It's post-hardcore, so every song sounds heavy, and the vocals are scratchy and mono-tone. It all sounds a bit dated. If the vocals were better, the songs might have held up.
I'm often conflicted when it comes to Coldplay's music. The songs are trite and sappy. They are pseudo-serious and irritating. That said, they are also undeniably catchy. Every song has a good hook. Many on this list love to hate Coldplay. And I can understand the aversion to music that is, at times, saccharine. I just can't seem to figure out if I, too, truly despise the band; or maybe I have allowed peer pressure to stop my feet as they unconsciously tap along to the songs. Dave Grohl once said that "the whole guilty pleasure thing is" ... well ... to paraphrase ... BS. Maybe he's right.
It's good music. But I'm just not convinced I needed to hear this before I die.
Every once in a while, the 1001 site will surprise me with an artist who is unknown to me, but whose music is captivating. Nick Drake is one such artist. What an amazing guitarist and singer/songwriter he was.
It has been a long time since I last listened to this album. Still good.
Straight-ahead rock and roll ... no frills, just rock, again and again with each track. Sometimes that's the problem, though ... every song on this album sounds like the others. There is no real variance from one song to another, except for the last song, Rock N Roll Ain't Noise Pollution. But that's okay - it's AC/DC, and we love them for that.
My second favorite Nirvana recording, behind Live at Reading 1992, and the best of the Unplugged series. The cover of Lead Belly's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" gets me every time.
My second favorite U2 album, after Achtung Baby. Joshua Tree is about America
My first reaction to seeing this album pop up on the 1001 site was to try and lower my expectations. I haven't listened much to Garbage in the past, and most of my friends just plain don't like them. It turns out this is a pretty good album ... three or four songs are definitely made for radio, but some of the others -- Supervixen, Queer, As Heaven is Wide -- are worth replaying.
I remember the Black Crowes from the early 90's ... basically a 70's imitation blues band. Today the music seems somewhat dated to me ... the songs are kinda old-hat, predictable. A good album, but I'm just not in the same place I was back then.
I really tried to like Veckatimest ... I carefully listened to every song, repeating one or two, giving each of them the attention I thought they deserved. But to be honest, it bored me.
Up 'til now, I have not heard a word of The Flaming Lips. The music is psych-rock -- atmospheric with heavy synthesizer and special effects, mostly acoustic guitars, good bass lines. No distortion ... every thing is sounds clean. The lyrics are introspective and mature.
I've heard most of the songs on this album before, so I just went with those tracks that did not air on mainstream radio. Of those, the only one I liked was "Another Part of Me" ... otherwise I'd call the rest skip tracks. I still don't like "Dirty Diana" -- the chorus kinda pounds away at the senses. The best song here is "Smooth Criminal" ... by far the best music, best bass line, best lyrics, best singing.
Love Meatloaf. Nothing quite like this album before or since (except other Meatloaf records, of course).
Good instrumental jazz. I would have been more receptive if I hadn't listened to Meatloaf's "Bat Out of Hell" right before this.
I get that this is a classic album, but I'm just not an Aerosmith fan.
And heavy metal is born.
Pause. Long slow bow of my head. Pause again. Thank you so much.
It's good. But is it really jazz?
Ok ... it's Abba. Too disco-y for me. Besides "Dancing Queen", "Knowing Me, Knowing You", the songs were skip-tracks.
It's okay. Not as bad as I expected.
Soul Mining epitomizes UK post-punk art pop from the 80s. Heavy synth bass, drums from a machine, echoing asymmetrical vocals: it feels old. Those who like it for these reasons will call it old-school-new-school. The best track, and the one with absolutely no synth, is Uncertain Smile, with Jools Holland contributing a remarkably good piano solo. There's a live version available on YouTube, with Holland again on piano -- on his own show, Later with Jools Holland -- and with real guitars, real drums, real everything. Sooooo much better than the 80s synth stuff.
Brilliant. I've always had the impression he's a bit self-serious.
It's more like soft jazz than I thought it would be. I'll say flat-out: Tina can sing. The musicians on this album are really good ... some excellent solos.
It's Garage Rock, and the best of its era. You'll enjoy every song. There isn't a skip-track on it.
It's really about his voice and singing style. I happen to like it.
This album surprised me. I didn't expect the socio-political songs -- Papa Was A Rollin' Stone and Run Charlie Run. That's a nice change a pace for the Temptations. Other songs are better than I would have expected. Funky Music Sho Nuff Turns Me On ... a great live track with a groove! Do Your Thing is good soul music. The rest of the tracks are more typical of the group, and so not as interesting to me.
What a voice! And what great songs!
I love the track, Shelter from the Storm. Tangled Up in Blue is good as well.
It sounds a bit like the Monkeys, but the songs have a harder edge. You're Gonna Miss Me is good. Fire Engine is kinda cool. You Don't Know works for me as well. There are shades of punk rock in this, before there was really any punk rock.
I have a feeling most listeners will like this. The tracks on the album are actually quite varied in sound ... that surprised me. But the beat is always the same, which I found monotonous. Let Me Ride is good.
New Order are a bit too much like The Cure ... or maybe The Cure are a bit too much like New Order. (You could swap Pet Shop Boys or The Church for The Cure.) There is absolutely nothing unique or surprising about this album.
It's nice to be reminded of what great songwriting sounds like.
I like how the vocals are done: lots of dark tones. Some of the bass tracks are good. But the drums are from a machine. And I'm not a fan of 80s synth. It's a bit like Depeche Mode and the rest. "1959" is a good track. Nice piano. The vocal style works well, and no annoying synthetic drum beat. "Lucretia My Reflection" is the most radio-friendly track: good bass line, quality vocal arrangement, and it has a groove. I could have skipped the other songs - nothing original about any of these. Sisters of Mercy suffer the same problem as other groups in the same category: each song, album, and band sound just like the others.
An incredible album! Easily Elton John's best.
"Bringing It All Back Home" is Bob Dylan's best album. Released in 1965, it is "early Dylan", about a decade before his performances and recordings seemed more like a commodification of the artist than the genuine article. Three tracks - "Subterranean Homesick Blues", "Maggie's Farm", and "Mr. Tambourine Man" - count among Dylan's best-known songs. A fourth track, "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)", should be on that list.
Preach to me, Reverend.
Ingenious. The Swinging Detective is fantastic.
Rocket from the Crypt are a punk band I've not heard of until this record appeared as the daily selection on 1001 Albums. There is more emphasis on melody in these tracks than what you get from your typical punk band. The songs are much too bright to be called "grunge" - I'm guessing lots of 80s rock band influences. "Young Livers", "Used", "Ball Lightning", and "Misbeaten" are like 90s punk versions of The Clash and Elvis Costello tunes. The lead singer even sounds a bit like EC.
