1001 Albums Summary

Collection of Jazz and Blues from one of the greatest voices of all time. Her magnificent voice carries the album accompanied by sparse instrumentation. Nina effortlessly goes from loud and powerful to quiet and delicate, inducing tears on a number of tracks. Album is named after the eponymous film and I thought it would have more to do with that but it seems to be just thematic allusion. I can see why this album is on this list but most of the songs aren't very interesting to me as a whole. I wouldn't come back to this to listen front to back. Instead, I would cherry pick the standout moments here which for me were Four Women, Wild is the Wind, and Black is the Color of my True Love's Hair.

A scant few sleepy, uninteresting bossa nova and samba jazz tracks. Reminiscent of the Rick and Morty "Human Music" bit and would play well as window dressing in a mediocre Mediterranean restaurant. My primary intent for listening to music is to feel and connect to a piece of art, hopefully it has something to say. When I listen to this, the experience I get is devoid of substance or interest. It's inoffensive and bland. Not for me.

Listening to Blues gives me the experience other people have when listening to hardcore music. It just sounds like a bunch of overlapping noise to me. I do think it's odd that Muddy Waters doesn't feel like the focal point of any of these tracks. I just don't think I like Blues. I will say, I can completely understand why people do like it. If I was drunk at a speakeasy and these guys were on stage going absolutely apeshit on the guitar and harmonica as they are want to do on this album, it would be difficult for me to not jump in the pit. Do they have "pits" at Blues shows? If they don't, then they should. Unfortunately for me once you've heard James Cotton wail on the harmonica once, you've heard it a thousand times. And for me that's the issue with this album - nothing much stands out. These guys are definitely talented but I can't imagine ever returning to this album.

I've never listened to Bob Dylan in any meaningful capacity before this. It's a little weird going into a live album as your first experience as well. Despite that, I really couldn't get enough of this - especially the first half. It's no wonder why he's lauded as one of the greatest songwriters and storytellers of all time. I listened to a few of the album versions of the acoustic songs and while they were all still great, these subdued and somber solo renditions were just as good if not better. The latter half of the album is understandably criticized more than the former, but it's still a good time. I'll definitely be coming back to this and I'll be excited to listen to more of his album-work.

There are parts of this album that really shine, particularly those crescendos of layered instrumentation over Mark Hollis's ethereal vocals. His voice lends an almost gospel-like quality these tracks and it's just incredible to listen to. However, that's the most I can say I like it about it: "parts". Most of the songs overstay their welcome for me by a full minute or two. I don't think I could return to it in full, but I'd be interested to check out more of Talk Talk.

Coming into this after the live album is interesting. I always thought Bob Dylan was more Folk and less Blues which was only exacerbated by my introduction being that live album. At any rate, I'm just not as interested in the band accompaniment with him. I listened to some older stuff as well and found it's more solo and Folk-oriented. This one is still Dylan, so there are definitely highlights, but in my opinion it's just not as good as him on his own.