Hey folks!

The sixteenth week of the Best Album of 2001 is over! Once again, no big surprises as all the higher seeds won as expected. That’s not to say there wasn’t drama — I GET WET just barely held off MELODY A.M. by nine votes, and most surprisingly, #20 “LOVE AND THEFT” defeated #45 ROOTY by a mere seven votes. I don’t think ROOTY ever took the lead in that match, but still, great performance. And if it had, oh, the chaos in the prediction bracket. Speaking of which, let’s check in on that.

THE BEST ALBUM OF 2001 PREDICTION BRACKET TOP 20

Here’s Week #3 of the Prediction Bracket Top 20!

For the third week, The Revenge Of Flimsy Steve takes the top spot, and for the second week, the top six are exactly the same. Exciting! Three brackets move up 5 notches this week. I’m Bookish and Indie Rock Coded AND I VOTE moves up to #14, and Take it or leave it; it's hard to explain and Life's Not a Bitch, Life is a Beautiful Bracket, You Only Call Her a Bitch Because Your Prediction Skills Can't Hack It both move up to #15. The bracket that fell the most this week, though, was 2001: A Bracket Odyssey, dropping from #11 to #18.

Three brackets debuted, with two of them being re-debuts. Our only regular debut is Veridis Quo, which arrives at #17, while here you go create another bracket, you wanted to and We Could Have Had The Crack both return from Week #1 at position #18. We gained three brackets, but we lost five. (This is also the Top 20 bracket chart that only goes to 18.) Say goodbye, for now, to The Got 'Em Wrong Project (last week #7), Bjork's Swan Dress (lw #8), How to Disappear Completely from the Bracket top 10 (lw #14), Drink Milk (lw #15), and Alone, Predicting (lw #20). Hope to see you all again!

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS

On Monday, #13 Rilo Kiley, TAKE OFFS AND LANDINGS defeated #77 The Knife, THE KNIFE, 99-79-1. (179 total votes, +20)

On Tuesday, #20 Bob Dylan, "LOVE AND THEFT” defeated #45 Basement Jaxx, ROOTY, 129-122-1. (252 total votes, +7)

On Wednesday, #5 Björk, VESPERTINE defeated #69 Air, 10 000 HZ LEGEND, 144-38-3. (185 total votes, +106)

On Thursday, #28 Andrew W.K., I GET WET defeated #37 Röyksopp, MELODY A.M., 95-86-1. (182 votes, +9)

On Friday, #12 Fugazi, THE ARGUMENT defeated #53 Lucinda Williams, ESSENCE, 105-51-3. (159 votes, +54)

NEXT WEEK’S MATCHES

Monday, July 13th: #21 Le Tigre, FEMINIST SWEEPSTAKES vs. #85 Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros, GLOBAL A GO-GO.

Tuesday, July 14th: #2 The Strokes, IS THIS IT vs. #66 Shakira, LAUNDRY SERVICE.

Wednesday, July 15th: #31 The Dismemberment Plan, CHANGE vs. #34 Silver Jews, BRIGHT FLIGHT.

Thursday, July 16th: #15 Aaliyah, AALIYAH vs. #79 Fennesz, ENDLESS SUMMER.

Friday, July 17th: #18 Stephen Malkmus, STEPHEN MALKMUS vs. #47 Death Cab for Cutie, THE PHOTO ALBUM.

We currently have a Designated Cheerleaders for GLOBAL A GO-GO, IS THIS IT, LAUNDRY SERVICE, CHANGE, STEPHEN MALKMUS, THE PHOTO ALBUM 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 FEMINIST SWEEPSTAKES, BRIGHT FLIGHT, AALIYAH and ENDLESS SUMMER (or even another for one of those other six), send it to kentmbeeson@hey.com. Thanks!

Best,

Kent