Welcome to Week 21! We now go into bracket W2, featuring songs that won both of their first 2 matches. The winners will move on to bracket W3, while the losers move on to bracket L4.

Please listen to the songs before making your choice, and provide comments (however brief) to form the basis of your pick.

The deadline for Week 21 is 11:59 PM, April 3rd AM time.

You can read the descriptions of why these songs were nominated in the rules thread.

Match W2.1:

Lal Waterson & Oliver Knight- "Flight of the Pelican"
Luke Kelly- "Scorn Not His Simplicity"

Match W2.2:

Brazilian Girls- "Homme"
Georges Brassens- "La Marine"

Match W2.3:

The Who- "Eminence Front"
The Verlaines- "Death and the Maiden"

Match W2.4:

Nick Nicely- "Hilly Fields"
Stereolab- "French Disko"

Match W2.1:
Lal Waterson & Oliver Knight- "Flight of the Pelican"
Luke Kelly- "Scorn Not His Simplicity"

Well that just sucks the bigtime. Possibly my two favorite discoveries of the tournament up against eachother. Kelly wins, but Waterson and Knight really deserve to go far too.

Match W2.2:
Brazilian Girls- "Homme"
Georges Brassens- "La Marine"

Easy win for Brassens, fantastic song.

Match W2.3:
The Who- "Eminence Front"
The Verlaines- "Death and the Maiden"

The going gets tough this week. Eminence Front is my own song so obviously I'm going for that, but The Verlaines rule too.

Match W2.4:
Nick Nicely- "Hilly Fields"
Stereolab- "French Disko"

Not nearly as good as the other 3 brackets, but Nicely is very good.

Match W2.1:
Lal Waterson & Oliver Knight- "Flight of the Pelican"
Luke Kelly- "Scorn Not His Simplicity" WINNER
Kelly gives a fantastic performance on this one; not quite as fond of "Pelican"

Match W2.2:
Brazilian Girls- "Homme"
Georges Brassens- "La Marine" WINNER
"La Marine" has really grown on me since the 50's/60's poll. Brazilian Girls annoy me (the band, not Gizelle).

Match W2.3:
The Who- "Eminence Front"
The Verlaines- "Death and the Maiden" WINNER
Classic song from one of my favorite bands.

Match W2.4:
Nick Nicely- "Hilly Fields" WINNER
Stereolab- "French Disko"
Nick Nicely took me by surprise. Love the Stereolab song too but there's only room for one and here she comes here she comes...

Thanks!

Luke Kelly has the better, more memorable piece here.

"Homme" is Like Luke Kelly in this matchup, and pretty emotional, too if you can translate the French.

"Death and the Maiden" is one of the top three songs left for me.

Oh, nick. You have one of the crispest, most underrated songs on here.

Match W2.1:

Lal Waterson & Oliver Knight- "Flight of the Pelican"
Luke Kelly- "Scorn Not His Simplicity"

Both of these songs are good, but neither hits me as great. I'm going with "Pelican" 'cause it's more interesting at the moment (plus I still prefer Sinead's version of "Scorn Not...").

WINNER: Lal & Oliver


Match W2.2:

Brazilian Girls- "Homme"
Georges Brassens- "La Marine"

Not my favorite Brassens song, but it coasts here. I really hope other matches aren't between favorites of mine.

WINNER: Georges Brassens


Match W2.3:

The Who- "Eminence Front"
The Verlaines- "Death and the Maiden"

I'm a huge Who fan, but not so much of the '80s stuff ("You Better You Bet" is the exception). So the excellent "Death and the Maiden" wins.

WINNER: The Verlaines


Match W2.4:

Nick Nicely- "Hilly Fields"
Stereolab- "French Disko"

"Hilly Fields" is nice retro-psych, but is pummeled by the unimpeachable "French Disko". I'm hoping the Lab picks up some more votes, 'cause they really stand out in the poll.

WINNER (and best of the week): Stereolab

Match W2.1 Winner: Lal Waterson & Oliver Knight, "Flight of the Pelican"

"Flight of the Pelican" is, to my ears, lovelier and more melodically moving.

Match W2.2 Winner: Brazilian Girls, "Homme"

"Homme" has lots of groove. The groovy track wins out here.

