I love music. I love spending time listening to dear old favourites – Hendrix, Otis, Monk, Miles, The Ramones – and I also love hearing new music – “new” meaning “new to me”, so that covers Furry Lewis and Chappell Roan and Thundercat and and and ….
Sometimes the new music is a bit “Meh”, other times it is a brand new joyful thing – Fiona Apple!! Mulatu Astatke!! Emahoy Tsegue Mariam Guebru!!!!
During lockdown, as I was working from home I had time to listen to a new album every day, and this site popped up as a recommendation (most likely from here) – https://1001albumsgenerator.com/elhombremalo/history
I am now 25% of the way through my journey, and it has been entertaining, albeit with some pish on the way. If anyone is wondering how to get a feed for music that they have missed out on, this is worth doing. It’s free, and it will recommend one album a day from the book. It’s up to you if you make time every day to do it. I have enjoyed most, been challenged by some and been contemptuous of others.
-> bump
I have the book or something similarly titled (obvious gift for an AWer) and my first impulse was to read the write-ups on my favourite records, yawn at the obvious ones, shout “shit!” at the ones I don’t like and then… I had a much shorter list of records I’m still slowly getting around to studying. I agree it’s a mostly rewarding experience..
An interesting idea. I admire your dedication. And enjoyed reading your comments.
One thing I do love about the AW site is that every week I get new suggestions of albums and singles to listen to. And we are a magnificently broad church.
So there’s a great historical range: from Hildegard Von Bingen to Doja Cat via the Andrews Sisters, Otoboke Beaver and Kate and Anna McGarrigle.
And a great geographical range: from Yellow Magic Orchestra to Broken Social Scene via Focus, Lankum and Ali Farka Toure.
If we all put our thinking caps on, we could also come with a magnificent list of Must- Hear albums. And it would include none of the obvious choices.
That book is quite a good template, albeit the one I have (and I presume we’re talking about the same one) being truly woeful on the 50s. No ‘Johnny Burnette & The Rock ‘n’ Roll Trio’ for example.
Since getting a copy in a chazzer, my angle has been to listen to LPs that aren’t in it.
Well, of course…
Agreed. Think of it as dodge the dodger.
Seriously, though, you’re going to get more mileage out of the fifty James Brown LPs, say, that aren’t in the list, than the two or three which are. And I’d have thought that that applies to all artists and all genres.
Inevitably – the “hit rate” for 50 LPs is likely to be higher than for two or three.
So you’re suggesting that it’s a function of volume rather than quantity?
No, I pick two or three. In the case of James Brown, “I Can’t Stand Myself” and “Ain’t It Funky”, and, of course, I can add others in time.
It’s also rather dependent on whether said albums are in Alexa’s orbit at any given time.
I seem to remember @Mike_H posting regularly as he worked his way through it. Did he ever get to the end? He is a prolific listener.
With that particular number in the title, I’ve sometimes wondered if there’s a link to the Arabian Nights stories, with the sting in the tail that, once you’ve heard the 1001st album, YOU WILL DIE!
I knew I was doing the right thing. I have never heard The Wall nor Appetite For Destruction. I’ll make sure I never will.
It could be why, although there are several Black Sabbath albums on EHM’s review list, Never Say Die doesn’t make an appearance.
Abandoned that project a while back as my tastes got more refined (= narrower, I suppose).
Too much other unrelated stuff that piques my interest. Can’t be bothered with Americana, Rock and Folk lately. I don’t listen to so much recorded music as I used to.
I almost never listen to music in the car any more.
I find I quite enjoy sitting in silence at home.
I’ve had a bit of a rummage convinced I own a copy of this book and sure enough I do. It’s the 2010 edition with the last album listed being Oracular Spectacular by MGMT. Anyone remember their brief moment in the sun? Are they still extant or have they joined the ever expanding Dodo list? Not that I could care less. Flicking through the book’s pages once again some years later I am struck once more with the realisation that despite a lifetime of listening and buying there are quite a number of albums I don’t know and frankly I can live more than happily with that knowledge. There are some things in life, trepanning, castration, scrubbing Tigg’s back while he bathes to name but a few of life’s experiences that I don’t feel a pressing need to include in my day to day. Having even a passing acquaintance with the oeuvre of say Sepultura is similarly not something I need to encounter to know I wouldn’t find the experience life enhancing.
Post of the year! 😀
A shameless bid for a back scrub tub sesh, if you ask me. Appetite for dysfunction, say I.
But be careful with those sharp fingernails. After all, the body keeps the score…
Pretty sure MGMT featured in Saltburn.
Bought the CD on the back of that only to find that only the featured track is
My cup of tea
That website kicked my 1001 off with one of my all-time favourites; Fear Of Music. Is this some chilling and alarming demonstration of stealth machine learning, or just serendipity? I’m afraid to see what it suggest for me tomorrow. I Zimbra!
