Question about Year End Lists

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I'm trying to compile my year end list and here's my question:

How much do you have to listen to an album to put it on a list? I mean, I want to put Sigur Ros at number 16 but I've only listened to it like five times. I really love it tho. So, is this a cop out? how many listens deems an album worthy of a list? kudos.

― Tynan DeLong (TynanTynan!), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 00:32 (nineteen years ago)

There is no universal answer to any of this.

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 00:33 (nineteen years ago)

five times in enough

― älänbänänä (alanbanana), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 00:33 (nineteen years ago)

s/in/is

― älänbänänä (alanbanana), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 00:34 (nineteen years ago)

Some records are more casual than others. I didn't listen to Kiki & Herb Will Die for You all the time because it's 2 1/2 hours and kind of a commitment (there's a dramatic arc to it that sort of demands to be heard in its entirety), but I admired it enough to put it at no. 9 on my list, ahead of other records I heard/played more. I don't think there's anything wrong with that at all.

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 00:34 (nineteen years ago)

five times is too much when it comes to sigur ros

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 00:35 (nineteen years ago)

Whatever you like! It's yr list.

― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 00:35 (nineteen years ago)

You should listen to an album at least once before putting it on your Best of the Year list, although a partial listen can be enough to rule an album out.

― National Roffle Association (Paul in Santa Cruz), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 02:04 (nineteen years ago)

you have to listen to an album to put it on a best-of list?

― gear (gear), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 02:07 (nineteen years ago)

Didn't Michael Daddino say in his pazz and jop comments a few years ago that he'd never listened to *any* of the albums on his list all the way through, since that year he mainly listened to music to help him fall asleep (or at least *while* he was falling asleep), and part of what made the music he was voting for successful was that he was always asleep before the albums ended? I may be a slightly misquoting him, but it was something like that. Either way, I thought it was completely brilliant.

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 14 December 2005 02:08 (nineteen years ago)

i had a neighbor in college who would fall asleep to Sting's "Shape of My heart" every night, on repeat, so throughout the night, when the dorm was still, the luxuriant voice of Gordon Sumner would waft through the heating ducts.

― gear (gear), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 02:11 (nineteen years ago)

i am amazed at djmartian's ability to link to so many crap lists and only comment negatively on but a few.

― keyth (keyth), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 02:24 (nineteen years ago)

The best way to make your list is to pour over hundreds of other lists, and come up with a list that takes the most popular choices, from the previous lists with possibly one or two dark horse candidates to be "edgy." Thats how you show others you have good taste.

― Stephen C (ihope), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 02:37 (nineteen years ago)

so throughout the night, when the dorm was still, the luxuriant voice of Gordon Sumner would waft through the heating ducts.

I would sleep better with the image of Sting trapped in a heating vent.

― 'Twan (miccio), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 02:39 (nineteen years ago)

Heh, not all of them, but definitely the Jeck, Palestine and the Acid Mothers Temple ones, maybe the Boards of Canada one, too. (I kept the Kammerflimmer Kollektief album off my ballot this year because I realized it was BORING me when awake.)

But except for a few weekend afternoon naps, I largely don't fall asleep to music anymore. Maybe this is some unexamined mental block of mine, but when I try a night, it's either not loud enough for me to hear or I fret that it's loud enough for my neighbors hear. This is possibly a sign that my stereo set-up sucks and my bed is like an acoustical sink.

Instead I fall asleep to the TV with the timer on. In fact, I need to have the TV on all the time when I'm at home, probably out of deep need to be surrounded by human conversation, which is in turn maybe a symptom that I need a new boyfriend, waahh.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 02:40 (nineteen years ago)

Yo - original poster. Word to the wise. There are strict rules about this sort of thing, but what you need to remember is that it depends where you put the CD on your list. So it's just about ok if your no. 10 CD has been listened to 10 times (sounds corny, but that's how you remember!), but go up in a geometric progression i.e. no.9 - 12 times, no. 8 - 16 times, no. 7 - 24 times, no. 6 - 40 times, no.5 - 72 times, no. 4 - 136 times, no.3 - 264 times, no. 2 - 520, no. 1 a MINIMUM of 1028 times or you will be thrown out of the league of music critics and forced to review cellphone ringtones for quarters round the back of the bus depot. WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK?

― alext (alext), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 03:05 (nineteen years ago)

chill out.

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 06:03 (nineteen years ago)

obviously you should feel free to do anything from making your list up to basing it entirely on the mathematical properties of the waveforms of various albums.

but i do wonder about this:

I've only listened to it like five times. I really love it tho.

does playing an album five times the first year you own it actually constitute "love"? would your girlfriend/boyfriend believe you if you told him you loved her/him but you only took her out on five dates in that first year? would you believe it yourself?

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 06:21 (nineteen years ago)

maybe if you had lots of girlfriends

― jcartledge (jcartledge), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 06:48 (nineteen years ago)

"girlfriends" that is

― jcartledge (jcartledge), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 06:48 (nineteen years ago)

so would u put a "whoa damn record" higher than an "enjoyable record" which you played substantially more during the year?

― rizzx, Wednesday, 14 December 2005 08:12 (nineteen years ago)

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