The League Of Extraordinary Tracks 3: CLOSING TRACKS Poll

This is the Week 3 poll in the LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY TRACKS. Our 12 brave nominators have voyaged to the ends of ~~the earth~~ several records to find CLOSING TRACKS for you to hear. Listen to their selections in the playlist post and then vote (and comment) away!

THE RULES!

Vote for up to four tracks.

Do not vote for tracks you already knew

League Of Extraordinary Tracks S1E3: CLOSING TRACKS!

Please pick up to FOUR of these tracks.

DO NOT PICK TRACKS YOU ALREADY KNEW!

Spotify and YouTube playlists in the playlist post.

The poll has expired!

The League Of Extraordinary Tracks 3: CLOSING TRACKS Playlists

The League Of Extraordinary Tracks 3: CLOSING TRACKS Results!

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Tom

26 June 2023 19:48

A quick update for nominators/players of this and next season (I’ll include this in the next results post too)

I originally planned to have Season 2 start the same way as S1 – Placenames and 2020. But while we’ve definitely not exhausted those topics I’ve tweaked things a little.

Week 8 in this season (and next!) is going to be a track from 2023 – the highest scoring tracks in this special finale will also find their way into the year end poll.

And topics for the first 2 weeks of season 2 will be decided by the week 7 and 8 losing players here (it’ll still be a consolation prize, even if it won’t directly affect the tournament you’re in).

One final clarification – you can’t win the consolation prize twice in a season! If the nominator of the losing track has already picked a topic, the lowest voted nominator who hasn’t picked yet gets a go.

Edward Still

27 June 2023 13:22

Reply to Tom

Will the ones from this competition be taken off the list of could we see/pick eg Closers again?

Tom

27 June 2023 15:52

Reply to Edward Still

It will reset – everything available again with the new set of players. Then in future we’ll open it up to different themes.

Tom

25 June 2023 13:06

Another strong playlist: comments on the tracks later but I’m interested in how this one pans out tactically: several well known acts with distinctive styles doing tracks in those styles. I know I enjoy Black Sabbath; I don’t know this Black Sabbath song. But because it’s a Black Sabbath song I feel as if I do.

actualee simpson

25 June 2023 14:27

Reply to Tom

In a People’s Pop tournament there are several tracks here that I would probably put on my personal Golden Beat least but not seriously consider nominating for GB awards at the end of the tournament — Black Sabbath, Bonnie Raitt, Free Design, and Lupe Fiasco. The question is whether I feel comfortable voting for them here when I like everything else, too…

wmterhaar

26 June 2023 09:28

Reply to actualee simpson

That does complicate matters for me, because I picked a favourite Black Sabbath deep cut, knowing the PPP electorate are generally not the biggest classic rock fans, so it may have a chance under the official GB voting rules. If however there is a widely accepted ‘spirit of the GB voting rules’ interpretation that excludes deep cuts from more well known bands, that changes the incentive for picking a track.

koganbot

28 June 2023 14:34

Reply to wmterhaar

In GB voting I go strictly for best thing I’m allowed to vote for – but if I need a tiebreaker it’ll often be “What’s the weirdest vote.” (In this instance, that’s how I chose Free Design over iLe as my number 4.)

In PPP GB nominating I used to go “Oh, I’m not nominating a Björk or a Miles” but then when it came down to it I did nominate the Miles [Live At The Plugged Nickel], and then Kate Bush, and then Morricone.

But anyway, in this League I really appreciate your nominees so just choose what you want to choose as long as you think some of us won’t know it.

Baltimore Jacks

26 June 2023 13:17

Reply to wmterhaar

When I’ve considered deep cuts, even if it turns out that most voters haven’t heard the particular song, I have worried that those most likely to vote for it are also the sliver who have heard it. That really puts a burden on getting people who haven’t been super into the kind of thing you’re nominating (e.g., 70s/80s metal), to go for this particular track. That’s a needle that can probably be threaded, but that I’ve failed at once already.

