In my mind the definitive version is the import. I picked that up before the US version came out (sans NYC and the ass pic).
The Best Album of 2001
@bestalbumbrackets.bsky.social
What’s the Best Album of 2001? Let’s find out! A new match every M-F 9am Central. What just lost? Look at the pics above! Bracket: https://challonge.com/bestalbumof2001 Newsletter: https://buttondown.email/kentmbeeson. Managed by @kentmbeeson.bsky.social
I would be curious to see the alternate universe where the Strokes weren't hyped to the high heavens the way they were, and how they might have developed in that case. Typically I find them very exciting for the first ten seconds and a let down afterwards, there just isn't a lot of there there.
I can totally see how people bounce off Change, it's a very singular record. I think in the first thirty seconds you either love it or hate it and are unlikely to change your mind afterwards. For me, it's one of my favorite albums of that decade.
Hey folks! A reminder to do your due diligence for upcoming Best Album of 1988 tournament! Your fellow voters have suggested several likely-obscure albums they think you should hear. Below are seven, and there are five more in the next post. buttondown.com/kentmbeeson/...
#554 Time to Prep for 1988! (Part 4: Obscure Reader Faves #1)
Hey folks! Today I have seven albums that have been named by Bluesky Best Album Bracketeers as particular 1988 favorites that they believe will be overlooked...
buttondown.com
Exhaustion caucus represent! to get perfectly critical-wankery on this subject, IMO Yankee Hotel Foxtrot displays the exhaustion of the rock project and, as I gather @tomewing.bsky.social is saying, Is This It recapitulates that exhaustion into a gesture suitable for infinite pop reproduction
most days i think Room on Fire is a little better, but both easiyl beat Change
unfortunately Change is one of my biggest personal gaps between "how much friends/writers/friends who are writers made me think i'd love this band" and "my reaction to first playing the record." also i love the first two strokes records. sorry!
Well, the best thing in it by far* vs. an album that's also in it. *Now that all the other great ones are out
Oh I was there, and the songs are…fine. Fun, even. There’s just not that much to them if you don’t attach a whole heaping of existential nostalgia to it “It HAS to be great otherwise why did I spend XYZ months obsessing over them and dressing like them?” Much like the music, it’s not that deep.
Circulatory System is great, an E6 collab I still listen to!
same! I had “not as good as Emergency & I” stuck in my head and while it’s true, Change is still an excellent album
Pulled the lever for The Dismemberment Plan. One of my fave rediscoveries of the whole tourney.
Strokes were great, played the shit outta those first two records but The Plan... it's sui generis. You have a great guitar record versus a great songwriting record played but just an aces band. Also, a weird, spazzy, niche, deeply uncool band. But call me a cool kid if you must.
Yeah, they weren't about soul, they were about looking cool and doing drugs and playing guitars that sounded great while you were on drugs. However I'd you like hip-hop and wasn't Strokes + soul, may I introduce youtu.be/6t3r0RXf9Mo?...
Devil's Pie
YouTube video by Rhymefest - Topic
youtu.be
I was old enough. I was just mostly into hip hop at the time. When I finally heard this album, it was like “this is it? This is what people are hyped over?” I never understood. They’re perfectly competent, but it’s like there’s no soul. Seems like people fell for marketing or something
Is This It is a great record. On any given perhaps day better than Change but I gotta vote my heart and my heart says The Plan.
perhaps.bet
I figured Pitchfork in 2001 liked the D-Plan better, so I checked, and they did, but only by 1 slot—nos 14 and 15 in the year end list, which has some wild entries (Amnesiac at 6, sure, but sandwiched between Mùm and Circulatory System?). pitchfork.com/features/lis...
Top 20 Albums of 2001
pitchfork.com
Also I sold my copy of the "Last Night" 45 last year for $100.
By the time the 2nd record came out I no longer cared, but for that 8 mos they were everything. I'm glad I didn't sleep with the ex wife of the bass player from ********* when she hit on me while I played pinball in double denim to "Hard To Explain" on whatever jukebox that was. Oofe.
Then the record came out, and being an also-21 year old in a smaller, but similarly decadent scene full of bored hedonists, they kinda took over my life for a while. I hadn't related so specifically to a batch of songs ever before, and it somehow made playing pinball in double denim seem not stupid.
🧵I saw the Strokes at their first PDX show at the Roseland bc the label rep was giving away tickets and "last night" 45s in a desperate plea to get people there. Half the crowd was industry people bc civilians didn't know who they were and didn't care. They were clearly poseurs, but were still good!
I keep hoping I’ll like Reality Awaits. I wind up just returning to New Abnormal.
I like IS THIT IT a bit more than CHANGE,,,and I like it way better than the autotune mess the Strokes released this summer. It's like my wife when she hears Radiohead, jump across the room & change it immediately.
IS THIS IT. Sure, it's diminished without "NYC Cops" and the ass pic, but...figured I might as well vote for it sooner or later.
god, I love The Dismemberment Plan's rhythm section so much. Those two guys make my ears happy.