1001 Albums Summary

A great album which starts as it means to go on. The classic Talking Heads rhythms propelling David Byrne's lyrics along at full pace. The funky element of the band is at the fore throughout. A band at the top of their game.

Excellent - a true classic of the genre. Good ol' honky tonk Country songs of heartbreak, loneliness, cheatin' women, and running away from responsibilities ;) Haggard's voice sounds great and is well supported by the traditional country sounds of pedal steel et cetera.

Brilliant album - uplifting and full of righteous anger. Burning Spear is one of the key artists in roots reggae and this is my favourite of his albums. The dub is rather special too.

In the 70s this album was considered good. If I was still 14 I might think so, but I'm an adult and it's generic blooze rawk. Awful.

Brilliant album - ground breaking when it was first released and it more than stands the test of time. The influences are apparent but it is what is done with those influences which makes this such a special album.

I knew there was a reason why I didn't bother with this i the 90s after hearing the hit singles. It's okay, nothing more. Rolling People is the best track; Bittersweet Symphony Ashcroft performed live with the god awful Coldplay, so that tells you a'' you need to know about that song. As for the Drugs Don't Work? They do.

Everything there is to say about this album has already been said. Diverse and utterly compelling.

I was late to this album - but then so was nearly everyone else. Now seen as highly influential and regarded, rightly, as a classic.

A key album in the West Coast genre - part hippie, part psychedelic, part singer-songwriter. Includes the gorgeous Helpless.

Brilliant album - further comment superfluous

Nothing to say that hasn't already been said. Bloody brilliant!

Love this, one of their best albums.

Beautiful. One of their greatest albums, starting with the utterly gorgeous "Ivo".

Ho hum... On etrack is enough really, you know what you're getting. And then there's the slow one...

Uninspiring. Jason and The Scorchers for people who think Jason and The Scorchers are too raucous.

Bloody brilliant!

Much better than I expected. The good stuff (the singles and a couple of other tracks) are very good, but possibly I'm a little jaded about them due to their ubiquity at the time of release. The weaker elements are pretty good, making an overall pleasing and engaging listening experience. But they really should have invested in a few shirts.

A very strong start, but deteriorates after the first three songs. Her voice is too reedy for my tastes, lacking depth and variation. By the end of the album the music is distinctly average, slightly better than filler, but nothing special or that will stick in the mind.

I love this album. Beautiful melodies and lyrics to match.

It's been said before, but.... Genius!

Excellent opening, let's see if it continues in this vein.... So far, so good.... Looking for it now on Discogs!

It's fine, a bit juvenile, but better than the all "fur 'n bling, I'm so hard, look at my gun" gangsta nonsense

Brilliant!

Seminal...

More experimental as they progress and so better and better. This is a great album.

It's fine. I don't mind if I hear it again, but I don't mind if I never hear it again either.

This is great, much more varied than I expected from what I had heard of Minutemen. It holds together well over the double album.

Loved this album when it came out and it holds up very well 16 years later. Okay, so one or two tracks are possibly plagiarised (I Am The Fly being the obvious example) but it was all done in the best possible taste.

Everything brilliant about early Tom Waits.

Yeah, not bad. A little patchy, but I enjoyed it overall.

The last great Pixies album.

The start of a run of good albums; not as many highlights as a couple of the later albums but enough to more than entertain.

On hearing this when it was first released I was a little disappointed that I wasn't blown away quite as much as I was with the first two singles. But they were such highs that it would always be hard to compete. This was a game changer when it came out in 1985 and has stood up to the test of time. JAMC never consistently reached these heights again.

An album full of highlights - and it's not even her best!

Not my thing, but that doesn't mean it's without merit. If you like this sort of music I suppose this would be pretty good. But it's music you don't need to engage with. Background, lift music. Or the kind of thing you'd hear in a restaurant that was trying to be "urban" - but it would just be irritating.

Bought this on a whim when it was released. I liked it so much, I bought the next release.

I didn't like ABC in 1982, but quite enjoyed this album when I finally heard all of it in the early 1990s. I've not listened to it for well over 20 years and I don't need to hear it for another 20 . It's okay, but nothing I'm going to choose to listen to over something else.

