Moderately Acclaimed Albums 12 - Round 1.12

[Brad]

Welcome to Round 1.12 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.

Good-spirited comments are encouraged, but not absolutely necessary.
Deadline = May 25th at 10am EST.

Here's a link to the bracket for the entire tournament:
http://www.bracketmaker.com/tmenu.cfm?tid=474290

Match-ups:
1. OutKast - ATLiens vs. My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves
2. Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician vs. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank
3. Sam Hunt - Montevallo vs. The Feminine Complex - Livin' Love
4. März - Love Streams vs. The Outfield - Play Deep

You just whip it to a jelly
If you like good jelly roll

[Listyguy]

1. OutKast - ATLiens vs. My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves
2. Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician vs. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank
3. Sam Hunt - Montevallo vs. The Feminine Complex - Livin' Love
4. März - Love Streams vs. The Outfield - Play Deep

[Rdwdbob]

1. My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves
2. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank
3. The Feminine Complex - Livin' Love
4. The Outfield - Play Deep

[Schüttelbirne]

I quit writing comments after this (past tense), for lack of time and motivation (also I really wasn't satisfied with them).

OutKast | ATLiens (1996)

With this I have now listened to four of the five „real“ OutKast studio albums and they are all good. Big Boi and Andre 3000 seem like two musicians with totally different styles who put together were able to create a product that‘s even better than the sum of its parts. ATLiens isn‘t as strong as Aquemini or Stankonia, but does have certain moments of excellence.
Highlights: „ATLiens“, „Jazzy Belle“, „Mainstream“, „13th Floor/Growing Old“


My Morning Jacket | It Still Moves (2003)

Very pleasant Indie Rock that fuses guitars and vocals to great effect in its best moments, like „Dancefloors“ where some brass gives it an additional cathartic feeling. In its worst moments like „One in the Same“ it drags itself out. This is not due to the long running time of the songs, because some of them are built rather well. „One in the Same“ is just incredibly slow, doesn‘t have a really interesting melody and the vocals are just drawn out like chewing gum. Take the better half of this album and it wins this match-up.
Highlight: „Dancefloors“, „One Big Holiday“, „Run Thru“


Butthole Surfers | Locust Abortion Technician (1987)

The opposite of top heavy is bottom heavy, right? Because that‘s what this album is. The A-side has an amazing opener and a really good last track, but the B-side is just highlight after highlight. From the random screams in „The O-Men“, over the looped up vocals of „Kuntz“ to the incredible bass line of „Graveyard“ this album is among the best late-‘80s rock music has to offer. It also happens to be my final nomination. It‘s an explosion of creativity with every track being unique and nightmarish in its own way.
Highlights: „Sweat Loaf“, „Human Cannonball“, „U.S.S.A.“, „The O-Men“, „Graveyard“


Jackson C. Frank | Jackson C. Frank (1965)

With this kind of contemporary folk music the most important thing for me is the voice of the singer. Frank‘s voice is nice and soft, but I tend to prefer the rougher voice of someone like Dave Van Ronk. The big difference is of course that Frank wrote the majority of the songs here himself. Just like the Butthole Surfers album, the B-side is a lot stronger here.
Highlights: „Kimbie“, „Milk and Honey“, „My Name Is Carnival“, „Just Like Anything“, „You Never Wanted Me“


Sam Hunt | Montevallo (2014)

I dislike this immensely. And of course every single song has tens of thousands of streams on Spotify. „Cop Car“ is especially bad because I fail to see the value in things designed exclusively to provoke people.


