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01 Aug 2018
Beat 52 - a list
8:04pm | 27 views | 4 Comments
This is a list of all the albums I listened to for the "one for every year of your life" challenge and a score for each one. A review of each and every one is available right here on my blog.
My take on the challenge was to use the website besteveralbums.com to choose the highest ranking album each year from an artist whose work I had never previously owned (excluding singles and Various Artists compilations). A couple of times I had to make substitutions because my initial selections were unavailable on either Spotify or Amazon.
I started the challenge in Jan 2017 and got off to a flier, blogging 8 reviews in the first month, but tailed off very quickly so that it has taken me 18 months to listen to and write about 52 albums. It's not that I wasn't enjoying the journey, I was just being lazy / distracted by other things. It's difficult, I find, to put aside an hour to really listen to something new, with no distractions other than looking out the window or googling info about the record in question.
There are some "classics" that I had not previously heard, and also some fairly obscure items - particularly as it would appear that besteveralbums weighs heavily on the US for its aggregate scoring - I only really started to notice that in the 2000s and 2010s. I'm not sure what that says about diverging musical tastes on either side of the pond, or about my increasingly insular listening habits that lead me to buy very little new music these days. They all sound the same, you can't hear the words, and what on earth is he / she wearing? I can't even tell whether "it" is a boy or a girl. We all turn into our parents in the end...
Alright pop pickers, not 'arf...
1966: Freak Out by the Mothers of Invention. 2/5, unlikely I'll ever listen to it again.
1967 - The Velvet Underground and Nico. 3/5. Would have been a 4 except for some art-rock wig-out noodling on a couple of tracks.
1968 - Odessey and Oracle by the Zombies. 4/5, will definitely be spinning this platter again in future.
1969 - Led Zeppelin II. liked it a lot, this one's probably a keeper. 4/5.
1970 - Neil Young, After the Gold Rush. A 4/5 that could well turn into 5/5 with repeated listening. A wonderful thing, baby.
1971 - Joni Mitchell, Blue. It's just not my scene, but enjoyable enough 3/5
1972 - Nick Drake, Pink Moon. I liked it. 3/5
1973 - Stevie Wonder, Innervisions. Great stuff 4/5.
1974 - Supertramp, Crime of the Century. I liked it a lot. 4/5
1975 - Brian Eno, Another Green World. Interesting. 3/5.
1976 - Ramones, Ramones. disappointing 2/5.
1977 - Fleetwood Mac, Rumours. Definitely worth repeating. 4/5
1978 - Van Halen, Van Halen. Should be 1/5 for that Kinks cover but I'll be generous and give it 2/5.
1979 - Gang of Four, Entertainment! 4/5, I enjoyed it and will go back again for a proper listen.
1980 - Dead Kennedys, Fresh fruit from rotting vegetables. Not recommended, there are much better "punk" records out there for the curious. 1/5
1981 - Rush, Moving pictures. I don't love it, I don't hate it, it's hard to feel anything for it one way or another. 2.5/5
1982 - Michael Jackson, Thriller. It is of course brilliant 5/5
1983 - Violent Femmes, Violent Femmes. not bad at all. Certainly different. 3/5
1984 - Metallica, Ride the lightning. I'm never going to love this style of music but I enjoyed listening to this more than I expected to. I probably wouldn't bother seeking it out again though. 2/5
1985 - Tom Waits, Rain dogs. Really interesting stuff. 3/5
1986 - Paul Simon, Graceland. A mega-smasheroo. It's not difficult to understand why.3/5
1987 - Dinosaur Jr, You're living all over me. Pants. 1/5
1988 - Sonic Youth, Daydream nation. Now this is more like it, loved it 5/5
1989 - Beastie Boys, Paul's boutique. Another one I like much more than I thought I would 4/5
1990 - Depeche Mode, Violator. Really enjoyed it overall, well worth a 4/5.
1991 - My Bloody Valentine, Loveless. Much more accessible than I'd anticipated. 4/5
1992 - Rage Against the Machine, album of the same name. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would but this kind of music is never going to get heavy rotation in my house. 2/5
1993 - Wu-Tang Clan, Enter the Wu-Tang. 1/5, saved from a big fat zero by the beats.
1994 - Weezer, Weezer (the blue album). Pretty good stuff. 4/5
1995 - Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill. Another album I enjoyed more than I expected to. 3/5
1996 - Belle and Sebastian, If you're feeling sinister. 4/5 - could grow up to be a 5/5 after repeated plays.
1997 - Elliott Smith, Either/or. Not for me, I'm afraid - 2/5.
1998 - Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane over the sea. A wonderful thing, baby. 4/5
1999 - Flaming Lips, The soft bulletin. Just nice. 3/5.
2000 - Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven. Extraordinary, well worth a 4/5, could grow up to be a 5.
2001 - The Microphones, The Glow, Pt.2. 3/5 - interesting but not a keeper.
2002 - Interpol, Turn on the bright lights. Right up my strasse in terms of musical style, without offering anything hugely new and different. 4/5.
2003 - The Shins, Chutes too narrow. 2/5. Just bland really.
2004 - Madvillian, Madvilliany. Within its genre, pretty good. Within the whole wide world, merely ok. 3/5.
2005 - Sufjan Stevens, Illinios. What's not to love? 4/5.
2006 - Arctic Monkeys, Whatever people say I am, that's what I'm not. They're quite the buzz, cock. 3/5
2007 - Bon Iver, For Emma, forever ago. An ugly-beautiful 4/5.
2008 - Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes. This record leaves me utterly cold. 0/5.
2009 - Animal Collective, Merriweather post pavilion. Interesting but not a keeper. 3/5. I might have to play this back-to-back with 2001's The Glow, Pt.2 by The Microphones in a "not-a-keeper" play-off.
2010 - Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Not my scene. 0/5
2011 - The Black Keys, El Camino. A rocktabulous 4/5, pop-pickers.
2012 - Kendrick Lamar, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City. Life, frankly, is too short to waste on shite music. 0/5
2013 - Vampire Weekend, Modern Vampires Of The City. A bang-average 3/5
2014 - The War On Drugs, Lost In The Dream. I loved it. Easily my favourite of the 2010s so far and a definite keeper. 4/5, increasing to 5 with repeated plays?
2015 - Tame Impala, Currents. Tame, but in a good way. 3/5
2016 - Frank Ocean, Blonde. 3/5: unusual, inventive, interesting. I liked it more than I thought I would after track 1, just not enough to add it to my permanent collection.
2017 - Lorde, Melodrama. Awesome, right? 4/5
The Wonderful 52 Album Review By Fitz
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SummaryA copy from his blog - fantastic resource! Thanks Fitz G This article is owned by HappyG(rrr) |
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