2000 Albums

[BleuPanda]

This probably isn't of much interest to others, but I wanted to think about what this all adds up to.



This feels like a big milestone to me; I just reached 2000 albums listened to. I decided to make DAMN. that 2000th album, as Kendrick Lamar's previous two full-lengths are both 10/10 albums to me. DAMN. currently sits at an 8.5/10 for me, but I'm hoping that will change with a second or third listen (which was true for good kid, m.A.A.d. city and To Pimp a Butterfly).

What have I been listening to all these years? Well...
1. I have listened to all of the top 1000 on acclaimed music
2. Because I first started listening to albums after finding this site and have been using it as my main reference for discovering new music, the grand majority of the albums I have listened to are found within the top 3000. Most of my exploring outside of that has been triggered by Moderately Acclaimed or new releases with high scores on Metacritic (which naturally tend to end up on acclaimed music...).



What is my breakdown by decade?
1940s: 4
1950s: 70
1960s: 216
1970s: 370
1980s: 267
1990s: 302
2000s: 397
2010s: 374

It's weird that I've listened to so much from the 1970s, rivaling the decades I grew up with. That's what happens when you follow a list consisting of the opinion of classic rock critics...

Breakdown of ratings (10s are masterpieces, 9+ are outstanding, 8s are great, 7s are good, 6s are above average, 5s are average, 4s are below average, 3s are mediocre, 2s are bad, 1s are horrendous):
10/10: 34
9.75: 47
9.5: 60
9.25: 96
9.0: 120
8.75: 159
8.5: 165
8.25: 155
8.0: 151
7.75: 184
7.5: 185
7.25: 132
7.0: 117
6.75: 111
6.5: 72
6.25: 48
6.0: 46
5.75: 41
5.5: 28
5.25: 20
5.0: 23
4.75: 1
4.5: 1
4.25: 2
3.25: 2

Due to listening to the best of the best and generally being the type of person to take interest in the history of art, I haven't stumbled across many works I straight up dislike. My 6 sub-5 albums are:
Don Henley - Building the Perfect Beast (4.75)
The Beatles - The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl (4.5)
Avenged Sevenfold - City of Evil (4.25)
Daft Punk - Human After All (4.25)
Dollar - The Dollar Album (3.25)
Kamelot - Epica (3.25)

You can find my top list in the all-time album poll thread, but after 2000 albums, I'll at least share my top 10 here:
1. The Velvet Underground and Nico - The Velvet Underground and Nico
2. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
3. Pixies - Doolittle
4. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
5. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly
6. The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
7. R.E.M. - Automatic for the People
8. David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
9. Radiohead - Kid A
10. The Beatles - Revolver

It's kind of sad to think that all the albums in my top 10 were among the first 100 albums I listened to, beside To Pimp a Butterfly, which did not exist at the time. Would they have ended up at these positions if not for that fact? Are these the ones I compare everything else to? In fact, only two albums currently in the top 100 here fall below an 8/10 for me:
AC/DC - Back in Black (7.75)
Derek and the Dominoes - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (7.25)


Oh well...it makes sense that there would be a correlation; I just need to find those less-discussed albums that speak to me, like Naked City, Shaking the Habitual, and Young Team.

[prosecutorgodot]

Congratulations! For your selection of your 2000th album, i can't think of a better choice.

I'm surprised that you have loved half of the albums you've heard. I would think that having spoiled yourself with the top 1000, you would have acclimated yourself to greatness, and thus lower your scores.

I just passed the 600 mark, and I only love a little over 100 of them.

[Sweepstakes Ron]

On RYM, I currently have 10 albums rated 5/5. But if you took BleuPanda's 1-10 scale with quarter increments, I don't think any album would be a perfect 10/10 for me right now. Maybe MBDTF.

[BleuPanda]

Really, it all depends on what a 'perfect' score means. I rate each album in 4 categories:
Technique
Style
Emotional Resonance
Artistic Impact

Which means each of my 10/10 albums got a 10 in each category, but getting a 10 in an individual category is comparatively easy; these just happen to be albums where I feel fully satisfied in each element. It doesn't mean 'perfect'; I could easily name flaws in most of my 10/10 albums, but that's not what a 10/10 means to me; these are just the 34 albums I really connect with.

As for liking most of what I've listened to; I just enjoy listening to music! I like going through a bunch of disparate genres and trying to get a read on why they clicked with other people. I approach every album with the question "why does this work?", where I feel like many people go with "Do I enjoy this?" I think it's just a different way of interpreting and analyzing art. I've never been as interested in exploring my own taste as I am in trying to decipher the perspectives of others (though, naturally, that is my own taste). I'm weirdly abstract; there are albums like Sleigh Bells' Treats and The Go! Team's Thunder Lightning Strike! that I could listen to a thousand times, but they sit in my 100-200 range because I can more easily justify the albums that place higher. In the end, I enjoy Treats more than most of the albums above it, but I don't consider enjoyment to be that big of an aspect in my overall opinion. While I love it and its bizarro mix of heavy metal guitars and cheerleader pop, it doesn't leave me with anything more than an enjoyable experience. Likewise, there are many albums where the sound doesn't immediately work for me, but I feel this connection to the need of the artist to create this particular work. It's hard for me to deny these works unless something about it really rubs me the wrong way. Well-crafted music, to me, is like jumping into another person's shoes.

[PlasticRam]

I've rated maybe about 50 albums 5/5 stars.

Maybe I have listened to about 2000 albums, although I haven't rated all of them and some of the worse albums I haven't listened to in full.

[andyd1010]

Thanks for sharing, BleuPanda. That's a lot of listening! I'm trying to make my way through the top 500 albums before the June 1 deadline, but I'm not even close yet.

I have listened to all of the top 6000 songs, so maybe I'll analyze it more and make a similar post at some point.

Interesting that your two least favorite of the top 100 albums, and one of your four least favorite albums overall, are albums that I consider phenomenal guitar albums.