Opening with the brilliant "Rip It Up", but that is as good as it gets, which is pretty good to be fair. It just becomes a little samey after a few tracks.

Yep. Liked that, a good ol' slice of honky tonk.

Showing the wannabes how it should be done :)

A couple of filler tracks, but overall this is a good album. Lower first division 1960s psychedelia.

Dreadful. A mish-mash of styles, all done badly and not put together with any musical intelligence.

Pretty good, but there's some filler.

Very good, even if I rarely play it these days.

A warm, lazy summer's day, a nice glass of something - just the right album.

The highpoint of Pulp's career? Very possibly.

Possibly the best part of the trilogy of soundtracks for movies which don't exist albums. Set the Controls... is a particular highlight.

Didn't really get this when it was released, apart from the "Joan of Arc" single, so didn't buy it until a fair few years later. It's great!

A work of genius. Quite simply, if you don't like it you're wrong.

Certainly the best thing I've heard from John Doe. I think I last heard X over 40 years ago - this has aged well.

It will never be my desert island Billie Holiday album, partly the choice of material, partly because her voice has lost much of its power. That said, it has many beautiful and poignant moments. The delicate orchestration supports and caresses Billie's fragility rather than overwhelming her voice.

Wow! I didn't know this album. It's fantastic.

Love this album! A great slice of mid-60s psych.

I knew there was a reason why I stopped listening to New Order after Movement...

Another work of genius.

Beautiful album

Pretty good, although too long. Some judicious editing of tracks would have created a tighter, more powerful album. That said, none of the tracks are bad, it's just that there are only a minority that are very good/excellent/essential.

Tedious baggy. Distinctly average.

Awful.

A stone cold return to form after the frankly abysmal previous 20 years (give or take).

Ye gods, no.

Relentless...

I guess this is pretty good if you like Janet Jackson. The first track was surprisingly not as bad as I was expecting, but it was downhill after that. The overly used drum machine sound became tedious and annoying in the end.

The last great New Order album.

Excellent

Boring.

Love this - had it for years, ever since the Fall covered a few of their songs.

Very good, especially as most of the songs were written when he was 18. A little Jonathan Richman influence...

One of the classic debut albums

Not really my thing, but I enjoyed this a lot.

The first couple of songs go on a little too long and I thought I wasn't going to like it as much as I ended up doing.

Short and sweet outlaw country.

Not their best, but still very good.

Bought this when it came out in 1978 - it's still great. Much better than anything the Sex Pistols did.

Really not interested in his "ironic" misogyny and homophobia. I'm not shocked, just bored, because I'm an adult not 14.

Stunning, exciting and funny. And the music is brilliant.

May the Lord save us from high-pitched, twiddly guitar solos!

Brilliant. Raw, "real" and Woody Guthrie!

Excellent - Fred Neil's voice in combination with his fine guitar is mesmerising at times and always deeply soulful.

Musically great and when being political, but the braggadocio gets a bit tedious. I'm not impressed or interested in your attitudes towards women. To be honest, it sounds like a bunch of teenage virgin boys.

Average Euro-Pop

The highlight of a career of highlights.

I like this. Not usually what I'd chose to listen to, but it is infectious.

Well, there's nearly 3 hours that flew by. Quirky and entertaining; lyrically interesting.

Over-inflated, ludicrous storyline - but brilliant

Enough high points to make it interesting and enjoyable.

I'd never heard this at the time. Smacks of early Soundgarden (when they were interesting and good). Maybe a little overlong, but - apart from the occasional spot of self (or, over) indulgence - highly entertaining.

Bland

Entertaining, best for a night out rather than sat in a chair at home!

Not flawless, but beautiful in many places.

Even though this album was a huge change from his previous work it is just as good. Just don't expect two turntables and a microphone.

Love this album, possibly his best. Evoking a cinematic universe of danger, love and shadows.

One of the greatest Hawkwind albums. Therefore, one of the greatest albums ever.

Powerful stuff from the legendary Baaba Maal. Really enjoyable.

