Scary album cover. I felt like I was so dialed in to music (maybe just to emo!) back in 2004, when this album came out, but I've never heard of this band as far as I can remember. And I hope to never remember them, either.
Common: the intelligent rapper. I love his storytelling. He seems to be one of the more enlightened, and enlightening, rappers to ever do it. Hip Hop Golden Age has referred to this album as Common's mangnum opus. It came out in 2006 and is produced by Kanye West, who was at the top of his producing game way back when circa Late Registration and Graduation. The good old days. This album, Be, is just so smooth from front to back. I loved the tracks Go, Be, Chi-City and Love Is... A solid rap album. Thougtful. Enlightened. Long lasting.
Hit after hit after hit after hit: Twice as Hard, Jealous Again, She Talks to Angels & the incomparable Hard to Handle. What a debut album for the kings of southern rock. The instrumentation and harmonies and laid back, summer saturday BBQ groove of this album gets an A+ from me. Need this one on vinyl!
My cousin Matt showed me Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) when I was way-too-young, and the opening aggression on Bring Da Ruckus has not left my mind yet. The beats are low key, the martial arts references (literally in sampled movie dialogue and figuratively in lyrical references) are plentiful, and the nine-man assault weapon of rapping and rhyming is some of the best of all time. This album is #27 on the RS Top 500. I enjoyed this paragraph from the Pitchfork review: "36 Chambers directly paved the way for harder-edged New York rap and provided a hardcore hip-hop blueprint that’s been followed by rap purists and collectives for nearly three decades. It began the Tao of Wu, bonding nine Staten Island dreamers (RZA, GZA, U-God, Ghostface Killa, Method Mad, Inspectah Deck, Old Dirty Bastard, Raekwon and Masta Killa) by philosophies of the mind and the scents of the fried food wafting past Brooklyn’s Palmetto Playground. But more than anything, it’s a testament to pop culture’s power to create and forge brotherhood. In 2004’s Wu-Tang Manual, just over 10 years after the album’s release, RZA broke down the significance of its title as only he could: “You have the thirty-six chambers, and there's nine members of the Wu-Tang Clan. Each member of Wu-Tang has four chambers of the heart. And what's nine times four?”
First, "Stan" is one of the greatest songs ever, both in it's storytelling and building emotion and ultimately tragic ending, and the story of crazy fans doing unthinkable things is common in 2023. Otherwise, this is my second Eminem album in the last few weeks, and it again was completely captivating, lyrically and musically, and an absolute turn off, at the same time. Like a car crash, it's hard to watch but you can't turn away. The horrorcore violence, homophobia and outright misogyny is too much at times, but I can't deny the originality or artistry of Eminem in the year 2000. In the Village Voice, Robert Christgau called him "exceptionally witty and musical, discernibly thoughtful and good-hearted, indubitably dangerous and full of shit", while declaring the album "a work of art whose immense entertainment value in no way compromises its intimations of a pathology that's both personal and political". Mike Elizondo, a former collaborator on Eminem's albums, said, “I felt like Marshall was part of this wave with Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. This next level of art with incredible graphic imagery that Marshall had the ability to paint. Love it or hate it he was obviously very skilled at the stories he was telling.” I couldn't agree more.
This is a great album. Punk rock pioneers. I've added the song "Unsatisfied" to my main music playlist. Love this one.
Enjoyable. I didn't expect all the electronic elements. Lots of layers and depth. Best Song: Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell.
Haunting voice. Very appealing.
Iconic. A great punk album. This album was recorded for $7,600.
37 minutes long...with three songs! First one is 18 minutes! I imagine this band stuck in Spinal Tap style "jazz odysseys". The drummer Bill Bruford found the album so laborious to make that he quit the band to join King Crimson. Interesting album.
Best Song: Boulders to Birmingham or Queen of the Silver Dollar. Timeless, beautiful voice. Great gospel/country/folk vocal melodies. I'm sure this album has been very influential to many female singer-songwriters.
The Mars Volta is what was leftover after the breakup of At The Drive In. Two members remained, and this was their first album. Very frantic and experimental.
Cult of Personality gave me major Guitar a hero flashbacks. A decent rock album.
Jane’s Addiction has their own sound. Been Caught Stealing is a classic, and many of the album’s tracks are similar. Ain’t No Right is a unique jam.
Hit after hit after hit after hit: Twice as Hard, Jealous Again, She Talks to Angels & the incomparable Hard to Handle. What a debut album for the kings of southern rock. The instrumentation and harmonies and laid back, summer saturday BBQ groove of this album gets an A+ from me. Need this one on vinyl!
Nothing special about this one besides the early electronic vibe. Meh.
Texted my dad first thing, "Oh boy..." with a picture of this album cover. He replied, "You won't like it" and I said I'd keep an open mind. First song is 20 minutes long! Quite zany and frantic. "Lady Madonna" vibes on the song Jeremy Bender. Very diverse album, but a definite acquired taste.
This album didn't have any of the traditional Labour of Love UB40 tracks that I'm used to, but I enjoyed it. It's amazing that this is a British, and I love the origin of their band name, too.
Best (and most famous song): Pump It Up. Decent album, probably wouldn't listen to it again.
Brazi music! I enjoyed this samba music especially after having just reminisced on my own time in Brazil during Logan Bird’s missionary farewell! Vamos!
Amazing how athletic this guy looks and all I think about when I see him is his disastrous first pitch at a Mets game. I thought “In Da Club” was an unassailable song when I was in HS. I find it merely okay these days.
Love the intro track that illustrates Biggie's musical upbringing. His voice hits so hard, it's an instrument unto itself. The rhymes soar. The title is so prophetic, and it's depressing how much of this album is about street violence in light of what ultimately happened to BIG. Warning, Ready to Die, Juicy, Who Shot Ya and Big Poppa on ONE album? C'MON. 5 stars, easily. Long live the king.
A good electro-soundtrack. Sounds like the music of virgin suicide. A predecessor to The Social Network soundtrack as it's also comprised of electronic and instrumental elements.
My dad loves this band. The song Roundabout is good but it doesn't really resonate. I feel like "you had to be there". Chaotic, just like Emerson, Lake & Palmer. The track lengths are strange: 11 minutes, 8, 8, 3, 3, 2 and 30 seconds.
Classic Beatles. Most popular songs: A Hard Day's Night & Can't Buy Me Love. Some sleepers: If I Fell & Things We Said Today. You can tell the Fab Four are moving into a more confident, pop producing zone with this album.
Album unavailable on Amazon Music.
This is underground, intellectual rap at it's finest. Check The Technique is a hit.
