Desert Island X: Group 5 Listening Thread

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LemonMacPhisto:

- Yeah, okay, I can get behind the Wagner - Thee Oh Sees segues. Moving from something very structurally tight to something quite loose and messy works pretty well.

- Shannon and the Clams - weird juxtaposition between the vocal parts. The nasally vocals are really fucking irritating...but they're also really endearing and catchy. Good stuff.

- Okay garage rock section, I can get behind this. The Tony Nolan track could have been stretched way longer - I was just getting into it, and it's done. It doesn't need to be a side long, but if it were two minutes it'd still be short and sharp, without leaving me wanting more.

- What the fuck.

- No, this sucks. Prince, you suck.

- Okay, I fucking love Talking Heads and kinda dislike Ariel Pink. Putting them against each other works super well, though, and I can get behind the latter a lot. They actually groove really well, which makes the interaction between the two even more interesting.

- Johannesburg is awfully chirpy for a song about a not chirpy city. Pretty good stuff. Jaunty harmonica playing is just super charming.

- I think I'm into 60s girl pop now. Whoops.

- Okay, I absolutely can't divorce music of a TV series I know well from its context. For that reason, this totally took me out of the flow of the playlist. Sorry.

- One of my least favourite Replacements songs.

- The Blood Orange song makes me want to check more of them out. Very restrained, but I think it works well. Beautiful melodic stuff going on.

- Kayne West still fucking sucks. Fuck off.

- Sinnerman - perfect ending. Emotional, energetic, urgent. Wowzers.
 
I'm really digging the sexy slow jamz section of Bonnie's list. So much, in fact, that it may be my favorite stretch of the competition so far. Saint Etienne to The Internet was flawlessly sequenced and I've liked every song a great deal. I was hoping that Remember the Time remix would kick in at some point, but I appreciated its restraint. It just seemed to be building to something big.

Down Down the Deep River as an opener, well...not feeling it. I was feeling it until everything else followed.
 
Listening to Bonnie's now - so far LeMel I am in complete disagreement, but we'll see how it changes.

Vlad n U2:

- That Underworld track was a LOT to take in at the beginning of a list. Lots of meandering, but I think it was good? All the parts made sense in relation to each other, the ending was pretty humourous, and it definitely piqued my interest. I'd probably give it another shot, so there's that.

- The first half of the Stereolab track was pretty great: lots of drones, and it stayed on a single groove, but added enough to keep it interesting. The fade out and back in was totally unexpected and jarring - it'd be cool if they found a way to get between the first and second movement coherently. I think this would be something that'd be incredible to see live, and loses a bunch of impact on tape - the visceral impact of the repetition is getting a little lost.

- Putting two 15+ minute songs up front is ballsy as hell. Love it.

- Smyslovyie Gallyutsinatsii - the singer kinda sounds like Bowie? Good song, though.

- Midnight Oil doing boring synth pop. Well, okay then.

- Kent = good guitar sound with big musical peaks. Are these guys the Swedish Coldplay, but good?

- Man, "Easy" is super all over the place. Really not into it. Just a whole bunch of pieces that don't make sense together.

- Myslovitz put the vocals at the forefront, which means that I'm just not going to get a lot of what they're trying to convey. Which is disappointing, because I think the song is swell!

- I've only heard The Holy Bible and Everything Must Go. This is a very different Manic Street Preachers, and one I'm pretty into. Bradfield has less to compete with in order to get his vocals across, and that means he can be more dynamic. Which is sweet.

- Lush are an indistinguishable shoegaze band. Zzzz.

- The last two songs - pretty cool!
 
Lots of sugary sweet EDM on this list, mixed quite seamlessly with cloud rap and new school R&B. I like it. There's a lot of personality here and I haven't been familiar with anything on it for a while now (outside of Miami Horror and Cut Copy, which were both great tracks).

Great: the transition into YMO. That was awesome. Couldn't tell we had switched decades.

Not great: Tkay Maidza. Not feeling anything there, beats or lyrics.

I wish you had used Blood on the Leaves instead of Higher Ground.

liamcool said:
Listening to Bonnie's now - so far LeMel I am in complete disagreement, but we'll see how it changes.
Click to expand...

The reaction to it is going to be interesting. It's a list that stands out for sure. Cobbler's list serves a similar function but doesn't cover the same ground.
 
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Thanks Liam.

liamcool said:
- Kent = good guitar sound with big musical peaks. Are these guys the Swedish Coldplay, but good?
Click to expand...

