Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post Reply
Brad
Higher Ground
Posts: 4719
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2012 10:38 pm

Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by Brad »

Welcome to round 1.14 of Moderately Acclaimed Albums 2020!

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 16th at 10am EST.

Here's a link to the bracket for the entire tournament:
http://www.bracketmaker.com/tmenu.cfm?tid=473090

Match-ups:
1. The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight vs. George Michael - Faith
2. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold vs. Emeralds - Does It Look Like I’m Here?
3. Everything but the Girl - Amplified Heart vs. Lykke Li - Youth Novels
4. Lou Reed - Lou Reed vs. Various Artists - Eurovision Song Contest: Lisbon


Do you wanna be, do you really wanna be a cop?
Rdwdbob
Keep On Movin'
Posts: 1604
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2012 2:06 am
Location: Healdsburg, CA
Contact:

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by Rdwdbob »

GEORGE MICHAEL - FAITH
PARQUET COURTS - LIGHT UP GOLD
LYKKE LI - YOUTH NOVELS
VARIOUS ARTISTS - EUROVISION SONG CONTEST: LISBON
User avatar
Schüttelbirne
Into the Groove
Posts: 2379
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2019 9:50 am

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by Schüttelbirne »

Not the best week.

1. 3 | The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight vs. 4 | George Michael - Faith
2. 7 | Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold vs. 1 | Emeralds - Does It Look Like I’m Here?
3. 2 | Everything but the Girl - Amplified Heart vs. 6 | Lykke Li - Youth Novels
4. 5 | Lou Reed - Lou Reed vs. 8 | Various Artists - Eurovision Song Contest: Lisbon

Regarding the Eurovision album:
I noticed that almost all songs lasted for about 3 minutes, with just a few seconds more or less and I suspect the Contest is only providing a 3 minute time slot for every performance and don't allow songs that last any longer because the show would be too long. That's totally understandable, but it shows in the songs. They are specifically written to appeal to as many people as possible to garner enough votes to win. Not every song sounds the same, of course, but they are very similar. Nobody seems willing to take a chance because nobody wants to come in last.
I get why this is fun (and I used to watch Eurovision for like two or three years when I was younger and I actually enjoyed it), but the show itself relies on its character as a contest and the physical performances of the individual artists to provide entertainment. The songs themselves hardly qualify. Let me make a comparison: Karaoke can be a lot of fun. But that doesn't mean that an album of karaoke recordings equals an interesting album.
User avatar
Bang Jan
Full of Fire
Posts: 2668
Joined: Wed Sep 17, 2014 9:15 pm
Location: Cheltenham, United Kingdom

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by Bang Jan »

1 | The Soft Boys | Underwater Moonlight
4 | George Michael | Faith

7 | Parquet Courts | Light Up Gold
2 | Emeralds | Does It Look Like I’m Here?

3 | Everything but the Girl | Amplified Heart
6 | Lykke Li | Youth Novels

5 | Lou Reed | Lou Reed
8 | Various Artists | Eurovision Song Contest: Lisbon

Favourite song of the week: The Soft Boys | Underwater Moonlight
"The first word in this song is discorporate. It means to leave your body."
User avatar
StevieFan13
Wuthering Heights
Posts: 6967
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2017 5:00 pm
Location: New York, New York
Contact:

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by StevieFan13 »

At last! The matchup I’ve been waiting for!
George Michael
Parquet Courts
Lykke Li
Eurovision
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand - Sir Duke (1976)
User avatar
acroamor
Shake Some Action
Posts: 1490
Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2012 3:16 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by acroamor »

1. The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight
2. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold
4. Lou Reed - Lou Reed
LunarPiper
Different Class
Posts: 410
Joined: Wed May 06, 2020 12:28 am

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by LunarPiper »

1. George Michael - Faith
2. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold
3. Everything but the Girl - Amplified Heart
4. Lou Reed - Lou Reed
hectorthebat
Unquestionable Presence
Posts: 554
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2012 8:53 pm

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by hectorthebat »

1. George Michael - Faith
2. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold
3. Everything but the Girl - Amplified Heart
4. Lou Reed - Lou Reed
User avatar
StevieFan13
Wuthering Heights
Posts: 6967
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2017 5:00 pm
Location: New York, New York
Contact:

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by StevieFan13 »

