Welcome to Week 16! This week features the last 8 songs to have won their first-round matchups.

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 16 is 11:59 PM, February 5th AM time.

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

Match W1.13:

Utopia - "The Ikon" (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)
The Stones Roses - "Elephant Stone"

Match W1.14:

Deerhoof - "Milk Man"
Nirvana - "Rainbow Chaser"

Match W1.15:

Tori Amos - "Flying Dutchman"
Visage - "Fade to Grey"

Match W1.16:

Curtis Mayfield - "Right on for the Darkness"
Van Halen - "And the Cradle Will Rock"

Oh, Utopia, Utopia. Your song shall never die. Therefore, your amazing, mind boggling, four-parter gets the vote.

Nirvana (UK) takes this one. The singer for Deerhunter just didn't do it for me.

Tori Amos wins the next one. My nostalgia filter protects this song.

Oh, boy. Mayfield wins. this is my pick of the week, I only didn't vote for it Round 1 because it was up against a song in my nostalgia bank. It is still in my top three favorite songs left, though.

Match W1.13:
Utopia - "The Ikon" (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)
The Stones Roses - "Elephant Stone"

The Ikon is a tour-de-force but part 4 is no good; Elephant Stone is a strong contender to win this shindig.

Match W1.14:
Deerhoof - "Milk Man"
Nirvana - "Rainbow Chaser"

I'm starting to like some parts of "Milk Man" more and more, but "Rainbow Chaser" is still better.

Match W1.15:
Tori Amos - "Flying Dutchman"
Visage - "Fade to Grey"

The pulsation on "Flying Dutchman" makes the win go to Visage.

Match W1.16:
Curtis Mayfield - "Right on for the Darkness"
Van Halen - "And the Cradle Will Rock"

Blowout.

Whoops, I bolded the wrong song in the last match and can't edit anymore. Obviously that should be a blowout for Curtis.

Deerhoof's "Milk Man" over Nirvana's "Rainbow Chaser"

Comment: While I'm not big fan of either song, I think I like Nirvana's grunge period a lot more than their early psychedelic stuff. Kurt just sounds abysmal on that track.

Match W1.13:

Utopia - "The Ikon" (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)
The Stone Roses - "Elephant Stone"

Well, the Utopia track is a little much, but I'll go with its Tappy ambition over the relatively boring Roses track.

WINNER: Utopia


Match W1.14:

Deerhoof - "Milk Man"
Nirvana - "Rainbow Chaser"

I love that ol' school psych Nirvana, but I love prime Deerhoof more. And that voice is sort of the point.

WINNER: Deerhoof


Match W1.15:

Tori Amos - "Flying Dutchman"
Visage - "Fade to Grey"

I'm a sucka for early Tori, and especially obscure early Tori. But "Fadw to Grey" is a great song.

WINNER: Visage


Match W1.16:

Curtis Mayfield - "Right on for the Darkness"
Van Halen - "And the Cradle Will Rock"

Poor Diamond Dave, fun as he is, ran into a buzzsaw here. "Right on for the Darkness" is a masterpiece.

WINNER: Curtis

Match W1.13:

Utopia - "The Ikon" (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)wins over
The Stones Roses - "Elephant Stone"

The Ikon is a magnus opus from Todd, and I am very grateful that many of you have taken the time to listen to enough of it to make a judgment.

Elephant Stone is fairly good song that improves on each listen so far. I just increased my enjoyment rating of the song from 11.3 to 11. Thanks to Midaso for nominating this song.

Match W1.14:

Deerhoof - "Milk Man" wins over
Nirvana - "Rainbow Chaser"
Milk Man has such extreme contrasts with the high-pitched and feminine vocals against the very masculine and heavy intro. Good stuff.
Rainbow Chaser has not aged particularly well in my view, but did deserve to make it this far.

Match W1.15:

Tori Amos - "Flying Dutchman"wins over
Visage - "Fade to Grey"
Neither of these songs should win in the next round. But, I am typically not a big fan of spoken word in song as is fairly dominant in Fade to Grey.

Match W1.16:

Curtis Mayfield - "Right on for the Darkness" wins over
Van Halen - "And the Cradle Will Rock"
The Van Halen effort seems uninspired, while Right on for the Darkness may be the best song in the contest.

Match W1.13 winner: Utopia, "The Icon"
I remain not a fan of the Stone Roses.

Match W1.14 winner: Deerhoof, "Milk Man"
Not a fan of the Nirvana track.

Match W1.15 Winner: Tori Amos, "Flying Dutchman"
Liked Tori's track a little more, even though I'm not usually a fan of hers.

Match W.16 Winner: Curtis Mayfield, "Right on for the Darkness"
Blow-out.

