More spins, soon after the first ones. These will probably continue hot and heavy as I’m between jobs and don’t feel up to looking for a new one until my back feels better. (The VA, at least, gives substantial disability payments for a hangnail; the Social Security Administration would probably give a serious look at a chronic bad back/extra vertebra that I was born with which makes it hard both to physically labor and to sit for long periods of time. Frankly I’d be fine with taking an early retirement at this stage of life, but the stigma of going on disability as an excuse lazy people use to avoid working gives me pause. So far.)

Gong - Camembert Electrique (1971): And here we have the first true Gong album. Didier Malherbe’s winds and Pierre Moerlen’s drums bring the fusion, the writing turns to actual songs (though there’s plenty of bullshittery still, it doesn’t dominate the album), and I can’t tell if Steve Hillage is in the band yet: there’s none of his trademark glissando but some of the guitar tone and textures sound like him. The album is split about evenly between songs and psych jams; this is significant because it’s the first time on a Gong release that there even are songs. This balance makes Camembert much more tolerable, even enjoyable, than the two freakout discs before it. Also the Planet Gong mythos is becoming more fleshed out. A side note: so few students took French at my high school that there was only one classroomful per level (everyone else took Spanish), and the classes became very close-knit. The Frenchiness of Gong was very appealing to me in those circumstances and even though all I had was this and the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, I was (and am) very favorably disposed to the band because of this.?si=utXcEBuUee3Zockr

Gong - Continental Circus (1972): Seventy-eight minutes for an album with seven tracks. Only two of them are under nine minutes, and a live “Flying Teapot” tips the scales at 27:42. This is the soundtrack to a French film of the same name by J. Laperrousaz, if that means anything to the buffs here. From what I can tell from the excerpts, it’s about a dirt bike racer from New Zealand in Europe. As you can imagine there’s jamming galore, but Moerlen in particular keeps it from the freeform freakout of Haunted Chateau/middle section of “Tobacco Road” by the Blues Magoos. For one thing, there’s an actual groove, anchored by Moerlen and whoever plays bass. I think it’s safe to say Steve Hillage was not in the band for Camembert Electrique because there’s no sign of him here. Though it’s only two tracks, about half this album is live. It’s the best music here, frankly: if you’re into guitar and sax jamming these tracks make the whole set worthwhile. All that said, one listen to this album is all you’ll ever need.?si=mv-vNiRMsrO5mUiI

Gong - Flying Teapot (1973): Putting on this album again after 20 years is like slumping into an overstuffed armchair, the kind that will kill your back if you sit there too long – hello, old friend! The sound is now the Gong I associate with the band, and the experimentation is now very listenable rather than aimless lysergic psychedelia and actually incorporated into the songs, more whimsical than cosmic. Gong have fully arrived (indeed, a theme of the third albums of this What’s Spinning? is arrival at a mature sound.) Didier Malherbe is front and center here; if there’s any guitar at all it’s buried in the arrangement. Bottom line is that for the first time, this is fusion rather than freakout, and if it’s less lively than Camembert, it’s musically better. Even so, it doesn’t transport me back to high school, it’s just straight enjoyable music. Meddle to Camembert’s Piper at the Gates of Dawn.?si=YrsruYafy72Zw2et

Jimmy Buffett - A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean (1973): The first recognizably Jimmy Buffett album, even though it’s an artist in transition, more country-folk than beach bum. But the steel guitar and conga drums make their first appearance, as well as a reference to his band as the “Coral Reefers”. I’ll be damned: “Why Don’t We Get Drunk” was his first hit, probably largely for novelty reasons, but bringing ears to his sound and bringing him name recognition. If High Cumberland Jubilee was his first enjoyable album, this is his first good one, with a great leap forward in arrangement, too. The lyrics are still mostly country-style story-songs and the hammock stuff – I don’t know if this is typical, because the only Buffett I’ve heard is the hits compilation Songs You Know By Heart that my dad had when I was growing up.?si=UCT0SEV8JiGu6QF0

