1001 Albums Summary

Absolutely iconic live country album when Cash was in his prime.

Automatic 5 stars just for the raunchy guitar tone of Money for Nothing.

A classic live album that paved the way for so much music to come, especially punk music. A really cool recording that captures them playing in their hometown of Detroit; you can feel the energy in the crowd and the tension in the air. The title track and "Motor City" are the two highlights of the album, with the latter being a ballsy bluesey cover of the John Lee Hooker song about the riots in Detroit the year before. Makes you want to torch a cop car listening to it. The whole album is only 39 minutes, shorter than most live albums, and it's rough around the edges, raw, and full of protest. Kick out the jams motherfucker. Indeed.

One of Dylan's classic albums, but lacking in the energy and flying by the seat of his pants feel in better albums like Highway 61 and Bringing It All Back Home. Cool that some members of the Band are on it, but not nearly as much fire as Bloomfield brought to the earlier albums. Memphis Blues and Pillbox Hat are highlights, and Sad Eyed Lady is one of his best and most underrated songs. Everybody must get stoned.

Steve Earle is great but this album just sounds like a bunch of songs that are pretty close but not close enough to Copperhead Road. Sounds like a John Cougar Mellencamp album if he was from Tennessee. Or a Steve Earle album about sucking on a chili dog.

Honestly couldn't get through it, it kinda sounded like if the Black Keys had hemorrhoids and no talent, but somehow worse. I'm all for concept albums but didn't get this one. Shame because this band had a great song in Shrek 2.

The Undertones? More like the Underwhelmings. Straight forward early British punk but basically the same song 16 times on one album.

An absolute jazz classic and one of Coltrane's best. A perfect example of mid 60s modal/hard/post bop. Coltrane is great, but the rest of the quartet are top musicians too. Elvin Jones is a motherfucker on drums, McCoy Tyner kills it on keys, and Jimmy Garrison keeps it on the groove. Part 3 is the highlight where they're fully cooking, but the whole album is sequenced perfectly. You can see why Santana and so many other major musicians are huge fans of this.

Started off rough but got better as the album went on. Definitely some catchy, fun songs. There was some moments of cool musicianship, mainly thanks to Adrian Fisher and Dinky Diamond. Cool that Muff Winwood (Steve's older brother) produced it. Two stars just for these names. Honestly would've gotten another star or two if the guy just sang in his normal voice instead of falsetto the whole time, it sounded like the kimono ladies were singing for most of it.

The US is better than England at everything (winning wars, food, dental care, etc) and especially punk music. I barely understood what he said, but I felt what he meant cuz this music has balls, unlike the British punk we've listened to so far.

The sound of scuba diving on acid.

Early Rod Stewart (solo, with Faces, and with Jeff Beck Group) is really underrated. I feel like this isn't as strong of an album compared to some of his other early ones, but still a pretty decent album, especially for blue-eyed soul. Fun fact; the largest concert ever in the Americas was a Rod Stewart concert in 1994.

Not funky enough or hip hop enough for me, somewhere in the bland middle. Some interesting samples and ideas but not a very engaging listen. Another reason why Ronald Reagan's America sucked.

As a redheaded stranger myself, maybe I'm biased. But this is a classic concept country album. The way he weaves his original story with classic country songs is so well done and thought out, and there's so many layers to it that even after a bunch of listens you still pull something new out of it. Sparse on the instruments on purpose, and Willie fully in charge of his art. Not nearly as good as some of his other classic albums like Shotgun Willie, but still a great all around album.

A solid salsa album, and paired well with chips & salsa.

A lot of catchy songs that all feel familiar since they sold out so much with this album. It made me feel like I was in one of those classic late 90s/early 2000s movies with Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck, George Clooney, etc. Definitely more enjoyable than some of the other techno/electronic we've listened to so far, but also not a fan of how they exploited and didn't credit the vocalists from Alan Lomax's tapes.

This album sounds like if the robots in IRobot made an album together. Where's Will Smith when you need him?

Surprisingly decent album, really liked the production value of a heavy rhythm section. 2.5 stars would be more accurate, but I'll round up to 3 because of some great instrumental sections.

