At last I've found a way to crown the album of the year

When I was 10 -- and 11 and 12 and 13 and probably 14 -- I played Nerf basketball incessantly. I would make tournaments and play all of the games out by myself. I started at 64, but then that wasn't enough. I went up to 128, then 256 and then 512. A quarter of a decade later, I've decided to resurrect my DIY brackets for one sole purpose: to crown my album of the year with a 128-album double elimination tournament. Until this year, I've never officially written a year-end best-of list. I didn't think I could really choose one fairly because the albums from earlier in the year ended up being forgotten. Speaking of forgetting, I'm to the point in my life where if I don't write down my favorite albums of the year, I may never remember them again.

I wanted my list to represent fairly which album I like to listen to the most. Not which one is more creative. Not which one is different. Not which one sounds interesting. Which albums do I sing along to and which ones will I sing along to in 10 years? Here's how it works:

* I found some British foosball double-elimination tournament online to serve as my bluprint.

* I seeded the albums from 1-128 based on my iTunes play count. If there was a tie -- and there were many -- then I chose which one I thought was the better album as the higher seed. I could have ranked them 1-128 by what I thought the order was going to be, but that didn't seem very interesting. Besides, I came up with the tournament to get away from just the top-of-my-head list. There are certain to be albums that have better draws than others but with a double-elimination format, the best albums will win out.

* I originally planned to listen to every album at every round until I realized I wouldn't finish until December of 2010. Instead, I have a "listen-off" if there is even the slightest doubt of which album I like better. Having already started the process, I can say that my prediction of what will win only plays out half the time. Albums that I thought were great suddenly sound merely good.

There really isn't a foolproof way to decide the year's best album, so I'm sticking with what I know how to do: listen to music and make brackets.

May the best album win. And if it doesn't, then may it come up from the loser's bracket to triumph in the end.