Moderately Acclaimed Albums 5 - The Finals!

[Brad]

Here we are... the Final Round of Moderately Acclaimed Albums 5!

Vote for your favorite album in each match-up.
Remember, anyone can vote as long as the voter has heard both albums!
Comments are encouraged but not absolutely necessary.
Deadline = October 27th at 10am EST.

Championship Round:
1. Tom Waits - Bone Machine vs. Jacques Brel - Jacques Brel [Ces gens-là]

Tom Waits - Bone Machine

Round 1: defeated Neu! - Neu! 8-7
Round 2: defeated Tim Buckley - Happy Sad 9-4
Round 3: defeated The Notwist - Neon Golden 8-6
Round 4: defeated R.E.M. - Reckoning 9-7
Quarter-Finals: defeated Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring 7-5
Semi-Finals: defeated Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F#A#8 11-8

Jacques Brel - Jacques Brel [Ces gens-là]

Round 1: defeated Austra – Feel it Break 7-4
Round 2: defeated Sun Ra - Lanquidity 6-5
Round 3: defeated Bruce Springsteen - Hammersmith Odeon, London '75 8-4
Round 4: defeated R.E.M. - Chronic Town [EP] 6-5
Quarter-Finals: defeated Exuma - Exuma I 6-5
Semi-Finals: defeated Fela Kuti – Original Sufferhead 11-7

This Is It!

[Henry]

Jacques Brel - Jacques Brel [Ces gens-là] is preferred over Tom Waits - Bone Machine

[Nassim]

Jacques Brel for the win (again) !

I really regret forgetting to vote on the quarter finals because I'd rather have seen Exuma win, but Ces-Gens Là is probably the finest non live Jacques Brel album and against Bone Machine it's a very easy choice.

[Jirin]

Bone Machine, my third favorite Waits album. I like Ces Jens la, but if understanding of the lyrics is crucial then I'm missing what I would need to better emotionally connect with it.

[Michel]

Jacques Brel - Jacques Brel [Ces gens-là]

[sonofsamiam]

Bone Machine, a masterpiece. (Sorry, Jacques.)

[DocBrown]

Bone Machine (not sorry at all, Jacques)

[Brad]

Like both, but neither were near the tops for me this tournament.
Jacques Brel - Jacques Brel [Ces gens-là]

[antonius]

Tom Waits - Bone Machine

[jamieW]

My favorite album of MA 5, John Talabot's "fIN", was eliminated in the first round. But my second favorite made it all the way to the final, so I can't complain.

My vote is for Jacques Brel - Jacques Brel [Ces gens-là]

[whuntva]

Yep. I'm finally voting in this.

I don't have a lot of time on my hands, so I can't listen to some albums, but since it's the finals, now I can vote.

Jacques Brel - Jacques Brel [Ces gens-la]

Hardest decision of my time on the forum. Seriously, they're both great, but the upbeat Brel takes it even if my French is a bit rusty!

[DaveC]

Tom Waits - Bone Machine

[Stephan]

Abbé Brel!

[Henrik]

Jacques Brel - Jacques Brel [Ces gens-là]

[nicolas]

Tom Waits - Bone Machine

[Honorio]

Fantastic layout for the final, Brad!!

Jirin vs. Henrik, Waits vs. Brel.

As you can guess, I ran out of words about those two albums for the final after wasting them all in my writing spree for the semifinals. Only two things:
- Talking about the song "Ces gens-là" I told in the semifinals that "during the whole song the double bass played the same two notes." Well, after listening to the song again in my car (where the low frequencies sound louder), I realized that this is not true. During almost 3 minutes the bass player plays again and again C# G# but, when Frida appears the bass line changes to F# B (at 2:57) and then to D# G# (at 3:04), then repeating the change on the next verse (F# B at 3:24 and D# G# at 3:31) and staying in D# G# till the end of the song. Anyway since the rhythm pattern of the bass part is almost identical throughout the song (only a pause from 0:07 to 0:11 and a diminuendo at the end of the song), the monotonous and obsessive effect is equally brilliant despite the changes of notes. In fact the change of chord from G# minor to B major during the Frida part is (along with the entry of the whole orchestra) responsible of the uplifting effect of that part.
- And secondly (and this is no surprise), my vote goes to Jacques Brel - Jacques Brel.

[Brad]

Fantastic layout for the final, Brad!!.

lol - that's about as glitzy as I get!

Last call for votes... 24 hours left! No room for "If I would have voted...s" here!

[PlasticRam]

Tom Waits - Bone Machine

Brel isn't my bag.

[Brad]

Moderately Acclaimed Album 5 CHAMPION 2014:

defeats Tom Waits - Bone Machine 9-7

Jacques Brel becomes our first two-time winner, and does it back-to-back!

Past winners:
2010: Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
2011: The Cure - Seventeen Seconds
2012: Fela Kuti and Afrika 70 - Zombie
2013: Jacques Brel - Jacques Brel - Olympia 1964

Thanks to everyone who nominated, voted or otherwise participated in this year's event... always a blast!

Details soon to come on Moderately Acclaimed Albums 6... get your lists ready!

[Brad]

And our other back-to-back champion is Henrik, who ran away with the Predict-It bracket this year. Henrik scored 189 points, followed by Listyguy's 150 and Nassim with 141.

Congrats again Henrik!

[Dan]

Hooray for Brel!! And congratulations, Henrik.

Thanks for hosting this again, Brad. And Honorio, thanks for your review of Brel's album in the semi-finals. As a result, I now prefer the 10-track version over the original 6-track album.

[jamieW]

Thanks, Brad! I made so many great discoveries along the way, and couldn't be happier with the champion. If anybody deserves to repeat, it's Brel. (It helps that the past two winners are also my personal favorite albums from him.) I'm looking very forward to MA 6 and greatly appreciate all the work you put into this.

[Jirin]

Are we going to reserve a spot for BMAA2014 again?

I'm planning to have a nomination round the last week of November then leave all December for listening and voting. And this year I'll go with a simpler algorithm that's just as simple as you can get while still not giving the more listened albums an advantage.

[Brad]

Are we going to reserve a spot for BMAA2014 again?

Absolutely!

[Honorio]

Let me add my voice to the (not many) others that are praising this fifth edition of the Moderately Acclaimed Albums game. I enjoyed it a lot. Again it was a wonderful game with many interesting discoveries ("An Empty Bliss Beyond This World' to name one) and rediscoveries ("The Snow Goose" to name one). My nominations performed this time quite poorly but I'm delighted to see "Ce gens-là" win.
Congratulations to Brad for the excellent work (an impeccable example of accuracy and punctuality), congratulations to Henrik (apart of winning the Predict-It bracket yours was the nomination that ended winning the game) and many thanks to Dan for your comment (the 1966 additions to the 1965 10" album were excellent, especially "Jef" and "Mathilde").

[Henrik]

Brad, a very late thanks for running the MAA5! Top-hole!