I think the reason I failed is because I got the idea in July and it was basically a nonstop sprint until the end of the year. I got close. I listened to 76 albums before the New Year. My friends said that why don’t you say that you’re going to keep going until next July. But it doesn’t feel neat that way. I just want things to look good.

But why do this? I keep track of the number of books that I read, video games I complete, and TV shows and movies that I watch in a year. Shouldn’t I just be focused on enjoying the media? Why do I have to keep score?

Because it’s part of the discipline of being a creative, at least in my eyes. It’s easy to fall into the same things or waste my time watching Youtube videos or the same things I’ve seen before. I need to make sure that I’m still consuming new ideas and learning from it. Challenging my old preconceived notions.

It’s the same reason that I read from every genre I can find. Because every genre has something new to teach me. I learned how to write flowery descriptions from romance novels. Reading horror taught me suspense for both my own horror writing and when I write things in other genres. I want to make sure that I’m the best I can be and to do that you need to research.

I’m going to cover some of the albums I listened to and below you’ll find the complete list. I think most of them were very good but I’ve highlighted the ones I liked the best. The best though of all of them was Chappell Roan’s “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess”. There are no skips on that album.

You might noticed that I listened to Smashmouth’s album. The reason for that was partly because I was looking to see if we could move beyond All Star as their only meme song. Turns out that they had put together a really solid sound and that album was very good.

Anyway, I think that it’s a good thing to attempt and keeping track is fun. I like trying to beat my old high score for books each year. So far the best I’ve made in the three years I’ve been doing this is 60 books. Trying to get to a hundred in a year.

1. Mayday- Old Blood 
2. Mazzy Star- So Tonight That I Might See
3. boygenius- the record 
4. The Kinks- The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society
5. Bad Religion- The Gray Race 
6. Blondie- Parallel Lines
7. Butthole Ricochet- Sophomore Slump
8. Mean Girls 2024 soundtrack 
9. Taylor Swift- folklore 
10. Spoon- Memory Dust EP
11. Azure Ray- As Above, So Below EP
12. girl in red- if i could make it all go quiet 
13. Belle and Sebastian- If You’re Feeling Sinister 
14. Fugazi- Repeater 
15. The Pierces- You & I
16. Megadeth- Cryptic Writings 
17. PUP- The Dream is Over
18. Judas Priest- Sad Wings of Destiny
19. Bright Eyes- Cassadaga(Companion Version)
20. Bright Eyes- Digital Ash in a Digital Urn(Companion Version)
21. Bright Eyes- Lifted…(Companion Version)
22. Queens of the Stone Age- Songs for the Deaf 
23. Hot Step-Mom- The Serial Killer in the Other Room is Better Than You
24. Taylor Swift- Lover
25. Catie Turner- Comedy & Tragedy Act 1 – EP 
26. Raye- 21st Century Blues 
27. Bad Bad Hats- Bad Bad Hats 
28. Taylor Swift- Tortured Poets Department 
29. Billie Eilish- Hit Me Hard and Soft 
30. Noga Erez- KIDS(Against the Machine)
31. Dua Lipa- Dua Lipa 
32. Ninja Sex Party- These Nuts
33. Apollo 440- The Future’s What It Used to Be 
34. Chappell Roan- The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess 
35. Sabrina Carpenter- Short n’ Sweet
36. girl in red- I’M DOING IT AGAIN BABY!
37. Metallica- The Black Album 
38. The Linda Lindas- No Obligations 
39. The Decemberists- I’ll Be Your Girl 
40. Epic Beard Men- This Was Supposed to Be Fun 
41. Fleetwood Mac- Rumors 
42. Cursive- Devourer 
43. Wolf Alice- Visions of a Life 
44. The Last Dinner Party- Prelude to Ecstasy
45. Stars- Do You Trust Your Friends? 
46. Smashmouth- Astrolounge 
47. Bright Eyes- Five Dice, All Threes
48. Michael Jackson- Thriller 
49. Thursday- War All the Time 
50. Chaos Chaos- Committed to the Crime EP 
51. Iron and Wine- Our Endless Numbered Days
52. Norah Jones- Come Away With Me 
53. Zolof The Rock and Roll Destroyer- Schematics 
54. Zolof The Rock and Roll Destroyer and Reel Big Fish- Duet All Night Long EP 
55. Dead Kennedys- Plastic Surgery Disasters 
56. Dead Kennedys- In God We Trust, Inc EP
57. Sabrina Carpenter- emails I can’t send 
58. The Misfits- Collection 
59. Violent Femmes- Violent Femmes 
60. The Dare- What’s Wrong With New York?
61. The Dare- Sex EP
62. Joe Jackson- Look Sharp!
63. The Long Johns- Bones EP
64. Light and Motion- Wonder 
65. Tiffany Poon- Dvornak Album 
66. The Smiths- The Queen is Dead 
67. The Smiths- Louder Than Bombs
68. The Smiths- Strangeways, Here I Come 
69. David Bowie- Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders of Mars 
70. Edith Piaf- Chansons Parisiennes 
71. Robert Palmer- Riptide 
72. Sade- Love Deluxe 
73. Vic Chesnutt- At the Cut 
74. Wicked Soundtrack 
75. System of a Down- Toxicity 
76. Harvey Danger- Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone?