1001 Albums Summary

"So Real" is pretty good at least.

This album is super important for what it is and also what it isn't. What it is is one of the most pure distillations of prog rock and rock's musical excesses (if not necessarily the chemical excesses). But its overwritten, ornate Baroqueness helped to inspire punk music as a reaction against this brand of complex-for-the-sake-of-complex tryhard bullshit. Prog and punk happen to be my two favorite subgenres, so this one is extra meaningful to me. Beloved for three perfect songs (out of a possible three, hah!), if not any semblance of brevity. One more thing before I hit submit: early on in the title track there is a happy, sweet guitar melody that could have been a lead on a Queen song. Much later the same motif returns as a more sinister and dissonant version with ugly-sounding harmonics from a ring modulator. It's fuckin sick and it demonstrates my favorite joke about prog rock. If you don't like what you're hearing, wait five minutes.

I definitely prefer eclectic genre-shuffling upbeat Beck (Odelay, Guero) to Sadboi Breakup Beck (Sea Change) but this is still really darn good!

The best

Okay, why did nobody tell me about this album until now?! An absolute kaleidoscope of sounds and styles, but all rooted in a really warm-sounding psychedelic pop/rock. I just wish someone had told me "hey, the first half on this album is basically side-B of Abbey Road, but for weirdos, and then it segues into a second half dominated by a medley of playful soul covers and an absolute power pop stomper ("Is It My Name?") Yeah it's weird stuff, which might explain the low rating. But if any of that sounds appealing, give this one a chance.

The comparisons to Bowie's "Low" are clichéd enough, but for my money this album has an even better "poppy"/not-as-experimental A side than Low. And that would mean this album is pretty great.

OK we get it, you're a sadboy.

Not peak Yes (ie Close to the Edge) but still very good!

The androids find life, love, and oblivion all at once.

US version with Paint it Black, but I'd probably give the same rating to the UK version. Hard to rate because there's some truly great garage rock and bluesy songs on here with some genuinely interesting instrumentation, and also some of the nastiest misogyny I've encountered on this journey. It probably deserves a strong 4 on musical merit and a 1 for Mick being (at best) a pissy little emotional abuser who was mad that his girlfriend wasn't choking him the way Brian Jones' girlfriend was.

Dem Beachy Bois really took a massive step forward here. They still had the heights of Pet Sounds in front of them, but it's clear that on this album they were already moving towards that Wall of Sound production style. Very strong 4 from me. "Kiss Me Baby" is probably the highlight here. Ignore the last track, you can skip it and miss nothing.

This is probably my favorite album of the last 15 years, and I don't say that lightly. Kendrick is the best lyricist working today and this is his finest work in that area by far. My favorite tracks on this are "i", "Wesley's Theory", and "How Much a Dollar Cost", but the quality is so consistent across the nearly hour and a half album that I'll probably pick a different three the next time I listen.

Also highly recommend Mdou Moctar if you like this stuff!

The decision to make a jaunty whiteboy-blues song about societal unrest in general (and the Kent State Massacre specifically) is honestly one of the dumbest things they did in their (famously uneven) career but the rest of this is probably worth a 4. Interesting spacey arrangements and the usual tight vocal harmonies. But that Student Démonstration Time song is, like, as bad as the song in that "Deficit Rag" bit from the Simpsons

This album is where that "why do birds suddenly appear" song comes from. It's not a half-bad song if you're okay with cheesy over-commercial schlock. Yeah, she had a pleasant enough voice and it's very sad that her eating disorder ended up killing her, but this album genuinely sucks, right?

Love the One You're With is kinda annoying but the rest of the album is surprisingly good!

Formerly my number one favorite album of all time, still holds up!

Extremely Brave and Iconoclastic Middle-of-the-Road Review: The arrangements and guitar playing are kinda nice, but wow, Morrissey is annoying.

Beetoes are good innit

Cheesy 80s Americana music, but I'm quite surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Helps to know that the title track is actually a protest song and not the jingoistic garbage that media-illiterate types seem to think it is. And Glory Days is probably the best song written about people who peaked in high school.

Classic rock and roll from the real King (according to Elvis)

A lot of great stuff here (first six tracks might have you hovering over the 5 stars - and that doesn't even include the best track of the bunch, "1979"), but there's just SO. MUCH. FILLER! One of the most "double album-y" double albums of all time.

For my money, the best guitar-driven pop/rock album for at least 10 years on either side of it.