This year I'm trying to reconnect a bit with creative stuff I used to love. I got my reading mojo back in 2019, and now I'm trying to do the same thing with music, so thought I'd start this thread to a) keep myself accountable (if I remember to update it) and b) perhaps gather some suggestions.
So, the deal is that I don't listen to music as much any more because I got into history podcasts a few years ago, so listen to those when travelling to and from pool sessions or podcast recordings, and when working I can't do background music because if it's got lyrics in a language I can understand it distracts me from the language I'm meant to be proofreading and if it's instrumental (or has lyrics in a language I can't understand) I just focus entirely on the job and find whole albums go past and I don't have a clue what they sounded like. As such, my plan for the year is modest: listen to two artists each week who I've not listened to (in an 'actually paying attention' sense) before. Each week I'll aim for one 'Old' act and one 'Contemporary' act. Very broadly speaking, 'Old' refers to anyone who'd released all their notable stuff before I moved to Argentina (April 2010) and 'Contemporary' means anyone who's become a really notable act since then. I'm open to suggestions who span those eras, and will probably chuck them in the 'Contemporary' bucket. My plan is to listen to two albums by each artist each week, and I might go for more depending on my mood / how much time there is / how much I like them. Obviously this isn't a trying-to-better-myself thing, so if the first thing I listen to makes me want to stick a compass point in my ear I'll give the second album a chance for a song or two and if it's no better I won't torture myself.
To be clear, while for the first artist (see next para) I've listened to their first three albums in order, don't feel you need to recommend others on this basis. For most I'll just go with their biggest couple of albums, or if anyone here has a particular recommendation then that plus one other (or the two you recommend).
I've started this evening, by listening to the first three albums by the folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel (you might have heard of them). One of the joys of this project, if I manage to continue it, is going to be finally being able to put act names and titles to songs I've heard a bazillion times in the background, but this wasn't one of those occasions: the only song I was already aware was by them before tonight is the obvious one, and no new 'oh! this is by them!' surprises have hit me during tonight's session. Given their discography is relatively short, and given that each album (so far) is as well, I'll probably listen to the rest in the next few days. To be honest this first choice is largely so I have a bit of context when, a little later in the project, I listen to Simon's solo stuff, because my best mate told me quite a few years ago now that for a project he was working on (he's a drummer – not as in it's his hobby, but as in that's what he does for a living) he'd had to listen to Graceland and, expecting to be bored by it, had been blown away. I've still never listened to it.
Anyway, thoughts: it's fine. Focus is very much on the songwriting, which is nice and tight, and I like the melodies (I'm aware from Wiki that there'll be fewer of those in the stuff I have yet to listen to). The two songs with 'groovy' in the title ('We've Got a Groovy Thing Goin'' from Sounds Of Silence and '59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)' from Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme) are ... mixed. And not at all groovy to this funk, soul and disco fan (but what did I expect from a folk act?). I liked WGaGTG more. I've also come away with the feeling that while I can see the appeal, 'The Sound of Silence' seems head and shoulders above the other stuff in these first three records – but I've always had a bit of a thing for getting hooked by the song I'm most familiar with when listening to a new-ish act, so I wonder whether this is another bit of this.
I don't have a confirmed Contemporary act for Week 1 yet, but given it ends on Sunday* I'll probably go with Taylor Swift, who's going to get listened to at some point this year so it may as well be sooner rather than later, unless anyone's got a more pressing suggestion (I'm not sure what exactly would make it more pressing). If anyone has a competing suggestion, or wants to tell me which two Taylor Swift albums I should give my time to, please jump in.
Any other suggestions both Old and Contemporary are welcome. I want to expand my repertoire, so all genres are welcome (though I reserve the right to pass on especially loud stuff as I'll be mostly listening on ear/headphones and don't want to damage hearing in the one ear I have), but what I particularly like, as mentioned above, is funk, soul and disco, as well as jazz and salsa. Hip-hop too, but I don't know an awful lot of that (and am aware it's not particularly an 'album genre' so to speak). Ideally I'll end up listening to a good mix of those genres and stuff I wouldn't otherwise bother with if not for this little game. If it's stuff I might have heard in a bar but never known who it's by, and you think it's any good, please let me know. As one example that springs to mind (which folk on here may or may not think is worth pursuing further), I frequently see/hear 'Mr Brightside' by (I think?) The Killers mentioned as being totally ubiquitous, but I couldn't hum or sing you a single note of it because while I'm sure, given how ubiquitous it's meant to be, I must have heard it, I've never actually identified it as 'Mr Brightside' by (I think?) The Killers. I gather they'd fall into my Old bucket, though, given how long they've been around for. Contemporary-wise, really do recommend anything: Janelle Monáe is by a distance the most recently successful artist I'm more than passingly familiar with, and while she's a fucking genius, I am also very aware that The ArchAndroid came out nearly 14 years ago (I actually had to look that up, and could have sworn it came out at least a year before I moved here), so she'd barely scrape into this bucket and, in any case, I already know and love her. Basically any artist whose first big album came after that is fair game.
