Acclaimed Music Forums

Welcome to Round 2.6 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 = September 2nd 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. Mano Negra - Puta's Fever vs. Wire - Chairs Missing
2. Lou Reed - Street Hassle vs. The The - Soul Mining
3. The Sound - From the Lions Mouth vs. Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
4. Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress vs. Bee Gees - Bee Gees' 1st

Also, we have a TIE from last week:
Au Pairs - Playing With a Different Sex vs. Serge Gainsbourg - Initials B.B. ***TIE! 8-8! Next vote from someone who has not already voted in this match-up wins!!!***

Blowing through the jasmine in my mind

If nobody else has voted yet I will vote for Initials B.B. Very close, 83-80.

Chairs Missing 93 - Puta’s Fever 88
Street Hassle 82 - Soul Mining 78
From The Lion’s Mouth 90 - Abyss 75
Hunting My Dress 79 - Bee Gees 1st 75

Thanks Jirin... Serge takes it 9-8 in OT!

MANO NEGRA - PUTA'S FEVER

1. Mano Negra - Puta's Fever
2. The The - Soul Mining
3. The Sound - From the Lions Mouth
4. Bee Gees - Bee Gees' 1st

1. Mano Negra - Puta's Fever vs. Wire - Chairs Missing
2. Lou Reed - Street Hassle vs. The The - Soul Mining
3. The Sound - From the Lions Mouth vs. Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
4. Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress vs. Bee Gees - Bee Gees' 1st

1. Mano Negra - Puta's Fever
2. Lou Reed - Street Hassle
3. The Sound - From the Lions Mouth
4. Bee Gees - Bee Gees' 1st

Wire - Chairs Missing
Lou Reed - Street Hassle
Bee Gees - Bee Gees' First

THE THE - SOUL MINING

6. Wire - Chairs Missing (1978) vs. 2. Mano Negra - Puta's Fever (1989)
5. Lou Reed - Street Hassle (1978) vs. 1. The The - Soul Mining (1983)
4. The Sound - From the Lions Mouth (1981) vs. 8. Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss (2015)
7. Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress (2009) vs. 3. Bee Gees - Bee Gees' 1st (1967)

THE SOUND - FROM THE LION'S MOUTH

The The - Soul Mining!!!

I don't know the others that well but this album is a classic 80s album and has This Is The Day!

BEE GEES - BEE GEES 1ST

Wire - Chairs Missing
The The - Soul Mining
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
Bee Gees - Bee Gees' 1st

1. Mano Negra - Puta's Fever (9/10) vs. Wire - Chairs Missing (9/10)
2. Lou Reed - Street Hassle (6/10) vs. The The - Soul Mining (8/10)
3. The Sound - From the Lions Mouth (8/10) vs. Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss (8/10) = PASS
4. Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress vs. Bee Gees - Bee Gees' 1st = TBA

2. 2. Mano Negra - Puta's Fever vs. 5. Wire - Chairs Missing
4. Lou Reed - Street Hassle vs. 3. The The - Soul Mining
7. The Sound - From the Lions Mouth vs. 8. Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
1. Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress vs. 6. Bee Gees - Bee Gees' 1st

The last two weeks had quite a few lesser albums, some of which advanced to third round. This week there are only good ones.

WARNING: Wall of text about to follow...

There's no doubting that Mano Negra, along with The Pogues, were key in the development of folk-punk/world-punk but, while they have a similar sense of humour to Gogol Bordello, Manu Chao's ever-chirpy voice and the use of circus music on Puta's Fever make the silliness too much to bear at times. Mais quand même...Sidi H Bibi makes sense of the chaos, its Arabic instrumentation signposting the more eclectic approach the band and Chao would take in later years.

Chairs Missing is a more subtle expansion of rock's outer reaches than PF but also a more radical one. As per their usual methods, Wire apply prog's experimentation and disregard for standard structure to short, ragged post-punk tunes, while Colin Newman's Estuary vocals make light work of Graham Lewis' lyrics identifying with insects and misunderstanding foreign movies.

Chairs Missing takes apart Puta's Fever.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Street Hassle sees Reed go back to dancing to that rock and roll station, it won't save anyone's life this time but it's alright. It's certainly helped by its 'live' feel, like you're seeing his show at a crowded dive bar. The sprawling title track is the main attraction, with its hyper-realistic reportage of urban decay and decadence alternately gripping and bewildering.

Soul Mining has held up much better than many of its similarly produced contemporaries, mainly down to its use of synths only as texture, rather than the core component of the songs, showing its roots in rock (I've Been Waiting for Tomorrow...), blues (This Is the Day) and jazz (Uncertain Smile) while still being a breathing product of its time. Trying to get out of a rut seems a repeated theme but Matt Johnson always offers himself hope of improvement here, which makes sense of the album's aspirations to being soul music in its own way. Giant is the album's only duff note, lingering around for a good four minutes longer than it needs to.

