Desert Island IV Album Game: Round 1, Match 5

[phanan]

Please vote for the tracklisting you LIKE THE MOST.

Welcome to the fifth match of the first round of the Interference Desert Island Game IV! The premise of this game is that all of the Interferencers have been stranded on a desert island and we can only take up to 160 minutes of music with us (either as a continuous iPod playlist or two 80 minute CDs or any other format of our choosing). The object is to see which forum member can fit the most musical goodness into these 160 minutes.

For every win, each player will receive three points. If there is a tie, each player gets two points. If a player loses a match but is within three votes of the winner, that player will earn a single point.

At the beginning of each round, I will include the updated standings. Remember, the top two from each group moves on to the quarterfinals.

The third match of Round 1 has been completed, and Axver notches his first win by defeating Cute Irish Bono, 15-12. However, Cute Irish Bono still receives one point for being within three votes of the winner.

For Match 5, AtomicBono and BonoIsMyMuse face off. Below are their playlists.

If you don't know the songs, or wish to hear how each tracklisting flows, feel free to check out the Desert Island website.


Forum name: AtomicBono

This playlist was made with the following in mind:
1. What I've been listening to lately.
2. Introducing some music many may not have heard before.
3. Creating a journey of sorts, with each song flowing into the next.

This is not a specific story, more of just a very loose narrative, easily adapted to whatever story you want to tell. I thought of it as a romance, but it doesn't necessarily have to be that. Part I is about hope - the wonder that is potential. Part II is the world either standing still or spinning much too fast - sometimes it seems like everything is so perfect that nothing could go wrong..but then it does. Part III is getting in too deep - obsession, depression, anger, insanity. Part IV is a bittersweet ending - everything's gonna be alright, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt, or that it all turned out the way it should have. Even though I divided the playlist up, it's best listened to as one cohesive list. The divisions just represent a general change in the mood, and make it easier for people who don't have time to listen to the whole thing in one sitting. Plus it gives me the license to come up with long awesome titles for all of them.

A Beginning And All That Follows

I. This Could Be An Opportunity (When I Awoke, You Were Standing There)

1. Maserati - "12 16" - Inventions for the New Season (5:46)
2. Minus the Bear - "Knights" - Planet of Ice (3:40)
3. M83 - "Couleurs" - Couleurs EP (8:35)
4. Interpol - "Take You on a Cruise" - Antics (4:54)
5. Maps - "Elouise" - We Can Create (5:23)
6. Neutral Milk Hotel - "The King of Carrot Flowers Pts. Two & Three" - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (3:06)

II. It's All Wrong, It's All Right (Complacency and Uncertainty - If
That's The Way It Is, Then...)

7. We Vs. Death - "City Council Cosmos" - The Message Is (8:07)
8. ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - "How Near How Far" - Source Tags & Codes (4:00)
9. Sunny Day Real Estate - "In Circles" - Diary (4:59)
10. Levenova - "The Warrior" - Riot on the Sunset Vol. 4 (4:13)
11. Broken Social Scene - "7/4 (Shoreline)" - Broken Social Scene (4:53)
12. Bloc Party - "Blue Light" - Silent Alarm (2:47)
13. Radiohead - "All I Need" - In Rainbows (3:49)
14. Pixies - "Where Is My Mind?" - Surfer Rosa (3:53)
15. U2 - "Gone" - Pop (4:27)

III. A Guilty Conscience Grows... (Alert! Alert!)

16. Muse - "Sunburn" - Showbiz (3:54)
17. Thrice - "Like Moths to Flame" - Vheissu (4:27)
18. Tool - "The Patient" - Lateralus (7:14)
19. Long Distance Calling - "Horizon" - Satellite Bay (5:54)
20. The Mars Volta - "Eria Tarka" - De-Loused In The Comatorium (6:21)
21. The Fall of Troy - "What Sound Does a Mastadon Make?" - The Fall of Troy (7:13)

IV. I Don't Know Just Where I'm Going, But Someday Maybe I'll Get There (I Guess Possibilities Are Always Greater Than What Actually Happens)

22. Explosions in the Sky - "Catastrophe and the Cure" - All of a
Sudden I Miss Everyone (7:56)
23. The Number 12 Looks Like You - "Rememberance Dialogue" - Nuclear. Sad. Nuclear (7:02)
24. The Velvet Underground - "Heroin" - The Velvet Underground & Nico (7:13)
25. Wilco - "Poor Places" - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (5:18)
26. Bright Eyes - "Nothing Gets Crossed Out" - Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground (4:34)
27. Death Cab for Cutie - "A Movie Script Ending" - iTunes Originals - Death Cab for Cutie (4:19)
28. Dredg - "The Canyon Behind Her" - El Cielo (6:40)
29. John Williams - "Theme From Jurassic Park" - Jurassic Park (3:28)

