My 1001 Albums Journey

236

Albums Rated

3.66

Average Rating

22%

Complete

853 albums remaining

Rating Distribution

Rating Timeline

Taste Profile

1950

Favorite Decade

Soul

Favorite Genre

Top Origin

Cheerleader

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5-Star Albums

1-Star Albums

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By Genre

Top Styles

By Decade

By Origin

Albums

You Love More Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
Planet Rock: The Album Afrika Bambaataa	5	2.79	+2.21
Fuzzy Logic Super Furry Animals	5	2.94	+2.06
Pacific Ocean Blue Dennis Wilson	5	3.07	+1.93
The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway Genesis	5	3.07	+1.93
The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn Pink Floyd	5	3.11	+1.89
The Bones Of What You Believe CHVRCHES	5	3.18	+1.82
Selected Ambient Works 85-92 Aphex Twin	5	3.21	+1.79
Low-Life New Order	5	3.29	+1.71
The Chronic Dr. Dre	5	3.32	+1.68
Live At Leeds The Who	5	3.32	+1.68

You Love Less Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
Live At The Witch Trials The Fall	1	2.64	-1.64
Antichrist Superstar Marilyn Manson	1	2.47	-1.47
Zombie Fela Kuti	2	3.46	-1.46
Songs Of Leonard Cohen Leonard Cohen	2	3.38	-1.38
Teen Dream Beach House	2	3.26	-1.26
System Of A Down System Of A Down	2	3.26	-1.26
Something Else By The Kinks The Kinks	2	3.25	-1.25
Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde The Pharcyde	2	3.13	-1.13
Third Portishead	2	3.13	-1.13
The Hour Of Bewilderbeast Badly Drawn Boy	2	3.12	-1.12

Artists

Favorites

Artist	Albums	Average
David Bowie	3	5
Led Zeppelin	2	5
Aretha Franklin	2	5
Nick Drake	2	5
The Rolling Stones	3	4.33
Talking Heads	3	4.33

5-Star Albums (51)

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Popular Reviews

Pacific Ocean Blue

Dennis Wilson · 5 likes

5/5

Well this one was a complete surprise, and the kind of thing I was hoping to get out of this list. I had never heard any of this music, but it's gorgeous. Apparently this was out of print for 20 years. I'm sure glad it's available now.

Leftism

Leftfield · 1 likes

4/5

I had this when it came out, but haven't listened to it in decades. It holds up better than I remembered.

Chris

Christine and the Queens · 1 likes

4/5

How did I not know this existed? It loses steam toward the back half of each disc, but still, I really love it.

1-Star Albums (2)

All Ratings

Tank Battles

Dagmar Krause

3/5

At Mister Kelly's

Sarah Vaughan

4/5

Harvest

Neil Young

4/5

I liked a lot of the more acoustic songs like Needle and the Damage Done, Old Man, etc. It's easy to see why these have become the classics from this album. The big orchestral moments didn't land as well for me. Still, it's a nice listen.

Cheap Thrills

Big Brother & The Holding Company

4/5

Pretty damn good. A bit messy and rough in all the right ways. What a nice relief from today's overly auto-tuned, overly polished music. I'm not sure I love the fake "live ambience" but I'll give it a pass. This is real music with real soul, played by real people.

Selected Ambient Works 85-92

Aphex Twin

5/5

Pretenders

4/5

I had never heard this except for Brass In Pocket. I was surprised how edgy and punk-influenced it is, though of course it makes sense given the era. Reminds me of early Police a bit. Nice!

The Cars

5/5

A stone cold classic. Like a few other bands of this era (hello, Boston), the debut album from The Cars is practically a greatest hits album. (Yes, they had many other hits later, but still...)

Sex Packets

Digital Underground

3/5

Some good stuff and quite funny in places. But I felt some of the humor was a bit too cheesy at times, and the songs (and album as a whole) sometimes tended to drag.

Bert Jansch

4/5

Never had heard this guy before. It's nice stuff. Apparenly "Needle of Death" is his best known song, and it's easy to see why. That song hits hard.

