Elton John – Madman Across the Water (1971)

9 tracks, 45 min 18 sec

Rating: 9/10

Top Track: Levon

For today's second listen, an artist I am far more familiar with. Additionally, this is the 9th entry from 1971, and the second this week. What can I say, apparently it was a good year for music. Definitely know many, many Elton John songs, and I know the album Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road well enough to exclude it from the list of prospects, but I only know the three most popular tracks here: Tiny Dancer, Levon, and the title track.

Honestly just a really solid listen. Elton is obviously known for his piano abilities, which really shine through here. As someone who took years of piano lessons as a child and now barely remembers how to play, it's always cool to me to hear some piano rock. I think the most surprising thing here is my choice of Levon for top track instead of Tiny Dancer, and while the latter is great, Levon is one of my favorite songs ever, partially due to just how great his performance is on that song. It just feels so meaningful to me every time. Other top tracks are, of course, Tiny Dancer, as well as Madman Across the Water and Holiday Inn.

of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (2007)

12 tracks, 51 min 22 sec

Rating: 10/10

Top Track: The Past Is a Grotesque Animal

Here's the catchup album today, will be making a second post shortly. Back to my habit of listening to albums by bands I'm entirely unfamiliar with. I've gotten of Montreal recommended to me a couple of times, and today is the day I finally listen to an album.

I was between a few albums to listen to of theirs, and I'm really glad I picked this one. Of course, I haven't heard the others so for all I know they could've been equally good choices, but they can't have been much better for the simple reason that this was fantastic (obviously the 10/10 above the cut spoils this a bit). This was a really entertaining album musically but also just interesting in many ways to listen to. A bit of a darker album in that respect, but rather intriguing. Again, don't have much to say here except that it's just good and if you're reading this, stop that and go play this album instead. Of course, no runner up favorites for 10s.

Yes – Fragile (1971)

9 tracks, 41 min 22 sec

Rating: 9/10

Top Track: Roundabout

So the worst of my Tuesdays is done now. That's not to say next week will be any better, but one can hope. Don't have time to catchup today, but should be able to tomorrow. At any rate, wanted something more familiar for today, so to Yes we go. I know several of their songs, including Roundabout and Long Distance Runaround from this album.

Absolutely wonderful listen. I don't have strong preferences when it comes to song length, but I do tend towards longer songs, and Yes is one of my big influences there. They do a really good job of filling up that time and keeping you interested the whole way through, especially with the recurring themes and such. This album has some great examples of that for sure, and a lot of my favorite tracks are impressively long. At the same time, the shorter tracks kind of balance it out a bit, which I feel like I haven't seen much of; that is, artists using track length as variation within an album. I really like how that's done here. Plus the music is fantastic. Top tracks for me are Long Distance Runaround, Mood for a Day (see I do like instrumentals!), and Long Distance Runaround.

Barenaked Ladies – Gordon (1992)

15 tracks, 59 min 8 sec

Rating: 8/10

Top Track: If I Had $1000000

A third album in a row from the 90s! I should change that tomorrow. (Yes, this means my queue emptied again.) Here's a band that has been popping up in my life for several years now, but I've never really heard anything of theirs till today. Happened to hear If I Had $1000000 a couple of times recently, which is part of the reason I'm playing this today; otherwise, I know absolutely nothing from BNL. Oh, I should throw in here that I am fully aware of the different original cover, but I'm going with the cover on Spotify here.

Really great listen, and very straightforward compared to the weekend's listening. A nice change, that. This album feels very 90s to me in a very good way. Good mix of consistency and difference between songs, and some really catchy tunes were thrown in here. This was very close to a 9, but there are a couple of songs that I don't care for as much that dragged this down for me. Tracks I did enjoy, though, include Enid, Brian Wilson, and Wrap Your Arms Around Me.

Daniel Johnston – 1990 (1990)

11 tracks, 40 min 3 sec

Rating: 7/10

Top Track: Some Things Last a Long Time

A recommendation from a family member today, who earlier this week sent me a trailer for the 2005 movie The Devil and Daniel Johnston and suggested that I listen to this album. I am utterly unfamiliar with his work beyond that trailer and the Wikipedia reading I did when I watched the trailer, but before listening to the album.

