A few years ago, I had a random craving to listen to "Round Here" by Counting Crows. I couldn't tell you why, but I really wanted to. I dusted off my August and Everything After CD, and was surprised by how good I forgot the entire album was.
I do that a lot. I'll listen to an album over and over for up to several years, and then forget about it. It will sit on my shelf, unappreciated.
Everyone, it seems to me, does this to a certain extent. They "outgrow" certain music, or their tastes change, or new favorite albums overshadow past favorite albums. And sometimes, people just get in musical ruts. They listen to the same 15-20 albums over and over for the most part, with new stuff shuffling in and out every once in a while.
My re-discovery of August and Everything After coupled with my realization of my own rut brought a question to my mind: what else have I forgotten, or never experienced, because of this rut?
This led me to take on a crazy new project not too long after where I would try to listen to a new album a day for 365 days: some stuff on my shelf I've neglected, and new stuff I've never heard. Some stuff I've always been curious about, some stuff I didn't want to give a chance to begin with. Some stuff I've only read or heard about, some stuff I missed out on during some silly musical phase in which I may have been trapped. Some new stuff, some really really old stuff. Some stuff I forgot I had and some stuff I wonder why I have.
Long story short, the project dried up after 6 weeks and 42 albums. I just couldn't keep up. Some of it was life circumstances, some of it was issues related to accessibility to new music (read: before I had iTunes and Spotify).
So now I'm ready to tackle it again. Maybe, hopefully, it'll turn out better than last time.
There are, of course, guidelines for what albums qualify, and for how I will listen to them. They are as follows:
1. No albums by bands I'm already a huge fan of. I think that it'd be a copout for me to listen to a bunch of Dave Matthews, Decemberists, Gov't Mule, Five Iron Frenzy, and so on. The only exceptions to this rule are albums by these artists that I don't already own and/or that I just haven't absorbed. New albums put out by these artists over the course of this project, for instance, are fair game.
2. No compilation albums. This includes, but is not limited to, Greatest Hits, soundtracks (excluding original scores), burned mixes, samplers, etc. Sadly, this also includes live albums. I went back and forth about that one, but when it comes down to it, most live albums feature a string of an artist's hits with some other stuff peppered in. So basically, full studio albums only.
3. Albums from formerly favorite artists are acceptable, so long as it's been years since I've listened to it. I figure that enough time has passed that I can listen to it with fresh ears. But I'll observe this one very strictly.
4. I reserve the right to shut off an album prior to its completion if I find it unbelievably boring, annoying, craptastic, etc. But I receive full credit for the effort. And I have to listen to at least five songs before I can exercise this right.
Not only will it be exciting to listen to new music, but there'll be some stories to tell along the way, not just about the particular albums, but also in that way that music has about conjuring emotions and past memories and invites reflection and reaction. In other words, I think this will be as much a spiritual journey as it will be a musical one.
I'll blog my weekly selections, and any stories that come up with them.
P.S. I'm open to recommendations, too. And I'll frequently ask for them throughout this thing.
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