Even though there's 24 minutes left to vote, I figure it's safe to call Pacific Ocean Blue and Either/Or the victors considering they're up by 6 and 8 votes respectively.

It's down to the final eight, with only division winners left. I think it turned out to be a good decision to split albums up into divisions by release year, because people were far more likely to have heard the newer albums, and that decision allowed newer albums to be against newer albums, which allowed more people to participate.

Quarterfinal 1:

Brigitte Fontaine - Comme a La Radio (1971, #1549)
def The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour 5-4
def The Monks - Black Monk Time 6-4
def Nico - Chelsea Girl 6-4
def The Beatles - Help 9-8

vs

Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue (1977, #2278)
def Leonard Cohen - New Skin For The Old Ceremony 7-3
def Neil Young - Zuma 6-3
def Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle 7-5
def Marvin Gaye - Here, My Dear 9-3

Two relatively low AM ranked surprise entries into the quarterfinals. Brigitte Fontaine has slipped by on the narrowest of victory margins, almost singlehandedly kicking the Beatles out of the draw. Pacific Ocean Blue on the other hand hasn't had any real threads to it except from Bruuuce. Both of them probably wouldn't be here if it weren't for the 'Only vote if you've heard both albums' rule. One interesting thing to note is that Comme a la Radio qualified in the 2801-3000 block tied for ninth, with only three votes, in by a margin of two points. Pacific Ocean Blue on the other hand won the 2401-2600 block with six votes, three of them either first or second place. Pacific Ocean Blue has gotten by on fans it already had, whereas Comme a la Radio picked up fans along the way.

Quarterfinal 2:

REM - Life's Rich Pageant (1986, #668)
def Bruce Springsteen - Live 1975-1985 8-3
def The Cars - Heartbeat City 13-1
def Depeche Mode - Violator 10-9
def Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues 11-6

vs

Elliot Smith - Either/Or (1997, #473)
def Aimee Mann - Whatever 12-1
def Sleater-Kinney - Call The Doctor 11-1
def Pavement - Wowee Zowee 14-3
def Belle and Sebastian - Tigermilk 13-5

A matchup between two #1 seeds and high profile groups. The only trouble either one of them has had to this point was REM with Violator in the 3rd round. After XO's near-defeat of Aeroplane, Either/Or has to be considered at least on equal footing as favorite to win the championship. After last round it has sole ownership of the 'Least voted against album' title. But, Life's Rich Pageant might appeal to the exact people who don't like Elliot Smith, so you can't call it a shoo-in.

Voting lasts one week and closes on Tuesday, midnight board time.

Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue
R.E.M - Life's Rich Pageant

(pass)
R.E.M - Life's Rich Pageant

Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue
R.E.M. - Life's Rich Pageant

Brigitte Fontaine - Comme a La Radio
Elliott Smith - Either/Or

Brigitte Fontaine - Comme a La Radio
REM - Life's Rich Pageant

Ok, so 4 people on my black list already !

Either/or for me !

Brigitte Fontaine - Comme a La Radio
Elliott Smith - Either/Or

Pacific Ocean Blue
Lifes Rich Pageant

Brigitte Fontaine - Comme a La Radio
Elliott Smith - Either/Or

Wish I could vote for both Brigitte and Dennis this week, but alas.

Pacific Ocean Blue
Lifes Rich Pageant

Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue (1977, #2278)
Elliot Smith - Either/Or (1997, #473)

Either/Or. Still haven't heard the Fontaine album fully - should probably do that.

Pacific Ocean Blue
Lifes Rich Pageant

Pass
Life's Rich Pageant

I didn't know that there was so much love for Lifes Rich Pageant in this forum.

I listened to Lifes Rich Pageant this morning. It was good (I like it a lot better than Murmur), but my main motive of listening to it was so I could vote for one of my top ten albums instead:

Elliott Smith - Either/Or

My votes:

Comme a la Radio

(No surprise here)

Life's Rich Pageant

Each time I listen to it it grows on me a little. Whereas with Elliot Smith, I respect his talent, but I have trouble connecting to any of his stuff.

Henrik: I thought this was a trap matchup for Either/Or for the same reason Super AE only lost to NMH by three votes. It's the sort of album that appeals to people Elliot Smith doesn't appeal to.

Both votes are very close right now.

Dennis Wilson
Elliott Smith

Pacific Ocean Blue just keeps getting favorable matchups for me. It's not an album I love, although I do like it, but it just hasn't faced anything I like more.

Brigitte Fontaine, Comme a la Radio

Elliott Smith, Either/Or

One more day to vote.

At this point, one of the votes is tied and one has a one vote difference.

Results:

Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue 7 def
Brigitte Fontaine - Comme a la Radio 6

Brigitte Fontaine's miracle run ends in the quarterfinals, and Pacific Ocean Blue is the only album remaining from before 1985.

REM - Life's Rich Pageant 9 TIED WITH
Elliot Smith - Either/Or 9

This being the first tie in a very long time, I'll re-explain the tiebreak rules.

The vote is left open for another week. This is not an entirely new vote, so if you already voted, you don't need to vote again unless you decide to change your vote for some reason (Which has happened.)

If after a week the vote is still tied, my own vote is disqualified, and in this case that means Elliot Smith wins.

I’ve been lurking on the Moderately Acclaimed Albums threads and watching with great interest (BillAdama, this is a great idea, well-executed). However, I’ve refrained from voting—pretty much because I just had not heard enough of the albums to make a meaningful contribution.

However. I have heard six of the eight finalists (and the two I haven’t heard, Fontaine’s and Wilson’s, were in the same pairing), and thought it might be time to weigh in…but felt that maybe I shouldn’t jump on the bandwagon at this late stage.

Then I saw the tied result of Pageant-vs.-Either/Or, and said hell with it.

Here’s a tenth vote for Lifes Rich Pageant.

(Due respect to Elliott Smith…I started investigating him after he was one of the Loophole Round winners in AM Survivor, and I like his work. But neither E/O nor XO is a match for my favorite band’s third- or fourth-best, and most underrated, album. If I had to pick an album to introduce someone to R.E.M., Pageant might be it.)

(Also, in for a penny, in for a pound: I will vote in the other quarterfinals in a minute.)