Hey folks!

Round 1 of the Best Album of 2001 has been completed, which means it’s time to start thinking about the next tournament, the Best Album of 1988. (If that seems soon, understand that Round 1 is exactly halfway through the tournament; Round 1 = Round 2+3+4+5+6+7. It’s gonna go quick. Per Christopher Cross, I know it’s crazy, but it’s true.)

Towards that end, I encourage everyone to not only start thinking about the 1988 albums they know and love and want to nominate, but also start looking at albums they don’t know. The tournament is healthier and more fun when there’s non-obvious stuff in the mix, and we don’t find those if we don’t do the digging. Here’s the cool trick: someone’s 1988 album they know and love is someone else’s new discovery. I encourage you to share your favorites with each other on Bluesky.

This year, I’m doing things slightly differently. Instead of a ginormous list of all the albums I love and are nominating, I’m just going to do a few each week. This makes things easier for me (I have do a search for all the links and album covers) and I’m sure it’s easier for you if you’re taking this seriously as homework. I’ll also be getting recommendations from you, the readers and voters, and I’ll be posting those a little at a time as well. Will I do all my stuff first, then the readers’? Or will I mix it up? I don’t know!

All of the following are albums I’ve known since ~1988 and get a Love rating from me. Each one gets my highest recommendation, and I’ll be nominating all of them. If you don’t know them, please give ‘em a try!

Cocteau Twins, BLUE BELL KNOLL (Spotify, YouTube)

I’m writing this one last, because I’m not sure what to say. It’s the Cocteau Twins, they’re great, they get you really Ꭶ̴̳̻̬̩̦͒̿̀́͜Ꮭ̷̧̗̣͍̮͍͙̮̮̝͌͐̄̽̒̄̏̎͠͝Ꭷ̸̨͓͔̤̫̫͋̏̐̐̓̎͝ͅᏗ̵̨̻̒̆̏̈́͂͑̿̔̕Ꮦ̸̛̰̖́̀̏Ꭵ̸̰̻̙̜̆̓Ꮑ̸̛̮͚̦̘̺̻̤̘͔̖͆͆̽Ꮆ̴͔͙̗͙̺͙͕̈́ͅ.

Danzig, DANZIG (Spotify)

Don’t let the name and the image fool you — though Danzig (the person and the band) usually get grouped in with metal (and that’s not necessarily an erroneous category for them), this album is really more like bloozy rock with maybe a metal attitude, and a singer that’s like if Rosemary’s baby grew up to be Jim Morrison. Big dumb fun.

Metallica, …AND JUSTICE FOR ALL (Spotify, YouTube)

The big pre-breakthrough. If you weren’t around at the time, this was when Metallica dropped their first video, for the 7 ½ minute epic “One,” which got more airplay than you might have expected. (The single actually breached the Top 40!) After spending the decade in the non-mainstream thrash trenches, suddenly, they were here and undeniable; if you paid attention to pop music, you now had to reckon with Metallica. What’s funny is that this album borders on prog at times, with complex arrangements like “One” and “And Justice for All.” (But then there’s “Eye of the Beholder” which is like a Nuggets track in comparison.) I mean, they had to do The Black Album after this — where else was there for them to go?

Ministry, THE LAND OF RAPE AND HONEY (Spotify, YouTube)

Another big breakthrough. WITH SYMPATHY was melodic synthpop and TWITCH was a throbbing industrial soundscape. Could they find a median? No, not really! But Alain Jourgensen takes his developing knack for songcraft and hones TWITCH’s sprawl down to diamond-sharp shards of I’ma-flip-this-table aggression.

Pailhead, TRAIT ep (Spotify, YouTube)

Do you want more Alain Jourgensen? Well, tough, you got him anyway. Here he somehow roped a pre-Fugazi Ian MacKaye into singing over some industrial-flecked (but more rock band-sounding than Ministry) tracks that are often surprisingly funky and groovy. (“Man Should Surrender” feels a little like a sideways version of “My Sharona.”) Did MacKaye’s experience here work its way into 13 SONGS and “Waiting Room”? Hey man, you believe what you want to believe and I’ll believe what I want to.

The Proclaimers, SUNSHINE ON LEITH (Spotify, YouTube)

Okay, so I’ve given you a bunch of dark, heavy albums, so let’s end it with something much lighter and happier. Yes, yes, we all know “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” but one, try to go back and listen to it before it was tattooed on our consciousness and see what a great pop track it is. (Also recall that it didn’t take off in the states until 1993 with the release of the film BENNY & JOON.) Two, I’m not sure it’s the best song on the album? I feel like “I’m On My Way” could’ve been just as big as “500 Miles.” (Writing this, I’m just now learning that one of the songs is by Steve Earle! Well I’ll be damned.) There are two pairs of Scottish brothers named Reid that you can nominate for this year. Make it this pair.