2023 Talossan Music Top 20 [Final Voting]

[Sir Ian Plätschisch]

Round 1 of the Talossan Music Top 20 - 2023!

Many thanks to everyone who nominated songs. Of course, people who did not are still very welcome to participate.

Round 1 consists of ten groups of ten songs each. The top five songs in each group advance to Round 2 (and are given entry into next year's TMT20).

Groups are drawn randomly in such a way that each group contains one 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th place song from a Round 2 group last year, 4-5 new nominations, and 0-1 songs from the 2022-2023 Special Edition.

We will vote on groups two at a time (although you can vote on only one of the groups if you want). Each voting period will last three days (72 hours). Votes cast after that will not be accepted, with the exception that we will always keep going until we have at least three votes per group.

Give your top three songs 3, 2, and 1 points, respectively. You must give points to exactly three songs.

GROUP 3
B-52's - Roam
Beatles - Let it Be
Electric Six - Danger! High Voltage
Franco Battiato - Centro di Gravità Permanente
Lesley Roy - Maps
Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band - Raise a Little Hell
Rush - Marathon
Spinners - Rubberband Man
Teho Teardo and Blixa Bargeld - A Quiet Life
Wolf Alice - Moaning Lisa Smile

GROUP 4
Brandi Carlisle - The Story
Crosby, Stills and Nash - Southern Cross
Duran Duran - The Chauffeur
Editors - Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors
Marty Robbins - Big Iron
Poor Rich Ones - Drown
Portugal. The Man - Live in the Moment
Tom Waits - God's Away on Business
Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Christmas Eve / Sarajevo
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Requiem Mass in D minor

Tiebreakers:
- Number of voters giving 3 points
- Number of voters giving 2 points
- Last year's result (Special Edition > Round 2 > Other)
- Last year's Round 2 Rank
- Random chance

Any song eliminated by random chance (and any song eliminated by random chance last year that is eliminated based on last year's result) will be given entry into next year's TMT20.

Tactical voting refers to either giving more points than you normally would to a song because it would make the difference between it going through or getting eliminated, or giving fewer points than you normally would to a song because it might kick a song you like even more out of the competition. This is hard to prevent, but my very strong request would be to not do it. Give points to the songs you believe deserve to go through, regardless of how others are voting. Doing otherwise reduces the value of votes that came before you, which is unfair to them. Remember that it's not a competition between voters, but a collective effort to make a nice list of songs we like. Thanks.

I did my best with all the links but there is always a chance some are broken or have a wrong version or bad audio quality. If a link is broken or you have a suggestion for a better link, please contact me or post the link in the thread. Officially, we are not voting on the YouTube link, but on the listed Artist + Title.

COMMENTARY ON THE PROGRESS OF THE GAME, THE RULES, WHAT SONGS YOU LIKE, ETC., IS VERY WELCOME.

[Sir Ian Plätschisch]

GROUP 3
3 - Lesley Roy - Maps
2 - B-52's - Roam
1 - Wolf Alice - Moaning Lisa Smile

GROUP 4
3 - Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Christmas Eve / Sarajevo
2 - Portugal. The Man - Live in the Moment
1 - Crosby, Stills and Nash - Southern Cross
HM - Marty Robbins - Big Iron

[Glüc]

Group 3:
Marathon - 3
A Quiet Life - 2
Moaning Lisa Smile - 1

A Quiet Life is easily my favourite discovery so far (though I must have heard it before because apparently it featured prominently in Dark, but I cant recall that). The streak of great discoveries continues because the Battiato and Electric Six ones are bangers too. Battiato in particular would certainly have scored points in group 4, but sadly in group 3 I had none left.

Group 4:
Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors - 3
Requiem - 2
Live in the Moment - 1

This group isn't so strong as the others for me. As usual I was in doubt what to do about Requiem, because I still think it doesn't really fit the tmt format and it would be better if separate parts were nominated instead, but since it is a beautiful piece of music and Editors is really the only song that I feel strongly about, I guess it can get two points here.

