The Weakest Link - Phantom Power - Round 2 - Printable Version
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The Weakest Link - Phantom Power - Round 2 - gsmacleod - 11-25-2017
With the end of the first round we say goodbye to The Rules, Membership and Save the Planet.
Eliminated Round 1
The Rules
Membership
Save the Planet
Vote for the song you believe to be the weakest on Phantom Power and after 48 hours, we will remove the three songs that have the most votes. As before, a song must have at least 10% of the vote in order to be removed otherwise it will carry forward into the following round.
The poll will end Monday at 11:18am Eastern.
Happy voting!
Shane
Re: The Weakest Link - Phantom Power - Round 2 - Killer Whale Tank - 11-25-2017
I'm surprised "Membership" went out so early. While it's not a great song by any means, it's close enough to the Hip's core formula - minor/major progression, Downie in "ominous" mode, dramatic Canadiana - I thought it would endure into the middle rounds. I always felt that that song was let down by Johnny Fay's drumming. He gives it an incredibly unimaginative, plodding 4/4 treatment. He's not listening, he's asleep at the switch. It really needed something to lift it, a more tumultuous drumming pattern to capture the rhythm of the fast-moving, turbulent waters the lyric evokes. That the track never achieves lift-off is primarily his fault IMHO.
Otherwise, the atrocious "Save the Planet" and the nice but forgettable "The Rules" are appropriate and predictable exiles.
I mistakenly voted "Chagrin Falls" on the last poll
and get to do it again, this time intentionally. Not that it's a bad song, but it's merely average. It seems like it should have been something, but in the end I think the lyrical idea just isn't strong enough to carry it, and it manages to be less than the sum of its parts. I suspect that this tune was a victim of the Hip now working mainly in studio rather than road-testing their material before recording it; had they trotted this one out on the road well in advance, they might have been able to figure out how to elevate it into something great. As it is, it's an inoffensive few minutes that I seldom feel any particular need to revisit...much as the Hip probably felt about the town itself.
Re: The Weakest Link - Phantom Power - Round 2 - fingernailsonhull - 11-25-2017
I'm sad that Membership and Save The Planet went so early. But I voted Fireworks this time and it was easy.
Re: The Weakest Link - Phantom Power - Round 2 - potsie - 11-25-2017
Membership always felt sludgy to me. To keep with the winter theme, the pace of Membership is akin to the rate of speed you can achieve trying to run in 3 feet of snow. I agree that it's probably fair to put that on Johnny's shoulders. However, Membership was in no way deserving of a first round exit. It's as if short attention spans didn't allow voters to read beyond the first six choices. They only had to go one further to find Fireworks, a much more deserving choice.
Re: The Weakest Link - Phantom Power - Round 2 - Killer Whale Tank - 11-25-2017
See, I don't get the animus towards 'Fireworks.' This has to be a case of a song that gets unfairly blamed for being overrated. But saying that a song is overplayed or overrated is not the same thing as saying it sucks. Heck, I feel that 'Gift Shop' is seriously overrated and overplayed, but didn't vote against it until well into the later rounds of the TATH poll. I think that's the fair way to proceed.
On the song itself: it's got a fantastic opening verse and wonderfully catchy guitars. The chorus fails to live up to the promise thus established, being serviceable rather than exciting. The other two verses build coherently on what went before but fail to recapture the excitement of the first verse. Basically, the craft is good but somewhat workmanlike following that first inspired verse. But nothing about it is in any way bad or noxious. It's a good song with a great opener.
Re: The Weakest Link - Phantom Power - Round 2 - potsie - 11-25-2017
Killer Whale Tank Wrote:See, I don't get the animus towards 'Fireworks.' This has to be a case of a song that gets unfairly blamed for being overrated. But saying that a song is overplayed or overrated is not the same thing as saying it sucks. Heck, I feel that 'Gift Shop' is seriously overrated and overplayed, but didn't vote against it until well into the later rounds of the TATH poll. I think that's the fair way to proceed.
