Acclaimed Music Forums

Welcome to the round 1.11 of Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019!

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 = June 11th at 10am EST.

Here's a link to the bracket for the entire tournament:
http://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?t ... Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2019

Match-ups:
1. Elvis Costello - Get Happy!! vs. Mano Negra - Puta's Fever
2. Lou Reed - Street Hassle vs. Lorde - Pure Heroine
3. Charly Bliss - Guppy vs. The Sound - From the Lions Mouth
4. Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress vs. Clint Boon Experience - The Compact Guide To Pop Music and Space Travel

If you have ghosts, you have everything

Puta’s Fever
Pure Heroine
Guppy
Hunting My Dress

Puta’s Fever 88 - Get Happy 86
Street Hassle 82 - Pure Heroine 80
From The Lion’s Mouth 90 - Guppy 73
Hunting My Dress 79 - The Compact Guide 62

MANO NEGRA - PUTA'S FEVER (i thought get happy! was a shoe-in until i heard this - great nom)

Excuse me, it's rare but I don't understand the meaning of "shoe-in"! Can you explain please? Thanks.

Romain wrote:Excuse me, it's rare but I don't understand the meaning of "shoe-in"! Can you explain please? Thanks.

He meant that he thought the Elvis Costello album was pretty much guaranteed to win, but now the quality of the Mano Negra album makes the result seem less certain.

Thanks acroamor

Romain wrote:Excuse me, it's rare but I don't understand the meaning of "shoe-in"! Can you explain please? Thanks.

It derives from 'Shoo-in". A term used in horse racing to describe the winner of a rigged race. Other racehorses would fall back and allow a chosen horse to win.

1. Elvis Costello - Get Happy!! vs. Mano Negra - Puta's Fever
2. Lou Reed - Street Hassle vs. Lorde - Pure Heroine
3. Charly Bliss - Guppy vs. The Sound - From the Lions Mouth
4. Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress vs. Clint Boon Experience - The Compact Guide To Pop Music and Space Travel

1. Elvis Costello - Get Happy!!
2. Lorde - Pure Heroine

acroamor wrote:

Romain wrote:Excuse me, it's rare but I don't understand the meaning of "shoe-in"! Can you explain please? Thanks.

He meant that he thought the Elvis Costello album was pretty much guaranteed to win, but now the quality of the Mano Negra album makes the result seem less certain.

Very well said acroamor but I should add that I thought 'Get Happy!' was a "shoe-in" for my vote in that match up until I heard the Mano Negra album.

LORDE - PURE HEROINE

1. Elvis Costello - Get Happy!!
2. Lou Reed - Street Hassle
3. Charly Bliss - Guppy
4. Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress

1. Elvis Costello - Get Happy!! (8/10)vs. Mano Negra - Puta's Fever (9/10)
2. Lou Reed - Street Hassle (6/10) vs. Lorde - Pure Heroine (6/10)
3. Charly Bliss - Guppy (9/10) vs. The Sound - From the Lions Mouth (8/10)
4. Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress (TBA) vs. Clint Boon Experience - The Compact Guide To Pop Music and Space Travel (TBA)

1. Elvis Costello and the Attractions - Get Happy!! (1980) vs. 2. Mano Negra - Puta's Fever (1989)
4. Lou Reed - Street Hassle (1978) vs. 5. Lorde - Pure Heroine (2013)
7. Charly Bliss - Guppy (2017) vs. 3. The Sound - From the Lions Mouth (1981)
6. Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress (2009) vs. 8. The Clint Boon Experience! - The Compact Guide to Pop Music and Space Travel (1999)

Favourite song from every album:
High Fidelity | King Kong Five | Street Hassle | Tennis Court | Ruby | Sense of Purpose | The Kingdom | White No Sugar

Favourite song of the week: Street Hassle

1. Mano Negra - Puta's Fever
2. Lou Reed - Street Hassle
3. The Sound - From the Lions Mouth
4. Clint Boon Experience - The Compact Guide To Pop Music and Space Travel

THE SOUND - FROM THE LION'S MOUTH

Mano Negra - Puta's Fever
Lorde - Pure Heroine
The Sound - From the Lions Mouth
Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress

Favorite album I couldn't vote for: Clint Boon Experience - The Compact Guide To Pop Music and Space Travel (I went 'round and 'round about this match: Clint has higher highs but Jesca is more consistent. This time, consistency won out.)

2. Get Happy!! < 1. Puta's Fever
3. Street Hassle > 4. Pure Heroine
6. Guppy > 7. From the Lions Mouth
5. Hunting My Dress > 8. The Compact Guide To Pop Music and Space Travel

My picks:
1. Elvis Costello - Get Happy!! vs. Mano Negra - Puta's Fever
2. Lou Reed - Street Hassle vs. Lorde - Pure Heroine
3. Charly Bliss - Guppy vs. The Sound - From the Lions Mouth
4. Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress vs. Clint Boon Experience - The Compact Guide To Pop Music and Space Travel
very much agree with jaimeW's comments regarding this last match-up

Thanks!

