The League Of Extraordinary Tracks 7: FOUR LETTER WORDS Poll!

This is the Week 7 poll for the League Of Extraordinary Tracks! How do you take part?

FIRST! Go and listen to the songs chosen in the playlist post.

SECOND! Exclude from consideration any that you already knew!

THIRD! Work out which FOUR songs (or up to four) you like best!

FOURTH: VOTE FOR THEM!

This poll will run until Saturday 6PM UK time – plenty of time, but don’t miss out.

Then come back next week for the GRAND FINAL in which our nominators choose songs from 2023.

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The League Of Extraordinary Tracks 7: FOUR LETTER WORDS Playlists

The League Of Extraordinary Tracks 7: Four Letter Words RESULTS!

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actualee simpson

6 August 2023 12:53

I think the Kristin Hersh song is blocked every which way in the US. I attempted an upload, will see if it stays up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDnopl-cckg

ismathers

8 August 2023 17:31

Reply to actualee simpson

Thank you for this, I found it on YouTube not knowing it was you and came here to share it lol

actualee simpson

9 August 2023 00:12

Reply to ismathers

It’s my “let’s see if *this* gets removed” channel

TheRealBreadco

7 August 2023 04:07

Reply to actualee simpson

This is the live version that plays in the US. The album version isn’t available anywhere, it seems, but is very similar to the live version in any case.

https://youtu.be/puO2NwR0PUg

jonathanb

6 August 2023 13:39

oh good, whoever picked NewJeans selected one of their songs I’m yet to hear. I’m free to vote for any of this week’s nominations!

jonathanb

7 August 2023 11:10

Reply to jonathanb

On listening through, however, I now suspect I heard the Natalia Lafourcade track when it was released. 😔

actualee simpson

6 August 2023 14:43

Reply to jonathanb

Unfortunately one person’s nom I thought was new (and excellent) until I got to the “June 10 plus 4” line and realized I likely heard it for the first time on June 14th (didn’t dq it though, can’t remember if I listened to the song or just remember the quoted lyric). Definitely had to dq NewJeans and Neneh Cherry though.

jonathanb

7 August 2023 11:08

Reply to actualee simpson

It’s almost as if the person who nominated that song is quite taken with it and has mentioned it before on various platforms… 😀

Tom

6 August 2023 14:43

Bold to pick an actual previous winner! Neneh has trouble dealing with the sludgey undertow of the song but the band build up an impressive counter-churn.
I think this is the most melodic set yet! Lots of proper hooks here 🙂 Been through the playlist twice – I know “Azul” is a standout for its episodic, restless structure with a throughline of prettiness; not sure what else joins it.

wmterhaar

11 August 2023 10:44

Reply to Tom

Didn’t even think about that when I nominated it, maybe because I am much more a Mats Gustafsson than a Neneh Cherry fan.

Dan Bright-Amaya

7 August 2023 21:22

Just here to say that’s a fantastic Natalie Lafourcade song and great to see her in the polls at last. Hadn’t heard it before and will be listening to more of her earlier albums now.

Jeff Worrell

7 August 2023 22:02

I own The Cherry Thing on CD, tho I won’t pretend I play it often. I’m a fan of Natalia L, so I might have heard “Azul” before but Hu Hu Hu is one of the albums I think I never got to, so giving her the benefit of the doubt. I’m an even bigger fan of KH but definitely haven’t heard Strange Angels – OTOH, the song sounds familiar enough that, despite its quality, I don’t think I can vote for it.

Jeff Worrell

7 August 2023 22:07

Reply to Jeff Worrell

That’s the DQ dilemma sorted then. Who else gets a vote? The standout for me here is Asha Puthli, an artist I’ve heard about a lot of late but never checked out. Also enjoyed the charming “ASAP”, whilst the catchy “Work” snuck in at the death to grab my 4th vote. Nothing to dislike in any of these selections though.

koganbot

13 August 2023 02:30

Reply to Jeff Worrell

Turns out I first heard Asha Puthli 45 years ago when I bought my first Ornette Coleman album. Is an album I still play, Science Fiction, but I hadn’t thought to check the album credits recently. Is what comes from listening to everything online these days.