On the song itself: it's got a fantastic opening verse and wonderfully catchy guitars. The chorus fails to live up to the promise thus established, being serviceable rather than exciting. The other two verses build coherently on what went before but fail to recapture the excitement of the first verse. Basically, the craft is good but somewhat workmanlike following that first inspired verse. But nothing about it is in any way bad or noxious. It's a good song with a great opener.
It's the "catchy guitars" that I don't like. There are two moments in recorded Hip output that make me cringe, the opening chords of "Fireworks" and the chorus of "Fly". I enjoy both "The Rules" and "Chagrin Falls" more, the two songs that would have been next on my hit list.
Re: The Weakest Link - Phantom Power - Round 2 - Chris Tanz - 11-25-2017
Killer Whale Tank Wrote:See, I don't get the animus towards 'Fireworks.' This has to be a case of a song that gets unfairly blamed for being overrated. But saying that a song is overplayed or overrated is not the same thing as saying it sucks. Heck, I feel that 'Gift Shop' is seriously overrated and overplayed, but didn't vote against it until well into the later rounds of the TATH poll. I think that's the fair way to proceed.
On the song itself: it's got a fantastic opening verse and wonderfully catchy guitars. The chorus fails to live up to the promise thus established, being serviceable rather than exciting. The other two verses build coherently on what went before but fail to recapture the excitement of the first verse. Basically, the craft is good but somewhat workmanlike following that first inspired verse. But nothing about it is in any way bad or noxious. It's a good song with a great opener.
Agree completely ... I don't care to listen to it very much, but think it outranks The Rules, Chagrin Falls, Save The Planet in this kind of exercise. Gonna be an easy vote after those guys are gone though.
Membership, I put in the same camp as Fireworks as an album track, but a muscular live Membership beats out a concert-filler like Fireworks any day.
Ct
Re: The Weakest Link - Phantom Power - Round 2 - carebread - 11-25-2017
Voting Fireworks repeatedly.
Re: The Weakest Link - Phantom Power - Round 2 - direwolf74 - 11-26-2017
carebread Wrote:Voting Fireworks repeatedly.
Yup, me too.
Re: The Weakest Link - Phantom Power - Round 2 - gsmacleod - 11-26-2017
Fireworks for me this round; unlike others I enjoy the song but it's good and not as good as the good songs remaining and well behind the great ones.
Shane
Re: The Weakest Link - Phantom Power - Round 2 - NWOntario - 11-26-2017
Voted "Poets" don't @ me
Re: The Weakest Link - Phantom Power - Round 2 - carebread - 11-26-2017
NWOntario Wrote:Voted "Poets" don't @ me
Don't worry, they're distracted by the 1 Escape vote
Re: The Weakest Link - Phantom Power - Round 2 - nestene1 - 11-26-2017
It’s all about personal preference, but I have genuinely never got the fuss about Escape Is At Hand. I give Thompson Girl and Save The Planet house-room over it any time.
Re: The Weakest Link - Phantom Power - Round 2 - Killer Whale Tank - 11-26-2017
Mildly disappointed by the lack of love for "Thompson Girl," which - while not a major song - is one of the more charming recordings in their catalogue, I think. Certainly I'd rather listen to it than "Vapour Trails," to which it's losing. Oh well.
As for voting against "Poets:" there's one in every crowd... :twisted:
Re: The Weakest Link - Phantom Power - Round 2 - potsie - 11-26-2017
Vapour Trails would have been a top three album song and a likely single if it was held back for M@W. It is a victim of the strength of the album that it finds itself on... it simply gets lost and forgotten in all the awesomeness of PP. The opening of the song is a showcase for Sinclair's bass, and in fact the whole thing rides along a great bass groove. I love the musical interlude after "sprinklers hose". I also love Gord's frantic plea to "throw away the rudder" at the end. It should have been a mainstay in the Hip's setlist for many years.
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