Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

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Brad
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Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by Brad »

Welcome to the round 1.7 of Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019!

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 14th at 10am EST.

Here's a link to the bracket for the entire tournament:
http://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?t ... Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019

Match-ups:
1. Missy Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly vs. Blur - 13
2. David Bowie - Lodger vs. Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
3. Spinners - Spinners vs. C.A. Quintet - Trip Thru Hell
4. Gemini Eye - The Is of Being vs. The Crocketts - The Great Brain Robbery


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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by DaveC »

1. Missy Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly vs. Blur - 13
2. David Bowie - Lodger vs. Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
3. Spinners - Spinners vs. C.A. Quintet - Trip Thru Hell
4. Gemini Eye - The Is of Being vs. The Crocketts - The Great Brain Robbery
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by StevieFan13 »

13
The Colour and the Shape
Spinners - Spinners
The Crocketts - The Great Brain Robbery
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by Jirin »

13 82 - Supa Dupa Fly 76
The Colour and the Shape 84 - Lodger 65
Spinners 67 - Trip Thru Hell 64

Need to find a way to hear The Great Brain Robbery, but I really like The Is Of Being.
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by Listyguy »

Can hopefully listen to the other albums later in the week, but here's my vote for the stuff I've heard:

Missy Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly vs. Blur - 13
David Bowie - Lodger vs. Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by spiritualized »

Jirin wrote:13 82 - Supa Dupa Fly 76
The Colour and the Shape 84 - Lodger 65
Spinners 67 - Trip Thru Hell 64

Need to find a way to hear The Great Brain Robbery, but I really like The Is Of Being.
Try this YT playlist
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0xgcv0mX0 ... -j&index=1
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by Listyguy »

Does Gemini Eye have an entry on RYM? I can't seem to find it.

Edit: I made them one, assumed the answer was "no"
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by jamieW »

Blur - 13
Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
Spinners - Spinners
Gemini Eye - The Is of Being

Favorite album I couldn't vote for: C.A. Quintet - Trip Thru Hell (To be honest, not a strong week for me. This one, Spinners and Blur were the only three I liked.)
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by Honorio »



5. Missy Misdemeanor Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly (1997) vs. 2. Blur - 13 (1999)
1. David Bowie - Lodger (1979) vs. 3. Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape (1997)
4. Spinners - Spinners (1973) vs. 6. C.A. Quintet - Trip Thru Hell (2005)
7. Gemini Eye - The Is of Being (2016) vs. 8. The Crocketts - The Great Brain Robbery (2000)

Favourite song from every album:
The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly) | Tender | Repetition | Everlong | I'll Be Around | Trip Thru Hell (Part I) | The Doula's Tulpa | Ella Luciana

Favourite song of the week: Everlong
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by bonnielaurel »

1. Missy Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly
2. Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
3. Spinners - Spinners
4. The Crocketts - The Great Brain Robbery
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by Rdwdbob »

1. BLUR - 13
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by Rdwdbob »

FOO FIGHTERS - THE COLOUR AND THE SHAPE
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by Romain »

1. Blur - 13
2. David Bowie - Lodger
3. Pass
4. Gemini Eye - The Is of Being
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by rumpdoll »

1. Missy Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly vs. Blur - 13
Miss E would have won every other duel but 13 is my favorite Blur album
2. David Bowie - Lodger vs. Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
The only good Foo Fighters album wins agains a Bowie one I didn't know and that left me cold
3. Spinners - Spinners vs. C.A. Quintet - Trip Thru Hell
Both where unknown to me. C.A. Quintet wins for the strangly interesting title song
4. Gemini Eye - The Is of Being vs. The Crocketts - The Great Brain Robbery
Again two unknowns for me. I didn't like the Crocketts mutch on first listening, both didn't leave much of an impression
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by Rdwdbob »

SPINNERS - SPINNERS (one of the very few albums where the songs are so much better in the second half, everything from 'I'll Be Around' on is stellar r&b)
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by hectorthebat »

Blur - 13
David Bowie - Lodger
Spinners - Spinners
The Crocketts - The Great Brain Robbery
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by Rdwdbob »

THE CROCKETTS - THE GREAT BRAIN ROBBERY
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by Bang Jan »



5 | Missy Elliott | Supa Dupa Fly
2 | Blur | 13

3 | David Bowie | Lodger
7 | Foo Fighters | The Colour and the Shape

4 | Spinners | Spinners
1 | C.A. Quintet | Trip Thru Hell

6 | Gemini Eye | The Is of Being
8 | The Crocketts | The Great Brain Robbery

Favourite song of the week: Blur | Coffee & TV
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by FrankLotion »

1. Missy Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly
2. Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
3. Spinners - Spinners
4. The Crocketts - The Great Brain Robbery
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by Safetycat »

5. Supa Dupa Fly < 2. 13
4. Lodger < 1. The Colour and the Shape
6. Spinners > 8. Trip Thru Hell
7. The Is of Being < 3. The Great Brain Robbery

