My 1001 Albums Journey

122

Albums Rated

3.67

Average Rating

11%

Complete

967 albums remaining

Rating Distribution

Rating Timeline

Taste Profile

1960

Favorite Decade

Metal

Favorite Genre

Top Origin

Cheerleader

Rater Style ?

5-Star Albums

1-Star Albums

Breakdown

By Genre

Top Styles

By Decade

By Origin

Albums

You Love More Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators The 13th Floor Elevators	5	2.95	+2.05
Hypnotised The Undertones	5	3.06	+1.94
Screamadelica Primal Scream	5	3.17	+1.83
Nothing's Shocking Jane's Addiction	5	3.17	+1.83
Loveless My Bloody Valentine	5	3.17	+1.83
If You're Feeling Sinister Belle & Sebastian	5	3.18	+1.82
Mr. Tambourine Man The Byrds	5	3.22	+1.78
All Mod Cons The Jam	5	3.25	+1.75
Inspiration Information Shuggie Otis	5	3.27	+1.73
Made In Japan Deep Purple	5	3.29	+1.71

You Love Less Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
Remain In Light Talking Heads	2	3.67	-1.67
Moss Side Story Barry Adamson	1	2.53	-1.53
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below OutKast	2	3.45	-1.45
Amnesiac Radiohead	2	3.41	-1.41
Lady In Satin Billie Holiday	2	3.23	-1.23
Repeater Fugazi	2	3.13	-1.13

5-Star Albums (29)

View Album Wall

Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back

The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators

Popular Reviews

Moss Side Story

Barry Adamson · 6 likes

1/5

I'd like to image I hadn't wasted 54 minutes of my life listening to this soundtrack to an imaginary film. Unfortunately I did and I regret that. It has no redeeming qualities at all and completing it was a chore. It sounds like a music student's composition project. And not a good one. Never again.

Five Leaves Left

Nick Drake · 4 likes

5/5

If you hate this album you cannot conceive of true beauty in the world. This has always been my favourite of Nick Drake's albums. His singing, the string arrangements, the Richard and Danny Thompson's contributions, Joe Boyd's masterful production - all just perfect.

Loveless

My Bloody Valentine · 2 likes

5/5

5* album, with apologies to MBV for having not listened sooner because I confused them with emo twats My Chemical Romance and Bullet For My Valentine. Turns out I love shoegaze. Who knew?

Made In Japan

Deep Purple · 1 likes

5/5

One of the greatest live albums ever and a favourite of mine for years. I love every note, from the hard rocking of Blackmore's guitar to the bleepy, bloopy proggy noodling of Lord's Hammond organ. I prefer the original album to the deluxe version, so for the true experience I only listened as far as the end of Space Truckin'. The tighter 1 hour run time is a much better package and perfectly formed. Anything else is just too much imo.

Rings Around The World

Super Furry Animals · 1 likes

2/5

Somewhere in the territory between boring and actively unpleasant most of the time. Genuinely my favourite moment in this record was the second or so of silence between the end of the dire Receptacle for the Respectable and the start of [A] Touch Sensitive.

4-Star Albums (42)

People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

1-Star Albums (1)

All Ratings

Vol. 4

Black Sabbath

4/5

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

OutKast

2/5

Band On The Run

Paul McCartney and Wings

4/5

Tapestry

Carole King

5/5

The Rise & Fall

Madness

3/5

Screamadelica

Primal Scream

5/5

Ten

Pearl Jam

3/5

I've never been big on grunge and had only had limited exposure to Pearl Jam. This album didn't really change my views, I neither loved nor hated it. It's just... Ok. I honestly found the songs a bit too long and a bit too samey. Porch was the standout track that I didn't already know that I saved as a favourite. Shorter and more musically interesting to me. It might be a great album but a couple of repeat plays was enough. I doubt I'll feel the need to listen to this in full again.

The Slim Shady LP

Eminem

4/5

Not Eminem's best work but it set the tone for what he could do and showcases his latent talent. My feelings are probably coloured by nostalgia because I first heard this years ago in school when I was 15. It brings back good memories and at the time I thought some of this material was a lot funnier than I do at over 20 years remove. Coming to it completely cold I'd probably only give it 3 stars now.

Daydream Nation

Sonic Youth

4/5

Murmur

R.E.M.

5/5

Inspiration Information

Shuggie Otis

5/5

Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

Arctic Monkeys

5/5

One of the great debut albums. There was nothing like it when it was released. Witty, gritty, loud and demanding endless replays. Lots of stand out tracks too.

