Hey folks!

The fourteenth week of the Best Album of 2001 is over! And again, pretty straightforward, no surprises, all the higher seeds won. As befitting a #32/#33 seed matchup, NO MORE DRAMA versus LABOR DAYS was extremely close, with the former beating the latter by three votes, which is pretty much a coin flip.

But if that’s not exciting, this certainly is:

THE BEST ALBUM OF 2001 PREDICTION BRACKET TOP 20

That’s right, everyone’s favorite part of the Best Album tournaments is back, baby. At the end of each week, I’ll take a snapshot of the Top 20 (or so) top prediction brackets and put ‘em in a chart and then talk about it like it was a Casey Kasem Top 40. (This is my hole, it was made for me.) Unfortunately (for me), the first one is all debuts, so there’s no dramatic movement up and down. But that’s what next week is for.

In case it isn’t clear, here’s what the various columns mean. This Week is that bracket’s current position. Last Week is that bracket’s position last week. Name is the name of the bracket. Score is the bracket’s current score, as calculated by Challonge. I believe in the first round, every right prediction is one point, and I think it goes up one point each round. Last Week’s Score is, well, the bracket’s score last week. Score Potential is Challonge’s calculation for the maximum possible points a bracket can score based on current conditions. Weeks is the number of weeks the bracket has been on the chart. I think Picks is how many picks that bracket got right so far(?) but I have no idea what Picks Potential is; I just put them here because Challonge lists them. Maybe @hellonfriscobay.bsky.social can explain it. Now, you might think High Pos. stands for “high piece of shit” but no, that’s the highest position the bracket has reached; if it has reached a new high this week, the box is blue. (So, in the first week, everyone is blue.)

Why is this important? Normally, it wouldn’t be; slicing it up by week is no more meaningful than slicing it up every two weeks or just dipping in to it twice in the tournament at random times. However, each week I give the brackets a number of points based on their chart position. It’s pretty basic: #1 gets 20 points, #2 gets 19 points, #3 gets 18 points, etc. At the end of the tournament, the bracket with the most points gets the same prize as the bracket that wins based on predictions: the right to place an album in the next tournament. Since the winner based on predictions can sometimes come out of nowhere in the last couple weeks, chart-wise, I like to have a way to reward the brackets that did really well with their predictions, even if they couldn’t quite close the deal.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS

On Monday, #1 Wilco, YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT defeated #64 Rufus Wainwright, POSES, 171-60-2. (233 total votes, +111)

On Tuesday, #32 Mary J. Blige, NO MORE DRAMA defeated #33 Aesop Rock, LABOR DAYS, 89-86-2. (177 total votes, +3)

On Wednesday, #16 Low, THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE defeated #80 Roots Manuva, RUN COME SAVE ME, 114-53. (167 total votes, +61)

On Thursday, #17 Cake, COMFORT EAGLE defeated #48 Ben Folds, ROCKIN' THE SUBURBS, 111-77-5. (193 votes, +34)

On Friday, #8 Gillian Welch, TIME (THE REVELATOR) defeated #72 Kristin Hersh, SUNNY BORDER BLUE, 90-47-4. (141 votes, +43)

NEXT WEEK’S MATCHES

Monday, June 29th: #25 Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, THE TYRANNY OF DISTANCE vs. #40 Aphex Twin, DRUKQS.

Tuesday, June 30th: #9 Spoon, GIRLS CAN TELL vs. #56 Spiritualized, LET IT COME DOWN.

Wednesday, July 1st: #24 The Coup, PARTY MUSIC vs. #41 Sparklehorse, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE.

Thursday, July 2nd: #4 Daft Punk, DISCOVERY vs. #61 Pulp, WE LOVE LIFE.

Friday, July 3rd: #29 Built to Spill, ANCIENT MELODIES OF THE FUTURE vs. #36 The Microphones, THE GLOW PT. 2.

We currently have a Designated Cheerleaders for THE TYRANNY OF DISTANCE, GIRLS CAN TELL, LET IT COME DOWN, PARTY MUSIC, ANCIENT MELODIES OF THE FUTURE, THE GLOW PT. 2 and that’s it. (That’s it? That’s over half! Great job, everyone!) If you’d like to write one for one of the other albums, which are DRUKQS, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, DISCOVERY and WE LOVE LIFE (or even another for one of those other six), send it to kentmbeeson@hey.com. Thanks!

Best,

Kent