90s Cup Round 6 Match 2 *Hatz 11- pcqgod 11*

[never/ever]

A

Robert Wyatt - Heaps of Sheeps





B

Lush – Leaves Me Cold

[Dayodead]

B

[toomanyhatz]

Wish I could make the obvious joke about B, but I actually liked it a great deal. Especially right around the 2-minute mark.

Unfortunately for it - one of my favorites of the cup so far - it's up against a damn near perfect song. Might actually be my favorite of his career, and I've made it quite clear how I feel about him in general, so...

A

[Purgatory Brite]

A

[Polishgirl]

I'm not a massive Lush fan, and this is no Ladykillers, but it's still a

B

[Penk!]

B is asking for trouble choosing a track with that title, although while I liked A initially, it got annoying after a while.

Still, A

[Loki]

[The Modernist]

I enjoyed A which created a nice mood and was the right side of quirky.
B shows us what a formulaic cul de sac indie entered in the 90s - muddy, distorted guitars in a wall of sound, subdued vocals avoiding anything vaguely melodic and just wafting over the top. We must have heard 9 or 10 tracks like this already in the competition. Far from 'alternative', it was the sound of a generation of bands who had run out of ideas. Even the band names got boring.

A

[algroth]

Admittedly I was pretty ready to give this round a pass for A because it's an absolutely wonderful track, but I did give B a listen and I found it quite good too! But still A.

[Diamond Dog]

Slush.

By several light years A

[Darkness_Fish]

Oh, someone's really worked out the BCB mass-market here, they've got the proggers nailed down just by picking a Wyatt song, and secondly, they've been really sneaky and picked a helluva good pop song. I own a fair bit of Bob's output, but I never really liked much of his solo stuff until his last album, Comicopera. This would fit on that, so I probably need to check out Shleep. Really, really good track.

Lush were one of the fave 2nd division bands of the NME, I don't think they ever raved over an album, but I presume they just used to hang about with the journos, because they were namechecked on practically every other page. This is actually a little better than the pedestrian effort I anticipated, it's just a shame those vocals are so wishy-washy. Never a contender against Wyatt, but not the worst track in this cup, not by a long shot.

A

[copehead]

A

[Ranking Ted]

I’ve actively disliked a lot of the Wyatt I’ve heard but thats rather nice, isn’t it, if a little scared of an out and out chorus. Against it is a Lush track I’ve not heard before - they’re a band I like quite a bit of but sometimes they get so flimsy and gauzy sounding that it becomes a wash. I think this is not quite there but it’s no Sweetness and Light, is it? Anyway, it’s a surprising

A

[fange]

I like both here, but like B more.


B

[Jumper K]

If you thought round one was shite along comes this abortion. Wyatt is just fuckin awful. Lush aren't a whole lot better.
B for not being A.

[C]

A



.

[WG Kaspar]

A

[never/ever]

I like the Eno-esque ramble on Sheeps but Lush is a bit more solid to my ears.

B

[BARON CORNY DOG]

The Robert Wyatt record is probably better. But I really liked Lush back then and this is one I'm still happy to hear.

B.

[Rayge]

a - I was enamoured of a few of Wyatt's early singles, but never listened to any of his albums – always suspected that the Soft Machine taint might be on them. This tune and arrangement reminds me very much of Eno's early stuff, and it's definitely all right, without prompting the merest shiver of excitement - 5.5 / 10
b - as an NME reader completely unable to think for myself, I acquired a fair few Lush 12-inches, so I probably heard this before, but it still seems new. As always, I'm a bit baffled by the disparagement of the vocals, which sound fine to me, although the tinny speakers on my laptop are a great leveller. 5.5 / 10
Following the usual practice of voting for the losing track in a tie,
B