Best Song of the 2000s: HEYYYYYYYYYYYY YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

ryanrosenberg · Post by **ryanrosenberg** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 12:54 am

Love Story – Taylor Swift

Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden
Surprisingly really fun, my favorite song here I hadn't heard before.

Helicopter – Bloc Party

Fidelity – Regina Spektor

American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West

Machine Gun – Portishead

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp

Off To See The Lizard · Tue Dec 19, 2017 12:58 am

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West

Such vastly different songs! It felt wrong to say no to American Boy but Mykonos is so beautiful.

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair

Never heard Blind before, surprised to see Anohni featured.

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx

Monstruos de Bolsillo · Tue Dec 19, 2017 12:59 am

I made a Spotify playlist with all of the songs for Round 0 Part 2. Link is here. https://open.spotify.com/user/rickyvanw ... yiSpyK6OWL

kady · Post by **kady** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 1:00 am

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx

The Real Master of Flémalle · Tue Dec 19, 2017 1:08 am

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West

Don't like either of these, abstain

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx

MiltonPlayer47 · Post by **MiltonPlayer47** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 1:18 am

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift
Possibly the only Taylor Swift song that I like.

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden
I agree that this seems like a strange choice of song for Modest Mouse, but it was inevitable that I would be casting a vote for them.

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor
Probably my two favorite songs in this group! Tough choice here.

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead
I've never been able to get into either band, but that first song is all right.

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair
I was not familiar with Elbow but that is a catchy tune!

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx[/quote]

1.82 · Post by **1.82** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 1:21 am

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift

It'd be neat to talk about how Taylor Swift and Lily Allen have switched places since 2009 in terms of likability, but unfortunately Lily Allen hasn't really become more likable. "Love Story" is a good song but it'll win regardless of my vote, and "The Fear" is a) great, and b) exactly aligned with my musical interests. Greg Kurstin, who produced this, was credited on the two best albums of the decade so far (the last two Tegan and Sara albums) and I'm excited that he's working with Chvrches for their next album.

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden

The best song with Modest Mouse in it is "Step" by Vampire Weekend, but this one is all right. I appreciate the weirdness of the Dizzee Rascal song but I can't imagine ever actually wanting to listen to it of my own accord.

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party

Bloc Party wins by default, because "Move Your Feet" does nothing for me.

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor

Regina Spektor is generally up my alley, but this one is too cutesy to beat out an R&B classic.

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West

"American Boy" was inescapable during my first semester of high school and yet I don't have a single bad thing to say about it.

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead

Portishead is good! Animal Collective isn't really my thing.

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair

eh

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx

I like Slow Jamz, but if we're being honest there's a type of song I'm just not willing to vote against.

TaylorH · Post by **TaylorH** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 1:55 am

The Fear
Dashboard-- I forgot how good this song is. Probably my favorite late period MM song.
Helicopter
Fidelity-- There are certainly better songs by Regina but she still really shines on this one.
American Boy-- Very narrowly. I'd probably take White Winter Hymnal or a few other FF songs over American Boy though.
Fireworks-- I would pick this over nearly anything in the bracket, one of my favorite songs ever. Shame it had to go against another song I really liked!
Blind
Slow Jamz-- Woah I didn't realize this was a Twista song first, only knew it as a Kanye song on College Dropout.

Auroni · Post by **Auroni** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 2:45 am

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx -- both of these songs are phenomenal.

peyrin · Post by **peyrin** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 3:27 am

lol my last minute vote managed to knock out Foo Fighters. Solid.

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift
Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden
Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party
Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor
Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West
Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead
Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair
Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx

Mykonos vs American Boy is criminally hard smh. I would have picked a lot of Fleet Foxes songs over Estelle but Mykonos sadly isn't one of them. Fortunately the rest of the matches were all pretty easy.

Irreligion in Bangladesh · Tue Dec 19, 2017 3:37 am

The Fear
Dashboard
Move Your Feet
Fidelity - closest call of the set.
Mykonos
Fireworks
Grounds for Divorce
Slow Jamz

Mahavishnu · Post by **Mahavishnu** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 6:24 am

All of these except Love Story and American Boy are first listens for me.

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift

I find Love Story to be more iconic, though I attribute this to my sister's music tastes, from which I gained second-hand exposure to Taylor Swift. Even so, I've never been a huge fan of Taylor's romance-inspired songs , and I prefer the melancholic sarcasm of The Fear in regards to lyrical depth.

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden

These songs are both obnoxious; I'm sure this is indicative about Brock rather than the song individually, but I can't stand the singer consistently producing an unintelligible mess of syllables. I didn't like it much to begin with, so being unable to understand the words seals that deal. Even so, it wasn't an easy choice; Bonkers is also quite terrible, primarily due to the "bouncing ball" sample and the rather primitive chorus. I only chose it because it (like most songs with pulsing 4/4 bass) has potential to make listeners move.

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party

Hard choice. I'm into the Kim Possible-esque Junior Senior funk, and would in many situations give it the pick, but here, Helicopter produces some good tension, and it's just angsty enough where I can still enjoy it without mocking it.

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor

Fidelity is just a very cute song, and I prefer it to its competitor, which has little to no re-listen value for me.

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West

While Mykonos has a nice instrumental behind it, I just don't get much feeling out of listening to it. On the other hand, Estelle has a fantastic voice, and this song is just more sentimental for me, if not purely due to exposure. Pretty easy decision.

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead

Perhaps I'm just not appreciating whatever weird stylistic choices were made in the creation of Fireworks, but it just isn't a song I can see myself purposefully seeking out. Machine Gun has beautiful simplicity however, and I believe that the pure-voice to dirty-beat contrast actually works here. While it remains a bit jarring, it does develop (although in some Terminator-like fashion), and gets my vote.

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair

Another difficult one. I actually enjoyed Grounds for Divorce, unlike most songs of that general ilk, but Blind has a really solid groove behind it (sucker for hand percussion). Even still, the singer of Hercules and Love Affair's voice kinda spoils the rest of the funk for me, even if he is supremely talented. Elbow it is

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx

Slow Jamz is actually fantastic, and I didn't enjoy Strict Machine at all.

Red Panda Cub · Post by **Red Panda Cub** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 9:49 am

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx

All of these, except for Allen v. Swift, and supporting "Bonkers" were quite painful choices.

women, fire and dangerous things · Tue Dec 19, 2017 11:15 am

The Fear

Dashboard

Helicopter

Fidelity

Mykonos

Fireworks

Blind

Strict Machine

Votre Kickstarter Est Nul · Tue Dec 19, 2017 12:39 pm

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West

This was easy. American Boy has aged, to me, better than almost any very popular song from the first ~12 years of my life and one of the few I enjoy listening to. Its great.

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx

A Dim-Witted Saboteur · Tue Dec 19, 2017 12:44 pm

Love Story – Taylor Swift

Dashboard – Modest Mouse

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige

American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West

Fireworks – Animal Collective

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow

Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx

AKKOLADE · Post by **AKKOLADE** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 1:11 pm

Monstruos de Bolsillo wrote:I made a Spotify playlist with all of the songs for Round 0 Part 2. Link is here. https://open.spotify.com/user/rickyvanw ... yiSpyK6OWL

Thank you!

Victor Prieto · Post by **Victor Prieto** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 1:36 pm

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx

Nabonidus · Post by **Nabonidus** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 2:24 pm

Love Story
Bonkers
dislike both
Family Affair
Mykonos
dislike both
Blind
dislike both

Deepika Goes From Ranbir To Ranveer · Tue Dec 19, 2017 2:47 pm

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx

p-vs-vp · Post by **p-vs-vp** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 2:54 pm

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx

rylltraka · Post by **rylltraka** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 6:40 pm

I just want to start off by saying two things: 1) quizbowl has horrible taste (my two favorite songs in the first round both lost to mediocrities), and 2) here, in the second runoff, I have not, to my knowledge, heard of a single one of these tracks. We're flying blind, here, people.