Kings Of The Wild Frontier

Adam & The Ants

4/5

A Love Supreme

John Coltrane

5/5

The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

Pink Floyd

5/5

New Forms

Roni Size

3/5

I can understand that this might have been fresh and exciting at the time it came out, but it feels very dated now. Which is fine, but the songs are so long and feel like a slog at times. Not my cup of tea. I don't know that I agree that it's really essential listening.

Low-Life

New Order

5/5

I had heard the hits, but never the deep cuts. Solid album. Entire modern genres like synthwave owe a large debt to this.

Truth

Jeff Beck

4/5

Neon Bible

Arcade Fire

3/5

I could never really get into this band. I don't hate the music, it's just that most of it doesn't really sparkle for me. Some of their songs do. I quite liked Keep The Car Running and No Cars Go. But a lot of it just doesn't live up to the hype for me.

Cloud Nine

The Temptations

4/5

The Stranger

Billy Joel

4/5

Mermaid Avenue

Billy Bragg

3/5

The Doors

5/5

An easy 5 stars. I hadn't realized how many of the Doors' classic songs were on their debut album.

Surfer Rosa

Pixies

4/5

Punishing Kiss

Ute Lemper

2/5

Unlike a lot of reviewers here, I've been exposed to some of this kind of European theatrical avant garde music before (Bowie was a fan of this style, and a few of his deep cuts lean in this direction). While it's not my usual thing, I don't dismiss it out of hand. This definitely had its moments, but overall I found it to be quite inconsistent, which makes sense given the wide variety of songwriters involved. I'm not mad that I listened to it (always good to try something new) but I certainly don't agree that it's essential listening.

Tapestry

Carole King

3/5

Screamadelica

Primal Scream

4/5

Some of the acid house songs got a little long and boring, but there's lots of good stuff here.

Electric Ladyland

Jimi Hendrix

5/5

Back To Black

Amy Winehouse

5/5

Safe As Milk

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band

4/5

Natty Dread

Bob Marley & The Wailers

3/5

No Woman No Cry is a standout for sure.

Djam Leelii

Baaba Maal

3/5

Make Yourself

Incubus

2/5

I had heard a few of Incubus' radio hits back in the day and enjoyed them. I guess they're one of the better bands of this genre, with some good songwriting and solid musicianship. But I really found this album fairly unremarkable. I'd rather listen to Tool any day. Maybe they're on the list too, I don't know.

Manassas

Stephen Stills

4/5

I had never heard of this one. It was pretty good!

Led Zeppelin III

Led Zeppelin

5/5

London Calling

The Clash

4/5

Elephant

The White Stripes

4/5

This Year's Model

Elvis Costello & The Attractions

4/5

Blood On The Tracks

Bob Dylan

4/5

The Suburbs

Arcade Fire

4/5

Better than Neon Bible.

Planet Rock: The Album

Afrika Bambaataa

5/5

Sticky Fingers

The Rolling Stones

5/5

Electric Music For The Mind And Body

Country Joe & The Fish

3/5

The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators

The 13th Floor Elevators

3/5

I guess these guys were influential, but I think there was a lot better psychedelic music made.

Surrealistic Pillow

Jefferson Airplane

4/5

It's Blitz!

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

4/5

Ocean Rain

Echo And The Bunnymen

4/5

Southern Rock Opera

Drive-By Truckers

3/5

Dire Straits

5/5

The Dreaming

Kate Bush

3/5

California

American Music Club

4/5

Hard to find, but I found most of it on YouTube. I had never heard of these guys, but this was a nice surprise. Really nice!

Ace of Spades

Motörhead

3/5

Dub Housing

Pere Ubu

2/5

I wanted to like this more than I actually did. I think I can hear the influence of some of this stuff in places like Bowie's Lodger and Scary Monsters albums. But he softened some of the rough edges and turned it into pop music. I'd generally rather listen to that. Still, this is interesting, if not always that enjoyable.

Pump

Aerosmith

3/5

Freak Out!

The Mothers Of Invention

3/5

At San Quentin

Johnny Cash

5/5

The Bones Of What You Believe

CHVRCHES

5/5

Billion Dollar Babies

Alice Cooper

3/5

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme

Simon & Garfunkel

5/5

Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret

Soft Cell

4/5

We're Only In It For The Money

The Mothers Of Invention

4/5

The first listen, I just had it on in the background and wasn't paying close attention. I could tell there was some good stuff there, but I didn't come away that impressed. I gave it one more chance and paid more attention to the lyrics, and liked it a lot better the second time.

