SCORES & UPCOMING GAMES



CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL SCORE: (2) JEFF BUCKLEY 168, (7) Tracy Chapman 159 .......... FINAL FOUR FINAL SCORES: (7) TRACY CHAPMAN 154, (1) Joy Division 90 ..... (2) JEFF BUCKLEY 137, (1) The Cure 89 .......... ELITE EIGHT FINAL SCORES: (1) JOY DIVISION 74, (14) Low 60 ..... (7) TRACY CHAPMAN 85, (1) Elliott Smith 69 ..... THE CURE 65, (2) Radiohead 58 ..... (2) JEFF BUCKLEY 74, (1) Neutral Milk Hotel 44 ..... FINAL SWEET SIXTEEN SCORES: (1) JOY DIVISION 75, (5) PJ Harvey & Nick Cave 24 ..... (14) LOW 73, (2) Concrete Blonde (64) ..... (1) ELLIOTT SMITH 78, (4) Gary Jules 44 ..... (7) TRACY CHAPMAN 74, (6) Kate Bush 53 ..... (1) NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL 54, (13) The Church 49 ..... (2) JEFF BUCKLEY 73, (3) Sinead O’Connor 35 ..... (1) THE CURE 109, (3) Tori Amos 86 ..... (2) RADIOHEAD 76, (6) This Mortal Coil 50 ..... (1) JOY DIVISION 96, (9) Mazzy Star 91 ..... (2) CONCRETE BLONDE 76, (7) Bob Mould 28 ..... (14) LOW 60, (6) Crowded House 51 ..... (5) PJ HARVEY & NICK CAVE 65, (4) Alphaville 38 ..... (1) ELLIOTT SMITH 113, (8) Replacements 88 ..... (6) KATE BUSH 87, (3) Nirvana 64 ..... (7) TRACY CHAPMAN 99, (2) The Eels 62 ..... (3) GARY JULES 103, (12) Morrissey 63 ..... (6) Kate Bush 72, (3) Nirvana 53 ..... (3) SINEAD O'CONNOR 66, (11) Ride 27 ..... (13) THE CHURCH 106, (5) James 44 ..... (2) JEFF BUCKLEY 95, (10) Smashing Pumpkins 40 ..... (1) NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL 80, (9) New Order 56 ..... (2) RADIOHEAD 102, (7) Nine Inch Nails 99 ..... (6) THIS MORTAL COIL 61, (3) Indigo Girls 60 ..... (4) TORI AMOS 89, (5) Swans 40 ..... (1) CURE 82, (8) Tom Waits 68 ............... FINAL 1ST ROUND SCORES: (5) PJ HARVEY & NICK CAVE 93, (12) Midnight Oil 38 ..... (7) BOB MOULD 63, (10) Peter Murphy 47 ..... (1) JOY DIVISION 117, (16) Erasure 19 ..... (6) CROWDED HOUSE 98, (11) Leonard Cohen 54 ..... (7) TRACY CHAPMAN 199, (10) The Smiths 162 ..... (5) MORRISSEY 115, (12) Morphine 83 ..... (3) NIRVANA 137, (14) Slowdive 102 ..... (8) THE REPLACEMENTS 128, (9) Dream Academy 82 ..... (13) THE CHURCH 262, (4) Magnetic Fields 193 ..... (10) SMASHING PUMPKINS 165, (7) Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds 155 ..... (9) NEW ORDER 160, (8) Sarah McLachlan 78 ..... (1) JEFF BUCKLEY 204, (16) Bjork 92 ..... (4) TORI AMOS 78, (13) Echo & the Bunnymen 22 ..... (8) TOM WAITS 72, (9) The Pretenders 22 ..... (6) THIS MORTAL COIL 51, (11) Yaz 31 ..... (3) INDIGO GIRLS 71, (14) Pavement 26 ..... (9) MAZZY STAR 132, (8) REM 46 ..... (2) CONCRETE BLONDE 88, (15) Psychedelic Furs 34 ..... (4) ALPHAVILLE 71, (13) Dead Can Dance 36 ..... (14) LOW 120, (3) U2 65 ..... (1) ELLIOTT SMITH 63, (16) 10,000 Maniacs 24 ..... (2) EELS 50, (15) Counting Crows 46 ..... (4) GARY JULES 62, (13) Depeche Mode 19 ..... (6) KATE BUSH 59, (11) Sisters of Mercy 20 ..... (1) NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL 42, (16) Violent Femmes 12 ..... (11) RIDE 25 (6) Peter Gabriel 24 ..... (3) SINEAD O'CONNOR 37, (14) Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark 17, ..... (5) JAMES 24, (12) Red House Painters 23 ..... (7) NINE INCH NAILS 46, (10) Wilco 31, (5) SWANS 31, (12) Pet Shop Boys 18 ..... (1) THE CURE 50, (16) Gear Daddies 10 ..... (2) RADIOHEAD 40, (15) Liz Phair 35


CURRENT GAMES BELOW — PAST GAMES ARCHIVED AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

First Round Matchup: YAZ at THIS MORTAL COIL

(11) Yaz/Yazoo, "Only You"

