How do I pick the three songs? Similarly to my playlist for MegaCritic I pick the three best regarded songs. To keep things close to AM, I take this website first as a basis, so it goes like this:
- Songs from the album that rank in the top 10.000 songs get in first. Up til now, all albums I did had three songs ranked. Note that in the playlist they do not appear in their ranking order, but in the order they appear on the album, so as to keep some semblance of the albums flow.
- Bubblers are next. If I there are more bubblers eligible than I can fit in, Spotify decided. This means I'll check which of the eligible bubbler(s) has the most streams on Spotify, with the highest getting in.
- Lastly if spots remain, I will use the Spotify method. Streams are not similar to critical acclaim, but it is the best I can work with now. Finding the three most beloved songs per album based on critics could perhaps be done in someway, but will prove to be a too lengthy process for now.
- Many re-releases add bonus tracks to an album, like previously stand-alone singles, cuts or demos. These will not be taken into consideration for this playlist. I only regard songs from the original release.
- And yes, that brings us to the tricky question of what the original release is. Some albums, including a lot of sixties classics, where released in different versions across countries, with frequently differences between the US and Europe. I initially thought to combine them, but with already the first case, Are You Experienced, I got into a weird situation. I would have to pick Purple Haze, Hey Joe and The Wind Cries Mary, three tracks that are all absent from the European version, which came first! I switched back to keeping the first release (in this example the European one) as the original. I'm not sure if this is the right approach though, so opinions are welcome.
This does leave some odd situations: some albums have only three tracks or less and so will be presented here in full, like Tubular Bells and Close to the Edge. Very silly yes, but I love silliness, so there you go.
I'm not yet sure how to handle albums not present on Spotify. The only way I know I can add them (albeit unplayable) is by getting a version of it in my music library. Of course, I do not own every single acclaimed album that is not on Spotify - so I'm not sure if I will simply download the songs (which I don't like to do otherwise), ignore them or find another way to add them. Thoughts, anyone?
Finally, a question. If a new update ever comes the playlist will have to be updated, but I probably don't want to start over again. I think there is an easy way with spreadsheets to contain the link to each song, but I'm not sure how it works. Who knows?

Two stars of our most acclaimed album.
This is still a work in progress. I will update on my own tempo, but will try to keep a reasonable pace. I have determined that I will work on the playlist for as long at a time as one album lasts. The album will always be the first one that I have to add to the playlist. Today that was obviously our number 1, Pet Sounds. Now I stopped at #36, so I will continue with #37: Massive Attack's Blue Lines. I'm sure later I will be able to discover some albums previously unknown to me this way (albeit not with full attention), making the process extra fun for me. I'll post here every update.
Any questions or comments?