#206 What can YOU do to help with the Best Album of 1989 tournament?
Hey folks!
Hope everyone has enjoyed the first non-tournament week we’ve had in a long time. I know I have!
You no doubt can see that I’ve asked a big question in the title of this post, and I’ll answer it at the bottom. But first, I need to build up to it.
As I mentioned last week, March is the month to listen to as many 1989 releases as you can to prep for the nomination phase for the Best Album of 1989 tournament. (You could start 1989 March month by listening to 1989’s MARCH this month.) But if you’re not into Michael Penn, then where else can you start? Well, here is the master list of 1989 titles in a Google sheet. It was started by me, has been added to by a number of contributors, and is currently being maintained though the good graces of @lanna.bsky.social.
Have fun with the list! Find some titles that sound intriguing and listen to them. Put them into a randomizer like @nanette.bsky.social is doing and listen to what comes up. (You can read Nanette’s thoughts on the albums on her blog!) However you want to do it.
One thing that @onetrueposter.bsky.social has done is surveyed the entirety (and I mean the entirety) of hard rock, prog, metal and extreme metal and posted their findings here at The One True Hub. I strongly suggest taking a look and listening to, say, the top 5 of each category. (The comments and rankings are just fun to read, as well.)
So those are two things you can do to help with the Best Album of 1989 tournament: pick albums off the Master List and listen to them, and/or check out @onetrueposter.bsky.social’s recommendations. But here’s a third thing you can do, which is essentially just combining the first two ideas:
You could pick a genre or area (for example: country, hiphop, funk, jazz, classical), listen to as many of those albums as you can, and then report back what the rest of us should check out.
You don’t have to go as deep as One True Poster — I think even OTP would say that way lies madness — but get a decent number under your belt, and separate the wheat from the chaff. Maybe that’s one album, maybe it’s ten. The thing is, there are too many albums in 1989 for any one person to go through. (Some of us will read that and want to challenge it; tamp down on those feelings.) If everyone ventured out like a musicologist astronaut and brought back what they found valuable, I think it would go a long way towards bringing more diverse and varied albums to the tournament. (I genuinely believe one of these days we’re going to find slept-on album and it’s going to take the tournament by storm.)
If you do this, let me know either via @bestalbumbrackets.bsky.social, my email kentmbeeson@hey.com, or in the comments of this newsletter (go here and find post #206). I’ll post what you find for everyone, including me, to check out.
Thanks everyone! Can’t wait to listen to what you find!
Kent