R7M3

[rayge]

A Fred Hughes - Oo Wee Baby, I Love You



B Badly Drawn Boy - Stone on the Water

[bungo the mungo]

hughes is the real deal. nice to be reminded of it. B is a very poor man's nick drake.

A

[DarknessFish]

Northern soul, or too slow for that? Right back in the preludin comfy armchair of satisfaction here. Mmm, certainty. Doesn't do much, does it?

That album artwork looks like some nu-metal thing, why would you do that? It's taking it's time to get going, and so far Skope sounds like he might be right with the Nick Drake reference, and I don't remember uttering that kind of statement before. Vocally, it's nothing like, but he's not exactly inspiring me much, either.

B

[Mr. FOLLARD]

I think Badly Drawn Boy did as well as he could seeing as he was working at the arse-end of rock's golden age. Some good songs, some interesting sounds. There were still glimmers of hope back then, people looking for a saviour. But he didn't have much, and this is not GREAT, not by any stretch of the imagination. 

A is nice, lovely thundering drum rolls, easy piano, cool vocal. A very comfortable win here

[fonz]

Poor Fred, what happened to him. This record is somewhat portentous, and he gets the vote. Crazy how the song finishes before it really gets going. He had so much more to give. The poor bastard.

A

[toomanyhatz]

Yeah, Badly Drawn Boy was a pleasant enough artist - much played on Public Radio here, which is generally a mark against people. It's good. It's fine. Of all the music that exists in the world, though, it's a strange pick. Is this really one of the best ten things someone could think of?

A isn't exactly the most unique thing ever either, but it's well done, new to me and from a genre and period that's more in my wheelhouse.

[Deleted]

Ya know, I went through a period where I really liked Badly Drawn Boy. But I'm over it.

A

[lokie]

I quite like

[Deleted]

Vote B, just like the artist, i'm not all that excited about it...

[Reactionary Rage]

Very comfortable for A, nice pick..

A

[Deleted]

What a shame these two have drawn each other, especially given the poor fare elsewhere.
A has a wonderful sound and arrangement, a really full, powerful sounding track. However imo there are superior Hughes cuts out there and this falls just short of being a Northern Soul classic because the song isn't really distinctive enough. I do like it though.
B is a terrible pick. Not because it's a bad song, but because music snobs will immediately see the name and think that's so late 90s. However if you actually listen to it what you get is a track with a beguiling, trance-like melody which builds beautifully with the atmospheric arrangement. It's like wondering into an ancient wood, slightly spooky and magical.

Close, but because it's getting dismissed unfairly I'm going B

[fange]

Musically i really like B, it has some gentle beauty and depth to the arrangement that is really appealing. I wish his voice had a little more character, but i've always thought that about BDB. Lovely tune though and would have won many a match, but i find it hard to go past A here. I'm with fonz - the song just seems to finish way too soon; Fred had so much more to give, the poor bastard. He sings the shit out of that song, and the arrangements so moody and wonderful with male and female back-ups, horns, hand claps, and that beautiful stately piano running through it. Knowing the era, it was probably knocked up in a cramped Chicago studio along with the B-side in a 3-4 hour session between everyone's other jobs or gigs.

[osgood]

Nice match, but A feels lacking some substance to be a real song. I have nothing against BDB (why should I?) and this is a nice pick that I had not heard before and ultimately the winner here.

B

[rayge]

Haven't heard a If Northern soul is about taking speed and dancing all night to obscure R&B sides, why is so much of it so sepulchrally slow? This is walking pace. This is a Motown knock-off of course, from Chicago rather than Detroit, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, even if it suffers from not having the TMG house band on it. 5.5 / 10
b BDB always suffered in my eyes for being a beardy scruffbag. Didn't realize he was such a fancy-dan guitarist. I suppose he's got that in common with mimsy Drake. Is this an instrumental? oh, just after halfway, in he comes with a murmuring croony, breathy vocal that doesn't make me want to punch him, so perhaps not Mr Dwake. Didn't hate it, but can't get very interested in this sort of thing at my age. Ultimately, pogonophobia wins out. 4.5 / 10

A

[rankingted]

This is better! Two really neat picks, a nifty slow building Northern Soul track and a reminder that BDB wasn't always a colossal trad bore with a Springsteen obsession. This is actually a bit of a beaut, its definitely infused with Drake and wins out as the less wheelhousey pick here.

B