Introduction

After more than 4 years, I’ve finally completed 1001 Albums Generator. Here’s the summary post.

I don’t really know what I want to say about the experience. I just feel like it needs properly documented and celebrated.

Statistics

Looking through some of the main statistics, I think I’m not surprised by many of the results. Punk being my favorite genre is no surprise, although it could have also been metal. I think looking at the styles given, grunge and hardcore both land in the “punk” bucket, while thrash and alternative metal are in the “metal” bucket. Grunge is a pretty big deal for me, so yeah…

Actually, I guess it is fairly surprising that my highest-rated decade is the 2010s. I guess they just picked some good albums, although there’s way less 2010s albums than other decades like 70s, 80s, 90s. Surprisingly, the 90s was my worst-rated decade, despite grunge being my highest-rated style. I guess they should have put more grunge albums on there and less britpop? I don’t know.

Trivia

Here’s some trivia I learned through this process:

Here’s some things I had confirmed for me:

  • U2 is bad. I really gave them a shot, but I do not want to hear U2 at all.
  • The Beatles rule. I mean, this didn’t really need confirmed, but it was confirmed anyways by the fact that they’re my highest-rated band overall. What can I say? They don’t make bad albums.
  • The Eagles suck. The Dude was right.
  • Gangsta rap, in general, doesn’t do it for me. I bounced off both 2Pac AND Biggie. Snoop is rad though. I don’t fully get it. I think I’m more of an alternative hiphop guy or something. I don’t fucking know, still. I can’t make sense of it.
  • I like punk and metal, obviously. Although I will say I was a bit surprised that grunge was my highest-rated genre. I guess I still have a lot of respect for that era, even though I don’t go out of my way to listen to it much anymore.

Conclusion

I’m really stoked that I made it all the way through the list, and I am proud of myself and so appreciative of my friend Noah who joined me on this odyssey.

Now that it’s all over, I’m not really sure what’s next. It reminds me a bit of when I finished my Master’s degree and I was like “ok, now what do I do with this time?” It’s hard to have such a strong habit and have it just… over.

New Project - Our Band Could Be Your Life

About 20 years ago, I started reading the book Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azerrad. I got a few chapters through and ended up getting distracted or something. I mentioned this to some friends and they said it’d probably make a good audiobook. I agreed, and looked into it, and lo and behold, an audiobook exists, and each chapter is read by a celebrity of some sort, such as Fred Armisen, Dave Longstreth of Dirty Projectors, Jon Wurster of The Mountain Goats, and Phil Elverum of Mount Eerie. The book covers some bands I love, some bands I respect, and some I’ve barely listened to.

My new project is listening to this book, and stopping after each chapter to really take in the main discography of the band that the book covers. I’ve gotten through Black Flag and The Minutemen already, and I’m currently on the chapter about Mission of Burma. I’m listening to their first EP, and it’s actually really good. There was no Mission of Burma on the 1001 list, so I’m already onto some new (to me) music. The journey continues!

I plan to try to write up my thoughts after every couple chapters, which would have been something nice to have done for the 1001 Albums every quarter or something. 4 years is too much to keep in your head, but I’ll always have my mini-reviews and ratings.