Music Music Music

[poorpete]

Lionel Richie - Can't Slow Down (199/365)

My first choice was to listen to "Dancing on the Ceiling" as it's one of my first favorite pop songs from my childhood. Just imagine dancing upside-down! Anyways, the album wasn't on Amazon Prime, so I went with his Grammy-winning "Can't Slow Down", which is not true, because there's some long ballads on this. His best stuff, no surprise, is when he sounds more like Stevie than Michael, or in the case of Stuck on You, Kenny Rogers. Eh it's all very good to great stuff, minus the title track. Knew all but three songs. Still counts.

[poorpete]

[poorpete]

When I actively try to listen to more music led by female singers, the universe provides:


Hey look, Bonnie Raitt's "Nick of Time" is #52! That's two recommendations in two days. Now go listen!

My list would be different, except #1 is #1. Blue is the best. Lemonade at #6 probably makes the most waves, but totally deserving. The other 2016 album on the list: Solange's "A Seat at the Table" -- Bey: Solange; Serena: Venus. Also happy that Aretha is well-represented (I think with 4 albums on the list). Will be mining this list well after 2017 ends.

One's I have yet to hear from top 10:
3. Nina Simone - I Put a Spell On You (listened and loved the 2CD greatest hits, happily added this for week 33)
8. Janis Joplin - Pearl (not on Amazon Prime, but will listen on Spotify before end of year)

My only complaint is that they are albums 1964-now. If that's the case, I'd have like to see a compendium, like a Top 25 "best of" albums by artists not listed.

[Phoebe]

Wowww who ever made that list is, well, definitely not me! Not me. Not the list I would have made. But I am glad to see that there IS such a list, and it has good stuff. Inspiring for more album listens! I am having trouble finding the time lately for things like "bathroom break" and "where did I set my drink?" so listening to even a full song uninterrupted much less an album has been difficult. I have listened to Passionfruit about 62 times per day on a loop, and some very cathartic Motley Crue in the car, but otherwise nothing. :Crybaby:

Anyway, if you haven't tried this one yet I highly recommend: https://www.amazon.com/99-9-F%C2%B0-Suz ... B000002G0O

[Phoebe]

Oh and I decided I'm fine with Kendrick Lamar's comments on stretch marks. Wedged out of context between the latest "Thank you Bitch for shaking your Large Butt in my Face whilst I demean you" songs, it came across poorly. I think I get what he was aiming at now. Still not my cup of tea, but okay. Just don't tell me that makeup is "fake", Kendrick.

[poorpete]

Oooh, thanks for the Vega suggestion!

My wife pushed back on my ideal that Kendrick is the only man allowed to use the word "bitch" in a song. She's right, it's untenable. I'm just being selfish, and bummed these songs will go unlistenable in the near future.

Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do (203/365)

Enjoyed this minimalist (piano, vox, percussion) album that focuses a lot on depression, so of course I pick the happy song:



Goal achieved: an album review that was shorter than its title.

[poorpete]

[poorpete]

Jenelle Monae - Electric Lady (209/365)
Equal parts inspired by Stevie Wonder and the German silent epic Metropolis, rare has an album arrived prepackaged for me to enjoy. Hope her next album comes this year, because I want more, more more!

[Phoebe]

Forgot what number I was on last... Fix it later...
Leonard Bernstein conducting Pictures at an Exhibition and Night on Bald Mountain. Perfection.

[poorpete]

Haim - Something To Tell You (210/365)

Seemingly using Taylor Swift's "1989" as a template, this is full of 90s-style guitar-based pop hooks, 80s drums and synth fun, and lots of relationship lyrics. If teens don't eat this up, I don't know teens.

I don't know teens.

What I do know, is that I hope they take a chance and release this song as a single. Because more people than just album-buyers should know it... it's great pop and one of my fav new songs of 2017...

[Kyle]

Such an 80s video. It's like if... it's like...

Huh.

Why do I find it hard to write the next line?

[Phoebe]

[poorpete]

Teen suggested I listen to more Ed Sheeran, which I was more than happy to avoid for the rest of the year.

Verdi: La Traviata (211/365)

Listened: 1976 recording with Ileana Cotrubaş, Plácido Domingo, and Sherrill Milnes (on Amazon Music)
Watched: 1967 film with Anna Moffo, Franco Bonisolli, and Gino Bechi (on YouTube)

I arrived at La Traviata, the most performed Opera in the world, rather pessimistically. So far, my opera enjoyment has been only from comedic operas (Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, Pirates of Penzance, If it could count: Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera). The depressing synopsis I read on wikipedia did not improve my spirits.

But, yeah, I really liked it. I was surprised, knowing how it'd go, that I liked the music, but liked the storyline too. Unlike many modern dramatic films, where an illness is hidden until a "cough" arrives in act 3, this, from the first scene, is about a lady, who wants to enjoy life, with not much time left. She's better, she's sick, she's better, she's sick. Then, in the last 10 seconds, ...

