1001 Albums Summary

Claire de Lune inverted the way it was was an absolutely brilliant choice

I completely understand why this is so iconic. Sonically, it feels modern even though the album is older than me. This did not prevent me from hating it. Too spooky

it's been a long time since I listened to an album that was just fun

songs to sob in the bus to

This was a bit of fun, but nothing really moving for me. Now I understand the Bieber reference tho

I think my distaste for the album was partially due to listening to this in the morning. Not sure how I felt about it, to be honest. The riffs were jarring to me, but maybe that's the point.

this isn't the kings of leon (derogatory) that i know (appreciative)

this is a very funky album. i found it really interesting, but ultimately not my cup of tea. that being said, musically it's quite curious and i have a lot of respect for that

genuinely fun, and the type of album to win a championship to

i apologize to everyone for my tardiness. mice had nibbled on my headphones and i had a small meltdown until my therapist reminded me that mice entering my home during an extremely cold winter was not a moral failure on my part and i should stop freaking out anyway i loved this album because it soothed the angsty british teen boy within me. i do feel "how does it feel/when you're inside me" was a strange lyrical choice, perhaps because none of the members of oasis were women

am i the only one in this group who gives out fives? anyway this is not a five album as arcade fire always sounds half as greasy as the 1975 to me. arcade fire was very instrumental to my introduction to the aughts' defining rock contributions. however, i've always felt that their lyrics lack a specific depth or transcendent yearning that i think is characteristic of the genre. maybe it's just that i can't relate the same way i can't relate to taylor swift. musically very rich, if uncomplicated, and moves away from grunge without being twee or theatrical. looking at the year of release, this album really was quite ahead of its time.

The sparseness of this album does not provide anything in service to the work, and reminds me a lot of Kanye's last album. There are bits of this that feel more performance art in the "performance art" sense instead of "performance" art, if that makes any sense. I can see shreds of an interesting album, but failed by the producer, imo. also, who is swolffy??? unmask thyself!

& this whole time i thought van morrison was like kiss! the soul, the jazz, and the r&b influences. there are some parts of this album that lag, but the subtle irish influence is wonderful in this album. that + the fact that i just learned "brown-eyed girl" was supposed to be called "brown-skinned girl" has put me in fan territory.

I'm of two minds about this album. On one hand, this is an album that is reminiscent of something I've listened to as recently as 2022, and I think that there's something inherently fresh about it. On the other hand, it feels slow a lot--definitely a lot of skips, if I'd let myself do that--but that is in competition with the fact that I know if I'd seen this live, I would have absolutely loved it. It's giving lots of difficulty trying to figure out what the point of an album is. There are some really great songs on here, though. This whole ordeal has really confused my Spotify algorithm.

i thought, what's the big deal, queen already did this & then looked at the release date

i am so confused as to what i thought the rolling stones was before listening to this album

I really enjoyed this album. It was musically and lyrically ambitious, strange, and fun, which is basically my ideal combination.

every musician dreams of a performance like this

this always has been a very fun album. i found the musical motifs somewhat inconsistent, which never stopped me from loving it a lot

I was just kind of ... meh during this album. Nothing that was really thrilling for me.

This was okay? I honestly didn't find any of it memorable, but that could have been by the nature of my listening to it while making bagels

This album was honestly cleansing for me. There was something about the playfulness of its conception that was really compelling; it didn't feel self-serious. It reminded me of the jam sessions I used to have back in college in a lot of ways.

this album took me right back to middle school. psychosocial is still iconic and it's still a total banger

And I thought Kanye was corny. This is about as deep as the class clown in middle school who was debatable in literacy through only his own apathy.