And very predictably, Lou Reed is crushing it. Some things you just see coming.
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand - Sir Duke (1976)
DaveC
Running Up That Hill
Posts: 3483
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2013 12:04 am

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by DaveC »

1. The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight vs. George Michael - Faith
2. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold vs. Emeralds - Does It Look Like I’m Here?
3. Everything but the Girl - Amplified Heart vs. Lykke Li - Youth Novels
4. Lou Reed - Lou Reed vs. Various Artists - Eurovision Song Contest: Lisbon

Eurovision is always fun in it's own way:
At least they're better than Norway award: Israel
Verdomme! Thought you meant 'Lisbon, Tennessee' award: Netherlands
She was robbed award: Estonia
Most egregious plagiarism that I can't place award: Germany
Listened right through without dozing off award: Unknown: I'm out of contention
Jirin
Running Up That Hill
Posts: 3350
Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2012 4:12 am

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by Jirin »

Faith 86 - Underwater Movement 66
Does It Look Like I'm Here 91 - Light Up Gold 86
Youth Novels 74 - Amplified Heart 55
Lou Reed 81 - Lisbon 62

You could make quite a good pop album if you narrowed the song contest down to the best ten or so songs, but listening to them all is a chore.
User avatar
StevieFan13
Wuthering Heights
Posts: 6967
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2017 5:00 pm
Location: New York, New York
Contact:

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by StevieFan13 »

DaveC wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:50 pm 1. The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight vs. George Michael - Faith
2. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold vs. Emeralds - Does It Look Like I’m Here?
3. Everything but the Girl - Amplified Heart vs. Lykke Li - Youth Novels
4. Lou Reed - Lou Reed vs. Various Artists - Eurovision Song Contest: Lisbon

Eurovision is always fun in it's own way:
At least they're better than Norway award: Israel
Verdomme! Thought you meant 'Lisbon, Tennessee' award: Netherlands
She was robbed award: Estonia
Most egregious plagiarism that I can't place award: Germany
Listened right through without dozing off award: Unknown: I'm out of contention
Italy's my favorite, but I thought Israel deserved the win. Germany sounds a little bit like Sam Smith, I guess. And if you can listen through Iceland without dozing, more power to you.
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand - Sir Duke (1976)
User avatar
Madzong
Shake Some Action
Posts: 1476
Joined: Fri Jan 11, 2013 7:36 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by Madzong »

1. The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight
2. TBA
3. Everything but the Girl - Amplified Heart
4. Lou Reed - Lou Reed

Always loved Lou Reed's first solo album and never got why it never received the love (and why it is not featured on Acclaimed Music). It was one of my nominations.

Also Underwater Moonlight is another favourite. "I Wanna Destroy You" would be in my top 100 songs easily.
Last edited by Madzong on Fri Jun 12, 2020 6:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
"On a mountain range, I'm Dr. Strange"
User avatar
Listyguy
Running Up That Hill
Posts: 3012
Joined: Sun Feb 05, 2012 8:34 pm

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by Listyguy »

1. The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight vs. George Michael - Faith
2. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold vs. Emeralds - Does It Look Like I’m Here?
3. Everything but the Girl - Amplified Heart vs. Lykke Li - Youth Novels

Underwater Moonlight is the final of my four nominations. I was also surprised by how great Amplified Heart was; sophisti-pop isn't a genre that I tend to like.
User avatar
FrankLotion
Movin' On Up
Posts: 840
Joined: Sat May 05, 2018 9:15 pm
Location: Portland, OR

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by FrankLotion »

1. George Michael - Faith
2. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold
3. Everything but the Girl - Amplified Heart
4. Lou Reed - Lou Reed
User avatar
mileswide
Full of Fire
Posts: 2526
Joined: Wed May 01, 2019 5:08 pm
Location: Nottingham, England

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by mileswide »

Career opportunity, the one that never knocked!

