The six hundred and twenty-fourth album: #624 Pixies - Surfer Rosa
This collection of punk rock tracks keeps it self contained, moving between some songs with real anger and slower, sometimes dreamy sounds in other places. Nothing really gets deep or goes too far, but it stays accessible.
The nine hundred and third song: Fell In Love with a Girl - The White Stripes
In less than two minutes, this song makes a strong impact. The lyrics are straight forward, with the rock music really pushing it to have that distorted, punky vibe. It's short, but it really works.
The nine hundred and fourth song: Get Ur Freak On - Missy Elliott
Get Ur Freak On wisely focuses on its chorus, a hypnotic encouragement that creates a good good feeling while the verses' start stop nature break up too much for me.
The nine hundred and fifth song: 21 Seconds - So Solid Crew
The concept behind this track is interesting - you have a large crew, so each gets twenty-one seconds to showcase their verse. It's impressive how much variety comes from that, while still all flowing together and making sense musically. Everyone is doing their thing, but it's still to create a cohesive track rather than being as combative as that might feel.
The nine hundred and sixth song: Stay Together for the Kids - Blink-182
While also known for their more frivolous music, Blink-182 hit some emotional beats that I recognised even if the exact theme (here divorce) didn't specifically hit. This punk rock ballad hits both the sad notes as it explores the theme, and the anger as the chorus strikes a far more accusatory tone. It's painful, and perhaps more raw than you'd expect from the band.
The nine hundred and seventh song: Schism - Tool
This is a far darker track, as a properly depressed dark sound dominates the sound of the band. It has its message of a relationship breaking up, but you can feel it dragging deeper than that.
The nine hundred and eighth song: Rock Star - NER*D
As smooth as other tracks of theirs might be, there's something really aggressive in this song, the mix between rap and rock that's coming from the other side, integrating rock into rap and electronic music. While it has the energy of a live performance, they also have enough production in there that it has more going on. It's working at a speed that you can't ignore, while not giving you a chance to expect the track to end.
The nine hundred and ninth song: Fallin’ - Alicia Keys
The opening of Fallin' is so strong, feeling like the theme the track gives as well as introducing her impressive vocals. They drive the R&B track, the music and composition being appropriately minimal as it allows itself to focus on that performance. It's not the most complicated lyrically, but it gives a lot.
The nine hundred and tenth song: More Than a Woman - Aaliyah
Smoother and more produced, this still is a good vocal showcase, but also one that sets a more erotic, forward angel on the love song than Fallin' does - both still worthwhile, but it's good to hear the difference. Vocally it might not be as impressive, but it makes up for it elsewhere.
The nine hundred and eleventh song: 911 - Gorillaz
Although virtual rock band Gorillaz thrives on its collaborations, D12 doesn't feel like a likely collaborator to show up, especially this early in the band's life. As the titular terrorist attack had them stuck in London, it's a coincidence that this could happen, but the anger and disappointment of life that the rap group was feeling suits the sound and really creates an atmosphere that, when you know the context, shines through really strongly. It's an impressive feat and something that sets the stage for a lot more.
The six hundred and twenty-third album: #623 My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything
Isn't Anything, My Bloody Valentine's debut album, doesn't do a lot to establish the band's identity. It veers from gentle, dreamlike rock to loud drums and dark, gothic sounds and each track is a new surprise on what you get. The breadth and variety is interesting and welcome, but it's quite hard to pin down what they want to do.
The two hundred and twenty-eighth classical recording: #695 Jacques Ibert - Escales
In a way, movies - or at least earlier movies - and their scoring really have given us the opportunity to develop more of a visual language to go along with classical music. There are different speeds and timbres in this work and the different movements take you on different trips, with a notably more Arabian sound in the Tunis section. It immediately gives you the movie style imagery - not the visual storytelling, but you recognise the cues to form your own images. It feels like an additional visual metaphor for what is already a telling piece of work, enhancing it while keeping it personal, and this just gives that opportunity to you in the best way.
The two hundred and twenty-fourth TV show: #20 The Tonight Show
Having watched various incarnations of the show to get a feel for it, it quickly starts feeling stale - rehearsed anecdotes, middling, at best, jokes and a stillness that makes it all feel too inoffensive. That the best interview might well have been Johnny Carson interviewing David Letterman, where nothing of relevance was said and everything was avoided with jokes, says it all. I wouldn't want to impugn the show's audience, but even know it feel staid and too comfortable for me.