Can't be doing with his "ironic", "humorous" misogynistic violence. Even if he is claiming it's all done in character. The music is potentially good, but lyrically it's just unpleasant.

Looking forward to getting my copy of the 50th anniversary reissue!

Overindulgent, far too long and with a lot of filler. Ghetto Musick is great, but it's downhill after that.

I get that it is full of sorrow and heartbreak, but it is musically uninspiring.

I can't be doing with her voice, it makes her music unlistenable for me.

One of their best

Great, but a sign of diminishing returns. They really should have stopped after this.

A great album - poppy yet interesting. Some great songs; even the filler is better than anything Oasis have ever done.

Given that there are so many Parliament/Funkadelic samples musically this is pretty good, although it does tend to fade into the background. Lyrically, it's tedious, misogynistic, violent braggadocio which, although the sound is fine as part of the overall sound, doesn't really pay listening to in any detail.

I used to play this album so much - haven't played it for years now, but it's still great.

Peak Motorhead :)

Not my favourite TH album, but enough highlights to keep me happy

Awful.

Boring and bland.

Supposed to be a classic, and I suppose it is if you like this sort of thing. Personally, I think jazz and rock should always be kept separate.

I surprised myself by liking more of this than I thought I would; so I bought it - 20 odd years ago

Practically perfect.

Some filler, but the good stuff is great. I don't feel the need to ever hear it again, but I'll be happy if I do.

Pop punk - and one of the best of the genre IMO. But ultimately disposable and not vital. Still fun though

It's got Avalanche and Famous Blue Raincoat on it; what more do you want?

If you like The White Stripes you love this album. If you don't like The White Stripes, I spurn you with my toe.

I'm not sure how any album released less than 10 months ago can make it onto any list of albums you must hear before you die. One dimensional and bland

Nope

A good, solid album with a number of highlights and not a great deal of filler. It would benefit from being tighter and shorter though.

Ahhh, nostalgia is a great thing. An album of its time, but still stands up even after nearly 40 years.

An album of its time. I used to listen to a lot of this kind of thing and this is a good example of the genre.

One for the yuppies and highly problematic at the time. A couple of stand out tracks - but even they are limpid and uninteresting. Overall it's over-filled with instrumentation and rhythms.

Awesome. Further comment superfluous.

Still love this album. Bleak, angry, raging, powerful stuff. I don't think they ever bettered this, although Songs About F*cking comes very close.

One of the great live albums. The Killer is on blistering form and The Nashville Teens - no slouches themselves - have problems keeping up with Jerry Lee's pounding piano! The editing and track ordering could be better though.

Much better than I expected; very pleasant and doesn't outstay it's welcome.

Not especially interesting.

Love this album. Not my favourite Byrds lp, but close enough.

Nondescript background music for people who like Coldplay.

Not even Pere Ubu's best album. I love this.

We don't start Christmas in our house until at least 21st December. This is always the first Christmas music played.

Love this album when it came out and still do. It gets called progressive or post-progressive, but it's much better than that.

For what is, essentially, a faster, less capable, pub rock album (not that we thought so at the time!) this stands up surprisingly well after nearly 45 years.

Jesus Christ, this man is an arse. I really don't get why this album is held in such esteem. People calling it ahead of it's time? In what sense? Created essentially by Daft Punk, sampling (nothing wrong with sampling) earlier music and then he just puts some juvenile, misogynist words over the top. Plenty of people already doing that. The lyrics aren't anything special and frequently neither complement nor disturb or disrupt the music, which makes me wonder what they are for. It never ceases to amaze me how people get taken in by the self-promotion of such mediocrity. There really ought to be an option for zero stars.

Side 1 and side 2 are very different and it works up to a point. I really like this album - always have - but the side 2 single track, "Revelation" could do with a bit of editing; I've never been a fan of rock drum solos. That would give room for another track perhaps. Side 1 is a little patchy but contains some great tracks, particularly "7 and 7 is".

Never been a fan. I get why teenage girls liked her back in the 80s, but it's not for me. Some of her later stuff is okay, but not this.

Is it possible I have too many records? (No.) Because I'd forgotten that I have this album and I'd forgotten how bloody good, relentless and depressing it is!

