1001 Albums Summary

Very cool. Loses a point, arbitrarily and unfairly, for still being jazz.

Instant transport to 1998, and it stands up pretty well, if of its time. Loved it back then. As an album now, there are more longueurs than I remembered, but still enjoyable. 3.5

Now I wanna sniff some glue.

"Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins." "Homer Simpson, smiling politely."

I mean, hard to say it's a bad album. Great production, great voice, couple great songs. But still underwhelming and not a patch on the originals it pays homage to.

Really digging these groovy kids and their fresh new sound. Hope the singer manages to get some therapy, mind.

New to me. Lovely. Grew over a few listens.

Filing this under 'albums I was vaguely aware of but had never listened to, that I'm sort of glad to have listened to, but will never listen to again'.

For symptoms including heartbreak, depression, profound existential sadness, joy, love, weariness, physical pain and spiritual malaise. Adults and children, take one dose 💊 Repeat if necessary. Ingredients include psychedelic space rock, gospel, soul, blues, discordant noise and ballad. Side effects may include relief, euphoria, and a deep groove. Combine with other medication at your discretion.

Some great 80s pop. Fantastic voice.

Remembered this album as being a bit overproduced and sentimental compared to their best stuff. Great to listen with fresh ears again. Excellent album, but still don't love it as much as Murmur.

All time classic. One of my favourites.

Will still defend this as a good album. Northern brashness and defiance after years of Thatcher and the Tories. It'll never sound as good as it did then, and obviously it's heavily derivative, but for a while it made it sound new and full of scornful energy.

I remember watching a documentary once about how the Swiss army were working to develop bullets that caused less harm as they passed through people. The idea being that you could stop someone, but have less chance of fatally injuring them. Similarly, Coldplay have developed a brand of music so anodyne that it leaves almost no trace on the listener. I genuinely forgot it was playing at one point. Clearly they're earnest chaps, and mean well, but it's merely more evidence that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Overall I'd prefer to listen to this again than be shot (Swiss bullets or regular), but it's a closer call than it should be.

Weird choice for this list. They produced so many great albums in thr 80s and early 90s, but by this point they were creatively over, and this is deathly. After Coldplay yesterday, our Spotify algorithm may be permanently trashed.

17 albums in, and 2 Coldplay albums in three days. The algorithm is learning, and it is malevolent.

I love Funeral more, but this holds up for me. Their most grown up record (though I hadn't noticed before how much he talks about 'the kids'), with some beautiful moments, but not their greatest.

A style of folk I've never really enjoyed. Wanted to like it more.

Nice variation, hope there's more like this. Gonna give it another listen.

I'd forgotten how good this album was. 4.5 stars, to leave room for his even better ones.

A two plus hour live metal concert with classical backing (which feels like overkill) to start the day? Okay... Actually found myself enjoying this at one point about an hour in. But the whole inescapable overblown silliness of it wins in the end.

Gave it a few listens, and it went from a 2.5 to a 3, to a 3.5. Quit while I was ahead. Some stuff I really like (Reelin' in the Years), some that does less for me (the slight cheesiness of soft rock). But there are tunes, and hooks.

Always loved Another Girl, Another Planet, but disappointed by the rest of the album. Like the style, the voice, but just not the songs.

4.5 for the album, 5 for the voice

Perfectly pleasant pop, at times (and dreary at others), but not exactly essential listening before you die.

I mean, I love Tom Petty, but his debut is probably the weakest of his albums. Probably included for American Girl, which still sounds fantastic. 5* for that, 3.5* for the album.

I kind of wish I liked it more, but JM had never really done much for me.

(Only listened to original album, not bonus tracks) Interesting to go back to this - saw them play a lot in the 90s, and they're great live. But haven't relistened to this as much as their debut. This is less poppy, a heavier, maybe more interesting sound. Some good songs too, but I miss the fun of Caught By The Fuzz etc. 3.5, brought back some good memories of the 90s Oxford indie scene...

Man, I don't feel this has aged well. Sounds pretty dreary. Extra star for Del the Funky Homosapien on Clint Eastwood. Won't be returning to it.

Ground zero for postpunk. The avant garage. The beauty of Cleveland pressed into vinyl... A band I'd probably have never got into, except for reading Rip It Up and Start Again, Simon Reynolds amazing book on postpunk 78-84. I hear it very differently now. Not a perfect album, but the highs are totally exhilarating. 4.5*

Heavy riff - Hey hey baby baby - Heavier riff - Unexpected love song - Really dirty riff - Drum solo?! Riff 5*

Strange one to review. Great voice of course, some classic songs, but pretty much just versions of then-recent hits by other artists.

Best listened to, and trust me on this, on sunny afternoons in the summer of 1992, when you're eighteen years old and about to start college, on a dodgy stereo that sometimes chews up tapes, from one side of a C90 your mate copied for you (Spacemen 3 on the other side), with the lo-fidelity set-up making it sound somehow rougher and more ramshackle and more beautiful than it already is. That said, these circumstances may not be available to you, so I should also report that I'm listening on decent headphones now, and it still sounds f***ing fantastic. (This does mean I'm going to have to give Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain 6 stars, tho.)

Brilliant. Really needs good speakers or headphones to immerse yourself in.

Pleasant, but uninspiring first listen, three stars. Then I listened again, in the evening after a drink.

Filing under albums I would never have listened to but for this list, that I'm glad to have listened to but will never listen to again, and that I have no idea how to review. Kind of great in some ways, laughable in others (man, those lyrics...). 2.5?

