TISL vs. IYD Track by Track Day Four
 

Annabel Lee sent Sorcerer packing. Now it's on to the serious matchup: Planets of the Universe vs. Moonlight (A Vampire's Dream). Both are from beloved demos. Both have a similar chord progression. Both finished versions have polarizing fanbases. Which one will end up on top?

I enjoy both songs, but the deciding factors were these:
1. Planets was on constant repeat the Summer of 2001. I blasted it out of my stereo driving all over town, singing at the top of my lungs. 'YOU WILL NEVER RULE AGAIN THE WAY YOU RULED ME!!!!'
2. As much as I love Moonlight, I can never get past Stevie using Twilight as inspiration.

With both songs I vastly prefer the demos, both the Rumours one and Lady From The Mountains respectively...

But Moonlight just edges this, Planets suffers on the album from having some of the more angry parts cut.

this is about as close to a draw as it can get.I went with Moonlight but if we are talking the full length Planets on the CD remix single I might have to change it up.

I prefer the demo to Planets, so I chose Moonlight (although I love LFTM as well).

This kills me to say, but POTU has not aged well for me. The production feels muddled & a bit overproduced. And Stevie vocal, esp. on the 1st verse, sounds very dirge-y.(much like many of her vocal performances on TISL) I still prefer the extended version with the killer essential angry third verse. It's still one of the highlights of that record though.

On the other hand Stevie sails through the vocal on "Moonlight", I still get chills listening to her soft, yet powerful nuanced vocal. And it was refreshing to have Stevie's demo piano part front & center. Overall the production has a lot of space and is not too cluttered. Not to mention Stevie nailed this song with that KILLER new chorus. I still swoon listening to "Moonlight".

I simply can not choose between these two. This is the toughest match-up ever

To me POTU contains some of the most powerfully self-reflective lyrics in Stevie's catalog:

Now I know...
I was wrong to live for a dream.
If I had my life to live over,
I would never dream.

Yeah, I don't like the fact that she rhymes "dream" with "dream." But you can't deny that those words came from a very, very dark and real place. Nothing in "Moonlight" approaches this level of honesty.

Planets Of The Universe, her Best '00 song!!!! No doubts
Regards!

never much cared for all the Lady from the Mountains (except for the newer demo MIKE BISE bought on EBAY and shared where "Strange" first became part of the demo" BUT, the vocal on MOONLIGHT is INCREDIBLE... so that wins for me... not because of the demo