Destroy Rock & Roll

Mylo

4/5

Songs From The Big Chair

Tears For Fears

5/5

Certified 100% stone cold classic. I have heard this hundreds of times, and hope to hear it hundreds more.

Talking Heads 77

Talking Heads

4/5

I wasn't sure about this album at first, but weirdly, the songs seemed to keep getting better toward the end of the album.

Signing Off

UB40

2/5

Rust Never Sleeps

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

5/5

Here's Little Richard

Little Richard

5/5

Armed Forces

Elvis Costello & The Attractions

3/5

No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith (Live)

Motörhead

2/5

This is the second Motorhead album I've gotten in like two weeks. Really makes you wonder about lists like this. So you're telling me that of all the recorded music in history, if you were going to pick 1001 albums that everyone should hear... TWO of them would be from Motorhead? Come on. Granted, the song "Ace of Spades," is in the classic rock canon. But does a person b really need that deep a dive into Motorhead's discography? That said... This album. It's fine, good high energy rock. Lemmy isn't a great singer but his voice fits the songs. The musicians are tight, obviously super well rehearsed. The songs are good, though they start to sound a bit samey after a while. At one point, Lemmy introduces a song by saying, "This is a slow one, so you can all get mellowed out." Then the band starts into a song which is almost the same tempo, and basically sounds almost the same, as everything else. I guess the guitar riffs are less busy than usual, so that counts as a "slow one." The recording quality is kind of mediocre and muddy, which probably doesn't help. Overall I liked this better than the studio album Ace of Spades. I don't care about all the hours of content from the various expanded editions, I just listened to the track list from the original vinyl release. I think a person could just listen to that and learn everything they need to know about Motorhead. But I bet it was cool to be at these shows.

Red Headed Stranger

Willie Nelson

4/5

Vulgar Display Of Power

Pantera

2/5

I know Dimebag is a guitar legend, so one extra star for that, but this music isn't really enjoyable at all.

Kind Of Blue

Miles Davis

5/5

Parklife

Blur

4/5

Meat Puppets II

Meat Puppets

3/5

I mostly knew these guys from the Nirvana covers. I liked some stuff, like the instrumentals, a lot. Particularly Aurora Borealis. Really, the playing and songwriting was good throughout. The main detractor for me is the singer's voice. I get that the style isn't intended to be raw, but the lazy-sounding off-key stuff was a bit much for me at times. I see why Nirvana liked them. But mostly I'd prefer to hear the Nirvana covers, with slightly more competent sounding singing.

Siamese Dream

The Smashing Pumpkins

5/5

Da Capo

Love

2/5

The Chronic

Dr. Dre

5/5

I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You

Aretha Franklin

5/5

Simply stunning.

Live At The Witch Trials

The Fall

1/5

I guess I'm just not that big a punk fan.

Debut

Björk

3/5

Elephant Mountain

The Youngbloods

3/5

A Hard Day's Night

Beatles

4/5

Lady Soul

Aretha Franklin

5/5

Hunky Dory

David Bowie

5/5

Searching For The Young Soul Rebels

Dexys Midnight Runners

2/5

Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul

Otis Redding

5/5

Blur

3/5

Gold

Ryan Adams

2/5

Vento De Maio

Elis Regina

3/5

Come Away With Me

Norah Jones

4/5

It kinda reminds me of Starbucks in the 00s, but I like it anyway.

Tusk

Fleetwood Mac

4/5

Bug

Dinosaur Jr.

4/5

Something Else By The Kinks

The Kinks

2/5

I hear these guys compared to The Beatles sometimes and I just don't see it. Some of their songs are all right, others don't really hold up too well. Maybe you had to be there.

Bad

Michael Jackson

4/5

There are a few weaker tracks toward the beginning, and it's not Thriller or Off The Wall, but it's pretty damn good. Man In The Mirror is an all time classic.

Chore of Enchantment

Giant Sand

3/5

I had never heard of this band. I don't know if I'd consider it essential listening, but it was better than I expected. The singer reminded me a lot of Lou Reed at times.

Rum Sodomy & The Lash

The Pogues

3/5

Pink Moon

Nick Drake

5/5

Perfection.

