As you might imagine, I hit the ground running after the update. My top 3000 wishlist is now down to 68.

Obviously I haven't had time to listen to everything yet, but I did make a point last night of listening to VENENO (great, great Spanish rock from 1977 with driving acoustic guitars and some exceptionally creative drumming) and CHEGA DE SAUDADE (as I mentioned, the 1959 album is contained in its entirety on THE LEGENDARY JOAO GILBERTO). So I have now officially heard all of the current top 1500 albums.

The highest-ranked album I don't own is #1638, Tom Ze's ESTUDANDO O SAMBA, currently entirely unavailable on CD via either Amazon or eBay, but I'll keep looking. I now have on order 4 of the 7 other top 2000 albums I don't have yet (the two Alain Bashungs, SECOS & MOLHADOS, and the Pierre Henry/Michel Colombier album). I plan to slow down a little after that...

The other 3 are among the Spanish CDs that Honorio has so graciously offered to send me. Honorio, you received my e-mail last week, correct?

Incidentally, that Gilberto anthology also contains all the tracks that comprised BRAZIL'S BRILLIANT JOAO GILBERTO (later reissued as GILBERTO & JOBIM), which just fell -off- the top 3000. So I can cross another album off that "shadow list" as well. (In case anyone's interested, just before the update I had ordered the last three "affordable" albums from my previous wishlist: Trouble Funk, the Cables, and the Nits. All have since arrived, and been listened to.)

For Bashung's album, honestly, you can easily change (for me of course)"Play Blessure" album by his last album before his death "Bleu Pétrole". It is much better.

As of today's delivery of an Amazon shipment containing J.J. Cale's TROUBADOUR, A.R. Kane's 69, and SHPRITZS by Herman Brood & His Wild Romance, I now have 2,952 of the current AM top 3000 albums. And that's without the 10 Spanish CDs in Honorio's still-forthcoming package. My highest-ranked MIA (as opposed to M.I.A.) is still Tom Ze's elusive ESTUDANDO O SAMBA (#1638).

As you might imagine, I'm also collecting 2009 albums that look to have a good chance of making the list in the next update. Based on previous years, it's safe to assume that any album that ends up with at least 30 points on the EOY spreadsheet earns a free pass to the all-time top 3000, and many of those with 25-29 points will end up there as well. So far, I'm covered.

Do you also have the bubblers Harrold?

Quite a few, but I'm always more focused on the top 3000 (many of which -become- bubblers with each new update, of course). I'd say I've got around 500 of the bubblers.

I got already 7 of the CDs and still waiting for two (Sisa and Gabinete Caligari, that's the one I forgot about on my previous mail). When I got the nine CDs I'll send it to you.
Sadly as I told you the Vainica Doble album is now out of print, I asked in three different stores and I'm afraid it's not available (not even in Ebay). Given this fact I think I'll keep my copy (now it's a rarity).

That's perfectly fine, Honorio. That'll still be 9 albums I don't need to worry about finding. Thanks for the update!

Are all 2,952 albums on CD? There's gotta be at least a handful that are only out on vinyl.

I own all 2,952 on CD - in some form. I admit, as I have before, to a bit of "cheating" in several instances.

*PRESENTING THE FABULOUS RONETTES FEATURING VERONICA has never been released on CD, but the anthology BEST OF THE RONETTES (which itself has gone out of print since I bought it) contains 10 of its 12 tracks (omitting covers of "What'd I Say" and "Chapel of Love"), so it's a fitting stand-in for the real thing.

*JOHNNY BURNETTE AND THE ROCK'N'ROLL TRIO was out of print when I started my AM collection (it was in the top 500 at that time), but I found an anthology that contained all of its tracks. (The album has since been reissued, but I haven't gotten around to replacing it.)

*The half-Otis/half-Jimi MONTEREY INTERNATIONAL POP FESTIVAL album has never been issued in any format other than vinyl - but Rhino's 2-CD Redding anthology DREAMS TO REMEMBER ends with all five of his Monterey tracks. I bought the set solely for that reason, ordered the Hendrix LIVE AT MONTEREY CD, and now store them side by side.

*The Lennie Tristano tracks from his side of 1949's CROSSCURRENTS, which are the reason for its inclusion on AM far more than Tadd Dameron's, have been collected as a group on numerous anthologies (much like the Roy Eldridge LITTLE JAZZ recordings discussed here in the '50s-'60s poll eligibility thread), and I purchased a particularly good one.

I own a whole bunch of single-artist anthologies that collect entire albums, often more than one: that's how I own TIM HARDIN 1 and 2, BEGIN by the Millennium, Ann Peebles' I CAN'T STAND THE RAIN, and numerous others. Most recently, I was lucky enough to find (online) a way-out-of-print Joao Gilberto collection that, among other things, contained every track from CHEGA DE SAUDADE, a recent addition to the top 3000.

I'm always on the hunt...

2,970. Soon to be 2,979, I hope!

Proof that I actually -listen- to all the albums as opposed to merely collecting them: I recently got hold of a used copy of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's 5-CD EN CONCERT A PARIS (#2841), and - after a period of wondering when I was going to find time for it - listened to all 5 discs within a 24-hour period.

For the record, the sheer enormity of the thing - all 5 CDs clock in at over an hour, and individual songs can run as long as 33 minutes! - seems impossibly daunting, but once you settle in and actually start listening it's pretty damn mesmerizing. It helps that the entire musical backing is done on harmonium and tabla, and I loves me the sound of some harmonium.

These are heady times indeed for Your Friendly Neighborhood Obsessive-Compulsive. In addition to Project 3000, I've got the EOY spreadsheet (as of the last update, the highest-ranked 2009 album I don't have yet is DRAGONSLAYER); the non-top 3000 albums doing unexpectedly well on the EOD spreadsheet (I bought ALCACHOFA and am currently waiting on VOCALCITY); and now the 2010 albums as well (I already had VW and Spoon, and picked up the rest of the top 5 yesterday - the Beach House album richly deserves its current #1 rank).