The two hundred and twenty-fourth classical recording: #759 Francis Poulenc - Concerto for Two Pianos
This is a good piece - energetic, two pianos playing together while the orchestra around them encourages them on, leading to crescendos and high energy, impressive sounds. It's complex, but manageable in size and shape, and it hits its targets so well.
The six hundred and twelfth album: #612 Leonard Cohen - I'm Your Man
I like to think I know the folk pop of Leonard Cohen and what I'd expect, but the synth-heavy start of the album feels more modern and different from what you expect. The album lyrically still goes between socially conscious songs and love ballad songs, and Leonard Cohen's dark vocals are what you'd expect, but the orchestration varies between tracks in a way that makes each of them a lot more interesting.
The eight hundred fiftieth song: Woke Up This Morning - Alabama 3
Woke Up This Morning comes out of nowhere. There's the nineties dance beat, of course, but the near-spoken rap at the start is a long lecturing blues ramble that gets very little support, which then goes into a more sensual soul song with choral support and a lot more layers. It's something that works quite well and even gets a bit catch, but it's also a fusion I don't think I've really heard before - something you could call a triumph in its own right.
The eight hundred fifty-first song: Block Rockin’ Beats - The Chemical Brothers
Block Rockin' Beats is a classic track - at least for me who, as discussed before, grew up in this era. The hook is catchy and the dance track works for it. I don't care as much for the repetitiveness of some of these tracks, but there are some real highlights in this, especially when it doesn't go too much into a storm of sounds.
The eight hundred fifty-second song: Breakdown - Mariah Carey
The gentle vocals of Mariah Carey work to create a sweet R&B song, a love song that is faster than a ballad would be, but still keeps things simple and quiet. Its hip hop layers work well as support, but Carey's vocals keep feeling much more dominant.
The eight hundred fifty-third song: Chan Chan - Buena Vista Social Club fat. Compay Segundo
When seeing this was a Cuban track, it made more sense to have this throwback here, a gentle Spanish song with its flamenco influences that stays calm throughout. In many places, it would be too much, but you can see how the cultural differences would lead to it developing there, as well as forming a good example of Cuban music. It never penetrated, though, and I can see why - this just doesn't seem to have enough to it.
The eight hundred fifty-fourth song: Between the Bars - Elliott Smith
Between the Bars is a sad ballad, featuring Elliott Smith's wafer thin, delicate vocals on a simple guitar sound. The emotion and depression runs high just listening to it and it's a downer mood that just really grabs you. It's lovely, small and precious.
The eight hundred fifty-fifth song: Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) - Backstreet Boys
And with this, the next boyband hits the scene. In my mind, it feels like Backstreet Boys were the ones dominating at the time, after Take That had disappeared off the scene. This track shows why it works. The production is big and bombastic, grabbing your attention. The vocals feel a bit challenging for its time, the hip hop feel meshing incredibly well with the more traditional vocals and call and response, while staying a bit sexual as well. It's an engaging mix and one that feels produced to perfection to meet what it needs to.
The eight hundred fifty-sixth song: 4,3,2,1, - LL Cool J feat. Method Man, Redman, Canibus & DMX
Back to some more darker rap, not quite as dark as gangster rap gets, but it certainly still feels more serious. Lyrically, it's mostly the drug references and challenges to each other that stand out, while the music stays straight forward. There's a lot of music from the rapping, and it's a style done well here - even if it's not my kind.
The eight hundred fifty-seventh song: Simarik - Tarkan
The late nineties did feature some language crossover hits, and I remember how much Simarik hit. It's got a good beat, some feel good sounding lyrics (not that you'd understand a lot of it) and its fusion of modern pop with Turkish influences sounds like it's modern without sacrificing anything Turkish about it either, making it an excellent showcase as well as a cracking song.
The eight hundred fifty-eighth song: Spice Up Your Life - Spice Girls
The appeal of the Spice Girls is still here in this song, an upbeat track by five women in control, not challenging but just feeling in charge. It's a party, it's something you're enjoying and it's a sound that really just works, even if the lyrics mostly don't make much sense.
The one hundred and twenty-fourth book: #94 Dead Souls - Mikhail Lermontov
When looking at Dead Souls, there are two parts I need to look at. The first half of the book is an interesting look at Russian bureaucratic life, with landowners selling dead serfs for reasons of taxation. It satirizes many different types of landowners you might see, but runs it in a way that takes time to explore these characters, making them more than just charicatures. And the liberties they take surrounding a beneficial transaction to them flows from that in an interesting way.
The second half is broken up, with chunks omitted and ending mid-sentence. Although this isn't quite as intentional - it seems like he burned the manuscript for it as part of delusions in his last days - but it works for the story. We're hearing the story of a fraudster, but it makes it feels more secondhand as there are parts that are missing and instead you just get fragments as you see passages from his life. It's a decent device here and even though it's not intentional at this point, it ends up enhancing the work further.
