The seven hundred and fortieth album: #740 Aimee Mann - Whatever
As another sign of this era's sensibilities, Aimee Mann's rock sensibilities come out strongly. Whether it's her pop rock songs that bring energy or more sensitive rock ballads, the tracks on this album are all a joy to listen to. It's artful, it has variety, it has plenty to make you think. I really ended up falling for this album and knowing there's an evolution of her style ahead, I'm looking forward to exploring it.
The one hundred and seventeenth comic: #809 Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Boulevard of Broken Dreams is an interesting graphic novel. While telling the story of Waldo the Cat, his animator and other people surrounding it, we get it told through several viewpoints, each iteration explaining more details of what happened and exploring it further. At the same time, it's a look into and commentary on the world of animation as well as covering mental health. It's an engaging story, with the revelations that happen not just revealing a mystery, but deepening the story and situation. It's different, sure, but that's what makes it worth it.
The seven hundred and thirty-ninth album: #739 Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen
Against the optimism of the nineties, the darker tones of the grunge movement and other bands that derive from it really stand out. Gentlemen builds on that darkness while moving beyond musically, telling a darker, tortured tale of a troubled man, a tone that has a self awareness of what's wrong and comments on it while portraying the feeling of being trapped in these cycles. It's a challenging listen, one that maintains that dark impact for a sound that really stood out as something different.
The two hundred and sixty-third classical recording: #803 Igor Stravinsky - Concerto in E flat, "Dumbarton Oaks"
Short, not too complicated, but high energy and engaging - this concerto may not have anything too special to offer, but it sounds really good and has a lot of energy to it that makes it seem strong throughout the piece. I thought it flew by, even faster than listed, and it's a burst of life that you really need.
The two hundred and fifty-second TV show: #59 Danger Man
After I got deep into The Prisoner, I was wondering what the show that made Patrick McGoohan was like. Sure, it wasn't going to be simpler and more straight forward. It's really watchable in that sense, a good action series that explores some interesting storylines at times, with a high enough budget to be convincing and trying to be quite clever in what it does, less repetitive than others in this time frame might be. Charming, and a show I want to play more of.
The one hundred and thirty-fourth book: #455 I, Robot - Isaac Asimov
While I'm on the record as enjoying the works of Isaac Asimov anyway, reading I, Robot in the modern day has an added dimension in its foresight. While the basic stories about the three laws of robotics - a fictional device so powerful that people assume it's real and applies to current machines - are interesting puzzles, it's the later stories in this anthology that hit a real chord with me. With machines effectively running politics and the world, the needed processing capacity becomes large enough that as humans, we struggle to understand its reasoning. This feels really familiar in our current use of AI, where we can't verify what it's saying or why it does so, to troubling effect. There's a lot to be learned here, even if it feels like an idealised society compared to the one we live in now, and for a work that's 75 years old, there's a lot that still resonates.
The seven hundred and thirty-eighth album: #738 Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville
We've been getting more indie rock in this latest batch, which has been working in my favour. Liz Phair's is quite stripped down, which underlines her focus in her debut album. The album starts with a clear feminist message on its opening track and while not everything ends up quite as in your face, its singer-songwriter sound means it never gets pushed into the background. It's quite a strong sound and the album tells a lot of good stories.
The seven hundred and thirty-seventh album: #737 The Auteurs - New Wave
This is such a chill indie rock album that drifts by you as you listen. It's an uncomplicated, simple album that feels close to life and seems happy to just sit there. It's a pretty sweet album to listen to, fading a bit but letting you sit there in the comfortable sound.
The seven hundred and thirty-sixth album: #736 The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Siamese Dream is a heavily directed piece of music, a large rock album that builds on a simple, dark base but builds its soundscape towards a bigger sound. It's an accessible sound that can build on its complexity and has it add to the sound, but doesn't need it, a balance that feels well maintained. The grunge feel suits the sound, giving a rock album that might feel like it references a younger age, but also has an emotional core that still resonates.
The two hundred and sixty-second classical recording: #265 Felix Mendelssohn - The Hebrides, "Fingal's Cave"
Branded as an overture, there's no work that follows it. How I chose to interpret it instead is as an overture to a visit, an impression of the cave in the Hebrides that has been visited, and a set up for any sort of exploration. It's grandiose and impressive, interesting in its complexity while being accessible. It's short, but the effectiveness and focus only help it with that.