All 8 albums were great, and I had trouble picking a few of the matches! Best discovery was The Great Brain Robbery.
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by Jirin »

spiritualized wrote:
Jirin wrote:13 82 - Supa Dupa Fly 76
The Colour and the Shape 84 - Lodger 65
Spinners 67 - Trip Thru Hell 64

Need to find a way to hear The Great Brain Robbery, but I really like The Is Of Being.
Try this YT playlist
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0xgcv0mX0 ... -j&index=1
Thanks.
The Is Of Being 85 - The Grain Brain Robbery 74
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by CupOfDreams »

Blur - 13
David Bowie - Lodger
Spinners - Spinners
The Crocketts - The Great Brain Robbery
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by Rob »

Sadly, for me this is really one of the lesser weeks. My top 2 are really great, but I had a hard time with my bottom 3. The 3 remaining in the middle are fine, without me feeling the need to spend more time with them.

8. Foo Fighters – The Colour and the Shape
It’s probably not fair and people probably won’t agree, but I can’t shake the feeling that Foo Fighters got this much popularity and acclaim because through Dave Grohl they have a connection to Nirvana. Here is a band with barely any original ideas… No scratch the word original: with barely any ideas, who somehow managed to become an institution. Most of the songs here follow a similar pattern of quiet verse, loud chorus. That in itself is not the worst thing, but they do so without any noticeable sense of melody, without great riffs, without memorable instrumentation, without appealing lyrics and without a singer who stands out. Almost every song on this album – and in extent the whole Foo Fighters discography – sounds like a standard grunge rock song with all personality removed. It’s Nirvana for people who think Nirvana was too experimental (and I don’t consider Nirvana experimental at all).

Everlong is probably the best song here simply because it follows their formula the least. I still only like it a little. Doll and Walking After You are noticeable because they stay quiet, but are also forgettable. The title track is the only one which disperses with the quiet and goes for all-out loudness… and it is the most dreadful thing here. By the time we get to that final song I’m already tired-out by this thing that can only yell for attention, because it has no other method.

7. Gemini Eye – The Is of Being
It feels as Gemini Eyes are brimming with a lot of ideas and are in want of a studio who can let them fulfill their vision for real. There is a great variety on this album, both lyrically and musically and the thing comes close to being experimental. You can hear influences as varied as Paul Simon (the chorus of The Boxer is pretty much quoted) and Car Seat Headrest. I would like to live this all more, but the sound quality is too off for me. The whole thing doesn’t feel finished and seems to be in search of a producer or at least a mixer. It sounds like a bunch of demo’s. I know some people love that type of thing and in a way it has a charm, but not enough to really get me on board, if for no other reason that the sound volume level varies too much. Maybe this is how Gemini Eye wants to sound and all the more power to them, but it doesn’t quite do it for me.

6. Blur – 13
What does this album want from me? 13 reminds me most of The White Album by The Beatles, not so much in sound as in the effect it has on me. Both albums have a wide variety of songs that sound too different to work as a whole and have the strange effect of making the whole seem lesser instead of greater. There is something disruptive about the whole thing that just doesn’t work for me. And like The White Album there are several tracks that are weak or just not all that worthwhile that also don’t help me appreciate the thing. Finally, also like The White Album, I have a hard time getting why such an inconsistent thing has got such widespread acclaim. As albums, both seem failures to me.

Just look at the start. Tender is my favorite song here, working towards a spiritual apotheosis that somehow gets followed by Bugman. Of all things they could have followed that uplift with they chose a silly hard rock song. It’s a good song, but as far removed of Tender as you can get. Of course, Bugman is followed by a laidback track, Coffee and TV. And so on and so on, although it seems that by then we have had the three best songs already. What follows after is mostly middling material.
Even the songs themselves are not consistent in sound. Many of them seem to end, but somehow are followed by a minute long coda that has nothing to do with the song beforehand. Why? Is this experimental? Is this whole album a sound experiment? Perhaps. The Beatles had as an excuse that the band was barely function as a group anymore and that The White Album was a product of four members giving into their own interests. What excuse does Blur have?

5. The Crocketts – The Great Brain Robbery
There have been weeks when The Great Brain Robbery would have been notable for being one of the least remarkable albums in competition. But in a weaker line-up it stands out in a very particular way: it is suddenly one of the few albums this week that can be called consistent.

It is a very conventional rock record in most regards, but it is well executed from song to song. There are no dull moments, no songs that don’t work and there is emotion to spare, along with a sense of rock fun. There is nothing that I think I will remember for years to come and the only weakness is that it feels like another rock album in a world with a lot of them, but as things go, you could do worse than listening to The Great Brain Robbery.