Hunting High And Low

a-ha

3/5

A couple of stand out tracks and even then I suspect Take On Me is only as successful as it is because of a genuinely great music video. This is not an album I can ever see myself listening to again. Not terrible but mostly dull to me and heavy on the 80s production that has never moved me.

Beggars Banquet

The Rolling Stones

5/5

A solid album from the band's strongest period. I've listened before but not in full for maybe 15 years. I seem to be in a minority but the only song I really didn't like was Jig-Saw Puzzle. The rest was consistently good to excellent roots rocks and blues rock. The stand outs have to be Sympathy For The Devil and Street Fighting Man and years of rock radio exposure has reinforced that but Parachute Woman and Salt Of The Earth the other highlights for me.

Five Leaves Left

Nick Drake

5/5

Oxygène

Jean-Michel Jarre

4/5

In its time this would have been ground-breaking and a clear 5 for being utterly new and different. Out of context in the modern day when a child with a bit of software could do this, it's slightly less impressive and I find myself rating it purely on composition and production. Still a great listen from time to time when you need ambient electronic tunes without lyrics whilst working. Pt4 is my favourite, though that might be a British thing having grown up hearing it in every seaside arcade for my entire life. I'll definitely continue to listen to this in future.

Selling England By The Pound

Genesis

3/5

I like prog but never really got into Genesis. This didn't swing it for me. Good playing but the song writing was average. On the plus side it makes punk make so much more sense.

Ritual De Lo Habitual

Jane's Addiction

4/5

A good introduction to a band I only knew for one song. I enjoyed it, on the whole. Probably only 2 songs I'd listen to in isolation. This feels more like an album you listen to in full, with the second half comprising mostly longer tracks. It's not from my favourite period in time, so I'll listen again but not regularly.

Strange Cargo III

William Orbit

3/5

I don't know how this counts as one of the 1001 albums I need to hear before I die. It's pleasant enough but entirely unmemorable. I don't even know if it's one of the best 1001 ambient albums ever produced. Inoffensive and worthy of playing in the background when you have work to do but it'll never feel groundbreaking.

Eagles

4/5

I enjoyed this album much more than expected. Quite a lot of strong tracks that I didn't know and really enjoyed. This is definitely an album I'd listen to again.

Bayou Country

Creedence Clearwater Revival

4/5

I like CCR and this is pretty good but definitely not their strongest effort. It certainly defines their sound but it's not as even and polished as other albums.

Blue Lines

Massive Attack

4/5

It took a couple of listens to really appreciate this fully, even though I've always liked trip hop. Definitely better after a second go round but some of the rapping prevents this getting 5 stars. This was a great album in that it created the template for trip hop and the Bristol Sound but their letter albums like Mezzanine are stronger.

People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

A Tribe Called Quest

4/5

A good introduction to Tribe for those who don't know them. Not flawless but a strong and enjoyable album, even for someone who casually listens to hip hop but isn't necessarily a regular fan.

In The Wee Small Hours

Frank Sinatra

3/5

This was a pleasant album but it's not going to set anyone's world on fire. I didn't feel like there were any stand-out tracks. It's a work meant to be taken as a whole because it's regarded as the first 'concept-album' where there's a thematic link between all the tracks for the first time ever, rather than just a disparate collection of songs. That's a good touch but I just couldn't say I loved it.

Femi Kuti

4/5

Not really thing but a very funky thing it was.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Kanye West

4/5

Separate the man (colossal egoist) from the art (incredibly well produced hip hop album) and this is a banging record. I've never listened to one of his albums before but I enjoyed this way more than I expected.

Remain In Light

Talking Heads

2/5

I've always liked Once In A Lifetime but I really didn't get the appeal of the rest of this album. A difficult listen for me.

Nothing's Shocking

Jane's Addiction

5/5

Phenomenal album. So glad this process introduced me to this record. It's much more even and consistent than Ritual De Lo Habitual. I imagine hearing this for the first time in 1988 would've felt how it did hearing Arctic Monkeys for the first time in 2005. A total game changer.

Moss Side Story

Barry Adamson

1/5

Electric Prunes

The Electric Prunes

3/5

I wanted to love this because it's my favourite period and one of my favourite genres but the quality just wasn't there. Good with a couple of standout tracks but not great. The songs are an uneven mix of psychedelica, baroque pop and whatever you'd class the last track as. The thing that really killed this though was the terrible mastering. Most of the tracks were badly balanced with most of the instruments heavily skewed to the left. Really bizarre and irritating to listen to.

