Paul Dempsey - Strange Loop
george - Unity
David Gray - White Ladder
k d lang - Drag
Lior - Autumn Flow
Joni Mitchell - Night Ride Home
Moloko - Catalogue
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
Simply Red - Picture Book
Do you know which album stands out the most on this list? The one I don't like.
The reason I even own a copy of Drag is because it was actually cheaper to buy it in a 2-pack with another k d lang album, Invincible Summer, than it was to get the latter on its own. I'm not automatically attracted to group lots of that kind, but when it's actually cheaper I'm not going to say no.
But Drag has always been a disappointment. Every now and then I've mustered up the will to give it another shot, as I did during October. And each time I end up thinking no, this is really quite boring.
The whole concept of the album - a smoking theme - doesn't entirely help. The whole thing is a little bit arch, and a bit too fond of its own cleverness with the double reference to lang wearing men's clothing. But it's the triple reference that kills it: the album drags. There are flashes of interest here and there, but over the course of 52
minutes it lives up to its name in ways that are quite unfortunate.
Bach, J.S. - Was mein Gott will, das g'scheh allzeit (What My God Wants, May It Always Happen)
Beethoven
Symphony No.1
Romance for violin and orchestra No.1
Piano Sonatas 6, 10 and 13
Violin Sonatas 2, 5, 6 and 7
String Quartet No.2
String Quintet
Chopin
Mazurkas, op.67/2, 67/4 and 68/4
Galop Marquis
Largo in E flat
Nocturne in C minor
Waltz in A minor
Dvorak
Requiem
Mass in D
Te Deum
Haydn
Missa Sancti Bernardi von Offida ('Heiligmesse')
Missa in tempore belli ('Paukenmesse')
Missa in augustiis ('Nelsonmesse')
Holmboe
Symphonies 2, 3, 5, 8, 9 and 13
Concerto No.1 (for piano)
Epitaph
Tempo Varibaile
String Quartets 1, 2, 3, 9, 12, 13 and 16
Violin Sonatas 1 and 2
Primavera
Mozart - Piano Concertos 1 to 4, 15, 16 and 25
Nielsen - [various songs and choral works translated into English]
Nørgård - Inre och yttre landskap (Inner and outer landscape)
Nørholm - Three Songs for male choir, to words by Garff
Poulenc - Sonata for 2 pianos
Rachmaninov - Suite No.2 for 2 pianos
Ravel
Piano Concerto in G
Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
Violin Sonata No.2
Schubert - String Quartet No.15
Schubert - Piano Sonata in G, D.894
Shostakovich - Symphonies 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12 and 15
Sibelius - Lemminkainen Suite
Vivaldi
Concerto for Strings in D minor ('Madrigalesco'), RV 129
Sonata a 4 in E flat ('Al Santo Sepolcro'), RV 130
Sinfonia for Strings in B minor ('Al Santo Sepolcro'), RV 169
Violin Concerto in C minor, RV 202 (Op.11/5)
Violin Concerto in C minor ('Amato bene'), RV 761
Concerto for 2 violins in G minor, RV 517
Concerto for violin and cello in B flat, RV 547
Quite a long classical list again. Although the length of the list doesn't always reflect the listening. For example, nine of Shostakovich's symphonies take up just one line. And Dvorak's colossal Requiem, which in some ways is one of the more challenging things I've listened to despite his innate tunefulness, doesn't take up any more space than the little scraps of Chopin's last works.
The Beethoven chronology is a little more scrambled than usual, because it catches the end of one of my time slices (works from around 1798-1800) and the beginning of another (works from around 1801-3). There's a lot development in those years, and the end of Beethoven's "early period" isn't all that far from the beginning of it!
One of the most pleasant surprises of the month was early Mozart. I had assumed that the first 4 piano concertos, which are essentially his arrangements of piano works by others, would be relatively uninteresting. But they were a real delight. It's true they might not have the depth of the more mature piano concertos, but listening to them was highly enjoyable.
And at the other end of a career, the late Haydn masses. I think it will take a while to really get to know these works well, but they are making a good first impression. The 'Paukenmesse' and the 'Nelsonmesse' in particular strike me as compositions I will want to return to quite a bit.
And, um... that's it. Having left the last post lingering so long, I don't want to dwell on this one. I want to catch up.
Christine and the Queens - Christine and the Queens
Paul Dempsey - Strange Loop
Seal - Human Being
Thrice - Beggars
Megan Washington - There There
Another rather light month for pop music listening (partly affected, as is always the case, by my rule that a partial listen that gets interrupted doesn't count). There's plenty to talk about, though, because of the new entry on the list: the self-titled album from Christine and the Queens.
I stumbled across "Christine" (essentially just one person, not a band) on an episode of the Graham Norton Show.
I watch the show fairly regularly. It's quite rare, though, for the musical performance to grab my attention the way this one did. Pop music, undoubtedly, but art-pop. And a true performance piece, not simply a singer standing on the stage.
A few weeks later, Deezer chose another track from album, "Science Fiction" as one of their featured songs. After that, I decided that I had found a pop artist I wanted to hear more of. I can't remember now whether I sampled the whole album online before going out to find a CD copy. Yes, yes, I'm still buying CDs...
And Christine and the Queens is a fine CD. Those first two songs I heard are arguably among the best ones, but the album as a whole is strong. Lots of pop hooks, easily digestible but not mindless.
What annoys me, though (and this would have applied whether or not I chose physical media) is that the record companies have decided that I absolutely must listen to Christine and the Queens and not the album that Christine originally released, called Chaleur Humaine. Apparently, the French quotient of this French singer was too much for us all to stomach.
Some of the songs appear to be identical, though, and still include considerable amounts of French. Some have been rewritten, including the first two tracks I encountered. And in some cases the two albums have completely different songs.
This annoys me on two levels. The first is that I still believe in the integrity of albums and don't think this kind of thing should be done, though when it comes to a different language I can understand it. Plus, Christine and the Queens still flows well and some of the new songs are very good indeed.
But the second annoyance, and the far greater one in this day and age, is that I'm denied the choice. It would be a trivial thing to allow Chaleur Humaine to also be available for download from iTunes and the like, but no. English language stores simply deny that it exists. It seems my best bet for purchasing Chaleur Humaine, which I would like to do having found a way to hear it, is buying a good old-fashioned physical CD from Amazon France.
It appears that there is a special tour edition of Chaleur Humaine that also includes the new songs added to Christine and the Queens and a couple of tracks, so that might be what I go for. But it's a perfect illustration that the way music is sold as digital files still doesn't reflect the way the internet works. Finding out about music from around the world is easy, and yet the record companies want to insist that they will decide what I listen to based on where I live.
