One day in December 2020, I received a marketing email from Amazon. It was one of those emails that essentially was guessing what books I may like based on my Kindle reading history. The book listed in the email was by a British comedian that I had been recently enjoying, watching clips of him on British panel shows and the like. I had no idea he had even written a book, much less one on music. The description of James Acaster's book Perfect Sound Whatever definitely piqued my interest: he argued that the best year for music was 2016. I purchased the book, not knowing what to expect.
In short, Acaster lists 366 artists who all released albums in 2016. The artists range from Canadian pop singer Veda Hille to American rapper Kendrick Lamar to Portuguese indie band Cave Story to Swedish rapper Yung Lean to Buttering Trio, a band from Tel Aviv. I quickly learned that this was no book on mainstream music from 2016; no, this was a deep dive into all music released in 2016. James was going through a difficult time in his personal life while undertaking this project, yet still managed to write an intriguing book.
Acaster's book left me inspired. I love to listen to music and love discovering new music. So what could I do? I eventually decided on listening to all my CDs. Why? Well, I have a lot of CDs, most of which I have listened to once or only listened to for the singles. I am currently 35, so as a teen I was buying a lot of CDs and having CDs burned for me because I liked the singles the artist released. I have a large case of CDs, most of which I have probably never listened to or listened to only a few times. I decided that this would be a great way to rediscover music and artists as well as cull my CD collection.
I began this undertaking in early January 2021. I listen to a few CDs Monday - Friday, writing down my favorite and least favorite song(s). I also note when the album was released, write down any thoughts I have, and give the album an overall rating out of 10. I also force myself to listen to the album in its entirety, which has proved difficult on occasion. I have also decided that I will not listen to, for purposes of this project: movie soundtracks, comedy albums, greatest hits/best of albums, and compilation albums.
As of writing this post, I have listened to 41 albums, currently on my 42nd. My intent is to write a post not on every album, but on albums that have surprised me (in both a good and bad way) and left an impression. I make no claim to have the greatest taste in music, but I am curious to see where the journey leads.
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