Love this album cover. The guitar solo in the song Maggot Brain is stupendous. Smooth and directly from outer space. It wails past Neptune and into my car stereo. Super Stupid is a funky number, much like I expect all Funkadelic songs to be. I was surprised by the diversity. A great album.
Such a great album. Oasis at their peak. Best Songs: Rock 'n' Roll Star, Supersonic and Slide Away. And Live Forever is one of the great songs to come out of the 90s. The Gallaghers hit a home run here.
Smooth Stevie sounds. #34 on the RS Top 500, top. Lots of synth and big band elements. Can’t believe this was SW’s SIXTEENTH album. Dude was cranking’ ‘em out! Best songs: Living for the City & Higher Ground. 5 stars on this one.
Take Me Out is just a hugely popular song, synonymous with the year I graduated high school, however, this band is in the wave of English bands all trying to be The Strokes…and I just don’t get it. Some decent songs, probably wouldn’t listen to it in my free time.
What a voice and what a sound! A call back to Jazz lounge singers in the 30s and 40s. So soulful. I loved her documentary AMY. A talent gone far too soon, but a legacy amplified by an early demise. RIP.
Album unavailable on Amazon Music.
Traditional African beats. Amazing vocals range and instrumentation. Not my style but I appreciate the artistry.
Clint Eastwood is one of the most progressive, intellectual rap tracks I've ever heard. It stands the test of time. The lo-fi funk on the rest of this album is re-listenable. It can fill backgrounds and foregrounds. I love "Tomorrow Comes Today" as well. Solid album from the Gorilla Gang.
The best album I’ve reviewed so far. Every single song is a hit. Brown Sugar, Sway & Wild Horses are a kick start to the heart to open this incredible album. The opening guitar riff to Can’t You Hear Me Knocking is killer. It gets twangy with You Got To Move. The strings sound rusty, in a good way. Bitch has a bitchin’ horn section. I Got The Blues is the perfect emotional slow down jam. The album slows way down at the end, in the best way, with Sister Morphine (though this song builds annd builds) and the broken hearts anthem Dead Flowers. Finally, Moonlight Mile is one of their best slow songs. Is it about drugs…or life on the road? Why can’t it be both?! A TEN STAR MUSICAL MASTERPIECE!!!
A collection of extremely famous Christmas songs. Darlene Love stand out the most.
I'm guessing all three Jimi Hendrix albums will be on this 1001 list. Axis: Bold As Love is the first that's come up for me. Amazing what the man did in three short albums. Axis: Bold as Love is highlighted by If 6 Was 9, Spanish Castle Magic and the incomparable Castles Made of Sand, Little Wing (what a guitar riff) and Bold As Love. Those three songs alone earn this album 5 stars from me.
Look, I've heard the song Hello about 1,001 times, but hearing it now, loudly, on good headphones, her voice is just angelic. Majestic. It's soaring nature brings a tear to my eye. Great lyrics, too. I don't love the upbeat songs with electronic elements such Send My Love & I Miss You - I mostly love to hear her voice. That's the real instrument. Water Under The Bridge is a jam, still. "It was just like a movie, it was just like a song, oh how this reminds me of when we were young." Beautiful track. Good album.
A solid RS album. Paint It Black is a banger of an opener. Reminds me of Guitar Hero. The best song on Aftermath is definitely Under My Thumb. That one might be one of my top five Rolling Stones' song. The way Mick's voice stretches on the "my" when he says "under my thumb" is cool, and I love the random instrumentation and bounci-ness of that track.
I challenge the 1001 Albums website to add a sixth star with this album. Californication was one of the defining albums to a 14 year old Curtis Tonks...and its legacy lives on. Even my kids know several songs from this one.
I really enjoyed the song Sparks. Static LP vocals with soft, urban beats behind. In Space, according to Amazon Music, is the most famous track from the album (the most listened to) but it was one of my least favorite tracks. Melody AM reminds me of Moby's famous album, Play.
Bell Bottom Blues makes me think of Mike Junk and a time when he sang the live version of this song, quite loudly, while driving in their Suburban up in Bear Lake. And what can you say about Layla. Just an absolute jam, acoustic or electric!
On the album cover, there's a line that says "touch my beloved's thought while her world's affluence crumbles at my feet" and I don't know what that even means, but it is provocative! This is a skittish, almost frenzied at times, yet well paced album relying on full orchestral sets and simple instrumental solos. Only four tracks, I thought this one was good. Not the kind of jazz I strive to get into, though.
I enjoy listening to the Smiths. A picture of an American soldier in Vietnam graces the cover, with "Meat is Murder" inscribed on his combat helmet. The original photo has the inscription “Make Love Not War” and the actual soldier was unhappy that this band changed the saying for the album. There's a lot of irony in the photo. I enjoyed the tracks "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" and "Well I Wonder". Four stars. Great music for hanging out at home, just don't try to explain the cover to your children.
This is what I imagine Woodstock ‘69 sounded like. Somebody to Love is a moderate jam. There’s a lot of songs on this album, and they get a lot of mileage out of the acoustic guitar, but nothing really jumps out to me. White Rabbit is supposedly the most famous song on here, and I have never heard it.
I remember being in HS and hearing that Elliott Smith was THE MAN in college rock radio. I always assumed he was a weepy singer songwriter with an acoustic guitar so I was pleasantly surprised by a few tracks on Figure 8. Junk Bond Trader has a harpsichord intro and a soulful sway to it. ES sounds a lot like Ben Gibbard from Death Cab. There are a few whiners on here, though.
Funky. Soft rock from a band I'd never heard of. Interesting listen. I enjoyed the song Miss Pretty, but overall the album was a no from me.
The classic Bohemian Rhapsody cover even though that song is on another record. You can tell from the get go that they were highly influenced by classic tunes and tempos when they made Queen II. Truthfully, I only know the hits with Queen, but I gave this album a full chance. Freddie's voice sails! I enjoyed Father to Son. They are masters of their own sound, for sure. Fully unique unto themselves. The Loser In The End is a jam with screeching guitars a la Mississippi Queen. I enjoyed the rise and rise and rise of Nevermore. Seven Seas of Rhye was the only song I'd heard of. Decent album although I'm not the biggest Queen fan out there.
The year was 1997, and there’s a very high chance I skated hand-in-hand with Lauren Winder at the Classic Skating in Sandy while listening to “Angels” from this album, or at least I imagine I did. It’s a classic love song, which, funny enough, was written for the singer’s aunt & uncle. A great love song on an album full of traditional late 90s rock.