6. The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight v. 5. George Michael - Faith
3. Parquet Courts - Light up Gold v. 4. Emeralds - Does It Look like I'm Here?
1. Everything but the Girl - Amplified Heart v. 2. Lykke Li - Youth Novels
7. Lou Reed - Lou Reed v. 8. Various Artists - Eurovision Song Contest 2018: Lisbon

Standout tracks: Insanely Jealous of You | Faith | Donuts Only | Goes By | We Walk the Same Line | Breaking It up | Ocean | Sennek - A Matter of Time (though I find the second disc generally stronger than the first half)
All I got inside is vacancy!
Brad
Higher Ground
Posts: 4719
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2012 10:38 pm

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by Brad »

My picks:
1. The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight vs. George Michael - Faith
2. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold vs. Emeralds - Does It Look Like I’m Here?
3. Everything but the Girl - Amplified Heart vs. Lykke Li - Youth Novels
4. Lou Reed - Lou Reed vs. Various Artists - Eurovision Song Contest: Lisbon

Thanks!
CupOfDreams
Different Class
Posts: 307
Joined: Sat Aug 04, 2018 3:58 am

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by CupOfDreams »

1. The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight
2. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold
3. Lykke Li - Youth Novels
4. Lou Reed - Lou Reed
User avatar
bonnielaurel
Keep On Movin'
Posts: 1662
Joined: Wed Feb 20, 2013 2:48 pm

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by bonnielaurel »

George Michael - Faith
Emeralds - Does It Look Like I’m Here?
Everything but the Girl - Amplified Heart
Lou Reed - Lou Reed
De gustibus et coloribus non est disputandum.
User avatar
Rob
Die Mensch Maschine
Posts: 7351
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2012 3:53 pm
Location: Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by Rob »

Eurovision and George Michael in one week? I'm pretty sure I can successfully sue both nominators and Brad for attempted murder :P

8. Various artists – Eurovision Song Contest: Lisbon 2018
“Step 1: Believe in it and sing it all day long/ Step 2: Just roll with it and that’s how you write a song” – Alexander Rybak, That’s How You Write a Song, Norway’s 2018 entry to Eurovision.

Would that it be so simple. Would that I even could believe those lines were genuine. How much do the artists believe in the songs they sing on Eurovision? I guess they want to win and that motivates something in their minds that wants to believe in these songs, but for the most Part 2, “Just roll with it” seems to be the more important piece of advice Rybak gives. I have never before (and never will again) listened to all entries of a Eurovision edition, but this did prove almost all preconceived notions I had about the event. Not everything here is awful, but it reflects the part of the music industry I dislike most: music as nothing else than a commodity.

What surprised me the most is how few of these songs are fun. That’s usually the saving grace of a lot pop music, a genre not known for ambition. Many songs here just sounds like whoever came up with the melodies wasn’t even trying to find a new hook. Instead they went with a hook that has worked so many times that it’s effect has worn off. What’s left in too many of these is the need for the singer to shout loudly to make it sound like it has any content at all, although there are also a lot of big synths too make you think there is actually something to dance to. The lyrics tend to work on a similar level. There is a lot of female empowerment and LGBT acceptation and stuff like that, but this time as products instead of real experience. I don’t really think that Eurovision as an event is cynical, but once you remove the live performances and the togetherness of the show you lose any value it has and are left with a bunch of songs crafted by “experts” who “know how to win”. And that is cynical.
It is also a stretch to call this an album. I guess that it has been released as an album and therefore technically counts, but even your average various artist compilation sounds more cohesive than this. So not only don’t I find much music I like here, but I hardly find the format I came for. Indeed, placing all of these after one another in a playlist of over 2 hours actually makes everything seem worse. I would have paid no mind to most of these songs, but coming one after another turns it into an endurance test that I tired of quickly.

Enough of this, let’s talk about the songs. With so much blandness and so many repetition of formula it is hard to stand out and there is no way I’m going to talk about them all, but there are a couple that a exemplary for the faults of Eurovision songs in general. Take Cesar Sampson for example. He has a great voice and the song starts out promising by focusing on it, but quickly it is all molded in a clichéd pop format. Similarly, Sennek’s voice also oozes character in the beginning, but then is required to artlessly shout her way through the predictable choruses. Personality is not only not allowed in most of these songs, it is eradicated, sometimes right in front of our ears.

The lyrical quality is also low, with as much repetition as anything else. Aisel has cheesy, empowering lines like “I’m stronger than cannonballs”, which do not necessarily become more believable if you shout them. The cheesiness in lyrics reaches a nadir in Our Choice, whose lines consists of slogan’s that seem written by billions of teenagers that have thought they were the first to care about the world. Worse is that the whole song is built around those lyrics.