Total Runtime: 2:33:49


Forum name: BonoIsMyMuse

1. Bruce Springsteen – “Blinded By the Light” – The Essential Bruce Springsteen (disc 1) (5:03)
2. Cake – “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town” – Wheels (2:58)
3. Ryan Adams – “My Winding Wheel” – Heartbreaker (3:13)
4. Uncle Tupelo – “Acuff-Rose” – Anodyne (2:36)
5. The Rolling Stones – “Tumbling Dice” – Exile On Main Street (3:48)
6. Kings of Leon – “Happy Alone” – Youth and Young Manhood (4:00)
7. The Beatles – “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window” – Abbey Road (1:58)
8. Feist – “I Feel It All” – The Reminder (3:40)
9. R.E.M. – “Disturbance At the Heron House” – Document (3:34)
10. Crowded House – “There Goes God” – Woodface (3:50)
11. Spoon – “You Got Yr. Cherry Bombs” – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (3:09)
12. Paul Simon – “The Obvious Child” – The Rhythm of the Saints (4:10)
13. Carla Bozulich – “I Couldn’t Believe It Was True” – Red Headed Stranger (2:26)
14. Wilco – “That’s Not the Issue” – A.M. (3:21)
15. Whiskeytown – “Bar Lights” – Pneumonia (3:15)
16. Jim James and Calexico – “Goin’ to Acapulco” – I’m Not There Soundtrack (disc 1) (5:00)
17. Emmylou Harris – “Where Will I Be” – Wrecking Ball (4:15)
18. Willie Nelson – “Me and Paul” – The Essential Willie Nelson (disc 1) (3:49)
19. Bob Dylan – “Dirt Road Blues” – Time Out of Mind (3:36)
20. Jolie Holland – “Goodbye California” – Escondida (3:29)
21. The Damnwells – “Louisville” – Air Stereo (4:33)
22. Golden Smog – “Radio King” – Down By the Old Mainstream (3:09)
23. The Byrds – “So You Want to Be a Rock ‘N’ Roll Star” – The Essential Byrds (disc 1) (2:06)
24. Lucinda Williams – “Greenville” – Car Wheels On A Gravel Road (Deluxe Edition) (disc 1) (3:24)
25. X – “4th of July” – See How We Are (3:59)
26. Ray LaMontagne – “Barfly” – Till the Sun Turns Black (3:55)
27. Counting Crows – “Chelsea” – Across a Live Wire: Live In New York (disc 1) (6:16)
28. Evangelista – “Lucky Lucky Luck” – Hello, Voyager (3:27)
29. Miles Davis – “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down” – The Essential Miles Davis (disc 2) (14:04)
30. Soul Coughing – “St. Louise Is Listening” – El Oso (4:29)
31. U2 – “Zooropa” – Zooropa (6:32)
32. Sonic Youth – “Teen Age Riot” – Daydream Nation (Deluxe Edition) (disc 1) (6:59)
33. Nels Cline Singers – “Cause for Concern” – Instrumentals (4:23)
34. Grateful Dead – “St. Stephen” – Aoxomoxoa (4:28)
35. Scott Amendola Band – “Buffalo Bird Woman” – Believe (7:30)
36. Geraldine Fibbers – “Lilybelle” – Lost Somewhere Between the Earth and My Home (4:55)
37. Radiohead – “Videotape” – In Rainbows (4:40)

Total runtime: 2:39:41



Competition master list.


Have fun!

 

[LemonMelon]

AB's list is surprisingly to my taste, but BIMM put together pretty much everything I love on a single list. Tough to beat that.

 

[BonoIsMyMuse]

If she weren't competing with me, I'd vote for AB's list. There are a lot of pairings I really like. I hate that you're using one of my favorite Wilco songs against me in this round

There's an internal logic to my list that makes sense to me, but I didn't know how to explain it. So I'm hoping my list just speaks for itself this time.

 

[Screwtape2]

I want to start by saying neither of these playlists were my style. That’s okay though because I don’t expect to have the same taste as everyone.

BonoIsMyMuse’s playlist gelled for the most part. BonoIsMyMuse had some good song choices:

8. Feist – “I Feel It All” – The Reminder (3:40)
9. R.E.M. – “Disturbance At the Heron House” – Document (3:34)
29. Miles Davis – “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down” – The Essential Miles Davis (disc 2) (14:04)

AtomicBono had the better experience. AtomicBono had something of a concept while BonoIsMyMuse didn’t.

I went with AtomicBono because I took more out of her playlist. The way it was separated worked well.

Good luck to the both of you.

 

[the tourist]

This is pretty hard. I view these lists as fairly equal. I'm almost finished listening to BonoIsMyMuse's list now.

 

[the tourist]

After listening to both, I have to give AtomicBono the slight edge.

