The one hundred and ninety-sixth classical recording: #502 Richard Strauss - Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche
The chaotic nature of this piece mimics the mischief of the story it is based on, a cacophony of sounds that combine various characters and stories (often well represented by a group of instruments) that continue to give an impression of what's going on. It conveys the feeling quite well even and even a brief guide tells you all else you need to know when listening. It's a masterful small piece of storytelling that stands on its own so well.
The five hundred and thirty-sixth album: #536 Minor Threat - Out of Step
Out of Step is ultimately a loud, hardcore punk album that brings a sound that it felt we'd started to lose at this point in the British bands. It works well at producing that sounds, but its short twenty (or so) minute length is enough to get it, much more than that and it would have been too much.
The five hundred and thirty-fifth album: #535 Cocteau Twins - Treasure
When describing this album earlier, I called it Kate Bush with a rock band. While not quite the same, the album features similar ethereal vocals, but backed with a far more aggressive rock sound instead. It feels deeply gothic and mystical in a way that works quite well, drawing you into this dream-like world.
The five hundred and thirty-fourth album: #534 Sade - Diamond Life
Diamond Life is a good soul album. Quite emotional at times, all of that shines through, with an incredibly strong throughline of it through the different tracks.
The five hundred and thirty-third album: #533 Run-DMC - Run-DMC
While not the first rap album by far, Run-DMC's debut does set the tone for at least one version, with them setting the stage for the Beastie Boys, for example. The rhythm and sounds are set up better, the repetition more focused on their musicality than the rhythmically spoken word album that it feels were there before. It's got mass appeal and still sounds as strong here. It's Like That is obviously the most influential title track, incredibly powerful without feeling like it compromised too much either. Wake Up, for example, really has its message in there as well as being incredibly accessible. A real delight that I am looking forward to hearing more of as the list develops.
The one hundred and ninety-fifth classical recording: #201 Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Concerto no. 5 in E flat major
Not specifically themed, this concerto is exciting and friendly, giving a real spring feeling as the energy propels the piece forward. It's bold and great to listen to because of that.
The five hundred and thirty-second album: #532 Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasuredome
The poppy sound of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's debut album really belies the dramatic tone of the underlying lyrics. Starting off with a commentary on hedonism, its second of four sides gives over a good chunk to their anti-war message. It's a strong set up that I ended up enjoying a lot and found quite a bit more to than the initial impression you get from what the band seems to be about.
The five hundred and thirty-first album: #531 Culture Club - Colour By Numbers
Colour by Numbers is a very accessible new wave album, mixing some very known and catchy songs with a number of others that are as good to listen to, but aren't quite as impactful. It's mostly just so pleasant and accessible, layered without having too many elements - it feels paired down compared to its influences without getting too minimal.
The one hundred and sixteenth book: #1236 Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
My career is built around computers and especially recently, I've been focusing a fair bit more on matters of security. Having this novel cover a lot of cryptographic topics tied in well with that and made it more interesting to follow - both the development of the simpler systems in WWII, one of the two time periods in which it's set, and that of the late nineties, which is closer to what I do now... and in other ways outdated. I mean, these days social engineering is far more of a vector of attack than purely cryptography, and with advances your key length needs to be a lot bigger, but it was interesting to read about Van Eck phreaking (which wasn't as practical in the situations the protagonist feared) even if it might not be your first approach in the modern day. Even seeing very early references to cryptocurrency is interesting.
With that said, I do feel like some of the staples of the author got a bit annoying. I get the use of some fictional countries to tell your story, but the fetishization of the author's preferred Qwghlm got distracting any time it went from a quick reference to a slightly too irrelevant bit of exposition that just got annoying quickly. Past that, though, it moved quickly and was a lot of fun taken together.
The five hundred and thirtieth album: #530 Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II
The sound of punk, filtered through an American country lens, feels like it moves away from the band's punk roots almost as the album progresses, starting off post-punk and moving more towards bluegrass until eight tracks in, at New Gods, it jumps back in. It's quite an interesting tour through some of the related genres and the experiments the band seems to have had with them, and although it lacks a more cohesive identity because of that, it's a really nice set of tracks to listen to.