The six hundred and eleventh album: #611 The Pogues - If I Should Fall from Grace with God
It feels like as I make it through the years, my appreciation for the Pogues has grown - or perhaps they've moved closer to my sensibilities. While it's easy to discount their sound as just folk, the lyrics have more expletives and their own songs have a far more modern bent, addressing contemporary issues that wouldn't be in the traditional songs. It does so with the upbeat, faster sound of Irish folk, sped up by rock or punk influences, but it's the raw vocals with lyrics that actually look forward that make it work - in the sense that old folk would have been looking at contemporary issues of that day, but set up in a way that works that well for a modern audience, while still having the folk background.
The two hundred and twenty-third classical recording: #543 Maurice Ravel - Sheherazade
Potentially predating more manic lifetimes, these are three lovely, wistful tracks that feel like they can pierce your heart still. it's a lovely, wonderful sound that is just gorgeous. They're short but they really give you that emotion.
The two hundred and eighteenth TV show: #12 This Is Your Life
There's something nice about watching this show - seeing celebrities visited by family and friends, giving an overview of their lives. It's with some overdone enthusiasm sometimes (they clearly don't remember all the guests that visit), but when the guest is on, like with Carl Reiner, it's a lot of fun. If anything, I prefer the later editions as the early fifties edition moves, quite unexpectedly, a bit too quick, at times not giving the guests or anecdotes enough room to breath. A lot of it depends on how well you know the person - which I did select for - but on the whole you can see why it would appeal even if I wouldn't track down too much.
The six hundred and tenth album: #610 Terence Trent D'Arby - Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby
I haven't heard Terence Trent D'Arby's name before, but listening to this album I recognised the strong funk sound of, for example, Dance Little Sister. The rock background modernises the track compared to the earlier funk albums and the development works well for smooth, listenable songs that come from the same direction as Prince's works and other artists I know better. I guess this is as much of a stepping stone, though, and in the development of this sound it works incredibly well, while As Yet Untitled shows he doesn't even need the production, just his voice alone is strong enough.
The eight hundred forty-second song: Devil’s Haircut - Beck
The slightly lazy, grungey delivery of this song works well with the stoner vibe that seems to come with the song. Its polish is in the music, but nothing feels entirely focused - something that just works for the music here.
The eight hundred forty-third song: I’ll Be There for You… - Method Man featuring Mary J. Blige
The combination of hardcore rap and soft R&B tones creates a lovely combination, with a musicality that rings through. From what I understand, this was one of the first to do it, and I think the combination rarely flows as smoothly as it does here.
The eight hundred forty-fourth song: The Beautiful People- Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson's hardcore, deliberately offensive metal is quite known by now and this builds on all those influences - the title a serial killer reference, with a quote included, the driving aggression emphasizing that, and kicking against anything it can. It's a wonderfully strong hit and hits for me, but you need to be able to listen to it without clutching your pearls.
The eight hundred forty-fifth song: Criminal - Fiona Apple
This is a song my husband loves listening to and so I've heard it often enough even recently. It's good to listen to, a nice pop song with interesting, slightly dark lyrics and a good combination of sounds. I loved it. It's intense, but it works.
What a contrast with the previous song though.
The eight hundred forty-sixth song: Crash Into Me - Dave Matthews Band
I've never really sought out the Dave Matthews Band, despite being surrounded by plenty of people who are into them. His folk rock is decent, sounding quite good and working well at making its point, and this track performs it well, but there's not enough of a push that gets me, not enough of a message, not enough variation in the music or anything else that would hook me in.
The eight hundred forty-seventh song: On & On - Erykah Badu
There's something familiar to this sound of soul that we didn't hear before, but fits in that soul category. The track is intentionally sparse, with limited backup vocals and very few musics, unlike the bigger soul tracks of the past. Instead, it can really show Erykah Badu's vocals, which are strong in a specific way that really makes them stand out even further. It's a lovely track that I wasn't really expecting here.
The eight hundred forty-eighth song: Woo-Hah!! Got You All in Check - Busta Rhymes
While it's tempting to explain Busta Rhymes' sound as a throwback to the earlier rap music, it feels like it takes the feeling of gangsta rap and combines it with a lighter, different sound of vocals. It's quite infectious, but creates a sound I feel others are just trying to imitate.
The eight hundred forty-ninth song: No Diggity - Blackstreet featuring Dr. Dre
Blackstreet's smooth R&B has always worked so well for me, especially in this track. The vocals are so good, they really shine despite everything else going on. The music isn't too complicated - supporting those vocals more than anything - and Dr Dre's rapping is good as you'd expect, but it really doesn't need it. It's gorgeous and just not something to be ignored.
The six hundred and ninth album: #609 U2 - The Joshua Tree
While far from predictable, there's something familiar about what you get from a U2 album. It's a strong rock album, with a lot of anthem-like tracks, with incredibly strong, socially conscious lyrics that speak to the world at large. At the same time, the performance is emotional, it's driven, and it often manages to focuses on the smaller, human aspects of the subject rather than its grander story. It's skillful, it's impactful, and it works. With the Joshua Tree being one of their earlier works, there's a rawness and honesty that feels more fair, but there's always a strong undertone supporting it.