1001 Albums Summary

Whenever I hear a singular muse song I’m like hell yeah, but as soon as it’s a whole album it just blends into a sickly muse soup that’s too much.

It doesn’t surprise me that this is rated so low, but to me, this is a work of art I remember when I discovered vaporwave, it moved me in a way music rarely had before. Vaporwave, if you don’t know, is essentially muzak that’s been slowed, chopped and reverbed. The background music of the 80s and 90s, crafted intentionally without a soul, to fill in the dead space inside an elevator, a mall, the other end of a call centre phone, given a haunting makeover. It was an ironic genre, making some kind of comment on the consumerism of the 80s and 90s - what that comment is, is dealer’s choice. The vapidity of consumption? The big lie of advertising? A simple nostalgia for the tragic optimism of a promise that never came true? Back in the day, the music came in tandem with a visual style where marble statues and palm trees were paired with Japanese letters, evoking the lobby of some kind of corporate utopian future where American capitalism clutched arms with the soaring Yen - what felt like the natural next step for the new millennia. Though, as you and I know, that future never came true. And at the turning point of it all, was the symbol of two smoking towers. The symbol of American exceptionalism. The heart of American finance. In the city where the sinister smile of the 1990s shone brighter than perhaps anywhere else. I wonder if there was muzak playing in the lobby and in the elevators on September 11, and for how long it kept playing. Where most vaporwave is, if you’ll forgive me, vaporous in it’s ideas - simply evoking a feeling like that of a dead mall, or ironically skewering the friendly face of pre-millennium capitalism - NEWS AT 11 is far more powerful, interesting, and chilling. Echoey saxophone is intercut with news and advertising from the morning of 9/11, just before the planes hit. There’s in innocence in everyone’s ignorance, enhanced by the sheer fake friendliness of American TV. You almost want to scream at the anchor to turn around and pay attention. You want to scream at the McDonalds ad. Muzak is transformed from the sound of nothing, or the sound of spending, to the sound of comfort. The sound of a pre-9/11 world, where things were simple. Like being inside the womb, inside a shopping centre. And what is a shopping centre, than one big womb? This album is deeply nostalgic, and deeply sad. NEWS AT 11 lets you time travel to the day the muzak died.

This sounds like it could have been on the main list (derogatory)

Surprised this was rated so low. Is it because blinded by the lights was/is so overplayed in grocery stores?

There are a few huge tracks on here but overall it's dripping too much with that Brooklyn Buzzfeed and ballet flats millennial-core flavour that reminds me too much of an old boss of mine and feels so poorly aged when set against the modern dystopia we all find ourselves in. It was a time when Snoop Dogg on a pop song still sparked wonder and joy, and songs talked confidently in an empty collective 'We' that has Facebook's blue fingerprint's all over it.

I actually really wanted to love this. I mean, look at that album cover! It doesn't get much better than that. And I also have a real soft spot for this kind of 90s cheese. There's a certain delightful nostalgia that makes me think my Mum was cranking this kinda thing while I was in the womb. I was really on board for the first track. It's giving buying a National Geographic from a news stand in New York city on the way to my office job on a Friday knowing I'm going sailing this weekend. And I've never seen algorithmic short-form content or heard 'vibe coding' in my life. But, idk. It's just not that good right? Harsh on Bruce as well but I think I'd like this better as an instrumental album tbh. Actually, fk it. On listen 3 this bad boy is starting to click. Fields of Grey is evoking some kind of emotion inside me... I feel like I'm playing catch with the son I don't have. He has a blonde bowl cut and one of those primary-coloured hats with the propeller on top. Our golden retriever is running in slow motion. Good throw son! I ask my wife if the twin towers are still standing, she says of course they are.

I think my big issue with this is the production. Gaga herself is fine. But some of these beats sound like the stock music that play on the Netflix reboot of Queer Eye when they debut the big makeover.

hang on, this was really good. no please no no no I can't be becoming a metalhead, anything but being a metalh- AAARGGHHH IT'S HAPPENINGGGG........ .... okay, this is lé freaking awesome! \m/ not like that mumble rap crap

This reminds me of my grandpa and to my knowledge he’s never even listened to jimmy buffet

I don’t mind this musically but the lyrics can be a little ‘I’m 14 and this is deep’

I liked this way better than the Ryan Adams' in the actual list

One humid night years ago, a girl played me Your Hand in Mine on a hotel rooftop in Vietnam overlooking the sparkling lights. Didn’t read into it too much though.

everyone keeps calling this prog rock but sounds more like smooth lounge, adult contemporary, proto yacht music to me. Anyway, it was pretty chill. I liked it.

Did NOT think I'd be this into a country album from just over 12 months ago, with, I'm sorry, an ugly album cover, but this was kinda fire. It's probably not a compulsory pre-death album, but I'm not really judging the user-submitted list on that.

I understand the hate but I bet getting four mates together in 1997 and all bringing your CD players over to one of the affordable and well-sized houses that you all live in and trying to hit play at the same time would have been pretty fun

No I'm sorry but the second half of anti-gravity HAS to be from a stock music website. Probably titled 'Epic Battle 04' or something. I kind of feel bad for the submitter if this is their favourite album, because they're having to listen to 1089 albums that are truly nothing like this.

post punk/new wave on the user submitted list: aww, you're sweet post punk/new wave on the OG list: hello, human resources?!

I wanted to hate this. I've never read a reddit comment about Tool that hasn't pppissed me off with its pretentiousness. Tool may be the most ‘reddit’ band of all time? Anyway, unfortunately, I liked it.

I bet the main guy looked annoying as fuck in the booth singing the chorus of white sky

Haven't heard of these guys but would really recommend checking out the pictures in their About section on Spotify

My true rating is probably a 2, but I'm using this as an opportunity to take revenge on Lemon Demon for writing the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny.