testing the staying power - Music - Forums : Best Ever Albums

CharlieBarley

Gender: Male
Age: 48
Location: Mount Olympus

I agree with Bobby. I, too, am over 40 and I find it hard to engage with rock and indie music from this decade.

There are a few exceptions:

Courtney Barnett, Father John Misty, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, St Vincent, Grizzly Bear, The War On Drugs, Bon Iver, Regina Spektor, Mogwai

and a few others.

But maybe I just need to become a bit more open-minded and be more patient with 2010s music. I do listen to some daily as I listen to BBC 6 Music here in UK which plays a lot of modern indie tracks. And most of it is okay.

Perhaps I'm just becoming an old dinosaur!

As for recording how many times I listen to albums that sounds like fun but I'm too lazy for that.

TimeLion

The staying power of any piece of art will depend a great deal on the changing circumstances of your life and your ever-evolving worldview. It is not, as some might suggest, synonymous with quality. You may get bored with hearing the same sounds over and over again, or you may grow to take comfort in their unchanging emotional signification. You may lose interest in sounds that were once novel, and then return when they become nostalgic. You may find old favorites seem increasingly trite as you expand your musical and emotional vocabulary, and then you may fall in love with them all over again when you rediscover the beauty of youthful simplicity.

The nuances of the individual are always interesting, but too complex for anyone but that individual to have any hope of unraveling.

dihansse

Gender: Male
Age: 60

I keep track of what I listen via Apple Music: while I travel to work or in the car I listen to what I put in playlists based on the scores of individual albums and how long it’s been I listened to them.
And in the evenings I try to listen to full albums but these last years that has become more difficult as’m doing that project of mine to discover old albums I don’t know and at the same time try to keep track of new albums.

As for staying power: by definition everybody has listened more to older albums they like than to new albums they like and in this way you get to call an older album a classic: generally acknowledged or personal (example the Aints are classic for me but not for somebody else)

Tap
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Gender: Female
Age: 38

sethmadsen wrote:

Also TAP - some of these have a single listen on them or what have you...

How does an album mean anything to you after one listen? Do you have this awesome zen thing going on or something?

I'm just asking to understand a bit as I read through your log. I mean I totally get one can. I've had that feeling too and still didn't come back for more for whatever reason... and then like The1CHIEF, I just chalk it up to hmmm... maybe I didn't like it as much - or it was superficial...

I don't know... I really don't, but it is fun to talk about. haha.

It basically is life - sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't and that's just the way it is... sometimes.

oh all of these had plenty of listens in 2014 and many in 2015 but I wasn't keeping track then. Like since this is the top of the 2014 list as made on jan 1st 2015 (there's a dropdown menu when you view any list you've made where you can see all the previous versions), the things I had at the top are totally going to be things I got my initial heavy absorption thing where I get a bunch of listens already back in 2014. but then after that period of time I get focused on something else and the albums I focused on drift down to a different stage of its life where I check in infrequently, sometime even going years without listening to it as is the case with some of these. There's exceptions and twists on that but that's the general way it plays out.

the log was hard to set up initially but now it's just as easy as plugging in the album name when I get the chance and then filling in more details later. Though I have been lazy about the upkeep lately, it'll be easy to catch up on tho, if anyone's curious I have it visible https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/...8mg/edit?u sp=sharing

also as far as paying attention to the contemporary music, I think it's totally fine to not, this is just one of many legitimate ways to engage with music in a fulfilling way. and it took me a while to get going again after I'd fallen off of keeping up with the new shit when school got too busy. I found a lot of the consensus stuff to be dissatisfying and I had to do some digging to figure out these networks of artists that are working on things that interest me, by finding something that connects with me and following the connections to labels and affiliated artists. and then I end up with these lists of things that a lot of people don't care about for the most part but mean a lot to me (though I still do end up clicking with some consensus stuff too!). but now I've got it at that point where there's more new stuff that I want to listen than I have time or money for, which is a pretty sweet problem to have.

RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad

Location: Ground Control

dihansse, is that the streaming service? That's cool they kept that idea alive.

Also both you and TimeLion made helpful comments. Thanks.

RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad

Location: Ground Control

Tap wrote:

sethmadsen wrote:

Also TAP - some of these have a single listen on them or what have you...

How does an album mean anything to you after one listen? Do you have this awesome zen thing going on or something?

