After looking at the list of new music for 2001, I felt I needed to shake things up a bit and try to find some more new artists. Out of 32 new albums that year, there were only 2 (maybe 4 if you stretched it) that were from artists I'd never heard before. So my original goal for 2002 became "52 albums in 52 weeks." I figured that way I would *have* to be adding more new artists.

Well, before February had even hit, I had found a few problems with that. The first most obvious one is money. Granted I got a bunch of new albums for Christmas and my birthday (and thank you all!) so I had a good head start, but finding the money to keep buying that much new music once my stockpile of new albums ran out was going to be tough.
The second problem that I hadn't realized was time. It used to be easy to listen to a lot of new music because I spent a lot of time driving. But now I can get to work in about a 60 second walk, and when I do need to drive somewhere... well, let's just say you can get from any point in Greensburg to anywhere else in Greensburg in about 2 songs or less. I try to play albums while I'm working in my office, but a lot of times other albums are being played in the store front, so in order to prevent bleedover between the two I need to turn it up enough that I drown it out (yet not so much that I create bleedover out there) and then I can't hear when somebody's calling me, which is pretty important.

So I gave up on the 52 albums in 52 weeks concept fairly early. Yet despite that, I soon managed to hear 8 albums in 8 weeks, then 15 albums in 12 weeks, then 20 albums in 16 weeks, then 30 albums in 22 weeks...

I've been turinging into a music junkie. CD Warehouse and half.com has helped with htemoney part, and as for the time part, I'm simply playing more stuff in my office. As of June I'd listened to at least 6 totally new artists out of 22 albums, which puts the new artist ratio over 25%, and up to 50% if I stretch it to include "expanded" artists.

So the 52 albums in 52 weeks goal is back on. Tune in to BTR for updates on how it goes. (If, y'know, like anyone really cares. I guess I'm pretty much just doing this for myself for fun.)

Better Than Radio picks for best album of the year:

Year	Artist	Album
2001	Blue Man Group - tie - Sifl & Olly	Audio - tie - Songs of Season 1
2000	Moby	Play
1999	Electric Light Orchestra	Time
1998	A3	Exile on Coldharbour Lane