Moderately Acclaimed Albums 12 - Round 1.4

[Brad]

Welcome to another set of music in the first round of Moderately Acclaimed Albums!

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 = March 30th at 10am EST.

Here's a link to the bracket for the entire tournament:
http://www.bracketmaker.com/tmenu.cfm?tid=474290

Match-ups:
1. Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour Of Bewilderbeast vs. Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret
2. Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers vs. La Femme - Psycho Tropical Berlin
3. Ka - Honor killed the Samurai vs. The Cure - Bloodflowers
4. Piano Magic - Low Birth Weight vs. Hooverphonic - A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular

Lo, they did rejoice
Fine and pure of voice

[Bananarama]

Long time lurker, I finally decided to take part because I can't NOT upvote Psycho Tropical Berlin!

1. Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour Of Bewilderbeast
2. La Femme - Psycho Tropical Berlin
3. The Cure - Bloodflowers
4. Hooverphonic - A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular

This seems easy for me as here are a few of my all-time favorites but I see many struggles ahead! Great fun!

[Holden]

The first matchup is two of my all time favorites! Cheers to the nominators, I had to check my PM to Brad to make sure it wasn’t me who nominated them! Going to be a hard decision!

[Listyguy]

1. Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour Of Bewilderbeast vs. Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret
2. Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers vs. La Femme - Psycho Tropical Berlin
3. Ka - Honor killed the Samurai vs. The Cure - Bloodflowers
4. Piano Magic - Low Birth Weight vs. Hooverphonic - A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular

The real shame of the week is that the two best albums (in my opinion) are both in the third match

[Brad]

Long time lurker, I finally decided to take part...

Welcome Bananarama! (Warning - it's going to be a cruel summer) (sorry)

[Schüttelbirne]

This week I rambled a bit...

Badly Drawn Boy | The Hour of Bewilderbeast (2000)

The number of instruments Damon Gough plays on this album is incredible, among them an harmonica, a xylophone, a tambourine, an organ (!) and a variety of guitars. He also wrote all of the songs, and there‘s 18 of them which is quite a lot (even though some of them work more like interludes). Considering this is a debut album, the scope of his ambition is commendable, but it doesn‘t work completely.
I can understand why you would want to put as much material as possible onto the work that will hopefully make you well-known enough that you can start make a living with music. In this regard he definitely succeeds with this album because it puts him on the scene as an artist who can write good songs and play most of the instruments himself.
I like to think about the form „the album“ as a self-contained art form where each element should relate to the other elements. This isn‘t really a definition because who am I to define what an album is, but rather what I perceive to be the ideal, not just of myself but of a lot of people. The criticisms that an album is „too long“ or „inconsistent“ come from this way of thinking.
If you haven‘t noticed, I‘m trying to justify to myself why I think that the album is too long. It‘s 18 songs stretched out over 63 minutes which is not that much actually. I regularly listen to albums of that length that have far less songs and far less variety. I also don‘t want to play the sum game of adding up all the songs I liked and subtract all the ones I didn‘t like to come to the conclusion that certain tracks should be cut. This feels detrimental to the entire concept of an album, because some tracks might be integral to it while I don‘t like them.
So does it make sense to say: „If you cut these six tracks, the album would be better“? Nothing new is added to the album, so the version with less tracks should actually be worse because there‘s less material on there. But „Cause a Rockslide“ for example is a song that sounds way better in theory than on the actual record, so I really wouldn‘t mind it if it was cut.
I don‘t know how to answer these concerns and I need to think about it more. What I can say is that I do enjoy large parts of this album that feels rather intimate despite having large instrumentation. Gough has a nice way of singing, making most of these songs sound very melancholic. It‘s just maybe a bit too long.
Highlights: „The Shining“, „Camping Next to Water“, „Another Pearl“, „Pissing in the Wind“; „Say It Again“


Built to Spill | Keep It Like a Secret (1999)