This is another one of those 9.2-rated, best new album Pitchfork listens that I'm always eager to listen to...and then I just don't get it. I never connected with this Deerhunter album. I thought this band was a little harder rock, but it was a little more experimental and spacey than I expected. I could probably come around on them with some prolonged listening, but it didn't happen today.
I didn't know much about this band. This album, The Slider, was released in 1972 when quite a few other legendary rock bands were conquering the world. I enjoyed the song Mystic Lady, The Slider and Spaceball Ricochet. Groovy guitar. Rock On has a super poppy swing to it. Good album.
I can appreciate the lo-fi electronic beats, but it’d take a lot for my to start spinning Bjork frequently.
Lots of hits on this one. Heard It Through The Grapevine is probably my favorite single of theirs. Really enjoyed this listen.
Why Must I Cry? is a legit reggae song. I loved it and listened to it a few times. I actually had heard this album back in 2008 or so when I really got into reggae after taking a cruise with a stop in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. RIP to one of the original wailers!
My cousin Matt showed me this album when I was about 7 years old. Classic southern rap. Tennessee is an excellent song. “ Take me to another place, take me to another land, Make me forget all that hurts me, let me understand your plan.” A jam!
I like REM, a lot, but I didn't recognize many songs on this album. It sounded good, but nothing stuck with me. I'm hoping for more from them in the future.
Great band name. Great album name. 1969...what a time to be alive. Twangy, country feel on this one. Very folksy.
Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun: the motto of the Universal Zulu Nation. Fun album, I can picture kids breakin' in Harlem project common areas to the new electronic and rap sounds of Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force circa 1979. Planet Rock and Looking for a Beat are great jams. A party album through and through.
RIP David Crosby. He died a few days before this album showed up on my page. I was excited to listen to it. "Almost Cut My Hair" is a freakin' jam. Same for "Helpless". That one will get stuck in your head. Damn you, Neil Young! Great vocals. Painful songs from front to back, almost. From the first song: "Rejoice, rejoice, we have no choice..but to carry on." I read that this album is the highest selling album for Crosby or Stills or Nash or Young or as a group...and according to Stephen Stills, it took 800 hours to record. That's saying something!
An excellent LZ album. Song highlights are Kashmir (the sexiest song of all time according to Robin Quivers), In My Time Of Dying, Houses Of The Holy (the name of their previous album) and Ten Years Gone, which is the first song on my famous Curtis' Outright Jamskis playlist on Amazon Music. Bonzo's drums just thunder on this whole record, too. Love it!
My dad always loved the Q&A format of this album title. The first song, Uncontrollable Urge, is a new wave song from 1978 but it could be ska from 2001 or indie rock a la Vampire Weekend circa 2014. Very influential. Their cover of (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction is interesting. Praying Hands is very traditional Devo to me. Good album.
The first song, Pony Street, sounds like something off Born to Run, both in the vocals and the twinkly music as well. In fact, much of this album sounds like a poor man's Bruce Springsteen. I enjoyed Brutal Youth.
I had never heard of this band, album and I wasn't sure what to expect when I clicked play on the first track, Honey. I'm an hour in...and nothing has hooked me yet. It's lo-fi beats with boring, flat whispering layered over it. Where's the hits?! I had to turn it off. I couldn't even take it as "background noise".
One of the cooler intro songs, aptly called "Intro", is just a beat maker's dream come to life. It's chill and progressive and beautiful. Three stars go to the album for just that song alone. I remember seeing YouTube videos that were just this song for 10 straight hours, if that's you're thing. I do like other The xx music, but from newer albums. The rest of the album is slow and mellow dramatic, which is the band's style. Decent!
The first Green Day album I was ever exposed was Nimrod. I had it on compact disc and probably owned it circa 1996. Dookie came before, so as I enjoyed more and more Green Day, I had to go back and listen to Dookie in pursuit of becoming a true fan. I appreciated the speed of it all: fast drums, fast chords, fast singing. And they had a guy called Tre Cool! So cool! Every song has that Green Day charm, and this is the most in-depth I've listened to this album since about 2001. Song I loved a lost this time around: Having A Blast, Chump, the bass riff in Longview, She, Sasafrass Roots and Coming Clean. Also LOTTA HITS: Longview, Welcome to Paradise, Basket Case and When I Come Around...all on one album. Whoa! A solid listen! Too bad they sold out in 2004, which meant a lot to an 18 year old Curtis, but a 37 year old Curtis totally gets why they did. Green Day Forever! "So why are you alone wasting your time? When you could be with me wasting your time?" -Sasafrass Roots
I'm always searching for a good bedtime jazz piano album for my children, and i think I found it thanks to Kieth Jarrett. There are a few audible "ohhhs" from the artist throughout this live album of four tracks. The stats are insane: best selling jazz piano album ever, the wrong piano was delivered and had to be tuned last minute, the concert started at 11:30pm, you can hear Keith Jarrett laughing during some songs giving it a "real feel", 5 stars by about every publication out there, tickets were $1.72. Solid. I loved it. This is why I'm doing the 1001 albums, to discover new and unique stuff. JRL are listening to this one before bed from now on.
Truthfully, I didn't listen to much of this album. The singles are all up front, and I know them well. This was DC's third album in 2001, and 22 years later, Beyonce is still about the most popular artist in the world. Good pop music from my high school days.
In the documentary Shangri-La, about the life and times of Rick Rubin, there is a great quote: "We weren't great at using drum machines quite yet, but Rev Run and DMC had the one instrument more powerful than the drum machine: their VOICES!" - Russell Simmons. Now that quote isn't verbatim, but the meaning has stuck with me. This album absolutely rules. It's short, to the point, and maybe the first example of hardcore rap music. Sucker MCs, Rock Box and not one but TWO tracks dedicated to Jam Master Jay. "It's Like That", by far the best song and "a protest to social and political problems" and "the song takes a hopeful turn and encourages listeners to take action and believe in themselves." Love this one. 5 stars, easily.
Prehistoric ska? No thanks.
Nothing on this album stood out to me. Pretty straightforward tunes. I did like the song Shangri-La, though. The stripped down Mr. Churchill, with the twangy southern guitar, stood out a little bit. A boring review for a boring album.
Bob Dylan called and he wants his vocal intonations back. This album was better than I expected for a band I’d never heard of. Having watched Titanic last night, I enjoyed the track “Painter of Women”. There were several other good tracks: Keeper of Time & Nine Pound Hammer. Decent!
Two thumbs down! Not good.
Early hardcore punk. Decent listen. A wretched mean voice on this guy.
