Hey folks,

The following is the introduction to a new survey I put up on Google Forms. The introduction is repeated on the form, so if you read it here, feel free to skip it on the form. After the introduction, be sure to hit the button at the bottom to go to the survey proper. Thanks!

I hope you’ve been enjoying the Best Album Brackets, whether you’re just joining us or been here since the beginning, all the way back in 2015. I have some questions to ask, the answers to which I hope will guide me in my decisions about where to steer this thing called Best Album for the near future.

As you may or may not be aware, I currently determine the surveyed year by a system I kind of fell into bass-ackwards. The first year we did was 1995, then, for the second year, I went to 1996… and then to 1994. From there, I kept alternating back and forth, ’93, ’97, and so on. We’ve now left the ‘90s, and are currently flip-flopping between the ‘80s and the ‘00s, having recently completed 2000 and 1989. We’re starting 2001 now, and if the pattern holds, we’ll do 1988 next, then 2002, then 1987, then 2003, et cetera et cetera et cetera. 

The main question I bring to you today is: does this pattern still serve us? 

Maybe it does! Maybe it’s as simple as that. If we just want to keep going back and forth like we’ve been doing, I’m happy to continue. It certainly means I won’t have to think about (or invent new bespoke systems to determine) how to answer the basic question “what year are we doing?” 

So until recently, I assumed we would be doing 1988. 1988! Great year. (Granted, I lived through it.) Public Enemy, Prince, Metallica, They Might Be Giants, Jane’s Addiction, Eazy-E, Pixies, just to name a few. Should be as fun, if not moreso, than any other given year. 

However, some things have come up that have thrown a wrench in my thinking. The first is that a follower on Bluesky brought up the idea of doing 1977, in an almost random way. I would’ve just let it pass, but out of curiosity, I did a search for the best albums of 1977, just to get a sense of what might be in play. And what I found knocked me on my butt. 

Here’s the list of “best 1977 albums” that got me salivating at the prospect of surveying it. A précis: blockbusters like RUMOURS, THE STRANGER, and the SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER soundtrack; punk milestones like THE CLASH, PINK FLAG, NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS..., ROCKET TO RUSSIA; major reggae releases like EXODUS, POLICE & THIEVES, EQUAL RIGHTS, and HEART OF THE CONGOS; debuts like MY AIM IS TRUE, PETER GABRIEL, CHEAP TRICK, and TALKING HEADS: 77; career highlights like AJA, MARQUEE MOON, LUST FOR LIFE and HEAVY WEATHER; and of course, both LOW and “HEROES.”  And really, that’s just scratching the surface, and not taking into any unheralded discoveries I or anyone else might make while surveying the year. 

That sounds like a hard sell, and I don’t intend it that way. I just want you to marvel, like I did, at the amount of excellence on display. Most years we survey struggle to land more than about ten really historic, year-defining albums; 1977 has more like four times that amount. Is that a reason to do it? I don’t know. (It could be a reason to not do it. Maybe not every year needs Best Album’s hands all over it.) 

The second thing that threw a wrench into my thinking was another follower suggesting that we do a year that’s much, much more recent — in a sense, go "the opposite of 1977" route. The reasoning is sound: most of the time, the big, critically-acclaimed albums of any given year suck up all the oxygen and the top seeds, and the bracket becomes a countdown to a preordained conclusion. (I mean, I dispute that it’s preordained, but at the same time, yeah, often the obvious winner wins obviously.) Surveying a more recent year could potentially disrupt that. It’s not always obvious what the major albums actually are, and the rigid consensus that happens over decades has yet to occur. (Potentially, we could be the ones to help formulate that consensus.) 

So I’m not opposed to doing a much more recent year, say, somewhere in the range of 2015-2021, I guess? 2010-2026 is going to all the same to me. I kind of stopped engaging with popular music, save metal, from about 2007 on. (Why? Kids.) And dipping into it, via vectors like Tom Breihan’s Number Ones column in Stereogum, I find I’m often baffled by what’s actually popular. For one, I don’t really understand hiphop in this era, two minutes of sub-Eno soundscapes without a chorus. (On Nappy Roots’ 2002 single “Awnaw,” Fish Scales raps “My first song was like 48 bars with no hook.” You were about a decade too early, Fish Scales.) But that’s my problem! I’m sure I’ll find what appeals to me. But I’ll need guidance if we go here. (Except for metal. I got that covered. I’ll guide you.) 

I don’t mean to end this on a bum note, but I think I, and we, must engage with what this whole question is really about: I probably, realistically, only have about 13-15 tournaments left before I exit the stage in a permanent way, if ya dig. (And that’s if I’m lucky!). That may sound like a lot but if, for example, we were to decide to commit to the entirety of the ‘80s, plus a Best of the ‘80s, that’s 10 tournaments right there. It’s depressing to think of it in these terms, but it does suggest that some thought should go into what those 13-15 tournaments are going to be.

So what are they going to be? 

I hope you fill out the survey — it’s three multiple choice questions (with options for write-ins) and a space for comments. If you’d like to, go here to fill out the survey. Thanks!

Kent