Understanding My Musical Taste With... Data!

Plus: Otis Redding, Taylor Swift, Tame Impala, Cream, and Big Star

After 6 issues, lots of learning, and a whole lot of music, I think it’s time for a short recap of where we stand in the JamWise tracker. As a reminder, you can find the up-to-date tracker here to see my progress and favorites. 

Here’s a snapshot from the dashboard as of this writing. I’ve reviewed 32 out of the 500 albums on the Rolling Stone list, as well as a handful of others here and there. I plan to continue mixing in a group of new albums every month to keep things fresh, and to give me perspective so I don’t get lost in the older stuff. I’m also going to start filling in my old favorite albums in the name of gathering data and building my taste profile for myself. That way, if Spotify and its competitors ever crash and burn, I’ll be ready to choose my own new jams from now on.

You may also notice I’ve started tracking the sources of my favorites. This is a long-term project - most of the albums will obviously be from the Rolling Stone list since that’s what I’ve been focused on. But later on I want to have some good data about the sources I find for new music recommendations, and I plan to have some kind of gladiator-like competition among them to see who comes out on top. The Spotify Algorithm seems to have an edge, but what you don’t see is the absolutely God-awful Maroon 5 album it made me listen to last week that scored a whopping 0 on the Taste Meter, which really pulls down the Spotify Algo’s recommendation score in the competition. I might never forgive it for that travesty.

Electrophonic Chronic by The Arcs still holds the top spot in my Taste Rating, but I have a feeling there will soon be some challengers from both the Dave’s Old Fave’s list and the Rolling Stone list. I’m also constantly re-ranking some of the albums as I get more data, so some of the numbers might end up changing. I do that basically for calibration purposes - if I find that an OK new album has a higher Brain Rating than a top-tier classic, I definitely want to update accordingly. It’s all relative, anyway, so I think it works.

An update on the Brain Rating - I’ve gone back to adjust the old “objective” ratings to match my new criteria as mentioned in the last issue. Effectively, how much do I “intellectually” like the album, vs. the Taste Rating which is how much I liked listening to it. This Brain Rating is useful because it lets me award lots of extra points to albums I find culturally significant or important even if I don’t fully vibe with them (or the other way around, *cough cough Creed*). Objectivity is overrated, but I still feel the need for another ranking besides just liking the music, because music is often about so much more than the notes and lyrics. It’s also a way of tracking what I think others might like because it’s high quality, even though it’s not going into my daily playlists.

The correlation is still there - high brain ratings more or less equal high taste ratings, and vice versa - but it’s a little less correlated than before. Plus I’m more OK with the Brain Rating not being so perfect now. I expect more adjustments to come, and I’ll revisit the Brain ratings after another few batches of reviews to see how it’s going. I’ve also been reviewing a bunch of albums that should have high brain ratings, aka the most great albums ever, so this graph will probably remain skewed high until the Rolling Stone list project is finished.

Actually, I hope it stays skewed high forever, because that means I’ve been jamming to some awesome music.

As far as my taste vs. the year of the record, there still doesn’t look like there’s a huge correlation. I’ve started noticing some trends in what I tend to like or dislike - I’m looking for ways to track them, but for now the one I’ve started tracking is a new metric. I’ve been wondering if my level of previous exposure to the album has affected my liking of the music, so I started a new metric called “Previous Exposure” (gasp, this guy’s a naming genius) and made a chart. 

This one also shows a fairly clear trend, that the albums I know the best end up with higher taste ratings, while those I have no experience with are all over the place. I think that makes perfect sense - why would I know an album super well if I didn’t like it? But it’s interesting to see it in a graph like this. I’ll also be tracking this one pretty closely, but I’ll be looking for other ways to split up the “no previous exposure” albums to see what I like and don’t like. 

Anyway, nerd time is over, on to the music.

Project B.A.E. - Best Albums Ever - 7

I guess the handy-dandy spreadsheet really wanted me to listen to Taylor Swift this week. I’ll fix it later so there aren’t repeats, but for now, ya know, I just don’t feel like it. I’d rather jam.

And guess who’s going first!

Red - Taylor Swift - 2012

What an absolute legend Taylor Swift has become. But this isn’t the time or place to out myself as a Swiftie (if I was one), so I think we’ll focus on the music for the time being.

