1001 Albums Summary

Some of the industrial music on this list is worse but not by much.

I forgot how much I like Tina’s voice. I wouldn’t skip any song on this album with the exception of 1984, which just made me laugh with how 80s it was (so maybe I wouldn’t skip that one either).

I can’t unhear the saxophone now...

Aside from track 3 (yikes!) this is a fun little album.

It sounds like a blend of a bad Elvis impersonator and bad punk music. The songs were mostly boring until they got unpleasant. I prefer bands that make sounds that sound good together rather than making sound for the sake of making noise.

False advertising, wanted more soul.

This could have benefited from some editing but it was fine for background music.

False advertising, wanted more soul.

I’m stuck between and 3 and 4. I hear things I like and it reminds me of The Smiths. Ultimately, I could definitely listen to this but no song really grabbed me so I guess it gets the 3 rather than the 4.

This is the link that gets us from 80s metal to 90s alternative. I only knew Mountain Song and Jane Says but this album could easily be could be on regular rotation.

I would listen to this on a rainy day, I like his voice but I get bored by the end of the album.

Lots of feelings and vulnerabilities exposed with this one. I first heard Sleater-Kinney when they opened for Pearl Jam in 2003. I was…not a fan. My ears felt assaulted. In the almost 20 years since I first heard them, I have tried several times to like them. I SHOULD like them because they have all the pieces of a band I should love. Women who rock and pull no punches. A sound that is unique and a message I can get behind. I can’t quite figure out what I turns me off so much and I have spent way too much time pondering this question. I thought at first that it was the way her voice sounds like reverb to me, but I think that could be really interesting used in the right way. I actually really dig the music so that isn’t it either. I think what it boils down to is that it feels like she is just shouting at me. Now stick with me here because this is the soul bearing part. It turns out that I have a huge double standard. I can listen to a man scream into a microphone and find it earnest and impassioned. I listen to a woman scream into the microphone and I find that I want her to tone it down, pretty it up, not be so emotional. Oh fuck, how did I get to be so sexist?! And now you know my deepest shame. It turns out that I want to smash the patriarchy but in a nice (and more melodic) way, which is really not smashing it at all but just succumbing to my programming. I’m giving this album 5 stars and I will keep listening to it because this album, more than any other, has made me think about myself and how I view the world and who taught me to view it the way that I do. It turns out I disliked Sleater-Kinney because it feels like an exposed nerve, which I think is kind of the point. And one that I want to keep exposing.

I appreciate the constant creative experimentation; however, I like other work from Prince more.

It was interesting to wait until after we got 50 Cent to go back and rate Kendrick Lamar. Both benefited from the guidance and executive production of Dr. Dre but they could not be more different. Where 50 Cent was very one note (just pure aggression), Kendrick Lamar was all over the place, exploring different themes and musical styles. Not all of it works for me but it was captivating.

Love superstition, wish there was more of that funk groove on this album.

I had never heard of Big Brother & the Holding Co, but this is the classic rock sound I love (plus no one sounds like Janis). Pass me the bowl, I can listen to this and chill all day.

Intelligent, a little angry, and with effortless cool. Perfection. “So while you fuming, I’m consuming mango juice under Polaris You’re just embarrassed 'cause it's your last tango in Paris And even after all my logic and my theory I add a ‘motherfucker’ so you ignant niggas hear me” Mic drop

This album may technically be 70s but the synth heavy sound came to define the 80s pop music. Just not my thing.

Easy, chill background music.

I found that I was relieved when my phone unexpectedly lost connection and the music was paused, I preferred the sweet sweet silence to this.

Love the variety and “Hey” is on just about every mixed tape I ever made.

This one is mixed for me, I like some of the music but I think I would like it more with a different lead singer.

Great voice, the 80s easy listening is not my thing.

I feel like someone took a bunch of music that I like, chopped it into jigsaw pieces, and then put it back together randomly. Too disjointed for me to really get into, the album was bookended by some songs with lyrics that were pretty terrible, but I enjoyed dreaming of you.

Classic, love the bluesy influences.

One star for my daughter repeatedly asking me what a sex store is because of this album.

Maybe it’s the pop-punk loving side of me, but I really enjoyed this album, especially the first and last tracks sung by the female vocalist. I liked the blend of 50s rock with the driving pace of punk. This is the more palatable version of what The Cramps were trying to achieve. I waffled between 3 and 4 stars and ended at 4 because I want to look up more music by X.

I can handle the music for a couple songs, I can’t handle the “singing”. I just can’t get sit through more than a couple tracks, so it’s a hard pass from me.

Embarrassing truth, I have never listened to this album before, I have never even actively chosen to listen to Fleetwood Mac…and yet I knew all but 3 songs. A testament to the song writing that every song was such a big hit that I knew them anyway. This album is pervasive in our culture’s collective consciousness for a reason.

