1001 Albums Summary

i dislike acoustic guitars

this is pretty good overall.

This is the second best Nirvana album.

One of the better Sonic Youth albums. Pretty much a classic.

it's above average but doesn't move me much.

this is an all-timer.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ABSOLUTE SKA-POP PSYCHOSIS IN THE BEST WAY POSSIBLE I put on The Rise & Fall by Madness expecting “fun little British ska record.” What I got instead was a 40-minute identity crisis, a street parade, a pub argument, a nervous breakdown, and a warm hug from a man in a pork pie hat — sometimes all in the same song. This album does not “start,” it kicks your door in yelling about unemployment, class struggle, and being slightly unwell in the head, then immediately apologizes with a kazoo-level bounce. “Our House” feels like your childhood memories were thrown down a staircase and somehow landed perfectly upright. “Tomorrow’s (Just Another Day)” sounds like existential dread learned how to skank. I should not be able to dance this hard to songs about societal decay, yet here I am, fully out of breath, questioning capitalism. The sequencing is unhinged. One minute I’m laughing, the next I’m staring at the wall like I just remembered an embarrassing thing from 2007. Madness somehow weaponizes cheerfulness. The horns are joyful. The lyrics are NOT. This is sonic emotional whiplash and I love it. By the end, I felt like I had lived an entire British life: born in a terraced house, yelled at by my dad, drank too early, laughed too loud, worried about the future, and still showed up to dance anyway. That’s not an album — that’s a cultural speedrun. Five stars. Ten stars. A thousand stars. This record made me want to put on suspenders, cry about the state of the world, and then politely ask if anyone fancies a pint.