The four hundred and twentieth album: #420 The Saints - Eternally Yours It feels surprising to hear punk pop up on the album, with a lot of acts having moved on at this point and using it as an influence only. Within that, their sound varies a bit - the pure punk tracks not adding much, but the moment they add elements or change it, the album is a lot more interesting - the rather basic Lost and Found is sandwiched between Know Your Product, with its horn section, and the driving but lighter "Memories are Made For This", which eschews the standard punk rhythms for something that goes between hard rock and something poppier. It ends up with a number of gems mixed with regular punk songs that go between good examples of the genre and a bit unnecessary considering everything else they pull off on this album.
Permanent link to “The four hundred and twentieth album: #420 The Saints - Eternally Yours”2023-03-01 00:00:00
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The four hundred and nineteenth album: #419 Dire Straits - Dire Straits Listening to this album, it's a fairly straight forward rock album, its blues influences feeling old fashioned for this point in time. It's competent at what it does - not aiming for the raucous heights of the Stones, but it has that Dylan-like blues feel with a larger musical structure around it. It also feels quaint, referencing a musical style that doesn't do much for me.
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The one hundred and fourty-ninth classical recording: #321 Robert Schumann - Concertstuck for Four Horns A rare horn-focused piece, Schumann's Concertstuck for Four Horns is still quite subdued for a piece featuring brass instruments. It has that joy, the horns adding more energy than other pieces would do, and it makes for a genuinely delightful piece, something that cheers you up. As much as this may not have been intended to fit in with other works, I do feel that I can see how in the context of a larger concert, this could be a great way to get the energy back up between more languid pieces.
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The four hundred and eighteenth album: #418 Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! Listening to this album today, it makes me think that while there's some good potential in Devo's music, it's not quite there yet. There's something in the lyrics, but it needs some polish, and it feels like the album never quite works out what it wants to be or what it wants you to feel. It's frustrating, and I wonder whether this album is on the list as their best or most unique, or because the first is the default pick, as I am more curious to see where they ended up (d)evolving to.
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The four hundred and seventeenth album: #417 The Cars - The Cars With their eponymous album, The Cars bring us a strong new wave album, a strong vocal led album with some straightforward love songs and some more interesting twists on the formula. In fact, I'm not sure whether the experimental work, like I'm In Touch With the World, is necessarily always worth it compared to the more standard pop rock tracks featured on the album.
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The four hundred and sixteenth album: #416 Willie Colon & Ruben Blades - Siembra Siembra is a celebrated salsa album. I can't judge, as it's not my scene, but this is a fine album - nothing amazing as far as I can hear, but it works well enough. There's not enough in this for me to really get me to love the album, but it sounds like it's good at its own genre.
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The four hundred and fifteenth album: #415 Van Halen - Van Halen The recognisable meat of Van Halen's debut album is at its start, with tracks like Runnin' With the Devil being as well known as anything you can find. It shows the strengths of the album - a strong metal/hard rock base, aided by some well written music and supported by harmonies that feel rare in the genre - it's more trained than what we see, and especially compared to what we got out of the punk era. The album stays listenable and there's still a lot to enjoy in here.
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The one hundred and fourty-eighth classical recording: #842 Dmitri Shostakovich - Piano Trio no. 2 Sad and dramatic, written by someone who wasn't in a good frame of mind, the sadness and chaos of Shostakovich's feelings at the time comes through in the nature of the music, which builds to a crescendo of anger, strings fighting strings while the piano plays darkly in the background. It's raw, almost frightening in its energy, and a positive challenge in this way.
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The four hundred and fourteenth album: #414 Buzzcocks - Another Music in a Different Kitchen I don't know why, but somehow I was expecting something darker from my first Buzzcocks album. Their first studio album features several upbeat punk tracks, with the aggressive guitars and beat that come with punk not sinking away into the anger. A lot of this comes from Pete Shelley's vocals, who sounds happier, really, and more positive, creating a better atmosphere this way. It's an album that flies by, keeping me more entertained than I thought I would be.
