Round 1: The Avalanches v. Moor Mother & Billy Woods

[baystateoftheart]

Seed #7:

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We Will Always Love You by The Avalanches

Nominated by: baystateoftheart
Genres [RYM]: Neo-Psychedelia, Electronic

Seed #16:

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Brass by Moor Mother & Billy Woods

Nominated by: Antonio-Pedro
Genres [RYM]: Abstract Hip Hop, Experimental Hip Hop, East Coast Hip Hop

Instructions:

If you have not already, please listen to both albums in full before voting. Share your thoughts and/or your vote in this thread. This poll will be tallied in no fewer than twenty-eight days. See Tournament Spreadsheet for the full bracket.
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[Hayden]

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This one will take some mulling. Think I'm leaning Moor Mother/Billy Woods, but that Avalanches record has some great cuts. I feel like both were immediately underappreciated because of the time of year they dropped.
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[RoundTheBend]

[Antonio-Pedro]

Such a shame both these got together. Voting for my pick obviously, but damn I think this avalanches record was damn underrated last year
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[EyeKanFly]

Yeah this was a really close one. Ditto what others have said, and I think I just gotta go with Avalanches.
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[Exist-en-ciel]

I liked most of the Billy Woods albums that I listened to. But when I first listened to Brass when it was released, I didn't like it enough. If I now have more consideration for this album, the fact remains that I prefer We Will Always Love You. I vote for The Avalanches.

[baystateoftheart]

I don't think I'll have the time to write a track-by-track review soon, so I'll just throw something up here. We Will Always Love You is another excellent Avalanches album, making them 3/3 with classics in my book. While still very sample-heavy, this is much less of a plunderphonics album than Wildflower, which in turn is less of one than Since I Left You. Instead of forming the backbone of everything, the samples are here more as complements, reminding me a bit of Jens Lekman's approach on Night Falls Over Kortedala (another favorite album of mine). In quintessential Avalanches fashion, the songs flow together nearly perfectly to create a cohesive and immersive listening experience, and have remarkable emotional potency and depth. We Will Always Love You also ups the ante on the guest-heavy nature of Wildflower, and the all-star roster includes some truly inspired pairings.

The concept of the album is another strong point. It's a very existential record, ruminating on lives and loves past and the connection that remains, from both a more immediate, personal perspective and a universal, bird's-eye view. Wikipedia has a pretty concise summary of some other interesting aspects of the background:

[kokkinos]

In contrast to most of you, this is one of the easiest decisions of the first round.
We Will Always Love You has some fantastic moments, but as an album it doesn't work for me as well as its highlights would suggest. I undestand that the interludes contribute to the overall atmosphere/feel the album is trying to create, but more often than not I find myself patiently waiting for the good stuff. In other words, you could say I like their music more than I like their concept - which is a shame, as I'm missing out on one of the main elements that makes them so special, but it is what it is.
This could have been a deciding factor in a different matchup, but here it doesn't matter that much, as Brass is in a league of its own. A top-5 2020 album and considering that the 3 or 4 albums I would rank higher don't appear here, I'd love to see this winning the whole thing.
Brass gets my vote.
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[sandboy]

We Will Always Love You is such a listenable record. I always find myself putting it on and letting it play. Bright, lively, varied. It definitely dips a little in the middle, where it's concept starts to lose focus. But what a wonderful concept it is, more-so a tonal concept that something literal, which I love. Like a lost analogue recording we're listening to a thousand years later in a digital sea. Definitely a set down from Since I Left You technically, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't prefer listening to it on the day-to-day.

I think 'Brass' is the much more successful record of the two, however. It's a more demanding and uncomfortable listen. It sounds like the last thing you hear before being head-shot in a ditch. Harrowing and real. Billy Woods is possibly one of the most important artists in the game right now, but Moor Mother absolutely matches his energy, there's a real tension and dynamic between the two of them. Nothing sounds quite like it.
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[travelful]

Almost certainly gonna vote for Moor Mother & Billy Woods but I'll give The Avalanches one more listen first. I heard this album already I think twice but can't remember anything about it.
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