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.
The three hundred and thirty-third album: #333 David Bowie - Young Americans
In the next turn for Bowie, the rockstar looks more towards soul, with an R&B inspired album - Fascination, for example, feels like a straight up funk song. It's quite a different approach for him, but the fusion creates some quite nice songs on its own. It just feels like the album lacks a bit of staying power, it doesn't feel like as many of the songs have lasted as we have with other Bowie tracks, at least in my mind, and I'm not sure I'm going to remember many after today.
The three hundred and thirty-second album: #332 Aerosmith - Toys in the Attic
Toys in the Attic does what it sets out to do - giving you a hard rock album that hits, with some great known songs and some slightly subdued, more blues-y songs. It sounds good, it doesn't overstay its welcome and I enjoyed it for what it was, good hard rock music without any excesses, with the obvious highlight of Walk This Way, which still holds up so well.
The three hundred and thirty-first album: #331 Keith Jarrett - The Koln Concert
Showing how small the boundaries can be, this jazz album, a recording of a concert, feels like it could have ended up on the classical list as well. It might be a bit more upbeat and faster than what you'd expect from it, but as a solo piano piece it builds on that same work. It's not, of course, an album that I find myself actively listening to, but there's a bit of spirit in the track that makes it work really well for being this type of piece.
The three hundred and thirtieth track: #330 Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
It feels like Physical Graffiti doesn't properly take off until Kashmir - moving from fine but somewhat interchangeable hard rock songs that I wouldn't give an edge over any other, to a prog rock sound that really grabs you from its first riff. The album has more experiments like that from that point on, but it never quite reaches that same level, feeling a bit less focused and less controlled.I still prefer it over the more generic hard rock sounds, and while that's probably the sound they were more keen on going for, it doesn't pay off for me.
The three hundred and twenty-ninth album: #329 Neu! - Neu! '75
Although referred to as psychedelic and krautrock, this album's electronic sound and sound effects make the first side feel more like some easy listening music, a gentle flow that feels like it shares a lot more with Brian Eno's work in the seventies. It's only with Hero that the rock music kicks in and it loses the background feel for a few tracks, although it takes the time to refer back to it quite well.
The three hundred and twenty-eighth album: #282 The Dictators - Go Girl Crazy!
As a listener in 2021, this album feels quite simple, a protopunk album that works quite well for me, the vocals working fine and underscoring the message. It feels like a development that makes sense, toning down the metal in favour of vocals while still sticking to the louder sound and moving away from the experimentation. At the time, however, it wasn't quite as understood and the consequences of it aren't as clear. Still, it's a musical direction I appreciate and I really feel I just breezed through the album enjoying myself.
The three hundred and twenty-seventh album: #327 Brian Eno - Another Green World
A lot of the time, you don't really realise Another Green World is playing. Yeah, there's music there, but it's ambient and quite gentle, often without any lyrics, mostly setting up moods and sound landscapes. From that, it's very specific in what it does - something I ended up liking quite a bit as it suited my tastes, but it's something where you have to let yourself be taken either to imagine to, or as the background while you're involved in other things. Different from what other albums do, perhaps, but it works as a direction for me.
The one hundred and seventy-fifth TV show: #419 Around the World in 80 Days
As discussed before, I'm a fan of Monty Python, and it's quite clear from everything surrounding it that Michael Palin is an affable guy that, more than the others, I'd want to hang out with. I wouldn't necessarily have seen him as a travel documentary presenter, but it makes sense watching this - he clearly cares about connecting with people, in a way that doesn't feel forced.
And for this first documentary, replicating the journey of the book, that is really useful, as it's clear he spent most of those 80 days stuck on a ship, with a few people around him, which means he has to make the best out of that when the actual travel experiences are more sparse. It's an interesting insight, even if the reason for it - not being allowed to use a plane as that wasn't around in book times, leaving him to rely on irregular, unconnected freight ships to get him across the world - means that more of the show revolves around a "Will he make it" dilemma than I personally would have wanted. There's an extra edge for it, but I'm more looking forward to other documentaries of his where his interaction with everyone is allowed to breath a bit more.