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift

Not the Lily Allen song I would have picked - it's not bad, kind of floaty, and her voice sort of gets lost in the wall of sound. For the second one, despite whatever technical competency it might have, it's so aggressively cookie-cutter that I'm slightly revulsed.

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden

Song #1's not bad, a bit understated, didn't really have too much to recommend other than sounding like Modest Mouse. The second one's weird, bizarre, and funky. Gets the nod.

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party

First one's funky and has a clear disco influence - although it's pretty repetitive. Second one has this messy punk guitar intro, then we go into exactly what I'd expect a 2000s rock song to sound like. Since I'm a rock person, I think that seals the deal. Don't love it, but it's fine.

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor

#1 is a "Oh, this song". It's a great groove. Same with #2! Oh dear, this is going to be tough, especially since Spektor's weird vocalisms and the song's quirky melody are so unforgettable. But, ugh, it probably shouldn't beat the first one.

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West

For "Mykonos", most of this song sounds like it's building up to something that it never actually pays off on - the climax of the tune has such simple instrumentation that it sounds like a demo. If you're going to do Rush at that moment, go whole hog. The second one's a catchy piece of retro-glamour-pop. But it is immaterial, and repetitive, and Kanye West doesn't add much to it at all.

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead

Song #1 was pointless, meandering garbage. Song #2 wasn't anything special in its odd mechanical throb, but it's okay.

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair

I liked the backbeat and groove to #1 immediately. Then it didn't proceed to do too much else for the next four minutes. Second is some odd accelerated disco (did so much of the 2000s have a secret disco influence?), and then didn't proceed to do too much else with it for about six minutes.

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx

I'm a sucker for electronica, so I quite liked this Goldfrapp song (although it could have used more components). With this second one - oh great, Jamie Foxx trying to have a recording career. Just like his acting career. Kanye is fine here, but I'm also not a fan of songs that are basically lists of better music you could be listening to right now. This Twista character seems to be mumbling at high speed, which really hurts his intelligibility. Easy choice.

Now if you'll excuse me, time to listen to "Standing in the Way of Control" on repeat.

Post by **Susan** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 6:50 pm

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift
Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden
Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party
Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor
Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West
Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead
Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair
Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx

merv1618 · Post by **merv1618** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 8:36 pm

The Fear – Lily Allen

Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden
meh

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior

Fidelity – Regina Spektor
Another unfortunate matchup

American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West

Fireworks – Animal Collective
Neither was enjoyable, but this one wasn't physically painful to hear

Blind – Hercules and Love Affair
Anohni is incredible in everything she does

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp

Dantooine is Big! · Post by **Dantooine is Big!** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 10:28 pm

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx

Abstain from everything else

Also, surprised at the amount of people who dislike the ones I voted for above

El Salvadoreno · Post by **El Salvadoreno** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 11:30 pm

The Fear
Bonkers
Move Your Feet
Family Affair
American Boy
Machine Gun
Blind and...
Slow Jamz
Por Favor

VSCOelasticity · Post by **VSCOelasticity** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 11:51 pm

The Fear
Dashboard
Move Your Feet
Fidelity
American Boy
Fireworks
Blind
Slow Jamz

Steeve Ho You Fat · Post by **Steeve Ho You Fat** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 12:27 am

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift There's probably dozens of Taylor songs I'd pick over this, but Love Story is boring at best.

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden I had never heard this song before, and I do like Modest Mouse, but this is great.

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party Both these are cool, could have gone either way.

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor Can't vote against Queen Mary J!

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West Not sure why, but I've never really appreciated Fleet Foxes the way some people seem to. Plus American Boy is great - Kanye's lyrics are whatever but that beat though.

