April
2026 Album Challenge (Home Link)
Johnny Blue Skies (aka Sturgill Simpson) - Passage du Desir
Format: CD
Stereo
Notes: An easy listening album. A definite departure from "Sound & Fury" with a laid back vibe that sort of reminisces on past love and embracing the present. A lot of Gordon Lightfoot and Jimmy Buffett weaved in.
March
2026 Album Challenge (Home Link)
Johnny Blue Skies (aka Sturgill Simpson) - Mutiny After Midnight
Format: YouTube
Stereo
Notes: I was expecting to listen to this in March, but not as early as the 2nd. The release date is officially the 13th, but Sturgill did his usual wildcard thing and put it up on YouTube for the masses. It's an easy score for Simpson (or Johnny Blue Skies by his alter ego) with me as I haven't heard anything yet from him that I didn't care for. This one is a kind of a mix of Sound & Fury and his last record Passage du Desir. You will find the occasional "country" note here and there but this is mostly a mixture of pop, soul, and disco. Not quite a jam record, but it does take the opportunity at times to cut loose. On my first couple of listens, I really like it. Early favorites are "Don't Let Go", "Stay On That" and "Ain't That a Bitch".
FEBRUARY
2026 Album Challenge (Home Link)
The Eagles - One of These Nights
Format: CD
Fiio FT-1 Headphones
Notes: Probably my favorite Eagles album, with apologies to the great Hotel California. They were transitioning on the spectrum from near country to near pop. Nominated for four Grammy's and winning one, it was another in a succession of top notch albums. Favorite tracks are "Lyin' Eyes" and "After The Thrill Is Gone".
JANUARY
2026 Album Challenge (Home Link)
Kicking off the challenge with a few favorites that I grew up listening to through my dad and his vinyl collection, which I have inherited. I have taken recommendations from friends, and I will definitely be getting to those as I move along throughout the year. Any photos I include will be plucked from the web unless I signal otherwise.
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Format: Vinyl (original)
Stereo
Notes: One of my favorite albums ever and I inherited this record from my dad. He played it a lot when I was a child, but the record has been taken care of and still sounds fantastic after all the decades that have passed. I have this on several formats including Atmos/5.1, so it's an album I go back to frequently.
2025 is probably the first year I have ever kept up with a resolution. Not even probably....it's definitely the first time. I had read last year about a guy that was going to watch 5 movies a week throughout the year. I am a movie lover, but I thought 5 might be asking a bit much, so I decided I wanted to do that challenge also, but would go with averaging 3 a week, each month. Meaning, I had to watch at least 12 movies every month. I couldn't "catch up" the next month, so if I only got in 11, then the challenge would be failed.
There are still a few days left in 2025 and I'm sure I will watch a movie or two before we hit 2026, but as it stands, I have watched 235 different movies (including concert films), with a few "Peanuts" specials thrown in there. That's an average of almost 20 a month. My strongest months were January and October. January, I attribute to the early anticipation of wanting to start out right, kind of like people do when they promise to hit the gym. October is a big month for me traditionally due to my love of horror films, and I hit 30 movies that month.
My weakest months were August (14) and September (13), and November (15), so I definitely tailed off the last half of the year. That said, I was able to make it!
Now, what should I do for 2026? Hmm...I got it, how about 3 albums a week. That should be no problem at all. Perhaps I could do 5, as I probably do 2 or 3 a week right now, without even thinking about a "challenge" or "resolution". I suppose, I will just keep it at 3, or make sure I hit at least 12 every month. Yep, that's it.
I have requested a few friends to suggest 3 albums each to me that I will randomly put into the rotation through the year. That will help me be a bit more eclectic in my experiences and challenge my tastes. At any rate, I used the "Clap" app last year to track my movie watching, but so far, I can't find anything exactly like "Clap" for albums, but I think "Musicboard" will probably work.
I am going to track the music on this page weekly or monthly, depending on when I get around to it. Not sure anyone would care about what I'm listening to, but I thought it would be a good exercise to document my favorite art form (music albums) as I move through the year. I am not sure about any limitations (or rules) that I will put into place.....anything that is an "official" release by an artist or label will count, but I am inclined to leave out any "best of" or soundtracks. I will also try to keep up with the format I listen on and if I use headphones or not. I will not be counting albums I listen to at work or as "background". If I don't give it my full attention, it won't count towards my 3 per week.
I have a modest "enthusiast" 5.2.2 stereo set up. Denon receiver, Audio-Technica turntable, Technics CD player, JVC cassette deck with Polk towers up front and Klipsch speakers to the rear and height. My 2 subs are Sony. For streaming, I use Apple Music and can run Atmos through my system using an Apple TV box.
I will provide a link to each month below. Let the fun begin!!!
