Justin W. Cornell

I agree with this

My list

My pick for today is Susumu Yokota- GRINNING CAT. It sounds like what I imagined Steve Reich sounded like before I heard him.

It’s great, and very different from his 1999/2000 album SAKURA, which I also loved.

Now that we’re getting to the (start of) the era of my actual teenage listening years, I am starting to understand why all the 90s tournaments were full of good bands’ fifth best records.
Is MINK CAR one of the 128 best of 2001? Maybe not, but I’m nominating it for sure

Also my recc from yesterday: ACOUSTIC EP by Against Me! (Fronted by a trans woman who was not yet out at the time).
I realize that there might be some people who would argue that it shouldn’t count, but I feel strongly that EPs are eligible for the best album tournament.

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Check out my recc for today (if you haven’t already): india.arie - ACOUSTIC SOUL

Today’s recommendation is Against Me! - THE ACOUSTIC EP. I loved these songs when I was 16. It’s still my favorite record they’ve ever made.

Popping in to recommend my favorite new-to-me 2001 album listen of this week:
Tweaker - THE ATTRACTION TO ALL THINGS UNCERTAIN

Yes! I make a list of all the albums I’ve heard, and I give a seed vote to my favorite half of those. Then I make a list of all the ones I haven’t heard, and give a seed vote to half of those, at random. Together, this adds up to 64 seed votes out of 128 albums.

I hate Avalanches Halloween. What does that mean that boy needs therapy?

I love Haunted by the Pogues!
“The remedy is simple
when you’re haunted by the Pogues:
just leave a pint of Guinness out
for Shane McGowan’s ghost.”

This was a close pick; I liked-but-didn’t-quite-love both records. I voted WRONG in the end.

It’s hard to explain how, but WRONG sounds like many of my most-talented friends’ bands from when I was in college. (As far as I know, none of them were directly influenced by NoMeansNo). A lot of energy and great musicianship, although each instrument kind of sounds like it’s doing its own thing.

The Pogues sound really tight on PEACE AND LOVE, compared to their earlier records. I bet they were great live in this era. Unfortunately, most of the songwriting is pretty weak (I do like “USA” and a few others.

And I don’t think any of the artists from the 2000 tournament were listening to FLOWERS IN THE DIRT

Fugazi is a band that peaked with the first track on their first EP. “Waiting Room” is great; the rest of 13 SONGS is good.
FLOWERS IN THE DIRT was a chore to listen to. Only a few moments where I could hear his melodic genius. And “Motor of Love” was shockingly bad— is it the worst song of 1989?

Remarkable wisdom from a man dead for fourteen years

It took me awhile to get through STREETCLEANER, because I could only listen to Side A on Mondays and Thursdays from 8:30 - 10, and I could only listen to Side B on Tuesdays and Fridays from 8:30 - 10.

That's one of my top-ten albums of all time! Right now I'm looking for something a little sexier, a little more European.

That’s a good pick! I don’t know them well, but I liked and nominated GOOD LOOKING BLUES for the 2000 tournament. Any other specific albums you’d recommend by them?

@bestalbumbrackets.bsky.social community: I'm looking for music in the same vein as Air's MOON SAFARI, to listen to as I gradually get back into the swing of things after being sick. Bonus points if I haven't heard of it before. Any suggestions?

Vote BIZARRO! Like some others, I had previously been familiar with some other Wedding Present records, but I like this one much more. One surprising reference point for me is early Mountain Goats. Not so much lyrically as musically: that really powerful rhythm guitar sound

NO CONTROL? Sounds less like Bad Religion, and more like Bad Science!

I had a similar reaction

Need... more... memes...

I like both of these a lot, but WORKBOOK is exactly what my depressed self craves right now, and I've been listening all day, so it got my vote. I think I might like it more than any Husker Du or Sugar record.

I think about this episode all the time

But in the same way that Coldplay’s PARACHUTES sounds closer to ‘90s Radiohead than KID A, Eleventh Dream Day made an album much more derivative of CONTROL than Janet Jackson did.
In the song “Nasty” off that prior album, she implored her fellow artists to “Give me a BEET!” And boy did they comply.