Tom

26 June 2023 13:11

Reply to wmterhaar

I think this is an interesting test case! As actualee says when I’m doing GB votes in a tournament I tend to avoid “things I haven’t heard by accident” (eg I know the artist but not this album). But oddly I remember Closing Tracks as a poll where I didn’t really follow that rule – my favourite thing I discovered was Cristina’s “Blame It On Disco”, and I knew perfectly well I liked Cristina and would have got round to that LP in the long run.
So perhaps it’ll be the same here. But it’s a strong field!

Steffen Rayburn-Maarup ?

26 June 2023 09:34

Reply to wmterhaar

I wouldn’t mind voting for an artist I knew – and Sabbath would have been my fifth vote. 🙂

katstevens

25 June 2023 13:58

I really like the Lupe Fiasco track but I’ve heard it before 🙂 Bonnie’s track was really strong too (not usually my sort of thing!)

actualee simpson

25 June 2023 14:05

This one is tough for my GB filter! Kronos is the one I’m confident is out (own and love the album). Several others are maybes, need to listen to the playlist…

therealbreadco

25 June 2023 17:01

Playlist Post link is still taking me to week 2.

Tom

25 June 2023 17:12

Reply to therealbreadco

Ah! Sorted I hope – thanks 🙂

therealbreadco

25 June 2023 20:10

I never heard of Greet Death before. As you might imagine, I was expecting something loud and metal with Cookie Monster vocals. No offense at all to those who like that kind of thing, but it isn’t my cup of tea.
Greet Death turned out to be kind of perfect, though. I wondered about having Closing Tracks in the new League format, since a lot of what makes a closing track great is how it finishes an album–sometimes summarizing, sometimes bringing relief to tension that has built through previous songs, sometimes giving hope after otherwise grim or moody preceding tracks. Because we are seeking the new and undiscovered in the league, we shouldn’t be familiar with the rest of these albums. It’s kind of a Catch 22, I guess.
Which is all to say that New Hell feels like a closer, even without knowing the rest of the album it closes. The epic run time and the slow steady build up feels like the band is giving everything at the end. I dig it!

Tom

26 June 2023 13:13

Reply to therealbreadco

I enjoyed imagining the albums which might lead up to these closing tracks!

vinnycrackers

25 June 2023 21:32

Tzusing is my favorite thing yet in this wing of the polls. The Pitchfork review has me ready to hear more. It ABSOLUTELY sounded like Residual Stress! (Especially in contrast to all the slowcore!)

Dan Bright-Amaya

25 June 2023 22:21

Reply to vinnycrackers

The album is fantastic!

vinnycrackers

27 June 2023 15:38

Reply to Dan Bright-Amaya

CONFIRMED!! I looooove it. PTA dialog samples FTW.

Ava Foxfort's Pop Fort

26 June 2023 08:23

Well this is a format I’m arriving too late too.
De Luna knocked my socks off really slowly. I like a closer that increases pace and energy towards the end, but not in like, a destructive manner. I mean. I like a destructive manner too. But this is very much a ‘send you off in a good mood’ closer, and I need that sometimes.

Dan Bright-Amaya

26 June 2023 12:55

As a nominator I found this week more tricky to research, and I guess that’s why we have more well-known artists this time. De Luna and Cherylee were the two standout songs for me (the iLe album artwork looks familiar but didn’t recognise the song) and will be listening some more to both. There’s going to be quite a contrast with next week I think!

Tom

26 June 2023 13:05

My first thought on hearing “Tu Aaja” was ‘this is totally amazing and I am definitely going to be voting for it’.

