July 14, 2022

Introducing "Assorted Gems"

Not much to introduce here, really. "Assorted Gems" will be my heading for musings on full-length albums, musings that are not part of any other greater project or series. Emphasis will be on full-length albums, but then, why not be flexible? I could imagine live albums appearing under this heading too. EPs? I don't listen to many, but maybe. Bootlegged live shows? Yeah, could be. But then, since exactly 94.826% of my listening is to studio albums, played in full, the emphasis falls right back on, yes indeed, full-length albums.

I'd been thinking about making and annotating a list of my personal Top 100 Albums, but when I started work on it, back in January of this year, I found the process agonizing: and I mean just the selection, let alone the ranking! 

So, to some degree, "Assorted Gems" is a cop-out. On the other hand, I won't need to waste time justifying why I like this or that album more than a hundred or more great others that didn't make the list. A top hundred list has room for exactly that many; an occasional commentary on assorted gems can accommodate many more, and the gems can be gathered from a wider landscape, too. Plus, I think the looseness and spontaneity of the form can do the writing good.

I may still opt, down the line, to do a post with short write-ups about my current Top 25 or Top 33 or something. There does exist a certain dividing line between blindingly brilliant albums, and blindingly brilliant albums that mean the world to me...

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