This was conflicting for me; it's clear that he was foundational to what we think of with indie for the next decade, but the whole album was a bit softboy for me. Maybe it's because I can never understand what anyone is saying when they sing, and I'm missing some major lyrical depth. More people should sing so I can understand them

There is a vulnerability and girl boss feminism to this album that positions this as a clear predecessor to Beyonce's self-titled album. I've actually never listened to this album the whole way through until now, and I've gained a deep appreciation of Christina Aguilera's powerhouse vocals. I did find certain parts super lame in terms of emotional timbre, which I don't think is of the time considering this was basically when Miseducation came out

the good ones were great. the bad ones were absolutely forgettable. this is one of those occasions where I kept going "oh, he wrote that song?" which cements iconic status, imo

"I ordered the enchiladas and I ate 'em" is the most seen I've felt since starting this

This was fun, but definitely dragged a bit. I admit I've never understood the draw of the Black Keys; it seems that it would be easy to come up with their music as a linear combination of a few of their contemporaries. But maybe I'm OOTL on something?

there's nothing I can say about this album that more accomplished scholars haven't written about

I'm someone who is broadly very into drum & bass and I can see how revolutionary this album is for sampling considering how exciting so many of these beats still feel. However, could not make it through. It went LONG. I finished under duress

Todo los Delores is one of my favorite, favorite songs of all time , and perfect for today's weather. This album was actually really foundational in the formation of my music taste, so it's hard to rate it "objectively". I had a few moments I really enjoyed, but it wasn't that lyrically compelling for me. So I'll give it a 3.5, rounding down to a 3.

I am motivated to begin a life of crime. genuinely fun, if not the deepest

This was a fine album. I thought some parts of it were fun, other parts of it made me the 😮‍💨 emoji, which is not really a good reaction.

this was... fine.

this was so boring omg

these are total bops and i refuse to read otherwise

ok queen. but actually there's a lot going on here that I find to be just quite rich. within the context of when it came out, the sheer honesty of it while remaining soft was quite revolutionary. it's an interesting companion to lemonade, and maybe a foil. musically, slightly less giving/generative, but lyrically and conceptually incredibly radical in its vulnerability. miseducation kept coming up in my head as I was listening to it. only downgrading a star because the musical motifs were slightly too repetitive

this was good fun, but didn't sit with me. i didn't notice when it ended, which is probably not a good thing.

elanor rigby and taxman alone

This album was like that one annoying kid in high school who got bullied by everyone and you wanted to say nice things to them because you felt sad they were being bullied, but they were so annoying you couldn't. I wanted so badly to love this album, but all the production choices, as well as the vocal choices by the lead singer, were extremely grating.

slay

Okay, I loved this album. Didn't realize so many of my faves from the Zombies was just this album alone. A Rose For Emily is a toned down Eleanor Rigby, but doesn't make it worse IMO. Something about it made the yearning stronger.

Can someone tell me why I hated this

I didn't even register this album playing

To be fair to this album, I was listening to it with earplugs in and headphones on top because there is a jackhammer approximately 40 feet from my window having a field day. But that being said, I had a lot of fun with it. I'm not sure I picked up on more of the subtle things, but it really just was really uplifting in a way.

even if this album just had 'hurt', it would be an incredible album. but the sheer audacity of the covers he's brought such intimacy to is something that makes this album a total classic that i will listen to for lifetimes.

I know this album is quite saucy for when it came out, though it sounds not edgy at all now. What I find good about it is actually the musicality to bring to it--many of these sort of 'heavy metal' bands tend to have a way higher music theory knowledge than some other genres. So I tend to still have a lot of fun with it, even if there wasn't anything about the whole album that was inherently gripping for me. Maybe some of it is just playing guitar hero too much in middle school lol

I TRIED SO HARD TO LIKE THIS ALBUM AND I DON'T IM SORRY DONT CANCEL ME

There's something really fascinating to me about a divorce album, maybe because it serves as an interesting contrast to normal breakup albums, which normally have a "fuck you anyway" energy. But there was a sort of brokenness underlying the lyrics here that I really couldn't escape. You can tell he still loves Anna, and is caught in between knowing he's failed her and begging her to never leave. There's something beautiful in that I can't quite articulate, because my brain becomes smoother by the day.

slay

any joy i had listening to this album was taken away by the extremely long interlude talking about shit. i didn't become a doctor for a reason!!!!!

This reminds me a lot of the early 2000s in a great way. The contrast to what was the prevalent production style at the time really grabbed me; I think there are ways in which these lyrics feel old AF, but in contrast to a lot of the gangster rap we were coming out of, I found the album comparatively tame and perhaps that's why I enjoyed it so much.

thanks i hate it

I tend to really love intimate albums like this. It's not the first time I heard "Love me like I love you" or lyrics to the same effect, but the intimacy in musical construction makes a lot of his work in this album seem profoundly honest in a way I'd not felt before.

