Hey folks!

Today’s Best Album of 2001 match is:

F#24 The Coup, PARTY MUSIC

Listen on Spotify or YouTube

vs.

#105 Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, THE SWIMMING HOUR

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 dueling Designated Cheerleader todays! First up, for PARTY MUSIC, it’s @renamj.bsky.social. Take it away, Rena!

2001 was the year that I started getting deeper into music. Sure, I had always liked music and grew up watching music videos. But now I was reading reviews on AllMusic and posting on message boards (I was 17 and something of a late bloomer in this regard). I remember when year-end "Best of" lists were released for the greatest albums of 2001 according to critics, featuring acclaimed albums like The Strokes' Is This It?, Bob Dylan's Love and Theft, The White Stripes' White Blood Cells, etc. But there was one list I recall, maybe a record store newsletter, that had The Coup's Party Music. At that time, I had never heard of the leftist hip-hop group from Oakland. The original cover from June 2001 depicted Boots Riley and Pam the Funkstress blowing up the World Trade Center(!!!). After 9/11, the band created a second cover for the album with a flaming martini glass. Boots Riley on the original album cover after September 11:

"There's been a whitewash in the media over the past couple days over what the U.S.'s role in the world is, and the fact that they kill hundreds of thousands of people per year to protect profit. Now how can I get to the point where I could be saying that on the world stage, and interrupt the lies that CBS, CNN, NBC, and everyone is saying? In my view, that [would be] by keeping the cover. Not because I think by looking at the cover you get all of this message that I'm telling you, but as a way to have a platform to interrupt the stream of lies that are being told right now."

I didn't actually hear Party Music, my first Coup album, until years later but I instantly became a fan. It features some of their very best songs - "Everythang," "Wear Clean Draws," "Ride the Fence," "Heven Tonite." It is fiercely political and makes for an ideal soundtrack while living in the hellscape that is America in 2026, with lyrics addressing late capitalism, social justice, and racism. Worth a listen even if the music itself (West Coast funk/hip-hop/R&B) isn't exactly in your wheelhouse. Donald Trump is even mentioned by name! There is a track titled "5 Million Ways to Kill a C.E.O.," long before Luigi Mangione and the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. But my favorite lyrics are from "Heven Tonite":

"Let's make health care centers on every block
Let's give everybody homes and a garden plot
Let's give all the schools books
Ten kids a class
And give 'em truth for their pencils and pads
Retail clerk - 'love ballads' where you place this song
Let's make heaven right here
Just in case they wrong"

Look, I know everything is so terrible right now. It's impossible to read the news without falling into despair. But I sincerely hope like-minded people can work on building a better world.

Pam the Funkstress sadly passed away in 2017, and Boots Riley is now a director who made the arthouse black comedy Sorry to Bother You and the upcoming I Love Boosters featuring Demi Moore. I'm glad I got to see The Coup over a decade ago at Brooklyn Bowl - they put on a great live show! And we'll always have Party Music.

Thank you, Rena!

Next up, for THE SWIMMING HOUR, it’s @guerrieroc.bsky.social. Take it away, guerrieroc!

Until 26 August of last year, I had never heard of Andrew Bird. How can I be so certain of the date? That’s the day that the Spotify algorithm served up a song of his called “Capsized” from his 2016 album ARE YOU SERIOUS. It starts with a blast of distorted guitar and a violin. The vocals start at 0:26. Before the track hit the one-minute mark, I had already downloaded it. Then I listened to the rest of the album. That Saturday the 30th, we prepared a BBQ at our place and I played ARE YOU SERIOUS while grilling. After a few tracks, my wife asked me what we were listening to. She liked it.

Why am I going into so much detail about the dates? Well, the very next day, 31 August, our fearless leader, Kent, published his newsletter #319 “My Favorite 2001 Albums (Since 2001, more or less).” And the second entry in that newsletter (we shan’t mention the first!) was Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire, THE SWIMMING HOUR. What an interesting coincidence!

The very next day, Monday morning coffee in hand, I decided to give this ’01 disc a try. Would I like it as much as I had liked his 2016 effort?  What can I tell you? By the time the jamming starts at 1:10 on the opening track, “Two Way Action,” I was already downloading it.

Kent’s writeup in the newsletter suggests that this is an eclectic album. Let me second that, my friends.

Do you like smoky jazz? Try track 3, “Why.” Do you like the soundtrack to “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” Track 6, “Too Long,” will be your jam. Are you an R&B fan? Put on N° 10, “Satisfied” and crank up the volume. And if you really want to rock out, please do yourself a favor and put on “How Discreet” (N° 12).  It’s a 50’s rocker with 60’s keyboard and a scorching violin solo as the musicians all start freaking out in the very best way imaginable. For my money, one of the Best Songs of 2001.

Within one week, Andrew Bird had gone from a complete unknown to one of the artists I was listening to the most, when I wasn’t discovering other music as part of my Tourney Prep. (BTW, SWIMMING HOUR, too, received the coveted seal of approval from my better half.)

And there’s the thing about Bird: once you do recognize him, you start to notice him all over the place. The man is nothing if not prolific.  In ’01 alone he played on a Neko Case EP; played violin, viola and sung on Jenny Toomey’s ANTIDOTE (which, alas! only received 13 nominations and didn’t make the bracket; do listen to it, it’s fantastic); and appears in the credits of three more albums according to Rate Your Music.

You can go down an “Andrew Bird Rabbit Hole” and lose yourself for days listening to his compositions, the albums he collaborated on, the soundtracks, etc. I know because I’ve done it.

(Ever seen the 2011 movie “The Muppets?” Bird voices / whistles the part of Caruso and performs a truly beautiful version of “Bein’ Green” on THE MUPPETS: THE GREEN ALBUM. A bunch of other material he wrote for the movie that didn’t get used formed the basis for his 2012 album, BREAK IT YOURSELF).

Anyway, you don’t need to know any of that to enjoy THE SWIMMING HOUR. I certainly didn’t know that when I pressed play the first time and was immediately smitten by “Two Way Action”.

Life is tough in the Brackets; this is seeded N° 105 (which seems a gross misjustice to me. I mean, did you not listen to this, my friends?) and it’s up against N° 24 The Coup’s PARTY MUSIC which, wow: it hits hard from the very first song, it’s brilliant, sadly just as topical in 2026 as it was in 2001. I think it will go far this Tourney.

So I have no illusions that Andrew Bird will make it into the next round, but I’m hoping that some of you will be just as enchanted by THE SWIMMING HOUR as I was upon first listen.

And, my God, shout out to OneTruePoster for a truly demented “A.I.” cover for this album. You should listen to this album just for that.

Thank you, @guerrieroc.bsky.social! And scroll down to the bottom if you want to see the “A.I.” cover for THE SWIMMING HOUR. It’s… something else!

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, #56 Spiritualized, LET IT COME DOWN defeated #73 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, B.R.M.C., 110-86-6.

Thanks,

Kent