I did my teenage/young adult years a disservice by dismissing Paramore. I saw them in concert in 2009 with No Doubt headlining, but I wasn’t interested. And I think we all know in 2026 Hayley Williams is genuinely punk and, though we cannot and should not compare women, is considerably more punk than Gwen Stefani.
This album SLAPS. It’s delightfully emo and has a surprising kick. The lyrics are emotional and clever and interesting. I love the biting chorus of “Playing God”! And so many songs are catchy.
A great first album on the user album list.
The Who’s Tommy holds a special place in my heart, and I’m just as shocked as you that I never listened to Quadrophenia. I’m so glad I had a reason to listen. I already knew several songs, and it was easy to pick up motifs, which created quite the flowy listen. I expected that and kick ass rock guitar from The Who, but just because it’s anticipated doesn’t mean it isn’t great.
Something must be said about the protagonists in these rock operas in the seventies. This and The Wall have the most unremarkable protagonists, and I found myself deflated. Tommy at least had a disabled lead character, but I found Quadrophenia to be about… nothing in particular. 3.5, for the guitar riffs.
Disco was overlooked by the 1001 albums project, and is overlooked by most people, which is a damn shame. Black Devil Disco Club scratched my disco itch. I love disco music, but electronic music can be repetitive and unappealing. (I know they’re similar genres; we are all full of contradictions.) Despite that, this was an easy album to listen to. It flowed well, though sometimes the repetition wasn’t so enjoyable for me.
This album being created by a French musician makes me think of Kraftwerk in the seventies, in the sense European musicians latched onto electronic way earlier than Americans did. And disco is a very American genre! Those two genres together make the album sound very 1978, in a good way, because both were taking off then.
Bruce Cockburn's Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws is remarkably pleasant and easy going! For such a vivid album title, Cockburn's breezy folk attitude could have been a letdown, but his voice is too captivating to let that happen. For being a folk singer, Cockburn has a good voice (respectfully to Leonard Cohen, unrespectively to Bob Dylan), and his instrumental aspects are very strong.
I'm reminded some of Tim Buckley and Nick Drake, or at least their albums that were part of the regular album list. But Cockburn isn't as psychedelic as Buckley, and the single "Wondering Where The Lions Are" is way more jaunty than anything Drake did. And neither of them incorporated a light Caribbean vibe, which helped keep the album light.
I love the quirkiness that is this album, because I love when a band doesn't take itself too seriously. "Song for Whoever" is cute as it shoves in as many women's names as possible into the lyrics, the chorus of "Woman in the Wall" encourages us liberate the song's victim, and the title of "I Love You (But You're Boring)" made me laugh out loud. The Beautiful South didn't hold back. Even when topics were dark, the songs remained fun and light tonally. The multiple vocalists, particularly male and female vocalists, added to this as they traded off verses. Their voices complimented each other well.
I'm a sucker for this kind of pop music. I enjoyed this album unironically.
Turnpike Troubadours (a cute band name) have an easy, natural way of storytelling. Country music has always been a great medium for storytelling, and I enjoyed how much the Troubadours adhered to that tradition. Their sound was reminiscent of older country mixed with modernity, maybe something like Dwight Yoakam or Travis Tritt in the eighties, but there’s something in the music that makes it sound very 2010.
A side note: I love when song titles are pulled from the lyrics but aren’t what you’d consider to be the most important lyrics. They did that here! Just a little fun for me.
I could not agree more that Beyoncé’s RENAISSANCE belongs here, or maybe even on the regular list, and I’m genuinely surprised the global rating is so low. I’m just glad I listened to this album!
Beyoncé is so purposeful with all her music, and I just loved listening to this album multiple times catching more samples or meanings or lyrics. Maybe what I loved most was how the entire album flowed. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard such a perfect album where every single song slides seamlessly into the next. It’s beautiful. A part of why the album flows, I think, is the same samples used across multiple songs, but I don’t find this to be annoying or uncreative. Also I cannot get over the usage of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” in the last song.