The Feminine Complex | Livin‘ Love (1969)

Hard to believe these were teenagers. It‘s certainly not a perfect album and there are some real mishaps (like the stereo experimentation on „Time Slips By“ that does not work at all), but for a debut album by an inexperienced band this is great. Shame they didn‘t make anything else.
Highlights: „Hide and Seek“, „I Won‘t Run“, „Run That Through Your Mind“, „I Don‘t Want Another Man“


März | Love Streams (2002)

A very pleasant-sounding electronic album that has some great moments, but isn‘t as strong in the middle. I always find it hard to say a lot about electronic music, so this will probably be it.
Highlights: „The Help Song“, „Everybody Had a Hard Year“, „Bars 1,2,3,4“


The Outfield | Play Deep (1985)

Cheesy ‚80s rock at its height. „Your Love“ is not a bad song, but an entire album in this style without much variation isn‘t really to my liking.
Highlight: „Your Love“


4 | OutKast | ATLiens vs. 5 | My Morning Jacket | It Still Moves
1 | Butthole Surfers | Locust Abortion Technician vs. 2 | Jackson C. Frank | Jackson C. Frank
8 | Sam Hunt | Montevallo vs. 3 | The Feminine Complex | Livin‘ Love
6 | März | Love Streams vs. 7 | The Outfield | Play Deep

[DaveC]

1. OutKast - ATLiens vs. My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves
2. Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician vs. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank
3. Sam Hunt - Montevallo vs. The Feminine Complex - Livin' Love
4. März - Love Streams vs. The Outfield - Play Deep

[acroamor]

1. OutKast - ATLiens
2. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank
3. The Feminine Complex - Livin' Love
4. The Outfield - Play Deep

[Madzong]

1. OutKast - ATLiens
2. Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician

[Jirin]

ATLiens 86 - It Still Moves 83
Jackson C Frank 95 - Locust Abortion Technician 80
Livin Love 53 - Montevallo 35
Love Streams 84 - Play Deep 71

[jamieW]

OutKast - ATLiens 7 vs. My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves 5
Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician 6 vs. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank 7
Sam Hunt - Montevallo 4 vs. The Feminine Complex - Livin' Love 6
März - Love Streams 5 vs. The Outfield - Play Deep 4

Five favorite songs of the week:
1. I Want to Be Alone - Jackson C. Frank 10
2. Your Love - The Outfield 8
3. ATLiens - Outkast 8
4. Milk and Honey - Jackson C. Frank 8
5. Run Thru - My Morning Jacket 8

[LunarPiper]

1. OutKast - ATLiens
2. Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician
3. The Feminine Complex - Livin' Love
4. The Outfield - Play Deep

[rumpdoll]

1. OutKast - ATLiens vs. My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves
2. Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician vs. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank
3. Sam Hunt - Montevallo vs. The Feminine Complex - Livin' Love
4. März - Love Streams vs. The Outfield - Play Deep

[mileswide]

Does anyone know where to find the track before 'Things Will Only Get Better' on Love Streams, if it indeed exists? Discogs lists it as 'Introductory', RYM has it as 'Introdoctury', it's over 4 minutes long but I can't find it on UK Spotify or YouTube either as part of the album or separately. Cheers!

[mileswide]

Well, my below ranking is based on my listening to Love Streams as an 11-song-album without an intro track before Things Will Get Better, see the tracklists on https://www.discogs.com/M%C3%A4rz-Love- ... ster/47511 and https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album ... e-streams/ to find out what I'm waffling on about:

7. OutKast - ATLiens v. 4. My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves
5. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank v. 3. Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician
8. Sam Hunt - Montevallo v. 1. The Feminine Complex - Livin' Love
2. März - Love Streams v. 6. The Outfield - Play Deep

Standouts: Ova da Wudz | One Big Holiday | You Never Wanted Me | The O-Men | Ex to See | Hide and Seek | Chelseas Boys | Say It Isn't So

[Brad]

My picks:
1. OutKast - ATLiens vs. My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves
2. Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician vs. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank
3. Sam Hunt - Montevallo vs. The Feminine Complex - Livin' Love
I think the Sam Hunt album may be my least favorite album I've ever forced myself to listen to.
4. März - Love Streams vs. The Outfield - Play Deep

Thanks!

[spiritualized]

2. Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician vs. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank

[Honorio]

My two albums of the week are two simultaneously brilliant and obscure albums from the sixties (it seem that the sixties are like a treasure trove of brilliant obscurities waiting to be discovered). My favourite was the hypersensible "Jackson C. Frank" but I've also enjoyed a lot the Feminine Complex. Also of note were the two albums of the first bracket (almost a tie for me), both the early OutKast (the earliest I've ever been before was "Aquemini") and the southern sounds of My Morning Jacket were remarkable.