Just when you thought blue eyed soul couldn't get worse, British people start doing it and somehow make it worse. No grits, no balls, no soul, this pales in comparison to Aretha.

The Queen of Soul in her prime, with the killer Muscle Shoals swampers backing her. An absolute classic.

Nah.

I should've consumed significantly more barbiturates to listen to this album and make it enjoyable.

Not sure why so many of these British bands feel the need to sing in a falsetto so much, but it's not for me. The songs where Thom Yorke sang normal were all pretty good, with some cool instrumental parts, but the falsetto ones knock it down a bit and def give a late U2 vibe. Cool that they let listeners pay what they wanted for the album when it came out. As they say in England, this wasn't really my cup of tea, but it was still a fairly enjoyable cup of tea with some interesting notes. Sorry Kev.

Almost lost me on the first song, but glad I stuck it out because there was some really cool parts. Not sure in what situation I'd listen to this in real life, but listening to it while driving to work definitely improved my commute a little bit. It feels like the soundtrack after Walter White breaks bad and made me want to buy a cool hat, dark shades, and sling blue meth on the streets of New Mexico. Fun fact: Led Zeppelin fucked a girl using a live red snapper in a Seattle hotel. Wonder if that's where this band name comes from...British people are weird, man. That was probably a little more satisfying than this album though.

Had trouble finding the real album, but what I did find had some real cool flamenco guitar and some cool polyrhythm. The wooden flutes give it that real southern South American feel.

This album makes me want to walk across the rooftops and jump off so I don't have to listen to it anymore.

Classic Beatles with some of their best songs, and where they had really perfected the Beatlemania formula. Who else had come up with movies based on albums at this point? Things We Said Today is a super underrated Beatles song.

Eels (the animal) are a lot cooler than Eels (the band), and probably more musically talented.

Awesome psychedelic album in the vein of Cream, Jefferson Airplane, and Iron Butterfly. Even more badass that they're only a trio. 68 was really when acid rock hit its peak and this album is a part of that and a big influence on a lot of music to come, from metal to prog to fusion. Would probably give this 4.5 stars if I could. Also super refreshing listen after a bunch of the recent garbage.

It turns out The Cure for my headache was turning off this album. Some classic cheesy 80s parts, but otherwise got really boring and repetitive as it wore on.

Is this list just 1001 British Punk albums (that all suck to varying degrees)? Where's the American rock n roll, guvnah?

It's cool that they were the backing band for A Asspocket Full of Whiskey with RL Burnside, so I'll give them a star for this, but this album was rough and just too much of a bastard for me.

Finally some rock n roll. Great to hear The Horse ride again, but not nearly as good as their original albums. Just a good ole fashioned American rock album to have on in the background while you polish off some Miller High Lifes and change the oil in your El Camino

Roger Waters is a fucking prick and has only gotten crazier and more antisemitic since then. This album really should be called Daddy Issues. Overrated album and really where the egos reached their breaking points. This doesn't make the cut in my top 5 Floyd albums.

Bubblegum bullshit

Classic rock n roll. This is how you make badass rocking music within 2 minutes and turn it into a whole album. All the wannabee British punk bands on this list could learn a thing or two.

RIP Janis, gone before her prime and such a shame that this album was released after she was already dead. Oh Lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz. I've listened to this album in the bar booth where she had her last drinks (screwdrivers) before she died in LA. Her initials are still carved in the table from that night.

Fela is the man and influenced so much world music, yet most people don't realize it. Check out the music from when Ginger Baker traveled across the desert to find him and make music with him. Polyrhythms for days.

No.

Ella doing what she does best. Really the Janis of her time, or Janis was the Ella of her time.

Clapton Sucks. Duane Allman and the rest of the band (Carl Radle, Jim Keltner, Bobby Whitlock, Jim Gordon) are what make this album such a classic. Maybe if Clapton wasn't so strung out on smack and too busy trying to bang his best friends wife he'd be better. It is ironic that he did end up marrying his Layla later on though. Duane's solo on Layla is one of the best in music. Wail on, Skydog.