The four hundred and sixty-second album: #462 Echo & the Bunnymen - Crocodiles
It's a fine post punk album. Nothing really hit me, there wasn't anything that seemed that special, but it did the job well enough.
The four hundred and sixty-first album: #461 The Cure - Seventeen Seconds
The Cure brings a dark sound to the table, with a deep, gothic feel to the sound aided by incidental and faint lyrics. They're there, but feels almost superfluous, small contributions to a larger growing piece that focuses on bass sound with minimal drums and few flourishes. It's the soundscapes the music creates that are compelling, far more interesting than any lyrics would bring to it. They become very immersive, more so than I thought I would get to.
The four hundred and sixty-fifth classical recording: #436 Emmanuel Chabrier - Espana
This rhapsody is short but exciting - a real burst of energy with a lot of happy feelings. It gets in to lift your spirits and get your mood up, and not much more, without overstaying any sort of welcome - a perfect Monday morning piece.
The four hundred and sixtieth album: #460 The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight
There's something quite nicely accessible in Underwater Moonlight - a light pop punk album that is easy to listen to, feeling fluffier while having the punk undertones in its music. It's nothing overly rough or angry, but more smooth love story like lyrics that are just a really pleasant listen.
The four hundred and fifty-ninth album: #459 Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel (III)
Is it possible I've had my fill of prog rock? Peter Gabriel's third self titled album feels, from a distance, like a good example of the genre, something quite nice to listen to. It does fail to connect with me, partially because it all settles into the same style - perhaps novel in places but not as distinct as I would hope for - but also because Peter Gabriel's vocals don't really work for me on this album. There's some slight slurring that I think comes from some applied filters, which leaves me with them fading into the background more than the lyrics seem to indicate he'd want. It feels like a bit of a mistake from when the album was put together, but means that I just never felt I got much out of listening to it.
The one hundred and eighty-eighth TV show: #28 The Phil Silvers Show
It's clear that over the years, sitcoms have moved on in how they present themselves. Golden Girls was good, but a bit staid for now, and it's taken the likes of Seinfeld to take away the morale at the end that older shows often seem to rely on. The Phil Silvers show is at the very end, where Phil Silvers' Sergeant Bilko has to come out well enough at the end and the comedy moves slow in places. There are a few good bits, with Phil Silvers going off to do his thing working best, but just as often it gets stuck and it ends up shining for about five minutes in a twenty five minute episode. These days it'd be condensed, but here I do feel like I'm missing for a chunk of the run.
The four hundred and fifty-eighth album: #458 The Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
There's really just an undiluted wall of rock sound in this album, loud and aggressive, with a particular political bent that often almost gets lost in the loud music. The individual tracks don't stick around for long, but there's enough repetition that you don't miss a song - it does mostly get changed up with different vocal performances, as well as the occasional odd touch, but it's mostly just a lot of the punk music you'd really expect here - not bad, but its 33 minute runtime does feel like the right length
The four hundred and fifty-seventh album: #457 The Cramps - Songs the Lord Taught Us
It's always welcome to get something different from an album. The Cramps' mix of punk and rockabilly - quite a modern sound in the day mixed with such a deliberate throwback - is still an interesting mix, even if both genres are quite old now - rockabilly just feels like that much more of a throwback going through this list.
Lyrically, the album is fine, and the strength of its music mostly lies in the moments where it relies on the fusion of genres to create its throwback mood. There's a lot to find in here, but it feels as its best when they most try to do their own thing.
The one hundred and sixty-fourth classical recording: #459 Richard Strauss - Violin Sonata
There is a delicate sound to this sonata, the lone violin really shining in the second improvisation movement. There isn't a constant variety on a theme that's as visible, nothing bombastic or in your face about it, but an engaging longer piece that's set up to keep your attention and sound pleasant to listen to.
The four hundred and fifty-sixth album: #456 AC/DC - Back In Black
It feels like Back In Black is more of the same for AC/DC - loud heavy metal that doesn't stop for the ten tracks this album goes on for. It's not the most inventive, true, but it keeps hitting that sweet spot that drives you through this. There's nothing special, but this is so good at providing the heavy metal sound I crave that it simply works.