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The Best Album of 1989 @bestalbumbrackets.bsky.social

The Best Album of 1989 Round 1 Match #63 #22 Neil Young, FREEDOM vs. #107 Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, Panaiotis, DEEP LISTENING forms.gle/1o6pbX7xd6VG...

aug 20, 2025, 2:00 pm • 6 3

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Dan Bright Amaya @spacedan.bsky.social

I really want to like anything that's billed as pioneering electronic music but how to judge if this is any good? What are the reference points? I mean I don't want to listen to the guy whining on with his guitar either so a bit lost today. I'll get back to 2001 I guess.

aug 20, 2025, 2:57 pm • 2 1 • view
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Rena MJ 🕸️🕯️ @renamj.bsky.social

Sisters with Transistors is a decent doc about women in electronic music. It sort of glosses over Wendy Carlos but is a solid overview. I guess Delia Derbyshire's work with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop is kind of the "Johnny B. Goode" of the genre? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisters...

aug 20, 2025, 3:38 pm • 6 1 • view
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Dan Bright Amaya @spacedan.bsky.social

Yes I have seen that! I guess without listening to more of that era of experimental music, I really struggle to "get it" for want of a better word.

aug 20, 2025, 3:51 pm • 2 1 • view
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Rena MJ 🕸️🕯️ @renamj.bsky.social

Also Bebe and Louis Barron's soundtrack to Forbidden Planet is pretty cool:

aug 20, 2025, 3:44 pm • 1 1 • view
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Shamp @megabrow12.bsky.social

This does not fill me with optimism..

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aug 20, 2025, 9:14 pm • 3 1 • view
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Shamp @megabrow12.bsky.social

Better see if this Canadian album is any good then. Seems unlikely 🤷‍♂️.

aug 20, 2025, 2:29 pm • 2 1 • view
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Sour Establishment Man @sourman.bsky.social

I enjoy this post both as a Canadian and as someone who is not quite sure which day it is.

aug 20, 2025, 10:41 pm • 3 1 • view
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Chris has been here the whole time @cokes.bsky.social

What I'm learning as this goes on is that I don't care all that much about the music of 1989

aug 20, 2025, 3:16 pm • 3 1 • view
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Vrauzio Darella @tooleo.bsky.social

How do I vote?

aug 21, 2025, 11:44 am • 1 0 • view
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The Best Album of 1989 @bestalbumbrackets.bsky.social

Go here and click on the link! bsky.app/profile/best...

aug 21, 2025, 12:37 pm • 0 0 • view
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DigsUpDeadFolksStuff @trowelblister.bsky.social

Been thinking about this matchup & Freedom ain’t Harvest BUT it was closest to a protest album I can remember for that time. And when was protesting Bush War I in early 90’s, it was pretty much it for current protest songs. That said, never heard the other guys so gotta check ‘em out.

aug 20, 2025, 8:49 pm • 1 1 • view
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Joe @boxy.bsky.social

There are some rap songs--Eric B & Rakim's 'Casualties of War,' Geto Boys' 'Fuck a War,' Paris' 'Bush Killa'...

aug 21, 2025, 12:20 am • 4 1 • view
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DigsUpDeadFolksStuff @trowelblister.bsky.social

Right on. And of course white & rural 19 yr old college boy had little exposure to rap. Things were different by graduation.

aug 21, 2025, 11:15 am • 1 1 • view
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jamsheed @jamsheed.bsky.social

turned my friend onto Deep Listening last night. spreading the word on pauline oliveros! (got a hard pass from my partner tho.)

aug 21, 2025, 5:42 pm • 2 1 • view
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jamsheed @jamsheed.bsky.social

I like what's going on with this Pauline Oliveros (who I discovered via a previous tourney—cheers!) et al album a lot! voting for it.

aug 20, 2025, 3:57 pm • 3 1 • view
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jamsheed @jamsheed.bsky.social

FREEDOM is fine, but it's not exactly EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE or RUST NEVER SLEEPS.

aug 20, 2025, 3:58 pm • 1 1 • view
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Brian Glaser @bsglaser.bsky.social

Fair, tho I’ll note those are Crazy Horse records and FREEDOM isn’t. I think of his time with the Horse as distinct from the rest of the catalog.

aug 20, 2025, 5:19 pm • 3 1 • view
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Matt P. @guatshakes.bsky.social

Experimental DeepListening® music vs the best-but- LEAST-experimental thing Young released in the '80s. After Ragged Glory, which followed hard upon, Young has only intermittently been this good again. Deep is a little too new-agey & professorial for me to get much excited about.

aug 20, 2025, 3:38 pm • 4 1 • view
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The Best Album of 1989 @bestalbumbrackets.bsky.social

#22 Neil Young, FREEDOM Spotify: open.spotify.com/album/3uOOKc... YouTube: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

A color photgraph of Neil Young, a white man in a blue jacket, blue cap with a white star on it, and tie-dyed shirt with a radiation symbol on it. He is singing. He exhibits the most
aug 20, 2025, 2:04 pm • 2 0 • view
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The Best Album of 1989 @bestalbumbrackets.bsky.social

#107 Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, Panaiotis, DEEP LISTENING Spotify: open.spotify.com/album/1h4VM1... YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=U__l...

