About

This blog has come about as the result of a number of incidences over the past few weeks. Recently a friend of mine asked me if I ever write anything just for the sake of writing, ie. not to be performed. The truth is, I haven't really written anything other than comedy routines or sketches in a good few years, and I feel it would actually be quite nice to have an outlet for a different sort of writing, just to keep my brain working in different ways.

Then there's my obsession with music - anybody who knows me will know that it's one of the major passions in my life, while those who know me well will know just how obsessive and pedantic I get about it. I've always had a brain that's thrived off the idea of cataloguing things and researching things, and I've always got a lot out of the idea of really researching and learning about something. I've always been a big fan of music, but in about 2007 I turned that analytical part of my brain to the subject and I've more or less been obsessively reading up on the history of popular music ever since. I'm no expert on the history of music as a whole - there are of course huge areas I'm very ignorant of and certain areas which, while they form a key part of the music I listen to, have never really become the object of my obsession or research, such as jazz or classical music. I'm a passionate fan of both, but I'm considerably more ignorant of their history compared to more popular areas. I finally decided I would try to turn this obsession into something productive, hence this blog. Finally, I also recently bought the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die." Of course, none of those books are really intended to be totally realistic - I'd be very surprised if anybody actually managed to listen to all their suggestions, but it did get me thinking about what my favourite 1001 albums of all time would be. Unfortunately, while I have listened to over 1000 albums, a lot of them have been miserable dross so I'm still a long way from actually being able to compile a list of 1001 albums I actually really, really enjoy. But this can be an ongoing project and maybe one day I'll get there.

I'll be working my way through more or less chronologically, and I'll also just briefly explain a few ground rules here - this catalogue is a tribute to the album, as I feel it's by far the best way to listen to music. I generally dislike listening to playlists, because when you listen to a full album you're listening to an artist's creative vision being played out exactly as they wanted it, without fragmenting that vision into lots of different bits just because they fit together well with other songs. Not only that, but going through the history of the album uncovers a huge number of phenomenal songs that have been unfairly left behind by the singles market, and now even more so with the "pick-and-choose" mindset of the iTunes generation. The vast majority of albums I've covered are studio releases consisting of previously unreleased material - I've tried to limit the inclusion of live albums and soundtrack albums, except in cases where a live album or a soundtrack has really stood out and affected me in some way. Compilation albums are an absolute no, except in particular cases where an artist has specifically worked on compiling a collection of old material that hadn't seen an official release (such as Jethro Tull's collection of rarities and B-sides Living in the Past or Tom Waits's mammoth retrospective of unreleased material Orphans), but compilations of previously released material, or that didn't have the direct input of the artist, are right out.

I hope you find the blog interesting, and if you think you like the sound of an album, do give it a listen! I'd be very happy to think that I've opened up any musical doors for people.