While Badly Drawn Boy uses a lot of different instruments, Built to Spill seems to be an opposite case. Most of the tracks make due with guitar, bass guitar and drums. Still, it doesn‘t sound less magnificent and characterizing the instrumentation as „sparse“ would be misrepresenting it. They find melodies that are catchy and bright without being over-simplified. These melodies are embellished by magnificent guitar work that is definitely the best thing about this album. Drums and bass serve mostly as support for the guitar and it works in a great way.
The lyrics have a very simple quality to them, often repeating the same phrases or just adapting parts of it, creating parallelisms in the text. Yet they‘re never simple in an easy, light-headed way but rather emphasize the heaviness of them. This is maybe best exemplified on „You Were Right“, where the lyrics state that another person was right about all sorts of things that can be characterized as „bad“ while he was wrong about everything being alright in the future. This rejection of optimism definitely hits harder when it‘s portrayed in very simple words.
Not all of the songs are that simple in their syntax, though they generally ascribe to traditional verse-chorus structures. The first verse of „Center of the Universe“, for example, shows a rather complicated sentence that never seems to overwhelm Doug Martsch when singing, which is remarkable because some of the expressions they use really shouldn‘t work (and they wouldn‘t in lesser hands), but the band makes them sound beautifully.
A minor nitpick: I feel like the first two tracks are too short and end when they should just be getting started. My favorite tracks are the ones where they use longer instrumental passages to emphasize the emotions of the tracks. As you could probably tell, I like this a lot.
Highlights: „Carry the Zero“, „Time Trap“, „You Were Right“, „Broken Chairs“


Fountains of Wayne | Welcome Interstate Managers (2003)

I feel like my comments on Badly Drawn Boy‘s album already exhausted all I can say about „albums that are maybe too long“ for this week, but here it might be even a bit worse, even though it is shorter. Fountains of Wayne basically has two main styles: Happy pop-like songs and melancholic pop-like songs, though sometimes there‘s song that are both happy and melancholic. They do try out something different on a few songs; „Hung Up on You“ for example is clearly a country song. But seen overall, with its sixteen tracks there‘s not enough variety of style for me to like this. This is a bit unfair because I don‘t complain about jazz albums lacking a variety of style, but I‘m not really a fan of Pop/Rock-hybrids and the songs just seem to blend into one after a while.
Some of the songs are also rather annoying, especially their biggest hit „Stacy‘s Mom“ which might be the worst track on the album for me. Similarly the lyrics on „Fire Island“, that basically describe high-schoolers throwing a party while their parents are away, are also a bit cringe-worthy („We don‘t need no babysitter“ seems really weird to me).
Nostalgia as a principle is okay in general (I did enjoy the Jonathan Richman album, after all), but the way it is used here is basically just stating how awesome high school was, in many different ways. I don‘t know exactly why, but their lyrics just fail to resonante with me on any level, making their songs seem rather bland.
As an additional note, I would just like to mention that the album cover doesn‘t look like the album sounds. Maybe it‘s supposed to be an ironic comment of sorts, or a joke, but it fails to work for me.
Highlights: „Hackensack“, „Valley Winter Song“, „Supercollider“


La Femme | Psycho Tropical Berlin (2013)

No pretentious and senseless analysis of lyrics here because my French is… not good and I didn‘t feel like looking up translations. But I also don‘t think that the lyrics are of major importance here because the feeling comes through without them, and it‘s great fun. The constant rhythm keeps pushing forward while guitar and keyboard provide the melody. I don‘t really know what else to say other than this was great fun and I do think that is what it‘s supposed to be.
Something that came to mind while listening to this album is its similarity in style to last year‘s Figures by Aksak Maboul, a Belgian band that have been around since the Rock in Opposition movement in the ‚70s, but were on hiatus for a long time. La Femme isn‘t as bloomy as Aksak Maboul and sounds colder, kind of like an elaboration on the coldness of Kraftwerk, turning it into an uplifting, danceable style.
Also: „Antitaxi“ is one of the great song titles in history. It‘s such a wonderfully simple combination of two words that doesn‘t make any sense while looking at it, but is intriguing precisely because of that. The repetition of two syllables starting with t gives it a very peculiar sound which I definitely enjoy.
Highlights: „Antitaxi“, „Sur la planche 2013“, „Nous étions deux“, „Welcome America“


Ka | Honor Killed the Samurai (2016)

I don‘t really know enough about the connection of Samurai movies with American Hip Hop other than it exists, so I can‘t exactly talk a lot about it. The obvious group to think of here is Wu-Tang Clan; I think Ka‘s referencing them in „$“ when he‘s rapping „‘cause I long for cream“, because cream being „C.R.E.A.M.“ would fit with the general tone of the song.
The lyrics in general are very deep and worth diving into, something I don‘t really have the time for currently. There‘s a concept behind this album that connects the songs to virtues a samurai is supposed to possess and contrasts it with reality where samurais can‘t exist anymore. The aforementioned „$“ is pretty obvious in this regard, starting with the female voice explaining that samurais don‘t care about material goods and then Ka explaining that in the modern world one can‘t help but think about money all the time. His rapping style is smooth and rather quiet. There‘s a problem I have that is entirely a me-problem: There‘s rappers like Kendrick Lamar or Eminem where I don‘t even need to concentrate to understand what they‘re saying because their diction is so clear. Ka doesn‘t belong to this group and his words just seem to flow into each other, which makes it hard for me as a not-native speaker to figure out what he‘s saying. I would need a lot of further listening for this.
The production is also really great; „That Cold and Lonely“ features a sample from Yusef Lateef which already makes me happy. It all flows together effortlessly creating a cohesive whole: a very good album that probably needs more time for me to fully appreciate it.
Highlights: „Just“, „That Cold and Lonely“, „Finer Things / Tamahagene“, „I Wish (Death Poem)“


