THE FINAL M4 OLEANDER WIN

[Deleted]

A

The Soft Boys - Queen of Eyes



B

Mel Williams – Mr. Baker

You have until FRIDAY evening.

[Sneelock]

 Holy Shit! I never -I say - NEVER pass up a chance to say something nice about My Man Robyn but I've gotta go with B by virtue of all that fuzz and all purpose grooviness!

[Crunchy Col]

Just sold Underwater Moonlight, actually - couple of good songs but not really a classic to my mind. This one's pretty good but I'd rather open the door to a bouquet than to the postman, as Oliver Reed famously said

The other one....all I can say is that I LIKE IT

B

[toomanyhatz]

Madness! A is a stone-cold fucking classic. What 'power-pop' should be (and so rarely is).

B is a pleasant period piece but no more. Nice Arthur Brown imitation (whether intentional or not) near the end.

[bungo the mungo]

i think this is probably the tie of the final and the hardest to vote on. B is right up my street and reminds me a lot of 'baker man' by moon's train. my only criticism is that the vocals tend to grate.

LIKE DAVE says, A is a power-pop classic. short, sweet and full of jangly goodness.

[Deleted]

A is pleasant retro rock, clearly better than a Petty, but still a little too on the tasteful and sedate side.

It can't help but appear a little conventional when placed next to B. B is apparently from Argentina, although Mel Williams doesn't sound very Argentinian, perhaps he's one of the Welsh Patagonian lot. Anyway it offers exactly what I want from an obscure psych single - bursts of delirium, lots of mindbending distortion and a mentalist singer. The fact that it's missed the boat by a good three years (it came out in 1970)adds to its idiosyncratic charm somehow. A real find.. B

[fange]

A is nice, not quite as good as a top-notch Tom Petty song from that period, but enjoyable nonetheless. I guess you didn't want to pick a more obvious cut from UM, hey A. Oh well. B is a whole lotta fun, and the right kind of obscuro pick, so gets my vote.



B

[HotRats]

Got to be honest, I haven't heard of either of those artists before, so I've got declare my ignorance.

But A is definitely my favourite. I'm a sucker for a jangly guitar.

[tg]

I had no idea that B even existed and it’s pleasant enough but A is an actual song with actual song parts.

A

[daveythefatboy]

Who knew that a warmed-over (and kind of stoopid) Donovan impression with an extra slab of fuzz guitar was going to scratch my exact itch today? Go figure!

B

[osgood]

I tried to find something about Mel Williams and that Argentina connection, but only found an obituary about a Costa del Sol resort entertainer with the same name, go figure. Anyways, B is nice, even good in a preposterous way, but no way I'm going to vote for that against a track like A that hits all the right buttons, including being new to me (why this escaped my then active and working radar? no idea but I'm going to listen to the album later today)

A

[Deleted]

Vote A

[DarknessFish]

Hmm, A initially irritated me with it's Beatley tones, but it's got a lot of charm to it, it's kinda proto-indie-jangle with a nod to the past that's irritating but has some lovely little quirks. Bonus points for using the word carapace to bounce the cadence along. Infectious.

B is pretty horrible, really clunky with a shockingly bad vocal. Really needs a good burst of deoderant, and that singer should be kicked full in the face.

A

[sloopjohnc]

I liked both these songs a lot, but B had more personality.

[rayge]

Listened to them both twice.
A, I think.