If you aren't familiar with this person at all, go look him up and read his story, because I feel like this is above my (nonexistent) pay grade, in a way. This album is the product of someone living with bipolar disorder who was in and out of psychiatric institutions and all sorts of situations while making this album. And yeah, the music should be the focus more than the background, but if you've heard the music you'd also recognize how much this all plays a part here. This album also has a lot of religious themes, which as someone non-religious I tend to shy away from (though I don't mind them), but it feels different here. I'm still not sure how I feel about this album, but I can confidently say I like it, and there's something more to it than the songs. There's something incredibly intriguing to me about this album. Top tracks here are Lord, Give Me Hope, Tears Stupid Tears, and True Love Will Find You in the End.

Elements of need - Elements of need

Elements of Need – Elements of Need (1994)

3 tracks, 12 min 1 sec

Rating: 3/10

Top Track: Empty

Breaking a lot of barriers with today's album. My first rec on site, and a release obscure enough to not be on streaming beyond YouTube, something that has not happened yet (with the exception of one brand new album from February that hadn't released yet on streaming, though now has). I can't even pull the album cover from MusicBrainz like I usually do; it's from Discogs this time. I really prefer to be able to listen to things on Spotify, but am very willing to make exceptions to this rule as long as it is somewhat easily obtainable. This is also the shortest release in runtime I have played as part of this project, as this is a 7" EP. I think it goes without saying that I know nothing about this group, but just in case, let me say that I know nothing about this group. Now you know.

Unfortunately, this was very much not it for me. I've recently mentioned a few times that I really dislike music that heavily features screaming vocals, and this takes that to the extreme. To its credit, I actually do find the guitar distortion pretty cool. Maybe it's hypocritical to like that similar sound when created by guitars as opposed to vocals, but there's something specifically irritating to me that I can't quite pin down about screams. And I've gotten on my soapbox before with regards to my thoughts on people liking music that I don't like; I think that's cool as hell and you should keep liking your stuff regardless of what this one random internet person thinks. I don't know what I'm doing anyways. No runner up favorite racks this time, not because I didn't like it, but because there are 3 tracks.

(edit to add blog note: tumblr asks kinda break the theme I was using, so reverting back to the tumblr default theme for now while I consider the best way to solve this problem)

Logan Whitehurst & the Junior Science Club – Goodbye, My 4-Track (2003)

22 tracks, 1 hr 1 min 12 sec

Rating: 9/10

Top Track: Me and the Snowman

This is one of the more obscure pulls on this blog, I think. Perhaps not the least listened to artist here (though admittedly I haven't checked), but near that for sure. This pick does not come from me, I'm not familiar in the slightest, much like most of the people reading this I'm sure.

This was absolutely fantastic. This is another one of those picks from a list given on a They Might Be Giants-centered Discord server, and it really shows, which I mean in a really positive way. Hell, Whitehurst is compared to TMBG on his Wikipedia page, which I would take as a massive compliment, personally. It would be entirely true to call this one of the best comedy albums ever, if not the single best in the genre (certainly the best I've ever heard), but it would be unfair to limit this to comedy albums. Not to hate on comedy albums or anything, but this is something more. The music behind it is really great, there's some good genre mixing going on, and overall this was just a really solid album. Top tracks for me include Aron, Happy Noodle vs. Sad Noodle, and How Ya Doing, Emily?

Oasis – (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995)

12 tracks, 50 min 13 sec

Rating: 6/10

Top Track: Don't Look Back in Anger

One of the most popular albums of all time for today, especially across the pond, as they say. Of course I know Wonderwall, as well as Don't Look Back in Anger, but that's it for me here.

I have a kind of specific take on this album. Wonderwall, in my opinion, has the remarkable ability to feel overplayed even if one has, as in my case, not heard it an excessive amount. Unfortunately, I found this kind of applies to the rest of the album as well. That's not to say I don't like it; Wonderwall is still one of my favorite tracks here, and this album is better than it is bad, but it really takes away from the album for me. This is one of those examples, unlike Harvest, where I do agree with the initial reviews that did not particularly praise it. Like them, I don't hate it; Wikipedia describes their reviews as "lukewarm", and I think that pretty much describes my feelings here as well. Also, kindly, what is The Swamp Song doing here? Favorites other than Wonderwall are Cast No Shadow and Champagne Supernova.

