130. Spiritualized

(July 2017) I have completed episode 130 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to a band’s full discography. This edition: SPIRITUALIZED. Good space rock, especially early on. Later albums add emo-ballads and gospel.

Favorite album: Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space

Favorite song: Hey Jane

Compared to expectations: same

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129. The Ramones

(July 2017) I have completed episode 129 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to a band’s full discography. This edition: THE RAMONES. No band better represents the evolution of my musical tastes. In the 1980s, I considered their music as crude, unoriginal noise for simpletons. By the 2000s, I recognized them as f***ing genius.

Favorite album: The Ramones

Favorite song: Havana Affair

Special sauce: Dee Dee

Compared to expectations: same

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127. They Might Be Giants

(June 2017) I have completed episode 127 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to a band’s full discography. This edition: THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS. Remember those smart-aleky guys in your high school band who also ran the Science Club? It turns out they grew up to might be giants.

Favorite album: Flood

Favorite children’s album: No!

Favorite song: Birdhouse in Your Soul

Special sauce: John

Compared to expectations: same

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126. Styx

(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: ↑

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125. Moby Grape

(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: ↓

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123. Tom Waits

(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: ↓

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122. Ty Segall

(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

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