Hey folks!

The twenty-fifth week of the Best Album of 2001 is over! But before we get into that, a special message:

The sign-up sheet for the 1995 Virtual Karaoke event is up! Click here if you’d like to sing a 1995 song. The Virtual Karaoke event will be held September 20th, 3pm Eastern. Check here and on Bluesky for any further details. You don’t have to perform to attend!

And now onto the weekly wrap-up!

After a drought of upsets for most of the tournament starting in Round 2, we got two this week! #11 MISS E... SO ADDICTIVE managed to knock out #6 AMNESIAC by a margin of 15 votes, placing it in the Top 8 Albums of 2001. That’s great! Unfortunately, yesterday, #3 WHITE BLOOD CELLS knocked it out of the running. That said, I should note that the two women who were blocked from the Final Four (Gillian Welch, Missy Elliott) also lost by the least amount during Round 5 (30 and 38 votes respectively).

But the bigger news is #5 VESPERTINE taking out #4 DISCOVERY, and it wasn’t even close, with Björk defeating Daft Punk by nearly 50 votes. If this was a battle to see who is more worthy to take on YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT, I think the answer is clear. But can it actually defeat the #1 seed? We’ll know Tuesday morning.

So here are our final matches: YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT vs. VESPERTINE, and IS THIS IT vs. WHITE BLOOD CELLS. What will be our Top Two? What will be named The Best Album of 2001? Come back next week to find out!

THE BEST ALBUM OF 2001 PREDICTION BRACKET TOP 20

Here’s Week #12 of the Prediction Bracket Top 20!

This is the penultimate Bracket Top 20, which means things are going to be chaotic, as big name albums are eliminated from the tournament, sending those brackets that chose them to Go.All.The.Way to Go.All.The.Way down to the bottom of the rankings. Still, ALL RESEARCH AND SUCCESSFUL DRUG POLICY SHOWS THAT TREATMENT SHOULD BE INCREASED AND LAW ENFORCEMENT DECREASED WHILE ABOLISHING MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCES stays at #1 for the eighth straight week. But that’s about the only thing to remain the same. Our Top 5 is almost completely different. Dead Leaves and a Dirty Bracket moves up to #2, a new high. Björk Sweep moves up five to #3. 5 Million Ways to Kill My Hopes and Dreams makes the biggest leap of the week, shooting up 14 notches to #4, and sctttnnnt re-debuts at #5, the highest debuting bracket this week.

While 5 Million Ways to Kill My Hopes and Dreams is the biggest mover, we had a couple other brackets rocketing up the chart. No one sympathizes, when you're the other bracket everyone despises jumps nine notches to #8, and Clarence Carter's Strokin' strokes up 11 to #9, a new high for that bracket. Did brackets fall? Oh you better believe it. Whiskey Tango Hotel November? fell six places to #10, perennial #2 Party Hard fell 12 spaces down to #17, and Take Off Your Pants and Bracket (one my favorite bracket names) dropped all the way from #7 to #20.

Debuts! We got a lot of ‘em! As already mentioned, our highest debut was the return of sctttnnnt at #5. Just below that, though, at #6, is the first appearance of My Votes are Strong and Deep, dropping right into the Top Ten. Congrats! Further along, we have We Could Have Had The Crack re-debuting at #11, I Am Trying to Bake Your Tart debuting at #12, Daaaaaan re-debuting at #13, Life Was Full Of Possibilities re-debuting at #14, The Bracket, Pt. 2 debuting at #15, Tyranny of Something re-debuting at #18, and Who’s Josh? re-debuting at #19. Welcome (back), everyone, glad you make it just before it’s all over.

We gained nine brackets, but we also lost nine. Say goodbye, likely for good, to Vast Aire's 10k Hz Legend (last week #19), The Got 'Em Wrong Project (lw #16), Drink Milk (lw #15), Bravo Romeo Alfa Charlie Kilo Echo Tango (lw #14), MeanwhileShinersTheEggWasReallyTheBestAlbum (lw #13), I Am Trying to Bracket Your Heart (lw #11), Daft bracket (lw #10), Take it or leave it; it's hard to explain (lw #9) and poor old Alpha Delta Kilo, which fell out of the chart all the way from #2 down to #23. We’re sending our love down the well.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS

Upset! On Monday, #11 Missy Elliott, MISS E... SO ADDICTIVE defeated #6 Radiohead, AMNESIAC, 158-143-1. (302 total votes, +15)

Round 4 Ends, Round 5 Begins!

On Tuesday, #1 Wilco, YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT defeated #8 Gillian Welch, TIME (THE REVELATOR), 182-152-3. (337 total votes, +30)

Upset! On Wednesday, #5 Björk, VESPERTINE defeated #4 Daft Punk, DISCOVERY, 176-127-2. (305 total votes, +49)

On Thursday, #2 The Strokes, IS THIS IT defeated #23 Drive-By Truckers, SOUTHERN ROCK OPERA, 193-125-2. (320 votes, +68)

On Friday, #3 The White Stripes, WHITE BLOOD CELLS defeated #11 Missy Elliott, MISS E... SO ADDICTIVE, 154-116-2. (272 votes, +38)

NEXT WEEK’S MATCHES

Round 6 Begins! The Final Four!

Monday, September 14th: #1 Wilco, YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT vs. #5 Björk, VESPERTINE. The winning album goes to the Final Match on Thursday; the losing album goes to the Third Place Match on Wednesday.

Tuesday, September 15th: #2 The Strokes, IS THIS IT vs. #3 The White Stripes, WHITE BLOOD CELLS. The winning album goes to the Final Match on Thursday; the losing album goes to the Third Place Match on Wednesday.

Round 7 Begins! The Tournament Ends!

Wednesday, September 16th: Third Place Match!

Thursday, September 17th: Final Match! The winner is declared the Best Album of 2001.

Friday, September 18th: The Best Album of 2001 is named.

And th-th-th-th that’s all, folks!

We currently have a Designated Cheerleaders for YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT, VESPERTINE, IS THIS IT, WHITE BLOOD CELLS and that’s it. (That’s it? That’s all of them! Yay!) If you’d like to write an additional one, this is your last chance, it’s all over after this. Send it to [email protected]. Thanks!

Best,

Kent