Sid Meier's Random Music Talk CIV

[Kieran McConville]

But because this whole listen to an album once, quantity quantity quantity thing you guys do. More power to you if you form any sort of worthwhile opinion sitting through an album once at a random point in your life. Nothing would ever stick for me if I tried to methodically listen to every album ever recommended on any giant list like a few of you do. I'd get wrapped up in the "690 left!" And would probably get even more pissed off at shitty music than I normally do because it might tell me I need to hear a kraftwerk album or some Stevie Wonder.

Kind of how I am. Even talking new music, I've probably picked one album, yeah, one, from each of the last few years to be my 'keeper'.

It is completely impossible to engage with an album on one or two listens (except maybe to dismiss out of hand something that is obviously rubbish, and yes, of course that's subjective, but there are only so many hours in a life).

 

[liamcool]

I have no idea who the incredible jimmy smith was, or what his back to the chicken shack sounds like. But I do think I gained a new understanding of where he band Jimmy's chicken shack got their name after looking at that list.

Lists like that are stupid, not just because no one, I repeat no one, needs to hear a Louis Prima album before they die (in fact, I'm sure studies have proven that people die much happier having never listened to the man's music). But because this whole listen to an album once, quantity quantity quantity thing you guys do. More power to you if you form any sort of worthwhile opinion sitting through an album once at a random point in your life. Nothing would ever stick for me if I tried to methodically listen to every album ever recommended on any giant list like a few of you do. I'd get wrapped up in the "690 left!" And would probably get even more pissed off at shitty music than I normally do because it might tell me I need to hear a kraftwerk album or some Stevie Wonder.

I've been doing this experiment where I listen to a new album for every day this year. (So, 365 new albums this year.) Just to see how a massive quantity can affect my perception of what's good music, what's bad.

You're totally right. Nothing sticks. I think of all of the music I've listened to this year, maybe 20 or 30 albums have really stuck with me as pretty good. Some of the rest is actively bad. The vast majority is kind of forgettable, and it makes me frustrated to know there's so much mediocre music out there.

 

[BoMac]

I haven't listened to that many new albums this year, especially when compared to previous years. But what I did listen to I generally really liked, and in some cases they really stuck with me, i.e St. Vincent, Lykke Li, War on Drugs, Spoon.

 

[iron yuppie]

Out of probably 70 albums I hear each year, maybe 3 stay with me in heavy rotation, and 1 becomes engrained in my head. You guys are absolutely right that variety in listening, as many merits as it has, results in less immersion with individual albums.

 

[bono_212]

Is anyone arguing otherwise?

 

[PhilsFan]

I listen to about 40 albums every year based off recommendations from places like this and I keep playing 10-15 of them while often listening to at least a couple tracks over again from nearly all of them.

 

[LemonMelon]

I've heard like 200 albums this year but mostly just listen to RTJ2.

 

[djerdap]

I've heard like 200 albums this year but mostly just listen to RTJ2.

No offense and all, but I kinda find this to be ridiculous. IWB is right on point with this.

 

[LemonMelon]

I'm pretty happy doing what I'm doing. Thanks though.

 

[IWasBored]

on the flip side, i get really pissed off when i neglect an album for years/decades, only to finally get around to it and discover how much better it could have been had i only been listening to this album/band before.

 

[bono_212]

I love the attitude in here that if you don't like the way someone does something, it's just the absolute worst way of doing it .

We're all listening to music, I don't get why people get so shitty about this topic so frequently.

It seems like people make the erroneous assumption that if people are listening to a lot of different things, they're never relistening to anything.

I know for me, at least, that's absolutely not true and I'm honestly finding defending that to be really, really tedious at this point.

 

[LemonMelon]

I like listening to lots of music. Instead of reading about music and forgetting it exists, I immediately give it a chance and make note that I did. If it sounds good, I'll listen to it again. If it doesn't, life goes on. There are probably some great albums out there that I didn't give a sufficient chance to, but I've been introduced to lots of albums I love in the meantime, so it evens out.

Many of my favorite albums did grow on me significantly, but they didn't grow on me after listening to them 20 times in 2 weeks. Instead, I returned to them after a while (sometimes years) and discovered my tastes had changed and made them a part of my life.

Music is one of the best things around. No reason to complicate it.

 

[IWasBored]

i don't recall having this particular conversation before, but i just may have missed it since i've never read every single page of a RMT thread. but what drives me crazier is how defensive people get about something like "hey, if it works for you, that's cool. i just don't get it," as if i'm saying "god 212er you're retarded for listening to 293873740203 albums this year." because i'm not saying the latter, even though you always seem to take it that way.

i find other people's music listening habits interesting, especially when they're quite divergent from my own. that's all.

 

[IWasBored]

but they didn't grow on me after listening to them 20 times in 2 weeks. .

these are the kind of albums that absolutely do not stick for me. plenty of albums have been OMFG awesome the first time i heard them, and i listened to them a couple dozen times the first week i heard them...and then never again until about 5 years later when i think oh hey, i liked this, maybe i should listen to again.

 

[bono_212]

i don't recall having this particular conversation before, but i just may have missed it since i've never read every single page of a RMT thread. but what drives me crazier is how defensive people get about something like "hey, if it works for you, that's cool. i just don't get it," as if i'm saying "god 212er you're retarded for listening to 293873740203 albums this year." because i'm not saying the latter, even though you always seem to take it that way.

i find other people's music listening habits interesting, especially when they're quite divergent from my own. that's all.

