I've listened to over 400 albums this year.

[Steve]

Disclaimer: I realize this is going to be alienating for a lot of people on this forum that choose not to listen to popular music. Your decision not to do so is valid, and I respect that. That said: this is a long post and you're not going to get much out of it. This is your chance to stop reading it.

A couple years ago, I was going to listen to 1000 albums in a year. I was going to write a blog about it and everything.I think I actually linked to it somewhere in this forum. I think I got to 30 albums? Totally lost my drive about two weeks into the whole thing. Complete failure.

So this year, I'm trying something similar, but a little different. I'm just keeping track of how many albums I listen to with no goal number in mind. 1000 would be cool, but I'm not pushing for it. I have a Google sheet with an ongoing list and I track every song I play on Spotify through Last.fm.

As of typing this, I'm about to hit 430 albums listened to since the second week of January this year and it's been great for me. I tend to get stuck in ruts of listening to the same things over and over. This has forced me to try new things. It's also made me really appreciate certain albums. I think I've boiled down the top five things that make me like an album.

1) Brevity. So many albums run for over an hour. Bands, take note- if your debut is over 45 minutes long, I don't really want to listen to it. 50+ minute albums are for musicians that have earned my time. If I trust you and know that your songs are worth it, I will gladly dedicate an hour of my day to listening to you. Otherwise, please respect my time. In turn, I'll remember more of your songs and be able to sing them back at you next time we cross paths.

2) Catchiness. I think writing a catchy 2.5 minute song is harder than writing a big, sweeping 25 minute epic of a song. The ability to get in, get out, and leave me singing your chorus in under 180 seconds and 7 notes is SKILL. I'm consuming a lot of music. Help me remember it. I'll repay this by making everyone I know listen to the song. I will purchase the song. I will purchase the whole album. I will purchase tickets to your show so that I can scream the song at the top of my lungs. I want to remember this song.

3) Honesty. Joke songs are great. I probably don't like them as much as I did in 8th grade, but I can still respect them. But for an album to truly stand out to me, it has to reek of honesty. It's blatantly obvious if your music is simply a sequence of notes and words delivered to my ears or if it's the contents of your soul being placed in front of me to consume. Even in your humor, be honest. In your most wistful daydreams, be honest. Just be genuine and don't pretend to be deep.

4) Uniqueness. This is such a dumb, vague word that gets wayyy overused, but it's the best one I could think of. Don't sound like everyone else. I can't tell you how much carbon-copy Bedroom Pop and Indie Rock I've consumed in the last 6 months. It's mall music. It's great when you are at Forever 21, looking at jackets with tacky patches sewn into them, but not great for actual listening. Do something weird. Yell and scream. Play an accordion on a punk record. Change tempos. I don't care. Just don't stick to a formula.

5) Cohesion. Writing a song that flows is hard. Writing 10-15 songs that not only flow within themselves, but also flow when all played together is ridiculously hard. An album doesn't have to have a set of 100% perfect songs. It just has to keep me engaged from front to back. It can have a rough song- so long as that song is somehow interesting. Boring is worse than bad. Take me on a journey- bumps and all.

All this said, I think it's time to give you my picks for 10/10 albums that I've heard so far this year. Not everybody's going to love these, and there are absolutely ones I've missed. I'll also throw some 9.5s down at the bottom of this post, because 9.5s are still fantastic albums.

10/10
- Anberlin: Cities
- Relient K: Air For Free
- House of Heroes: The End Is Not The End
- Panic! At The Disco: Pretty. Odd.
- Owl City: All Things Bright And Beautiful
- Paramore: After Laughter
- Weezer: Blue
- Vampire Weekend: Contra
- Children 18:3: Children 18:3
- Sufjan Stevens: Illinois
- David Crowder*Band: A Collision
- Brave Saint Saturn: The Light of Things Hoped For
- David Crowder*Band: Church Music
- The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds
- Death Cab For Cutie: Plans
- mewithoutYou: A-B Life
- Michael Jackson: Thriller
- Mutemath - Mutemath
- Relient K - Forget and Not Slow Down
- Weezer - Pinkerton

9.5/10
- Carly Rae Jepsen: Emotion
- Bright Eyes: Fevers & Mirrors
- Jimmy Eat World: Bleed American
- Radiohead: OK Computer
- Taylor Swift: Red
- Say Anything: Say Anything
- My Chemical Romance: The Black Parade
- Falling Up: Fangs

If you're interested in seeing the incredibly nerdy spreadsheet in which I list all this information out, just ask and maybe I'll post it below or something. Anyway, that's my experience. Hope you enjoyed reading about it.

[shnoodlec]

I'm a huge music nerd! I don't agree with a lot of your rankings but I'd love to see your spreadsheet and give you some suggestions if you're open to them!

[Marvin D.]

any thoughts on walk the moon?

[Steve]

Walk The Moon is a great band. Tons of solid pop jams.

Here's the link to the spreadsheet!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

[shnoodlec]

How can I see the rating you gave each album?

[Steve]

I actually just went through and added ratings to the Google Sheet! I need to edit the scale I used, because I started with a 5 point scale and converted it to a 10 point scale. So there's a lot of 6s and 7s because I wasn't sure how to convert it properly.

[Marvin D.]

and what's your thought of billie eilish?

[Steve]

Billie makes the kind of music I'd have made if I was 17 in 2019. It's abrasive and angsty and a little cringy, but she has her moments of brilliance.

*EDIT* I hit the big 500 today!

[EK]

Late Registration got a 5?! I’m appalled.

Good list though, I’ve listened to a majority of these, they’re all good in their own way (nah, some of em are terrible). Needs more hip-hop/rap.

[NatetheGreat]

This is a really interesting project. I tend to listen to a lot of the same, and rarely listen to an entire album as a whole. I'm super tempted to try this approach to listening...

[Steve]

@EK - Lol I'm guilty of being a boring white guy who mainly listens to pop and rock. I'm defs trying to get into more rap/hip-hop stuff.

@NatetheGreat - It's a really interesting way to listen to music. It's kind of hard, because it's tempting to try to cram 8 albums into a day without really paying close attention to them.

[Marvin D.]

just some more random artists that i've been re-listening to after a few years and curious if yo've heard them: Jeremy Messersmith, Cold War Kids, Cage the Elephant

[Steve]

I've never listened to Jeremy Messersmith, though I've heard the name. I think I've heard one Cold War Kids album this year? It's pretty old, like 2006, I want to say. Cage the Elephant is great, though I've never sat down with a full record.

[Marvin D.]

give Jeremy a go if you've got some time! Try out 'it's only dancing' imo.

what about Mac Miller? Postmodern Jukebox?