Great stuff

Great fun. Strong 4*

Yep, that's pretty much how it feels. It hurts, but there's so much beauty in it too.

I think Disco is for healthy, happy people who like to dance, which is why I can't relate... But gave it a couple listens, and there's some good songwriting in there to appreciate, a good vocal groove, some great guitar at times. Not one for me, though.

And if the snow buries my / my neighborhood / and if my parents are crying / then I'll dig a tunnel / from my windows to yours. Always loved those lines, but didn't realise they were just a realistic description of Canadian winter till I moved there.

Yeah, Iggy, I can feel it. Thanks for asking.

Thought I might come back to this after 15 years with new ears but it's exactly how I remember it - solid and unspectacular. Doesn't reach, for me, any heights of majestic melancholy the way Tindersticks or The National do.

Nope.

Surprised how much I liked this. Some wild stuff in here.

Just terrible. (Except for the opening song, which is great comedy from Vikings: The Musical. "Invaders...pillaging! Invaders...looting!" Spinal Tap couldn't do better)

Felt groundbreaking in the 70s. Now? <gallic shrug>

New to me, and really loved it.

Fairly minor album compared to Innerversions and Songs in the Key of Life. Second half felt stronger. 3.5*

Some of it I really loved, other bits less interesting.

Such a great album

A Forest still sounds great. Not my favourite Cure album, but great to return to.

Listening so easy it felt like I was on my third cocktail before I knew it.

Timeless

For a list which seems a bit over full of white guy rock, this was a very happy change of gear.

Never listened to McCartney's solo albums. Really enjoyed.

Title track is fun, of course, but I lost the will to live through the rest of the album.

The album as carnival barker, or the mutterings of a drunk lying in a Bowery gutter, or the album as a circus of freaks or the underdeck of a pirate ship, or a one man band falling down a flight of stairs, or a lounge singer sitting at the bar after his set, listening to the crowd, or the janitor in the New York basement hearing the pipes creak and bang. In a good way.

Solid, consistent but unspectacular PSB album.

Oh, much less poppy than I thought it would be. Some lovely moments, and a couple tracks I really liked, but also long stretches where my attention drifted.

Some good songwriting, and I love the voice, but something about the production on this era of pop always rubs me the wrong way. Something overproduced or soulless about it. Talent survives it, but stops me really loving it.

Some great talent on the record, and good versions of classic songs I never really liked. Bah humbug. Happy Christmas.

Enjoying these jazz albums much more than I expected. Very listenable.

Some good pre Zeppelin heavy rock, but it's patchy too, and loses at least a star for that version of Greensleeves. 3.5 🌟

Great album. Can hear all kinds of influences from the 60s and 70s, and recognise loads of bands from later who were influenced by it, but it still could only be from the mid 80s.

<insert overlong and pretentious review here>

This was such a great album to hear on new years day. Sounds as great as it always does.

Yeah, prejudices reinforced. There's something about Queen's music, despite the talent involved, that leaves me totally cold, and apparently that's not going to change. I tried!

Bonus point for 1990 nostalgia. Ubiquitous then, and influential, though hard to believe now, as it sounds so imperfect (recording the album was a notorious saga), and there's not much musically that's endured. There She Goes is great, but feels so different to the rest. I've soft spots for Way Out and Looking Glass, because I liked them when I was 16. Those songs drag the album up, barely and generously, to a 3. Nostalgia best left in the past.

That guy at the party who repeatedly tries to get everyone to refer to him as the soul machine, and you can't help but think it's just reflecting a terrible insecurity on the inside. Also made me think about how an album like The Source by Jimmy Scott is not on the 1001 list (I think), while this is. Crazy.

Love The Kinks, and really love this fascinating, beautiful album. Is it perfect? No, not from first to last (I'm not here for Phenomenal Cat, for one thing, and the album does drop off in the final third). Is it a 5 star album? Crikey, yes.

Recognize this as a great album, but don't really enjoy jazz funk. So I guess it's a 5 star album I'm giving 3 to, which is another illustration of the fact that not everything needs quantifying.

Such a weird album, really, veering from rock to blues to whimsy to medley. And not even close to my favourite Beatles album. But never less than astonishing.

Great 80s album, loved returning to it. Still the wrongest band name. Pretty definitively a 4.5 album for me, which recreates the main dilemma of this list, rounding up or down. Look, it's 4.5, okay?

Okay, who had Slovenian art rock in today's sweepstakes? Some great (deliberately) comic highlights (somehow Leben heisst Leben is funnier in Geman). The (age retricted) video to the English version is something to behold, though. Apart from those covers there's not much in the way of tunes (or music), and it gets a bit tiresome to listen to. But hey, at least they're having fun. 2.5 🌟 Gib mir ein leicht bier!

Long album. A lot of it feels like I've tuned into a classic rock station while driving, and though it's enjoyable enough, if derivative, I can't remember a thing about the songs when they're finished. But a couple great tracks too, obviously. 3.5 🌟

Listenable enough, but it didn't do much for me at the time, and I'm still no wiser. Really surprised to find it on here. 2.5.

Thank f&%£ for The Fall.

Well, it's some kind of vibe. Not the worst metal we've had on the list (damning with faint praise), and some of the bits that weren't metal were interesting, but still, mostly, generic dumb metal.

