Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.9

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Honorio
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Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.9

Post by Honorio »

Welcome to the Round 1.9 of the 14th edition of the Moderately Acclaimed Albums poll!

Remember:
- Vote for your favourite album in each match-up.
- Anyone can vote as long as the voter has heard both albums.
- Good-spirited comments are encouraged, but not absolutely necessary.

Deadline = May 28th 20:00 GMT +1

Bracket maker link: https://www.bracketmaker.com/tmenu.cfm?tid=477179

Match-ups:
1. David Bowie - The Next Day (2013) vs. Sleigh Bells - Treats (2010)
2. Various Artists - God Don't Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson (2016) vs. Toadies - Rubberneck (1994)



These are the albums of the week:



Album: The Next Day
Artist: David Bowie
Date of release: March 8, 2013
Country: UK / USA
Genre: Art Rock, Alternative Rock
Label: ISO / Columbia
Length: 53:17, 14 tracks
Song most streamed on Spotify: Where Are We Now?
Spotify link




Album: Treats
Artist: Sleigh Bells
Date of release: May 24, 2010
Country: USA
Genre: Noise Pop, Electropop
Label: Mom + Pop
Length: 32:06, 11 tracks
Song most streamed on Spotify: Rill Rill
Spotify link




Album: God Don't Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson
Artist: Various Artists
Date of release: February 26, 2016
Country: USA
Genre: Blues, Blues Rock
Label: Alligator
Length: 41:55, 11 tracks
Song most streamed on Spotify: Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning
Spotify link




Album: Rubberneck
Artist: Toadies
Date of release: August 23, 1994
Country: USA
Genre: Alternative Rock, Grunge
Label: Interscope
Length: 36:23, 11 tracks
Song most streamed on Spotify: Possum Kingdom
Spotify link


Mini-stats for the week:
a) Years:
- Mean 2008
- Range 1994-2016 (22 years)
- Breakdown by decades: 1990s (1), 2010s (3)
b) Countries:
- America (3): USA (3)
- Europe (1): UK (1)
c) Genres:
- Rock (3): Art Rock (1), Noise Pop (1), Grunge (1)
- Blues (1): Blues Rock (1)

After the oldest batch of albums of last week (with a mean of 1983), now we have the most recent batch of albums, with a mean of 2008.

The spotify playlist with 47 songs and 2 hours 43 minutes of music:

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Schüttelbirne
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.9

Post by Schüttelbirne »

2 | David Bowie - The Next Day (2013) vs. 4 | Sleigh Bells - Treats (2010)
1 | Various Artists - God Don't Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson (2016) vs. 3 | Toadies - Rubberneck (1994)
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.9

Post by DaveC »

1. David Bowie - The Next Day (2013) vs. Sleigh Bells - Treats (2010)
2. Various Artists - God Don't Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson (2016) vs. Toadies - Rubberneck (1994)
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Lagunin
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.9

Post by Lagunin »

1.- Sleigh Bells - Treats
2.- Toadies - Rubberneck
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Listyguy
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.9

Post by Listyguy »

1. David Bowie - The Next Day (2013) vs. Sleigh Bells - Treats (2010)
2. Various Artists - God Don't Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson (2016) vs. Toadies - Rubberneck (1994)
Brad
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.9

Post by Brad »

My picks:
1. David Bowie - The Next Day (2013) vs. Sleigh Bells - Treats (2010)
2. Various Artists - God Don't Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson (2016) vs. Toadies - Rubberneck (1994)

Thanks!
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Madzong
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.9

Post by Madzong »

David Bowie - The Next Day (2013)
Toadies - Rubberneck (1994)
"On a mountain range, I'm Dr. Strange"
Jirin
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.9

Post by Jirin »

Treats 88 - The Next Day 85
Willie Johnson 79 - Rubberneck 70
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FrankLotion
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.9

Post by FrankLotion »

1. Sleigh Bells - Treats (2010)
2. Toadies - Rubberneck (1994)
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Bang Jan
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.9

Post by Bang Jan »

2 | David Bowie | The Next Day
3 | Sleigh Bells | Treats

1 | Various Artists | God Don't Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson
4 | Toadies | Rubberneck

Favourite song of the week: Tom Waits | John the Revelator (Honourable mention to David Bowie | Love Is Lost (Hello Steve Reich Mix by James Murphy for the DFA))
"The first word in this song is discorporate. It means to leave your body."
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Romain
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.9

Post by Romain »

Match-ups:
1. David Bowie - The Next Day (2013)
2. Toadies - Rubberneck (1994)
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Honorio
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.9

Post by Honorio »

Close fights again. Now a bracket is tied, tie that I'm going to break with...

