Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.4

Post Reply
Brad
Higher Ground
Posts: 4719
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2012 10:38 pm

Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.4

Post by Brad »

Welcome to the round 1.4 of Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018!

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 = April 17th at 10am EST.

Here's a link to the bracket for the entire tournament:
http://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?t ... 9%20(2018)

Match-ups:
1. Deep Purple - Made In Japan vs. Lily Allen - Alright Still
2. Tubeway Army - Replicas vs. John Talabot - Fin
3. Blanck Mass - World Eater vs. Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
4. Space - Spiders vs. SEXWITCH - SEXWITCH


We also have a TIE from Round 1.3:
Weekend - La Varieté vs. Djeli Moussa Diawara - Yasimika ***TIE! 7-7 Next vote from someone who hasn't already voted in this matchup wins!***

If I show you the roses, will you follow?
User avatar
Bang Jan
Full of Fire
Posts: 2668
Joined: Wed Sep 17, 2014 9:15 pm
Location: Cheltenham, United Kingdom

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.4

Post by Bang Jan »



3 | Deep Purple | Made In Japan
7 | Lily Allen | Alright Still

1 | Tubeway Army | Replicas
6 | John Talabot | Fin

4 | Blanck Mass | World Eater
2 | Sufjan Stevens | Seven Swans

8 | Space | Spiders
5 | SEXWITCH | SEXWITCH

Favourite song of the week: Tubeway Army | Are "Friends" Electric?
"The first word in this song is discorporate. It means to leave your body."
DaveC
Running Up That Hill
Posts: 3483
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2013 12:04 am

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.4

Post by DaveC »

1. Deep Purple - Made In Japan
2. John Talabot - Fin
3. Blanck Mass - World Eater
4. SEXWITCH - SEXWITCH
Jirin
Running Up That Hill
Posts: 3350
Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2012 4:12 am

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.4

Post by Jirin »

Alright, Still 78 - Made In Japan 73
Replicas 88 - Fin 72
Blanck Mass 86 - Seven Swans 84
Sexwitch 75 - Spiders 55
Brad
Higher Ground
Posts: 4719
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2012 10:38 pm

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.4

Post by Brad »

Guitar solo in this version of Highway Star may be my favorite ever. Just throwing that out there...
User avatar
Honorio
Higher Ground
Posts: 4481
Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2012 7:38 am
Location: L'Eliana, Valencia, Spain

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.4

Post by Honorio »



1. Deep Purple - Made in Japan (1972) vs. 3. Lily Allen - Alright, Still (2006)
4. Tubeway Army - Replicas (1979) vs. 5. John Talabot - ƒIN (2012)
7. Blanck Mass - World Eater (2017) vs. 2. Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans (2004)
8. Space - Spiders (1996) vs. 6. SEXWITCH - SEXWITCH (2015)

Favourite song from every album:
Highway Star | Smile | Are 'Friends' Electric? | Oro y sangre | Please | To Be Alone With You | Female of the Species | Helelyos

Favourite song of the week: Highway Star (yes, Brad, great guitar solo!)
jamieW
Keep On Movin'
Posts: 1938
Joined: Sat Oct 27, 2012 9:19 pm

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.4

Post by jamieW »

Deep Purple - Made In Japan
John Talabot - Fin
Blanck Mass - World Eater
SEXWITCH - SEXWITCH

Favorite album I couldn't vote for: Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans (Close, though, since I also really like Tubeway Army.)
hectorthebat
Unquestionable Presence
Posts: 554
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2012 8:53 pm

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.4

Post by hectorthebat »

1. Deep Purple - Made In Japan vs. Lily Allen - Alright Still
2. Tubeway Army - Replicas vs. John Talabot - Fin
3. Blanck Mass - World Eater vs. Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
4. Space - Spiders vs. SEXWITCH - SEXWITCH
Brad
Higher Ground
Posts: 4719
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2012 10:38 pm

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.4

Post by Brad »

My picks:
1. Deep Purple - Made In Japan vs. Lily Allen - Alright Still
2. Tubeway Army - Replicas vs. John Talabot - Fin
3. Blanck Mass - World Eater vs. Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
4. Space - Spiders vs. SEXWITCH - SEXWITCH

Thanks!
User avatar
Romain
Happy Up Here
Posts: 5433
Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2012 2:25 pm
Location: Lyon, France

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.4

Post by Romain »

1. Lily Allen - Alright Still
2. Tubeway Army - Replicas
3. Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
4. Space - Spiders
User avatar
StevieFan13
Wuthering Heights
Posts: 6967
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2017 5:00 pm
Location: New York, New York
Contact:

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.4

Post by StevieFan13 »

1. Lily Allen - Alright Still
2. Tubeway Army - Replicas
3. Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
4. Space - Spiders
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand - Sir Duke (1976)
User avatar
Rob
Die Mensch Maschine
Posts: 7350
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2012 3:53 pm
Location: Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.4

Post by Rob »

Only good albums this week. Also, the contrast in sounds between the albums in match-up three is rather funny.

