So far, I've been able to keep up with it (excepting one Monday when I was terribly ill).
For February Album Writing Month, I've excluded all string instruments and written all of my songs with at least some keyboard element. In order to indoctrinate myself to that particular paradigm, I've listened to Rod Argent's Classically Speaking everyday for the past three weeks or so.
Because I've been listening to these albums so much, I've been able to pick out things that I hadn't heard before. For instance, I hadn't realised how prominent the sound of the mellotron is for Days of Future Passed or Odessey and Oracle. And I like having that; it's like I'm rediscovering music that I've known for years.
Last night, I realised that I have five Argent albums (Argent, Ring of Hands, All Together Now, In Deep, and Nexus) and that it would be interesting to listen to one of those for each day of the week. I later expanded this to include the live album from 1974 and the greatest hits album I have, which includes different versions of the songs, such as the edited singles. That makes seven albums - one for each day of the week. So I decided to make this a project I'll do in August - listen to one Argent album everyday.
But then the more I got thinking about this, the more I realised that other groups could fit into this paradigm too (though they aren't as alliterative). I have five Colin Blunstone albums (One Year, Ennismore, Journey, The Ghost of You and Me, and On the Air Tonight) - there's an album for every weekday of July. And for June, I could have two albums by the Zombies. One set of the original albums (Begin Here, Odessey and Oracle, New World, As Far As I Can See, and Breathe Out, Breathe In) and one set that includes the four discs of Zombie Heaven and Into the Afterlife, which includes some more Zombies songs and transitional tracks from the Zombies to Colin Blunstone and Argent.
I'll have to do some more planning to figure out specifically what albums I have to listen to on what days, but I think this is a good idea and it's certainly a thing I'm going to try to do. Not only will it allow me to become more familiar with the artists that I enjoy, but it was also further cement them into my brain so that - with any luck - the songs I write will more closely resemble the songs that influenced them.
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