The ninety-seventh comic: #931 Scalped
Scalped is the story of Dash, a cop returning to his native American tribe to enforce the law there and, increasingly, the other people surrounding him. Through that lens, we get a bleak picture of life on a reservation, filled with alcoholics and drug addicts, where life is cheap when you're not at the top. It's a difficult read, the constant push downwards making for some harrowing tales that doesn't seem like they have a way out. It's well made and, depending on the point of view character, often compelling, but it feels like something to read in small doses, so it can takes its time to find a place and you can take your time to process.
The two hundred and sixty-sixth album: #266 The Temptations - All Directions
I think my issues with these funk albums keep carrying through. The tracks on this album have some good hooks and tie in well when those come through, but Papa Was a Rollin' Stone has parts that get lost in the context of an album, losing the edge when it's surrounded by the lengthy repetitive sounds.
The second side appeals to me more in that sense, even though I know the funk of the first is the reason this album is listed. It has a number of lovely, sensitive ballads that really appeal to me. The First TIme Ever really is that amazing to listen to, for example. It stays an album of mixed influences, but it's clear that what I latched on to wasn't where this music was going.
The one hundred and sixth classical recording: #132 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Violin Concerto no. 5, "Turkish"
There are a lot of Mozart's pieces to get through, clustered around this era, and I can see why they're so genre-defining - sure, there doesn't seem to have been as much competition in these days, but there's a beauty in the sound that comes through, always feeling somewhat ethereal and magical, played big for this piece but small enough to avoid being that bombastic. It doesn't necessarily have the most memorable phrases, but it's a lovely small piece.
The two hundred and sixty-fifth album: #265 Alice Cooper - School's Out
One of the weird things about bands like Alice Cooper, which were outrageous at the time, is how shock rock doesn't have that impact anymore. So much of it seems to have come from rumour and hearsay, while the music itself is tamer than that. Are there some edgy lyrics on School's Out? Sure. Is the title track going in hard? Absolutely. But the jazzy Blue Turk is none of that and is a nice, subdued rock song. Underneath the theatrics, there is a solid album here that draws from a lot of different influences, moving between hard rock, classic rock and glam rock to create a solid set of tracks that hold up far better than their reputation may suggest
The two hundred and sixty-fourth album: #264 Roxy Music - Roxy Music
On a cold and dark day like today, with the snow fading and turning into ice, Roxy Music's loud and upbeat British glam rock feels pretty incongruous. They're nice songs, sure, nothing that necessarily stands out as anything amazing. Some of it is off putting for a while, but there's thought put into the sounds that makes them work. It's not comfort listening, the changes in direction makes sure of that, but there's so much more going on in places that you wonder what's going on. At the core there are some good, standard rock songs - parts of this really could come from an early sixties rock album- but it's been added to, with unconventional intros and intermissions, so the occasional changes in instrument don't stand out as much.
It's probably Brian Eno's signature that's in there, pushing the music beyond its rock roots, and that influence is one I know will stretch beyond this. Focusing on that though ignores the good rock songs in there, the variation that comes in, and everything else in there. Part of why it's hard to place is because it feels this album experiments, still, with new styles in a way that I think I'll see pay off in later albums.
The one hundred and fifth classical recording: #951 Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians
There are few pieces that use vocals as an instrument, a repetitive lyrical sound that the performers even modulate the volume of through moving their microphones as they perform. That sound and the ongoing marimbas create the base of a hypnotic sound, then manipulated by other instruments as they come in and out until it returns to that same base. It's interesting, different from what game before, something I can imagine as part of a video game soundtrack, giving it such a different feel from the standard classical pieces on the list. There's something hypnotic about it, more than anything I feel I could just sit here and listen to it.
We've already heard of Steve Reich with Different Trains, a piece that stood out for its innovation, and I can see how this originated that work. In fact, this is the one work that is also ons ome popular music lists, and it has its place as a work that both draws on the differences in popular music of the day and passed it on to later artists.
It's a beautiful piece, different but in a way that works really well.
The two hundred and sixty-third album: #263 Paul Simon - Paul Simon
It was weird to hear a song use "Queen of Corona" when it's nearly fifty years old. It's a weird turn of phrase in these times in a folk rock song that doesn't quite suit that mood, but also isn't miles away from it. It was an odd stand out line in an album that's well written, but also didn't have a standout hit for me. There's some good folk in here as we've expected from Paul Simon as a writer, but this doesn't hit me quite as well.
The two hundred and sixty-second album: #262 Nick Drake - Pink Moon
It's hard to shake the impression this album leaves on you, one of music as depression. It's not necessarily incredibly sad as much as it invokes that feeling of being tired, unable to move or do anything. The murmured vocals, the single guitar playing repetitively, bright spots like 'Know' are pretty rare. Even so, the album isn't a hard one to listen to, the tracks feeling more like a comfortable blanket than something pushing you away, weirdly a way to find some comfort in those feelings. It's a lovely album, but it feels like one you need to listen to on your own, without any distractions or sounds from anywhere else - it's a Thursday morning, I'm waiting for scripts to run, I don't have anything else to pay attention to, this feels like the perfect album to feel maudlin to.
The one hundred and fifty-seventh TV show: #561 Will & Grace
As much as it was revolutionary at the time, watching Will & Grace doesn't feel like that way. Will, the gay character, is living a normal life. He's gay, and that impacts parts of what happens, but isn't the over the top stereotype that's common on TV, nor a tortured soul as other dramas seem to have. It normalizes the gay life style in a comedy, which makes for comfortable viewing and a good way to have an occasional twist on the formula. There are a number of jokes that feel dated, but on the whole it feels loving enough that it works as a sitcom - even now feeling like a rarity to have gay characters just living their life, to the point where it felt like the revival still worked despite its internal problems.
The ninety-sixth comic: #10 Happy Hooligan
Oh man, formulaic doesn't seem to cover it with Happy Hooligan. Reading through a selection, I can summarize any comic's plot with "Happy tries to be helpful to someone, it backfires (usually by the person falling) and Happy gets arrested". The cops seem trigger happy, people are unreasonable, and the whole thing isn't very amusing from the start. Even ignoring 1900s racial stereotypes doesn't improve that one bit, although these days just reading that is a bit uncomfortable.
The crossover with the Katzenjammer Kids shows that this is what newspaper comics were at the time, a lot of visual slapstick and people getting hurt, but the repetition here doesn't feel like it pays off.