The one hundred and fifty-first classical recording: #353 Franz Liszt - A Faust Symphony
Putting interpretations of the meaning of the different movements aside - Wikipedia has you covered on that - Liszt's Faust Symphony is a work of contrasts and combatting music. The first movement is a bombastic piece, fitting in with what you expect of the bigger orchestras and fitting with Faust's general persona. It's followed by a slightly shorter, more gentle movement that represents Gretchen, the love interest. It jumps to Mephistopheles' chaotic third movement, an aggressive piece occasionally interrupted by Gretchen's unwavering, gentle theme. It's a story that doesn't come through until the symphony's final movement, but it tells its basic story so well that it becomes a pay off even without fully looking at the story behind the work.
The four hundred and twenty-second album: #422 Willie Nelson - Stardust
As the concept of this album - adapting American classics - is different enough from the earlier album, it's hard to draw a comparison between the albums I've covered. What we get here are familiar songs, leading off with the title track Stardust but moving to a more maudlin, impressive rendition of Blue Skies that changes just enough to be different without entirely losing the job. It's a balancing act that becomes quite interesting to follow, with the focus mostly on a slower, somewhat sadder interpretation of the existing songs. It's just so well done, the music sounds good, the new arrangements work incredibly well and it feels easy to just breeze through the album, taking it in in one go.
The four hundred and twenty-first album: #421 Marvin Gaye - Here, My Dear
It feels a bit invasive to listen to Here, My Dear. The album is about Marvin Gaye's first divorce, an acrimonious event that clearly left a negative impact on him at the time. The soulful album, adding in funk and jazz tracks but generally feeling that bit lower, doesn't entirely work if it's meant to invoke sympathy, but as an insight into the man's mind at the time it does lay it all bare.
I'm not sure whether the 70 minute runtime is all warranted - the lengthy funk runtimes of some of the tracks are more than what I need in places - but the core message is more effective. It's probably what couches the intrusive nature most - there is the fluff around it that separates you that bit more from the core message.
The one hundred and fiftieth classical recording: #637 Bela Bartok - Romanian Folk Dances
This short piece adapts six Romanian folk dances to classical music, adding instrumentation where appropriate, but keeping the focus on the one instrument that would normally be leading the dance - a flute that's mostly on its own, a violin slowly supported by other string instruments and so on. It feels like it keeps the origin of the songs as a folk dance, something anyone could play, but adds atmosphere around it to help create a feeling that puts you in that time and place. It's over all too quickly, but helps keep you engaged until then.
The four hundred and twentieth album: #420 The Saints - Eternally Yours
It feels surprising to hear punk pop up on the album, with a lot of acts having moved on at this point and using it as an influence only. Within that, their sound varies a bit - the pure punk tracks not adding much, but the moment they add elements or change it, the album is a lot more interesting - the rather basic Lost and Found is sandwiched between Know Your Product, with its horn section, and the driving but lighter "Memories are Made For This", which eschews the standard punk rhythms for something that goes between hard rock and something poppier. It ends up with a number of gems mixed with regular punk songs that go between good examples of the genre and a bit unnecessary considering everything else they pull off on this album.
The four hundred and nineteenth album: #419 Dire Straits - Dire Straits
Listening to this album, it's a fairly straight forward rock album, its blues influences feeling old fashioned for this point in time. It's competent at what it does - not aiming for the raucous heights of the Stones, but it has that Dylan-like blues feel with a larger musical structure around it. It also feels quaint, referencing a musical style that doesn't do much for me.
The one hundred and fourty-ninth classical recording: #321 Robert Schumann - Concertstuck for Four Horns
A rare horn-focused piece, Schumann's Concertstuck for Four Horns is still quite subdued for a piece featuring brass instruments. It has that joy, the horns adding more energy than other pieces would do, and it makes for a genuinely delightful piece, something that cheers you up. As much as this may not have been intended to fit in with other works, I do feel that I can see how in the context of a larger concert, this could be a great way to get the energy back up between more languid pieces.
The four hundred and eighteenth album: #418 Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!
Listening to this album today, it makes me think that while there's some good potential in Devo's music, it's not quite there yet. There's something in the lyrics, but it needs some polish, and it feels like the album never quite works out what it wants to be or what it wants you to feel. It's frustrating, and I wonder whether this album is on the list as their best or most unique, or because the first is the default pick, as I am more curious to see where they ended up (d)evolving to.
The four hundred and seventeenth album: #417 The Cars - The Cars
With their eponymous album, The Cars bring us a strong new wave album, a strong vocal led album with some straightforward love songs and some more interesting twists on the formula. In fact, I'm not sure whether the experimental work, like I'm In Touch With the World, is necessarily always worth it compared to the more standard pop rock tracks featured on the album.
The four hundred and sixteenth album: #416 Willie Colon & Ruben Blades - Siembra
Siembra is a celebrated salsa album. I can't judge, as it's not my scene, but this is a fine album - nothing amazing as far as I can hear, but it works well enough. There's not enough in this for me to really get me to love the album, but it sounds like it's good at its own genre.