A beautiful, piano and horn driven Jazz album. Soft music for a snowy day or a Sunday drive. Thom Jurek of Allmusic stated: "Home Is Where the Music Is, is a stone spiritual soul-jazz classic, that melds the sound of numerous emerging jazz schools in its pursuit of musical excellence; it succeeds on all counts and is one of the greatest recordings in Hugh Masekela's long career. In a year full of amazing titles, this is still a standout." I couldn’t agree more. The song Minawa was beautiful.
Soft and acoustic album from the 1970. A little on the depressing side, and come to find out, this was actually a very depressed artist who only lived a few years longer than this album. There is no known video footage of him, and his music became more popular after his death.
This album isn't on Amazon Music, however, I do know the title track. I listened to it on YouTube and it's a real dance funk masterpiece. Smoot and funked up. This song was #478 on the RS Top 500 Songs of All Time.
When I think of Iron Butterfly, I think of Iron Maiden and this is definitely not that. This album has 6 songs and sounds like The Doors. Flowers & Beads was a good groove. Otherwise, I didn't make a strong connection to any of the songs, including the final 17 minute self-titled track. It sounds like The Doors, and I don't like The Doors.
At first, I couldn't believe this band had this many hits on one record...until I learned that about half the songs are R&B covers. Songs like The Witch (which sounds like the grandfather of ska) and Boss Hoss and Psycho were written by The Sonics and are pretty decent, but the covers of Do You Love Me, Roll Over Beethoven, Have Love Will Travel and Night Time Is The Right Time put this record over the top. Pretty simple insturmentation, and lots of James Brown style WOOOOs from the lead singer. This was better than expected, even if the hits don't belong to the band.
An extremely average 90s rock album. Wikipedia says Blur were britpop rivals with Oasis. To me, that’s like saying a hammer and nail are “rivals”. One always wins the battle.
I was excited to listen to this iconic album, ranked #29 on the RS Top 500 behind Abbey Road, Rubber Soul, Sgt. Peppers and Revolver. From Wikipedia: "Featuring a plain white sleeve, the cover contains no graphics or text other than the band's name embossed. This was intended as a direct contrast to the vivid cover artwork of the band's previous LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." Back in the USSR is classic Beatles: fast paced, synchronized voices, that timeless sound. Dear Prudence is a beautiful love song. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da is a bouncer. While My Guitar Gently Weeps is moaning, slow and deliberate. Blackbird is simple, hopeful and incredibly poetic. Rocky Raccoon, a fan favorite, is a jangly saloon piano sing-a-long that's different than many Beatles songs. I've heard the riff to Birthday 1000X but didn't know it was The Beatles. I really enjoyed the mangy track Yer Blues. Great album. Timeless and packed full of hits.
Interesting album. Tom Waits is a person I’ve heard a lot about but don’t know a thing about his music. This album is supposed to sound like it’s recorded in a jazz club, complete with song intros, stories, jokes and audience laughter. Cool concert, but it didn’t strike a chord with me musically.
I've seen the numbers. Not only is this album on the 1001 Albums list, it is also at #15 (!!!) on the RS Top 500. Some consider this to be one of the most important and influential albums of all time. Chuck D's voice booms and thunders and commands attention from front to back. I know "Bring The Noise" and "Don't Believe The Hype" (and the hype is very real, by the way) but I enjoyed every track on this album. The lyrics are sharp and socially conscious and long lasting. The production is seamless and incredible. I knew Public Enemy was important, but I hadn't listened to this particular album much, and suffice to say, I'm absolutely blown away! 5 stars, easily.
I didn't listen to this album super closely, but I am familiar with the song "Looking for a Kiss". It's well produced and poppy and was an enjoyable listen.
Man, what an opener to The Black Album! "Sleep with one eye open, grippin' your pillow tight!" The riffs are super fast and extremely sharp. The sounds is a little slower than early speed metal Metallica. It is more intentional. The second song, Sad But True, is just a slow, hard rock march. Even my little Rae was head banging to that one. There are so many jams on this album: Anywhere I Roam, Through The Never, Nothing Else Matters. A great hard rock album.
Common: the intelligent rapper. I love his storytelling. He seems to be one of the more enlightened, and enlightening, rappers to ever do it. Hip Hop Golden Age has referred to this album as Common's mangnum opus. It came out in 2006 and is produced by Kanye West, who was at the top of his producing game way back when circa Late Registration and Graduation. The good old days. This album, Be, is just so smooth from front to back. I loved the tracks Go, Be, Chi-City and Love Is... A solid rap album. Thougtful. Enlightened. Long lasting.
Classic Buddy Holly. Short, skittery beats and simple lyrics. All about love lost and love found. Well produced. My grandparent’s music!
A great live album. Not a traditional unplugged listen as Nirvana used some amplification and effects during the show. Besides the timeless Come As You Are, Nirvana selected a lot of deep cuts and cover songs. I enjoyed listening from end to end, always thinking that the end had come for Kurt Cobain when this album was ultimately released. What a voice, what a talent, gone too soon, but it only added to the mystique and legend of this band. Song Highlights: Come As You Are, Jesus Doesn't Want Me For A Sunbeam, The Man Who Sold The World, Dumb, Something In The Way, Plateau and Where Did You Sleep Last Night? A great listen.
A very standard 90s rock album. Not sure how these make it onto the 1001 list, but I guess you gotta fill it somehow!
This album has ONE song: Funtime. It's 38 minutes long. I just clicked play right now, and I'm excited to see where this goes... Alright, I finished: Interesting. Amazing how much he sounds like Bowie. The one song does fluctuate a lot and could pass off for an album full of distinct tracks. Nothing stood out to me. Interesting format. I think that's another thing I've learned during this 1001 Project: not only do albums sound different, but they can be created and distributed completely different as well.
I didn't love this one. Had that "Talking Heads Sound" that's never really vibed with me.
Ah yes, my old friend Jack White. It doesn't get any noisier than starting with Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground. Hotel Yorba is a White Stripes staple, bouncy and playful, with definitely only two musicians. Fell In Love With A Girl is the quintessential early White Stripes song and one that I didn't like back in 2001 when I first heard it. It, and Jack White aura, have grown on me immensely well. I was dumb back then! And finally, We're Going To Be Friends makes me want to listen to Conan's podcast. Solid album!
Scary album cover. I felt like I was so dialed in to music (maybe just to emo!) back in 2004, when this album came out, but I've never heard of this band as far as I can remember. And I hope to never remember them, either.