Parts of this reminded of the boat tunnel scene in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It got weird, dark, a little creepy, and altogether unpleasant.

Much more pleasant than the solo Billy Bragg album.

I had this album on in the background for many a homework session in high school because it’s not too slow but also not too distracting. Background music is all its good for though.

I like the ska sound (4 stars) and dislike the lead singers voice on many of the tracks (2 stars). I guess that leaves me with an average rating of 3 stars.

Shhhhh! I almost turned this off within the first track. Any time they sample someone speaking it loses a star as it interferes with my ability to let this fade into background music.

This might be my least favorite of the way too many Nick Cave albums on this list. Telling that the song I liked best was a Dylan cover sung by vocalists I like more than Nick Cave.

Vincent is pretty song, the title track is all too familiar. Nothing else really caught my ear.

Upbeat and fun if not exactly original.

These guys desperately want to be more hard core than they are. They end up sounding a little juvenile ("Don't Say Motherfucker, Motherfucker" and "Good Head") but ultimately this is a fun little album if you just roll your eyes at how seriously they want to take themselves.

Meh, it’s fine. But is it just me or did all the songs have the same speed/drumbeat?

Could have been good with a little self-control.

While, as others have pointed out, this album is less polished than melancholy, I find that to be a point in its favor. I like that’s it’s a little more raw, a little more rough around the edges. I love this album. I find Disarm to be hauntingly beautiful. All in all, this album is so quintessentially 90s and yet has so many levels it keeps me coming back.

I varied between it fading into the background and actively wanting to switch it off. It was a mash-up of spoken word poetry, jazz, and soul that ultimately I just don’t get.

Guitar is great, recording quality not so much. Don't put a live album on the list unless the quality is better than this.

Beats hold up, lyrics not so much.

Riley says 5 stars and I agree. I have a soft spot in my heart for pop punk and Green Day does it better than anyone. Jesus of Suburbia is like a microcosm of the whole album, a tiny pop punk rock opera all on its own. Even if you don’t love them, you have to appreciate the ambition here.

Not as good as Elephant

The harmonies always blow me away. Sometimes the song writing veers too far into a country sound I don’t enjoy as much.

I first heard a song from this album, Fake Plastic Trees, in the movie Clueless staring Paul Rudd and some other people. This movie, and the Baz Luhrmann version of Romeo and Juliet (starring Paul Rudd!) which also featured a Radiohead song (Talk Show Host), introduced me to Radiohead and led me to an album that has become one of my top 5 favorite albums of all time. The album starts with a woosh like something is blowing in, then hits you with the guitars, and honestly this might be my second favorite opening to an album (behind the base line for Seven Nation Army). I get excited every time I hear that woosh because I know what is coming next. The layers of sound! The guitars get loud like an arena rock show, then soft again, always layered in a way that is indicative of how experimental they are/will continue to be. At times you get flavors of U2, Oasis, REM, and yet they have a sound that is uniquely their own. The music is always vulnerable, eerie at times, angry at times, and broken in the most hauntingly amazing way. I am a lyric person but despite the fact that I can't tell what Thom Yorke is saying 80% of the time, the combination of his voice and the music transcend the often unintelligible lyrics. The snippets of what come through can be devastating. The rejection of the fame/attention, the futility of life, and the intense longing to belong. The optimism and positivity is cut with cynicism (Nice Dream) but you are quickly brought back up from the nihilism of Fake Plastic Trees by the reverb-y guitars of Bones. They achieve a balance in this album that I can't find in many other works. Case in point is the fade out of Street Spirit which is a perfect contrast to the way the album wooshed in with Planet Telex The Bends would be in my desert island 5-disc CD changer. It perfectly encapsulated my 90s angst while managing, like Paul Rudd himself, to never age.

Is it the most annoying thrash metal album on this list? No. I guess that is good enough for the extra star.

It's like a good electronica album. I can put it on, let it blend into the background, and really get shit done. Keeps my toes tapping and my fingers typing.

His voice is the only thing that kept this from being 4 stars. I just couldn’t settle in all the way and enjoy.

First of all, this album does not sound or feel like it was made in 1985. Second of all, the mid-90s success of female singer/songwriters owe a TON to this woman. Shawn Colvin, Natalie Merchant, Indigo Girls, Aimee Mann, Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos, and even Sinead O'Connor. I hear Suzanne Vega in all of them. I like the songs where the acoustic guitar takes the lead more than some of the other synthesizer sounds. I love cracking, small blue thing, and undertow in particular for the guitar parts and for how intimate the lyrics feel. It might not be in my list of favorite female singer/songwriter albums of all time but it’s certainly responsible for them so 4 stars seems appropriate.