Baltimore Jacks

8 August 2023 14:55

The Michelle McAdorey track didn’t catch my ear on first listen-through, but definitely has become a stand-out.

ismathers

8 August 2023 22:21

No DQs except my own nomination (which I essentially picked randomly), I guess since I’ve heard the original “Dirt” maybe some would strike that, but I voted for it. Plus 2 Bears, McAdorney, and Laura Jean.

vinnycrackers

9 August 2023 00:20

All of these were “nice” songs but none of them blew my doors off until Asha Puthli. I tell ya, if I could have given it all 4 of my votes I would have.
So I decided to listen to more. The 2nd song that pops up on Spotify is “Let me in your life.”https://youtu.be/1hIl0Oe71dw” My HEAD NEARLY EXPLODED because it’s the sample a song I love from one of my favorite 2015 albums, shortlisted for the future year poll, Action Bronson’s Terry. https://youtu.be/6PGSOe2Iok0
I LOVE LEARNING THIS FROM THESE POLLS!!

vinnycrackers

9 August 2023 00:23

Reply to vinnycrackers

The only thing I had to disqualify was 2 Bears, which briefly confused me because it sounded so much Like Hot Chip, then I realized I was getting 2 Bears confused with Duck Sauce, someone else’s side project that came out about the same time-ish. Side projects named for animals – all a blur.

wmterhaar

11 August 2023 10:47

Really had a hard time with these week picks. Just my limited taste. The 2 Bears were by far my favourite thing and then at some distance Asha Puthli.

j_e_l

12 August 2023 08:38

NewJeans were great, I liked this one, I usually like K-pop. Quite enjoyed Natalia, thought the song ended up sounding like the twee-er moments of Sigur Ros. The sax bits on Neneh/ The Thing were really good, could have done without the singing. Liked the little frog bit at the beginning of Asha, didn’t particularly much like the vocals. Pinkshift were good, sort of thing I might add to one of my year playlists, good MCR style chorus, all a bit MCR to be fair. Yes, very MCR. The bagpipe-y things on Michelle’s song were nice and the shimmery guitar bits. Finally, I did also enjoy Raavi once it got going, even if the enunciation was a little grating – Ho-ome sort of thing

Mark EC Morris

12 August 2023 11:23

Voted NewJeans and Neneh Cherry & The Thing – ASAP is to me the best song here, Dirt the most sonically engaging? There’s a fair chance I’d heard the Kristin Hersh song before but wouldn’t have voted for it if I hadn’t, so no issues there.
Am generally fascinated by Natalia Lafourcada’s journey from being the Latin American Avril Lavigne to having apparently absorbed (successfully) the entire history of Mexican music. This is a step along the way I wasn’t familiar with and didn’t work for me – unlike assorted others it seems. I often don’t hear lyrics but these are pretty unavoidable and I found the endless list of bad things rather grating – rather like a version of The Barracudas’ We’re Living In Violent Times without the humour. Wonder if the song works better if you don’t understand Spanish?

koganbot

13 August 2023 02:01

Listened to the NewJeans EP ASAP, making “ASAP” ineligible. So voted Laura Jean, the 2 Bears, Pinkshift, and Lo-Fi-Fnk. But I thought about Asha Puthli more than the rest combined. Song starts like it’s going to be a slow, sultry, upmarket version of “You’re The One That I Want,” then morphs into a slow, sultry, upmarket blues. Then Asha comes in and makes a mess of things and I don’t know whether the market is up, down, or sideways; nor do I know whether this is a good thing. Been reading the chapter on conversation starters in one of those Lifeskills for Adults books, and Asha Puthli could well be my choice.

“Say, have you heard Asha Puthli’s ‘Lies’?”

“No.”

“Well, let me tell you about it.”

actualee simpson

16 August 2023 22:37

On her s/t album, Asha Puthli is practically as affected as William Shatner, and about as ambiguously avant about it (similar to Shatner: is it that she’s bad or clumsy at being avant, or that it’s not quite what she’s going for, and I just can’t figure out what it is she IS going for and have a sense she doesn’t really know either?). Some of her choices are so jarring I wonder what on earth the process could have been, whether there were multiple takes, whether there was ever a plan.

I was attracted to her discography from her later disco work, which has been getting rereleased and remixed by a few EDM folks (I put “Space Talk” on a recent one of my weekly 2023 mixes), but there, any outre-ness is par for the course — when she takes her big swings and swoops, they sort of blend in to the proceedings. But on “Lies” she’s got not only sore thumbs, but sore index, middle, ring fingers, and pinkies, and would probably get her toes involved too if she could.

wpDiscuz

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The League Of Extraordinary Tracks 7: FOUR LETTER WORDS Poll!

The League Of Extraordinary Tracks 7: FOUR LETTER WORDS Playlists

The League Of Extraordinary Tracks 7: Four Letter Words RESULTS!

The Discourse