Man, this is some good 90s rock. Not grunge, not pop, just easy going 90s rock that will stand the test of time. Bob Mould, a favorite of my online writer Drew Magary, left Husker Du to start this band Sugar. Here's what drew wrote about this album for GQ: "Anyway, I loved “Your Favorite Thing” but again failed to do my diligence and go spelunking down the Bob Mould/Sugar/Hüsker Dü rabbithole. It wasn’t until I transferred colleges and my new roommate Kevin played Sugar’s Copper Blue album on a loop when the light finally went on and I realized that I had discovered my favorite artist of all time. I spent my ensuing college years doing nothing but listening to Copper Blue and playing Super Mario 64. All while drunk. I regret nothing." I really liked the song Changes, Helpless and If I Can't Change Your Mind. A replayable album.
Talking Book has two mega hits: You Are The Sunshine Of My Life (a beautiful love song full of praise and devotion) and Superstition (just the funkiest and sickest beat of all time, incredible, just a song where Stevie had to know he struck pure gold when they finished recording). Stevie has quite a voice on the song You & I. Tuesday Heartbreak was an excellent and funky jam.
Finally Tom Petty comes to visit me on my 1001 Albums journey. Having just watched the Sound City documentary with Royce and listening to a Tribute to Bob Dylan Album over the weekend, I've gotten my fill of Tom Petty lately...in the best way! This is his first album, full of radio friendly (both in sound and length!) songs. Besides Breakdown and the ultra-iconic and long-lasting and jangly American Girl, I enjoyed a few other tracks on Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: The Wild One Forever, Strangered In The Night, Mystery Man. Solid album.
My cousin Matt showed me Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) when I was way-too-young, and the opening aggression on Bring Da Ruckus has not left my mind yet. The beats are low key, the martial arts references (literally in sampled movie dialogue and figuratively in lyrical references) are plentiful, and the nine-man assault weapon of rapping and rhyming is some of the best of all time. This album is #27 on the RS Top 500. I enjoyed this paragraph from the Pitchfork review: "36 Chambers directly paved the way for harder-edged New York rap and provided a hardcore hip-hop blueprint that’s been followed by rap purists and collectives for nearly three decades. It began the Tao of Wu, bonding nine Staten Island dreamers (RZA, GZA, U-God, Ghostface Killa, Method Mad, Inspectah Deck, Old Dirty Bastard, Raekwon and Masta Killa) by philosophies of the mind and the scents of the fried food wafting past Brooklyn’s Palmetto Playground. But more than anything, it’s a testament to pop culture’s power to create and forge brotherhood. In 2004’s Wu-Tang Manual, just over 10 years after the album’s release, RZA broke down the significance of its title as only he could: “You have the thirty-six chambers, and there's nine members of the Wu-Tang Clan. Each member of Wu-Tang has four chambers of the heart. And what's nine times four?”
Songs in the Key of Life is regarded by music journalists as the culmination of Wonder's "classic period" of recording, and even though he was one of the most popular recording artists in 1976, Stevie seriously considered quitting the music industry and planned to emigrate to Ghana to work with disabled children. An admirable guy! This is regarded as Stevie Wonder's magnus opus and is ranked #4 on the RS Top 500, the highest of any album I've listened to on my 1001 Albums journey. My personal takeaways: Stevie is soulful to a fault, Sir Duke is a staple, the message on Love's In Need Of Love Today is pressing and important 50 years after it was recorded, I loved Knocks Me Off My Feet a lot, too. Very soulful. I can see how this would mean a lot to a young artist. The start of a revolution!
This album came out when I was 15. I remember greatly enjoying it as a sophomore at Bonneville High School. The opening alarm sounds for the arrival of rap, electronica, DJ spinning and hard rock all on one album, the band's "hybrid theory". Chester Bennington (RIP) had a very versatile voice, and this album was perfect for the teenage aggression of me and many of my friends. Lots of hits: Papercut, One Step Closer, In The End & Crawling made it onto many Curtis' Mixes circa 2001. Good revisit.
This live album was actually recorded in at Folsom Prison in Northern California. We listened as a family on our drive back from Las Vegas where we attended the Taylor Swift concert. No TS albums on the 1001 Albums list...so far! This was a great listen. The Man in Black had lots of hits and that distinctive baritone voice. I'd just watched a little bit about him on the Sound City documentary, as well. Good listen.
This was a fun and folksy album. Many of the songs were different in style from one another and I enjoyed it. Good background music for a farm-to-table restaurant.
I paid very little attention to this album as I was driving around. Honestly, I was unfair to it. I will give it two stars because nothing stood out enough to catch my attention. That's pretty mean of me! Sorry Harry Nilsson!
I think I knew where this review was headed. To the moon! It had a huge influence on me in junior high and high school. Man, that opening riff to Privilege. The scratching on this track is beautiful, and so is the message. "The day you that were born you were born free, that is your privilege." Brandon Boyd's voice soars across Make Yourself! The song Confidence stuck out to me big time on this spin. The Warmth, to a 15 year old Curtis Tonks, was just so unique and still puts me in an underwater funk trance. "Experience the warmth before you grow cold." Stellar is a beautiful interstellar love song! "Meet me in outer space, we could spend the night, watching the earth come up." Yeah, baby. Planetary love. Drive was just bigger than I could have imagined. I heard it, often, on FM100 while working at Papa Murphy's. Genre defining. Battlestar Scralatchtica is funky as they come, I Miss You is beautiful and Pardon Me, the most recognizable track from Make Yourself, is still only the fourth or fifth best song. Great album!
HEAVY DUTY! Sepultura was a band I first heard about from Antonio, a church investigator I knew while serving in Cruzerio, Sao Paulo, Brazil. He wasn't into the church, he was into speaking English with Americans who had good musical tastes between Christian Pieper and myself. This band is from Brazil, and this album has a lot of traditional Brazilian drum beats, too. A little heavy for my taste, but it was the first I'd listened to of this legendary Brazilian band in years. A good listen if you're preparing to jump 30 flaming school buses on a motorcycle!
I enjoyed this album a lot. This is another one of those old American bands that I don't know a lot about. I mean, I know the hits, but the only song I recognized on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme was Scarborough Fair which seems like it was written while Paul and Art were on industrial grade LSD. I enjoyed the songs Patterns and the song A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission) had lots of silly words and pop culture references. I later read it was a Bob Dylan diss track. ZING!
A vocal masterpiece! Tracy Chapman's self-titled debut album are song of revolution and songs written from the welfare lines of America. This album radiates hope and sacrifice and perseverance. While very simple from an instrumentation standpoint, Tracy's voice is the driving force on this excellent album. Talkin' About a Revolution, Across the Lines and If Not Now are incredible, while Behind The Wall is completely vocal and beautiful. Fast Car, the best and most long-lasting track, has a Romeo & Juliet feel of escaping poverty and ruin with another person. Major Bruce Spingsteen Born to Run vibes on that track.
