Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

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Honorio
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Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by Honorio »

Welcome to the Round 1.10 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 = June 4th 20:00 GMT +1

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

Match-ups:
1. Bob Marley & the Wailers - Survival (1979) vs. Weezer - Weezer [Green Album] (2001)
2. Taxi Girl - Seppuku (1982) vs. Espers - Espers (2004)



These are the albums of the week:



Album: Survival
Artist: Bob Marley & the Wailers
Date of release: October 2, 1979
Country: Jamaica / UK
Genre: Reggae, Roots Reggae
Label: Island / Tuff Gong
Length: 38:02, 10 tracks
Song most streamed on Spotify: One Drop
Spotify link (first 10 tracks)




Album: Weezer
Artist: Weezer
Date of release: May 15, 2001
Country: USA
Genre: Power Pop, Alternative Rock
Label: Geffen
Length: 28:29, 10 tracks
Song most streamed on Spotify: Island in the Sun
Spotify link




Album: Seppuku
Artist: Taxi Girl
Date of release: January 5, 1982
Country: France
Genre: Synthpop, New Wave
Label: Mankin / Virgin
Length: 43:20, 9 tracks
Song most streamed on Spotify: not in Spotify
Youtube link




Album: Espers
Artist: Espers
Date of release: January 20, 2004
Country: USA
Genre: Psychedelic Folk, Chamber Folk
Label: Locust / Wichita
Length: 40:25, 8 tracks
Song most streamed on Spotify: Flowery Noontide
Spotify link


Mini-stats for the week:
a) Years:
- Mean 1991
- Range 1979-2004 (25 years)
- Breakdown by decades: 1970s (1), 1980s (1), 2000s (2)
b) Countries:
- America (3): USA (2), Jamaica (1)
- Europe (1): France (1)
c) Genres:
- Pop (2): Power Pop (1), Synthpop (1)
- Regional Music (1): Roots Reggae (1)
- Folk (1): Psychedelic Folk (1)

The two selections of the second bracket were the nominators #1s.

The spotify playlist with 28 songs and 1 hours 47 minutes of music (but lacking the 9 songs and 43 minutes of "Seppuku," not available on Spotify):

DaveC
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by DaveC »

1. Bob Marley & the Wailers - Survival (1979) vs. Weezer - Weezer [Green Album] (2001)
2. Taxi Girl - Seppuku (1982) vs. Espers - Espers (2004)
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Schüttelbirne
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by Schüttelbirne »

2 | Bob Marley & the Wailers - Survival (1979) vs. 4 | Weezer - Weezer [Green Album] (2001)
1 | Taxi Girl - Seppuku (1982) vs. 3 | Espers - Espers (2004)
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by Listyguy »

1. Bob Marley & the Wailers - Survival (1979) vs. Weezer - Weezer [Green Album] (2001)
2. Taxi Girl - Seppuku (1982) vs. Espers - Espers (2004)
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Lagunin
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by Lagunin »

1. Weezer - Weezer [Green Album] (2001)
2. Espers - Espers (2004)
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Madzong
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by Madzong »

1. Weezer - Weezer [Green Album] (2001)
"On a mountain range, I'm Dr. Strange"
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by Brad »

My picks:
1. Bob Marley & the Wailers - Survival (1979) vs. Weezer - Weezer [Green Album] (2001)
2. Taxi Girl - Seppuku (1982) vs. Espers - Espers (2004)

Thanks!
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by Rdwdbob »

1. Weezer - Weezer [Green Album] (2001)
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by Jirin »

Survival 70 - Weezer 63

Seppuku not on Spotify.
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FrankLotion
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by FrankLotion »

1. Weezer - Weezer [Green Album] (2001)
2. Taxi Girl - Seppuku (1982)
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Rob
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by Rob »

Jirin wrote: Wed May 31, 2023 2:27 am Survival 70 - Weezer 63

Seppuku not on Spotify.
Honorio always provides YouTube-links for albums not on Spotify in his first post.
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by Rdwdbob »

2. Taxi Girl - Seppuku (1982)
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Honorio
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by Honorio »

My votes:



2. Bob Marley & the Wailers - Survival (1979) vs. 1. Weezer - Weezer [Green Album] (2001)
4. Taxi Girl - Seppuku (1982) vs. 3. Espers - Espers (2004)

Favourite song off every album: So Much Trouble in the World / Island in the Sun / Avenue du crime / Meadow
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Romain
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by Romain »

1. Bob Marley & the Wailers - Survival (1979)
2. Taxi Girl - Seppuku (1982)
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Bang Jan
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by Bang Jan »

2 | Bob Marley & the Wailers | Survival
4 | Weezer | Weezer [Green Album]

3 | Taxi Girl | Seppuku
1 | Espers | Espers

Favourite song of the week: Espers | Hearts & Daggers
"The first word in this song is discorporate. It means to leave your body."
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Rob
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by Rob »

Not a particularly good week for me, although Marley saves it.