The Cure | Bloodflowers (2000)

I really liked the Ka album and I would‘ve loved to see it advance into the next round, but apparently it is not to be; I‘d be very surprised if The Cure didn‘t win this match-up. And they do deserve it.
I‘m not really familiar with most of their discography; I‘ve heard Three Imaginary Boys for the ‚70s poll last year which I liked and Disintegration which I absolutely love. Bloodflowers is closer in tone and quality to the latter of these, but it‘s not quite as good. The band creates very tension-filled, layered songs that build towards an emotional, cathartic climax. This sound is built out of the combination of electric guitars with string arrangements that sound majestic without being too pompous.
I never could quite fit The Cure‘s aesthetic with their sound because just from looking at them I would never assume they would make music as great as this. But they do.
Highlights: „Out of This World“, „Watching Me Fall“, „The Last Day of Summer“, „39“


Piano Magic | Low Birth Weight (1999)

For an album with a cover depicting stuffed animals having a tea party, this sounds remarkably safe. The appeal of this album probably lies in the atmosphere it creates or rather is supposed to create, because it only occassionally works for me. I prefer the songs where they implement different elements that deviate from the normal Dream Pop sound (a genre that I haven‘t really gotten into because it often confuses slowness for mood). That can be the Caroline Potter‘s whimpers on the opener, the increasing distortion towards the end of the track on „Snow Drums“ or the incorporation of sound samples as seen on „Shepherds Are Needed“, a song that goes through an entire journey in five minutes without the need for vocals, hooks or a sustained melody.
Something I realized while listening was that I progressively enjoyed it more, not because I grew accustomed to the sound of the album, but rather because the songs on the second half are superior to the songs on the first half. Take everything from „Crown Estate“ to „Birdymachine“ out, take out „Dark Secrets Look for Light“ (which might be the most tedious song here, that ultimately meanders way too long) and you have a pretty good album. As is, this is still a solid album, that never aspires to be as weirdly bizarre as its cover promises (seriously though, the thought that this was a thing in the 19th century is perversely intriguing and repulsive at the same time).
Highlights: „Snowfall Soon“, „Not Fair“, „Snow Drums“


Hooverphonic | A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular (1997)

„Spectacular“ isn‘t exactly the word I‘d use to describe this album, but it certainly isn‘t bad. Once again my knowledge of ‚90s Trip Hop is far too narrow to classify this within the genre (I know the big ones like Massive Attack, Tricky and Portishead but never got deeper than that).
This album has the typical beat and uses guitars, keyboards and drums to create a sound that‘s mostly light and freeflowing, supported by Liesje Sadonius‘s vocals. I do have a bit of a problem with those: I know that they‘re probably intended to sound light and airy, but they are a bit too airy for me, to the point where they barely register; it seems like they lack character.
The individual instrumental elements are well done throughout, but they often fail to come together completely for me, so the album does lack for me a bit.
Highlights: „2 Wicky“, „Wardrope“, „Sarangi“



4 | Badly Drawn Boy | The Hour of Bewilderbeast vs. 1 | Built to Spill | Keep It Like a Secret
8 | Fountains of Wayne | Welcome Interstate Managers vs. 5 | La Femme | Psycho Tropical Berlin
3 | Ka | Honor Killed the Samurai vs. 2 | The Cure | Bloodflowers
6 | Piano Magic | Low Birth Weight vs. 7 | Hooverphonic | A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular

Favorite song of the week: The Cure | „Watching Me Fall“

[Jirin]

The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast 79 - Keep It Like A Secret 73
Welcome Interstate Managers 83 - Psycho Tropical Berlin 73
Honor Killed The Samurai 85 - Bloodflowers 77
A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular 70 - Low Birth Weight 67

[DaveC]

1. Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour Of Bewilderbeast vs. Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret
2. Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers vs. La Femme - Psycho Tropical Berlin
3. Ka - Honor killed the Samurai vs. The Cure - Bloodflowers
4. Piano Magic - Low Birth Weight vs. Hooverphonic - A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular

[Nassim]

1. Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret
I don't know why Keep It Like a Secret isn't a crossover success with huge acclaim, it sounds to me like it's at the perfect intersection to please both the classic rock lovers and the indie rock lovers... and it's just plain fantastic, with 2 of my all time favorite tracks. Perfect From Now On is my favorite album of all time, but Keep It Like a Secret is the one everybody should have agreed on.
2. La Femme - Psycho Tropical Berlin
I nominated it back in 2013 for the end of year poll, so obviously a favorite of mine (even though I didn't nominate it this time). Still my 2nd favorite French album of all time, and it faces an album I strongly dislike.
3. Ka - Honor killed the Samurai
Fun useless fact : I mentioned Psycho Tropical Berlin is my 2nd favorite French album, IAM's L'école du Micro d'Argent is my #1, and it shares a sample with Ka's That Cold and Lonely. I only knew The Night's Gambit previously while I found enjoyable and elegant but a bit too sparse and barren, Honor Killed the Samurai is an improvement on all front, keeping the same qualities but making the songs a bit more engaging and memorable.

[Bang Jan]

1 | Badly Drawn Boy | The Hour Of Bewilderbeast
2 | Built to Spill | Keep It Like a Secret

8 | Fountains of Wayne | Welcome Interstate Managers
4 | La Femme | Psycho Tropical Berlin

5 | Ka | Honor killed the Samurai
3 | The Cure | Bloodflowers

6 | Piano Magic | Low Birth Weight
7 | Hooverphonic | A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular

Favourite song of the week: Badly Drawn Boy | The Shining

[Romain]

A great week.

Match-ups:
1. Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour Of Bewilderbeast
2. La Femme - Psycho Tropical Berlin
3. The Cure - Bloodflowers
4. Hooverphonic - A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular

[rumpdoll]

1. Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour Of Bewilderbeast vs. Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret
Hey, the two great Built to Spill albums are finally on german spotify
2. Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers vs. La Femme - Psycho Tropical Berlin
La femme is a great discovery
3. Ka - Honor killed the Samurai vs. The Cure - Bloodflowers
4. Piano Magic - Low Birth Weight vs. Hooverphonic - A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular

[Holden]

1. Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour Of Bewilderbeast vs. Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret

Ugh! Two great, dare I say perfect, albums! Both of them will make my all time top 100 when I next make my list! The Hour of Bewilderbeast is a genre hopping masterwork of epic proportions, with song after song of amazing folk-esque tunes. Listening to it again I was again blown away by its absurdly high quality. Truly an album that deserves its hour+ runtime. Meanwhile, Built to Spill is, in my opinion, a quintessential indie rock album of the last 1990s, one that is discussed not nearly enough in the grand scheme of 1990s rock! I've been obsessed with it for the last few weeks, even before the tournament, and it has so many amazing tracks, from the outstanding opener to probably my favorite track on the album "You Were Right," which feels like a tribute to Big Star's best song "Thirteen," and is a short epic spanning rock history. Ultimately, two stellar, 10/10 records that are hard to pick between, but I have to go with Built to Spill.

2. Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers vs. La Femme - Psycho Tropical Berlin

Alright, who told Fountains of Wayne that they needed to make a nearly hour long album? Throughout most of it, I felt like I was missing the joke that they were trying to make, with only "Stacey's Mom" really landing for me. Cheers if you like this, but as far as early 2000s pop rock goes I'll take The Killers any day. Meanwhile La Femme is a neat pop discovery, an album that really shows that language barriers mean nothing when it comes to good music. Every track is fun and chaotic with varried vocals that leaves me wanting more! I really liked it!

3. Ka - Honor Killed the Samurai vs. The Cure - Bloodflowers

Honor Killed the Samurai is a pretty solid hip hop album, one that benefits from the fact that it really isn't trying to be like anything other than it is. The samples and instrumentals are great, and the vocals are interesting. Meanwhile, we have a pretty standard album by The Cure. Overall, pretty inoffensive, I enjoyed most of the songs, though I wish it had been a bit shorter (maybe cut out the second track entirely?) But it's The Cure, so it's bound to be good, and sure enough, we were given a decent gothic rock album that I'm surprised isn't ranked on AM.

A side note, looking at AllMusic, they have been really mean to The Cure! Not a single 5/5 album on the site, not even Disintegration!

