The Letter "A"

This is my first post, so here we go. To give anyone who is visiting here that I don't know personally, the main idea of this blog is for me to chronicle the following year(s) as I try to listen to all of the music I have in my iTunes library. Currently I have something like 174 days worth of music (I'll post a picture of all the stats later), so there is understandably a large portion of this library that I have never even thought twice about listening to. I often get music and just fail to ever really see what it is unless someone tells me I should listen to it or I read about it somewhere. Most of the time it just goes into the library with the other thousands of albums.

So with that said, I begin my journey through my music. I don't really know how I'll be going through these, I guess I'll write a lot if I really have something to say about an album and if I don't then I'll leave it be. I've already begun my trip through the tunes, so I'll just jump right in.

iTunes puts albums starting with the letter "A" first, so those hoping for numerical-titled bands to begin this will have to wait a really long time before I get to listen to that beloved 2 Live 2 Crew album or 3 Doors Down one that I haven't really listened to yet. But there are many between now and then, so lets start where we're at.

A.C. Newman - The Slow Wonder


I got this album because he's the lead singer of The New Pornographers, and heard good things about it. I wondered why he's called A.C. when he's always referred to as Carl Newman, and I guess the Wiki tells me his full name is Allan Carl, so that's that. For the most part it's fun indie-pop, the standout tracks being "On The Table" and "Miracle Drug." I listened to this awhile ago and have already forgotten about most of it, I enjoyed it so it's okay, but obviously nothing that you'll kill yourself over if you never hear it the rest of your life.

A.F.I. - Sing The Sorrow
A.F.I. - Black Sails in the Sunset
A.F.I. - All Hallow's EP
A.F.I. - A Fire Inside EP
A.F.I. - Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes
A.F.I. - The Art of Drowning
A.F.I. - Very Proud of Ya
A.F.I. - Decemberunderground
A.F.I. - Answer That and Stay Fashionable

For the most part it's all basic scream-o stuff that I've heard only a million times before. I think I listened to most of this music while beating some video game and couldn't tell when one album ended and another began. The only one that was remotely interesting was Sing The Sorrow. I actually remember that one being more fun, but most of them are just screaming for the sake of screaming with not much in between.

ABBA - Super Trouper
ABBA - Waterloo

I found Super Trouper to be a lot more enjoyable than I thought it would be, not really being an ABBA fan myself or anything. I especially liked the track "Me & I" which is about schizophrenia and was pretty poppy if I do say so myself. ABBA is fun in that way that it all kinda melts in your mouth but you really don't remember much of it. I don't remember anything from Waterloo except the title track, but I think that's only because I remember being in a Simpsons episode when Smithers puts it on a tape. My Dad must've thought something is wrong with me as I blasted ABBA music from my room.

AC/DC - Back in Black
AC/DC - Blow up Your Video
AC/DC - Bonfire - Let There Be Rock
AC/DC - Bonfire - Back in Black
AC/DC - Blow up Your Video
AC/DC - Bonfire - Live From Atlantic Studios

So I came to a realization about AC/DC as I'm beginning to wade through their albums. Pretty much anything they've done that isn't from Back In Black could make up an okay greatest hits album and that's about it. Back In Black even has some duds as well, but it's the only cohesive album of theirs where it's fun the whole way through and has most of their recognizeable hits on it. The title track alone is a classic, along with "You Shook Me All Night Long" and "Hells Bells." Listen to it yourself and you'll see what I mean. Most of their other stuff is completely unforgettable, and there are 2 live albums up there in the Bonfire Box Set that I'm trudging through and constantly checking to see if they're over yet. I'm not done with all of them yet, but from what I remember thus far AC/DC is one of those bands that shouldn't really be famous but for some reason really is. Go figure.

The Academy Is... - Santi
The Academy Is... - Almost Here

I listened to these two albums while taking a break from AC/DC overload. They went down very quickly and nice like a warm soda that has lost it's fizz, but I also mean that in a bad way, that it has no fizz and who the hell wants warm soda? It's your basic emo singing stuff that I hardly remember after listening to both of these albums within the last 24 hours, I think they were fun and bouncy but they are nothing new. You could have told me this was any other emo band and I would have easily believed you, they all sing about the same thing with the same screaming whiney tone that comes off as being really talentless and cashing in on teenage girls who somehow do know the difference between this stuff. That's what it sounds like if that has a sound.

So that is the start. We'll see where things go from here I suppose.