The fourty-first classical recording: #474 Ernest Chausson - Poeme de l'amour et de la mer

So far, most of our vocal performances have been either operas, with a specific setting, or choral performances that have started to feel repetitive. Getting a poem set to music makes for a gentler performance. There's something calming in the performance, a restrained orchestra set to make vocals shine as it takes you away. It's obviously affected by the mood I'm in, but the music is just right when you need some relaxation after a busy day and taking you to the waterfront or leave you dreaming of love.

The three hundred and sixty-fourth song: Most People I Know… - Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs

I'm not sure to what extent this song is Australian rock or just its own variant on rock, but there's something especially melodic song to this, bringing back the stronger vocal performances from earlier rock that's gotten lost, with some of the tricks of modern rock but none of the at times over the top psychedelia. It's seventies, yet harkens back to a time when rock wasn't about volume or being out there. Instead it's smaller and more natural, more personal than rock songs sometimes feel. If David Bowie is one side of the reinvention of rock, this is trying to modernize its roots.

The three hundred and sixty-fifth song: Taj Mahal - Jorge Ben

Although Wikipedia describes this as samba rock, it feels like you could take that a step further. The 'black' influences merges in a bit of soul at the start and pushes it towards disco. It's something that doesn't quite hold up - and the heavy guitar riff may dominate a bit much for it, but it's party music, something to dance to, but not quite as much of an outburst as samba normally is.

The three hundred and sixty-sixth song: Walk on the Wild Side - Lou Reed

One way in which you can tell the mood of the time was changing is what's considered acceptable on the radio. While the happy chorus makes this sound like a happy song, the song describes a transgender prostitute performing oral sex and such. It's all quite subdued when these lyrics are sung, at a volume just low enough that you have to listen closely. The walk on the wild side really is described well and the juxtaposition is especially interesting to listen to with the meaning it gives - these dark things on the other side of normal society.

The three hundred and sixty-seventh song: Virginia Plain - Roxy Music

With glam rock coming in, here we get a British band that leans into that, with an odd vocal style that feels it stand out. And while it's a good glam rock song, I also feel it doesn't draw anything distinct. It's partially setup for what I understand is a good second album, but there wasn't quite enough of a hook in it that made it stand out.

The three hundred and sixty-eighth song: You’re So Vain - Carly Simon

While I'm sure part of the reason this song is known is because of the question who is actually so vain, but it's also a good composition with a great chorus and some nice understated anger (or annoyance) in the verses. There's enough rock to give it anger, enough pop to keep it easy to listen to, and just enough Mick Jagger to support the strong, full vocals of Carly Simon. It's a beautiful feat, and I think keeping the mystery open just adds to it as a statement, in part because it can apply to everyone.

The three hundred and sixty-ninth song: Today I Started Loving You Again - Bettye Swann

Some songs on this list feel like they shouldn't quite be here - they're fine, good in their genre, but don't stand out. Here, I guess this is representative of R&B of the day, a soul version of a country standard that sounds good, but mostly does what it comes to do and little more that feels as notable.

The three hundred and seventieth song: Il mio canto libero - Lucio Battisti

With the exception of Brazil, few foreign acts made it on the list at this point and it feels like those that did were dominated by French chansons and other oddities that don't quite fit. Il Mio Canto Libero, though, approaches folk rock, starting with a guitar and building up the instruments until it's louder than those, but it retains that intimate feeling for the most part, a man singing a love song. It builds its complexity as the song continues and through that creates something more impressive, even if I feel the emotion gets lost a bit partway through with the gimmick losing the core of the song.

The three hundred and seventy-first song: Superfly - Curtis Mayfield

Having just try to watch Shaft, the movie that really didn't live up to its theme, Superfly doesn't feel quite as in-your-face about the main character. It's still descriptive, but the funky soundtrack gives it a lot more character. There's a good bass line in here, the brass works well, and the lyrics relevant enough, but (probably a good thing for the film) don't dominate as much. It's a good, funky song that feels like it's doing something more with it.

The three hundred and seventy-second song: Crazy Horse - The Osmonds

It's weird. The Osmonds seem, when you read their Wikipedia page, seem like a wholesome group, but they moved into hard rock and wrote a song about environmentalism that sounds like it's about drugs. It's wholesome hard rock, something made because they could, but it sounds right, it's a good rocker, and the juxtaposition is amazing, showing the variety that's possible.

The three hundred and seventy-third song: All the Young Dudes - Mott the Hoople

Bowie really starts to permeate music at this point, here with another song written by him to address everyone. Though sounding like an anthem (like glam rock really can do, with its harmonies, large sounds and so on), it's a warning to come out and make yourself visible. It's perhaps not as grand, but it speaks to you and feels so specific. It's a warning, but one that feels outspoke in its message to come out and address things.

The eighty-seventh TV show: #139 Whistle and I'll Come for You

Regardless of the reasons, it's fair to say that our sense of pacing for TV has changed over time. While this is often seen as something that is seen in the length of shots, it's also a structural thing. In a horror story like this, we want to get to the mystery sooner - not fully, but with some hints and pointers. Alternatively, having some smaller thing go on at the side helps. The Tractate Middoth showed how things go if that doesn't work - a story that feels like it cuts off after the second act. Here, the first act establishing. normality drags a bit and, for all that has it happen naturally, leaves it a bit too long to establish something is going on. It takes off once the whistle is found, but doesn't feel like it builds up any tension to get there.

