1001 Albums Summary

God I love rock music. Took me a few minutes to warm up to the lead singer's voice, but once I did I was totally on board. Yes, it's nothing that hasn't been done before, and yes, the mix is really weird and everything sounds like it's far away and dreamy, but this album just has some really, really good songs. My favorites were "Comin' Back to Me," "My Best Friend," and "In The Morning." Maybe I was just in a good mood today, but cmon - these songs are just infectious (and the weird mixes are definitely part of it). There are certainly some weaker moments through the album - I think I get what they were going for with the ending, but it was pretty poorly-executed. Despite all this, made me rediscover my love of rock and roll. Will put it on next time I want to smile.

I have heard the hype for David Bowie. Supposedly this is one of his best albums! After giving up halfway through I've become even more of a non-fan. (Sorry Dylan!) I usually pride myself in being able to enjoy many different genres and styles of music, and I almost never find nothing to like. But with David Bowie I just... don't get it, like, at all. Where others hear catchy pop songs, I hear unintelligible, uninteresting, cringe-inducing vocals set to disappointing and overwrought instrumentals. I sort of liked the experimental aspect of this album, the Brian Eno synthesizers and weird bloopy fun arrangements. But everything else was just barely listenable. Some of the songs I think were literally inducing a physical reaction of repulsion from my eardrums. I really would love to someday "get" David Bowie, but after listening to this one, I think that day is far, far away. The vocals make me feel like I'm sitting in a dirty diner bathroom about to throw up from eating too much corned beef. The instrumentals too, and the mix just makes me feel icky - I guess it's an acquired taste... Maybe it's just the 70s glam rock vibe that's putting me off. If you loved this album just ignore me, I'd never want to take away from someone's enjoyment of a piece of music. But I had to express my true feelings somewhere. DNF. Right when I got to "A New Career in Town," I had to turn it off.

Was jamming out to this bopping my head so hard in the Newark airport. Basically a Rastafarian conversion experience. My favorites were "Slavery Days" and "Red, Gold, and Green"

Sooo cool! You're watching in real time as sampling as an art form is being explored. Of course by 1996 sampling had been around for a little while, but this record feels like a much more mature version of hip hop. Some of these songs sound like they could have come out 10 years later! With records like these I always tend to feel like it's sort of a wasted opportunity. Where's the rapper?? Or at least the singer? Some of these tracks would be SO good with someone on them. That's probably just my personal taste but... I can't say I wasn't making up some lyrics in the car listening.

This album really grew on me! The first few songs felt pretty uninspiring, so I was expecting more of the same for the rest of the album. But somewhere in there, I totally got it. It really reminded me of the Indigo Girls - it's got that same mix of political songs and love songs, all blended into this style of cute head-banging folk-rock. I'm sure there was some mutual inspiration there, and sure enough, it looks like they've played in concert together several times! "There is Power in a Union" is just such an epic ballad that makes your hairs stand up, almost like Pete Seeger if he was a little more rock and a lot more British. And followed by "Help Save the Youth of America," which just has that infectious righteous-anger energy. And then by the start of Side 2, we take a sudden turn into these beautiful American folk tunes! I had to check that I was still listening to the same album! On the weaker side, I think the album definitely suffers from demo-itus. And to my ears, the awesome and beautiful songs are sprinkled in-between with uninteresting ones that disrupt the flow and don't make too much sense. I think it definitely could have been half as long, with just the essential songs. 3.5/5, but I'll round up to 4 :)

Woowwwww!!!!!!

"It's the same damn song" - Willie Nelson By the third time I heard "Time of the Preacher Theme" I was a little confused. Like, it's not a bad song! But... three times on one album? And a couple other songs were repeated twice! I like the idea of an art album, a storybook album, but I want to be brought in by it, not eternally bored.

So magnificent and bittersweet. You cannot listen to this album and not feel that sense of sweet sweet nostalgia. It's an album about living in the future, suddenly waking up one day and it's 1971, and there's this moment of clarity, like "wait, what's really going on here?" Somehow it perfectly captures that for me. So beautiful.