Point for discussion: There is way too much metal on this list, and all of it is terrible. (Allegedly Metallica have some of the best lyrics in metal. It's a low bar.) 1.5 🌟

I'm no big fan of pop or MJ, and this is in no way a perfect album (there's some pretty banal filler like Baby Be Mine and Human Nature, and apart from one great run of tracks in the middle it doesn't really cohere). But when it's great, it's truly great. Billie Jean/Beat It etc. Loads of soul in the voice and music, which gives the pop its kick and edge. In some ways hard to argue that it's not 5 stars, but here we are.

Definitely in my top 5 favourite Neil Young albums...

Decent voice, soulful though not exactly OV Wright. Some 80s pop cheesiness to production and arrangement. Songs vary between were-everywhere-in-the-80s to the pretty ordinary. Not my thing. 2.5*

If this were my airport, there would be more of this kind of thing. 4.5 🌟

This is 5 years old already?! Damn, my life... Anyway, 4.5 🌟

Firstly, a shout out to the algorithm for setting all the long albums for the weekend. Secondly, this is fantastic. I was nearly up doing the jitterbug halfway through, and I have no idea what the jitterbug even is.

Upbeat and well crafted piano pop. Listenable and likeable if you like to listen to that kind of thing, which I don't, particularly.

I'd call it 'music for disaffected high schoolers on amphetamines', but that makes it sound much more fun than the turgid, interminable thrash metal it is.

The Stones at their peak. Bluesy greatness.

To paraphrase Woody Allen: the music here is awful, and such big portions! Insipid and lacklustre singer songwriter stuff that should be nowhere near this list.

I don't love everything on here, but it's so great, way ahead of its time, brilliant and experimental.

Missed this one of theirs at the time, but really enjoyed. A mostly successful, occasionally great, experiment with their sound and songwriting.

Brilliant album, great to find it on here. Shout out to Shameika for being early on this.

Never much got into these guys. Liked the punk bits (On My Hotel TV) more than the overwrought heavy rock. Doesn't do anything for me.

Interesting. That identity crisis of 60s influences - rock, blues, psychedelia, jazz, folk - hangs together okay, and it all sounds pretty good, but even after a couple listens there's nothing that stays with me like the greats of the time.

Stands up surprisingly well. Fun, and you can hear the influences of The Kinks running through. I mean, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain was released in '94 too, which puts this in perspective, and I love Pulp's His'n'Hers from the same year more than I'll ever love this, but this was much more interesting and enjoyable to return to than I'd thought. There is some filler, particularly in the second half, would have been a stronger album if a few songs shorter.

I mean, this is two five star albums, so I'm giving it 10 🌟

Mighty fine songwriting, Mr Prine.

Never found out if Annie was okay 3/5

No.

Sometimes fun, always dumb.

Some really decent tracks, just don't think entire albums of covers should be in this list.

Enjoyed, especially Street Life, but kept forgetting it was playing after that.

Jesus, he was 22 when this album came out.... Anyway, a couple more listens over the weekend convinced me to round up from 4.5...

I can totally believe this is the best heavy metal album on here. The playing is fast and tight, it's repetitive, and the lyrics were apparently written by a 13 year old. 2.5 🌟

Man, it's great to feel 16 again...

Still lots of fun, couple great tracks, bit overlong and patchy as an album. 3.5.

As the old joke goes, I played this so much on vinyl back in the day it destroyed the record: you should see the needle and the damage done. Anyway, it's the album that got me into Neil Young, and still my favourite.

Never listened to the whole album before. Really fun, cool glam rock. Not my usual thing, but loved it. 4.5 🌟

Oh, no. Please no. More Metallica? At this rate there are going to be 33 Metallica albums on the list, and they all sound the f£%^ing same. One is too many, and the returns are diminishing badly. We're well into the hundreds of albums, and given the tedious length of these, close to 5% of the time has been spent listening to this one terrible band. 0 🌟

Top baroque prog pop/rock

Oh man, haven't listened to this for an age. Great first half and a bit, tails off at the end a bit.

Great, but sounds like it was even more fun to be there...

They're popping, but not really my style.

For me their best stuff is always the sad stuff: winner takes it all, and here, knowing me, knowing you. Not a big fan apart from that (and find dancing queen unlistenable), but there's some obviously great pop here (that doesn't do much for me), and some average filler. A ha.

Not instantly listenable, but there's so much going on here, closer to dub than punk, and it's interesting and innovative, despite all the influences. Wouldn't have given it the time of day a few years ago, but genuinely enjoyed it now. Also, Viv's great.

I've got friends who think he's the GOAT, and talk about this album like it's Moby Dick, so I go back to it sometimes to give it time, but all I keep hearing is an at-best second rate lyricist and unremarkably-voiced rapper with some great production. Not bad at all, but not earth-shattering. I get that this probably reflects badly on me, but so it goes.

Incarceration is underrated.

Ah great. Love this and it's great to have another album from the last.. Wait. This is from 2014? Oh god, I've lost another ten years of my life. 4.5 🌟 for the album, 1 🌟 for the accelerating passage of time.

Lovely, gentle, not outstanding, but didn't outstay its welcome. Nice guitar work though. 3.5 🌟

New to me. And roving all over the place stylistically, prog, glam, musical etc, loads of things thrown at the wall, mostly with energy, sometimes sounding like pastiche. Interesting, but I don't love it. 2.5 🌟?

Definitely their best album. Some of it you had to be there for, but still great to return to.

I'll put it down to bad luck that we had 2 Coldplay and 4 Metallica albums before the first sight of any Dylan. Anyway, we're here now, and that's all that matters.

Great stuff.