Great combination of folk, psychedelia, West Coast style - a bit of Doors-style keyboards on "Season of the Witch" - all wrapped up in Donovan's voice.

A poor man's Test Dept.

Yeah, it's fine. Nothing special but a good listen.

Slightly surprised how good this is. Jazzy, funky, soulful with a side order of rocking, all without really being any of those things.

There are some albums that, when they pop up on this generator, make ones heart sink. This is one of those albums. More than a bloody feeling indeed! It's got that hideous American "rawk" guitar and vocals sound. Ugh! Horrible.

Always enjoy hearing a bit of top quality Afro-beat, especially from Fela Kuti and Tony Allen.

The first of the great Tom Waits albums.

Beautiful, mesmerising album. There's always something new to discover in it.

The third Chic album; the third best Chic album. The high spots are the singles, but overall the album doesn't have the consistency of the first two.

I always preferred Tyrannosaurus Rex and the early T.Rex albums. The Slider is the last great (even the last good) album Bolan made, there was a lot of filler in the subsequent albums. There are signs of the decline in The Slider, but he manages to avoid them for one last time.

Why is it that any cover version of Light My Fire sounds twee and like muzak? Even the on eon this album. There's a couple of comparatively low points (Light My Fire being one of them) but overall this album is great.

Quite simply one of the greatest albums of the punk era.

I've never really understood the fascination people have for The Flaming Lips. This album is okay, but nothing really stands out and grabs hold of me.

U2 were well into their overblown grandiosity by this stage. They really should have called it a day after Boy.

A little over long at 72 minutes. There is a 5 star album buried in there somewhere.

Genius (with the exception of Murder Mystery, which is okay, but not up to the standards of The Gift)

I used to have a vinyl copy of this album, but eventually sold it over 20 years ago. It's not bad, but the hits have been overplayed.

Hated Duran Duran in the 1980s. Hate Duran Duran now.

Pleasant and unassuming, so not that interesting, but I'd never object to hearing it again.

Possible John Martyn's best album?

Proving the band is so much more than Green Onions.

If you're a fan this double album (really two separate albums) is one you'll already own. If you're not a fan, try this. If you're not a fan afterwards, go away.

Moving further away from the Scott Walker we all knew and loved and nearer to the Scott Walker that the musically adventurous of us know and love even more.

It took me a while after this was released, but it is a stone cold classic. Powerful and angry.

Like the early Dylan albums, this debut from John Prine pays for repeated listening. There's a lot to explore and unpack, musically and lyrically.

A sign of things to come in Crampsville. Love this album!

As with a number of other bang average bands, metallica - and this album - is hugely overrated.

It's Jacques Brel, what's not to like?

This is great - my first real listen to Elliott Smith and I really like it. If you're coming to him late, as I have, then you'll recognise all the influences and all the artists influenced; so avoid the "he sounds like..." critique.

Yawn. More American blooze rawk. Tedious stuff. The best thing about this album is the use of the Elmore James song as the title. Luckily they don't attempt a cover version.

I didn't know of this album - nice discovery, although I don't mind if I never hear it again.

I saw Iron Maiden 3 times, but only ever with the original lead singer; Paul Di'anno. Brilliant live and, as this album shows, semi-punk before degenerating into run of the mill heavy metal. Okay, lyrically immature at times and definitely of it's time ("Charlotte the Harlot" for example) but it's still great.

What is there left to say about this stunningly influential album?

The penultimate good Rolling Stones album. It's good, but not great; an effective mix of blues, rock and rock 'n' roll. Guitar, bass and drums with little else relative to the previous couple of albums.

Trip-Hop at it's finest and it still holds up despite the passage of time.

Not my usual fare but this is great - perfect for a lazy summer day (which today isn't). Gentle bossa nova grooves combined with a fittingly perfect voice.

For years I didn't get this album, or Radiohead. Then one day I decided to listen to it properly on the train on the way to work. I realised I was utterly and completely wrong; OK Computer is one of the great albums. It's nice to be wrong.

