Track One: Play.

So, what have we here?

Well, it all starts with my realisation that although I listen to plenty of music, my music variety consists largely of a few artists I enjoyed during my teenage years, and a few oddities that I came across in other people's collections since then. There are literally hundreds of artists and thousands of albums out there that are considered important or influential in some way, and I've heard so few of them (and own even fewer).

With that in mind, this blog serves three purposes. One, to make me broaden my musical horizons a little, and actually listen to some of these key albums in music. Two, to share my thoughts about them and hopefully inspire others to have a listen as well. And three, (and this gives the blog its name), to celebrate the album as a concept. Don't get me wrong, I use the Shuffle function as much as anyone when I don't know what to listen to, but it's a terrible shame that our short-attention-span culture has meant that the very idea of an album, of having songs that work together into a coherent whole, doesn't seem to be a commercial priority any more. So I'll be looking at each album both as a collection of songs and as a piece of art in its own right, and judging how well it works as such.

The criteria for an album appearing here are as follows: it must be one that I've never heard in its entirety (having heard the odd song is fine), it (or its creator) must have had significant influence on music in general, and it must be designed as an album rather than as a collection - so no "greatest hits" or compilations. Oh, and it must be available for listening on Spotify and/or Grooveshark, as I don't have that much money to throw around!

So, welcome to Unshuffled. Hope you enjoy it.