Really enjoyed, and I'll come back to it. Wish there was way more stuff like this on the list.

My bloody madeleine. Just a small taste of those layers of guitar, and it's instant time travel. How they manage to make a sound so perfectly happy and sad and elusive is magic. This and Loveless are unparalleled.

My favourite Nick Drake, and right up there with Pink Moon. Perfect listening for the weekend.

Remember this being a thing back in the day, but never loving it as much as Massive Attack or Tricky or other mid 90s precursors/contemporaries. So, good to return too, even if it leaves me feeling exactly the same. S'alright. Preferred some other stuff.

Best thing about the album: it's only 30 minutes. Second best: Jump sounds pretty good, even if it's mostly here to show up how shit, dated and regressive the rest of the album is.

Things were bleaker than I imagined in 1971.

I'm not getting much reward out of these prog rock albums. Can hear some decent stuff in there, but god you could get away with so much rubbish. Taking the worst/most indulgent bits of rock and jazz and aiming for a lyrical level of metal.

This week in 1001 albums has been much like the 70s, in that there's been a lot of interminable prog rock, and then punk has come along at the end as a necessary corrective.

Didn't expect both prison albums. But man, it sounds great. Forgot I wasn't actually there.

Mixed bag. Some good grooves, some solid stuff, some dated, some cringey. Enjoyed the listen though.

Remember hearing Sheela-na-gig on the radio in '92 - cheers, John Peel - and having heard nothing like it before (didn't know Patti Smith back then, or much of anything). Still sounds fantastic and fresh today. Those early PJ Harvey albums are so great.

Listened to the original album (30 minutes) rather than the deluxe reissue 90 minute version on Spotify. Anyway, very enjoyable. Some filler, but a great Beatles or Byrds-y 60s pop sound when they hit it.

Interesting to return to and hear echoes of 50s pop along with the occasional intimation of the band they'd be in just a few years. Couple world class tracks here, obviously, but also some ordinary stuff (at least by the Beatles standards...).

I remember my dad talking about how great The Kinks were, and I knew some of their singles, but wasn't that interested compared to Dylan and the Beatles etc. So in a way they've been the great revelation for me from this list. Village Green and this are fantastic albums.

Neil Young's retreat to the raw and loose, after the success of Harvest and the addiction and the death around him. This one was a slow burner with me originally, not as easy a listen, but god it rewards returning to it.

If the algorithm can sort out a Christmas album for Christmas day, how come it can't manage to put this on a Tuesday? Anyway. This was... okay, occasionally decent, but consistently unchallenging. At its best when poppy. 2.5 🌟

Well, they had a lot of influences, sometimes sounding like two different bands in the same song. Anyway, my marking system for this one was to start with 5 stars, then deduct 0.05 stars every time he said 'girl'. 2.85 🌟

Just relieved after group reviews of the last Dylan that I don't have to disown my in-laws or question my marriage x

Oh, nice start to the week. Great to find this on here. 4.5 🌟

Wonderful find on here.

Came in with low expectations, which helped. For the most part some pretty standard gangsta rap, missing what made some of the genre great. But there are some good singles, some decent grooves, and good production. Better than I thought it would be.

There's some great synth pop out there, but this isn't it. Pretty average songwriting, hasn't aged well.

I was fascinated by the physical LP when I was a kid, the strangeness of the neon gloss and glow among my dad's records. I remember sliding it out and opening it up for the futuristic art. Don't remember listening to it at all until I was an adult. It wasn't the album I had expected, but something pretty good all the same.

Enjoyed, but doesn't hold up as well as It's Blitz! 3.5 🌟

I'm more about Scott 4, but always liked how defiantly theatrical and of time all this was. The Jacques Brel obsession was always a bit much. 3.5 🌟

Great rapper, great album. 4.5 🌟

Intense, understated beauty.

There has not been a lot of blues on this list... Great album, love how loose and free the band is. 4.5 🌟

Came in with very low expectations after the last IM album, and it was either that, or maybe this isn't the worst heavy metal in the list by a long way. Reaching the relatively dizzying heights of 2 🌟

Great opening track, but disappointing afterwards, too Euro-pop-y in its fusion and beats. Still, a rare bit of variety on the list.

Brilliant. Top 3 Stones album.

Didn't expect to be reminded of the feeling of living in London 25 years ago, and picking up a dodgy minicab in Soho to take you south of the river, with a late night local radio station blasting exactly this kind of thing for hours. As in, the kind of thing that was ubiquitous, but I'd only hear accidentally. Production is (too?) clean, and I gave it a fair shot, but it only ever felt like backdrop music to more interesting things happening.

Finally one for Jim! A couple of these tracks have better covers, but this is some all-time great songwriting.

This and Songs in the Key of Life are perfect.

Morrissey's last great album. Really stands up, even if I wish we'd never heard from him again after this.

Das gefällt mir! 4.5 🌟

I remember, late one night in '94, bumping into the lovely, slightly crazy guy who lived down the street in east Oxford, just off the Iffley Road. He was a little wild-eyed. He confided to me that he was in love with someone, but hadn't told them yet, and that he was worried his mental health problems might get in the way. Do you think I have a chance with her? he asked. Why not, I said. Who is she? You might not know her, he said. It's Björk. Anyway, great to return to this. The 90s production is so noticeable now, but it's all good and interesting and serves the songs. Proper songs too, nothing wilful in the experimentation, just great music. 4.5 🌟, rounding up in memory of my old friend from down the road.

