planetneutral's Master Rating Log 2021- - Music Diaries

planetneutral · 2020-12-30T14:04:16-05:00

Sometime in the era of 2009ish, my wife gave me a copy of the original edition of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Like so many foolhardy list-obsessed music enthusiasts, I began an endeavor to listen my way through it. You've heard a similar story in this forum many times before I'm sure. It didn't start well. In August of 2009, a mere eight albums into my effort, the library I work in flooded completely, burying my office in liquid sewage and putting an end to my new practice of sitting in my office listening to CDs. In 2010, I started to keep a rating log on RYM, combining my general listening and half-assed effort to work through the book. - https://rateyourmusic.com/list/planetneutral/planetneutrals-master-rating-log (I stopped using this list for a while. I'm working on catching it up.) I also kept a log specifically related to the 1001 Albums book. - https://rateyourmusic.com/list/planetneutral/chronicle-of-the-1001-albums-you-must-hear-before-you-die (This is up-to-date.) And I picked up a copy of 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die, which had enough parallels with the 1001 Albums book that I figured I might as well track my progress through both. https://rateyourmusic.com/list/planetneutral/chronicle-of-1_000-recordings-to-hear-before-you-die (Up-to-date.) The 2010 listening effort only lasted until April, the travails of library flood recovery dominating my attention. And it was totally backburnered until 2016, when I started really focusing on the original Dimery 1001 Albums book, using a spreadsheet list and a random number generator to make selections. By this point, I was also tracking revisions to the Dimery list. My current spreadsheet lists all 1,076 albums that I know that have been included in at least one edition. I had two good runs of listening between Jan. 2016 and Apr. 2018. But I was starting to have real problems with the Dimery book, namely that it was almost comically Anglophile. Could I really justify listening to three Dexys Midnight Runners albums? Did I really need to commit to three Blur albums? Or every single thing Brian Eno ever touched? Was I giving too much of my limited lifespan to this guy's musical worldview? I decided that the answer to the last question was yes and so I just stopped, 380 albums into my effort. The last album I reviewed in 2018 was Tanto Tempo by Bebel Gilberto, which I described as "Deeply unremarkable." And I thought that would be the end of the story. I shifted my hobbyist attention away from album listening and into building out Spotify playlists, like my 770+ song 1980s A-Z playlist. But then something unanticipated happened, when my friend announced he was going to listen to the new 2020 edition of the Rolling Stone 500 album countdown. He started at #1, which I completely bristled at, especially since he didn't seem very inspired by the top ten. ("It's all downhill from here!" I protested fruitlessly.) But I realized it was someone close to me, who was taking on my kind of project. So I decided to join him and, in so doing, continue with the other two book-driven lists that I had been tracking. So I am currently about 2/3 of the way through the Rolling Stone list (which my friend abandoned around #50 :o) and, with the new year, thought I'd try to start chronicling my listening here at BEA. I'm a little intimidated since the people in this space take their chronicling and rating and reviewing seriously and I'm kind of a doofus with really mainstream taste and a limited attention span (courtesy of three tech-enabled children, age 10-15). I generally like things and generally listen to things I expect to like. At the time of this post, my mean rating is 75 over 650+ ratings, with 70 being the mode. But part of the fun is that I'm growing a little impatient with the Rolling Stone list as we head toward the bottom, so this ride could get a little bumpy! The reviews I post as "comments" on BEA tend to be terse (despite the logorrhea of this intro post) and, if consensus of the BEA audience is any guide, unhelpful/unpopular. I will probably use this diary context to offer more informal commentary and notes from my listening experience. We'll see. Just wanted to try keeping track of stuff here and see what happens. I'm not especially thoughtful, attentive, or critical. I'm not looking to be convinced not to like something that I find joy in, but I'd love to have people encourage me to reconsider my negative takes. I mostly want to have motivation to keep going. And the reality for me is that documentation is a double-edged sword as it fuels my hobbyistic tendencies, but keeping up with a diary does increase the overhead of the actual listening. My current overall chart: Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by planetneutral Here's one attempt-in-progress to put words to my ratings, which I switched to BEA's scale relatively early on: 100 - Beyond objective consideration. Either basically flawless or containing so much 100+ material that it overcomes any shortcomings. 95 - Important to me, but just slightly out of the 100 league or flawed in some way I can't overlook. 90 - Generally speaking, the highest rating an album will receive if it has no personal resonance for me. Would have to be a significant first experience for me to rate an album of new-to-me music higher than this. 85 - The flawed version of 90. 80 - Genuinely compelling to me. (I consider anything at this score or above worth your time to listen to at least once.) 75 - I liked it+ 70 - I liked it 65 - OK+ 60 - OK 55 - A hint of something redeeming. 50 - Meh. 45 and below - Increasing levels of dislike. I have yet to rate anything below 15. I claim no consistency and surely go through periods where I am more or less enthusiastic in general. Rating is always about how the material meets the mood. This log only chronicles first listens, but it is rare for me to change rating on a re-listen. Thanks for actually reading this far. I intend to start using this diary on 1/1/2021, although I might tinker with a test post or two before then.

planetneutral Profile

baystateoftheart wrote:

Just because the subset of music nerds on this site hasn't rated it much doesn't mean it's insignificant.