There is something good to be said about sunny British pop music from the 60s. It's quirky and fun. Loved it.
It's watered-down milk.
It's loaded with CSNY classics. Probably their best album.
It's Bowie ... so it's art, not just pop music.
In prog rock, as in many things in life, you experience hits and misses. This is a definite miss.
A really good album. "When the Stars Go Blue" is probably the best song on it.
With songs like "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "New Year's Day", "War" might be U2's most overtly political album, but not the band's best. That honor goes to "Joshua Tree" or "Achtung Baby".
Get-a-down, get-a-funnkeeeeee!
I get the point of the album. But the misogyny, the violence, the language: it's all waaay too much. And I just don't like the macho persona. As far as the music is concerned, it's boring and repetitious.
An interesting mix of ska and metal ... but there just wasn't a song on the album that I could latch on to.
Lovely kitschy punk-rock fun.
If you pair "Rubber Soul" with its immediate successor, "Revolver", you basically get a double-album. The two sound so much alike. And both are incredibly good.
Best album, ever. Best band, ever.
Just not my thing.
I'm not a big ELP fan ... I like classical music, just not as prog rock. But the songs are lively, and the crowd's response is good to hear.
It's just different than a tradition pop/rock album. Cohen just talks/sings through the whole album. Some of the musicians are good (nice piano solo on Jazz Police), but other than that, this album is just not my kind of music.
Good album. All the songs are good, although two of them (Bang A Gong and The Motivator) are a bit alike in the verse.
I'm not much of a fan of rap, but I did like the more jazz-leaning sound of A Tribe Called Quest.
Stan and Joao's covers are a little slow for me - a little too subdued and sleepy. The album is mostly known for "The Girl from Ipanema" - the shorter, all-English version that sold in the US as a single (vocals by Astrud Gilberto, Joao's wife at the time) has a bit more pep to it.
Lucinda Williams sings with real emotion. The music is folksy-blues, with a Cajun bite.
The tracks on this album seem fragmented ... some not fitting in with others at all. Not Beck's best effort.
I found this album both fascinating and fun. I would have never come across it if not for 1001. This is a Kinks' concept album, a score to a movie that never saw a projector's light. Likely because of that, these songs didn't get much radio play. The tracks are quite varied, with nice changes in melody, key, and rhythm, helping to maintain a lighthearted, playful quality. The Kinks introduce new instruments and sounds throughout the album, sometimes in the middle of songs. "Arthur" shows the Kinks at their quirkiest and most charming.
I like Steely Dan for their jazz-rock sound - it's what makes them stand out from other 70's bands. And the musicianship is first-rate.
I was prepared to shoot this album down. But as I listened to each track, I found "Movies" to be light and inventive. You can write the whole thing off as an experimental prog-rock cut-and-paste job, I suppose; instead, try to get in a playful mood and have fun with it.
This is my first listen to "shoegaze" music. Nice vocal-harmonies throughout. "Vapour Trail" was my favorite track. Two of the CD bonus tracks - "Taste" and "Here and Now" - are good.
Some really good melodies. But the singing can be improved.
Thoughtful, but a bit self-serious.
Bitter Sweet Symphony and Lucky Man are the best songs. The others don't stand out. Not a bad album.
You can see why songwriters such as George Harrison and Jimmy Page were attracted to Near Eastern and Far Eastern music - a wealth of material from which to create music of their own.
This is the first time I've listened to a full Jimmy Hendrix Experience album. Ah ... love the psychedelic 60s. "Little Wing" has been covered so many times, I forgot that it was a Hendrix song.
Some good tracks ... surprisingly musical for a rap band. Good keyboards and pretty good singing.
I would have completely missed this album if it wasn't for the 1001 site. Good blues-rock featuring Janis Joplin, simply a great singer.
It's the misogyny that turns me off, along with the marketing of criminality. That said, there are some bright spots: Dr. Dre's rap on Express Yourself is fun, and Parental Discretion Iz Advised is a good track.
Sounds like one long movie score, with different songs representing different scenes and character emotions. Some tracks are cool and inventive, others tedious.
It's all highly experimental and very serious. The experimentation I liked; the self-seriousness I found a bit off-putting.
It's very late-80s, early-90s indie. Not bad: I like some of the songs, but no one track really stands-out.
This album seems like a confidence-building project for Grohl - with each track you can hear him learning to trust in his own abilities as a song-writer, guitarist, lead singer (still needs work there), and leader of a band. To listen to this album is to witness the emergence of a major figure in Rock, and of perhaps the only true Rock-star left.
I liked this album. Some really good songs on it. The only complaint is that, unlike some of the other grunge bands from that era, Alice and Chains' music sounds dated.
Not all bad. Some interesting special effects. "Bless My Soul" is cool; same goes for "Rise" and "Dreddoverboard".
It's cool, because it's Megadeth and it's metal.
Some of the vocals are auto-tuned - that's pretty bad for a rap artist. I get it if you want the special effect that auto-tune can provide - a sort of digital, computerized sound; however, auto-tune is used so consistently throughout the album that it makes you wonder why she just didn't go ahead and take singing/rapping lessons. It's too bad - I like "Paper Planes" and I appreciate the "world music" influence.
I've not listened to much Velvet Underground before now. From what I've been told, this album is more reflective and mellow compared to the band's previous recordings. I liked it - the songs are simple, the lyrics are good, and I was entertained.
"The ArchAndroid" has some well-crafted songs. "Tightrope" and "Dance or Die" are good tracks. "Come Alive" sounds a bit like the B-52s. The best entries are the "overtures" and "interludes" - "Suite II", "Suite III", and "Neon Gumbo" - as they add an element of surprise and experimentation to the album. The whole thing is a superb mix of R&B, funk, and rap, and the musicianship is excellent throughout. Even though the musical genre is not really my thing, I enjoyed listening to "The ArchAndroid".
I like Marvin Gaye's music, but this is not his best stuff.
It's a good album. The lyrics are dumb as hell (except possibly for "Warning"), but so what? This is Ozzy and the beginnings of doom metal, and the music rocks.
It's really all about the first song - nice number. The second song has a nice chord progression. Other than that, the tracks are kind of ordinary.
An amazing album. As I've said before about Bowie's music, it's art as much as it is pop, and that's the reason why it continues to be relevant.
One of my favorite album covers. If you get a chance, read up on Howard Miller. I don't think the album works as well today as it once did - some of the songs are a bit long, and seem repetitious. The whole thing mellow - maybe too mellow.
You have to admire the musical diversity of Meat Puppets. Each song has something different to offer, something surprising.
The opening song is good - it was used in the movie, "Lost In Translation". But overall, the band uses WAAAAAY too much distortion. I get the idea of doing this for one or two songs, but not an entire album.
