The eighty-fourth comic: #496 XIII: The Day of the Black Sun
An amnesiac man washes up on the shore of an American village. As he's being nursed to health, assassins attack. From there on, the story of XIII - named after the Roman numeral tattooed on his collar bone - begins. He gets immersed in a president's assassination as he tries to unravel the plot while also understanding his past.
It's a fairly easy to understand plot and the comic does well with it. While the book officially only covers the first issue, or (I suppose) the first arc, it doesn't provide you with all the answers. Rather, it gives you a decent idea of what's happening and more layers get revealed as time goes on. It never comes as quite unexpected or a way to keep the story going, but grows naturally from step to step (although some reveals are more telegraphed than others). It gets through it at a nice pace and while I haven't finished the whole run yet, it feels clear that it would have ended when the truth fully comes out. There's quite a bit of repetition in the basic get captured => get cornered => get rescued set up, but XIII is competent enough that there are enough variations on it.
The art looks quite good, in the realistic Belgo-French style that I know quite well. It's a great way to position the characters and adds to the gritty action feel. I'm going to keep going with this series - at this point I might as well see it through to the end.
The one hundred ninety-ninth album: #199 Traffic - John Barleycorn Must Die
Unlike what I was really expecting, John Barleycorn Must Die starts with a seven minutes jazz song - not feeling quite as improvised as jazz normally gets, but still feeling quite loose. After that, the jazz influences remain a bit in the prog rock that follows, not a very complex sounding album but there are some decent vocal performances in the big, layered songs that work very well together. The titular, foksy track of John Barleycorn Must Die, is incredibly subdued in comparison, but because of that might well be the most memorable track of the six. It can clearly tell its story without gettig too deep into the prog rock sound and instruments - the flute really adding to the atmosphere. Ending with Every Moth's Son, the album ends especially strong, with what feel like its two best, most accessible tracks at the end, which make it worth the journey more than anything else.
The one hundred ninety-eighth album: Cat Stevens - Tea For The Tillerman
Some folk rock works better than others for me and Cat Stevens' Tea For The Tillerman fails to hit the right notes for me. It's not one man and a guitar, which can hit the right notes for me, but while there's some big production, there's not always the energy that needs. It sounds musically good, but the sentiments and emotions it's meant to reach don't hit for me. What doesn't help is that the covers of his songs that I'm aware of - Father and Son and Wild World stand out - have that punch and hit the emotional beats more than I feel here. I guess I don't manage to connect with Cat Stevens in the way the music requires, and that hurts the quality of the album for me.
The one hundred ninety-seventh album: #197 Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
Sometimes, you listen to a song, it feels like a perfect number, but then it doesn't stick the landing. Bridge Over Troubled Water is an amazing piece, performed well, delicate and sweet with a lovely message. The big, more bombastic finish overrules that though, and that's unfortunate. The album doesn't quite continue on that tone - El Condor Pasa sounds quite different, though still focusing on the lyrics, and it already has a different feel, while Cecilia is so different that the R&B-like rhythm is surprising, but it stays a joyous party song. The album, at this point, really feels like it's veered further into pop for a few songs, the folk disappearing a bit for something more danceable and joyous, even if the lyrics of Keep the Customer Satisfied don't quite fit the mood (but the juxtaposition makes the point far better).
So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright, changes that of course, going back into the sweeter, more sentimental sounds that with just that bit of knowledge really sounds like the duo's farewell. The Boxer, which feels like the other big song, starts the second side in a similar vein, a song that hits deep, beyond what you would get from just lyrics or music. It's an amazing performance, simple but so effective.
The album alternates between the upbeat rhythms and slower, more folksy numbers. The latter are more effective most of the time, with the best of the former at the start of the album, and at times they're more filler as the main contents of this album, and why it should be praised, are these gentle, sensitive songs that speak to (especially) Paul Simon's frame of mind at the time.
