i was originally disappointed seeing this album pop up because i *LOATHE* "ironic," but it wasn't as bad as i thought. largely fine, though her voice really irritates me. i know that's not an original critique, but i don't care!
omg, i loved this. amazing production, incredibly catchy bops. i'll agree that maybe it's not "essential" listening but this is exactly the kind of 2010s indie rock that lights up all the pleasure centers of my brain.
no stars for rapists
no stars for transphobic racists
this is one of the worst things i've ever listened to in my life
proto-of montreal. i liked it!
no stars for abusers and rapists
this was the definition of mid to me
i didn't really enjoy this but i did appreciate that it was something different. however i cannot see myself listening again, so to the 2 star shadow realm it goes
would've been higher if it wasn't randomly racist?!
surprised by how much i enjoyed this!
i know nothing about salsa but i quite enjoyed this! very pleasant. and i recognized that one song from oliver & company right away 😎
wow. i hated everything about this. kind of impressive honestly.
live albums are a crime
i'm a super negative nancy about live albums -- i generally believe that they are the purview of superfans and shouldn't be peddled to the general 1001 album public -- but this one was pleasant.
weird. there are a few songs here that are totally fine and even pleasant to listen to, but the other ones are atonal, meandering, intentionally bad (?) suckfests.
i wish this album would've passed a little faster
i know his voice is like the whole thing but i just didn't like the whole thing
i wanted to like this more than i did, but it was still pleasant!
unfortunately this is a good album but i just can't stomach the idea of giving this guy any more streams or positive ratings.
Eh
wish this had been as edgy and cool as the album cover made it seem
i appreciated that this was not the factory-issue britpop i assumed it was, but it didn't 100% click for me. still an interesting album i wouldn't have sought out without 1001 albums!
i'm conflicted because on the one hand, a 2000s album on this list is a rare gift, and i do like some of beck's music. and i appreciate that he's got a kitchen-sink style approach to his songs. but a lot of these songs were repetitive and annoying to me, so 3 stars it is!
i loved this!!!
as dazzlingly saturated and syrupy as a perfect piece of french toast. one of the best pop albums of the 2010s. i think if you rate this lower than 4 stars you should immediately go to jail.
i can appreciate the talent, but it wasn't really all that enjoyable for me to listen to.
it's pure sunshine, how could it be less than 5 stars?
so enjoyable. great addition to the 1001 albums list!
I can see why this was important but I found it very unpleasant and grating to listen to
I can't be objective about this. This is one of those albums from my early teens that burrowed its way inside me and became part of my DNA. I could no sooner give it a fair rating than I could rate myself, or my adolescence, or what it means to grow up. Not every song on this album is a 5/5 -- honestly, not every song on this album is even good. Some of them seem to delight in their own ugliness. But the *variety* of music here; the ridiculous, laughable, incredible scope of it; the giddy soaring highs and the miserable vacant lows - none of the songs sounds remotely the same. I can't not give it a 5! This is less a collection of songs and more of an album of important moments to me. And there are so many of them. The defiant battle cry of "We'll crucify the insincere tonight" from Tonight, Tonight that wouldn't be out of place in an MCR song; the escalating bridge in Here is No Why that begs you to scream along; "Destroy the mind / destroy the body / but you cannot destroy the heart," which should be melodramatic dreck but feels as essential as marching orders; "Rescue me from me," perhaps the most self-aware Billy Corgan has ever been in his life; the snarling, vicious "Love is suicide" refrain in Bodies and the jacknife whiplash of Thirty-Three's sugar-spun "I know I'll make it / Love can last forever," right after it; the, again, very self aware "Suffer my desire" from In the Arms of Sleep; 1979, kicking off the slow march to the end of the album with the kind of sun-soaked, melancholy (ha!) nostalgia for things you may not even have experienced yourself; the almost silly Beautiful and Lily (My One and Only) and what I can only call a group lullaby on the last track. God, it's crazy. I love it so much. Unfortunately, it was also written by Billy Corgan, who by all accounts seems to be one of the most personally unpleasant people on the planet and has the political opinions to match. Maybe that's part of this album's appeal to me - I keep trying to crack the nut of how such a miserable, hateful prick could've made something so perfect. Maybe he poured out his heart and soul into this album and just... left them there. How do shitty people make good art? I don't know. It still doesn't make it less sincere to me. Whoever he is now or before, I believe every word he's saying here. It's part of the infinite fascination with the Infinite Sadness, I guess. Anyway. It's a mess, it's pretentious, it's painfully earnest, it's so fucking good. I totally understand the 1 star reviews. I think you either get it or you don't but I really, really do.
aside from the 13 minute track, I found this quite pleasant!
boy he really went on and on huh
not 100% my kind of music (and sometimes kate gets a little Out There for me) but i overall enjoyed it, 3.5 rounded up.
did it sound like Coldplay? yes, but I was jammin.
i was looking forward to this one but unfortunately i just didn't like it! every song went on way too long and was grating/repetitive/unpleasant to listen to. i do like nico's voice. but in terms of "did i have a good time listening to it?" the answer is no.
i thought i'd like this a lot more, but oh my god, the repetitive unpleasant droning... every song being at least twice as long as it should be... this literally gave me a headache.
why? why does 1001 albums keep torturing me with multiple 20-minute songs? i'm a good person. i don't deserve this.
it was fine. nice enough to listen to. just didn't feel super strongly about it!
