The three hundred and fourty-second album: #342 Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
Blood on the Tracks a Bob Dylan album - a number of folk rock tracks around his vocals that sound good with what they do. I don't know whether to still appreciate it at this point - his staying power as an artist is clear, his songwriting is impressive and clearly stayed strong throughout, but I wonder whether I really got anything new out of this album myself.
The three hundred and fourty-first album: #341 Neil Young - Tonight's the Night
Tonight's the Night is an album of good country rock. It's fine - the country trappings aren't entirely my thing, but there are times when I feel I can really get into it and there are times where it's just a bit underwhelming - well performed, but I wouldn't be able to give you many highlights.
The three hundred and fourtieth album: #340 Rahul Dev Burman - Shalimar
While the idea of a Bollywood album didn't immediately appeal to me, I was won over by the delight and joy of its second track, One Two Cha Cha Cha. It's a happy song, more poppy than you'd think, and it stands up well on its own. Other tracks don't do it as well, with tracks like Countess Caper having an ending that feel like they need the visuals to really make sense, but even then it feels like the album meets the middle ground of featuring the sounds you expect from a Bollywood album mixed with a good pop track. It's a decent album, quite surprising compared to what I was expecting, but this makes me want to go back and listen to more.
The three hundred and thirty-ninth album: #339 Tom Waits - Nighthawks at the Diner
Starting your week with a double album full of raw, spoken word jazz doesn't really get you going on a Monday morning. The album clearly revolves around Tom Waits' song writing, with two minute intros between songs, but his stage persona is so off putting that I found it hard to care and didn't get involved in the songs. At that point, they are jazz songs dominated by a scratchy voiced vocalist that I don't get much out of. It feels more like a drunken man's ramblings than creating an album that I actually enjoy.
The ninety-fourth book: #1016 Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
Probably rather heretically, I always feel like there are two sides to Jane Austen's novels, with only one half appealing to me. I find it fascinating to read about their daily life, the adventures of people living in the era and what they found impressive. Northanger Abbey has this well, including some interesting insights in how literary works of the day found reading novels to be a bad thing, even in novels, that became an interesting recurring discussion. It's a nice, light touch and the further separation of fact and fiction and how novels don't follow real life work really nice.
And then there's the love story, which follows all of Austen's familiar beats (the Austentatious improv show is based all around that concept and is worth seeking out if you have the chance). There's the rejection, the back and forth, and the lucky reunion with a wedding at the end. It's fine, but at this point I'm just waiting for it to hit the beats rather than feeling like I'm invested.
The three hundred and thirty-eighth album: Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns
Joni Mitchell's folk is pleasantly welcoming, the jazz and pop sounds feeling immediately recognisable and comfortable with her vocals shaping the music around it. While certainly not always a conventional sound, it feels incredibly familiar and warming to listen to. It's not very complex, but the jazz sound works well with the focus on the vocals and it creates an atmosphere in my mind that I really appreciate.
The three hundred and thirty-seventh album: #337 Dion - Born To Be With You
It feels like it has been a while since we heard Phil Spector in action, but he's back with today's album - although not all tracks were produced by him and it's clear when he hasn't, as those tracks lack the effects and large production that he's so known for. The album brings a lot of big pop songs, using some new arrangements for songs and some originals, none of which I've entirely found memorable. It's decent to listen to, but I didn't really find anything in here that had staying power.
The three hundred and thirty-sixth album: #336 Emmylou Harris - Pieces of the Sky
Pieces of the Sky feels like it's fast moving compared to the lengthy tracks most rock albums have. The ten tracks are fairly straight forward country tracks, using a variety of covers as well as original songs, and go from sensitive ballads to the standard upbeat country songs, and it sounds like really good country music. It's a genre where I do prefer female vocalists, as the gruff sound doesn't help for me, but at the same time Pieces of the Sky doesn't really have any tracks that connect with me or give me more than what the superficial sound of the music gives me.
The three hundred and thirty-fifth album: #335 Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run
It's hard to resist the urge to dismiss this as the rock of a previous generation - it does what it sets out to do, but it doesn't exactly give me more than my dad's rock. I'm sure that it's down to everything that came later, but with hard rock and punk coming in, this album feels smaller and simpler. It sets out the core of its rock sound, doesn't vary, and it's a good base to listen to. I can't get excited about any of it, but it sends out what it wants to do well enough.
The one hundred and seventy-sixth TV show: #371 The Golden Girls
While I enjoyed the Golden Girls when it was on when I was younger, there are plenty of shows that I enjoyed back then that haven't lasted. But while there are times where the show feels that way, for the most part the stories of older women living together works well. While at times approaching their topics with more maturity, there are as many storylines that are similar enough to ones found in sitcoms about people in their twenties. It's heartwarming and hilarious, with someo of the meandering stories working especially well. The charisma of the three leads do a lot of the work too, both in how they play off each other and how they each get the best out of their lines. It works and it's clear they all work to make it work that way, staying likeable throughout. We went from just starting it to being addicted and with how far we've come in three weeks, I wonder how long it'll take us to finish the series.
The three hundred and thirty-fourth album: #334 Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey
For what is certainly my most high stakes birthday in years (I'll explain... some day, maybe), it's odd to move to a reggae album - something that doesn't fit my mood right now and feels odd in general. It's fine, as a decent reggae album to listen to that feels like the genre is evolving in a way that works for me.