I've been bad with my 1001 Albums project the last two weeks, so I'll keep this one short: This is girl rock at it's finest. Sleater-Kinney was famous when I was in HS. They were the darlings of college rock. Progressive. This album was merely okay, though.
I've been bad with my 1001 Albums project the last two weeks, so I'll keep this one short: This album makes me think of my life in 1999. From time to time, I'd hang out with this group of girls from Plain City because my mom lived out there, and this one, Mindy, was very obsessed with Britney Spears and I was kind of obsessed with her. There are a few memorable singles on this album, including the title track, one of the best selling physical media songs of all time (it came along at the perfect time as online media was just over the horizon). Crazy and Sometimes, both singles, are also good tracks. This is a boring review, though! Not much to say.
Having just listened to 36 Chambers a few weeks ago, this album seemed like the sequel. Not as good, but with many of the same martial arts and hip hop references, with a very similar style throughout. I enjoyed it because I love the Wu Tang Clan. Selwyn Seyfu Hinds from The Source called GZA "a highly focused master-graftsman" and felt that "throughout Liquid Swords he maintains a clear, precise flow, one that reflects deadly-sharp purpose and skilled execution." Hinds also praised RZA's production on the album, noting his "increasingly sophisticated style: shuffling kicks, neck snapping snares, haunting melodies via strings or vibe-like textures and penetrating bass tones." Great album. Just shy of 36 Chambers, for me.
The Heads' are a real struggle for me. Not feeling this one at all.
What?! No. Absolutely not. Next!
Track #5 "Paul" is a voicemail recording that says: "Hey, what's going on? This is Paul Rosenberg, your faithful attorney at law. Listen, I listened to the rough copy of your album. And uh... you know I've just got to be honest with you. Can you tone it down a little bit? Because there's only so much I can explain. Give me a call." and as I listened, man, that's exactly how I felt the first time I heard this album and again on April 27th, 2023. It's strange, a mix of perfectly verbalized rap hooks and conceptual ideas (such as the devil vs. angel song Consequences, a standout on the ablum featuring Dr. Dre, the producer) mixed with horrorcore references to murder, drug abuse, etc. This is the album your parents didn't want you to hear, and that's why so many kids my age heard it. I owned it, in fact. I liked this snippet from Wikipedia: "Featuring West Coast hip hop, G-funk and horrorcore musical styles, the majority of The Slim Shady LP's lyrical content is written from the perspective of Eminem's alter ego, named Slim Shady, whom he created on the Slim Shady EP (1997). The Slim Shady LP contains cartoonish depictions of violence and heavy use of profanity, which Eminem described as horror film-esque, in that it is solely for entertainment value. Although many of the lyrics on the album are considered to be satirical, Eminem also depicts his frustrations of living in poverty." Great album, if you can get past the content. This guy was an absolute trendsetter in the genre.
An easy going breezy album from The Grateful Dead, a band I've heard a lot about but almost know nothing beyond their faithful fans and never-ending tours. This was better than I expected!
This album has 58 dang songs. Three hours long. Cut it up, Supergrass. The song Alright is very famous, and was a good listen. TBH, I only listened to about five other songs and wasn't too impressed.
I'm currently listening to this album as I write this. Incredible output from the kings of introspective goth rock, one of the best sad bands of all time. This album is #116 on the RS500. My dad loves The Cure and would play them frequently for me as a young kid. This album has several standout tracks: Plainsong to open, Pictures of You (the long intro could go forever without me getting bored, I almost get sad when Robert Smith's voice comes across, but I think that's the point of the track), Lovesong and Fascination Street and the best song: Lullaby. In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave Disintegration four-and-a-half out of five stars, and applauded the band by saying, "The Cure's gloomy soundscapes have rarely sounded so alluring [and] the songs – from the pulsating, ominous 'Fascination Street' to the eerie, string-laced 'Lullaby' – have rarely been so well-constructed and memorable." Erlewine went on to praise Disintegration for being "darkly seductive", and "a hypnotic, mesmerizing record". Pitchfork praised the record, admitting "Disintegration stands unquestionably as Robert Smith's magnum opus." Writer Chris Ott noted that "scant few albums released in the 1980s can boast an opener as grand as 'Plainsong', the most breathtaking, shimmering anthem the band ever recorded."
Not a fan. I'm hoping for better albums from The Who down the road.
This is an interesting album. I liked the song Hudson Line (cool sax, cool guitar) but it mostly felt like showtunes. Very diverse.
Man, this is a band I have tried to get into so many times over the years, and it has just been impossible. This album came out when I was in high school, a time when I loved all things music, but this bad, just never did it for me. I intently listen to the album this time around, and my complaint remains that everything just sounds the same. Very whiny and kind of dull. I think I’m the only person on earth who feels that way.
Hmm, a soft one. Bill Callahan has a great baritone voice. Slow and methodic pace throughout. Soft with almost no variation. While I appreciated this album, I'm not sure I'd ever listen to it again.
I appreciated this Afrobeats fusion album. I found this tidbit interesting from Wikipedia: "The album was a scathing attack on Nigerian soldiers using the zombie metaphor to describe the methods of the Nigerian military. The album was a smash hit with the people and infuriated the government, setting off a vicious attack against the Kalakuta Republic (a commune that Kuti had established in Nigeria), during which one thousand soldiers attacked the commune. Kuti was severely beaten, and his elderly mother Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was thrown from a window, causing fatal injuries. The Kalakuta Republic was burned, and Kuti's studio, instruments, and master tapes were destroyed." Protest music at it's finest and ugliest. RISE UP!
"The brothers gonna work it out." -Leave Home, the first track, opens with that well-known Chemical Brothers pace and cadence. Since listening to this album, I've learned that the Chemical Brothers had to change their name to not conflict with the famed the Dust Brothers (both great names, IMO), early collaborators with my beloved Beastie Boys. Song to the Siren is an electro-jam! Very fast paced, 90s club music vibe.
This band comes to Ogden Twilight frequently, and I’ve tried them over and over, and I’m just not feeling it with this album, either. It’s serviceable but not re-listen-able.
This had a few good jams on it but none of the main hits that I'm used to with Alice Cooper. Still, solid classic rock.
About half of this album is bad sound effects. It’s characterized as noise rock and I just didn’t get it. Move along!
That fiddle, and that voice, are the soundtrack in my mom’s Ford Escort in 1991! I enjoyed the first half of this Dwight Yoakam album and thought the second half was kind of corny and stale. Good memories…my mom loved this brand of country music. The golden age of country for me, too.