Bookends

Simon & Garfunkel

4/5

Get Rich Or Die Tryin'

50 Cent

3/5

You Want It Darker

Leonard Cohen

3/5

Morrison Hotel

The Doors

3/5

Woodface

Crowded House

3/5

Live At The Star Club, Hamburg

Jerry Lee Lewis

4/5

Unknown Pleasures

Joy Division

5/5

The Wall

Pink Floyd

4/5

Almost worth giving it a 5 just for Comfortably Numb. There is a ton of great stuff on this album but it does drag in a few places. Not Floyd's best ever--their three previous were all contenders for that--but still damn good.

More Songs About Buildings And Food

Talking Heads

4/5

I’ve Got a Tiger By the Tail

Buck Owens

3/5

Wham Bam!

People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

A Tribe Called Quest

4/5

This was pretty great.

Raw Power

The Stooges

4/5

James Brown Live At The Apollo

James Brown

4/5

Germfree Adolescents

X-Ray Spex

3/5

Daydream Nation

Sonic Youth

4/5

Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde

The Pharcyde

2/5

Black Sabbath

4/5

Ten

Pearl Jam

5/5

Absolute classic.

New Boots And Panties

Ian Dury

2/5

John Prine

3/5

The music doesn't do much for me, but the lyrics are great.

What's Going On

Marvin Gaye

5/5

Absolute masterpiece.

Paul Simon

4/5

Let's Get Killed

David Holmes

2/5

Some of it was OK, some was a bit boring. The street recordings were more interesting than most of the music. Don't Die Just Yet had a good groove. One thing that was odd was that even though this album came out in the 90s, a lot of the tracks were mixed almost entirely in mono. I thought that was an odd choice. This really doesn't belong on an album of 1001 albums you should hear before you die. It's fairly middle of the road stuff for this era.

Myths Of The Near Future

Klaxons

3/5

Imagine

John Lennon

4/5

The Scream

Siouxsie And The Banshees

3/5

The Rolling Stones

3/5

Close To The Edge

Yes

4/5

A Girl Called Dusty

Dusty Springfield

3/5

I’m a Lonesome Fugitive

Merle Haggard

3/5

Innervisions

Stevie Wonder

5/5

Born To Run

Bruce Springsteen

4/5

Smokers Delight

Nightmares On Wax

2/5

It wasn't bad or anything. Pleasant, but a bit unremarkable.

Chicago Transit Authority

Chicago

4/5

Songs From A Room

Leonard Cohen

4/5

Adele

4/5

Kenya

Machito

3/5

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

OutKast

4/5

A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector

Various Artists

4/5

Band On The Run

Paul McCartney and Wings

4/5

good kid, m.A.A.d city

Kendrick Lamar

4/5

Tuesday Night Music Club

Sheryl Crow

2/5

The Atomic Mr Basie

Count Basie & His Orchestra

4/5

Back to Mystery City

Hanoi Rocks

3/5

The Who Sell Out

The Who

4/5

...And Justice For All

Metallica

3/5

Slippery When Wet

Bon Jovi

4/5

The first half is amazing, but I feel like it loses steam toward the back half.

School's Out

Alice Cooper

3/5

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Wilco

4/5

Live At The Regal

B.B. King

5/5

Songs Of Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen

2/5

Heaven Or Las Vegas

Cocteau Twins

4/5

Dummy

Portishead

3/5

Femi Kuti

3/5

Yeezus

Kanye West

3/5

The United States Of America

2/5

Bryter Layter

Nick Drake

5/5

Common

4/5

Live!

Fela Kuti

4/5

Melodrama

Lorde

4/5

This album is outstanding.

Want One

Rufus Wainwright

3/5

The songwriting is clearly good, I just couldn't really get into it too much. "Go Or Go Ahead" was quite nice. It sounded like a Radiohead song.

Pacific Ocean Blue

Dennis Wilson

5/5

Tommy

The Who

3/5

It's pretty good, but goofy and self-indulgent in places. The Who has better albums.

MTV Unplugged In New York

Nirvana

5/5

Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo

Devo

3/5

The Stooges

3/5

Brilliant Corners

Thelonious Monk

5/5

Superfly

Curtis Mayfield

5/5

Cross

Justice

3/5

DANCE and Genesis and some of the other songs are very good, but I felt like it lost stream later on.

