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The one hundred thirteenth TV show: #877 Episodes

Episodes is another show we stopped watching after a while, although I'm less clear on why that was. We enjoyed the first season, and rewatching it it's still amazing, but it faded out a bit around the third season for us. I think that for us, it was more about the amount of shows we're watching, and how it gets slightly darker. The concept of two British comedy writers bringing their award winning sitcom to the US, getting annoyed with the system they have to deal with. The two writers are played by Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig, both giants in the British comedy scenes. We loved both in Green Wing and in particular saw Tamsin Greig in both Friday Night Dinner and Black Books in great parts as well. They have great chemistry and get their performances right on all levels. They bicker immensely well, which works great for the show.

The third side of the triangle, during the show partially a love triangle, is Matt LeBlanc. Although he's obviously known mostly for his role as Joey in Friends, in this series he shows that he can do more than that. He plays what you'd expect him to be like - wise in the ways of US showbiz, but also vapid standard celeb. It's quite self aware and his confidence in making a fool of himself works well. He manages to flirt with both of the other characters and comes across as incredibly charming, which means he can get away with the antics on the show.

Although not singled out as often, Kathleen Rose Perkins' performance is just as good, both piling on to the showbiz vapidness while also be aware enough of it that he can get the Lincolns through all of it.

Rewatching it, the show moves quite quickly through the first season. A lot happens, and while some of the twists are a bit obvious, there are enough layers to it that they work. It feels like a British sitcom made in Hollywood, avoiding the obvious pitfalls that the show shows would happen if it was a network comedy rather than on Showtime. The way it skewers both side works well and the actors apply themselves well enough that the performances raises it even further. Perhaps not perfect in places and the show may not hold up, but it's worth watching the show's take off.

The one hundred fourty-fifth album: #145 The Who - Tommy

We've had a few albums that try to tell a story before, but this feels like the first major one we get, on a scale I don't think I've quite seen before. Having seen the movie before, I roughly know the beats even if the album doesn't quite have it.

The album as a whole concept is quite interesting - the storytelling isn't always subtle, but it sort of works to give an idea of what's going on. Pinball Wizard, as a tentpole song, works as something everything else runs around. It's not the most amazing songs, but a lot of darkness culminates in the more upbeat song while we reach the first climax of the story, leading into Go to the Mirror as the second triumph that's linked to it.

As a standalone album, it works well too, in part because a lot of songs get the right intros. Having this buildup works, but on the whole the band sounds good, with deent writing and a decent variation in melody that still stays like a coherent whole. It's a good album, complemented with a decent story, and even without any further performance elements stands on its own.

The one hundred twelfth TV show: #342 Widows

It's interesting how again, there's a split between seasons here on how good the show is. The first season of Widows is excellent. After their husbands die in a heist, three widows (and a fourth companion) decide to replicate the heist to gain the money their husbands would have gotten, while holding off others who are after the same plans for the heist. It's an interesting drama, both for the way the women interact and how they pull off the heist - a few times getting closer to discovery, but usually getting away - the way they manage to weave their way through, sometimes using their supposed innocence to make it out, works incredibly well. It was an incredibly engaging season.

The second season abandons that in favour of a revenge story. It takes a while to start this in the first place, it never works quite as consistently. It's often not as compelling, and it's mostly the third and final episodes that deliver the best moments. In between, it can spin its wheels a bit. Second, and more frustrating, is how some of the characters develop. Some of them haven't grown, while I feel like some of the widows go back in their growth, losing the strength they've shown in the first season. It revolves around Dolly, played by Ann Mitchell, who delivers a stellar performance where she is capable, not always likeable but works as a strong core performer around which everything revolves. Her story dominates in the second season, to the detriment of others, but the story itself works. We didn't watch the third season, released about a decade later, for that reason, but the first season is more than worth it.

The sixty-fourth comic: #88 Superman

Looking through the list of comics left to do, it seemed to make sense to tackle another superhero. Superman was the obvious choice - the first major one that still resonates today and the first the list explicitly defines as a superhero comic rather than an action comic. Even so, with Captain America it was hard to narrow down what to read. Here, however, the list helped by calling out three additional arcs that were spread around different times the comic was around.

So we started at the beginning, with Superman as an action hero. Not having the patriotic background of Captain America means the stories were more interesting from the start, with a set cast, even if Lois Lane doesn't come across as strong. Still, it was interesting if not as engaging long term.