I loved this album. it was fresh, interesting, funky, playful. What feels like musicianship at its peak should feel like

I zero percent expected to hear a veena pop up in the background of this. What? Loved it. There were a lot of great moments, and while I hear the proto-psychedelic sound there is also something very beach boys about it. There were times where it was less beach boys and more psychedelic and I did not like that as much, though I found myself appreciating the musical contribution.

this was a fun album. some of the songs were surprisingly complex, other songs I didn't even notice while they were playing.

this album took me to a level of calmness and lovingness i did not believe possible, given my constitution

I ofc love this album and everything about it. But my favorite barely relevant part is just the fact that the sheet music of "pyramids" actually looks like a series of pyramids

this fucking slaps

This was fun but too short imo. Didn't get the full depth of why he rox

the rap interlude somehow made this worse

i can't do this anymore

this was a really rich sound. i forgot how calming I found this album. I'm not sure if that's the lyrical intent, though. But that being said, listening to the 1975 makes me anxious so maybe it's a me problem.

this was fun, but only a few songs. the rest felt like a slog. not a huge fan but going to drop off here for today because I just suffered through two metal albums

i have a playlist that is called "when people yell and pretending it's singing" and I'd put this in that playlist except for the fact that I hated it. lyrics can't make up for the execution of the yelling

I enjoyed this album. I wonder a lot if they've been memeified in the UK just due to how playable their songs are; however, nothing stuck out to me especially in comparison to their other work.

i liked this album a lot. reminded me of an older era of musicianship

This was an interesting album. There were a few really moving parts, and other times where I felt more like I was embedded in a performance art soundscape. Not sure where I fall on this.

There are a lot of classics on this album, but I had ZERO idea that the Beatles covered Mister Postman. Homophobic that they changed the lyrics so they wouldn't be in love with a man, I am brave for saying this.

There were a couple of great songs on this album, and a lot of confused ones.

I wasn't sold on this in the beginning, but the genre-jumping and experimentation made this album really joyful. It's always awesome to hear musicians press against the boundaries of what they know, even if they all hated each other while recording this. It was a bit bloated in the middle, even being such a short album as it is.

Bring back songwriters honestly. Not that they don't exist anymore, but hearing Frank Sinatra croon like this reminds me how important it is to have someone to ACTUALLY SING THE NOTES CORRECTLY.

Half of this album was really fun, and I kind of got lost on the other half.

Honestly, I had a lot of fun with this album. Each song didn't feel tired, even when they were using motifs used a million times. That being said, with nothing overtly fresh, this ended up not getting a five from me.

this was like that tierra whack album except it made me so miserable

simon and garfunkel have me in a chokehold

this album was dark, and kind of triggering to be honest. i guess the fact that it sent me into an anxiety spiral is a good thing, in this context

I was super bored during this, I don't know. I imagine there's something important here but I just couldn't hear it. It wasn't cacophonous, but at this point maybe it would have been more memorable if it was.

This was also a bit of fun but nothign really stuck out to me. Maybe I need more sleep.

Maybe this is just turning into my personal diary

this album makes me feel like the main character of the eponymous TV show Veronica Mars, who is Veronica Mars

this was genuinely a ton of fun. I think what I've been waiting for honestly

this was a whole lot of fun, although to be honest I was a bit confused by the last song on the album (albeit the titular song)

I knew this guy as hallelujah man and boy does he have range!

loved this album except for the random abuse to hindustani music in the middle. what's up with that ? (looks at crowd, booing). anyway finding out from this list that I love beck

If I could give this 10 stars, I would. This sort of live recording is not easy at all--the constant tempo changes alone are a nightmare--and hitting the notes pattern she's hitting is also really freaking hard! What an alive recording. Very German. Love it.

this was nice, it was weird and complicated and interesting. an album that gets better with each listen I think

we would not have pop music without abba full stop

This was good at doing what they're supposed to do, but truthfully I just didn't like it that much. I'm going to give it a 4 bc the sound really is innovative, but it was way too edgelord for me.