When this album came out, a lot of the talk was about the genre of house music, that Beyoncé brought attention to it. I definitely hear house, and she also included her signature R&B sound. The output is definitely a Beyoncé product that allowed her to explore another genre, much like her follow-up album.
TIL Ariana Grande's "goodnight n go" is a cover of an Imogen Heap song! Once I made that connection, I kept hearing how much Heap's Speak for Yourself influenced Grande's Sweetener album. Heap is on the electronic side of pop, but the dreamy pop tone is present on both. In that regard, I finished Heap's album being less impressed with Grande's, but that's not why I'm here.
Speak for Yourself is a great submission for the user submitted albums. I can't think of anything except for Goldfrapp that's similar to this album. The dreamy sound is such a vibe, man.
In the regular list, we received 6 albums either by Elvis Costello solo or with the Attractions. 6 is more than enough, as I think almost all of us agree on. I couldn't find much in Don't Throw Stones by THE SPORTS that was innovative or that this band did anything their contemporary didn't already do. Even the lead vocalist sounded like Costello.
"If you aren't making [music] that's different, then you're not making anything at all."
I love when an album has a sound we haven't heard in the official 1001 albums, or the user-submitted list. At this point, that isn't easy to accomplish! But Snarky Puppy's We Like It Here did it. Their jazz fusion is fun and energetic. The usage of electronic/synth is different from typical jazz, but the inclusion is good and adds to their uniqueness. Snarky Puppy even threw in some world music! And of course, when an album keeps your attention despite no or minimal lyrics, you have to mention it.
After reviewing more than 1,000 albums, we all start writing reviews in our heads and preparing vote within the first two minutes. I was so happy to be wrong once I made it to the third song because I had such a negative reaction to the first two, which had boring electronic noises paired with jarring vocals. "Paper Trails" has a blues vibe that I'm obsessed with! "Heart" is rock/electronic with really good beats, and the vocals weren't too harsh. I didn't enjoy the rest of the album, but gosh DARKSIDE did something right in the middle of the album. Unfortunately, I just don't think it's enough for a 3.
I'm afraid I heard nothing terribly original in Pedro the Lion's Control. They sounded so much like Kings of Leon, though I admit this album came out in 2002 before Sex On Fire. (We already had three KOL albums!) But it was just so boring and whiny. I kept wondering if Pedro the Lion even enjoyed creating and playing this music.
Kind of a bummer this is a concept album, because I love concept albums and when women do bad things.
Stretch 2 was not for me! The hip hop/electronic was a different kind of combo, but it just came across as weird and unappealing. The distortion was very machine-y and without purpose. I mean, at least Arca had the good sense to keep the album short, but it was so boring and repetitive I didn't know it had looped back around until I listened to it in full nearly twice, which sure defeats the purpose of a short length!
I feel like we’ve already gotten five albums like this, and I’m only 15 albums in with the user album list. The lead vocalist mumbles so much I don’t think you can call it singing at that point. The last song sounded better than the rest of the album, and I beg 2003 Sea Power to at least explore the emo sound.
If every single song on this album said “ft. Paul Simon,” I wouldn’t have been surprised. Contra has an eighties folk-pop Simon sound crossed with the aughts indie sound. It even sounds like music Paul Simon could have created if his heyday was 2-3 decades later. The world beat must be what’s guiding me.
Contra is a pleasant, quick, and very catchy album. I knew a handful of Vampire Weekend songs, none of which is on this album, but that didn’t stop me from tapping my foot along. The lyrics were fun and different. I simply had a good time!
Am I on a reality show where Elvis Costello pops up in my life under different pseudonyms and it's some practical joke that I hear him everywhere?? I enjoy new wave, and I enjoyed the new wave on this album. I'm not sure I heard anything different that I didn't get from the five kajillion Costello albums, but hey, it is a point in Squeezing Out Sparks' favor that this does not include Costello.