Listen to Bebel Gilberto's "Tanto Tempo" as a companion album to "Sao Paulo Confessions" - Suba recorded/produced both at about the same time. And both are a cool mix of electronic music with Brazilian bossa nova.
The album is good old classic rock. It all feels a bit dated, sure; but I can appreciate the music and admire the musicianship. The songs on "Abraxas" are still good, and Carlos Santana is a great guitarist.
The music here is better than what you get in his movies. But I didn't find this album particularly strong. Unfortunately for Elvis, his cover of "Gentle on My Mind" pales in comparison to the Glen Campbell version, released a year earlier. "Suspicious Minds" was included in the album's re-release in 1998, but that's the "Vegas Elvis" with which I continue to struggle.
The melodies might be good, but the drum machine and synthesizer effects detract from the songs, making them seem tedious.
I enjoyed the album, despite the fact that it contains a song over 17 minutes long. It turns out I like The Velvet Underground - never would have guessed it.
Every once in a while you should open your mind and ears, and listen to some prog-rock. This album is among the best the genre has to offer.
Joni Mitchell is clearly among the best singer/songwriters of her generation. The songs on "Blue" still hold up - I enjoyed each one of them.
Having read the Wikipedia blurb, I was expecting more than I got.
It's too bad that The Flying Burrito Bros lasted only a short while and enjoyed only marginal success. Alt-country might have become a bigger deal than is it today.
I listened to the album twice. I liked "Nature's Way" and "Animal Zoo", generally. But I couldn't find a song that stands out, or has a memorable hook.
It's a good album ... a little old-school for my tastes.
It's a mixed bag. The lyrical and musical content of some of the tracks offer something deeper than average hip-hop; however, other tracks seem to fall back on the same old tropes.
She could really sing. I was surprised to learn that the album contains four Goffin/King songs, as well as two songs by Randy Newman.
There are some classic rock songs on this album - "Paint It, Black", "Under My Thumb", "Mother's Little Helper".
The laughing Louis Prima on the cover about sums it up. A good album - I had fun listening to it.
This album is puffery at its worst. I liked C.R.E.A.M., but it's one of the few songs where Wu-Tang Clan aren't referring to themselves in the third person. "Tearz" is about the sad reality of children living in a world where gun violence prevails ("Your little brother got shot!"). But the tracks that follow are again all about Wu-Tang Clan, as the rappers fall back on the same tired cliches and overt misogyny I have come to expect, having listened to the whole album.
"Roadhouse Blues" is a great song. The other songs are okay, but not as good.
It took a while to find this album on YouTube, but eventually I tracked it down. What amazing music! It was a pleasure to listen to one of Rock n' Roll's original artists.
The highlight of the album is just the one song, "American Pie". The other tracks are more or less traditional folk songs, and, yeah, they are a little boring.
The album cover, where the band look washed-out and dull, says it all.
The album is the same old repetitious, misogynistic puffery that rap is known for.
Good album. To me it's mostly punk-rock, which is my favorite genre.
I liked the album. I see Sheer Heart Attack as a step on the path to greatness. The music that would characterize the band in later albums can be heard to emerge here.
I have not listened to an entire Bob Marley album before "Natty Dread" appeared on the 1001 albums generator. The songs are great, but a bit similar. Al Anderson's lead guitar on some songs is fantastic.
I usually don't like Brit Pop, but this band has a punk feel. Most will recognize "Alright" from Clueless, but there are other songs worth listening to.
It's post-hardcore, so every song sounds heavy, and the vocals are scratchy and mono-tone. It all sounds a bit dated. If the vocals were better, the songs might have held up.
I'm often conflicted when it comes to Coldplay's music. The songs are trite and sappy. They are pseudo-serious and irritating. That said, they are also undeniably catchy. Every song has a good hook. Many on this list love to hate Coldplay. And I can understand the aversion to music that is, at times, saccharine. I just can't seem to figure out if I, too, truly despise the band; or maybe I have allowed peer pressure to stop my feet as they unconsciously tap along to the songs. Dave Grohl once said that "the whole guilty pleasure thing is" ... well ... to paraphrase ... BS. Maybe he's right.
It felt nice to go back and listen to Supertramp. Granted, it's a bit dated, a bit like a pop version of Pink Floyd, and a bit self-serious. But the piano on this album is fantastic, and I still like it, if only for nostalgia.
A couple of good tunes, but some were the kind of sappy, folksy love songs that I find boring.
I liked the songs that had strong melodies: "Snuff", "Psychosocial", "Dead Memories", "Vermilion, Pt. 2", "'Til We Die", and "Gehenna". As for the other songs, their melodies were more difficult to make out, and so those tracks didn't appeal to me as much.
More introspective than what I've come to expect from Van Morrison.
Each track has a groove. Turns out I like electro-punk.
This is the first time I have listened to an album by The Band. Maybe today we would call it "Alt Country", or "Folk Rock". Whatever you want to call it, it's good.
The album is Alternative Dance or Neo-Psychedelia. Trainspotting, Long Life and Kowalski are good tracks. Most of the others have a groove.
Definitely post-punk. "Pretty In Pink", "Into You Like a Train", "Dumb Waiters": they are all good, if a bit alike.
Loved it. I had forgotten how political Stevie Wonder's songs could be.
The Police are simply great musicians. If you play guitar, and want to take a crack at something hard, try playing along to Andy Summers - way more difficult than you would think.
A good album. Country is not my favorite, but Dolly can sing.
"The Visitors" is a good track, and so is "Like An Angel". But I couldn't get into the other songs.
This is the first time I have listened to Sonic Youth. I like the edgier, experimental songs on this album.
Quirky grunge.
I feel like I really tried. Some of the more-or-less instrumental tracks featured great guitar and a solid rhythm section. Otherwise, I'm not much of a fan of disco. Funk and soul I like - just not disco.
A good funk/pop album. Some classic tracks you will recognize; some tracks are hidden gems you may want to give a listen.
Each song sounds ethereal and dreamy. Having heard this album, I long for distortion.
It's good Brit Indie rock, but that's about it.
Obviously a classic album. I forgot that the songs shared a kind of quirky appeal.
The track with Lauryn Hill is good. There's even a spiritual in there somewhere. But the rest is Kayne being full of himself.
A punk-rock concept album. Why? Why not?
It's not their best album, but I still like Steely Dan.
This is my first listen to Frank Zappa. The style of music surprised me. In the end, I came to appreciate how eclectic the songs are - part jazz, part blues, part prog-rock.
It's a little too nice, a little too soft. Very much like 80s "contemporary" music.
If there is such a thing as pan-African funk ... well ... here it is. Great groove throughout.
It all sounds a bit sad.
It's good music. But I'm just not convinced I needed to hear this before I die.
Someone please tell me that the world will never again have to experience the true awfulness that is an 80's hair band.
It was nice to revisit this album. The music is still light and airy. It kind of flutters along whichever way the wind carries it.