The sixty-fifth comic: #211 Death of Superman

So we jumped to the sixties, with what feels like the first event story line. All throughout these, each comic book contained multiple stories - three to four, depending on book length - which is even the case in the issues surrounding this. But here, the entire book is devoted to a what-if scenario: What if Superman died? How would people react? There are plenty of cameos and continuity references and it's a neat story.

There's a second arc by the same name, published in the nineties, where Superman actually dies. It's a fifty-part story (or so), spread out across multiple lines. Everything is more updated - Lois Lane is the better reporter, Jimmy Olsen is more interesting and on the whole the world feels richer, with characters that are flawed and have trouble. It's quite good, with the three decades showing story telling came on with leaps and bounds.

The sixty-sixth comic: #725 Superman For All Seasons

Superman For All Seasons is a bit later, and is the first standalone arc - set in a similar world, but telling its own story. The way it's set up, following seasons (both in the world and metaphorically) makes sense and gets predictive - spring being Superman's blossoming, summer his growth to be a hero, autumn being his fall (nicely foreshadowed) and leading to a winter of accepting the fall and moving on. Rather than filling it with action, it's contemplative, with a lot of conversations and a deliberation of what you can do. It's really well executed and emotional, and it feels, again, like it's pushed the story telling even further.

The sixty-seventh comic: #871 All Star Superman

The relatively recent standalone series draws on a lot of past Superman characters - it feels like it contains a lot of callbacks to older series. The twelve books become twelve stories with a larger arc in the background that starts playing. Again, the relationships Superman has get examined more than the action sequences, even if this has some good ones, and how he interacts with Lois Lane is the most important. It's interesting how she's developed and how this defines the times - from a damsel in distress who tries to do well but is always beaten by Clark Kent, to always beating him out. His cowardice in the early issues becomes clusiness later, all of which make him into a more interesting character that fits in with a more modern definition of the character. But mainly, he's a lot more complex, dealing with the consequences of his actions in these last two stories, and how he inspires everyone else. All Star Superman especially doesn't shirk from showing consequences, and it makes for an amazing read.

The one hundred fourty-fourth album: #144 The Beatles - Abbey Road

I've reached the final Beatles album on the list, which feels like a monumental moment - as seen in the songs list, the band towers over popular music in the sixties and there are a bunch of big shifts in music that'll happen now they are out of the picture.They sound good - just at the start, Something is beautiful and is an amazing song, while Maxwell's Silver Song harkens back to the early days, but has dark lyrics that go in the different direction - not a complex song, but impressive from a songwriting perspective.

I don't feel Abbey Road quite has the innovation I associate with the Beatles - it feels like it's going back to basics, sounding good and containing good songs, but nothing that pushes the envelope quite as much. It's a satisfying whole, a good way to end things (especially with the supposed ending song, named "The End", setting up for it) and while it might not have been intended, it works as a good round up of the Beatles' work

The sixty-eighth classical recording: #21 William Byrd - My Ladye Nevells Book

This set of works - a book with 40-something organ works and a run time of about four hours - creates an opportunity to hear a set of works that plays with an instrument in a way that goes broader than a single work. The "march before the battel" shows this off best, a aggressive, harder number with, it feels, some percussion that really adds power to the music in a way that we don't quite hear earlier. At the same time, a lot of it stays similar to what it has been the whole time and fades in the background after a while.

The four hundred and fourty-fifth song: God Save the Queen - Sex Pistols

I think it's hard to separate this song from the controversy, as it's the song's point to court that. It's an attack on the establishment, accused of holding down the country and the world where there is no future for the common people. In that sense, it's a strong statement that gets overshadowed by its headline lyrics, which is more a general statement than a specific attack. It's a weird bit of symoblism that mirrors the aggression of the song and it's clearly incredibly effective.

The four hundred and fourty-sixth song: Trans-Europe Express - Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk's electronic music feels years ahead of the curve, the driving track here with its subdued vocals feel avant garde, not something to dance or sing along to or even to perform, but something to appreciate and enjoy. Everything builds systematically while there is a more chaotic rhythm track in between. It sounds good, giving a nice beat to go with the track, It would be bizarre, but even now it feels like a highlight of electronic music.

The four hundred and fourty-seventh song: Sweet Gene Vincent - Ian Dury

There's something odd about this song. It starts off as quite a standard ballad, has an old fashioned early sixties rock and roll feel to it but brings in some punk guitars from time to time to contrast it. I'm not sure what to think of it - it's good, but it's a bit of everything, I guess combining his own punk style with Gene Vincent's rockabilly, creating this very good but weird hybrid that doesn't feel like it entirely makes sense.