I should probably say something about Outlaw In ‘Em as it come from my home country and Waylon is a respected artist here. Well, no one else is in this group of 43 is doing country rock, so there is that, but as usual I feel that Waylon has a great voice sadly used for more clichés. I have always felt he respected traditional music too much, never finding his own voice in it. So goes for this song.

In the end I feel like Saara Alto’s Monster is the center piece. It seems to be made specifically to grab every cliché in the book, which actually makes me surprised it ended at only #25. If ever someone asks me what Eurovision is all about on a song level I’ll just pick that one. Everything is there, not for the better.

Is everything bad here? No, but nothing is truly great and whatever did grab my attention wasn’t necessarily great either. Take something like Lie to Me. This would normally not really stand out, but simply seems a masterpiece in this context, because it is someone doing something that is out of the expected Eurovision mold. As a song it is merely okay. In here it is remarkable. An even worse example is AWS. They are the only one with a metal track (wasn’t there a surprise metal winner over a decade ago?), but even this song falls prey to homogenization and it ends up sounding like an amalgamation of every heavy metal song ever. I also noticed My Lucky Day by DoReDos, which sounded like an Ibiza song from 20 years ago. Did that sound never evolve or has even youth music gone retro?

Alright, let’s talk about the best in show. La Forza, which feels like Enya combined with opera and synths, stands out most and although it is still somewhat too kitschy and bogged down by a too short running time (abrupt endings are common in this line-up by the way), it does have a meaningful melody. Franka found a way to keep her unique vocals even in a standardized format. Ieva Zasimauskaité has a lyrics-focussed song that’s not cringeworthy and sounds cute. The winner Toy, also stands out, because it adds weird sounds to an otherwise rather traditional pop set-up. It’s not quite my thing, but it did try something different.

The best track here is For You, a completely left-field choice of music, close to traditional Georgian music, albeit still with a pop edge that doesn’t feel to forced. It’s the only one I wouldn’t mind hearing again. Of course it didn’t proceed to the finals. A few other songs also tried to combine the traditional with the trendy but in my opinion failed miserably, like Hvala Ne or Nova Deca. These did progress…


7. George Michael – Faith
Every year I come across some album I deeply dislike in this game. Well, not all 128 albums can be expected to be hits. What’s strange this year is that all my least favorites seem to come from the first bracket, which actually contains the most acclaimed works of the week. So earlier we already had personal lows in 808s & Heartbreaks and Songs for the Masses. Add Faith to this group. It is also only the second album, after the Kanye West one, that I did not listen to a second time this week. I heard it a few times already before this year’s poll and enough is enough. By now, I most certainly know I don’t like it.

In fact, I already wrote about this one before. 80’s pop belong to my least favorite styles and this album epitomizes perfectly why. There’s the hollow sounding synths and poor instrumentals. There is the overwrought, kitschy singing by George Michael, whose cloying delivery is about as unappealing to me as it gets. There are the terrible lyrics. I guess the title track is okay to me, but it is immediately followed by Father Figure, whose breathy vocals are just immediately off-putting and there is no salvaging what comes next.

6. Lykke Li – Youth Novels
It’s not my favorite word to describe something, but it is the only one I can think of to adequately describe Lykke Li’s vocals here: cute. This in combination with the curious instrumentation – a kind of rhythm is created through stop-starting the music a lot – make this album more than a little precocious. It could easily have become annoying, but it doesn’t. It is a light sounding album, fresh-faced and appealing. Not something I can ever see myself returning to, but rather fun while it lasts.

5. Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold
The breakthrough album by one of the best punk and live acts of the moment. I actually got into them at a later point, namely with Human Performance. From there I went backwards and loved Sunbathing Animal, but at the time not Light Up Gold. It was good to get back to it again for this game, because I have been missing out. This isn’t quite the band that it became yet. I feel they became more interesting later on, creating a better balance between their hipster-slacker-with-a-wink persona and a sometimes startling sincerity with poetic insight. Their music became more playful and varied too. This is more straightforward art punk, in the mold of The Velvet Underground with less pain and insanity. But it is a good album. Not just Stoned and Starving, which I love mostly for it’s extended outro, but more for the bouncy, short rockers and above all Borrowed Time, which to me most signals what the group would become in subsequent years.