My second thought was ‘This is the perfect playlist opener, but wait! Perhaps that means I SHOULDN’T vote for it’

actualee simpson

26 June 2023 13:28

Reply to Tom

This was probably the best-sequenced playlist and did make me wonder about how well the opening suite actually works as closers on their albums! Also maybe affected my votes — somewhat regret not voting for ILE

ismathers

26 June 2023 15:03

Reply to actualee simpson

I’ve definitely found myself stringing together multiple closers in sequence on mixes – it can work quite well, really

koganbot

28 June 2023 21:39

Reply to ismathers

Ian, I remember we were talking about doing Album Closers a year before we actually did them, and I’d conducted an extensive search and then the poll kept not happening, so when the time for one of my Eardrums playlists came around (I do three or so a year), I dumped a bunch of my closers on it, 10 of the 21 on the playlist. The closers flow nicely into one another.

Style is my wife – this flow-cave (Frank’s Eardrums February 2021)

(Shin Jung Hyun (Shin Joong-hyun, 신중현) put out two different versions of his Lee Jung Hwa album, one in ’67 and one in ’69, maybe different recordings of the same songs, and w/ different song order so two separate closing tracks, both of which I included, though they’re both from the ’67, which was all I could find on YouTube.)

jonathanb

26 June 2023 13:26

This will probably end up being a bit ambitious, but the extended length of this poll means that I have at least some chance of listening to the albums as well as the songs that are in contention. Even if I don’t get through all of them, I think I might at least find time to hear my initial faves in full-length context.

Tom

26 June 2023 14:00

OK track comments! Like I said this was a very strong set so I’m not gonna say who I voted for:

Pinky Ann Rihal: Fantastic, great local twist on a sound I already know I love – almost too precision-tooled in its appeal to me 🙂

iLe: As Ava Foxfort pointed out this is probably the most gently optimistic/upbeat of the whole set, really lovely vibe.

Kronos Quartet: Really liked this, think this would have blown me away if I’d heard it in 2002 in the context of the Ewan Pearson style cut-up house I was listening to. Not what I expected from them at all, too.

Tsuzing: Blistering, I like the idea of an ending track simply being the one that goes hardest (no idea if this IS that track of course)

Mel Stone: I’m a sucker for the defiant/anthemic closer and this feels like the end of a big personal story.

Greet Death: Very much a closing track – I always liked when I bought an album and the track lengths were on the sleeve and the final one was some insane beast of a song, you knew you were in for a good time.

The Just Joans: Big bonus points for a) TV dialogue bookending the track, b) interpolating Sleeper of all things. Wonderfully micro-targeted.

Lupe Fiasco: Something about what he does just doesn’t connect easily with me but I really liked the sentiments here.

Bonnie Raitt: Most unexpected thing by the ‘big names’ though I don’t know WHY I thought she wouldn’t have done this kind of jazzy cocktail-hour thing. Works extremely well.

The Free Design: I really need to hear whole records by them! Has the feel of a big joyful send-off, I’m into it.

Black Sabbath: It’s Sabbath doing Sabbath, it’s really good. Is this meant to be one of their bad patches?

Gowns: Really really liked the broken-down, Music-For-A-New-Society-ish first few minutes, wasn’t as sold on it resolving into an actual song but it still felt like a real closer among closing tracks and so it ended up last here.

wmterhaar

28 June 2023 19:16

Reply to Tom

“It’s Sabbath doing Sabbath, it’s really good. Is this meant to be one of their bad patches?”
No, the last 2 albums with Ozzy before are a bad patch, then they made two with Ronnie James Dio on vocals, Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules (which Over & Over is from) that are considered highlights and then they made Born Again with Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan, which is infamous, mainly because of the production and cover art.
Over & Over is in 3/4, so not completely ‘Sabbath doing Sabbath’.

mitya

30 June 2023 20:36

Reply to wmterhaar

The Sabbath sounds a lot more bluesy than I think of them being (although honestly I think I’ve only really every listened to the first four albums).

sclv

26 June 2023 20:33

Reply to Tom

Gowns definitely has the real “closer” feel and made it onto my list for that reason. Was pretty happy at how it resolved as well, real “end of an all-ages show and everyone hugs in the moshpit” vibes.

