Album Playthrough Project December 2024 and the New 2025 Project

The year has come to a close and the Album Playthrough Project wraps up its current format.  Before moving on, I need to share my December albums, reflect on 2024, and give my specific plans for 2025. 

Being December and the holiday season, the album list is quite heavy and almost exclusive to Christmas music.  Here is the list: 

The Andy Williams Christmas Album (1963) Andy Williams 12/2/24

Christmas Portrait (1978) The Carpenters 12/2/24
Christmas Caravan (1998) Squirrel Nut Zippers 12/3/24
Everyday is Christmas (2018) Sia 12/3/24
Into the Christmas Spirit (1966) Booker T &the MGs 12/4/24
Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1965) Burl Ives 12/4/24
A Very Kacey Christmas (2016) Kacey Musgraves 12/4/24
A Very Special Christmas (1987) Various Artists 12/5/24
When My Heart Finds Christmas (1993) Harry Conick Jr. 12/6/248
The Beach Boys' Christmas Album (1964) The Beach Boys 12/7/24
Joy: A Holiday Collection (1999) Jewel 12/7/24
The Greatest Christmas Hits (2003) Pentatonix 12/8/24
Home For Christmas (1992) Amy Grant 12/8/24
Holiday Seasoning (2024) Jimmy Fallon (various artists) 12/8/24
Christmas in a Minor Key (2024) Milk Carton Kids 12/9/24
A Very Special Christmas vol.2 (1992) Various Artists 12/9/24
James Taylor Christmas (2006) James Taylor 12/9/24
A Charlie Brown Christmas (2012) Vince Guaraldi Trio 12/11/24
The Dean Martin Christmas.Album (1966) Dean Martin 12/11/24
A Crystal Christmas (1986) Crystal Gayle 12/15/24
Big Band Holidays III (2023) Jazz at the Lincoln Center, Wynton Marsalis 12/15/24
Big Bands Holidays II (2019) Jazz at the Lincoln Center Wynton Marsalis 12/16/24
Elvis' Christmas Album (1958) Elvis Presley 12/16/24
Johnny Mathis Sounds of Christmas (1963) 12/17/24
Today is Christmas (2015) Leanne Rimes 12/17/24
An Oscar Peterson Christmas (1995) Oscar Peterson 11/17/24
Achtung Baby (1991) U2 12/2824
DAMN (2017) Kendrick Lamar 12/28/24
fruitcake (2023) Sabrina Carpenter 12/28/24
F-1 Trillion (2024) Post Malone 12/29/24
Good Together (2024) Lake Street Dive 12/30/24
Tuesday Night Music Club (1993) Sheryl Crow 12/31/24
Celebrate! (1980) Cool and the Gang 12/31/24

Best Listen of the Month: A Very Kacey Christmas, Kacey Musgraves

This was a huge surprise (maybe should have been in the category below) and quite the discovery for me.

Biggest Surprise: Into the Christmas Spirit, Booker T &the MGs

Ya ever want to just chill during the Christmas Season? This is the album.

Biggest Disappointment: Today is Christmas, Leanne Rimes

Seriously, this almost took me right out of the Christmas Spirit. It was flat.

Best Concert Memory: The Greatest Christmas Hits, Pentatonix

Saw the concert the day before I listened to this album. So talented and fun to listen.

Best Christmas Spirit: The Andy Williams Christmas Album, Andy Williams

It is the most wonderful album of the season.

Most Fun: Christmas Caravan, Squirrel Nut Zippers

Best non-traditional collection of holiday songs. They need to stop playing Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer and the Christmas Donkey song and play (more) Squirrel Nut Zippers!

For a description of the Album Playthrough Project, click here

February

March

April  

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

This is the last post for the 2024 Album Playthrough Project.  In fact, it is the last post for the Album Playthrough Project; however from the Album Playthrough Project comes a new project for 2025: The Artist Playthrough 2025.  

As first heard on The Colby Cast, I have chosen 12 artists to focus on in 2025, one each month.  Below is the list of artists I have chosen, but I haven't necessarily assigned them to a month except for January and December which will be Cold War Kids and Bing Crosby respectively.  

Here are the rest of the artists I have chosen for the Artist Playthrough 2025: 

John Mellencamp
10,000 Maniacs
Taylor Swift
James Taylor
Hozier
Bonnie Raitt
The Doors
U2
Grateful Dead
Dave Matthews Band

I hope you join me in 2025 as I examine the albums of the above artists.

2024 Reading/Viewing Stats: Year in Review

Reflection is an important part of living and learning.  When we reflect we have the opportunity to think about what we have learned and make a plan to respond to it. In addition, we get to analyze how we learned and how we might do it differently in the future. 

I have enjoyed recording my reading and viewing (and listening) stats over the last four years.  It helps me to prioritize how I spend my time.  It is interesting how similar some categories remain from year-to-year.  Anyway, here is a comparison of this year's stats to the past three years.  I will give my thoughts below after we have a chance to take a look.  

