Round 1: Billie Eilish v. Christian Scott

[baystateoftheart]

Seed #4:

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When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go...lie Eilish

Nominated by: ExTeaSea
Genres [RYM]: Electropop, Alternative R&B

Seed #22:

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Ancestral Recall by Christian Scott

Nominated by: meccalecca
Genres [RYM]: Jazz Fusion

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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[cestuneblague]

What is the big fucking deal with Billie Eilish? Those going on how this is somehow the most creative or visionary pop of recent times, have they not listened to music in the past 25 years? This is merely a well-polished frankenmonster. And really that's perfectly fine for now, she's young and still has time to find her voice, but it seems like hype alone is enough to put someone in the hall of fame these days. I do legitimately like a couple songs on here quite a bit and think there's definitely future potential (she certainly has the drive and social-media savvy for sustained success), but I would personally file this as one of the most overpraised albums of the decade.

Christian Scott is not earth-shattering but I like his cereberal if sometimes fairly slick jazz fusion enough to easily get my vote here.

[Fischman]

Probably the easiest vote in the first round. Mr. Christian by light years.

[Hayden]

Scott for me as well.
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[craola]

Scott.
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[RockyRaccoon]

Generally speaking I'll defend Billie Eilish because I think she's a pretty talented and interesting pop singer, but for this, I've gotta go with Scott. That album was just too good
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2023 Chart

Early Psychedelic Rock

Electronic Chart

[Repo]

[pa]

I totally agree with Repo, Billie is awesome and talented
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Not Talulah?
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[cestuneblague]

Ok I guess I probably sounded too harsh on Eilish in the original post. I'm not saying at all she lacks talent or charisma, nor am I'm getting behind the nonsense of the "Industry Plant!" backlash and yes I acknowledge the generation gap here (OK elder millenial). But for me, what matters is the actual music, not her general vibe/image or place in culture which I feel has overtaken much of the discussion of the actual album- and when listening to a lot of the music I just think "Oh, why isn't this by X artist song", a production that sounds pretty attractive and engaging but then just feels flat and monochromatic after a few songs, some really cringe-y attempts at being ironic and funny that mess up the general tone of the album, and overall a bit too much deadpan arty posing in the performance rather than feeling geniunely sincere. But the handful of songs that actually hit hard do show that there is definite potential, and using another 2019 artist Lana (ok, maybe not the greatest indivual to use atm, but I digress) is a good example of opinion turning around drastically and how it can take awhile to truly reach the vast potential of their sound and not just stay a one-trick pony. She's young and obviously started when she was still a musical novice, so it's more than understandable there's plenty of room for growth here. But again, potential is potential, it's not the music she's already made. And when pushing away all the outside noise and just comparing the music on both of the albums, that makes it an easy choice for Scott.

[LedZep]