there is a obscure album by an italian artist i listened to once that was very reminiscent of this album. i feel two types of away about it. some part of me really found it compelling as a listen, and other parts of me felt like i was in the soft rock era of the 2000s. I do not believe the latter feeling was warranted. also alex and tom said my reviews are unpredictable and now i'm in my head about the whole thing

what was the quote? something to the effect of "brian wilson can do with four tracks what other produces fail to do with sixteen."

don't mind me, just the music farmer on her way to a busy day of listening to great music out at the music farm

there are very few albums i love more than this one---enough that it is in my spotify top 5 every single year for the last 10 years. i don't know what it is about this album, ostensibly there's nothing truly magical about it in the same way that other albums are in this list. and yet, and yet, and yet,

Is it weird that this reminds me about the mountain goats? I love irish lyricism, truthfully, and love that Elvis Costello called this album "capturing them in their dilapidated glory."

this was very campy, and just didn't work for me. i generally don't like music it sounds like I could have made, but I can appreciate that this was likely extremely interesting for its time.

I don't know why I didn't like this album, as by all measures I should have liked it. I love this type of music, and Hospice is my favorite album of all time. I don't know if it's personal (mentions of Jesus typically make me shut down after being told regularly I'm doomed to hell as a child and young adult) or maybe it's because the other concept albums I love tend to be more forward in the music side, where this feels more like spoken word with music attached to it. But I must deviate from critical consensus here, and give it a lower score. Of course, the daring to create an album like this always deserves a nod, but...

this was a good romp, I had fun listening to it. Energy from the beginning to the end. Not much to say on the lyrics though, they felt vacuous but maybe I didn't hear something good

I know cool girls like the red hot chili peppers ,but this is where I tearfully admit that I am not cool, and am beginning to think i may never be cool. I like this album and found moments to be striking and fun. I do wonder if some part of this is that the sound is so seminal that I am unable to pick out the fact that they originated it. I do appreciate that they recorded this whole album in one room in five days, which is punk rock in its own right. This is probably something that would benefit from my understanding what people say when they're singing

This was a fun album, but I guess some part of me wonders (sorry Mr. Iggy Pop sir) how much of it was being driven by Bowie's production.

i know Sheryl Crow is important to country music. I am not her biggest fan but this album is consistently bops and the lyrics of certain songs (which imo defines the genre) are bright and interesting.

This is very idiosyncratic, but there's something about this style of lyricism that I find very irksome. I think it's the inherent arrogance that seems to ooze from it, lecturing the listener instead of presuming they are intelligent enough to get the same message in more subtle ways. "This is the 51st state of the USA" was particularly lazy and pernicious, imo. Reading into the making of the album, I'm also not entirely sure that the self-appointed auteur is applying the same critical lens to his own way of life both in terms of the filming choices and also in terms of the musical depth of the actual album. But maybe, idk, I'm a born hater. The whole thing feels very "album I'd lie about being amazed by to impress a teenage boy I liked in high school." You know, if that sort of thing had ever actually happened to me.

I felt fine about this. It's weird to hear a lot of songs that I've heard by other artists who did it better. To be honest, I know he contributed to rock, but he's basically a lit review in comparison to original research

A lot of these songs were just pure fun and fresh. Sometimes it feels like restraint is the name of the game, and it really shows in this album. I'm giving it four because of just a few songs that didn't really register for me that I found a bit laggy

While originally I liked this album, Act of Contrition sealed the deal for me. Simultaneously, this album is soooo 80s and sooooo not. Like a Prayer is so sweet, honest, and young, which I think is what makes it sing for me.

This whole album felt like a hug

this was a really warm album, but it also didn't register much for me. i mostly remember feeling comfy so I'll give it a 3

little simz, to me, is one of the GOATs of UK rappers. something about her style reminds me of the origins of rap itself--maybe the ease and clarity with which she speaks, maybe the softness through gritted teeth that characterizes a lot of the best female rappers (rhapsody, noname, Lauren Hill). production alone on this album is worth celebrating for its freshness and sophistication, but on top of that, as usual, much of it feels both deep and accessible at the same time. to me, not an easy feat.

i am sorry but i literally cannot stand when people make bhajans and think they ate

I was really fine with this album, but nothing really stuck out to me. Maybe it's just my mixture of jetlag, sleep deprivation, and manic nature.