We get good set pieces, a quiet room that leads into a rockin' party. A secluded countryside home meant for escape that eventually everyone escapes from. Another party, this time with dancers and a gambling scene stolen straight out of 007 if history ran in reverse. And a final lonely mansion, that elicits Xanadu in Citizen Kane.

And you got two sympathetic main characters and a selfish but loving third.

My favorite music, after two listens and a viewing, mostly came from the party scenes, but this was my favorite so far:

[poorpete]

Hank Williams - Best Of (212/365)

This guy is awesome. I should add some conditionals, he's awesome at writing and recording songs. Being a responsible drinker and adult was another thing entirely. Then again, maybe if he survived past 29 he would have.... 29?! He only lived to be 29?! He sounds over 50! His liver sure was certainly over 50. and it's pretty remarkable that his son, who you wouldn't think had the worldly experience of the hero of country music, has lived over twice as long. Musically, these songs sound timeless (and I'm amazed that they predate the singer-songwriter revolution ushered in by Dylan and The Beatles by over 10 years), and maybe the first songs ever where they sounded better coming out of the crappy internal speakers of my smartphone. Makes sense, they were probably made for AM radio and nothing matches the sound of AM than crappy internal speakers of a smartphone.

[poorpete]

Arcade Fire - Everything Now (217/365)

My experiences with Arcade Fire chronologically:
2005: The songs Wake Up and Rebellion (Lies) - inspiring, uplifting!
2007: Neon Bible album - meh, ok modern-life-is-a-dystopia songs.
2010: The Suburbs album - inspiring, uplifting! amazing album!
2013: asking me to buy a double album, Reflecktor, is asking a lot. The title song is good though
2014: Listened to their debut album Funeral - inspiring, uplifting! amazing album! Dang Neon Bible fooled me.
2017: Reflecktor is good, but no Suburbs or Funeral.
This week: latest album, Everything Now - meh to good modern-life-is-a-dystopia songs. Like a danceable Neon Bible.

[poorpete]

218-224
Blondie -Parallel Lines - good
Little Richard - Here's Little Richard - awesome. Also, fun fact, I mean it's no shock, but really had no idea he's gay. Thanks wikipedia!
Etta James - At Last! - awesome. Love the pathos. A great pair with Little Richard.
Santana - Supernatural - once I rid my playlist of all the overplayed songs and unappealing collaborations, this was a solid. The spanish-language songs were the standouts, but enjoyed most the Lauren Hill/CeeLo/Santana collaboration. CeeLo, six years before he became famous, and fourteen before we learned he was a creep, seemingly randomly but awesomely on a mammoth album.
Steely Dan - Two Against Nature - it good.
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raising Sand - fun covers album. T-Bone Burnett really knows how to bring people and songs together.
Taylor Swift - Fearless - sounds more 90s pop alternative than country, but -- you know what -- I'm sold. Three solid albums (Red and 1989 were also good) and I'm... a... ugh. Ok, I'm a fan. I don't think I'd attend a concert or actually spend money on an album, but she's undeniably good singer songwriter.

[Kyle]

[Phoebe]

So 83 was the Mussorgsky record, and 84 is Frank Black and the Catholics, the album of that name. I wanted to love it, I really did, and I came close but every song started to sound the same. Not very inspiring. Lots of satisfying guitar stuff but nothing that really spoke to me the way that, say, most of the songs on Teenager of the Year were speaking!

Started some other Frank Black and the Catholics stuff and then stopped - ehhh, I can't get into it.
Ready for some kind of number 85 soon! Hoping that once the kids go back to school there will be more chunks of quiet time when I can get through an entire album. It's looking pretty grim for making it to 365, obviously, but I'd like to see how far I can get. My daughter also has assigned listening stuff for music lessons now (beyond the usual suzuki stuff) and that might encourage lots of new additions to list.

[Stan]

Just recently discovered DakhaBrakha, a Ukrainian folk band. It's easy to imagine them as a bunch of nerds who met as music school as they are all so talented, playing multiple instruments, and singing. The music is heavy on fast paced vocal harmony. The instruments are mainly percussion, accordion, and cello, with occasional piano.

[poorpete]

Adding it, awesome.

Miriam Makeba - Pata Pata (#227)
Fascinating life (deserves a biopic), awesome music. Songs were totally new to me, including the two international hits, though I knew she collaborated with Harry Belafonte, which I may have to check out before this challenge is over.

Oh yea!
Update: found out I did hear the live version of this a year or two ago as it's on Harry Belafonte's second Live at the Carnegie Hall album from 1960. Was big into Belafonte for a few years there, and pretty much made my daughter a big fan too.