avatarBuddy Gott

Summary

In 2023, the author, Buddy Gott, embarked on a personal challenge to listen to 112 new-to-me albums, spanning both new releases and older albums they had never heard before, despite initially planning to listen to only 52.

Abstract

Buddy Gott, a music enthusiast, took on the challenge of exploring 112 new-to-me albums throughout 2023. This endeavor was a continuation of a similar challenge from the previous year, where Gott listened to 101 albums for the first time. Initially, Gott intended to scale back the music listening goal for 2023 to 52 albums, focusing instead on other music and movie-watching goals. However, the allure of discovering new music proved too strong, and by the end of January, Gott had already listened to 10 new albums. This prompted a return to the original, more ambitious target. While not committing to reviewing all 112 albums, Gott plans to write about some of them on Medium and will update the Master List with each new album experience. The challenge, originally conceived by Nia Simone McLeod, has become a passion project for Gott, who encourages others to join in the musical exploration.

Opinions

  • The author expresses a strong passion for discovering new music, as evidenced by exceeding their initial goal after just one month.
  • Buddy Gott acknowledges the enjoyment and fun derived from the challenge of listening to new albums.
  • The author values sharing their musical journey, as indicated by their commitment to writing reviews and featuring articles about some of the albums.
  • There is an open invitation for others to participate in the challenge, suggesting a community-oriented approach to music discovery.
  • The challenge's creator, Nia Simone McLeod, is credited with inspiring Gott and others to engage in this musical exploration.
  • Gott recognizes the time investment required to listen to and review 100 albums, which influences their decision to review selectively.

