Desert Island Music Album Draft 2013 FINALS - winner Lowenherz

[VF21]

Congratulations to Jespher and Lowenherz for making it to the finals of the 2013 Desert Island Music Album Draft.

Their album lists are shown below.

#2 - Löwenherz
1.13 - Blood Sugar Sex Magik - Red Hot Chili Peppers - 1991
2.04 - Led Zeppelin IV - Led Zeppelin - 1971
3.13 - Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys - 1966
4.04 - Jar of Flies - Alice in Chains - 1994
5.13 - MTV Unplugged in New York - Nirvana - 1994
6.04 - The Bends - Radiohead - 1995
7.13 - 40oz. to Freedom - Sublime - 1992
8.04 - Electric Ladyland - The Jimi Hendrix Experience - 1968
9.13 - Illmatic - Nas - 1994
10.04 - Fear of a Black Planet - Public Enemy - 1990
11.13 - Evil Empire - Rage Against the Machine - 1996
12.04 - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables - Dead Kennedys - 1980
13.13 - Tragic Kingdom - No Doubt - 1995
14.04 - When the Pawn... - Fiona Apple - 1999
15.13 - Fever to Tell - Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs - 2003
16.04 - Master of Puppets - Metallica - 1986
17.13 - Garbage - Garbage - 1995
18.04 - El Camino - The Black Keys - 2011
19.13 - Siamese Dream - Smashing Pumpkins - 1993
20.04 - Let It Bleed - The Rolling Stones - 1969
21.13 - Tidal - Fiona Apple - 1996
22.04 - Just As I Am - Bill Withers - 1971
23.13 - The Animals - The Animals - 1964
24.04 - Fantasies - Metric - 2009
25.13 - Metaphorical Music - Nujabes - 2003

vs.

#4 - Jespher
1.07- Ten - Pearl Jam - 1991
2.10 - Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd - 1973
3.07- The Beatles (aka The White Album) - The Beatles - 1968
4.10 - Throwing Copper - Live - 1994
5.07 - Fashion Nugget - Cake - 1996
6.10 - The Blues Brothers: Music from the Soundtrack - The Blues Brothers - 1980
7.07 - The Wall - Pink Floyd - 1979
8.10 - Surfacing - Sarah McLachlan - 1997
9.07 - Live at Luther College - Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds - 1999
10.10 - Unplugged - Eric Clapton - 1992
11.07 - Texas Flood - Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble - 1983
12.10 - Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman - 1988
13.07 - Led Zeppelin II - Led Zeppelin - 1969
14.10 - Elephant - The White Stripes - 2003
15.07 - Help! - The Beatles - 1965
16.10 - Smash - The Offspring - 1993
17.07 - Sublime - Sublime - 1996
18.10 - High Voltage - AC/DC - 1976
19.07 - Lie to Me - Johnny Lang - 1997
20.10 - Grace - Jeff Buckley - 1994
21.07 - Van Halen - Van Halen - 1978
22.10 - Tenacious D - Tenacious D - 2001
23.07 - Keep It Simple - Keb' Mo' - 2004
24.10 - Harvest - Neil Young - 1972
25.07 - L.A. Woman - The Doors - 1971

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I have to vote for Beach Boys and Dead Kennedys.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

This was very close, but in the end I had to vote against my draft neighbor and our PM music discussions and go with Jespher's list. These lists were 1-2 in my original rankings and I thought long and hard about whether I should swap the order before deciding to keep it the same. Zeppelin IV, The Bends, and Siamese Dream are the albums I truly would regret missing by throwing Löwenherz off the island, but Ten, Dark Side, The Wall, The Beatles, and sneakily Fashion Nugget outweigh that list, and I do like the consolation of Zeppelin II to balance the loss of the superior IV. Löwenherz was hurt a bit by the fact that I have yet to have the time to fully delve into El Camino (which I'm already certain is great, I just don't know it), as well as Fever To Tell and the two Fiona Apple contributions, so maybe by this time next year, I'd have voted differently.

Good show to both!

