March 2, 2025

#205 End of 2000, Beginning of 1989

Hey folks,

I hope you enjoyed the Best Album of 2000 tournament, especially if you were new to it this year. If you’re an old hand, you know this tournament was a little odd, having to be moved from Twitter and split up into a Bluesky account, nearly 150 Google Forms, and this newsletter. I think overall, though, it was successful.

But I’d like to hear from you as well. If you have ideas for improvements, or for anything at all, let me know on Bluesky (@bestalbumbrackets.bsky.social or @kentmbeeson.bsky.social), via email (kentmbeeson@hey.com) or in the comment section below. (Since I won’t know the address for this newsletter until I publish it, go here and find newsletter #205.)

So let’s talk a little about the next tournament, The Best Album of 1989. The first thing you need to know is I’m taking at least a month off, lol. Running the tournaments on Twitter could be a little tiring; here, for each match, I have to set up a Google form, write a newsletter, and then put it up on Bluesky. It’s work! I can barely believe it myself, but it’s true. So having a month where I don’t have to make the donuts make the matches every morning is, well, it’s very inviting is what it is. Anyway, you can all use that month to get caught up as far as you can on the 1989 releases.

Now, I’m not going to be completely radio silent. I’ll still be on Bluesky, and I will still put out this newsletter, once every weekend. I’ll be highlighting my personal favorite 1989 releases, as well as stuff you the voters have clued me into. I’ll also be keeping you up to date on how the forthcoming tournament is progressing.

So here’s how the tournament is put together. (That I don’t have this permanently written down somewhere so I can cut/paste it is a black mark on career as a tournament-runner.)

1. Everyone sends in their nominations for the 1989 tournament. This list can be as long as you like. The nomination phase is open for at least a week, usually about two.

2. I collate that data. Each nomination counts as a vote. I list all the albums from most votes to least. There can only be 128 albums in the tournament, so what usually happens is, for example, the first 113 albums have 8 or more nomination votes, but if I drop the threshold to 7 more nomination votes, then I have 145 qualifying albums. That’s more than 128, so the first 113 get in, and I have 15 open slots. (This is where the prize winners from the previous tournament get their prizes.) Point being, a certain number of albums are entered into the tournament at this point.

3. Those initial albums that are entered into the tournament are then announced in a “parade,” which means a thread on Bluesky, but now that I have a newsletter, it will be here as well.

4. Sometime after the parade, I do what I call the Guessing Game, where people get one chance to guess the top three vote-getters in order. The winner gets to pick a qualifying album to put in the tournament (if slots are available).

5. There’s usually a bit of a break here, because there are open slots that need to be filled, most of them by contest winners. Contacting winners can be difficult, and then actually choosing a single album can be difficult as well. However, some winners sometimes already know exactly what they’re going to select. Generally, though, they can’t really pick anything until after the parade and can see what’s already made it in.

6. At some point, all 128 slots are filled, and then we move onto the second phase: seed voting. I set up a Google Form with all 128 albums, and you click the box for every album you want to vote for and give a high seed to. This phase I try to keep to about a week — the choices are more constrained, and by this time there’s a feeling of “get on with it!”

7. Once all the votes are in, I collate again, and the album with the most votes is seed #1, the second most is seed #2, and so on down the line. There are often plenty of ties, and lately I’ve been doing instant tie-breaking by comparing the albums to an already-written ranked list of my favorites. (Usually, the difference between, say, seed #46 and #47 isn’t significant.) However, if there is a tie for seed #1 (there never has been), that will be decided by the voters in a special election.

8. Next, I announce the seeds in a parade, like with the nominations. At this point, I open up the Prediction Bracket contest, so people can fill out brackets and hope to win a chance at selecting an album for the next tournament (2001?). The Prediction Bracket is open for a week, again because “get on with it!”

9. Then, once the Prediction Brackets have closed, the tournament starts.

   So, what’s that look like on a calendar? Something like this, but this is all subject to change. Stay tuned for future updates.

   April 7 - April 21: Nomination period

   April 22 - April 27: Collating the nomination votes

   April 28: Nomination Parade

   April 30: The Guessing Game (instead of immediately after the parade, so people who get their info just from the newsletter have a chance to participate)

   May 1 - May 11: Contest winners get their picks in, rest of slate filled out

   May 12 - May 18: Seed voting

   May 19: collate the seed voting (it’s usually pretty instantaneous, already laid out for me)

   May 20: Seed parade

   May 20 - May 25: Prediction Brackets open (same day as parade)

   May 26: The Best Album of 1989 tournament starts with seed #1 vs seed #128.

   That’s a lot of information! Hopefully not too much. If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact me via the three methods mentioned back in paragraph 2. Have a great March, and get out and listen to some 1989 albums!

   Kent