I rated my final album this morning, going out with a banger, the 5\* Ocean Rain by Echo and the Bunnymen, just shy of 3 years after kicking off with the dreamy 3\* Tusk by Fleetwood Mac. 

The generator has been a constant presence as I've been listening 7-days a week, rarely skipping and never falling more than 2 albums behind and has had a huge effect on my listening habits - pushing into a much more curious and appreciative mode after being in a bit of a lull listening to the same old favorites in an uninspired loop in the years before. 

I've now created my own mega-list compiling a bunch of different best of lists (Hip Hop, Rolling Stone Top whatevers, Guardian 1001, the 1001 more albums, Kurt Cobain's recommendations, the Penguin Jazz canon etc) and armed with a random number generator am planning to keep up the lightly curated open ended exploration for the forseeable future. 

What have I learned? Well, I have always sought out new music pretty aggresively and think I already know what I liked, so there are not a lot of surprises in my 5\*s - the aggressive post-hardcore of Drive Like Jehu was the biggest out of the blue surprise, while I gained new appreciation for acts like The Jam, Bjork, Killing Joke, Big Black that I'd heard before but never listened closely. The 4\*s had all the best new discoveries:  Joan Armatrading, Louvin Brothers, Suicide, Nanci Griffith, Associates, Little Simz, Cowboy Junkies, Throwing Muses, The Saints, Julian Cope, Einstruzende Neubauten, Bill Callahan, Japan.

Doing this affirmed that I have pretty ecclectic tastes across genres, tolerance (and desire) for noise, a preference for energetic stuff, but patience for slow stuff that rewards the wait - though not much patience for slow, boring, uninspired moaning singer songwriters with sparse arrangements and rough voices. I've learned to like pop a lot more than I'd expected and appreciate the art of the hook a lot more than I did a few years ago.

I liked something about 85% of the stuff I listened to, 1\* is my only really negative rating (reseved for really boring stuff, overplayed stuff I can't stand to hear anymore, or very rare truly grating stuff), I used the other 4 to parse out how much I liked stuff.

My favorite album was an early one, #28, Television's Marquee Moon. I will never get enough of the thrilling interplay of those guitars, the propulsive anxious energy, the punk feel and classic rock flair - it's just perfect. 

I'm still not sure what I'll add to the user list. I want to add an artist who isn't on the original 1001 or the user list yet and am torn between some of my favorites from the already over-represented indie and post-punk genres or the less well represented genres like reggae, jamband, or African guitar pop, or to go for something more personal if obscure like a millenial screamo favorite. There are so many glaring oversights still... 

That's all folks - done!