Someone tagged me for the shuffle music thing, but I just haven't got around to doing it. I was intending to combine it with this blog, but I just don't get my ipod out much these days and doesn't have a huge bunch of my music on it. So I think I will give that a miss.
Bill Evans - Sunday At The Village Vanguard - 1961
I've had this one mainly playing in the background, and it hasn't really stood out for me. It's piano jazz, with a fairly strong bass backing. I'm guessing I still just don't really get jazz. It will be interesting to go back and listen to Duke Ellington, the first jazz album I listened to, as that album made me think I could possibly get into jazz. Maybe it was just the newness of it at the time, and now that I've heard a few, I might not be impressed if I go back to it.
Booker T & The MG's - Green Onions - 1962
Being the non-muso that I am, it took me a moment to figure out that the organ is the main instrument on display here. Occassionally the guitar comes to the fore, but those moments are brief before the organ steals the thunder again. It's obvious there is some terrific finger speed and skill being displayed here. Sometimes the same note is played so fast with such consistent time that it is hard not to be impressed. But at the same time, the novelty of the organ rubs off shortly thereafter. There are no vocal accompaniments (which is not necessarily a problem for me) and as such it seems like this album all just melds into one. While every track seems to express the same sort of groove with consistency, it makes the album a bit boring for me.
Ray Charles - Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music - 1962
Once again I'm not inpsired by Ray Charles. Nothing wrong with this album either, but it isn't striking me as anything special. When I've been putting this on it seems to fade into the background pretty quickly and I'm not paying attention to it. I'm not sure what the Country and Western subtitle is meant for. It sounds like laid back jazz to me.
Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin Bob Dylan - 1963
I'm a bit divided about this album, a singer-songwriter playing guitar. Before I gave it my first listen, I asked Megan if I could chuck it on in the stereo in the lounge, to which she promptly told me no, explaining that while his song writing is good, his diction and pronounciation is terrible. I joked that I needed to come to that conclusion myself and she had now ruined it for me. But now I've given it a few listens, I think her description is pretty accurate. Perhaps based on her initial impression, the first two tracks didn't really impress, especially the harmonica on the second track; it shrills for an unecessairly long time and is really annoying. But then Masters of War begins, and while the guitar track he lays down is repeated throughout, it's the lyrics that matter, and his delivery make it sound like a truly heartfelt song.
That said, on other songs I have difficulty understanding what he is saying. Granted, I have a lot of albums that are heavy metal where I have yet to figure out all the lyrics, but when the vocals themselves are delivered cleanly and you still don't understand, that's just terrible pronounciation. On one track I'm sure he is supposed to be saying 'hair'. It still doesn't sound like it, but I'm guessing that is what it must be. The album is quite varied, but I'm not finding enough to keep me impressed for the long term.
Phil Spector - A Christmas Gift For You - 1963
I wonder if this one makes the list because of its significance for the time? According to the entry in the book, this contemporised many Christmas cIassics. I'm not sure exactly what that means; I suppose where these were sung by carolers without musical backing, they added in drums, triangles and what have you. I guess that may have been new in 1963, but almost 50 years on these versions don't sound much different to what I already know.