I would say they are much more than simply a Swedish Coldplay. Much more variation in sound.
 
LemonMelon said:
The reaction to it is going to be interesting. It's a list that stands out for sure. Cobbler's list serves a similar function but doesn't cover the same ground.
Click to expand...

I liked Sad Punk's a great deal. It was distinct from Cobbler's, I think, especially in that "slow jamz" section as you called it and electro-pop like Miami Horror etc. Similar to you, though, I found both the opener and closer out of place thematically with the list as whole - especially Born to Run is epic and desperate in stark contrast to the laid-back nature of the majority of the list.
 
It's funny that those tracks were chosen as the bookends because I can hear a lot of Bruce influence in that Okkervil track. It's very anthemic that way.

I really liked the list though. It stayed pretty chill from the spot where I last posted. Nothing really negative to say, besides the bookends. I like how the list came down to earth and began to feel somewhat organic by the end. All told it was a very balanced, focused list that brought some new sounds to the table.

I've heard YLB's list and am halfway through Vlad's. Reviews coming in the morning.
 
I've been putting off listening to it because it opens with that okkervil river song. That song is so good, so beyond good that it needs to end the list that I can just go listen to it 4 more times after without killing the flow of the playlist when I go off on my tangent to our life is not a movie 7x afterwards. I like a whole lot more than just those two songs of theirs, but not nearly as much. And they fall into that rare category of songs I not only love, but then have to listen to on repeat for a bit after the first play.
 
LemonMelon said:
I've heard YLB's list and am halfway through Vlad's. Reviews coming in the morning.
Click to expand...

...let's pretend I wake up at 8 PM.

YLB:

As always with his lists, I really enjoyed the song choices for the most part. He referred to this playlist as something of a compilation of other mixes he had done and it comes across that way as far as song quality goes. Thee Oh Sees, Prince, HAIM, Talking Heads, Ariel Pink, Angelo Badalamenti, Replacements, Ike & Tina, Yeezy, Flamingos, Nina Simone...great shit all around.

My complaints concern how this playlist was constructed. My favorite lists are the ones that have a singular vibe about them (Peef got a lot of compliments about this) and honestly, this list does feel like a compilation of other lists. It's very short and doesn't stick to one sound long enough to develop a vibe that sticks with me. The individual transitions are usually fine, but some fidelity/volume/production differences led to some ugly transitions (quiet Wagner to loud Thee Oh Sees, same issue in reverse with Tony Molina--->Prince, and it's nearly impossible to make anything transition into Ariel Pink without noticing the change in production).

Overall, not my favorite list of his, but it was one of the more fun listens I had this tournament. Some volume adjustments would have cleaned this up a lot.

Vlad:

I really liked this. It jumped from nation to nation and genre to genre without breaking the spell it casts early on with the two 15+ minute tracks, both of which are very good (fuckyeah Stereolab). This felt like one 96 minute album. I had no issues with the flow anywhere.

Other than the Manic Street Preachers track, which I thought was painfully on the nose lyrically, I had few problems with the song choices either. I need to go back and check on which bands did which tracks (I didn't have the track listing handy when I heard this), but I was pleasantly surprised by the Midnight Oil and Kent tracks in particular. And Mansun is always awesome.

I hope this entry does well. Having now heard all the lists, I can confidently say it's one of my favorites of the tournament. Though I'm not sure this is a vibe that will work for me every day, I could see this being a list I listen to in the future.
 
So...how are the rankings coming along, guys? The gap between first and last in group 5 is five points.
 
I loved LJT's list, a ton. Which makes it even more bittersweet that it was so short.

Even managed to put a Dinosaur Jr. track on there that I actually enjoyed.

Only complaint I really have is the use of CunninLynguists. I get why it's there, and I thought the way in and out where both really great, but the song itself just didn't fit. That would be what I refer to as poor flow. Transitions were great, song didn't fit.

But I do really love CunninLynguists.

I've never heard Saul Williams before, but that song was pretty dope. Almost like Bloc Party, but straight-up rock instead of synthy.
 
LMP's list gets the job done as a playlist. Really didn't start doing it for me until about halfway though, unfortunately, but in general, fun listen. Blood Orange track was really great.
 
LJT:

I've generally enjoyed your DI submissions, because you tend to include a lot of great stuff that I am unfamiliar with, and this one is no exception.

Really dug the Black Mountain song. The lead vocalist sounds like someone I've heard before, but I can't put a finger on it. Nevertheless, thought that was really good.

I'll echo comments regarding Saul Williams. Apparently another artist I should look into. Reminded me of TVOTR.

