A relisten made this easier: upgraded Key Lime Pie to my 89th-favourite album of the year, March still languishing in 103rd. March's singles are great, but the album trails off in the second half, the songwriting ever more laborious - brought into starker relief by the lightness of CVB's.

Finally caught up with the poptimism RIP discourse (blame work) and Wilson's piece [below] is great; I read it with many a head nod. I love it even more for bringing Jaime Brooks's [linked here] to my attention, which I'd missed earlier this month (blame holiday). I read that with many a fist pump.

The best 2-3 songs on All Hail The Queen are so good they wouldn't have been terribly out of place on 3 Feet High and Rising.

You can listen to that Indigo album and think it's perfectly fine music, but then you hear the first three seconds of "Brassneck" and realise that no, it was actually rubbish - THIS is what it's all about. Vote BIZARRO!

First one that came to mind, it's up there!

PWEI's is a wonderful, often thrilling, LP... But Cosmic Thing is pure ❤️ Shake your honey buns! Skinnee-dipping in the moonligh-ight! Hip to hip, rocket through the wilderness! Something good is happening, something big and lovely! Our hearts are travelling faster, faster than the speed of love!

Two great albums. I bought Workbook after it finally clicked for me during R1 listening (after many tries in years past). But Done by the Forces of Nature has l,ived with me for a long time and, if I'm honest, is closer to my heart. Vote J Beez!

A hilariously easy vote - the second best album in the tournament vs. one that shouldn't be in the second round at all (JUSTICE for Young MC!)

Voted against both of these in their round 1 matches. The highs of The Sensual World outweigh the general pleasantness of Kite for me.

Two actually good albums (my personal #16 vs #41 of the year), wahey Repeating what I said in round 1: ✅Madonna: never cared for the title track (or the closer) but there's a lot of lovely stuff in between [and not just the singles, I'll add!] ❌EPMD: almost as good as Strictly Business [...]

Raitt's is my least favourite album out of the entire tournament and in fact out of the 179 albums I've heard from 1989, my #179. This may be influenced by it bizarrely beating the excellent Field Mice in round 1, but it's also genuinely awful to listen to Whatever else you do today, vote Ministry!

My #Top7Grunge songs - Alice in Chains - Would? - Hole - Violet - L7 - Pretend that We're Dead - Nirvana - Drain You - Pearl Jam - State of Love and Trust - Screaming Trees - Nearly Lost You - Tocotronic - Freiburg

Bob D.: what good am I? Mike D.: Not perfect grammar, always perfect timing / The Mike stands for money and the D is for diamond! Q.E.D.

WAYNE

I'll repeat what I said about both in Round 1: ✅ New York = remarkably good, esp for an album where all the songs sound the same ❌ Louder Than Love = I have never enjoyed a single second of anything I ever heard by this band, though I hated this less than their early/mid-90s stuff

Most popular films on Letterboxd I’ve not seen 20s: Dune 10s: Joker 00s: The Dark Knight 90s: The Nightmare Before Christmas 80s: Akira 70s: Suspiria 60s: Persona 50s: Ikiru 40s: The Red Shoes 30s: It Happened One Night 20s: The Passion of Joan of Arc

Operation Ivy was a pretty fun discovery, but Technique is my favourite album of all time so I voted that.

Love Chapman’s debut but this one just doesn’t grab me. I love early YLT even if it’s not their strongest batch of songs, so I voted that.

Even more than Rhythm Nation, Pretty Hate Machine is an album I own but can barely stand to listen to. Love and Rockets was new to me, "So Alive" excepted, and pretty OK. A futile vote shall go its way.

An album I LOVE but voted against in the previous round vs. an album I LIKE and voted for. Luck of the draw and all that. Happy to be rocking back, falling and floating (and voting) for Julee Cruise this time.

Easiest vote this week — RN1814, an album I own, was one of my biggest disappointments upon relistening, while IBTABA, which I’d never heard before Round 1, was one of the nicest discoveries, so I voted that.

The red streets of my youth!

Freed from desire, mind and senses purified Freed from desire, mind and senses purified Freed from desire, mind and senses purified Freed from desire...

After yesterday's two top albums, today it's two of my least favourite still left in the tournament. Hmm, Epic vs Hot Rocks Polka... might abstain again.

Two albums I love dearly - 90 is the one (out of all the albums in the tournament, in fact) that sounds most like the stuff I listen to these days. But On Fire is one those that's part of me and I am part of it, so I voted that.

I've always liked the D.O.C. album fine, but Buzz Factory is one of *the* discoveries of this tournament for me so I voted that.

