Albums 11-15

Albums 6-10  Albums 16-20  Original Post

#11 The Clash, London Calling

1.       Have I heard of the artist?  Yes

2.       Have I heard of the album?  Yes

3.       Have I listened to the album before?  Yes

When you think of the Clash, you think of leather jackets and safety pins and combat boots and Mohawks.  When you actually listen to The Clash, you (or at least I am) are struck by the musicality of it- it’s fast, upbeat, and dare I say cheery even with subject matter than is less than.  There’s a pop styling to the music that bands like The Stray Cats and Social Distortion took and ran with in subsequent years.  These guys are actually extremely talented.

The title track is well known.  Brand New Cadillac is a sleek and drawn lamentation.  Rudie Can’t Fail is one of my all-time favorite songs.  “What I need, I just don’t have…”

Spanish Bombs is a great example of the cheery song with some downer lyrics.  Imagine if you will dancing to this:

Spanish songs in Andalucia
The shooting sites in the days of '39
Oh, please, leave the vendanna open
Fredrico Lorca is dead and gone
Bullet holes in the cemetery walls

Yet here I am doing just that- bobbing by head and wiggling in my seat a little.

Lost in the Supermarket is just funny in an odd sort of way.  The rest of the album you hear reggae influences, horns and other goodness.  It is in some ways the antithesis of punk, in others pure punk.  Which really if you think about it is the essence of Punk.

So I learned something today.  Train In Vain is a song I’ve heard hundreds of times and I’d not idea it was The Clash nor that it was called Train In Vain.  And I love Train In Vain.

WOULD I LISTEN TO IT AGAIN?  Yea

AM I SURPRISED THAT I WOULD?  Come on, it’s the Clash.

#11 David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars

1.       Have I heard of the artist?  Yes

2.       Have I heard of the album?  Yes

3.       Have I listened to the album before?  No

Five Years starts out with a very 70s sound.  This is appropriate, as it was written in the 70s so I am unsure what my point is here exactly.

Let’s take a deep breath, shall we?

Soul Love has some amazing guitars- simple fuzzy and buzzy- and some saxophone.  Normally I hate sax, (I said SAX) but here its actually adds something and is complementary instead of Kenny G style overwhelming and obnoxious.

Now we move to Moonage Daydream, more familiar territory for me and a great track.  Same with Starman.  On both tracks I am digging the acoustic guitar.  Really, the further in the more I’m appreciating the background musicians; Lady Stardust should be played in piano bars the world over.

Star is an old school song that would have fit in well in the 50’s.

Ziggy played guitaaaaaarrrrr… beautiful.

Suffragette City is one of those songs where you only know one line of the song but you still sing along cause you can- “Hey Man”.

David Bowie will forever be on my list of regrets that I never saw him perform live.  What an amazing artist.

WOULD I LISTEN TO IT AGAIN?  Yea

AM I SURPRISED THAT I WOULD?  Come on, it’s Bowie

#12 Dolly Parton, Jolene

1.       Have I heard of the artist?  Yes

2.       Have I heard of the album?  Maybe?

Right off I dig the guitar.  Dolly’s got an amazing voice.  Jolene is a great track; got an incredible intensity.

10 songs, 24 minute.  This is old school.

Slide guitar, banjo.  And that voice.  Even if you hate country, you’ll like this album for the sheer talent that it contains.

I will say that after the intensity of Jolene, the subsequent tracks are a little syrupy.  I would have liked it if she had maintained that emotion, but still have to appreciate what she’s doing here.

Whoa.  I had forgotten that I Will Always Love You was a remake, that Dolly did it in ’74.  My mind is blown.

Randy makes me giggle because it makes me think of my friend Randy in Dallas. 

Well, that was fast; it’s over.  I’m gonna put Jolene back on really quick before moving on.

WOULD I LISTEN TO IT AGAIN?  I’d listen to Jolene the song again, for sure.  I’d put this album on if I wanted to just chill out for 20 minutes.

AM I SURPRISED THAT I WOULD?  I am.

#13 Supertramp, Breakfast In America

1.       Have I heard of the artist?  Yes

2.       Have I heard of the album?  Yes

3.       Have I listened to the album before?  No

This is one of those bands that I have a peripheral familiarity with.  Couldn’t name one of their songs, but when I hear one, I’m like, oh, who is that?

