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Song of the Day #3,232: ‘The One I Love’ – R.E.M. vs. Stew

I opted for random seeding in Montauk Madness, but the other avenue is to seed each particpant based on stature. That’s how March Madness works, with the #1 teams (based on record) facing off against the #16 teams in Round One.

That prevents any heavyweight matchups early in the contest. Ideally, you don’t want the two best teams in a division to battle on Day One.

Going that route in this contest, however, felt wrong. If I were to rank the participants before even setting the bracket, wouldn’t I be defeating the purpose of the game? If a top contender loses in Round One because of an unlucky matchup, well, that probably would have happened in Round Three of Four anyway.

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Song of the Day #3,231: ‘With Or Without You’ – U2 vs. David Bowie

Our next Montauk Madness matchup pairs two legends, one who sadly (and triumphantly) passed away last year and another struggling to remain relevant after spending the better part of four decades as the world’s greatest rock band. David Bowie vs. U2.

Had I faced this decision before Bowie’s passing, I likely would have gone with U2. Apart from the hits, I knew Bowie’s work mostly by reputation. Of course, Bowie’s hits alone put him in contention, but I own almost all of U2’s albums and consider them at worst enjoyable and at best masterpieces (The Joshua Tree remains one of the seminal listening experiences in my life as a music fan).

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Song of the Day #3,230: ‘Hanginaround’ – Counting Crows vs. Morrissey

Entering our third week of Montauk Madness, ten first round mathcups have been posted with 22 to go. I’ll leave all of the polls open for the duration of this round to pick up any stragglers. All of the Round One matchups can be accessed here.

The seeding in this tournament was determined randomly, and it’s fun to see the interesting pairings that result. Today’s battle, for example, is a showdown between depressed whiners Adam Duritz and Morrissey — specifically Counting Crows vs. Morrissey’s work as a solo artist.

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Song of the Day #3,229: ‘The Beat’ – Elvis Costello

Here’s a nifty little New Wave cut from Elvis Costello’s second album, 1978’s This Year’s Model.

Costello has spent the last two decades or so in elder statesman mode, releasing chamber orchestra and country folk albums, so it’s easy to forget what a scrappy, literate punk rocker he was back in the day.

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Song of the Day #3,228: ‘The Cage’ – Travis

The Scottish band Travis put out a few lovely albums in the late 90s and early 00s, the best of which was probably 2001’s The Invisible Band.

That album is chock full of beautiful, fragile tracks like today’s Song of the Day, ‘The Cage.’ Lead singer/songwriter Fran Healy has a knack for penning aching choruses that make perfect use of his distinctive tenor voice.

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