Decisions, decisions…

List making is in the air. You’ve had some Top Fives and now… well now there’s this:

While in Paris last month I ‘read’ a book. I say ‘read’ (not in air-quotes as those will get you shot) but what I mean is I read the little bit I could understand and looked at the pictures. No, it wasn’t Where’s Spot? It was a book by a music critic called Philippe Manoeuvre and was his take on the 101 Best Albums. “Rock’n'Roll : la discothèque idéale : 101 disques qui ont changé le monde” (The Ideal Disco: 101 Albums That Changed The World)

So reading wasn’t essential, aside from reading his opinion, in following the list and knowing what he was talking about.

Whenever I read those lists I do a count of how many I own and am always a little proud when it’s more than, say, 30 or 40% as a lot of the time these lists are either from a personal bias (as in the case of the book I.. looked through) or too greatly influenced by the trends. No 100 Great Albums list would have an Arctic Monkeys album on it in 10 years, or even 20 years.

The difference between this book and other lists was that this was written, I think, from one man’s opinion. It wasn’t voted for. Readers didn’t send in a list of their top ten albums (5 classics then, struggling to remember any more and, wanting to appear trendy, 5 recent popular ones). There was no nation wide poll, no phone in.

It got me thinking.

I’ve amassed a frighteningly large cd collection – so large that it was too daunting for Linda to look through – and amongst them, yes, are many that I’ve listened to so much they’d have worn out if vinyl, some I’ve hardly listened to more than twice and some I haven’t even been able to listen to all the way through – Radiohead’s Hail To The Thief.

So of my music collection, what do I rank as the great, the amazing, the essentials? Well, you will soon find out as I’ve decided to build my own in-depth list and analysis of my own 100 Essential; those albums that get the 4 and, rare, 5 T rating. It’s going to go up in blog form as a sister-blog to this one, when it’s ready.

The problem is.. deciding. Not only which are the Essentials – they come jumping to mind readily enough. A quick think earlier summoned up almost half the list. The problem is ordering them. To my mind, for example, Dylan made 4 great albums: The Freewheelin’, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde and Blood on the Tracks. But which is better? Would Highway 61 outrank Blonde on Blonde and why? And, for that matter, will Blood on the Tracks out rank Springsteen’s Nebraska and how will Nebrask fair against Born To Run? Where will Dinosaur Jr’s You’re Living All Over Me place in comparison the landmark album that is Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth? Will Johnny Cash out place a Radiohead album? How will I decide this? If this is a personal opinion based list then does it take into account the significance of albums? Will that mean Nevermind betters the, to my mind, superior In Utero? We shall see.

One thing is for certain: there will be no Arctic Monkeys or Stone Roses on my list.