1001 Albums Summary

Papa was a RS and the last song are really good, but too many slowpokes in the middle

1/5 graphic design Choons aren’t much better

Favourable hobbit sounds Picnic x3

It’s like a refined Kraftwerk: made more palatable for the ears of the masses. On the whole, it’s aged like the finest of wines. Cars, in particular, sounds very ahead of its time. I can imagine this album being played in a dingy back alley bar in Blade Runner Although he appears particularly concerned about the pyramid, he is dressed for the occasion

Don’t like Rod Stewart, but this was slightly better than anticipated There was definitely a Salt Bae sprinkling of Bob Dylan in there

Grew on me a lot as the day went on. Strong David Byrne vibes. Instrumentals drag on a bit too long for me though. Strong 3 to a light 4 on this one

Welcome to the Terrodome hits HARD. A lot of sampling used, reminds me of Paul’s Boutique by Beastie Boys, released one year prior. Very listenable all the way through and has aged very well. It’s a keeper

Strong opener and overall sounded quite modern I thought.

Lives up to its album cover. Getcha Groove On was the only one I enjoyed, mostly because 90% of it was Xzibit My Way and Rollin’ are listenable, but overall this album is not my cup of sludge

Legendary album artwork 21st Century Schizoid Man is one I know from Kanye’s sample of it in ‘Power’, but my word what an epic opener. Probably need to listen to it more for it to warrant a fünf, but I appreciated this a lot and was very surprised that it was released in 1969, crikey bobba

Never properly listened to MGMT before so glad I got the chyaaance. There’s obviously the red hot bangers sprinkled in there, which are still great. Of Moons, Birds & Monsters was an unexpected epic.

Moody, psychedelic, pleasant

They’re featured on Spotify playlists named “Homoelectric” and “Queercore”… 1/5 … Jk Really enjoyed this tbh, despite the bloke(?) on the album cover being a spitting image of Mesut Özil

Long instrumentals that don’t flat my boat. Second song is what I imagine Snellius has named his todger

My knowledge of Garbage was from the James Bond song for The World is Not Enough, one of my favourite films as an 8 year old whipper-snapper. The glitchy, industrial production tickled my hustle bones, but I felt like it got less enjoyable on repeated listens

Got to song 3 and had to give up. I’ve heard better elevator music

She’s a bit of a funny bugger this lass int she. Brilliant album. Very unique and recognisable voice and very wide-ranging, unpredictable instrumentals to go with it. It’s a goddamn keeper

Afrobeat to the max. According to Wikipedia, Fela Kuti married 27 women in one ceremony… absolute lad. Overall, this shit SLAPS. Although I thought I was watching Whiplash for the last song

Features Flea and produced by Rick Rubin… noice. Liked this more than i should have, but some songs were rather lengthy

Pleasant, folky choons that hold up well for a 1966 album ‘A Simple Desultory Philippic’ (is this random song name generator?) is so Bob Dylan I had to double-take. Silent Night got blacklisted almost immediately, but other than that it was a sitting-next-to-a-log-fire-in-a-cabin-in-the-woods-style of pleasantry

Gritty East Coast boom-bap for your punk-ass. I find East Cost hip-hop of this era to be too grimy and gloomy at times, but this was decent. Not amazing, but decent

Interesting and varied sounds, but they’ve been put together in a bloated hodgepodge of uninteresting songs. Roundabout is great, and Heart of the Sunrise was a bit mental (in a good way) but overall, one’s pickle was barely tickled.

Pre-listen: considered one of the greatest rap records of all time. I listened to it many times around 10yrs ago but it’s never quite been GOAT material for me… let’s see if that’s changed. Post-listen: okay… there are more bangers on here than I remember. Nas’ flow is smooth, continuous and unpredictable, which overlays clever internal rhyme schemes that creates a collective delight to the eardrum. Insane that he was 19-20yo when recording this album. The instrumentals have that gritty East Coast sound, but they’re intertwined with soul and jazz samples throughout that make it more varied and palatable. I’m giving this a 4.49, as I want to savour the 5 rating for the God-tier albums. It just doesn’t quite reach the heady heights of my hippity hop favourites, but it’s almost there.

