Heads up: I’m bringing a music listening project that I’ve been working on over to mastodon now. I’ve been calling it “Radio to the Death”.
Basically I wanted to listen to Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums of all time. But also, I’m me, so everything has to be a game of some kind. As such, I took all the albums and made a tournament bracket seeded by order in the original list. I listen to each pair of albums (in one sitting, ideally) and declare a winner. #RadioToTheDeath
So if I do a weird toot, please just treat it like I did a weird toot in real life and pretend like nothing happened while silently judging me.
Also @britt, let me know if I break some rule I don’t know about or somehow cause you any trouble. Def don’t want that. Just being lazy and listening to music.
#RadioToTheDeath Matchup #2
Winner: Siamese Dream
10-1
———
This turned out to be a super easy one, because one of these albums was fine, and the other one was the worst part of my day.
#RadioToTheDeath Matchup #3
Winner: Crosby Stills & Nash
6-5
———
This one ended up being a MUCH tougher call than I expected. Both excellent albums. Surrealistic Pillow probably had more official “jams” to be honest. But my love of Crosby Stills & Nash had me biased from the start, plus I think theirs was a more coherent work as a whole and I already want to listen to it again. That’s the real metric at the end of the day. #CrosbyStillsAndNash
#RadioToTheDeath Matchup #4
Winner: Fun House
7-4
———
Honestly didn’t love Fun House. But the title track of Some Girls was one of the more racist, sexist, miserable piece of garbage songs I’ve ever heard. No thanks. I’ll give Fun House another try.
Incidentally, the bracket has it going up against the Stones again next round. So we’ll see how the rematch goes when we get there… in like a year, probably.
#RadioToTheDeath Matchup #6
Winner: Back to Black
7-4
———
Back to Black was a jam, front to back. Hadn’t listened to SZA before. Ctrl was a really fun, sexy, unique album.
This really was a great matchup. If I had arranged this bracket by hand instead of by ranking, I probably would’ve tried to make this exact matchup happen, but probably later in the Jazz/R&B/Soul bracket because I’d love to hear more of both.
#RadioToTheDeath Matchup #7
Winner: The Chronic
8-3
———
I had no idea Dr. Dre was the origin of “deez nuts”. That’s not why The Chronic won this one, but it is a fun fact that I’m going to bother my friends and family with today.
#RadioToTheDeath Matchup #8
Winner: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
9-2
———
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is a bonkers good album. This Shakira album really left me in doubt of the trustworthiness of her hips. Hopefully some of her later work addresses that topic.
#RadioToTheDeath Matchup #14
Winner: Is This It
8-3
———
The Strokes are just too solid of a competitor. Sorry Trent. There is another Nine Inch Nails matchup coming right up. So hope abounds. And if not, we will always have The Social Network soundtrack.
#RadioToTheDeath Matchup #15
Winner: Elephant
5-6
———
A great matchup. I was not that familiar with most tracks on both, so I was fully expecting this to be basically a contest between Hurt and Seven Nation Army. Very much not the case. Both albums were very well fleshed out. Tough call.
#RadioToTheDeath Matchup #16
Winner: Sweet Baby James
9-2
———
Sweet Baby James is a great example of exactly why I do this. It is no secret that Country is one of my least favorite genres. Based on that alone, I would likely never have listened to this one. Super chill, had a great time packing up a bit while listening to it.
#RadioToTheDeath Matchup #17
Winner: Songs Of Leonard Cohen
8-3
———
I pretty much have mostly known Leonard Cohen as "the Hallelujah guy". Turns out: big fan! All around really nice album to listen to.
#RadioToTheDeath Matchup #20
Winner: A Love Supreme
7-4
———
I did not plan this dramatic husband vs. wife jazz showdown, but definitely not mad about it. Both excellent albums.
#RadioToTheDeath Matchup #21
Winner: Man On The Moon: The End Of Day
5-6
———
There was nothing easy about this one. This matchup was steak vs. candy. It is true, one is objectively better and more well-crafted. Sometimes I do just want candy though. I had to lean toward the core metric of "which one do I want to listen to again more?". I still feel very conflicted about this.
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