The three hundred and fourty-eighth album: #348 Curtis Mayfield - There's No Place Like America Today
After my previous compliments of an R&B album, Curtis Mayfield doesn't wow me as much. It's done well, sure, the music sounds good, but aside from missing some body, the lyrics aren't very inspiring and through the seven tracks, they didn't get their hooks into me. It doesn't help that some tracks feel a minute or two too long - Jesus being one that strained my patience - and I just felt lost in the entire thing.
The three hundred and fourty-seventh album: #347 Earth Wind & Fire - That's the Way of the World
One of the downsides of the domination of rock in the charts at this time is that it's difficult to track the changes in other genres that happen at the same time. While we have a soul and R&B album here, it feels like the same influences that created prog rock and its offshoots are here as well. Some of those no doubt originated from here as well, and there are still the long funk segments that harken back, but there are a few places where the album pushes through that style and becomes interesting. It doesn't do enough to make me a fan, but there's something nice in the album that I enjoyed.
The three hundred and fourty-sixth album: #346 Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger
Covering fifteen tracks in just over 30 minutes of album gives us a number of short songs that never really have a chance to outstay their welcome. Willie Nelson's country music is simple, straight forward, lyrically focused with its complexities hidden. It's country in the way that I like it, simple, not overbearing, and while it's a bit slow at times Willie Nelson sells his style quite well - accessible and somewhat fresh in a genre that I've always felt quite staid.