Prince - Sign O' The Times (1987)

Can - Future Days (1971)

George Michael - Faith (1987)

I'm calling this the "George Michael Sniffs His Sweaty Armpit" album, because that's all I can think about when I see this cover. And yes, his armpit does have to be sweaty. That's a leather jacket, he has to be sweating under it. What were they going for in this photoshoot? I'm gonna have trouble listening to this album without the smell of B.O. on my mind. Since I already hated the first George Michael album I listened to that's not a good way to start.

Brian Eno - Another Green World (1975)

I wasn't too enamored with my introduction to Brian Eno, but that was a long time ago, and I've listened to a lot of shitty music. Plus David Bowie was a big fan of Brian Eno, so he must have done something right.

TV On The Radio - Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes (2004)

2Pac - Me Against The World (1995)

Amy Winehouse - Back To Black (2006)

M.I.A. - Arular (2005)

I'm not looking forward to more music by M.I.A. I'll admit she did some inventive things on Kala, but she was also very repetitive and obnoxiously loud. Why not just turn down the volume? I can hear you asking that very question. Unfortunately M.I.A. mixed the album in such a way that if I listened to it at a volume that didn't hurt my ears I couldn't hear half of what was going on in the songs. Arular came out 2 years before Kala so maybe M.I.A. wasn't so obnoxious in her younger years.

Garbage - Garbage (1995)

ZZ Top - Tres Hombres (1973)

The Young Gods - L'eau rouge (1989)

Recently I've re-started collecting CDs instead of MP3s or other such ways of owning my favorite music. For one thing as someone who prefers a full album to a single song CDs just offer the best way to obtain high-quality, easily back-up-able recordings. For another there's plenty of ways for online music to screw you out of being able to listen to a given song or album you want to hear. But I'm also discovering an unfortunate side to the albums on CD model, in the form of the dreaded "bonus track".

Morrissey - You Are The Quarry (2004)

I can't get over how much the guy on the cover looks like Daniel Day Lewis and James Van Der Beek.

Suba - São Paulo Confessions (2000)

Bad Company - Bad Company (1974)

Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996)

Maybe something about turtles? I don't know. I just know that this album has a somewhat pretentious title which shouldn't mean much, it just makes me less than optimistic. Then again I'm about to listen to music by an artist I'm unfamiliar with, so I shouldn't feel much optimism in any case.

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (1959)

Supergrass - In It For The Money (1997)

10cc - Sheet Music (1974)

David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (1972)

YAY!!! More David Bowie! The world would be a much better place with more David Bowie, regardless if he were to release awesome music (Station To Station) or somewhat meh music (The Next Day). I obviously hope for the former, but I'd be OK with the latter right now too, as the best new album I've heard lately was by some band called XTC.

Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (1978)

Femi Kuti - Femi Kuti (1995)

ABBA - Arrival (1976)

Yay! More ABBA! And I'm pretty sure this album has a song that I know, as opposed to The Visitors, which somehow is a memorable ABBA album with zero memorable songs.

Talking Heads - Remain In Light (1980)

Chic - Risqué (1979)

Malcolm McLaren - Duck Rock (1983)

XTC - Skylarking (1986)

It's the 80s! Let's do a lot of coke and vote for Ronald Reagan!

Common - Be (2005)

Queens Of The Stone Age - Queens Of The Stone Age (1998)

Merle Haggard - I'm A Lonesome Fugitive (1967)

I've Reached 300 Albums!

So… Roughly 3 years, and 300 albums later, and I still have no idea if it was worth all the trouble. At the very least, I can say I'm more satisfied after this round of albums than I was at the 200 mark. Why? Well, consider this chart of my "Last 10 Average" where I average how many stars I gave the last 10 albums I've listened to.

As you can see from the data, things have been looking up this year! Especially when compared to albums 101-200.

The actual stats:

12 1-star reviews - No real surprises… The Beastie Boys show up twice in this group, 7 of the 12 are digital music albums like The Prodigy and Daft Punk. I guess one moderate shocker is Eminem is the only rap artist to get one star this round. The rest actually managed to nab 2.

43 2-star reviews - Ouch. Though not really. This is the filler, music that just kind of exists and makes me go, "Eh…" I was kinda hoping David Bowie's The Next Day would be better, but the rest doesn't disappoint me.

32 3-star reviews - A few in here I'm pleasantly surprised by, such as KISS, The Jam, and even U2 made 2 albums I enjoyed. Adele's entire studio catalog is included in this group, and Lou Reed! Lou freakin' Reed made an album I sorta liked!

12 4-star reviews - What stands out here is the funk. Earth, Wind & Fire, Funkadelic, Bobby Womack. Also nice treats from The Bees and Prince, which is great because I had to buy those albums to listen to them!

1 5-star review - I had been waiting a long time to hear another album I absolutely loved, and Joni Mitchell delivered. Granted she did so 12 years before I was born, but discovering a jewel like Blue almost makes the whole thing worthwhile.

So instead of going through things that I've learned about myself, music, or any of the artists, I've decided this time around that I really don't care about what I've learned right now. I only care that I'm less than one-third of the way through the list after 3 years. This project will be the death of me, and if it isn't, I'll probably be doing it for the rest of my life anyway.

So, short break... I feel I've earned it.

Steely Dan - Can't Buy A Thrill (1972)

My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything (1988)

George Jones - The Grand Tour (1974)

Penguin Café Orchestra - Music From the Penguin Café (1976)

Metallica - Metallica (1991)

It's been a while since I've done a Metallica album. I want to clear out a queue of albums I've got backlogged, one of which is Metallica's S&M which I previously decided being a live, orchestra-backed album would be wrong to listen to without hearing some studio-based Metallica first. So I'm jumping ahead to hear the third and last Metallica studio album to appear in 1,001 Albums to Hear Before You Die, their eponymous album often referred to as "the black album".

U2 - War (1983)

Thank goodness. If I have to review another U2 album I'm glad it's from their young and naive days as opposed to their up-their-own-asses days. This one is even earlier than The Joshua Tree, the album that made me realize that U2 really isn't so bad if you can just get past all the pretentiousness. They're even better if you look past all the people who say they're the greatest band in the world and realize that yeah, they can write a pretty solid tune.

David Bowie - David Bowie (1967)

In honor of the death of all-around music god David Bowie I've decided I need to listen to a completely non-classic and forgotten album from Bowie's catalog. Because let's face it, everyone on the day after the death of a legend wants to listen to their equivalent of Ziggy Stardust or Heros. Hell my initial reaction to Bowie's death was to listen to Station To Station as many times as possible. Instead I really feel I must listen to Bowie's equivalent of The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, which I would call Pink Floyd's slightly embarrassing debut they'd rather everyone were ignorant of.

Al Green - Let's Stay Together (1972)

Mmmm... early 70s funk-pop. This is the kind of music that gives you a warm feeling in your chest, unless you are some kind of demon spawn from hell. I've only listened to half a song and I already want to love Al Green. I'll stay together with you Al, as long as you keep playing this music for the rest of our lives.

Keith Jarrett - The Köln Concert (1975)

Keith Jarrett is a piano player. And The Köln Concert is a recording of a concert he put on in 1975. Where he plays piano. For about 1 hour.