1001 Albums Summary

I'm not the biggest fan of Nirvana but I've heard little of their music, so I'll try to be fair. With "About a Girl", I can already hear a sort of proto-Foo Fighters sound taking shape. I have to wonder if Nirvana would have eventually produced an album like The Color And Shape if Kurt Cobain hadn't died. This album doesn't really change my opinion of Nirvana's music - They have a sound I'm just not interested in - but the artistry and pure human emotion on display is really telling. You can feel the strain on Kurt during the performance and just how much of his soul is going into his music. It's compelling, even to me. And the cover of The Man Who Sold The World may be my favorite ever.

I quite like the song Yellow, and I think Shiver has a nice cadence to the rhythm and melody, but outside of those two songs, I can't help but think "I'd rather be listening to X", and there are two albums in particular that come to mind: Transatlanticism (Death Cab for Cutie) and The Color and The Shape (Foo Fighters). The overall composition of Parachutes reminds me a lot of early Foo Fighters songs, like Walking After You. However, with the exceptions noted above, I don't think Parachutes ever rises above or even to meet that one song in terms of storytelling or dynamics or any other particular quality. That said, Foo Fighters were all established musicians and Coldplay were not at the time of their making each album, so take that with a grain of salt. The performance is masterful, but wears thin after a few songs. Every track blends into each other - indeed, this is a common complaint about Coldplay, and it's why I mentioned Death Cab. Their music, like the album Parachutes, tends to hover around a general sense of melancholy or at least bittersweet joy. However, basically every song they've made is a unique experience, expressing some new and nuanced facet of emotion. Parachutes does not have this breadth, and I think that's a large part of what holds it back. It has neither depth in composition nor broad emotional beats, and so it feels very shallow. It's worth noting that even Chris Martin doesn't like this album, which doesn't affect my rating, but I think even the band recognizes it's not their strongest work.

One of my favourite albums of all time. Of course, it is impossible to extricate Graceland from the political environment from which it was born, and the folks who would tell you otherwise are ignoring a significant and real part of its history. The album is a beautiful mixture of American pop, rock and jazz, and traditional black South African music. However, it would be remiss of me to not draw a connection through Graceland to Elvis Presley, a white man who popularized black music among white audiences. I don't believe his intention was ever to take credit wholesale for the sounds of Graceland, but it's not an unfair comparison, and one worth considering as you listen. Still, Simon's goal was to create new musical expression free of political boundaries (such as the ongoing Apartheid) and at this, I think he succeeds, creating one of the most vibrant and diverse feeling albums I've ever heard. Exceptional.

A classic album. Gets off to a slow start but on the whole it's a fantastic look back at a sound that spawned an entire genre. You can hear so many other bands in this one album, it's incredible. Especially big fan of The Prisoner and Hallowed Be Thy Name.