(September 2020) Episode 281 is PATTI SMITH. I don’t get it. I know people love her as the poet laureate of punk rock. But I find her music to be pedestrian and her singing voice affectation to be off-putting.
Favorite album: Horses
Favorite song: Radio Ethiopia
Compared to expectations: ↓
(August 2020) Episode 280 is OS MUTANTES. What do you get when you combine psychedelic rock, weirdness and Brazilian rhythms? Pure awesomeness. Added bonus: they used their music to subvert the Brazilian military dictatorship. I’ve known them for a couple decades, but this review confirms them as one of my favorite bands of the 1960s. Amidst lineup changes, they did a couple of prog albums (not bad) in the 1970s and a couple reunion recordings (just ok) in recent years.
Favorite album: Os Mutantes
Favorite song: A Minha Menina
Compared to expectations: ↑
(August 2020) Episode 279 is BILL MONROE. The Father of Bluegrass, so much so that the entire genre is named after his band. He was also very stern in enforcing orthodoxy of style and form in the genre he created, a dynamic that persists to this day. It’s interesting to listen to their 1940s singles as they show the transition from standard country to this distinctive sound. My favorite songs are the machine-gun fire banjo-led jams.
Favorite album: Master of Bluegrass
Favorite song: Bluegrass Breakdown
Compared to expectations: same
(August 2020) Episode 278 is FRANZ LISZT. Known as both the Greatest Pianist and Greatest Showman of his time. His technical wizardry and force on the piano secure his influential place in musical history, but I wonder whether his reputation as an entertainer serves to inflate his reputation as a composer. Or maybe that’s just my bias against Romantic-era music showing through. He was very prolific — it’s amazing he had any time left for the ladies — composing in all forms and with countless arrangements of his own and others’ works.
Favorite piece: Piano Sonata In B Minor
Favorite orchestral piece: Faust Symphony (it’s big!)
Favorite suite: Hungarian Rhapsodies (esp. #2, I prefer the orchestrated versions)
Favorite little piano piece: Ballade #1
Favorite choral work: Hungarian Coronation Mass
Compared to expectations: ↓
(August 2020) Episode 277 is DOLLY PARTON. Dolly is an institution. Beyond her success as an entertainer, businesswoman and philanthropist, my take-away here is her strength as a song-writer. I find her best work comes from the heart, grounded in her East Tennessee roots. Thus I prefer her songs inflected with bluegrass and Appalachian folk, or featuring lyrics from personal experience. Her voice can carry any song, although I admit to cringing when she’s doing pompadoured kitch with Porter Wagoner, pop crossovers, or flag-wrapped patriotic fare.
Favorite album: Little Sparrow
Favorite song: Early Morning Breeze
Favorite periods: early 70s solo, bluegrass trilogy 99-02
Least favorite period: late 70s-80s pop phase
Worst album: For God and Country (a blast of Iraq War jingoism)
Oddest cover: Stairway to Heaven (yes, that one)
Compared to expectations: same
(August 2020) Episode 276 is THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN. Another band whose influence was greater than their sales, their biggest mark is planting the seed of Shoegazing with the fuzzy noise of their stunning debut album. But they chose not to stay and till that ground, instead meandering through many alt forms from the late 80s through 90s.
Favorite album: Psychocandy
Favorite song: Degenerate
Compared to expectations: same
(August 2020) Episode 275 is JOHN COLTRANE. It’s hard to be cooler than Coltrane. Although I have a mixed relationship with jazz and saxophone is far from my favorite instrument, I appreciate him for his talent, innovation and influence. I agree that A Love Supreme is his best album and see why My Favorite Things is his most popular song, but I find myself drawn to the sound of his later-career free-form recordings.
Favorite album: Ascension
Best album: A Love Supreme
Favorite song: India
Compared to expectations: same
(July 2020) Episode 274 is THE JESUS LIZARD. Delivering bass-heavy noise and growls unburdened by conventional form. It’s like eating a mixture of pop rocks and nails.
Favorite album: Liar
Favorite song: Gladiator
Compared to expectations: ↓
(July 2020) Episode 273 of the “opus project” is THE DOLLYROTS. Peppy, energetic pop-punk with plenty of hooks and a bubblegum attitude. Wife-and-husband team. I recommend the first two not-yet-overproduced albums.
Favorite album: Because I’m Awesome
Favorite song: Because I’m Awesome
Best cover: Brand New Key
Compared to expectations: same
(July 2020) Episode 272 of the “opus project” is HILDEGARD VON BINGEN. By the name you might think this is a German doom metal band. Not so! Hildegard lived in the 12th Century in what is now western Germany and was a visionary, mystic, poet, composer, naturalist and abbess — making her the oldest artist in the Project. Musically, she left us perhaps the greatest cache of medieval monophonic compositions. With their contemplative and mystical qualities, it is not a surprise her works have attracted attention from the New Age movement. For listening, I recommend finding recordings by genuine early music groups in order to avoid the New Age-y reimaginings.
Favorite piece: Ordo Virtutum
Compared to expectations: same
Opus Project 