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead Very odd choice of Portishead song but it's still cool.

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx Twista!!

Monstruos de Bolsillo · Wed Dec 20, 2017 3:49 am

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift
Ok, for some time there Love Story was literally the only Taylor Swift song I liked. But like it I did, very very much.

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden
Upon listening to about a minute of Dashboard, my mind was telling me, I'd be shocked if this wasn't on an MLB 2k soundtrack, because it sounds just like the kind of track they'd put on there. A quick Google search confirms it was on 2K8, so I was probably subconsciously thinking about it the whole time, given how much 2K8 I played.

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor
Family Affair is one of my favorite songs to appear in this whole thing thus far.

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West
American Boy is really fun to sing along to.

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx

Charm Bison · Post by **Charm Bison** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 3:54 am

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift: I'm willing to forgive the mixed literary metaphors for that key change at the end. The Lily Allen song is good, but forgettable.

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden: It's catchy. What more can I say.

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party: I'm gonna be honest here: the music video broke a tie.

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor: Both of these songs' melodies remind me of Aloe Blacc's "I Need A Dollar", a much better song I turned on after listening to these two. But Regina Spektor's chorus tips the balance for me. Also, it sounds like the daughter's song from Moneyball.

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West: One of those songs I had forgotten about, but that I instantly recognized when the chorus hit. The chorus is definitely the peak of the song, but it's still better than any part of "Mykonos". It's a little annoying that the music completely stops when Kanye's verse starts.

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead: I don't really like either of these songs, but at least "Machine Gun" goes somewhere. "Fireworks" is in a constant zone of almost clicking for me without ever making it there.

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair: Nothing to say here.

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx: For the Michael Jackson line alone, because otherwise, I don't really have a favorite.

Gemistus Pletho · Post by **Gemistus Pletho** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 11:07 am

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx

Fat Lip · Post by **Fat Lip** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 2:30 pm

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx

Quinctilius Varus · Post by **Quinctilius Varus** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 3:33 pm

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift
Love Story is overly saccharine and one of my least favorite songs of the 2000s. I've never heard this Lily Allen song before, but it's very good.

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor
Both of these songs are great.

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West
This matchup is incredibly tough. I love Fleet Foxes, but American Boy is a near-perfect pop song.

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead
I'm surprised at the choice of Animal Collective song, since My Girls is both their most popular and critically acclaimed song. I love Beth Gibbons' haunting vocals on the Portishead song, and the minimalist industrial beat.

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx
I did not anticipate having to do this, since Kanye is my favorite artist of all time, but Slow Jamz has always been one of my least favorite songs by him. (I guess it's technically a Twista song, but it also appears on The College Dropout.)

merv1618 · Post by **merv1618** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 4:21 pm

Auks Ran Ova wrote:even though I don't particularly care for Anohni's voice

The GOAT Rob Carson hot take

AKKOLADE · Post by **AKKOLADE** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 5:13 pm

So I can make sure I have the bracket finalized and posted for ritualistic yelling, I'll be counting votes at 9 p.m. Eastern tonight. Please make sure your vote is in by then if you want it to count.

AKKOLADE · Post by **AKKOLADE** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 5:18 pm

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx

MorganV · Post by **MorganV** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 5:49 pm

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift

I get the feeling some people voted for this as a "anything but Love Story" vote, but I'll plug it on its own merits. Clever writing ("I'll look at The Sun and I'll look in The Mirror" is my favorite line), great production, and a well-placed F-bomb. Not her best song, but Love Story definitely isn't Taylor's either.

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden

Though only the second best dashboard themed song thanks to Meat Loaf, Modest Mouse still wins here. Bonkers has the roots of a good song, but the production is questionable, especially during the messy first buildup. Dubstep hasn't aged well in the last five years.

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior VS. Helicopter – Bloc Party

Going to give Helicopter the nod for its feature in Guitar Hero 3. Move Your Feet started off with an excellent first 30 seconds or so but didn't go anywhere very interesting after that.

