Wildcards!

We've both chosen our Wildcards now. That's three each.

The idea is that we keep these secret until such a time comes that one of us just can't face the album pick of the week.

I've actually been quite kind I think, but am dreading what Stephen might have picked for me.

So next week is Dusty In Memphis and I don't think either of us will be asking for wildcards just yet (U2 is a number of weeks away...)

On another note, thanks to Uncut magazine, I've discovered Os Mutantes this week, and they are exceptionally special. I have also been listening to J Tillman and Jeff Lewis (as always).

Stephen has been listening to Moondog, Frank Black and Os Mutantes, after I told him he had to.

It's Reading and Leeds this weekend and I shall be watching from the safety of the sofa.

Ta ra xx

Week 1 - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John

So this morning me and Stephen both listened to our first album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John.

http://open.spotify.com/album/2DTpFSz6eCQR1l5jOHeWtu

Figuring that it probably wasn't top form to choose to play our red cards so early on in the game (plus we actually haven't chosen our wildcards yet) we decided to bite the bullet and listen to the first album, even though, had it been further up the list we probably would have copped out...

I actually bought the album a long time ago on the recommendation of Uncut magazine and didn't like it but decided to give it a second go.

Stephen listened at work while knee deep in code and I was also at work. I listened first so was a few tracks ahead of Stephen and could warn him of what was approaching.

It's probably worth stating at this point that, honestly, genuinely, neither of us embarked upon this determined to hate everything. It was done purely our of a desire to listen to new things that would help round our musical education (or something).

So it is with a heavy heart that I have to sadly report that be both thought this was really horrible, almost without exception, from start to finish.

It didn't exactly help that the version we listened had four bonus tracks, including a second and (even more saccharine? no, it couldn't possibly be) version of Candle in the Wind. Which I actually couldn't make it through.

Stephen battled through and by the end of the album it really was more like an endurance test than anything else.

That said there were moments when it was almost nice, Stephen quite likes Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting, which sadly didn't appear until six tracks into the second disk.

I personally quite liked Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock 'n Roll) purely because there was a bit in it which sounded like The Beach Boys. However Jamaica Jerk Off and Candle in the Wind far outstrip any good feelings that these songs could conjure up.

Stephen: Sub par 4/10

Sam: My ears are full of cheese 5/10

(Honestly, I wanted to like it, really I did!)

Now we need to get choosing our wildcards in preparation for next week :)

Our list!

So here's the list we will be using, we will be working from the bottom upwards, the numbers relate to where the album was originally placed in the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest albums of all time list which you can find here:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5938174/the_rs_500_greatest_albums_of_all_time

2. Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys
6. What's Going On, Marvin Gaye
7. Exile on Main Street, The Rolling Stones
8. London Calling, The Clash
11. The Sun Sessions, Elvis Presley
12. Kind of Blue, Miles Davis
13. Velvet Underground and Nico, The Velvet Underground
15. Are You Experienced?, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
17. Nevermind, Nirvana
18. Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen
19. Astral Weeks, Van Morrison
20. Thriller, Michael Jackson
21. The Great Twenty-Eight, Chuck Berry
23. Innervisions, Stevie Wonder
24. Live at the Apollo (1963), James Brown
25. Rumours, Fleetwood Mac
26. The Joshua Tree, U2
27. King of the Delta Blues Singers, Vol. 1, Robert Johnson
28. Who's Next, The Who
30. Blue, Joni Mitchell
33. Ramones, Ramones
34. Music From Big Pink, The Band
35. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, David Bowie
36. Tapestry, Carole King
38. The Anthology, 1947 - 1972, Muddy Waters
40. Forever Changes, Love
41. Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, The Sex Pistols
42. The Doors, The Doors
44. Horses, Patti Smith
46. Legend, Bob Marley and the Wailers
47. A Love Supreme, John Coltrane
48. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Public Enemy
49. At Fillmore East, The Allman Brothers Band
50. Here's Little Richard, Little Richard
51. Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon and Garfunkel
53. The Birth of Soul: The Complete Atlantic Rhythm and Blues Recordings, 1952 - 1959, Ray Charles
60. Greatest Hits, Sly and the Family Stone
61. Appetite for Destruction, Guns n' Roses
64. Phil Spector, Back to Mono (1958 - 1969), Various Artists
67. The Stranger, Billy Joel
69. Superfly, Curtis Mayfield
71. After the Gold Rush, Neil Young
72. Purple Rain, Prince
74. Otis Blue, Otis Redding
80. Odessey and Oracle, The Zombies
81. Graceland, Paul Simon
83. I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, Aretha Franklin
88. At Folsom Prison, Johnny Cash
89. Dusty in Memphis, Dusty Springfield
91.Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John

So I guess we start with the rules, no?

And the objective of the game too.

Stephen decided the other day that it would be an interesting challenge to download a list of the greatest albums of all time, and to try and listen to as many as possible using Spotify.

Stephen told Sam this and Sam thought it would be fun to make it into an interesting game :D

So here are the rules.

We have downloaded the list of the top 200 Greatest Albums of all time from Rolling Stone which can easily be found online, here.

Using this list we first removed any bands and artists that featured more than once, leaving only their top scoring album.

We then went through the list and removed any album that wasn't available on Spotify until we had a list of 50 albums.

So here's the deal, we are both going to listen to one of these albums every week and to write down our thoughts about it, giving a score out of ten and (if possible) choosing our favourite track.

We will also provide Spotify links so that if you want to join us, you can :D

We also both get three red cards. These are for any albums on the list that we really (really) can't bring ourselves to listen to, for one reason or another. We will endeavor to explain why we found the prospect of listening to the album so truly terrible.

There is a catch, however. For ever red card that one of us plays, we will be given a wildcard by the other.

Each of us will choose three wildcards taken from the albums remaining on the list of 200. This is of course, as long as they aren't another duplicate, and only if they are available on Spotify.

These wildcards will be written down and hidden in separate locations in our flat so that neither of us know what they are but so that we can also prove that we weren't lying!

Next post, the list.