Poll: Favourite Decade?

I was looking around the Blogger settings the other day when I noticed that I could set-up a quick ad-hoc poll here on the site without much effort. In light of a recent topic discussed on CBC Radio3, I've put up a poll question for the month of February: if you could only listen to music from a single decade, what would it be? What is your favourite decade of music?

Now, as we found out during the R3 broadcast, the early favourites seem to be the 1970s and the 2000s, but you have to realize what you're giving up to choose any single decade. The Beatles recorded 99% of their material in the 1960s... Pink Floyd recorded (arguably) their best stuff during the 1970s... The Smiths put out all their material in the 1980s... so, as you can see, it might not be as much about what you like to listen to as it is what you couldn't live without hearing again. And, for those great artists or bands who have recorded over the span of multiple decades (e.g., Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones) make this sort of choice even harder!

So, if you've got a second, make a selection over there on the right (below the list of 'genres') and come back at the end of the month (if not sooner) and see how the results are shaping up!

Progress Report - Number One

Well, not to jinx myself, but this site has got off to a surprisingly good start...and best of all, I'm really enjoying the experience writing and hearing these older albums (not that I'm not still listening to new stuff as well!).

Having managed to 'review' fifteen albums over roughly thirty days this month, that puts me on track to re-listen to all five hundred (or so) albums by... August 2012. Normally, a far-off date like that would kinda scare me, but I just look at it as thirty-four more months of re-discovery. I'm excited by that idea, I hope you are too!

Happy Hallowe'en everyone!

My All-Time Favourites

Hmm... I was thinking that after two four-and-a-half star reviews, I should probably make a public list of some of my favourite artists, albums, etc., of mine so you, the reader, have some idea of where I'm coming from. I have lots or weird favourites from odd genres or artists, and I'm sure I won't remember everything I should list here, but these are some of my 'all time' favourites (in no particular order) that I will always go back to:

All-Time Favourite Artists:

• Broken Social Scene – my introduction into the incredible Canadian indie music scene; their second album, You Forgot It In People is a modern day classic in my opinion
• The Arcade Fire – the release of The Suburbs this summer has solidified their place in my list here; I can't explain to those who don't love the band, why I love them, but I know I do
• Joel Plaskett (Emergency) / Thrush Hermit – down home, rockin', East Coast music love... I can't understand why these guys aren't huge, like The Tragically Hip huge, at least in Canada
• The Tragically Hip – speaking of... as a Canadian who grew up at a time when classics like Up To Here and Fully Completely were released, how can you not love them (at least, up to Phantom Power, of course); this is just great bar-room, straight ahead, Canadiana-fueled, rock music
• Ryan Adams (& the Cardinals) / Whiskeytown – I think I first heard a song by Ryan in an episode of Felicity many years ago and have been in love with his work ever since; don't mistake his prolific nature with a lack of quality, becuase there have been very (very) few misteps along the way

Title Track

As the sub-heading at the top of the blog explains, my iTunes library recently crossed the 500 albums mark. I actually have over 600 albums (if not more); however, only so many have made it into my library so far. Regardless, this random benchmark made me realize that there are lots of albums that I'd loved when they came out, albums that I rushed out to the store to pick-up the day they were finally released. When was the last time I'd listened to them? Are they really as good as I remember them? Have they stood the test of time? I think it's time to find out.

Welcome to Compact DISCovery.

I was going to come up with a whole bunch of rules for myself (number of albums to review per month, etc.) but in the end, I'm going to leave this kind of open and just run with it for as long as I'm enjoying it. I've done the math, and even at an album-per-day, it'd take me nearly two years to review everything I own... and I won't be going at it that hard core! I don't have to listen to every track, I don't have to do anything in particular for each review -- I'm just going to write about the album as I heard it that day and use a rough five star system to rate them for those (like me, sometimes) too lazy to read the actual review in full.

I'll try to link to the artist's website (if they have one), but as I'll likely be writing most of these entries from work during my morning break, I won't likely be able to track down YouTube links or Twitter streams for artists; but you're likely only a Google search away from finding them yourself. I'd love to hear your take on an album, so please feel free to agree or disagree in the comments section attached to each entry.