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The four hundred and thirteenth album: #413 Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food Something that I think will keep getting me when listening to Talking Heads albums is how it sounds that bit different - still a rock song, but the vocals are different, the music more haunting at times, and the whole album feels like it has its own musical identity that doesn't stray away from a genre, but doesn't sound entirely normal either. It's too constrained to feel fully experimental, but it still continues to be interesting enough The one hundred and second book: #79 Life of a Good-For-Nothing - Joseph Von Eichendorff To be hoenst, Life of a Good-For-Nothing did little for me. Maybe it's because I don't really like the "slacker lucks into success" stories a lot, but it really felt like this story relied too much on coincidences, tired twists that I think I've seen before in previous entries on the list. Our title character was likeable at times, clearly written to be that way, but also felt too dim and unaware at times to really convince me. I ended up rushing through a bit... it just didn't reach any real depths that I cared for.
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The one hundred and fourty-seventh classical recording: #896 Joaquin Rodrigo - Fantasia Para un Gentilhombre While we usually listen to older pieces, we get the 'proper' orchestra instruments - violins, wind instruments, perhaps a piano or organ. A guitar, though old in its own right, doesn't feature in that list, and it's a treat to hear it here, being supported by the rest of the orchestra. THe second movement, the longest of the four, dominates with its maudling tone, but it's surrounded by more upbeat pieces that do help lift the piece, giving it the variety and energy it needs. It shows off the guitar soloists well, while giving the rest of the orchestra as much time to build around that.
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The four hundred and twelfth album: #412 Thin Lizzy - Live and Dangerous I'm not sure whether there is that much to this live album. It's fine to listen to, pretty standard hard rock fare, but I haven't had anything latch on - no memorable riffs or good lyrics, and its double album run time doesn't help make it all feel like it drags on.
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The four hundred and eleventh album: #411 Throbbing Gristle - D.o.A: The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle As an industrial and experimental album, it's hard to warm to it. You get a track that works, sort of, as an electronic rock track followed by some off putting screeching and some random conversations put together that don't really lead to anything. Is it something you end up liking? Probably not, or at least not for me - I think a live performance may enhance some of the tracks, but that's hard to tell from the album. I think I ended up appreciating the tracks more - at times they're composed, like a symphony going through its areas, bringing in motifs and changes as it does so.
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The one hundred and first book: #1018 The Albigenses - Charles Robert Maturin I'm giving up on this book very early. Aside from the one copy that I could find being low quality, it has all the downsides of the historic novels like Walter Scott's that I've found before - overwrought language, too many unneeded historical details and just nothing that managed to draw me in. It's not worth making it through a full four volumes of this.
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The four hundred and tenth album: #410 Funkadelic - One Nation Under a Groove As a funk rock album, while this brings the rock, it's at its best when the funk repetition isn't there. To be fair, Funkadelic does this quite well compared to most, and I found that the music worked better for me at an album length than when listening to the individual track before. It's a nice fit, not amazing, but I did enjoy the album a lot.
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The four hundred and ninth album: #409 Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town Possibly as part of a busy day, this album just ran away - the rock sound that you expect from Springsteen just driving forward continuously without any real interruptions to the flow. It works well, with some good music and interesting lyrics to go into. They're perhaps not always one I'd connect with, but it's recognisable and understandable still.
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The one hundred and fourty-sixth classical recording: #856 Aaron Copland - Symphony no. 3 This symphony focuses on a fanfare melody, one used quite tenderly for a fair bit of it, but that it builds up to these big, booming pieces. There's something quite stirring when they come in, but it's the small, gentle parts where it feels the sound really works and gets a chance to explore itself. It's a lovely interpretation - entering my head as describing things in a forest, the quiet glade, chases happening and some playfulness, and it gives that sense of building quite well to its triumphant end.
