Hey folks!

Today’s Best Album of 2001 match is:

#56 Spiritualized, LET IT COME DOWN

Listen on Spotify or YouTube

vs.

#73 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, B.R.M.C.

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 from @spacedan.bsky.social, and it’s for LET IT COME DOWN. Please note, CW: suicidal ideation in the lyrics quoted. Take it away, Dan!

I didn't want to write this because honestly how do you talk about an album so suffused in addiction, suicide ideation and self harm when you yourself don't have any real experience of those things, at least not to the extent of our man Jason here.

“I don't want to live but I can't resist,” he says, just plainly putting it out there. There's no shame, no showboating about how sad he is, no boasting about living on the edge. It's like when Murderbot says they're not making a threat, just telling you what's going to happen.

So anyway, this is around the time of my peak Spiritualitized fandom and it's the straightforward almost naive attitude that hooked me. It's like, you can feel sad without feeling sad about it. Or you can be self aware and honest that your behaviour is self destructive but what if it’s the thing that makes life worth living. I love the lack of performance, there’s no character being played, no dressing himself up as something he’s not.

Though this album also has an edge. On Ladies And Gentlemen, Jason is mostly blissed out, revelling in the highs, trying to convey that pure joy to us. An album later and he's railing against the comedown, not only saying no to rehab but laying into the whole concept. He's the Spiderman meme: but I don't want to cure myself, I want to take the drugs!

Obviously it doesn't end well. “I believe I’m damaged, I believe that I’m wrong, I believe my time ain’t long” he sings on the penultimate song. Again, there’s no melodrama, it’s just a statement of where he’s heading, a journey that will end up with near death and Songs in A&E.

And to pick up on where I started. I don’t believe that great art requires great suffering or we should celebrate damaged personalities. I just love the simple honesty of this music and a voice to say that yes it’s ok to feel like this.

Thank you, Dan!

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, #9 Spoon, GIRLS CAN TELL defeated #120 Opeth, BLACKWATER PARK, 151-87.

Thanks,

Kent