	2024	2023	2022	2021
Movies Watched	16	26	21	31
Rewatch	8	10	13	16
First Time	7	16	8	15
In Theater	1	8	N/A	N/A
TV Series (Streamed)	138	149	111	86
Rewatch	49	90	25	40
First Time	89	59	86	46
Podcast Episodes	37	N/A	N/A	N/A
Time Listened	1,561
Books Read	21	18	13	21
Graphic Novels	8	2	4	6
Fiction	10	12	8	12
Non-Fiction	3	4		3
Pages Read	4,480	4,703	2,895	4,195
Audio Books	3	1	1	3
Fiction	3		1	3
Non-Fiction		1
Hours Listened	16:50
Books Abandoned	2	1	2	0
Fiction	2	N/A	N/A	N/A
Non-fiction		N/A	N/A	N/A
Pages Read	258	154	N/A	N/A
Short Stores Read	0	0	0	8
Fiction	0	0	0	8
Non-Fiction	0	0	0	0
Pages Read	0	0	0	244
Comic Books Read	189	94	142	164
Print	123	30	42	64
Digital	66	64	100	100

A few quick thoughts on 2024.  First, I just didn't find much interest in watching movies this year.  I don't really know why, but they generally have lost appeal for me.  Apparently, comic books is what had  my interest instead.  I read almost one hundred more comics this year than last.  Graphic novels helped my book numbers go up.  I really found myself enjoying the Image Graphic novel (compilations) of Transformers, Geiger, Duke, and GI Joe.  Jim Zub's Conan the Barbarian also was in the mix for the graphic novels. 

Another category that caught my attention in 2024 was T.V. streaming.  The overall numbers are about the same, but check out how many new shows I watched this  year compared to the other years.  I was able to find some really great contend.  I have a feeling that trend will keep up in 2025.  

One area that I found to be unusually disappointing was my new category in 2024, and that is podcast listening.  It is pretty well documented that I don't typically listen to my own podcasts (I lived it in real time), but I only listened to 37 shows all  year??  That is 3 podcasts a month!  That has to change.  The one firm goal I have for 2025 is to listen and support more podcasts and listen to more content.  

I hope you are able to follow me through the year in 2025.  Please let me know if you keep track of your listening, reading and watching.  What do you keep track of?  How has it changed how you do things?  Happy New Year and I look forward to hearing from you in 2025!

Here is the content I watched, read and listened to in 2024:

Book and Graphic Novel Titles:
Dragons of Spring Dawning: Dragonlance Chronicles Volume III
Star Wars: Dark Disciple by Christie Golden
Mandalorian: The Manga adapted by Yusuke Osawa
Numb to This: Memoir of a Mass Shooting by Kindra Neely (Graphic Novel)
#MurderTrending (abandoned)
Salt to the Sea by Rural Sepetys
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Cable: Conquest (Graphic Novel)
Monsters Born and Made by Tanvi Berwah
Superman: For All Seasons by Jeff Loeb (Graphic Novel)
Dungeons and Dragons: A Druid's Call by E.K. Johnston
Spells for Lost Things by Jenna Evans Welch (abandoned)
Star Wars: Inquisitor Rise of the Red Blade by Delilah Dawson (audio)
Batman: Hush by Jeof Loeb (Graphic Novel)
Lord of the Fly Fest by. (abandoned)
Transformers Vols 1-6 (Graphic Novel)
Cat + Gamer vol. 1 (Manga)
Dungeons and Dragons SpellJammer: Memories Wake by Django Wexler
Classic DragonLance: Dragons of Eternity, DragonLance Destinies: Vol. 3 by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Conan the Barbarian: Vol. 1 Bound in Black Stone by Jim Zub (Graphic Novel)
Even If We Break by Marieke Nijkamp
Future Tense: How We Made Artificial Intelligence - and How It Will Change Everything by Martha Brockenbrough
Into the Crooked Place by Alexandra Christo
Dungeons and Dragons Pocket Expert by Stacy King
Conan the Barbarian: Vol. 2 Thrice Marked for Death by Jim Zub (Graphic Novel)


Movies Watched:
Solo: A Star Wars Story
The Marvels
Elvis
Hamilton
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
Godzilla minus one
Big
Deadpool
Deadpool 2
Deadpool and Wolverine
Fellowship of the Rings: Special Extended ed.
The Two Towers: Special Extended ed.
Return of the King: Special Extended ed.
Elf
Home Alone 2
A Christmas Story

TV Streamed Series and Documentaries:
Marvel's What If...
X-Men animated season 2
The Crown season 5
Echo season 1
Resistance season 2
Voltron
X-Men animated season 3
Bad Batch season 3
X-Men 97
Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 1
Heroes Journey the making of Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire
Wednesday season 1
Star Wars: Visions season 2
Taylor Swift Eras Tour
Assembled: The Making of X-Men 97
American Pickers
Star Wars: The Acolyte
I Woke Up a Vampire
Batman: Caped Crusader
Rings of Power season 2
Agatha all Along
Skeleton Crew

Podcasts:
Song Exploder (8)
Teachers in the Dungeon (3)
Rebel Base Card Podcast (6)
Untapped Mana (2)
Coffee with Kenobi (3)
Business Wars (6)
All Songs Considered (2)
60 Songs that Explain the 90's (7)
The Colby Cast (6)