The six hundred and twenty-second album: #622 Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman's first, self-titled album starts so strong - Talking 'bout a Revolution has an impact that hits you, while Fast Car possibly hit harder than it did before. The songs that follow don't feel as familiar, but the message is incredibly strong, the vocals on point, and the folk instrumentation underlying it drawn back enough that it never dominates. Behind the Wall demonstrates this especially - it's a capella and yet the sound fills you and really tells its story stronger than any other arrangement would. Even that sparseness gives a lot of different influences to the music - the panpipe dominated arrangement of Mountain o' Things stands out as something special as well.
The eight hundred ninety-fourth song: Romeo - Basement Jaxx
We're starting off with a decent dance track - I can see how it would work well in the club, but it doesn't really reach the variation it needs for individual listening.
The eight hundred ninety-fifth song: Can’t Get You Out of My Head - Kylie Minogue
The electronic pop songs of Kylie work on a lot of levels - a good dance track, showing off her seductive vocals and staying incredibly memorable - it does get stuck in your head like that.
The eight hundred ninety-sixth song: Vuelvo al sur - Gotan Project
This is a classic tango song, for a large part relying on slower, simpler vocals rather than the full exuberance that can come with it. It feels very traditional, especially compared to the others that came before, surrounded by some more modern or out there segments. The core is strong for what it does, though.
The eight hundred ninety-seventh song: Clandestino - Manu Chao
This track feels like classic mediterranean music, taking a lot from Latin influences and the like. It's not too complicated, instead giving a commentary on immigration that, although in Spanish comes through outside that as well, the sadder tone included. It's really effective and touching still.
The eight hundred ninety-eighth song: Iag bari - Fanfare Ciocarlia
I think it's been a long time since I've featured a brass band and (as seems to be happening this session) there's a set of throwbacks, with this referring to older Balkan or Eastern European music. The vocals are the older man sounds, and the flourishes are very old school. It's not what I've been used to, but I can see how this is executed really well.
The eight hundred ninety-ninth song: Oica la O Senhor Vinho - Mariza
I haven't heard traditional Portuguese music featured in some time, and Mariza creates a song here that feels modern and poppy to go along with it. It's strong, really good, giving a great song to listen to.
The nine hundredth song: You and Whose Army? - Radiohead
The slow build in this song feels stronger than any before, the restrained and slow rise rarely mirrored to this level. There's no amazing crescendo, it doesn't give you everything, but it hits all its moments perfectly, this is exemplary in what it does.
The nine hundred and first song: Tomando y tomando - Lupillo Rivera
This song feels more whimsical, a trumpet jaunting through as other brass instruments come in and out, jaunting through something simple. There doesn't feel to be anything deep in it, but it's a pleasant trip that just cheers you up, building on a universal sensation.
The nine hundred and second song: New York City Cops - The Strokes
Perhaps stymied a bit by release dates in some places, this song hits a sentiment about police shootings in the US that hasn't really gone away since. It's political punk as we've seen less - loud and passionate, but making its points at the same time. It gets to feature those sentiments a lot more here, the music relatively subdued to make sure the lyrics can really speak, and it works to make its point.
The six hundred and twenty-first album: #621 Cowboy Junkies - Trinity Session
While the sound of the album is the reason this was recorded in a church, it also feels like the environment fits the maudlin, slow feeling of this country album, slowly drifting as well as having a jazz feel for its many ballads. This is not an album with energy, instead it feels quite sad and contemplative, but never really surprises or offers anything that would grab me.
The two hundred and twenty-seventh classical recording: #679 Maurice Ravel - La Valse
This piece is insane, as you'd expect from Ravel - thunderous in places, moving all over the place, a moving carnival of sounds that's hard to keep up with. It's incredibly visual in its sounds and it'll keep evoking different feelings.
The six hundred and twentieth album: #620 The Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane
Adding a strings section to a rock band always makes the songs that use them lean towards the melancholic and here The Go-Betweens' last album of their original run has a majority of indie rock ballads, sounding contemplative as everything is kept subdued. The lyrics go from optimistic to slightly dark and sometimes stalkery, not that you'd tell from the music. It's a pretty nice setup that I ended up vibing with.