4. Lou Reed – Lou Reed
The question of why this isn’t one of the more acclaimed albums by Lou Reed is actually easily answered. Not only did it go by barely noticed at the time, but it would also be followed rather quickly by Reed’s biggest release yet. It also suffers from the fact that all these songs bar one would eventually find themselves on other records in arguably better versions. 8 out of 10 were already recorded with The Velvet Underground and would be released on the great archival VU (see last year’s Moderately Acclaimed game). In comparison, these solo versions seem a bit subdued and even less fun. Apparently even Lou Reed himself wasn’t all that convinced that he took the right path on this first record on his own.

This was actually the only Lou Reed record of the seventies I never heard before, but I ended up liking it a lot. It may be VU light in a way, but the performance is better than Lou Reed and others give it credit for. Reed seems engaged throughout and these are simply great songs. I also have to mention Berlin, which was not recorded with the Velvets before, but would of course appear soon as the opener of the album with the same title. That version has gotten quite some acclaim, but it never actually worked for me as a stand-alone song. The one we get on Lou Reed is actually quite different, with more lyrics and a stronger structure that makes it work outside of a larger context. Berlin the album is my favorite work by Lou Reed (including his tenure with The Velvet Underground), but I prefer this take on Berlin the song. I also love the album cover for reasons I have not been able to determine.

3. Emeralds – Does It Look Like I’m Here?
I feel like in the previous years we had more electronic “instrumental” albums than this time around. A shame, because I tend to like them. Does It Look Like I’m Here? does fix the lack however, by trying to be al kinds of electronic albums in one. Much of it has the appeal of ambient, with calm soundscapes that sometimes seem to disappear in the background, but still give a sense of atmosphere. It is with these type of songs that Emeralds are at their best, with 12 minute centerpiece Genetic as the highlight. There are also more forceful tracks though, which don’t disturb the mood so much as add to the alien feeling of the whole thing. Because this isn’t just submersive music, but transporting too. I like it a lot, although I will probably have to skip Shade in the future, as it has some kind of tone that quite literal feels like a sting in my ear.

2. The Soft Boys – Underwater Moonlight
Underwater Moonlight is a great example of how to update a classic sound. By 1980 every obvious trace of the sixties had left the music industry, but as is always the case a few acts would try to bring it back. This album seems to be commonly tagged as neo-psychedelia, which is fine, but I prefer the term sunshine pop, as it best captures the feeling here. It’s not so much that every song here is happy. I mean, the first track is called I Wanna Destroy You and the title track contains death by drowning. But the vibes the music gives off are good, no more as explicitly as on the obviously titled Positive Vibrations, which if it isn’t a conscious nod to Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys, that means the band has a strange subconscious. The music itself isn’t all that easy to pigeonhole and the band like to change things up, so the sound of summer on Positive Vibration can stand alongside something rougher like Tonight, but the attitude remains constant, as well as the quality. There is no filler here.

1. Everything but the Girl – Amplified Heart
This one came unexpectedly. I never listened to Everything but the Girl (although I now vaguely recognize the remix of Missing), but the band name somehow gave me the impression they would be one of those clever/clever hipster indie bands of the nineties (I only learned this week that they had been active for much longer). Think New Radicals or something. I also interpreted the band name as meaning that there would be no girl involved. So imagine my surprise when we suddenly got heartfelt, soft music sung in a beautiful female voice. Apparently this is labelled sophistipop, a genre that usually doesn’t captivate me too much, but labels aren’t everything. I hear more than a hint of country here and it all reminds me of The Trinity Session by Cowboy Junkies (another band whose name is misleading), but lush where that album is sparse. Tracey Thorn’s voice is quite something to behold. To replace her for a male vocalist for one song has to be one of the riskiest moves in all music history, but even that works, as 25th December is a very good folk pop song in the vein of Simon & Garfunkel. Music to drown in. The band deserves further inspection.