From Wiki: “ In 1982, the English musician Brian Eno said that while the album only sold approximately 30,000 copies in its first five years, "everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band". In 2003, it ranked 13th on Rolling Stone’s "500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” I recognize many of these songs as cover and I can understand why this album was so influential. Would I listen to it over and over? To be determined. I might give it a second spin today. I enjoyed the song Heroin.
First, "Stan" is one of the greatest songs ever, both in it's storytelling and building emotion and ultimately tragic ending, and the story of crazy fans doing unthinkable things is common in 2023. Otherwise, this is my second Eminem album in the last few weeks, and it again was completely captivating, lyrically and musically, and an absolute turn off, at the same time. Like a car crash, it's hard to watch but you can't turn away. The horrorcore violence, homophobia and outright misogyny is too much at times, but I can't deny the originality or artistry of Eminem in the year 2000. In the Village Voice, Robert Christgau called him "exceptionally witty and musical, discernibly thoughtful and good-hearted, indubitably dangerous and full of shit", while declaring the album "a work of art whose immense entertainment value in no way compromises its intimations of a pathology that's both personal and political". Mike Elizondo, a former collaborator on Eminem's albums, said, “I felt like Marshall was part of this wave with Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. This next level of art with incredible graphic imagery that Marshall had the ability to paint. Love it or hate it he was obviously very skilled at the stories he was telling.” I couldn't agree more.
It’s not…BAD! This is one of “those bands” that are very popular, but not well known to me, and I’m skeptical of all of the music I’ve heard. However! This album was good. Above average 90s rock sound. I look forward to diving into more Pixies in the future.
SLAPPA DA BASS, MON! The first song on 2112, "2112" is twenty minutes long and has six separately named parts, and basically personifies (band-sonifies?) Rush as a musical group and a concept. There's the length, first of all, followed by the extremely slow build up, then some drum flexing by the late, great Neil Peart, followed by a bit more drum flexing, then those familiar Rush guitar chords, and some more drum flexing, then Geddy Lee's voice comes soaring onto the scene, and honestly, it was great. That was the best track, by far, but I also enjoyed "Lessons". Great album! RUSH-IFY!
I had no idea what was on the album cover until I’d seen it 50X. Lots of hits with that classic Beck variety of sound.
A decent Bowie album. Modern. I enjoyed the song Lazarus a lot.
African beats. This album was okay. It's amazing how many African albums I've had so far. It's truly a genre of music I don't understand but I can appreciate the artistry.
It's amazing how all of Muddy Waters songs sound the same, with that familiar blues riff and vocal, poetic cadence, but how this album is so good. Great recording on a live album from 63 years ago, too. Muddy is steady on the guitar, and I can see how he influenced so many who came after him. Solid live album.
Soulful, with a lot of smooth guitar. Very radio friendly and my guest intro to Bobby Womack.
I usually don’t love albums by The Who, but this live album was full of great guitar licks and short, to-the-point rock songs. Good, not great. Amazing how good they do sound live, though. It’d sound just like a studio album if it weren’t for fans cheering.
A strange listen. I don't even know what type of music this is but I can appreciate artistry in all it's bizarre and weird forms. I love the album cover, though. Not sure I'd come back to this. The featured guests lineup is pretty insane!
I enjoy clicking on my 1001 Albums link only to see a picture of an angelic baby smoking a heater on the cover of Van Halen's album 1984. A quick check of the track listing: Jump... Panama... Hot For Teacher... and I knew I was in for a good time. The album is short, only 33 minutes. "There are few men you recognize from the sound of their guitars, but Eddie Van Halen is one of them." -me. The first track, 1984, is almost like an electronic dream sequence firing up and it goes straight into Jump, which, strangely, was the band's only #1 single. The thump and pacing of Panama rules, and the engine sound on Hot For Teacher is amazing. I like the ZZ Top vibes, too. Great listen... A solid four stars.
When I was in Brazil, Christian sent me clips from this new band Muse and their song "Time Is Running Out" from their previous album, Absolution, and I loved it. Now, my 2005-2007 culture knowledge is extremely thin, so anything at that time sounded great. Muse's album Black Hole and Revelations came out a few months before I returned, and I listened to it nonstop once at home. I saw Muse live in 2008 at UVSC in Orem. Three mega-hits on this album: Starlight (one of my fave songs of all time), Knights of Cydonia and Supermassive Black Hole. Upon listening to it this time around, I forgot how much I enjoyed the song Invincible. Matt Bellamy's shredding and vocal range are incredible!
I know a decent amount about Frank Ocean for having never really listened to him. I first saw him on SNL back in 2012 performing Thinking About You (which is his most well known song to me), I know he’s only had a couple albums that have been super critically acclaimed, and that he’s been outspoken for LGBTQ rights, too. Bottom line: this album was awesome and a great discovery. The tracks are great, with strange and amazing music and Frank’s neo soulful voice. From Wikipedia: “ Noted by writers as musically unconventional, Channel Orange draws on electro-funk, pop-soul, jazz-funk, and psychedelic styles, as well as nonmusical sounds such as film dialogue and ambient noise that function as interludes. Vocally, Ocean uses a free-form flow as well as alternating falsetto and tenor registers throughout the album. His songwriting explores themes of unrequited love, decadence, class, and drugs through the use of surrealistic imagery, conversational devices, and descriptive narratives depicting dark characters. He titled the album as a reference to the neurological phenomenon grapheme–color synesthesia, through which he had perceived the color orange during the summer he first fell in love.” A solid discovery and an album I’ll come back to.
Funkin’ funky. I only listened to a few songs and it’s exactly what in expect from this band and an album called Mothership Connection.
When I used to love pop punk and emo in high school, sometimes I would come across a band who would release their earliest recordings. Usually, it’d sound like the band set up in a garage, put a tape recorder on the other side of the room, and just played. Messy, fuzzy, add far away, but absolutely genuine. Some were good, with recognizable hits. Brand new bands are generally pretty poor, and the rarly found quality reflected this. This is how the whole Dinosaur Jr. album, You’re Living All Over Me, sounded. Not necessarily in a bad way, just a sort of prehistoric way. An okay album.
The second song, Willie The Pimp, had some excellent guitar. I’m not sure if Frank Zappa is the architect behind that great guitar ballad, but I do know he has a child named Moon Unit.
I know and like Neil Young, a lot, but I didn't know Crazy Horse was the name of his backing band. I thought it was maybe another singer or guitar player. Anyway, good album, I like the song Down By The River a lot. There's a live version somewhere that's even better than the album version. A three-star album, in my opinion.
