1001 Albums Journey

A very good album. This album was produced by David Bowie, which is pretty cool. Light genre research tells me that this album is proto-punk, and you can definitely hear some early punk sounds in here, along with just generally really great 70s rock. I haven't really heard Iggy Pop before this, but I can definitely see now why he's so influential and well regarded amongst actual musicians. I'll have to admit, however, that I wasn't as crazy about the closing track as I was with the rest of the album. Eight out of nine is still pretty good though, especially when those earlier tracks are as good as they are.

I like metal. I don't really love metal, but you can play me a metal song and I'll probably enjoy it. Thrash is probably my favorite genre, but I don't love metal so I don't listen to it much. Arise is a thrash album, it's a good one. Nine songs, all of them good songs. If you're thinking in terms of the big four, Sepultura is definitely the closest to Slayer in terms of their style of thrash. However, I think something Slayer did that was important was actually make each song stand on its own. Every song on Reign In Blood, for example, is definitively its own track that also stands well in context of a full album. Arise kind of felt like nine solid songs that blended together, with nothing standing out or being notable in almost any of them. By the end of the album I was almost forgetting I was listening to an album, and when the deluxe tracks from Spotify started I just didn't notice because the end of the album had no indicators of being such. It's a very middle of the road album because of this, and picking a best and worst song is a pain in the ass because of it.

This was a weird one for sure. Not that the contents are weird, but it is definitely from a subgenre of pop that I have almost no experience with. That being said, with no frame of reference, these songs sounded really good. The arrangements were very minimal, but still sounding very full and making the album sound very complete. Quality group of songs from front to back, although not really my genre and so not something I would ever find myself returning to.

This was definitely not what I expected. When you think of The Bee Gees, you think disco obviously. But this album could not be farther from that. This is a double album filled with some really beautiful pop songs, some orchestral elements, and just overall the complete opposite of what I thought this would be going into it. The album starts off at an incredible point, if the album had stuck at that level I might be willing to give it a five, but it does eventually slip. Only one or two songs are truly weak but overall the album sorta begins to drag. It's a double album, clocking in at over an hour, and it would be much better if it was just 20-25 minutes shorter. Still some really great songs in here, though.

Exactly what it says on the tin. And it's fucking incredible. I'll admit that when I first listened, I accidentally had it on shuffle so it went from tracks 1->2->6 and I had quite the whiplash when I had to go back to track 3, the weakest track on the album, when track 6 is one of the strongest. I had to make sure that didn't cloud my judgement of the album as a whole, and thankfully most everything else on here is incredibly strong. All about murder, of course. Probably the best song on the album, which I really didn't expect, was a full fifteen minute long track called O'Malley's Bar, it doesn't develop much musically from front to back but the lyrical story and sheer strength of the music already there keeps you hooked all the way through. It's incredible. Great fucking songs on here, even if the album isn't consistent all the way through.

This album straight up just wasn't that good, I'm not sure why it was selected to be in this book. The Smiths are a classic band and all but I have never seen people discuss this album and now I know why: nothing on it is of any note. No great songs, just a lot of decent ones with one or two that fully stink. Would give it 2.5 stars if I could, it's completely middle of the road.

Iggy Pop is pretty good! I learned that last week. This album though, isn't as good. It's really primitive, even compared to the already proto-punk proto-ness of his later work. A lot of these songs feel like concepts, ideas, good ideas but just not ones that are yet formed into full songs. One of the songs on this album is a full ten minutes (We Will Fall) and in that time there is just about no progression or building up of any sort in the song, it just keeps going and doesn't end. That's not to say there aren't good songs on here, there are, but overall this isn't an appealing listen. There are things to appreciate for how influential the album was though, so I don't feel justified giving it a low score.

I think this might be my favorite album so far? Very great 90s alt rock stuff. Very un-commercial but still not really unfamiliar which in a way still made it pretty easy to 'get.' Honestly, on that Nick Cave album from a few days ago PJ Harvey featured on my least favorite track, so I was worried that this album would not be as good but thankfully it was. Some of the songs here spent a while building towards not much at all, some songs went quite fast and ended before you realized, some songs just went crazy for two or three minutes and then ended, all of it was done really well. Highway '61 Revisited is a Bob Dylan cover and a song I want to mention specifically because it does this exactly. The ending comes completely out of nowhere, but it somehow works and the next song picks up exactly where it leaves off. The whole album is just really great, and I'm excited to get to the three more albums that PJ Harvey has in this project.

Holy fucking shit!!!!!! Holy fucking shit!!!!!!!!!!!! What an incredible album. The whole thing. It's a full experience. One listen was not enough, I need so much more time with this album before I can understand and appreciate it fully. This rules so much. It's incredible. Every song is so strong. Closer is so overplayed, Hurt is so overplayed, I was not expecting to really care for either song when they came on, but every song works so fucking well when it's all put together like this. Every song is so important in the album. Every song is so great, it all blends together but absolutely stands alone. Mr. Self Destruct into Piggy is a masterful way to open an album, Closer into Ruiner is a really great transition and Ruiner overall is a really cool song with a lot going on. I don't want to go on for too long but I really can. There is so much here. This album is fantastic. I love it so much. So glad I got the chance to listen to it here.

This album is so good. The production is stellar, Little Simz is a great rapper, I should listen to more of her. I loved this.

I honestly loved this. Such a cool sounding album, so interesting, very unique. Will hopefully put this into my normal rotation.