Match W2.3 Winner: The Verlaines, "Death and the Maiden"

"Eminence Front" is still one of the best post Who's Next singles, but the Verlaines track is one of my favorite finds of the tourney.

Match W2.4 Winner: Stereolab, "French Disko"

I do like "Hilly Fields" quite a bit. As I've said before, it is impressively modern sounding. But each week "Hilly Fields" gets pitted against an excellent song that I much prefer. And keeps beating them. Hopefully that won't happen to this stellar Stereolab track

Match W2.1:
Choosing between these two folksongs, Flight Of The Pelican is the one that really stands out.
Lal Waterson & Oliver Knight win.

Match W2.2:
Brazilian Girls is one of the pleasant discoveries in this game for me and beats La Marine here.
Brazilian Girls win.

Match W3.2:
Eminence Front is a solid late-period Who effort and sounds ten times more professional than Death And The Maiden. But at the same time it´s not half as much fun as the jangling, rattling guitars provided by The Verlaines.
Death And The Maiden wins.

Match W4.2:
Damn. Hilly Fields, which is my pick, against one of my other favorites still left in the tournament. Of course I vote for my own nomination (and apart from that I think it´s one of the best songs of the 80s), but French Disko is a tough opponent.
Nick Nicely wins.

Match W2.1:
WINNER - Lal Waterson & Oliver Knight- "Flight of the Pelican"
Luke Kelly- "Scorn Not His Simplicity"
How the Kelly's song could win his match ? The mystery is over.

Match W2.2:
Brazilian Girls- "Homme"
WINNER - Georges Brassens- "La Marine"
Two songs I really like a lot. This song of Brassens his one of his best, it deserve to go far.

Match W2.3:
The Who- "Eminence Front"
WINNER The Verlaines- "Death and the Maiden"
The who song boring me.

Match W2.4:
WINNER - Nick Nicely- "Hilly Fields"
Stereolab- "French Disko"[/quote]
I don't like strereolab...it's a vote by default.

"Flight of the Pelican" over "Scorn Not His Simplicity"

Almost a vote by default; I dislike "Scorn Not His Simplicity" and have been voting against it every round so far.

"Homme" over "La Marine"

Nice foreign-language matchup here. "Homme" is great stuff, just an intoxicating atmosphere.

"Eminence Front" over "Death and the Maiden"

I'm not a huge fan of either of these, but I feel as though the Who deserve it more, particularly for the intro.

"French Disko" over "Hilly Fields"

These are far and away the two best songs this week; it's a shame they're going up against each other. These are actually the only two songs I've bought specifically after discovering them in this tournament, and both have been on high rotation in recent weeks. I have to go with Stereolab by a nose; "French Disko" is just a great representation of their sound. But "Hilly Fields" is a true gem that has grown on me considerably. I wouldn't mind it if Nick Nicely pulls this one out.

There is a tie this week, and I'll break it.
Match W2.1:

Lal Waterson & Oliver Knight- "Flight of the Pelican": Haunting and gorgeous song that compelled me to buy it.
Luke Kelly- "Scorn Not His Simplicity": Haunting song that did not compel me to buy it.

Match W2.2:

Brazilian Girls- "Homme": Not great, but still quite good. Easy win here.
Georges Brassens- "La Marine": To be honest, I'm with Romain on this one. I'm not sure how it's gotten to this point.

Match W2.3:

The Who- "Eminence Front": I'm no Who fan, so it's easy for me to not vote for this, even if it's more tolerable than all other Who songs I've heard.
The Verlaines- "Death and the Maiden": Thrilling 80s alt scores a big win!

Match W2.4:

Nick Nicely- "Hilly Fields": I'm pretty sure that this is my favorite discovery of the tournament.
Stereolab- "French Disko": I'm pretty sure this is one of my top 5 discoveries of the tournament. It would have won all the other matches this week.

Winners:

Match W2.1:

Lal Waterson & Oliver Knight- "Flight of the Pelican": 6
Luke Kelly- "Scorn Not His Simplicity": 3

Match W2.2:

Brazilian Girls- "Homme": 5
Georges Brassens- "La Marine": 4

Match W2.3:

The Who- "Eminence Front": 2
The Verlaines- "Death and the Maiden": 7

Match W2.4:

Nick Nicely- "Hilly Fields": 6
Stereolab- "French Disko": 3