It would be fun to track the evolution of Michael Stipe's vocals ... from the early albums, through Document and Green in the middle, to R.E.M.'s albums from the 90s. Maybe 1001 will give me that opportunity.
The singing is beautiful. That rapping is honest and bears not a trace of self-aggrandizement.
I've not listened to Neu before (nor have I ever even heard of krautrock). I enjoyed the album ... most of the songs are instrumentals, and where there are lyrics they are pretty spare. I typically don't go for that, but Neu's music was, for the 70's, fresh. I'm just unsure of its relevance today.
Hot Chip offer nice, polite electronic pop music. Maybe too nice. The music sounds dated - reminiscent of 80's synth-pop - and harmless. Not one song sticks out from the rest; each merges with the others to form one continuous stream of excessive synthetic pleasantness.
This album has a quirkiness that I appreciate. It's not overly serious, but light and friendly, as if band had fun recording it.
"Ellington at Newport" is a prime example of old-fashioned big-band jazz. The album features fantastic musicianship and has that big-band sonic feel. For some, this style of jazz might seem boring and outdated. If that's what you're thinking, try this: close your eyes, tune out the digital world, let your guard down and your mind wander, and give it a listen.
Good jazz.
I like how Isaac Hayes took a classic Burt Bacharach song and made it his own. You have to admit, he had style.
Sandy Denny carries the album. You might recognize her voice from Led Zeppelin's "The Battle of Evermore", from Led Zeppelin IV. Fairport Convention is ok ... if you like British folk-rock.
Every once in a while, the 1001 site will surprise me with an artist who is unknown to me, but whose music is captivating. Nick Drake is one such artist. What an amazing guitarist and singer/songwriter he was.
GREY Area is my first experience with London rap. The raps are good, and some of the background music is interesting and jazzy (checkout "Sherbet Sunset"). The problem is repetitiousness: over the course of the album, the raps, each one delivered at the same pace, begin to merge with the others. A producer might have stepped in and suggested that Little Simz change things up a bit, track-by-track.
A lot of classic songs. Enjoy.
George Michael could really sing - an amazing voice. But "Listen Without Prejudice" sounds like an 80s pop star trying too hard to be relevant in an era that saw the rise of Grunge and Rap.
I was hoping for something better than what this album is. It's not Elvis Costello's best effort.
Yep ... it's dated. I suspect that this album, with all its hilarious little synth effects, was already old when it was released in 1986.
Friends tell me that Springsteen's music is very "Jersey shore." Since I've never been to the "Jersey shore," I guess I'll have to take their word for it. I just never understood the whole Springsteen idolization.
It's like blues rock meets Lord of the Rings.
Some great songs. They do sound a lot alike ... but it's Little Richard.
Not bad, but not as good as the first album.
Finally! A decent hip-hop album that isn't loaded with the same cringeworthy sexism and tiresome self-promotion common to this genre. Most of the raps on "3 Feet High and Rising" are good, except for one track, "De La Orgee", which may unwittingly speak to De La Soul's lack of stamina ... the song lasts for just over a minute. ;-)
What a great album!
I'll start with the positive: this album is an amazing technical achievement. Even with today's more sophisticated digital recording equipment, a producer would find it a challenge to match the quality and precision that Tom Schulz captured in his basement studio. That said, the music here is too smoothed out, too polished, and every song is in a happy major key. It's Lite Rock, and, after listening to "Boston", I long for the rough edges, the distorted guitars and screaming vocals, that I associate with Rock music.
A friend of mine noticed that Einstürzende Neubauten has released 12 studio albums over the last 40 years - surprising longevity for a band whose music sounds like a trash compactor mixed with a chainsaw. So I went to YouTube and listened to Einstürzende Neubauten's more recent work. Though some of their tracks dating from just a few years ago have a greater sense of melody than anything on "Kollaps", I still found the music grating.
It's avant-garde punk rock, and pretty good for a first album. Some of the songs work, some don't. The band would improve over the years.
Beyond the one song, "Take on Me", there is not much else to the album. The video for "Take on Me" is arguably the best video from the 80s and is worth checking out.
A nice album with classic songs.
"You Haven't Done Nothin'" is a classic Stevie track, and by far the best one on this album.
70s prog-rock at its finest. If you get the chance, listen to Yes' "Close to the Edge" and compare.
This album has not aged well.
This album surprised me. The melodies were good, the lyrics meaningful, and the musicianship solid. I enjoyed this.
Blondie is one of the few New Wave bands I like. Many of the songs on this album still hold up.
The first song, "Sun It Rises", is good, but the rest are a little depressing.
I was completely surprised by this. Feminist hip-hop ... we need more of it.
Better than I remembered.
Thanks to the 1001 site for this daily offering: The Damned. The music is more kitschy than I expected.
The album is about as good as Brit Pop gets (or got). I found myself wanting to skip through only a couple of tracks, but found gems like "She's Electric" and "Morning Glory" and those songs kept me going.
The 1001 site had the nice idea of making this album a Christmas day selection (I suspect for many of us). The problem is that these aren't particularly good holiday songs, even if you account for Spector's famous "Wall of Sound".
This is album is reminiscent of the work Morcheeba put out around the same time. I liked a couple of the tracks: "Heroes" and "Watching Windows". Other tracks got a little tiresome.
Some really good chord progressions and vocals on this album. "Liability" is particularly nice. Maybe you should give this album a second chance before you toss it in the electro-pop trash bin.
It's an interesting album, in a world music kind of way. I wouldn't have included it in this list, though. It may have been influential as far as sampling goes, but it has the feel of a pet project more than a serious contribution to music. As far as musical influences go, you'll get more milage out of listening to Talking Heads.
It's a rock opera, so you would think it would sound dated. But for me, these tracks are still fresh.
I have had two Radiohead albums from this list already, and my reaction to this one is the same: good musicianship, but a little dreary and depressing.
I could barely get through it. Sometimes the music was good, but the lyrics/rap let me down.
Around the third song, I got bored with this album. The songs are too much alike, and, after listening to the whole thing, I felt the need for something positive and affirming. All I got was repetitious dreariness.
I'm not really into the Stones, but I liked this album. It's true that, besides the two classic Stones tunes, the other tracks on "Let It Bleed" are derivative of American country and blues rock.
The music has not aged well. I know the guitar is still "amazing", but I no longer like any of the songs. It seems that grunge bands from the 90s - with their socially-conscious lyrics - have pretty much done away with Van Halen-style rock.
Sometimes I liked it; sometimes it sounded like cheesy background music to a pornographic film.
First time I've listened to the entire album. Loved it. Too bad the band didn't last but three months after its release.
Some of the songs I liked: "Kangaroo," "Stroke It Noel", and "Till the End of the Day". But the production quality in general seems raw and sloppy. It would have been interesting to hear what the band might have sounded like if they knew their way around a recording studio.
