#351 Best Album of 1989 Tournament: Week #19 Wrap-Up
Hey folks!
If the last completed week was #18, and we skipped a week, is this Week #19 or Week #20? I’m going with #19. Less confusing that way, I think.
No upsets this week. In fact, the only thing worth mentioning is that BLEACH did not dominate EARWIG, but EARWIG instead put up a respectable 51 votes against BLEACH’s 100. That’s a 66.2% winning percentage, and I (and I believe others) expected what we call a Pac-Man, which is when the pie chart generated by Google Forms looks like, well, a Pac-Man. (I define a Pac-Man as 80% winning percentage or higher, but you could go as low as 75%.) Anyway, EARWIG: officially Not Pac-Manned.
Next week, we have one more match in Round 2, and then Round 3 starts! Congratulations everyone, you did it. This also means we’re getting rrrrrreal close to the end, as there’s only 32 matches left once Round 3 hits. That’s about six weeks, which sounds like a lot of time, but trust me, it isn’t. I hope you’re enjoying this Best Album of 1989 tournament, because it won’t last much longer.
Also, now that we’ll be down to 32 albums left, that means it’ll be time for a Parade of the 32 Best Albums of 1989! My plan is to do the parade both on Bluesky and as a special newsletter, but we’ll see what life has in store.
BLEACH is one of my big 1989 faves, gets a LOVE rating, but here’s something for the haters:
— The Best Album of 1989 (@bestalbumbrackets.bsky.social) 2025-10-08T15:27:55.659Z
THE BEST ALBUM OF 1989 PREDICTION BRACKET TOP 20
The top three remains the same as last week, with CORNY at #1 (with five weeks at the top), Breathe! Breathe! Breathe! Breathe, You Bracket! at #2, and PRETTY much HATE tin MACHINE at #3. I do want to note that Strange Angels (Predicting Just For Me) moved up two notches to a new high of #4, and Partyman's Revenge moved up four to a new high of #9. Great job!
The biggest mover this week was Drink Milk, jumping back up six notches to #10, and IIRC has been yo-yo-ing across the chart all month. What will next week bring? We’ll find out soon enough. Also we have two debuts that are re-debuts: That one Turtles sample that got De La in trouble back in at #19, and Deep Dark Truthful Bracket reappearing at #20. Welcome back!
Finally, the biggest dropper this week was Lol Tolhurst is Johnny Ryall, falling ten big notches down to #15. And that was only from missing 2 of the 5 matches! That’s how cut-throat this chart is! We gained two brackets, but we lost two brackets: 6 Feet High and Drivin' N' Cryin’ (last week #18) and We Started the Fire (last week #20) both fall off the chart. Hope to see you again soon!
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS
On Monday, #14 The Jesus and Mary Chain, AUTOMATIC vs. #78 3rd Bass, THE CACTUS ALBUM, 105-31-1. (137 total votes, +74)
On Tuesday, #19 Neneh Cherry, RAW LIKE SUSHI vs. #46 Steve Reich, DIFFERENT TRAINS/ELECTRIC COUNTERPOINT, 80-51. (131 total votes, +29)
On Wednesday, #6 Nirvana, BLEACH vs. #59 Blake Babies, EARWIG, 100-51. (151 total votes, +49)
On Thursday, #27 Fine Young Cannibals, THE RAW & THE COOKED vs. #38 Tears for Fears, THE SEEDS OF LOVE, 84-46-1. (131 total votes, +38)
On Friday, #11 Fugazi, 13 SONGS vs. #75 Nomeansno, WRONG, 107-48-1. (156 votes, +59)
NEXT WEEK’S MATCHES
Monday, October 13th: #22 Neil Young, FREEDOM vs. #43 Spacemen 3, PLAYING WITH FIRE.
End of Round 2! Round 3 Begins!
Tuesday, October 14th: #1 Pixies, DOOLITTLE vs. #97 The D.O.C., NO ONE CAN DO IT BETTER.
Wednesday, October 15th: #16 Galaxie 500, ON FIRE vs. #17 Faith No More, THE REAL THING.
Thursday, October 16th: #8 N.W.A, STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON vs. #25 Prince, BATMAN.
Friday, October 17th: #9 Tom Petty, FULL MOON FEVER vs. #41 Mekons, THE MEKONS ROCK N' ROLL.
Thanks for the great week of matches!
Kent