Shouldn't have put off voting, cause I ended up missing it. Wouldn't have tipped the scales anyway, but I wanted to give some love to Hello Shitty. The absolute perfect intro song to the able. Short, fast, sudden, and over before you understand what happened. Montauk vs. Dear Tragedy Something about Dear Tragedy has worn on me a bit over time. I'm not sure why, maybe it's just a little too long. Montauk isn't one of my favorites either (I would have chosen Evelyn over it), but I'll never get enough of the opening guitar or the dual guitar parts during the instrumental. Devotion and Desire vs. They Looked Like Strong Hands I love both these ones. Strong Hands is extremely powerful. But I'm trying to separate myself from the fact that D&D is over played, and when I do, I can't get past the fact that it's one of my favorites and is just the epitome of a great Bayside song. We’ll Be O.K. vs. Don’t Call Me Peanut Happy We'll Be O.K. got some love here, it's often overlooked and it deserves some recognition for sure, but Don't Call Me Peanut is a masterpiece of an acoustic track. Somehow manages to be entirely different than the rest of the album while maintaining that "it" factor that makes it Bayside. I love the dynamics of the lyrics too. I can't relate to 95% of Bayside lyrics because I've never been in a relationship, but I can still relate to that feeling of powerless in a situation, more so than the usual angry/resentful lyrics that Bayside usually has in store their ex's.
Montauk - 8 Dear Tragedy - 5 Devotion and Desire - 6 They Looked Like Strong Hands - 7 We’ll Be O.K. - 4 Don’t Call Me Peanut - 9
Montauk Devotion and Desire We’ll Be O.K. Montauk vs. Dear Tragedy was a tough one for me right off the bat. Montauk's chorus is so catchy. One the flip side, Dear Tragedy is a great ending to the album and the final minute or so of the song is a highlight for me. I think that Dear Tragedy is probably the "better" song here, but my vote goes to Montauk just because I prefer it a touch more. Devotion and Desire vs. They Looked Like Strong Hands is another unfortunate matchup (I think there are going to be a lot of unfortunate matchups going forward!). I'm going to give the edge to Devotion and Desire. I know that a lot of people are burnt out by seeing it live so many times, but I haven't seen them a ton so I haven't had that problem. It was one of the first songs of theirs that I was exposed to so I'm sure that factors into my decision making. Anyway, I think that Devotion and Desire is worthy of advancing to the next round, but I certainly wouldn't be upset if They Looked Like Strong Hands advanced. We'll Be O.K. vs. Don't Call Me Peanut was very easy for me.
Montauk - 9 Dear Tragedy - 5 Devotion and Desire - 7 They Looked Like Strong Hands - 7 We’ll Be O.K. - 5 Don’t Call Me Peanut - 9
Montauk - 9 Dear Tragedy - 7 Devotion and Desire - 8 They Looked Like Strong Hands - 8 We’ll Be O.K. - 5 Don’t Call Me Peanut - 11
Montauk Strong Hands OK Bummed about losing OK, but I get it. Really aren’t any bad choices with this record, whole thing is bangers
That will do it for this round! Devotion and Desire gets eliminated in a nail-biter! Final scores: Montauk - 10 Dear Tragedy - 7 Devotion and Desire - 8 They Looked Like Strong Hands - 9 We’ll Be O.K. - 6 Don’t Call Me Peanut - 11
SELF-TITLED ROUND 3 _________ Montauk vs. Blame It on Bad Luck Don’t Call Me Peanut vs. They Looked Like Strong Hands
Montauk vs. Blame It on Bad Luck Now it’s time for me to take back what I’ve said about Montauk the first two rounds. I enjoy it more than I do Bad Luck, so it gets my vote. Don’t Call Me Peanut vs. They Looked Like Strong Hands As iconic as Peanut is, Strong Hands hits me in a way that few songs do.
Really surprised to see Devotion and Desire lose in that round. This round is quite hard, although, tbh, I'm not sure I really love any of these songs. I think i enjoy this album more as a whole than its individual songs, if that makes sense. Anyway: Montauk (overplayed, yes, but still probably my favorite on the album) Strong Hands
Montauk vs. Blame It on Bad Luck That dancey beat of Blame can't over come the chorus and bridge solo of Montauk Don’t Call Me Peanut vs. They Looked Like Strong Hands Hands just for being overall a more interesting song