Ahhh.... summer sun, Italian films of the 1950s and 60s. :)

One of my favourite albums by The Who. The, at the time, unheard of linking of songs with verité, here in the form of radio jingles and adverts as heard on pirate radio stations, make this an album that flows seamlessly. And it contains the sublime "I Can See For Miles".

It's jazz. It's samba. Jazz can be brilliant, samba is fine in small doses...

I haven't heard this for over 40 years. It's still awful

One of Pentangle's best.

I'd pretty much ignored Foo Fighters, but this is great. There again, I don't much mind if I never hear it again.

Started off interestingly but I got bored before I was halfway through. Good if you're a fan, I guess.

Yep.

Hugely overrated. Belting out pap for people too scared of Aretha Franklin.

This really hasn't aged well; I must hunt my copy out and sell it!

Beguilingly strong. My favourite of the three albums.

Well, that was a damn sight better than I thought it would be.

With the exception of the singles, including the unforgivingly ubiquitous "Come On Eileen", I'd managed to largely avoid this album for 40 years. And now I know I was right to do so.

I like this much more than I expected. There's some filler, but the combination of beats, samples and lyrics often works extremely well.

Infectious :)

Seriously!? This is an album I should listen to at all, let alone before I die?

Yes.

My fifth favourite Sabbath album... :)

Excellent album. A career high ;)

When this was first released it changed everything (well, musically). It's still awesome

No.

Under no circumstances.

I just don't get the fascination with Springsteen. With the notable exception of Nebraska, it all just seems like simplistic, cheer-along-US-rawk. Lyrically more interesting than the music, this album is utterly uninteresting and cringe-worthy.

First time I've listened to this album all the way through. It's not Husker Du but it's good enough, with enough of interest to keep me listening.

Almost flawless. Better than the debut album?

Awful. Cohen's worst album? ((Probably not, and I'm a fan!)

Love this album - the lyrics, the rhythms, the cover...

Bizarrely, to me and my friends, I own not one, but TWO albums by Ms Swift. This is not, nor will it ever be, one of them. I guess if I was a 14 year old girl I'd like it, but I'm not. So I don't.

Musically, as basic as in the Bon Scott era, which is fine on the good stuff - simple, catchy and entertaining. Lyrically, still as juvenile as ever!

My one complaint about this album has always been that it's not long enough.

Thoroughly entertaining, infectious grooves from the master.

Much better than I thought it would be and not quite what I expected, much more to CCR than Bad Moon Rising...

Short and sweet, Willie Nelson on top form.

Loved this as a teenager and the shows were fantastic. It's still good, with some notable highlights, but it's more nostalgic than a must have now.

Essential.

Oh god, do I have to...?

Genius.

The last truly great Cure album? Possibly.

The Who's greatest album

Great for the time it was released, but like many albums of its ilk, it doesn't travel well. Still good, but longer than it needs to be.

Peak Muse?

Got bored, it all sounds much too similar all the way through. Well, at least as far through as I got.

One of Neil Young's top three best albums I reckon.

I listened to this blind; I'd never heard of it and knew nothing about it. The album started interestingly and I was somewhat intrigued, but have a few tracks it was all starting to sound very similar all the way through. Possibly the result of using such small snippets of samples (yes, I went to the Wiki page) within a very limited musical palette and with only a few musical ideas. It would be fine to dance to a couple of tracks on a night out, but I'd soon want something else.

Hated this when it came out and certainly don't need to listen to it today! Everything about it was horrible - especially the jumpers! So horribly clean and preppy. Ugh!

Not my thing, but I get why people like it.

Musically, I really enjoyed this. Lyrically, it's the usual mix of genre stuff, but some is quite clever.

Not my thing; all a little bland.

Peter Tosh almost at his best.

Flawed but brilliant. A side is more psychedelic soul than the B side and although both sides are great in their individual ways, the songs on the B side, whilst being nearer to the original Temptations' sound are not as good as those earlier songs.

Very pleasant as background music.

Coming to this from the second Sugarcubes album (which isn't a patch on the first one) showed what a talent Björk was (and still is). Utterly beguiling and just the right side of the line between House and Rock/Punk.

No.

