1001 Albums Summary

I saw a Stones tribute recently a

Loved the blend of hip-hop and acid jazz. I think I'll like it even more the second time round.

Mediocre Rock album. Well done Smashing Pumpkins. You smashed it!!!

Enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Hotel California (obvs) and Wasted Time were my stand outs. But too many other bands do this genre better to give this any more than 3.

Street Life was a great song, everything else was meh.

Not enough Marr for me. Morrissey was on top form as singer and lyricist but was very uninteresting musically. Saying that some absolute cracking songs on this album.

The perfect accompaniment to watching paint dry

I tried to like it. Even listened to it twice. But it just sounded like a near retirement school disco band badly covering other songs.

Easily the album I’ve enjoyed the most in this project. It was nearly all killer and even the bits I thought were filler on the 1st listen might grow on me on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th listen. Having never listened to Prince before, consider me a fan.

The melody of the Byrds meets the sound of 3rd Floor Elevators meets the mood of Pulp.

I found myself craving melody and any sound other than loud guitars. Black Hole Sun is a classic and Head Down was a surprise find. The band said they wanted to be a bit more Ringo on this album (the drumming was awesome) but think they should have tried to be a bit more Paul.

The answer to the question: what if Jack White fronted T-Rex? The whole album has a distinct glam-rock blues vibe relying on a thumping guitar warble to drive almost every song. There’s a lot of filler - the album has no right to be an hour. Sinister Kid and The Go Getter should have been scrapped as should the last 3 songs. But there are so many fantastic songs on this album: Everlasting Light, Howlin’ for you and Ten Cent Pistol are 3 nostalgic favourites. And Tighten Up and Never Gonna Give You Up are 2 songs I’d forgotten about that made the album worth revisiting.

If I wanted to listen to someone robotically deliver the same thing over and over again I’d watch the government in session

Too much going on for me. Felt like I was having a conversation with 20 people at once.

I'm not really a jazz person but I did enjoy this. Felt like I was transported to another time - to think this was recorded in the late 50s is remarkable.

I thought I loved this album but it turns out I loved 3 songs from this album: Mr Blue Sky, Sweet Talkin' Woman and Turn to Stone. The rest of album felt a bit unsure of itself - not knowing what it wanted to be and excessively schmaltzy.

Fun punk album with lots of short ideas for songs that somehow add up to a great album.

Astonishing this made it onto a list of must listen to albums

My god what will this do to my Spotify recommendations???

Didn’t enjoy this one either - a 3rd 1 star in a row I’m afraid. It just lacked any interesting ideas and ended up up being a dull listen. I like punk but what was this rebelling against? Melody?

A masterpiece. Oasis are at the funny point that most overplayed and extremely popular bands find themselves in: they seem a bit naff. But when you judge the album on a song by song basis there’s no doubt they can write catchy era defining music. It’s not perfect: She’s Electric has some of the best/worst lyrics of all time and the opening track is weak. But pound for pound this has to be one of the greatest albums of all time.

Some great songs that marry Indie and Soul influences nicely. Struggles sometimes from the ‘soft’ influences of Billie Eilish where you just want a bit more bite.

Any album with an electric jug is at minimum a 4.4 and then they make the rest up with fantastic songwriting. There’s only 1 mediocre song on the whole album (Monkey Island) everything else are classics. I just wished they hadn’t called it psychedelic cause it’s not really. The album has more in common with stoner/ garage/ punk rock than it does psychedelic music. Although it was released in 1966, the same year Tomorrow Never Knows came out, so was there at the very start of the psychedelic movement. I’d forgotten about the sound-quality which is a shame. It sounds cheaply produced with the sounds muffled and distant. But I LOVE this album. All the songs sound different and exciting, the songwriting is excellent and there was nothing like this in 1966. Maybe my favourite album cover of all time too. 5 stars.

Giving it a generous 2 because I liked the synth I Can’t Stand the Rain cover, but the original’s better. Help and Let’s Stay Together sound like cheap knock offs. Wasn’t a fan of any of the original music.

I only knew Yes’ Sweetness (which I like) before listening to this album. This is a lot more chaotic and dissonant in a stereotypical prog-rock way. Some good bits, some painful bits. But enjoyable enough to give it 3 stars.

Monday, Monday was a promising opening track and California Dreamin remains as epic as ever. No other songs particularly stood out. Considering 1966 also saw the release of Revolver and Pet Sounds, the album probably sounded dated even back then.

Felt a bit like the mamas and papas album: one mega hit and everything else was meh.

Surprised by the hate. This is a great melodic, moody and varied album. I get it sounds a little generic - fair enough. It suffers slightly from the 'wall of sound' production that I think came back into fashion in the 90s. But there's not one bad song on the album. And the album got better as it went along: Enola/Alone, Removables, Further Away are all brilliant indie songs. And then the best song on the album is the last song 'No Surface All Feeling'.

It sounded like Footloose with guitar solos. Funny Vibe was the only stand out song for me (that didn't sound like Footloose or the Ghostbusters theme...)

Struggling to find the words for why I didn't like it... maybe cause I listened to it 3 times and nothing stuck with me at all.

Absolute classic that still holds up. Not much else to say.

I thought it sounded a bit generic, which is to say it’s not really my thing. But when the pop gimmicks were stripped back the songs were amazing. ‘Liability’ is easily the stand out song on the album and an immediate favourite of recent years. The Bush-esque (Kate not George) ‘Writer In The Dark’ is the only other song I enjoyed.

Sounded like if a saxophone played the drill instructor in Full Metal Jacket

‘Bloodsport’ was a great song, didn’t particularly like anything else.

I feel very uncool saying this but.... I quite liked it. My favourite genre/era is probably psychedelic/60s so this isn't that far removed from stuff I listen to. And the other qualifier is I put almost no weight into lyrics so the stream-of-consciousness babble doesn't really bother me. It reminded me a bit of listening to Donovan, another Scottish psychedelic folk singer, but if you reconstructed his work by putting it into a blender. It's a bit all over the place but that's obviously the point. Some bits are really good and other parts are really testing. Favourite bit: a music-hall song about a Minotaur who 'can't dream well because of his horns'. Brilliant.

Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust are two of my favourite albums of all time. Always assumed I’d love this album too but it was just so dull. Heroes is obviously a classic but nothing else came remotely close to the title track.

It was fine, like spending an hour listening to Magic FM.

Not the best album to try and work to but a great album for the morning while you’re eating cereal and attempting a crossword. Even better if the cereal is jazz-appropriate e.g bran flakes or muesli. Probably doesn’t pair well with coco pops.

This has to be one of the best movie soundtracks of all time

This was just noise to me

It was like listening to an alternate universe where Queen had all their musical and production skills but none of their song-writing talent.

Always thought they were over-rated but really liked the whole album. Beginning was stronger than the end but fairly solid throughout.