Master List of the 112 New-To-Me Albums I Listened to in 2023

New and old releases that were brand new to my music-loving ears

Photo by Zyanya BMO on Unsplash

Albums I Listened To For The First Time In 2023

  1. Vox Humana (1985)— Kenny Loggins
  2. Heavy Nova (1988) — Robert Palmer
  3. Learning To Crawl (1984) —The Pretenders
  4. Watch The Sun (2022) — PJ Morton
  5. When You’re A Boy (1991) — Susanna Hoffs
  6. Truth (1968) — Jeff Beck
  7. Beck-Ola (1969)— The Jeff Beck Group
  8. If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971) — David Crosby
  9. Who Do We Think We Are (1973) — Deep Purple
  10. Break Out (1983) — The Pointer Sisters
  11. She Works Hard For The Money (1983) — Donna Summer
  12. Anyhow (2022) — Leland Whitty
  13. Welcome to the Madhouse: The Costa Rica Sessions! Live (2023)— Sananda Maitreya
  14. Pandora’s Playhouse (2021) — Sananda Maitreya
  15. Kool and the Gang (1970) — Kool and The Gang
  16. Kind Of Blue (1959) — Miles Davis
  17. That’s The Way Of The World (1975) — Earth, Wind & Fire — 4 stars
  18. This Is Why (2023) — Paramore
  19. Hesitant Alien (2014) — Gerard Way
  20. Walking To New Orleans (2019) — George Benson
  21. Let Love Rule (1989) — Lenny Kravitz
  22. Let’s Stay Together (1972) — Al Green
  23. Prince (1979) — Prince
  24. I Don’t Know A Thing About Love: The Songs of Harlan Howard (2023) — Willie Nelson
  25. Sunset Studies — Augie March (2000)
  26. Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2021)
  27. the record (2023) — boygenius
  28. Bee Gees’ 1st (1967) — Bee Gees
  29. Music From “The Elder” (1981) — KISS
  30. Nashville Skyline (1969) — Bob Dylan
  31. Jubilee (2021) — Japanese Breakfast
  32. Blondshell (2023) — Blondshell
  33. The Deep End (2023) — Susanna Hoffs
  34. Bouncing off the Satellites (1986) — The B-52s
  35. The Doobie Brothers (1971) — The Doobie Brothers
  36. Toulouse Street (1972) — The Doobie Brothers
  37. Living The Dream (2018) — Slash
  38. Boots (1966) — Nancy Sinatra
  39. The Orbison Way (1966) — Roy Orbison
  40. Daydream (1966) — The Lovin’ Spoonful
  41. Back To The Country (1975) — Loretta Lynn
  42. Sidelong (2017) — Sara Shook & The Disarmers
  43. Why Won’t You Call Me Back (2023) — The Hooters
  44. The Album (2023) — The Jonas Brothers
  45. Mirror To The Sky (2023) — Yes
  46. Brother Where You Bound (1985) — Supertramp
  47. Now (2023) — Graham Nash
  48. Bridges (2023) — Steve Lukather
  49. Wild Honey (1967) — The Beach Boys
  50. Brian Wilson (1988) — Brian Wilson
  51. Time (2023) — Simply Red
  52. Wait Til I Get Over (2023) — Durand Jones
  53. When You Get That Feeling (2022) — Doug Momary
  54. Continue as a Guest (2023) — The New Pornographers
  55. The Loveliest Time (2023) — Carly Rae Jepsen
  56. Between The Buttons (1967) — The Rolling Stones
  57. Automatic (2023) — Rick Springfield
  58. Road (2023) — Alice Cooper
  59. Living Eyes (1981) — The Bee Gees
  60. Realms (2023) — Cindy Wilson
  61. Hard Promises (1981) — Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
  62. Horizontal (1968) — The Bee Gees
  63. Cucumber Castle (1970) — The Bee Gees
  64. E.S.P. (1987) — The Bee Gees
  65. One (1989) — The Bee Gees
  66. Size Isn’t Everything (1983) — The Bee Gees
  67. The Luck (2001) — Dwight Twilley
  68. Get Rollin’ (2022) — Nickelback
  69. All The Right Reasons (2005) — Nickelback
  70. The Long Road (2003) — Nickelback
  71. Nights Are Forever (1976) — England Dan and John Ford Coley
  72. Chronicles of a Diamond (2023) — Black Pumas
  73. Danse Macabre (2023) — Duran Duran
  74. Frehley’s Comet (1987) — Ace Frehley
  75. Trouble Walkin’ (1989) — Ace Frehley
  76. Hot In The Shade (1989) — KISS
  77. Psycho Circus (1998) — KISS
  78. Sonic Boom (2009) — KISS
  79. The Ones That Matter (2011) — Tower City
  80. Curb (1996) — Nickelback
  81. Rockstar (2023) — Dolly Parton
  82. Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride (2023) — Jason Mraz
  83. Seven (2023) — Winger
  84. Six (2023) — Extreme
  85. Late Developers (2023) — Belle and Sebastian
  86. Hackney Diamonds (2023) — The Rolling Stones
  87. Salvage Enterprise (2023) — The Polyphonic Spree
  88. In Flight (2023) — Barenaked Ladies
  89. Guts (2023) — Olivia Rodrigo
  90. Heaven Comes Down (2023) — Dokken
  91. New York High (2023) — Donny Most
  92. Queen of Me (2023) — Shania Twain
  93. Sesame Disco (1979) — Sesame Street
  94. Mammoth II (2023) — Mammoth WVH
  95. But Here We Are (2023) — Foo Fighters
  96. The Whole Point of the Trip (2023) — Gentle Hen
  97. Before And After (2023) — Neil Young
  98. Eye On The Bat (2023) — Palehound
  99. Blue (1971) — Joni Mitchell
  100. Jaguar II (2023) — Victoria Monet
  101. I Miss You Already + I Haven’t Left Yet (2023) — Del Water Gap
  102. Are We There Yet? (2023) — Rick Astley
  103. That! Feels Good! (2023) — Jessie Ware
  104. Calico (2023) — Ryan Beatty
  105. Shadow Kingdom (2023) — Bob Dylan
  106. Fountain Baby (2023) — Amaarae
  107. Home For Christmas (2023) — Hannah Waddingham
  108. Wonka: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2023) — Various Artists
  109. Endless Summer Vacation (2023) — Miley Cyrus
  110. M!ssundaztood (2001) — Pink
  111. chemistry (2023) — Kelly Clarkson
  112. Folkocracy (2023) — Rufus Wainwright

In 2022, I took part in a challenge to listen to 100 new-to-me albums. It didn’t matter if they were new releases or old ones. They just needed to be albums I’d never heard before.

The challenge was created by Nia Simone McLeod — and me, Kevin Alexander, Nicole Brown, and several others quickly followed her lead. I had a LOT of fun doing it and I ended up listening to 101 albums I’d never heard before.

If you’d like to see what they were, here is my Master List of them.

At the start of 2023, I told myself that I wasn’t going to repeat the challenge. I wrote here about other music goals and movie-watching goals I had for the year. I wrote that I was going to alter my previous new-to-me albums goal and try to listen to only 52 new ones in 2023.

Yeah.

That plan didn’t last very long.

I got to the end of January and saw that I had already listened to 10 new-to-me albums! Just one month into 2023 and I was already a tenth of the way to 100 albums.

The ‘old’ challenge was calling out to me!

How could I not go for 100 again this year, right?

Right!

Because it takes a lot of time to listen to and write reviews for 100 albums, I’m not going to be writing reviews or featured articles on Medium about all of the albums — but I will be doing that for some of them. When I do, I’ll provide hyperlinks to those pieces in the above list.

As I did with my Master List last year, I’ll be updating this year’s Master List (above) with each new-to-me album I listen to between now and December 31, 2023.

P.S. — It’s never too late to join the challenge! If you decide to do it, or a modified or alternate version of it, please let me (the name is Gott — Buddy Gott) know!

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Thank you for reading! If you’d like to connect with me outside of Medium, you can also find me on Instagram, YouTube, Threads, Goodreads, and Twitter/X/Whatever-It’s-Called-Next. I’m also the host of the Gotta Pop podcast. Links to all of those things can be found here.

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