#114 The Best Album of 2000 Match #56: Sade vs. Q and Not U
Hey folks!
Today’s Best Album of 2000 match is:
#46 Sade, LOVERS ROCK
Listen on Spotify or YouTube
vs.
#83 Q and Not U, NO KILL BEEP BEEP
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To vote, follow this link to the Google Form. You will need a Google login to vote. If you can’t or won’t have one, let me know ASAP (either through this newsletter, my email (kentmbeeson@hey.com) or on the Best Album Brackets Bluesky account) and I’ll see what I can do.
We have a Designated Cheerleader today! It’s for NO KILL BEEP BEEP and it’s from @robbiebuffalo.bsky.social! Take it away!
The early shoegaze scene was once described as "the scene that celebrates itself." The DC punk scene would be... the opposite of that? When I think of DC punk I think of its anti-corporate/commercial stance, as well as bands coming together and immolating within an incredible short period of time. If we were playing Hipster Family Feud, and "DC punk bands" was the prompt, Fugazi would undoubtedly be the top answer by far. However, for me, the album that best exemplifies the DC punk sound would be Q and Not U's NO KILL NO BEEP BEEP (perhaps uncoincidentally released on Ian MacKaye's Dischord label). Even if all of the elements are familiar here, the songs are well-crafted, catchy, and ultimately a ton of fun.
Opening track "Line in the Sand" pretty much gives you everything you'll get on this album. Dueling guitars that are angular, jagged, and dissonant, often sounding like they are careening off in completely different directions before knitting themselves together, only to go bouncing away chaotically again. Dueling vocalists who alternate between singing and shouting that keep the songs propelling forward. A rhythm section that at times sounds like it's holding it all together, and at other times sounds like it only wants to contribute further to the chaos of it all. And it all ends in a unison of handclaps!
The album keeps going at breakneck speed, only letting the listener come up for air at around the halfway point (on "Kiss Distinctly American") and again with the closing song ("Sleeping the Terror Code'). I have a hard time picking another highlight, but my next favorite song after the opener is probably the penultimate track "Nine Things Everybody Knows." However, part of what I love is that there is no filler or momentum-killer along the way, just great song after great song.
Q and Not U would make another two albums after this one (making them a long-running band for the scene that birthed them) - both are fantastic but go in completely different directions from their debut. Thankfully we have NO KILL NO BEEP BEEP as a glorious archetype of what a DC punk album can be.
Thank you, @robbiebuffalo.bsky.social!
As always, click here to see the current results for the entire tournament, and click here to see the current results for the prediction bracket contest.
Yesterday, #19 Deltron 3030, DELTRON 3030 defeated #110 Black Box Recorder, THE FACTS OF LIFE, 66-19.
Thanks again, and be sure to vote today! I mean in the U.S. elections, not here. But here too. But if you don’t live in America, then — you know what, you get it.
Kent