The two hundred and seventy-second album: #272 The Incredible Bongo Band - Bongo Rock
The premise, if you will, of this album is quite straight forward. It's an instrumental rock album where the main percussion comes from the bongo, with the drums having a secondary role. The success of that varies, with the percussion getting lost in the more traditional rock songs to the point you have to actively remind yourself while it's there, whereas it takes centre stage in others. And while I can see the point in doing the former to release tracks to listen to, it's obviously the latter that's actually interesting to listen to for me. Mostly it pays off, but I can't say it stands out here either.
The one hundredth comic: #762 Blacksad
The use of animals as allegories for humans goes back quite far in fiction - I've covered Aesop's fables before for the books list - and comics are the ideal medium to drive it, using visuals to convey a character's personality through its animal representation. While the initial book claims that it's not a direct representation, there are several points in the story where it refers to the species to indicate it's not just a visual choice.
Whether or not it feels needed depends on the story, with the racism episode making decent use of the conceit, but it always makes for an interesting visual. This comes through especially in the dynamic scenes where a character moves according to the animal's movements, rather than a human's, and that portrayal becomes quite effective.
At the same time the stories offer a view on 50s life with a number of its follies and issues, making for quite a dramatic look at the world that feels like it can pull it off more because it's shrouded in animal form.