Once you realise that something is going on, it does start to increase it, while still keeping the whole thing small. There's something weird going on, but the show never really focuses on it until the end, letting dreams and short odd appearances do the work. It's more effective, but never really reaches beyond sheets dangling in the air, and it feels like it could have done it better.

The one hundred third album: #103 Shivkumar Sharma - Call of the Valley

Following on with weirder genres, this feels like one of the more unexpected entries on the list. We have, of course, covered a lot of classical music for the other list, and I believe this one generally avoids it. Call of the Valley, however, is a light classical album of Indian music, likely to have inspired many western artists.And it's different from both categories, taking what seems like a more minimalist approach. You get simpler music in other places too, but here it's especially sparse, in a way that made me appreciate each individual instrument more. The album is relaxing and enchanting in a way that stands out in this era and makes me want to investigate the genre a bit more, to at least get a few more samples of it.

The eighty-sixth TV show: #420 Dekalog

For this entry, we watched a ten part series set in a tower block in Warsow, focused on the ten commandments. It's an anthology with some overlapping characters, but independent stories. It means the stories differe a lot in where they go and what happens, but there's this vague link in themes. The stories are usually quite small and human. Some about an affair that barely gets resolved, or searching for a missing lover. Others take it a bit larger, dealing with death and depression, but it always stay local, with a few characters involved, in situations that could - and probably are - real life. It makes them that much more relatable and through that more effective.

This is helped by the cinematography. While the writer and director is the same for all of them, this probably being one of his big works, the cinematographer changes for nearly each episode (there are nine, one of them handled two episodes). It shows in how different the episodes feel and how experimental some can get. It creates enough of a distinction between them to make them mini movies - which I suppose is what they really are.

It's a wonderful series that you can't imagine being made under some specific circumstances, but it's a worthwhile watch to gets you from time to time and manages to make you think as well. It's a masterpiece of its own.

The fifty-fifth book: #1010 Tobias George Smollett - Roderick Random

There are a lot of picaresque novels from this era on the list - it was clearly a popular genre at the time. However, they feel like often they hit some similar beats, especially in the early story (abandoned or forced to leave) and at the end (they're wealthy after all!). To that point, I find it hard to distinguish at least some of them. This one has some good moments though, a nice focus on some of the naval experiences and mostly far more decent conversations that a lot of these books. There have been some good passages - even if I missed out on some of the connecting material, I think I got more of the story than it most of these.

The fourtieth classical recording: #947 Einojuhani Rautavaara - Cantus Arcticus

Here's another modern classical pieces making use of recorded sounds, after Different Trains, and the mood it creates couldn't be more different. Including recorded bird song, this, more than ever, gives you the feeling of walking through nature filled with birds that take priority over the instruments. In the first movement it creates a setting, a slow trod that suits the walk through a bog. It changes a bit in the second, as Melancholy has some clearer instruments in places that build it up a bit more, while the third movement moves towards being mostly instrumental, with bird sounds in the background filling the music.

It's interesting to hear these new sounds mixed in, especially as music so often tries to imitate nature. Here it embraces the natural sound and builds around it, which is just as succesful at creating that atmosphere of nature.

The one hundred second album: #102 Loretta Lynn - Don't Come Home A Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)

While it seems like I've been doing mostly rock albums lately (although that impression might be coloured by the gaps between them sometimes), country has been far less common and make for somewhat of a change.

I never connected with country as much - while I can feel some of the appeal, it also takes me the wrong way sometimes - too much longing and sadness, where aggression or happiness always work better with me. It's something later country takes on as well, but here we're still stuck with the blues references.

And so, while the music is well sung, the songs are good and the story is told, I keep hoping this gets pushed a bit further. Some songs hint at this - and Get Whatcha Got and Go really makes up for it and perked me up immensely - but I was hoping this would come back more often.

The one hundred and first album: #101 The Electric Prunes - I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)

Waving in the direction of surf rock, with some psychedelia involved, this album goes, at times, a bit rougher than that, but it's a real mix of influences, shifting from song to song to appeal to different moods. The fairly happy Onie is followed by the darker Are You Lovin' Me More (But Enjoying It Less) and the mood shifts feel a bit much. There's not much of a consistent sound in here and while they're well written, it feels like something with a bit more consistency would have been good. It feels like the writers are responsible for this - forced on the band and seeming to want to experiment more than create a sound that suits the band. Sold To The Highest Bidder feels like a big offender in this regard - loud, experimental, but not in a way that suits the band. It leaves me wondering why they bothered.

The thirty-ninth classical recording: #853 Benjamin Britten - The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra

I realise we didn't listen to the full version of this work, as apparently narration can be used to introduce the different instruments as they come in, each playing a variation of the theme suited for that instrument. It lets you understand where the various instruments fit in and how they can be used in different ways. It feels like a more unique structure, but one that works by showcasing individual parts, rather than building on each other as we normally, often, see.