I'm just asking to understand a bit as I read through your log. I mean I totally get one can. I've had that feeling too and still didn't come back for more for whatever reason... and then like The1CHIEF, I just chalk it up to hmmm... maybe I didn't like it as much - or it was superficial...

I don't know... I really don't, but it is fun to talk about. haha.

It basically is life - sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't and that's just the way it is... sometimes.

oh all of these had plenty of listens in 2014 and many in 2015 but I wasn't keeping track then. Like since this is the top of the 2014 list as made on jan 1st 2015 (there's a dropdown menu when you view any list you've made where you can see all the previous versions), the things I had at the top are totally going to be things I got my initial heavy absorption thing where I get a bunch of listens already back in 2014. but then after that period of time I get focused on something else and the albums I focused on drift down to a different stage of its life where I check in infrequently, sometime even going years without listening to it as is the case with some of these. There's exceptions and twists on that but that's the general way it plays out.

the log was hard to set up initially but now it's just as easy as plugging in the album name when I get the chance and then filling in more details later. Though I have been lazy about the upkeep lately, it'll be easy to catch up on tho, if anyone's curious I have it visible https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/...8mg/edit?u sp=sharing

also as far as paying attention to the contemporary music, I think it's totally fine to not, this is just one of many legitimate ways to engage with music in a fulfilling way. and it took me a while to get going again after I'd fallen off of keeping up with the new shit when school got too busy. I found a lot of the consensus stuff to be dissatisfying and I had to do some digging to figure out these networks of artists that are working on things that interest me, by finding something that connects with me and following the connections to labels and affiliated artists. and then I end up with these lists of things that a lot of people don't care about for the most part but mean a lot to me (though I still do end up clicking with some consensus stuff too!). but now I've got it at that point where there's more new stuff that I want to listen than I have time or money for, which is a pretty sweet problem to have.

Doh! I think you said that. Makes sense. Also dig what you said in bold.

that's been another interesting thing for me - it's like Pavlovs dog right... if it isn't satisfying in some form, it likely isn't something you'd want to come back to (Staying power).

If memory serves me right, I think I've talked to you about this before. I think it is awesome you are keeping it up. I have a list too where I tried to sort by debut, and genre and stuff, and it just got too cumbersom to keep up, but then how you mentioned it, it really isn't that hard - put in at least the artist and the album and the rest can be filled in when helpful. Perhaps now, I'll add a column, : #x's listened... THANKS!

Also for those who want to get something started in a hurry this site allows you to export CSVs (excel files) of lots of things: overall chart, what you've rated, your charts, etc... this helped me build my "database".

Also on the note of engaging in music - the hip hop thread wanted me to do that again, 2017 is just a thing that made sense at the time, and then I still haven't finished my classical evaluation... that's a project though... like a serious project and possibly too daunting and why I have lost motivation. It's like - yo - listen to a thousand years of music and rate it. It doesn't have to be, but that's what I decided would be cool (idiot... hhaha)

Tap
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Gender: Female
Age: 38

dihansse wrote:

As for staying power: by definition everybody has listened more to older albums they like than to new albums they like and in this way you get to call an older album a classic: generally acknowledged or personal (example the Aints are classic for me but not for somebody else)

I'd actually kind of disagree with that. like the albums that I've been listening to for 10 or 15 years, the relationship I have with them is different than stuff I only heard 3 years ago and they'll never have truly comparable relationships since they came in at different points in my life. But I've absorbed these albums from 2014 and lived with them for a while now and continued to come back to them, I would have no trouble saying Syro is a classic. And that's a big word so I'd probably hold off on it for the others since people get particular about that word but they do feel like they're on equal footing with plenty of older albums in my personal canon, like there's probably not that much difference in time spent with them really.

here's the next batch from my old 2014 list:

31. SD Laika - That's Harakiri (0 listens in 2017, 1 listen in 2016)
I really need to pull this one out again, I'll still toss on Meshes because it's a jam but the whole album is good too. I think this one is sticking with me, a really nice take on the sort of sound that's in the air with a lot of the future club sort of stuff that's been happening this decade, tho I think it's a bit too messy to completely fit in with that stuff.

32. TCF - E4 15 C4 71 97 F7 8E 81 1F EE B7 86 22 88 30 6E C4 13 7F D4 EC 3D ED 8B (0 listens in 2017, 0 listens in 2016)
This is one that I still feel fondness for but it has fallen deep into the background. This one may not have staying power exactly but I still keep up with the artist so I wouldn't totally count it out.

