1001 Albums Summary

Not really my thing. It sounds like the incidental music one would hear while watching "The Love Boat". I am sure it is a fantastic album, but it just isn't to my taste. Which is admittedly pretty narrow and bad. This is why I am doing this. To hear new things.

The album was released in 1988 and I recall very distinctly the outrage it generated amongst the white man. To quote Dr. Kane in "Evolution", "He's a very sensitive man, the white man. He doesn't like to be yelled at." The track "Fuck Tha Police" caused an especially focused amount of anger and anxiety in the white man. The racism came hard and fast in their critiques of that one. Anyway, I bought the album and to demonstrate how white privilege works, the lyrics spelled out very clearly the mistreatment of black people at the hands of authorities and the general plight of black people in society. Me and my white friends clearly *heard* this, but we clearly did not *get* this. As I matured and experienced more of the world I finally got it and understood the entire album through a much different lens. A distressing number of my friends still don't get it or understand it to this day. In fact, rather than continuing to enjoy the album as they did when they were young, they have turned their noses up at it. I can only imagine this is because to listen to it forces them to confront some hard truths about the world and themselves that they are clearly not comfortable facing. Anyway, it is a great album through and through and I am happy it was my recommended album for today. It is absolutely worth a listen if you have never heard it. It is especially recommended if you have only ever heard "Fuck Tha Police".

Despite the very interesting history behind this album, it did literally nothing for me. Hell, I have forgotten what the first song even sounded like as I listen to the last song on the album. I mean, there is nothing about this album that sticks with me or will cause me to want to listen to any of its tracks in the future. "Not my thing" doesn't go nearly far enough in covering it.