Gone Hollywood starts out in a Bee Gee like fashion then gets kind of trippy. 

The Logical Song.  I totally know this song.  No idea what it was called, or who it was by.  I might have guessed Yes if a gun was pointed at my head.  Great song.

Goodbye Stranger.  I totally know this too!  I would have guessed Steely Dan?  I love this song!

Breakfast in America.  Guess what?  I know this one.  Who knew that I liked Supertramp?

What a great set of three songs back to back to back!

Take The Long Way Home.  Know it.  Dig it.

Lord Is It Mine is the pull the lighters out and wave them in the air interlude.  It’s making me a little sleepy.  Child of Vision sounds like it should be a musical number, not a great end.

I’m pleasantly surprised by this album all in all.  Who knew I liked Supertramp?

You do, my friends, you do.

WOULD I LISTEN TO IT AGAIN?  The first half of the album for sure.  It falls off a bit in the second half, but I wouldn’t shut it off or anything if I heard it.

AM I SURPRISED THAT I WOULD?  I am.

#14 Metallica, Metallica

1.       Have I heard of the artist?  Yes

2.       Have I heard of the album?  Yes

3.       Have I listened to the album before?  Yeah, maybe a few times

I remember the day I bought this album with my buddy Rob.  Technically Rob bought it for me and to this day suspect I owe him 10 bucks as a result. 

This is simultaneously one of the most revered and vilified albums of all time.  “The Black Album killed Metallica for me”, “They sold out on us maaaan”.  Me?  I think it is an excellent album by a band that wasn’t scared to move on from a sound that they helped to create, and they have continued that evolution in the 25 years since this album came out.  It’s not my favorite album by them, but it is very very good.  I always liked the less played songs like The God That Failed, Through The Never, Of Wolf and Man, but it is hard not to appreciate Sad But True.

This is an album that must be played loud.  I’ve heard Sandman a thousand times but played loud I can still feel my pulse quicken.

Holier Than Thou isn’t a song I’ve given much thought to in a while.  But it shreds.

I’m struck by the musicality of it all.  I remember interviews with the album’s producer Bob Rock where he’d say, “I just wanted them to sound better”, and I’d be all like, “FUCK YOU, Bob!  They were just fine before you dug your claws into them!”

But now I get it, I think.

WOULD I LISTEN TO IT AGAIN?  Of course

AM I SURPRISED THAT I WOULD?  Not even slightly

#15 Kanye West, The College Dropout

1.       Have I heard of the artist?  Yes

2.       Have I heard of the album?  No

Wait, Kanye West is a singer?  I’m joking, of course. 

We Don’t Care has a nice simple beat; it’s the lyrics that add the layers to the song. Making kids sing the chorus is making a point about something, I think?  I’m not getting it.   The interlude that follows seems to indicate that maybe it was a joke played against an antagonist, who is displeased with Kanye.  I dunno man.  I feel old listening to this.

Spaceship is a cool sounding song, nice vocals.  Jesus Walks has some odd chanting in the background and some Indian sounding horns in the middle.   It seems very stark and very dark. 

Evidently this is his first album as a recording artist.  The beats are good, the lyrics are smooth.  Some of the guest artists I like better than others- Jay Z I’ll pass on, but GLC and Consequence are pretty cool. 

The skits that he pops in here and there do play into the subsequent songs, but they’re a little weird.  But when they preface a song like The New Workout Plan it’s hard not to appreciate what he’s doing even if it is a little ridiculous at the same time.

Kanye really has an issue with college it seems.

Through the Wire appears to be about a song about a gentleman with a broken jaw maybe?  Poor guy’ll never make it through security with a plate in his chin!  There’s just an odd humor here that is pervasive.

Last Call clocks in at 12:41. That is probably about 8:41 too long for what he actually gives. Who exactly are you talking to, sir?

WOULD I LISTEN TO IT AGAIN?  Probably not, but I think I would like to listen to other albums by Kanye now just to see what they are like

AM I SURPRISED THAT I WOULD?  I’m surprised that the album intrigued me enough to want to listen to other stuff by him.