They did better albums, and they did smarter albums, but this is so much fun.

Easy 5.

Kind of padded in the second half and imperfect, especially compared to IV, but one of those 'great, imperfect, torrential works', as Bolaño had it. My favourite Led Zeppelin album.

Great run of albums the last few days, hoping it lasts. The Cocteau Twins' creative peak.

Works for me.

England's dreaming / no future.

Immaculate and inimitable.

Another easy 5 🌟

Loved this when I was 16, so curious to return to it. Hasn't aged quite as well as I hoped, but it's a solid album, and I still get some of the feels. 4 🌟

Bit uneven as an album, but the highs are great: 5D, Eight Miles High, and Mr Spaceman, which I've loved since I was a kid.

How good is Johnny Marr?

Nice, easy, pared back sound, but doesn't excite me much.

Sure, it's fun, varied and inventive, but where's the misogyny, feuding with other rappers, and petty diss tracks?

Always loved this album. A handful of great songs, and just a lovely feel to the whole thing.

Nothing to dislike here; it's just not my thing.

Just totally nails that sound, that age, and that feeling.

Great band, great sound.

From memory was expecting this to be a solid 3, but then it left me in so much of a better mood than when I started. Also, always got time for Tim Burgess.

Didn't know this as well as The Modern Dance, but damn, it's just as good. 4.5🌟

Running the gamut of pretty poor to bang average. At one point thought is was sounding great, only to realise the album had finished and Spotify had gone on to play Dexys Midnight Runners.

That run of solo Wu Tang albums was insane.

Just great rock and roll.

The kids are alright, and the boomers sound pretty great too.

Well, Jacques Brel was never for me - too grandiose - but it's defiantly what it is, so I'll give it a neutral 3.

As angsty as I remember, but much rougher as an album. A couple high points, but otherwise another one best left in the 90s.

Nice bit of variety, but hasn't really stayed with me after a couple listens. 3.5 🌟

This is very hard to argue with.

Shambolic genius. High point of Madchester/baggy and indie/rave crossover. Album isn't perfect, but the best bits, stolen from all over and blended to perfection - Kinky Afro, Loose Fit, Step On etc are fantastic fun. It was a great time to be 16.

Could listen to this all day, and feel good the whole time.

Weaksauce.

Perfectly arranged and produced and sweet sounding, yet somehow bereft of any soul and utterly inconsequential. Never heard music so determined to fade into the background. Take drugs, kids, not sugar pills.

Smart dumb fun.

I've got time for the Finn brothers - I know they're respected and liked by musicians I admire, and I've seen them play in later years in a couple contexts. But good will aside, and despite a couple great tracks, this is some middling 90s fare.

Not really one for me, but it's not hard to see the talent, and why so many love it. Album is a bit mixed, there are some weak songs to go with the obvious standouts. 3.5 🌟? I'm going to be uncool and round it up to 4.

So forgettable I'm not 100% sure I actually listened to it.

Some albums are timeless, some are of their time. Unfortunately, I think if there was a time for me to get into this, it was 50 years ago. Interesting to hear the beginnings of metal. But Christ, there's even a drum solo. 2.5 🌟

Pleasant enough, but man, a lot was about to happen in the 60s...

Oh, what a great set. Rough and raw as anything, but full of energy and feeling. It's like pre-punk post-punk. No way it sounds like it's from the 60s.

There must be loads of great albums I've never heard of, and I thought this list would provide. Instead, we get this. Occasionally chill, mostly generic and lazy. Dated. The kind of album a pseudo-cool posh kid at uni in 2000 would have been into.

Went into this cautiously, given past experiences with prog on this list. But mostly enjoyed it (Moonchild, though?). 3.5 🌟 I'll have to add King Crimson to the bottom of my list of favourite musical kings: 1. King Creosote 2. BB King 3. Carole King 4. The King (Northern Irish Elvis impersonator, see Gravelands) 5. The King (Elvis) 6. Ben E King 7. King Crimson

Unlike Electric Ladyland and Are You Experienced? I wasn't familiar with this one, and so pleased to know it now. Fantastic stuff.

Nice pairing for the Hendrix yesterday.

Decent 70s rock. I was expecting something either much worse or more challenging. 3.5 🌟

The album as religious experience. Perfection. 10 🌟

Immense. Honestly, if the app bugged out at this point and it kept giving me this album every day for the next three years, I don't think I'd mind.

Pretty dull.

Not quite up there with Doolittle for me but still pretty great.

This is really, really bad. 1.5 🌟

Great pop.

Maybe not their height, but you know, still David Byrne great.

Apart from one brighter spot (Peg), this puts the difficult grind into easy listening, and the offensiveness into its inoffensiveness.

Not one of the greatest rap albums for me, and the relentless misogyny is hard to take, but it's musically influential, and endlessly culturally and politically relevant.

Diverting but inconsequential.

Ja! Das ist die Autobahn!

Enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Sometimes indulgent, but some high points too.

Undeniably fun and groove-y.

Smooth as a pebble, but unfortunately as interesting as one too. Full of banal sentiment.

New to me, and I was wondering why this never really made it over to the UK until I gave it a listen. There were just so many more interesting things going on in the mid 80s than this. Couple moments I liked - Kerosene gets somewhere good about half way through - but there's nothing I want to come back.

I mean, musically pretty good, though I can leave the drum solos. But I'd really prefer to hear the originals.

The opening track kind of starts in the middle and then stays there for a long time before fading out, but by halfway through the second I was into it.