Mama's Gun

Erykah Badu

3/5

Decent R'n'B album but I felt let down slightly by week vocals. Badu's voice doesn't have the depth and strength of some of her contemporaries and she seems sing from the throat rather than diaphragm, so she lacks the power and richness that would accompany the music well. Enjoyable on the whole though.

Led Zeppelin II

Led Zeppelin

5/5

This hits me different now to when I heard it first time aged 18 and my only criteria for a good song was the quality of the guitar solo. Still a stone cold classic though. This is one of those rare albums that defines an era, sets a template for its genre and acts as a tentpole for the career of the artists. An absolute monolith in rock history.

Call of the Valley

Shivkumar Sharma

2/5

Pleasant but unmemorable. No stand-out tracks. Good for being different but it hasn't tempted me into a repeat listen.

Kimono My House

Sparks

4/5

Love a bit of glam and enjoyed this madness.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Wilco

3/5

I don't see what all the hype about this album is for. Some good tracks, others ruined by really unpleasant noise. I prefer some of their other work. Great in parts though.

Made In Japan

Deep Purple

5/5

Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

4/5

I've never been able to get into Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. I always found their music to be too dark, too dense and antagonistically difficult to listen to, so I didn't have high hopes for this. I was wrong. It's a great record and one I'll probably listen to again. Not a flawless 5 for me but really good nonetheless. O Children in particular was a standout for me.

Repeater

Fugazi

2/5

I didn't enjoy this album. Musically it's pretty good though not at all what I enjoy, however, the awful po-faced singing ruined it. I can't see this album's appeal. For the same period I'd rather be listening to Sonic Youth.

Truth

Jeff Beck

4/5

Olympia 64

Jacques Brel

2/5

Not an especially great live performance and not especially interesting songs. Not sure why we all have to hear this. Very short though.

Ramones

5/5

Short, loud, fast, iconic and great.

Selected Ambient Works 85-92

Aphex Twin

4/5

Way better than I first expected and really picked up after the first couple of tracks. Great ambient music to work to. Not memorable but the context of the album marks it out as significant. Will listen again.

Damaged

Black Flag

3/5

Mostly rapid angry bellowing with a couple of witty tracks thrown in. Mercifully short at 35m 3s.

In It For The Money

Supergrass

4/5

Solid album with some great tracks and it's well produced too. Just too long for my taste. To be great, a record needs to be tighter. When the running time is 71 mins there's too much opportunity to put weak tracks on there that detract from the overall score, which is what happened here. When it's good it's really good though. Supergrass have always been one of my favourite underrated British bands of the nineties.

Transformer

Lou Reed

5/5

Automatic For The People

R.E.M.

4/5

Pretty good but not perfect.

Fear Of Music

Talking Heads

3/5

Red Headed Stranger

Willie Nelson

4/5

Hypnotised

The Undertones

5/5

Excellent punk album.

Bat Out Of Hell

Meat Loaf

5/5

Tea for the Tillerman

Cat Stevens

5/5

Pretty much perfection.

São Paulo Confessions

Suba

3/5

Ill Communication

Beastie Boys

4/5

A great album but a little too bloated with a couple too many instrumentals. When a record runs over an hour there's always the chance it'll contain tracks that detract or stop it being 5 star and although this is good, it needs to be a little tighter. I really liked it though and was both pleased and surprised by the eclecticism. A really enjoyable listen.

american dream

LCD Soundsystem

3/5

I didn't think this was outstanding and probably not my favourite in LCD Soundsystem record. Too long as well.

Pieces Of The Sky

Emmylou Harris

4/5

Ace of Spades

Motörhead

4/5

A bit samey, which isn't necessarily a bad thing when the opening track is Ace of Spades but it didn't achieve greatness through its lack of variation. And as someone else pointed out, Jailbait has some really problematic lyrics. Very enjoyable though.

The Village Green Preservation Society

The Kinks

5/5

A Rush Of Blood To The Head

Coldplay

4/5

Floodland

Sisters Of Mercy

4/5

Not at all what I expected and really good. The album that has really surprised me most 50 into this exercise. Will definitely check out more Sisters of Mercy.

Jack Takes the Floor

Ramblin' Jack Elliott

4/5

Violator

Depeche Mode

4/5

The Band

3/5

Chicago Transit Authority

Chicago

4/5

Rings Around The World

Super Furry Animals

2/5

Loveless

My Bloody Valentine

5/5

5* album, with apologies to MBV for having not listened sooner because I confused them with emo twats My Chemical Romance and Bullet For My Valentine. Turns out I love shoegaze. Who knew?

