My mighty music collection
I’ve had a disgustingly busy and social weekend. I haven’t had a chance to write much for today’s blog.
However, I do have some goodies — mostly in the form of photos taken with my new 50mm lens (that you will see later today, over at 52 Weeks) — and my music library is now online for your perusal.
This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it’s pretty darn complete. Most of it is digitised as MP3 or FLAC. I’m an audiophile, see (something else you may not have known about me). I love music. I have an expensive hi-fi with digital interconnections. I’ve only written about it a couple of times in the past which is totally pathetic of me — I will try to write more about my various loves and passions and pastimes, I promise.
You really don’t want to know how long it took for me to compile this list. There isn’t a single damn website/social network that reads my hard disk to find out what albums I have. There’s crap like Last.fm that scans what I listen to, but unless I want to listen through my entire collection — which is something like 650 albums… — then it’s not very useful. I feel inspired to write a social music network that lets users include their own digital music libraries.
So after many hours… I have a list. It’s too big to fit on this page, so you’ll have to follow the link below:
Seb’s Mighty Music Collection
People think you can discover a lot about a person by investigating what they listen to or read: You are what you eat, be it food or otherwise. Everything that you consume has an effect on you — and you can tell a lot from what tickles someone’s senses. The problem is, my collection spans about 15 years of hunting rare albums, finding re-mastered classics and trawling through bins of old vinyl records… so you’ll probably find it quite hard to differentiate between albums I listen to now and those I listened to back at school.
It’s a mighty collection spanning just about every genre; don’t judge me on the merit (or lack thereof) of my music choices — there’s classical and emo, rock and pop, a cappella and musical theatre — really, if you can work out what makes me tick, from looking at my music collection, you are doing well! (Other than the fact that I like musical theatre — about a third of the albums are musicals…)
I’ll let you have a look through the list, and then tell you what music I’m currently ‘into’ tomorrow. You can have a few guesses if you like!
Oh, I’m aware there are no Beatles albums on the list…
Related posts:
Hmm. You can’t really have a true music collection without the Beatles, can you?
October 19th, 2009 at 9:25 amUpon further examination I am, however, impressed by Letters to Cleo and Rufus Wainwright (he’s Canadian!). Two of my fav lesser knowns. And the Something Corporate. But I already knew you’d listened to SoCo.
October 19th, 2009 at 9:28 amI am so glad I have regained a little prestige in your eyes, dear Heather… PhD…!
I’ve been intending to try the Beatles — and Dylan — for a while now. This year hopefully…!
I just don’t like to do things by half. If I do the Beatles I will listen to it ALL. Same with Mr Bob. And they both have rather large creative opuses…
October 19th, 2009 at 12:36 pmSome of that reads like a plea for help. When you go Dylan, you can safely ignore about half his output. I think ‘Blonde on Blonde’ is the last you need other than the ‘Bootleg Series’ releases but opinions differ. Philosophy Dan holds that Dylan actually died in the motorbike accident and was replaced by a primitive android; this accounts for the late albums.
October 19th, 2009 at 1:03 pmIf you draw up a definitive list of Dylan albums, sans grumpy-android stuff, I’ll get on it ASAP! Or do I just listen to everything up and including Blonde on Blonde…?
I also need to listen to some Muse…!
October 19th, 2009 at 1:09 pmWhy would anyone judge you on what they find in a list you complied?. That is like laughing at someone who has, like… a CHART or something…
The thing is that with a list of this nature is that you are never done. And that is the cool thing.
This post pleases me.
October 19th, 2009 at 2:02 pmDid you write all of that out? If so I am suitably impressed, however on the flipside I suitably disturbed that you have ‘Various Artists – High School Musical Soundtrack’. Please explain this monstrosity
October 19th, 2009 at 2:05 pmHahahaa, you found the High School Musical lines…
Yeah, I downloaded them. Curiousity got the better of me. I kept hearing about it, and about how it was so popular… so I grabbed all three and listened through them in their entirety.
I have never been so damn disappointed…!
Never done indeed, Abi! What next…
October 19th, 2009 at 2:08 pmI’m more impressed that you listen to entire albums more than anything. You probably get a better idea of the artist that way, but I just download whatever singles I like.
October 19th, 2009 at 2:51 pmMy music collection used to be just singles, back when I was 16 or so — during my ‘formative years’, I guess. I used to find albums boring, the filler tracks unbearable.
Turns out I was just listening to the wrong albums…
A good album is really a magical experience
October 19th, 2009 at 2:52 pmThe Dylan you want is ‘Bob Dylan’ (1962) through to ‘Nashville Skyline’ (1969). After that, I think you should try ‘Blood on the Tracks (1975), which shows that even a robo-Dylan can write magic if he’s in the ending stages of a marriage. Of the bootleg series, you can probably get by with just volume 4, which you need loud enough you can hear the heckling.
As for judging someone for their list of music, it seems pretty fair to me; you’re giving an account of your taste and therefore yourself. If we can’t pass judgment ont he items in the list, no discussion at all is possible (cf. Kant & Arendt).
