Album Listening Procrastination Championship
 

I think most of us have probably had the experience of being given an album by a friend and then never actually getting around to listening to it. What's the longest you've procrastinated listening to an album you own?

Me? The one that comes to mind right away is Massive Attack's 100th Window. A friend gave me a copy in 2003 when it was brand new and I still to this day haven't gotten around to listening to it.

I bought Led Zeppelins BBC Sessions when it came out.

A couple of months ago I saw it on the shelf still in it's wrapping and thought to myself I must have bought this at least 5 or 6 years ago.

Looked at the year of release on the back ... 1998.

I got the Guns 'N Roses album The Spaghetti Incident sometime after its release in the 90s, probably around 1997 or so.

Never listened to it, not even once.

I bought a few CDs when Tower Records was closing, (circa '06) haven't open most of them, they're still in their factory sealed wrap. I bought Bob Dylan's greatest hits and another album but haven't listen to it yet.

I hate to admit that 53% of the tracks in my iTunes have zero plays. While a proportion of those are probably CDs that I was already sick of before I obsessively ripped them into iTunes I think it's fair to say I've got some catching up to do.

Not sure if it counts but I've had Franz Ferdinand (the album) since it was released in 2004 and in all that time I've listened to exactly 1 song from it. Past that I'm really bad at getting around to listening to albums but as I haven't actually owned many of my own albums for that long I don't have too many long examples. A year or two ago I went through a brief post-rock "phase" where I convinced myself that I liked the genre because I loved three artists from it, ended up buying about a dozen albums from it and haven't listened to all but one of them at all. Two are still in their packaging.

a friend of mine gave me George Michael's Older in 2003

haven't heard it yet

a cousin left some Ronan Keating cassette in my collection in 1998

still haven't heard it yet either

I may not have been given them directly but I have some cassettes on my shelf, still to this day they sit there. They belonged to my sister and are various Bon Jovi albums and live gigs. When she moved out, I went through her tapes and I put a few aside on my shelf that I wanted to listen to and keep, and thats what these tapes are.

Now then, my sister is 40 now. She cant have been older than 20 when she had these tapes. I'm 12 years younger than her and was born in 1984 so I reckon that all in all I probably inherited them when I was 16 which means she has probably had them since...1992? Not once have I listened to them or remember even hearing them when I was younger and we lived together.

Then again, is it really such a surprise when its Bon bastard Jovi?

A friend burnt me a copy of some Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower cd. It's still in my drawer and I still have not listened to it.

These days people don't give me music. Most of my friends know that I'm an audiophile and I guess that makes them intimidated to recommend music to me.

I have 3 vinyl albums, still sealed, I purchased when released, put in my collection unopened and never got around to putting on my turntable.

The Rolling Stones - Undercover (1983)

Big Country - Peace in Our Time (1988)

Unsane - Unsane (1991)

At this point, I'll probably leave them unopened and just download copies to listen to (if I ever get around to it.) :D