Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.9

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Brad
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Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.9

Post by Brad »

Welcome to the round 1.9 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 = May 22nd 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. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods vs. The Notwist - Neon Golden
2. Julia Holter - Ekstasis vs. Babatunde Olatunji - Drums of Passion
3. The Beach Boys - Friends vs. Camel - Mirage
4. That Petrol Emotion - Chemicrazy vs. Francesco De Gregori - Rimmel


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Bang Jan
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.9

Post by Bang Jan »



1 | Sleater-Kinney | The Woods
7 | The Notwist | Neon Golden

2 | Julia Holter | Ekstasis
3 | Babatunde Olatunji | Drums of Passion

6 | The Beach Boys | Friends
4 | Camel | Mirage

8 | That Petrol Emotion | Chemicrazy
5 | Francesco De Gregori | Rimmel

Favourite song of the week: Sleater-Kinney | The Fox
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DaveC
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.9

Post by DaveC »

Agreeing with Bang Jan for the second week in a row. Except that I'm sorry I couldn't vote for Neon Golden.

1. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods
2. Julia Holter - Ekstasis
3. Camel - Mirage
4. Francesco De Gregori - Rimmel
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StevieFan13
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.9

Post by StevieFan13 »

1. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods
2. Julia Holter - Ekstasis
3. Camel - Mirage
4. Francesco De Gregori - Rimmel

Favorite album I couldn't vote for: That Petrol Emotion - Chemicrazy
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Honorio
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.9

Post by Honorio »



6. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods (2005) vs. 2. The Notwist - Neon Golden (2002)
5. Julia Holter - Ekstasis (2012) vs. 3. Olatunji! - Drums of Passion (1960)
4. The Beach Boys - Friends (1968) vs. 1. Camel - Mirage (1974)
8. That Petrol Emotion - Chemicrazy (1990) vs. 7. Francesco De Gregori - Rimmel (1975)

Favourite song from every album:
Jumpers | Pilot | Marienbad | Jin-go-lo-ba | Meant for You | Lady Fantasy | Sensitize | Le storie di ieri

Favourite song of the week: Meant for You

Incredible week, all four brackets are filled by gems.
jamieW
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.9

Post by jamieW »

Very good:
Camel – Mirage

Good:
Julia Holter – Ekstasis
Sleater-Kinney - The Woods
The Notwist - Neon Golden
The Beach Boys – Friends
Babatunde Olatunji - Drums of Passion

Okay:
Francesco De Gregori – Rimmel
That Petrol Emotion – Chemicrazy
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spiritualized
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.9

Post by spiritualized »

1. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods (5/10) vs. The Notwist - Neon Golden (8/10) - My least favorite SK album vs one of Germany's best, which I don't think stands a chance anyway
2. Julia Holter - Ekstasis (5/10) vs. Babatunde Olatunji - Drums of Passion (6/10) - not exactly something I would listen to - but I do appreciate a bit of world music. Especially when it faces yawny female art-pop.
3. The Beach Boys - Friends (8/10) vs. Camel - Mirage (6/10) Proto prog rock has always confounded me. I can't find melodies in there. This example is better than most, but cannot beat the BB's pure pop.
4. That Petrol Emotion - Chemicrazy (9/10) vs. Francesco De Gregori - Rimmel (5/10)
Last edited by spiritualized on Mon May 21, 2018 7:57 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Romain
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.9

Post by Romain »

1. The Notwist - Neon Golden (an album I adore)
2. Babatunde Olatunji - Drums of Passion
3. Camel - Mirage (happy to see a Camel album here, good choice)
4. That Petrol Emotion - Chemicrazy (a beautiful discovery)
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spiritualized
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.9

Post by spiritualized »

Romain wrote: 4. That Petrol Emotion - Chemicrazy (a beautiful discovery)
Pleased to see that :) Vastly underated in my eyes, but not to the forumers' taste except a small part of the French contingent !
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.9

Post by Jirin »

The Woods 99 - Neon Golden 63
Ekstasis 92 - Drums Of Passion 78
Mirage 75 - Friends 73
Rimmel 88 - Chemicrazy 83
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FrankLotion
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.9

Post by FrankLotion »

1. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods
2. Babatunde Olatunji - Drums of Passion
3. The Beach Boys - Friends
4. Francesco De Gregori - Rimmel

(Spoiler: The Woods is most definitely one of my favorite albums, probably gonna be voting it all the way to the top if I can.)
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PlasticRam
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.9

Post by PlasticRam »

1. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods vs. The Notwist - Neon Golden
2. Julia Holter - Ekstasis vs. Babatunde Olatunji - Drums of Passion

Notwist, Holter and Olatunji are on my all-time list.
I feel like that
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.9

Post by Listyguy »

Sleater-Kinney - The Woods vs. The Notwist - Neon Golden
I thoroughly enjoy both of these albums. Not a hard choice though.

The Beach Boys - Friends vs. Camel - Mirage
I didn't like the Camel album as much as I was expecting to, but it's still better than the Beach Boys offering
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.9

Post by Brad »

My picks:
1. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods vs. The Notwist - Neon Golden
2. Julia Holter - Ekstasis vs. Babatunde Olatunji - Drums of Passion
3. The Beach Boys - Friends vs. Camel - Mirage
4. That Petrol Emotion - Chemicrazy vs. Francesco De Gregori - Rimmel

Thanks!
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Rob
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.9

Post by Rob »

8. That Petrol Emotion – Chemicrazy
This album starts outstanding with Hey Venus and then it becomes just okay. At times it sounds like a glam version of Duran Duran in a good way, other times in a bad way. Above all it isn’t very inspired and doesn’t leave much of an impression on me. Also, Tingle is atrocious and one of the worst songs of this whole poll.

7. Francesco De Gregori – Rimmel
Hard to rate. This album sounds nice, but I feel I should understand the lyrics to get a real feel for it. De Gregori is nowhere at fault as a singer and the production is quite good, but it comes across as a singer-songwriter album and reading some reviews about it confirms this. Sadly I didn’t have time to look up translations of the songs to get the gist of them. Despite feeling I got only half the experience this still gets my vote, because Chemicrazy is not my cup of tea.

6. The Beach Boys – Friends
One of the least well-known albums of The Beach Boys from the sixties (and completely absent from AM), this was deemed slight and outdates at the time. Perhaps, but it still works. The narrative of The Beach Boys is usually that after the mental breakdown of Brian Wilson after the failed Smile sessions it was all downhill, but I have long since found that this is an extreme exaggeration. Sure, Friends is not as rich as Pet Sounds of the eventual Smile Sessions, but the melodies are still great and the singing is top notch. Sure, this is a band playing it safe and the lyrics are a downgrade of what came directly before (though The Beach Boys were never a lyrics band for me), but as long as it sounds as good as this does I have no problem with it.

5. The Notwist – Neon Golden
An odd case were two listens gave different results. I liked it far less the second time around. A bad mood? I don’t know. Still, this is an original band that knows how to use rather lo-fi indie instrumentation into captivating soundscapes and the album is quite varied despite its minimalist approach. The first time I was quite moved by it, so lets just hope the second experience was clouded by a tired mind. [It wouldn’t have defeated The Woods regardless.]

4. Babatunje Olatunji – Drums of Passion
I love drums like this. In much rock drums more than anything (except perhaps the human voice) can make music sound loose and spontaneous (which is why the invention of the drum machine is still seen as something of a mistake by me). It is nice to go back to the roots of this way playing: Africa. The wild playing of the drums is a pleasure to listen to, while the chants keep it accessible. Not for world music purists I understand, but for me this is simply good stuff.

3. Camel – Mirage
My nomination and one I didn’t actually expect to do so well, as I usually think AM isn’t into prog rock. This is rather typical of the genre, although it excels in ways most don’t. The best thing about Camel is how fluent they sound. Many prog acts work with movements and so does Camel. However, in many cases going from one movement to the next sounds forced, but on Mirage I never catch Camel in the act. There is a flow to this music that reveals that these are some of the genres best players. It adds to the majesty they go for.

2. Julia Holter – Ekstasis
The third Julia Holter album I hear (I seem to be going through them backwards) and to my surprise this turns out to be my immediate favourite. More unique than Have You in My Wilderness and more consistent than Loud City Songs this is simply a great album. The way she uses vocals is up there with The Beach Boys and Fleet Foxes. With them she creates a unique fairy-tale atmosphere that I find compelling and at times surprisingly emotional. In a just world Marienbad and Für Felix would be immediate classics.