I understand lana a lot more after listening to this album, if that makes sense. I've never been a huge fan of trip hop, but credit where credit's due, this is good production which is what I assume the draw is.

Let me preface this by saying my first introduction to Ice Cube was in the feature film "Are We There Yet?" I've only now learned this film was universally panned. That being said, this was such a good album. Now I understand the sheer disappointment of ice cube becoming a sub-par actor, because as a rapper he was more thoughtful and more skilled.

I hated all of this except for Annalisa. I am beginning to believe that maybe post-punk is just... not a genre for me.

This is a classic album of an entire subgenre that I truly detest, so I don't know how to rate it. Gin and Juice is genuine fun, but at the same time the whole thing is _so_ male gaze-y that I get a bit grossed out throughout the album. So I'm going to give it a 2, noting that my own review in this area is probably broadly irrelevant

I don't really know when this album ended, but it was interesting to me. It was a bit laggy at some points, but I appreciated the playfulness of it that you could feel from the band.

um, wow???? love it. so weird and fun. I wish I could understand literally anything they were saying.

everything about queen rocks honestly, so i struggle to give this any less than a stellar review. The brit pop of lazing on a sunday afternoon is so funny, and of course who can forget "you're my best friend" or "bohemian rhapsody," which is so prevalent everywhere that it's circled into camp just to love it. but most of what makes queen so interesting to me is how a rock band that's this technically joyful and experimental had the whole world in a chokehold, but perhaps i should appreciate the fact that this even happened.

I really loved this album, also because now I finally know what Julia Louis Dreyfus was singing on Veep and it makes the scene that much funnier. As usual, I can't understand lyrics for the most part until after multiple runs, but I did appreciate the stripped down nature of this album, especially given when it came out. That said, a few were great, a few were just ok.

I thought this was a nice album but it didn't register for me that much.

this was... fine. i feel like it was really daring in a lot of ways, but also a series of unfinished ideas.

ONE AND A HALF HORUS I COULD NOT DO IT

incredible, honestly. very frank ocean. i guess it sat more heavily with me given stuff I'd also been reading today, on the earnestness of desiring a place in this life and trying to ask politely for it. the ebbs and flows of surety embedded in it all.

the rapper to weeb pipeline simply must be studied. anyway, I was really impressed by the verses on this album. lots of surprising referenes and interesting entendres that, for me, were really reminiscent of kendrick.

I must confess I've never listened to this whole album, because I thought people who listened to incubus were corny. But, wow. Privilege shook me tbh. It did get decidedly less exciting after this because the sound was largely the same through the album; like I couldn't tell when one song ended and another began until we hit drive. but i do think that what they were doing was novel enough for 1991 this deserves some acknowledgement, so i'm going to give a 3.5 and round up to four.

in reading about this album, I wonder if my lack of enjoyment comes from the limitations of my own listening devices in hitting the bass notes that may make the treble wailing of the trumpets much less harsh. it feels, to my ears, like a normal cover album, which I don't associate with a musician as skilled as Ray Charles.

I thought each song was Mr. Blue Skies. Imagine my surprise that none of them were! ELO is an interesting band to me. They remind me a lot of the Ben Folks in Concert series where he performs with orchestras. Both do something that I think is much harder than it seems, which is make music thrilling, surprising, and playful. The chord shifts, the key changes, the auditory experimentation that is so clearly analogue, it's overwhelming in the best way--that I could listen 10 times and find new things to delight me. I remember hearing an NPR story that talks about how popular music gets less complicated every year, and I while I know they're right, these types of albums being today's inheritance I think informs the lushness of the pop girlies we've been blessed with in recent years. so anyway i think I liked this album

This whole thing was giving Hamilton and I couldn't figure out why until I saw a picture of the Beastie Boys. It was fun, but the theatricality of their annunciation read like off-off-broadway, so things made sense once I found out they were from New York. Lin Manuel-Miranda, give the kids credit for your sound!!! Liked the beats, enjoyed the playfulness of the whole thing, appreciated some of the songs (Johnny Ryall, The Sound of Science). However, there were times the whole thing felt a bit manic and inconsistent. Couldn't find ways it contributed to the album overall, though I had points in pretty much every song I really enjoyed. [["Surprise, bitch" EMMA ROBERTS GIF HERE]]

