The two hundred and sixteenth classical recording: #795 Dag Wiren - Serenade for Strings
This is a short, joyous piece - a lot of fast violins galloping through the music as it goes through its climax. It works really well - it sets a tone and a feeling that I cannot escape.
The five hundred and ninety-eighth album: #598 Astor Piazzolla & Gary Burton - The New Tango
I wasn't expecting a jazz-infused tango album today, a combination of some tango sounds with the speed and feel of the jazz albums we mostly listened to about five hundred albums ago. It's a weird mix, the urgency of the tango creating a speed you don't normally get with jazz, but it not reaching the joy of the tango either. The album is set up as a concert recording and it does feel like it's almost more a classical track than something more contemporary.
The seven hundred eightieth song: Animal Nitrate - Suede
As a glam rock song with a dark bent, this track doesn't make the biggest impact, but it is still quite listenable. It's good at hitting its rocky beats and setting up its build, even if it doesn't fulfill as much for me.
The seven hundred eighty-first song: La solitudine - Laura Pausini
Some songs become known for their many translations - here I have the English version, there's an Italian original, and I grew up with a Dutch translation (by a gay performer, still using masculine pronouns, adding a different dimension to the song). It's still beautiful and lovely no matter what, the anguish and exhaustion breaking through constantly.
The seven hundred eighty-second song: Rumba Argelina - Radio Tarifa
We're getting another twist here, a world music song that combines Arabic sounds with a flamenco song and vocals. It feels fairly sparse, no electronics involved, and builds a timeless song that comes together beautifully.
The seven hundred eighty-third song: Loser - Beck
Why is this chorus so memorable? The rapping isn't the best, the chorus is somewhat slurred, none of it sounds too convinced, but there's just something that strikes you in the refrain that sticks in my mind - even if the verses don't feel like they matter much in comparison. Perhaps it's that slacker vibe that just connects.
The seven hundred eighty-fourth song: French Disko - Stereolab
Dominating as an electronic pop track, the underlying guitars, occasionally popping up for a hard solo, adds a lot of edge to what would otherwise be a far calmer song. The lyrics are there, but in the background, fading almost into irrelevance, as the music fights with itself for dominance. It keeps hitting those sounds harder as time goes on, but keeps returning to that avant garde root.
The seven hundred eighty-fifth song: Into Dust - Mazzy Star
A sparse arrangement - a rhythm guitar and a distant cello seems to be all I hear - really brings Hope Sandoval's vocals to the front, a vulnerable, gentle sound that creates a slow, sweet song with a quiet melody. It's a sweet delight to have lingering.
The seven hundred eighty-sixth song: Rid of Me - PJ Harvey
I'm not sure whether this might have been an odd mix, but PJ Harvey's vocals on this track are in the background for a lot of it, at least at the start, and it creates a distance that ties into the themes of the song. It's probably a bit much to be fully successful for me, so if it's intentional, it's a bit of a shame, and if it's not - the dark guitar with its aggressive occasional outbursts really works well, but the darkness in her voice really helps to build on it.
The seven hundred eighty-seventh song: Streets of Philadelphia - Bruce Springsteen
We've got Springsteen as an ongoing companion for this era of the list. Here we have a slow and mostly maudlin rock song in his style, getting lost in the streets and getting lost in life, without much hope. It works pretty well to create its mood and tell of its feeling of depression.
The seven hundred eighty-eighth song: Laid - James
The lyrics of this song feel like they have the punk defiance, avoiding societal expectations and commenting on them, with an upbeat sound with some punky influences and a bit of offbeatness, it still feels like it keeps its message clear. short, simple, but staying accessible.
The seven hundred eighty-ninth song: Open Up - Leftfield-Lydon
A powerful electronic track, the beat of Open Up is persistent, while Lydon's vocals are perhaps not the most powerful, but have enough impact without overpowering the music. It probably isn't fully needed, but it adds additional interest for the first five minutes, while linking to the slower post-breakdown final two minutes.
The seven hundred ninetieth song: Possession - Sarah McLachlan
As a pop song with a stronger beat, the dark lyrics are there in the music as well, a deep sound that resonates through you. It's a powerful song with an interesting message that keeps its power.
The seven hundred ninety-first song: Cannonball - The Breeders
The basic melody of Cannonball is good, a straightforward interpretation handled with simpler vocals, but one that has some real staying power as well. It has its harder interludes, but this is such a good rock song with its added solos and distorted vocals in places that it contrasts really well with its simpler main parts.
The seven hundred ninety-second song: C.R.E.A.M. - Wu-Tang Clan
I've talked about the rapid growth and development of rap in this time before, and here it feels like it solidifies this darker style, one that's unapologetically about crime and life on the street. It feels like it builds up its own myth more than might be justified, but it creates its sound so well that I found myself enjoying it a lot more than I think I enjoyed them in the past.
The seven hundred ninety-third song: Because the Night - 10,000 Maniacs
There have been several covers of this song, but this feels like it's one of the more powerful ones, with a rockier instrumentation that really sells the story. It's a well built track and this is one great interpretation of it.
The seven hundred ninety-fourth song: Ching soortikchulerining yryzy - Huun-Huur-Tu
We're ending with a Tuvan song, not a country I ever really thought of as a music style I'd ever get to hear. What stands out are its emphasis on what sounds like throat singing and the the sprse string-based instrumentation. It's an interesting sound, the vocals really giving it its own flavour, and one of those tracks I'm glad to have heard and experienced.
