1001 Albums Summary

I'm sure Steve Earle wishes that he had the same mop of hair today, that he had 35 years ago, when he recorded his breakthrough record. At the time, he was being compared to Dwight Yoakam,for having the crossover appeal to a mainstream pop and alternative market. Some radio DJs at the time referred to him as the “Redneck Springsteen”, and his blue collar rage holds a fair amount of water here. Cars, guitars, hillbilly fun, smoking a lot of cigarettes, breaking girls hearts and living in motels are the palate in Earle's world. The title track and Someday are my two favourite tracks on the record, but the rest of the songs are all fine. My biggest complaint is the production: his fine band, the Dukes, sound thin and too far in the background for me. Still this is as fine a country record as has been made since the 60's, and well worth a spin on the Victrola.

I never really liked Van Halen, I never saw them live and I never bought any of their records... except this one. Which is terrific. I soon tired of Eddie Van Halen's "new" fingering technique that earned him guitar god status, but I have never tired of the fine songs on this record. This is a secret I have kept from all of my friends for over 40 years, but there it is. Jamie's Cryin, Running With the Devil, Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love and Little Dreamer are all first class melodies. The guitar playing does sound dated in 2021, and David Lee Roth has always been a first class assaholic, but the songs still stand up.

I LOVE the first track (Love Like Blood) but am bored with the rest of it. A true one hit wonder. The hit IS deliriously good, though.

The best record of his career, and a monster of an album with chart hits and influential songs spilling out all over the place. I have always loved this record. I still do.

All hail the Lizard King!!!!!!!!!!!

Kick out the jams is all you need to know about this record. Incendiary sloppiness that was a building block for punk rock that came a few years later. Messy greatness

The late Jeff Buckley captured the crippling desperation of heart ache as effortlessly as his angelic voice allowed. The crowning glory on this record, in my estimation, is Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah (long before EVERYONE started covering it). The other knockout is the anonymously written Corpus Christi Carol. The original songs are not in the same class, but I liked Lover, You Should Have Come Over and Lilac wine. This is a very good record, created by a now lost talent.

Exile on Main St, in all its ragged, full-on, rock'n'roll swagger, is all a young man needs. In places, this record does indeed sound, in the best possible way, like an album made by a bunch of drunks and junkies who were somehow firing on all engines. The Stones would never sound so sexy, so raucous and abandoned,ever again. Fave Stones album, by far.

Full of funky bass lines, this record is a window into the house I lived in, in 1981/82. This record was always on the turntable and caused my roommate to die his hair black, and start wearing eyeliner. It sounds a bit sad and dated now, but the memories are worth at least a three.

Search And Destroy’s “I’m a streetwalking cheetah with a hide full of napalm, I’m a runaway son of a nuclear A-bomb” may be the best opening couplet of any first track from the 70's. I love every song on this record and consider it one of the most influential albums of my youth. It should have sold a trillion copies...

When Garfunkel still had the voice of an angel, and Simon's genius was on ready display. This is a fine record, and one I had never listened to (before today) from beginning to end.

The Trees broke through on the neo-psych grunge of "Sweet Oblivion" but this is their greatest artistic triumph, encompassing not just psych influences (especially noticeable on the sitar-tinged opener "Halo of Ashes") but country and blues as well, especially on closing numbers "Dime Western" and "Gospel Plow". "Make My Mind" is another highlight, with a hook that makes the most of singer Lanegan's gravelly delivery. Unfortunately, the band would dissolve after this high watermark, though the "Last Words" compilation basically serves as a final "lost" album.

A carefully layered, multifaceted album in terms of its sound, music, lyrics, and thematic cohesion -- in short, a fine musical achievement that hasn't been frayed by time.

Unbeknownst to all but his inner circle, Bowie wrote and recorded Blackstar after receiving word that he had liver cancer. A close listen reveals how the album is littered with references to dying -- indeed, it concludes with a note of acceptance in "I Can't Give Everything Away" -- but Bowie's remarkable achievement with Blackstar is how it's an album about mortality that is utterly alive, even playful. Fittingly, the music itself is suspended in time, sometimes recalling the hard urban gloss of '70s Bowie, but also Roxy Music and sometimes evoking the drum'n'bass dabbling of the '90s incarnation of the Thin White Duke. Blackstar is not even close to being my favourite Bowie album, but it does close on a contemplative note, a sentiment that when combined with Bowie's passing lends the album a suggestion of finality that's peaceful, not haunting. Collapse ↑

As dull a record, as has ever been made.

In 1958, one of the greatest singers of the 20th century released her last album before her death. A memorable masterpiece on which she once again delivered a record that stands through time. She may have lost much of her upper range due to heroin addiction, but her delivery is infused with her experience both tragic with its abusive relationships, prison stints and drug addiction, and triumphant with her musical success. Everyone need this record in their collection