And then there were two. I know voting in a music tournament was the last thing on folks’ minds this week, so thank you to all who were able to vote. Hopefully everyone is doing alright and has had their power restored.
In the semi-finals the votes were pretty clear. Man on Fire (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes) topped Killer Queen (Queen), 86.9-79.8, and Just Like Heaven (The Cure) steamrolled Australia (Shins), 90.1-71.4.
Separated by 25 years (1987 and 2012), Man on Fire and Just Like Heaven are both great songs that have won wide praise from voters throughout this tournament. May the best song prevail, joining “Stand By Me”, “Somebody to Love (live in Montreal)”, “With a Little Help From My Friends”, and Led Zeppelin as livingthedream.org music tournament champions.
Listen here and vote by commenting below before 8pm (EST) on Thursday.
Living the Dream 
Man on Fire – 6.5 – I loved this song all tournament long, but for some reason this listening lost a little bit for me.
Just Like Heaven – 5
This was a tough match. For the final, my voting process is nostalgia: (The Cure) vs. something new: (Edward Sharpe). This created a bit of a problem for me.
I love the Cure, and this album, but since I’ve heard this song countless times before, the emotion I once felt listening to this song is no longer present. Amazingly after almost 30 years, it’s still a great song, not many people can beat Robert Smith and his ability to craft melody and harmony. it has great lyrics, about love, bliss, and love lost.
The Edward Sharpe song is also great. Again, I love the layers of melody and harmony, they nailed it in this song. I love the spiritual lyrics, I love the simplicity of the song structure.
To make matters more difficult, how can one tangibly measure the emotion one feels listening to a song? What’s the metric? I’ve been wrestling with this problem during the entire tournament.
Maybe I’m just incredibly sleep deprived. In fact I know I am.
Just Like Heaven (The Cure) 8.5
Man On Fire (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros) 7
Tough Matchup…all good in the final 4.
Man on Fire-8.5
Just Like Heaven-7
Also, in the tournaments I’ve participated in, here are some of my favorites (I’ve been adding them to the playlist if I didn’t own them already, and REALLY liked them).
http://grooveshark.com/playlist/From+Music+Tourney/55848815
ace frehley!!!!!
Well this is a tough one as the folks ahead of me have described. I really do like both songs, but I must pick on in order to complete my perfect voting record, so here it is…
Man on Fire – 8.5
Just Like Heaven – 9.25
Man on Fire – 7.5
Just Like Heaven – 10
Well, this final 2 is a nice surprise.
I have endless love for Just Like Heaven – it just makes me happy and likely appeals to luvvies and dancing folk alike.
Man on Fire is a really different type of jam and I like it loads – it goes in waves and the structure of the song is really nicely innovative.
All round edge goes to The Cure though, on account of it just never getting old. Score for Man on Fire is in context – could easily be a 9 against another song.
Man on Fire – 7
Just Like Heaven – 6
I have had a visceral reaction to the whole yelping in the background, acoustic guitar + fiddle, urban troubadour thing going on in pop music, and i can’t even begin to understand it. while i shouldn’t judge bands or lump edward sharpe into all this, i have. regardless, this song has grown on me and its pretty dynamic and the lyrics are cool.
the cure are cool, but like others have said, i’ve just heard this tune too many times to remember what i used to think of it.
Man on Fire – 7.5
Just Like Heaven – 6.0
Neither one is great but I could listen to Man on Fire several times back to back to back and that is good enough for this pick.
Man on Fire – 7.3
I’m having a post-election-high crash and am in a bad mood (possibly also partly attributable to the quantity of cheap champagne that was making the rounds in the dance party that broke in the middle of the street in my neighborhood last night). This song made it a little better tonight but there’s some weird stuff about the structure, like it keeps almost wandering off and never quite gets going.
Just Like Heaven – 9
And this song takes a bad mood and hones it to a fine, self-pitying point that’s just oh so morosely satisfying. It reminds me just how much I should have been a goth in high school rather than flirting with punk.
Though I nominated Man on Fire, it’s probably my third favorite nominee after Australia and Someone Great. It is a beautiful, haunting and touching song. If I have one quibble, it slows down too much about 3/4s of the way in, but otherwise the momentum is managed perfectly. The first time I played it at a party, the whole room broke into spontaneous dancing.
Sometimes these music tournaments allow you to re-discover a song you thought you already knew (or, in the case of Queen, a band I thought I already knew). Just Like Heaven is a perfect example. It starts out like a rocket. I mean, what an awesome first verse. My one grievance is that unlike other classically “great” songs, Just Like Heaven doesn’t really take a leap in intensity.
The scores for both songs are on par with what I’ve given them throughout. They are both great, may the best song win.
Man on Fire: 9.4
Just Like Heaven: 9