Oh crap, I didn't realize that I forgot to post this last week! Sorry guys! (They say the mind is the first thing to go, and they might be right. Damn the bastards!)
This one was close for a little while, before the eventual winner pulled away in a late landslide.
Here's what I had to say:
Might be just me this year, or the fact that the first round is longer than usual, but I'm not feeling a lot of these albums as much as I usually do. In any event:
The Collegium Musicum album really isn't my style. I already mentioned that I didn't like a lot of the way they used the keyboards throughout (and I usually love keyboards) - for example, the harsh, church organ part. I also wasn't thrilled with the vocalist. There were little flourishes here and there that I enjoyed, but by and large, this LP just wasn't for me.
The Kollektiv LP also had long passages that went right by me. (There is a lot of jazz in both of these albums.) But it felt more varied. (In this case, the extra length might have actually helped.) And I liked a lot of the little flute flourishes. I also liked some of the Allman-Brothers-sounding guitar parts on the track at about the 54-minute mark. On the whole, I enjoyed it more.
So my vote goes to Kollektiv.
Apparently the majority of my fellow participants agreed with me.
Final Result: Collegium Musicum 5, Kollektiv 12.