4. Missy Elliott – Supa Dupa Fly
That album cover is exactly right. It’s just Missy Elliott looking particularly lazy in bed. That’s what she sounds like and that is what the music sounds like. A bit horny maybe, but no worked up. It is what makes this album stand out among other 90 R&B albums.
I have become a bit fond of Missy Elliott’s idiosyncratic style last year, although that is more due to her early 2000’s work than to this one, which doesn’t hint at all to her club music that would define the second stage of her recording career. Supa Dupa Fly means less to me, but it does have certain laidback charm and some good songs, with Sock It 2 Me, Pass Da Blunt and Izzy Izzy Ah as my favorites. Sadly, this being a 90’s R&B album means it is also longer than it needs to be and there is filler. But overall, it is iconic, influential and still some fun.

3. Spinners – Spinners
Many classic soul albums have a tendency to be some great singles with some filler. This is mostly an exception. It has already been said that the second half is particularly good and if there is filler it’s certainly in the first half, but not stands out as a sore thumb here and at least the opening track can compete with classics I’ll Be Around and Could It Be I’m Falling in Love. This isn’t my favorite genre in the world, but I could go along with this one, perhaps because it is more sophisticated and less sappy than many similar albums.

2. David Bowie – Lodger
Not just the third album of Bowie and Eno’s Berlin Trilogy, but also thought of as the third one quality-wise. Not quite deserved. It falls a little out of tune with Low and Heroes because it is less searching and experimental. Basically Bowie returns to more classic song structures here. That is hardly a problem though, as these are some very good songs. Tracks like Fantastic Voyage, Look Back in Anger and Boys Keep Swinging could rank with the best of them.

Most noticeable is that at least three songs – African Night Flight, Yassassin and Red Money – sound very much like Talking Heads songs. And I mean Talking Heads as produced by Brian Eno. Clearly Eno had this world music meets western pop already in mind before working with David Byrne. I had heard Lodger once before, but never gave it another thought. That was wrong, this belongs among Bowie’s best albums.

1. C.A. Quintet – Trip Thru Hell
People who also play the Biggest Fan game here may have already heard of this one before. The appearance of the final track of this album in that game hit a chord with me and I searched out the full album, just in time to nominate it for Moderately Acclaimed.

I keep thinking of it as a jazz album, because of its improvisational feel and its sprawl, but apparently it is a psychedelic rock album. Some of the songs indeed are reminiscent of more typical psychedelia, although mostly in singing, but mostly this is some sinister mood music. The two variations of the title track are the meat here, as they sound like dark reinventions of some Morricone track. Most of all, they live up to the title. Here is one scorched ground type of album that I’m happy to have discovered.

A simple overview of my votes:

1. Missy Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly vs. Blur - 13
2. David Bowie - Lodger vs. Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
3. Spinners - Spinners vs. C.A. Quintet - Trip Thru Hell
4. Gemini Eye - The Is of Being vs. The Crocketts - The Great Brain Robbery
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by andyd1010 »

Rob wrote:they do so without any noticeable sense of melody
I've probably been the most outspoken fan of melodies on this forum, and Foo Fighters are one of my favorite bands. They certainly showcase a sense of melody at least in the fantastic choruses of Hey, Johnny Park!, Everlong, My Hero and Monkey Wrench (which is also full of great riffs), and I would argue for much of the rest of the album as well.

2. David Bowie - Lodger vs. Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by Akhenaten »

Missy Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly
David Bowie - Lodger
Spinners - Spinners
The Crocketts - The Great Brain Robbery
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by Brad »

My picks:
1. Missy Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly vs. Blur - 13
2. David Bowie - Lodger vs. Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
3. Spinners - Spinners vs. C.A. Quintet - Trip Thru Hell
4. Gemini Eye - The Is of Being vs. The Crocketts - The Great Brain Robbery

Less than 14 hours left to vote!
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by spiritualized »

No time to go in detail
Blur
Foo fighters
ÇA Quintet
The Crocketts
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by Nassim »

1. 13
2. The Colour and the Shape
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by PlasticRam »

3. Spinners - Spinners vs. C.A. Quintet - Trip Thru Hell
I feel like that
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by Kingoftonga »

Winners in red:

1. Missy Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly vs. Blur - 13
2. David Bowie - Lodger vs. Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019 - Round 1.7

Post by Brad »

23 total voters this week:
Akhenaten
andy1010
Bang Jan
bonnielaurel
Brad
CupOfDreams
DaveC
FrankLotion
hectorthebat
Honorio
jamieW
Jirin
Kingoftonga
Listyguy
Nassim
PlasticRam
Rdwdbob
Rob
Romain
rumpdoll
Safetycat
spiritualized
StevieFan13

Winners:
1. Blur - 13 over Missy Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly 16-4
2. Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape over David Bowie - Lodger 13-8
3. Spinners - Spinners over C.A. Quintet - Trip Thru Hell 12-6
4. The Crocketts - The Great Brain Robbery over Gemini Eye - The Is of Being 11-7

Round 1.8 up next!
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