CD Odyssey: The first 900 albums

Another milestone achieved with my 900^th review on Tuesday. The next disc is a great one but before we get there, let’s take a look back.

I continue to mark pretty hard, , and it is mostly showing up in a reduction of five star albums, and a corresponding bump in four star albums. In the last 100 reviews I gave 39 albums three stars (up one from the previous 100) and 36 albums four stars (up 6).

Five star albums slipped for the third straight time, and a mere 4 albums achieved a perfect score. This is down 1 from the previous 100 and less than half of the 11 I awarded between discs 500 and 600. The reviews are random, so I’m either getting to be a harder marker or possibly a lot of those classic albums I’ve had in my collection for years have now been reviewed, so I am increasingly reliant on new music.

That wouldn’t explain my next review, though, which is going to be a five star album that I’ve only owned for a few months. That’s a teaser! For now, here are the four perfect scorers from discs 801 through 900:

• Lyle Lovett– Pontiac
• Bob Dylan – Oh Mercy
• Dave Brubeck Quartet – Time Out
•  Blue Oyster Cult – Secret Treaties

This is Blue Oyster Cult’s second consecutive five star review (they got on in the previous recap for “Fire of Unknown Origin.” What can I say? I like Blue Oyster Cult.

There was only a single one star album in the past 100, and that went to the half-baked abomination that was Neil Young’s “A Letter Home.” Here’s the full list of albums that were dismissed from the collection:

• Neil Young, “A Letter Home” – yech. Truly terrible.
• Neil Young, “America Stars ‘n’ Bars” – not terrible but just not worth keeping.
• Heart “Bad Animals” – I really like the hit (“Alone”) but not enough to keep the rest of the questionable material. Gone.
• Black Mountain “IV” – a very recent parting as I only bought this album in the last few weeks and just saw the accompanying tour as well. It just isn’t up to the level of their earlier releases though, and I’m going to end the relationship now rather than drag it out for years. I already regret buying the T-shirt at the swag table.

A bit of a bad run for Neil Young, I suppose.

The nineties still hold a slight edge in terms of the decade with the most albums at 223. The eighties are in second with 196 and the oughts and seventies are neck and neck at 185 and 181 discs reviewed respectively. As I buy more and more newly released music the ‘tens’ are making a bit of a surge; I’ve already reviewed 67,with 11 of those in the past 100.

In terms of overall reviews, Alice Cooper remains in top spot with 24 albums (up one from 100 albums ago), and Steve Earle stays in second place with 17 albums (up one as well). Third place is a two way tie between Bob Dylan and Tom Waits, each with 16 reviews.

On we go toward 1,000 reviews!