Really enjoyable. I know it's because she's principled and a true artist but I can't help but wish it was on Spotify so I'd ever listen to it again 🥲
nice rhythm and rhymes but a little long for my tastes
Eh.
super enjoyable, and one of the greatest discoveries of 1001 albums for me - who knew i liked funk so much? i wish it was on spotify so i could listen more often!
so fun. probably closer to a 4.5 but it's so rare for me to give albums here a 5, let's just go for it!!!
the first two tracks were really strong, but the rest couldn't quite capture that energy. he has such a beautiful voice and such poetic lyrics that i do want to give some credit to that, but it's very Starbucks Music in bush administration vibes. still, a 3.5 rounded to a 4 for me overall. it really is such a nice voice.
I felt swaddled in the bosom of this droney electronica ❤️
this was a lot of fun and short and sweet! i dig it!
it was fine enough, just not really my kind of music I spose
so funky and fun and ridiculous, I had an absolute blast!!!
Based on the description, I thought I was going to show this. But it was surprisingly fun and silly! It's nice to be wrong sometimes.
i wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as I did but it was pure fun. #dudesrock
I wanted to like this so much more than I did, but it was just a whole lot of inoffensive nothing.
this is a very nice, pretty album that nonetheless made me feel nothing, somehow. i'm sorry nick!
what is this dusty, flavorless, flat soda of an album? why did i have to listen to it before I died? It made me feel like I was dying. so confused. there's nothing here. it was like a pile of dry hay blowing away in the wind.
enjoyable! i liked it!
this was a pleasant surprise, and I'm equally happy to see so many positive reviews! this album has a few duds for me, so not a perfect 5, but lots of fun and crazy variety. so many iconic songs on here! the pixies don't always 100% work for me, but this album mostly does.
I'm never thrilled to see a live album, but I as pleasantly surprised by this one. Great energy and live performance. The audience's enthusiasm was fun too. I don't really see myself revisiting it, but I enjoyed it more than I thought it would.
I had Doolittle two days ago, what are the chances? This one wasn't quite as #iconic but still some good tracks on here, and I probably wouldn't have sought it out without 1001 albums!
as subtle as a (ha!) hand grenade, but that's what we needed at the time, okay? is every song on this a perfect 5/5? no, and the non-singles definitely don't have the same punch, but it's not about that. it's about the spectacle, the ridiculousness, the scope - i mean, this album is iconic for a reason. if i see any of you dadrock motherfuckers badmouthing this one, fight me in the parking lot. WHILE american idiot plays.
i didn't expect to enjoy this one as much as I did. big cheesy energy that occasionally didn't totally hit. but overall punchy ridiculous 80s fun.
is it... crazy to say there's like, quite a bit of filler on here?? feels insane to say about the Beatles but there were definitely a few kills in the hits for me. full of a bajillion other iconic tracks though, so this is super hard to rate. don't be mad at me!
well, that sure was an album.
wow, this was a lot of fun. pure 80s. i was really surprised by all the low reviews because I was jammin'.
I loved this. So fun, great energy, really unique. Another banger from 1001 albums I wouldn't have found on my own!
God, what a talent. What a voice. I'd always meant to listen to this album and never got around to it. It all just works so well together. It's hard to listen knowing how her life turned out but I'm grateful we have a time capsule like this.
I mean, it was enjoyable enough, but it *did* feel like the same song 10 times if I'm being totally honest >.>
I had no expectations going into this (and even laughed when I generated the album) but this was surprisingly fun. I had a good time!
this was pleasant to listen to but I don't know if it totally clicked for me - I probably should've been listening more carefully and reading the lyrics but I usually listen to these while driving or at work, so. maybe I'll revisit some of the top tracks later.
this just really didn't do anything for me, i'm sorry!
I actually quite enjoyed this. Not too much to say other than it was a pleasant surprise and very listenable and avoids some of the samey vibes of so many similar albums from this era.
really liked this one! i listened to it more than once, which is rare for me. just a very good album.
echoing all the other commenters that I wish this album went as hard as the cover.
Always great to get something different on 1001 albums. I liked this, though it got a bit repetitive at times. Still enjoyable!
An hour of chugging fuzzy nothing.
this was fine, but not anything particularly groundbreaking. i think it was all covers too. it was nice but not sure if it's really "1001 albums" worthy.
i was originally disappointed seeing this album pop up because i *LOATHE* "ironic," but it wasn't as bad as i thought. largely fine, though her voice really irritates me. i know that's not an original critique, but i don't care!
another album I wasn't excited for because I don't really care for jack white, but it was ultimately fine. perhaps I just don't "get" it. the way he said "noyvus" instead of "nervous" on that one song made me crazy though.
Hm. This was fine, but didn't wow me. I feel like most of the songs went on at least a minute too long, too
This was fun and funky, but I feel a little conflicted after reading the top reviews and learning more about the band. Idk. I feel weird now!