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The one hundredth book: #078 Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner - James Hogg It was interesting to see a different structure in this novel. It's a classic twist these days - tell the story from two perspectives, first the clear then the inner thoughts of another player to show what's really going on. In this case, we first hear the sotry of a nobleman's firstborn and favourite son, up to his murder and the chase of his murderer, his half brother. It's a straight forward tale, quite interesting and well written. It's the other half, though, where we see through the half brother's eyes (supposedly from his various memoirs) as he explains how the religious sect he's raised in said he'll go to heaven regardless of his actions, becoming a justified sinner. It makes it an interesting psychological novel at this point, never really engendering sympathy in its protagonist, but adding so much more to the exploration of this character and where it leads. It really felt like a step up in storytelling that I hope to see more often. The four hundred and eighth album: #408 Magazine - Real Life Between yesterday's album and today's, I think it's become more clear that the best post punk comes when an album does more than just that. In the case of Magazine, the accessibility of new wave does a lot to appeal to my interests, a lighter touch that makes the songs a lot more digestible. That's not to say it's gone completely soft, but it doesn't push as much as it did before and there are more interesting tracks in here, with the second side especially building up to a happier atmosphere.
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The four hundred and seventh album: #407 Public Image Ltd - Public Image John Lydon's next venture after the Sex Pistols led off which their self-styled album (also subtitled First Issue) and it continues exactly as you'd expect - a post punk cacophony with some tantalizingly offensive seeming lyrics and some simple love songs. It's all still pretty much coming with similar sounds, which are fine but not amazing in any real way, and then brings in Fodderstompf which is probably one of the bigger wastes of time we've had on these albums. This might be notable from music history, but it has little that appeals to me.
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The one hundred and fourty-fifth classical recording: #372 Camille Saint-Saens - Piano Concerto no 2 Varied and engaging, there is a lot going on in this recording - allowing the piano to shine, but giving it so much more context as time goes on. It's an abstract piece, but what we've heard so far works well.
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The four hundred and sixth album: #406 The Residents - Duck Stab/Buster and Glen From the first track, Constantinople, I knew I was in for something different with the Residents, in a way that I really like. The art rock label can apply to a lot of different styles, but here it's a collection of strange songs, all feeling different, but all intriguing to listen to, often relying on electronic sounds and manipulation. There's no clear viewpoint, there's a lot of different sounds, but the tracks are short enough that it never wears thin - there's always something new going on. There are times where the album is trying to be deliberately off-putting, but even then the subversion is enough to see how the Residents are looking to spin the song and it keeps pulling you through regardless. This is the only album from the Residents on the list, but I want to try more, even if this is one of their more accessible albums.
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The four hundred and fifth album: #405 Big Star - Third/Sister Lovers As someone who's not familiar with the work of Big Star, this album's history reads as a bit puzzling. A rock band split up and some of them release an album of pop songs that's marketed using the same name. If nothing else, just reading the "rock band" byline and getting a number of power pop ballads and similar songs took some adjusting before I fully got it. The music itself is fine. It's the typical big production pop that we've heard, including violins in places, and it's well done at that. There's no stand out track or anything that I really loved and I don't feel like there's much of an identity in the work, but it works well for what the album wants to do.Some good pop that I'd happily hear mixed in with other songs, but not one that I'd expect to seek out myself.
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The one hundred and eighty-second TV show: #37 Perry Mason While a lot of shows on this list are shows I just want to watch, just as many are to experience the history of TV and where things lead. Perry Mason is an early procedural, with a heavy bent, and one of the first hour long weekly shows on American TV - it seems like this was the year where they really started. At 40 episodes a week, that all seemed pretty intense as well. It's interesting to see how a number of traditions started, sometimes even out of necessity - starting off with some time without the regulars, instead showing the time before and after the crime, is something we see to set pu the show now, but was actually intended to give Raymond Burr some time off where otherwise he'd be in 98% of the episode. The show is well written and feels well researched, but it also is of its time. The main thing where you notice is the pacing. There are some really interesting scenes, but there are some slow, unengaging sections in between that really seem to drag the show. The denoument happening in the courtroom is interesting enough, but it takes a while to get there and makes for another slower section of the slow. I'm not saying we need to end in an action filled chase, but it feels like other, later shows based on similar premises bring it some more things to keep your attention. It's why this was more of an interesting curiosity to watch, an insight into the TV shows of 65 years ago as the medium was developing, rather than something I could watch the full run of.