Arc Of A Diver

Steve Winwood

4/5

Soft rock really isn't my thing but this was much more enjoyable than I expected. Would definitely listen again, though I much prefer Winwood's earlier group work.

Mr. Tambourine Man

The Byrds

5/5

Lust For Life

Iggy Pop

5/5

Stonking album. A couple of all-time top tracks and everything else is great too.

Rattus Norvegicus

The Stranglers

4/5

A strong, very even album but not enough standout tracks for me to make it a 5*

Fromohio

fIREHOSE

3/5

I really struggled to decide what to make of this album. Clearly some talented musicians making something that sounded very much of its time and had some flashes of virtuosity in more than a few places. I found it a bit too uneven though, lurching between disparate genres and styles. I didn't care too much for the vocals either. But I didn't hate it and I've saved If'n as a stand out track. I definitely won't listen to the whole thing ever again though.

The Marshall Mathers LP

Eminem

3/5

I was a teenager when this was released and I really liked it at the time. I've since grown up, my sensibilities have changed and though the quality is still there, the whole thing is just a hot problematic mess of misogyny and homophobia. There's some monster talent on this, great beats and hooks by Dre and some great tracks like Stan that will always stand up but now it's hard to listen to. I won't be coming back.

Copper Blue

Sugar

2/5

This sounds like what you'd get if you searched "90s grunge" in a royalty-free music library. It's like the diegetic music you'd hear in the background of a teen film set in 1992. Like a previous reviewer said, it's like it was produced by an AI trained on existing grunge albums. Its biggest flaw is being dull and having nothing new to say. I'm not a huge fan of the genre butni know what's good and this just isn't. I'm honestly surprised it's in the list.

Parachutes

Coldplay

3/5

Not as bad as some people make out but also not as great as others say. Chris Martin should really sing an octave lower, not that falsetto he goes for. I heard it once and it's much better. There are a couple of good tracks her but the mastering on Shiver made me really angry. Once all the instruments kick it I kept thinking my speakers were clipping but no, it's just their crappy production.

Roxy Music

4/5

Dummy

Portishead

4/5

Strong

Abbey Road

Beatles

5/5

5* in spite of, not because of the twee nonsense of Maxwell's Silver Hammer and the execrable Her Majesty.

Rocks

Aerosmith

3/5

Solid enough but unmemorable to me. I liked it more than later period Aerosmith that I've heard in the past.

Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water

Limp Bizkit

2/5

I'm not angry, just very, very disappointed. I was in my mid teens when this came out and hanging with a crowd who were really into this (I wasn't), so any enjoyment was largely as a result of nostalgia, rather than excessive quality. The tracks I didn't hate were The One, My Way, Rollin', Take A Look Around and Hold On. Some of those had catchy hooks or half decent tunes. The album as a whole was far too bloody long, Fred Durst's whiny, posing anger is laughable and I didn't think much to the production. And I listened to it in full, so the final track with its looping laughter made me righteously angry. Still not the worst album from this project that I've endured, so I can't rate it 1 star.

All Mod Cons

The Jam

5/5

Brilliant album, made even better by the contrast to my previous day's album by Limp Bizkit. Hints of the Beatles, the Kinks, The Who and The Clash along with their own style. I knew of the Jam and their most famous songs but most of this was totally new to me. I shouldn't have spent so many years out off by tragic middle-aged dads and their 'Well-end' haircuts. Will definitely put this in rotation in future.

A Date With The Everly Brothers

The Everly Brothers

3/5

Dated now and yes, the lyrics would be problematic if released today but in its time a decent album. A little earlier than my favourite period but it has some killer 2 part harmonies that set the trend for the genre for bigger bands that followed. Solid contribution to the canon.

Station To Station

David Bowie

3/5

I've listened to a lot of Bowie over the years and somehow hadn't heard of this album or any of the tracks on it. It's like finding out you've got a sibling you didn't know about. Albeit a sibling who isn't as good as the ones you already knew.

Everything Must Go

Manic Street Preachers

3/5

S'alright I suppose. Design For Life was the standout, though I knew it already. I don't think I'll be going back for a repeat listen.

Marquee Moon

Television

5/5

Amnesiac

Radiohead

2/5

I've never liked Radiohead before and this isn't the album to convince me. A couple of catchy hooks here and there but then the vocals spoilt it for me. Is this even in the top 3 Radiohead albums? I'm pretty sure it's not.

This Nation’s Saving Grace

The Fall

2/5

One of the longest hours of my life. Wanting an album to end is not a sign you're enjoying it. It has a couple of better tracks but none were especially memorable to me. Just a useful reminder of why I've tried to get into The Fall before and never managed it.