 

[Bricklayer]

This was very close, but in the end I had to vote against my draft neighbor and our PM music discussions and go with Jespher's list. These lists were 1-2 in my original rankings and I thought long and hard about whether I should swap the order before deciding to keep it the same. Zeppelin IV, The Bends, and Siamese Dream are the albums I truly would regret missing by throwing Löwenherz off the island, but Ten, Dark Side, The Wall, The Beatles, and sneakily Fashion Nugget outweigh that list, and I do like the consolation of Zeppelin II to balance the loss of the superior IV. Löwenherz was hurt a bit by the fact that I have yet to have the time to fully delve into El Camino (which I'm already certain is great, I just don't know it), as well as Fever To Tell and the two Fiona Apple contributions, so maybe by this time next year, I'd have voted differently.

Good show to both!

El Camino is very top to bottom solid. Hardly a bad song on the thing.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

I have to vote for Beach Boys and Dead Kennedys.

Yeah, well, my natural inclination is to do the opposite of that. On the other hand, the other list has two albums by The Beatles, which may be the only well-known, beloved rock group that I like less than the Beach Boys, so...

 

[VF21]

Poll will close Monday, Sept. 23 at 6 p.m.

 

[Jespher]

Congrats Lowenherz. Excellent list, and very nice draft!

I would have loved to get IV, Nirvana Unplugged, and Tragic Kingdom, but you beat me to them. In the end, I suppose your funk won out over my blues list. Enjoy the trophy!

 

[VF21]

Congratulations to Lowenherz! Thanks to everyone who participated. I've got enough new groups to explore to last me until next TDOS!

Now I have to find out if there's a trophy hiding around here somewhere...

 

[Bricklayer]

Congratulations to Lowenherz! Thanks to everyone who participated. I've got enough new groups to explore to last me until next TDOS!

Now I have to find out if there's a trophy hiding around here somewhere...

personalize as necessary

 

[Löwenherz]

Thanks Brick. A golden toilet would be a fine addition to the place. They didn't even have that at Versailles.

I'm legitimately shocked. I went into this game not being entirely sure I'd have enough favorite albums or even ones I'd heard all the way through to fill out a roster. Then thought my overtly 90s-centric list was prime for a one-and-done. But here I am, an absolute musical newbie, sitting at the top of the heap. What's more, that "heap" as it were, contains some absolutely thrilling and inspired collections.

I already mentioned my favorite aspects of the rosters I faced previously in the tournament. But everyone had something I admired.

Jespher: I felt like I was going up against a list with a similar philosophy as mine. I see 90s classics, 60s and 7os megahits, a good bit of legendary rock and in place of my hip hop and punk, you've got blues and soul. I love the double Pink Floyd picks, the back-to-back Throwing Copper and Fashion Nugget, Elephant, Tenacious D, back-to-back Guitar Gods albums and the end of draft home runs in Harvest and L.A. Woman. Easy to see why you were in the finals.

Kingsnation: Kicking things off with The Joshua Tree was surprising and bold to me and really set a nice tone for your next four picks of Exodus, Bad, Southern Accents and The Miseducation of Lauren Hill, all of which I decided to check out for the first time (with the exception of Bad, because even I'd heard that one before) and really encouraged me to look into the albums on your list with which I hadn't had experience. Also, Who's Next was added to my "sure, why not" section before you swiped it and I, of course, enjoy Surfer Girl and Rage.

VF21: I didn't get a chance to tell you when you drafted it, but my parents didn't use lullabies, they used Hotel California. Will always have a fondness for that one. Also have been looking into more Heart, Santana and, you should be pleased, The Doors thanks to you.

UK Kings Fan: I'll echo everyone else's sentiment in calling it a real shame you dropped out. Had never thought to give Amy Winehouse a chance before you picked her so high. Besides that, the albums I knew: Thriller, Hot Fuss, Automatic for the People and A Night at the Opera helped me try out the ones I didn't: Lungs and +

dukeswh: Open with Appetite for Destruction and follow that up immediately with 21. That was cool. Really destroyed my preconditioned stereotypes of "musical fandom typecasting" (essentially meaning "loyalty" to specific genres) that dogged me into not experimenting with the art form when I was young. Also, thanks for introducing me to Surfing with the Alien and I'm really eager to try Attack of the Killer B's.

