The twenty-second album: #22 Marty Robbins - Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs
Time to get into some country - we're overdue again and it feels like this is classic country, influenced by blues and early rock, something that comes across from the first song. It's a bit faster and guitar based and sounds good for it. It's also nice to listen to a singer-songwriter again, making for something more focused on his own voice.
There are also nice gems of story telling in here - whether it's about chasing a man sentenced to death or finding religion, the lyrics matter so much more and cover more than the love songs we usually heard. It allows for far more diversions from the standard theme.
I'm not sure it'll ever go in my top list, but earlier country songs (I'm not sure they quite were, but predecessors at least) didn't grab my quite as much as this did, making for something I've simply been enjoying a lot more.
The seventh classical recording: #6 Antoine Busnoys - Motets
The multi-voiced motets feel archaic, simple in the way they're voiced but complex as they build, coming (it feels) from a time where - well - you just never saw instruments. They're impressive, but their style make them a bit less easy to get into than what we expect now, made of vocals but layered in a way that makes it difficult to follow them. It's a growth from earlier works we've heard, valuing more and more some part of the structure over its contents. They're not dreary, but no longer quite as uplifting or emotional as music can (and should?) be.
The problem is that it all starts to sound samey. It's impressive at the start, but blurs together, which is unfortunate. One or two examples would be good, not the hourlong that this version came in.