#7 The Extremely 7th Issue of the Best Album Brackets Newsletter
Hey folks! Two topics today, then a quick look at some 2000 releases.
Topic One: The Nominations!
Let’s go to the Google Nomination form and see how many ballots we have. Drumroll please...
54! Okay! Not bad, not great. I wanted at least 100 before moving on to the next phase of the Best Album of 2000 tournament, and that’s more than halfway there. I guess that’s good? But a little disappointing. This is probably most or all my fault; I’ve been slacking on the promotion front. I really hate going out there and promoting, well, anything. I hate repeating myself and the concept of promotion is predicated on repetition. (“Say something once/Why say it again.”) Still, I need to do better, so that’s what I’ll focus on this next month. That said, there’s also the possibility that, since I didn’t really throw down a hard deadline, everyone’s holding back until it’s really real. That’s what I would do! Why commit until you actually have to?
But remember! After submitting a ballot, you can go back in and add (or subtract) from it before the nomination period closes. Maybe y’all are taking advantage of that, I don’t know. If you were thinking I sit there and monitor the ballots like some creepy villain, think again.
So! Towards that, I am announcing that
THE ABSOLUTE FINAL DAY FOR NOMINATIONS IS FEBRUARY 29, 2024!
That’s one whole extra day more than you would get if this was a different year!
Keep listening to albums from the year Two Oh Oh Oh, keep updating your nomination list, and make sure it’s in within the next 30-odd days!
Topic Two: Surveys!
One of the reasons I went with Buttondown was because they offered support for surveys, or as you and I would call them, polls. There’s the possibility that the tournament will have to be run via these surveys, although no official decision has been made on that yet. What I did not realize until I started this newsletter is that surveys, on Buttondown, appear to be a whole separate thing from the newsletter, as in, they are not something to be embedded in the newsletter, as I assumed. I think maybe they exist as their own thing, possibly something that lives on the web “front page” of the newsletter? I have no idea, and I confess, I won’t know how it all works until I make one, and I won’t make one until after this newsletter is sent out. However! Next week, I will make a survey, or possibly surveys, and then a newsletter about it. We’re going to learn together how they work and if they will work for our purposes. All I ask when the survey drops is that you fill it out, whatever it might be. If you’re looking for extra credit, see if you can fuck with the survey in ways that would guarantee to piss me off if I was running the tournament. Might as well stress test this shit if we got time.
TODAY’S ALBUMS FROM THE YEAR 2000
Standard boilerplate on my ratings: my rating system goes Love,Like/Love, Like,Interesting/Like, Interesting,Lukewarm/Interesting, Lukewarm, and Leave It. (There is no Lukewarm/Interesting or Leave It/Lukewarm because we don’t need various gradations of "guy taking off headphones in disgust jpg”.) Generally, I nominate and recommend anything with a rating of Like or higher, and don’t nominate anything rated Interesting/Like or lower. However, it’s my choice and will violate those “rules” whenever I feel like it. Albums marked with an asterisk (*) are albums I’ve heard before, whether that was 23 years ago or last week.
Juana Molina, Segundo
Kent’s Pick of the Day. I kinda knew this was going to make my shortlist right from the first track, when the acoustic instruments and the electronics were mixed together so well, I wasn’t actually sure which was which. Pretty much the entire thing walks a thin line between something that sounds like trad folky “world music” and something more Stereolab-y or Boards of Canada-y (or put another way, rural and urban), never quite falling into one camp or the other, held together by Molina’s soft, whisper-like vocals. Beautiful, soothing, mesmerizing… give this one a listen before Feb 29th.
Rating: Like/Love
16 Horsepower, Secret South
Confession: I actually liked this more than Segundo, but Segundo seemed more broadly likable, so I made it the Pick of the Day. This is chilly alt-country, with a bit of drama in the delivery. It’s totally my thing, even moreso because I detect a hint of slowcore in it? Not really in the music per se, just kind of a vibe thing. Anyway, if you want a band that sounds more like the state Idaho than the band Idaho (and I like the band Idaho, pretty neutral on the state), then here’s your potato.
Rating: Like/Love
Dusty Trails, Dusty Trails
Not much to say here, other than what the band name and some of the song titles and the presence of Emmylou Harris suggest, this has less to do with country and more to do with 60s-style bossa nova/lounge type pop music. It’s good! It’s pleasant! Like Segundo, very much Sunday morning listening.
Rating: Like
Mascott, FOLLOW THE SOUND
Again, not a lot to say here. Kind of folky, singer-songwritery, it’s got some muscular drums, produced by Jim O’Rourke, so there’s a nice clarity and crispness to the production. I liked it, I’ll listen to it again. Not available on Apple Music (unsure about Spotify & Tidal) but you can definitely find it here on YouTube.
Rating: Like
Seafruit, I Feel a Bit Normal Today
Hey you! You like all that Blur and Pulp and Elbow shit, right? (lol, I do.) Well then listen to this one-word band. If this came out in ’95, I feel like any discussion of Britpop would naturally include Seafruit, but somehow they missed the deadline. Just rock-solid tunes straight down the line; I daresay I like this better than all that Blur and Pulp and Elbow shit.
Rating: Like/Love