Oh no, there’s no serendipity. The reality is different. Album number two is The Avalanches samplefest ‘Since I Left You’. I’m afraid my reaction/review for that abomination has been gleefully brutal. Another one like that and I’ll give up with 998 to go.
@el-hombre-malo I am on (checks) album 832 and was going to post when I’ve finished but here are some quick thoughts on the list as a whole:
I’ve listened to a lot more 80s/90s rap than I might have thought, along with landfill indie one of the ways I think they are trying to update the list to make it more relevant.
the compiler struggles with electronica. Beyond one Underworld, one Chemicals, Eno and Kraftwerk it’s slim pickings.
It is western and Anglophone-centric. A French version would look very different! But I’ve had at least three albums from India, albums from Brazil and so on.
Most recent albums now: Sault, Fiona Apple and Swiftie from 2020.
I’m a sucker for these list projects, and how they vary. Apropos the lack of non-anglophone musics, the Unshod, or is it Moho, series, in magazine format, running through, in turn, the best albums of the 60s, the 70s and onward, does try valiantly, if only by including the weirdest releases they can hoover up from parts distant.
A tip from a shorter list, where Songlines have done a best 10 records with bagpipes, necessitating at least one purchase:
https://www.songlines.co.uk/features/essential-10/bagpipe-albums-essential-10
(The Orchestra Macaroon one, since you ask.)
I own two or three of these albums (Albert Lee’s contribution to the Davy Spillane LP is a bit overlooked in the brief review) but the Orchestra Macaroon had passed me by @retropath2
Many thanks for highlighting them – I’m an instant fan and have just ordered both of their CDs from Bandcamp for which I will pay the money (£22 incl postage) but you can take the credit.
The Jack White solo LP, Blunderbuss, really got my goat. It is far from his best work. The book would be better if it looked at deepening the earlier years rather than adding Snow Patrol or whoever to try to make it “up to date”. As I said in that review, off the top of my head, Magic Sam – Black Magic, Sun Ra – Space Is The Place and Eric Dolphy – Out To Lunch should be in there.
Indeed the Libertines, Kings of Leon, Travis, Coldplay….its more like 1001 charity shop cd donations
yes, none of these LPs are going to add to your knowledge about music
Any book that recommends Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou gets a thumbs-up from me.
I don’t think this book did – I meant her as an example of finding new music that thrills, which is less common for me than it once was, but is still wonderful when it happen
Not in my 832 listened so far
I’m still working my way through Stephen Fall’s excellent weighty tome, Reviewing My Record Collection: 3,333 Albums from A to Zuma, mentioned on this very website a few months back.
It’s a cracking read and it’s cost me a fair few quid in recommendations that I’ve fallen in love with.
My son is doing the 1001 Albums website generator thingy and he messages me every day with the days album suggestion.
Lots of things I’ve never heard off, but mostly not my cup of tea.
I have found Stephen Fall’s suggestions much more to my liking, and I am eagerly waiting on Volume Two.
Interesting blub on the 3,333 Albums saying that the author is “… driven by an ongoing obsession to hear everything at least once”.
That’s not me at all. I want to pinpoint certain LPs and then play them over and over again.
I suppose a desire “to hear everything at least once” was a motivation for me, many years ago. It’s why I started buying music mags with cover discs around the turn of the noughties. That’s how I discovered Word magazine as that rarity (at the time) of being a music mag I actually wanted to read. The rest often went in the recycling bin unread.
No longer a motivation. These days I’m more inclined to follow things that I’ve heard and liked down their rabbit holes and see where I end up. As it happens I often end up bingeing on the catalogues of particular artists.
I’ve just started going down the Frank Zappa rabbit hole. I was kind of hoping I didn’t like his stuff because of the expense and his catalogue is so vast, but with the help of the Stephen Fall book, I’m working my way through the best ones.
Almost all of his albums have something to offer. Some much more than others.
The distinctly mediocre “Francesco Zappa”, an album of baroque compositions played on Synclavier, can be avoided without missing out on anything notable.
I used to be rather fond of Francesco Zappa, mediocre or not.
I don’t mind Franceso Zappa. I’d rather listen to it than Just Another Band From LA or The Man From Utopia.
Does anyone know how much the lists change between editions of the book? I’ve got the 2011 one, but haven’t looked at it in ages. Is it simply the bottom 50 get kicked out & replaced or do opinions change over time. I did see a different version in a charity shop, but wasn’t tempted.
I would have thought the pre- 2000s entries would not change from edition to edition.
My copy is the 2014 reprint of the 2013 edition.
but someone has to drop out to make way for Travis or 50 Cent – temptation surely to cull stuff before the eighties? Though why say 12 Dreams of Dr Sardonicus was not culled beats me.
I suppose that would be going against the whole spirit of the project.
