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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
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I'm sad that Membership and Save The Planet went so early. But I voted Fireworks this time and it was easy.
Jeff
June 21, 2003 Toronto, ON: SkyDome
July 1, 2004 Toronto, ON: Molson Amphitheatre
November 26, 2004 Toronto, ON: Air Canada Centre
June 24, 2006 Toronto, ON: Historic Fort York
May 10, 2007 Indianapolis, IN: The Vogue
July 14, 2011 Edmonton, AB: Northlands Festival Site
June 30, 2012 Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON: The Commons at Butler's Barracks
January 23, 2013 Edmonton, AB: Rexall Place
July 28, 2016 Edmonton, AB: Rexall Place
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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.
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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.
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Voting Fireworks repeatedly.
Across The Causeway '04 | Big Music Fest '08 | Kingston '09 | Bobcaygeon '11 | Cobourg '13 | Bluesfest '13 | Danforth Music Hall '15 | Kingston '15 | Bluesfest '15 | Toronto I '16 | Toronto II '16 | Toronto III '16 | Hamilton '16 | Ottawa '16 | Kingston '16
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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
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NWOntario Wrote:Voted "Poets" don't @ me
Don't worry, they're distracted by the 1 Escape vote
Across The Causeway '04 | Big Music Fest '08 | Kingston '09 | Bobcaygeon '11 | Cobourg '13 | Bluesfest '13 | Danforth Music Hall '15 | Kingston '15 | Bluesfest '15 | Toronto I '16 | Toronto II '16 | Toronto III '16 | Hamilton '16 | Ottawa '16 | Kingston '16
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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.
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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:
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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.
[youtube]UZLHvVsV6CY[/youtube]
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. 
