Best Ever Albums

Re: So I Set A Goal For Myself This Year. I Need Some Tips.

paladisiac — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 14:58:48 GMT

Author: paladisiac

Posted: 03/14/2018 18:58

AAL2014 wrote:

1.) How many albums (new or old to you) do you normally listen to in a week? A month? And have you ever set a goal similar to this one before?

In a typical work week, i probably listen to about 30 albums, about half new to my ears. Most of my weekends i'm too busy engaging in some activity or don't want to subject others to my weird music or just listening to random playlists.

My usual goal that i've had since college days is to simply listen to as much music new-to-my-ears as possible. I like trying music i haven't heard before.

AAL2014 wrote:

2.) How do you schedule, so to speak, your listening habits. We all have busy lives to varying degrees, so when do you find yourself listening to music the most and do you sometimes make time to listen to albums new or old to you?

i just listen at work when i'm at my desk. i'm a software engineer so i spend a lot of time in front of the computer with minimal need for interaction. Thankfully, this career lends itself well to listening to tons of music.

AAL2014 wrote:

3.) In your weekly-monthly listening habits, do you go through genre/artist/era/decade whatever kicks or do you find yourself going more all over the place? Recently I've been discovering more classic metal and its sub-genres than ever before and it's fucking sick to be honest.

For the last many years, say since around 2009, i've come up with "projects", big or small, and weave those projects into my normal listening habits which usually includes trying new (current-year) music and older stuff i haven't heard before. This year, my main project is to listen to all of the "1001 albums you must hear before you die". (I already heard about 664 before i began.) Then I have mini projects like trying to listen to all of the main albums of a given artist or listen to a lot of albums from a certain sub/genre or whatever. Right now I have a mini project of going through a bunch of punk, siding a bit to poppy punk, that i haven't heard before. (Descendents, husker du and dickies are coming up!) These projects make listening to "new" music interesting to me. Probably next year, the 35th year of my personal music countdown, i'll probably listen to all of my favorite 1200-ish albums ...

I probably listen to at least 675 albums new-to-my-ears a year, but i've never kept track. It's been this way since after college, and in college, i would always listen to music when studying, try new albums at friend's places, etc... My mom says i've been obsessed with music since i was 2 with lyrics memorized back then. (Being kind of young, i don't remember this so i can't validate her claim.)

So i guess you just fit the music in when you can where you can as much as you want as it interests you. Some (like me) put some structure around it and some don't. Dealer's choice.

Re: So I Set A Goal For Myself This Year. I Need Some Tips.

glynspsa — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 14:41:58 GMT

Author: glynspsa

Posted: 03/14/2018 18:41

1. I listen to like 2-8 or more albums in a day. some dys when traveling it may be less or if i have a convention but otherwise it is 2-10 a day. It is most often Vinyl but cn be Cdor digital. I have some cassette tapes still but my player is not hooked up. i do still have one though.

2. I do it while i work its a perk of being your own boss.

3. I am all over the place but i do go through ruts of listening to different genres or eras more often then switch to another but it is always a little all over the place.

Re: So I Set A Goal For Myself This Year. I Need Some Tips.

Johnnyo — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 14:22:06 GMT

Author: Johnnyo

Posted: 03/14/2018 18:22

1.) How many albums (new or old to you) do you normally listen to in a week? A month? And have you ever set a goal similar to this one before?

2.) How do you schedule, so to speak, your listening habits. We all have busy lives to varying degrees, so when do you find yourself listening to music the most and do you sometimes make time to listen to albums new or old to you?

3.) In your weekly-monthly listening habits, do you go through genre/artist/era/decade whatever kicks or do you find yourself going more all over the place? Recently I've been discovering more classic metal and its sub-genres than ever before and it's fucking sick to be honest.[/quote]

How many albums? I'd have to say at least 5 - 10 a day. A lot in the car but I got into the habit of putting music on as soon as I get home and we listen to music far more than say, watch TV. My God, that easily 1500 - 3000 a year. No goal set but I am seeking out more jazz than ever before. I also think that I tend to (not intentionally though) connect albums together during a session.

Re: So I Set A Goal For Myself This Year. I Need Some Tips.

AAL2014 — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 12:58:51 GMT

Author: AAL2014

Posted: 03/14/2018 16:58

Thanks to everyone who has commented with their thoughts, often times in depth. It made for good reads and gave me a lot to think about.

Sometimes just because I want to reach the goal I've set for myself I try and think too hard about it and you guys are very right that I should take it easy and discover what I discover and go with the flow of the discovery so to speak.

Thanks again!

Re: So I Set A Goal For Myself This Year. I Need Some Tips.