Oof. I want your sex has not aged well.

I can’t take Tom Waits in any more that very small doses, a whole album is too much.

Delightful little pop album but ultimately too light and fluffy for my taste.

I can’t believe I have never heard Jurassic 5 before! Lyrics that play on grammar (“pass” participles), reference DDT, and Herman Munster? What’s not to love. They also have that almost jazz-like groove that I love in digable planets and de la soul. Thanks 1001 albums, this is one I will be coming back to.

I had to wait until an appropriately gray day to listen to this because Elliott Smith is not sunny day music. I only ever had Figure 8, but thank goodness this album is on the list because it reminded me how much I enjoy wallowing in his music. He is like the male Aimee Mann to me, not quite folk but folk adjacent, not the biggest voice/range but super emotive, distressed in the best way like soft jeans.

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would based on the description of them as "new wave"; less synth-y and more jazzy. Really liked the almost a bossa nova sound on Lemon Firebrigade.

So Bennie and the Jets is far and away the best song on this album. Side note: thanks to Diana’s “cute boots” story, I only hear electric boobs rather than electric boots and it makes me laugh every time. I hated the candle in the wind song that got popular following the death of Princess Diana (so many Diana references today!) and I had no idea at the time that it was a rewrite. The lyrics about Marilyn Monroe were way less sappy and more interesting. Not interesting enough for 5 stars but listening to this did make me want to go watch Rocketman so I will bump this up to 4 stars based the fact that my interest has been piqued.

I didn’t know there would be stones songs I actively disliked. I disliked dear doctor. Jigsaw puzzle went on way too long. Factory girl was out of place. The intro to sympathy for the devil is iconic and got me all pumped but the rest of the album was a let down.

Boring and too long. No wonder they made the pivot to disco.

I don’t know if it’s the slower pace, the beats, or the samples used, but this is undeniably 90s and that it comfortingly familiar even when I have never heard any track beyond The Rain. Is this the best hip hop album? No. Would I put this on while I get shit done. Absolutely. I hover between 3 and 4 but I think pure nostalgia bumps this up to 4.

Ok, trip hop reggae, this could be interesting. I am not sure it really worked.

Oh Blur, there are some moments where I like the music and then you go and ruin it with something I actively dislike. You could be so much better.

I realized that A) I have this album on tape that a friend in high school made for me but I had no idea the tape he made was a straight album; and B) he must have run out of room on that one side because I have never heard the last 3 tracks before.

This one is a little longer and has some slower stuff than "At San Quentin". This one just generally seems less rowdy. This version of Jackson with super growly June Carter is the best though.

I think I might like Bon Jovi?! At least for walking the dog. It kept me moving and I didn’t get bored. I could do without the intro to Social Disease though.

Meh. The only song I really liked was Maggie May. I do like a lot of the guitar, but his voice really doesn’t do it for me.

This is fine for what it is, the whited-down, I mean watered-down version of early rock and roll. I'd head to the hop and twist the night away listening to this.

Huh, I thought Iron Butterfly would be heavier. More guitar driven. Disappointed.

I don't hate the music the whole time, but I really HATE the lyrics. Every song is about revenge or sex or sex for revenge. And then there is the rape fantasy. "Oh I really love it when you tell me to stop, Oh it's turning me on." All the lyrics do for me is turn me off.

I was skeptical as the initial track descended into staticky, sonic chaos. Good thing Jimi pulled it back from the brink. There are some true gems here. Little Wing, with one of the sultriest guitar solos ever made, just leaves me wanting more. The title track has big finale energy, great way to wrap up the album.

Super authentic, perspectives worthy of repeated listens.

I don’t know a ton about electronic music but this was somehow both strange AND boring.

The best of the Cure albums on the list although I probably would have enjoyed this less had I been listening on a bright sunny day. It's better suited for night time wallowing.

So it’s hard for me to rate jazz. It’s not my thing, I don’t seek it out, but as jazz goes, this was pleasant. Riley proclaimed it repetitive but I liked the variations on a theme rather than a bunch of experimental sounds that don’t tie together. Riley’s criticism was hilarious though considering she listens to the same damn song or album on repeat for weeks or months at a time.

Remember when I said jazz wasn’t my thing? This feels like guitar jazz. Is he saying words? Is he skatting? Who can tell.

Come on 1001 album random generator, give me something GOOD! This album suffers a little bit from being the latest in a line of albums that range from terrible to just meh. There is just nothing to get excited about here.

I appreciate the concept, but ultimately the music is too repetitive to hold up well to repeat listening.

I would have told you before we embarked on this journey that I liked Blur. Somehow I owned a Blur album that I liked (neither one we have had so far have been it) but it turns out that growing up has meant moving on from Blue. While this album was better than the last one, it is still very hit or miss. The hits aren't good enough and the misses are too big for it to break even.

