The three hundred and fourty-fifth album: #345 Queen - A Night At The Opera
As I think I've mentioned here before, I'm predisposed to liking Queen albums and this is no exception. The glam rock of Bohemian Rhapsody is, of course, its most famous track, but it's the journey between the different styles, telling their own stories and beats, that matter here. You see it in its most famous track for sure, but also moving ballads like Love of my Life, the raucous Death on Two Legs or the suddenly jazzy Good Company. Just as often, I just enjoy the music, not always set up to be complex, but it feels like they're experimenting and trying different things.
The three hundred and fourty-fourth album: #344 Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd has its history with long concept albums Wish You Were Here has its own version, the album dominated by Shiny On You Crazy Diamond, a nine-part composition whose halves bookend the album. Aside from any questions about what's going on, it is well put together, with a lead in that feels like it pays off more than it sometimes does. The other tracks works with it, longer compositions paying off with their vocals and follow ups. While I don't always like these longer tracks on albums, as it feels easy to get lost in them, Pink Floyd shows again how well it can pull them off.
The three hundred and fourty-third album: #343 Patti Smith - Horses
Listed as early punk, Patti Smith's first studio album has a clear identity despite the number of co-writers involved. The result is an album with distinct tracks, but her voice all over it, veering between art rock, garage and what is at this point early punk. The latter is a genre coming up at this point, and some of its track are clearly punk while others stay away from it. It especially gets me in the larger epic tracks, where it has that feel of a journey, reaching the heights but having that punk tuning in the guitars. Not knowing what was coming, this was a real unexpected delight.
The three hundred and fourty-second album: #342 Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
Blood on the Tracks a Bob Dylan album - a number of folk rock tracks around his vocals that sound good with what they do. I don't know whether to still appreciate it at this point - his staying power as an artist is clear, his songwriting is impressive and clearly stayed strong throughout, but I wonder whether I really got anything new out of this album myself.
The three hundred and fourty-first album: #341 Neil Young - Tonight's the Night
Tonight's the Night is an album of good country rock. It's fine - the country trappings aren't entirely my thing, but there are times when I feel I can really get into it and there are times where it's just a bit underwhelming - well performed, but I wouldn't be able to give you many highlights.
The three hundred and fourtieth album: #340 Rahul Dev Burman - Shalimar
While the idea of a Bollywood album didn't immediately appeal to me, I was won over by the delight and joy of its second track, One Two Cha Cha Cha. It's a happy song, more poppy than you'd think, and it stands up well on its own. Other tracks don't do it as well, with tracks like Countess Caper having an ending that feel like they need the visuals to really make sense, but even then it feels like the album meets the middle ground of featuring the sounds you expect from a Bollywood album mixed with a good pop track. It's a decent album, quite surprising compared to what I was expecting, but this makes me want to go back and listen to more.
The three hundred and thirty-ninth album: #339 Tom Waits - Nighthawks at the Diner
Starting your week with a double album full of raw, spoken word jazz doesn't really get you going on a Monday morning. The album clearly revolves around Tom Waits' song writing, with two minute intros between songs, but his stage persona is so off putting that I found it hard to care and didn't get involved in the songs. At that point, they are jazz songs dominated by a scratchy voiced vocalist that I don't get much out of. It feels more like a drunken man's ramblings than creating an album that I actually enjoy.
The ninety-fourth book: #1016 Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
Probably rather heretically, I always feel like there are two sides to Jane Austen's novels, with only one half appealing to me. I find it fascinating to read about their daily life, the adventures of people living in the era and what they found impressive. Northanger Abbey has this well, including some interesting insights in how literary works of the day found reading novels to be a bad thing, even in novels, that became an interesting recurring discussion. It's a nice, light touch and the further separation of fact and fiction and how novels don't follow real life work really nice.
And then there's the love story, which follows all of Austen's familiar beats (the Austentatious improv show is based all around that concept and is worth seeking out if you have the chance). There's the rejection, the back and forth, and the lucky reunion with a wedding at the end. It's fine, but at this point I'm just waiting for it to hit the beats rather than feeling like I'm invested.
The three hundred and thirty-eighth album: Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns
Joni Mitchell's folk is pleasantly welcoming, the jazz and pop sounds feeling immediately recognisable and comfortable with her vocals shaping the music around it. While certainly not always a conventional sound, it feels incredibly familiar and warming to listen to. It's not very complex, but the jazz sound works well with the focus on the vocals and it creates an atmosphere in my mind that I really appreciate.