Space-Dementia — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 22:01:31 GMT

Author: Space-Dementia

Posted: 03/13/2018 02:01

I don't really set goals for myself, besides just general ones like "listen to more 80s albums" or something. For the past four years or so I've been pretty good about listening to more or less an album a day or so, but as I've grown I've learned from my mistakes. I used to try and get through as many albums as I could, so I'd just listen once, decide whether I liked it or not, and move on to the next one. But about a year ago I realized that I really need to slow down and appreciate each album, or at least give it a good three listens or so before moving on. I also started keeping a music diary on this website, which helped a lot in organizing myself and actually remembering the music I was listening to.
However, because of my weird start in listening to music, there's a lot of albums that I've "listened to" and didn't like that I don't even remember, so I've spent 2018 so far pretty much only returning to albums that I haven't heard in years. And for the most part I like them better than I used to. But this new approach has given me a lot less time to listen to albums that I haven't heard yet, so for that reason I've only heard two new albums from this year, and I've barely heard anything new to me besides that since January. I have spring break coming up, though, so I think I'm gonna spend that time finishing up with the old albums and getting back into the rhythm that I'm usually in at this point in the year.
I am really happy that I've returned to so many albums this year, though because there were so many albums that I either forgot about or just didn't appreciate the first time around that I really like now:
Low, Station to Station, Songs of Leonard Cohen, Blue, Psychocandy, Rain Dogs, Gish, You're Living All Over Me, Black on Both Sides, Parallel Lines, This Year's Model, Operation: Doomsday, Trans-Europe Express, All Things Must Pass, Darkness on the Edge of Town, Blood on the Tracks, More Songs about Buildings and Food, On the Beach, The Band, Everybody Knows this is Nowhere, My Favorite Things, Sung Tongs, Person Pitch, Repeater...

Re: So I Set A Goal For Myself This Year. I Need Some Tips.

RockyRaccoon — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 13:56:01 GMT

Author: RockyRaccoon

Posted: 03/12/2018 17:56

AAL2014 wrote:

1.) How many albums (new or old to you) do you normally listen to in a week? A month? And have you ever set a goal similar to this one before?

2.) How do you schedule, so to speak, your listening habits. We all have busy lives to varying degrees, so when do you find yourself listening to music the most and do you sometimes make time to listen to albums new or old to you?

3.) In your weekly-monthly listening habits, do you go through genre/artist/era/decade whatever kicks or do you find yourself going more all over the place? Recently I've been discovering more classic metal and its sub-genres than ever before and it's fucking sick to be honest.

1. It fluctuates, but generally speaking I listen to probably 4 to 5 albums a day, so maybe 20 albums a week?

2. I basically fill every gap I have with some form of art consumption. If I have a time where I'm doing nothing and don't have an obligation of some sort, I listen to an album, watch a movie, watch an episode of a tv show, read some of a book, etc. Fortunately, I can listen to music while I work, so I consume a lot of albums that way.

3. Generally I listen to new releases, I like to try and keep up on my albums from the year. My day job is as a writer, so I can't really listen to lyrical music while writing, so I typically listen to black metal (the lyrics aren't distracting), post-metal, post-rock, jazz, electronic music, and classical while I write. I have lists and thins bookmarked as sources of recommendations for those genres, I pick an album from them and go for it. And when I'm at home and I have music on with the kids around and/or my wife around, I typically will either pop on a playlist to just play as background music, or I'll put on one of my records from my vinyl collection.

Re: So I Set A Goal For Myself This Year. I Need Some Tips.

rkm — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 05:58:25 GMT

Author: rkm

Posted: 03/12/2018 09:58

Tha1ChiefRocka wrote:

Nope, I just listen to music everyday. If I didn't, I might have gone mad by now. Any moment that I have a chance to have something on, it's usually on. If I'm cooking, if I'm cleaning, if I'm doing homework, walking to school, exercising, pretty much anything. Since, I rarely have the chance to just sit down and only pay attention to music, I have to integrate it into my daily life. What I listen to changes daily, or by what mood I'm in, but the only time I listen to something specifically would be on Thursday night/ Friday when the new albums drop. Then I'm trying to listen to whatever just came out that week.

PS, I almost wish I still mowed lawns like I did when I was kid. I listened to so many damn albums that way, that I have specific memories of listening to albums for the first time while sweating my ass off mowing. It was a great way to listen to music.

The first time I heard Robert Cray’s “Strong Persuader” album was when I was 13 doing my paper run. I had it on my walkman, a tape my guitar teacher had made for me. I distinctly remember thinking, “man, Robert, when are you gonna learn to stop screwing around with other men’s women!?”. I guess he was a strong persuader after all, and she was just another notch on his guitar.

