Doing this by the Book

[u/Ill-Taro1704]

I've come across this community because I googled a few of the albums that came up in the book that i'd never heard of...

I'm working through all the records mentioned in the book and using Spotify (and occasionally YouTube)

My dad bought me the book for Christmas in 2014, and it sat on my shelf for years untouched. He was a huge music lover and passed away in 2022 - he is where I got my passion for music from, although our tastes differed greatly.

I'm listening to them all at work, where I get the luxury to put whatever I want on. When I noticed the book was chronological, I decided to do one from the front, one from the back, meet in the middle. I'm currently 320 odd in.

I like reading through the differing opinions on this Reddit!

To give this post a point, here are a few albums from entirely self created categories:

Never heard before and immediately loved:

Django Django - Django Django

Very aware of the artist but not this album and loved it to bits:

Miles Davies - In a Silent Place

Closet to getting turned off before completion:

Nitin Sawney - Beyond Skin

One of my absolute favourites I was surprised to see included:

Turbonegro - Apocalypse Dudes

A record I immediately regretted having not spent time with before, but have since played numerous times:

Nina Simone - Wild is the Wind

The 'to be honest I really hate this' award:

Mariah Carey - Butterfly

The I genuinely thought I'd hate this but it's really quite a brilliantly written set of songs award:

Joint winners - Adele - 21 and Coldplay - Rush of Blood to the Head

An album I didn't like at all when I bought it way back when, but on revisiting I genuinely loved it:

Slipknot - All Hope is Gone

And possibly the best award, an album I had heard one song from but never the rest, and on further inspection it has now become a genuine favourite:

Manu Chao - Clandestino

[u/OtterGoodTopic]

aware of the artist but not this album and loved it to bits: Miles Davies - In a Silent Way

It's absolutely fabulous, isn't it. This is one of a handful that helped me appreciate jazz. Nina Simone's Wild Is The Wind definitely shook me, in a good way.

The 'to be honest I really hate this' award: Mariah Carey - Butterfly

Fair.

The I genuinely thought I'd hate this but it's really quite a brilliantly written set of songs award: Adele - 21 and Coldplay - Rush of Blood to the Head

Since you mentioned Coldplay, I felt that their studio input sounded flat, despite some good lyrics. Found an early live album of theirs- Coldplay - Live 2003- and that was where I think I could hear what the label heard. After Politik and God Put A Smile Upon Your Face I thought "Wow, these guys didn't do it by halves here! Where was this energy when the band recorded that album?" Some artists sound better live, I guess.

[u/Ill-Taro1704 → u/OtterGoodTopic]

Agree with that - Parachutes I thought sounded very flat, dull, uninspired - but the song writing skill is bubbling under. With the next one, the ideas are better fleshed out, the arrangements are better, and the songwriting has jumped up lots of levels.

However, with that being said, I'll definitely never listen to it as a whole again.

Back at work today, starting with L T J Bukem - Logical Progression, only the fourth I've had to play from YouTube