Hey folks!

The twentieth week of the Best Album of 2001 is over! Once again, all the favored seeds won their matches by a healthy amount, which was nothing surprising for seeds #1 (YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT), #8 (TIME (THE REVELATOR)) and #11 (MISS E... SO ADDICTIVE). You would think a #16/#17 match would be close, or at least competitive, but favored album THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE had no trouble shooting down COMFORT EAGLE. The closest thing we had to an upset was TOXICITY vs. JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS: MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE. That one saw TOXICITY jump off to a big lead early, but then saw that lead crumble vote by vote overnight. At one point, JOSIE was only two votes behind. But it never went ahead or even tied, and in the final minutes TOXICITY surged ahead and won by eight.

THE BEST ALBUM OF 2001 PREDICTION BRACKET TOP 20

Here’s Week #7 of the Prediction Bracket Top 20!

Let’s get the boring part out of the way: the Top 5, which has six brackets, is the exact same as last week. Congrats to ALL RESEARCH AND SUCCESSFUL DRUG POLICY SHOWS THAT TREATMENT SHOULD BE INCREASED AND LAW ENFORCEMENT DECREASED WHILE ABOLISHING MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCES for landing the top spot again; if it can do it again next week, it’ll be tied with The Revenge Of Flimsy Steve for most weeks at the top for this tournament.

Four brackets moved up 5 notches, the most number of notches moved up this week. Bjork's Swan Dress jumped from #8 to #13, while sctttnnnt, I Am Trying to Bracket Your Heart, and Whiskey Tango Hotel November? all moved from #14 to #9. The biggest drop was from The Blooper Hint, which fell from #9 to #16 this week.

The big news this week is we have six new or returning brackets in the Top 20. Clarence Carter's Strokin’ redebuts at #17, while Daaaaaan and Tyranny of Something redebut at #13. Both of those brackets were last seen all the way back in Week #1, so congrats and welcome back! Our brand-spanking new brackets are Life Was Full Of Possibilities (#20), Vast Aire's 10k Hz Legend (#15) and I know I'm going to regret doing this, coming in hot at #13. Welcome all!

This means we lost seven brackets this week: Life's Not a Bitch, Life is a Beautiful Bracket, You Only Call Her a Bitch Because Your Prediction Skills Can't Hack It (last week #20), 2001: A Bracket Odyssey (lw #14),
The 2001 Music Project: Upsets & Despair (lw #14), Who's Josh? (lw #12), here you go create another bracket, you wanted to (lw #8) and Take Off Your Pants and Bracket (lw #7). Hope to see you all again!

Brackets fall off the chart for wrong guesses, which makes me wonder what happened this week. Did people expect an upset from Josie and the Pussycats? (It almost happened.) Or perhaps they thought COMFORT EAGLE had more fight in it? If your bracket fell off this week, let me know why on Bluesky! Thanks!

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS

On Monday, #11 Missy Elliott, MISS E... SO ADDICTIVE defeated #54 Unwound, LEAVES TURN INSIDE YOU, 111-46. (157 total votes, +65)

On Tuesday, #22 System of a Down, TOXICITY defeated #43 Josie and the Pussycats, JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS: MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE, 105-97-2. (204 total votes, +8)

On Wednesday, #1 Wilco, YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT defeated #32 Mary J. Blige, NO MORE DRAMA, 152-82-2. (236 total votes, +70)

On Thursday, #16 Low, THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE defeated #17 Cake, COMFORT EAGLE, 130-86-1. (217 votes, +44)

On Friday, #8 Gillian Welch, TIME (THE REVELATOR) defeated #25 Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, THE TYRANNY OF DISTANCE, 103-70. (173 votes, +33)

NEXT WEEK’S MATCHES

Monday, August 10th: #9 Spoon, GIRLS CAN TELL vs. #24 The Coup, PARTY MUSIC.

Tuesday, August 11th: #4 Daft Punk, DISCOVERY vs. #29 Built to Spill, ANCIENT MELODIES OF THE FUTURE.

Wednesday, August 12th: #13 Rilo Kiley, TAKE OFFS AND LANDINGS vs. #20 Bob Dylan, "LOVE AND THEFT".

Thursday, August 13th: #5 Björk, VESPERTINE vs. #28 Andrew W.K., I GET WET.

Friday, August 14th: #12 Fugazi, THE ARGUMENT vs. #21 Le Tigre, FEMINIST SWEEPSTAKES.

We currently have a Designated Cheerleaders for GIRLS CAN TELL, PARTY MUSIC, ANCIENT MELODIES OF THE FUTURE, "LOVE AND THEFT”, VESPERTINE, I GET WET, THE ARGUMENT and that’s it. (That’s it? That’s more than half! Great job everyone.) If you’d like to write one for one of the other albums, which are DISCOVERY, TAKE OFFS AND LANDINGS and FEMINIST SWEEPSTAKES (or even another for one of those other seven), send it to [email protected]. Thanks!

Best,

Kent