Best Moderately Acclaimed Album of 2015: Voting round

[Jirin]

Please tell me if I missed anyone else because there were a couple I missed in the nomiantion thread.

The rules are simple. Send me a PM ranking all of the nominations that you have heard from best to worst. The ranking formula is based on wins and losses taking into account all voters who ranked each pair of albums, so do not worry about whether you had a chance to hear all the nominations, just rank the ones you have heard. The winner will automatically enter into the next Best Moderately Acclaimed Album. And last year, the winner of this competition won Best Moderately Acclaimed Album.

Voting will end January 31st.

Here are the nominations:
Earl Sweatshirt - I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside
Faada Freddy - Gospel Journey
Liturgy - The Ark Work
Susanne Sundfor - Ten Love Songs
Rover - Let It Glow
Marina and the Diamonds - Froot
Kid Cudi - Speedin Bullet 2 Heaven
Ryley Walker - Primrose Green
Built to Spill - Untethered Moon
Ghost Culture - Ghost Culture
Lupe Fiasco - Tetsuo & Youth
Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni - Ba-Ba power
Algiers - Algiers
Kamasi Washington - The Epic
Dawn Richard - Blackheart
Jazmine Sullivan - Reality Show
The Eccentronic Research Council - Johnny Rocket, Narcissist & Music Machine … I’m Your Biggest Fan
Ezra Furman - Perpetual Motion Machine
Hiatus Kaiyote - Choose Your Weapon
Roisin Murphy - Hairless Toys
Rhiannon Giddens - Tomorrow Is My Turn
Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld - Never Were The Way She Was
The Weather Station - Loyalty
Super Smash Bros 4 Soundtrack
Outfit - Slowness
Lady Lamb - After
C Duncan - Architect
Mikal Cronin- MCIII
Empress Of - Me
Marlon Williams - Marlon Williams
Roots Manuva - Bleeds

[DaveC]

Possible corrections:-

Amend : Roots Manuva - A Flourish and A Spoil to Roots Manuva - Bleeds
Remove : The Districts - A Flourish and A Spoil

+ What happened to Faada Freddy?

[Jirin]

Added back Faada Freddy and made those changes.

[Jirin]

Anyone know where to find Rover and The Eccentronic Research Council now that Grooveshark is no more?

Only have 1 list so far. Due to my schedule deadline will be extended to Feb 3.

[Bang Jan]

The Eccentronic Research Council album is on Spotify.

[Rob]

I'm working through this list. I hope I can listen to all of them before the deadline, though I doubt it. However, I just want to encourage everyone who has doubts to start listening, because really, this list is full of surprises. It's not easy to rank them, because a lot is great. The tastes of the forum people here as well as the diverse knowledge keeps surprising me.

[DaveC]

Yes lots of interesting music. The ERC isn't #1 on my list, but it surely proves that the album format is not dead. It also features a vocalist who sounds exactly like my sister-in-law - very weird.

I'm going to send my list last-minute, just because it is so tough to rank this group of albums which, diverse as it is, has so few weak entries.

[Jirin]

Is it on Spotify in the US? When I put in Eccentronic Research Council I only get one song back.

My biggest new discovery so far has been Kid Cudi. It's so weird and interesting. It has clips from Beavis & Butthead and it's not quite like anything else I've heard.

[Rob]

Yes lots of interesting music. The ERC isn't #1 on my list, but it surely proves that the album format is not dead.

I think most of the albums here prove the album form is not dead, but ERC is a particularly great example of the concept album, which seem to be rare now. And what a strange and captivating concept it has!

I'm going to send my list last-minute, just because it is so tough to rank this group of albums which, diverse as it is, has so few weak entries.

The same goes for me. It's too bad that due to limited time I can't listen to the albums more than once. Normally that might stop me from participating, but the high quality of the selections I have heard up to now make it easier to judge the albums.

[Brad]

Is it on Spotify in the US? When I put in Eccentronic Research Council I only get one song back.

My biggest new discovery so far has been Kid Cudi. It's so weird and interesting. It has clips from Beavis & Butthead and it's not quite like anything else I've heard.

Having the same issue with that one Jirin. Also, I've not been able to find "Let It Glow," and I'm wondering if the Smash Brothers Soundtrack is available on Spotify. Anyone in the US have any luck with these?

[jamieW]

Is it on Spotify in the US? When I put in Eccentronic Research Council I only get one song back.

My biggest new discovery so far has been Kid Cudi. It's so weird and interesting. It has clips from Beavis & Butthead and it's not quite like anything else I've heard.

Having the same issue with that one Jirin. Also, I've not been able to find "Let It Glow," and I'm wondering if the Smash Brothers Soundtrack is available on Spotify. Anyone in the US have any luck with these?

I'm having many of the same issues, Brad and Jirin. I feel especially bad about "Let It Glow," since Romain offered to change his nomination and I told him to keep it, since I'd be happy to buy it on I-Tunes. Unfortunately, I've since found out that it's not available on I-Tunes, either.

