We reached 1,001 albums on the 1,001 albums generator on Friday morning.
Blimey.
What next?
For the record, Friday’s serving was Little Richard’s Here’s Little Richard. It was a fitting finish; I awarded it five stars for the sheer rawness, energy, and, yep, sex.
Not all albums on this extensive list have had rawness, energy and sex. I struggled somewhat to find these admirable traits in some of the shitty hair metal albums that were deemed worthy to grace the list.
R and I started the daily ritual around two and a half years ago. The 1,001 album generator site is modelled on the book 1,001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
This online exercise has worked superbly as part of a group. We are both delivered the same album each day. A review is then added.
I broadly know R’s musical tastes. I thought I knew mine. One of the pleasures of this project has been to compare his short and insightful listening notes with my scribblings.
The 1,001 site provides a detailed breakdown of our shared group interests. We’ve very conservative in providing an average rating of 2.52 out of 5.
Like I said - there has been an awful lot of hair metal shit to sit through.
Our favourite decade is 1980. No surprises there.
Rock ‘n’ Roll, Reggae and post-punk come out as our most popular shared genres.
We showed little love for metal, hard rock and, erm, samba,
As a snapshot, our highest rated albums included offerings by Sam Cooke, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, Specials, The Clash, The Beatles, Portishead, De La Soul, Malcom McLaren, Soft Cell, Muddy Waters, The Undertones, ABC, Ginger Baker, The Human League, Otis Redding, David Bowie, Fela Kuti, Velvet Underground, Dexy’s, Wire, Aretha, Run DMC, Massive Attack, Pixies, Johnny Cash, Lou Reed, The Fall, Public Enemy and Pulp.
Quite a playlist.
Yeah, it’s all a bit muso noodling, but in an age of streaming slop, it’s also been a fantastic exercise to open up new artists that I wouldn’t have explored before.
I’ve added around two hundred and fifty CD’s to my collection as a direct consequence of the list.
The past two and a half years have flown by. I’ve made the daily listening as part of my online routine each morning.
And so what next?
Similar online daily recommendation sites are available. I think we’ll give them a try.
I’d highly recommend the original 1,001 albums list for anyone that feels they are treading water and is open to new ideas.