I'm glad this was on the list, and I liked the rapping itself and the general vibes, but the short 1-2 second long samples of repetitive grating noises really started to wear me down after a while. Maybe that kind of sampling just isn't for me.
I'm not sure I really "got" this one... I liked all the big songs but the others didn't really stand out to me :(
Meh.
he's a talented guitar player but otherwise I really did not enjoy this.
oh boy. this was... meandering, grating, and repetitive. that last track in particular was an absolute slog. wtf? i love "dice" (shoutout to the OC soundtrack!) and thought i'd like this too but it did not hit.
I actually really liked this one. Beautiful harmonies! Not quite a 5 for me but really, really enjoyable. And oldie but a goodie :)
so smooth, so breezy... if frutiger aero was an album.
I was expecting to dislike this, but it was fine and even pleasant at times. I actually added a few of the tracks to a trancey focus playlist I have. The first half of the album was a lot weaker than the second half to me.
really liked this one! good flow, i was bopping my head without even realizing it.
this was fine. the epitome of fine. not sure why i had to listen before i died. sure, i liked a few songs, but this isn't even the album with their big hit (to me, a former teen girl who loved veronica mars) on it. so like. why.
Absolutely loved it. Pure sunshine!
what do you want me to say? it's a live album. i bet it would've slapped if I was there.
What a pleasant surprise! I thought this was going to be more paint by the numbers britpop, but it has a really fun sound. Loved the horns. Felt like shades of Echo & The Bunnymen.
not much to say except that this wasn't really for me... didn't like the vocals or the instrumentation all that much. made me feel like I needed to take a shower.
Overall a pleasant album. It's a shame that his substance abuse fried his voice. I wonder what he sounded like before. Also, I had absolutely no idea about his connections with Charles Manson until this album popped up and I went researching on Wikipedia.
i liked the two big songs on here! but struggled to really have an opinion on anything else.
This was a new Bowie album for me and for whatever reason it just wasn't hitting. A few enjoyable tracks on here but not really enough to push my rating higher than 3.5.
The first song was nice, but everything afterwards increasingly grated on me and felt like a pale shade of the first track. The lead singer obviously has a nice voice, but the instrumentation is so dated and bland and the overall sound of every song got increasingly repetitive. It felt like music that would be playing in a department store while I waited for my mom to finish buying a pair of shoes.
whew, this was just not for me. i can appreciate on some level that this spans so many genres but the vocals were like nails on a chalkboard.
really no strong feelings about this one
eh. i liked this at first but it wore out its welcome. probably closer to a 3.5 but i don't really see myself listening to it ever again, sooooo....
puerile and cruel. an expertly crafted, slicky produced, lovingly written screed against women and gay people. i loathed every minute of it. ranting aside, eminem is obviously talented and impressively skilled at crafting rhymes but he uses his gift to court the sticky-fingered southparkpilled masses so... i was never going to like this.
I had Eminem the previous day, so this was a breath of fresh air! I really like the sound of 90s/2000s rap, and this had some great lyrics on it. But I did find that some of the songs had grating or repetitive elements in them that wore on me after a while.
I wasn't super wowed tbh. Way too long. Eh
i don't think i really "got" it 🥲
i often feel like i "should" like the white stripes, in the way that you "should" eat your vegetables and floss your teeth. it feels like a good-for-you obligation that everyone just kind of tolerates because it's better for you in the end if not enjoyable in the moment. but hannah, you might say, they're *real* rock in a sea of schlocky pop! their lead singer is a notoriously private genius who eschews the mainstream - not like all those autotune fakers! (/s) this is what real music sounds like!!!!!! well it sounds bad. so. okay, okay, not really - this is aggressively fine. the white stripes are fine. it's just all varying degrees of fine. i just can't help but be irked by jack white's nasally couldn't-be-bothered voice and the crunchy guitars. it's cool they have a female drummer i guess? but this is the most 3/5 music i could imagine existing. also, unrelated, but i just looked up jack white on Wikipedia, and as recently as 2022 he was moaning and groaning about the evils of video games like it was 1999. ("White thumbed his nose at the music games genre last year as well, decrying games as a way to introduce people to music.") dude, shut the fuck up and play some DDR and maybe you'll calm down. sorry, i just irrationally hate his old-soul luddite kids-these-days bullshit when he's one of the most successful and famous musicians of all time and got there in part to inclusion in mainstream culture (gasp!) and, yes, music games. ANYWAY!!!! the big songs are good. I liked Now Mary too. that's all.
This might be closer to a 4 for me, but I give out so few 5's that I'll round up. I love this album. I discovered Sigur Ros through The Life Aquatic (that scene can still make me tear up if I think about it for too long) and spent a lot of time with this album in my teens. It's great studying/focus music. Weird and vibey and gorgeous. Super glad to see it included on this list!
I liked this more than some of Neil Young's other stuff. No real significant feelings tho.
No strong feelings about this... it kind of disappeared into the background.