A simple overview of my votes:

1. The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight vs. George Michael - Faith
2. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold vs. Emeralds - Does It Look Like I’m Here?
3. Everything but the Girl - Amplified Heart vs. Lykke Li - Youth Novels
4. Lou Reed - Lou Reed vs. Various Artists - Eurovision Song Contest: Lisbon
Last edited by Rob on Mon Jun 15, 2020 8:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
StevieFan13
Wuthering Heights
Posts: 6967
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2017 5:00 pm
Location: New York, New York
Contact:

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by StevieFan13 »

I can't say I didn't know what to expect going into this but I wish Rob's response wasn't the first that actually hurt my feelings a little bit.
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand - Sir Duke (1976)
User avatar
Safetycat
Feeling Good
Posts: 1065
Joined: Fri Nov 17, 2017 9:18 am

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by Safetycat »

3. Underwater Moonlight > 6. Faith
1. Light Up Gold > 5. Does It Look Like I’m Here?
2. Amplified Heart > 7. Youth Novels
4. Lou Reed > 8. Eurovision Song Contest: Lisbon

Today, the left side is what I liked, apparently.
User avatar
Rob
Die Mensch Maschine
Posts: 7351
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2012 3:53 pm
Location: Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by Rob »

StevieFan13 wrote: Sun Jun 14, 2020 7:54 pm I can't say I didn't know what to expect going into this but I wish Rob's response wasn't the first that actually hurt my feelings a little bit.
I'm sorry, I didn't mean offense to you. In fact, I love your enthusiasm for Eurovision on this forum! I just try to write down my honest feelings of every album I come across here and sometimes, well, me and an album aren't going to be friends.
Brad
Higher Ground
Posts: 4719
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2012 10:38 pm

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by Brad »

24 hours left to vote!
User avatar
PlasticRam
Into the Groove
Posts: 2202
Joined: Tue Feb 05, 2013 12:51 am

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by PlasticRam »

Good-spirited comments are encouraged, but not absolutely necessary.
I feel like that
User avatar
StevieFan13
Wuthering Heights
Posts: 6967
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2017 5:00 pm
Location: New York, New York
Contact:

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by StevieFan13 »

Rob wrote: Mon Jun 15, 2020 6:33 am
StevieFan13 wrote: Sun Jun 14, 2020 7:54 pm I can't say I didn't know what to expect going into this but I wish Rob's response wasn't the first that actually hurt my feelings a little bit.
I'm sorry, I didn't mean offense to you. In fact, I love your enthusiasm for Eurovision on this forum! I just try to write down my honest feelings of every album I come across here and sometimes, well, me and an album aren't going to be friends.
Oh, understood. Going in I figured I’d have to expect that i would be sitting at a table for one with this album, and everyone is entitled to their opinion (and you certainly aren’t the first to express a distaste for Eurovision). It just maybe cut a little deeper than you intended since I recommended it out of my enjoyment for it.
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand - Sir Duke (1976)
User avatar
Rob
Die Mensch Maschine
Posts: 7351
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2012 3:53 pm
Location: Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by Rob »

StevieFan13 wrote: Mon Jun 15, 2020 4:13 pm
Rob wrote: Mon Jun 15, 2020 6:33 am
StevieFan13 wrote: Sun Jun 14, 2020 7:54 pm I can't say I didn't know what to expect going into this but I wish Rob's response wasn't the first that actually hurt my feelings a little bit.
I'm sorry, I didn't mean offense to you. In fact, I love your enthusiasm for Eurovision on this forum! I just try to write down my honest feelings of every album I come across here and sometimes, well, me and an album aren't going to be friends.
Oh, understood. Going in I figured I’d have to expect that i would be sitting at a table for one with this album, and everyone is entitled to their opinion (and you certainly aren’t the first to express a distaste for Eurovision). It just maybe cut a little deeper than you intended since I recommended it out of my enjoyment for it.
I went back and reread what I wrote and do have to agree some of the wording was a bit over-the-top harsh. Although I kept most as is, I removed some of the hardest vitriol and changed the wording here and there. I also removed the last lines, which were a bit mean. It's never going to be a happy review (and I'm not quite convinced all reviews should be such), but I felt a bit bad about it.
I do wonder, though, what are your stand-out songs here?
User avatar
StevieFan13
Wuthering Heights
Posts: 6967
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2017 5:00 pm
Location: New York, New York
Contact:

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by StevieFan13 »

Rob wrote: Mon Jun 15, 2020 8:15 pm
StevieFan13 wrote: Mon Jun 15, 2020 4:13 pm
Rob wrote: Mon Jun 15, 2020 6:33 am