4. Taxi Girl – Seppuku
Nothing about the cover is even remotely right. The picture is of a Japanese girl, looking both modern and traditional, while seemingly about to commit the ritualistic suicide that gives the album it’s name. What does all this promise? A modern take on Japanese folk music perhaps or a reflection on changing Japanese times? At least it promises female-led music, because even the group name has ‘Girl’ in it. We get nothing of the sort. Album cover art certainly doesn’t always capture the music inside, but I rarely found such a disconnect. This is a male band doing very western music that is very much what was modern at the time. So this is French new wave music (as in the music genre new wave, not the French film movement otherwise known as nouvelle vague). No idea what it has to do with any kind of Seppuku. Maybe they just thought it made for a cool image. Whatever, to my ears this is very bland music. I didn’t feel engaged for a second (well, maybe during a few drum hits of Avenue du Crime). This is even less exciting than a Weezer album and if you know my feelings on Weezer (see directly below) you know that is not a good thing.

3. Weezer – The Green Album
Weezer is one of those quirky bands that is super-charming if you are someone else then me. If you are me, though, their music varies between unnoticeable or annoying. It’s just a band I don’t get. This record is no different. The good news is that it has one of the rare Weezer songs I do like in Hash Pipe and a few others are better than usual, which just about puts this album above Seppuku. Mostly though, it is more of their signature music that passes me by. It only contains one of their annoying songs, which is nice, although I’m baffled to learn it is actual their biggest hit based on Spotify streams. Yes, I’m talking about Island in the Sun. See, I just don’t get this band.

2. Espers – Espers
I’m bound to like any halfway decent psychedelic folk album and this is more than halfway decent. That doesn’t mean it is particularly great. The music is well-played and rather pretty, but not as transcendent as the best the genre has to offer. The lyrics have a good flow, but once I pay attention to what they say I notice mostly a pretentious word salad that may have a consistent meaning, but isn’t particularly appealing. The biggest problem is that it lacks something of a real identity. It’s all fine and nice to listen to, but there is little to remember it by.

1. Bob Marley & the Wailers – Survival
Survival is one of the lesser known albums by Marley and mostly noticed as his most political work and for containing no of his hits. As far as the politics go, it is true there is no love song here or anything that exists merely to relax and smoke a joint by, although such songs with Marley still tend to be subtly political. It’s true though, that on this record everything has an explicit political message. I keep being amazed how Marley can bring these simple and frankly corny sounding messages with such feeling that they sound meaningful again. Few singers could match his sincerity.
As for the hits, that is mostly because nothing here is on that famous compilation known as Legend, which went on to decide which songs Marley is most remember by. This is clearly the fault of the compiler, as songs like Ride Natty Ride and the title track are as good as anything on that disc. Every song here is good though. It all feels like it might become a bit much the same, as reggae tends to do, but there is enough feeling here to sell me on everything.


1. Bob Marley & the Wailers - Survival (1979) vs. Weezer - Weezer [Green Album] (2001)
2. Taxi Girl - Seppuku (1982) vs. Espers - Espers (2004)
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by digitiser »

1. Bob Marley & the Wailers - Survival (1979) vs. Weezer - Weezer [Green Album] (2001)
2. Taxi Girl - Seppuku (1982) vs. Espers - Espers (2004)
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by mileswide »

1. Bob Marley and the Wailers - Survival v. 2. Weezer - The Green Album

4. Taxi Girl - Seppuku v. 3. Espers - Espers

Standouts: One Drop | Hash Pipe | N'importe quel soir | Hearts and Daggers
All I got inside is vacancy!
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by Jirin »

Seppuku 82, Espers 73
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by phil »

Weezer | Weezer [Green Album]
Taxi Girl | Seppuku
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Honorio
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by Honorio »

12 hours left! And we have a tie!
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Honorio
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by Honorio »

One hour left!
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Honorio
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by Honorio »

Repetition. This week we had a total of 16 voters, the very same than last week and last year. The voters were:
Bang Jan
Brad
DaveC
digitiser
FrankLotion
Honorio
Jirin
Lagunin
Listyguy
Madzong
mileswide
phil
Rdwdbob
Rob
Romain
Schüttelbirne


And these are the winners of Round 1.10:
1. Bob Marley & the Wailers - Survival tied with Weezer - Weezer 8-8
4. Taxi Girl - Seppuku over Espers - Espers 8-7

So we have a tie again!! "Survival" vs. "Weezer." Next vote from someone who has not already voted for this match-up win.

Round 1.11 up next!
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Honorio
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by Honorio »

24 hours after the results and we still have the tie!!
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acroamor
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by acroamor »

Honorio wrote: Mon Jun 05, 2023 6:04 pm 24 hours after the results and we still have the tie!!
Is the Green Album good? Yes, no, maybe - but it is getting my vote for the tiebreaker. Sorry Bob.
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Honorio
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Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 14 - Round 1.10

Post by Honorio »

Thank you, acroamor!

So finally the winners of Round 1.10 are:
1. Weezer - Weezer over Bob Marley & the Wailers - Survival 9-8
4. Taxi Girl - Seppuku over Espers - Espers 8-7
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