How much new music did I listen to in January 2017? Let's find out!

Oh, those omnipresent earbuds.

So I’m going to start a regular check-in to share how many new albums I’ve listened to each month. I keep track of these in a constantly growing spreadsheet and think it will be fun to share my progress and select tidbits about what I’m listening to.

For the purpose of this list I am only counting albums that are or will be released in 2017. So it’s not really everything I’m listening to, just the new stuff. The other requirement is that I had to have listened to the entire album from start to finish.*

I also rate the albums to help me make my year-end list, so to give you an idea of how that works, a 5 is a solid album. It’s the kind of record that I wouldn’t skip if it came up again on shuffle or I was in the right mood for it. So it’s not really “average” it’s more “this is a solid piece of work.” Many, many discs are 5s.

Going up the scale increases in difficulty. There is more space between a 9 and a 10 than there is between a 6 and a 7, you know what I mean? It’s incrementally more difficult to move up the scale so there are very, very few 9s or 10s, if any.

Same applies for going down the scale. A 4 isn’t terrible, and might be kept on if it pops up on the radio or something, but 3 and below means it’s probably nigh unlistenable as far as I’m concerned. But it could also mean it’s just not my thing too! It’s not a judgement on a band, it’s a measure of how I enjoy (or am challenged) by the music. So my 2 could very well be an 8 to you, right?

Anyway, here is the list for the past 31 days!

Total number of new/upcoming releases listened to in January 2017: 82

Number of those releases that rated 7-10: 4

Number of those releases that rated 4-6: 68

Number of those releases that rated 1-3: 10

Highest rated album: Dude York - Sincerely

New band I’d never heard of that caught me off guard: I was going to say Dude York before I realized they were also the highest rated album on the list! So I'll give it to runner-up The Courtneys' The Courtneys II.

Most surprising discovery: Bell Biv Devoe - Three Stripes (Who even expected them to ever release an album again???!!!)


*I still work under the notion that if a band is going to take the time and / or money to send stuff my way, if it makes it into my queue it deserves at least a full listen.