(May 2017) I have completed episode 126 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to a band’s full discography. This edition: STYX. I listen so you don’t have to. On the Guilty Pleasure Nostalgia Playlist, I would put Peak Styx a notch below Peak Foreigner and two notches below Peak Journey. (Although post-peak Styx is less insufferable than the other two post-peak.)
Favorite album: The Grand Illusion
Favorite song: Come Sail Away
Compared to expectations: ↑
(May 2017) I have completed episode 125 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to a band’s full discography. This edition: MOBY GRAPE. Their first album helped define the San Francisco Sound in the Summer of Love. They then journeyed through the modes of late 60s/early 70s rock — blues, country, folk, boogie — but unremarkably so IMO.
Favorite album: Moby Grape
Favorite song: Hey Grandma
Compared to expectations: ↓
(May 2017) I have completed episode 124 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to an artist’s full discography. This edition: ELLIOTT SMITH. Talented singer-songwriter, one of the rare artists who tried to sound as quiet as possible.
Favorite album: XO
Favorite song: Tomorrow Tomorrow
Compared to expectations: same
(May 2017) I have completed episode 123 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to an artist’s full discography. This edition: TOM WAITS. One critic aptly described his voice as “like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car.” Great lyrical storytelling too. I am drawn more to the weird stuff than the ballads or the jazz/piano material.
Favorite album: Rain Dogs
Favorite song: Gun Street Girl
Favorite period: 1983-87
Compared to expectations: ↓
(May 2017) I have completed episode 122 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to an artist’s full discography. This edition: TY SEGALL. Frenetic, lo-fi, fuzzy garage rock. And one day you realize he is Syd Barrett reincarnate. So prolific — in10 years, nine albums and a couple dozen EPs and singles.
Favorite album: Manipulator
Favorite song: Thank God for Sinners
Compared to expectations: same
(May 2017) I have completed episode 121 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to a band’s full discography. This edition: DEAD KENNEDYS. I went to a Dead Kennedys show once. They played a key role in the history of hardcore punk. But with the passage of time, Jello Biafra just comes off as annoying.
Favorite album: Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Favorite song: Terminal Preppie
Favorite poster insert: My college roommates know which one
Compared to expectations: same
(April 2017) I have completed episode 120 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to an artist’s full discography. This edition: VANGELIS. Best known for his lush, new age-y soundtracks, his career is much more, covering psychedelic rock, avant-garde jazz, ambient and experimental electronica. As a fan of 1970s electronic music, I especially like his pioneering work in that period. Also, his first band, Aphrodite’s Child, makes an excellent contribution to psychedelic rock and probably should have received its own treatment.
Favorite album: Heaven and Hell
Favorite soundtrack album: Opera Sauvage
Favorite song: The Dragon
Favorite period: 1975-79
If you want nine hours of uninterrupted meditation music: The Tegos Tapes
Compared to expectations: same
(April 2017) I have completed episode 119 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to a band’s full discography. This edition: FLEETWOOD MAC. Remember that they put out eight albums before becoming the Gods of Soft Rock after Buckingham and Nicks joined, first as a pure blues band, then blues-rock, then early-70s pop rock. The Rumours album is remarkable: 9 of the 11 tracks got radio play from what my ears tell me.
Favourite album: Rumours
Favourite song: Oh Well
Worst album: Time
Special sauce: Christine McVie
Compared to expectations: same
(April 2017) I have completed episode 118 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to a band’s full discography. This edition: BOSTON. Simultaneously everything that people love about classic rock and everything that people hate about classic rock. A future historian of 20th century music couldn’t provide a better singular example of a Classic Rock Album than their debut LP.
Favorite album: Boston
Favorite song: Foreplay/Long Time
Worst album: everything else
Compared to expectations: same
(March 2017) I have completed episode 117 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to the complete works of an artist. This edition: DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH. I’m a big fan of 20th century Russian composers. I especially like his dynamic symphonies and string quartets. I noticed how he modulates between loud and quiet, and tends to finish movements quietly rather than with a classic flourish. It’s amazing to learn how he navigated his artistic expression through war and the Soviet system, suffering two denunciations. His martial works lauding Stalin and the Red Army come off as creepy, but that’s what he had to do to stay alive.
Favorite work: Symphony No. 5
Favorite movement: Largo, 3rd movement of Symphony No. 5
Favorite string quartet: 8th
Favorite opera: The Nose
Favorite overture: Festive Overture
Favorite piano work: Piano Trio No. 2
Compared to expectations: ↑
Opus Project 