1001 Albums Summary

5 songs in: Well, so far, this album appears to be what you get when you feed the Nine Inch Nails and Andrew Lloyd Weber catalogues into ChatGPT and ask it to make you something hopeless. Complete: Ok, to me, it's almost 50 minutes of Jesus storming the temple in Superstar. It's just a lot. I wonder how much of my experience is created by the way the aids process sound. There's a lot where the soundscape just feels like a whole lot of....noise vs music. I can kind of recognize that there are layers of things happening, but all I'm actually experiencing is the aural version of when you've rinsed your paintbrush off in a cup of water with too many different colors.

Oh, this is such a relief on so many levels after listening to that Muse album straight through yesterday! First of all, there is such an overabundance of male voices and perspectives coming at me on a daily basis that a female one makes me want to get down on my knees and weep with gratitude and relief. Second of all, when that voice is Joni Mitchell, I’ll go from my knees down to a fetal position and just soak it in. I’ve never listened to this album (or most albums) from start to finish. I love this whole 1001 albums project for forcing me to take the artist’s intended journey. It’s new for me. After the Muse album the “simplicity”….no, that’s not the right word….the “straightforwardness”, maybe, of a voice and a guitar is such a gift. That’s what my brain and ears, such as they are, were craving. And her turns of phrases, both musical and lyrical, are delicious. The notes of the phrase “we don’t need no piece of paper from the city hall” in “My Old Man”…so satisfying. Oh, my kingdom for the vocal freedom of Joni Mitchell…her voice feels like a bird soaring on gusts of wind and relishing every swoop and directional change. Jesus, though….how desperately lovely and heartbreaking is Little Green. And River…I’ve never been able to listen to it without crying, and that’s okay. It’s such an absolutely perfect encapsulation of that very particular shade of heartbreak. I’m so grateful when I find those songs that I know can strum that particular heartstring for me…it reminds me to tend them. That said, now I’m crying in the grocery store, so….that’s inconvenient.

Never heard of this band or album! I’m excited! Well, I probably would have really liked this album freshman year of high school, when I was super into Led Zepplin, The Byrd’s, The Eagles, Janis Joplin, etc. Really like “I Shall Be Released”….but more because I’m like “Oh….that might be fun as an a Capella arrangement” than because it’s actually poking my heart. Definitely interesting to hear about their background with Dylan, as well as their influence on other artists. I can definitely hear those influences. Full disclosure: I listened to this with one hearing aid on because the battery was dead in the other and I didn’t have a replacement. That said, I think I heard enough. Usually, when someone makes the choice to include an organ in their aural landscape, I have to make the choice to exit the premises. My system has a visceral reaction to organ music.