This conversation, in one way or another, happens, I'd hazard to say, several times a year. It gets old and I get defensive, and I'm sorry you took it personally. While what I said earlier this afternoon was directed towards my misconception of your post about the 1,001 albums list, my last post, however, was not in response to you. I totally get where you're coming from, and I don't mean to come across as bitter or looking for an argument. I just get a little bummed out that if I mentioned I listened to several albums, I have to worry that someone's going to call me out for somehow not listening to music right.

I've been under a lot of stress with my job, recently, and part of it, for whatever reason, was giving me a lot of anxiety about listening to music. I just felt so overwhelmed by the idea of even starting an album that I couldn't even finish my f'ing DI list until the very last minute, because making it made we want to cry. I don't know why I felt that way and I've absolutely not been able to come up with an explanation for why turning on an album, over the last while, felt like looking over the precipice of a cliff, but yesterday, everything at work suddenly got better. And, what do you know, suddenly I was able to start listening to music again. It really was that much of a finger snap. So, today was the first day in, I'd say two months that I even felt remotely up to listening to more than one album, so when I came in here and posted about it and this conversation started again, I just got really, really defensive. None of you can know any of that, so I'm sharing so as not to look like quite the tool I probably come across as most of the time.

 

[LemonMelon]

There's a wide gap between this

"hey, if it works for you, that's cool. i just don't get it,"

and this, IMO:

No offense and all, but I kinda find this to be ridiculous. IWB is right on point with this.

One is "that's interesting, it's just not my way of doing things" and the other reads like "holy shit, how could you do that to yourself? IWB will set you free."

Which ultimately has nothing at all to do with you, IWB. Djerdap is cool and I'm glad he's on the board, but I would never accuse him of stating his point of view in a warm and sympathetic manner.

 

[djerdap]

Oh I'm just being an asshole LM. Don't take it personally.

 

[LemonMelon]

No problem, I figured as much.

Three albums into Sunny Day Real Estate's discography and I love them all. Guess I can say I'm a fan.

 

[IWasBored]

This conversation, in one way or another, happens, I'd hazard to say, several times a year. It gets old and I get defensive, and I'm sorry you took it personally. While what I said earlier this afternoon was directed towards my misconception of your post about the 1,001 albums list, my last post, however, was not in response to you. I totally get where you're coming from, and I don't mean to come across as bitter or looking for an argument. I just get a little bummed out that if I mentioned I listened to several albums, I have to worry that someone's going to call me out for somehow not listening to music right.

I've been under a lot of stress with my job, recently, and part of it, for whatever reason, was giving me a lot of anxiety about listening to music. I just felt so overwhelmed by the idea of even starting an album that I couldn't even finish my f'ing DI list until the very last minute, because making it made we want to cry. I don't know why I felt that way and I've absolutely not been able to come up with an explanation for why turning on an album, over the last while, felt like looking over the precipice of a cliff, but yesterday, everything at work suddenly got better. And, what do you know, suddenly I was able to start listening to music again. It really was that much of a finger snap. So, today was the first day in, I'd say two months that I even felt remotely up to listening to more than one album, so when I came in here and posted about it and this conversation started again, I just got really, really defensive. None of you can know any of that, so I'm sharing so as not to look like quite the tool I probably come across as most of the time.

we probably do, we repeat ourselves on everything so much.

you just care shouter levels of caring in general.

 

[cobl04]

I love the attitude in here that if you don't like the way someone does something, it's just the absolute worst way of doing it .

We're all listening to music, I don't get why people get so shitty about this topic so frequently.

This kind of made me laugh, given how much shit I've copped for listening to albums in the "wrong order".

 

[liamcool]

Look mate, everyone knows the correct order to listen to a band's discography is the alphabetical order of the producer's middle names. If you don't do that, you are literally wrong. And not even the modern sense of literally.

Spoiler

;P

 

[LemonMelon]

This kind of made me laugh, given how much shit I've copped for listening to albums in the "wrong order".

Touche.

Although I think starting off your U2 experience with HTDAAB and writing them off is worse than listening through all of U2's albums quickly and then not listening to them again for a while, if we're comparing RMT listening faux pas.

 

[cobl04]

True. But I don't think I've written off as many artists as you all might think. And there have been artists I've become a fan of who I've discovered in a "backwards" way. And it is all subjective - I think St Vincent's latest would not be a good starting point; Peef says it's what's made him a big fan.

And funnily enough HTDAAB was my first U2 album.

 

[LemonMelon]

I agree with what you're saying, but if someone on this board wrote off David Bowie because of Never Let Me Down, I would throw them into a volcano, Mumford style.

 

[liamcool]

I think St. Vincent's latest isn't really representative of her previous albums, but it's indicative of the direction she's taking. So whether that makes for a good introduction or not, I don't know.

 

[cobl04]

As would I, though I'd replace Never Let Me Down, which at least has a couple of salvageables, with ...Hours. You got my PM btw?

 

[Kieran McConville]

I wonder if there are REM fans who got into them because of Around the Sun. I kind of hope not.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

Happy dead bird carcass day to all my American friends!

Be sure to punch an old lady in the line at Best Buy for me!

 

[Hewson]

Happy dead bird carcass day to all my American friends!

Be sure to punch an old lady in the line at Best Buy for me!

Thanks,
I'll be sure to nail her in the solar plexus and pry the last doorbuster Golden Girls blue ray box set from her cold nearly dead hands.

 

[u2popmofo]

Everyone stop all this fussing and fighting, it's Thanksgiving! Now go around the room and everyone tell us what you're thankful for.