Jimmy Buffett - Living and Dying in 3/4 Time (1974): This feels like a step backward from the last one even though it sounds even more Buffetty. The songwriting just isn’t there and the congas are mixed so low that they’re nigh-inaudible when the drum kit is playing. The overall vibe I get is that this is Sparks’ Indiscreet to White Sport Coat’s Propaganda: it’s a further development of the sound, but it has a “sophomore slump”-style songwriting step down, as if he has exhausted the initial surge of ideas and is left with also-ran tracks. That said, it’s still a really enjoyable album. Ironically, only one song is in triple time.?si=G1mRmIVe9Ovdf8l0

Jimmy Buffett - A1A (1974): The full transition to parrothead Buffett – just look at the cover, with its photo of the man lounging in a chair on the beach! All of the songs are enjoyable and it’s just an excellent album all around – there’s a pattern so far with Buffett where solid-not-spectacular and really good albums alternate. The songs are well-arranged and explore the topics we’ve come to expect from him: sailing, drinking, the ocean, and the Gulf Coast. Buffett really was an underappreciated lyricist – he had a country sensibility in his songs’ subject matter and turns of phrase, where the words seem to fit perfectly together perfectly in sync with the best. The line “living and dying in three-quarter time” finally makes its appearance in “Nautical Wheelers” some ten months after the album with that name (that makes no sense). Fittingly, the song is in triple time.?si=wHfy3Ge5q3j7CSFR

Taylor Swift - Speak Now (2010): The tunes are back! and they’re strong. That makes for a big step up from Fearless in itself, plus there are no smash-hit stalker anthems here, though the title track, about a psycho ex-girlfriend crashing a guy’s wedding, has similar nuts vibes. This one strikes me as more countryish than the one before it, too, mostly in a quality of the vocals. Also this is a really fucking long album: about 80 minutes with ten or eleven minutes of bonus tracks. The two-disc Taylor’s Version is even worse, about 110 minutes. Despite the length it’s a great pop album, the best she’s released so far. For the second listen I put on Taylor’s Version. For someone who doesn’t eat and breathe Taylor Swift albums it’s pretty much indistinguishable from the original, down to the twang. The extra time is owed to some songs “from the vault” (I have no idea whether they’re original or re-recorded). It reminds me of Kate Bush having written a hundred songs before she recorded any; they’re as good as the album tracks.?si=QmLMKXPOjVmalA_z

Taylor Swift - Red (2012): Definitely a transitional album, half sounding like the last two and half sounding like the pop queen to come. 1989 was supposed to have been her big transition to pure pop, but I’m hard-pressed to find anything more than vestiges of country here, mostly in a quality of the vocals; I’d call those tracks more “rock” or “alt-rock”. On some tracks, such as “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”, there’s not even that. After her debut, Gram Parsons was more country than Taylor Swift anyway. This is another 80-minute album so although all of the songs are at least good (though less good than Speak Now) the whole disc can be a bit of a slog. A curious album, this, not entirely a good one but a good if tenuous stylistic mix. Taylor’s Version is much more cohesive, much for the better.?si=hS_d49gMlyCNejPB

Taylor Swift - 1989 (2014): The big one. This may sound like petty criticism, but “Welcome to New York” grates because she says the title over and over but she pronounces it “noo” with no hint of a glide whatsoever. Of course, “Shake It Off” was the biggest hit of her career for whatever reason – it’s not a great song; the “shake it off, shake it off” in the climax of the chorus is a letdown and negates everything that came before it, like the flat note in the victory music in Final Fantasy 7. The less said about the cheerleader break the better. And the song was fucking inescapable at the time, though since the album was current I’ve heard “Blank Space” more – as it should be; it’s the best song of her career yet. I really dig the electronica instrumentation; that, the repetitiveness, and lack of a country inflection to her voice are really the only differences between this and her “country” period. This is her best album to this point, although Speak Now gives it a challenge. Best of all, the album without bonus tracks is only about 60 minutes long!?si=ivJAqHa8PhBBjjCt