(November 2018) I have completed episode 190 of my “opus project.” This edition: FRANZ FERDINAND. The angular rock of their first album spent a lot of time in my CD player in the mid-aughts. Stuff after that, where they trended toward this neo-disco thing, not so much.
Favourite album: Frank Ferdinand
Favourite song: Take Me Out
Best song that’s also a spot-on homage to a Kinks song: Eleanor Put Your Boots On
Compared to expectations: same
(November 2018) I have completed episode 189 of my “opus project.” This edition: ELVIS COSTELLO. I’ve always enjoyed his popular songs, but I never collected his albums. Arguably the most gifted living songwriter not named McCartney, Dylan or Simon, he is also incredibly prolific (a new release every 16 months over four decades) and diverse (rock, lounge, jazz, country, classical). He best work is in rock, and I find his crooner/lounge pop recordings to be almost unlistenable: ill-suited to his voice and soured by his tendency to melodic wandering.
Favourite album: Armed Forces
Favourite song: Veronica
Compared to expectations: ↓
Worst album: Kojak Variety
Favourite late-period album: Momofuku
Best collaboration: Wise Up Ghost (with The Roots)
(October 2018) I have completed episode 188 of my “opus project.” This edition: THE B-52s. I bought their first album soon after it came out — one of only two* non-classic rock discs on my shelf . I loved the retro kitsch. But the retro kitsch ran thin fast. Beyond “Roam,” Love Shack,” and “Good Stuff,” most everything after “Rock Lobster” is vacuous.
Favorite album: The B-52s
Favorite song: Planet Claire
Compared to expectations: ↓
(October 2018) I have completed episode 187 of my “opus project.” This edition: THE RUNAWAYS. The first all-female hard rock band, they paved the way for many others (think L7 and The Donnas). KISS may have sold out arenas but their contemporaries The Runaways were no less hard-charging and loud. They also gave us Joan Jett and Lita Ford.
Favorite album: Gueens of Noise
Favorite song: Cherry Bomb
Compared to expectations: ↑
(October 2018) I have completed episode 186 of my “opus project.” This edition: EDVARD GRIEG. In August we were in Bergen, Norway, hometown of Edvard Grieg, so I was delighted to start this episode there. Other than Peer Gynt, I was not so familiar with his work, but I was pleasantly surprised despite my relatively low interest in Romantic era classical music. Piano is his strong suit, and the array of arranged and original Norwegian songs shows how he helped inspire Norwegian patriotism (that led to independence in 1905).
Favorite piece: Peer Gynt
Favorite chamber piece: String Quartet in G minor
Compared to expectations: same
(October 2018) I have completed episode 185 of my “opus project.” This edition: THE HIVES. Inject this punk-inflected garage rock directly into my veeeeiiiins! Regrettably, I did not come upon The Hives until recently, because It Me. If you don’t know them, make them Your New Favourite Band.
Favourite album: Veni Vidi Vicious
Favourite song: Die, All Right!
Compared to expectations: same
(October 2018) I have completed episode 184 of my “opus project.” This edition: MOTÖRHEAD. Rock n’ roll to make your eardrums bleed: the way it should be. Lemmy never diverges from the core concept: loud and fast and whisky-fueled, but even over four decades it never got stale. Beauty in its purity. I came late to Motörhead, which was a mistake.*
Favourite album: Overkill
Favourite song: Ace of Spades
Worst album: March ör Die
Best later album: Bastards
Compared to expectations: ↑
* imagine the enhancement of my musical trajectory if, in 1979, I had bought Overkill instead of Van Halen II
(October 2018) I have completed episode 183 of my “opus project.” This edition: The SHANGRI-LAS. Among the Girl Groups of the mid-1960s, the Shangri-Las have stood out to me. Perhaps it’s their “bad girl” image, or that a couple of their songs verged on social commentary. You may recognize them from “Leader of the Pack” and “Remember (Walking in the Sand).”
Favorite song: He Cried
Compared to expectations: same
I have completed episode 182 of my “opus project.” This edition: JOSEPH HAYDN. The Boss of the Classical Period, known as the father of the symphony and the string quartet. His compositional style was bound by the orthodoxy of the baroque period that preceded him, grounded in the Classical sound and forms he helped create, yet never reached for the adventurism of his pupil Beethoven. He was quite prolific; this was a looooooong episode.
Favorite form: Symphony
Favorite symphony: No. 100 in G major
Favorite concerto: Cello Concerto No. 2 in D
Favorite piano sonata: No. 51 in E Flat Major
Favorite trio: Trio for baryton, viola & cello in A major (XI:71)
Compared to expectations: same
(September 2018) I have completed episode 181 of my “opus project.” This edition: THE STROKES. Angular rock. Their first album “Is This It” spent a lot of time in my CD player in the early aughts. Subsequent albums are of diminishing interest.
Favorite album: Is This It
Favorite song: The Modern Age
Compared to expectations: ↓
Opus Project 