Really great late Bowie - interesting and challenging. It was his best for ages, ir really only a minor classic by his standards.

Didn't know this as well as some of their catalogue, and really great to have a few listens today, without the sheen of nostalgia. Loved it. Recommended reading: Kim Gordon's Girl in a Band.

Hard to review. It's sometimes cool and sometimes cheesy, sometimes inventive and sometimes derivate, sometimes fun and sometimes dull. Safe 3 🌟?

Some of the tracks are really tight and impressively short, and some are very middling 90s indie sludge. Not sure it really needed the expanded edition treatment...

Honestly, I'm as surprised by this as anyone.

Pretty cool by disco standards, but sometimes repetitive.

Beautiful. Wish I understood the form better.

So good to return to this after a few years. Always loved it, and how it fits together as an album - great songwriting, a great voice, a lot of fun.

Remembering that in Head On, Cope describes the herculean amounts of LSD the band were on for this recording, and how they often used to arrive at the studio riding imaginary horses. Just can't work out whether it's because of that or despite that, that the album sounds so good.

Ah, I wanted to like it more. Some of the songs are really oddly overwritten (looking at you, Utah Carol), and he sings every song the in the exact same tone, never mind if the protagonist is about to be hanged or in love. Prefer my cowboy songs with a bit more edge.

Came in with a positive attitude, but quickly worn down. What was going on with the production in pop in the 2010s? It's really overproduced, and the sound - that slight autotuning - is mostly bland and often awful. Interesting to hear the 80s touches, but it pales in comparison to the best of that decade. Some obvious talent, and a couple brighter tracks - Shake It Off, Bad Blood etc, but otherwise pretty disappointing. Now the wait to find out if my nieces forgive me...

Solid, listenable trip hop.

New Wave is not for me. Couple tracks enjoyable.

Astonishing album, full of depths. Maybe the best album of the millennium.

Great album. Relentless, inventive, political.

Came in nervously, because of the fusion tag, but really loved it. Listened again a day later and still blown away. Just great feeling to the playing. Damn, I think I'm finally getting jazz a little.

Haven't listened to this through for maybe 25 years, and it still sounds fantastically fresh and cool.

Some very big 80s pop production, some heavy handed social commentary, a couple pop tracks that hang together pretty well. But very much feels like less than the sum of its parts.

I mean, I own and like this album, but am pretty surprised to find it on here as an essential-listen-before-you-die kinda thing.

Wait, there's a Decatur imitator? Lovely album.

Good album, but I seem to be in a minority in greatly preferring her early work.

Great songwriter. Feel like her best work was still to come in the 90s.

Derivative and limited. I was wondering what the specific noise on the record was, beneath the guitars, drums and vocals, but it turned out to be the sound of a barrel being scraped. (A generous) 2 🌟

Always loved this, but fantastic to hear how well it holds up 20 years later. Vibrato is so often used by inane singers as a substitute for real feeling, but here it's a strange and ethereal component of it. Thoroughly beautiful album.

Decent, with a couple great tracks, but not exactly essential.

Yeesh. All that energy, and for this?

Adam Amt was ubiquitous on Top of the Pops growing up, so very strange to return to it now. Then it was just pop music, with no context. In a way it sounds completely new - I can hear all the different influences at work, and how they come together. Really enjoyed and surprised by a couple listens through.

I can see things to like, if you like this kind of thing. Band is tight, and the drummer has it down, and there are some good hard rock influences running through. But every heavy metal album is another reminder of how dumb, samey, adolescent amd portentous the genre is. Count me out.

Pretty listenable.

Masterpiece. Wu-Tang Clan ain't nuttin ta f wit. Recommended reading: Chamber Music by Will Ashon

Hard to review now, because it's so much of its time, but anyway.

Some great stuff, pretty raw and fun. Less convinced by some of the more rockabilly stuff, but hard to argue against what the band is doing with it all.

I was surprised to find out that a friend of mine was a huge fan of Beyoncé, but I said to him, well, whatever floats your boat. No, he said. That's buoyancy. (Anyway. Some real highlights - Partition, Flawless - but plenty of lowlights too, and the sentiment throughout is pretty banal. Hard to care about.)

I don't like too much contemporary R&B, but this is great. Soulful voice, honest, sensual songwriting, great minimalist production, and a really tightly built album.

Punk content: zero Pop content: mediocre Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain came out in '94. Why the hell would anyone be listening to this?

Just going to review this on sentiment. Obviously not the height of his powers, and hard to see it as anything except a remarkable parting gift. Couple all-time great tracks, the rest strong. Head would say 4 stars, but it's Leonard Cohen, so going with the heart.

Bit mixed as an album. Good Enough sounds great, liked a couple others, but there was better stuff going on in '91...

Yep, that sounds exactly like an okay rock album.

Always loved this. Great that so many influences cohere into something so distinct and beautiful. 4.5 🌟

Good, bluesy rock, stands up well but think I prefer White Blood Cells.

Loads of 60s influences coming through, particularly Beatles and Kinks, but with a post punk feel and production. Really enjoyed.

Liked it more than the last Yes album we had. It almost broke out into a song at points. Still not my jam, though. 2.5 🌟

(Ignoring the bonus tracks, which detract a little from the album) Thought this would feel very much of its time, and of course it does, but it still sounds fantastic today. Great album.

Bang average miserablist pop rock. 2.5 🌟

All time great East Coast hip hop.

4.5 🌟

A lot of borrowing, but it's a sharp, scuzzy sounding album, nothing outstaying its welcome, and some really solid songs.

