I have just checked my iTunes library and it is currently home to 31,957 tracks. Many I have never listened to and many I won't ever return to. Frankly an unmanageable and unlistenable amount. My solution? My iPod now only contains the tracks that I own on new vinyl that I have amassed over the last two years or so. I now only buy new music on vinyl too, so I really have to want an album before I buy it. No more frivolous purchases. I have written in previous posts about why I started buying vinyl, as well as the benefits of a less is more approach to acquiring music, but as I recently bought my 100th long-player (clue above) it seemed like a good a time as any to look back on what I now focus my listening on.
This list doesn't quite represent what I would claim are the best 100 albums of all time. Instead it is a combination of albums I do think should be in such a list, but also those that I have some reason to be nostalgic about and are meaningful to me, as well as a few rash purchases when I had money in my pocket and found myself in a record shop. Limiting myself to new and currently available vinyl does result in some glaring omissions and a few albums I definitely consider great are missing. Neil Young's On The Beach being one that springs to mind. Indeed the whole Doom Trilogy is missing. But it does give me something to look forward to should he ever get round to reissuing them on vinyl. In fact these were due a Record Store Day box set release this April but look to have been delayed until November...we'll see.
While the Bob Dylan albums here may not form many people's sole recommendations for where to start with him, there is nothing very unusual on the list. In fact nearly a third of these albums feature in the 2011 edition of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. A few of less well-known cuts (Vernon Wray, Jim Ford, Chris Darrow, Bobby Charles) I've been steered towards either by digging into the influences of more recent artists or by sites such as Aquarium Drunkard.
So, what might you make of this list. Well, I like music made in the 60s and 70s, particularly between 69-75. I like Neil Young too. I also like music being made now that draws on the same aesthetics (Wooden Wand and Hiss Golden Messenger for example). That is to say, organic sounding records made by people who really care about the music they are making and make it with sincerity. Where I have written about the albums in these pages before I have included links.
So, in broadly the order I bought them, here they are:
1. Poor Moon - Hiss Golden Messenger
2. The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground
3. The Creek Drank The Cradle - Iron & Wine
4. Being There - Wilco
5. Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys
6. In Rainbows - Radiohead
7. Loaded - The Velvet Underground
8. L.A. Turnaround - Bert Jansch
9. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco
10. Fleet Foxes + Sun Giant EP - Fleet Foxes
11. After The Gold Rush - Neil Young
12. De Stijl - The White Stripes
13. Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes
14. Plant and See - Plant and See
15. for Emma, forever ago - Bon Iver
16. Exile On Main Street - The Rolling Stones
17. You Are Free - Cat Power
18. Bad Debt - Hiss Golden Messenger
19. Rubber Factory - The Black Keys
20. Bringing It All Back Home - Bob Dylan
21. Gene Clark With The Gosdin Brothers - Gene Clark & The Gosdin Brothers
22. Twins - Ty Segall
23. Smoke Ring For My Halo - Kurt Vile
24. All Night Long - Junior Kimbrough & The Soul Blues Boys
25. The Rough Guide To Blues Legends: John Lee Hooker: Birth Of A Legend - John Lee Hooker
26. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere - Neil Young
27. Either/Or - Elliott Smith
28. The Stooges - The Stooges
29. No Other - Gene Clark
30. The Band - The Band
31. The Fantastic Expedition Of Dillard & Clark - Dillard & Clark
32. Harvest - Neil Young
33. #1 Record - Big Star
34. Marquee Moon - Television
35. Neil Young - Neil Young
36. Revolver - The Beatles
37. Forever Changes - Love
38. Surf's Up - The Beach Boys
39. I Can't Stand The Rain - Ann Peebles
40. The Dictionary Of Soul - Otis Redding
41. Man In The Hills - Burning Spear
42. Live At Massey Hall 1971 - Neil Young
43. Harlan County - Jim Ford
44. Bend Beyond - Woods
45. Wrecked Again - Michael Chapman
46. Lord I Love The Rain - Hiss Golden Messenger
47. Root Work - Hiss Golden Messenger
48. Big Inner - Matthew E. White
49. King Of The Delta Blues Singers - Robert Johnson
50. The Beatles (White Album) - The Beatles
51. Pink Moon - Nick Drake
52. Blood Oaths of the New Blues - Wooden Wand
53. Briarwood - Wooden Wand & The Briarwood Virgins
54. Haw - Hiss Golden Messenger
55. Golden Gunn - Golden Gunn
56. Artist Proof - Chris Darrow
57. Impossible Truth - William Tyler
58. Fully Qualified Survivor - Michael Chapman
59. Country Funk 1969 - 1975 - Various Artists
60. Delta Swamp Rock - Sounds From The South : At The Crossroads Of Rock, Country And Soul - Various Artists
61. Time Off - Steve Gunn
62. Music From Big Pink - The Band
63. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground
64. White Light - Gene Clark
65. Workingman's Dead - Grateful Dead
66. Jessica Pratt - Jessica Pratt
67. Wasted - Vernon Wray
68. Garra - Marcos Valle
69. Cerulean Salt - Waxahatchee
70. Promised Land Sound - Promised Land Sound
71. Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes - Elizabeth Cotten
72. Nashville Skyline - Bob Dylan
73. John Wesley Harding - Bob Dylan
74. Long Journey - Michael Hurley
75. Wooden Wand & the World War IV - Wooden Wand & the World War IV
76. Blood On The Tracks - Bob Dylan
77. Corsicana Lemonade - White Denim
78. Solar Motel - Chris Forsyth
79. Born With The Caul - Cian Nugent & The Cosmos
80. The Magnolia Electric Co. (10 Year Anniversary Edition) - Songs: Ohia
81. Jesus I'm a Sinner - Daniel Bachman
82. Live At The Cellar Door - Neil Young
83. Blue Rider - Zachary Cale
84. Unhalfbricking - Fairport Convention
85. Jackson C.Frank - Jackson C. Frank
86. I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight - Richard & Linda Thompson
87. Bobby Charles - Bobby Charles
88. Bad Debt [reissue] - Hiss Golden Messenger
89. Live at Fillmore East - Neil Young
90. Hard For To Win & Can't Be Won - Nathan Salsburg
91. Nixon - Lambchop
92. The Immortal - Mississippi John Hurt
93. Atlas - Real Estate
94. Bill Withers - Just As I Am
95. Neil Young - Zuma
96. Kurt Vile - Wakin On A Pretty Daze
97. Phosphorescent - Muchacho
98. The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream
99. Funky Kingston - Toots & the Maytals
100. Radio City - Big Star
I've just checked my Access database to find that I have listed 14,967 tracks on 1099 albums - and more are on their way as we speak. At least 207 of the albums are on vinyl. I have also checked my MP3 library (all of which come from the albums listed in the database) and found 1578 files. As above, I will not have listened to many of the tracks and others only very infrequently. I must try to restrain myself in future - but I've said that to myself before with little effect. I suppose the trouble with enthusiasts is that they are also "completists" and have a pathological need to have nearly everything their favourite artists produce whatever the quality.
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