Songs like "Mirrorball" and "The Bones of You" were good, but other songs were a little boring for me.
According to the Wikipedia page on 1001 Albums, there are four Radiohead albums on this list. I've managed to listen to all four unscathed.
lang's voice is superb, but her music here consists mostly of ballads and love-songs done in a style that doesn't quite square with other entries in this list. It's hard to go from 70s Punk, 80s Wave, 90s Brit Pop, 2000s Electronica, and so forth, to cabaret-style Canadian pop and feel that you are giving the album its due. But I chose to listen to an album a day in order to broaden my musical horizons. And with this album, I feel I have.
Reminds me of Tangerine Dream. Basically, Electronica for movie sound tracks.
Alt-Country: If you like Whiskeytown, you'll like Wilco. You can tell that the primary songwriter/lead singer started out in Rockabilly.
Great live album. I had forgotten what a good singer Muddy Waters was.
Great album. I love how Tony Iommi plays guitar. Still not real fond of Ozzy's lyrics and singing style, though.
Most of the songs are fun and well-played. A number of classic songs, most of which still hold up.
I enjoyed the jazz and soul influences in the music. And it was a brilliant idea to sample opening bars from famous pop songs by the Beatles and Stevie Wonder. "Luck of Lucien", "After Hours", "Footprints", "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo" are good tracks.
I was surprised it was as good as it was. Some really great tracks.
Elliott Smith fits perfectly into a list that skews toward singer/songwriters. He sings well and writes good melodies. I was surprised only be the fact that I had not heard of him before. But that's why I chose the 1001 site.
I've not listened to a full Fiona Apple album before. There are four or five good songs on this one, some of which are 90s classics. She deserves to be on this list.
I liked the mix of jazz and soul and funk. The songs were good, but too much alike for me.
Portishea's songs are moody and emotional, reminiscent of Kate Bush and Bjork. The first three songs on "Third" are rough and ... well ... boring. Some songs are well-constructed: listen to "The Rip" for when you feel that you have reached bottom, and "We Carry On" is another good choice. The rest are like the first three.
It's hard for me to approach this album objectively. The problem I have with it is that these songs have been played to death. I'm sick of hearing them; sick of talking about how the Eagles sound "pretty". Its ethos is soooo 70s. By the time the 90s came along, I had completely moved on.
Although I love these songs and how Cash sings them, it's the prisoners that make this live album special.
You can call it "fusion jazz" if you like. You can label it controversial because it is "electric" and "experimental". None of that matters. The fact is, this is a great album with melodies that are rich and sensuous.
I'm surprised to see "Bone Machine" on this list. The album is far from Tom Waits' best. I get that the authors of the 1001 book wanted to emphasize singer-songwriters -- and Waits certainly fits into that category -- but that doesn't make EVERY Waits album something I need to hear before I die.
Good ... but it seems old hat. The songs don't exactly push the boundaries of rock. Think "The Cramps" without the kitsch, or the fun.
I honestly tried. Listened to every song. Just not my cup of tea. "Tainted Love" is about it. "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" made for a nice cover by David Gray.
A good live album. I love the audience reactions to each song - very polite.
I've decided to put aside my repulsion for Van Morrison's politics - none of it has anything to do with the music he published in 1970. This album features several classic songs that still hold up.
Very 80's New Wave. I just couldn't get into any track. Some of the instrumental work turned out okay, but the vocals really needed upgrading.
In general, I like metal; but it seems that, on this album at least, Metallica often sacrificed melody for fealty to the genre. A few of the songs on this album started out well - with interesting riffs and chord progressions that I would like to have seen explored - but they quickly morphed into stereotypical metal. Virtuoso guitars aside, I prefer it when the melody comes first.
I've heard of Jeff Buckley before this entry showed up on my list. I've listened to his cover of "Hallelujah". But until now I had not listened to the whole album. I'm glad I got around to it.
A good album from generational talents. Get Behind Me Satan is quirkier than Elephant, but no less interesting.
It was nice to revisit this album.
I can see why Bowie liked Scott Walker - it's his baritone voice and his delivery. "Hero of the War" and "The Old Man's Back Again" are the best tracks on this album, but the others drag it down.
After a while the songs began to blur into each other, and the raps got less interesting. I really liked the R&B background music, even though it sounds manufactured.
The lyrics are way too "woo woo" for me. With each song, Nick Cave's alternative spirituality and mysticism went from bizarre ... to comical ... to annoying.
I liked the Hammond organ ... it fits the songs. Typically, I don't go for purely instrumental pop bands, but Booker T. & the M.G.s are more on the early soul and funk side of things, and so I didn't mind it.
I get the importance of Illmatic on NY rap in the 90s. It's not my genre, and the references to violence were a bit overwhelming. But it's better than most rap from that era.
Seems really dated. One hit song (in the early 90s) is no reason to add this album to the 1001 list.
What an amazing album.
The moment the sitar entered in "Jumpin' Jack Flash", I laughed.
I prefer Eddie's rhythm guitar to his asymmetrical solos. But this is a good album, and overall the guitar is amazing.
A classic album with a couple of classic songs.
I'm not sure why the 1001 book included this album - this list is supposed to favor singer-songwriters, while "Elvis Is Back!" is just a collection of covers of songs that were already popular before Elvis recorded them. He didn't even write any of them. And as covers go, these tracks are kind of ... well ... blah.
It's nice to back to a time when alternative rock was known as college radio.
It was an okay album, but the songs could get monotonous.
It has been a long time since I last listened to this album. Still good.
Until now, I have not listened to a full RHCP album. I am surprised at how good it was.
An R&B album with a nice message about race and seeking respect. I liked a couple of songs, but I kept waiting for one that would break the mold and transcend the others.
Bubble gum for teenage girls.
After I listened to this album, one word came to mind: thoughtful.
This time around I looked at previous reviews before submitting my own. I noticed that the most commonly used word to describe Beach House is "nice" -- appearing nearly 100 times as of this date. And I agree. The music is nice ... maybe too nice.
I'm told this is a classic metal album. To me it was somewhat repetitious. "Harvester of Sorrow", "The Frayed Ends of Sanity" and "To Live Is to Die" are my favorite tracks.
It's kinda sleepy.
Delightful.
I get that this album is supposed to be modern satire, but honestly it sounds like a couple of kids from the 60s recording fart noises into an old tape machine.
I get why The Black Keys are on this list - a good 2-piece band with some good tunes, and maybe a little "bluesier" than The White Stripes. Garage rock needs more representation on the 1001 site, more than just "black and white".
Of the three Metallica albums I've had so far, this is by far the best. A few of the songs here are screamers, to be sure, but most of them have really good melodies and catchy hooks. If you have heard Metallica's music strictly over the radio, you will still recognize most of these songs, as they are the band's most popular.
