Works in Progress

Even above folks like Woebot's continually superb expositions (can't wait to see how Dissensus develops, top one mate!) and the Geeta Cologne story linked below, the great thing about blogs is that they allow you to keep track of things you might have misplaced in the analogue world--specifically for us music critic types, it helps us keep up with favorite records in a way that helps avoid the last-minute mad scrambling endemic to year-end listmaking duties. Sasha, of course, is a great model--having posted his 2003 list at the end of the year, he started on 2004 before it had officially begun, with advances he liked from the forthcoming calendar year. My man Keith Harris does it a little differently, adding a couple albums he likes per week on his sub-site and putting them in order every quarter or so. Kate Silver (who's moving to Seattle in two weeks! YAY!!!) kept an albums tally at the bottom of her blog for most of this year; now it's graduated to its own page. Andy Kellman's lists, of course, are a thing of joy, and it's good to see more people getting the bug--recently, Dylan Hicks of City Pages. Probably the most interesting twist on this is this list of the five Shrimp Eaters' 128 or so favorite rap 12-inches of the year so far, which will keep certain people I know busy for a good long time. (And, of course, me too.) [Thanks to Oliver Wang, the bloggingest pop critic around, for the link.]

This is all very list-geeky, I have no problem admitting, but quantification isn't so much the point here as the fact that these lists continually help me discover good new music that I'd have missed or overlooked--crucial for the job I do, and damn nice even if I'm (or you're) not a professional. If you know any other folks who are keeping track in a similar manner, email me--I'm thinking of starting a separate sidebar for them all. Or maybe, heh heh, another blog to keep track of the track-keepers.

Update: Oh yeah--Thomas Inskeep, too. Duh.

Second update: Jess joins the ranks, hallelujah!