As some of you may already know, I set a goal at the beginning of 2025 to listen to at least 100 new-to-me albums by the end of the year.
I was chronicling my progress with this challenge on both Substack and Medium, but I’ve decided that I’m going to finish it out here on my own site.
I’m writing this in early August and, at this point, I’m very ahead of where I need to be in order to reach my goal. As of today, I’ve listened to 86 new-to-me albums this year.
Today I’m going to share albums #61-80. Among them are three albums that were released 50 years ago in 1975 and 10 albums were released just this year.
Before I get to them, though, here are the first 60 new-to-me albums I listened to earlier this year:
- Crazy Horses (1972) – The Osmonds
- Kissproof World (2000) – Jane Wiedlin
- Karla Bonoff—Karla Bonoff (1977)
- Eat To The Beat—Blondie (1979)
- Exile on Main Street (1972) – The Rolling Stones
- Look Up (2025) – Ringo Starr
- Silver Saturdays (2023) – ALO
- In The Hollies Style (1964) – The Hollies
- Owl Song (2023) – Ambrose Akinmusire with Bill Frisell and Herlin Riley
- To Live And Die In L.A. (An Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1985) – Wang Chung
- The Wrong Record (2025) – Gentle Hen
- Magic Christian Music (1970) – Badfinger
- L.A. Guns – L.A. Guns (1988)
- Restless Nights—Karla Bonoff (1979)
- Souvenirs – Dan Fogelberg (1974)
- Diamonds & Rust – Joan Baez (1975)
- Graham Nash & David Crosby – Crosby & Nash (1972)
- Lonesome Crow – Scorpions (1972)
- The World Starts Tonight – Bonnie Tyler (1977)
- Lady Of The Night – Donna Summer (1974)
- Mister Magic—Grover Washington, Jr. (1975)
- Kansas Anymore (The Longest Goodbye) – Role Model (2025) (Original 2024)
- Oceanside Countryside – Neil Young (2025) (Recorded in 1977ish?)
- Tell It To My Heart – Taylor Dayne (1988)
- Primrose Path – Dream State (2019)
- Stronger (Delux Version) – Kelly Clarkson (2011)
- So Close To What – Tate McRae (2025)
- Hallowed Ground—Violent Femmes (1984)
- Pack Up The Plantation: Live! – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1985)
- Alive III—KISS (1993)
- Frames—ALO (2025)
- Leopard Skin—L.A. Guns (2025)
- Rust Never Sleeps—Neil Young (1979)
- Live – In The City of Light—Simple Minds (1987)
- Pieces of The Sky—Emmylou Harris (1975)
- Branigan—Laura Branigan (1982)
- Alive! The Millennium Concert—KISS (2006)
- Dream Into It—Billy Idol (2025)
- Pop! The First 20 Hits—Erasure (1992)
- Tug of War—Carly Rae Jepsen (2008)
- Kiss – Carly Rae Jepsen (2012)
- If You Asked For A Picture – Blondshell (2025)
- When All The Stars Collide – Jimmy Stafford (2025)
- Silver Deliverer – Aly & AJ (2025)
- On Through The Night – Def Leppard (1980)
- Ten Crowns – Andy Bell (2025)
- Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets – Counting Crows (2025)
- Speak and Spell – Depeche Mode (1981)
- Deep Sea Skiving—Bananarama (1983)
- A.M.—Wilco (1995)
- Cats Without Claws—Donna Summer (1984)
- Bent Out of Shape—Rainbow (1983)
- The Land of Pure Imagination—Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. (2006)
- Bananarama—Bananarama (1984)
- Emotion—Carly Rae Jepsen (2015)
- Moving Violation—The Jackson 5 (1975)
- Something Beautiful—Miley Cyrus (2025)
- Fever—Kylie Minogue (2001)
- Hideaway—America (1976)
- Walk This Road—The Doobie Brothers (2025)
Below are albums #61-80. Interspersed among them are YouTube videos for some of my favorite songs from the albums.
61. Sabotage—Black Sabbath (1975)
62. Anything Is Possible—Debbie Gibson (1990)
63. I Quit—Haim (2025)
64. Dare—Human League (1981)
65. L.A. Garage Sessions ’83 (From Tracks II-The Lost Albums)—Bruce Springsteen (2025)
66. Take Me As I Am – Christopher Cross (2017)
67. Wonderland—Erasure (1986)
68. Tension—Kylie Minogue (2023)
69. True Confessions—Bananarama (1986)
70. I Beat Loneliness—Bush (2025)
71. Man At Work: Volume II—Colin Hay (2025)
72. Circling From Above—Styx (2025)
73. Cotton Crown—The Tubs (2025)
74. Phonetics On and On—Horsegirl (2025)
75. Antigone—Eiko Ishibashi (2025)
76. I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away—Hayden Pedigo (2025)
77. PL*NET F*TNESS—Pacing (2025)
78. In Trance—Scorpions (1975)
79. Once Upon A Star—Bay City Rollers (1975)
80. English Electric—OMD (2013)
It was a very entertaining group of albums! While I didn’t love all of them, I’m happy to say that I can see myself returning to many of them in the future.
In fact, several of them are discussed in the latest episode of my Pop & Prose podcast. My guest was my friend Bill Cooper, who is a fellow writer and music lover, and we talked about our favorite albums of this year (so far).
Below is the YouTube version of the show. However, if you’re more of an audio-only listener of podcasts, you can find links to my Pop & Prose show on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and elsewhere right here.
As I mentioned above, I’m now at 86 albums for the year. I’m looking forward to seeing what the next 14 (or so) will be and I look forward to sharing albums #81-100 in my next entry in this series.
Thank you for reading. Have a wonderful day!
Image Credit: The image at the top of this piece is by Barbara from Pixabay.
Buddy Gott 