1000 albums in a year - I want your suggestions!

[1000Albums]

I'm challenging myself to listen to 1000 new-to-me albums in 2025. I will listen to anything, of any genre (if it's available on Spotify or Apple Music) with the exception of death metal or Bradley Walsh's latest Christmas album😆

I love music but have got stuck in a bit of a rut over the last few years so would like to expand my horizons. What album would you like to recommend to a total stranger?

DD's listening to the Crane Wives at the moment, which is a new one on me, and very listenable.

Ooh great idea OP! Some of my favourites:

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
The Score (The Fugees)
You're A Man Now, Boy (Raleigh Ritichie)
Ceremonials (Florence and the Machine)
1000 Forms of Fear (Sia)
Sound & Colour (Alabama Shakes)
A Little Deeper (Ms Dynamite)
The College Dropout (Kanye West)
Human (Rag'n'Bone Man)
Whoa, Nelly! (Nelly Furtado)
Meteora (Linkin Park)
Songbird (Eva Cassidy)
The Fat of the Land (The Prodigy)
Broadway-Blues-Ballads (Nina Simone)
Respect M.E (Missy Elliot)
Dutty Rock (Sean Paul)
El Mal Querer (Rosalia)

Let me know if you give any of the above a try :)

Not read all the suggestions, but would be surprised if this has been suggested:

Aquarium by Aqua. It's my guilty pleasure and I love it!

Quench by the Beautiful South is a great album.

Destination Anywhere by Jon Bon Jovi (solo album) - I just listened to that myself!

Left of the Middle by Natalie Imbruglia (I was obsessed with this when it came out).

The Abbey Road sessions by Kylie Minogue (I'd actually say all of her albums but I particularly enjoy this one).

Enjoy!

Not an album as such, but if you want to hear new music - DS is currently into an artist called Ren, I enjoyed discovering his music when I was stuck indoors being poorly a while back.

He's a talented young man who writes and produces his own music, along with a group of his friends. It's multi-genre. Some of his music is hip-hop inspired, other times he does his own versions of well known songs from across many genres. Some of what he does isn't really definable as a genre! As as lot of it is focused on story-telling, he calls it "Bardcore".

I'd recommend watching on YouTube rather than just listening, as a lot of his stuff is a visual performance as much as a song.

Most of his videos are shot as a live performance, as a one-shot.

The best starting point to get an idea of his originality and motivation is Hi Ren (currently 43 million views on YouTube - not bad for an unsigned artist!)

For fun, look at Ren busking in Brighton with his band The Big Push, putting their own stamp on I Shot the Sheriff / Road to Zion / Hip Hop:

Back on 74 / Message in a Bottle is also a great listen:

For more of his original music, check out his haunting collaboration with Chinchilla - How to Be Me

This is Ren in storytelling mode - it's hard hitting and very well done: The Tale of Jenny and Screech and Violet's Tale (watch all three for the full story)

Sick Boy is on the theme of mental health - a core theme for Ren:

For anyone who was into the Beastie Boys - Ren's homage to Old School Hip Hop, What You Want is great fun

Oh the Black Album by Metallica is also brilliant!

Someone mentioned film soundtracks - Cruel Intentions is brilliant, my all time favourite soundtrack. I seem to remember Notting Hill had a good one too!

Madonna - Something to Remember

Robbie Williams - I've been expecting you

I'm terrible for sticking to what I know and love.... on my Spotify Wrapped it told me I listened to my top song 887 times! I do love a music challenge - I realised I had stopped listening to music as much, so I challenged myself to listen to more last year. Got my Spotify minutes up to 52,612! Music just makes everything better!

Let them talk - Hugh Laurie
Red revelations - Jace Everett
Good company- The Dead South

Tallahassee - The Mountain Goats
The Sunset Tree - The Mountain Goats
The Queen is Dead - The Smiths
The Remote Part - Idlewild
Violator - Depeche Mode

The Dead South - suierb band. Keep meaning to book tickets to see them live, but I always seem to have something on when they’re touring locally.

Go and see them! They're great live! I added them to the thread before as a suggestion so I hope that another vote will encourage people to listen.

@christmaslatte Money Game pt. 2 is one of my absolute favourite Ren songs (not a great note on my parenting maybe but my 11yr old knows all the words - he does skip the swearing!)

