Moderately Acclaimed Albums 6 - Round 1.7

[Brad]

Welcome to another 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!
Comments are encouraged but not absolutely necessary.
Deadline = May 4th at 10am EST.

Match-ups:
1. Woody Guthrie - Dust Bowl Ballads vs. Rush -2112
2. Doves - Lost Souls vs. The Kills - Midnight Boom
3. Klaus Schulze - Timewind vs. Sixteen Horsepower - Sackcloth 'n' Ashes
4. Spiro - Lightbox vs. Morphine - Like Swimming

Listen To The Music!

[Maschine_Man]

Morphine - Like Swimming (songs 1-12)

[Rob]

And for people without Grooveshark:

Morphine - Like Swimming

[Brad]

Maschine_Man and Rob - I don't say it enough - THANKS! You guys keep it rolling here and I really appreciate it!

[Blanco]

Maschine_Man and Rob - I don't say it enough - THANKS! You guys keep it rolling here and I really appreciate it!

The three of you are awesome!

[DaveC]

1. Woody Guthrie - Dust Bowl Ballads vs. Rush -2112
2. Doves - Lost Souls vs. The Kills - Midnight Boom
3. Klaus Schulze - Timewind vs. Sixteen Horsepower - Sackcloth 'n' Ashes
Best find of the game so far - from a band I'd never heard of.
4. Spiro - Lightbox vs. Morphine - Like Swimming

[phil]

1. Woody Guthrie - Dust Bowl Ballads vs. Rush -2112
2. Doves - Lost Souls vs. The Kills - Midnight Boom
3. Klaus Schulze - Timewind vs. Sixteen Horsepower - Sackcloth 'n' Ashes
4. Spiro - Lightbox vs. Morphine - Like Swimming

Many great new discoveries this week. Those last 4 albums are all outstanding, making matchups 3 & 4 difficult for me. I'm surprised Timewind was released in '75. Certainly ahead of its time.

[Jirin]

Sorry I haven't been good about listening to all the albums not on Spotify. The problem really is that lately I've been doing most of my listening either in the car or in my computer at work where I'm dependent on my phone or CDs to listen. (Don't want to stream things over office wireless.) Grooveshark has a phone app but it's terrible and stops randomly.

Woody Guthrie - Dust Bowl Ballads 76-61
The Kills - Midnight Boom 77-75
Sixteen Horsepower - Sackclock n Ashes 86-82

Morphine is not on Spotify but Lightbox is a 88. If the vote is close on Sunday I'll make sure to listen to it since I liked Lightbox.

To give people an idea of what kinds of albums I would rate lower than 50:

50: Matchbox 20 - Yourself Or Someone Like You
40: Live - Anything after Secret Samadhi
30: Creed - My Own Prison
20: Creed - Their third album
10: Limp Bizkit - Whatever the name of that album was
0: Justin Bieber - Belieb It Or Not

[Romain]

1. I'm not able to rank the two albums, I dislike both.
2. The Kills - Midnight Boom Here, it's hard because "lost Souls" is the second best album of the week...after Midnight Boom (perfect start to the end).
3. Sixteen Horsepower - Sackcloth 'n' Ashes
4. Morphine - Like Swimming

[Brad]

My picks:
1. Woody Guthrie - Dust Bowl Ballads vs. Rush -2112
I have much respect for the fine Woody Guthrie offering, but Rush's 1976 magnum opus was the soundtrack to my 1980 (it took a while to get down here from our Northern neighbors) - I still can't listen to any part of side one without manning the air drums or guitar (or both at the same time).
2. Doves - Lost Souls vs. The Kills - Midnight Boom
3. Klaus Schulze - Timewind vs. Sixteen Horsepower - Sackcloth 'n' Ashes
4. Spiro - Lightbox vs. Morphine - Like Swimming

Thanks!

[Henry]

1. Rush -2112 is preferred over Woody Guthrie - Dust Bowl Ballads

[Honorio]

1. Woodie Guthrie - Dust Bowl Ballads (1940) vs. Rush - 2112 (1976)
2. Doves - Lost Souls (2000) vs. The Kills - Midnight Boom (2008)
3. Klaus Schulze - Timewind (1975) vs. Sixteen Horsepower - Sackcloth 'n' Ashes (1996)
4. Spiro - Lightbox (2009) vs. Morphine - Like Swimming (1997)

Hardest decision of the week: Schulze vs. Edwards


Contemporary Folk, Progressive Rock, Dream Pop, Indie Rock, Berlin School, Gothic Country, Avant-Folk and Alternative Rock.