As for Kid Cudi, I've (unfortunately) had a much different reaction to it than Jirin. I typically love experimental music, but let me just politely say that this one did not connect with me at all personally. (And I was a big Beavis and Butthead fan!)

[Rob]

ECR and Let It Glow are both on Spotify in my region. As I specified when I nominated it, the Smash Bros soundtrack never got a sales release, but was send to people who bought the game in the first few months. It is on YouTube:

This is the only one I could find, but I do feel a bit bad about sharing it because it contains a link to an illegal download of the soundtrack. On the other hand, Nintendo can't make any money out of it anymore, so there you go.

I can't find the ECR and Rover albums on YouTube though.

[Brad]

Great - Thanks for re-posting that Rob. As for "Let It Glow", I find it unfortunate as well, since the few songs I was able to locate on youtube are really good. I will continue to hunt for it.

[Sweepstakes Ron]

http://mp3freex.info/album-download/rov ... 5-kfHa7CY7

[Brad]

http://mp3freex.info/album-download/rov ... 5-kfHa7CY7

YES! Thanks Sweepstakes!

[Maschine_Man]

I'm having a listening party today of the albums on this list. I made a Spotify Playlist, if others have not got around to it. As always, I have the Australian Spotify, so if you can't see something, it might be region blocked. Looking at it, lots of great albums and a lot of different styles.



Albums not in the playlist:
Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni - Ba-Ba power (i did include a single that was on there)
Super Smash Bros 4 Soundtrack
Lady Lamb - After

[Jirin]

My favorite discovery so far is Rhiannon Giddens.

[Maschine_Man]

I have enjoyed listening to everything over the last two days. Not much in the way of "hating". The Faada Freddy LP is probably my favorite discovery. I'll be putting in my list soon.

[bootsy]

My favorite discovery so far is Rhiannon Giddens.

Just listened to this. It is quite good.

[Jirin]

I got through all the albums on Spotify, still a few I need to look for elsewhere. That is Rover,Eccentronic Research Council, Rosin Murphy and Marlon Williams. (And SB soundtrack already linked.)

[Brad]

I got through all the albums on Spotify, still a few I need to look for elsewhere. That is Rover,Eccentronic Research Council, Rosin Murphy and Marlon Williams. (And SB soundtrack already linked.)

Roisin Murphy's on there - just need to add the "i" to her first name.
And Sweepstakes Ron supplied a download link for Rover up above.

[phil]

I know it may not be everyone's streaming service of choice, but just FYI, I've found all of the albums (except SSB4 soundtrack) on Apple Music. I'll be sending in my list shortly.

I can't say I enjoyed everything, but the strength of the many albums here that I did enjoy made it worth sitting through the ones that didn't click.

[Nassim]

Same as for EOY, if you don't mine I'll vote tomorrow morning as I left my list at work !

[Rob]

Just send in my list, with 16 ranked albums. I hoped to have some extra time to listen to most the missing album this week, but life caught up with me and I had actually less time than usual. Too bad, but I'm still astonished at the quality here. Most were really great and only one didn't click with me at all and even that one wasn't terrible. A few were uneven, but even those had strong moments. So don't be angry at me if I ranked your selection low. As long as it wasn't the #16 I still enjoyed it.

[Matski]

PM sent Jirin. Hope it wasn't too late to be added to the count.

[jamieW]

Anyone know where to find Rover and The Eccentronic Research Council now that Grooveshark is no more?

Only have 1 list so far. Due to my schedule deadline will be extended to Feb 3.

Jirin, thanks for extending the deadline. I only have 6 more albums to listen to, and it's doubtful I'm going to find The Eccentronic Research Council, since it doesn't appear to be on Spotify in the States. I will definitely submit my list by midnight 02/02.

[Jirin]

Inbox says six new messages so must be about nine votes.

Wednesday night will be my first opportunity to count votes so consider that the deadline.

[Jirin]

So update on vote calculations. I was on vacation in San Diego until Tuesday, got back in at midnight and since then have had constant work and social events. So I will accept late entries up until the time I have a chance to sit down and count the votes.

[Jirin]

Before I get too far in the counting, I currently have votes from:

bootsy
whuntva
Maschine_man
phil
antonious
bonnielaurel
Rob
Brad
Nassim
DaveC
jamieW
GucciLittlePiggy
notbrianeno
And myself

If I am missing anyone, please correct me.

Just glancing over the results, it's clear which albums did well but it's not as obvious who won as it was last year.

[phil]

I realised earlier this week that I forgot to rate Roots Manuva - Bleeds. I'm half way through listening to it for the second time. If you can wait half an hour I'll send an update with this included. OK if no - I know this was my bad.

[phil]

One other thing - Matski says above that he has sent you a vote, but he is not in the list above.