Match W1.13:

Utopia - "The Ikon": I liked this a lot more than I thought I would when I first heard it. I still surprisingly enjoy it for the most part, but I do feel that it lacks some structure and a few stretches leave me cold.
The Stones Roses - "Elephant Stone": Fun and a little loopy, I enjoy this quite a bit! I need to dig out their debut again...

Match W1.14:

Deerhoof - "Milk Man": This barely loses the closest match of the week, and the closest match in recent memory. I really like both of these tracks, but don't flat out love either of them. I really enjoy the contrast between the high-pitched vocals and the instrumental rumble here.
Nirvana - "Rainbow Chaser": A beautiful little slice of psychedelia with a great, repeated building chorus of "Raaaaaaaaaaaaaainbow Chaser!". What earns it the narrowest of victories here are the phased effects that come through the guitars.

Match W1.15:

Tori Amos - "Flying Dutchman": A fine effort from Tori, an artist whose work I'm more familiar with than I'd like to be on the whole. I say this because as talented as I acknowledge that she is, something about her drives me batshit crazy. Still, this is one of her best songs.
Visage - "Fade to Grey": It's new romantic synth pop. Of course it gets my vote!

Match W1.16:

Curtis Mayfield - "Right on for the Darkness": A deserving favorite to win this whole competition. Thrilling to the core.
Van Halen - "And the Cradle Will Rock": When it comes to Van Halen, I'm pretty much from the unconventional school of "Give me 'Poundcake' or give me death".

The deadline has passed, but with only 6 votes, I'm not comfortable closing this week yet. Let's wait until we get at least 10 votes.

Stone Roses (Nice song, not their best, but better than the other song)

Nirvana (I will admit I didn't know it was a different band until I heard the song.)

Tori Amos (One of the strongest songs in the competition.)

Van Halen (I can't let my pick get swept.)

My apologies for letting this get by me this week.

Match W1.13:
Utopia - "The Ikon" (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4) WINNER
The Stones Roses - "Elephant Stone"
Such different songs, both great in their own way; I'm going with the one I don't know inside-out.

Match W1.14:
Deerhoof - "Milk Man" WINNER
Nirvana - "Rainbow Chaser"
Love Deerhoof's quirkiness. Good Nirvana track as well, just not enough.

Match W1.15:
Tori Amos - "Flying Dutchman"
Visage - "Fade to Grey"
pass on this one- too close to call

Match W1.16:
Curtis Mayfield - "Right on for the Darkness" WINNER
Van Halen - "And the Cradle Will Rock"
Much respect to the VH pick, Listyguy- great song. Not great enough.

Thanks!

Match W1.13:
While respecting both songs in this bracket, the long Todd Rundgren track has its flaws and Elephant Stone on the other hand doesn't really stand out. Besides, the latter is on the U.S. edition of the VERY acclaimed Stone Roses debut, so I don't think it really belongs in this game. Which means I go along with The Ikon.
Todd Rundgren wins.

Match W1.14:
Nah, still can't get past that annoying vocal by the Japanese Deerhoof chick. Rainbow Chaser suits me more.
Nirvana wins.

Match W1.15:
This meandering Tori Amos effort is an easy prey for synthpop classic Fade To Grey.
Visage wins.

Match W1.16:
Another easy win. Not too strong a competition here for Curtis Mayfield.
Right On For The Darkness wins.

Still haven't heard The Ikon, but the other three are easy:

Nirvana
Visage
Curtis Mayfield

These are three of the best songs we have left in this game, and "Right on for the Darkness" seems destined for victory.

I still need a few more votes!

I don't have time in the next two hours before the vote closes. If there's an extension of a few hours or if there's a tie, I'll vote.

W1.13
Winner: The Stones Roses - "Elephant Stone"
Oh dear. I listened to a few seconds here and there of "The Ikon" and I would never be able to listen to 30 minutes of this. If that makes my vote ineligible, well that's the way it's gotta be.

W1.14
Winner: Deerhoof - "Milk Man"
Rainbow Chaser might be the better song, but Milk Man made me happier. Very close race.

W1.15
Winner: Visage - "Fade to Grey"
I like Tori Amos and I really like piano pop, but "Fade to Grey" is the greatest single ever not on AM.

W1.16
Winner: Curtis Mayfield - "Right on for the Darkness"
Everyone says this is the best song of the tournament, so we can stop here and move on to the nominations for the next unacclaimed game.

Voting is now over.

Here are the results!

Match W.1.13:

Utopia - "The Ikon": 6
The Stones Roses - "Elephant Stone": 4

Match W.1.14:

Deerhoof - "Milk Man": 5
Nirvana - "Rainbow Chaser": 6

Match W.1.15:

Tori Amos - "Flying Dutchman": 4
Visage - "Fade to Grey": 6

Match W.1.16:

Curtis Mayfield - "Right on for the Darkness": 10
Van Halen - "And the Cradle Will Rock": 1