My votes:



2. David Bowie - The Next Day (2013) vs. 4. Sleigh Bells - Treats (2010)
1. Various Artists - God Don't Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson (2016) vs. 3. Toadies - Rubberneck (1994)

Favourite song off every album: Where Are We Now? / Infinity Guitars / John the Revelator / Tyler
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acroamor
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.9

Post by acroamor »

1. Sleigh Bells - Treats (2010)
2. Toadies - Rubberneck (1994)
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.9

Post by Rdwdbob »

1. Sleigh Bells - Treats (2010)
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mileswide
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.9

Post by mileswide »

4. David Bowie - The Next Day v. 1. Sleigh Bells - Treats

3. Various Artists - God Don't Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson v. 2. Toadies - Rubberneck

Standouts: Love Is Lost | Infinity Guitars | Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground | I Come from the Water
All I got inside is vacancy!
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.9

Post by Rdwdbob »

2. Toadies - Rubberneck (1994)
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Honorio
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.9

Post by Honorio »

24 hours left!
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Rob
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.9

Post by Rob »

4. Toadies – Rubberneckies
This album starts out quite good, with some strong riffs and vocalist who may not be unique, but is clearly giving his all. The weird thing is that the quality doesn’t seem to dip at any particular point, but that I find myself to stop caring after a couple of songs. In the end there is little too it. Just similar riffs and singer singing vaguely dark lyrics with a lot of repetition to it. The songs just never become all that memorable, even if they make for a fine listening when they are happening.

3. David Bowie – The Next Day
Another album that has appeared in Moderately Acclaimed previously and certainly one of the most high profile releases on this year’s line-up. Chances are you have heard it. Still, we are now 10 years past the moment this came out as a surprise after a long period of silence from Bowie. The album holds up pretty well. It maybe feels a bit as a minor prelude to the beauty of Blackstar now, but even if that album was never made this would probably never have ended up as on of Bowie’s big classics. It is a more safe album, but not without its charms. The genre-bending of Bowie’s past is behind him, but he creates some strong melodies with evocative singing. The best songs here – The Star (Are Out Tonight), Valentine’s Day, Dirty Boys, Where Are We Now, (You Will) Set the World on Fire and the title track - are nice editions to the Bowie songbook.

2. Various Artists – God Don’t Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson
Tribute albums aren’t among the most reliable forms of music out there, but there are a few really good ones. Still, when I picked up this one on vinyl at the start of the year, just randomly in a shop, I did not have any right to expect a gem. I mean, the cover drew my attention, as well as the fact that this was a tribute to a pre-rock artist, which you don’t see to often. And yes, the artists who do the covering contain some favorites, chief among them Tom Waits. On the other hand, I barely knew anything about Blind Willie Johnson, except that his song Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground was send into space with the Voyager. Besides, since Tom Waits seems to be contractually obliged to appear on every tribute album despite otherwise seeming retired, he is no guarantee to overall quality.

Luckily, this turned out to be a very lucky blind buy indeed. Every single artist here delivers great work, of which Lucina Williams rocky take on Nobody’s Fault But Mine is my favorite. One thing I didn’t know about Blind Willie Johnson is that he almost exclusively sung religious songs, a rare thing in blues. Such material can easily become obnoxious, but this set is a good example that truly inspired religious music can even be uplifting to the non-believers, as long as they are played with conviction (something that Christian rock usually lacks). I’ve now heard all of these songs in their original versions too and Johnson certainly deserves more than one song on AM, but I’m also very glad that I now have this wonderful collection with a more varied approach to these great songs.

1. Sleigh Bells – Treats
Rill Rill has been a personal favorite song of mine for so long that it is kind of ridiculous that I never got around to checking out Treats, especially since this isn’t exactly a long album. I’m very happy to find out that the whole record holds up as well as it’s most famous song. It’s a wonderful mix of things that probably on paper wouldn’t feel too intuitive together, but thanks to the great craftmanship of this duo it works. So we have noisy guitars that at time evoke even shoegaze. There are big beats a la hip hop. And there is Alexis Krauss’ bright girl pop voice, who somehow excels in rapid rhythm turnarounds that create twisted the sentences. It’s Krauss’ delivery that drew me to this in the first place, but the whole package just feels as unique mixture between bright pop, dreamy textures and pump-me-up work-out electric drones. Heck, I even rank it over one of my own picks. Magnificent!


1. David Bowie - The Next Day (2013) vs. Sleigh Bells - Treats (2010)
2. Various Artists - God Don't Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson (2016) vs. Toadies - Rubberneck (1994)
digitiser
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.9

Post by digitiser »

David Bowie - The Next Day (2013) vs. Sleigh Bells - Treats (2010)
Various Artists - God Don't Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson (2016) vs. Toadies - Rubberneck (1994)
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Honorio
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.9

Post by Honorio »

After last week's recovery, we have again a slight frop this week, with a total of 16 voters, 3 less than last week and 1 less than last year. The voters were:
acroamor
Bang Jan
Brad
DaveC
digitiser
FrankLotion
Honorio
Jirin
Lagunin
Listyguy
Madzong
mileswide
Rdwdbob
Rob
Romain
Schüttelbirne


And these are the winners of Round 1.9:
1. Sleigh Bells - Treats over David Bowie - The Next Day 9-7
2. Toadies - Rubberneck over Various Artists - God Don't Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson 9-7

Quite unexpected results. At least no one guessed both on the Predict It feature...

Round 1.10 up next!
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