Hey folks!

As you ponder the N*E*R*D question (and then, ideally, go here and register an opinion), some good news: we’re officially entering five new albums into the Best Album of 2001 tournament!

Four of these albums are from contest winners, and one is an Editor’s Choice (i.e., me grabbing one of the open slots for myself).

Before I parade them before you, a note that I will repeat at the end: This is essentially homework. I am assigning you homework. I genuinely expect everyone to at least sample these, if not listen all the way through. Seed voting is coming up soon, and seeding has been very important, historically, and also historically, albums that get entered in at the very end tend to do poorly. If they do poorly because people don’t like them, fine. But I don’t want them to do poorly because no one listened to them.

Here are the five new albums officially entered as of today:

Les Savy Fav, GO FORTH (Spotify, YouTube)

Sophie Ellis-Bextor, READ MY LIPS (Spotify, YouTube)

Whiskeytown, PNEUMONIA (Spotify, YouTube)

Firewater, PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY (Spotify, YouTube)

Margo Guryan, 25 DEMOS (Spotify, YouTube)

Two newsletters ago, I asked about Deep Dark Truthful Bracket, who came in 3rd in the Prediction Bracket proper, who also won a prize pick. (3rd place won a prize here because the 2nd place winner in the Prediction Bracket was the 1st placed winner in the Prediction Bracket Longevity Points division, and only one winner per tournament category.) ANYWAY, they got in contact with me! They’re still thinking over their choice, but I’m sure we’ll learn it soon enough.

If my math is correct, this leaves six open slots, with the possibility of a seventh, depending on how the N*E*R*D situation resolves. Still considering what to do there, but I’ll let you know now that I’m moving away from a mini-tournament — mostly because I’m just not sure I’m 100% up for it. It would take less energy to simply just dole out the picks. Still got time though, so if you’ve got opinions, I’ve got an ear, so let me know what you think.

Finally, PLEASE LISTEN TO THE ALBUMS ABOVE. I’ve capitalized, italicized, underlined and bolded that sentence, so you know it’s important.

More soon!

Kent