Re: So I Set A Goal For Myself This Year. I Need Some Tips.

Tha1ChiefRocka — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 04:35:53 GMT

Author: Tha1ChiefRocka

Posted: 03/12/2018 08:35

Nope, I just listen to music everyday. If I didn't, I might have gone mad by now. Any moment that I have a chance to have something on, it's usually on. If I'm cooking, if I'm cleaning, if I'm doing homework, walking to school, exercising, pretty much anything. Since, I rarely have the chance to just sit down and only pay attention to music, I have to integrate it into my daily life. What I listen to changes daily, or by what mood I'm in, but the only time I listen to something specifically would be on Thursday night/ Friday when the new albums drop. Then I'm trying to listen to whatever just came out that week.

PS, I almost wish I still mowed lawns like I did when I was kid. I listened to so many damn albums that way, that I have specific memories of listening to albums for the first time while sweating my ass off mowing. It was a great way to listen to music.

Re: So I Set A Goal For Myself This Year. I Need Some Tips.

PurpleHazel — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 03:53:11 GMT

Author: PurpleHazel

Posted: 03/12/2018 07:53

AAL2014 wrote:

1.) Have you ever set a goal similar to this one before?

2.) How do you schedule your listening habits?

3.) In your weekly-monthly listening habits, do you go through genre/artist/era/decade whatever kicks or do you find yourself going more all over the place?

I've never set a number goal, though there were times when I was working on a chart when I hoped to hear to 3 or 4 albums a day so I could get through my list of albums to listen to fairly quickly. Some days it was easy, other days I didn't get to any. After 4-5 days of listening to more than one album, I did find that a break was welcome, and it always turned out to be beneficial.

I don't listen to music with my undivided attention nearly as much as I should. If I'm listening to a singer-songwriter or a particularly demanding album or one I've been wanting to hear for a long time, I might give it my full attention, but don't actually do it that frequently. If I hear a song or passage that arrests me, I might stop what I'm doing (assuming I can) and just listen to it.

When I was working on my decade charts, I did listen almost exclusively to albums from that decade for several days. I think it can be fun to be working on a chart or other project and listen to at least 3 albums a day and cross them off your list -- perhaps it helps to be a little obsessive. But when it stops being fun it's time to stop. All it takes is listening to one album outside the project and the spell's broken. After, if you go back it's because you want to.

Now I have several informal lists I'm working on and a member here's been reccing artists and albums, so I'm mixing it up quite a bit, which is the most gratifying. I actually prefer doing decades to genres or artists, because it's much more varied. There are times when I listen to a few of an artist's albums in a row to compare them, but I prefer to space them out when possible.

Quote:

other times I may go days to a week without listening to anything new simply because of life being what it is.

365 albums seems very doable. If you listen to 3 albums in one day, you can take 2 days off if you want. If you anticipate going 3 or more days without having a chance to listen, you could try slipping in a half an album on two of those days to help keep pace.

I wouldn't be surprised if by next September, I've listened to 300+ albums for a year period, but I haven't been keeping score.

Re: So I Set A Goal For Myself This Year. I Need Some Tips.

Tap — Sun, 11 Mar 2018 19:15:39 GMT

Author: Tap

Posted: 03/11/2018 23:15

Romanelli wrote:

I have to ask.

How many albums do you own?

oh god too many. I bought like 120ish last year but that was high and aided by low digital prices, most of them can be seen here https://bandcamp.com/endaural

Re: So I Set A Goal For Myself This Year. I Need Some Tips.

RoundTheBend — Sun, 11 Mar 2018 18:38:14 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 03/11/2018 22:38

rkm wrote:

Another idea, to both immerse yourself in the music, and to find new paths to explore, is to make sure you read the credits and liner notes where possible. You might like the contribution of a particular musician, and then looking up that musician’s other credits on Allmusic turns up a bunch of other artists you wouldn’t have found otherwise. Trying to understand an artists lyrics might point you in the direction of their literary references, and before you know it you’re reading Yeats. It can be like an interconnected web, and you’re following the muse where it takes you on that web. That approach can feel freer, but has purpose and direction.

Along these lines, Wikipedia might be more helpful than you may realize/give credit. I like it better than most music sites to be honest.

May you get lost in this tree of metal knowledge and know much metal:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_metal_music

Re: So I Set A Goal For Myself This Year. I Need Some Tips.

rkm — Sun, 11 Mar 2018 18:09:43 GMT

Author: rkm

Posted: 03/11/2018 22:09

Another idea, to both immerse yourself in the music, and to find new paths to explore, is to make sure you read the credits and liner notes where possible. You might like the contribution of a particular musician, and then looking up that musician’s other credits on Allmusic turns up a bunch of other artists you wouldn’t have found otherwise. Trying to understand an artists lyrics might point you in the direction of their literary references, and before you know it you’re reading Yeats. It can be like an interconnected web, and you’re following the muse where it takes you on that web. That approach can feel freer, but has purpose and direction.

