1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die Book

Aaaahhh...here I sit, listening to Einstürzende Neubauten's great album, "Kollaps" which is semi-rhythmic collection of German yelling, banging on garbage cans and recorded sounds from every day objects such as water burbling, feet shuffling and what almost sounds like a broken AM radio.

Such is the story of my life.

My good friends Mike and Karen generously bought me this book several months ago, which was very much appreciated (of course). As close we are, they did not know that they were dooming to actually listening to all 1,001 albums before I died, else I'm sure they would have gotten me a whoopee cushion or something instead. I plan on remaining on good terms with them nonetheless.

Now, I am a big music fan and thought I had pretty much heard everything. Turns out I was wrong. So now I have about 250 CDs on request the library which, I estimate, should total about two weeks of twenty-four hour a day listening to get through.

The book touches on very few of the "great" albums (hardly anything by The Beatles in here) and instead seems to strive toward find the best of the most representative music from major genres in each time period. The focus is on "rock" but there's plenty of R&B, Hip Hop, Country, Jazz, Worldbeat, etc. So I find my playlist loaded with 80's faves like The Cocteau Twins and Scritt Politti as well as Dexy's Midnight Runners (not only was "Come on Eileen" not their only song, they were apparently quite the big thing back in their day. Who knew?). I'm listening to bands with names like Mercury Rev, Lambchop and Bonnie "Prince" Billy.

It's also got me going back to some old favorites I was reminded of, like Dr. Dre, Sinead O'Conner, and Liz Phair and even suffering through albums I previously hated (Fugees' "The Score" is one of those). I'll probably still hate them, but maybe I missed something.

Finally, I am embarrassed to admit the music I've never heard before: Billie Holiday, Bobby Womack, Bob Marley (besides the same greatest hits collection that about 95% of America owns), George Jones, Little Richard, The Smiths and, of course, Motorhead. How I've listened seriously to music without ever hearing an album by these folks is quite the mystery. So I'm expecting some good stuff there and am confident it will make up for the rest.

I'll admit that I won't listen to all 1,001. I've already heard close to half of them, a quarter or so are of no interest for one reason or another, leaving with me with something like 250 to listen to. And I will.

In all, a good read. Fast, too, despite being 1,001 pages long (and correspondingly heavy).

By the way, if anyone has Ute Lemper's "Punishing Kiss," please let me know.