The Album Review Club - Christmas Break Until 8th January

[threespires]

Yeah well done B&W and Fog, miles ahead of the rest with the guessing. Particularly B&W who has not been here as long as most.

Yes,especially B&W, some consolation for the imo harsh treatment his pick got. I personally enjoyed it. Well done to Stone Blue for the most popular track too. Which though it didn't figure in my top ten I still enjoyed. Below my top five it was very tight across the vast majority of songs with Litigious B.I.G's effort being the only one I have a blind spot for.

On the guessing, I think the moral of the story here is you should basically take posters at face value. Except for those who you clearly should never take at face value!

It was noticeable this time that people where doing less misdirecting on their own picks and more just stirring in general; weren't they?

 

[Coatigan]

Happy but surprised Matilda did so well.
Someone mentioned it early on but that whole album is well worth a listen.
I nearly posted the title track - 11 past the hour.
Her 2017 album - life love flesh blood
is well worth a listen too.

I gave the whole album a whirl. Some good stuff on it, need a bit longer to get past some of the more repetitive sounding bits, but msybe because it is new to me.

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

My Top 10... absent my bottom-feeder selection, which I would have scored at 4.5 on this list just below Matilda...

1. Black Dog/White Horse - Big Special
2. Line of Fire – Junip
3. For Those In Peril From The Sea – Kevin McDermott Orchestra
4. Breathe - Imelda May
5. Instinct - Crowded House
6. Substitution - Silversun Pickups
7. Mardy Bum - Arctic Monkeys
8. Goodbye To Love - The Carpenters
9. One Trick Ponies - Kurt Vile
10. We Could Send Letters – Aztec Camera

MCD was my Spinal Tap 11th place, and I once had it above Aztec Camera. But if I did my job, what would he complain about? ;-)

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

I am surprised nobody pegged me for the bad plus, thought it was a pretty obvious one given past nominations like avi cohen, budos, maybeshewill etc.

You were on my shortlist for that song, absolutely. We talked about people on multiple songs, and by far you were top of my list on 3.

But Junip reminded me so much of a softer Maccabees/Local Natives song, that I just couldn't let go of that. Plus, it fit better into my other songs, and you didn't say much about that track that I just came to the (wrong) conclusion that this was screaming your name. Well done!

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

Have to say that and gornik were the two biggest surprises. Maybe 111 for Metallica too tbf.

@mancity111 on their own clearly wrecked my game as I figured I was getting double digits on this for sure.

As I PM'd Rob, I had to put @GornikDaze on Metallica as I had no earthly idea who else would nominate that, unless they were in cahoots together, and I just didn't think that possible.

For longest time most of the week, I had Foggy on 3-5 tracks, to the point I was going to make him the pick for mine because I had no firm idea for him. At that time, I had Gornik on Silversun Pickups given some recent conversations here.

But that Metal Alice track kept staring me in the face asking "who am I???", and by Friday, I could not conceive that anyone other than Gornik had it. That moved Foggy over to SSP, which I inevitably got correct to secure the W.

But the biggest reason for the delay was I knew for a fact I had sussed out MCD, and I didn't want to give up that chip as the wrong guesses for him there kept rolling in.

I think I listened to that song the most during the week and probably should have added it to the top 10 for that reason alone, even quoting the lyrics too!

Everything fell apart but the W! ;-)

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

My top ten

Big Special
Allison Russell ...

I think I probably over scored Allison Russell a little bit because she was completely new to me and very immediate, but she absolutely didn't deserve to come bottom.

Thank you. I saw her live last year on Austin City Limits, and the live performance of that song alone simply blew me away. The studio version made it to my top Tailgating track list of favourites, and I enjoy it and her Americana album immensely. I like the live version she did at ACL, but that wasn't on Spotify.

I have to give a special BIG shout out to @LGWIO for pinpointing me for that track. He was the only one who got me there, and I had shivers seeing that he found me out! Thankfully, that was a one-off "nailed it!" LOL

We were PMing each other about his selection, and I mentioned I would have needed an Aphex Twin track to move him off of the Pale Fountains, or maybe @shackattack as part of this, but that wasn't the case. If not LGWIO for that, then who??

Allison Russell will just have to join The Streets at the bottom of the votes, and I'll take that as a badge of honour.

The reason I gave her track to you in my guess was because I had no idea on what you picked as I had you down for 4-5 tracks, but never Leonard Cohen. @BlueHammer85 was the one who defended that album the most, so I had to peg that on him.

I also figured you'd like that track and others would think it logical to be yours.

Right before the picks were due and I was narrowing my list down, you said here to "just pick an Allison Moorer track and be done with it", and I said to myself "oh, I've got your 'Allison' right here!". ;-)

 

[GornikDaze]

@mancity111 by their own clearly wrecked my game as I figured I was getting double digits on this for sure.

As I PM'd Rob, I had to put @GornikDaze on Metallica as I had no earthly idea who else would nominate that, unless they were in cahoots together, and I just didn't think that possible.

For longest time most of the week, I had Foggy on 3-5 tracks, to the point I was going to make him the pick for mine because I had no firm idea for him. At that time, I had Gornik on Silversun Pickups given some recent conversations here.

But that Metal Alice track kept staring me in the face asking "who am I???", and by Friday, I could not conceive that anyone other than Gornik had it. That moved Foggy over to SSP, which I inevitably got correct to secure the W.

But the biggest reason for the delay was I knew for a fact I had sussed out MCD, and I didn't want to give up that chip as the wrong guesses for him there kept rolling in.

I think I listened to that song the most during the week and probably should have added it to the top 10 for that reason alone, even quoting the lyrics too!

Everything fell apart but the W! ;-)

I was as surprised as anyone to see someone had picked a Metallica tune - and amused that everyone had me nailed on for it.
I’m interested to hear @mancity111 ‘s reasons for this particular track - as a big fan, it’s not one I’d choose but chapeau all the same.
Excellent job overall for the uncanny number you got correct - great effort!!

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

Is it a 'murican thing or were they just the kids obsessed with playing Master Mind (Parker games, did it exist in the US?) when they should have been outside perfecting their recreation of Dennis's League Cup overhead??

Us 'muricans are very competitive and will go to any length to win. Y'all should know that by now. ;-)

We have Parker Brothers games of course, but I have never played Mastermind.

I do love puzzle challenges, and this one was very entertaining. No lottery numbers for today though, unfortunately.

 

[RobMCFC]

Good fun again Rob, although I demand a recount! I think you’ll find I got 6 ,
not that it matters but it does move me above Spires lol

You are correct. Humble apologies:-

Corrected table, and bronze medal in the post:-

	Best Guesser
1	Black&White&BlueMoon Town	9
2	FogBlueInSanFran	8
3	Mancitydoogle	6
4	mancity111	4
5	threespires	4
6	BimboBob	3
7	Out on blue 6	3
8	Coatigan	2
9	LGWIO	2
10	journolud	1

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

My top ten were...

1 - And here we test our powers of observation - The Bad Plus
2 - Goodbye To Love - The Carpenters

Your proclaimed love for the Carpenters here or elsewhere on BM had me convinced up to 80% it was yours. Well done!

The "Old Place" song you did nominate was so out there by itself, it was one of the last songs I came to in trying to pin someone on it. At the end of the day, I couldn't figure out if The Bad Plus or Nick Waterhouse was Squires, so I just gave him mine and I took your nominated song.

10 - The Runner - Allison Russell

No surprise really. It was the only one that stood out. A lot of "Friends" generation crap or wishy washy dullness ;)

Thanks for the vote, I was hoping that this track was one of the ones you might not, um... dislike. ;-)