Hey folks!

Today’s Best Album of 2001 match is:

#39 Guided By Voices, ISOLATION DRILLS

Listen on Spotify or YouTube

vs.

#90 They Might Be Giants, MINK CAR

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 Cheerleaders today! First up, for ISOLATION DRILLS, it’s @thehollar.bsky.social. Take it away, The Hollar!

What do you do when looking at an artist who is hopelessly prolific? Where to begin? Why not take a lesson from the hopelessly prolific, or possibly nike: don’t think that much, just do it. Which album is at hand? Why not try that one. Unless it is Vampire on Titus. Don’t start there.

Let’s start over. What you have here in your probably digital hands is fifteen tracks of the highest quality rock and roll. And also Frostman. Also congrats on having digital hands. You are the future unless we stop you. This album was the moment where the dream of becoming the world’s biggest rock band died forever for Guided by Voices, while also being the point where they were possibly the most capable of being the world’s biggest rock and roll band in their career. Clean recording, hooks for days. And also Frostman. Yes, I am a middle-aged white guy. Why do you ask?

You’ve made it to the third paragraph of whatever this thing is shaping up to be, so I feel I can now level with you, reader: This is probably not one of my ten favorite Guided by Voices albums, though I will acknowledge that I am a fanatic and that list is liable to change quicker than one of Pollard’s prog-oriented compositions. Do not get me started on extolling the virtues of his side projects. I do not get invited to parties. But do not take this as a knock on this album. Rather, this is a great album from one of the best bands of all time. I celebrate their whole catalog. And this one more than almost any other is a celebration of hooks. Also there is Frostman.

Not to throw shade like I’m about to, but what justice is there in a world where we got the Oprah’s Book Club of the Month platitudes of The Middle thrown at us from every available CVS speaker when Glad Girls is right there? Chasing Heather Crazy astounds within 15 seconds, and then it keeps on going. The Brides Have Hit Glass is the best country song ever written that has absolutely nothing to do with the country music genre, and no, I will not be taking questions on this subject.

The album before this, Do The Collapse, was GbV’s attempt to grasp the brass ring of success. And they missed it completely, though that album sounds better with every passing year. This was the album where it fell apart. The dream of mainstream success died, Pollard’s marriage crumbled, and things just kept in motion. Not everything needs to be a globe-conquering behemoth to be successful, no matter what silicon valley and the stock market tells us. Sometimes you just need a recording studio or 4-track, and above all else you needmore songs.

So please, come join us in the cult of Robert Pollard. You probably will not need to shave your head, learn to chant and sign blank checks. Just bring an appreciation of guitars and a belief that the number of melodies possible to sing over said guitars is infinite. Vote for this album. Crack open a beverage of your choice, leave your things in the street and run wild. Also there is Frostman.

Thank you, Hollar!

Next, for MINK CAR, and it’s from @puntrash.bsky.social. Take it away, Jakob!

September 11th had some incredibly successful records on release. The Blueprint was seen as a game-changer for hip hop, sporting the best rhymes from one of New York’s most exciting MCs who was beginning to reach legendary status, with its two main producers becoming household names immediately. Satellite was from a hot new metal band who established their success with a previous record and was able to reap further rewards with their follow-up. Rockin’ the Suburbs increased Ben Folds’ cult following which allowed him to break into the mainstream in the mid-aughts. Mink Car is a record released on that day which was viewed as a complete failure. It didn’t receive positive reviews from critics, it seemed like TMBG fans weren’t as into it as previous records, and it didn’t gain any new fans like the Malcolm in the Middle soundtrack released the previous year had done for them. The common story is that this album sold so little that it bankrupted Restless Records, the label that distributed it (fun fact: this was the second time the label had filed for bankruptcy). Whether or not it was the fault of this album alone or New Regency (the parent company)’s lack of interest in keeping a record label primarily known for left of the dial alternative acts afloat, especially as Napster and music streaming were only skyrocketing in relevance exponentially, that story was the nail in the coffin for Mink Car’s initial reception. To make matters worse, it became known as a “lost album” for a long time because they couldn’t get the record back in print. While They Might Be Giants would eventually bounce back and use their newfound success in children’s music to make more great albums, the sad truth is it wasn’t just 9/11 or the bankruptcy of Restless Records which made this album forgotten by non-TMBG superfans in the final months of 2001. It was because this is the most They Might Be Giants album. Not the best or the worst, but the most. Every good and bad idea that this record has is gonna be so upfront and in your face that it will definitely turn off even casual fans. But consider this from a TMBG superfan who has an opinion on all of their records: Mink Car rules.

While alternative rock had a pretty amazing year in 2001, it seemed like the non-nu metal/pop punk acts were moving in a scrappier, more minimalist direction, with many of its new stars taking influence directly from garage rock and the post-punk bands of the ‘70s. They Might Be Giants, who were known for their DIY ethos, decided to embrace a more maximalist sound for Mink Car. Take for example, the lead single, “Man, It’s So Loud in Here”. While originally a power pop track, producer Adam Schlesinger convinced them to make it a full-on dance song, adding a thumping electronic beat to match the lyrics all about feeling disconnected from the club because the music is too loud. I adore the groove, and John Linnell’s vocals somehow work over this pulse, even though you would never think of TMBG as a dance group unless they were playing “The Famous Polka”. The band isn’t trying to use these sounds to be cool or sell out, they see it as an experiment, a natural progression of their own sound, especially as they started out with drum machines on their earlier records. Why wouldn’t they eventually make a song in the vein of New Order? This song comes after two other favorite They Might Be Giants songs of mine that retain the quirkier lyrical sensibilities that the group is known for, “Bangs” and “Cyclops Rock”. Two more traditionally rock and power pop-esque tracks, one that’s essentially a riff on the film Vertigo, and one that’s about a cyclops getting his heart broken. These songs are also incredibly catchy, and the production makes them both sound incredibly rich.