Some of this would fit in pretty well on my playlist of droning electronic soundscapes that I use for studying, but it's not much fun to listen to on its own. Once again, not sure why this needed to be on here as as must-listen before I die. This is probably what the inside of your head sounds like *as* you're dying.
this album had the misfortune of being featured during a week that had a lot of instrumental music. miles davis is clearly talented, but this dragged for me. i'm ready for some words.
I actually liked this one more than I thought I would, but it's still 3 stars.
I was prepared to hate this because I loathed the last album we had by the peps, but the singles on this are really solid. The back half was forgettable but a much better experience this time with the RHCPs.
stop YELLING at me!!!!! in all seriousness - cool samples, but the screaming gates on you after, say, 2 songs? i like Sabotage as much as the next star trek fan but it seems the beastie boys are best enjoyed in very small doses.
Pleasantly surprised by this one! Weird and funky and surprisingly listenable - I saw the "proto-punk" comments and got nervous, but I didn't find it that punky.
absolutely loved this one and probably wouldn't have sought it out on my own. we need more nasty fucked up women making music please.
I actually enjoyed this more than I thought, considering I groaned when I saw it generated yesterday morning. Immigrant Song is a high point. Unfortunately, it's at the very beginning of the album, which may have been a critical error because it's all downhill from there. I liked a few other songs, so this is probably closer to a 3.5, but I just can't bring myself to rate it a 4 when I didn't feel that strongly about it.
Eh.
This was nice! Good music and some fun lyrics.
I had fun, but some of the songs were noticeably weaker than others. A quick energetic listen!
I found this annoying and try hard quirky.
i liked the big song on here! the rest was just okay.
I feel really conflicted on this one. This album had some beautiful and interesting moments - Gay Messiah and Old Whore's Diet are standouts for me - but god, I just can't handle his voice. The way he drags every single word out 2-3x longer than he needs to just grates on me. This was an interesting trip down memory lane to the seemingly long gone world of baroque pop, and I did enjoy some songs, but others put me into a stupor. Probably closer to a 3.5. Rufus, I wanted to like you, I promise!!
Decent enough for getting some work done. Definitely repetitive in a bad way at certain parts. I feel like some house/electronic artists don't know when to walk away from using the same sample over and over again.
Gorgeous. More genre-spanning than I thought. Such talent lost so young :(
Like I say with all live albums, I bet this would've slapped if I was there. But I wasn't, so it could never be as cool or exciting as it would've been to a live attendee. However, this was pretty energetic and engaging as far as live albums go. I definitely liked the first half a lot better than the second half. It was impressive on a technical level, but not necessarily my first choice to listen to 15 minutes of only drums.
This was a lot of fun. Banger after banger! Who knew! Super enjoyable, a nice lil surprise from 1001 albums.
You know what? Fuck it, five stars. Genre-defying, expectation-breaking throwback weirdness. I even listened to this twice and checked out some of Super Furry Animals' other music, which I rarely do. Really fun! Everyone in the reviews is a wet blanket who wouldn't know fun if it slapped them across the face like a wet fish.
1001 albums has taught me that my bowie knowledge has a lot of gaps. this was another new one for me! really good and funky. i know david bowie was basically living on cocaine at this point and i don't want to encourage that but damn if this isn't a good album.
Funny, smooth, funky, and yeah, often crass - look, you sometimes have to pick your battles with these albums. If you can Matrix dodge your way past all the bog-standard misogyny, you have a really fun album waiting for you.
Really liked this one! Lots of fun tracks.
one of the best discoveries from 1001 albums is how much i like supergrass.
loved it. new wave proto synth pop? sign me up! souvenir is 🫦🤌
I really appreciated how funky and weird this one was, but not all of the music worked for me. Certain parts were really repetitive and annoying. But I enjoyed it overall.
this whole album sounded like the fake, intentionally crappy acapella versions of songs people make to not get copyright claimed on youtube when they're posting a tiktok
more like the snores
I'm not sure I totally get The Police... I appreciate how strange and interesting some of these songs are, but they're not necessarily strange in a way that makes me want to listen to them again. Or, in some cases, continue listening. I'm sorry Richard! :<
I was so surprised to see this one on here! I don't know if my enjoyment was a 4, but I love something different and punchy and ridiculous being on this list. Definitely need to revisit this album more!
it comes as absolutely no surprise to me that the cadre of whiny dadrockers at the top of the reviews didn't like this one. sorry that music can occasionally just be simple and beautiful???? it's wild how so many stagnant, stuck-up rock fans consider this kind of music's existence a personal affront and get so upset that they start spluttering and stammering and spitting out the same weirdly homophobic arguments that have been levelled at any genre remotely soft or emotional, from emo to alt rock to electronica. i don't know how to tell you this, but sometimes men have nice voices and sing pretty songs. IT'S GOING TO BE OKAY!!!! that being said - is this worthy of 1001 albums? debatable. but did i personally like it a whole lot? yes ❤️ yes i did!
it's times like these i have to remember my own mantra for 1001 albums: did i like it? set aside the historical significance and context and the foundation it laid for other genres and ask yourself if you liked it. i did not. thus, 2 stars!
I wish I liked this one more! The first half was cool and funky, but they lost in me in the second half.