1. Elvis Costello - Get Happy!! vs. Mano Negra - Puta's Fever
2. Lou Reed - Street Hassle vs. Lorde - Pure Heroine

Elvis Costello - Get Happy!!
Lorde - Heroine

2 | Elvis Costello | Get Happy!!
4 | Mano Negra | Puta's Fever

3 | Lou Reed | Street Hassle
5 | Lorde | Pure Heroine

8 | Charly Bliss | Guppy
1 | The Sound | From the Lions Mouth

6 | Jesca Hoop | Hunting My Dress
7 | Clint Boon Experience | The Compact Guide to Pop Music and Space Travel

Favourite song of the week: The Sound | Winning

1. Elvis Costello - Get Happy!! vs. Mano Negra - Puta's Fever
2. Lou Reed - Street Hassle vs. Lorde - Pure Heroine

Good week, I like everything here!

8. Charly Bliss – Guppy
The nineties live on in this 2017 release, which sounds like a sunny summary of nineties alternative rock. That makes it sounds more varied than it is. If Guppy has one weakness it is that it’s songs sound a little too much the same. At a length of 29 minutes that isn’t too big a problem though and the odd choice of making the first two track run into each other might be a hint that the band were aware of the similarity of the songs. I do like the album, because it has a lot of positive energy and I fall for the quirky vocals by lead singer Eva Hendricks, but in this week’s line-up I can’t help but think that this album is just a guppy.

7. Lorde – Pure Heroine
It’s already six years since Royals hit the big time? That is one song I remember ‘discovering’. I was working as a bakery driver at the time and had many early hours and the radio played a lot more alternative music at those times. One such songs Royals, which at the moment was seen as too different for mainstream radio hours. From the first moment I was enthralled by it; it sounded like really something new and fresh. Some people hate it when a “secret” discovery becomes popular, but I thought it was rather awesome to see this little song take months to finally become one of the years biggest sensations. In a time when most songs need to be a hit the minute they are released (and are judged if they aren’t), it was just nice to see something slowly climbing to its rightful position. Of course, success in the age of the internet is a double-edged sword, so Royals became much hated and Lorde a joke… Until Melodrama fixed that. Besides, soundwise I dare to call Royals one of the most influential pop songs of the decade. What made it unique, it’s spare sound with heavy bass, is now very common.

Melodrama is a much better album than Pure Heroine. As much a fan as I was of Royals, it’s album never really clicked that deeply with me. All songs are fine and some very good, but Royals really beats all of them with maybe to wide a margin (yes, even the fan favorite Tennis Court). The album does have a character of its own (few are so unabashedly a smart teenage girls vision), but there is a feeling that some songs just had more potential. A potential realized with Melodrama. I appreciate this album for what it brought to pop music and how personal Lorde’s vision was, but for myself it’s nothing more than a pleasant listen plus Royals.

6. The Clint Boon Experience – The Compact Guide to Pop Music and Space Travel
A very playful album, that at least makes some attempt to live up to its “Guide to Pop Music” part of the title (as a guide to space travel it is less of a success). There is a lot going on here from song to song and it is clear the band wants to hit a lot of musical bases. It is not as successful there as this weeks Puta Fever, but it is a fun journey. It starts and ends rather seriously with a jazz track supported by female vocals who delivers some serious poetry. These two have a rather different tone than the other songs, which are more playful, cocky and catchy. Some of it sounds a bit too thin or underdeveloped to be great, but overall it works well. Only One Way I Can Go is the clear highlight for me, whereas Comets Theme No. 1 is close to insufferable. Most else sits happily in between.

5. Lou Reed – Street Hassle
Certainly better than some people give it credit for. Sure, in this stage of his career Lou Reed might be a little bit too impressed with his sarcasm (see Real Good Time Together, definitely not a high light), but for the most part it makes for an album that rocks as much because of the attitude as through the guitars. It all starts with Reed taking the piss outside of himself (and his song Sweet Jane), but before long we reach the epic, searching title track, which is one of his gems. The other tracks do not match the ambition nor the depth of that one, but the whole album is filled with a joy for rock and performance (though Reed wouldn’t admit it) and it might be his most infectious album after Transformer.

4. The Sound – From the Lion’s Mouth
The song Winning is a winner! One of the best song discoveries of the game for me!
As a whole From the Lion’s Mouth is yet another post-punk/ new wave album that appears in this game; mostly stuff that underperforms with the critics but does well at Rate Your Music. For me, this is the best one yet, not in the least because of that opening track, but also because the usual brooding bass and sounding drums are accompanied by a sense of space. This album oozes both swagger and atmosphere and contains some great tunes. It is all very New Order, although since this is 1981 it can hardly be said to be influenced by them. Besides, did New Order really make an album as good as this one. Kind of surprised this is overlooked by the critics actually.