Sounded like David Byrne from Wish.com. Didn’t give it much of a chance given how much of a state I was in, but it didn’t blow my socks off

I enjoyed the bit where it went “ding-a-ling-ding-ding-a-ling-ding-ding-a-ling-ding-dong”, accompanied by periodic grunts. Think I listened to this 7 times over in the end. Mad that it was improvised

The vocals grated on me big style as the album progressed. Not for me this

It’s here… it’s finally here. An album layered with samples, put together in the most disjointed way possible… but it works so well. This is overlayed with the bombastic vocals and absurd lyrics of the B-Boys themselves. A lot of quotables on here, such as: “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, So I can climb up and get into your underwear” The Sounds of Science will forever be one of the most mental hip-hop songs ever made. All in all, one of my favourite albums ever, this shit really SLAPS my potatoes.

Some good, some bad, no real standouts though Feel harsh giving a 2 but a 3 felt too generous

Gloomy, dark and tortured. You feel like you’re in the depths of Ian Curtis’s mind

An absolute unit of a man. Saw the year of release and thought it’d be one of those that had aged like milk, but I was pleasantly surprised. Grew on me with every listen

Very 80’s. Decent.

How does Bob Marley like his doughnuts? Wi’ jam in… So many classics on here. Reminds me of mowing people down in the streets of Liberty City, listening to Tuff Gong Radio… good times. I’ve been trying all day to justify to myself why this shouldn’t get full marks, but I can’t do it. Every song is dreamy, catchy and uplifting. I’m deploying the fünf

One of the best hip-hop albums ever made. Dre’s production put G-funk on the map. Those loud beeping, distorted synths and funky samples and instrumentals are way more accessible than the gloomy, gritty boom-bap of the East Coast, yet it still sounds like a gangster rap album. Snoop Dogg’s first ever appearance on a record, unreal lyricism and flow at just 19yo. The tail end of the album features less of Dr. Dre and more from the ‘Death Row Inmates’ but they’re still banger-central. The Lady of Rage particularly SLAPS one’s potatoes. No hesitation, this gets a whopping big 5/5

Their fourth album, featuring 0 of their top hits. Not for me

Sounded alright but didn’t have enough time to dive deep

“A musical bowel movement… designed to rid you of moral diarrhoea” Funky as funk. Instrumentals at the end were decent, but lacked the funk we were fed in the first half and dropped it down a peg for me

Album cover is very vaporwave… Instrumentals are great, every song sounds distinct because of them. The vocals, however, are shite. Got the vocal range of a squid.

The entire album made me feel like I was part of that rave scene in The Matrix Reloaded, where humanity is still seshing it in the underworld despite the dystopian terror that exists on the surface.

One of those where I can appreciate the musicianship and influence, but I struggle to actually enjoy it. Probably needs more listens

Remember this winning the Mercury Prize in 2005 as it was a bit of a shock win. Enjoyed it, but their bleating lamb voice gets a bit much as the album progresses

The opening track has all the strong elements of a Fleetwood Mac song. The rest of the album, however, is like Fleetwood Mac ordered from Wish.com I listened to the first song on repeat maybe 30+ times yesterday… which dragged the remaining country-pop fodder up to the heady heights of a 2/5

Decent, but I’ll likely never return to it

Think I’ve realised that I like noise rock, however this album could’ve been more polished and less pretentious

Beastie Boys’ debut is a lot more punk-rap than rap-rap, but it’s still littered with bangers. The production is so crisp for a 1986 hip-hop album. You can tell Rick Rubin had his sausage fingers all over this. Tickled a 5 you know

Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter.

One or two decent choons on here, but it’s no Exodus

This album makes me feel like I’m lost in the forbidden forest, but out of the darkness a pixie woman emerges and guides me to her pixie village.