33. David First - Electronic Works 1976-1977 (0 listens in 2017, 0 listens in 2016)
Another archival electronic thing, glad to have had it coloring the year but yeah I think it's probably too high here, it's nice and all but there were more significant things that came out in the year. I'll probably check it with it again if I notice it fading from my mind completely, but there's a chance it could slip since there are a lot of electronic music composers from this era taking up space already.

34. Aaron Dilloway & Jason Lescalleet - Popeth (0 listens in 2017, 0 listens in 2016)
lol I know it looks like my listening has totally dropped off at this point from 2014 releases, but there's more that will come up later just you wait. Anyways this one I was thinking about recently because I've been gaining a new appreciation for Lescalleet's solo work and been jamming Dilloway's album from this year a lot. This one is sort of on the fence, it might end up being a noteworthy blip in the artists' discographies, but I think I might not be giving it enough credit here. The pieces here have some weirdness where its like both artists are being pushed into territory that's just a little bit off for them, well it's been a while since I heard obviously but that's the impression I was left with. I will at least be returning to this sometime soon, but it may fade away in time.

35. Swans - To Be Kind (0 listens in 2017, 0 listens in 2016)
So this one is kind of interesting, because it isn't on my list anymore at all. And it's not just because of the disgusting stuff around the sexual assault, tho that was an instigating factor in making me consider taking this off. But I can't claim the moral high ground on this, I still push Morton Feldman and other artists in the same territory and still have a reckoning to come to on this. But really even before finding that out, this album just had no pull for me whatsoever. I did have some engaging experiences with it in 2014, but even then it was sometimes just exhausting. And I got to the point where it was just like "nah I don't want to listen to this" every time. I don't really think of this as a criticism of the music, I still do think it is executing what it is going for well, it's just not for me.

36. Gabriel Saloman - Movement Building Vol. 1 (0 listens in 2017, 0 listens in 2016)
This is one I think I owe better. Volume 3 just came out a bit ago, still haven't listened to it. And Volume 2 is pretty great, tho I think I'm similarly neglecting it. These releases stay on my mind so have a sort of staying power, but this is one of the first ones on the list where I think I still need to properly consume it, really spend some time absorbing it. I don't think I did when it came out. But I still do think there is something special here. This one could go either way really but I think I'll bring it back from the brink.

37. Roberto Crippa - Reverse (0 listens in 2017, 0 listens in 2016)
lol I swear we are going to be getting into some stuff I've actually kept up with again, but this is another one that made it's mark on 2014 and then faded away. I'd still toss on a track from this on dubtrack, and going through the album again does sound nice but there really isn't much of a sense of urgency. This has enough staying power to still be familiar, and I could come back around on it but it will probably fade in time.

38. Morgan Delt - Morgan Delt (0 listens in 2017, 0 listens in 2016)
OK so it looks like we're still in flash-in-the-pan territory, but I want to take this opportunity to argue for how that's cool too. Because I will still toss on a song from this like Barbarian Kings or Obstacle Eyes (and honestly anyone reading this who thinks this is just another weird esoteric thing, this is actually some very hooky modern psychedelic rock type stuff, check those songs out!). But anyways when I listen, it does bring me back to 2014, and I feel like for me if an album properly sticks with me it becomes sort of timeless because I get associations with it from so many times, but stuff like this gets isolated and so becomes more aggressively associated with that one time period. So yeah this I think actually does have a sort of staying power, but it's as much for being a time capsule as it is for the music itself. But the music is pretty good!

39. Good Willsmith - The Honeymoon Workbook (0 listens in 2017, 0 listens in 2016)
lol ok so the 30s are pretty barren but the next batch of 10 will actually look a lot more popular with me! I'll have to rearrange this a lot when I'm done. But yeah these folks are good, but I've found more interest in solo projects or the label run by two members, Hausu Mountain. This album was sort of my in to their world so I'm grateful for it but the object itself isn't really sticking with me.

40. Ekoplekz - Four Track Mind (0 listens in 2017, 0 listens in 2016)
I'm being unfair to this album, it has good stuff. Ekoplekz is one of those artists that has so many releases, there's a certain level of arbitrariness to which ones I build a significant relationship with. I know this one has a different take on things from Unfidelity and deserves attention but this one is likely to fade away.