Ágætis Byrjun

Sigur Rós

3/5

Black Holes and Revelations

Muse

4/5

Rock 'N Soul

Solomon Burke

4/5

World Clique

Deee-Lite

3/5

Bongo Rock

Incredible Bongo Band

3/5

Enjoyable but is it groundbreaking? Probably not. Unique though.

The Next Day

David Bowie

4/5

I really enjoyed most of this. Judged against the rest of his body of work and considering whether it merits inclusion in this project, I concluded that it probably doesn't. A great listen all the same.

Heaux Tales

Jazmine Sullivan

2/5

Why? Half the already very short album is 'skits', so beloved of rap and R'n'B. They are presumably supposed to add context but detract from the experience of listening to the music. Am the tracks seem utterly forgettable. Plus there's a lot of the awful mumbly triplets that Snoop Dogg has complained us ruining and homogenising rap. Snoop knows the score. Bin this right off.

Pictures At An Exhibition

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

4/5

I was the sort of pretentious twat who listened to this and loved it when I was a student. 20 years on and it's still great. There's nothing else quite like it. Not perfect but definitely one worth hearing.

Vivid

Living Colour

3/5

I liked the opener and Which Way To America as a dig at the reality of life in Reagan's America but most of it was a bit too much for me. I can see why it's on the list but I can't see me ever listening again in full.

The Queen Is Dead

The Smiths

4/5

Third/Sister Lovers

Big Star

2/5

High Violet

The National

3/5

The sort of album you'd have seen advertised on TV in the UK in the early 2010s with a breathless voiceover from Zane Lowe, deeming it to be the album of the decade. It isn't. It's not bad but nothing much really stood out. Lots of layers and textures that benefit from being heard on a decent set of cans but no hooks or stand out months. I can why some people hate it.

Grace

Jeff Buckley

3/5

I See A Darkness

Bonnie "Prince" Billy

2/5

Nope. Maybe I wasn't in the right frame of mind but I don't think I enjoyed any of this. It was so maudlin and the jarring with vocals grated, as did the energy-sapping guitar. I feel like I need a hit of caffeine after this.

If You're Feeling Sinister

Belle & Sebastian

5/5

I Against I

Bad Brains

2/5

It got better than I expected at first but I expected it to be awful and it was merely annoying.

Homework

Daft Punk

4/5

Dear Science

TV On The Radio

3/5

Ok. Not memorable though and a little uneven.

Trans Europe Express

Kraftwerk

4/5

Blur

3/5

Shaft

Isaac Hayes

4/5

It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back

Public Enemy

5/5

Lady In Satin

Billie Holiday

2/5

3 + 3

The Isley Brothers

3/5

Sweet Baby James

James Taylor

3/5

Second Toughest In The Infants

Underworld

4/5

On first listen I'd have rated this 2 or 3 at best. Due to a disrupted and broken listening session first time round I returned a couple of weeks later and listened properly in one sitting, this time with a decent pair of cans. It transformed the experience and immediately elevated this album to 4*

C'est Chic

CHIC

3/5

A very polished album with impeccable production. It's somehow too polished, too shiny and largely unmemorable to me though. And it suffers from my main complaint about disco - most tracks last too long without actually going anywhere. Luckily the album is only 41 minutes, otherwise I'd have been going spare with boredom.

There's A Riot Goin' On

Sly & The Family Stone

3/5

I didn't enjoy this as much as I hoped. But bad and a real groove in places but I felt a bit let down by a few tracks.

Bringing It All Back Home

Bob Dylan

5/5

I've listened to Bob Dylan on and off for years and never been a huge fan. There have just been odd songs I liked. I've owned a few albums but never made the effort to listen before despite knowing he had a few golden runs. This album is absolutely the way in for me. Just perfection. I loved it from start to finish. Judas to some but he has the best music when he went electric. The folk side is still incredibly strong though.

American IV: The Man Comes Around

Johnny Cash

5/5

It's a stunner and no mistake.

Atomizer

Big Black

2/5

A challenging listen with no standouts or bright spots for me. I'll never hear this album again.

Music in Exile

Songhoy Blues

5/5

I was already familiar with this album, so it was one of those pleasant surprises where you get to listen to something you love as reward for the previous day's dirge. A solid piece of work.

War

5/5

The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators

The 13th Floor Elevators

5/5

Juju

Siouxsie And The Banshees

4/5

Getz/Gilberto

Stan Getz

3/5

Moondance

Van Morrison

4/5