On a black background are three rectangles placed in a row horizonally, all of the same picture. It shows... well it could be a forest, with eight tree trunks. But those trunks could also be cement pylons, and based on the light from above, this could be underwater. In conclusion, I don't know. The pictures are tinted dark orange.
aug 20, 2025, 2:05 pm • 2 0 • view
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The Best Album of 1989 @bestalbumbrackets.bsky.social

We have one Designated Cheerleader today, it’s from Head Cheerleader @bsglaser.bsky.social and it’s for FREEDOM! Take it away, Brian!

Neil Young is such an established part of the rock-era firmament that it's easy to forget how, by 1989, he was essentially down for the count. It had been a full decade since he'd released a great album (RUST NEVER SLEEPS in 1979), and he'd spent pretty much the full span of the 80s ginning up a run of turkeys. It's actually hard to overstate how many ways Shakey flopped during the Reagan years. Aside from genre experiments that didn't really land (the rockabilly moves of EVERYBODY'S ROCKIN' in 83; two different synth/electronic experiments with TRANS in 82 and LANDING ON WATER in 86), he couldn't even make his core competencies pan out: RE-AC-TOR in 81 and LIFE in 87 are probably his weakest Crazy Horsebacked albums, and the country-folk OLD WAYS in 85 doesn't quite work. There was a mild sign of life in 88 with THIS NOTE'S FOR YOU--Neil's songwriting, energy, and focus seemed to be back on tap, but he applied them to a horn-backed blues/R&B style that still wasn't an entirely comfortable fit. Robert Christgau probably has the most succinct reaction to FREEDOM's release in 89: (Let's take a quick moment to mention Neil's performance of In between the 2 versions of
aug 20, 2025, 2:09 pm • 10 0 • view
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The Best Album of 1989 @bestalbumbrackets.bsky.social

I also want to note that while experimental music is pretty rare in these tournaments, this is actually Pauline Oliveros’ second album to appear in one. CRONE MUSIC was in the 1990 tournament at seed #109.

aug 20, 2025, 2:12 pm • 4 0 • view
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The Best Album of 1989 @bestalbumbrackets.bsky.social

FREEDOM defeats DEEP LISTENING, 76-51-1.

aug 21, 2025, 2:01 pm • 6 2 • view
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Rena MJ 🕸️🕯️ @renamj.bsky.social

Don't forget to change the avi!

aug 21, 2025, 2:37 pm • 1 0 • view
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The Best Album of 1989 @bestalbumbrackets.bsky.social

oh shit!

aug 21, 2025, 2:40 pm • 1 0 • view
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Rena MJ 🕸️🕯️ @renamj.bsky.social

And Laurie Spiegel was in the 1991 tournament!

aug 20, 2025, 2:18 pm • 4 1 • view
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Joe @boxy.bsky.social

Pauline Oliveros was a towering, pioneering figure in early experimental and electronic music, and I'm really enjoying seeing her get more attention in recent years. Freedom's a great comeback, especially after an awful CSNY album in 1988, but it's not even in my top ten Neil Young albums.

aug 20, 2025, 2:12 pm • 7 2 • view
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Joe @boxy.bsky.social

'Rockin' in the Free World' is great, 'Crime in the City' is great, the stuff in between is a little hit or miss. This one's lovely, though:

aug 20, 2025, 2:17 pm • 4 1 • view
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Rena MJ 🕸️🕯️ @renamj.bsky.social

Voted for the electronic music pioneer (apologies to the Canadians).

aug 20, 2025, 2:07 pm • 5 1 • view
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Brian Darr @hellonfriscobay.bsky.social

Neil was an electronic music pioneer too! (But I didn’t vote for him today)

aug 20, 2025, 2:36 pm • 7 1 • view
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Brian Glaser @bsglaser.bsky.social

Sonic Youth made a strong case for at least one of the tunes from TRANS. youtu.be/bifFwY_tY0o?...

aug 20, 2025, 3:11 pm • 6 1 • view
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Rena MJ 🕸️🕯️ @renamj.bsky.social

This is closer than I would've guessed, probably a lot of protest votes against Neil Young. Anyway I nominated and seed voted DEEP LISTENING and I'm glad it made the tournament.

aug 20, 2025, 5:30 pm • 2 1 • view
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barefoot jim @barefootjim.bsky.social

I got into Neil in 1979, just before he went haywire for a decade. And while there were great songs throughout his 80s catalog, it wasn't til FREEDOM when he put a whole great album together. More importantly, it was the first in a run of albums that - to me - equaled his 70s run, or came close.

aug 20, 2025, 4:55 pm • 4 1 • view
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Bryan O’Connor @bocfortherecord.bsky.social

Coin toss between two pretty good records. I’m voting for the upset.

aug 20, 2025, 3:12 pm • 2 1 • view
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Kevin Alexander @kevinalexander.bsky.social

Very much ready to blitz through this one and get to Cloudland

aug 20, 2025, 2:41 pm • 1 1 • view
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Tam Yeung @wabznazm.bsky.social

Love Neil, not one of his best imo. Deep Listening is an astonishing and monumental piece of work.

aug 20, 2025, 3:23 pm • 6 1 • view