Not as bad as I expected, considering the album cover. This album contains some nicely made songs.
This is what I imagined an album could be like. It's not just a random collection of pop hits, but a carefully crafted work of art.
There are some beautiful moments scattered throughout this album. The problem is that there aren't enough of them to make it worth my time.
No, it is not their best album. A Hard Day's Night features some Beatles classics, but there are some throwaway songs as well. I decided to watch the movie as well ... it's a bit silly.
This album represents everything I like and don't like about Dylan: the songs are passionate and heartfelt, but they tend to ramble on. Like a lot of folk/pop, the music here is often verbose. I guess I never bought into the idea that true profundity required quite so many words. That said, the musicianship is fantastic.
Typical 80s synth pop ... none of it has aged well.
Echo And The Bunnymen fit squarely into the post-punk genre, alongside Joy Division and early Talking Heads. I like post-punk for its grittiness, or maybe it's just because post-punk bands feature real drummers (thank God!) and eschewed the corny sound of drum machines popular with new wave bands of the same era. Post-punk, like punk rock, has a dark urgency about it. I found that urgency in Porcupine.
To be honest, this album let me down. Based on the description 1001 provided, I was hoping for something that was above the norm for rap. But what I got instead was the same misogyny and narcissism that I've heard from mid-90s rap albums before.
I found that I prefer Chuck D's raps to Flavor Flav's. Somehow Chuck D seemed to be the more serious of the two.
I get that this is a classic album adored by Springsteen fans. But for me the songs had a tendency to ramble on.
Not all bad, but maybe a bit dated for its time.
Although this album does boast several pop hits, and I found my feet unconsciously tapping along to the beat as I was listening, I still prefer Springsteen's later stuff, and not necessarily his music made for radio.
It's all about the one song, and just didn't connect with the rest.
Great album. Court And Spark is not as put together as Blue, but it is still worth listening to.
It's a good album. But when you consider what Miles Davis would ultimately achieve in jazz music, you could say with "Birth of the Cool" he hasn't come into his own yet. In short, it sounds like ordinary jazz, nothing special. Compare it to Kind of Blue (1959) and you'll see what I mean.
I never understood what "house" music was before I listened to this album. Now I know.
It's a classic punk-rock album ... my favorite genre. Sometimes the songs can be a little monotonous, though.
What amazing energy! I would love to have been there.
It's good, but not as good as Dark Side Of The Moon. There's something about The Wall that takes introspection over the top, to the point where it might be just a musical form of self-pity.
It's kinda cool to look back on this album after all these years. I never liked Prince's personal style much, but his abilities as a songwriter and musician cannot be denied.
Having listened to the entire album, I'm beginning to think that 80s "sophisti-pop" lacks force and emotion. The musicianship here is good, but the songs don't have any real bite. I'm okay with jazzy, but not if it's bland.
Harmless, bland bubblegum pop posing as sophisticated alt-rock.
I guess there really is such a thing as classic punk.
"More Songs About Buildings And Food" contains a couple of classic Talking Heads tunes ("Thank You for Sending Me an Angel" and "Take Me to the River"). Altogether, the album isn't bad; it's just not their best effort.
Good ol' punk rock. A couple of classics, along with some stuff I found interesting.
I was surprised by this one. A really good punk album, with some blues mixed in and a horn section.
Bands like Sigur Rós - I've never heard of them before today - are exactly the reason why I like the 1001 site. It provides me the opportunity to expand my horizons and listen to something new and different. Two tracks, "Olsen olsen" and "Ágætis byrjun", are truly beautiful.
This is the second Nick Drake album I've listened to from this list. It's every bit as amazing as his first album. What an amazing talent he was.
What a nice, soulful big-band sound. Sometimes I just wanted it to be Ray Charles hammering away on the piano. And I was hoping for a rocker tune.
A good album with some highly recognizable songs. Overall, I like Creedence.
I really tried ... paid attention to each song, listened for the melodies and the chord progressions, tried to get the gist of the lyrics. But in the end, I ended up feeling the way the guy on the album cover (Dennis) looks - somber and seemingly dissatisfied with the whole thing.
It was too "yacht-rock" for me.
I'll say this ... his albums from the 70s sound just like any movie soundtrack he ever did in the 80s, 90s and 2000s.
Listening to this album was like visiting a trusted friend not seen in some time.
I'm surprised to see Jerry Lee Lewis on a list that emphasizes singer-songwriters. I suppose that in Jerry Lee's mind, he wrote everything he played, even though he can legitimately claim authorship to maybe a song and a half over his entire career. The covers are good, the piano is solid, but really hard to get past his personal issues.
Silly, schlocky 60s pop ... except for maybe "You Better Run" (if you get a chance, check out the Pat Benatar cover with the Neil Giraldo guitar solo).
A good debut album, with some memorable songs and some not so memorable songs.
It's not that Manic Street Preachers' songs are bad; they are just ordinary. I couldn't find a hook that I liked on this album ... the songs seemed like less interesting versions of the Brit pop that dominated the airwaves in the mid 90s.
As with the other Kinks albums I've listened to on this list, the songs here are out of the ordinary and sometimes a little strange. I can see why many reviewers don't like it ... you keep waiting for a rocker like "You Really Got Me", and you end up with a song about a flying cat. But to me the Kinks live up to their name ... the songs take a few simple, but unexpected twists and turns. I find it all both charming and fun.
It's one of those albums that's a precursor to about a dozen sub-genres, while belonging to none of them.
Part Afro-beat, part funk, part jazz. A good album, but a bit repetitious for me.
This album is a typical Leonard Cohen experience for me: love the lyrics and the melodies, but not a fan of the presentation.
From "Spike Island" forward, it's a good album. Maybe the label showed a lack of interest because they listened to only the first four songs.
Unlike a lot of rappers from that era, the Beasties don't come across as entirely full of themselves; that is, they don't exhibit the puffery and self-absorption common to many of their fellow contemporary artists. That said, the songs are often puerile and misogynistic. If I were nostalgic for the 80's, I would just call it harmless teenage-boy fun and leave it at that. But I am not nostalgic for the 80's.
I've often heard over the radio one or two songs by The Band, but until now I have not listened to a whole album of theirs. I'm thankful to this list for giving me the opportunity to fill in the blanks.
This music has not aged well. Spinal Tap's "listen to the flower people" is better than anything on this album.
Le Tigre sound like early B-52's, which is why I enjoyed the album.
The Jam's roots are post-punk, but you can hear the emergence (along with the annoying upbeat silliness) of new wave music in this album. Altogether, the band are more like Joy Division than New Order, which is a good thing.
When this album came up on the list, I decided that I would put on my headphone, block out the world for an hour and simply listen. I think that's the reason why I liked it so much.
