The ninth album: #9 Count Basie - The Atomic Mr Bassie
A lot of big band music, I notice I sometimes find it harder to judge music without vocals. An issue here is (for sure) that I'm not quite sure where songs begin or end, with the songs blending together a bit from time to time. It sounds interesting, uplifting and good to dance to. It does not quite offer the hook that otherwise grabs me. Absolutely a sign of the times and my different interest in music, but still present.
The eighth album: The Crickets - The Chirping Crickets
Early rock n roll, like this, can sound quite friendly (so can later bands, but bear with me). The guitars aren't tuned to sound quite as raw and the vocals are a bit more melodic. This album, in fact, has some vocal stylings that sound almost doo wop-like to my untrained ears. It's happy and poppy, not quite what I was expecting here. It goes sugar sweet sometimes and stays on the tamer end.
Rock Me My Baby comes closer, offering a sound that reminded me of Elvis at times, but it's rarer - but good when it does, showing the potential there is here.
That still sounds good, a good voice with good backing vocals that make for some amazing tunes. It's well performed. It does what it sets out to do. Sadly, what it sets out to do feels a bit bland, where I was hoping we'd get a bit more than a bunch of sappy love songs.
The fifteenth book: #15 Thomas of Reading
An odd book without a Wikipedia page... Really just a story of merchants in the middle ages. A lot of events, not much characters, and I'm not sure what the point of the story really is. It just bored me, the difficult language not helping, but there didn't seem to be much in it.
The twenty-fourth comic: #103 Jingle Jangle Comics
This comic didn't really do it. It's very much focused on children and the bad jokes match. Even so, children stuff can be good and clever, but that isn't the case here. This is a set of comics that matches exactly what you'd expect from a comic book from the 40s. The redeeming values? Clever use of very dynamic art and a lot of interesting things done with anthropomorphic items surrounding the characters. Even so, there's not much that's engaging in the stories and the jokes are mostly groanworthy to bad. And then there's the offensive bits... This was one we gave up early.
The first classical recording: #1 Anonymous - Carmina Burana
More upbeat than I was expecting to start off with - I believe these are at least partially religious texts, but the music is already not using the instruments I expect. The description of 'minstrel' music I heard does describe it, with drums, lutes and flutes.
Starting off on a new list like this, I do have my prejudices, but so far they have not been confirmed. This sounds quite different from what I was expecting, folksier music than what you'd associate with classical music.
About ten minutes in we do get something closer to this, but even that is a vocal performance enhanced by drums. It's slower, but works its magic just as well, not letting up. It refuses to sink to the background, without dominating. The performance here is also impressive, with a lot of force behind it. In other places, the vocals do sound odd - almost enforced laughter in places by the way it goes up and down, and it becomes odd to interpret. It does make the religious celebrations feel less solemn, and I can't help imagining how it would look like during worship or similar. I'll admit though, there were times where I was waiting for the flute or lute to come back.
More 'expected' female operatic voices appear near the end, where it presumably draws on those roots. These vocals do still sound as enticing.
The album has a wide variety of songs in there, presumably reflecting the musical tastes of the time, from oratorios to drinking songs. Just as an insight it's fascinating, and as music it's enjoyable. Especially so as it appears to introduce several tunes that I feel were reused plenty of times since.
The one hundred and thirty-third song: Tous les garcons et les filles - Francoise Hardy
When I think French songs, my mind usually goes first to chansons, the heavier songs of an Edith Piaf. More recent music is quite different, but that's where the sixties seem to be for that country. Here it sounds quite different though, still having some of the vocal stylings, but in a faster, upbeat song that combines sadness with something happier.
The one hundred and thirty-fourth song: You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me - The Miracles
I thought this sort of music was starting to die out. A good R&B vocal performance, it's a slow and sweet love song. At the same time, the music doesn't really get its hooks on me and starting drifting into the background quite soon.
The one hundred and thirty-fifth song: Boom Boom - John Lee Hooker
Speaking of which, here's some more blues. There's part of me that's waiting for the guitars to really kick in, there's something rocking in this song that never really comes out. I suppose it's one of those songs and stylings that predates and prepares the rock music that is to follow, but I wish it would commit to it a bit more here - it sounds good and interesting still, just holds back.
The one hundred and thirty-sixth song: He’s a Rebel - The Crystals
If he's a rebel, he probably would not have been listening to this. Not because the song is back - this is a real girl band sound (Phil Spector penned) that I'm not sure we've heard quite to this extent, but I'm sure we'll hear loads more coming up. It would be fairly inoffensive pop now, but for this list still sounds very fresh and enjoyable.