Another Cunninlynguists track that I liked.

Probably the only thing I didn't care for was the final song, and while it was ok as a closer, I thought it was a bit low key compared to the rest of the playlist. I would have liked to have seen something more uptempo to end things.

I also think this could have been a few songs longer. Not saying it had to be extended significantly or anything, but this was great to listen to and seemed like it ended a lot earlier than it had to.

But those are minor gripes for what was otherwise a refreshing and well done entry.
 
LMP:

This has a little bit of everything, which I guess is what you were going for. It was a bit all over the place, and while most of the songs were good, it never really developed a good flow for me and the transitions at times were rough. You kept it a bit short which helped.

I personally didn't like the transition from Wagner to Thee Oh Sees, but it sure was unique.

One of the best Prince songs ever. In fact, tracks 5-7 was probably my favorite part of this.

Nice selection of older tunes by Shangri-La's, Ike & Tina, and The Flamingos.

15-17 was also a very strong run, and I liked how you closed it out.

So not bad - I've enjoyed some of your other entries more, but your cover art wins.
 
LMP: This was delightful. I'm not sure how you managed to fit this wide range of genres in a playlist, but it worked. The Das Rheingold ouverture is probably my favorite piece of music, any genre, so I was happy to see it there (I saw it at the Met a couple of years ago and hearing that crescendo live was the most transcendental artistic experience I've had). A Wagner -> Thee Oh Sees transition is a bold idea, but somehow it worked fine (I think the bass line in Toe Cutter helped, as it has a minor connection to the bass-heavy beginning of Vorspiel). The pop/funky section with Prince/HAIM/Talking Heads/Ariel Pink worked great, and the mid-section felt a bit like a Broadway musical, in a good way. The Flamingos and that Nina Simone song (very uncharacteristic for her, by the way) was a great way to end. One of my favorite playlists so far.
 
I've been doing updates in the most recent discussion thread, so I'm answering IWB's question here as I figure more people will see it:

Everything is updated and tallied with each list I receive so, theoretically, I'm ready to announce the top 10 at any time. I have not, however, received any new group rankings for a little while now so I think it's about time to proceed.

Would you guys like me to set the new rankings deadline for Friday or the Monday after that? I know some regulars to these threads need a bit more time, but it's time to get this going.
 
Agreed.

Ideally I would have liked to write up the rest of the lists and give feedback as I'm done listening to everything, but I really only need like an hour to review and make my rankings.
 
Cool.

I may send out PMs to others who haven't submitted and that would help me size up the current timeline. I would like to have the top 10 out Friday and start the voting Monday, but it may be possible to do it sooner.
 
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I'm on my last list as well. Had been halfway through Bonnie's when work stuff interrupted early last week, and just never had a chance to get back to it.
 
Vlad:

Quite the formidable start with two tracks that total over 30 minutes combined. I thought the Underworld track was the better of the two; I like how it changed direction on more than one occasion, which kept me focused throughout. Stereolab didn’t hold my attention nearly as well, however.

After that double shot, I generally enjoyed the remainder of the playlist. Midnight Oil -> Kent -> Something For Kate was a particular highlight for me. The foreign (to me) tracks were interesting and worked very well within the overall flow, even if they might not be things I would revisit very often.

Thought the last few tracks went well – Lush was great to hear, and the closer was awesome.

Really unique entry where I didn’t know almost anything on it, yet it was a really good listen. A nice change of pace.
 
SP:

So I started listening to this and it was off to a great start, and then I went a few tracks that I didn’t really like and was starting to wonder if the first two songs would be the best thing about this. But starting with that Holidays song, this playlist was a real treat to listen to. Man, I loved some of those jams during that initial span.

Maybe it’s because it is such a well known monster hit, but I wasn’t sure that When Doves Cry fit in well there, but obviously didn’t mind it (although the album version is better).

And then you shifted gears with War On Drugs, and, of all things, America. Fuck, even Glen Campbell made an appearance.

Wrapping up with Born To Run after starting with Okkervil River added a nice symmetrical twist the whole thing.

This is probably my favorite entry of yours. I liked it that much.
 
Alright, I've decided on a rankings deadline of Thursday at 11:59 PM PST. If you don't have your rankings for your own group sent to me by then, you will lose 8 points off of your score. There are no such penalties for failing to rank the other groups, but every point counts, so I encourage everyone to participate.

The top 10 will be announced Friday afternoon and the survivor for those 10 will begin the following Monday.
 
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