Great vibes. Hope there's some Fela Kuti on here too. 4.5 🌟

Couple good tracks, but mostly on the dumb, repetitive side of rave. 2.5 🌟

Couple brighter tracks, but for the most part a depressingly stupid listen.

New to me, and loads of fun. Went straight back to the beginning after the first listen. 4.5 🌟

Man, these Simon and Garfunkel albums aren't holding up as albums as well as I thought they would for me. Thought this would be an easy 5 stars. But for every great track (The Only Living Boy in New York, The Boxer), there's a pretty lazily written one where they're just coasting (So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright). Still, the highs are great.

I'm happy for all the people out there who enjoy this.

Loving this run of Talking Heads albums (and there must be a couple more to come, I reckon). They're all up around 4.5 for me, so giving a 5 to this one to even it out.

Landmark album.

Kind of pleasingly ramshackle, but too much of it is pretty forgettable. Thought it might stand up a bit better.

Expectations were so low after the last Green Day album but after the reaffirmation that they're a pop band (this is not punk), it began to make a bit of sense. Nothing great, but way better than Dookie, at least.

Great album, but I'm gonna go with the orthodoxy that is not quite up there with II and IV.

Definitely Iggy's best work after Raw Power, and loving hearing the Bowie input again. Couple all time great tracks, too. 4.5

Honestly, a pretty great debut hip hop album, if also a reminder that there's not much that reveals character like success.

Oh, nice. Haven't listened to much of Björk's later work at all. Very sad and beautiful and unnerving.

Oh boy, David's gonna hate this, but as far as I'm concerned they could just stream this straight into my veins. Just a fantastic album.

Oh, haven't heard this in an age. Sounds pretty great still.

Maybe there's some music-for- musicians thing going on here, but it's not working for me, just increasing the sense that prog rock was kind of a musical dead end. Really felt like a chore listening to this today. A whole lotta noodling.

Unique, idiosyncratic, delightful. Also great live.

Quality, fun punk, 4.5

Sure, Karma Chameleon is catchy, but there's a reason it's been played around 38 times more often than the next most listened to track. Mostly pretty bland pop, far from essential listening.

Kind of nervous returning to this - haven't listened to it through for around 30 years. But the remaster sounds fantastic, and I'm relieved to find I still love it. Yes, it's overlong and uneven, particularly losing momentum in the second half (picking up a bit again after Confortably Numb), but as a concept album/rock opera it stands up, with soem amazing heights. It'll never be my favourite Pink Floyd, but it was great to spend the weekend listening to it again. So close to five stars that this rating feels cruel.

I'm sure it's great on its own terms, but it's not really for me.

Thanks to the reviewers who sent me to the right recording on YouTube, instead of the wrong Spotify link. Loved this, played it a few times over the day. So full of expression. Can see why so many western musicians were excited by it.

Never listened to this, and really enjoyed. It's not Pet Sounds, but what is? Couple great tracks, couple slightly cheesy.

This was bleak, but excellent.

Not my favourite CCR album. Only a couple great tracks, but the sound is there. Heading off to Google "What is chooglin' " and hoping it doesn't take me anywhere bad...

Another album not returned to for 20 years or so. Doesn't quite have the effect it used to, but some of the old vibe is there, and her voice is great: haunting, dismissive, expressive and understated. 4 stars, not sure how much of that is nostalgia.

Interesting blend of soul and funk, and enjoyed a couple listens through, but felt it was mostly solid rather than spectacular. 3.5

I mean, it's not my thing, but it does sound like something out of time, and I get why it has endured. 3.5

Oh, this stands up great. Happy to have this back in the rotation 4.5 🌟

Man, I do not understand the lack of love for this album on here. Right at the heart, and near the start, of the alt country.

Smart, confident hip hop, with reggae and soul running through.

Goddammit, that's yet another thing that's as old as me but has aged far better.

Seems a bit churlish to complain, after going on about the lack of soul on the list (apparently no OV Wright, Ann Peebles, Howard Tate, Jimmy Scott?), but this is not the soul I was looking for. Sometimes schmaltzy, sometimes dated, one not great arrangement, really only leaves you with a couple tracks worth the time. Band is doing okay though.

Couple great tracks, some nice bluesy stuff, but not exactly their best stuff. 3.8

I mean, sure, it's an interesting little bit of musical history, and parts of it I liked, but a must-listen album rather than odd curio?

Right up there with Kid A, but somehow feels underrated in xomparison. Sounds better every year, and so cohesive as an album.

A little too much on the cheesy R&B and funk production end of things for me, and nothing that hits remotely like Across 110th Street.

Underwhelmed by the last Willie Nelson album, and this started badly with a schmaltzy title track. It picked up after that, with his versions of Georgia on My Mind, Blue Skies, and All of Me, but then I drifted away from the rest of the album.

Not all to my taste, but some great stuff, and a couple all-timers.

Huh. Not quite what I was expecting The Coral to sound like. Loads of weird and interesting influences, but apart from a couple tracks don't feel that the output really comes together as well as it could. 3.5

Short and sharp. Occasionally felt that the brevity was covering up for some flaws, but great fun, and much rather this than 2 hours of prog.

I mean, I liked it.

Pretty standard blues rock, and though they've clearly been listening to some 70s glam, they're staying solidly in the safe middle ground. Has its moments, but too much of it is forgettable, even as it was playing.

I love this album so much. Amazing how influenced it was by the 57 years that followed it...