3. Elvis Costello – Get Happy!!
The battle of the short, energy albums is eventually lost by Costello, but by no noticeable margin. Apparently this is his ode to soul music and everyone agrees that he does a great job of honoring the sound. Maybe. For some reason I just hear an Elvis Costello recording. Maybe it is his voice; that is so much his that it hardly matters what music he makes, it’s just Costello. It’s one of his best though. 20 songs in 48 minutes, without a dull moment in them. He loses none of his clever wordplay (lyrics are usually a weak spot for soul for me). Above all, this is about the joy of playing short and energetic music and The Attractions are clearly on board with this.

Sadly, there was another album this week dedicated to brief blasts of energy and an ode to music and it happens to be Costello’s competitor in this poll.

2. Mano Negra – Puta’s Fever
Some albums just seem to be giddy with the music they contain. Puta’s Fever is one of those album and goes even a little beyond that. It seems like the guys of Mano Negra just discovered that music exists, that there is a big variety of it out there and just are overwhelmed by enthusiasm of playing all of it. To say that Puta’s Fever is a ode to music is to stiff a description: it is a celebration and we are all invited to the party.

There are 18 songs in 40 minutes here, which means that the band tackles each song with every bit of energy they can muster; and they can muster a lot! It’s as if the band is so full of enthusiasm for each next song that they can’t wait to get to the next one. Yet despite the short length, none of these songs feels to short or underdeveloped. It’s just that they work immediately, exploding in your ears and bodies without a moment’s notice. And it never lags and also never gets too much. It helps that various styles (and even four languages) are used. So keep the party going!

1. Jesca Hoop – Hunting My Dress
In the field of modern folk and singer/songwriters, especially from the female front, there is so much good stuff coming out that some great efforts may be overlooked. Jesca Hoop is never talked about, though I have made some effort in past polls and topics here to highlight her wonderful Memories Are Now, one of the great albums of the decade for me. Because I don’t want to sound like a broken record I decided to nominate her second best album for this poll: Hunting My Dress.

Second best is hardly doing it justice, as this was the first time Hoop really found her own identity in the massive folk landscape. She has two things that set her apart. One is her flexible vocals. Sometimes it seems that various songs are sung by different singers. She can do low, high, ethereal, poppy and girly and this allows her not only to simply vary, but give different textures and atmospheres to her various songs. The other thing is that she is one of the rare folkies who noticeably uses the drum. She doesn’t play the instrument herself (there are several on the album), but her approach to them is similar from album to album, so she must have input in them. They are very noticeable, filling in spaces and are reminiscent of both hip-hop beats and tribal drums. Again, it gives a special atmosphere, as well as rhythm, to her efforts. Of course, like most in this genre, the words are important and although she can’t quite match the likes of Joanna Newsom or Laura Marling yet, there is some good stuff here. Again, there is the mix between modern and old, with the lyrics telling seemingly old folk tales or modern urban stories.

If you like this album it is also worth checking out Undressed, an acoustic version of Hunting My Dress released in 2014. It misses some of the unusual production, but somehow isn’t less powerful and a great companion recording.

A short overview of my votes:

1. Elvis Costello - Get Happy!! vs. Mano Negra - Puta's Fever
2. Lou Reed - Street Hassle vs. Lorde - Pure Heroine
3. Charly Bliss - Guppy vs. The Sound - From the Lions Mouth
4. Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress vs. Clint Boon Experience - The Compact Guide To Pop Music and Space Travel

1. Mano Negra - Puta's Fever
2. Lorde - Pure Heroine

THE CLINT BOON EXPERIENCE - THE COMPACT GUIDE TO POP MUSIC AND SPACE TRAVEL

about 2 hours left to vote - slight delay today though (business meeting aargh)

Winners in red:

1. Elvis Costello - Get Happy!! vs. Mano Negra - Puta's Fever
2. Lou Reed - Street Hassle vs. Lorde - Pure Heroine

Gonna keep this up for another hour - keep voting (we currently have a tie)

3. Charly Bliss - Guppy vs. The Sound - From the Lions Mouth

This was a close one. Both albums are very strong.

19 total voters this week:
andy1010
Bang Jan
Brad
DaveC
FrankLotion
Honorio
jamieW
Jirin
Kingoftonga
Listyguy
madzong
Nassim
PlasticRam
Rdwdbob
Rob
Romain
Safetycat
spiritualized
StevieFan13

Winners:
1. Mano Negra - Puta's Fever over Elvis Costello - Get Happy!! 10-9
2. Lou Reed - Street Hassle over Lorde - Pure Heroine 10-9 (ot)
3. The Sound - From the Lions Mouth over Charly Bliss - Guppy 10-4
4. Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress over Clint Boon Experience - The Compact Guide To Pop Music and Space Travel 10-2

We have a TIE!
Lou Reed - Street Hassle vs. Lorde - Pure Heroine
***TIE! 9-9! Next vote from someone who has not already voted in this matchup wins!***

Round 1.12 up soon!

Lou Reed !

spiritualized wrote:Lou Reed !

Thank you spiritualized (I mean that). Lou Reed takes it!