@christmaslatte dd2 enjoys The Crane Wives! I'd never heard of them until she asked for their CD's for Christmas and I paid as much for postage as for them 🙈

Oh I loved but had kind of forgotten about The Mountain Goats. Thanks for the reminder!

If anyone's interested, this is the listening list so far:
Hamish Hawk - A Firmer Hand (liked this a lot, like a really baroque and filthy Divine Comedy)
Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour (really enjoyed several of the songs on this, but some were a little cheesy for my taste)
Sault - 5 (bopped around the kitchen to this whilst cooking dinner, will probably seek out other albums, very cool)
Jazmine Sullivan - Reality Show (as per my previous post I LOVED THIS, cannot recommend highly enough, will definitely be listening to her other stuff)
BC Camplight - The Last Rotation of Earth (loved this lyrically, very witty and dry and dark)
Tycho - Awake (nice ambient electronica, would probably listen again whilst doing some deep work)
The Flashbulb - Opus at the End of Everything (again, electronica, bit more cinematic, not massively my thing but enjoyed most of it although it's a very long album and I did get a bit bored)
Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher (I've listened to her before, I do like her in small doses but her voice grates after a whole album. Lyrically interesting though in an uber-millennial way 😆)
Scud Mountain Boys - Massachussetts (adored, slow grimy sad melodic Americana)

As you can see, I quite like most things so far!

Will be spending the afternoon doing more listening as I have the house to myself again.

This is a really cool idea, I might give it a go as well. Currently obsessed with doechii.

Totally agree, Money Game 2 (and 1 and 3) are a must if you're exploring Ren, of course!

I'd forgotten about the Hu and The Dead South, both great.
Also worth a mention is Clutch, loads of great CD's, but especially Blast Tyrant.
Tyler Childers is also good, although a few of his are a bit hit and miss.
Those Dirty Roses, The Devil Makes Three, The Steel Woods, all worth a listen. And Ray Wylie Hubbard.

Have you considered doing music journalism? You'd be amazing! Our local BBC Introducing dj is so uninterested in the music they're showcasing, you'd be so much better.

All things must pass - George Harrison
Live at Leeds - The Who
Graceland - Paul Simon
Broken Boy Soldiers - The Raconteurs

@SmallGreenBabies funnily enough, in the 90s I did do a bit of writing for music mags. Didn't enjoy it much though, full of pretentious wankers who were more interested in projecting a certain uber-cool image. I wrote better than I do these days though, I promise 😂

Have been listening to Barry Adamson - Cut to Black: I used to love Oedipus Schmoedipus so was looking forward to this, but this didn't grab me (maybe not enough Jarvis Cocker?). Found it quite hard to get through.
Beyonce - Cowboy Carter: fucking brilliant, no notes (as the young people say)
Michael Kiwanuka - Love and Hate: beautiful. I was quite surprised by how much of this I already knew. Stunning voice.
Fiona Apple - Tidal: she's a mad genius, almost equal to Kate Bush in my eyes. Lyrically and production-wise, wonderful.
John Butler Trio - Sunrise over Sea: bluesy folk-rock, reminded me of early INXS (not a bad thing at all) although that may well just be the Australian connection. Enjoyed as far as it went but probably wouldn't bother listening again.

The latest two albums by The Lottery Winners, ART and KOKO (UK no1 album last week)

So Tonight That I Might See by Mazzy Star (glorious indie rock)
Lazer Guided Melodies by Spiritualized (ditto)
Southeastern by Jason Isbell (Americana)
Copper Blue by Sugar (post punk guitar)
Melodrama by Lorde (beautiful pop tunes)
Honey’s Dead by The Jesús and Mary Chain (dark grunge-adjacent noise pop)
A Deeper Understanding by The War On Drugs (post Springsteen big sky rock)

I missed that you asked for world music. Tamikrest are great. Try Chatma. I listen to that a lot.

Three new albums we've been listening to on repeat. And we're going to see all the artists live in the next 6 weeks!

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Death Hilarious

Here to Destroy - Split Dogs

Amelia Coburn - Between the Moon and the Milkman

(I have somewhat diverse taste in music 😁)