Saturday, August 11, 2012

A Different Dave

Perhaps you found this site because you like lists, but perhaps you have been turned off by the idiosyncratic nature of some of them.  Let me therefore recommend an even larger collection of lists from an altogether different Dave.  I will call him Other-Dave to avoid confusion and entertain myself.  Other-Dave's Music Database's collection of best-of-lists is quite impressive.  Most of them appear to be aggregate lists, so there aren't a lot of surprises.  I like surprises myself, but I also see the advantage of a list that is generally free of them.

I like the aggregate lists best when all the sources are provided, such as Other-Dave's list of the top 50 progressive rock albums.  At the bottom of the post, there are links to all the other lists/sites that fed into the aggregate list.  Thus, you get the advantage of the aggregate list plus the serendipity of some of the more adventurous individual lists.  Actually, in this case, I didn't think the individual lists were terribly adventurous either, but this timeline list was more interesting than some of the others because it brings prog into the present.  You can find more thoughts on prog (from me-myself-and-I-Dave and not Other-Dave) on this previous post.

Other-Dave does have a few posts that are truly his own favorites, such as his top 100 albums.  Here, we learn that Other-Dave is a big fan of Marillion and Styx.  It's pretty much all commercial (or borderline commercial, e.g. Marillion) fare, but it's also reasonably diverse given that limitation.  You don't see a lot of lists, for instance, including both Lynyrd Skynyrd and Crowded House.  Kevin GIibert is one artists on the list that shows up multiple times, and I confess I have no familiarity with him.  Allmusic.com seems to like Kevin GIlbert's records also.

Maybe one of us (me or Other-Dave) could appear in some future version of These Are the Dave's I Know.  Then again, maybe you're looking for neither of us and just planned to have bacon and eggs at Dave's.

3 comments:

  1. Well, hey there Dave! It's Dave! Thanks for the plug for Dave's Music Database. My blog lists Nothing But Good Things among its recommendations, BTW.

    Yes, it is true that nearly all the lists I present via my blog, website, and Facebook page are aggregated lists - all with the aim of presenting objective lists which capture the overall place an album, act, or song has instead of an individual or single publication's perspective.

    For a dose of my more subjective opinions on matters, check out my PopMatters.com "Aural Fixation" column: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/column/section/aural-fixation/

    Loved the references to "Other Dave" and anyone who references Kids in the Hall gets a thumbs up in my book. Great post!

    - The Other Dave

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  2. You can check out my FB page here: https://www.facebook.com/davesmusicdatabase

    Is there a FB page for Nothing But Good Things?

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    1. No FB page yet. I posted several of my lists as notes on FB on my personal page before moving over to blogger. I just can't keep up with the confusing constant changes over at FB.

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