4. OutKast - ATLiens (1996) vs. 3. My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves (2003)
6. Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician (1987) vs. 1. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank (1965)
8. Sam Hunt – Montevallo (2014) vs. 2. The Feminine Complex - Livin' Love (1969)
5. März - Love Streams (2012) vs. 7. The Outfield - Play Deep (1985)

Favourite song from every album:
Elevators (Me & You) | Golden | 22 Going on 23 | Blues Run the Game | Break Up in a Small Town | Hide and Seek | Everybody Had a Hard Year | Say It Isn't So

Does anyone know where to find the track before 'Things Will Only Get Better' on Love Streams, if it indeed exists? Discogs lists it as 'Introductory', RYM has it as 'Introdoctury', it's over 4 minutes long but I can't find it on UK Spotify or YouTube either as part of the album or separately. Cheers!

Not really sure, but could it be this one?

[Bang Jan]

2 | OutKast | ATLiens
4 | My Morning Jacket | It Still Moves

5 | Butthole Surfers | Locust Abortion Technician
1 | Jackson C. Frank | Jackson C. Frank

8 | Sam Hunt | Montevallo
3 | The Feminine Complex | Livin' Love

6 | März | Love Streams
7 | The Outfield | Play Deep

Favourite song of the week: Jackson C. Frank | I Want to Be Alone (Dialogue)

[mileswide]

Not really sure, but could it be this one?

Looks to be, thanks so much! The track doesn't affect my opinion of Love Streams one way or the other, so no changes to my ranking.

[Safetycat]

4. ATLiens < 2. It Still Moves
7. Locust Abortion Technician < 3. Jackson C. Frank
8. Montevallo < 1. Livin' Love
5. Love Streams > 6. Play Deep

Might start giving a rating on these to help me remember what I liked the most:
Livin' Love - 9
It Still Moves - 9
Jackson C. Frank - 7
ATLiens - 7
Love Streams - 6
Play Deep - 5
Locust Abortion Technician - 4
Montevallo - 2

[Rob]

With seven good to great albums this is a very solid week.

1. OutKast - ATLiens vs. 2. My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves
A very difficult choice. Two greats. It Still Moves was better than I remembered it being, based on its appearance on MAA a few years back.

6. Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician vs. 3. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank
Locust Abortion Technician is also a MAA repeat from a few years back. I remember disliking it at the time. I don't anymore, because I appreaciate its freaky insanity more. Still, it also remains an album were a saying Satan is still considered edgy and where a Thai song gets looped so it say 'cunt' over and over. My love for juvenilia doesn't run that deep. My love for folk on the other hand...

8. Sam Hunt - Montevallo vs. 5. The Feminine Complex - Livin' Love
Finally a bro country album shows up here! Now we can close that chapter in our lives.

4. März - Love Streams vs. 7. The Outfield - Play Deep
Your Love by The Outfield is one of those songs I have heard countless times on the radio but could never have told you the artist of. I'm also surprised about the massive amounts of plays it has on Spotify. It is a good song of its type though. I thought it was a 2000's song actually, although I can here the Sting/ Police influence in it now. The other songs of Play Deep are solid too, but a bit too much of the same. Love Streams is more varied.

[Brad]

Just over an hour left to vote!

[Twilight58]

1 It Still Moves
2 (pass)
3 Montevallo
4 Play Deep

[Brad]

18 total voters this week:
acroamor
Bang Jan
Brad
DaveC
Honorio
jaimeW
Jirin
Listyguy
LunarPiper
Madzong
mileswide
Rdwdbob
Rob
rumpdoll
Safetycat
Schüttelbirne
spiritualized
Twilight58

Winners:
1. OutKast - ATLiens over My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves 10-7
2. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank over Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician 11-6
3. The Feminine Complex - Livin' Love over Sam Hunt - Montevallo 15-1
4. März - Love Streams over The Outfield - Play Deep 11-5

Round 1.13 up soon!