Acknowledged. But there is also little correlation between sales/popularity and significance or merit. Color Me Badd has a triple-platinum album, but Rolling Stone isn't trying to tell me it's one of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Quote:

Congrats on finishing the list! Have enjoyed reading about your journey, even if I may disagree a good bit of the time.

Thank you! I knew before I even started the diary that I'm prone to some pretty unpopular takes. I do hesitate a little more now that I know at least a few people will read them. But what good is it being dishonest with myself, right? That said, I'm totally open to reconsidering my crappy takes on anything, since I'd like to enjoy almost anything more than I already do. Tell me I'm wrong, people!

Luigii Profile

I mean if some of those earlier reviews where on his diary, maybe there could be some conversation. Discovery is a bit of a prime example. Also don't know how you felt of Love Deluxe, but I could see why if you weren't a fan. But in other cases I would give hopefully better recommendations, like I would hit you up with both Bocanada and Siempre Es Hoy from Gustavo Cerati to delve into more Hispanic based music with a more rock and electronic backdrop.

baystateoftheart Neil Young as a butternut squash Profile
Massachusetts

planetneutral wrote:

Acknowledged. But there is also little correlation between sales/popularity and significance or merit. Color Me Badd has a triple-platinum album, but Rolling Stone isn't trying to tell me it's one of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

I'd say having a lot of sales/popularity makes an album historically significant - even if it didn't end up being super influential, it's significant to understanding what that era was like. But of course you're right that sales correlate weakly to quality.

Given that Chaka Khan is a pretty legendary musician, they may have been choosing an album of hers to feature, as opposed to the selection being all about the content of this particular album. That sort of reverse engineering is not how I would construct an album list, but oh well. I have enjoyed everything I've heard by Rufus & Chaka Khan though.
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planetneutral Profile

baystateoftheart wrote:

Given that Chaka Khan is a pretty legendary musician, they may have been choosing an album of hers to feature, as opposed to the selection being all about the content of this particular album. That sort of reverse engineering is not how I would construct an album list, but oh well. I have enjoyed everything I've heard by Rufus & Chaka Khan though.

Yes, exactly, it's these fairly brazen signs of reverse engineering that I'm really highlighting. The album is OK, but I've always loved the energy of the Stompin' at the Savoy live release, which is in my CD collection. Probably unrealistic of me to hope for a single studio release to be as consistent.

planetneutral Profile

Luigii wrote:

I mean if some of those earlier reviews where on his diary, maybe there could be some conversation. Discovery is a bit of a prime example. Also don't know how you felt of Love Deluxe, but I could see why if you weren't a fan. But in other cases I would give hopefully better recommendations, like I would hit you up with both Bocanada and Siempre Es Hoy from Gustavo Cerati to delve into more Hispanic based music with a more rock and electronic backdrop.

Appreciate the suggestions.

All 500 of the Rolling Stone albums with my comments and ratings are in reverse order here: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/planetne...-complete/

My complete rating log in chronological order is here: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/planetneutral/planetneutrals-master-rating-log/

RoundTheBend I miss the comfort in being sad Profile
Ground Control

dunno if this is a good list of the 1001 albums... but after being deliberate off and on trying to get through it (and it being sometimes incredibly painful) - I'm finally under 100 albums left! (922/1001).

Anyway, I know your project is slightly different, but wanted to celebrate somewhere someone maybe cares... 🤣 .

https://www.listchallenges.com/1001-albums-you-must-hear-before-you-die-2016

RoundTheBend I miss the comfort in being sad Profile
Ground Control

oh I just realized you finished - congrats!

And I'm glad you spoke from your heart; loved your commentary (albeit, I didn't read it all, so I should say I love the commentary I did read... hehe)

dgold Profile
Arkansas

It looks like I have my work cut-out for me. 🧱

Pardon, BRB AFK, I'll be here a while reading this music diary. 👏

Excellent commentary Planetneutral and forum-friends! I just joined today for this thread
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