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spector

Tough choice, Family Affair is a jam but I love Regina and I think Fidelity is a better song. One of those choruses that you hear and can't help but smile.

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye WEST

The fleet foxes song was good but a bit forgettable in the greater 2000s indie rock scene, whereas American Boy was catchy af

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead

Two critically acclaimed bands I don't like listening to very much. I'll give my vote to Portishead because Beth Gibbons is great on this track. I like the parts of fireworks between verses, but every time the singer comes back in it gets grating.

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair

Hadn't heard either of these and liked my first impressions of both of them. I'll vote for blind because it's ultimately more interesting and pop could always use more horn sections.

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx

Was expecting to give this to Kanye ("she got a light skinned friend who looks like Michael Jackson... She got a dark skinned friend who looks like Michael Jackson" lmao) but strict machine made a strong enough case while I typed this out that I switched votes.
EDIT: glad that upon looking at other votes multiple other people have mentioned the Michael Jackson line

ProfessorIanDuncan · Post by **ProfessorIanDuncan** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 6:10 pm

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift

Never heard this Lily Allen song before, but I like it. Love Story on the other hand, upon listening to it again, doesn't reach the heights it did in middle school.

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden

It's actually Bonkers how funky this song is. Modest Mouse is good, but Dashboard itself isn't super special.

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party

Bloc Party is great and Helicopter is a good song, but Move Your Feet is my jam. (Note: I will probably say this about like 30-40 songs by the time this bracket is done.)

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor

I just expected more from the Regina Spektor song. Oh, well maybe it'll grow on me. Bonus points for Mary J Blige unexpectedly using the words percolating and dancerie.

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West

American Boy is a very good pop song. Mykonos has really good parts, but ultimately doesn't do enough the whole way through.

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead

Fireworks is uninteresting.

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair

Not much between them here. I guess this is just because I feel like I've passed on a lot of rock songs. Also get the sense that Blind will in the long run get on my nerves more.

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx

Didn't really like Slow Jamz all that much. Strict Machine isn't stellar, but I don't think the Michael Jackson line is enough to give the edge to Slow Jamz

Panayot Hitov · Post by **Panayot Hitov** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 7:17 pm

not gonna vote, but the definite best version of Machine Gun is the live performance with Chuck D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUhepK6dN4M

MLafer · Post by **MLafer** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 7:23 pm

The Fear
Dashboard
Helicopter
Family Affair
American Boy
Fireworks
Grounds for Divorce
Slow Jamz

AKKOLADE · Post by **AKKOLADE** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 9:08 pm

Voting has closed. Results will be announced in this post shortly.

I'm allowing Andrew's vote, because I saw him browsing the forum before I posted, and it breaks a tie.

The Fear 25, Love Story 17

Dashboard 27, Bonkers 16

Helicopter 22, Move Your Feet 19

Fidelity 22, Family Affair 20

American Boy 32, Mykonos 10

Machine Gun 21, Fireworks 20

Blind 22, Grounds for Divorce 19

Slow Jamz 23, Strict Machine 19

Ndg · Post by **Ndg** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 9:13 pm

Wow! Some of my all time favorite songs on here, all of which I expect will lose! This bracket is turning out to be much more interesting than I expected.

The Fear – Lily Allen vs. Love Story – Taylor Swift. Hearing Love Story for the first time in a long time, it's more of a solid contender than I was expecting. But I love Lily Allen so much, and The Fear is especially brilliant. My favorite song from one of my favorite artists.

Dashboard – Modest Mouse vs. Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden. Bonkers is just goofy enough to give it the edge over Dashboard, which feels like it's building up to something it can't quite reach.

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior vs. Helicopter – Bloc Party. Helicopter is nothing special, but it's more interesting than I remember Bloc Party being. Move Your Feet feels trite and campy in all the wrong ways.