I'm just not a fan of electronica/house music. "Around the World" is ok, but the rest of the tracks are monotonous.
This album was crazy and fun. I love punk rock!
It seems that Dylan's early work was not nearly as verbose as his later stuff.
The style of music falls somewhere between Whiskeytown and Tom Waits. It's not bad, but sometime a little depressing.
A few songs are "easy listening", but that's not a fair assessment. The album is more of a total sonic experience in soul and R&B.
You can hear the cool vibe of the early 60's.
I should probably like Pearl Jam more than I do. There is just something about the lyrics that seem impersonal to me, and something about the guitar sound that is more like typical rock music than grunge/punk.
I was pleasantly surprised by this album. I had heard of PJ Harvey, but I hadn't listened to a single note of her music, until now. Singer/songwriters like her are the reason why I joined the 1001 albums generator.
I didn't think it was possible, but Giant Sand, for an alt-country band, may actually be too mellow.
A good album with some classic songs. I appreciate the Doors more than before after having listened to this album.
I'm conflicted when it comes to ZZ Top. Some of their songs are bangers, others are in the class of an 80's beer commercial.
This album has one or two good songs, but the rest of the tracks are too mellow, and a bit boring.
It's always good to hear Stevie Wonder.
I love Kurt Cobain's opening line to Serve the Servants (from In Utero), after the enormous success of Smells Like Teen Spirit (from Nevermind): Teenage angst has paid off well Now I'm bored and old Self-appointed judges judge More than they have sold And then he's done with it. I don't spend a lot of my time comparing In Utero to Nevermind; to me, the two are quite a bit different. But if I had to pick, I'd say In Utero reflects the true spirit of Nirvana.
Not as good as I had hoped ... I hear one or two good songs, but other tracks seemed ordinary.
I don't really like 80's synth-pop, but I listened to the whole album, anyway. I found it dull ... not a single song that I could get into.
This is my introduction to Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and I enjoyed it. It's lo-fi garage rock, yes, but it reminds me of Le Tigre more than anything else.
Like some reviewers below, I liked the soul/funk groove, but the raps are misogynistic and homophobic. It's the reason why I just don't like rap from this era.
I had a difficult time getting through this album. I'm not a fan of synth-pop from the 80's, and Frankie Goes To Hollywood has done nothing to change that.
It's good to hear the blues again. This album is not at the level of his live album, but still worth a listen.
Overall, a good album with some classic songs. Very Americana.
Not as good as I had hoped. Two songs on this album are familiar to most of us, and those songs are good. But the remaining songs just don't hold up.
Compared to the gangsta-rap from the 90's, this album is tame. No references to criminal activities, no swearing, no over-indulgence or undo self-promotion: I could listen to the whole thing without wincing.
The first two songs were okay, but the last four were painful and schlocky.
"Under the Bridge" is still good, and I suppose so is "Breaking the Girl", but some of the other songs haven't stood the test of time nearly as well.
Two songs on this album - "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "Time After Time" - are still good, and it was nice to revisit them. But the remaining songs are typical 80's New Wave - drum machines and synthetic keyboards.
This wasn't my favorite album of his. I tried to get into it, but there seemed to be a lack of energy, particularly for a live album.
The songs began to blur together after about the fifth track.
Cool album. You can see how both punk rock and hard rock picked up where the Dolls left off.
I enjoyed this album ... the tracks featuring piano were especially good.
It's his best album. And the songs haven't aged poorly.
I was surprised by this album ... much better than I expected. I'm not that big a fan of country-folk, but I could still get into a few songs. As always with country music, the musicianship is first rate.
Very 90's pop, but I still like some of the songs.
Wait .... didn't I hear that song in a commercial once?
Today the songs on The Number Of The Beast sound like "kiddie metal" compared to the metal music that would follow. On the one hand, it's schlocky and dumb. On the other hand, it's total fun.
I enjoyed this so much I listened to both the UK and US versions.
It appears to me that Dizzee Rascal hasn't much to say. The raps seem juvenile and undeveloped.
Pretty much the same dreary Smiths as always, except for the last song, which actually ends on a happy note.
Groovy. But more like a copy of British Invasion bands.
Cheeseball hair-band music. I'm so glad the era of metal pop has passed.
You take out the first three tracks (all of them pop hits), and you have what amounts to a typical (and somewhat dull) Dire Straits album.
You can tell that this band suffered from the fate of having three songwriters working separately. Their styles clashed. And some songs seem half-baked, more like vague ideas than fully articulated pieces. That said, some of these songs are worth a listen: "Soul And Fire", "Two Years Two Days", and "Think".
Finally. A Radiohead album I liked.
I listened to this album as the brunt of a tropical storm was passing over my house. So maybe it helped to be listening to 70's post punk while, outside my home office, rain poured down in buckets and the wind bent the trees nearly sideways.
A good album that obviously had a outsized influence on Grunge. But I wanted to hear Kim Deal sing lead on more songs.
Seen one way, the songs here fit the Beach Boys stereotype - friendly, harmonious, likable. Seen another, the songs here are amazingly well-crafted, with profound and sometimes clever lyrics, changes in tempo, and beautifully layered vocals. There were only two songs I recognized on this album, but what great songs!
It took me a bit to figure out that the reason why so many songwriters are listed in the credits - for one song I counted 13 names - is that Kayne was forced to acknowledge the artists he sampled. The album is exceptionally well-produced. I like everything but Kayne's rap.
Can't wait for the movie to come out ...
Less misogynistic and braggadocious than most rap. But it's verbose - I like it when rap conveys meaning without quite so many words. Simple beats throughout, except for the last track, BIBLE, which is by far the best one.
I've not heard of Jurassic 5 until now. It's a good hip hop album altogether. “Thin Line”, featuring Nelly Furtado, is the best track.
In a word: Iconic.
The album features artistic, alternative pop songs that run counter to anything released today. "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" is a beautifully constructed song. I wish that new music was this good.
I kinda like Ska. The Specials aren't as good as some Ska bands, but I enjoyed the album.
You cannot deny his abilities as a singer. And the musicianship on this album, as in most country music albums, is first-rate. I'm just not a big country music fan.
I get the point: the character in this concept album evolves/changes over each track. But Kendrick Lamar didn't quite manage to pull that off. I didn't see/hear enough change in the central character. "Sing About Me, I'm Dying Of Thirst" is great track, though.
Your basic Indie-band album.
This album was better than I expected. There are three or four really good songs on it, including "Imagine".
Duane Allman's guitar work makes this album worth a listen. Some of the covers are good, and Clapton still plays them in concert. I didn't much like the cover of "Little Wing", though.
This is the first time I've listened to an album by Traffic. I've knew of the band, mostly because I remember Steve Winwood. The songs on this album are a little dull. "Feelin' Alright?" would go on to become a classic, thanks to Joe Cocker. But the other songs are kind of lackluster.
