rayge
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Post by rayge on May 17, 2019 13:01:58 GMT
A The xx- VCR
B Ben E. King - Spanish Harlem
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2019 14:03:14 GMT
Oh, COME ON...Vote A
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Post by bungo the mungo on May 17, 2019 14:14:16 GMT
what the hell is happening? clearly B is better, but such lack of imagination.
abstain again.
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Post by Half Machine Lipschitz on May 17, 2019 16:11:33 GMT
Man, I saw the xx play on SNL last year and they were, hands down, the worst act I'd ever seen on that show. This tune certainly doesn't do them any favours in my mind.
But you know what? Fuck this googamooga-assed B shit. I'm getting really tired of this weak crap. Fuck off.
I don't abstain, so
A
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2019 16:54:35 GMT
B is one of the best songs ever.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2019 17:43:02 GMT
The XX isn't bad, it just feels marginal and unneeded. It takes from all sorts of other things and lacks any kind of personal expression. It's done well, but it's 'record collector' rock ultimately.
B may be a bit of an old chestnut, but such a pure expression as King delivers here never gets old to my ears. I'm more than happy to hear this again.
Easily..B
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toomanyhatz
god
I've met him/her. He/she's great!!
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Post by toomanyhatz on May 17, 2019 19:56:20 GMT
My GOD, A is bad. How does it get absolutely everything I hate about modern music all in to one song? I don't know if the dreary repetition or the wispy female voice or the bland male one or the plodding rhythm is the main culprit, but the fact that it's got all of them is almost impressive.
B is great, of course. The usual caveats of obviousness/overplayedness apply as usual, but it's so far from a contest that I'll let it go this time. At least it's not the Aretha version (also great, but even more overplayed).
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2019 20:47:46 GMT
My GOD, A is bad. How does it get absolutely everything I hate about modern music all in to one song?  I laughed out loud in my cubicle at this one. |
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Post by Mr. FOLLARD on May 17, 2019 22:05:10 GMT
A's way better than I anticipated, despite it being a pretty brazen JD/NO ripoff. But the duel vocals really work, and it doesn't sound too fake
B is imbued with melancholy like a lot of those great pre-Fabs US tunes, you really sense an aching in the vocal, it's very evocative. I'm not a big fan of the arrangement but it's a lovely song and it just has to get my vote here
B
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Post by lokie on May 18, 2019 8:55:32 GMT
"Spanish Harlem" has always been such a lovely tune. Against A, I prefer it here. ![]() 
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Post by DarknessFish on May 19, 2019 20:33:41 GMT
I like the New Orderness of the bass, especially since they don't do it any more, and I quite like the vocals, too. I like the space in the sound, it's a cosy warm thing with a bit of swagger. Yeah, this is quite good, and picking slight modernish indie is fairly brave in the land of sumptuous schmaltz. Doesn't hang around, does it? Does the song, and then stops. As it should.
Spanish Harlem is a nice enough Sunday afternooner, but I'm paying my leccy bill to hear something new, not something ubiquitous.
A
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Post by osgood on May 20, 2019 6:57:30 GMT
Spanish Harlem is one of the few Leiber & Stoller songs that I have difficulties in swallowing, not sure why. I tried to listen to it with fresh ears to make a fair comparison and by the time of that awful alto sax moment at around 2:10 I gave up. A is not particularly great but nice enough to win here.
A
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fange
god
Listening to long jazz tracks
Posts: 4,544 
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Post by fange on May 20, 2019 8:24:50 GMT
As weird as this may sound, listening to these songs recorded decades apart, they seem to share quite a similar emotional perspective - they both seem to be songs that create their own stylized, inwards-looking world in which the protagonists live out some utopian ideal of what that "perfect life" is.
One may be a L&S '60 creation, while the other is by '00s English indie pop students, but they both strike me as very artificial, in the artistic sense of the word. They rely on creating the right mood for the right listener - poorly-tended gardens and roses, student lifestyles and old VCRs.
But which one am I?
I'm going with A. Neither really speaks to ME, but if we're looking for our worlds amongst the artifices i can relate to it more.
A
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Post by DarknessFish on May 20, 2019 9:09:38 GMT
At least it's not the Aretha version (also great, but even more overplayed). Might be another US/UK diversion here, but I don't think I've ever heard the Aretha version. |
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Post by Reactionary Rage on May 20, 2019 10:48:15 GMT
On no fucking planet is A better than B. It would be like shagging Anne Widdecombe when you have a greased up Scarlet Johansson beckoning you over.
b
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