The one hundred and fifty-ninth classical recording: #962 George Benjamin - Ringed by the Flat Horizon
There's something that leans more towards music and storytelling through music in more modern pieces. Composed in 1980, Ringed by the Flat Horizon has an at times cacophonous sound, with a chaotic mix of sounds punctuated by heavy percussion that makes it difficult to follow. It's content to feel that way rather than striving for a pure beauty of older pieces, invoking stronger emotions that aren't always just pleasing. It invokes that feeling of dread and anticipation of an oncoming storm really well and I quite liked how sinister it got.
The one hundred and fourty-first book: #081 The Betrothed - Alessandro Manzoni
I've noticed that I've been struggling to focus on these historical life stories - this one a love story of a couple kept apart by a nobleman who wants to marry Lucia, half of the couple. They run away from the village and get caught up in the military movements in Milan in the 1600s as well as the plague that struck the area at that time, and there are several chapters dedicated to the historic descriptions of the events of the time, rather than the central love story that takes a while to connect. It didn't read as well, and I think I need to go for a more contemporary novel soon to clear my palate.
The four hundred and forty-sixth album: #446 Cheap Trick - At Budokan
Crowd noises and echo aside, At Budokan's hard rock shows off Cheap Trick's music quite well - the driving guitars and hard music that doesn't veer into a shoutier metal track, but keeps it musically contained with some nice moments of composition between the on going pushes. Despite the style, the tracks are quite distinctive even when they stay within that ball park, without a ballad in sight, and even the live version of I Want You To Want Me is that much rockier even as it stays very poppy. While drowned out by the glut of rock bands in this era, Cheap Trick still stays very listenable.
The four hundred and forty-fifth album: Gang of Four - Entertainment!
There's a lot of punk in Entertainment!, which leads to a problem I've had with similar albums before - lulled into a bit of complacency, I'm on the fourth track before I know it as the songs blend together - and as accessible as Damaged Goods is, in my head the sixth song Guns or Butter is the first that sounds distinctive. The second side brings some more musical variety, but it shows some of the limits on their vocals and the main interest continues to come from the lyrics, which have the more interesting counter culture bend, as well as talk of (failures of) sex that feel subtle enough to past censors but still quite a push for the most part. It's not the best punk I've heard, but it's fine to fill that gap for now.
The one hundred and fifty-eighth classical recording: #873 Dmitri Shostakovich - From Jewish Folk Poetry
With so many of the classical tracks being instrumental, it feels special to get one that puts the vocals as central as this one - yes, that's partially the point of the work, but the score is minimal and even absent sometimes, with the performers really taking centre stage.
The works themselves are mostly quite sad songs, with the Song of Misery being one of the happiest tunes in there. I didn't find a translation for the Russian lyrics, but you get the dark, sombre feeling just listening to them, which seems even more appropriate considering when these were written. All in all it stays an impressive vocal performance that shows off the bleakness really well.
The four hundred and forty-fourth album: #444 Neil Young with Crazy Horse - Rust Never Sleeps
Neil Young's folk rock is fine - there are some interesting lyrics and the tracks are composed to feel fairly distinctive. They're fine tracks. The subdued fok sound though removes some of the power of the harder rock sections, while somehow drowning the lyrics out a bit - it's all very listenable and good, I can hear the elements I like, but it never quite hits the sweet spot that makes me sit up and pay attention.
The four hundred and forty-third album: #443 Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Armed Forces
As we've seen the rise of new wave lead to poppy tracks with less deep tracks, it's been nice to get the more political messages Elvis Costello brings - wrapped in more personal songs, the intention of a bunch of these tracks are more clear in their meaning, with a pacifist and anti-capitalist message that carries the album well. The venom of the message is mostly wrapped in pleasant, accessible pop music, with it taking until Goon Squad on the second side for the rock to come back in and underline the message, its aggression not jarring as much as it's reminding you of what has come before. It even ties the personal and political threads together to some extent at the end, for an album that keeps really good to listen to for the entire runtime.
The one hundred and fifty-seventh classical recording: #847 Erich Wolfgang Korngold - Violin Concerto
While as a film composer, Korngold is said to have brought more classical music influences to film, this work also shows the reverse. The Romance second movement especially feels like it supports a movie, the action moving through several scenes in a way that feels more like an opera or other narrative piece, just without the singers or performers. It's open ended enough there isn't a full story here, but it shows how even the influence of movies is carrying through in this piece in a way that's more rousing and fascinating than the methodical build that feels more prevalent in earlier works.
The four hundred and forty-second album: #442 The Slits - Cut
While billed as a punk band, when listening to Cut the reggae sound stands out most often. It has the reggae-style percussion and vocals that dominate the album, a slight slurring to the latter and a looseness to the whole album. It's not bad, but it does start to wear thin about four tracks in. The album tries to mix it up a bit in places, but it doesn't mix it enough for that to really work, and often it's just the slightly different lyrics that feel like the only difference between the tracks.
The four hundred and forty-first album: #441 Marianne Faithfull - Broken English
Marianne Faithfull's raspier voice is a bit at odds with the smooth vocals that I associate more with new wave, but it creates an edge that suits all of these songs quite well. Working Class Hero, for example, gains a lot more of an edge in her interpretation, and they get a lot more raw when she really goes for it - Why D'Ya Do It has such an angry edge that it gets quite shocking.