Pop-o-matic

26 June 2023 14:12

I wonder how picking the last track of a concept album is going to play out for me here.
All new to me apart from my nomination. Voted Kronos Quartet, Greet Death, Lupe Fiasco and the Sabbath. Great picks again though!

Pop-o-matic

26 June 2023 14:15

Reply to Pop-o-matic

BTW, if anyone likes that The Just Joans song and you live in or near Sheffield, they will almost certainly play it at the end of their headlining set at the Macho Music Is Stupid weekender in August! Tickets very much still available.

http://www.machomusicisstupid.co.uk/

ismathers

26 June 2023 15:21

Need to find the time to give these all a listen soon. Only one I already know beyond my own nom is “Cherylee” which I adore – but my favourite version of that song is seeing EMA (who was in Gowns, and does a devastating job with it) do it live, so swings and roundabouts.
I definitely wanted to lean into a closing track that sounded like a _closing track_ even if you hadn’t heard the rest of the record, and as I think I’ve seen a few others mention in comments I also always appreciated it when you looked at a tracklisting with times, see the last one, and go “oh that’s going to go places.” In the case of Greet Death’s New Hell (which ends with “New Hell”), the first side does have the nearly-9 minute “You’re Gonna Hate What You’ve Done” (also great) but that doesn’t feel like a closer the way this one does. It’s a record that exists somewhere in the zone where metal bleeds into shoegaze bleeds into slowcore, which is a sweet spot for me, and it’s one of the more potent bad vibe records I know of in that zone.
Both New Hell and the excellent EP they put out last year, New Low (which also has a great closer in the form of “I Hate Everything”) are records that are capable of articulating or reflecting some of the worst moods I’m capable of having. (Sometimes I worry about music like this that it can _trigger_ those moods, but… in any case, whichever of the two main possible original meanings of “catharsis” you prefer, I certainly get that from Greet Death.) I really especially love how “New Hell” feels to me like it builds to this sustained burn that then just… lasts. When I am having a tough time I tend to get various songs that reflect how I’m feeling stuck in my head for hours or days at a time, and “here comes a new hell / you are my bad dream” has certainly taken its turn in that rotation.

actualee simpson

26 June 2023 20:46

Reply to ismathers

Gowns is(/includes) EMA!! I thought it sounded familiar though I did still vote for it — I’m wondering if I ever listened to this back when “California” was making the Singles Jukebox controversy rounds?

ismathers

29 June 2023 03:23

Reply to actualee simpson

the one Gowns LP was a big enough hit with Stylus folks that when “California” blew up I was going “oh it’s her from Gowns!” but I’m pretty sure I was in the minority haha

jonathanb

30 June 2023 12:50

Reply to ismathers

Gowns was such a big Stylus hit that I almost didn’t nominate it on the basis that it would be too well known. Then I checked its play count on Spotify and figured that, actually, chances are only one person I knew to be voting in the poll would definitely have heard it before. I’ve wanted to see Gowns or EMA in the polls for a while, so I’m glad to have finally got a chance to see how it plays.

ismathers

30 June 2023 21:25

Reply to jonathanb

This is a good point, how have I never nominated EMA for anything???

Edward Still

26 June 2023 17:57

I found this quite easy compared to most everyone else, although it’s probably helps there are exactly 4 I obviously enjoyed more than the rest (or maybe I just don’t like albums ending!).

Definitely my easiest pick so far though – Bonnie, Free Design, Ile, Pinky-Ann get the ticks.

ismathers

26 June 2023 19:51

Another great group; was especially sad after relistening that I couldn’t vote “Cherylee” but that just would have made it harder. Eventually voted Kronos, Tzusing, Mel Stone, Sabbath. Closest to making it were Bonnie Raitt and, slightly to my surprise, the Free Design.

