52 in 52: Week 2 - "Southeastern"

Week of 10/19/14-10/25/14

Album from 2013

I went looking for a 2013 album this week. I didn't have one in mind really until I got to Jack's Music Shoppe in Red Bank, NJ, which is one of my go-to spots. For some reason, once I got there, I really wanted to get Jason Isbell's "Southeastern." They didn't have it. So I went to the rest of my regular spots, places in and around Asbury Park, the Howell Record Store, and even a couple of places further away that I know carry new albums. It wasn't anywhere. I know it wasn't an especially popular album or anything, especially around here, but I was still a little surprised that I couldn't find it anywhere. Whatever...anyway, I ordered it from Amazon (for $14, not bad). Now, I don't expect to be writing about things that I set out looking for a lot. I expect to browse and find something from each year, but it's a little bit harder with much newer albums, since they haven't circulated much and found time to end up in used stacks.

For those who don't know who Jason Isbell is, he's a country/folk/alt-country singer/songwriter and a former member of the Drive-By Truckers. For those of you who don't know who Drive-By Truckers are, don't worry, we'll talk about it.

52 in 52: Week 1 - "Somewhere Under Wonderland"

Week of 10/12/14 - 10/18/14

Album from 2014

When I was deciding which album to choose for the first week of this little adventure, I had a couple of options. See, I wanted to get it done as soon as possible, so I decided to pick a 2014 album that I already owned, and, for this time, at least, skip the process of going to a store to pick up a new own. So, basically, it was between "Swimming Time," by Shovels & Rope, "Somewhere Under Wonderland," by Counting Crows, "Get Hurt," by the Gaslight Anthem, and "Lights Out," by Ingrid Michaelson. Now, as much as I would like to talk up a band that's still relatively new and unheard of like Shovels & Rope, and talk about how I just saw them three times in the past week, and as much as I'd like to examine the distinct difference between Ingrid Michaelson's new album and her past music, and as much as I'd like to write about a local (for me) band like the Gaslight Anthem, it's gotta be Counting Crows.

52 in 52: Introduction

Hi, my name is Matt, and let me tell you a little bit about what I hope this series of posts will be.

I am both an aspiring writer and a huge music fan/collector. I was born in 1991, so while my iPod has 20,000 songs on it, and I have an entire wall of shelves for CDs, I haven't had much experience with actual vinyl albums until this past year, when I received a record player as a gift and I began browsing stores, and buying records.

The pitch for this series is: one record a week, released in a different year reverse chronologically, for 52 weeks. The first week will be something produced in 2014, the second week something from 2013, and on and on until we get to one year from now and it's something from 1962. Now, I don't own many, so mostly this is going to be me going out to a store once a week, finding a record released from the year in question, and then listening to it.

This first week's will be up soon.