The link to Requiem doesnt work btw.  Heres another one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmttZ-BnwaI

[Placiej]

GROUP 3
3 B-52's - Roam

2 Electric Six - Danger! High Voltage

1 Rush - Marathon


GROUP 4
3 Crosby, Stills and Nash - Southern Cross
Duran Duran - The Chauffeur

2 Marty Robbins - Big Iron

1 Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Christmas Eve / Sarajevo

[Tric'hard Lenxheir]

Group 3

3. Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band-Raise A Little Hell
2. Spinners-Rubberband Man
1. Rush-Marathon

Group 4

3. Marty Robbins-Big Iron
2. Trans-Siberian Orchestra-Christmas Eve-Sarajevo
1. Crosby, Stills and Nash-Southern Cross

[Gjermund Higraff]

GROUP 3
3 - Beatles - Let it Be
2 - Wolf Alice - Moaning Lisa Smile
1 - Lesley Roy - Maps

GROUP 4
3 - Poor Rich Ones - Drown
2 - Duran Duran - The Chauffeur
1 - Editors - Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors

[þerxh Sant-Enogat]

Group 3
3- Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld - A Quiet Life (Blixa is the frontman of the famous Einstürzende Neubauten, and this song reminds me of ´Dark' the excellent Netflix series - at least the first two seasons)
2- Wolf Alice -Moaning Lisa Smile
1- B-52's - Room (one of the rare US band that I like.. and for 40 years !)

Group 4
3- Editors - Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors
2- Duran Duran - The Chauffeur (I was not familiar with this one (I love 'Planet Earth'), interesting compo for a now-underrated band)
1- Tom Waits - God's Away On Business

[Glüc]

Updated spotify playlist with (almost) all regular TMT nominations ever.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6HlnZVMlpgAXNhzkqHg9gY

[Sir Lüc]

GROUP 3
3. Franco Battiato - Centro di Gravità Permanente
2. Teho Teardo and Blixa Bargeld - A Quiet Life
1. B-52's - Roam

GROUP 4
3. Portugal. The Man - Live in the Moment
2. Editors - Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors
1. Poor Rich Ones - Drown

[Erschéveþ da Schir]

GROUP 3
3. Franco Battiato - Centro di Gravità Permanente
2. Beatles - Let it Be
1. Rush - Marathon

GROUP 4
3. Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Christmas Eve / Sarajevo
2. Editors - Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors
1. Portugal. The Man - Live in the Moment

[Sir Ian Plätschisch]

GROUP 3
1. A Quiet Life - 7 (two 2-point votes)
2. Roam - 7 (one 2-point vote)
3. Centro di Gravità Permanente - 6 (two 3-point votes)
4. Marathon - 6 (one 3-point vote)
5. Moaning Lisa Smile - 6 (no 3-point votes)
6. Let it Be - 5
7. Maps - 4
8. Raise a Little Hell - 3
9. Rubberband Man - 2 (R2 last year)
10. Danger! High Voltage - 2 (new this year)

GROUP 4
1. Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors - 11
2. Christmas Eve / Sarajevo - 9
3. Live in the Moment - 7
4. Big Iron - 5 (one 2-point vote)
5. Southern Cross - 5 (no 2-point votes)
6. Drown - 4 (one 3-point vote)
7. The Chauffeur - 4 (no 3-point votes)
8. Requiem Mass in D minor - 2
9. God's Away on Business - 1
10. The Story - 0

Christmas Eve / Sarajevo is the first Special Edition song to survive the first round.

Advancing songs so far are split evenly between new nominations and songs from last year, which is a bit better than new nominations usually do. Let it Be getting the boot is a bit of an upset as it apparently was nominated for the very first TMT20 back in 2009 (before it was an annual event and before it was even called the TMT20 I think) and has been carried over ever since (until now).

[Sir Ian Plätschisch]

Round 1 of the Talossan Music Top 20 - 2023!

Many thanks to everyone who nominated songs. Of course, people who did not are still very welcome to participate.

Round 1 consists of ten groups of ten songs each. The top five songs in each group advance to Round 2 (and are given entry into next year's TMT20).

