It’s playlist time as we approach the halfway point of the qualifiers. Before the poll started I got people to vote on what tracks should be Bracket Balancers. And then put some of the top scoring ones in the same group, obviously. That’s our headliner but there’s plenty more happening too…
Going some distance outside the People’s Pop comfort zone with this headline group but that’s a good thing… right?
ALT-J - "Breezeblocks" (YouTube)
DEFTONES - "Change (In The House Of Flies)" (YouTube)
THE STEREOPHONICS - "Dakota" (YouTube)
TOOL - "Vicarious" (YouTube)
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It was a tie between Stereophonics and Deftones for 2nd so for the first time the Bracket Balancer rule is invoked and Deftones lose out for being one.
Cannot believe I'm voting for Stereophonics, but hey it's the best song in the bunch. Fair is fair.
That Alt-J voice sounds like a parody of early-10s indie, just awful. Deftones, on the other hand, is probably the single best song from the sludgepit of late-90s/early-00s nu-metal and post, […]
I don't think I've ever heard Alt-J before but I wasn't expecting them to sound so much like Devendra Banhart.
LONDON GRAMMAR - "Hey Now (Arty Remix)" (YouTube)
METHYL ETHEL - "Ubu" (YouTube)
CAR SEAT HEADREST - "Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales" (YouTube)
FRIENDS - "Friend Crush" (YouTube)
Also a tie for 2nd! London Grammar takes it over Car Seat Headrest on the "unpolled artist" tie-break clause (harsh on CSH I admit as their sole qualifier appearance in the 2020 poll dooms them here!)
I didn't think London Grammar had been polled before. I love Hannah Reid's voice, and this mix is special, somehow turning the melancholy into something a lot more uplifting!
Friends are good. I think that's universally understood, vote totals here notwithstanding.
I'd argue London Grammar is an even worse name than Car Seat Headrest ("rock'n'roll isn't about education, let alone selective education FFS" - some angry rock critic somewhere). I ended up voting […]
This is today’s only Curated Group, from Twitter’s colinmcarlson. I don’t think there’s a specific theme, more a vibe, but I could be wrong!
LIARS - "Plaster Casts Of Everything" (YouTube)
EARL SWEATSHIRT - "Chum" (YouTube)
DAS RACIST - "hahahaha jk?" (YouTube)
KEVIN ABSTRACT - "Empty" (YouTube)
I'm trying not to vote for the one I know, because it's an excellent group with no bad choices, but I haven't listened to Liars for ages and have very much enjoyed being reacquainted with it.
I was going to nominate Earl's "EARL" for the Four Letter Words poll; it'd be nice to say propriety interceded, but actually I just forgot on the day. I still enjoy his post-"Free Earl" stuff, like […]
Solid group. Liars goes on my Golden Beat shortlist, but gotta vote for one of the hip-hop tracks on general balance grounds. Das Racist takes it over Earl for purely tactical reasons.
Kevin's beautiful song deserves a lot here, and certainly more than bottom place (though admittedly in a high quality group)
PROBLEM CHILD - "Nasty Up" (YouTube)
YAEJI - "Done (Let's Get It)" (YouTube)
BUSY SIGNAL - "Balloon" (YouTube)
CHARLOTTE ADIGERY & BOLIS PUPUL - "Reappropriate" (YouTube)
It’s a good job “Balloon” is a bracket balancer or I’d be calling for a stewards’ enquiry into the results so far. I’d rank these in the complete opposite order. Yaeji tracks too often leave me […]
I like the Yaeji song, it has that cold distant electroclash vocals, but over a much warmer indietronic track. It's a nice contrast.
Problem Child crushes the competition here. Vote for it!
BALLOON is being DONE NASTY, let me REAPPROPRIATE - it's personal. releasing the thread now... floating, floating, everybody floating!
THE NORTHERN BOYS - "Party Time" (YouTube)
DAVID HASSELHOFF - "Head On" (YouTube)
THE FIGHTING MEN FROM CROSSMAGLEN - "Fenian Record Player" (YouTube)
TAMMY FAYE STARLITE - "Did I Shave My Vagina For This?" (YouTube)
Quite right - none of these picks are mine, but for one or two of my nominations I *may* have taken the attitude that I can make the pop poll voters listen to any silly songs that I like...
I originally misread this and was deeply disappointed that Hasselhoff wasn't the one asking if we wanted to make love to a sad old man. I wondered if I'd missed that lyric in Head On...
Have a friend who recounted when a teacher of hers back in college said, "I am now going to ruin Emily Dickinson for you," and commenced singing "Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly […]
I admire people for getting a little silly with their picks, especially as it's all for a good cause, but I think I might have to vote "absent" on this group. Hopefully a family of asylum seekers in […]