Re: So I Set A Goal For Myself This Year. I Need Some Tips.

RoundTheBend — Sun, 11 Mar 2018 17:38:17 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 03/11/2018 21:38

Hayden wrote:

Recommend picking up some jazz for breakfast.

There's a lot of good recommendations on this thread!

This one I liked a lot and was easy to quote. 🤣

But seriously.

Re: So I Set A Goal For Myself This Year. I Need Some Tips.

YoungPunk — Sun, 11 Mar 2018 17:28:35 GMT

Author: YoungPunk

Posted: 03/11/2018 21:28

Thanks for keepin it real Hayden 😉

Re: So I Set A Goal For Myself This Year. I Need Some Tips.

Hayden — Sun, 11 Mar 2018 17:24:09 GMT

Author: Hayden

Posted: 03/11/2018 21:24

Kool Keith Sweat wrote:

???

Most music, or music in general, is quite awful. And bothersome. Utter tedium really. Especially albums (the more music the worse).

And AAL2014, hitting a goal of 365 is totally cool and very doable. Just don't make it a chore. If you hit it, cool, but don't force it. Just pick a new album a day and it'll all be good. Recommend picking up some jazz for breakfast.

Re: So I Set A Goal For Myself This Year. I Need Some Tips.

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Mar 2018 17:18:18 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 03/11/2018 21:18

someone on a site called best ever albums wrote:

I don't listen to too many albums. I rarely complete an album I am listening too. So much garbage out there...

???

Re: So I Set A Goal For Myself This Year. I Need Some Tips.

YoungPunk — Sun, 11 Mar 2018 16:57:27 GMT

Author: YoungPunk

Posted: 03/11/2018 20:57

Although I never really learned all the scales by heart well XD

Re: So I Set A Goal For Myself This Year. I Need Some Tips.

YoungPunk — Sun, 11 Mar 2018 16:55:31 GMT

Author: YoungPunk

Posted: 03/11/2018 20:55

@seth

nah... wouldn't bother, those are too easy

Re: So I Set A Goal For Myself This Year. I Need Some Tips.

RoundTheBend — Sun, 11 Mar 2018 16:12:46 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 03/11/2018 20:12

YoungPunk wrote:

I think if you feel you don't understand music enough for you're life to work out you should obviously listen more, but also work on performing, writing your own music, teaching, maybe go the extra mile and start making your own instruments...

Transcribing and transposing music usually is a great way to internalize it as well (whether you are writing or performing).

Re: So I Set A Goal For Myself This Year. I Need Some Tips.

RoundTheBend — Sun, 11 Mar 2018 16:09:42 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 03/11/2018 20:09

Puncture Repair wrote:

Just wanna quickly dispel the idea I listened to 1,000 2014 albums ahaha, it wasn't even a fifth of that. That would be pretty mad.

The 'skill' of music listening is probably mostly subconscious I think, yeah. I'm not really talking about understanding the structure of music - that kind of thing usually comes from learning the instruments you're hearing. I'm really just basing this off the number of albums I can remember listening to when I was just getting into the hobby and having them completely wash over me. The more albums you hear, the more you're able to place what you're hearing on some kind of scale, you can appreciate contexts, objectives, inspirations. Like I said, it goes with any niche that you consume a lot of. I've got a mate that's a baker and he'll tell you everything about any loaf of bread.

Also, I'd say someone that does nothing but listen to Miles Davis is just as 'uncultured' as someone who watches the same Netflix shows on repeat. Nothing 'cultures' a person more than having one's own opinions, and that comes from consuming a whole spectrum of different things.

Yeah for sure - they create their own vacuum if that's all their doing. I suppose I was saying it's probably worth listening to the top 1000 albums on BEA or the entire discography's of the top 100 BEA artists. I do think in those instances you'd be way more cultured (if you payed attention and learned anything along the way) than if you spent an equal amount of time binge watching mindless entertainment. (Saved by the Bell and Friends, maybe... to each their own definition of that?)

Thing is, I bet that baker is actually way more conscious of why and how... it may now be unconscious competency (meaning he doesn't always or nearly never refers to a recipe) but he does consciously know when it's too much flour consistency, etc. And I suppose that's what you mean as well. Makes sense. You get a knack for it, like wine tasting or what have you. Just was curious if you have any rituals you like to follow, like letting the wine breathe or whatever.