The one hundred and thirty-seventh song: Do You Love Me - The Contours
At least there's something more rocky in the year, something that swings more. It sounds a bit raw - the vocals aren't perfect - but the dancing that's described comes through in how the sound comes across and it sounds like it would be an amazing live performance. With this being an impromptu recording (done because they couldn't find the Temptations), there's something oddly happy about being able to do this performance.
The one hundred and thirty-eighth song: Your Cheating Heart - Ray Charles
And the last song of the year starts with more of a showtune feel, although that quickly reduces to something sweet and slow - an early soul track. It's a sweet, maudlin song, using background singers and extended strings to emphasize the point, but letting Ray Charles do his own thing when it's his turn, focusing on him and what he's saying. Best when it's at its simplest, it still sounds as maudlin as it should.
The seventh album: #7 Frank Sinatra - Songs for Swingin' Lovers
On this, Frank Sinatra's tenth studio album, he apparently made swingier, faster versions of classic songs of the day. I can see it in there - some songs I can easily see how they'd be slower even if I didn't know the original. For just as many, however, these feel like the classic way. Even through audio, Frank Sinatra comes through as charming and likeable, a certain happiness shows through in his songs.
The songs are well executed, great instrumentation combined with the amazing vocals from Frank Sinatra. It sounds good and never sinks into the background as other similar songs might do - he sounds too interesting for that. And with the classics on here - I've Got You Under My Skin especially notable - it's obvious why this is all the case. An aboslutely swinging album.
The fourteenth book: #14 Unfortunate Traveller
After a good performance two days ago, the next book disappointed a bit. The Unfortunate Traveller is a lot shorter, but it didn't quite hit for me. There are parts that feel more like they're just speeches or preaching as they go from (at the time) celebrity to celebrity. There's some story, but nothing strong in there and to me it felt like it was mostly trying to be too self important.
The thirteenth book: #13 (Monkey) Journey to the West
I'm not sure whether I read the officially listed version of this, but if anything, it's because I read the unabridged version of the book known as 'Monkey' in its abridged version.
It might be the translation helping here, but this feels like the most modern novel so far. There's a lot of good banter, especially once the main characters are in place and progresses. They tease each other, help and become three dimensional character. Monkey, the real protagonist of the story, is a flawed character trying to do his best - the typical prankster personality. The others are basic archetypes too, but they certainly grow a bit during the 100 chapters. The original bits - the initial chapters after Monkey's origin story and last few chapters of the book set in India - feel like they're written earlier, with a more formal style and less interesting characters. After that more stories seem to have added in between to pad the story, which also seems to include the first chapters of Monkey's origin. The characters are looser here, developed more and they are more fun to read.
The main downside is that the adventures on the journey tend to be fairly predictable. It is often a case of the group arrive somewhere to rest - part of the group gets kidnapped (at least the monk) - monkey needs to bail them out. Often he gets outside help (making him feel a bit weaker than he should) but also relying on his transformations and cudgel. You rarely see him win a battle outright, even if he's the strongest warrior, against the 'big' enemies.
Sometimes Monkey is chased away for not being the good guy, forcing the others to do more until they ask him back while they're also showing their strengths. There are some other variants as well (and Monkey relies noticeably less on deities and buddhas in later stories) but we could see it all coming often enough.
Still, while the 1400 pages of this book were off putting at first, it was a lot of fun to read. I'm glad I did - one of the first there was.
The sixth album: #6 Duke Ellington - Ellington at Newport
Jazz is fine, really. Mildly pleasant to listen to, often livened up with vocals, but not something I get excited about. The enthusiastic shouts with which the performers are jeering each other on with in some of the lengthy, good songs feel a bit out of place for me. Don't get me wrong, they sound good, and the length of play makes htis all the more impressive, but it's still jazz, not rock n roll.
It's when it's at its swingiest where the album is most notable. Several areas just feature a slow drone that you associate with slower jazz, and that would work well as background music, but not as an album to actively listen to, nor (I'd imagine) as a great concert piece. It clearly must have been, this having been a great night in music (or at least jazz), but I'm not sure I'm quite as taken by it.
The fifth album: #5 Fats Domino - This Is Fats
I should have knwon this, but I didn't quite realise that Fats Domino was more of a blues singer than something swingier, but the album veered closer to jazz and blues than I expected - not quite as much rock n roll as I was expecting (or hoping for). It's a pleasant swinging album that defines some of what's coming, but I just can't really get into it.