The one hundred and fourty-fifth book: #337 The Thin Man - Dashiel Hammett
The Thin Man got to the top of the list in quite a roundabout way. It started with our love of Beyond Belief, one of the segments of the Thrilling Adventure Hour show and podcast, which we sought out after enjoying listening to Paul F. Tompkins on other podcasts. That led to us prioritizing watching the Thin Man movie, which the podcast segment was based on. That hit us in the right place, so I really felt like reading the book as well to really see the origins.
It's the conversations that really stand out reading the book. Dashiel Hammett writes them to flow well, with the character's initial unwillingness standing out in the way they play with each other. It shows the casual love of our main characters, who tease each other but mostly want to hang out and, well, drink a lot - the speakeasy culture is very well alive at this point. The mystery is intriguing enough and builds well - the result felt quite strong even with some of the doubts it left me - but it's how it affects the characters that's the most interesting, and when that drops away at the end a bit to explain things, the book loses it a bit as well. It's a shame this was his last full novel, but I know I've got some earlier strong works of his on the list that I'm looking forward to and some short stories to look for.
The four hundred and seventy-fourth album: #474 The Teardrop Explodes - Kilimanjaro
Kilimanjaro is a standard rock album from the era - new wave influenced, developing the psychedelic rock sound further into something poppy that is quite appealing and sounds quite inoffensive. It was nice to listen to, but at the same it wasn't a lot more.
The four hundred and seventy-third album: #473 UB40 - Signing Off
The only album by UB40 on the list - remarkable as they're one of the larger, long running reggae groups in the world - is a subdued affair. While following the genre, the music feels more polished and pulled together than other albums we've heard before, while the lyrics are more explicitly politically, clearer than they were before. It get to a point where, 10 tracks into the 13 track album, it loses some of its distinctiveness, but at a normal album length this would have worked well - it just pushed it a little bit too much.
The one hundred and sixty-ninth classical recording: #254 Franz Schubert - Schwanengesang
The title of this collection of poems, 'Swan Song' is appropriate for the sadder tone of the pieces. While not too slow, there's a lamenting tone to a number of them, with the upbeat poems actually feeling out of place in between - not entirely unwelcome, but there's something reassuring about the slow pace, more of a mastery of the sound than the more upbeat sound gives you. The delicate nature of some of the songs stands out, but it works well as a two hundred year old album regardless.
The four hundred and seventy-second album: #472 Tom Waits - Heartattack and Vine
Tom Waits - a gravelly voice singing white guy blues with a rock base. The album is exactly what you'd expect based on that description and it works well at it, with a strength of voice that remains quite convincing.
The four hundred and seventy-first album: #471 The Jam - Sound Affects
At 35 minutes, Sound Affects is a short album, especially as it splits it over 11 tracks. It gives a bunch of short tracks, each a punch of energy with different tones that's unforgiving in just dragging you through - you don't realise a tracks ends before the next begins.
The one hundred and sixty-eighth classical recording: #504 Sergei Rachmaninov - Symphony no. 1
As always, hard to go into abstract pieces, but this is a nice piece to listen to, bombastic in places but not too much so. It doesn't go as subtle as most, but the symphony makes for a big, angry piece to listen to.
The one hundred and fourty-fourth book: #84 Eugene Onegin - Alexander Pushkin
Some forms of works translate better than others - a normal novel, where a translator can adapt the structure a bit to fit their language, becomes easier to read than a poem-like structure like that of Eugene Onegin, where the metre of the poem doesn't translate well to something that's as readable. It felt unnatural, not because of the work, not because the translator couldn't do it well, but because it's hard to do justice to that original feeling. The work is poetic and does feel lyrical, but it feels like the diversion and word choices never translated in a way that worked for me, and it led to a story that got boring because it lost its focus so much.
The four hundred and seventieth album: #470 The Undertones - Hypnotised
Hypnotised is a good, straight forward post punk album - nothing deep, but instead we're deeper in the era of punk bands that make themselves sound a lot happier and accessible. It still has its negative focused lyrics but it doesn't feel that way - and instead it's a happy frenzy I'm glad to be swept up in.
The four hundred and sixty-ninth album: #469 Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
Having grown up with an affection for rock, heavy metal has always been at the edges of my musical consciousness. It hasn't always hit me as much though - some artists go a bit too heavy - but with Iron Maiden's debut album it strikes a good balance. It's heavy, yeah, but there's more shape to it and the vocals stand out as much - the guitar solos won't hit as much but it's built so well that the whole album stays incredibly fun to listen to without being too overwhelming or turning into just noise.