This was alright. I'm not a big Rush person but this album was interesting enough that I didn't feel like it dragged, even with the 21 minute song. But no real strong feelings.
While I think there are some unique features of this album that make it an interesting and even refreshing choice for this list, I wasn't super wowed. The songs that had more varied instrumentation were my favorites, but they got lost in the overall somewhat muddy sound.
This was a totally new band to me, and I was pleasantly surprised by how varied this album was. I felt like there were 5 or 6 different genres all happening at once. Definitely a breath of fresh air!
I don't think I like punk very much. I can see that a lot of people liked this album quite a lot and heard things I personally could not tease out of it and I am happy for them.
What a talent! Absolutely insane that this album was released so close to his death. Rest in peace to a legend - I really enjoyed this one.
I mean Layla is pretty good but Eric Clapton is a despicable little worm so I didn't really feel compelled to listen to this entire thing or be fair and impartial. So.
This was a cool and unique listen, especially with the top comment on this site providing so much context! I liked listening to it, but I can't really see myself ever revisiting it.
Somehow I've made it this far in my life without really hearing any Janet Jackson. I don't know why that is - did she really drop off the cultural radar *that* hard after the Superbowl fiasco? Regardless - this was fun in that punchy, overproduced, hypersincere 80s way. All the people complaining that it sounds dated are missing the point - that's what makes it good and compelling! A nice surprise, and a rare treat to see a woman on the list again (lol. :| )
i'm sure this was formative and important for early punk. and i was very sorry to read about the tragic history behind this band's short-lived career. but i did not like it.
there's a lot of things you can say about muse, especially if you're feeling uncharitable. that they're stadium rock; their lyrics are facile and immature; they're so slickly produced that it's sanded the edges right off their sound; they have a stock Muse (TM) sound that they've been copy-pasting for 15+ years now. i don't necessarily disagree, but goddamn is that sound *good*, especially here, when it emerged for the first time. on a list with so much indistinguishable sludgy brit pop/rock, this glossy, bombastic, ridiculous staple of mid-aughties alt rock is a welcome breath of fresh air. it's just such a fun album. it sounds like space lasers and flying by the moon at hyper speed. let yourself be as earnest as their lyrics ask you to be and enjoy the ride!
very enjoyable!
this was a surprise! a mix of so many different genres and styles and even languages. i really enjoyed it!
I actually thought this was very nice to listen to, and that surprise 10 minute funky track at the end was really cool! No real standouts for me personally (I guess some people really like a song that played during the Sopranos?) but I enjoyed my time with Mr. Neil.
I think I like the music that this inspired better than this actual music. Love to see a deranged woman (said affectionately) screeching into a mic and just going nuts but it wasn't actually that pleasant to listen to. Alas! The Helter Skelter cover was pretty cool, though.
this is one of those albums where I can't really see myself seeking it out again, but I enjoyed the time I spent with it. super chill, super vibey.
1001 albums is making me consider something unexamined about my music tastes... do i just not like david bowie very much? this is a very strange thing to discover about yourself in your third decade of life. i have always been Someone Who Likes David Bowie. ziggy stardust is a masterpiece! his singles and big songs are incredible! so why am i so unenthusiastic about all these albums? i don't know, but i wasn't vibing with this one. 1001 albums being what it is, i think i still have a few more albums of his to try out, but i do not like this new frontier of doubt!!
i'm sure this influenced someone. it only influenced me to turn it off. actually, no, the first half of the album was okay - kind of vibey and not unpleasant to listen to, though nothing i'd seek out on my own. but by the time we got to the back half when the songs were longer than a sitcom episode and tonally directionless, i started to get mad. why is this on here?
i wasn't a big fan of the last beastie boys album we listened to - i thought the novelty wore off very quickly and felt fatigued by their collective yelling - but i actually liked this one! musically diverse and full of surprising choices. i especially liked the instrumentals, which maybe sounds insulting, but it isn't meant to be. i just thought they were an interesting and enjoyable choice :)
i've said it before and i'll say it again: live albums are the purview of superfans!!! stop putting them on lists for the general public! apparently van morrison is also a real piece of shit, so that's another strike. i gave this what i thought was a reasonable chance - i listened to 1 full album. it was extremely fine. and that was enough.
I was so excited to get this one! This was a big album for my teenage self - I can still remember the morning before the bell rang in high school where my friends and I breathlessly discussed the new Radiohead album that you could pay whatever you wanted for! Not every song is a perfect 5, but the album absolutely is. I was actually really surprised to see so many people complaining that everything sounded the same - Nude and All I Need are superficially similar slow songs, but 15 Step versus Jigsaw Falling Into Place? Totally different! There's a lot of variety here and a lot interesting things apparently happening on a music theory level that flew right over my head, but you don't need to understand time signatures to appreciate how cool some of these songs sound.
i guess some people consider billy joel to be unpalatably cheesy, but i really loved this. banger after banger. a new addition to the 5 club!
welp, that sure was the soundtrack for my midday zone out... EXCEPT for whatever the hell was going on with that 11 minute song. stop it. get some help.
no strong thoughts.