Not my favourite Soul album, but there's enough good stuff here to keep me interested.

Great at the time, but I'm less interested in it now. Still worth having in any decent record collection though.

A couple of Great American Songbook classics, a touch of easy cool bossa nova and Sinatra's inimitable swing amounts to a great album. 4 stars because it is not too long - any longer and there would be too much filler. As it is, there is a little dip around halfway through.

Harmless, but ultimately nondescript.

Up there with "What's Goin' On".

AOR - yuck.

Not interesting ambient. There's a formula and he follows it well, I suppose.

More than stands the test of time.

Superb.

Much better than I thought it would be

Okay, I really like this album and always have. But if it is going to be i the list of 1001 albums surely that means most of the Beatles albums are in the list as well. Probably a tad over the top?

You've heard one W-Tang related album you've heard them all. Lyrically and musically tedious. Probably the least talented of the Clan?

The only thing left to say about the brilliance of this album is that the deluxe version is both better and unnecessary as perfection cannot be added to.

Paul Weller thinks this is The Jam's best album and he's probably right. It's certainly the last good thing any of them did.

Not my cup of tea. His voice goes right through me.

Great album

I'd forgotten just how good this album is. Smmooooottthhh, but in a good way!

I really, really dislike jazz fusion. As with Bitches Brew, this album is listenable purely because of Davis' playing. Other than that, I'll continue to run screaming from any album that contains the words "John McLaughlin" and "Chick Corea"!

Important album on the back of the hype of Live Aid.

Leading the Two-Tone Mod revival - fantastic stuff!

Fun, light-hearted, good rhythms and "Ya Mama". Great stuff.

Even with a cover reminiscent of Sunshine Superman era Donovan and the Wikipedia informed knowledge that this is an early example of Tropicalia, I still didn't really know what to expect. I was more than pleasantly surprised though. A conglomeration of styles from bossa nova/samba through psychedelia and onto mid-60s folk stylings, I thoroughly enjoyed this. And, at a few minutes over half an hour, it didn't outstay it's welcome.

Influences and influential. And This Perfect Day. What more do you need?

Love this album! Live, many of the songs on it are even better.

Where have I been with regards to this - excellent!

Take Five isn't even the best thing on this album. And it's not Brubeck's fault that he inspired the band Blue Rondo a la Turk...

It's not as good as Folsom Prison, but that's a very high bar.

I've never liked the Style Council; the beginning of Paul Weller's decline into "rock-dad" mode.

Classic Fela Kuti: infectious grooves to get you on your feet, coupled with powerful political and social messages. The horns are brilliant throughout as are the baking vocalists. Genius.

Seriously, of all the albums ever released, why on earth does anyone need to listen to this drivel before they die? I had the misfortune to see Def Leppard live around the time of their first album. They were crap then and this is worse.

Let's have some more of those block rocking beats!

Apparently, Mick Jagger said that this album was a better take on a modern updating of blues and rock 'n roll than the contemporarily released "Sticky Fingers". Mick is right.

Very good, like the Beach Boys if they lived in Arizona.

I was a fan of Soundgarden in the early days, but it all became a bit glossy and rock-god for my tastes.

Beautiful. And it's not even the best Nick Drake album.

This is good if you like that sort of thing, but I don't, so I find it a little twee.

Nonsense.

So much better than Licensed To Ill, a real breakthrough album.

Exquisite listening. A record I rarely play, but always enjoy immensely when I do.

You either love it or hate it. I love it and always have.

Very enjoyable in a slightly-above-average-1967 kinda way. Psychedelic enough, lyrically interesting but hardly one of the 1001 albums to hear before you mow the lawn, let alone before you die.

I listened without prejudice... and have to say that this album is MUCH better than I thought it would be. There's a couple of songs I can happily to do without, which would make the album much tighter, but overall - in particular the opening three tracks - I really like this. His voice is great, the jazz focus works and the dance elements are infectious.

Almost perfect.

The first Muddy Waters album I bought, over 40 years ago now! It was great then, it's great now.

Great voice of course, but I do feel he's let down by some of the material.

Prog-light and very definitely of its time. I never understood the fascination people had with 10cc.

