Friday, March 28, 2025

2025 Album Showdown Results :Tier 1, Week 4


Colin Stetson – The Love it Took to Leave You VS. Devin Townsend – Powernerd

Devin Townsend – Powernerd

Inarguably, it is folly to downplay Colin Stetson’s vision.  His maximal-minimalist approach to saxophone technique, composition, and performance is otherworldly and hauntingly effective – but it does have its limits.  Throughout The Love It Took to Leave You, Stetson explores those limits, sometimes at length, and this makes the album seem a bit overlong.  Powernerd, in contrast, feels compact, direct, and memorable.  Its situations like these that make me wonder what a collaboration between these two would produce.

This was in contrast to the Viewer' Choice vote, which went for Colin Stetson. Completely justifiable.  In all others for this week, we are in agreement.

 

Nala Sinephro – Space 1.8 VS. Field Music – Limits of Language

Field Music – Limits of Language

Another really tough call, as Space 1.8 is far more engaging than I initially gave it credit for.  Field Music kinda has home court advantage here, however, as I’ve been following them for years and am looking for a reason to get them back into my ears more regularly.

 

Tyler, the Creator – Chromakopia VS. Timecop1983 – Night Drive

Timecop1983 – Night Drive

As I’ve said elsewhere, I think that Tyler, the Creator is, as he states, creative.  His delivery style, however, doesn’t land too well with me.  Drive’s archetypical synthwave approach gets my vote here, despite being a bit more languid than I had expected.

 

Clutch – Blast Tyrant VS. Gazpacho – Bravo

Gazpacho – Bravo

This was actually a minor upset.  My initial impression of this Gazpacho album fell a little flat, while I’ve been on board with Clutch’s gutbucket rock from the get-go.  But Bravo clicked for me this week, and I’ve been wanting to delve into it a bit deeper.  Clutch will get the pause for now.

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