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige vs. Fidelity – Regina Spektor. Regina Spektor has a knack for making songs that are just a bit too odd for me to love them, but this one's nice.

Mykonos – Fleet Foxes vs. American Boy – Estelle featuring Kanye West. Fleet Foxes are great (at least until Crack-Up), but American Boy is such a uniquely exhilarating song. The ambiguous modality (it's in E, but it's hard to categorize as definitively major or minor), the descending thirds chord progression, and the fact that the melody revolves around the dominant rather than the tonic all combine to give the song a non-stop tumbling-head-over-heels feeling that I think perfectly matches the excitement and anticipation conveyed by the lyrics.

Fireworks – Animal Collective vs. Machine Gun – Portishead. Two songs that are longer than they should be. At least I can make sense of Portishead; Fireworks is an unstructured mess to my ears. Maybe I'm just too dumb to get Animal Collective, but all of their albums feel like you could cut every song in half, rearrange the pieces, and not be able to tell the difference. Plus there's the fact that the vocals are amateurish in the most uninteresting way possible and don't ever cohere with the instumentals, even when they're too far back in the mix to be comprehensible.

Grounds for Divorce – Elbow vs. Blind – Hercules and Love Affair. This one's easy. Blind is a masterpiece. Ahnoni's weird but gorgeous voice works perfectly here. This song far outshines anything either she or Hercules and Love Affair have done on their own.

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp vs. Slow Jamz – Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx. Kanye is one of the few rappers I truly enjoy listening to, but Strict Machine is Golfrapp at her best -- which is to say, nearly unbeatable.

AKKOLADE · Post by **AKKOLADE** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 9:33 pm

Click through here to see the full bracket. I am excellent at visual design.

Sub-brackets!

Ndg · Post by **Ndg** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 9:36 pm

AKKOLADE wrote:Voting has closed. Results will be announced in this post shortly.

I'm allowing Andrew's vote, because I saw him browsing the forum before I posted, and it breaks a tie.

Ha, the tie I broke was probably the matchup I cared the least about! Sorry, Animal Collective fans!

In my defense, I was not aware the forums were on Caracas time...

AKKOLADE · Post by **AKKOLADE** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 9:40 pm

I will now allow a 24 hour period of people to say every song they would include instead of what I did so we can ritualistically cleanse ourselves of such feelings.

Edit: you can assume any answer from me to be "I hate you and your family," probably.

heterodyne · Post by **heterodyne** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 9:53 pm

AKKOLADE wrote:I will now allow a 24 hour period of people to say every song they would include instead of what I did so we can ritualistically cleanse ourselves of such feelings.

Edit: you can assume any answer from me to be "I hate you and your family," probably.

just let us vote instead of being salty over entirely predictable disagreement of taste

tksaleija · Post by **tksaleija** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 10:03 pm

This is not to say that I particularly enjoy it, but based on "Mr. Brightside"s history of popping up on the charts despite its age, I see it going very far, if not winning entirely.

Wed Dec 20, 2017 10:06 pm

mr. brightside is good but is not deserving of its moniker of "every frat boy's favorite song" and is the 2nd best song on Hot Fuss at best.

the takes will continue until voting commences

AKKOLADE · Post by **AKKOLADE** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 10:09 pm

heterodyne wrote:
AKKOLADE wrote:I will now allow a 24 hour period of people to say every song they would include instead of what I did so we can ritualistically cleanse ourselves of such feelings.

Edit: you can assume any answer from me to be "I hate you and your family," probably.
just let us vote instead of being salty over entirely predictable disagreement of taste

I'm not salty. I'm using it as a way to pass the time while I get the rest of the coding ready.

Charm Bison · Post by **Charm Bison** » Wed Dec 20, 2017 10:13 pm

Maps vs. Feel Good Inc. and Yeah! vs. Cry Me a River are tough matchups.

Time to Pretend is criminally underseeded.

Final Four predictions: Crazy, Ignition (Remix), Hey Ya!, and Hurt.