Groups are drawn randomly in such a way that each group contains one 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th place song from a Round 2 group last year, 4-5 new nominations, and 0-1 songs from the 2022-2023 Special Edition.

We will vote on groups two at a time (although you can vote on only one of the groups if you want). Each voting period will last three days (72 hours). Votes cast after that will not be accepted, with the exception that we will always keep going until we have at least three votes per group.

Give your top three songs 3, 2, and 1 points, respectively. You must give points to exactly three songs.

GROUP 5
Aaron Copeland - Fanfare for the Common Man
Aerosmith - Same old Song and Dance
Alex Schofield - Sweet Simona
Charlie Parker - Cool Blues
Foo Fighters - Everlong
Larry Fleet - Where I Find God
Ludwig von Beethoven - Mondscheinsonate, 3rd movement
Nightwish - Ghost Love Score
Rammstein - Sonne
Tony Bennett - I Left My Heart in San Francisco

GROUP 6
Blur - The Universal
Deep Purple - Child in Time
Depeche Model - Enjoy the Silence
Earth, Wind and Fire - Boogie Wonderland
Elvis Presley - Can't Help Falling in Love
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Muse - Knights of Cydonia
Queen - Killer Queen
Reckless Kelly - Seven Nights in Eire
The Midnight - Gloria

Tiebreakers:
- Number of voters giving 3 points
- Number of voters giving 2 points
- Last year's result (Special Edition > Round 2 > Other)
- Last year's Round 2 Rank
- Random chance

Any song eliminated by random chance (and any song eliminated by random chance last year that is eliminated based on last year's result) will be given entry into next year's TMT20.

Tactical voting refers to either giving more points than you normally would to a song because it would make the difference between it going through or getting eliminated, or giving fewer points than you normally would to a song because it might kick a song you like even more out of the competition. This is hard to prevent, but my very strong request would be to not do it. Give points to the songs you believe deserve to go through, regardless of how others are voting. Doing otherwise reduces the value of votes that came before you, which is unfair to them. Remember that it's not a competition between voters, but a collective effort to make a nice list of songs we like. Thanks.

I did my best with all the links but there is always a chance some are broken or have a wrong version or bad audio quality. If a link is broken or you have a suggestion for a better link, please contact me or post the link in the thread. Officially, we are not voting on the YouTube link, but on the listed Artist + Title.

COMMENTARY ON THE PROGRESS OF THE GAME, THE RULES, WHAT SONGS YOU LIKE, ETC., IS VERY WELCOME.
[/quote]

[Glüc]

Oh dear... It was to be expected there would be at least one group that was gonna be waaayy too strong. Well that definitely happened with group 6. Gonna be a massacre that one.

[þerxh Sant-Enogat]

Group 5
3- Rammstein - Sonne (thanks, I did not know this one !)
2- Foo Fighters - Everlong
1- Aaron Copeland - Fanfare for the common man

Group 6
3- Depeche Mode - Enjoy the Silence (of course !)
2- Deep Purple - Child in Time
1- Queen - Killer Queen

[Glüc]

Some thoughts on Rammstein nobody asked for: considering how shit people can be, especially when given power, and how recent developments have hopefully made it easier to speak out about certain types of behaviour, it was maybe only a matter of time before some artist I greatly respected was revealed to be a major piece of shit.

Presumably in hindsight some people will point to some of Lindemanns dodgier lyrics and claim that it should always have been obvious he was going to be a sex offender. I don't think I agree with that. It should be possible to describe evil for the sake of art without yourself being evil and furthermore it should also be possible to have bad thoughts without acting upon them. If not, humanity is surely doomed, but I don't want to be that pessimistic.

That leaves the songs themselves. I have enjoyed many of these and found a lot of beauty in them since highschool. I understand that context sometimes makes you view art in a new light. Maybe it differs on a case-by-case basis whether it's possible to separate the art from the artist, but whenever it is possible, which is something people will have to judge for themselves, I believe it is right to do so, because the world will simply become a lot uglier if we relate everything to the worst aspects of humanity. In this case I don't think I will suddenly not appreciate them anymore, considering how often I have listened to these without ever getting bored.