I have quite a few musical projects where I’m trying to learn the parts to every song by a band. I’m under no delusions about actually finishing any of these; I know I’ll never get that far, but even what little progress I’ve made already had enhanced my understanding of both specific songs and music in general.
Because I’m doing so many of these projects, one or more are neglected when I’m focused on a different one. I’d been listening to some of the albums on a schedule in the hopes that listening to them regularly would help in learning the parts, but - inexplicably - I was doing this for only a few of the projects.
In order to rectify that, I’ve come up with a new schedule that includes all of the albums for the various projects. I’ll listen to an album every Wednesday and cycle through a different band’s catalogue each week. So if I listen to Argent’s Ring of Hands one week, I’ll have to wait until I’ve listened to an album by all of the other bands until I get to move on to All Together Now.
I’ve combined a few groups because otherwise I’ll end up listening to the same album every seven weeks. Here’s the list. I’ve arranged it roughly chronologically by album.
The Zombies (Verulam Cover Project)
- Begin Here
- The Decca Stereo Anthology, Disc 1
- The Decca Stereo Anthology, Disc 2
- Odessey and Oracle
- Into the Afterlife
- Zombie Heaven, Disc 1
- Zombie Heaven, Disc 2
- Zombie Heaven, Disc 3
- Zombie Heaven, Disc 4
- New World
- As Far As I Can See
- Odessey and Oracle {Revisited}, Disc 1
- Odessey and Oracle {Revisited}, Disc 2
- Live at Metropolis Studios
- Breathe out, Breathe in
- Extended Versions
- [Still Got That Hunger once it’s released on 9 October!]
The Alan Parsons Project and Keats (APP Stereotomy)
- Tales of Mystery and Imagination
- I Robot
- Pyramid
- Eve
- The Turn of a Friendly Card
- Eye in the Sky
- Ammonia Avenue
- Keats
- Vulture Culture
- Stereotomy
- Gaudi
Argent (Verulam Cover Project)
- Argent
- Ring of Hands
- All Together Now
- In Deep
- Encore
- Nexus
- Circus
The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and SMiLE (Pendleton Sounds)
- Pet Sounds
- SMiLE
- The Pet Sounds Sessions, Disc 1
- The Pet Sounds Sessions, Disc 2
- The Pet Sounds Sessions, Disc 3
- The Pet Sounds Sessions, Disc 4
- The SMiLE Sessions, Disc 1
- The SMiLE Sessions, Disc 2
- The SMiLE Sessions, Disc 3
- The SMiLE Sessions, Disc 4
- The SMiLE Sessions, Disc 5
Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent (together and solo) (Verulam Cover Project)
- One Year (Blunstone)
- Ennismore (Blunstone)
- Journey (Blunstone)
- Red House (Argent)
- Classically Speaking (Argent)
- Out of the Shadows (Blunstone and Argent)
- Live at the Bloomsbury Theatre, Disc 1 (Blunstone and Argent)
- Live at the Bloomsbury Theatre, Disc 2 (Blunstone and Argent)
- The Ghost of You and Me (Blunstone)
- On the Air Tonight (Blunstone)
Electric Light Orchestra (10538 Orchestra)
- No Answer
- ELO II
- On the Third Day
- Eldorado
- Face the Music
- A New World Record
- Out of the Blue
- Discovery
- Time
- Secret Messages
- Balance of Power
The Beatles (Beatle Audit)
A few prefatory notes:
I’m not including A Hard Day’s Night in the cycle because I’m already listening to it every Thursday since that’s the album I’m currently focusing on.
I’ve followed the recording order so that Let It Be is before Abbey Road, mostly so that I can also include Let It Be… Naked and not have to listen to two versions of Let It Be back-to-back (albeit seven weeks apart). However, I stuck the Anthology albums, the Past Masters albums (for the non-album singles), and the BBC albums at the end instead of in the midst of the studio albums. There's just so much Beatles material, and I'd rather go through the studio albums first.
- Please Please Me
- With the Beatles
- Beatles for Sale
- Help!
- Rubber Soul
- Revolver
- Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
- Magical Mystery Tour
- The Beatles (the White Album)
- Yellow Submarine
- Let It Be
- Abbey Road
- Let It Be... Naked
- Anthology 1, Disc 1
- Anthology 1, Disc 2
- Past Masters, Vol. 1
- Live at the BBC, Disc 1
- Live at the BBC, Disc 2
- Anthology 2, Disc 1
- Anthology 2, Disc 2
- Past Masters, Vol. 2
- On Air - Live at the BBC, Disc 1
- On Air - Live at the BBC, Disc 2
- Anthology 3, Disc 1
- Anthology 3, Disc 2
I’ll be able to follow this schedule only until the end of this year because - like every even year since 2008 - I’ll be attempting to listen to all of the music in my collection next year. But I'll return to this schedule (and the Classical Music Queue) in 2017. I'll be sure to update it if I acquire any more albums or if I expand the scope of any of these projects (when I started Pendleton Sounds I explained that I might include other Beach Boys albums in the future, but I'm sticking with Pet Sounds and SMiLE for now).
I should also note that I'm not starting all of these at the beginning. I've been (slowly) going through ELO's albums since I started that project in March, and I'm only up to A New World Record, so I might start with that instead of No Answer. And - of course - I'll listen to these albums outside of this schedule. I'd be listening to these a lot even if it weren't for this project.