4. Piano Magic - Low Birth Weight vs. Hooverphonic - A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular

[Rdwdbob]

1. Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour Of Bewilderbeast
2. Fountains Of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers
3. The Cure - Bloodflowers
4. Hooverphonic - A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular

[mileswide]

I bet Brad was elated to have to face Stacy's Mom again!

6. Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour of Bewilderbeast v. 7. Built to Spill - Keep It like a Secret
8. Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers v. 4. La Femme - Psycho Tropical Berlin
2. Ka - Honor Killed the Samurai v. 3. The Cure - Bloodflowers
5. Piano Magic - Low Birth Weight v. 1. Hooverphonic - A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular

Standouts: Stone on the Water | Temporarily Blind | Bright Future in Sales | Sur la planche 2013 | $ | 39 | Snow Drums | Innervoice

[Brad]

I bet Brad was elated to have to face Stacy's Mom again!

[Brad]

My picks:

1. Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour Of Bewilderbeast vs. Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret
Agreed, painful first round match-up!
2. Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers vs. La Femme - Psycho Tropical Berlin
3. Ka - Honor killed the Samurai vs. The Cure - Bloodflowers
4. Piano Magic - Low Birth Weight vs. Hooverphonic - A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular
Deliberated a long time on this one - both really good albums!

Thanks!

[mileswide]

I bet Brad was elated to have to face Stacy's Mom again!

[bonnielaurel]

Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret
La Femme - Psycho Tropical Berlin
The Cure - Bloodflowers
Piano Magic - Low Birth Weight

[LunarPiper]

1. Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret
2. La Femme - Psycho Tropical Berlin
3. Ka - Honor Killed the Samurai
4. Piano Magic - Low Birth Weight

[spiritualized]

Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret
La Femme - Psycho Tropical Berlin
The Cure - Bloodflowers
Piano Magic - Low Birth Weight

[Honorio]

After all the negative comments and the eighths positions, I'm aware that putting "Welcome Interstate Managers" as my album of the week is not a cool thing to do. But what can I do? Good power pop always reminds me why I came here (to music addiction), those melodies, chords and harmonies that seem to have existed forever and stay with you forever. Also of note are the brilliance of Built to Spill, the quirkiness of Badly Drawn Boy, the effervescence of La Femme and the elegance of Hooverphonic.

4. Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour of Bewilderbeast (2000) vs. 2. Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret (1999)
1. Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers (2003) vs. 3. La Femme - Psycho Tropical Berlin (2013)
7. Ka - Honorio Killed the Samurai (2016) vs. 6. The Cure - Bloodflowers (2000)
8. Piano Magic - Low Birth Weight (1999) vs. 5. Hooverphonic - A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular (1996)

Favourite song from every album:
Once Around the Block | Carry the Zero | Fire Island | La femme | That Cold and Lonely | Bloodflowers | Snowfall Soon | 2Wicky

[Brad]

Under 24 hours left to vote!

[jamieW]

Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour Of Bewilderbeast
La Femme - Psycho Tropical Berlin
The Cure - Bloodflowers
Hooverphonic - A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular

Favorite album I didn't vote for: Ka - Honor killed the Samurai

[Romain]

7. Ka - Honorio Killed the Samurai (2016) vs. 6. The Cure - Bloodflowers (2000)

I see what you did there!

[Rob]

8. Fountains of Wayne – Welcome Interstate Managers
These are the type of teenager songs about summer jobs that are not all that great and where when your girlfriend leaves you it is kind of a bummer, but before you know it there is another girl to write a song about. Nothing to get too worked up about. Teenage angst and growing pains are not really present. This all is accompanied by rather annoying vocals and light and warm guitar parts that have swindled the world into thinking of them as ‘power’ chords. To me this is just minor fluff.

7. Piano Magic – Low Birth Weight
The only thing I know for certain about this album is that there is little piano magic going on. It is a strange collection of songs that feel like they have little to do with one another. So we get dark singer/songwriter material like Dark Secrets Look for Light that Nick Cave might consider along with Shepherds Need Light which is mostly just psychedelic sound effects. Some songs are strong, especially when they embrace a dark dream-vibe, but a lot is weak and the whole doesn’t add up.

6. Hooverphonic – A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular
This album comes a bit late in the nineties trip-hop boom, so it might have been more of a trend hopper than an innovator. Mostly this is true and generally speaking this is mostly a pleasant genre-exercise that rarely matches the best of the genre. There are a few tracks that stand out though, namely 2 Wicky – a trip hop work-out that deserves to be a genre classic – and Sarangi, which contains some surprising rock elements. Most of it just settles for a pleasant atmosphere, though.

