The one hundred and twenty-fourth classical recording: #421 Gabriel Faure - Elegie
It's still a bit odd to listen to this dark and sombre work on one of the hottest days of the year. There's a weight to the piece that you feel deep inside you, a sombre tone that really got to me early on. It's dark and a bit depressing, but the impression sticks around and it would work incredibly well in the right setting - a dark autumn evening as the world gets darker. It's short, but packs the weight in from the start.
The two hundred and ninety-ninth album: #299 The Isley Brothers - 3 + 3
3 + 3 isn't necessarily a complex album. At its core a soul album, the Isley Brothers take a lot of rock elements to enhance that, both in the way it builds the sound and some of the songs that are covered in the album. It takes on some of the funk stylings and repetitions, but avoids going overboard on that and instead builds on the themes and expands on them. It's a pleasant album, quite easy to listen to, never really feeling too deep but something I can see myself listening to more often.
The two hundred and ninety-eighth album: #298 Iggy & The Stooges - Raw Power
The screeching guitars sets up Raw Power as a metal album that does just that, featuring straight forward satisfying riffs that support Iggy Pop's vocals quite well. The depth in the album grows as you explore it further though, with Iggy's vocals changing more than you'd expect, a smooth and young sounding vocal in Search and Destroy, the first track, giving way to a more expected scream in later tracks, and a jazz-influenced sound in I Need Somebody feeling quite different, but still in tune with the rest of the album. Its a more impressive experiment than I was expecting from the album, but it felt like there was a lot to find in these eight tracks.
The one hundred and twenty-third classical recording: #956 Toru Takemitsu - A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden
A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden is the only work on the list by Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu, a Japanese composer who brought some of those roots into western classical music. A Flock Descends makes for a solemn work, at times tense in its build up results in a chaotic set of notes that becomes unsettling, the build up of discordant sounds resulting in a sound that's regularly quite hard to place. It's not a work that says much. Instead, it's a vaguely unsettling sound that takes time to find its place, experimental in a way that I appreciate but also not something that I would be able to listen to in a longer work.
The two hundred and ninety-seventh album: #297 Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies
While Alice Cooper's presentation feels like one of the big glam rock stars, listening to Billion Dollar Babies I can see the seeds of metal in there, sounded darker and more harrowing in places even if in other places the glam rock side really takes over for a weirder experience. It's probably the mix of both that is at play here and works, a darker undertone to a more experimental glam rock track. There are quite a few nice, good bits here and the combination works best on a track like Sick Things, slow and draining with a heavy bass, rather than when it tries to go conventionally rock-like.
The two hundred and ninety-sixth album: #296 The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Next
Normally, a glam rock album works for me. It's not my favourite side of rock, but it hits the right buttons. Next still doesn't quite satisfy that, though, and I think it's partially because the specific indulgences it takes don't quite work for me. Some of the songs are too long, but not in a way that really works, and consequently the slightly shorter second side works better. It feels like it lacks identity a bit, working better as a part of a performance you can watch. The title track in particular feels off - an adaptation of a Jacques Brel song - something that can work quite well in a rock context, gets too twisted and distorted at times to make for a good listening experience. The core of genius is there, but in this song, as perhaps with the album as a whole, it sometimes gets too distorted with how glam the album feels it needs to be.
Blogging has been a bit slow due to some recent surgery, but I think I'm okay now to do some occasional writing as I have a gentle recovery. It doesn't take much effort to listen to an album, after all, and comics have made for some nice, gentle reading through this.
The two hundred and ninety-fifth album: #295 Paul McCartney & Wings - Band on the Run
While Paul McCartney's solo album on the list was almost all his own, the recording of Band on the Run was more collaborative, with the songs credited as being co-written by Linda McCartney and a small band playing the songs. It means that we get an album closer to some of the Beatles songs in its production values, but one that suits McCartney in its scope, more classic rock with heavy jazz influences rather than being experimental as the later Beatles albums were. It makes for a good rock album with some catchy tunes - nothing that fully grabs me, but a good rock album to listen to.
The one hundred and seventh comic: #283 Silver Surfer
I like the concept of the early Silver Surfer stories. Rather than a hero ultimately celebrated for being the hero, the way he goes about his business and his lack of communicating his intentions leads to him being hated, on the same level as some of the villains he defeats. It makes sense as the response to someone who swings in and defeats, sometimes kills, someone else while causing a lot of destruction. It's a good concept, but it also feels like it takes a certain amount of stupidity and lack of communication to get to pull it off - after this much time it feels like you'd realize that just claiming "the common good" as a reason for doing this won't fly. It can be nice to see some superheroes fight each other as a concept, but it feels like it could have been polished and balanced a bit better.
The other part of the story that's meant to offset this is the other half that alienates you a bit as a reader. The Silver Surfer is on Earth as he's trapped there because of the decisions he made to protect it. A barrier protects him from leaving, but every story seems to start with him trying to escape and half of the bad outcomes of stories link to him wanting to get through. There's something obviously unsympathetic about a hero who doesn't want to be there, and the two elements combine to make reading the comic quite uncomfortable at times. I believe later volumes clean this up and give him more freedom, but right now it feels like an interesting concept that is perhaps too off putting to have as the sole focus of a monthly series.
The two hundred and ninety-fourth album: #294 ZZ Top - Tres Hombres
Despite the variation of genres that pops up from time to time, the brand of blues/hard rock that was part of the rise of rock and is probably exemplified by the Rolling Stones still comes up from some bands. In my (admittedly bad) memory, I haven't heard them as much recently, but I'm really enjoying these back to basics albums, where the pure music and albums are what matter, rather than the studio tricks that seem more prevalent in other genres of rock. The songs are also short enough to stay to the point and don't go on for an unnecessarily long time. It's a good, classic rock sound, using blues riffs but sticking with the rock sound that works.
The one hundred and twenty-second classical recording: #575 Maurice Ravel - Gaspard de la Nuit
Intentionally written to be difficult, there is an element of frantic uncertainty to hearing this. The first of the three pieces, Ondine, has the notes constantly flooding through, a cascade that mimicks the watery setting of the piece. There's a joy and excitement in the piece, and it comes across with a real rush. In comparison, the second piece Le Giet is slow and sombre, repeating a single note that the rest of the music slowly and deliberately forms around. The franticness comes back with Scarbo, but here far more chaotically, without as much of hte clear repetition as the earlier pieces but instead moving around like the mischievous creature the underlying poem subscribes.
Aside from anything else, the piece is really impressive to hear played, clearly requiring a lot of skill, but it also manages to create a setting incredibly well and are enjoyable because of that. It really feels like a masterpiece just listening here.
The two hundred and ninety-third album: #293 Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
While I've mentioned some of my dislike for soul and funk in earlier albums and songs, it feels like the genre started evolving in the early seventies to more closely match my sensibilities - less frantic and more accessible, losing some of the gospel side in favour of something closer to a pop track with a specific sound. That's to say that I really enjoyed Innervisions, with a good sound, some songs that spoke to me and something that's upbeat and good to listen to. The religious message that's there isn't too strong, but is also in that same optimistic set up, still staying accessible and absolutely listenable.