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The four hundred and fourth album: #404 The Adverts - Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts I've been more critical of punk bands than I expected to be - the variation is much greater than I was expecting for a genre that was rapidly succeeded by others and referenced in music mostly as something that was built on. There is a heavy focus on riling up people - going against the establishment, shocking people and making their points, and with its shorter length and punchiness it feels like it really pulls it off. Sure, it's theatrical and over the top, but to me, that's what becomes part of the same charm.
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The four hundred and third album: #403 Joe Ely - Honky Tonk Masquerade I'm still not a fan of country music - lyrically I rarely care, the music ends up just that bit too slow and the steel guiatar just sets me off in the worst way possible. There are times where an album comes along and works, but it's in spite of the genre most of the time. This album doesn't do anything different. While Joe Ely has a good voice in places, it doesn't add anything for me, and the straight up country tracks, some of which are covers I've heard before, don't win me over this time.
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The ninety-ninth book: #1017 The Monastery - Sir Walter Scott I try to make not finishing a book a rare thing, but I couldn't quite get there for this, and some device switching meant I wasn't interested in trying to transfer my slow progress. The Monastery is a throwback, describing a semi-mythical medieval time that was, in some ways, really well researched (in the "I want to show off everything I know" way that can get annoying) but also romanticizing in a way that gets tedious for me to listen to. I'm playing Pentiment at the moment, with similar levels of research, but its focus on the 'lower' classes in addition to the more revered nobles and religious leaders makes it more interesting and accessible, and feel more real than I think The Monastery ever entirely gets. There's not much for me to grasp, and starting and finishing with epistles as The Monastery does didn't help me place the story. I can see where it can be revered, but it's not a type that appeals to me.
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The four hundred and second album: #402 The Jam - All Mod Cons The mod revival of this album comes with a sound I'd never quite thought about - if only because it feels like it's gotten mixed in with other genres in the intervening years. It's a punk inspired sound, but more written than that genre implies and poppy in its accessibility. The songs aren't more complex, but have more to them than the loud punk sounds we've had before, and it has more of this simplicity that harkens back to earlier times. While there's some praise in that description, I also think it's one that I feel we've outgrown. I wish it could have a bit more to offer - it does well at what it does, but it's not enough for me.
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The four hundred and first album: #401 Elvis Costello - This Year's Model This Year's Model's music is straightforward and very accessible - some very accessible new wave, with Elvis Costello's distinctive sound suiting it incredibly well. There is a large variety of styles - the rockier songs mixed in with what feels like pure pop - which really helps the tracks to stand out on their own. It also helps that the lyrics stand out well on their own, focused enough and adding their own layers to each song.
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The one hundred and fourty-fourth classical recording: #582 Arnold Schoenberg - Erwartung Erwartung is a one act, short opera for an orchestra and a single soprano. Notably, it never repeats itself, which really added to the complexity of the piece. It doesn't build themes it comes back to, but its economy of storytelling means it doesn't have to, instead it can rely on continuing to tell its story - it can have its complexity because of its brevity, which is a nice compromise. It's a short, sad piece that was lovely to listen to.
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The four hundredth album: #400 The Only Ones - The Only Ones While nominally a punk album - and featuring some tracks that go in that direction - The Only Ones feels just as often like a pop rock album, featuring love songs rather than political creeds. It's far from uncommon in punk - some bands were obviously more establishment than others - but it feels like the band is just as much a post punk band that uses it in some of their songs, but avoids it as often. Musically, it leads to a mix of songs of different proficiency, with the poppier tracks being more interesting to listen to. Lyrically, they don't do much for me, but there are some interesting attempts to do something different in the album - even if it doesn't always hold up as a whole.