This song is a contender because, unlike many of the other March Sadness choices, it’s not sad in an arch or philosophical or resigned way, it’s just...wretched and pathetic, to the point of being a little uncomfortable (please ignore the cop-out video). “All I needed was the love you gave / All I needed for another day / And all I ever knew, only you.” If I found out the song was actually about me, I wouldn’t be flattered or intrigued - I’d be double-checking those locks. It’s a song from the pits of despair, from the absolute worst night after the break-up, the nadir. It’s a song about actively resisting feeling better “I’m moving farther away, want you near me.” Despite all of this, Alison Moyet’s darkly beautiful voice gives the song dignity, which just makes it even sadder. “Looking from a window above / It’s like a story of love, can you hear me?”



vs

(6) This Mortal Coil, "Song to the Siren"

Though this song only made the tournament by winning its conference championship, don’t discount how deeply it could go in the tournament. Here are two of three members of the Cocteau Twins—also considered for the bracket under their own moniker on their own merits—recording a Tim Buckley song as part of 4AD’s This Mortal Coil project. Though this is widely considered the pinnacle version of the song, since its release, it’s been covered by many including Sinead O’Connor, Bryan Ferry, George Michael, the Czars, Robert Plant, John Frusciante, and Dead Can Dance (Brendan Perry’s vocals on this are particularly excellent, we thought, and you might be surprised by the Bryan Ferry version; we were). It pairs a strange romantic devastation (“now my foolish boat is leaning / broken lovelorn on your rocks”) with the sight of death (“should I lie with death my bride?”), and flips the myth: here, having heard and having heeded her song, and thus rockstruck and demolished, we sing back to the siren. Elizabeth Fraser’s voice here is virtually unaccompanied except by hints of reverbed guitar that perhaps act as buoys. The voice does all the work. That all the other covers came after this one—and that this one discovers depths entirely unseen in Tim Buckley’s original—and that nearly all the other covers are basically covering the This Mortal Coil version of the song—suggests how far this version goes. And it goes real far and works its mysteries. Sometimes I feel this song cuts so deeply that it feels like it comes from somewhere underneath the earth and resists my attempts to reduce it to a meaning. That’s what art says, isn’t it? Screw the pop song structures and the arrangements and orchestration; jettison the rhythm section and everything other singers and other bands might need to move you, it says: here is the voice; it will be all you need to live:

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Which is sadder? Vote by 9am 3/10

Song to the Siren
Only You
Do Quizzes

9 comments:

  1. This was the toughest call--maybe the two best voices in the tournament on this bracket. Ultimately went with Yaz because a) sucker for those synth sounds and b) right on about Moyet's voice giving the song dignity. That the dignity is ultimately a failure gets masked by those chords. It's a song trying to be an anthem, and not being an anthem, and I love it for it.

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  2. Fraser is my favorite vocalist ever and this version of Song to the Siren is one of the top 215 songs I've ever heard.

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  3. With you on that LBB. I'll be sad to see Yaz go down, in part because I'd like to see some of the synthy-type bands go deeper in the tournament, but Song to the Siren is my current tournament favorite, though also a long shot.

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  4. No contest. “Song to the Siren” is rich on so many levels—lyrically, sonically, mythologically. It moves mountains. It's also fulfilling to watch Robin Guthrie rotate amid swirling fog in the video. That makes it sadder, kind of?

    Can we talk about this song as an allusion to Homer's Odyssey?

    Odysseus, curious to hear the song of the siren, had his sailors plug their ears with beeswax and tie him to the mast so he wouldn't be overcome (with sadness?). Of the sirens, Walter Copland Perry said, “Their song, though irresistibly sweet, was no less sad than sweet, and lapped both body and soul in a fatal lethargy, the forerunner of death and corruption.”

    Hence the lyric, “Should I stand amid the breakers, or should I lie with death my bride?”

    Here's a fun painting. Just look at the eyes on old boy:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siren_(mythology)#/media/File:Ulysses_and_the_Sirens_by_H.J._Draper.jpg

    As with many of Fraser's lyrics, one finds wildly different interpretations. For example, Buckley sings, “Were you hare when I was fox?” whereas Fraser sings, depending on the recording, either, “Were you here when I was full sail?” or “...when I was flotsam?”

    Buckley also interchanged these two lines, though we can hear which one Fraser elected to sing:
    I'm as puzzled as the oyster
    I'm as puzzled as newborn child

    Another discrepancy:
    I'm as troubled as the tide. (Buckley)
    I'm as riddled as the tide. (Fraser)

    Like most Cocteau Twins songs, I care less about her exact wording (she has stated that it is often nonsensical), and more for her mellifluous delivery. So many notes in so few syllables. I will gladly be smashed apart, broken and lovelorn, on these rocks. March gets sadder yet!

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  5. South Dakota State vs. Eastern Washington

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    1. Both members of the committee are surprised that you don't go for the Yaz song . . .

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  6. It's all over for Yaz, but I did want to mention that, of all the songs in the competition, "Only You" is the one that got stuck in my head the longest, and that this was not unwelcome.

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  7. Thanks for the exposition on Song to the Siren, Kenneth. I didn't know Fraser took liberties with the lyrics. This song is so poetic--even the title is brilliant.

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