Been thinking recently about catalogues with a multitude of albums that I’ve barely listened to or not even dipped into. Curious whether this is a symptom of the modern world that I feel a bit guilty for not exploring more catalogues and instead focussing on new releases or if it’s a sign there’s a big hole in how “music discovery” and the media and the streaming platforms work.
I think the discography threads on here are great but I’m curious if you can think of many places elsewhere that you might be recommended or even encounter discourse around albums if a) it hasn’t be reissued b) the artist hasn’t just died c) you’re not reading Mojo / Uncut
For instance, I adore Disintegration but I don’t know the rest of The Cure’s catalogue as well (although could probably sing word for word all the key tracks of all the pre-Wish records) and enjoyed revisiting them as the Cure thread played out.
I feel like film does a much better job of celebrating the history of cinema and curious why, given Spotify, Apple, etc are all competing for similar audiences, they focus so much on what’s out this week and so little on the entire history of music.
Similarly with people on social media rarely just posting about something because they love it for no particular reason. Maybe because it’s uncool or doesn’t please the algorithm when they do?
I did try to start a DiS newsletter recommending an album from last two decades but although the emails got opened it didn’t get many shares or replies so I dunno whether it made sense as a concept and gave up on the idea. Tried similar prescribed listening in that little Geneva community I set up, like a little book club, but it didn’t generate much response. Think I turned too many notifications off in that app tbf.
Maybe this is just me and this’ll be another of my 0 replies threads.
I have this with a lot of Jazz artists. I love Kind of Blue, and Blue Train, and probablly some other albums that don’t have ‘Blue’ in the title, but and I love the mood they create, but have no idea where to go next with any of the big hitters.
Stereogum (I think) used to do a 15 best albums feature. I used that to listen to Bowie (coincidentally shortly before he died) as I’d never actually heard him beyond the big hits. Also used this to explore Miles Davis and some others I’m sure.
I used to watch a YouTube channel where they’d rank an artist’s entire album output but it wasn’t very good tbh.
I’ve never given Dylan much of a listen post Desire.
I like getting into artists with large discographies, getting into one or two albums and working out what to listen to next until I’ve heard nearly everything. Very enjoyable imo.
Think the 'vinyl community ’ on YouTube and no doubt Instagram etc is full of this actually. I mean obviously it’s a bit middle aged white bloke dominated but not entirely.
Yeah. Since Facebook has fragmented into walled proto-forums, I’m in 3 or 4 private groups which are basically just this. Plus 80% of all my posts on it before that.
For some reason I can’t stand those “ranked” features (is theirs the best to worst one?). Think it’s because they come across with a level of authority rather than subjectivity. I much prefer features that are based around favourites as there’s so much more passion but then I love first person stuff which I remember a few folks here don’t like about music journalism/criticism.
I really enjoyed these interviews with artists that we did discussing their catalogue
That’s interesting. There’s almost no music chat on my Facebook. Facebook groups can be great but the notifications disappear pretty quick if you don’t check them.