Not bad, Thom, not bad. Radiohead: the band I’ve tried and tried and tried again to get into, but I just didn’t get it. However! I enjoyed Amnesiac. It had all that experimental Radiohead stuff, but some cohesiveness, too. There were elements of jazz, electronic and rock music with Thom Yorke’s haunting voice. Enjoyable. Best tracks: Pyramid Song, Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors and I Might Be Wrong. This album makes me a bit more excited for several upcoming Radiohead albums in the future.
To me, this looked and sounded a lot like David Bowie. Maybe it was just me staring at Adam (or is that one of the Ants?) on the cover that made me think that. Decent rock album, very radio friendly.
I have never heard of this band before, but I really liked this album. I think it’s when I can see myself coming back to every once in a while.
In 2023, Kanye West is a maniac. He is an attention whore with a bizarre clothing line, a MAGA weirdo and a stain on culture and society who is surrounded by Yes Men. But in 2004 when he came out with The College Dropout, then Late Registration and finally Graduation? The absolute KING of rap for a few seasons. It was a pleasure to re-listen to The College Dropout. Amazing album! Great skits and bouncy, lighthearted and beautiful rapping and rhyming. All Falls Down was the first KW song I heard, and it’s still excellent almost 17 after I first listened to it. Other hits include Jesus Walks, Slow Jamz (fast rappin from Twista!), Never Let Me Down, Through the Wire and smooth, light and family-focused track Family Business. One you can nod your head to. What ever happened to this likable version of Kanye?!
Simply one of the finest albums I’ve heard in a good long time. The best album I’ve listened to so far on my 1001 albums journey. I remember reading about this on a Deadspin Year End Album list and the person describing themselves as a “total nerd” for listening to LITD over and over and over. I, too, am that nerd. Every song is long and moody and beautiful. I’ve seen this band in person a couple of times, and I’ve loved the two albums they’ve come out with since. Simply, The War on Drugs is a top five band for me, and this is a masterpiece. 10 stars!
A solid U2 album that I've only heard in its entirety a handful of times. Lead by Sunday Bloody Sunday (*not* a rebel's song, btw) and New Year's Day, I also enjoyed the track called Surrender. I'm sure U2 will come up a half dozen more times over the course of my 1001 Albums project.
A weird sound to start. Very experimental, as I know PG definitely was. If anything, I may have nightmares about the album art, but the music won't stick with me. Games Without Frontiers was the one notable track, and also the most popular track on Amazon Music.
"And It Stoned Me" is a great song to start an album. Especially because there's no interlude, it just goes straight into the lyrics. To read that this album was written from a mountaintop cabin in the Catskills is not surprising, either. It's smooth and beautiful. I love Moondance, Into The Mystic and Crazy Love, as well. This is just a solid album all around. I had never heard the song Come Running, but it was also great. It has an early Bruce Springsteen rattle and shake and saloon piano feel to it all. Five stars.
I can see how this album influenced the alternative and punk rock I listened to in the late 90s and early 2000s. I like Kim Gordon's lyrics in the song, "The Sprawl" (which I'm sure refers to being a teenager lost in the cultural dystopia of the suburbs): "I wanted to know the exact dimension of hell, Does this sound simple?, F*** you, are you for sale?, Does f*** you sound simple enough?" Tell 'em, Kim! The opening track Teenage Riot is six minutes long and amazing. I really enjoyed this album. Pay homage to the alt rock pioneers!
Some choose to play festivals, some choose to play prisons. I've now listened to both of the Man in Black's prison albums (At San Quentin & Live at Folsom Prison), and I enjoyed both of them. They're very similar in sound and set list, too. From the unique way in which crowds were recorded in 1969, to the bleeping of swear words, Johnny Cash's At San Quentin is a gem. I particularly enjoyed A Boy Named Sue and the song he wrote for the show, called San Quentin. Whether you were there short term, or for life imprisonment, I'm sure all of those prisoners worshipped Johnny after his show.
I remember having this on cassette tape around 1992. By then, Wish You Were Here had passed its seventeenth birthday, but I distinctly remember the classic Fire Handshake cover art (something I’d later have in poster form in my college dorm room) and the cassette itself was gray. It was hard for me to believe that a band could have songs that long. I’ve always loved Wish You Were Here, the song, and it’s still one of the only songs who’s opening chords I can play on my guitar. Need to practice more! On this re-listen, I was struck by the near perfection of Crazy Diamond as a “nighttime driving song” and also wowed by Have A Cigar. It’s gritty and out of place on this album, but it rips. David Gilmore has called WYWH his favorite album. The title track means a lot to me: “Did they get you to trade Your heroes for ghosts?, Hot ashes for trees?, Hot air for a cool breeze?, Cold comfort for change?, Did you exchange, A walk-on part in the war, For a lead role in a cage?, How I wish, how I wish you were here, We're just two lost souls, Swimming in a fish bowl, Year after year, Running over the same old ground, What have we found?, The same old fears, Wish you were here.” Beautiful. Five stars for this one.
I was first acquainted with The Roots when they became the house band on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. I was way behind the game, as this group has been putting out albums since the late 90s. I was aware of their plans to disband following mediocre album success. Phrenology is a masterpiece, IMO. "The Seed 2.0" is one of the catchiest songs of all time, a perfectly blended smoothie of soul, hip-hop and rock-and-roll. A steady, slapping beat, Black Thought's thoughts, and Cody Chesnutt wailing come together nicely. Some other notable songs: Rock You (Black Though is mad), Sacrifice (Black Thought is smooth) and Break You Off (Black Thought is in love). This group has gone on to do big things. Questlove just won an Academy Award for best documentary. Five stars for Phrenology.
Even though this album has some of the biggest hits in rock history (Paradise City, Welcome to the Jungle and Sweet Child O’ Mine), I found much of the rest of the album annoying and overly aggressive. Now, I understand that being bothered by the aggression of a GNR album is a dumb thing to say, but I found all of the non-famous tracks, like My Michelle and Out Ta Get Me, just really not great. An album I would not come back to even though I plan to hear the singles in arenas and on movie screens for the rest of my life. Can’t get away from those!
I don’t know SS from any of his solo work, and barely know him from his supergroup work with CSNY, but I enjoyed the first half of this album. I liked the song Jet Set a lot. Good intro to SS.
Great vocal harmony on this album. The lead singer sounds like Robert Plant. I was surprise to learn this is an American band from Memphis, too. There are some very "listenable" tracks on this album, and it was good overall. The theme from That 70s Show is on this one. Pretty good!