I like Spike Island, and then Getting Bright at Night through White Devil but Kiss like Lizards and particularly Meatmaker are bloody awful. They were so close to being more than noisy noise.

Great vibe but suffers from being too one note. Scenario is the only song that stands out as being different on this album.

Good energy but super short! I feel like the fans at this live show got shafted.

The lead single "The Worst Band in the World" failed to chart. Are they they worst band in the world? Not by a long shot based on other albums included in the 1001 albums list. But just because they aren't the worst band in the world, does that make them worthy of inclusion on this list? Absolutely not.

This one is hard for me. I like it more than Sign O the Times because it is less all over the place which made Sign O the times probably very exciting for people who were not me. I don't like it quite as much as Purple Rain; however, which means I should be giving this a 3.5 but our stupid rating system doesn't allow it. Fun fact, being in the class of 1999 meant that this song was requested and played at every high school game/function my senior year. However, it was NOT our official class song because the administration thought the line "I've got a lion in my pocket, and baby he's ready to roar" was too inappropriate. Of all the Prince lyrics about sex to get huffy about....

Ok, I am about to get my 90s kid credentials revoked. Let me preface this by saying that I like grunge. I like the mix of rock and punk and all the grit and distortion that comes with it. But for whatever reason, I just could never get totally behind Nirvana. There are lots of songs I like (All Apologies, Dumb), some I love (Heart-Shaped Box), and some I don't really get but I'm willing to go on that ride (PennyRoyal Tea). But I actively dislike Scentless Apprentice and especially Tourette's (why is that possessive??). They are just noise for the sake of noise. Rape Me has always bothered me because it is supposed to be an anti-rape song like "go ahead and rape me but I will survive this" but you can't really get that unless you read that Kurt intended it that way. Ultimately I feel like Nirvana is Ethan Hawke's character, Troy, in Reality Bites. Trying to be counter culture, anti-everything artists on the outside with a soft, sensitive center...but in reality Troy (and Nirvana) just aren't as good as people want to believe them to be.

I love Outkast. I love their sound. Do I wish they bent their considerable talents towards worthier lyrical topics than their many conquests? Yes. However, contemplating the aftermath of those conquests as in "Ms. Jackson" makes it clear to me they have something more to say than just rapping about "Gangsta Shit" (but they can do that too).

For the first 30 seconds, I thought this was going to be a very different album than it turned out to be. I dig the harder rock sometimes veering into punk sounds. Lead vocals are powerful and I like the strings on Secretly. Actually, the parts of the album (Secretly in particular) reminded me of Evanescence. They are similarly melodramatic, they both incorporate hard rock with orchestral elements, and they have powerful lead vocalists....too bad I can't understand any of Skunk Anansie's lyrics. Even reading them, they are gibberish ("skinny kack para, para dutty dykie nigga") so even if I want to scream along, I wouldn't know what to say. The lyrics leave this one at 3 stars but there were some pleasant surprises with this one.

I did not enjoy this album until The Wait which is track 5. Aptly named.

I think I knew at the time (but I had since forgotten) that Fiona Apple was still a teenager when Tidal came out but this album has never sounded like a teenager wrote it. It is emotional, raw, and definitely more musically complex than the standard radio fare of the mid to late 90s. To teenage me, these songs were permission from an older, wiser, much cooler girl to be whatever I wanted to be, whether that was sultry, angry whatever. It's a message I still need to revisit sometimes and this album will forever be in rotation for me.

Huh, turns out I enjoy Queen even when I only recognize one of the songs.

I might need to listen to this album a few more times before I can figure out how I really feel about it. My first impression is that the back half (from Pyramid on) is really in the groove but now I need to go back and listen to the first half. The fact that I WANT to listen to this album a few more times to figure out how I feel about it speaks volumes when compared to so many other albums on this list.

Listening to jaunty Christmas music in March (because I forgot to rate the album when it came up on Christmas) is weird. It is marginally less weird than the out of tune Christmas music that emanates from the run-down ice cream truck that rolls through my neighborhood on sunny days. Some of these (Christmas (Baby Please Come Home and Winter Wonderland) are the tracks that you hear ubiquitously as soon as Halloween is over and some I had never heard (and really never need to hear again). I will stick to listening to Christmas music during the month of December (except for the ice cream truck).

I honestly don’t know why I like this better than the other thrash metal on this list, but I do. Which is still only good enough for 3 stars.

Almost a 2 because of any song with lead vocals by Richard Manuel. I much prefer Helm’s voice.

I don’t know if I will ever actively seek out ABBA but you can’t help but move your feet a little.