Albums 6-10

Albums 1-5    Albums 11-15  Original Post

#6- Dizzee Rascal, Boy In Da Corner

1.       Have I heard of the artist?  No

2.       Have I heard of the album? No

I don’t know how to classify this.  The first track had a cool beat but there was an underlying…dread?... to it.  Stop Dat is a frenzy over the top of bass so low and deep and distorted with an underlying result of a chaotic assault on your ears.  Chaos is the right descriptor for this; I feel like I should be blazing down the interstate doing 110 at 2:30AM with a Marlboro Red in between my fingers and three more burning down to the butts in the ashtray with this blaring as loud as I can possibly make it go.  There’s frenetic energy. 

I wonder what listening to all of this is going to do to my Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify.

5 tracks in now.  Every song is different, different layers, different backing vocals, different beats.  But they all have that rapid fire delivery that doesn’t seem to want to let you take a breath.                                                                                                                              

2 Far blended in a guy with a Chipmunk voice.  It worked!

It is getting a little redundant now.  Jus’ A Rascal almost got skipped, but I am being strong.

Yeah the second half of the album lost a lot of steam unfortunately. 

WOULD I LISTEN TO IT AGAIN?  Yes, the first 6 songs at least              

                   

AM I SURPRISED THAT I WOULD?  I mean this is the first artist on the list that I’d never heard of, so I really had no opinion going into the whole thing.

#7- John Lennon, Imagine

1.       Have I heard of the artist?  Yes

2.       Have I heard of the album?  Yes

Just looking at the track list, I'm surprised that Imagine is the only song that is immediately recognizable.

Crippled Inside is a four chord blues track featuring what I believe is a steel guitar; it is as big of a 180 from Imagine as you could possibly get.  I recognize Jealous Guy. 

Heh heh, he just said, “Tricky Dicky”.  Far out man.  Gimme Some Truth was probably pretty radical back in 1971.  I am surprised that Imagine was released in 1971 now that I think about it.  I would have guessed late 70s if asked.

Oh Yoko! is pretty schmaltzy.  I’m glad he decided to put it last at least.

WOULD I LISTEN TO IT AGAIN?  No.  It is nothing against the album, it was fine to listen to but my life is no different than it was before I did.      

                                  

AM I SURPRISED THAT I WOULDN’T?  I’m not terribly surprised, no.

#8- The Stone Roses, self-titled

1.       Have I heard of the artist?  Yes

2.       Have I heard of the album?  No

It starts with I Wanna Be Adored, which in turn starts out with a lengthy instrumental- simple bass beat, drums, guitar.  The lyrics kick in at about 1:45, and I wasn’t sure until they did if my headphones were only playing half the track or something.  Cause with these Air Pods, it is entirely possible.  Pretty chill, ethereal track; I thought it might be heavier than this but couldn’t say why I had that impression- maybe I was thinking of I Wanna Be Your Dog.  This ain’t that.

The other reason may be that I know these guys for Love Spreads, which is an extremely redundant grungieish song from the mid-90’s- they repeat the chorus 17 times and make a track that should have clocked in at 3 minutes close to 7.  This ain’t that.

She Bangs the Drums is really catchy- poppy, dancey, and has a real 60’s vibe to it.  Waterfall is a little trippy, the next couple after that are more of the same.

Elizabeth My Dear is a 50 second interlude, an ode to Scarborough Fair.

Back to more of the same.  It isn’t a bad thing at all.  It has an upbeat vibe and it channels the sixties without being ironic about it.  I can see myself skipping through a meadow filled with daisies with this as the background track.  Not literally, but you know what I’m talking about.

When exactly was the last time I skipped?  I’m not going to try now; I’ll break an ankle or tear my Achilles.

There’s not really a standout track here.  But it is a nice background track to skipping in meadows or working at your desk.  The last two are long jams, clocking in at over 8 and almost 10 minutes respectively.  Not sure why that was necessary.  At least they aren’t repeating the chorus 17 times.

WOULD I LISTEN TO IT AGAIN?  Yes.  I don’t see myself going out of my way to spin it up or anything, but I liked the homages and the general sound of it.   

          

AM I SURPRISED THAT I WOULD?  Yeah, cause Love Spreads was not a good indicator of what this band was about.

