The three hundred and sixth album: #306 Eric Clapton - 461 Ocean Boulevard
While I know Eric Clapton is meant to be an accomplished musician, I found this album uninspiring. This might be influenced by me finding the man generally unpalatable, especially in our current days, but I still can't find anything in the music either. Clapton mostly covers existing blues tracks, and while his solos are quite good, his vocals don't really carry the work and the music doesn't do anything for me to make it hold up. It's just not there for me.
The ninety-second book: #627 2001: A Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke
I've gotten back to the occasional book, as I felt I needed something to occupy me in the morning, and it seemed like time to get to a book I really loved.
2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as, to some extent, Dune, show how some stories are difficult to film and easier to write, to the point where I feel both are better as a visual companion to the book than a work in their own right. For Dune, of course, this has resulted in a generally less liked movie, but the movie version of 2001 is still acclaimed. Its cinematography is spectacular and the core parts of the story work really well - the confrontation with HAL having a tension you can't get in the books - but the more esoteric opening and closing parts make perfect sense in the book but are more vague in the film.
The book, through this, creates a rich world - whether it's the insight into the minds of apes as they develop higher brain functions, the description of life on a long spaceship journey or the visions left by long-dead aliens, it's all engaging and described so well. Clarke isn't necessarily the best at describing action scenes, staying quite clinical, but the interest is in the internal monologue and interactions with the world that stay engaging, even if the date for many predictions have long come and gone, prescient enough to still apply to us even as you ignore the dates mentioned in the story.
The three hundred and fifth album: #305 Stevie Wonder - Fulfillingness' First Finale
Stevie Wonder's soul album always work for me. There's a good beat of optimism in there, a sound that agrees with me and a flow to the album that really works as the start of a work day. It's a mix of feelings, deeper than the above my suggest, but the soul sound works well to both give those emotions without spiralling. It's a good album and it's a shame we only have one more Stevie Wonder album left.
The one hundred and sixty-ninth TV show: #115 Mission Impossible
I won't deny that there's some pull in the spy fiction genre that Mission Impossible moves in, but I can't say I wanted to watch too much of it. While suggesting they'll have a different group, you know that the intro always has your lead select the same group. The missions are somewhat different, but it all has to go a little bit too well when the occasional set back would have been more interesting. There are some interesting conceits, but it's a show that in the modern day struggles to hold my attention, with a style of storytelling that feels a bit too smooth here. I think it's clear this type of action show is one that hasn't held up in the modern era, but also hasn't appealed to me for a long time anyway.
The three hundred and fourth album: #304 Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information
In the years that I've been going through this list, jazz has been a contentious genre for me - even live performances haven't won me over and I still proudly have the "Jazz is dead" postcard on display that I got handed in LA. Now Inspiration Information isn't jazz, it's soul and funk and other genres deriving from it, but some of its high points feel like a jazz fusion, fading into the background sometimes while at other times pulling you in when they're different. There's R&B in here, there's funk, there's all sorts of things that work really well out here. Mostly, this is a good album to have on, working to keep me entertained without dominating
The one hundred and twenty-sixth classical recording: #841 Sergei Prokofiev - Symphony no. 5
There are cliches that I want to adopt to these write ups that make a remarkable amount of sense now I've listened to quite a few. Don't, for example, judge a work by its first movement. Often, as in the case of this symphony, it's a set up that gets referred back to and contrasted with other works, but can take on quite a different tone. The anger in its first movement gets contrasted with a more exuberant second and slower third. It's a gentle, quite pleasantly flowing piece with a joyful finish that's quite inspiring to listen to and a good start of the day.
The three hundred and third album: #303 Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
We've reached another concept album, with Genesis' prog rock extravaganza the last album Peter Gabriel did with them - and the last time Genesis shows up on the list. As is usual, it's hard to say a lot about the overall feel of a concept album as there really is a lot of variety in here. The more fantastical elements come across quite well as such, playing with different genres and some quite discordant sounds when needed. For other, more grounded parts you get some good, bouncy rock tracks, nothing too extravagant but you can tell the difference between the different parts of the story from the way the tracks sound.
While not many tracks work as s stand alone song, and those that do are mostly earlier in the album, it works as a journey that doesn't even need the plot description of the liner notes to give you an idea of what is happening here.
The three hundred and second album: #302 Bad Company - Bad Company
The point of these lists is always two fold - it both needs to show the exemplars of music and genres in particular, while also taking you through the outliers that tdo their own thing and the albums that set up what's to come. When listening, it's the last two that are more exciting, as they show you something new or do something different. Bad Company is the former, though, a really strong rock album that doesn't do anything too innovative and follows the lead of bands like Rolling Stones, but does it so well that the eight tracks of the album sound really good.
The one hundred and twenty-fifth classical recording: #680 Igor Stravinski - Pulcinella
There is something quite stately about parts of this ballet, a deep and overwrought sound that contrasts with the more delicate ballet. At the same time, the reliance on commedia dell'arte concepts adds a levity to the proceedings, so that the chase sequence is fast paced and humorous. It's a decent and varied piece without the visuals, but quite unpredictable in how it develops, building less than other pieces do. Obviously, the visuals add a lot to it, and even if, like me, you're not constantly watching it, some glimpses help set the scene.
The three hundred and first album: #301 Brian Eno - Here Come The Warm Jets
We're starting off the 1973 albums with something more avant garde, with rock tracks that are experimental and, at times, quite off putting when they divert further from the norm. They are quite interesting in the way they're structured, but the conventional sounds do work a bit better. Brian Eno's vocals are a bit off as well and don't really fit the rich sounds of the songs, which really makes it clearer to me why he's such a major producer: the instincts of what makes a good song are there, but at least as a vocalist he doesn't add as much and at times makes it sound more like he's mocking the songs. On the whole, the album is worth listening though for what's so different here.