Love Can, and to be honest need to go back and listen to this a few more times.

I could only listen to this on my phone's speakers, so let's say that's the reason the album sounded so bland, limited and tuneless.

Loved most of this, and liked the rest of it. Mostly just relieved for a break from the usual on this list.

Not my thing personally, but impressive in its way.

Not quite their best, for me, but there was still nothing else like them.

It was going okay until the singing started. Comedy gold. The sound isn't for me, fair enough, but I still don't understand why all these metal bands have to have their lyrics written by 13 year olds. Bonus star for making me laugh out loud a couple times.

Really solid beats and sampling, with sharp and vital narratives. Just the sound and tone maybe a little too one-note, especially over a long album.

Such a short album, and so many different ways of reviewing it. Cultural borrowings, advent of rock'n'roll, early career marker etc etc. But let's just stick with the spirit of the list and give it a number out of 5.

I love Beck, and like this, but wouldn't have it in his top 5 albums, which makes me wonder how much Beck we have ahead. 3.5

Not really made to be sat down and listened to, but that made it kind of interesting too. Some great, dumb big beats, loads of fun in the right context. But a lot of filler over the hour too. Big album in terms of where dance music was at the time, which made me wonder about rounding up from the 3.5 it's getting...

Totally get that this is an acquired taste - for most of my listening life I wouldn't have given this the time of day. Sitting down today with Simon Reynolds' Rip it Up and Start Again while listening to this on repeat did the trick for me. Get the feeling I might come back to this in a few years and give it a 5.

God-tier pop-rock, for one thing, every song a blinder. But shot through with intelligence, sadness and longing, and genuine depth and richness in its narratives. Immaculate, and still not my favourite Springsteen album.

Not their greatest album, but a fascinating snapshot of 60s musical change.

This and Innerversions are pretty much perfect.

Yep, that still rocks.

I almost liked some of the minimalist bits where they didn't play many notes. But then they'd go and play all the notes to make up for it (some of them perhaps unintentionally, or maybe as an in-joke, or maybe that's just how they sounded live). And then somehow it all ends up sounding more dated than the Mussorgsky original.

Yeah, sure it's uneven, but it's right up my street. Love it.

Another great modern minor classic. This hasn't really left the rotation since it came out. 4.5 🌟

Man, 4 stars is doing a lot of work in the scoring process, covering a range from better-than-good to almost-great to recognisably-great-but-not-my-thing. Anyway, somewhere in that territory are both Either Or and XO.

Just tragic that Morrissey died after his first two solo albums. Who knows how that career could have gone? Anyway, an early masterpiece here from him and Johnny Marr (thankfully still with us).

Loads of talent, but boy a tough listen now. I guess how well this has aged depends partly on how much of this is a persona, and how much a portrait of the artist as a young asshole. The rhyming and rapping is really tight and great, and production is good, and it's sometimes funny, though not as often as it is toxic, in an adolescent way. Too long, too.

Just struck me how few artists there have been who have really followed in Gurhrie's footsteps, with deeply political songwriting. You'd have thought the last few decades would have engendered (and could use) more protest singers. Anyway, not my personal favourite of his albums, but won't hear a word of complaint about him.

Thought this held up /way/ better as an album than I was expecting, with far more high spots and consistency. Hadn't listened to it through for 30 years. Really enjoyed it again.

Still find this overrated as an album, with only a couple things to love in it. Great version of John Cale's already great version of Hallelujah, but that took me down a John Cale rabbit hole, which was much more rewarding. 3.5☆

So great.

Slightly underwhelmed by this well-regarded American punk. Couple high points, especially Kill The Poor and of course California Uber Alles, but maybe their later stuff is better?

Interminable and forgettable. One of the worst albums on this, or any other, list.

Vapid and pointless. But wildly successful, apparently. Once again it's people that are the real problem here.

70s rock isn't always my thing, and this is a bit overlong, but honestly, it's loads of fun and full of life (regardless of how live it may be (and who cares anyway)). 3 5☆

This and Parklife stand up surprisingly well, even if both have a bit too much filler in the second half. Anyway, this was always the one I preferred by a good way. Bought my (probably knock off) cassette in an electronics market somewhere in Karachi in '97, and I'm getting some weird flashbacks to there from listening...

Found this more challenging than some of the jazz I've instinctively loved. I know there's a lot going on that I don't know enough about to even hear. But until I get a PhD in musicology, will just have to say I liked and admired it, for what that's worth.

Yeah, lovely. Very spare but very cool and still in the rotation since 2009.

Wow - it's not often an album leaves me lost for words! But here I am, struggling to articulate precisely why this left me so uninspired and annoyed.

Mixed bag - some great, some a bit schmaltzy. 3.8 ☆

I don't love absolutely everything on here, but there's some really great synth pop beyond the couple tracks I knew.

Great songs (sure, mostly covers), great band, great voice. What's not to love? There is not enough soul on this list.

Well hey, there's the heartbroken soundtrack to my late 20s and early 30s. Great album.

<offers a silent prayer to the list-making gods that this unusual run of great albums continue> <quietly acknowledges that it's probably a 2 hour heavy metal album tomorrow> <allows that thought to pass, and puts A Tribe Called Quest on for one more playthrough>

This happens a lot: I wish the link would go straight to the original album (which is on Spotify just fine) rather than the bloated super deluxe edition. Anyway. I can take or leave the concept album/rock opera here, but they manage to wrangle a couple great tracks along the way. Important at the time, sure, but hasn't aged as well as others.