Neil Young – Harvest (1972)

10 tracks, 37 min 10 sec

Rating: 8/10

Top Track: Heart of Gold

I realized two days ago that Neil Young and Joni Mitchell recently reinstated their work on Spotify following their (justified!) removal of their material two years ago. Two years I've been without Neil Young! That's two years too long. I've been looking for somewhere to fit Harvest (which was already on my list, I figured I'd listen to it elsewhere or, since I do own it, on CD) since then and today is that day. I know Neil Young quite well; the two tracks I know from this album are Heart of Gold and Old Man. Again, though, I've heard very little from him in the past two years, so there's that to take into account as well.

This was a fantastic way to celebrate Young's return to Spotify. Absolutely a fantastic listen. Something I've noticed during this project is, when Wikipedia says that critics panned an album on initial release but later reviews have been more favorable, I tend to agree with the earlier critics, sadly. This album has quite clearly broken that trend. Overall a really great listen, and though I again fully agree with Young's earlier decision, Spotify is, for better or for worse, incredibly convenient as a consumer, so I'm really thrilled to have him and Mitchell back. Should probably look out for one of her albums as well soon. Top tracks here include Harvest, Old Man, and The Needle and the Damage Done.

Broadcast – Tender Buttons (2005)

14 tracks, 40 min 38 sec

Rating: 7/10

Top Track: I Found the F

Tuesday is my worst day. I really need to commit to doing this earlier in the day, but my schedule on Tuesday is awful so even that's difficult to hold. Oh well, the semester's ending soon enough anyways. For yesterday, I'm listening to this 2005 album by another one of these bands I know very little about.

Really didn't know what to expect here, but this worked surprisingly well for me. When I finished the first track I was a bit worried, because this style worked so well for that song and I wasn't sure if the others could live up to that. None were quite as good as that first track, so it still gets the favorite spot, but again I was pleasantly surprised by how well Broadcast pulled off this sound. I definitely enjoyed this album quite a bit, in the end. Top tracks include Black Cat, Corporeal, and Michael A Grammar.

Traveling Wilburys – The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1 (1988)

10 tracks, 36 min 24 sec

Rating: 8/10

Top Track: End of the Line

I honestly don't know much of the Traveling Wilburys; I know End of the Line okay and kind of know Handle with Care, but that's it. What I do know is that to me they're sort of the supergroup to end all supergroups. Not that the members need listing, but for those unfamiliar, there's a good chance you'll recognize at least one of these names: Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, and George Harrison. Michael Palin also has a random credit if that name means anything to anyone other than me. I know all of these people and love their music, so it's no surprise that this ended up on my list. What is a surprise is that I didn't play it earlier.

As I expected, this was a really fantastic listen. Putting these five together really just makes sense, and they made a really fantastic product. Something I particularly like about this album is that it doesn't sound like it came out in 1988. It's the exact same caliber of the stuff these folks were releasing in the 60s and 70s, and I mean that as a compliment. A couple tracks I didn't care much for here, but otherwise just a really solid album. Top tracks include Handle with Care, Not Alone Any More, and Heading for the Light.

March Summary

↓ below the cut ↓

3 months! Again, I'm just as shocked as anyone that I'm still doing this. Here come the graphs and stats:

Number of unique tracks played this month: 336

Total duration of music played this month: 24 hrs, 1 min, 55 sec

I should note that the above only considers new music I listened to as part of this project, not the rest of what I listen to.

This month included a week of silence on my end thanks to my spring break activities taking up so much of my time. Not only do I put some amount of effort into these posts, but also I was barely able to listen to any music during that time, let alone new albums. But as of yesterday I am fully caught up and back to one album daily! What a relief. Somehow in all that I have the longest amount of listening time yet, almost 2 hours longer than January, presumably in large part due to the large amount of double albums I threw in this month. Really happy with my ratings graph this month, not so much with the number of 70s albums I listened to, though a lot of those were also thrown in during that chaotic final week.

This month has my closest race yet for top album, but in the end it goes to Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life. Aja came close, but Songs had something really special to it that I thoroughly enjoyed. Also one of the best examples of a double album in some time; I mentioned in the post for that album how shocked I was at how well it held up over all 21 (!) of its tracks. And yes, I am starting to rein in my Sparks plays finally, so that's helping me judge these a bit better.

I'm really happy with how this month went and am really looking forward to what April has in store!

