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.

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

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

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.

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.

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!

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...)

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

No Woman No Cry is a standout for sure.

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.

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

Better than Neon Bible.

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

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!

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Simply stunning.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Perfection.

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.

Wham Bam!

This was pretty great.

Absolute classic.

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

Absolute masterpiece.

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.

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

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

This album is outstanding.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Outstanding.

This was excellent. I should listen to more Sabbath.

It's all right. Seemed a bit meandering.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

3

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

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

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

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.

I mostly like the big hits, of which there are a bunch. The album tracks are just OK. But still, the big hits are just so good.

Never was there a more appropriate album title.

They're good musicians. Such a shame they choose to make such irritating music.

It was OK but not really memorable.

That Coconut song is dumb as hell, but there's some decent stuff here.