It was decent. Probably requires more listens to truly appreciate it

It simultaneously sounds very 80s and very contemporary at the same time. I was listening to ‘Jennifer’ whilst, very slowly, plunging my cafetière this morning and felt like I was in an art film. Aged impeccably

Most people prefer this era of Kanye, as it’s much more uplifting and soulful, both in terms of lyrics and production. After his mum died his music got a lot more experimental, noisy and generally unhinged… which I actually prefer. His debut album, however, is an exception for me. So many bangers on here, but I have to mention The New Workout Plan. It has those disjointed strings playing throughout, and a beat switch near the end accompanied with talk-box vocals. Overlaying this are genuinely funny lyrics, which brings the whole thing together and makes it one of my favourite Kanye songs. Shit SLAPS. The story behind Through the Wire is very unique and is technically great as well. Jesus Walks may have converted me to Christianity. The skits are actually funny and don’t get boring on repeat listens. Even the Last Call, which is mostly him talking over a beat, is enjoyable. All in all, I prefer TLOP, but this is still God-tier and deserves a 5.

Was okay… call me a normie but I much prefer Gorillaz

Better than expected but didn’t blow me away

Our Ton’s favourite band. Brings me back to summer 2018… watching the stars from our campsite in the Yorkshire Dales… or driving through the munroes and Lochs of the Isle of Skye… Sentimentality aside, I can’t really find a weak link to this album. Helplessness Blues is catchier, but both are top tier. Five: deployed

This album is on the 1001 list but Exmilitary isn’t. In the words of Liz Truss, “that is a disgrace!”

Was a pleasant surprise this one. Sounded more like what’s played in a ‘50s American diner than Leadmill, but I’m all for it. The Ocean was a masterpiece

It’s like Dylan without the good bits

I do love me some instrumental hip-hop, and this album delivered the goods. This was bumping in the whip when lo-fi girl was still in diapers. If there’s anything I’ve learned about Nightmares on Wax, it’s that he loves the use of (brackets). Also thought there were strong Nicolas Jaar vibes on Groove St.

I can be partial to the old punky-pops from time to time, and I thought this was alright you know

Had my head deep in one of The Doors greatest hits albums back in sixth form, and that shit SLAPPED. Today’s album, however, has zero songs from it (except for a live version of Roadhouse Blues, which I’ve come to realise that I prefer it to the studio version). This album is… okay. There are way better Doo’ers songs out there

Fun fact: the first time I ever partook in the ding-dang-diddly-do I was listening to Fools Gold in a tent, packed to the rafters with other 15yo’s (some of whom were known locally as “Biggy”, and “Jimmy Barrett”) eating chocolate digestives. Never in my life had a biscuit tasted so good… and never has a biscuit tasted as good since. The bangers are ubiquitous, and my word do they SLAP. But the deeper cuts don’t quite nudge this into 5 territory for me, sorry chaps.

Noisy, muddy proto-punk (thanks Wikipedia) that has nuggets of interest, but also a lot of sludge

Album cover is the epitome of what the internet would call a “blursed image”… Choons were pleasant and wholesome to be fair, like a Beach-Boys-lite

Skipped through and listened to bits, after being burned by the previous Tom Waits album we were served. It’s just dog shit. Boycotted the album and listened to Gorillaz - Plastic Beach all day instead, with the knowledge that Bone Machine is on this list and zero Gorillaz albums are on it. I can’t SPAKE

To steal from one of the top reviews on this, it genuinely sounds AI-generated. So many albums out there better than this sludge

Bravo

I’m back betches Title track has been tainted by that celebrity singalong at the beginning of covid. Rest of the album is really good though, thought I’d dislike it

Decent album. Girl group pop before it became mass-produced cheese. Sexy-Interlude was like being slapped in the face with a freshly-caught salmon.

This was surprisingly eclectic, despite the album cover reminding me of the Little Sisters from Bioshock.

Another obscure Mercury Prize winner. My socks were not blown off

Good start and decent end, but a lot of forgettable guff in the middle. Doesn’t take long to find interesting electronic music these days, so the deeper tracks were a big old chunk of ‘meh’, but not terrible.