The one hundred ninety-sixth album: #196 George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
Listening to this album, it's clear that by the end, the Beatles were far more of a constraint to George Harrison's creativity than they were a help. Whie he may not have started out as one, the 23 tracks on this album come out with a decent variety in song writing with a very clear definition that suit his performance. It harkens back more often to earlier Beatles tracks, including their harmonies, while the topics are at times personal and at times spiritual. A lot of these were written during Harrison's time in the Beatles, then produced and put together by big names, and it shows in how good the tracks sound. At the same time, there's something good about the relative purity of the song writing - not always too complex, but clearly carrying out its message. No other albums of his are on the list, but in part that feels like because the sophomore slump feels unavoidable after this, and 100 minutes of material is a lot to put out at once.
The last disc, the Apple Jam, obviously strays from that into a number of instrumental jams and (as I could have predicted) these are less of a hit with me. They don't sound bad, but on the whole the jazzier approach never does as much for me as a thought out, more deliberate song.
The album isn't anything heavy or swinging, Dylan's influence and writing is obvious, but there's somethig about the way it comes together with Spector's big (but not over the top) production and the performances that makes it bigger than that, switching tones without straying too far. It's a nice and coherent work without being the same, a nice balance to create an enjoyable album.
The eighty-third comic: #611 Sailor Moon
I'll be honest, I'm not sure Sailor Moon ever quite grabbed me. While partially a superhero story featuring the Sailor Scouts, the titular Sailor Moon is clearly the focus of the entire story, with the love story elements of the likes of Nodame Cantabile and Rose of Versailles. The former is there early on, and gets a bit less later, but these are clearly part of the draw, while the action sequences are almost an afterthought - they are rare and don't work well in the entire thing. While that's fine, since they can be more boring, they feel so short that they're very much perfunctory and (I'd argue) almost useless as there are no dilemmas in the fighting. It probably works better in anime form, with some good animation, but without it they're not interesting.
That means that both sides of the coin, the relationship angle and the action angle, don't work for me,and the gaps in between, the hangout stuff, doesn't give me much. I still don't know much about the other characters, with Amy being the only one I felt I saw a bit more of, but developing that more, rather than characters from the future and making googly eyes at each other. There's a good core here, and I am curious to try the anime, but this never got there.
The eighty-third classical recording: #978 Milton Babbitt - Transfigured Notes
It looks like, after receiving the score, it took three years for someone to even take on performing the piece. Scored for strings along, Transfigured Notes is discordant, off putting and odd sounding, a mess of notes that never settles in, but still creates some musicality out of the different sounds and sudden switches of tempo that are present in this piece. The piece merges it into something a bit more concordant as time goes on, but this isn't a piece that really lets you settle.
The one hundred ninety-fifth album: #195 Rod Stewart - Gasoline Alley
It's weird to listen to Gasoline Alley as a 1970 rock album - on all levels,it feels more like something from the early 1960s, with a blues feel, simpler subjects and a sound that goes back to old rock and roll. Sure, it's gentler and the country feel has some appeal, but we've seen how this can be showier and bigger, even without losing that aspect, and this album loses out for that reason - it's not worth it enough for me.
The one hundred ninety-fourth album: #194 Soft Machine - Third
Listening to Facelift, the first track on Third, feels like it features two indulgences that I like least - the loose, too long jazz improv style layered on top of a prog rock feel that is unfocused, losing its power in the process. There are moments that make you perk up and think something interesting is going to follow, but really the twenty minutes just keep dragging. oon in June feels like a good step up (even if it's backwards for their oeuvre) as the lyrics provide a lot more structure to the num. It it still long, the lyrics aren't great, but it feels like it has a bit more substance while that part lasts. On the whole though, it's an album with four tracks that run too long, but don't have the pay off needed to make them worth the time spent listening to them.
The eighty-second classical recording: #898 Alan Hovhaness - Symphony no. 2, "Mysterious Mountain"
Mysterious Mountain, as a symphony, is a delicate piece, taking you on a journey through something beautiful, avoiding a more bombastic piece in favour of something subtle and small. For the most part, it feels like it doesn't do much or need much, but its tour is enticing and creates a lovely sound - I'm sure you could set a nice story to it. I didn't quite get a leitmotif that caught me, but its journey caught me and pulled me along.