The seventy-first classical recording: #649 Karol Szymanowski - Myths
Myths is a set of three works, each telling a story from Greek mythology. The Fountain of Arethusa stands out most with the way the piano imitates the sound of water, including the sound of a water falling down from a spring. It's lovely and evocative and the music alone tells you the basics. Narcissus feels the most traditional, with a dreamy violin and enough buildup but nothing quite as special. The final piece, Dryads and Pan, creates its own sound though, and while the score calls for no wind instruments, the violin evokes the sound of flutes far more than I would have expected. It's tantalizing, drawn out and creates a hypnotic effect that you would associate with Pan's flutes. It's all beautiful, but the first and last pieces feel like they stand out for me with what they bring out of the instruments, in the way they evoke mood and setting of the stories these are meant to score.
The one hundred sixty-second album: #162 Chicago Transit Authority - Chicago Transit Authority
I don't think I ever really thought of jazz rock as a genre before starting this list, but it seems like we've solidly entered the time period where it has become a thing. I don't mind it too much, although Chicago Transit Authority (now known as Chicago)'s self-titled album doesn't do massive favours. As it is over an hour of music, it needs to justify itself, and it's highly variable whether it manages to do so. At its most inventive, there is a variation and sound to a song that's interesting to listen to. At its most indulgent, such as during parts of Poem 58, it's a jazz improv using rock stylingsthat doesn't go anywhere and doesn't do anything. Free Form Guitar was actually quite painful to listen to and it feels like it shouldn't have been on here in the first place - to the point where I skipped it and didn't look back.
It's a mixed bag of an album, with some good songs, a few terrible ones and beyond that mostly decent ones. The jazz rock fusion works well, but I feel like it loses me when it strays too far away from rock - the jazzier songs just don't work as well and it feels liek the band needs structure in its songs.