Was alright for a Sunday morning

Very industrial, very 90s. Definitely blew the cobwebs off this morning... Break & Enter, No Good (Start the Dance) and Voodoo People were highlights, but a lot of this album felt too disjointed and not actually enjoyable. I expected more

It’s 6am, post-rave, post-doob, post-laughing-gas. You’re sitting in a living room, you know that much. You glance at the faces around you, but there are no faces. No eyes, no noses, no mouths. Blank ovals with hair. Music is blaring from the speakers in the corner of the room. 70s and 80s disco fill the airwaves. Upbeat bangers from the likes of Kashif, Luther Vandross, Evelyn “Champagne” King and Earth Wind and Fire… all the classics. But that’s not what you can hear. Atmospheric, glitchy, gloomy instrumentals dominate your psyche. All you can hear is… Boards of Canada.

This is really not my cup of Guinness. Nothing Compares 2 U dragged this from the depths of a Juan

Beth Gibbons featured on a Kendrick Lamar song… and that’s where my knowledge of Portishead ends. This album was a nice surprise. Haunting vocals over atmospheric hip-hop instrumentals was a combination I didn’t know I yearned for. Reeks of James Bond theme songs throughout.

Goldfrapp? More like GoldCRAPP

Well… that was a surprise. Given I’ve never heard of these and the lack of playtime on the old Spotify, I feared for the worst. I was pleasantly surprised by how experimental yet enjoyable this was. The instrumentals reminded me of The Doors, not just on acid but on PCP and mescaline as well. Hats off to zee Germans

Meh

Listened to 3/4s of it to be honest but was surprisingly disappointed after Seven Nation Army

It were oreyt this ya know. Her name reminds me of checkatrade, checkatrade.com for some reason

I was going to make the pun that Ananda can ‘sitar my face’. It transpires that Ananda Shankar is in fact a balding Indian bloke, so the pun was redacted. The cover of Light My Fire was a pleasant surprise, but the rest was… okay

Smooooth operaaaaator Followed by inoffensive choons

Brought me back to Year 8 did this. Outside of the opener though, it didn't really do it for me

Not my cup of sludge

Bit too eclectic to really draw me in tbh. If it was given it more time it may have climbed to a 3. Johnny Cash version of Hurt is maybe 5x better than the original

Probably not as good as their other albums but some very varied and interesting sounds. Sounds more modern than the 90s What are the chances of us hearing another Light My Fire cover, after hearing that bald indian fella on the see-tar. Call me as mad as a drainpipe but I think I preferred Shankar's rendition

Is it a bird? Is it a dude? Whatever it is, it's getting a 2

One hit wonder really. Was decent though

Shiiit, daaaym, muthafuckaaa. Chance the Rapper's Acid Rap must surely be influenced by this album. Buttery harmonies that tickled one's pickle has lifted this to a 4

I started this thinking it was a bit shite, with the basic flow and lyricism that was typical of early hip-hop. However it grew on me more as the album progressed, securing it's place in the higher echelons of a 3

Red hot bangers on this one. I did feel some of them got a bit obnoxiously repetitive after a while but still deserving of a big number

Experimental af. Deserving of at least a 4

A Salt Bae sprinkling of bangers amongst deeper cuts that sounded a bit samey on first listen. It all grew on me with more listens. Well done our lass(?)

Like a weird rip in space and time. Not sure what's going on but sounds eclectic for a 60s album

This improved my gym performance by 3 microns of a percentage

Listened to this on a run and genuinely forgot it was playing... which says a lot The opener was loud-cum-gloomy, but the rest of the album disappeared into obscurity

To quote the top review of this album: 'It's like high quality phone hold music' Can't believe I'd actually heard Época before, must be from a 2003 car insurance advert. I imagine it twins well with relaxing on a balcony, supping your morning brew overlooking the Mediterranean.

I'm sorry but it's just nay pour moi

LA WOMAAAAN... LA WOMAAAAN