Much better than I thought it was going to be. Show Biz Kids will always be the highlight, but the rest is pretty good.

Well this was a pleasant surprise. I may have to buy it.

It's good, but I've never been one for the Dusty was utterly brilliant argument. Still, I'd rather listen to this than any of the wannabes. (Yes Adele, I'm including you.)

It took me a while to get into Radiohead, but this is a great album

Infectious - even better live.

Excellent. Surely even those oddities who profess "not to like jazz" couldn't fail to have their feet moved by this?

Awful. Okay if yo like this sort of thing I suppose, but I cannot stand her voice.

Possibly better than the other Let It Be...

This and the Mad Professor remix album would be a great double lp.

Entertaining enough but ultimately disposable.

Ultimately disappointing: a great voice obviously, but with three or four notable exceptions, the choice of material doesn't match the potential of the possibilities.

For the first 4 - 5 minutes of Roundabout I had a horrible feeling that nostalgia was influencing me to quite like this. But no, the world continues to turn; it's dreadful.

Nearly flawless. Flawless was to come with Pink Moon.

I can't be doing with Michael Jackson. Okay, this is good if you like this mix of pop/funk/r&b, but the best selling album of all time? That just shows the vacuity of a large percentage of the record buying public. ;)

Very interesting electronica/rock crossover.

Like most of Elvis' oeuvre, this has peaks and troughs, but because it's Elvis, on this album the troughs are still higher than many artists peaks.

One of Costello's greatest albums.

Could do with some editing to make a shorter, tighter and better album. Lose the first and last tracks, for instance.

Possibly not as good as The Idiot, but still great.

Some of these tracks are fantastic and really get a groove on, musically, socially and politically. There are a few filler tracks but my main problem with it is that I get a bit bored overall as it is very similar throughout. But each time I think I've has enough the next track is great.

A great album with excellent musicians, pulled together by the brilliant Masekela. Each track has its own voice and yet fits into the whole.

I love this album - and it's not even his best.

Why on earth did I sell this album 20 years ago! Guilty pleasure ;)

Yeah, I can see why people like it, but it's not a standout album for me.

An unknown album to me, but it's great.

At this point Dylan was getting better with every new album.

Small amounts of Pearl Jam are fine - and by small amounts I mean a single song, not a whole album. It lacks interest for me, plus too many "look how many notes I can play" guitar licks.

After a while it just becomes tedious braggadocio, or misogynistic violence. The politics is fine and musically it's good, but once you're halfway through you've heard it all.

Better than I thought it was going to be, but it is a long time since I heard any Penguin Café Orchestra. In the right setting it would be good as background music, but it's not for me to sit and listen to.

My older brother bought this when it was first released and I played it to death, but I was a kid then. Now, I'm an adult and it's only good for nostalgia. When you hear it... meh.

Always relevant. Hard, tight, angry - and why not.

My son has recently discovered 'Freebird'. I've tried to talk him out of it.

Very pleasant, nice in the background but nothing really stands out for me and gets me going. That said, I'd never object to hearing any of it again.

It's worse than I expected.

Simply one of the most important records in rock music of any genre.

When I was in my late teens I had - for some unfathomable reason - all the Rush albums up to this one. I heard this one and now have no Rush albums.

Love it (obviously)

Can we still listen to the racist curmudgeon? I still like this album, but obviously it's not The Smiths and suffers from the absence of Johnny Marr.

So, this popped up the day after the Queen died. Coincidence? I think not. Funny? Yes. And obviously it is a great album. Musically and lyrically way ahead of yesterday's "randomly generated" (honest) album - Morrissey's "Viva Hate".

I listened to what seems to be a double album - nearly 80 minutes. Each time I felt it was getting a little repetitious something brilliant started!

Better than I thought it would be.

As debut albums go, this is up there with the best of them.

Everyone knows this is great, don't they? Just skip over Imagine...

One of the most overrated albums of the 1970s, or any other decade.

For those that either don't like, or are new to, Sinatra, there are few better albums to start with.

For most other bands, this album would get four stars. As it's not close to being The Beatles best album, it only gets three stars.