this one was really strange, with some truly bizarre cameos (atticus ross???). i laughed at the review that called it "a soundtrack for a movie that doesn't exist." true! while i didn't love all of it, and i can't really see myself regularly listening to it - especially the really bizarre spoke word tracks - it was certainly fresh and different, which i appreciated.
wow, so many songs on here i recognized but had no idea were fleetwood mac. this is a well-earned top 5 album. just really good from start to finish, not to mention the clusterfuck that was going on behind the scenes. amazing! glad i finally listened to it.
pale blue eyes goes off but otherwise zzzzzzz
wow! really really liked this one. something different and super funky. a joy to listen to!
i mean, this guy whips ass at the sitar. this cannot be denied.
don't waste my time, man.
admittedly not my typical music, and not something i see revisiting on my own very much, but - i mean, it's a classic. rip.
i'm sorry mr. young! i know you're a beloved songwriter. it's just not hitting for me for some reason!
Lovely!
totally unexpected but fun to listen to. that flow! my rusty 11th grade french alerted me to a handful of funny wordplay moments - i assume there are many more. i liked it!
what a delight. like everyone else, i knew Big Iron from FONV, and while that's still my favorite on the record, there are tons of other gems here. what a voice! what storytelling! just very immersive, very fun music. yay!
it was good - good flow, enjoyable beats. a little long. i was weary of it by the end.
No strong feelings on this one.
The last Yeah x3 album we had was weirdly a miss for me. I was pretty disappointed (I'd always liked their big songs!), so I was happy to see them get another chance. I liked this one a lot more - no real standouts beyond Heads Will Roll for me personally, but solidly good all the way through. Always a pleasant surprise to see a band with a woman in it on the list (smiling through tears).
it's a shame about who morrissey is as a person because this unfortunately kind of slapped.
reminds me of growing up and hearing my mom play The Mamas & The Papas on the stereo while she was mopping <3 i really liked it!
man, i really wanted to like this one more! i think i prefer a jazzier beck. i was excited to see this one but it was just okay to me.
this didn't have a lot of standout moments for me (besides Respect) but i did enjoy it!
i enjoyed it, but no real standouts.
another byrds album?? why??
i mean, this is certainly something i wouldn't've found on my own were it not for 1001 albums. everything made sense when i found out this was the monkey king from jungle book. but did i like it? did i truly enjoy it? eh. eh!!!!
just wonderful.
i kind of resent the fact that i enjoyed this because moby seems to be like a miserable little dude who uses his ~tortured artist~ persona to be a womanizing creep who keeps bad company.
🎶la la, la la la, la la la la la la la la🎶
wow, pulp one day after blur? it's a brit pop bonanza! i knew a few songs from this album already but i really enjoyed it. i know 1001 albums gets a lot of rightful critique for being very 90s brit band heavy but it's actually warranted in this case. rip deborah <3
felt appropriate spooky for halloween season. probably closer to a 3.5 but i can't do half stars.
wow - i'd heard about frank ocean from other people, but never looked into him. i was aware that this was an acclaimed album, but i didn't expect to like it so much. beautiful and melodic, and really unique to my ears. i loved it! also, some of these reviews are breathtakingly racist. i'm talking to you, second-most-upvoted review. *this* is the downfall of society? really? this gentle, mournful r&b album? get your head out of your ass, jesus christ.
omg, i loved this. amazing production, incredibly catchy bops. i'll agree that maybe it's not "essential" listening but this is exactly the kind of 2010s indie rock that lights up all the pleasure centers of my brain.
this was just alright to me. i expected it to be more of a wacky fun rockin' time, but the album cover made promises that the album itself didn't deliver.
after i put my CD of The Warning through its paces on iTunes almost 20 years ago, i remember being pretty disappointed by Made In the Dark. i always wondered if my teenage self was being unfair, but i think she actually made some cogent points - Hot Chip is much better at their fastest & punchiest to me. the cracks start to show on the slow tracks and the ballads. the same falsetto that sounds so zippy on the real bangers turns treacly and put-upon whenever the tempo slows down. unfortunately, this album has all the same problems as Made in the Dark. it's possible i just want hot chip to be something they're not, and this is how they always intended to sound. maybe The Warning was a fluke. i don't know! this is still a good album, but it would've been a great one with more tracks like Careful and Boy From School. let the indie darlings more suited to it handle the chill dreampop and hazy ballads. i want some chiptune roof-raisers!!
the big songs on here are unimpeachable. actually almost perfect. but the connective tissue just isn't there. i enjoyed this album, and i'm glad i listened to it, but i don't see myself playing anything but the heavy hitters in the future.
okay, i have to ask - what is up with the skits in old school rap? was this a thing that i just wasn't familiar with? i hate them lol. i really don't like when albums have talky bits regardless, so i promise this isn't just a critique of rap. i just want to listen to music without some sort of embarrassing bit happening every 7 minutes 😩 also, is it crazy if i thought there just wasn't a lot going on here? i knew nuthing but a g thang but i wasn't impressed by the flow or the rhymes of many of the other songs. i feel like a lot of songs were padded out with "hell yeahs" in a way that made them feel unfinished/like placeholders. snoop dogg was working overtime popping up in what felt like every single song here which made me laugh too, lol. every time i turned my head snoop was there again. also, not to sound like a pearl-clutching prude, but why so many songs about balls?? they should be seen and not heard. enough about the balls. stop talking about balls!!