EndGame: With the exception of Kingsgirl4, you had the most albums I already knew and it's a very fun and aggressive mix of heavy rock and hardcore rap with some less acidic picks offering a nice change of pace. Your island would be a blast. And for the record, when you picked Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, I smiled sheepishly to myself. I would never pick anything Limp Bizkit related now, but in High School, they were legends. Whether it was courage or just audacity, I applaud you for neither shying away from nor apologizing for your tastes.

Padrino: The polar opposite of EndGame, I'd heard of only two of the albums you picked (White Pony and Loveless, the second of which I hated at first) and only four of the artists on your list (one of which, TV on the Radio, I thought was a one-hit wonder and the other, The Cure, I'd heard "of" but never actually listened to.) Yet, your list found its way to the top portion of my final rankings. I mentioned earlier, I learned to enjoy Loveless because A: You explained it to me and B: You introduced me to Treasure, which was bizarrely amazing in its own right and helped me understand Loveless further (and also encouraged me to take Siamese Dream). For that reason, I began to pay more attention to your picks and ended up really liking Return to Cookie Mountain; The Pariah, the Parrot, the Delusion and The Age of Adz. Thanks for introducing me to music I would have never even thought to explore before.

Slim: I found your first five picks stellar and if we were to redo the draft again, I would consider trying to steal any one of them from you. The rest of your draft was profound, pleasantly diverse and introduced me to the inspired imagination of Sex Packets and the beauty of Floetic. Honestly though, the albums in your draft pale in comparison to the depth of your words about them. Connecting the music to your personal experiences and emotions really drove home the importance and impact they had and that which was sorely missing from my own life while I stubbornly ignored the art. I want to throughly thank you for opening up and personalizing your picks with special meaning highlighting that this isn't just entertainment, but an important part of what makes us who we are. Really, thank you Slim.

William Blake: Your first four picks were amazing: Revolver, Exile on Main Street, Ramones and Ziggy Stardust of which I'd only heard Ramones all the way through beforehand, but took a listen to the rest once you drafted them. After that, I hadn't heard of any of your picks, and I honestly haven't had a chance to explore them yet. But based on the immensity of those first four alone, I plan on it. Starting with Raw Power.

Cap: You took OK Computer from me and voted against me in the finals, but I don't hold those against you. I enjoyed the flow of your picks so much it earned the second spot on my rankings and you introduced me to In The Aeroplane Over The Sea and August and Everything After, the latter of which I've listened to a half dozen times now at least.

Gadget: Quite obviously, yours was a huge inspiration to my own list and not surprisingly ended up my number one ranked at the end. Of course, ... Like Clockwork was on my list of wants beforehand and I ended up taking a Black Keys album because I enjoyed Brothers so much. But Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These), Run-D.M.C., Swordfishtrombones, 100 Days, 100 Nights, Last Splash, Homogenic and So Tonight That I Might See I just had a blast listening to all the way through. And of course, Fiona Apple, whom I plan on seeing in October - the first concert I will have ever sought out to attend. Thanks Gadget.

Kingsgirl4: I fully expected you to be waiting when I found out I was heading to the finals. Nevermind has stood the test of time and remained one of my favorite albums even as I've continued to explore as much music as I realistically can at this stage. Beyond that, I'd name particular highlights on your list for me, but I'd end up rattling off the majority of your roster. Core and What's Going On were both on my want list, Abbey Road was an alternate and I especially appreciate your pick of Dirt.

Thank you everyone. I had a lot of fun, was introduced to a ton of great music and most importantly, felt I finally hashed out my own tastes for the first time. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to dust off a place on my desk for Brick's Golden Toilet Trophy and plan a trip to LA next month to see Ms. Apple.