Highlight? Personal Jesus. Overall, this is good, but not great.

Approaching their best...

Overrated.

I was surprised by how many of these songs I already new. It's a great example of storytelling country & western.

Some really good stuff on this, but Kid Rock comes across as an arse. And as for the godawful Eminem...

I bought this when it was first released and it has more than stood the test of time.

There are some classic Cohen songs on here and others that deserve to be regarded as such.

As a teenager, I really liked this album. But I'm an adult now and it's all a little juvenile.

The song "After The Ordeal" was how I felt whilst listening to this.

Ah, Aretha... What a voice! Showing the Aretha-lite wannabes how to do it: great songs sung with intelligence and righteous power. Nothing forced, nothing faked.

Reminds me of 1970s Genesis. That is not a good thing.

Overrated, but it has some highlights.

Personal Jesus - hard to go wrong really

I often wonder why I like Joni Mitchell's music so much; this album goes a long way to explaining it.

I used to play this album a lot back in the day. It still pretty much stands up to the test of time.

It was all downhill from here...

Possibly Costello's best album

Nothing startlingly original here, including in the Black Keys oeuvre, but that's no bad thing when it's done this well.

Much better than I remember it was when I bought it!

Love this album!

This album started well, with more than an air of Portishead about it. I was pleasantly surprised and found the first three of four tracks interesting. But after a while, it all became a little too obvious, each track sounding pretty much like the one before.

In an alternative, dystopian world, I could have lived and died without ever having heard this 28 minutes of sublime music. Fortunately, I do not live in such a world, so I have heard it, and my life is enhanced by having done so.

A bit of filler, but mostly dance-tastic disco!

Even if you're only a passing listener to hip-hop, this is an album that bears repeated listening.

Sonic Youth really starting to find their groove by this album. Love it!

Not even The Stooges best album!

The sound of a band having fun!

Dreadful. Lots of people liked this at the time, but they were mostly on drugs, which is really the only way to get through this tedium.

One of Lou Reed's best works, including his VU days. Only not 5 stars because "Kids" is such a difficult thing to listen to...

I really dislike music like this: lyrically uninteresting, unamusing braggadocio, misogyny and unconstructive violence; musically lightweight, dull and meandering pointlessly. Sadly, 0 stars isn't possible.

Powerful and grim.

West is an antisemitic, homophobic, racist, misogynist. And his music isn't much better. Annoyingly, I can't give minus or zero stars.

An excellent opening album from the icons of punk.

A transitional album between The Wailers and Bob Marley and... but still very good.

An album of its time, I think, like a number of others from around the same period; Fleet Foxes et cetera.

Awful. It's really not my thing, but I was expecting much better.

A mix of 13th Floor Elevators, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Iron Butterfly (complete with drum solo) and early Led Zeppelin, with a healthy dose of blues influences. All that and coming in at under 33 minutes to pack a healthy punch. What's not to like?

Generic; every track screams "Here's the band that influenced this one!" Okay for teenagers at the time but definitely dated.

It's good, but there is a bit of filler, which there shouldn't be in an album of only half an hour. The best track (Mrs Robinson) wasn't even on the original album and is (obviously) a cover.

Even better than A Nation of Millions...? Probably.

Great album, probably overrated.

I like the idea of this debut more than the actuality. Personally, I find grime becomes a bit too generic after a while and I stop listening, so a full album is more than I want to hear. That said, each track has its merits.

Bought this when it was first released and it sent me backwards in time to some fantastic music. It remains a guilty pleasure.

Love this album. The recent remastered edition is even better, and not just because it credits the actual songwriters!

An album that begins entertainingly enough, but there is a LOT of filler. I'm struggling to see how this has been raised above anything else of the same genre.

It's okay. Of it's time, in a Fleet Foxes etc. way.

With a sound reminiscent of a Sixth Form band and vocals by a 14 year old, this really is mediocre.

Peak Joni.

More sampling, fewer live instruments and very eclectic.

Much better than I expected; really good.

This album really surprised me; I really like it. Clearly the more interestingly talented of the Knowles sisters.

Immersive :)