About a month ago I was browsing a book store while waiting for Megan to arrive. Whilst browsing I came across a book called 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. I picked it up as I was intrigued, and started flicking through it. Beginning in the 50's, it worked it's way all the way up to the 2000's, so this was not just your 'parents favourite hits' collection. Megan arrived and I showed her the book, and then we went to the comedy gig we had come to see.

But it nagged me. I was interested in the book, and after watching the movie Julie & Julia shortly thereafter, I thought it would be interesting to do with this book what was done in that movie with a cookbook. In that movie (based on true events) one of the characters decides she is going to cook everything in a cookbook she has in the next 365 days. What if I did that with all these albums? It's a pretty lofty goal. If I listen to one of these albums per day, that's almost 3 years. And I don't think I can listen to an album every day and form an opinion on it in that time. Maybe one per week? Well that will take about 20 years. So my goal is to try and listen to at least 3 per week and comment on them. So this might still take about 5 years or so. And so yesterday after hearing me talk about it, Megan bought me the book.

Part of my desire to do this is to broaden my musical knowledge. I have always been open minded when it comes to music, though my tastes currently lean in the metal direction. I've flicked through the book and there are a few dozen albums I have already heard, and a bunch more I know about but may not have listened to in their entirety (or heard singles), and a whole swackload of artists I've heard of but don't really know too much about. I have found it surprisingly diverse, though this may be due to the fact that the book has many collaborators. The book has many well known cIassic stars like Elvis Presley and The Beatles, but I was suprised to find a smattering of metal and other genres in there as well. The inclusion of a handful of Metallica albums isn't too surprising, but there are not one but two Sepultura albums, and an album by Venom, one of the early black metal albums. The diversity also includes everything from Chemical Brothers to Bjork, from Green Day to Massive Attack and something from just about any genre you can think of.

I'm no muso. I don't know anything about tuning or how to define vocal styIes. But I will be going in with an open mind, and without having to wonder about the technical side of the music, I can just worry about what I like listening to. As much as possible I intend to go through the albums in chronological order, just like in the book. Now, I can't afford to buy a handful of albums every week, so I will be seeing what my local library can get in for me, as a quick search reveals they have a decent CD collection. Anything that I can't find at the library will be otherwise... obtained. Of course anything that I enjoy will be purchased and added to my collection. I will listen to an album at least 3 times before writing about it, but if I think it needs more listens to appreciate, then that is what I will do. So I expect I will update this every week with what I've listened to and what I think.

So shoot. I'm sure you all want to ask if your favourite album is in the list :)