Hey folks!

Today’s Best Album of 2001 match is:

#4 Daft Punk, DISCOVERY

Listen on Spotify or YouTube

vs.

#125 Tipsy, UH-OH!

Listen on Spotify or YouTube

To vote, follow this link to the Google Form. You will need a Google login to vote. If you can’t or won’t have one, let me know ASAP (either through this newsletter, my email [kentmbeeson@hey.com] or on the Best Album Brackets Bluesky account) and I’ll see what I can do.

We have one Designated Cheerleader today, it’s for UH-OH!, and it’s from @renamj.bsky.social. Take it away, Rena!

Ever since I started following the Best Album Brackets, one of my favorite parts of the tournament is seeing which albums on the fringe make it into the final 128 (many of them don’t, for better or worse). The top seeds are a foregone conclusion and anything that isn’t indie, hip-hop, critically acclaimed and/or a landmark in its genre faces an uphill battle. But there are lesser-known passion picks that sneak in. In this tournament alone for the Best Album of 2001, we have k.’s New Problems, Gotan Project’s La Revancha del Tango, Lovage’s Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By, and the subject of this DC, Tipsy’s vibrant and underappreciated second album Uh-Oh! Honestly, I find these albums more interesting than many of the heavy hitters.

Consider Andrea Riseborough, the English actress who received a shocking Best Actress Oscar nomination in 2023 for the little-seen indie drama To Leslie. This was not without controversy, but she made the final five through grassroots support from actors who adored her performance. Most Oscar campaigning is about spending millions of dollars in marketing and Riseborough's film had a shoestring budget. But anyway, obviously not every album in these tournaments is a Meryl Streep that dominates the discourse. Some are Andrea Riseboroughs.

Tipsy is an experimental electronic group from San Francisco that is little known, especially in comparison to the biggest names in this tournament like Björk, The White Stripes, and their opponent in this match, Daft Punk. Uh-Oh! is currently #825 on the RateYourMusic ranked albums list for 2001, and you won't find it in many "Best Album of 2001" articles. I first heard about this album in the Best Album community on Bluesky and when I gave it a spin, I was immediately won over by this hidden gem.

Looking back, 2001 was a drab and grey era in many ways, and not just musically. Uh-Oh! is anything but - it is colorful and ALIVE! The album cover is a pretty good indicator of what this sounds like, clearly indebted to exotica and ‘60s pop while still thoroughly modern. AllMusic called this "the aural equivalent of a lava lamp,” not an insult in my opinion. You could listen to this while reading or writing, or play it in the background at a kitschy tiki party. It is also pleasant and fairly accessible, especially for an electronic album with no lyrics. There are several challenging albums in this particular tournament but this is not one of them. Recommended if you like: Esquivel, Martin Denny, Pizzicato Five, Perrey and Kingsley, experimental electronic music, downtempo, trip hop, the Vampyros Lesbos soundtrack.

If you are reading this and you have never heard of Tipsy or this album, please give it a listen. I don't care if you are dead set on voting for Daft Punk. Listen to it anyway. You might love it! I recommend listening to Uh-Oh! via headphones if you can to better appreciate the wall of sound. Favorite tracks include "Papaya Freeway," the jubilant "Hey!," and the laid-back "Bunny Kick" but there are no duds. It is easily one of my favorite discoveries of 2001.

Anyway, so how can Best Album voters get more hidden gems into the tournament? This often happens by contest winners, who sometimes pick an obscure favorite. Tipsy just squeaked in by securing the minimum number of votes to qualify, as did k.'s lovely folk/indie album New Problems. I would recommend casting a wide net and listening to albums outside of your wheelhouse (you might be surprised!), doing research, and championing rare gems that you love. Tell your friends and mutuals. Post YouTube links. Sometimes one extra vote can mean the difference between getting in and being shut out. But anyway, discovery (like the acclaimed album Tipsy is up against) is key. Most importantly, the music will live on long after the tournament ends.

Thank you, Rena!

Click here to see the current results for the entire tournament, and click here to see the current results for the prediction bracket contest.

Yesterday, #25 Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, THE TYRANNY OF DISTANCE defeated #104 Converge, JANE DOE, 154-93-3.

Thanks,

Kent