Back in 2022 I stumbled across this website: https://1001albumsgenerator.com

Every day it gives you another album from the book ‘1001 albums you must hear before you die’. I signed up, and before I knew it I was on a musical journey that would take me a full 3 years.

I prepared to write about this a few months back as I approached my 1001th album, but when I reached day 1001 I was informed by the website that there were actually about another 100 albums to go. Since the book has been through a few revisions with albums added and removed, this website just threw in all the albums across all revisions. Yesterday, I rated the final album and was pleasantly surprised by the ’end page’ presented to me by the website… which I won’t spoil in case you are also thinking of doing the pilgrimage.

Did I listen to every single album start to finish? No. But I did give every album a genuine attempt, at least enough to know what it was ‘going for’.

I also didn’t listen to an album every single day. I occasionally would go a couple of days without listening to any. By the time I reached album 1001, I had a backlog of about 100 albums, which I was thankfully able to catch up on by album 1,089.

The website provided me the opportunity to rate each album out of 5 stars. This was my criteria:

  • 1 star: I didn’t enjoy the album at all, nor did I appreciate what it was going for.
  • 2 stars: I didn’t enjoy the album at all, but there was something about it I appreciated / could see the value in.
  • 3 stars: I enjoyed the album, but not enough to listen to it again, and/or there was something I particularly appreciated or valued about it.
  • 4 stars: I enjoyed the album and will probably listen to it again, and/or there was something that really impressed me about it.
  • 5 stars: I loved the album <3 <3 <3

Overall I couldn’t let myself think about it too much, and if I could I would go back and change a handful of ratings.

You can see all my ratings and stats here: https://1001albumsgenerator.com/shares/62ff05b4bc88fd424d967467

My overall reflection? I would have been happy to die having not heard a significant number of these albums. But it was not at all a regrettable experience. Some other reflections:

  • I am reminded that not all great albums age well, but without them so much of the music we enjoy today would not exist.
  • It is really nice to have this ‘under my belt’ and to know a little more about artists across most genres.
  • Listening to music this way is cognitively different, most of the time, to listening to music purely for enjoyment.
  • There was a LOT of rap and hip hop to get through. But I did it. I even managed to like some of them!
  • Some albums I rated 5 stars that I hadn’t already heard before:
    • The ArchAndroid by Janelle Monae
    • Third by Portishead
    • Forever Changes by Love
    • Music for the Masses by Depeche Mode
    • Kiwanuka by Michael Kiwanuka
    • Back at the Chicken Shack by Jimmy Smith
    • Virgin Suicides by Air
    • A Walk Across the Rooftops by The Blue Nile
  • Some artists I just couldn’t get into no matter how many albums of theirs the website threw at me:
    • David Bowie (with Blackstar being the one exception)
    • Bob Dylan
    • Elvis Costello (I even spoke with a friend who loves him to try and understand)
    • Madonna (to my surprise, as I used to like some of her hits)
    • Beastie Boys
    • Kings of Leon (did not deserve to have 3 albums listed!)
    • Aerosmith (to my surprise as I liked them growing up and even own a couple of their other albums)
  • Some controversial artists, who had both albums I loved and really disliked:
    • Portishead (Loved Third, disliked Dummy)
    • Love (Loved Forever Changes, disliked Da Capo)
    • Yeah Yeah Yeahs (liked Its Blitz!, hated Fever to Tell)
    • Emerson, Lake & Palmer (love Tarkus, really disliked Pictures at an Exhibition)
    • Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band (loved Trout Mask Replica, disliked Safe As Milk)
    • Tim Buckley (liked Greetings from LA, hated both Happy Sad and Goodbye and Hello)

While feeling a great sense of accomplishment, I am feeling a void where I had been spoon fed new music. I will need to get back into the habit of discovering new music myself!