Mark EC Morris

27 June 2023 19:32

Reading the comments, I feel that everyone else is much higher-minded and open-minded that I am. I’m certainly not going to NOT vote for an artist I know I like but am sure I have never hear that track before just because it is obviously my kind of thing. (Eg, this time voted for iLe, which was already making its way onto my June playlist during the first listen.)

actualee simpson

28 June 2023 19:54

Reply to Mark EC Morris

Fwiw in the end I didn’t do any real hand-wringing over my votes in terms of recognition and gave 3/4 to artists I’ve heard of (though w tracks I’ve never knowingly heard).

Andrew Farrell

29 June 2023 10:12

Reply to actualee simpson

I’m already juggling “Is this a good track?” vs “Is this a good closing track?”, I don’t need another axis of uncertainty!

Arron Wright

28 June 2023 09:49

Finally caught up last night after all the Glastonbury home listening.

Voted for Tzusing, Pinky-Ann & Gowns with reasonable ease.

Last pick was The Just Joans, as I was in the mood to vote for stuff that probably doesn’t travel that well beyond this island 🙂

koganbot

28 June 2023 13:13

Pinky Ann Rihal “Tu Aaja.” Compacted, nasal vocals sound gorgeous sitting back in the mix. Track is sorta proggishly disco.

iLe “De Luna.” A blanket of gentleness settles atop this, which helps the bass to be unobtrusively voluptuous.

Tzusing “Residual Stress.” Frenetic in a subdued way, then gets louder.

Greet Death “New Hell.” Plain indie vocals are overtaken by scuzz, which comes in a variety of colors of scuzziness. A whining guitar sneaks in.

The Just Joans “What Do We Do Now?” I like how the singing and the guitar line seem to be running away from each other. Creates a sense of openness.

koganbot

28 June 2023 13:14

Bonnie Raitt “The Bed I Made.” Fell in love with Bonnie’s “Love Has No Pride” fifty-one years aga, but barely paid attention since. I’m like this with friends, too. Anyway, this has the same helpless ache. Feels flawless, so I decided to find some flaws – yeah, that she lands too solidly and stolidly on the aching high notes.

The Free Design “That’s All, People.” I can’t place this – which is probably a virtue. The individual voices are annoyingly homely, then when they combine they’re tingling Sixties harmonies, like Friends Of Distinction bkgd singers, or The Mamas And Papas.

Black Sabbath “Over And Over.” Iommi shoveling hot coals, or raking them.

Gowns “Cherylee.” Adding static and sine waves gives Gowns permission to stick us with a bunch of sketches and not to integrate the parts. I like the first half the most, which is the sketchiest.

koganbot

1 July 2023 10:26

Reply to koganbot

Voted Pinky, Bonnie, Just Joans, Free Design.

wmterhaar

28 June 2023 19:26

My favourite of these by far so far.

Gowns is an absolute discovery; I just love how beauty ebbs and rises from the decay,
The Free Design is another absolute discovery: just when I think “this is too much 70s smooth pop”, it goes all proggy and just when I think “That’s a bit too proggy”, they go smooth, with a nice dash of joyful brash sprinkled on top. And that all in just over 2:30.
Pinky Ann Rihal bring the kosmische disko, Indian style.
Tsuzing just goes hard in exactly the right way.

j_e_l

29 June 2023 08:51

Ah, seems like voting is not working 🙁

My favourites were Gowns (sounded very Canadian, though not Canadian); Tu-Aaja; Sabbath and Mel Stone

Made me think – should a closing track be a long goodbye, or an exclamation point, or not acknowledged at all? I kinda like an exclamation point myself

Tzusing soundtracked my anxiety as I was looking for a good pen. Eventually found it down by the side of the Lego railway track. So imaginary bonus point for them

ajjr82

29 June 2023 20:46

“Tu Aaja” is great, feels like it could have come out yesterday.
Greet Death jumped right out at me with a hell of a voice, really striking in that shoegaze context. There isn’t really enough shoegaze that plays with vocal styles like this.
Bonnie Raitt has some really sumptuous bass.

ismathers

30 June 2023 21:27

Reply to ajjr82

Greet Death actually has two vocalists, and both have quite striking voices in pretty different ways IMO!

