Before we get started:

Leonin, Perotin - Sacred Music for Notre-Dame: I finally cracked this while high as a kite on gummies. These two 12th/13th-century composers were key figures in the development of music from Gregorian chant or simple unembellished organum to the dizzyingly complex polyphony of the later Middle Ages and Renaissance, finally culminating in the 17th-century Baroque vocal then instrumental music and the rest is history. I’m including two samples so that the Leonin piece makes sense. He takes a Gregorian chant (that he himself didn’t write, here “Viderunt omnes”) and uses it as the basis for a two-part organum where one voice holds the chant melody while the other embellishes beyond recognition – really, it’s more than simple embellishment, as syllables of the chant can be drawn out for as long as a minute while the second voice goes crazy. You see commentators saying that Ars antiqua music sounds almost modern, but to me it sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard. Just otherworldly beauty. Trung, get on this shit.?si=pJ93Gbq0IIXLfKHi?si=fFU0HvpAj5G2fTBL

Gong - Angel Egg (1973): The middle panel of the Radio Gnome Invisible triptych, this is an incredibly fun trip with a frustrating lack of standout songs. I had a hard time coming up with a musical example here, going with the kind of band theme song followed by two instrumental sections, the second of which featuring guitarist Steve Hillage, who most definitely does play on this one and is all over it: he does the synthesizer-like atmospheric effects in the left channel of the last section. But while there’s really nothing you can point to as a great track, the whole journey is listenable and totally worth it. This was my first Gong album, btw.?si=iI4rlQkNAJEBBlCG

Gong - You (1974): And let there be space-rock! Gong hit it out of the park here, easily the best of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy. There are a few middling songs, but who cares; they’re not the main attraction here. The main attraction is a number of long, often crescendoing Hawkwindesque grooves, with or without vocals. I like my psych jamming with nothing or one thing going on, like Spacemen 3, not the kitchen-sink approach as seen in Haunted Chateau (or the jam portions of “Tobacco Road” or “Psychotic Reaction”, if you’re unfamiliar.) There’s also less whimsy and studio dicking-around than on the other two albums in the trilogy. Someone recommended me Ozric Tentacles as a band that sounded like Gong; when I put on an Ozrics album I thought that person was nuts but after relistening to You I see the comparison. Who knows, maybe the future albums will be like this one. A man can hope. As someone who likes long deep grooves, this album is right in my wheelhouse.?si=_5qvKYpLMiAx6lJk

Gong - Shamal: Oh my. We’re very far from Planet Gong indeed – no Pothead Pixies, no space, even. The cover shows Sahara-like sand dunes although the album title is in mock-Devanagari. East is east, I guess. This album is like a trippier Return to Forever is the best way I can describe it. Half the tracks are instrumental and the other half are mostly so; the three songs on the first side form a kind of suite while the second side is three individual jams. There’s not much Eastern except some motifs on the first side. Let me tell you, I was really disappointed in this at first, expecting to hear something like Gong, but the more I listened, the more I liked it and ate it up. Pretty straight fusion compared to the jazz-prog of the last few albums, but it’s good stuff!?si=bVnE_2ZtBds9j51w

Jimmy Buffett: Havana Daydreamin’ (1976): Less good than A1A, sort of more of the same with weaker songs and, it being 1976, overproduced on top of it. Once you get used to the overcooked sound and arrangements, most of the songs are solid but there’s no standout. “The Captain and the Kid” is the best-known one here, a souped-up remake of a ballad from a few albums ago. Frankly I don’t have much use for the song: it’s not beautiful, the lyrics are maudlin, and it’s musically dull. This continues the pattern of more mediocre albums sandwiched between outstanding ones, and that will continue, because the next one is the big one with “Margaritaville”.?si=UYrDq8Zqa07D0voE

Jimmy Buffett - Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes (1977): I don’t know who produced this album, but it delivers. This seems to have been a bid for the mainstream: all rough edges have been sanded off and it’s been polished within an inch of its life. Gone are the drugs, crime, and sex; – you would never hear a line like “we’re losing hope / of scoring coke” (from Havana Daydreamin’) here – gone is the boisterous guitar. That said, all the songs are really enjoyable and it’s held in high esteem for a reason – and not just because it has “Margaritaville”. It can’t be overlooked that the cover features the first appearance of the Jimmy Buffett logo. It has “major label debut” written all over it, though I don’t know the release history of these albums. Such is the nature of illegal downloads. He may break the good-middling-good-middling alternation with the next one, which features two of his biggest hits. As for the musical sample, there can be only one:?si=9CYtwYfYo5F6cDON

Jimmy Buffett - Son of a Son of a Sailor (1978): This is a hell of an album. Take the songwriting of Latitudes but more classically Buffett, give it a livelier and less polished production, and add “Cheeseburger in Paradise”, my favorite Buffett song as a kid, and you get fucking magic. This is the best one yet. The pattern of good-OK-good-OK is finally broken with two really good records in a row. Recommended.?si=8LLksYoCBS2cALLM

Taylor Swift - Reputation (2017): Oh shit, here comes the hip-hop. For the first time, a Taylor Swift album is outright unenjoyable. Thankfully from what I’ve heard of her more recent work she stepped back from that ledge. Also thankfully, this is her shortest album yet (though still a solid 55 minutes). For the musical sample I chose the most traditionally Taylor Swift pop track that’s actually really good, if still really dark. Also “Look What You Made Me Do” is a true club banger, if a crappy Swift song. Whereas in earlier albums even the lesser tracks were enjoyable, here I can count the songs I do like I can count on one hand, and without exception they’re electronica rather than hip-hop-influenced.?si=00tkUq7DiJbqgf8x

Taylor Swift - Lover (2019): A sigh of relief as this is a return to form; Reputation was just a bad dream. It seems that good but stuffed-to-the-gills albums are a thing of the past as well, as the last three have been a little under an hour. The songwriting talent we know and love is back, and the darkness has been extinguished: there are melodies galore and the music has taken some Prozac. I guess Reputation got bad press? It seems like the kind of thing that would have its champions as a fan favorite, but I just don’t like the music. “ME!” Is about as un-Reputation as it gets, and is probably the song of hers post-1989 I’ve heard the most. It’s sugary, lightly-arranged with bright-sounding synths. I don’t know if organic instruments will ever come back – it seems odd that these albums can literally be done by one person on a computer – but I wouldn’t mind if they didn’t. The sample here is perhaps the oddest Taylor Swift song yet, not counting the duet on Reputation (track 2).?si=Yes9Pvf5BGbBMjH6

Taylor Swift - Folklore (2020): More like Folkbore, amirite? Slow and downbeat throughout, with no hooks or energy, focused entirely on the lyrics. The lyrics are intensely personal and confessional; I hate to say it, but I don’t care about Taylor Swift the person. I’m sure this is a great album, but like a sex object, whose humanity is suborned to her fuckability, Taylor to me is a pop object, a melodic object. That said, the cover is badass: a distant figure in a misty winter forest, looking for all the world like a black metal cover, as was much remarked upon at the time. Also, all the song titles are in all-lowercase. is ur a fag There are really no highlights to give as musical samples so here’s one of the more memorable tracks, in a juicy-gossip-you-gotta-hear-this way:?si=-N9jhfpHJ7SadH3A