#9 Madonna, The Immaculate Collection

1.       Have I heard of the artist?  Please.  It’s Madonna, bitch.

2.       Have I heard of the album?  See above

This is the first album so far that going into it I knew that it was good.  This is an album that I am not ashamed to admit I play at least once a year.  It is a great retrospective and I have always appreciated that the tracks flow so well from one to the other- starts fast with Holiday and winds down with Rescue Me. 

I will say that I love it when I listen to songs I have heard hundreds of times before and hear something that I have never heard before.  In this case, there are so many layers of beats behind some of these tunes it is almost impossible to hear them all individually unless you close your eyes and just listen awhile.

Material Girl was the favorite song of a kid at the end of my street growing up named Christopher.  His second favorite song was Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.  I wonder what happened to Christopher?

There’s a funky bubbly bass track on Like A Prayer I’ve never paid attention to before.

  I dig it.

I also am noticing the backing vocals/doubled up vocals (is that a thing?  What is it called when the singer sings two tracks and you record them over each other?  I think it’s called doubled up vocals.) 

With a song like Express Yourself, it really adds a richness to the song that wouldn’t be there otherwise.

This was released in 1990.  Think about that for a few minutes.  Then go get a beer.

WOULD I LISTEN TO IT AGAIN?  Yep

AM I SURPRISED THAT I WOULD?  Nope

#10 Ed Sheeran, +

1.       Have I heard of the artist?  Yes

2.       Have I heard of the album?  No

I’ve heard of this guy before, but couldn’t name a single song.  He’s one of those people that you think, “oh, that guy is a douchebag” or, “oh Ronald Weasley grew up” when you see him.

The A Team sounds a bit like John Mayer.  It is catchy though, found myself tapping my foot a second ago.  But I don’t think it is actually a happy song, so maybe I should stop tapping?

The song evidently changed to the next one and I didn’t really notice ‘cause it sounds almost identical to the first one.  Is this song a happy song?  I can’t tell, it’s called Drunk and the chorus is “I’ll be drunk again”, but he doesn’t sound happy about it.

U.N.I. starts with finding a hairband on the floor but she’s not there anymore, and then he gets drunk.  I am sensing a theme here.  Oh, U.N.I. is a play on “you and I”.  Neat.

I’m happy that these songs are considered “pop” and therefore clock in about 3:00 apiece.

Small Bump is just ridiculous.  And I feel like a total asshole for typing that sentence, but I stand by it.  It is 4:19 long and it feels like an eternity.

I’ve been informed that Ed “…seems like a nice guy” and …”is fairly down to earth…”   I’m sure he is a very nice fella and totally not a douchebag.

I just missed a song called Lego House evidently.  I’ll not be going back to pay closer attention.

You need me, I don’t need you is a Shaggy style rap.  “You say I’m up and coming like I’m fucking in an elevator”.  Neat, you’re Hardcore, Ed.

The version I spun up on Spotify has 16 tracks on it, but the last four say “deluxe edition” after them.  I just checked, the original album just has 12 tracks.  I’m on track 12 now so I’m almost out of this seventh circle of hell, but this is 9:00 long, galdurnit.  5 of those minutes appear to be dedicated to this:

My, my, my, my, oh give me love
My, my, my, my, oh give me love
My, my, my, my, oh give me love
My, my, my, my, oh give me love
My my, my, my, oh give me love

M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover

M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover (love me, love me, love me)

M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover (give me love)
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover (give me love)
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover (give me love, love me)
M-my my, m-my my, m-my my, give me love, lover (give me love)

My, my, my, my, oh give me love
My, my, my, my, oh give me love
My, my, my, my, oh give me love
My, my, my, my, oh give me love

What happened here?  Warner Bros was like, “Ed, your album is spectacular, but it’s a little short.  How about two more songs to round it out?”  “But I’ve only got the one, and it’s about four minutes long”.  “Still too short, Ed.”  “Wait a tick.  I’ve a brilliant idea!”.

Ed is British and I’m sure the phrase, “wait a tick” is a regular part of his vocabulary.

#Deep

WOULD I LISTEN TO IT AGAIN?  I’d rather listen to that Tim McGraw album on repeat for 24 hours than listen to this again.