Last edited 11 months ago by ismathers

qosephine

30 June 2023 13:35

Aw, sorry to be in the minority for Lupe Fiasco having a laugh about his mum!

Helene Hoffman

30 June 2023 17:07

Sadly had to DQ Black Sabbath & the Free Design under GB rules (first time that’s happened in 3 rounds!). Happy to vote for Tzusing, Ile, Kronos, and Raitt though; strong group as always!

TheHarderLine

30 June 2023 21:14

I nominated Bonnie Raitt on the same gamble that the Black Sabbath nominator took – a song that probably no one has heard from an artist everyone knows. This is from her last major label record, in 2005. It’s good, and you can find copies on CD for $2 anywhere. A lot of old boomers bought it and then sold it and no one else noticed it! There’s usually one or two torch songs like this on her albums but they’re always kinda hidden. I nominated this as a bonus for Late Work and put it in here after it wasn’t picked for the big poll.
Funny enough, I almost nominated a different Free Design tune – “Friends (Thank You All)” from the album “One by One”. This is probably a better pick. I don’t think we’ve had them in a poll yet. Always just on the edge of total derangement.
I really enjoyed Greet Death – starts like Red House Painters (who I like!) and then gets better.

Son of Mecha Mummy

30 June 2023 23:48

Reply to TheHarderLine

As the Free Design nominator, I was amused to check and find out that they have in fact been polled one time… and it was in the actual Album Closers poll, with “Dorian Benediction.” They’re just really good at closing tracks, I guess.

jonathanb

1 July 2023 11:54

Voted: Just Joans, Black Sabbath, Greet Death, Lupe Fiasco.

Some thoughts: I like the part of the Tzusing track where it turns into a Nine Inch Nails instrumental; it almost made me wonder what it would be like with Trent Reznor on top.

“Rose Quartz” was good and would have got my fifth vote if I’d had one.

I was disappointed upon listening to the Just Joans album that it was far too lo-fi for my tastes and the version of “What Do We Do Now?” that closes it out is not the same as the one that’s on Spotify. Still, that song is exactly the kind of stuff I love and I gave it a vote anyway.

Lupe Fiasco is a very talented rapper with an unfortunate inclination towards occasional puritanism, which I find really boring, and I basically stopped checking for him more than a decade ago. Maybe that’s a mistake; the last time he appeared in these polls was with the 2020 track “Dinosaurs,” and that sideways whimsy suited him fantastically. “More Than My Heart” sounds a bit like he heard “Sunday Candy” and thought “I can do that too!” but I won’t hold it against him.

As someone who has only a passing interest in Black Sabbath, I thought “Over and Over” was awesome. It rocked. so. hard. Then I listened to the album and it turned out to be too much Black Sabbath. (I was also confused by the “Sign of the Southern Cross,” mostly because it made me think of tattoos on white Australians that suggest they might have some unpleasant political leanings. I don’t think it had quite that connotation at the time, but I don’t think Ozzy had Australian union members in mind either.)

actualee simpson

1 July 2023 14:45

Voted Lupe, Gowns, Free Design, Tzusing, very tough calls all around.

Pinky-Ann-Rihal is a group I didn’t know before hearing them featured on this Cornershop song this year:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uVK10Xw0B84

Last edited 11 months ago by actualee simpson

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The League Of Extraordinary Tracks 3: CLOSING TRACKS Poll

League Of Extraordinary Tracks S1E3: CLOSING TRACKS!

The League Of Extraordinary Tracks 3: CLOSING TRACKS Playlists

The League Of Extraordinary Tracks 3: CLOSING TRACKS Results!

The Discourse