The Dark Twisted Swans of Procrastination

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy vs. Seven Swans

First Listen, several months ago

My Dark Twisted Past is clearly at the top of it's genre.  Most hip hop sounds like you could produce it with a few controls similar to a fancy screen saver, but hey, this sounds pretty good.

Seven Swans is clearly an experimental alternative folk concept album by someone who was home-schooled.  The swans seem a bit thin, but there are seven of them so the fight is on.

One month on

In the interest of science, I've listened to Seven Swans on repeat for the past two weeks, sometimes six to eight times a day.  When I close my eyes I hear bells and choirgirl backup singers singing vowel sounds.  I begin to notice things, like how the angle where the floor meets the walls seems so jarring and expected.  And then, I discover I love Seven Swans.

Meta

I prize my acquired tastes.  I instantly liked candy, but later learned to love cilantro.  What about really good candy verses the ultimate in acquired taste?  And what is the Death Match 99 really about?  Is it about my tastes?  Or my ability to judge the quality of music on an objective scale?  Or guess how others might rate the same music?  Its difficult.  And what is up with Seven Swans?  I love Sufjan (from prior to the Death Match) but then someone picks what must be his most quixotic (or worst, depending on how where you come down on the questions above) album to throw into the match?!

Like, half a year passes while I think about (then forget) all this.

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Winner:  My Dark Twisted Past
An album I will likely not listen to again.

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