i'm not going to sit here and pretend like mr. mingus isn't extremely talented. this is clearly an expert musician with a well-honed craft. but once again we must return to how i personally felt about it. it felt like i was being chased by the physical manifestation of anxiety through a haunted forest. 40 minutes of stress. if that was the intention, he succeeded wildly. but for lil ol' me just trying to do my Spreadsheet Job, it was unpleasant. i did like the spanish guitar tho.
i have an interesting relationship with taylor swift. like many people, i don't think i totally "get" taylormania and the swifties. but i also rankle at what i see as unfair criticisms of her music just because she's 1) arguably the most famous musician (person?) in the world, 2) a woman, and crucially, 3) a woman with a checkered dating history ripe for dissecting. she's so popular that it's almost meaningless to say you're a fan - who isn't? but it's also fashionable to hate her with a virulence i can't help but see as misogynistic. it's a weird intersection of big feelings. but it's more simple for me - i like taylor swift. i previously considered her a guilty pleasure (is 1989 on here? if not, it should be), but honestly, this album is what made me reconsider just how guilty i should feel. i'd listened to about half of it on my own during the pandemic and remembered thinking, "this is taylor swift? *this* is taylor swift?" the stripped down and folksy sound was such a departure from her frankly kind of embarrassing Baddie Era. it was a breath of fresh air. like the rest of her catalogue and public presence, a lot of this is album and sound is very carefully constructed, right down to the messy "look how much of a normal girl i am" braid on the album cover. i recognize and can see the artifice. and yet, that doesn't make it bad. this was a very deliberate reinvention and it works for me. there's nothing groundbreaking in these songs, but they're more mature and elevated in a way i hope we continue to see from her. some great features, too - no body no crime is a standout. overall: good album, not great, and let's all calm down and be normal.
hm, interesting. this is certainly a unique album. it's refreshing to get something that's such a departure from the glut of brit pop/rock. i really liked the clean female vocals here and some of the more approachable songs. but i think it was ultimately just a little bit Out There for me. i was really strugglin' to get through strugglin' in particular. still, i think this is an interesting and worthy addition to the list and i'm glad i listened to it.
is it just me or was this kind of a nothing album? aside from mrs. robinson, i wasn't really bowled over by anything else on here. i did appreciate that it was a tight sub-30 min album though. idk! am i just a hater?
i feel like we had a strong start and it just fell apart. it was so sludgy and samey. are there any other foo fighters albums on the list or was this the best we could come up with?
I actually quite liked this one??? Great trancey music for zoning out and daydreaming.
i don't think i really cared for the last PJ Harvey album we had on here, but i quite liked this one. mellow, occasionally a little meandering in that new age early 2000s singer-songwriter way, but a nice solid record. really great thom yorke feature on here too, he fits right into this sound!
grungy, sludgy, samey. doesn't feel essential. sometimes okay to listen to. other times profoundly ugly. idk.
once again i am spiralling into existential despair over apparently not really liking david bowie all that much?? this was fine. there were some cool moments. there were also some screeching and discordant ones. i don't KNOW, i can't do this much soul-searching anymore!!!
4 stars for wish you were here the song, flawless, no notes. the rest was aight
this is one of those albums that allegedly helped usher in an important genre, but the artifact itself is so underwhelming and even sometimes bad that i'm just like ugh. UGH. BLERG.
i went into this without any prior knowledge and got the shock of my life listening to that opening track. i initially thought, "what the fuck?" but by track 2, i was jammin and boppin my head. this isn't the kind of music i'll reach for on my own, but i enjoyed my time with it!
i don't know if this always pops up on halloween or if we just got lucky, but this was the perfect goth & spooky album for the day! i was only familiar with the corrosion, which slaps, and while some of the songs are a little long, i really enjoyed them all. 5/5 spooky ghosts!!
eh. no real strong feelings. unfortunately the big song was right at the beginning, and you know how that goes!
i was a little worried because the first track or two didn't really click for me, but after that, this was a great album! funky and energetic. a lot to enjoy.
i don't think this is an album that is going to be for everyone, and i don't know how "essential" it is to listen to, but i really enjoyed it, especially for background music while i worked.
i was a lot more enthusiastic for this album when I thought it was going to be a riot grrl anthem. what do you mean this is all dudes???? stolen valor aside, this is... fine. really didn't speak to me in any significant way, but didn't piss me off enough for a 2.
johnny bravo starts a garage rock band. all their shows start at 3 AM and they live right next door to me. i am carried out of my home on a stretcher.
ok the universe must be listening because i swear i had JUST finished one of my "why don't i like david bowie more" rants last week... and then i got another bowie album. it's just not hitting, y'all. i don't get it! 😭
funky, groovy, fabulous! i really enjoyed this one.
really liked this one, even if it was mildly disappointing that it wasn't the album with blue monday. you can really see how synth pop developed from here.
