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Stay was the clear choice to be eliminated in Round 6 and now we are on to the championship round.
Eliminated Round 1
Wild Mountain Honey
Freak Turbulence
As I Wind Down the Pines
Eliminated Round 2
Train Overnight
The Bastard
Sharks
Eliminated Round 3
The Bear
The Completists
Eliminated Round 4
Tiger the Lion
Putting Down
Eliminated Round 5
Toronto #4
Eliminated Round 6
Stay
Vote for the song you believe to be the weakest on Music @ Work and after 48 hours, we will remove the song with the most votes and declare the remaining song the champion!
The poll will end Wednesday at 11:58am Eastern.
Happy voting!
Shane
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Well, I've said my piece in earlier threads about the excellence of M@W and the solid, but overrated, nature of Lake Fever. So clearly I voted LF off the island.
One further point is that, in addition to the dubious 'coital fury' line, I was never crazy about the 'and cause discontent' part. The objection there is not lyrical but melodic and musical; I find it strains the ear a bit, stretching the song to little benefit. I would have just dropped the couplet
and cause discontent
til they ceasing their investigations.
In other words, just merge the passage 'I wanna break the hearts of everyone' - which is a wonderful section - into 'bring back the day's events.' I think this would have worked and made the song a bit tighter. A minor and probably idiosyncratic point, but it's these details that make LF less than sublime for me. That, and the rather banal chorus (which would have been improved with more imaginative use of backing vocals IMHO).
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I have no idea what to do here.
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This is a tough one, two fairly different songs and I like them both equally for different reasons.
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This is closer than I expected.
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Over the years a couple people have gotten up from the audience onto the stage and sang a song with Gord.
I have always wanted to make a request that they play Lake Fever and let me up there to sing it with them. Then I would go up there and sing background with Paul. I totally live his input for this song.
"We're forced to bed, but we're free to dream"
Dana
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i have to admit i didn't expect Lake Fever to be leading this poll.
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My M@W has fallen behind. Olga Waits will be out campaigning and attending rallies in some swing states today.
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Other than the funky JF beat and Paul's excellent background vocals, I don't see the fuss over Lake Fever at all. I'm surprised it made it onto Yer Favourites and even more surprised people consider it a top two song on this album. But then again I'm no huge fan of the title track either. I thought Tiger was everyone's favourite on this one, and I guess I'm the only one that likes The Completist.
Very revealing poll results this time around. Fun!
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I'm not surprised to see M@W faltering, based on the previous discussion in this round. For some reason, many Hip fans just seem to looooove Lake Fever. Like you, andrew sharpe, I'm not hearing it. And y'know, the fact that Paul's backing vocals are at the limit of his range is a sentimental curiosity, not really a reason to say it's a great song.
I'm also beginning to wonder if folks hereabouts have a bias against catchy singles. First 'Poets' - possibly the Hip's catchiest, grooviest song - and now 'M@W' defeated by decidedly less toe-tapping numbers. I suspect that some people confuse memorable hooks and catchiness with vacuity.
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I know you don't agree with this KWT but I think most people's problem with MAW is the same as mine, the "feel like a jerk, my music at work, my music at work" line just kind of bums me out and makes it hard for me to love the song. I don't care for the drawn out syllabals at the end of some verses either, ie, "remaaaaiiiiin". It feels like "filler", like he felt a matching cadence was too hackneyed, so he just jammed his pre-written lyrics into the rhythm as is.
I've said this before but this album and CMG were Gord's first attempt at a more "arty/alternative" presentation. I have less of a problem with it on the solo albums, but part of the appeal of the hip is the blue-collar nature of the music...it's porridge, not salmon tartare...it sticks to your guts, your heart, your balls. Goes with beer and midnight, not scarves and tongue clucking. When Gord starts arting it up it just feels like he's distancing himself from the core...
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On M@W, the song: there is nothing wrong with simplicity. "Ya feel like a jerk" is obviously no masterpiece, but it serves its purpose as a blunt statement of the reality being described. I also don't understand why people dwell on that minor line while blithely overlooking the outright badness of "coital fury" or "you were a great you." (Ugh, even writing that last one makes me wince). As for "remaaaain," hey, Gord has always had those stretched out syllables, and they generally align nicely with his pugilistic singing style. The idea that he ought to fill those bars with all sorts of unnecessary lyrics seems silly to me. Indeed, I really disagree with this idea that unless a lyric crams together billions of syllables and complicated words, it's no good. In fact, one of the trap Gord falls into - especially on this album, but also elsewhere - is precisely being too precocious, like he's writing using a thesaurus.
