Hey folks!

Today’s Best Album of 2001 match is:

#14 Jay-Z, THE BLUEPRINT

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vs.

#19 Kylie Minogue, FEVER

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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 [[email protected]] 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 THE BLUEPRINT, it’s @boxy.bsky.social. Take it away, Bud Grant Green!

THE BLUEPRINT is Jay-Z trying to make a perfect hip-hop album. A lot of rap albums get put together like studio pop products--front-loaded with the best material, with a song for the radio, one for the club, another for the streets, and one more for the ladies.

The album has all of those, but it also has a consistent sound (say what you will about Kanye, and I say a lot of things, these are some of his best productions) and a no-skips level of quality, intention, and effort that connects it to REASONABLE DOUBT, Jay's 1996 debut (went down in the second round of the 1996 bracket to Sleater-Kinney's CALL THE DOCTOR). It has a wider emotional range than a lot of rap albums, but it's also Jay claiming his place in history and his seat at the throne.

'Song Cry,' 'IZZO,' 'Heart of the City,' 'Renegade,' all top-tier tracks, and the last two weren't even singles. (If you like these songs, I recommend JAY-Z UNPLUGGED, released this same year with some special guests and The Roots as the backing band.)

THE BLUEPRINT debuted at #1, got five mics in The Source, and was the first entry in the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry from the 21st century. It's one of the GOAT rappers trying to make the GOAT album, and, depending on who you ask, it either reaches that goal or comes very close to it.

Thank you, Bud Grant Green!

Then, for FEVER, it’s @bickley.bsky.social. Take it away, Chris!

Sumptuous. That’s the word that perfectly summarises Love at First Sight, the third single from Kylie Minogue’s sparkling album Fever. It was an album and batch of singles that helped the singer reclaim her pop throne, after a decade of hesitant indie dalliance yielding only modest successes. But you don’t become the biggest popstar in the world by being modest, you must be bombastic. And 00s Kylie was exactly that.

The signs of her forthright confidence were there on 2000’s Light Years, spearheaded by the discoid Spinning Around, her first number one anywhere in six years. A year later, and Minogue was truly strutting her stuff as Can’t Get You Out of My Head, In Your Eyes, Love at First Sight, and Come into My World made waves around the globe. They were all stellar singles, but it was Love at First Sight that shone brightest.

The early 00s were a haven for undisputable bangers, whirlwinding around the French house scene. Minogue may have been an Antipodean, but she and her team knew their stuff. You can hear the light, chiming riffs of Modjo’s Lady (Hear Me Tonight), the fusion of Daft Punk’s analogue and digital sounds, and the pulsing, bongo-driven beat of Groovejet, so while Love at First Sight may have dipped its toes in a number of musical pools, the result was authentic. Minogue wasn’t just parking up in this territory, she was here to conquer it.

Minogue was held up as a sex symbol during this era of her career, but this song is more reflective of a love symbol, not a temptress. Her words in the other singles are sultry, flirtatious and they lust: “Boy your lovin’ is all I think about”, “I’ve been watching you lately, I want to make it with you”, “Take these lips that were made for kissing”. But there’s a satisfying innocence to Love at First Sight, a song drowning in butterflies and giddiness.

Pop is best when it is simple, and brimming with positivity. In the ears of some, Minogue’s tale of blissful happiness may be trite, but it’s impossible to claim that it’s not infectious. Her vocals stride with an unrelenting pleasure that could convert any Kylie-naysayer into a bonafide pilgrim in four minutes’ time. There’s no shame in this, Love at First Sight is simply pop perfection.

It's paint-by-numbers pop, but when the execution is this good, what's the problem? It doesn't matter whether something's made by one guy in their bedroom, or with dozens of suits surrounding a mixing board. It sculpted the pop landscape and whilst there are duds, there's enough spicy album tracks like Love Affair to override the nagging notion that only the singles are worth it. Burning Up is an odd closer in that it's all flicker and no flame, but at least the album hasn't been frontloaded so that it's a pleasant listen throughout.

Thank you, Chris!

Click here to see the current results for the entire tournament, and click here to see the current results for the prediction bracket contest.

Thanks,

Kent