1001 Albums Summary

Once I brought this CD to (Catholic) school and nearly got sent home because of the cover art. Invaders: Seems like they could've come up with a more epic album opener, but this is pretty good anyway. Children of the Damned: Bruce Dickinson wails on this track like on no other here, but the song is just too mid-tempo and never really picks up steam. They couldn't come up with a better chorus than repeating the song title four times? The Prisoner: I guess this is about the show since it has that clip at the start. This one is pretty great, and has the most anthemic chorus on the whole album. 22 Acacia Avenue: This song is just okay and it's really annoying that I always get it stuck in my head for days after a listen. The Number of the Beast: Okay, so Side A was pretty good, but Side B is where we really start cooking. Like so many heavy metallers, Iron Maiden has a delightfully devilish song about the denizens of hell. Unlike so many heavy metallers, the protagonist in this one is frightened the whole time. Love the bass line in the bridge. Run to the Hills: I have to assume that the band didn't choose systematic historical Native American extermination as a song topic for public awareness purposes, but rather because it sounded grisly and edgy... it's also a pretty unique topic in metal for the time AFAIK. Oh also the song absolutely chugs - really a quintessential example of the NWOBHM here. Gangland: This is the only dud on Side B - lame riff, generic lyrics, and Bruce just sounds kinda whiny on the chorus. Hallowed Be Thy Name: Another all-time metal classic, and about the best way they could have closed the album. I feel like they knew they had a bitchin' riff and that it would be a shame to interrupt it with a traditional chorus or a ton of vocals, and that was the right decision.

Out in the Street: Are songs like this really any better or worth lauding over those of the American bluesmen from whom Pete Townshend took his inspiration? I Don't Mind: Similar question here - are these 20-year-old Brits doing anything other than emulation when they choose to record a James Brown song? The Good's Gone: This one is really interesting and gets away from the blues-worship of the first two songs, really more like something you might hear from a 80's alternative rock band. Wikipedia says it was inspired by a Kinks song - that group being the true geniuses of the British Invasion era. La-La-La-Lies: Would've been better with some Beach Boys-style harmonies and backing vocals. Much To Much: Nothing much to say about this one - a solid but forgettable little pop song. My Generation: Now here is something original, utilizing call-and-response vocals and a blues song structure, but speeding it up and adding a lot of attitude. The Kids Are Alright: Very Beatles-y to me, and definitely my favorite song on the album. Please, Please, Please: Great song, totally superfluous recording. It's Not True: Another Beatles-esque composition, but The Who play it with so much more reckless energy than the tightly-managed Liverpudlians ever would. I'm A Man: The vocal affect is pretty embarrassing, but I like I do feel like the band had an idea that drove the recording of this Bo Diddley song, unlike the other covers on this record. A Legal Matter: This song is great, even if Townshend is not much of a singer at this point. The Ox: More Americana, this time in the form of a surf rock instrumental. Strange way to end the album, but these are early days in the development of the format's conventions.

The last two songs are consistently great, but other than that the truly transcendent moments are few and far between for me. Cut it down to that last 35 minutes and you'd really be cooking with gas.

Zach de la Rocha sure does like screaming the same line over and over and over and over again.

It's the grandaddies of butt rock!

Homeward Bound, 59th Street Bridge Song, and Simple Desultory Philippic are highlights on this one, but there is a LOT of cringe scattered throughout. Their albums would get so much better from here on out.

Did not feel this one, even though I like the "Thriller" album. Lots of slow jams on this that are snoozers to me, and the production throughout feels so dated to me. "Smooth Criminal" and the title track are good, but "Fat" surpasses the latter in every way. There better be a Weird Al album on this list...

Very interesting album, though I would not call it their best (no idea if there are more on the 1,001 list). Most of the first side is taken up with White Stripes worship (not a bad thing in my opinion), and the second side only really hints at the sound they would develop later in their career, barring classics like "Maps" and "Y Control". I'm am very much not a fan of the filtering applied to Karen's voice on a lot of the noisier songs. Also, I've always hated this album cover - it felt dated to me before their second album even dropped. Honorable mention to "No No No" - not sure I've ever heard indie-dub before.

Props to "One Love" and its Mario Kart-soundin' keyboard sample.

Haven't thought about G. Love in a very long time, probably because I would always just kinda tolerate when "Cool Beverage" come on the radio, but there is some nice, mellow stuff on here that I enjoyed, especially "Baby's Got Sauce" and "Fatman". Actually, I came around on "Cool Beverage" on this listen also. This isn't an album I'm likely to revisit in full (it really loses steam at the end for me), but I did add those tracks to some playlists, so I won't be forgetting about G. Love again in the future.

I listened to "Taylor's Version", and from the two or three songs that I do know from this album I must say that I agree with the criticism of the re-recording - everything somehow seems more "flat" than I am used to hearing (even when I am used to hearing those few songs over speakers in big box stores). It makes me think I would enjoy the original recording more (and I suppose that is technically the album included in the 1001 albums list), and maybe I will try that one out at some point. As it is, I like several of the songs at the start of this album... essentially I like the songs that could be Carly Rae Jepsen recordings, and overall I would much rather listen to any of her albums than this. This one especially lost me toward the end, when the instrumentation reverted back to what I would consider more "stereotypical" Swiftian singer-songwriter-country-pop, and I find all of that a bit bland, especially as a person who does not pay much attention to lyrics. I had no idea "Style" was a Taylor Swift song before this listen, so that should tell you how familiar I am with both her oeuvre, and mainstream pop music of the 2010s in general. Anyway, it's fine, just mostly not for me.

Always thought Doolittle would be my favorite Pixies album because it has a bunch of songs I grew up listening to on the radio, but upon my first listen to Bossanova I think this one might be better.

This is great! I had only really heard Tom Waits' cabaret-esque songs before, and I never really cared for those, but this has a ton of variety.

I do not care for Wilco, but I am a fan of Bragg, so I wasn't sure how this album would go for me, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

The title track is beautiful, but I don't really care for anything else here. "Shine On" would have made for a great 4-6 minute song, but they drag it on here for about 25... give me the precision of "Dark Side of the Moon" over this any day.

This was a total slog for me, even though I did like "Freak on a Leash" and "Got the Life" as singles at the time. This just sounds like mud to me.

I sometimes have trouble distinguishing between these English post-punk bands... none of them are terrible, but it's rare that a song really stands out for me. "That's Entertainment" is the only one I recognized here.

The singles at the front end are all pretty fun, but it loses steam as it continues.

I love "Take Care" but I really have so much trouble distinguishing one song from the next throughout the rest of the album... don't understand why this is considered so exceptional.