50 albums from the listening history of Eric H.: You can pick one or not, no matter

Bitches Brew

Not the Jarreau album I considered for my own list, but good enough to vote for here.

always appreciate your lists eric, usually very different from the others that go around! going with pizzazz

Gwen Guthrie!

Bitches Brew

My soul was torn by various picks but my heart said Rooty (although my spleen was stumpin' hard for the Creepshow score)

LOL, Bitches Brew was one of the last couple I added and it's gonna sweep

Rooty my beloved

Although I still prefer Remedy and Kish Kash a bit

Surprised myself by voting for Homogenic, which I'm not even sure is my favorite Bjork album. But maybe it is!

Number of albums heard: 6

Favourite: Bitches Brew

Least-favourite: Erotica

Nicest surprise: a bunch of records that have one song I adore: "After the Love Has Gone", "Magic", "Lush Life", "Porpoise Song", "Something In the Water", "Master Blaster"

Unheard, but most want to hear: I Want You

Did a Spotify playlist of sorts: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7yOq8l8nXdpLBlus4soRU3?si=d64f6ae867374c25

It's not 1-for-1 with the list above; I had to make some swaps for things that weren't available to stream

Voting Break Out for sentimental reasons: probably my favorite of my mother's exercise LPs.

Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) is an amazing record

Nice list! Was tempted by the Nuyorican Soul but ultimately I can't walk past that Eddie Kendricks record without giving it a vote.

Almost inpossible to choose, those are all great. Went with Crydamoure in the end…

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Bitches Brew was one of the last couple I added and it's gonna sweep

Came pretty close

Homogenic’s hyper-dominance in these lists and polls got me thinking I should relisten, my first and lasting impressions having been formed by repeated listening as a teenager

I hope that you get the reacquaintance you seek; I admit it's been a few years since my last listen, maybe even since I got into my current relationship

I relistened now and my feelings were only galvanized: Marc Bell’s best production, Bjork’s weakest songs/lyrics.

I'm def not much of a lyrics person; could be said that this is the album where her lyrics least get in the way for me, in some ways

Thankful you took the shot in any case

She’s written some of my favourite-ever lyrics! just not on this album. The production is insane, though, I was honestly in a state of grief re: Bell while listening

I'll also admit that "I thought I could organize freedom/How Scandinavian of me" is a lyric designed to personally flatter me

I did gain an appreciation of previously-disliked tracks— “5 Years”‘s 8-bit fantasia is really awesome, and I never really heard how New Jack influenced “Alarm Call” is, it sounds like it could be a Janet track

“Hunter” and “Pluto” blew me away again, they are two of the best songs ever written/recorded, they are positively shocking

I think "5 Years" may have my favorite beats of any Bjork track, and my favorite string arrangement

I contend that Joga’s classic status is the product of one of the most beautiful string arrangements ever conceived and executed.

Also, I was immediately struck by the fact that the strings are all octet… it’s an ensemble I never use, literally because of childhood bias (I had to listen to Mendelssohn a lot as a kid and I despise that Octet), but it sounds as flexible as a quartet and as rich as a full string section. It’s amazing stuff

would love to hear why you despise the mendelssohn octet, i've always really liked mendelssohn and while the octet isn't my favorite piece of his, i do quite like it haha.

God I feel like I need a dedicated thread for my digressions, I’m worried I’m becoming the anti-lex. (I miss you, lex!)

Felix was 16, so the work remains a classic no matter what. As a proof positive of the viability of the octet as an effective chamber ensemble, however, it fails. The work is written too much like a violin concerto, with the 1st v carrying the melody throughout— and unlike a concerto, the remaining seven musicians form too hairy a backdrop for even Heifetz to sound as if he isn’t drowning behind them. (Had it been an orchestra, the ensemble texture would more effectively contrast the solo texture). There is little-to-no interplay between the sections, even looking at the score now it is just begging to be reduced to four players and/or expanded into a concerto. The developmental sections are great, but few and far between.

From a strictly acoustic-sonic perspective, doubling a quartet makes little to no sense, here; five violins, two violas and one cello would be better. There’s just too much low-mids here, it sounds like a fat dude with a tiny head. (My optimum ensemble for recording, in ascending size, is quartet, followed by 3331 ten-tet, followed by 66331 orchestra; you need to increase the number of violins exponentially in respect to the lower viols in order to maintain a good balance).

Bjork’s arrangements deal with my octet issues in a hugely effective way: the first violin never functions independently, it’s always doubled or tripled, and doubled again at the octave by a viola or cello. (6tets and 8tets by Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich have also been more convincing to me re the viability of this particular chamber music format.)

thanks for that, i kinda like the prevalence of low mids in the mendelssohn octet, it's a timbre that doesn't come through in a lot of more traditionally "pretty" pieces.

last opportunity for digression, lol, unless you want to create an all-purpose "ask fgti" thread. are there any chamber octets that you like? im a big fan of the enescu octet, in which the lean, mean pummeling is the point.

I terms of “chamber octets”, (especially since you mention “pummelling”), there is none better than the Ustvolskaya— four violins, two oboes, piano, timpani. Skip ahead to the second movement if you’re short on time.

String octets: just the Shostakovich, that I know about.

String sextets: two by Brahms, one by Tchaikovsky; whatever opinion you have of Tchaikovsky as some pretty-itty-bitty fag composer will be destroyed by this amazing sextet, it’s my favourite work of his

if you're speaking of "souvenirs de florence," then yes, that is my absolute favorite tchaikovsky as well.

Ya me too. Third movement, yeesh. Why is it, by the by, that every Youtube video of anything involving strings now has a chorus of commenters saying “2-set sent me here”? I love those guys but really?!