8. Space – Spiders
One of these albums I didn’t know what to expect of beforehand. Apparently at least Female of the Species is quite famous. It didn’t ring a bell with me though. Spiders is one of those albums that I think is hard to sell as a masterpiece or a particularly great album, but for the most part it works. That is no small feat, because Space decide to work on the edge of being annoying. Their ideas, lyrics, melodies and vocals threaten to become to quirky every minute, but somehow they get away from it, bar maybe two songs.

7. John Talabot – Fin
Another album I didn’t know what to expect of. I knew the artist name and the album title, but didn’t have a clue as to what genre it was. So, it is dance music. At times brilliant dance music. If everything here was as great as the first three tracks it might have moved up a couple of places in this list and would have beaten his opponent. There are some songs there that do challenge the opening three, but half of the songs here don’t strike me as that special. Not bad mind, just not as transcendental as the best of them.

6. Lily Allen – Alright, Still
This one suffers from the same problem as Fin. Some songs are simply amazing, while others are just merely good. This one is even more front-loaded than Fin. Nonetheless, I like Alright, Still a little more overall because the weaker songs here have at least an appropriate spring in their step. They might not be amazing, but they still seem lively.

5. Sufjan Steven – Seven Swans
This album could also have done better, but here it isn’t the varying quality of the songs that is the problem (though I think there are clear standouts). No, Seven Swans suffers because other Sufjan Stevens albums and singles exist. I never actually heard Seven Swans before this week, but familiarity with most of his other output had set expectations rather high and it only occasionally delivers. This has to be put into perspective: this is a very good piece of work that most other artists can’t aspire to. It’s just that I get even more out of other Sufjan Stevens albums. The Transfiguration sounds enormously like Chicago, by the way.

4. Tubeway Army – Replicas
An album I didn’t expect to like, but actually did. I always thought it would be a lame and dated eighties new wave album with too much synths. I got the general sound right, but not the quality. Tubeway Army find a precarious balance between classic pop structures and more artful sounds. Opinions may differ, but I my experience not that many artists of the time made that work quite as well. Good stuff.

3. SEXWITCH – SEXWITCH
This is my own nomination, even if it only ends up at number 3 for this week. I don’t even want to claim that this is an all-conquering masterpiece, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t hit a sweet spot and it is seriously overlooked despite featuring an acclaimed artist. Natasha Khan delivers a sound that is very different to her Bat for Lashes projects, but she seems to revel in her role as a mystical sex witch. There is a glee as well as a feel of wild rhythm that is gloriously infectious.

2. Deep Purple – Made in Japan
Why didn’t I hear this before? I love In Rock and Machine Head, but somehow I never took the time to listen to this live masterpiece, despite it’s outstanding reputation. The pleasures here are as straightforward as they come: it just rocks hard. If you don’t care about hard rock sounds and guitar workouts you’ll hate this. If you have a soft spot for this then Made in Japan is pure heaven. For me it is.

1. Blanck Mass – World Eater
This one ranked high on my End of Year list last year and it just seems to keep improve with each listen. Alright, I admit that Minnesota / Eas Fors / Naked is a pretty bad song. Everything else though, is incredible. For me World Eater has become one of the great beasts of music: something that sounds like a monster fitting of the album title. Rhesus Negative will hopefully once be seen as one of the great masterworks of out time: a dark, destructive, dance symphony like no other. The way that song finds release by the appearance of the following track Please is nothing short of amazing. Except for that one weak song everything here flows amazingly. And if I say that Rhesus Negative is a particularly singular work, I have to say that The Rat and Silent Treatment are almost its equal. I know no album quite like it and this way it fills a need I didn’t know I had.


My votes in a simple way:

1. Deep Purple - Made In Japan vs. Lily Allen - Alright Still
2. Tubeway Army - Replicas vs. John Talabot - Fin
3. Blanck Mass - World Eater vs. Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
4. Space - Spiders vs. SEXWITCH - SEXWITCH
User avatar
spiritualized
Full of Fire
Posts: 2848
Joined: Mon Dec 24, 2012 4:45 pm
Location: Near Montpellier, France

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.4

Post by spiritualized »

1. Deep Purple - Made In Japan (9/10) vs. Lily Allen - Alright Still (8/10)

A classic live album - I am not into hard rock much, but this one rocks the hell out of me. The "Ta-da-di-doo" matchup between the guitar and the voice is a magic moment - no fancy sound effects on stage in the 70s (or very little) but it sounds awesome.
On the other side of the ring we find Lily Allen. I absolutely love (top 500) "Not Fair", a rather violent take on sexual "fulfilment" which is matched in lyrics by "Not Big" here on this album. Poor guy. The rest of the very front-loaded album is really good with a few hit singles (LDN & Smile, both awesome) but it peters out towards the end - with another go at her brother in Alfie. She's so British it hurts.