[whuntva]

I do love me some Celt-Rick (even if they are English), but I have to go with Morphine as they are my pick.

Rush-2112 beats Dustbowl Ballads also. I respect Woody for this album, but I enjoyed Rush more.

[jamieW]

Sixteen Horsepower - Sackcloth 'n' Ashes
Klaus Schulze - Timewind
Woody Guthrie - Dust Bowl Ballads
Doves - Lost Souls
Spiro - Lightbox
Morphine - Like Swimming
The Kills - Midnight Boom
Rush -2112

A special thanks to whoever nominated 16 Horsepower - what a wonderfully unique album! I don't know how many weeks my two favorite albums have faced each other, but it seems like a lot. Anyway, this was a very strong week from top to bottom (and the only two albums I'd heard before were Woody and Rush).

[DocBrown]

1. Woody Guthrie - Dust Bowl Ballads vs. Rush -2112
2.Doves - Lost Souls vs. The Kills - Midnight Boom

Sorry, no time for the other two matchups this week.

[Maschine_Man]

1. Woody Guthrie - Dust Bowl Ballads vs.Rush -2112
2. Doves - Lost Souls vs.The Kills - Midnight Boom

Only two this week. Midnight boom is my #9 of all time, like Romain said, perfect start to end. Because this is probably the most relevant time to post it, this is my little 'theory' about Midnight Boom:

Allison and Jamie are in some form of a relationship and we explore this as it explodes over a night. They meet on a in the afternoon (U.R.A. Fever) and organize a wild night out (Cheap and Cheerful/Tape Song). As the night progresses we see how they are both destructive (A little tornado/A little hurricano from Last Day Of Magic). They have a fight and crash apart (Hook and Line/Black Balloon) around midnight. Allison tries to get with another guy in M.E.X.I.C.O. but it doesn't work out (the song is short and messy). Despite their destructive similarities they complement each other so get back together (Sour Cherry/Alphabet Pony). They see out the night together by discussing the downfall of NYC and taking speed (What New York Used To Be/Goodnight Bad Morning).

[notbrianeno]

Dust Bowl Ballads
Midnight Boom

[Brad]

23 hours left to vote!

[Poliuks]

1. Woody Guthrie - Dust Bowl Ballads
3. Sixteen Horsepower - Sackcloth 'n' Ashes
4. Spiro - Lightbox

[Rob]

1. Woody Guthrie - Dust Bowl Ballads vs. Rush -2112
2. Doves - Lost Souls vs. The Kills - Midnight Boom
3. Klaus Schulze - Timewind vs. Sixteen Horsepower - Sackcloth 'n' Ashes
4. Spiro - Lightbox vs. Morphine - Like Swimming

I don't have time for my usual longer comments on the albums this week, but I would like to say that Sackclocth 'n' Ashes and Lightbox are wonderful and the type of discoveries that make me want to play this game. Dust Bowl Ballads is equally great, but I already knew it. Midnight Boom and Like Swimming are pretty great too. 2112 also has moments of greatness, but not for it's full length. Curiously, despite the praise I gave last week for more ambient-like or moody musical pieces, Timewind didn't really connect with me for unknown reasons. Lost Souls was simply uninteresting to me.

[Kingoftonga]

Winners in red.

1. Woody Guthrie - Dust Bowl Ballads vs. Rush -2112
2. Doves - Lost Souls vs. The Kills - Midnight Boom
3. Klaus Schulze - Timewind vs. Sixteen Horsepower - Sackcloth 'n' Ashes
4. Spiro - Lightbox vs. Morphine - Like Swimming

[Brad]

15 voters this week:
Brad
DaveC
DocBrown
Henry
Honorio
jamieW
Jirin
Kingoftonga
Maschine_Man
notbrianeno
phil
Poliuks
Rob
Romain
whuntva

Winners:
1. Woody Guthrie - Dust Bowl Ballads over Rush -2112 10-4
2. The Kills - Midnight Boom over Doves - Lost Souls 7-5
3. Sixteen Horsepower - Sackcloth 'n' Ashes over Klaus Schulze - Timewind 7-3
4. Spiro - Lightbox over Morphine - Like Swimming 7-3

Round 1.8 up soon!