1. Sleater-Kinney – The Woods
I discovered this album three years ago in this very same game, where it lost in the first round against my own nomination, Fisherman Blues by The Waterboys. Still, I voted for The Woods without a doubt. It captured me from the get go like few albums before or since. It has become my #2 album of all time, sometimes threatening to be my #1. It was an obvious pleasure to listen to this again this week. It’s the guitars. There is something wild and uncontrolled about them that it becomes very emotive for me. It sounds like the blues rock with even more punch. The cries of the ladies are equally compelling. This album doesn’t so much touch my soul as smashes its way into it. No album captures why I like rock so much as this one. It was not my nomination, but I want to see this one win.


Simple overview of my votes:
1. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods vs. The Notwist - Neon Golden
2. Julia Holter - Ekstasis vs. Babatunde Olatunji - Drums of Passion
3. The Beach Boys - Friends vs. Camel - Mirage
4. That Petrol Emotion - Chemicrazy vs. Francesco De Gregori - Rimmel
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.9

Post by Nassim »

Sleater-Kinney - The Woods

I sometimes play (all by myself) a "best songs stretch in an album" game.
Best 3 song stretch would probably go to The Lonesome Crowded West's Doin' the Cockroach/Cowboy Dan/Trailer Trash.
Haven't quite settled on a 4 song stretch, could come from Whatever People Say I Am... (the first 4) or Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (Backstreet Freestyle to Poetic Justice), but if you'll allow me not to count "I'll Fly Away" as a real song, I might give it to College Dropout (All Falls Down to Never Let Me Down).
Anyway, when 5 song stretch are concerned, there is one clear winner, and it's the 22 minutes or so of perfect rock starting with the fighting riffs of What's Mine Is Yours and ending with the final thrills of Rollercoaster. Totally not a diss for Steep Air which I also quite like a lot !

I could do with a 3 minutes shorter Let's Call It Love, without Wilderness (the one song in which I think Corin Tucker screams too much) and, but that's usually an unpopular opinion, I'm not big on The Fox, but if there is one real complaint is that the production could have been a bit clearer, I guess it was supposed to make the album sound rawer, but at times when the guitars are saturating, it just makes it sound poorly produced, which such for such brilliantly written songs. It never ruins a songs, but I can't shake the feeling that Jumpers or Entertain would be EVEN better with different production choices.
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.9

Post by Sweepstakes Ron »

1. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods vs. The Notwist - Neon Golden
2. Julia Holter - Ekstasis vs. Babatunde Olatunji - Drums of Passion
3. The Beach Boys - Friends vs. Camel - Mirage
4. That Petrol Emotion - Chemicrazy vs. Francesco De Gregori - Rimmel
Splish splash, I was raking in the cash
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.9

Post by Brad »

10 hours left to vote!
Kingoftonga
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.9

Post by Kingoftonga »

Winners in red:

1. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods vs. The Notwist - Neon Golden
2. Julia Holter - Ekstasis vs. Babatunde Olatunji - Drums of Passion
3. The Beach Boys - Friends vs. Camel - Mirage
4. That Petrol Emotion - Chemicrazy vs. Francesco De Gregori - Rimmel
Brad
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2018 - Round 1.9

Post by Brad »

16 voters this week:
Bang Jan
Brad
DaveC
FrankLotion
Honorio
jamieW
Jirin
Kingoftonga
Listyguy
Nassim
PlasticRam
Rob
Romain
spiritualized
StevieFan13
Sweepstakes Ron

Winners:
1. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods over The Notwist - Neon Golden 9-7
2. Julia Holter - Ekstasis vs. Babatunde Olatunji - Drums of Passion ***Tie! 7-7 Next vote from someone who has not already voted in this match-up wins!**
3. Camel - Mirage over The Beach Boys - Friends 12-2
4. Francesco De Gregori - Rimmel over That Petrol Emotion - Chemicrazy 9-4

We have a Tie!
Julia Holter - Ekstasis vs. Babatunde Olatunji - Drums of Passion ***Tie! 7-7 Next vote from someone who has not already voted in this match-up wins!**
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