OK Computer is only slightly, ever so slightly, below The Bends for me as it skews more experimental and electronic than it's predecessor. But it still contains a lot of the guitar that I love about the Bends with a more dystopian feel. I was reading old reviews of OK Computer and someone called it “body music that circumvents the head to reach the spirit.” That's a pretty apt description of what both The Bends and OK Computer mean to me. Radiohead is one of a handful of bands for which the lyrics are only very distantly important. For me, OK Computer is almost entirely about the feeling evoked rather than the poetry expressed.

I would have told you I didn't know any Grateful Dead songs but I did surprisingly know a few of these, the best of which was Friend of the Devil. I was glad to listen to an album with normal length tracks. The live albums and 25 min of jamming for one song are unbearable. Since this album was pleasant and concise by comparison, it gets an extra star.

This is the most emo rap album I have ever heard. So much self-loathing, anger, and hopelessness. The bleakness was actually kind of refreshing in a way. He definitely has an opinion on the nature vs. nurture debate.

Why does every track end up sounding the same?

Stylistically "Big Ten Inch Record" was jarring both for the lyrics and the sound. It's like someone plunked a Jive song down in the middle of a rock/blues album. Turns out there is a reason it doesn't sound like the rest of the album, it was a cover.

Bridge Over Troubled Water is one of my favorite songs (the way it builds!), The Boxer is one of only songs I could remember all the words to when I was sleep-deprived and blearily rocking my infants to sleep in the middle of night, and Cecilia just always makes me happy.

It did not help that I was listening to this in the late afternoon when I was already tired but this is sooooo low energy.

My family listened to this album on repeat. Nothing beats her delivery, she made me feel her pain even when I was too young to understand why she was in pain. Unfortunately, this album remains relevant.

This album feels like the score to a show that I can't see. Despite the diversity of sound, I ultimately have no idea what is happening on stage or how the story is progressing so I lose interest.

First of all, the beginning of the song Morning Glory sounds like The One I Love by REM. How did I never notice that before? Secondly, how did his voice not annoy me in the 90s? Don't get me wrong, I still like some of these songs. Hello is underrated and is an excellent start to an album. Roll With It sounds like they want to be the Beatles while Don't Look Back in Anger actually sounds like it could be the Beatles. And of course there is the aforementioned influence of REM. It was a nice walk down memory lane, even if it's one I am not likely to repeat any time soon.

Love the Pixies, back half had more of the Pixie sound than the front half. The main problem with this album is the length.

I haven't ever heard this but it feels like the jumping off point for Digable Planets and De La Soul. It feels a little more dated but definitely in the same ballpark.

I am having a tough time with this one. There were moments of listening to this that were not entirely pleasant. But somehow they were unpleasant in an interesting way that made me want to listen to more. I can't figure out why that is, but due to the fact that I want to hear more, I am giving this 4 stars.

New wave is just not my jam. I did wonder why Edwyn Collins (A Girl Like You) was stuck in my head and then I read that he is the vocalist and it made sense. He has a very distinct way of singing that really doesn't work for me. The best track was A Million Pleading Faces which sounded nothing like the rest of the album. One extra star for the drums and flugelhorn (you don't hear a lot of flugelhorn in pop music).

Was digging this vibe. Fills the R&B hole in my playlist that is good for chilling in the dark (Imogen Heap, Frou Frou, etc). I could listen to Onanon on repeat.

Like a cross between Elton John and Pink Floyd. I enjoyed this and will listen to more.

I feel bad giving this a 2 considering the cultural significance and the fact that the sound is perfectly pleasant. The problem for me lies in the fact that it was designed to be background to what was happening on screen. It is not designed or intended to be digested on it's own.

This album feels like the musical equivalent of walking into a modern art exhibition and being told that a wadded up gum wrapper is the hottest new art piece. I don’t get it, which makes me angry because I feel like I have been conned. How is this the same man that wrote Hallelujah?! This album is a con job, it has to be. I was sold a bill of goods when I saw the name pop up and what I got was a saxophone laden eighties dumpster fire in which Cohen doesn’t sing so much as recite bad spoken word poetry.

Some of the samples and hooks are really catchy. It’s Kanye’s rhymes that are often delusional or just bad.

1994 was one of the best years in music, maybe ever, and this album was part of the reason why. In contrast to the distortion and discontent coming from Seattle, Jeff Buckley made an album that was just as emotional and raw but beautiful. His vocal control is amazing as are his musical choices about when and how to use it. Lover, You Should Have Come Over is one of my top 10 favorite songs and was on just about every mixed tape I ever made. I even wrote a psychology paper on that song in undergrad, got an A :). That sigh before the first note of Hallelujah gets me every time. He may not have written it, but it's most definitely his song now. The opening of Last Goodbye sounds a little like it was ripped off by Oasis for Champagne Supernova (the "how many special people" part). And I actually love the way that So Real falls apart in the middle and then puts itself back together. This album is different and classic at the same time. Unlike some of the other music from '94, my love for this album has only grown and that speaks to the wide array of musical styles from which it draws inspiration. That range is apparent in who has claimed to be influenced and inspired by Buckley. Everyone from Adele to PJ Harvey, Radiohead to Lana Del Rey. Hell, Jimmy Page said this album was close to being his favorite of the decade and David Bowie said it was one of the 10 albums he would bring to a desert island. I gotta agree with the greats on this one.

The voice is a huge turnoff and I could not hate that broken English song any more than I do.

More aggressive and harder than the album Be. I like Be better but I generally like his flow.

Background music

I will always love the texture and unique quality of her voice.

They turned up the political and social commentary ("I Don't Wanna be Called Yo Nigga" is particularly interesting considering the pervasive use of the word in later hip hop). I actually like this better than It Takes A Nation.

The parts I like, I like better than Tricky's Maxinquaye. Blue Lines is a stand-out but then Thankful for What You've Got doesn't sound at all like it belongs on a trip-hop album. Ultimately, I think both this and Maxinquaye deserve 2.5 so I will split the difference and give this a 3 and Tricky a 2.

Remember how pretentious-ass couldn't get past the saxophones to appreciate Tina's voice? I feel the same about Sade. I can't appreciate the voice and the general groove because all I hear is the sax.

This is a 3.5 star album. I am going 4 because I was so pumped to see them last year with Liz Phair and Alanis. Stupid pandemic.

The best Leonard Cohen album on the list. Vibes are more Simon and Garfunkel than Nick Cave which explains why its my highest rated of the LC albums. Guess he should have stopped at 1.

Clearly these guys can play, but why they chose to play this is unclear. And really? A kazoo?

Maybe the only example of prog rock that I can really get into. I didn't go into this expecting to like it more than than Dark Side of the Moon but man this is a balanced album and I love that they keep bringing it back to the same riffs. Feels very complete.

I appreciate the unique sound.

I used to love this album. It was my perfect rainy day music. Then came #metoo and a slew of allegations that he was a manipulative, abusive, lecherous fuck. Sigh. I can’t separate my feelings about the man from my feelings about the music. If I could, this would be a higher rating.

One of the greatest rock albums of all time. There is both an edge and a sultriness to Led Zepplin. Maybe it’s the way they slide between notes, maybe it’s the blues influence, or maybe I have just seen dazed and confused too many times, but this album makes me want to do drugs and get laid. I guess I now better understand the phrase “sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll”.

Rod Stewarts voice was made to sing the blues. Ol' Man River and Greensleeves were odd choices for this otherwise bluesy album.

I love his voice but found myself getting bored

It’s not boring…

This album feels very ordinary, particularly when compared to To Pimp a Butterfly.

I never quite get to loving LC. It's more like songs that I tolerate and hate.

Some of these tracks remind me of the background music that you would play in a scene where life around the main protagonist is sped up and blurry to denote the passage of time. Similarly, these tracks blurred together and nothing stood out for me. It was fine as background music.

I never really got the hype about The Who, never really got their concept albums. But this is a solid album of rock songs, opening and closing with some of the best tracks we have heard from The Who. If there were more albums like this, I would get the love.

I literally almost fell asleep.

I kinda love the RHCP but I know other people hate them (or at least feel very ambivalent about them). I have always enjoyed their more bass driven sound. 1 star off for anytime Anthony Kiedis tries to do that rap-rock thing.

The avant-garde jazz vibes (looking at you title track) almost downgraded this for me, but this is better than some of the other Bowie on the list.

The first track had me worried I wouldn't make it through this album. Thankfully it got more listenable, but never rose to the level that I would actively seek this out to listen again.

I had this album. I did a lot of homework while listening to the repetitive beeps and boops. It was a feature, not a bug, but now it just bugs me.

AC/DC only has one level, 11.

My first boyfriend was convinced that Paul Simon sold his soul to the devil after his failed relationships (with both writing partner Art Garfunkel and wife Carrie Fisher) to come away from those failures with Graceland. The album is a blend of such unique styles and sounds and it is amazing to me how joyous the album sounds despite the preceding failures of Simon's personal and professional life. My first boyfriend was not the brightest but he may have been correct in this case.

You know you are in for something fast and furious when you see 16 tracks in a total run time of 38 min. I guess this is on the list because its considered "the first full-length hardcore punk album" but maybe there weren't full length hardcore albums before this because people can't take that much hardcore punk....

It takes balls to declare yourself everyone's new favourite band. The first and last songs were the best on the album but even though they have a sound I like, I started getting tired of it.

