Every album? On January 28, Medium writer Harris Sockel noted: “Last weekend, I spent several hours digging into a majestic 138-minute read by Tom Morton-Collings (it’s more of a book, to be honest). He began the project last year, inspired by Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time…
“He decided to listen to all 6,800 songs on all 500 albums. It took him over six months. He writes:
“’I grew up as a music fan believing in the medium of the album as sacred. Somewhere along the way, I’d lost sight of that. I ditched all my physical media a long time ago. I only used streaming services and, more and more, was only listening to playlists curated… based on my listening habits. […] I wasn’t expanding my musical horizons at all. If anything, they were narrowing.’”
As you likely know, I’m enough of a dinosaur to play CDs still. And I received a record player for Christmas!
“What follows is the most detailed, exhaustive journey through the last 70 years of music that I’ve ever seen… While reading, I kept pausing to revisit albums I hadn’t heard in decades… I made a few new discoveries, like Laura Nyro’s Eli and the 13th Confession (1968) [LISTEN!]. And I learned that Rolling Stone really needs to listen to its own list, because Morton-Collings points out a few (what he perceives as) lazy choices — like including a five-hour Merle Haggard compilation as one of its ‘top albums of all time.’ A more discerning curator would’ve picked just one of the artist’s 66 studio albums.”
Suffice it to say, I LOVED reading these reviews. Albums he thought he should like but didn’t. Artists he’d heard of but had never listened to: Carole King’s Tapestry! [LISTEN] (He Loved/Liked it.)
How to
Morton-Colling’s process: “I made the decision to listen to every single one of these 500 albums, in full — in reverse order, from number 500 down to number 1 — to provide a short summation on each (5 words at first, but this was changed to 10 for the top 100) along with an arbitrary rating of my own (Loved/Liked/Maybe/Nah, or a combination of those). Also to give more elaborate feedback on selected highlights. Generally, I just wanted to open myself up to it all.”
And he owns his biases. Regarding Brothers In Arms by Dire Straits [LISTEN]. “Now then. At some point, I was always going to have to ditch my attempt to not include albums I was already familiar with as highlights. But this is with good reason. This isn’t just an album I’m familiar with, at this point it almost makes up some of the sequence of my DNA. It was released when I was 1 yr old and I feel like it has been part of my life ever since. It seeped through my skin due to constant exposure. I wouldn’t choose to be without it any more than I’d choose to be without my thumbs. It’s the sound of childhood, of endless car journeys, sat in the back seat in the middle, sandwiched between my 2 big brothers.”
More Island Records
So what albums besides these would be in my Top 25? Here are some, with links to all of them.
Not on the RS list: East/West– Butterfield Blues Band
343. Greatest Hits — Sly and the Family Stone (1970): “Funky-soul singles from improbable family. (Liked/Maybe).” This is the only greatest hits album I’d put on my list.
334. Abraxas — Santana (1970): “Relaxing, Latin-rock, guitar hero vibes. (Liked)”
I especially liked the longer piece about 3. Blue (1971) Joni Mitchell
“Overall, it made me think about how we interact with albums. How, with further listens, certain music can open up for you, but how many times those further listens won’t happen? I think sometimes, you just need that one moment to hang onto and go back. I mentioned that with this, for me, it was ‘River.. With that one moment as an anchor you can go back and find more moments that you like, and again until it all falls into place…
“With one listen, I might have dismissed this album. With repeated listens, it might become one of my all-time favourites. (Loved/Liked)”
This is why I have listened to every new album I’ve received three times before putting away.