*For Week 1, I'll probably give myself another couple of days to get through it, because I only decided quite late on Saturday that I was actually going to attempt this, and only decided two minutes before starting this post that I'd make said attempt public.
So, the deal is that I don't listen to music as much any more because I got into history podcasts a few years ago, so listen to those when travelling to and from pool sessions or podcast recordings, and when working I can't do background music because if it's got lyrics in a language I can understand it distracts me from the language I'm meant to be proofreading and if it's instrumental (or has lyrics in a language I can't understand) I just focus entirely on the job and find whole albums go past and I don't have a clue what they sounded like. As such, my plan for the year is modest: listen to two artists each week who I've not listened to (in an 'actually paying attention' sense) before. Each week I'll aim for one 'Old' act and one 'Contemporary' act. Very broadly speaking, 'Old' refers to anyone who'd released all their notable stuff before I moved to Argentina (April 2010) and 'Contemporary' means anyone who's become a really notable act since then. I'm open to suggestions who span those eras, and will probably chuck them in the 'Contemporary' bucket. My plan is to listen to two albums by each artist each week, and I might go for more depending on my mood / how much time there is / how much I like them. Obviously this isn't a trying-to-better-myself thing, so if the first thing I listen to makes me want to stick a compass point in my ear I'll give the second album a chance for a song or two and if it's no better I won't torture myself.
To be clear, while for the first artist (see next para) I've listened to their first three albums in order, don't feel you need to recommend others on this basis. For most I'll just go with their biggest couple of albums, or if anyone here has a particular recommendation then that plus one other (or the two you recommend).
I've started this evening, by listening to the first three albums by the folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel (you might have heard of them). One of the joys of this project, if I manage to continue it, is going to be finally being able to put act names and titles to songs I've heard a bazillion times in the background, but this wasn't one of those occasions: the only song I was already aware was by them before tonight is the obvious one, and no new 'oh! this is by them!' surprises have hit me during tonight's session. Given their discography is relatively short, and given that each album (so far) is as well, I'll probably listen to the rest in the next few days. To be honest this first choice is largely so I have a bit of context when, a little later in the project, I listen to Simon's solo stuff, because my best mate told me quite a few years ago now that for a project he was working on (he's a drummer – not as in it's his hobby, but as in that's what he does for a living) he'd had to listen to Graceland and, expecting to be bored by it, had been blown away. I've still never listened to it.
Anyway, thoughts: it's fine. Focus is very much on the songwriting, which is nice and tight, and I like the melodies (I'm aware from Wiki that there'll be fewer of those in the stuff I have yet to listen to). The two songs with 'groovy' in the title ('We've Got a Groovy Thing Goin'' from Sounds Of Silence and '59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)' from Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme) are ... mixed. And not at all groovy to this funk, soul and disco fan (but what did I expect from a folk act?). I liked WGaGTG more. I've also come away with the feeling that while I can see the appeal, 'The Sound of Silence' seems head and shoulders above the other stuff in these first three records – but I've always had a bit of a thing for getting hooked by the song I'm most familiar with when listening to a new-ish act, so I wonder whether this is another bit of this.
I don't have a confirmed Contemporary act for Week 1 yet, but given it ends on Sunday* I'll probably go with Taylor Swift, who's going to get listened to at some point this year so it may as well be sooner rather than later, unless anyone's got a more pressing suggestion (I'm not sure what exactly would make it more pressing). If anyone has a competing suggestion, or wants to tell me which two Taylor Swift albums I should give my time to, please jump in.
Any other suggestions both Old and Contemporary are welcome. I want to expand my repertoire, so all genres are welcome (though I reserve the right to pass on especially loud stuff as I'll be mostly listening on ear/headphones and don't want to damage hearing in the one ear I have), but what I particularly like, as mentioned above, is funk, soul and disco, as well as jazz and salsa. Hip-hop too, but I don't know an awful lot of that (and am aware it's not particularly an 'album genre' so to speak). Ideally I'll end up listening to a good mix of those genres and stuff I wouldn't otherwise bother with if not for this little game. If it's stuff I might have heard in a bar but never known who it's by, and you think it's any good, please let me know. As one example that springs to mind (which folk on here may or may not think is worth pursuing further), I frequently see/hear 'Mr Brightside' by (I think?) The Killers mentioned as being totally ubiquitous, but I couldn't hum or sing you a single note of it because while I'm sure, given how ubiquitous it's meant to be, I must have heard it, I've never actually identified it as 'Mr Brightside' by (I think?) The Killers. I gather they'd fall into my Old bucket, though, given how long they've been around for. Contemporary-wise, really do recommend anything: Janelle Monáe is by a distance the most recently successful artist I'm more than passingly familiar with, and while she's a fucking genius, I am also very aware that The ArchAndroid came out nearly 14 years ago (I actually had to look that up, and could have sworn it came out at least a year before I moved here), so she'd barely scrape into this bucket and, in any case, I already know and love her. Basically any artist whose first big album came after that is fair game.
*For Week 1, I'll probably give myself another couple of days to get through it, because I only decided quite late on Saturday that I was actually going to attempt this, and only decided two minutes before starting this post that I'd make said attempt public.
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