AM I SURPRISED THAT I WOULDN’T?  Nope

Albums 1-5

Albums 6-10     Original Post

#1 NAS- Illmatic  

  1.       Have I heard of the artist?  Yes

  2.       Have I heard of the album? Yes

  3.       Have I listened to the album before? No

Most of my experience with rap has been N.W.A. and its members- E, Dre, Cube, et al.  So I really didn’t know what to expect when I spun Illmatic up on Spotify.  Genesis caught my ear immediately- my ears didn’t seem to know what was happening for the first 30 seconds or so.  The rest of the album just flows-  it is silky smooth, the beats contribute to the tone and texture and never overwhelm the song while still introducing sounds and tones that make your ears perk up, the rap cadenced and fluid.  There wasn’t really a stand out track to me but I was extremely surprised to look down at one point and realize that I was already on Track 7- each one just flies right into the next.  It really reminds me of the style of a rapper I knew in Minneapolis that went by The Quiet Dude.  Just a great groove and flow.

WOULD I LISTEN TO IT AGAIN?  Yes                                                   

AM I SURPRISED THAT I WOULD?  Yes

#2 Tim McGraw, Live Like You Were Dying

  1.       Have I heard of the artist?  Yes

  2.       Have I heard of the album? No

  3.       Have I listened to the album before? No

It started out ok, the first three tracks are fine.  It went downhill quickly after that; the title track and Back When are cliché country schmaltz.  Drugs or Jesus just made me confused.  Oh listen to that now, Something’s Broken is about his lady leaving, imagine that!  If I was Tim McGraw, I’d be bored to death singing these songs.  Oh now Daddy’s sick and I gotta be a man.  Do You Want Fries With That made me chuckle at least.

Oh fuck me, Kill Myself is really about killing himself.  That’s it.  I’m out of here, sorry.  I made it to track 14 out of 15, but enough is enough already.

Evidently there are 16 tracks on the album but one isn’t available on Spotify.  I’m very sorry I missed it.

I happened to see Tim McGraw’s 35 Greatest Hits on the Spotify screen, so I checked it out.  The only song from this album that is on that compilation is the title track.  I guess I’m wondering how Live Like You Were Dying even made it on the bucket list in the first place.

WOULD I LISTEN TO IT AGAIN?  No                                     

AM I SURPRISED THAT I WOULDN’T?  No, but I am a little surprised at how bad it was

#3 Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not

  1.       Have I heard of the artist?  Yes

  2.       Have I heard of the album? No

  3.       Have I listened to the album before? No

Oh, this is so much better, right from the opening note.  I feel old though.  Did you know that the Arctic Monkeys had the fastest selling debut album in British history?  I did not. 

It’s punk with a driving tempo.  The guitar is fast and fuzzy, the drum alternates simple beats and complicated rolls.  The songs are short frenzied bursts followed by sinewy grooves that erupt into short frenzied bursts.  There’s an urgency to the vocals.  Some of the song titles are reminiscent of Fallout Boy but not quite as obnoxious/pretentious.  I’m reminded a little bit of The Strokes listening to this.

Riot Van is the first departure from the formula, coming 7 tracks in.  It reminds me oddly of the cadence Bowie combined with a story told by Leonard Cohen.  The rest is a bit more of the same initial pattern, although it ended on a reggae vibe that I dug.

WOULD I LISTEN TO IT AGAIN?  Absolutely

AM I SURPRISED THAT I WOULD?  I mean, I know that I have heard these guys before and that I thought they were fine, so I guess I will say kinda.

#4 Kate Bush, Hounds of Love

1. Have I heard of the artist?  Yes
2. Have I heard of the album?  No

I had an impression that Kate Bush was alternative, a la Tori Amos.  This first track, Running up that hill, is really dancey and poppy, not at all what I expected.  I really like it so far.  Evidently Running up that hill charted in the states at #30 on Billboard, but usurped Like a Virgin in the UK for the number one position in 1985.

Hounds of Love has a cool drum track and funky backing “barking” vocals which are cooler than they sound.  The Big Sky is cool.

Listening to Mother Stands For Comfort, I get where I got the Tori Amos thing from.  It isn’t bad per se, but this is more what I had expected coming in.  Cloudbusting continues that melodic voice with piano backing kind of motif…at least at first, before kicking in a groove after about a minute.

