1001 Albums Summary

Why do they repeat the choruses like fifty times? Seems like they're padding out the runtime, and not very well at that...the album's only 34 minutes even with all that repetition. It's weird feeling nostalgic for an album ive never heard, but this is the prototype for a lot of the big, dumb rock albums my teenage self loved in the late 90s/early 2000s. I loved "Detroit Rock City" and "Shout it out Loud" going in, so points for those, though I'm not huge on the extra sound affects/setup on DRC. "Beth" kind of sucks? But if I'd been born twenty years earlier I would probably love this album. But I wasn't and I don't.

I liked "Into the Drink" well enough but probably only in comparison to the rest of it. I can't imagine ever listening to this again.

I feel like a dork giving this one a five after just giving Mudhoney a one but I gotta be me. I've known and loved this album for a while and it was a treat to hear it again.

Got this one right after "The Man Machine." Kindof cool to see the progression of the same sort of music a decade and a half later. 90s heist music. Doesn't transport me like other similar albums but great driving music.

Generic-sounding 60's rock. Luckily I sort of like 60s rock so extra star for that.

Its ok, some catchy parts (I like "Jump Boys") but there are other albums like this that are better.

I might be turning into my dad but this is good stuff. I feel like part of music appreciation is knowing that there are different "uses" for different music. This isn't pump-up music or political music (unless the politics lie in something subtle like "oh he played a D7 here instead of a straight up D how inflammatory" which I acknowledge could very well be the case). Its "everything's cool" music, with a smattering of weird time signatures to keep things interesting. The problem is I have the feeling that all the "everything's cool" records are going to get five out of five from me no matter what because I don't really know what separates a good "everything's cool" record from a great one. I found it funny that the biggest hit from this has a prolonged drum solo in it. But yeah Mr. Rogers learning how crayons are made vibes and I'm 100% in.

Amazing this is their first album. Yes there are some filler tracks but the rest is so transcendant, so genuinely sleazy and killer and fun, that I can't in good conscience give it anything but five out of five.

Marvin Gaye seems like he has one foot in the sixties and one in the seventies in this one. I was expecting some straight 70s R&B and got that, but, like, sort of psychedelic too, which was a cool surprise. Great album for a slow Sunday around the house. I loved it.

Want to hear something blasphemous? I think some of the records inspired by The Boss do blue-collar earnestness better than Bruce himself (namely The Killers' "Sam's Town" and The Hold Steady's "Boys and Girls in America"). But I guess Bruce had to walk so these bands could run. Should've been called "Born to Walk." The singles are so, so good. When the sax dropped on "Thunder Road" I was like "oh yeah, five stars, baby". "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" is probably my favorite song by Springsteen. The title track is amazing. Jungleland is pretty cool too. But, you know, that's what greatest hits albums are for. Sorry, Bruce. Hope "Nebraska" is on this album list, that one's better.

Some gorgeous songs and production here and some pretty good. One eye opening aspect of this project is seeing how much my favorite artist were influenced by records from days of yore, in this case Beck (on "Morning Phase" particularly) and Fleet Foxes (the whole darn discography). 3.5 rounding up cause that's how we did it in math class.

I connect with this album but I don't connect connect like some people do, and I'm almost envious about it. I think part of it is the "you had to be there"-ness of it all, and I was a shade too young. But some monster tracks on here that I would give my right pinky to hear for the first time. Or maybe the pinky finger-nail. If there was anesthesia involved. But still. Good-to great record.

This was a slippery one for me. I've heard it before but had rejected it. On re-listeni g, there were parts that were genuinely thrilling ("The Great Curve" is like my internal monologue when I've had too much coffee and am running errands...in the best way possible) but other parts I was sort of bored (most of the second half, honestly). There's something here that draws me back. I've listened to it twice more since the first obligatory listen, and liked it no more and no less. So it's 3.4, rounding down to 3.

Some nice ear candy here, but sort of seemed surface level/not cohesive when compared to other records in the genre. I had fun in parts though, and that's worth something.

Some pretty sounding parts but mostly I don't really want to listen to this again.

I'm a fan of some of Alex Turner's stuff with the Arctic monkeys. This was alright but a bit forgettable by comparison.

It's 1994, but also it's sort of the future, 3am. I'm in an anonymous bar in an anonymous metropolis. I'm investigating a murder, possibly committed by a cyborg. My contact hasn't shown up, so I wait, a drink of stale whiskey in my hand. I keep one eye on the door and the other on the stage, where, through the cigarette smoke, this band is playing. Portis-something. Kids these days. Man, the world these days. The crime I'm investigating - I've been at it too long. Awful stuff. I can't get my head straight. The whiskey makes my head swim, almost psychedelic, like those old hippies were talking about down in Badgertown. But I realize with a start that it isn't the drink affecting me, but the music. What is this? Some new drug the Lab-men have cooked up? I look around. Others are similarly entranced. Staring, their eyes all-but swirling like some cartoon character. Portishead, I remember. All one word, a word with no meaning as far as I know. I'll check the archives, if I remember. I glance up. My contact has arrived. I'm almost disappointed as I tear my attention away from this band, this beguiling singer. But I'm on the clock. I nod and he sits and we get down to business.

Alright. I love this album, but full disclosure: if this was my first listen i would have given it a 3, tops. This was a cd I bought because of the glowing reviews...back when cds were $20. So, having invested all this money, what was I going to do? Not listen to it? I remember when it finally clicked. I was on a Greyhound bus, half asleep, listening on my discman. And then suddenly I was awake, thinking "oh, I like Kid A now." This is a somewhat common experience for me. Somehow, half-asleep me is more receptive to music. Are there other albums I'd rather listen to? Yes, of course. This record is depressive as hell. It's not even my favorite Radiohead record. But it's also really really good, and fives don't cost anything baby. I gave "Appetite for Destruction" a five, and I listen to "Kid A" more than I listen to that one. "Kid A" is the exact opposite album of "Appetite for Destruction," so much so that I'm pretty sure I'm the first person in history to mention the two records in the same sentence. But one cannot exist without the other. Yin and yang, etc. Five stars!