2. Tubeway Army - Replicas (7/10) vs. John Talabot - Fin (7/10)
Undecided - so I'll pass for the moment

3. Blanck Mass - World Eater (9/10) vs. Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans (10/10)

As much as I dig Blanck Mass' headbanging noise-techno, which made my top 10 last year, it is no match for the gentleness and sensitivity of Seven Swans. Shame really, it would have beaten both contestants from the previous match

4. Space - Spiders (8/10) vs. SEXWITCH - SEXWITCH (9/10)
There's an album I wanted to listen to on the strength of her single "Helelyos", which I really enjoyed last year. Never had the opportunity to and what a shame. Natasha Khan's alter ego in SEXWITCH is far more appealing than her "regular" personae in Bats for Lashes, for which I have no love. A tribal, hypnotic rhythm section and a hauting, witchy, very mideastern vocal delivery. This is thrilling stuff. [edit : just realised this is from 2015...already ???]
Space's Spiders were a novelty at the time of its release. The songs are strong and catchy, an alternative to the Britpop tsunami which took over the world at the end of the 90s. Fun, quirky but lacks the depth and rapture of SEXWITCH.
User avatar
PlasticRam
Into the Groove
Posts: 2202
Joined: Tue Feb 05, 2013 12:51 am

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.4

Post by PlasticRam »

1. Deep Purple - Made In Japan vs. Lily Allen - Alright Still
I feel like that
User avatar
BleuPanda
Higher Ground
Posts: 4717
Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2012 1:20 am
Location: Urbana, IL

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.4

Post by BleuPanda »

Lily Allen - Alright Still
John Talabot - Fin
Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
Brad
Higher Ground
Posts: 4719
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2012 10:38 pm

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.4

Post by Brad »

Just over 16 hours left to vote!
User avatar
Sweepstakes Ron
Full of Fire
Posts: 2723
Joined: Sat May 18, 2013 3:32 pm
Location: Here, There, and Everywhere

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.4

Post by Sweepstakes Ron »

1. Deep Purple - Made In Japan vs. Lily Allen - Alright Still
2. Tubeway Army - Replicas vs. John Talabot - Fin
3. Blanck Mass - World Eater vs. Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
4. Space - Spiders vs. SEXWITCH - SEXWITCH

Again, I really feel like I could go either way with #3... Voting for either of them feels wrong.
Splish splash, I was raking in the cash
Kingoftonga
Rust Never Sleeps
Posts: 759
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2012 9:50 pm

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.4

Post by Kingoftonga »

Winners in red:

1. Deep Purple - Made In Japan vs. Lily Allen - Alright Still

Deep Purple's studio albums have never impressed me as much as I thought they should, based on the band's reputation. What was missing was the energy of their live shows, I guess; this album rocks in the best possible way.

2. Tubeway Army - Replicas vs. John Talabot - Fin

This was a close matchup. Replicas certainly offers more pop hooks, but I'm feeling the more ambient mood-setting of John Talabot this week.

3. Blanck Mass - World Eater vs. Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans

Neither of these albums quite succeeds, but Sufjan offers higher peaks, while Blanck Mass is easier for me to respect than actually like.

4. Space - Spiders vs. SEXWITCH - SEXWITCH

Spiders is another one of those British phenomena that just doesn't translate to me on the other side of the Atlantic...I was shocked to read about how successful this album was!
Brad
Higher Ground
Posts: 4719
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2012 10:38 pm

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.4

Post by Brad »

15 voters this week:
Bang Jan
BleuPanda
Brad
DaveC
hectorthebat
Honorio
jamieW
Jirin
Kingoftonga
PlasticRam
Rob
Romain
spiritualized
StevieFan13
Sweepstakes Ron

Winners:
1. Deep Purple - Made In Japan over Lily Allen - Alright Still 8-7
2. Tubeway Army - Replicas over John Talabot - Fin 9-4
3. Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans over Blanck Mass - World Eater 10-4
4. SEXWITCH - SEXWITCH over Space - Spiders 10-3

Round 1.5 up next!
User avatar
Rob
Die Mensch Maschine
Posts: 7350
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2012 3:53 pm
Location: Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.4

Post by Rob »

I'm sad about the loss of Blanck Mass so soon, but Sufjan Stevens is one of those names who will always be hard to beat here.
Post Reply

Return to “Music, Music, Music...”