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The three hundred and ninety-ninth album: #399 Pere Ubu - Dub Housing Thanks to the Christmas break, the gap between the two Pere Ubu albums on the list is bigger than the two weeks we otherwise would have had - more as a quirk of the list's order than anything else. With a decent diet of post punk recently - see the recent songs post for a lot of it - Dub Housing fails to stand out. it's not by the book, but the experiments that are there don't work, there's nothing that makes them sound any better. It doesn't sound like it does anything new, it just sounds like a mess of noise. It might not all be entirely like that, but I can't say I find much more in here.
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The five hundred fourty-first song: Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division Having mostly heard the refrain of this song recontextualized in a Sufjan Stevens Christmas song, the haunting, hollow sound of the vocals in its original context hits so much more. There's a sadness and lack of energy that seems to foreshadow so much, more of an acceptance than you might expect form post-punk music. The unenthusiastic repetition builds on this, a dark and depressing mood that gets you the right feelings. The five hundred fourty-second song: Wardance - Killing Joke On the other hand, the distortion of the loduer Wardance doesn't grip me as much, the sound feeling off putting and not leaning as much on any sort of recognition of the lyrics despite what they're claiming they're saying. For me, I think this has pushed too far in the metal direction, without taking on any other aspect that I'd find listenable. The five hundred fourty-third song: Ace of Spades - Motorhead Ace of Spades does it that bit better. Yeah, the driving guitar is there, but with a bit less distortion and a repetition that really gets you to hook in. It's got punk, it's got metal, but there's enough to hook you in even if you're not as fond of all of that. The five hundred fourty-fourth song: Start! - The Jam It might be the comparison from what it follows, but The Jam's throwback to sixties pop rock has it get a bit lost. The harmonies are nice, the hook is there, but it feels a bit toothless. We're going to get pop to develop it further, but it feels like it's still teetering on the edge of starting that, still not leaning into it as much as I would have liked. The five hundred fourty-fifth song: Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads There's a built-in looseness in the structure of the song, the keyboard jingle offset from the rhythm in a way that encourages it to stay a bit off balance. The lyrics may still feel get simple,but there's a complexity that you can't quite grasp at any time and instead keep you wondering when you can grab it. The five hundred fourty-sixth song: Vienna - Ultravox Starting off small, Midge Ure's vocals suppressed to the point of barely being comprehensible, the piano providing variation in a song that's otherwise quite structured, until it swells into a more orchestral piece with violins and a more triumphant vocal (even as it repeats the same line). It's an odd song, good in its hook, but not something that I felt I really got. The five hundred fourty-seventh song: Caballo Viejo - Simon Diaz It feels like we get one of these per batch, a song that isn't in English and may not have made it out of their countries, but made it big in, in this case, the Spanish speaking world. It's a folk song, but one that incorporates some excitement in its bridge, like a Dylan song with a bit more spirit and the occasional shouts and whip cracking. It's good at what it does, sure, but I feel I miss too much context to really get what comes out of the song. The five hundred fourty-eighth song: I Got You - Split Enz As with Start!, we have a poppier song here, but here a pop rock styled piece that has the prog rock bits, a bit of other rock influences, falling under the wider new wave moniker. It means a mostly quite happy, accessible song, often exploding as a louder track out of a more subdued verse. It's a pretty accessible song, doing quite a lot while still feeling like it could be live without relying on its production too much.
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The one hundred and fourty-third classical recording: #210 Gioachino Rossini - L'italiana in Algeri The start of the year left me with an emptier calendar than usual, giving me time to listen to a long opera today. Thanks to the Livermore Valley Opera, I was able to watch a subtitled performance that did a good job showing the different performances as well, lending to a good build in the performance. This is about the music, though, and Rossini's score, too, feels remarkably light for a long opera. It might be the Algerian influences it's trying to achieve, but there's a levity in the music that isn't necessarily reflected in the subject matter, but leads to an opera that feels it flows fast and at its best stays out of the performer's way. The story feels like it supports it in some way. While it has a love story, the writing clearly has as much fun with the deception angle, playing parts as a comedy, with Isabella first meeting Mustafa going there a lot.
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