Hey folks!

Today’s Best Album of 2001 match is:

#31 The Dismemberment Plan, CHANGE

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vs.

#98 De La Soul, AOI: BIONIX

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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 CHANGE, and it’s from @robbiebuffalo.bsky.social. Take it away, Robbie!

There are very few albums that I anxiously anticipated as much as CHANGE. I had bought The Dismemberment Plan's previous album EMERGENCY & I in early 2000 and became obsessed with it. Their crazy mix of DC punk/math rock, new wave, art rock, funk, soul, and even hip-hop sounded like nothing else to me. Singer/lyricist Travis Morrison is 10 years older than me, but his lyrics about navigating the confusion, angst, and general ridiculousness of your early to mid 20's resonated completely with me. I first saw the band in early 2001 and their live show blew me away. At the time they were playing a few songs that would end up on CHANGE. "Time Bomb" in particular stood out. I couldn't wait to hear what the whole album would sound like.

After getting the CD in the mail (this was 2001) I probably listened to CHANGE 10 times within the first few days. I wasn't quite sure what to think. It wasn't EMERGENCY & I but The Dismemberment Plan told you exactly that with the album title. They weren't trying to recreate EMERGENCY & I, but how could they? That album's unique alchemy would have been impossible to repeat. CHANGE does sand away the abrasiveness of their earlier work - there's nothing with the spazzy, manic craziness of "I Love A Magician" or "Girl O'Clock." But it still has all the hallmarks of the band's sounds - jittery, interlocking guitars, keyboards and synth that can be both squiggly and rhythmic, and the tightest, most creative rhythm section in indie rock. But it also adds a warmth and restraint to their music they hadn't displayed before.

"Time Bomb" did prove to be the most immediate song on the album. With its driving guitar and intense keyboards the song propels forward with increasing momentum while Morrison recounts all the ways he is a destructive force (a time bomb, poison, a trip wire, a fault line) before confessing that actually he's just "a lost soul" sending out a "cry for help." "Face of the Earth" is another song that wouldn't have been out of place on EMERGENCY & I, as Morrison describes an early relationship ending when the woman he's dating literally vanishes in front of his eyes. I've always loved how vivid Morrison's imagery is, as he sings about how "I freeze the look of pre-alert and study it still" before the woman is "jerked skywards, limbs flailing like an unloved marionette."

But it's the more subtle, introspective songs on CHANGE that I come back to the most now. Many of these songs are about accepting the limitations of who we are and what we can be but constantly striving to move forward anyways. The warm keyboards and jittery guitar of "Superpowers" convey exhaustion while Morrison sings "I guess you could call it Superpowers, but no one will change the world with what I've got." The static guitar solo that builds to the full band kicking in together is one of my favorite moments on the album. "Following Through" is a call to arms, as chiming guitars build to Morrison proclaiming "I can do it anywhere with anyone at any time, don't you forget this is my life and it's going to be good/not a promise or a threat or ultimatum, though i can do that too/I've just got this life, I've just got to live, I'm just following through." "The Other Side" wrestles with the day-to-day contradictions between the most casual interactions and the most serious relationships before resolving to keep pushing through. I went to pull my favorite line from the song as an example but found that I could take any line depending on what I'm feeling at the moment. The "Other Side" also features another insane, highlight performance from drummer Joe Easley. What I love so much about CHANGE is that so many of the songs include these types of incredible, unique musical elements while stuffed to the brim with literary or insightful lyrics.

The album ends with "Ellen and Ben", a song where our narrator describes the beginning, middle, and end of a relationship he observed. But what becomes clear as the song moves through its verses is that our narrator isn't telling us the story of Ellen and Ben, but how Ellen and Ben made him think about his own relationships. As the final verse makes clear what our narrator is really preoccupied with, the song's extended outro builds to a warm and satisfying conclusion to CHANGE.

It's easy to roll your eyes at a more "mature" sounding album as that often can mean that a band has lost their personality and tried to achieve a more mainstream sound. But CHANGE still sounds exactly like The Dismemberment Plan. Over time I've come to appreciate it for everything it is, rather than what it isn't.

Thank you, Robbie!

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, #66 Shakira, LAUNDRY SERVICE defeated #63 Pete Yorn, MUSICFORTHEMORNINGAFTER, 117-78-1.

Thanks,

Kent