eliminated from this game so that I don't have to listen to it for yet another round? Most of these album are growers, but this one becomes more insufferable to me with each new listen.

To be completely honest, comments like this are the reason why I've participated in the forum for 5 years now and have never nominated one of my personal favorites for one of these games. When someone nominates an album/song, it's likely because it truly means something special to that person. I can't imagine reading something like this and not being hurt by it if this were the case. Nothing personal, Rob. You've got a tremendous gift for writing and I'll continue to enjoy reading your essays, but I feel this is a little harsh.

[Rob]

No time for comments this week, but I do want to ask the question who are what I have to pay to get Aerial Ballet eliminated from this game so that I don't have to listen to it for yet another round? Most of these album are growers, but this one becomes more insufferable to me with each new listen.

To be completely honest, comments like this are the reason why I've participated in the forum for 5 years now and have never nominated one of my personal favorites for one of these games. When someone nominates an album/song, it's likely because it truly means something special to that person. I can't imagine reading something like this and not being hurt by it if this were the case. Nothing personal, Rob. You've got a tremendous gift for writing and I'll continue to enjoy reading your essays, but I feel this is a little harsh.

I'm sorry you feel this way, JamieW. In fact I do know where you're coming from. I have nominated albums in this game that didn't do well and got some negative comments and, yes, that can be painful. It's worse in the song competitions, where my choices get eliminated quickly without fail. The reason for sending in albums/ songs anyway is in the hope that it connects with someone the same as it is did for you. There is something to sharing that's satisfying. Even if a nomination gets thrown away in the first round it can still reach someone who came to love it. This happened to me too.

So yeah, I first and foremost want to stay on the positive side of things here and for the most part that is easy, because I loved or at least liked most of the albums that were nominated. But everyone, no exceptions, has a couple of albums that he or she doesn't. Heck, most will have at least one in round 4. Something has always struck me as somewhat fake about not saying when you don't like an album. I challenge myself to write something about every album every week, partly because it is fun to do, partly because I hope more people will do so (because ranking albums is fun, but reading other people's opinions and thoughts more so; at least to me). And criticism can be very insightful, even if you don't agree.

But of course my comment that you quote is somewhat different, as it doesn't contain any arguments and I didn't write anything about any other album, due to lack of time (sadly, as I originally planned to write a longer piece about Face to Face by The Kinks, about which I noticed some interesting and great new things this week). I did write about Aerial Ballet in earlier rounds and the comment above was meant as a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I can see now that it has a nasty edge, because it is so isolated.

Having said all that, I sometimes feel that people here are sometimes a little too afraid to criticize an album, song or artist and I do think that criticism is part of understanding someone's taste (if someone is mostly negative it becomes something else perhaps). Finally, I do want to state that all these opinions are personal. I definitely don't begrudge, dislike or want to discourage people who like Aerial Ballet or any other album I might not like.

[jamieW]

No time for comments this week, but I do want to ask the question who are what I have to pay to get Aerial Ballet eliminated from this game so that I don't have to listen to it for yet another round? Most of these album are growers, but this one becomes more insufferable to me with each new listen.

To be completely honest, comments like this are the reason why I've participated in the forum for 5 years now and have never nominated one of my personal favorites for one of these games. When someone nominates an album/song, it's likely because it truly means something special to that person. I can't imagine reading something like this and not being hurt by it if this were the case. Nothing personal, Rob. You've got a tremendous gift for writing and I'll continue to enjoy reading your essays, but I feel this is a little harsh.

I'm sorry you feel this way, JamieW. In fact I do know where you're coming from. I have nominated albums in this game that didn't do well and got some negative comments and, yes, that can be painful. It's worse in the song competitions, where my choices get eliminated quickly without fail. The reason for sending in albums/ songs anyway is in the hope that it connects with someone the same as it is did for you. There is something to sharing that's satisfying. Even if a nomination gets thrown away in the first round it can still reach someone who came to love it. This happened to me too.

So yeah, I first and foremost want to stay on the positive side of things here and for the most part that is easy, because I loved or at least liked most of the albums that were nominated. But everyone, no exceptions, has a couple of albums that he or she doesn't. Heck, most will have at least one in round 4. Something has always struck me as somewhat fake about not saying when you don't like an album. I challenge myself to write something about every album every week, partly because it is fun to do, partly because I hope more people will do so (because ranking albums is fun, but reading other people's opinions and thoughts more so; at least to me). And criticism can be very insightful, even if you don't agree.

But of course my comment that you quote is somewhat different, as it doesn't contain any arguments and I didn't write anything about any other album, due to lack of time (sadly, as I originally planned to write a longer piece about Face to Face by The Kinks, about which I noticed some interesting and great new things this week). I did write about Aerial Ballet in earlier rounds and the comment above was meant as a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I can see now that it has a nasty edge, because it is so isolated.

Having said all that, I sometimes feel that people here are sometimes a little too afraid to criticize an album, song or artist and I do think that criticism is part of understanding someone's taste (if someone is mostly negative it becomes something else perhaps). Finally, I do want to state that all these opinions are personal. I definitely don't begrudge, dislike or want to discourage people who like Aerial Ballet or any other album I might not like.

Thanks for the thoughtful response, Rob. I think the reason it hit me was that it was an isolated comment, since I've never read anything in your expanded reviews that bothered me. When given context, it's easy to see where you're coming from and your criticism is always fair.

I think it boils down to me being too thin-skinned about music that's special to me, which makes me very guarded. As the years have passed, I've become more tempted to submit obscure nominations, thinking many on the forum may enjoy them. Your comment probably just gave me a jolt, since I could only imagine reading that about one of my favorites. If it had been in the context of one of your longer reviews, I probably would be disappointed you didn't like it, but appreciate the fact you took the time to write about it. I appreciate you understanding and expressing your thoughts very eloquently (as always).