I think we'll see less complaing about singing in the '88 competition. (I'll cop to preferring the vocal conventions in alt/indie, pop, and metal then).

Vote for what I enjoy more or on my genre diversity values, an ongoing Best Album debate. Novelty goes a long way w/ me & The Knife was interesting if sometimes annoying. Old 97s: one of my favorite rock records competing; I like heartland jangle/alt country & this is appealingly crunchy & scrappy 🤔

Rilo Kiley: Wish the Lewis/Sennett song (maybe not vocal) split was closer to 50/50; I liked the contrast of her rambly, writerly style & his gently hooky AM Gold vibes. Enjoyed it anyway, but I'm voting for Blink; I can rarely resist busy, hyper melodic rock with an elite drummer, even if juvenile

I hem & haw over whether limiting or nominating all I enjoy is better. I value diversity for its own sake, so I'm more careful about my alt/indie noms. Qs I ask myself: 1) Do I *love* this? If N, 2) Do I like this more than other mid tier alt/indie that will probably get the same number of votes?

Voted...Microphones? Expected to hate it, but like Langley I get something from its ambiance & awkward experimentation; somehow its ragged strumming & slack vocals aren't a dealbreaker. I didn't find Elbow *boring* but I also didn't get it; their tinkering didn't add up to anything compelling to me

Both of these were fine. Vote goes to Built to Spill (for some neat guitar frippery & less mewly singing) despite it having the most "graphic design is my passion" album art in the bracket

Yeah, come to think of it this was a match ill suited to hang my comment on. I think what I said is broadly true, but the kind of active discourser I'm talking about would be annoyed at both albums & would prefer to be voting for a metal or country or dance pop album or something

I don't know if this is actually the case, but it makes sense to me that there would be more antipathy toward indie with the active discoursers. I'd guess the active discoursers have more context & history with prior tournaments & are more likely to be annoyed at past alt/indie dominance in them

After a four album stretch of draggy, wispy, sketchy, and pompous Les Savy Fav's squirrely rhythms & wiseass energy were welcome. I liked some tracks & sonic textures on Pulp's We Love Life but it didn't gel for me. Voted Les Savy Fav

Drukqs has some intriguing sounds & moods but even aside from the length it's sketchy & incoherent. OoS has ambition & flair but the loud, dynamic flattening production & Bellamy's preening wear me out. Considered abstain but am giving it to Muse, who tried harder to make a cohesive album

A logical pairing of indie songwriters singing in an affected whisper, and neither were for me. I wanted to vote for the one with the weirder, rangier music (Sparklehorse), but I wasn't feeling it to the point I had to force myself to finish, so the pleasant jangle pop it is

I meant to mention that my main Sami Galbi can arguably represent Morocco if there's a surplus of Swiss bangers. :)

Main: Sami Galbi - "Dakchi Hani" (Switzerland)

Team Paiya - "Fimbu" (Ivory Coast)
Cazzu - "Con Otra" (Argentina)

In a way I'm glad that Kent/the seeding put many of the albums that I expect to feel most like homework to me in the same week. Let's get this over with, maybe I'll be surprised

Enjoyed The Coup on my shallow & distracted first listen; it scanned as alternative G-funk to me. Today I feel like voting for Andrew Bird, even though this isn't my favorite of his. (Love about half of it; glad he retired the blues daddy-o affectations after this album)

On paper Spirtualized sounded like maximalist symphonic indie I'd enjoy; in practice this sounds like mush to me. I like (most of) BRMC (I'm into this reverb-y retro rock), but accept that an album with a track called "Whatever Happened to My Rock n' Roll (Punk Song)" will be made fun of

I get Spoon's appeal - their tight-yet-spacious sound is distinctive in indieland - but their albums usually leave me cold aside from a few tracks (Fitted Shirt stood out here.) On first listen I thought Opeth could button some things up w/o sacrificing grandeur; on 2nd I got on board with it as is

Sally Go 'Round the Roses by the Jaynettes

Tipsy: I can't resist this kind of colorful gimmickery. Preferred their warm, dense exotica soundscapes to Daft Punk's steely neo disco, where my interest ebbed & flowed even though I listened to it in one of the places God intended (the gym)

Voted Converge; I dug the scorching, ear bruising intensity and off kilter rhythms (I don't *like* the vocals but found them odd enough to barely tolerate). Ted Leo: kind of a genre soup of guitar pop thru the ages, didn't grab me but I'll more attn to the lyrics in R2 to see if that makes it click

2026 Album Diary Love/Like a Lot *Gogol Bordello, We Mean It, Man! - global dance rock *The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis, Deface the Currency - jazz rock/fusion *Seera, Sarib (EP) – light prog/psych rock Solid Like Altin Gün, Garip - light psych, folk n’ roll *The Cucumbers, As You Heard Me: Songs from “Hello George” - indie pop *Hemlocke Springs, The Apple Tree Under the Sea - pop Imarhan, Essam – desert blues *Mammal Hands, Circadia - jazz Megadeth, s/t - trad/thrash metal *Mod Lang, Borrowed Time – power pop (Raspberries varietal) Pouf Pouf Pantoufle, s/t - experimental/avant jazz *Weekend Martyr, Cruel House - 80s style gothic alt country/indie rock

Like a Little Courtney Marie Andrews, Valentine - soft rock, Americana *Cryptic Shift, Overspace and Supertime - prog metal/tech death *The Paranoid Style, Known Associates - guitar pop, rock n’ roll Decent/Piqued My Interest Cardinals, Masquerade – indie rock Emily Scott Robinson, Appalachia – folk, country Gluecifer, Same Drug, New High – punky hard rock *Iron & Wine, Hen’s Teeth - indie folk Karnivool, In Verses - progressive metal *The Legal Matters, Lost at Sea - power pop (Brian Wilson varietal)

2026 listening continued. Albums starred are ones added since last update. Still none in the 2 lower tiers; added three Like a Lot/Loves

Happy to see that my reasonable upset prediction cancelled out my "was I drunk that day" one (that shockingly almost worked out for me)

(Now that it's growing on me I'm going to hate the next match v. Welch if she wins 😬)

Hersh has a special place in my heart broadly, but when I listened to SBB for prep I only barely liked it enough to nominate. Here she handily wins the battle of the offbeat singer songwriters though. Listening to this with O'Rourke made it sound more creative & messily compelling

Loveless was going to be my contest pick if the randomizer landed on me. I wish I'd made more time to engage with the nomination discourse & had hyped it more

Sparse folk albums can be challenging for me, but Welch & Rawlings are ace pickers! Fluent in misc. roots music in a way that sounds intimate & soulful, not academic. May give a pity vote to Ash. I would trim some song lengths & delete "Submission", but it's good fuzz pop/cutout bin alt rock

Think I enjoy Folds & archival curios more than the median voter. Some of Langley made me feel as expected (like listening to a school recital) but I was unexpectedly moved by much of it too. Recording has the right ambiance to make untrained voices sound otherwordly.But very hit & miss. Voted Folds

That's ultimately why I felt comfortable voting for it I think. I thought of Isobel Campbell.

The Sesame Street riff seems to be an old blues trope but I can't stop myself from making the connection when it pops up

Both albums have distinct flavors of quirk that I'm into. Slightly prefer Margo & voted for her but the pedant in me is twitching a bit