Plan and Goals

My plan is to listen to all of the albums on the ‘1001 Albums to Listen to Before You Die’ list and provide a short review of the album. I believe I’m working off of the latest version of the list which was updated in 2011 with albums released in 2010. If they update the list before I’m complete, I’ll add the new albums to my list of reviews.

Before I even get started, I know that the reviews are going to be inherently flawed. I’ve listened to enough music in my day to know that one listen to a piece of music rarely allows you the opportunity to have a good understanding of it. The first time I listened some artists that are now my favorites (Sonic Youth and John Frusciante), I didn’t really care for them. I just didn’t “get it”, but after coming back to them after a few months, I understood the music better and now I love them.

In addition to the review, I’m probably going to assign a rating to the albums, just to keep some kind of track of things. Again, I wouldn’t put a ton of stock in these ratings, because often times they will be determined after one listen.

So why am I doing this? Well, it just seemed like a fun thing to do. I have loved music ever since my mom caught me dancing in my room to Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” in my underwear when I was 6. I also love discovering new music and after looking at this list, there are a lot of artists I’ve never heard of, as well as a number of artists that I’ve heard of, but never listened to. I also like to think that maybe someone will stumble upon this blog and discover some new music that they will enjoy.

Why 1001 albums? I know that there are other 1001 lists for things like books and films. I definitely wasn’t going to read 1001 books. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy reading, but I’m a slow reader. A very slow reader. It would take me decades to read that many books. I didn’t choose films simply because I can’t watch a film while driving or working, but I can listen to music. In addition to this, I just understand music better than other art forms. I don’t know how to describe it, but I feel like I’m a much better judge of quality in regards to music than other art. When I go to a museum of fine arts, I like a lot of the stuff, but sometimes I don’t know what I’m looking at.

I’m not sure how long it is going to take me to listen to and review all of the albums, but I know it’s going to be a while. Even if I review an album every day, it’s going to take me almost three years. Honestly, I’m not going to be able to review an album every day. I have a day job that fortunately allows me to listen to music, but I still tend to get busy at times.