MGMT seems to skim the surface of several genres: little synth-pop, a little prog rock, a little Prince. Not a bad album overall, with two or three good (and very popular) tracks.
Avant-garde jazz: some love it, some hate it, and some spend a lifetime trying to appreciate it (but do not love it). I belong to that last group.
Some of Matt Johnson's melodies are good here, but I think he takes himself too seriously.
I had forgotten that Alice Cooper were once a band and not just a rock 'n' roll personality. The album is a bit campy for my tastes; nonetheless, I enjoyed most of the songs.
Cool live album. I hadn't realized that Thin Lizzy had more than just the one song: "The Boys Are Back In Town".
I didn't recognize a single song from this album, but somehow that's okay. The thing about Neil Young is that he's thoughtful. I find myself just quietly listening to what he has to say. Sometimes I agree with him, sometimes not.
Restores my faith in funk.
Not all bad. I try not to think of Blur in comparison to Oasis ... let Blur be Blur.
"Out to lunch with lunch meat" -- couldn't have said it better myself.
If you like Pet Sounds, you'll like BWPS. Great version of "Good Vibrations".
Cool Chicago blues.
Dookie is probably the second-best album from the 90's, after Nevermind, and about as impactful. It's likely that bands such as Blink 182 and No Doubt would never have made it without this Green Day album.
It's not bad; it's just Elvis Costello. So altogether it's kinda average.
There wasn't a hook or a melody that I could get into.
Typically, I like Neil Young. His falsetto voice can be annoying sometimes, but his songs are good. This album, on the other hand, seems old and bloated. It sounds like a group of older men drinking beer and experiencing a sort of collective mid-life crisis.
A line from one of the songs: "Sometimes I don't think people know I'm as good as I really am". My response: "Nah. You just think you are better than you really are". The last few tracks are actually pretty good, but the first 12 tracks make me wonder why this album is on this list.
I've always liked how Alanis Morissette phrases when she sings - one or two elongated words followed by a burst of small words rapidly strung together. It makes her songs interesting to listen to. Okay ... the music might be a little out of date. But if you aren't into current pop trends that feature the likes of Taylor Swift and Harry Styles (and I am most decidedly not) then listening to Alanis sing is refreshing.
Had the album been simply "The Best of George and Ira Gershwin" --containing itself to, say, 16 songs -- it might have fared better. Not every Gershwin song is a classic, nor is every arrangement here worthy of the material. The producer needed to separate the wheat from the chaff. The bright spot in "The Gershwin Songbook" is Ella Fitzgerald's amazing voice and style. She was truly one of the greats.
A good debut album for any band. I enjoyed most of the songs, as was surprised to have recognized some of them.
This album was a surprise for me. I liked songs, generally, and I liked how the album was conceptualized, track by track.
Brash punk rock. Love it. The guitar work on this album is solid. But the singing is not so good.
To be honest, I was a little underwhelmed, though I have always liked the opening song, "Radio Free Europe". The other tracks are actually too Indie for me.
For me, Elephant is the best White Stripes album, but this is a close second.
I liked a couple of tracks: "The Seed (2.0)" and "Water". But every time a song featured rap, I was turned off.
Safe As Milk is not as bad as Trout Mask Replica, but it's close.
When it comes down to it, you have to admire Waits for his sheer bravado, even if you don't like his gravelly voice. He's willing to take bold risks. Too many artists on this list play it safe and end up peddling the same old bubblegum schlock. I wish they were more like him.
I feel as if my intelligence is being insulted and my tastes in music are mocked. Basically, Fat Boy Slim was to the 2000"s what Herbie Hancock was to the 80"s. That's not a compliment.
Besides "Smooth Operator" the songs just didn't appeal to me. Most of the tracks seemed dated.
A good album with a couple of classic songs, and some songs I had never heard of.
A good proto-punk album. Shame the band lost a few members (to The Cars and Talking Heads) and could never quite match this effort again.
Really good progressive jazz.
Stones albums from the early 70's always seem somehow "smaller" than what I expect. I prepare myself for music that is straight-ahead rock (and perhaps overly sexual and way too flashy for me). Instead, I find a collection of little blues numbers loosely put together.
An amazing singer. I would love to have been there.
There are a couple of good tracks on this album, but the remaining songs seem canned.
While I don't typically like "Sophisti-pop", there were a couple of songs here, particularly the opening track, that appealed to me. Maybe it's because the band avoided most of the musical cliches common to the New Wave era.
There is a richness and complexity to Lamar's music that I just don't hear from other artists of the same genre. To Pimp A Butterfly fuses social consciousness with funk and jazz. Some of the tracks have misogynistic overtones ... too bad, otherwise it's one of the best hip-hop albums, ever.
I'm not into electronica, generally. But for some reason - maybe it's the interesting melodies, or the solid production quality - I enjoyed this album.
I finally find out who sings "Cry to Me". Not all bad. Sort of a lighter version of Al Green.
I prefer songs with melodies.
I enjoyed Primal Scream's mixing of genres. A couple songs were quite good.
I’m not a big country music fan, but the singing is fantastic
Love the guitar work, but I didn't find the scratchy vocals as appealing.
Absent any hit songs, Low would seem to align more with Bowie's last few albums than with, say, Ziggy Stardust. What I mean is that there were occasions in his career when Bowie was willing to shuffle off the Pop Icon garb and explore some interesting musical directions. True artists need to push themselves in new ways, and not do the same ol' thing that everyone expects.
I wouldn't have added this album to the 1001 list. It's not bad; it's just that there is nothing that distinguishes this album from anything CSNY ever did.
Good ole Punk Rock, how I've missed you.
Impressive guitar, but a bit like 80's rock. The vocals ... not so good.
It could be said that U2 had long ago overstayed their welcome. Over-hyped, over-exposed, over-done ... over. Listening to U2 today, and their more recent albums in particular, I would have to agree with the criticism - I'm just plain tired of them. But Achtung Baby came out at a time when U2 were still relevant, even vital. It was done at a time when Bono was ... well ... not so "Bono". And it's probably their best album.
I'm still not wild about hip-hop, but I realize that this album is better than most from that genre..
It's not her best work, but I liked the jazz-folk fusion. And let's face it, the woman can sing.
Haunting and thoughtful.
It has been a long, long time since I last listened to this album all the way through -- more than likely it was on vinyl. In that spirit, "Side 2" is fantastic. The church-organ intro to "Your Time Is Gonna Come" still impresses me. "Communication Breakdown" is a rocker. The solo on "How Many More Times" is one of the all-time greats. It's not Led Zeppelin's best work - Robert Plant's lyrics and vocals would improve over time, Page would be less interested in replicating blues riffs and craft an original guitar sound, and the band would become much tighter. So the album is more or less Zeppelin's origin story.