Man, lead vocalist Adam Granduciel sounds an awful lot like Ryan Adams (but without the problematic personal life that I know of!), Yay for modern Americana that I don't feel guilty listening to!

The overuse of the saxophone on this album makes this feel dated but I like the funk undertones, particularly on Fascination. I still don't like Bowie's voice so its looking like Bowie albums have a ceiling of around 3 stars.

What did John Barleycorn ever do to anyone?! Together with Jethro Tull and King Crimson, I think it is really the genre of Prog Rock that must die.

Sure it sounds a little basic now, but it is refreshingly upbeat and keeps me tapping along.

How is the best Stones song (Paint it Black) on the most meh Stones album?

Is Peter Frampton Yacht Rock? "Baby, I Love Your Way" screams Yacht Rock to me but the rest is fine classic rock.

I get that this album is important. I also get that you grew up hard and you are a bad-ass motherf***er. I get it. But damn it is hard to listen to these sexist and derogatory lyrics now (ever?). I often wonder if the most popular female rap/hip-hop artists today listen to early gansta rap and what they think about it.

It's loud, high-energy, punk flavored rock that set the stage for all the female fronted rock bands I love today.

Wikipedia tells me this is "the first rock and roll album ever to make it to the top of the [Billboard] chart." Even though I will never actively chose to listen to Elvis, I can't give this anything less than 3 stars for the cultural significance and for bringing rock and roll into the mainstream.

My least hated nu metal/rap rock album on this list?

Before I clicked play, I had it in my head that I would be hearing a different Springfield, Dusty Springfield. So I was confused but pleasantly surprised to hear the rock sound and male vocals on the first track before realizing my mistake. Despite my mix-up, I ended up liking this album more than a lot of the Neil Young solo albums on this list.

I don't know who this Derek character is but hooray for an album that sounds like Eric Clapton without the guilt of supporting a racist POS. Wait, did Clapton cover Layla from Derek? Oh Shit...Derek IS Clapton. Damn it.

The voice ruins this for me.

My least hated metal band yet? I guess that’s good enough for a 3.

Touched and To Here Knows When are bloody awful but if you can push past (or better yet, just hit skip) on those two tracks at the beginning, the rest of the album has that muddy, lo-fi sound that is so early 90s alt rock but not grunge. Not enough here to bump it up to 3 stars but I don't hate it.

The lyrics of this album are awful. The music is meh but the beats are repetitive enough that I found myself unconsciously tapping my toe so I guess that is something.

Not a great sign when my favorite track on the first half of the album is instrumental. Why oh why did Kevin Rowland ever think that "putting that 'crying' voice on" was a good idea?!

A jazzy Nick Drake is different but maybe not better than a sad Nick Drake.

2 really excellent classic rock standards (Sunshine of your Love and Tales of Brave Ulysses), 4 really good bluesy tracks (Strange Brew, SWLABR, Outside Women Blues, Take it Back), 3 really meh tracks that were too psychedelic for me (World of Pain, Dance the Night Away, We're Going Wrong), and 2 real stinkers (Blue Condition, Mother's Lament) leave me squarely in 3.5 territory. Sadly, I expected more.

“You are hardcore, you make me hard.” There is nothing sexy or seductive about Barry or this album.

I am less familiar with this Led Zeppelin album compared to their earlier albums but that is an oversight I plan to rectify. The four song progression from the bluesy slide guitar of In My Time of Dying, to the rock of Houses of the Holy, to the more funky sound of Trampled Under Foot, to the classic opening of Kashmir (even my 4 year old can’t help but bob her head along to this guitar riff) shows all that Led Zeppelin has to offer. Y’all know how I feel about Led Zeppelin 😉 and this album is no different.

I guess I expected the Talking Heads to sound more synth-y (a la Burning down the House). The music was more rock than I expected but I guess this album was part of their transition. Too bad the only good song isn't even their song.

I had a couple Sebadoh albums (Bakesale and Harmacy) and I have literally never met anyone else who has even heard of them, let alone liked them, so I was surprised as hell to see them pop up on 1001 albums. I also was surprised as hell with some of the sonic chaos on the album. I get that they were all “look at us we are so lo-fi and cool” but why make so many sounds that don’t sound good? Turns out there is a good reason why this album sounds like two different bands, all the songs I like are written by Lou Barlow and all the songs I don’t were by Eric Gaffney who left the band after this album and didn’t appear on Bakesale of Harmacy (if you like the first couple songs, give those other albums a listen). I wish I could give this album a higher rating because the songs I like, I really like, but overall it’s a mess.

First listen I did not like this album. 2nd listen was better and I got a lot of work done thanks in part to the driving beat of most of the songs but it still faded into the background for me. Split the difference, 2 stars.