The four hundred and fourty-eighth song: By This River - Brian Eno

Does it feel right to describe something as ambient music if it has these clear lyrics? There's a message in here, poetry in the lyrics that is quite impressive, but it's layered on top of ambient music that clearly belongs together, sounding good that way, but not as clearcut essential as other tracks might be. It's lovely to listen to, really setting its atmosphere well, and feels like a good crafted pieces of music.

The four hundred and fourty-ninth song: Dum Dum Boys - Iggy Pop

A lengthy seven minute song, Dum Dum Boys is a difficult one. There's something about the heavy guitars, the drums and the distortion that makes it feel like the song moves forward slowly, dragging its feet and struggling. It's a reflection on the lyrics, Iggy Pop looking back on his time in the Stooges that feels like he's held back and dragged back to it. There's a heavy rock feel to it, but rather than going for volume, it goes for fullness, creating a different atmosphere that tells a story on its own.

The four hundred and fiftieth song: Com’e profondo il mare - Lucio Dalla

Listening to this song, it feels like I'm listening to an Italian Bob Dylan - maybe not in the sound of his voice, but in the way he comes cross. There are the fast lyrics that comment on something, quite a bit of life in the vocals while the music stays simple, a straight forward happy tune that doesn't quite come across in Lucio Dalla's voice. There's more urgency to it, which makes it sound uncomfortable and slightly off even without knowing the lyrics.

The four hundred and fifty-first song: Ghost Rider - Suicide

We've seen punk come in and it'll soon go - post punk having a far longer tail than punk itself - but here it gives rise to another odd variation. With electronic music mixing in, the drive and aggression of the synthesizer feels perfect for the genre and creates an odd atmosphere. Driven by a bass line that feels like a bike driving down the motorway, ghostly vocals and effects create a produced track with an eerie, almost off putting atmosphere that invokes a feeling of dread that suits the Marvel character this was based on. It's another different sound, in a year where genres explode, and it's fascinating - even frustrating in cutting off early before you get a chance to process it all.

The four hundred and fifty-second song: Orgasm Addict - Buzzcocks

While the Sex Pistols are the big punk bad, the Buzzcocks here sound more like what I've come to expect from standard punk - a standard two minute song with a younger sounding vocal and in this case a rather gimmicky amount of panting and moaning. It feels silly, less aggressive, and more about fun - what I later get to know from bands like Blink-182. The sexual content is cringy, but the sound itself appeals to me.

The four hundred and fifty-third song: Holidays in the Sun - Sex Pistols

And with this, we see the end of the Sex Pistols - they came in, played hard, and in the span of two weeks of our write-ups, they fall apart. Anarchy and keeping a band together don't mix. Even the subject of holidays gets a bit politicised here, comparing it to the communists looking in and the oppressive atmosphere they felt elsewhere. West Berlin's party atmosphere and decadence appealed to them and it shows in the enthusiasm of the lyrics and fervour with which they go for it. It's their lightest song on the list, but possibly also their complex, and sounds good here.

The four hundred and fifty-fourth song: Peaches - The Stranglers

Here we have a song that has bunch of things going against it. Its reggae influence means it has a heavy bass line that creates a dark sound that combines with fairly misogynistic lyrics - possibly parodying them, but they sound fairly serious and harsh. It's enjoying the bodies on the beach, describing it in a vulgar that doesn't quite work for me, and while I can see how it could be a commentary, it just doesn't work. The weirdness in sounds - especially the weird effects at the end - work against it, and on the whole it creates a product that, in a different light, might have worked, but here combines a number of things in a way that don't.

The one hundred fourty-third album: #143 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Green River

It hasn't been long since I last listened to an album by them, the first that was released in 1969, with this being the second (the third doesn't seem to be on the list, but we'll come back to them in the future). The album offers more gentle rock, more classical than the country rock from before but still keeping it calmer. Lodi especially stands out as adding a nice bit of energy to the track and an interesting structure - the melancholy of the lyrics feel like they really suit the band, while others like Cross-Tie Walker feel a bit more generic. Another stand out track - the second side features more of these - is Sinister Purpose, which feels closer to a harder rock song, far more drawing your attention than turning into something that is nice to have on while you're working, and I appreciated that here. It shows some variety in the band that feels more important than I'd expect for a band I don't think I'd heard of before this list.

