Week 2 - An Unexpected Favorite

Hello friends! Welcome to week two of “The Listening Nook”. I’m striving to listen to an album a day and want to document my journey! This is in an effort to expand my horizons as a composer and be more intentional in my listening practices. Each week I’ll share what I’ve been listening to with some thoughts about each album, and I’ll highlight one from the week that was a favorite.

Let’s get into it!

Symphony No. 9 (Anton Bruckner & The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra)

This album was given to me for free! I’ve been recommended by several mentors to check out Bruckner’s work, so to have this in my collection is a nice touch.

Overall, I liked harmonic language of this piece.

It has the rich Wagnerian textures of his contemporaries mixed with impressionistic approaches to harmony that make the work engaging.

However, this piece is very slow and meticulous with it’s pacing. Towards the end of symphony, my patience for Rubato tempos and chromatically increasing tension was running thin. The triplet section in the second movement was a welcomed reprieve from the previous material that was comparatively weight-y in tone, but it was incredibly short lived. Had this piece had slightly more variety, I would have enjoyed this work more.

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (Lauryn Hill)

Released in 1998, this is the debut album of Lauryn Hill, and is the only studio album Hill has released to date. This album is one I hope everyone listens to at some point. This album is a unique blend of Soul, Reggae, R&B, and Hip Hop with fantastic songwriting.

From “Lost Ones”, “Doo Wop (That Thing)”, “Superstar”, “Forgive Him Father”, it’s hard to find a song that that doesn’t combine ear-catching hooks and melodies with hard-hitting verses that encourage repeated listening.

I’ve heard this album a handful of times on streaming, but this is the first time I’ve sat down with it for a focused listening.

The overall soundscape of this album is very dry, with a blend of drums and instruments that sound heavily sampled, if not “in the box”. It feels processed, yet rough around at the edges at the same time, giving it a uniquely “Lauryn Hill” characteristic. With as the many sonic and production colors Hill pulls together, there are times where it feels like it lacks a touch of glue.

Hill’s rapping fits cleanly within this gritty, raw soundscape, but her soulfully sung lines and hooks sometimes feel out of place. I’m tempted to say that this is my 2025 retrospective coloring my opinion on this. In present-day, most artists going for this sound would be quick to heavily process their vocals. This could be a combination heavy distortion, reverb, compression, and pitch correction to help it sonically coalesce.

The presence of the latter is noticeably lacking in Hill’s vocal production choices, as it sounds very raw. This is not to say that Hill’s vocals are “out of tune”. Sometimes, even if pitch correction isn’t noticeably affecting a track, it’s mere presence in the signal chain will give it that extra *something* to help it fit-in a heavily processed soundscape.

Understanding that this production choice was intentional for Hill’s vocals, something as simple as using live, more acoustic-sounding drums could’ve helped make the roughness of the vocals (both sung and spoken) more purposeful.

The Age of Ragtime (Roger Shields)

This album is an unoffensive and straightforward presentation of Ragtime music. While performance practice of this music is contested, pianist Roger Shields does a great job of bringing these pieces to life. The album includes several well-known classics of the genre, including “The Entertainer”, and the “Maple Leaf Rag” by Scott Joplin. A favorite off of this track that I hadn’t heard before was “Troublesome Ivories” by J. Hubert Blake.

Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon (James Taylor)

To think… a Baritone voice was once popular… not just a Bari-tenor, but an actual baritone.

Taylor’s voice is by no means jaw-dropping or flashy, but straight forward and easy, comforting you that you’re in good hands.

It’s fascinating to think about the intersectionality of James Taylor, Carol King, and Joni Mitchell’s careers, and how they helped each other with each other’s projects. If you look at the album credits, you’ll find all three of their names listed on the album.

Similar to Carol King’s Music, this album has an incredibly dry, intimate sound. If you haven’t already, you should check out this album. You have well-known tracks on this album such as the title track, “Mud Slide Slim”, “You’ve Got a Friend”, as well as lesser known track such as “Machine Gun Kelly”, and “Isn’t it Nice to Be hom Again”, a track that has so much potential it hurts that it’s less than minute.

Album of the Week - Perahia Plays Schumann

I was not expecting to choose this album as my favorite, but here we are.

Murray Perahia is a prominent American pianist, known as a leading interpreter of Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Scarlatti, and in this instance - Schuman - amongst other composers.

The performance captured on this album from Perahia is gorgeous. There were several moments in listening to this recording that brought a tear to my eye as I marveled at the shear beauty of this performance. This recording is a perfect merriment between a well-established composer, and a performer committed to bringing the music on the page to life.

Normally for the favorite album of the week, I’d go more in-depth into my thoughts on the project. This leads me to my one critique of this recording - the gaps between different movements/pieces was very brisk, making it very difficult to know what piece I was hearing or where I was in the track list of the album. At times, I couldn’t tell if a momentary silence was because of a new section or a new piece altogether. Regardless of whether this was an artistic decision, or a practical one made due to the constraints of physical media, a more definitive pause between movements would’ve been appreciated.

I hope you enjoyed this installment of “The Listening Nook”! If you have suggestions for albums I should check out, or have your own thoughts about any of the albums I listened to, let me know! I’d love to hear your thoughts! Until next time!

—Elijah