Sábado 2 Ago 2014, 10h:17

I concede that at the start of this year I had kind of "lost that lovin' feeling" like I regularly got from listening to music in 2013. In 2013, I had time to catch up on albums I had missed in previous years and the new stuff being released. In very early 2014, I moved out of home and suddenly found myself without that time I had so enjoyed. No time to listen to the albums of old and no time for any of the new stuff. It was during this time that I moved onto other things, neglecting my love for music.

This kept happening for several months. My listening time consisted of albums I had heard and enjoyed previously. According to the Extended Last.fm Stats from http://lastfm.caldron.de, this was mostly albums by The Cure, Modest Mouse, Red House Painters, and Neil Young.

Then one day in May I was wading through posts on 4chan's /mu/ board when I stumbled on a thread titled "Daily Album Challenge". That got me interested in challenging myself to find time each day to listen to an album I hadn't heard before. Early days it was a bit difficult, but I found time, and it helped me to recapture my love of music.

I had found that "lovin' feeling" again. Below is the list of all the new albums I've heard during June and July 2014. Some days I did get carried away and listened to multiple albums in one sitting.

That was when I knew I loved music again.

Note: those with a * aren't technically first-plays but are albums I've only heard once 12+ months ago.

June 2014
01/06 - Current 93 - All the Pretty Little Horses
02/06 - ASC - Truth Be Told
03/06 - Do Make Say Think - Other Truths
04/06 - Bathory - Under the Sign of the Black Mark
05/06 - Polygon Window - Surfing On Sine Waves
06/06 - King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mine
07/06 - Midnight Oil - Place Without A Postcard
08/06 - Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
09/06 - ░▒▓新しいデラックスライフ▓▒░ - ▣世界から解放され▣
10/06 - HTRK - Psychic 9-5 Club
11/06 - Lovesliescrushing - Xuvetyn
12/06 - Early Day Miners - Let Us Garlands Bring
13/06 - Daniel Johnston - 1990
White Hex - Heat
The Zephyrs - When The Sky Comes Down It Comes Down On Your Head
14/06 - Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues
Smog - The Doctor Came At Dawn
15/06 - Gregor Samsa - 55:12
Eels - Electro-Shock Blues *
16/06 - The Triffids - Calenture
17/06 - Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out
Daniel Lanois - For The Beauty Of Wynona
18/06 - Trust - TRST
19/06 - WIFE - Stoic
Andy Stott - Passed Me By
20/06 - Bluetile Lounge - Lowercase
21/06 - Simon Finn - Pass the Distance
Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring
22/06 - Kashiwa Daisuke - Program Music I
23/06 - Alcest - Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde
24/06 - Low - I Could Live in Hope
25/06 - Tim Hecker - Mirages
26/06 - Talking Heads - Fear of Music *
27/06 - Youth Lagoon - The Year of Hibernation
28/06 - Paul Kelly - Gossip
Codeine - The White Birch
Shining - V: Halmstad (Niklas angående Niklas)
29/06 - Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism *
Björk - Homogenic *
Squarepusher - Ultravisitor
30/06 - Unwound - Leaves Turn Inside You

Month in Review:
Albums/Artists I finally understand:
- Astral Weeks / Van Morrision
- Electro-Shock Blues (now one of my favourite albums)
- Low
- Transatlanticism
- Homogenic

Other Album Highlights:
- All the Pretty Little Horses
- Diamond Mine
- Mirages
- I can't believe I haven't listened to The Colour of Spring before now

General comments:
- Passed Me By (best Andy Stott album I've heard)
- Truth Be Told (best ASC album I've heard so far)
- Under the Sign of the Black Mark (best metal album I've heard in years)
- "1990" - "So that's what outsider music sounds like…"
- Simon Finn's 'Jerusalem' is on another level compared to any other folk song I've ever heard

July 2014
01/07 - El Ten Eleven - El Ten Eleven
02/07 - White Hex - Gold Nights
03/07 - Black Dice - Beaches and Canyons
04/07 - Death Grips - Niggas on the Moon
05/07 - Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement - Black Magic Cannot Cross Water
Swans - Body to Body, Job to Job
06/07 - aAirial - Incoercible
07/07 - Labradford - E Luxo So
08/07 - The Glove - Blue Sunshine
09/07 - The Mekons - Fear and Whiskey
10/07 - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Déjà vu
11/07 - Gescom - The Sounds of Machines Our Parents Used
12/07 - Cap'n Jazz - Shmap'n Shmazz *
13/07 - Amon Tobin - Permutation
Tim Buckley - Lorca
Miles Davis - Jack Johnson
14/07 - Death from Above 1979 - You're a Woman, I'm a Machine
15/07 - Prince - Sign 'O' the Times
16/07 - Pete Namlook - Silence V
17/07 - Current 93 - Thunder Perfect Mind
18/07 - Crowded House - Crowded House
19/07 - Rocketship - A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness
Maybeshewill - I Was Here for a Moment, Then I Was Gone
20/07 - Brian Eno - Another Green World *
21/07 - Wreck and Reference - Want
A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Sea When Absent
Russian Circles - Memorial
22/07 - Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain
The Tumbled Sea - Melody/Summer
23/07 - Moby - Play
XTC - Skylarking
24/07 - Melvins - Lysol
25/07 - Antony and the Johnsons - The Lake
26/07 - Foals - Holy Fire
27/07 - Carissa's Wierd - Ugly But Honest
Echospace - Liumin
28/07 - King Creosote - From Scotland with Love
Fenomenon - Fenomenon
29/07 - Paul Simon - Graceland *
Black Tambourine - Complete Recordings
30/07 - Ringo Deathstarr - Colour Trip
31/07 - Tycho - Awake

Month in Review:
Albums/Artists I finally understand:
- Body to Body, Job to Job (I've only heard pieces in a different context to what was needed to understand it)
- Shmap'n Shmazz
- Graceland / Paul Simon

Other Album Highlights:
- Sign 'O' the Times
- Skylarking (this album blew me away)
- Black Magic Cannot Cross Water
- Fear and Whiskey (excellent)
- Thunder Perfect Mind
- A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness
- Want (reminds me a lot of HANL)
- Holy Fire (this was a lot better than I thought it would be)
- Ugly but Honest
- Complete Recordings

General Comments:
- Finally I'm starting to catch up on albums released this year
- I need to listen to more Tim Buckley
- Crowded House's debut is not all that bad
- I'll be giving Memorial, Play and Déjà Vu more spins in the future

Fifteen Albums I'll be Returning to From These Two Months of Music Listening:
1. Skylarking
2. Diamond Mine
3. Astral Weeks
4. I Could Live in Hope
5. Homogenic
6. The Colour of Spring
7. Graceland
8. Body to Body, Job to Job
9. Thunder Perfect Mind
10. Electro-Shock Blues
11. Fear and Whiskey
12. Complete Recordings
13. Passed Me By
14. Déjà vu
15. Play

I'm hoping that the next two month's worth of listening is as good as these past two months have been.

Signing off,
silkncake