The one hundred fourty-second album: #142 Johnny Cash - Johnny Cash at San Quentin

After Folsom prison, Johnny Cash's next performance on this list returns to another prison, basically recording another concert that was edited into an album. This has more decent country, some of which were on the previous album with a bunch of new and and updated songs. Again, the crowd reaction stands out and adds to the performance - possibly more than before - and they get quite rowdy in places. The banter with the crowd helps as well - Cash comes across as quite charismatic, connecting with the crowd and it feels like he's having a good time.

The music itself is good, I enjoyed listening to the music even though I wasn't wowed by it - it's the same as always, but Cash is a good performer and makes it all sound good.

The four hundred and thirty-fifth song: Hotel California - The Eagles

How fairly can you judge a song as famous as this? Hotel California is a song I've been anticipating for a few years at this point. It's a classic, one that has a supernatural reading, but just as much can be interpreted to be about a place in life, something political or some other type of commentary, and all those readings work on some level.The relaxed rock makes it unintrusive, giving the feeling of that feeling that'd make you happy to stay in a place, prisoners of your own device where you're happy to stay in a place like that. It's lengthy, maybe not in a way that it should always be, but it sounds good, with enough of a message to make you wonder.

The four hundred and thirty-sixth song: Roadrunner - The Modern Lovers

While I would normally associate punk with a more political message, anti establishment and aggressive, Roadrunner (which would be classed as proto punk) is a lot simpler, instead focusing on the love of driving through American suburbs. It's not that deep, musically or lyrically, but just talks about an enjoyment of driving and being on the road. It's fine, infectious in a way, but doesn't feel like it offers me that much more.

The four hundred and thirty-seventh song: American Girl - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

We've got a nice poppy rock song here, the fun of the song perhaps slightly betraying its lyrics about wanting more out of life. There's something exciting about it, as the song plays on, while Tom Petty's slower vocals create a contrast that adds something slower to it. It works well, staying positive while it doesn't have quite all of that in the lyrics.

The four hundred and thirty-eighth song: Detroit Rock City - Kiss

Kiss's on stage persona is a big enough part of the band that it's hard for me to separate myself from them without a deeper dive into the music. Here in the songs it shows that too: While we have a hard rock number here, the additions of the sounds of traffic and the original album setting creates something theatrical as well. It is quite an exciting number that builds here, with some triumphant moments in there that makes for a good sounding song.

The four hundred and thirty-ninth song: Young Harts Run Free - Candi Staton

It's hard for me to point at where this song is special. It's disco, but quite standard disco at that. It is nice to dance to, but while there is a message int here, this doesn't feel like the genre of music to tell it in - especially as it feels like Candi Staton doesn't need all the production this number adds to it.

The four hundred and fourtieth song: Chase The Devil - Max Romeo

There is something unsettling and different about this song. While reggae generally doesn't work that well for me, there's something about the way the music works here that adds an unearthly feeling to it. The fact that it works better when sampled in other songs is probably the most telling - there's some good qualities here, but it's missing some things to really make the song work.

The four hundred and fourty-first song: New Rose- The Damned

Apparently this might be the first punk single. The aggression in the song goes through and it's a weird combination of the aggressive, noise filled punk sound and something fun in a joy of something new in life that feels like it goes missing a bit from punk as it becomes more political. It's loud and full, but enjoys things as well.

The four hundred and fourty-second song: Anarchy in the U.K. - Sex Pistols

In contrast, while released a few weeks after New Rose, Anarchy in the U.K. feels like it defines the punk attitude far more - anarchy, destruction and anger at the world. We'll get more of that, but here the attitude from the band members come through and this is as much a statement as anything, a "wall of sound" that fits underneath the vocals quite rightly, emphasizing the call for anarchy that would continue for some time. It feels like a statement, as well as a way in which the way the landscape shifted.

The four hundred and fourty-third song: Poor Poor Pitiful Me - Warren Zevon

Sometimes you can feel the sarcasm come through in the song title. It's a song about everything going wrong - down to failed suicide attempts, but the country rock song (far better than the country I've covered for the albums list so far) is sardonic enough that it feels amusing and funny instead. From not having heard of him, I'm actually quite curious to hear what else he has done, as there's something clever in these lyrics that I really enjoy.

The four hundred and fourty-fourth song: Underground - The Upsetters

While I've dunked on reggae a bit before, a lot of that felt like it came from the repetitive nature of the lyrics and how that influenced the song. Freed from those constraints, Lee "Scratch" Perry, the record producer, creates a more interesting sound as the repetition goes and we get a far more interesting mix of sounds instead. It's a soundscape that is created, with interesting scratches and different effects that make for something slightly otherworldly. While technically reggae, the instrumentals here move away from that genre's flaws into something quite appealing.