1001 Albums Summary

MY QUEEN!!!!! This is such a classic holy I forgot how much I loved this aged 15. Bit miffed that my first suggestion from this damn website was one I’m already familiar with but I had fun with this in the end so I can’t be too mad :3

Not my type of music and won’t be after this challenge but I’m still glad I listened to the whole thing!! Though I haven’t listened to any other releases from her Complete American Songbook series yet I suspect this was probably not the best choice for this list, if only for its inaccessible form - there are EIGHT albums in that collection and every one bar this is single LP length, why would the editors choose this as essential listening?? I also don’t personally care for most of the Gershwin compositions here and my 21st century British ears were quite tired after 3+ hours (albeit I listened in about three chunks which helped a bit w/ the burnout :]). still I v much appreciate this was before the album era and I am probably listening to this under very different circumstances to its original audience. Ella does a fantastic job with the material though. 2.5/5

LOVE the guitar tones throughout this. Not very ‘Unplugged’ however lmfao. Kind of wish the accordion was used on a few more occasions beyond just Jesus Don’t Want Me for a Sunbeam which surprise surprise is my favourite here. Then again that would probably lessen its effect in that one song (: My attention did waver a bit towards the end, this is likely my own bias against stuff I’m not v familiar with but I suspect were a few tracks left out of the performance it would be just as, if not more, impactful. In general I preferred the covers as compositions to the originals. very haunting to think that the man singing here would no longer be alive less than 5 months after this performance. 3.75/5

Woah this comes from the source!!! Those bottom keys!!!!! Fuck it 5/5

HOT MEAT! HOT RATS! HOT CATA!!!!! 4.75/5