Elvis Presley

3/5

Love me some Elvis, and the album cover is great, but let's face it, not every one of these songs is amazing. Blue Suede Shoes is. Tutti Frutti is, but not as good as Little Richard's version. Still, pretty good.

This Is Fats Domino

Fats Domino

4/5

Odelay

Beck

4/5

It doesn't all work for me, but there's a lot of great stuff here.

Antichrist Superstar

Marilyn Manson

1/5

Meh. I'd maybe give it 2-3, but it turns out he's a rapist, so no.

The Soft Bulletin

The Flaming Lips

4/5

This is really nice. With enough listens, this might be a 5. For now, it's a 4. Race for the Prize is the standout track.

Parachutes

Coldplay

3/5

Teen Dream

Beach House

2/5

I'm new to this band. Theoretically this dream pop stuff is the kind of music I'd expect to like, but... Another reviewer said it was uneventful, and I think that's the right word.

The Band

3/5

Beggars Banquet

The Rolling Stones

5/5

Outstanding.

Vol. 4

Black Sabbath

4/5

This was excellent. I should listen to more Sabbath.

Paul's Boutique

Beastie Boys

5/5

Zombie

Fela Kuti

2/5

Astral Weeks

Van Morrison

3/5

It's all right. Seemed a bit meandering.

Strangeways, Here We Come

The Smiths

4/5

It tails off a little toward the end, but there are some really good songs early on.

The Joshua Tree

5/5

I mean, come on. The first half of this album is absolute perfection, and the second half isn't far behind.

The Velvet Underground

3/5

Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space

Spiritualized

3/5

Eternally Yours

The Saints

3/5

Ramones

4/5

On The Beach

Neil Young

3/5

Blackstar

David Bowie

5/5

I was listening to this (had just bought it on vinyl) when I got the news he died. I didn't want to believe it at first. I was sad for a long time after. I still don't want to believe it. But he left us this beautiful parting gift. This

Buena Vista Social Club

3/5

Appetite For Destruction

Guns N' Roses

3/5

The hits are huge. The album tracks are... well, album tracks

Third

Portishead

2/5

I wanted to like this a lot better than I did. There are some cool synth textures but overall it's just not really my bag.

Arise

Sepultura

2/5

I guess I just don't care for metal very much.

Music for the Masses

Depeche Mode

5/5

Greetings From L.A.

Tim Buckley

4/5

Architecture And Morality

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

4/5

Highway to Hell

AC/DC

3/5

Sound of Silver

LCD Soundsystem

5/5

War

4/5

Close To You

Carpenters

3/5

Low

David Bowie

5/5

Possibly my favorite Bowie album, definitely in the top three or so. If I could give it more than five stars, I would. I remember seeing him on the Reality tour in 2003 and he played several deep cuts from this, like A New Career in a New Town. I couldn't believe it. I was in heaven.

Sea Change

Beck

3/5

Phrenology

The Roots

4/5

Selling England By The Pound

Genesis

4/5

Figure 8

Elliott Smith

3/5

Doolittle

Pixies

5/5

Nebraska

Bruce Springsteen

4/5

Tidal

Fiona Apple

5/5

Dookie

Green Day

4/5

Leftism

Leftfield

4/5

I had this when it came out, but haven't listened to it in decades. It holds up better than I remembered.

Guero

Beck

3/5

Getz/Gilberto

Stan Getz

4/5

Life's Too Good

The Sugarcubes

3/5

Chris

Christine and the Queens

4/5

How did I not know this existed? It loses steam toward the back half of each disc, but still, I really love it.

Hot Rats

Frank Zappa

3/5

Fuzzy Logic

Super Furry Animals

5/5

I had never heard these guys before, but they're awesome!

Vulnicura

Björk

2/5

I appreciate this more than I can say I actually like it. It was nice in places, but I don't see myself wanting to come back to it. I think this is the kind of music that really demands a certain atmosphere. But it's not really for casual listening.

Ill Communication

Beastie Boys

4/5

Live At Leeds

The Who

5/5

A Nod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse

Faces

3/5

Jagged Little Pill

Alanis Morissette

3/5