The five hundred and ninety-seventh album: #597 Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician
Even without their apparently disorienting stage presence, Butthole Surfers' third album Locust Abortion Technician seems designed to keep you off balance. While having a hardcore punk base, it builds on it with sound effects, backwards playing, bizarre vocal interludes and sketches and a whole lot of darkness. It's a lot, overwhelming you from start to finish, and it's hard not to have it feel like it's too much sometimes.
The two hundred and fifteenth classical recording: #801 Ralph Vaughan Williams - Serenade for Music
Today we cover a shorter serenade, setting a Shakespearean sonnet to music. The music is straightforward, often supporting the choir and soloists, interspersed with bursts of energy. The choral aspect is what is really fascinating, sixteen soloists that also form a complicated choir between the solo phrases. It packs a lot in its short length, but because of it can stick to its focus as well.
The two hundred and fifteenth TV show: #7 Your Show of Shows
It's weird that when I went to try out some clips of this shows before diving into a full episode, one of the sketches was for This Is Your Life, a show I'll cover soon as well... and was one of Sid Caesar's favourites, the over the top emotions doing all the work rather than relying just on punchlines. It's friendly fare, keeping a good mood in there, even if the jokes are occassionally dated - I guess you can't avoid that.
The musical interludes, accompanied with different types of dancers, are more apart of the variety genre than really stealing the show here, with the ballet in particular feeling a bit out of place. I guess it's a necessity of the live shows, but the comedy is such a big part of why you're here that the interruptions still feel off. Add to that the small gags like a proud continuation of the Gongman introduction sequence and so much of this just becomes that much more enjoyable. It holds up surprisingly well, considering the show is about seventy years old now.
The five hundred and ninety-sixth album: #596 Husker Du - Warehouse: Songs and Stories
Today's album is pretty straightforward to define: A bunch of post punk rock songs, slowed down from the speed and anger of the past allowing for more depth in the vocals, but still supported by loudly tuned guitars that dominate over everything else. It's not a challenging listen, and no track wears out its welcome on its own, but it does start to feel a bit repetitive when you consider this is a double album. Still good to listen to and have on though.
The seven hundred seventy-first song: Inkanyezi Nezazi - Ladysmith Black Mambazo
This is a heavily native song, purely vocals to create harmonies that resonate through further. It's a beautiful track, obviously quite different, performed to a perfection that you don't hear often from these performances. It's meaningful and almost religious in how it feels.
The seven hundred seventy-second song: Sodade - Cesaria Evora
The Latin American ballad, a sensitively told story about immigration, creates a quietly confident atmosphere. It's surprisingly powerful for how sparse it can feel and it's beautiful to listen to.
The seven hundred seventy-third song: Remedy - The Black Crowes
The combination of a soft rock song, desperate and engaged male vocals and straight female vocals in the chorus creates a sum of its part. It's positive, but there's not as much abundance to it as that might imply. It's just a proper, somewhat sexy, accessible and clear song.
The seven hundred seventy-fourth song: No Rain - Blind Melon
A lot of this feels like a standard rock song, pretty poppy and accessible, almost a throwback to the sixties, with breezy lyrics. It feels quite simple and straight, almost an anthem to being lazy, but becomes about a futility of life as well in a way that it keeps, well, plain.
The seven hundred seventy-fifth song: Walk - Pantera
Pantera's songs feel like they'll always be aggressive, but this one comes from that specifically, lashing out at those around them who think fame changed them. It's a clear message, the driving guitars and shouting chorus almost drowning out what vocals there really are. It's a succesful, heavy metal track that does it for me.
The seven hundred seventy-sixth song: Real Love - Mary J. Blige
After all of that, Real Love is a good R&B song, with Mary J. Blige adding some real emotion to a track that has a more positive sound to its music. There's a strength in that and it makes for a pretty engaging song, one that's really well done.
The seven hundred seventy-seventh song: Deep Cover - Dr. Dre introducing Snoop Doggy Dogg
The build to gangster rap has been happening for a while and this feels like it's hit another step of that. The introduction of Snoop Dogg really adds an extra edge, while Dr. Dre has really stripped down the sound to something a lot more sinister. Add to that the threats against the police and it feels like there's something special here.
The seven hundred seventy-eighth song: Out of Space - The Prodigy
While I don't connect with later rave music as much, the electronic rock from The Prodigy hits the right parts of my brain - or perhaps it managed to worm its way in early enough that it feels good. There's something about the musicality of the samples, the diverse nature of things it includes and the energy that works, without feeling it goes overboard on just the beats - it still stays interesting.
The seven hundred seventy-ninth song: Didi - Khaled
Every once in a while, French music broke through to me, and in the late nineties that did include the occasional Algerian French track, or similar. While this rai track doesn't fully reflect that, there's already a modern sensibility in here that I don't think you would have gotten earlier, a style that got mixed with hyped up jazz and a more modern electronic sound even if the vocals stay traditional - they're just married together in a way that feels really satisfying still.
The five hundred and ninety-fifth album: #595 George Michael - Faith
It's really impressive how George Michael here builds on what he did at Wham!, having the same pop background but mixing in large amounts of funk and other influences. The tracks are distinct, with different focuses on each - Father Figure builds more on vocals while I Want Your Sex has its lyrics be almost perfunctory while the dance sound and other parts are more important. A lot of the album revolves around love songs, and in hindsight some of it, like the talk about danger in One More Try, has a deeper meaning, but it is clearly also the topic he wants to write about here.
The two hundred and fourteenth classical recording: #446 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Manfred Symphony
Tchaikovsky's dream-like music comes through in this symphony as well, with the movements swaying, lengthy passages taking their time to convey their emotion, often more thereal than most. There's some darker parts in it, but it's still mostly varied and gives quite a lovely, evocative atmosphere.