Sorry guys, I like the music (why don’t people use a harmonica anymore!), but I just can’t with his voice.

I didn’t finish the album. I feel bad rating it on a (very) incomplete listen, but I feel like the fact that couldn't finish speaks for itself.

I dunno, maybe this benefited from being short and fast after a couple very long and slow albums. At least this wasn’t boring.

So I like bluegrass, I like some country, I have even been to MerleFest…and yet Merle Haggard is not my thing. The slow songs kill any joy I get from the faster paced songs. I also prefer the music when he is not singing. I would go back to MerleFest though.

Never heard of The Damned before but damn if I am not a fan.

Janelle Monae strikes me as someone exceedingly creative and the album is eclectic and interesting as a result.

Huh, so I CAN like Tom Waits. I was convinced after we got Bone Machine that I did not like Tom Waits, not no way, not no how. But somehow his voice works better on this slower album? Based on Jersey Girl, where he seems to slip in and out of his growl, it appears the gravel is a CHOICE. My throat hurts just from listening but this is an album that I may come back to when I need a good wallow.

The sound is high-energy, it's classic, and the importance of Little Richard on the trajectory of both rock and roll and desegregation of musical audiences cannot be overstated. That being said, there are really only two songs (Tutti Frutti and Long Tall Sally sound almost identical while Can't Believe You Want to Leave and Miss Ann are slower but very similar to eachother).

Lang said "I can see why late 90s, coming-of-age, angsty teens, who rejected the culture of the cools, would be in to this." His review was basically describing me. Incubus was my bridge between my 90s alternative roots and the emo of the early 2000s. I first got into Incubus with their preceding album, S.C.I.E.N.C.E, an often schizophrenic combination of heavy metal guitars, bass-driven funk, electronic/scratching, and Brandon Boyd's intense but also melodic voice was so interesting to me. Make Yourself is definitely more refined but still incorporates all those different styles. I take issue with the idea that at some point the angst should lift, I will never grow out of my enjoyment of screaming/singing along with Brandon Boyd.

My roommate in undergrad swore that Van Morrison was the best get-it-on music. I never understood. I still don't. Don't get me wrong, the music is perfectly pleasant. But this album is more likely to put me to sleep than put me in the mood.

I am glad I waited a few days to rate this. I am flummoxed by the high reviews. Very few of these songs feel like stand-alone tracks, it feels like a collection of sounds that accompany and play a supporting role to a visual medium I can't see. I don't hate the general feel or sound but something is definitely missing (it doesn't even feel that emotional to me, perhaps because the visuals are adding that piece of the puzzle). It's funny we got Nine Inch Nails two days after this because I am no NIN fan but that album feels MUCH more cinematic to me. Instead of missing a piece of the puzzle, I can almost see a movie playing in my head during large chunks of the NIN album. Not so with Air. Ambient music is weird to me. How am I supposed to get invested in something that is purposefully so chill and designed not to grab your attention?

Hands down my favorite Taylor Swift album. Stripped of most of the big pop production, you are left with writing that is poignant and an album that feels much more intimate. Folk-y Taylor Swift is my favorite of her reinventions so far.

Everything about this album, even the chaos, feels like a purposeful choice with a specific point of view. It's emotional and demands attention. That being said, a lot of this album makes me feel a little ill. The opening lyrics of Closer make me deeply uncomfortable. The whole album is about self-destruction but that song and Big Man with a Gun very explicitly detail how that self-destruction violently drag others down too and the glorification of those darker thoughts have always left me on edge.

If you like a song on this album you better like it a LOT because each song is repetitive af.

I listened to this album a fair amount in the early 2000s. It occupies the same sad hole in my heart where Aimee Mann and Elliott Smith also reside. I can only listen to them when it's a little gloomy out and when I am in a certain mood. Gillian Welch's voice and harmonies are beautiful. I love the way the music highlights traditional bluegrass instruments like the banjo but with a dark twist. If I had one critique it would be that sometimes the music is so slow and soft it sometimes takes on a droning/dirge-like feel that can put me to sleep. Like I said, gotta be in the right mood.

Maybe I was already pissed because I saw the length of this album. Maybe I was already annoyed because choosing to do 69 love songs is a terribly immature joke. Maybe I could have overcome those annoyances if it was good, but it wasn't.

It feels so basic now, but points for paving the way.

Adele clearly went through some shit but damn I am glad we got this album as a result. This album is a pop masterpiece with infusions of R&B, gospel, and soul. Her voice has a very unique texture and tone that makes every note ooze with her heartbreak, anger, and depression. By the time Set Fire to the Rain is done, I am emotionally exhausted, and it's only halfway through the album! This album will be in my regular rotation forever, it was a classic the moment it was released.