Band Wars--Quarters--John Talabot vs. Spiritualized

John Talabot, fin

vs. Spiritualized, Sweet Heart Sweet Light

Mellow house music versus space rock.  Both very good albums.  But one of these ends up being more creative, more diverse, and generally more interesting.  I'll end up playing both often, at least until I get tired of them.

When do you get tired of albums, by the way?  How many CDs do you have on your hard drive that never get played anymore?

John Talabot's "So Will Be Now"

Spiritualized's "Little Girl"

In the end, I think I'll play John Talabot more than I'll play Spiritualized, despite Spiritualized being the better album.  So in a roundabout way, I'm choosing Spiritualized.

And here we have it: the Final Four.  If I were an oddsmaker, I'd guess the long shot to be Youth Lagoon, which I never imagined would make it this far.  The other three CDs seem equally likely to win, with perhaps a slight edge to M83.

In my next post, I'll finish the semifinals and the finals all at once.  Time to finish this game!  The post should be up by tomorrow at the latest.

Ranking the losers from #5 to #16:

5.  John Talabot
6.  Lotus Plaza
7.  The Men
8.  Girls
9.  Atlas Sound
10.  Real Estate
11. St. Vincent
12. Cloud Nothings
13. Grimes
14. Perfume Genius
15. Julia Holter
16. Frankie Rose

So Julia Holter ending up advancing to the quarterfinals by being pitted against the only band in the competition that she was better than.

Band Wars--Finishing Round One

We'll find the winner of the last two matchups in this post.

Grimes Visions

versus John Talabot's fin

Both of these albums use house or dance music in different ways.  Grimes goes for a strange mix of sinister tones and a girly voice singing in falsetto.  Very sugary.  Sometimes it's hard to tell whether she's imitating or mocking bubblegum dancepop.  Despite that, I'm not sure that I dislike the album.  Maybe it's a "grower."

Here's "Oblivion" by Grimes:

John Talabot's album sticks closer to what I imagine "house" to be.  It's a solid if not incredibly original album.  This is the kind of music for late-night playing when I'll want to add some variety to my mellow music.  Here's the most attention-getting track, "Destiny."

Well, John Talabot wins this one, and it isn't remotely close.  Hopefully, Grimes grows on me.

* * *

In the last first-round matchup, we have

Cloud Nothings, Attack on Memory

versus Spiritualized, Sweet Heart Sweet Light

In an article or two about Cloud Nothings, reviewers say that this album is a huge departure from their earlier stuff.  I have no clue.  This album is my introduction to the band.  And Attack on Memory is a straight-up rocker.  I couldn't hear any other instruments besides guitar and drums.  Sounds like these guys met in a garage and started rocking and someone recorded the session.  If I didn't know better, I'd guess that this album came out in the heyday of Nirvana and Pearl Jam.

This is their opening track, "No Future/No Past":

Spiritualized, you might remember, is the band that had that indie track that was famous for starting off, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are floating through space."  And "space rock" is the best musical category that I've seen applied to this band.  No matter how any of the songs start, you come to expect the sound to break up and go somewhere totally unexpected.  He's strumming an acoustic guitar one second, and you feel firmly on the ground.  Then suddenly the guitars stutter, and keyboards launch the song into a psychedelic meadow with gigantic neon flowers.  The word on the album cover, after all, is Huh?


Here's "Hey Jane," as performed on David Letterman:

Well, I try to be open-minded about the music I listen to . . . up to a point.  What I'm saying is, if you ever spot me listening to Garth Brooks, please club me to death on the spot.  I'm trying to be all-inclusive--or as inclusive as I can be.  But compared with Cloud Nothings, Spiritualized's music is far closer to the kind of music that I've loved for decades.  So Spiritualized advances to the next round.  This is an album that I look forward to hearing again.

Well, round one is all done.  Here are the results:

Reflecting on this game, I was worried that I would quickly become bored with it--either because I figured the game itself was lame, or because I would keep selecting the album that I already suspected would win.  I don't have either of these worries anymore.  Of these first eight matchups, I tried to guess the winners before listening, and I was right only five times.  That means three surprises: Julia Holter, Youth Lagoon, and the Men.

Also, finishing round one means that I am already past the halfway point.  Eight matchups down; seven to go (four quarterfinals, two semis, and the finals).  At one per day or so, I'm guessing I'll have a winner right around next Sunday.  I hope you're enjoying this.  I am!