1001 Albums Summary

Sophisticated music, gorgeous recordings, but very few melodies to sing along to.

Drive, Everybody Hurts, Man in the Moon, of course. I was prepared for this to be just another boring REM album but am pleasantly surprised. Great feel, great performances. Some same-old guitar licks from Buck, but overall still sounds fresh.

Decent funkish (at times) numetal. Very dated sound. Alan Morissette

Very trippy, jazzy, cool! Started with kind of a dark hippy Darkness Darkness (later covered by Robert Plant), got into loose jazzy improv-feeling Francis Drake…Beautiful is 60s bluesy Janis Joplin-esque (or JC superstar)

Know it all too well. Can’t listen to it right now.

Must have been cool at the time, but just awful today. Ragged, meandering, amateurish.

Nope. Not for me. Boring country. Yes it was influential (Eagles, alt-country) but I don’t have to like it.

Jazzy, a la Guru, vocal flow I can’t diagram. Really good instrumentals. J Dilla on production for most tracks.

Fun, energetic. OK, I can see how someone who grew up with this would be absolutely in love with it.

Fun energetic garage rock. Way early 60s. White covers of 50s R&B. Raw sound. A level up in recording from Louie Louie but just barely. Tacoma meets the first Beatles LP, without the ballads.

Late 70s jazz-funk, mostly sad-forward instrumentals except the title track. Source of many samples. A time piece, production-wise. Reminds me of George Benson Greatest Hits in places. Very nice, a bit smooth.

Better than I expected. Didn’t pay attention to lyrics, and his voice bores me, but the songs, arrangements. Etc, are quite enjoyable, varied, complex. Is prog-indie-hipster a thing?

Not a fan of the boring generic country accompaniment but the lyrics are really something. “Sam Stone” sounds like a direct antecedent to Pink Floyd’s “xxx” from the Final Cut.

No need to listen, though I will. A treasure.

Absolutely gorgeous but sometimes too aching for me to be able to listen.

Love everything about this.

Same sonic environment as Harry Belafonte at Carnegie Hall.

What's not to love? Great span of tunes, tempos and moods. Phenomenal instrumental performances. This and Madman... are all the 70s Elton you need.

Very dated sound, high energy but weak vocals, scattered approach.

VU vocals without the poetry Television vocals without the virtuosity Violent Femmes without the humor Blind Justice without the warmth Blasters without the melody or soul

It's Orbital, and if you're in the mood for Orbital, you'll like this album. It's a time period for me: Orb, Orbital, other electronica/acid house music

Grating.

Holds up. Amazing performances, energy.

If I enjoyed hard bop I’d rate it higher.

Generic early 90s rock

Very enjoyable 90s Britpop (Welsh)

Old friend. Flaws and all. Still fun and evocative.

Eno vocals are the worst.

EC vibrato fatigue.

Unlistenable. Terrible rhythm section sabotages attempt to be PiL.

Very dated 80s R&B production but solid songs and performances.

Best way to describe it is Robyn Hitchcock meets Neil Young and Mazzy Star

Very 90s despite 2000 release. First track: mismatched vocal with accompaniment. Second track Patti Smith clone. Gets better. Needs to be accompanied by something other that generic 90s alt guitar.

Very much a product of its time: second half of 80s drenched in reverb and gated snares. Good melodies, languid vocals.

Dated production, but strong songs, and always good to listen to her voice. One of those albums where I can picture a particular location for a listening session. (Annie Paynter's house). Horrific covers of Help! and Bowie's 1984 at the end.

Can't tell when one song ends and the next starts. It's lovely, but it's repetitive.

Peak REM. Crisp arrangements, clear vocals, strong melodies.

Lofi 90s guitar, sloppy vocals. I could see being into this as a young teen when it was new. Doesn't offer anything now.

Pleasant, lovely guitar playing.

Proto-metal, in your face Who.

Can’t complain. Classic.

Poor mix undermines good melodies. In hindsight, just generic guitar rock.

Phenomenal. Precursor to Ronstadt's "What's New", beautiful reserved arrangements/accompaniment, the focus always on her voice and the song.

Ugh.

Wow how have I missed this. Not just the hits, but the Bowie collaboration which led to Bowie’s “Tonight” album, and the last track with Hunt and Tony Sales which leads right to Tin Machine!

So good

Not my thing at all. Death by melisma.

No drum n bass for me.

Reminds me of Songs in the Key of Life in the switch between styles and the particular selection of styles.

Old friend.

Still fun to listen to.

If you’re gonna listen to country this is a good choice.

Not my favorite of his, but seminal

Warp-style electronica plus R&B vocals. Meh.

Of course the famous tracks but the rest meanders like a muddy river. Notable for Latin+Rock but my favorites of his come much later.

A preview of his later glory, but doesn’t stand alone as something I’d play again and again.

So different, so fresh in the day. I’m firmly in the Remain in Light camp, but if that didn’t exist this would still be a fun record.

Feels like a waitress in a diner saying “we’re out of Dr Pepper, is Mr Pibb ok?” Except it’s Green Day and Arctic Monkeys. Disposable guitar pop/rock. Probably incredible to a 15 yr old English kid.