I'm sorry, I didn't mean offense to you. In fact, I love your enthusiasm for Eurovision on this forum! I just try to write down my honest feelings of every album I come across here and sometimes, well, me and an album aren't going to be friends.
Oh, understood. Going in I figured I’d have to expect that i would be sitting at a table for one with this album, and everyone is entitled to their opinion (and you certainly aren’t the first to express a distaste for Eurovision). It just maybe cut a little deeper than you intended since I recommended it out of my enjoyment for it.
I went back and reread what I wrote and do have to agree some of the wording was a bit over-the-top harsh. Although I kept most as is, I removed some of the hardest vitriol and changed the wording here and there. I also removed the last lines, which were a bit mean. It's never going to be a happy review (and I'm not quite convinced all reviews should be such), but I felt a bit bad about it.
I do wonder, though, what are your stand-out songs here?
My favorites from 2018 (and here I’m considering live performances as well) are:
- Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro - Non mi avete fatto niente (Italy) - I appreciate how passionate they are, and the overall message of the song (how even in the face of terrorism, “you haven’t done anything to me” and humanity can bounce back) really resonates.
- Madame Monsieur - Mercy (France) - I love the production and how Emilie Satt’s voice complements it.
- Netta - Toy (Israel) - A grower, to be sure, but the layers of messages combined with an ideosyncratic performer and modern Middle-Eastern production make for a dance track with more going on than it appears on the surface.
- Claudia Pascoal - O jardim (Portugal) - Touching, refreshingly lo-fi, and unpretentious. Same basic message as a song like “You Let Me Walk Alone,” but it doesn’t hit you over the head with big notes and relies on subtlety. Sadly, it might’ve been too subtle to make a big impression, but for a song that finished last it didn’t score that badly.
- Elina Nechayeva - La forza (Estonia) - I dunno. I just really like her voice.

Others I’m fond of are:
- Eugent Bushpepa - Mall (Albania)
- Sennek - A Matter of Time (Belgium) - the studio version was my favorite song before the contest, but she choked live
- Mikolas Josef - Lie to Me (Czech Republic)
- Rasmussen - Higher Ground (Denmark)

Truthfully, the album isn’t the best way to experience Eurovision, in the same way that, say, watching a YouTube video of a rollercoaster isn’t the same as actually riding one. But this was a year I particularly enjoyed, plus it was the first I actively followed from start to finish. There are better years, and it’s easier to listen to all the songs from just a 20-odd song final, but they didn’t start making albums with all the entries until the early ‘00s. If I had suggested a year like 1996, which was very good and only 23 songs, maybe it’d be a different story, but unfortunately there’s no album.
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand - Sir Duke (1976)
Kingoftonga
Rust Never Sleeps
Posts: 759
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2012 9:50 pm

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by Kingoftonga »

Winners in red:

1. The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight vs. George Michael - Faith
2. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold vs. Emeralds - Does It Look Like I’m Here?
3. Everything but the Girl - Amplified Heart vs. Lykke Li - Youth Novels
Brad
Higher Ground
Posts: 4719
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2012 10:38 pm

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by Brad »

19 total voters this week:
acroamor
Bang Jan
bonnielaurel
Brad
CupOfDreams
DaveC
FrankLotion
hectorthebat
Jirin
Kingoftonga
Listyguy
LunarPiper
madzong
mileswide
Rdwdbob
Rob
Safetycat
Schüttelbirne
StevieFan13

Winners:
1. The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight over George Michael - Faith 10-9
2. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold over Emeralds - Does It Look Like I’m Here? 12-6
3. Everything but the Girl - Amplified Heart over Lykke Li - Youth Novels 12-6
4. Lou Reed - Lou Reed over Various Artists - Eurovision Song Contest: Lisbon 15-2

Round 1.15 up soon!
Gillingham
Into the Groove
Posts: 2022
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 8:33 pm
Location: The Hague, The Netherlands

Re: Moderately Acclaimed Albums 11 - Round 1.14

Post by Gillingham »

Rob wrote: Mon Jun 15, 2020 6:33 am
StevieFan13 wrote: Sun Jun 14, 2020 7:54 pm I can't say I didn't know what to expect going into this but I wish Rob's response wasn't the first that actually hurt my feelings a little bit.
I'm sorry, I didn't mean offense to you. In fact, I love your enthusiasm for Eurovision on this forum! I just try to write down my honest feelings of every album I come across here and sometimes, well, me and an album aren't going to be friends.
For what it's worth, I very much enjoyed reading your comments on the album.

It's nice that we don't all enjoy the same things.
Post Reply

Return to “Music, Music, Music...”