List #012 - September 31st

(Version 1.1)

In laymen's terms...
These 31 albums symbolize the 31 years I have enjoyed listening to music.
These 31 albums are 31 favorite studio albums, in order from near-best to best.
These 31 albums were selected out of all the albums I have listened to over the years.
These 31 albums are by 31 of my favorite artists and bands.
These 31 albums are subject to change, of course. :)

Can you identify the artist or band of each album?

Honorable mentions: 4; Aqualung; Band on the Run; Days of Future Passed; Escape; Every Picture Tells a Story; Faith; In The Court of the Crimson King; London Calling; Purple Rain; Slowhand; Stampede; Ten Summoner's Tales; Toys in the Attic

31. Play
30. Exile on Main Street
29. Sports
28. Ghost in the Machine
27. Cloud Nine
26. Mike + the Mechanics

List #011 - A-52's Album Listening Marathon

Music exploration can be quite cumbersome. There is the music of bands I'm a big fan of, while there is music of bands I'm interested in. There are deals on Amazon MP3s that I just can't pass up to buy. There are CDs of music I've given as gifts that I have some interest in. And everyone in my family has their own music collections.

The problem is the pace I'm listening to new music in was too slow compared to the albums I'm adding to iTunes. (And when I listen to new music, I often want to be absorbed in it uninterrupted.) The result was many, many albums that I have on iTunes that I haven't listened to in full.  Some albums I have had for a long time collecting dust. So, I figure I need to have a marathon of sorts to catch up on all this music lost in my iTunes archives.

52 albums. Highlighted by the bookends: from the 14 albums in the The Beatles Stereo Box Set to the 6 albums in the Humble Music Bundle (http://blog.humblebundle.com/) a couple months ago. Covering a whole variety of interests and genres via single, double, triple, studio, live, and compilation albums. The goal was to listen to each of them (giving my quick thoughts on each) by this September's end. That's about an album a day, two-a-day if some are short.

The order of the albums was determined by random (a deck of cards to be specific) plus two rules:
1) no two Beatles albums or no two Humble Bundle albums will be listened to back-to-back, and
2) one particular album will be played on the 31st anniversary of its release.

(Two albums were later added appropriately: Bob Dylan's Tempest, which was live streamed on iTunes at the time, and Genesis' Abacab Complete, music from Abacab and the Abacab sessions.)

Starting in early August, the marathon did end on September 30th, and the final order is below.

What will be next? Re-listen to most of these albums and pick out my favorites.
With the invention (or discovery, take your pick) of Spotify, I might do another marathon with The Rolling Stones being the centerpiece. We shall see...