2020 Albums of the Year Bracket Results

Welcome to Change the Rotation's 8th annual albums of the year bracket. We announced the 32 album field a few weeks ago. Now it's time to find out how the results shook out and which album outlasted the competition to claim the number one spot. First, some bracketology: four of us (Dave Anians, Danny Collins, Steve O and myself) each submit a list of our favorite full-length albums of the year. Any record appearing on at least two of our lists automatically makes it onto the bracket. The remaining spots are divided evenly between the four of us. Once we have our field of 32, the albums are drawn randomly into their positions on the bracket. All four of us vote on each matchup until we have a champion. Four voters means there are bound to be some ties. We each assign a point value to each album before the voting begins (32 points to our favorite album, 1 point to least favorite). In the case of a tie, we add the four point values for each album to determine the winner. Below, see how it all came out, stream all 32 albums through the links toward the bottom of the post, and finally, a video of this year's virtual voting if you want to see how each individual matchup went down.

Bacchae's Pleasure Vision took region one in the band's first appearance on the bracket. This was a relatively early exit for PEARS - their first two albums were the overall runner-up in 2014 and 2016. Local post punks Ganser made their first bracket appearance.

Evil Empire's long-awaited album Imperio Maldito won region 2, edging out last year's overall runner-up The Muslims and serial bracket contenders War On Women. Locals Ratboys and Sweetie made their first bracket appearances.

Perennial bracketeer Jeff Rosenstock won region 3 with NO DREAM, outlasting the much anticipated return of the Suicide Machines and strong punches thrown by newcomers the OBGMs and Rebelmatic. Locals Butchered made their first bracket appearance.

Grey Matter's Climbing Out won region 4 in the band's first bracket appearance, beating out local veterans the Lawrence Arms and local faves the Cell Phones. More locals! Beach Bunny made their first bracket appearance. This sets up the Final Four: Pleasure Vision by Bacchae, Imperio Maldito by Evil Empire, NO DREAM by Jeff Rosenstock, and Climbing Out by Grey Matter.

Local ska punks Evil Empire advance to the final matchup with their first album in 14 years.

Grey Matter pulls off the upset and advances to the final.

Imperio Maldito by Evil Empire is Change the Rotation's album of the year! This is the third time a Chicago band has won the bracket. Imperio Maldito joins our previous bracket champions: The Beauty Between by RVIVR (2013,) Transgender Dysphoria Blues by Against Me! (2014,) Constructs of the State by Leftöver Crack (2015,) , Dies by Gouge Away (2016,) Rhombithian by Sincere Engineer (2017), The Gutters of Paradise by The Kreutzer Sonata (2018) and Cut & Stitch by Petrol Girls (2019). Congratulations to all the bands on this year's bracket. Stream all 32 albums through the links below:

After the Fall - Resignation
AJJ - Good Luck Everybody
Anti-Flag - 20/20 Vision
Bacchae - Pleasure Vision
Bad Moves - Untenable
Beach Bunny - Honeymoon
Butchered - Wax Pathetic
The Cell Phones - Battery Lower
The Chats - High Risk Behaviour
Days N Daze - Show Me the Blueprints
Dropdead - Dropdead 2020
Evil Empire - Imperio Maldito
Ganser - Just Look at That Sky
Grey Matter - Climbing Out
The Homeless Gospel Choir - This Land Is Your Landfill
Illuminati Hotties - Free I.H: This Is Not The One You've Been Waiting For
Jeff Rosenstock - No Dream
Laura Jane Grace - Stay Alive
The Lawrence Arms - Skeleton Coast
The Muslims - Gentrified Chicken
Nova Twins - Who Are The Girls?
The OBGMs - The Ends
PEARS - PEARS
Power Alone - Rather Be Alone
Radkey - Green Room
Ratboys - Printer's Devil
Rebelmatic - Ghost in the Shadows
The Suicide Machines - Revolution Spring
Sweetie - Bad Thing Sweet Thing
Touché Amoré - Lament
War On Women - Wonderfull Hell
The World/Inferno Friendship Society - All Borders Are Porous to Cats

Finally, if you haven't had enough yet, see how each individual matchup went down in the video below. It is a Lord of the Rings length discussion of our favorite albums of the year and a chance to see the nitty gritty of how the voting works.