5. The Cure – Bloodflowers
A very good album, for sure. One that showed there was life in The Cure still after people were ready to write them off after one critical flop. There is a warm melancholy to much of this album that I find quite appealing, with the highlight right at the start: the superb Out of This World. Despite all the positives I’m not tempted to call this one of the great albums of the tournament as others here seem to do. There are a few middling and forgettable tracks here that bring it down.

4. Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour of Bewilderbeast
This is indeed a very appealing album. There is a lot of genre-hopping going on as others have pointed out, but at the same time it keeps to a certain warm chamber pop aesthetic throughout. The execution of this is so well done that even the length of the album isn’t much of a problem, as even the less essential songs have an inviting feel. Nonetheless, when near the end a more darker sound appears, especially on Disillusion, it is welcome.

3. La Femme – Psycho Tropical Berlin
This band already impressed me on their follow-up of this album, Mystère, which was a Moderately Acclaimed Album of 2016, but I only now got around to their more acclaimed predecessor. This has the same eclectic mixture of genres that can only be summed up by the title. The general feel is at once weird and familiar. Above all, it never lets it’s energy flag or its colors wane. To top it off, the album also has one of the coolest covers in the whole poll.

2. Ka – Honor Killed the Samurai
A nice surprise. With the title I expected some grotesque grandstanding, but Ka actually invests in the samurai theme on a deeper level, using the supposed code of the Japanese warriors as a way to reflect on gangster life. The production is very sparse and the style more straightforward than most hip-hop I have heard, which makes everything seem more direct. Ka’s rapping also has a subdued yet thoughtful quality that I personally find appealing.

1. Built to Spill – Keep It Like a Secret
So we come to it at last, the moment that MA regulars Built to Spill click with me. I still struggle a bit with those standard-issue, characterless, male vocals that are a nineties signature, but even that doesn’t matter that much if you consider that the guitar does all the real talking. Doug Martsch has such a very expressive way of playing that I’m surprised it didn’t capture me before. The compositions are of great beauty. The lyrics are fine too and they add up to a heartfelt album.

A simple overview of my votes:

1. Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour Of Bewilderbeast vs. Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret
2. Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers vs. La Femme - Psycho Tropical Berlin
3. Ka - Honor killed the Samurai vs. The Cure - Bloodflowers
4. Piano Magic - Low Birth Weight vs. Hooverphonic - A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular

[Honorio]

7. Ka - Honorio Killed the Samurai (2016) vs. 6. The Cure - Bloodflowers (2000)

I see what you did there!

Yeah! But I was joking, I wasn't the one who killed him. It was Honor.
By the way, I was not the one who nominated the Fountains of Wayne album. But I could have been...

[Brad]

7. Ka - Honorio Killed the Samurai (2016) vs. 6. The Cure - Bloodflowers (2000)

I see what you did there!

Yeah! But I was joking, I wasn't the one who killed him. It was Honor.
By the way, I was not the one who nominated the Fountains of Wayne album. But I could have been...

I completely missed that... even after Romain re-posted

[Safetycat]

2. The Hour Of Bewilderbeast > 5. Keep It Like a Secret
3. Welcome Interstate Managers < 1. Psycho Tropical Berlin
6. Honor killed the Samurai < 4. Bloodflowers
8. Low Birth Weight < 7. A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular

[Kingoftonga]

Winners in red:

1. Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour Of Bewilderbeast vs. Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret
2. Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers vs. La Femme - Psycho Tropical Berlin
3. Ka - Honor killed the Samurai vs. The Cure - Bloodflowers
4. Piano Magic - Low Birth Weight vs. Hooverphonic - A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular

[Brad]

21 total voters this week:
Bananarama
Bang Jan
bonnielaurel
Brad
DaveC
Holden
Honorio
jaimeW
Jirin
Kingoftonga
Listyguy
LunarPiper
mileswide
Nassim
Rdwdbob
Rob
Romain
rumpdoll
Safetycat
Schüttelbirne
spiritualized

Winners:
1. Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret over Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour Of Bewilderbeast 12-9
2. La Femme - Psycho Tropical Berlin over Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers 17-4
3. The Cure - Bloodflowers over Ka - Honor killed the Samurai 15-6
4. Hooverphonic - A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular over Piano Magic - Low Birth Weight 13-7

Round 1.5 coming right up!