Waking the Witch is just fucking bizarre.  Its like a combination of The Wall, Miss You by Blink 182, Thriller, and something by the Pet Shop Boys.  Just odd.

The jig solo in The Jig Of Life goes about 30 seconds too long.  The drugs seem to have thoroughly kicked in at this point for Kate, this is some trippy shit.  Hello Earth and The Morning Fog maintain that sentiment.

I was never a Tori Amos fan; it was too melancholy for me.  Kate is a similar artist but she injects some truly bizarre shit that makes it interesting.

WOULD I LISTEN TO IT AGAIN?  I’d like to listen to it again, just to see what I might have missed the first time

AM I SURPRISED THAT I WOULD?  Yes, I thought it would be boring and uninteresting

#5 Otis Redding, Pain in my Heart

1. Have I heard of the artist?  Yes
2. Have I heard of the album?  No

Writing this after the listen, so no stream of consciousness.  It was fine?

There was nothing that stood out as exceptional; I thought that the version of Stand By Me was understated and phoned in.  Same thing for Louie Louie, except you could actually understand the words in this version which will lead me to looking that up one of these days- when did the Kingsmen do their version, and why is there still discussion about what the words are when Otis so clearly articulated them?

I love me some good soul/R&B.  This is good, not great.  I’d like to listen to an Otis Redding Greatest Hits album now because I don’t think this is emblematic of his body of work unfortunately.

WOULD I LISTEN TO IT AGAIN?  No  
           

AM I SURPRISED THAT I WOULDN’T?  Yeah, I am.  I thought it would be a great album by a soul master.

On The 100 Album Bucket List

If you know me even slightly, you know that I like music a lot.  If you don’t know me at all, well, you should know that I like music a lot.  I can play all of three chords, which makes me more of a punk than a thrash metal guitarist, but that’s beside the point; I can play by ear most of the time, so I have that going for me (name the movie). 

Every single day I play the Location Game at work, where several of us play a lyric every single day and I give awards on a weekly basis to the good, the bad, and the Carek (it’s an inside joke, sorry.  I’d tell you but the first rule of The Council is you don’t talk about The Council.  Drat, perhaps I have said too much).

I also listen to music throughout the day.  I am at a point in life where I think that I know what I like and I tend to stick to that.  Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist helps to expand my horizons somewhat, but in terms of new music I have become my parents in some ways I am afraid.  I don’t think of it as a rut, but I know that there are a million artists that have created a billion albums with a trillion songs that I will never hear.  Mostly I am OK with that.

But.  There’s always that nagging feeling of missing out on something.  This weekend, something wonderful happened!

My friend got drunk and in a fit of enthusiastic shopping on Amazon bought me this for my birthday:

What it is is a sort of Nativity Calendar for music.  There are 100 albums on this poster.  Listen to one and you get to scratch off the album revealing an image representing the album itself.  It is in fact pretty fucking sweet.  My friend knows me too well; after 28 years (NOT 30 as he recently professed, also while possibly drunk but for sure while drinking) he bloody well better.  This is like crack to me.

He had a very simple hypothesis.  Does Born To Run sound the same when you are 44 as it did when you were 16?  He’s right of course, but I do think it runs deeper than that.  When I was 16 I would never have listened to Jolene.  When I was 22 I likely wouldn’t have listened to Nas.  Now?  Hold my beer, I’m going in, cause The Poster told me to.

There were some minor logistical issues to work out before I started.  Namely, where to start? Upper left hand corner, working my way down until I hit the lower right?  That’s not very fucking rock and roll, now is it?  No way, man, this must be random, or as random as I can make it.  I’ll close my eyes and pick an album, then another, then another until I have 5 in queue.  When I listen to those, I’ll pick five more.

What follows is a review of each of the albums as I listen to them.  In some cases, it is a play by play (or song by song) stream of consciousness in others it’ll be what I got out of it after it was all over and I had time to write about it.  In all cases, this is a review of 100 “bucket list” albums by a forty something guy.  Some of these are near and dear to me already, others I have always wanted to hear but never took the time to do so.  Still others I haven’t a clue what I am in for.

You may agree, you may not.  It’s all good.  It’s what I felt at the time, but if you are a fan of Tim McGraw or The Man himself, you may want to skip the first five.  Enjoy!