I always struggle with classic rap since my entry into the genre came through rappers like Kanye, Kendrick, Jay-Z, Nicki, etc. Often times I find early rap a bit too on-the-nose, but I feel that's entirely due to the lens I'm applying. This album was really good, but lyrically I felt it was a bit anemic. There are certain songs that are genuinely entertaining (You Be Illin'), other songs where the beats are so interesting and exciting (Walk This Way). At other points I felt like there was bluster without much depth or even something interesting to take from it. So I'm back and forth, maybe gaslighting myself a little bit about my own feelings.

i am just not a rockabilly girlie, and i'm learning to accept that. I understand that the genre itself is a predecessor to a lot of great things about rock in the 90s. But I think I struggle to see much of the nuance of what makes their sound distinct from the dozens of other ~hip~ bands of that moment. Certainly, given the release date, they are one of the early ones, but already feel very referential in the ways they construct their basslines, as well as the rhythmic and chord progression choices underlying their guitar riffs.

ngl, the Irish rapping on "Jig of Life" was a jumpscare for me. I found moments where I really enjoyed this. It feels very much like a predecessor to the new age folk that came out of this region of Europe in the succeeding decade. There were also moments where (and maybe it's because I was working at the same time) I found that I'd lost track of the album completely. Because I'm terrible at hearing lyrics, I think this is where it was a bit of a misfire for me today. Reading about it, it seems I've missed some pretty major things regarding her use of electronic production, so I'm hoping to revisit this again at another point.

Look, out of all the West African psych-rock I listen to, this is not my preferred album. I love a lot of this album; there's a sheer joyfulness in music I find missing from a lot of European and American bands, who seem more concerned with performing a seriousness that's not necessary. The idea to incorporate a lot of folk/classic stylings over electric instrumentation ends up being thrilling just in its way to perpetuate the beat without leaving the listener feeling as though they've been dragged along. I do wish I got a little more of everything; the vocals, the riffs, the drumming were all exciting but abridged too soon. Didn't leave enough of a breath to truly sit with it and enjoy it.

Truthfully wasn't a huge fan of this album. I think it was one of those "you had to be there" things. But it wasn't bad, just wasn't gripping.

Honestly, can never get into the rolling stones, but they do a great job of dragging me kicking and screaming to a certain era of music. Banana:fruit as Rolling Stones:Early Rock, n'at.

Ugh, I love this album. Makes me want to sob with how delicate it is. I'm definitely weak to bossa nova in general, but there's something to be said about the sheer skill it takes to strip something down to arrangements as simple as this and nail every one with panache. At the end of the album, I was left desperate for more.

A ska band???? In this economy????????? This album was fun, because ska is fun, but unfortunately that's where things seemed to end for me. This was higher energy and more self-propellant than many of the albums that we encounter, and I laud that joyfulness.

Honestly, this didn't do it for me. But I'm so deeply uninformed about the artist I don't feel qualified to be giving much of another comment

Truthfully, I found this album coast past emotional into maudlin. Occasionally I found it charming (the melodies themselves were nice, but the arrangements were giving Kdrama), but often felt like I was being asked to be emotional over songs that didn't do the work to warrant it. This album bravely asks, "Should these genres be combined?" to which I answer, no, I don't really believe it is of public interest to do so.

My dislike of Kiss comes almost entirely from them doing the "bleeehhh" tongue thing. I've found it hard to cast them into the church of metal given the fact that there was even a nun in the twenties that was absolutely shredding on the guitar, and I credit much of their contribution to the genre an aesthetic one. That being said, as a rock album, I had fun with this. It's obvious why they were such a hit. The songs were fun and bright. Not all of them were that interesting to me, only a few real standouts.

I think that the biggest issue I have with this album is that at every opening I think the song is going to be Jesse's Girl, despite that song not being by The Cars. That is to say, the sound is fun, but a bit of the same after a while. Loved the guy who plays the guitar, and there's something to be sure about not having to strain to hear that the melody is supposed to be. Not always guaranteed in rock music

I just found this album to be fine. There are better ones within the genre, but nothing that was offensive either.