The Album List

A random number generator, a spreadsheet and a long car journey

At some point in 2020, we (that is, my husband and I) were driving somewhere and listening to a Lou Reed album. Probably Revolver, but I can’t exactly remember. I knew a few Lou Reed songs but I wasn’t too familiar with his albums, and upon listening to this we remarked that listening to full albums really was enjoyable and we should do it more often. This was especially true on a long car journey where we had lots of time for focused listening.

And so, the idea of what we’ve come to refer to as ‘The Album List’ was born.

After a little research, we discovered that there is a book which has been put together by writer and editor Robert Dimery, titled ‘1001 albums you must hear before you die’. It was first published in 2005 and has been updated several times since. We have the 2021 edition (pictured above). Essentially, it is what the title says: a list of 1001 albums in chronological order; beginning in 1955 with Frank Sinatra’s In the wee small hours, and going right up to present day.

For variety, we have opted not to listen to these albums chronologically. Instead our method is this:

1. Use an online random number generator to pick a number between 1 and 1001.

2. Check the number against the spreadsheet to find out which album it is.* (tip: google ‘1001 albums you must hear before you die spreadsheet’ and it will come up as the first search option)

3. Read aloud the blurb about that album in the book.

4. Listen to the album.

*If we’ve already listened to that album and it has been checked off, we repeat steps 1 and 2 again.

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Our (self-imposed) rules

The listening must take place somewhere that we are able to be fully focused on the music and not distracted by other things. As I’ve already mentioned, the car is the ideal place for this, and most of our listening takes place on long car journeys.

Once the album has been selected we have to listen to it; even if after one song it becomes clear that we hate it. A very rare occurrence, but more on that later.

To date, we have listened to 179 albums which is approximately 17% of all of those mentioned in the book. It’s a long-term project, but one that we are savouring the process of.

The Good

It’s difficult to pick favourites amongst so much quality material, but I’ve gone through the albums listened to so far, and selected five that I particularly enjoyed and didn’t know well before embarking on this. I’ve included Spotify links in case you fancy a listen. They are:

1. Ian Dury - New Boots and Panties!! (1977) - raucous, rude and totally joyful

2. Madonna - Like a Prayer (1989) - 1980s production at its finest

3. Queen - A Night at the Opera (1975) - Freddie Mercury’s vocals are sublime

4. Curtis Mayfield- Superfly (1972) - short, sweet and funky

5. Laura Nyro - Eli and the Thirteenth Confession (1968) - beautiful songwriting and soulful mezzo-vocals

   

The Bad (imho)

So far there has only been one album that I truly hated. That was:

• Hawkwind - Space Ritual (1973)

It was possibly the most self-indulgent and lengthy at 2 hours, 11 minutes. Mildly amusing to begin with, I then began to worry that it was never, ever going to end and I would be trapped in the car forever.

The Ugly

I didn’t dislike the following albums at all, it was probably just a surprise to anyone we drove past to hear these sounds coming from our Peugeot 208. Not that we cared!

Anthrax - Among the living (1987)

Throbbing Gristle - D.O.A. Third and Final Report (1978)

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Both my husband and I have backgrounds as musicians. We love music and we love exploring music that we don’t know. This is such a great way to discover albums we haven’t heard before as well as rediscovering those we’ve not listened to in a while. To me, an album is the true expression of creative musical ideas. One song alone can be great, but an album unveils a journey and a narrative.

Have you come across this book, or any of the others in the series?

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Other news - excitement and nerves

I am extremely excited (and a little nervous) about attending

Emma Gannon

’s writing retreat on Friday. Excited because I’m going to have the opportunity to meet Emma in person, as well as several people I’ve connected with here on Substack. Nervous because my inner critic is wondering why I have signed up for a writing retreat. I plan to write a reflection about all of these feelings and the retreat in a post here on Sunday.