The Who – My Generation (1965)

12 tracks, 36 min 13 sec

Rating: 7/10

Top Track: My Generation

Coming back around to close today's posts with a band I am once again rather familiar with. I know a decent number of The Who's songs, but only really know the title track from this album, though I've heard The Kids Are Alright a few times as well.

This album is quite strongly reminiscent of the early Beatles. This isn't the only album by The Who that I have in my list, but the other is quite a bit longer so I've struggled to fit it in, and now it's gonna have to wait I suppose. That one I think I might like better, because this was still very much that style that British Invasion groups had at the time and it gets old after a while. That's not to say I didn't like this all the same, though. Top tracks here are La-La-La-Lies, The Kids Are Alright, and A Legal Matter.

Parquet Courts – Wide Awake! (2018)

13 tracks, 38 min 42 sec

Rating: 6/10

Top Track: Tenderness

Another in the increasingly long list of artists I know nothing about for today's second listen. Really, nothing else to say here.

This ran a little too punk for my tastes, especially at the beginning. I'm really finding I don't like shouty music, except in small doses. But this album blurs the lines enough between genres that I was able to find a few enjoyable songs, though many were just fine and a couple were quite bad to my ears. The lyrical content and occasional transition helped out as well, I liked those. Favorite tracks here are Total Football, Before the Water Gets Too High, and Mardi Gras Beads.

Bob Dylan – The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)

13 tracks, 49 min 30 sec

Rating: 9/10

Top Track: Don't Think Twice, It's Alright

Three posts today since I fell asleep before fitting in a second yesterday, then I'm caught up. An older album now from one of my dad's favorite artists ever. I mean, my music tastes tend to run old, but this is older than most of them. Through him and my own listening I'm pretty familiar with Dylan already; I know Don't Think Twice, It's Alright the best here, but have also heard Blowin' in the Wind and A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall and know a cover of Masters of War really well, though I don't think I've ever heard Dylan's version.

Honestly just a really solid album. Dylan's well-known for his lyrical abilities, and in his early career especially he did a really good job of pairing those lyrics with somewhat simple instrumentation. Simple, but not basic. Just bare-bones enough to really let his songwriting shine through, adding just the right amount to the words themselves. A beautiful album through and through, though honestly a little sadder than I expected. Not sure why I expected happier from an album with these song titles, but alas. Don't Think Twice was an obvious favorite pick for me, but runners-up here are Blowin' in the Wind, Girl from the North Country, and Bob Dylan's Dream.

The Decemberists – The King Is Dead (2011)

10 tracks, 40 min 35 sec

Rating: 7/10

Top Track: Calamity Song

A rare in-between for me today; I know the Decemberists, but not well at all. For most of the artists I'm familiar with, I am very familiar with them, and most of the exceptions I know 1 song from. I know 2 songs by the Decemberists: Don't Carry It All and Rise to Me.

This was a really good album, except that by the end it all felt the same to me. I really wish there was a tad more variety here, because I honestly could barely distinguish some of these songs. I liked them all, but again they just all felt so similar to me that that's hardly surprising. They were all rather good, though, so a 7 it gets. This sameness makes it hard to pinpoint favorite tracks, but I'll try to list a few: Don't Carry It All, Rox in the Box, and June Hymn.

Heart – Dreamboat Annie (1975)

10 tracks, 39 min 56 sec

Rating: 7/10

Top Track: Crazy on You

Another one of these classic rock band debut albums, which makes 2 for today. Whoops. Gets tricky when you're spending a week playing catch-up and listening to 2 albums daily. At any rate, I know a whopping 4 Heart songs, including Magic Man and Crazy on You.

This was a pretty solid album. I've always had a fair amount of respect for Heart for being just as rocking as all the men who tend to dominate classic rock, especially the singers; obviously you see more women in the music industry now, but as someone who grew up listening mostly to classic rock or the occasional 70s station, there seemed to me to be precious few groups featuring women in the way Heart was. A lot of female singers worked in a different genre, which is cool in its own right and all but also just makes Heart and those other classic rock women really cool. I say all this to say that Heart has a really strong showing on this album, and by and large I quite enjoyed it. Top tracks for me here included Magic Man, Dreamboat Annie (the main version of Track 5, not the other 2), and I'll Be Your Song.