Spirit should come in at number ’76. That’s the masterpiece.
Would there be a market for 1001 Albums You Don’t Need to Hear Before You Die?
All those classics recommend by the music press which almost no-one likes in real life and you can safely ignore. It would be very mean spirited thing to write, and I don’t want to nominate any entries here because almost every record will have given pleasure to someone. But I bought a few complete duffers in the seventies on the basis of recommendations in the NME or Melody Maker and there would be a catharsis in seeing them named and shamed.
Wonderful idea!
Not exactly the same but in 1999 The Guardian published a top 100(ish) list of best albums that don’t appear normally in such lists. Interestingly I think quite a few of these now do.
https://www.listchallenges.com/the-guardians-alternative-top-102-albums
A more interesting list than many that I’ve seen. Somewhere between ⅔ and ¾ I’ve heard.
Quite a lot that I like.
Average score is apparently 29??
Hmmm … that’s a pretty good list.
But hang on a minute … what’s that album at no.97? “Begin” by the Millennium.
I’ve never heard of it – and I’ve spent my life perusing “Best Albums” lists.
Is any Afterworder familiar with “Begin” by the Millennium? Is it any good? Is it a lost classic that I’m missing out on?
I think it’s a very odd list. Sure, I am familiar with at least 3/4, but at least a 1/3 of that 3/4 are albums I actively dislike, and always did, or, alternatively, just can’t be bothered with any more.
Out of interest, is that consistent with your view of the “1001” books, in terms of percentage actively disliked or can no longer be bothered with?
No, actually, possibly because they contain 10x the choices, and so include, alongside the ones listed in this list, another 900 that will include more I like, on experience, and more exploratory unknowns.
Makes sense…
Here you go @duco01.
It’s a “lost psychedelic masterpiece”.
https://www.newcommute.net/feed/2017/5/4/the-millenium-begin
It’s a cracking little album. Part of the musical landscape of Curt Boettcher and Gary Usher, like Sagittarius. Eminently surftastic. To be continued…
During lockdown I started working my way chronologically through my 2008 edition which was given to me as a gift (which I think is the case with most of these 1001 things’ books – you see them piled high in bookshops in the run-up to Christmas. And it did mean I listened to some great records I hadn’t heard before, particularly the rather small selection of jazz classics included. But by the time I got to 1979 and Cheap Trick at the Budokan I had really lost the will to live and the bookmark has been stuck on that page thereafter. Maybe the randomiser is a better approach.
Yeah, Santa brought me 1001 Albums and 1001 Movies in successive years. It’s the thought though, eh?
Ploughing through chronologically is the hair shirt method – you a Catholic or something?
I have the 1001 Beers, with most/many of them unavailable or no longer made…..
@retropath
You just need Jever and Conniston Bluebird.
I agree that doing this chronologically would be EVEN WORSER. At least this way I can grind through some half-baked electronica (while muttering “Suicide did all this, and more”) knowing that I still have the chance of being offered Louis Prima after it.
I’ve always avoided those 1001 list books for the simple reason that 1001 isn’t really trying. I have thousands of albums, so that would be maybe 20% of my collection, which is a preposterously large amount. Commit to a 50, or 100 at a stretch, avoid selection by committee and avoid virtue signalling inclusions that people will nod at eagerly but never listen to again. Make it a collection of albums that somehow defines the individual.
👆 This.
This.
Well, mostly this: I’m not sure “virtue-signalling” is the right term – there’s precious little virtue in listening to albums that the herd have anointed as “gold-plated classic, etc etc”. What you’re usually trying to demonstrate is your astonishingly well-honed good taste; or your almost painful authenticity.
ONE THIRD OF THE WAY THROUGH!
I have completed 333 listenings, with some pleasant surprises in the recent lot – Norah Jones Come Away With Me, which is a lovely LP I had forgotten about, and the first Style Council LP, which is patchy with a couple of clunkers but also the great “My Ever Changing Moods”. Also Bjork – Vespertine. None of these are LPs that I would have sought out otherwise, and I enjoyed hearing all of them.
My only gripe with the website is that there is no Edit function, so an inadvertent click awarded 5 stars to In Rainbows and did not let me save my review. (“interesting, glitchy”). 3 would have been more like it. Also a previous mis-click led to Marilyn Manson getting 4 stars and the review words for Who’s Next, whereas that review should have been “Whiny tosh. 1 star”
Vespertine in the bottom third??? What are they thinking?
The website offers one album per day, drawn at random from the list. So you can have Deep Purple In Rock followed by Vespertine, or an earlier run that I had of Yes -> Don McLean -> Marilyn Manson -> Joy Division.
I cannot imagine how grim it would be to be doing this in chronological order, or, indeed starting with the 1001st best album, and grinding your way through an array of mildly interesting LPs.
Ah. That’s alright, then.