The two hundred and fiftieth album: #250 Yes - Close to the Edge
As I think we've come to expect from Yes and other prog rock bands, this 43 minute album contains three tracks. It opens, in fact, with the eighteen minute behemoth Close to the Edge, which starts with the sounds of birds and nature before coming together into a set of songs that stays remarkably coherent throughout - the throughline is there, unlike a lot of other lengthy songs like it, while moving through different movements with their different moods. It's a far more impressive feat than most, feeling in how it's built like a classical piece while staying a rock number. The album pulls off this amazing feat of keeping the three tracks focused like this - with an identity they don't lose - and never wears out their welcome. This might be the first album with these long tracks that really succeeded at this for me and I'm glad to hear that it can be done.
The ninety-eighth classical recording: #108 Domenico Scarlatti - Keyboard Sonatas
Looking at the works that surround this one on the list, we're at a point where classical music has really left the choral and is moving on, but isn't at the bombastic stages we later get. Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas are delicate, not using fancy tricks to impress but instead playing beautiful, light pieces that impact with a relative simplicity.
The list only gives a selection of the over 500 keyboard sonatas written by Scarlatti, but they already give the impression of someone working on something delicate and sweet, with a clear view of what he's doing with his works, but creating beauty out of all of that.
The two hundred and fourty-ninth album: #249 Deep Purple - Made in Japan
I listened to Deep Purple a few weeks ago with their album Machinehead and this album duplicates quite a bit of that. Recorded live at a few Japanese concerts, it seems the draw isn't necessarily the songs (a lot of those we've heard before) but the live performance in a double length album. As you'd expect, this leads to more extravagant solos, but also a lot of energy that comes from the feeling of having the live crowd there.
It doesn't resolve the issue I had with the album a few weeks ago though - at songs of this length, you need something that holds them together, and here it even more feels like they drift too much - the live interaction making that worse. In the end, it feels like there's some good rock in here, but it lacks a real identity to hang it from.
The two hundred and fourty-eighth album: #248 Slade - Slayed?
Slayed? is a hard rock album. Some of it has some glam rock influences and a song like 'Feel So Fine' draws on earlier rock influences, but so much of it follows the hard rock standards that it's hard to say more than that. I didn't really get drawn to any specific songs, the album oddly mostly being a presence in the background while it never gave me that feeling of reaching special heights.
It's the only album of Slade's that's on the list, and it works as a good example of where else the rock genre stands, but I didn't feel this soared to greater heights.
The ninety-seventh classical recording: #48 Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber - Mystery Sonatas
These sonatas are the earliest piece we've covered in a while and they feel from a different time. While later works start to pick up a certain sound, using string instruments (I believe it's from the continuo group if I read it correctly) that we heard in the very early works but disappears later to be replaced by heavier pianos. Here it adds an upbeat flavour that connects the music to earlier, less religious music, and while the pieces continue to have that meaning, they are also a big change from the harmonies that are present in more religious music. This feels more like a mix between the religious and secular.
There is a lot of variation in these two hours of music, dominated by violin performances. As a collection, it makes good use of different instruments to lend a different feeling to each of the works as it goes through these emotions with an ear for change while keeping a lot of the work consistent. It's a nice collection of sonatas with some variety in there, and I can see how this would have been leading in its day.
The eighty-ninth comic: #467 Torpedo 1936
I sometimes love stories about antihero, people who aren't a traditional hero but that you end up following through their story, if not rooting for. The line between one and someone who becomes repulsive can be thin, though, and Torpedo 1936 goes too far off the wrong end.
The most egregious examples are several instances of rape as a payment for a hitjob he's done, which feel unnecessary and over the top, and are the biggest crime in the series completely failing to build any empathy for the character. He's a dick, he seems to delight in killing as many as possible and it's all probably pretty realistic, but doesn't make for anything approaching a good comic. It'd be good if that changed, but as it is this feels like a comic to avoid.
The two hundred and fourty-seventh album: #247 Curtis Mayfield - Superfly
While I haven't watched the blaxploitation film Super Fly, I've seen the similar Shaft and listened to its soundtrack. The soul of Superfly isn't quite as good - although that might be because I don't have the movie to compare it to which may make it shine by comparison.
A lot of it, even with the vocals there, comes down to a sound that goes to the background, with this sounding like supporting music rather than music that stays in the foreground. It has some decent riffs, but the strength is in the vocals that aren't used for the movie, telling a rather uglier, more depressing story that doesn't approve of the protagonist as much. In that sense, the story it's telling is a lot more welcome and mostly works really well in its context.
It works with those goals in mind, but is hardly exceptional in what it does. It's a fine album to listen to, but little more than that something that here is certainly a matter of taste
The eighty-eighth comic: #901 Sardine in Outer Space
I have to say that in this case, dealing with a comic that's clearly not aimed at me is quite frustrating. I'm sure that it's fine in its category, but it's hard to see how this comic aimed at young kids is that important. The jokes are obviously kid friendly, following an anarchic set up of naughty jokes, kids being naughty and all of that enabled by the fun parent. What really gets to me is that the entire story line is immediate, throwing in sudden changes and expectations and just feeling unfulfilling. It is as if it's written by a five year olds - including their sudden "but they win because of this new thing" twists - which ultimately feels unsatisfying.
I'm sure it works for the target audience, but as a comic on a list of recommendations, it doesn't hold up.
The eighty-seventh comic: #572 Even A Monkey Can Draw Manga
On some level, Even A Monkey Can Draw Manga has shades of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, in that it tries to break down the comic in a meta fashion. However, where the latter focuses on breaking down the medium, analyzing it and trying to say something about the art form, Even A Monkey Can Draw Manga has a more down to earth, almost exploitative bend in the way it talks about drawing manga. The focus is more on creating a comic that's popular and will sell, without going deeper. While that works for the comedy (as over the top puerile as it is sometimes) it means getting lost in technical details that get a bit bewildering for a Western audience.
Ultimately, it means the comic is fun - really good from the start - but loses steam as it gets to some in depth genre 'analysis' (how do I reach the biggest audience, usually with some sexual undertones) that just doesn't appeal quite as much. Still a worthwhile read, but it's a concept that stretches itself just a bit too thin.
The two hundred and fourty-sixth album: #246 Neil Young - Harvest
The potential in folk and country rock is one where musically, it keeps itself a bit more contained - there can be more going on, but it avoids screeching guitars as well as the musically 'full' wall of sound. Not necessarily a man and his guitar, but while there's an orchestra on some of these tracks, it doesn't dominate. The connection you get with the work is more personal, from the vocals and what is there getting its hooks into you.
While Neil Young's technique follows these elements, I haven't actually felt a connection with the music in this album. For a large part, he appeals towards a sense of Americana in the lyrics that I don't connect with, the country roots of the music shining through in a way that's not aimed at me. The songs are good, proficient in what they do and they're an easy enough listen (probably helped by them not seeming that political compared to others in the genre), but ultimately the lack of real consequences makes them feel hollow, while not having anything else that grasps me. It's a fine album, but doesn't seem to reach the heights I'd expect.