October 19th, 2009 at 4:05 pmAfter perusing your rather impressive list, I decided to take a look at my own MP3 folder … I was surprised to see that my indefinitely borrowed and collected MP3 archive amounts to around 1700 albums over about 155GB … things have gotten seriously out of hand. Could you help me listen to it all, please? There’s no way I’ll get around to hearing it all!
October 19th, 2009 at 8:37 pm155GB!
I think mine is a modest 70GB or so, and that’s with a lot of uncompressed music inflating the capacity required.
You must be one of those ‘collecting’ types that downloads first and asks questions later…
October 19th, 2009 at 9:08 pmYou are quite right. I figure the gravy train will come to a halt sooner or later … time to stock up now and catch up later! I stick to VBR V0 (my hifi equipment is fairly modest – the Little Dot MKIII valve amp being the pride and joy), which is pretty decent all things considered. FLAC would be ideal, but maybe when we have 500GB pocket music players … !
October 19th, 2009 at 9:59 pmAHH HIgh school Musical!! I love it! But really you had my heart at Ben Folds. We could so talk music for many many hours my friend.
October 20th, 2009 at 3:34 amOh very well done on picking up on the Ben Folds…
He’s my favourite artist — and they were my favourite band. They have been since my first year of university… so… seven years ago now! Jesus…
He needs to come to the UK more often damnit!
October 20th, 2009 at 3:45 amThat album list of yours explains a lot.
I’ve probably heard 25 from the list, and would choose to listen to even fewer.
To each his own.
October 20th, 2009 at 4:39 amNot enough Megadeth?
October 20th, 2009 at 1:53 pmOnly 1 album of rhcp… shame on you!
October 20th, 2009 at 6:50 pmAhhh! RHCP! My first album was actually Blood Sugar Sex Magik — first EVER! But I never digitised it.
I also liked Mother’s Milk and… the other one. I forget its name.
I just never digitised them (I borrowed them, back in the olden days before MP3s…)
October 20th, 2009 at 7:46 pm“Try” the Beatles? You haven’t listened to The Beatles? Whoa… So bizarre. Really? I’m seriously in disbelief.
October 20th, 2009 at 9:02 pmI don’t think it’s so crazy. Neither of my parents listened to them, so I never got ‘into’ them at a young age. Then, growing up, there wasn’t really some driving urge to buy their entire back catalogue… I’ve heard most of their songs on the radio and none of them really DO it for me. They’re too bland.
I’m told Revolver is the most ‘complex’ of their albums though, and that’s the one I will buy when I get a chance
October 20th, 2009 at 10:13 pmYou are getting an imaginary high five from across the pond for your ownership of Nobuo Uematsu.
October 21st, 2009 at 12:24 amHahahaha.
Yes… Final Fantasy 7…
My REAL first love. Not the girl that first let me stick it in her, oh no!
October 21st, 2009 at 12:26 amcheers to the sole Britney Spears album and the Andrew Lloyd Webber… but ewww to the Whitney Houston album… hehe
October 21st, 2009 at 10:33 amThat first CD of her Greatest Hits album is one of the mightiest vocal collections EVER!
Her fall from grace is/was rather sad…
In general I’m into anything ‘exemplary’ — piano, vocals, virtuoso violins… etc! I had mediocrity in my music.
October 21st, 2009 at 1:03 pmI’m going to disagree with AGD on the Dylan and say that both his most recent albums (Modern Times and Together Through Life) are also worth a listen. Pretty much agree otherwise though, there is plenty that you can skip over. As for the Beatles, anything from Rubber Soul onwards is a bit more interesting.
I represented my music collection visually on my blog a while ago – http://profoundnonsense.blogspot.com/2009/05/music-collection-officially-organised.html – It has grown a bit since then.
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:11 amBen-
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:31 amYou’re right about the more recent Dylan. Songwriting AI must have come a long way since they first assembled robo-Dylan – I’ve got/heard `Modern Times’ and I don’t think it was awful but I really can’t remember. I think the real problem is that no-one could live up to that initial burst of Dylan albums.
I think many musicians fail to live up to their original burst of creativity… unless they were never that great to start with (like the Beatles).
I’ll get on the Dylan ASAP!
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:24 pmI second the Uematsu.
Don’t listen to the others about Dylan. They don’t know what they’re talking about–Dylan being an android. There is a huge gap that you don’t want to listen to, but it’s dead in the middle, and either side of his oeuvre is amazing. The other fellow’s right about the beginning, plus Blood on the Tracks, plus Desire. Then you skip about seventeen years to pick up “Hard Times” from Good as I Been to You, and proceed to pick up everything from Time Out of Mind onward. The latter is one of my favorite albums and Love and Theft features “Mississippi,” which is one of Dylan’s best.
October 24th, 2009 at 5:28 pmToo much importance is placed on what you are supposed to like, the Beatles for example. I think music is quite an organic, emotive experience so it’s odd when people try and tell you what to like.
I don’t own any Beatles either…but we do share quite a lot of music Seb.
Not the Boys II men though…each to their own.
October 27th, 2009 at 5:00 pmNoted, Eric. I have some music and books on order at the moment… and will get started with Dylan henceforth!!
Boyz 2 Men are awesome. One of the best male vocalist groups in modern times.
October 27th, 2009 at 5:03 pm