So damn, I probably made some wrong calls on this part of the list. But yeah there are a bunch later on that really grew on me that I'm still checking in with.

dihansse

Gender: Male
Age: 60

sethmadsen wrote:

dihansse, is that the streaming service? That's cool they kept that idea alive.

Apple Music as a streaming service indeed still has many of the features of the old itunes and I keep on using it although sometimes they're a bit of a nuisance: ex they still support ratings on songs except you can't see them anymore on iphones/ipads, only on a computer while this is for me an essential feature to make my playlists. So when I listen to tracks on the train or in the car I can't see or change the scores any more.

I'm however still holding on to Apple because it still offers me a combination of three things; my old CD collection I imported on Itunes, albums/tracks I bought on Itunes in the past and now also tracks that I put in my playlist via Apple Music, the streaming service and sometimes it's difficult to separate the three with only the annoyance that albums I put in my playlist are from time to time withdrawn from Apple Music (recently Teenage Snuff Film from Roland S. Howard).

When I'm looking for albums I generally find about 99% of them on Apple Music. When I search them on Spotify I usually don't find them either so I presume they have about the same catalogue. Sometimes I do find those albums missing in Apple music on Itunes where you can still buy music per piece. Generally I never do that anymore and if I want to listen to an album I generally look for them on Youtube where I generally do find them. Funilly enough I have this mostly with prog albums of the seventies genre Caravan, King Crimson and the likes.

When I make a statistic and if I can believe Apple at the moment I have:
- 17.335 tracks which are matched which should mean I have Imported them from my own CD's but for which Apple was able to match them with their own catalogue
- 3.972 tracks which are uploaded: this should mean tracks I uploaded from CD's but for which Apple wasn't capable of matching them with their own catalogue
- 12.250 tracks I have bought (via Itunes)
- 4.250 tracks I have put in my playlist via Apple Music

Maybe a long answer to your short question Seth but I just wanted to do this so I found this to be a good occasion Cool

dihansse

Gender: Male
Age: 60

Tap wrote:

I'd actually kind of disagree with that. like the albums that I've been listening to for 10 or 15 years, the relationship I have with them is different than stuff I only heard 3 years ago and they'll never have truly comparable relationships since they came in at different points in my life. But I've absorbed these albums from 2014 and lived with them for a while now and continued to come back to them, I would have no trouble saying Syro is a classic. And that's a big word so I'd probably hold off on it for the others since people get particular about that word but they do feel like they're on equal footing with plenty of older albums in my personal canon, like there's probably not that much difference in time spent with them really.

Hi Tap, of course I only meant my comment as a general (but generally true) observation and there's always exceptions on the rules. Of course there are recent albums I already consider as classics but not a lot any more although I still listen to new albums a lot (although not many which appear in your lists here Wink

).

But in general I think I have to take different comments already made together with the comment I already made:
- I'm older than you which doesn't mean that I'm a better music fan but just that I have a longer history in listening to older albums and that, although I find this hard to admit, I'm a bit more conservative in my taste, hence ex my lack of interest in rap/hiphop
- I cannot set aside my general feeling that it's become more and more difficult to make really original music because everything's been done already even when you go to the extremes: louder, harder, faster, softer (a nuisance in music these days), more experimental to even atonal, etc. So although I like a lot of the new bands/albums these days it doesn't happen often anymore that I'm really blown away by new albums (or live concerts by newer artists): a feeling that I often see returning in the comments of Seth on this site.

Maybe the closest to this is The War On Drugs, especially on their new album, but you can't really accuse them of making very original music. Ex I think 2017 is starting to be a great year in music but most of the best new albums (again of course in my personal opinion) are made by artists not so young any more like The Dream Syndicate, Guided by Voices, Roger Waters, Ride, Matthew Sweet, Lee Ranaldo, Slowdive, etc. And 2016 was even focused on dead or dying artists or artists with dying relatives.

craola
crayon master

Location: pdx

TimeLion wrote:

The staying power of any piece of art will depend a great deal on the changing circumstances of your life and your ever-evolving worldview. It is not, as some might suggest, synonymous with quality. You may get bored with hearing the same sounds over and over again, or you may grow to take comfort in their unchanging emotional signification. You may lose interest in sounds that were once novel, and then return when they become nostalgic. You may find old favorites seem increasingly trite as you expand your musical and emotional vocabulary, and then you may fall in love with them all over again when you rediscover the beauty of youthful simplicity.

The nuances of the individual are always interesting, but too complex for anyone but that individual to have any hope of unraveling.

well said!
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