Old friend. Weird but compelling.

There are flaws, to be sure, but I adore this.

Fun music, boring lyrics, even if the rhyme schemes are complex.

The hits are great early DB. The filler is just that.

Part of the Very English catalog of the Kinks

I didn’t like them back in the day but this album is definitely better than I expected.

They got everything right with this post-Joshua Tree reinvention. It may have gotten dull with subsequent releases, but this one is great. Probably the last U2 album I care about.

Some great groove-driven tunes to open the album, but then it devolves into a whole lot of sameness. If you're not a CH fan, this may intrigue you, but maybe not enough to stick around. Existing CH fans doubtless loved it.

A classic in every respect

A classic for a reason.

Very good. Same impact on me as hearing LCD Soundsystem for the first time. Two sides of the same coin.

Some solid songs but overall not my favorite of theirs.

Tired. Flaccid. A ghost of their former selves. Imagine combining “Joshua Tree” and “Achtung Baby” and watering down the product.

Fun when it came out. Dated now but broken new ground for her at the time.

Nah.

I mean I get its importance, it just doesn't speak to me. I'm not a fan of his flow, even if the lyrics tell good stories. The samples are clumsy and unsophisticated, even if it's Kanye.

Not my thing. The vocals are nails on a chalkboard, the organ noodles pointlessly. Good rhythm sections saves it.

Punk classic, so influential, and doesn't diminish with time.

Very fresh for its time. Some of the tracks still have a feel that’s never been imitated well others, like the Kurt Weill standard , must have give Bowie inspiration if not cover to try it himself. I’m still not a Doors fan, but this one LP holds up.

Grating psychedelica. Very dated (90s)

Gorgeous Wrecking Crew pop tinted/tainted by what an awful person was John Philips. Worth a listen for the arrangements and harmonies, but not going into frequent rotation.

The non-Sting tracks are the weak ones, of course, but this is a classic.

Reminiscent of Lauryn Hill. Complex mix of R&B ballads, twitchy hip-hop, feminist lyrics.

Horrid. The typical post 60s folkie drops acid and makes unlistenable experimental stuff with random studio instruments, forgetting how to write songs.

Some absolute classics weakened by some poor choices in arrangements/accompaniments (A Man Needs a Maid, etc). Mainly a few 5s packed with filler.

Important, influential, experimental. All of these things, but it's not enjoyable. Interesting to note that Peter Gabriel might have been influenced by the "short story" narration on "The Gift." Sister Ray is a trip, but you don't need to hear it often.

Lovely treatments of standards.

5: Bodhisattva, My Old School, 4: Razor Boy, Your Gold Teeth, Show Biz Kids, 3: Boston Rag, Pearl of the Quarter, King of the World

Just not my scene, man.

Inventive, very much a product of its times (boogie bass), good horns, soulful vocals. A little tedious after a while.

Seminal. Incredibly strong A side!

1. "Band on the Run" ***** 2. "Jet" *** good tune, annoying lyrics 3. "Bluebird" - pretty but dull ballad 4. "Mrs. Vandebilt" - Granny song with bouncy 4/4 bass *** 5. "Let Me Roll It" ***** 6. "Mamunia" Lovely fingerpicked guitar, faux-Afirca influence (recorded in Lagos? - wiki says written in Marraskesh) **** 7. "No Words" Quality ballad, nice guitar work **** 8. "Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)" Picasso as Rocky Raccoon? **** 9. "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five" Cool keyboard-driven buildup, as if written for a movie **** 10. "Helen Wheels" Guitar-based glam/boogie blues, slightly annoying backing vocals (Linda?)

Old friend from the Oakland days

I haven't liked another of theirs as much since then.

The production is interesting, and shows why Pink Floyd hired Bob Ezrin to produce The Wall. But the songs are lame.

Eccch

A gem.

Weak. Flaccid. Just terrible. When the best song gets covered and improved on by Captain and Tennille, you’ve not got much to work with. Brian’s absence is keenly felt here.

Not my favorite of theirs and overall not terribly cohesive, but it’s got some great tracks “Since I’ve been Loving You,” Gallows Pole.

What’s not to love?

Stark. Distilled Bruce. Shows his development as a storyteller. A polar opposite from the busy E Street arrangements on the first two albums.

An overlooked classic. Emotional songs, beautifully arranged.

On repeat the year it came out. Some songs still hold up, others rather dated.

Not my favorite of his, but high marks. Near-peak early career EC.

Utterly disposable rave soundtrack.

A couple of all time favorites (Solsbury, Flood) but too much filler.

The most boring rhythm section of all time.

Old friend music, even with the impenetrable lyrics. Just treat Stipe’s voice as another instrument, enjoy Buck’s guitars, and the rhythm section (before they got old and dull).

Peerless.

Not my favorite period of his.

Meh. Capable players, clean production, but lack of melodies combined with Johnny Rotten vocals doesn’t draw continued interest. Graham Parker and the Rumour without the songwriting ability.