The lines are drawn and the contestants are steeling themselves for auditory combat!

Seriously, 120 albums is a hell of an amount of albums to listen through and judge against those before and after.  So rather than make this an exercise in memory, or one with standards for that matter, I’m going to run this like an underground cock fight.  While it has all the appearances of being a free-for-all I’ll set up some basic boundaries, albums will compete intra-genre first then the victors will emerge to struggle against their peers.  What this is not is serious.  Like couples figure skating judgment will be capricious and on personal whim, whatever moves me at that moment will get the nod–come to think of it, this sounds like a Pitchfork review except without the literary torment and the rattling of Ivy League diplomas.

As my math skills are suspect, some of these brackets will have an album or two that do not fit nicely into a three-some (yes, I went there); those albums will wait on the sideline and get tossed into a sudden death with the finalist or be used to punt a pair into play.

Without further ad I bring you the first round of contestants: Genre Alternative!

Round One

1. Calexico    Carried To Dust
   Cordero    De Donde Eres
   J*Davey    The Beauty In Distortion / The Land Of The Lost WINNER
   
2. Dengue Fever    Venus on Earth
   Thao    We Brave Bee Stings and All
   Scott Reynolds    Adventure Boy WINNER
3. The Gaslight Anthem    The ’59 Sound
   Hauschka    Ferndorf WINNER
   Hot Chip    Made In The Dark
4. Grouper    Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill
   BLK JKS    Mystery EP
   Santogold    Santogold WINNER
5. Basia Bulat    Oh, My Darling*** WINNER
   Minus The Bear    Acoustics
   Lau Nau    Nukkuu
6. Firewater    The Golden Hour WINNER
   The Hold Steady    Stay Positive
   Gang Gang Dance    Saint Dymphna
7. Portishead    Third WINNER
   The Postmarks    By The Numbers
   Black Taj    Beyonder
8. Faraquet    Anthology 1997-98
   Fall Out Boy    Folie à Deux
   Elbow    The Seldom Seen Kid WINNER
9. Vampire Weekend    Vampire Weekend
   Plants and Animals    Parc Avenue WINNER
   Jack Peñate    Matinée

Round Two

1. J*Davey    The Beauty In Distortion / The Land Of The Lost WINNER
   Basia Bulat    Oh, My Darling
   Hauschka    Ferndorf
2. Santogold    Santogold
   Scott Reynolds    Adventure Boy WINNER
   Firewater    The Golden Hour
3. Portishead    Third
   Elbow    The Seldom Seen Kid
   Plants and Animals    Parc Avenue WINNER

Round Three

1. J*Davey    The Beauty In Distortion / The Land Of The Lost
2. Scott Reynolds    Adventure Boy
3. Plants and Animals    Parc Avenue

Read the other posts

Work In Progress: Top Albums From 2008

*** Wildcard initiated as eMusic had the wrong release date for Coptic Light encoded, and if I were a 1/3 as organized as Qyuen I wouldn’t be editing the fight list on the fly…