But now we must get to the elephant in the room on this album, the one that’s considered to be one of the weakest TMBG songs period, “Mr. Xcitement”. A track that was originally designed to be an instrumental, with its sampled trombones, its turntable scratches already feeling very complete, but then they allowed Mike Doughty from Soul Coughing to rap on top of the track. It sounds incredibly bad, with such Moby-esque lyrics as “We nix the glaben / The knifey-knife is staben”. I can't say I quite like Soul Coughing as a group either, because the band had the same problem. Dope, creative instrumentals, but lyrics that sound like they were written on the first draft and a delivery that sounds like a quiet office worker had too much to drink at the company Christmas party and someone gave him a microphone for karaoke. They Might Be Giants have dabbled with hip-hop in their career, their wordier stanzas and deliveries were a huge inspiration to artists such as Open Mike Eagle, but “Mr. Xcitement” feels more like a parody of TMBG, and not necessarily in a loving way. I say all of this, but the Linnell-fronted electro-rap song “Wicked Little Critta” where he raps about a hockey player in a Boston accent is completely okay with me. Am I just biased towards my favorite songwriter of all time’s wacky experiments and not a guest musician’s? No, it’s just that Linnell knows how dorky he sounds and he completely embraces it, whereas Doughty is trying to sound like the hippest beatnik in the room. I like my giants nerdy and my crittas wicked.

Something about Mink Car that keeps it fresh is that its production feels experimental in a way that not a lot of TMBG records have embraced since then. I love albums like Glean, The Spine, and I Like Fun, but I can’t deny they sound more muted, almost as if this album's tanking scared them and decided to go back to basics. That’s fine, but I think of tracks like “Yeh Yeh”, in which different types of drums were used and the recordings were stitched together to make this incredibly strange percussive backing track, making a light cover of a ‘60s pop song even more grandiose and exciting. The percussion also sounds insane on tracks like “I’ve Got a Fang” and “She Thinks She’s Edith Head”, especially with the messy crunch that’s all over each track. I also love the synthesizer sounds on the track “My Man”, I can’t describe it other than it sounds like mechanical raindrops hitting the floor, which is perfect for the classic bit of upbeat sadness that the Johns are so good at pertaining. “My Man” is one of their best songs about depression, about the brain knowing it needs to do things for the day, but not being able to send the signals to the body to be able to have them done. Sometimes the grandiosity doesn’t work as well, like this album’s version of “Older”, a new version of a Long Tall Weekend cut where the loud saxophones and bassoon playing the song’s melody and bassline don’t work nearly as well as the quiet guitars, that song’s best version sounds like an hourglass but the Mink Car version sounds like a broken alarm clock.

It’s telling that even though I call this album the most They Might Be Giants record, it can even be a bit too much even for myself, even on just two tracks. But I also recognize that the two weakest songs are because of a guest musician and because they tried to tinker with a song that was already great. And yet, I can't help but admire the boldness of those decisions. Mink Car was made with complete and total artistic freedom, which was what they were desperately craving after they got off the Elektra label. They even got to make the decision not to put “Boss of Me”, the Malcolm in the Middle theme song on the record, which probably would have saved the record in terms of sales, but they didn’t want everyone to buy it just for one song. A song that wasn’t even meant to be there to begin with. “Boss of Me” is a pretty fantastic take on ska punk, but there are plenty of other bangers and genre fusions on Mink Car to try out such as “Hovering Sombrero” and “Hopeless Bleak Despair”, so why not try out the record? Especially because they’ve started to reach more people than ever who are singing along to their songs?

I was reading the negative Pitchfork review that was clearly written by a big fan of the group, and I highly disagree with the critic’s thesis that this album was compromised to pander to a more mainstream audience. Of course they wanted the record to do well, of course they still are writing catchy songs, but everything here was designed with their sense of experimentation in mind. They didn’t dumb down their sound at all, they just cranked it all up, their best and worst qualities. The thing about being unapologetically yourself as an artist is that a sturdy amount of people are going to find you charming, even when you reveal the completely uncool aspects about yourself. They Might Be Giants tested that theory by making themselves look dorkier than they had ever been before, but if you dig deep into Mink Car, you’ll know that it’s a rewarding listen. Each new listen has one more melody that gets stuck in your head, a new production quirk that makes you wonder how the hell they did that, another Linnell-ism that makes you admire how clever his writing is. 9/11 didn’t destroy this album, the changing of the times did, but the times continue to change. Look now, and there are more Mink Car fans than ever. The songs are still regular staples on the live sets. I’ve heard it called the “TMBG pleb filter”, the test to see if you can handle the more garish nature of the group. It’s a creative blank check of a record made by a band that wasn’t afraid to fail, and I only love it more each day, warts and all.

Thank you, Jakob!

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, #26 Jimmy Eat World, BLEED AMERICAN defeated #103 Janet Jackson, ALL FOR YOU, 143-57-2.

Thanks,

Kent