if i wanted to listen to live drunk tuneless yodeling for an hour and fifteen minutes, i'd just walk down 6th street at 2 AM. this is both offensively long and unbelievably meandering and dull for being "handpicked." if i think too long about how many live albums are in this damn book i get legitimately hot and sweaty with rage. say it with me: LIVE. ALBUMS. ARE. THE. PURVIEW. OF. SUPERFANS. why is a member of the average public having this forced upon them? i can think of no more unwilling audience for a live album than anyone but their fans. especially not this rambling incoherent sensory nightmare that felt like it lasted 45 years.
after the miserable failure of the previous day's live album, gosh, what a breath of fresh air this was! finally a live album that earns its right on this list. funny, energetic, effortless in that old timey country kinda way. it gave me goosebumps to hear the prisoners cheer. it also made me think about how despite having general cultural knowledge of johnny cash's prison concerts, i never considered how that might mean for his own personal views on criminal justice and prison abolition. what a guy. what an album! truly loved this one.
shocking but true: yeah, okay, this was extremely good.
this would've been nice to listen to in a coffee bar or museum gift shop. i'm sure there's some really amazing musical stuff happening here, but it just didn't really grab me beyond pleasant background music.
moody, vibey, broody, beautiful. i really loved this! i've always been meaning to listen to portishead, so i'm glad i finally had a no-skip opportunity. i thought it got a little samey after a while but still, a great entry on this list. always refreshing to see a woman, too 🥲
I can see how foundational this was for 90s lo-fi, indie, and maybe even proto-emo, but eugh. I just really don't like sludgy, ugly music like this. there were actually a few points in some of the songs i quite liked, but they were soon buried under either a wall of discordant fuzz or wailing. also i kind of think maybe you should have a good voice to be the lead singer of a band...? crazy but true? IDK!!!
ok. whatever
sprawling, ambitious, gorgeous - so excited to see some sufjan stevens on here. aside from being basically the only christian i respect, he's an immensely talented musician, and while parts of this album feel a little dated to me (unclear if that's due to my own obsessive listening/relistening in high school, or a general early aughts indie sound), it's still an incredible work that eclipses anything else that was happening in the genre at the time. my personal pick of his for this list would be Carrie & Lowell, but i can also see why this would be chosen for how important it was to the time. maybe we can have both in later editions???
by all accounts the oasis brothers seem to be nasty little fuckers, but yeah, this was a good album. not great, and not groundbreaking, and actually, i can't really put my finger on why i liked it so much when i really think about it. but a 4 star album nonetheless!
the wikipedia page had a lot of information about how buried this album was by its label and i kind of understand why... oops! sorry, not for me!
this surprised me - I came into it expecting to rate it somewhat low, but overall I liked it more than I thought. a 3.5 rounded up, Points deducted for overall churning sludgeyness, but I realize that's probably the appeal for others.
i liked this! i've been meaning to listen to wilco for a long time and i'm glad i finally did. a different sound than i was expecting, and not everything was a banger, but enjoyable overall.
WOW. i had no idea what to expect and this blew my socks clean off and into smithereens. trippy, vibey, shades of a sound i recognize (years later) as very similar to beach house (who i love). super super glad this was on here and i got a chance to listen to it.
ok.... anyway..... this was fine. very fine. i'm not bothered by Bono's voice like a lot of people but i just wasn't really wowed by anything. extremely background music.
we've had some leonard cohen i really liked, but this was just okay. sorry lenny. no strong thoughts.
well "freedom" is a five star track, easy. i just wish the rest of the album sounded like it! there are a lot of ballads on here, which might be his specialty, but i grew tired of them very quickly. a lot of very long songs too. idk george! i respect it but i don't know if i like it, you know?
smooth, easy listening. okay frankie, i see you.
wow, what an absolute slog. i certainly felt ragged after listening to it.
this was a fun surprise - even moreso when i realized that the zombies weren't a band of women with deep voices, lol. enjoyable weird psychedelic vibes!
I'm going to be so real with you, I only listened to the first disc in this one. There is no musical artist I want to listen to for three straight hours. However, I did like what I heard! Maybe I'll check out some of the others someday. Probably not, but wouldn't that be nice.
A funky backtrack to my working day. Not too much more to say about it than that.
I mean... it's the bloody bee'ols! How could you not like it? Not as chock-full of bangers as I remembered/expected, but still a solid album with a lot of hits that paved the way for many concept albums after it. When I'm 64 is slept on, what a banger! There are a few duds in the middle but overall, hell yeah sergeant peepers.
"Avalanche" is an easy 5/5, but the problem is that every other song just sounds like a sort of bad version of it. leonard!!! cmon!!
this started off hot with Bittersweet Symphony, which i unironically love and think absolutely deserves the hype. unfortunately, it was all downhill from there into Diet U2. i was mostly enjoying the first half of the album, but once i crossed into the second half and still had 45 minutes left, i started to lose patience. most of these songs are twice as long as they need to be and nowhere near interesting enough to justify that length. it wasn't actively offensive, i was just bored.
sure was an album
wish i could've had a sultrier environment to listen to this in than my sterile office. ok marvin i see what you're talking about.