#all50rts 50 favourite non-singles, the end. Day 50. Started adrift, hoping to find someone to gimme shelter, via a thousand islands in the sea, waves of mutilation, strange powers helping me to surface to air, ending safely home again. Confidence Man - Home Again (2025)

#all50rts 50 favourite non-singles, almost caught up with the times. Day 49 then. A glorious twinkly chill out track, Daniel Avery - Ultra Truth (2022)

#all50rts 50 favourite non-singles, chronologically. Day 48. Oh no, it finally happened - I effectively failed the challenge by missing a day. Ironic, given the title of yesterday’s entry, too. Tourist - We Thought You Were Sleeping

#all50rts 50 favourite non-singles, chronologically. Day 47, and when I said “first of a remarkable couple” yesterday I meant it literally - here’s the missus :) Eris Drew - Transcendental Access Point (2020)

#bestalbum1989 64 🗄️I own: Pere Ubu 🧒1989-me would have voted: 🤷 Spacemen 3: first listen & there's more going on than I assumed. Will happily revisit if it makes good on its seed! Pere Ubu: really fun first side, Waiting for Mary is a gem. Side 2 a bit patchy. ☑️I voted: Cloudland

#all50rts 50 favourite non-singles, going chronologically. First of a remarkable couple and fully in my vicarious clubbing era - Octo Octa - Can You See Me (2019)

Back in the old country for a bit 🖤

#bestalbum1989 63 🗄️I own: neither 🧒1989-me would have voted: Neil N. Young: very surprised not much of this sounds like “Rocking in the Free World”, which I liked at the time. Mostly meh. Oliveros: not as experimental as I thought it might be. It’s pleasant! ☑️I voted: Deep Listening

#all50rts 50 favourite non-singles, going chronologically so nearing the current decade. Day 45, the only cover in my list. A Springsteen from 1995, made to sound like it’s actually from 1995 :) default genders - secret garden .NUXX (2019)

#bestalbum1989 62 🗄️I own: neither 🧒1989-me would have voted: Pogues? Pogues: I like that there's a track that sounds like Modern Romance (Everybody Salsa/Ay Ay Ay Ay Moosey is superior though). NMN: Like if the Chilli Peppers formed a (bad) Minutemen tribute band. ☑️I voted: can't say I did

#ALL50RTS 50 favourite non-singles 🕰️ Day 44. I love the vocal, the propulsive piano, the chorus-free catchiness. But most of all, that subtle guitar, which may in fact be a synth, that first appears a minute in, drops out and then leads us home for the final 30 seconds. Alizée - Boxing Club (2013)

#bestalbum1989 61 🗄️I own: Fugazi 🧒1989-me would have voted: abstain Fugazi: Not great, but it's got "Waiting Room" and "Give Me the Cure", so 👍 PMC: One of way too many utterly dire records by olds* in this tournament - not as bad as Bonnie Raitt, but much worse than The Stones ☑️I voted: 13 Songs

#ALL50RTS 50 favourite non-singles, chronologically 🚨BONUS🚨 Day 43, somehow sounding at once melancholy and hopeful/defiant: This time we get it in / We gon' get em out they body, baby / This time we gon' bust the ceiling / O-o-o-o-oh fa sho The Coup - This Year (2012) [11pts]

I don't know why this lad is building a subterranean city for cats, but I'm all for it.

It's really uncanny

#ALL50RTS 50 favourite non-singles 📆 Day 42, an obscure compilation-only track by a nepo baby extraordinaire (son of Mick Jones [from Foreigner, not The Clash, though he looks more like the latter] and half-brother of Mark Ronson). Indie dance! Alexander Dexter-Jones - Phantastic Phone Call (2011)

#ALL50RTS 50 favourite non-singles, chronologically Day 41, the first of two in my list featuring a 'heroic' Frippian guitar, this one the more obvious one. LCD Soundsystem - All I Want (2010)

#bestalbum1989 60 🗄️I own: neither 🧒1989-me would have voted: The Hip TfF: Fan of their previous two, but this is some bloated bullshit. "Advice..." is lovely Hip: Big fan of their next three 🙃. AMAZING live band (saw them ca. 1994). This is early work, but an easy win here ☑️I voted: Up To Here

#ALL50RTS 50 favourite non-singles, chronologically Day 40, and - according to last.fm's stats - my second-most-played song since its records began. Sambassadeur - The Park (2007) "I don't care if it is for real or in my mind"

#bestalbum1989 59 🗄️I own: RHCP 🧒1989-me would have voted: FYC FYC: I could live without "...Crazy" but this has held up well - from the northern soul one to the jangle pop one to the one that sounds like Prince messing with a 303 Godflesh: it's OK background music ☑️I voted: The Raw & The Cooked

#ALL50RTS 50 favourite non-singles, chronologically Day 39, hello, is it me you're looking for? Turns out yes, kitten, it was. The Field - A Paw in My Face (2006 [Sun and Ice EP], 2007 [From Here We Go Sublime LP])

#bestalbum1989 58 🗄️I own: RHCP 🧒1989-me would have voted: RHCP? Blake Babies: first time listening, really lovely twee indiepop and the occasional total gem (Rain - which sounds exactly like The Goon Sax!) RHCP: really fun album from when they was fab. Knock Me Down rules, but ☑️I voted: Earwig

#ALL50RTS 50 favourite non-singles, chronologically Day 38, stepping into the 'no one but me will pick this' era that will continue throughout this week. Except that @jelbugle.bsky.social picked this one earlier! Ms John Soda - Hands (2006)

got something special on IHTOV today: louis gilbert goes deep on the history of new order and what the band means to him ihavethatonvinyl.com/essays/chose...