 

[phanan]

I thought the song choices and flow of BIMM's playlist were very cool - I almost thought I was laying in a hammock listening to it.

AtomicBono has some fantastic tracks on hers. I hadn't heard Maserati yet, and the song was very good. There were a few selections that I didn't think worked well within the context of the playlist, but overall, this is AB's strongest entry yet. She gets my vote here.

 

[phanan]

AtomicBono had something of a concept while BonoIsMyMuse didn’t.

I hope having a concept is not weighing too heavy in your decisions, because unlike the Symphonic game, it was not a requirement here.

If you are referring to the overall presentation of the playlist and how the tracks work together, then cool.

 

[Screwtape2]

I hope having a concept is not weighing too heavy in your decisions, because unlike the Symphonic game, it was not a requirement here.

If you are referring to the overall presentation of the playlist and how the tracks work together, then cool.

I mean is there purpose to the song choices and some kind of theme or is it just a random collection of songs that person likes. I chalk that one up to the creativity and experience department.

 

[LemonMelon]

I mean is there purpose to the song choices and some kind of theme or is it just a random collection of songs that person likes. I chalk that one up to the creativity and experience department.

A concept or theme is the X factor that makes a plain list of songs a person likes an experience.

 

[phanan]

Would you disagree that a listener can get an experience out of a playlist without a concept or theme? Can it be creative without those?

 

[the tourist]

Would you disagree that a listener can get an experience out of a playlist without a concept or theme? Can it be creative without those?

If not, I'm fucked.

 

[LemonMelon]

Would you disagree that a listener can get an experience out of a playlist without a concept or theme? Can it be creative without those?

Yes, it can be creative. However, it's nigh impossible to grasp what the creator of the list was going for without some sort of clear musical/lyrical connection between the songs.

 

[phanan]

Yes, it can be creative. However, it's nigh impossible to grasp what the creator of the list was going for without some sort of clear musical/lyrical connection between the songs.

Interesting.

I see you voted for BIMM here. How did you come up with a connection for hers, if I may ask? She decided to let the music speak for her, which I liked.

 

[LemonMelon]

Interesting.

I see you voted for BIMM here. How did you come up with a connection for hers, if I may ask? She decided to let the music speak for her, which I liked.

Keeping in mind that this was a close vote for me, as I do appreciate the clear concept AB gave...

I really didn't see much connection throughout BIMM's list. However, her list of songs is probably my favorite in the tournament, so a concept wasn't necessary for me to enjoy and appreciate the list. Had she included a concept, she would likely be receiving my vote in each of her matches.

I'm actually surprised by how much I can appreciate AB's list this time out. It's a huge improvement over last year, and I love how it's split up.

 

[monkeyskin]

I thought the song choices and flow of BIMM's playlist were very cool - I almost thought I was laying in a hammock listening to it.

I like that description, it sums up my reaction too. It also reminded me of a retro movie soundtrack, one where all the scenes are set during a relaxing summer afternoon or a warm night that stretches out.

But AtomicBono's playlist is my favourite so far. I didn't quite like all of the tracks but seeing as how I only knew five going in that's not bad at all. Some of the instrumentals impressed me a lot and when listening with the concept notes / splits in mind it works very well for me.

 

[phanan]

I really didn't see much connection throughout BIMM's list. However, her list of songs is probably my favorite in the tournament, so a concept wasn't necessary for me to enjoy and appreciate the list.

Ok, that's good to know.

 

[AtomicBono]

I'm glad people are digging my playlist

it's tough competition though. I really enjoyed BonoIsMyMuse's list...and I didn't have that Wilco song before! I love getting new music that's really my favourite thing about this competition, being exposed to songs I don't have from bands I like already, or (even better) discovering new artists

 

[phanan]

I love getting new music that's really my favourite thing about this competition, being exposed to songs I don't have from bands I like already, or (even better) discovering new artists

Definitely.

 

[phanan]

Our vote count is much smaller for these two matches.

 

[LJT]

^ I know hmm, some people though have mentioned they haven't listened to everything yet though.

Voted AtomicBono...once again for providing something a bit different to listen to

 

[Axver]

This wasn't a tough decision for me. BIMM's tracklist just is not my style of music at all. Now, there are some songs I rather like, e.g. those by REM, the Crowdies, and U2, but for the most part, it's simply not music I find appealling. I really feel I'm in no place to critique it and it would be horribly unjust for me to say it's bad or anything like that; my tastes and the music simply don't meet.

On the other hand, AtomicBono's tracklist has rather impressed me. Some of the second part and a couple of other songs lose me (looking at you, Thrice), but most of it I found quite enjoyable and well structured. Some bands, notably Maserati and M83, I have been meaning to check out for a while. And it's good to see somebody else using Long Distance Calling!

 

[SeattleVertigo]

Both decent lists; I liked BIMM's a little better.