Soul Mining sees off Street Hassle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Lions Mouth finds itself placed between Joy Division and bands like The Cult without providing the strong hooks and poetic alienation needed to make its gloom sound appealing. The album does get close to where it wants to be when it slows down, however, giving light and shade to New Dark Age, and purpose to the hesitant Silent Air.

Equally gothic but on a different scale entirely is Abyss. Dread and excitement run through the album, Wolfe seeming to battle against the cruelties of nature and human nature. The numbness of Grey Days feels like a respite once she starts to completely unravel from After the Fall onwards. Toe-tapping background music it is not but rarely less than morbidly compelling.

Abyss cuts deeper than From the Lions Mouth.

6 | Mano Negra | Puta's Fever
1 | Wire | Chairs Missing

3 | Lou Reed | Street Hassle
4 | The The | Soul Mining

2 | The Sound | From the Lions Mouth
8 | Chelsea Wolfe | Abyss

7 | Jesca Hoop | Hunting My Dress
5 | Bee Gees | Bee Gees' 1st

Jesca Hoop's voice is a lilting, lyrical thing, which could easily be used for twee means. She does risk that on Murder of Birds but even Angel Mom, with its potentially mawkish subject matter of wishing her mother could come back to life to hear Hoop's music on the radio, wears its bittersweetness lightly and is better for doing so. Elsewhere, she trades in bouncy, reverb-heavy alt-pop with some killer choruses, the pick of which might well be Feast of the Heart.

Bee Gees' 1st is undoubtedly a skilled product of a band that, as we would later find out, could turn their hand to anything. Nothing stands out for me from other psychedelia/chamber pop of the time, however, and I find the vocals reedy.

Hunting My Dress skirts past Bee Gees' 1st.

1. Puta's Fever > 2. Chairs Missing
7. Street Hassle < 5. Soul Mining
3. From the Lion's Mouth > 4. Abyss
6. Hunting My Dress > 8. Bee Gees' 1st

It's a good lot of albums if I put Lou Reed at 7th... very solid group.

My picks:
1. Mano Negra - Puta's Fever vs. Wire - Chairs Missing
2. Lou Reed - Street Hassle vs. The The - Soul Mining
3. The Sound - From the Lions Mouth vs. Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
4. Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress vs. Bee Gees - Bee Gees' 1st

Just over 2 hours left to vote!

Edre Peraza wrote: ↑Wed Aug 28, 2019 10:19 pm The The - Soul Mining!!!

I don't know the others that well but this album is a classic 80s album and has This Is The Day!

But you did listen to Street Hassle, right?

Brad wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2019 1:06 pm

Edre Peraza wrote: ↑Wed Aug 28, 2019 10:19 pm The The - Soul Mining!!!

I don't know the others that well but this album is a classic 80s album and has This Is The Day!

But you did listen to Street Hassle, right?

Yup. Never really liked Lou Reed to be honest with you. I don’t find much about his music that interesting at all.

Edre Peraza wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2019 1:35 pm

Brad wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2019 1:06 pm

Edre Peraza wrote: ↑Wed Aug 28, 2019 10:19 pm The The - Soul Mining!!!

I don't know the others that well but this album is a classic 80s album and has This Is The Day!

But you did listen to Street Hassle, right?

Yup. Never really liked Lou Reed to be honest with you. I don’t find much about his music that interesting at all.

Excellent - Appreciate the response Edre!

Down to only 15 total voters this week:
Bang Jan
Brad
CupOfDreams
DaveC
Edre Peraza
FrankLotion
Honorio
Jirin
madzong
mileswide
Rdwdbob
Rob
Romain
Safetycat
spiritualized

Winners:
1. Mano Negra - Puta's Fever vs. Wire - Chairs Missing ***TIE! 7-7! Next vote from someone who has not already voted in this match-up wins!!!***
2. The The - Soul Mining over Lou Reed - Street Hassle 9-6
3. The Sound - From the Lions Mouth over Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss 9-3
4. Bee Gees - Bee Gees' 1st over Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress 8-5

Round 2.7 up next!

I'll break the tie and vote for Puta's Fever

Brad wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2019 1:38 pm

Edre Peraza wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2019 1:35 pm

Brad wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2019 1:06 pm But you did listen to Street Hassle, right?

Yup. Never really liked Lou Reed to be honest with you. I don’t find much about his music that interesting at all.

Excellent - Appreciate the response Edre!

Yeah I always felt bad because a lot of people love him.

Edre Peraza wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2019 4:58 pm

Brad wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2019 1:38 pm

Edre Peraza wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2019 1:35 pm

Yup. Never really liked Lou Reed to be honest with you. I don’t find much about his music that interesting at all.

Excellent - Appreciate the response Edre!

Yeah I always felt bad because a lot of people love him.

I respect your opinion - no question there; I just mis-interpreted your original comment - sounded like you liked The The but may not have heard the other albums. I was just making sure.
Personally, I'm a big Lou Reed fan, but completely understand where you're coming from!