SHOCKING ILM Confessions!

I have never heard Dark Side of the Moon.

I've never listened to a Joni Mitchell album.

I'm not sure I've ever made it through an entire Bob Dylan album either. Not in one sitting certainly.

I've heard three Alice Coltrane albums and four Pharoah Sanders albums but only one John Coltrane album

when an artist like Coltrane has 15 or 20 albums that are considered classic/essential, I tend to put off listening to their work for fear of starting in the wrong place. I feel like a basic newb if I begin with the overhyped album that's on all the Rolling Stone GoaT lists, but I feel like a charlatan if I begin with the underrated fan favorite. thus I try to expedite the uncomfortable "just getting into their work" stage by listening to half a dozen or more of their albums over the course of a few days. the downside of this practice is that I either don't listen to any of the albums more than a couple times or I focus on one or two albums to the exclusion of all the rest. in the end I gain a very shallow understanding of what the artist is about, and once my initial interest has waned, I'm reluctant to dig deeper into their discography or return to more than couple of the albums I've already listened to.

if an artist has a smaller discography (say 6 albums) with no clear consensus as to which is the classic, I tend to binge listen to everything, and the result is pretty much the same as the above.

if an artist is prolific but one phase of their career is more celebrated than the rest, I can make do with listening to a handful of albums from that period, but I don't like to skip albums within that range, especially if I end up with one unheard album sandwiched between two heard albums. I hate "original album classics" sets that don't run in chronological order

I'm not this neurotic about all the music I listen to -- it only happens with certain artists that seem (usually for arbitrary reasons) worthy of my in-depth attention

when an artist like Coltrane has 15 or 20 albums that are considered classic/essential, I tend to put off listening to their work for fear of starting in the wrong place.

With you. I've listened to so much other R&B/soul/funk from the same era but I haven't gone much further than James Brown's singles.

what was the one coltrane album? just listen to blue train.

no! Just jump straight in with Ascension. Go hard or go home

i am a john coltrane fan who has listened to ascension only one or two times

I've listened to it a lot but it's not exactly a great showcase for him.

start with giant steps imo

wtf listen to all of them in any order at all

yeah you can start pretty much anywhere with Coltrane

Ole!

Africa/Brass

I never listened to a Kate Bush album until last year.

I’ve never knowing heard Kate Bush

I've never listened to a Kate Bush album. Or a Bruce Springsteen album. Could go on all night with this...

mithering shites and born to the runs, innit.

I didn’t hear jailbreak, aja, pirates or visitors until this year

There’s so much good new music it’s hard to make time for everything and there’s no shame in it.

At least half these confessions are true for me.

I realized at some point that “essential” is a marketing tactic used by the film, music and publishing industries. They create a sense of neverending “work” to be done with these lists of books you have to read and albums you have to listen to and in reality there are always way too many of them to get to and that’s the whole point.

Man Alive otm

Create yer own canon

what was the one coltrane album? just listen to blue train.

― scott seward, Tuesday, May 22, 2018 2:01 PM (eight hours ago)

no! Just jump straight in with Ascension. Go hard or go home

― Hire Planes (dog latin), Tuesday, May 22, 2018 4:23 PM (six hours ago)

Africa/Brass is the one I've heard. dog latin is probably right -- I feel like I'd be better off starting with a couple of his freest, heaviest albums and then working my way back to the (slightly) more obvious stuff

and yeah, man alive otm