Category: Episodes

266. Hawkwind

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(June 2020) Episode 266 is HAWKWIND. My interest is their role as a pioneer in space rock. The acidly cosmic albums of the early 70s are good head trips. Their peak featured Lemmy before he founded Motörhead (from the name of a Hawkwind song). But then they became Yet Another British Band That Never Ends, with multiple lineup amid countless recordings over half a century. Their dip into New Wave wasn’t bad, but mostly it’s Dave Brock’s (the only consistent member) shifting efforts to put out spacey material (new age, techno, tepid prog rock).

Favorite album: Hall of the Mountain Grill

Favorite song: Silver Machine

Compared to expectations: ↓

Hawkwind-mountaingrill

265. Curtis Mayfield

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(May 2020) Episode 265 is CURTIS MAYFIELD including his time in THE IMPRESSIONS.  I dig late 60s-early 70s soul/funk, a sound Mayfield helped create and mastered. That sweet falsetto is so distinctive.  I began with his time in The Impressions to get a full sense of his evolution from R&B into soul and the strong social commentary that characterized his work.  His quality dropped off after Superfly, into banal disco and then bland 80s adult contemporary soul.

Favorite album: Superfly

Favorite song: Freddie’s Dead

Compared to expectations: same

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264. Little Richard

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(May 2020) Episode 264 is LITTLE RICHARD. The music and style of this Founding Father are encoded in the DNA of the rock and roll. Impossible to quantify the influence of his late 50s albums and singles. But that’s all you need to hear. His voice and charisma do lift some later recordings, but most of the rest is either gospel or a retread of previous material.

Favorite album: Here’s Little Richard
Favorite song: Keep A-Knockin’

Compared to expectations: same

little-richard-dead

263. Georg Philipp Telemann

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(May 2020) Episode 263 is GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN. I do love me some baroque, but this was like an overdose. Perhaps the most prolific composer ever, Telemann wrote some 3,000 pieces, half of which survive, and I was able to find and listen to about half those — still about 800 pieces. Thanks to self-isolation, I did in 7 weeks what would have taken 7+ months. But his quantity isn’t matched by quality; while it isn’t fair to compare anyone to Bach, Telemann’s music can’t match his friend’s magic and melodicism. It’s all very nice though.

Favorite piece: Concerto for 2 Violins in C major

Favorite chamber piece: Overture-Suite in C major “Wassermusik”

Favorite cantata: Wie liegt die Stadt so wüste

Favorite big choral piece: Magnificat in G Major

Compared to expectations: same

Telemann

262. Alison Krauss

~ ernopepper ~ 2 Comments

(May 2020) Episode 262 is ALISON KRAUSS.  When I subject myself to country music, it usually goes down best as bluegrass. And so I find a lot to like about Alison Krauss, who (with Union Station) kind of propelled a bluegrass revival. But no matter the style of music, she just has the perfect voice. And her fiddlin’ is pretty good too.

Favorite album: Raising Sand (with Robert Plant)

Favorite solo album: I’ve Got That Old Feeling

Favorite song: Jacob’s Dream

Compared to expectations: same

Alison_Krauss_2011

261. Porcupine Tree

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(April 2020) Episode 261 is PORCUPINE TREE.  When many others were going back to basics with grunge in the early 90s, these guys were reviving prog rock.  Some of the music is enjoyable, especially the heavy metal-tinted later recordings, but the vocals/lyrics tend toward the prog-pretentious which is kind of a turn-off.

Favourite album: Deadwing

Favourite song: Shallow

Compared to expectations: ↓

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260. Luscious Jackson

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(April 2020) Episode 260 is LUSCIOUS JACKSON.  Their funk, syncopation and semi-rap is a Very 90s sound, but unlike so many others of that decade, it holds up.  It is not a surprise they have links to the Beastie Boys.  Did you know they made a children’s album?

Favorite album: Fever In Fever Out

Favorite song: Under Your Skin

Compared to expectations: same

fever in fever out

259. Stevie Wonder

~ ernopepper ~ 1 Comment

(April 2020) Episode 259 of the “opus project” is STEVIE WONDER.  Everybody loves Stevie and knows his hits.  But you should dig deep into his albums, particularly from his “classic” period of 1972-76, to really appreciate his (inner)vision and talent as a song composer and multi-instrumentalist.  Those albums are essential listening — the diversity and mixing of styles, the integration of synthesizers, the social commentary.  His early teenage prodigy recordings are dispensible; the late-60s, early 70s albums a mixed affair, and the 80s pop cringe-worthy.

Favorite album: Innervisions

Masterpiece: Songs in the Key of Life

Favorite song: Superstition

Worst song: I Just Called To Say I Love You

Compared to expectations: ↑

Steviewonder_innervisions

258. Clara Schumann

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(March 2020) Episode 258 of the “opus project” is CLARA SCHUMANN.  I realize I haven’t covered a woman classical composer yet, so it makes sense to do Clara right after her husband Robert.  A child prodigy and piano genius, her greatest fame was from concert performances, but she did some fine composing in her youth.

Favorite piece: Piano Trio in G Minor

Compared to expectations: same

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257. Robert Schumann

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(March 2020) Episode 257 is ROBERT SCHUMANN.  Another solid and dependable Romantic-era composer, although apologies if I confuse his works with those of Schubert and Mendelssohn.  Actually, I might put him a notch below them because of his aversion to big-form pieces (symphonies and concertos) that I prefer.  Lots of pretty piano pieces to enjoy, and melodic songs in German if that’s your thing.

Favorite piece: Symphony #4

Favorite choral piece: Requiem

Compared with expectations: same

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