At #99 on the Rolling Stone list, this album has gained a massive amount of respect in the music community. I’m sure there are a variety of reasons for that - popular success, the songwriting, the way she’s connected with her audience in a way few artists ever have. 

Personally, I think it takes a special kind of genius to write such simple and hook-y songs as the two major singles from this album, while also experimenting with your entire sound as an artist, changing genres, and generally going through all kinds of drama in life at the same time. People who say Red isn’t genius are wrong - but I can still see plenty of space for people who say they simply don’t like the music. It’s thoughtfully crafted to connect with a specific audience who speaks the same emotional language as Taylor, and if you’re not among that crowd, it might not land right. And that’s totally fine - just don’t deny the genius of it all.

Brain Rating: 9

Taste Rating: 3.5

Jams

• “Red”

• “Begin Again”

Otis Blue - Otis Redding - 1965

This album is full of classics, many of which are covers of standards or songs written by Redding’s contemporaries. It’s amazing music, with great grooves and expressive vocals, but I’m conflicted about how to rate the covers. On the one hand, originality has been a big factor for my Brain Rating in the past. However there have been many other covers in this newsletter so far, and one could argue that covers by Redding in honor of, for example, his recently departed friend Sam Cooke have more meaning than, say, Rod Stewart performing old blues standards. I don’t know if that’s my position, but it’s an option.

But I’m nitpicking. This album has 2 Otis Redding originals that are just stunning, “Respect” and “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.” The covers are very different from the originals, almost transformed, and they have tons of meaning and history behind them. I got goosebumps too many times to count listening to this album.

Brain Rating: 9

Taste Rating: 9

Jams

• “Ole Man Trouble”

• “A Change Is Gonna Come”

• “My Girl”

• “Wonderful World”

Disraeli Gears - Cream

It’s interesting that a Clapton band pops up right after I’ve been discussing the merits of cover songs in the previous album. My impression of Clapton is varied - he’s revealed problematic views on race in the past, while he’s built an entire career based on blues and rock guitar he learned from Black artists like Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and Chuck Berry (not to mention Bob Marley, later). He also does a lot of covers and blues standards. And last but certainly not least, I’ve always loved his music. I grew up on Clapton, before the days of social media and instant information, with no idea about the controversies in his life. I didn’t even learn about that mess until I read his autobiography, which obviously portrays him in a sympathetic light.

I haven’t sorted out my feelings about how to treat problematic artists. For now, I’m proceeding with the strategy to separate art from artist, as I did with Michael Jackson in Issue 5. I’ll write something about that eventually, and I’ll reserve the right to change my mind later like any rational human being can. But for now, we’ll focus on the songs, especially since this is an entire band’s work, not just Clapton’s.

The music is among my favorites of this era, mostly because this album was one I learned to play guitar with. I’ve probably played that opening lick to “Sunshine Of Your Love” a million times in my parents basement, and this album was a doorway to the blues in general for me. There are several classic songs that have a special place in my heart.

Brain Rating: 7.8

Taste Rating: 8.4

Jams

• “Strange Brew”

• “Sunshine Of Your Love”

• “Tales Of Brave Ulysses”

• “SWLABR”

Third - Big Star

So after loving #1 Album, I expected to really enjoy this album. But I’m not sure I could identify this album as something by the same band. It sounds like a band who forgot how to use a metronome or a mixing station while recording. 

This is another case where I wonder if the fact that this album was created shortly before the band’s demise caused some kind of morbid fascination with the music. This seems to be a trend in critics’ ratings. This album seems to have been written during the band’s decline as well as the lead singer’s personal issues, which perhaps explains some of the unique emotion and energy contained in the meandering songs. But again, as I have asked before - if this album was released in a vacuum without the story behind it, would it have been rated so high? I have serious doubts. And believe me, I hate to say that when I’ve enjoyed this band’s other work so much.

Brain Rating: 7

Taste Rating: 2

Currents - Tame Impala - 2015

This album is even more intriguing when you realize it’s all the work of one person - Kevin Parker - all instruments, mixing, producing, he did it all. It’s considered a psychedelic rock heavyweight, and yielded several decent-sized hits I’d heard of before. 

The album is almost trance-inducing, with dreamy lyrics throughout that almost seem like just another instrument in the mix. I was sadly not on the proper mind-altering substances to really melt into the music, but I got pretty close. 

Brain Rating: 8

Taste Rating: 6.5

Jams

• “Nangs”

• “The Less I Know The Better”