1001 Albums Summary

Very artful and interesting! I have a blind spot when it comes to Broadway-adjacent music, so this isn't exactly my cup of tea. There's a lot going on here.

I listened to the hell out of this album when it came out, but after a while I stopped listening to U2. It sounds great to me now, better than I expected. Until The End of the World still gives me chills. I still love this album.

Child In Time blew my 14-year-old mind. This album is what got me into heavy rock. Still love it.

These people have a lot more fun that I do.

Clean and weird and good. Love it.

This album destroys me. I have tears on my face.

Why is this so catchy?

Some classic songs here but I like the less-polished In Rock more. Space Truckin' is great. Ritchie Blackmore has one of the most original guitar sounds of anyone from this era.

I always liked this album but thought it sounded a little snobby, like English-professor-rock. Listening now it feels more emotionally deep. The songwriting is just great.

Sounds like 2AM murk, in a good way.

Dolly's voice always makes me smile and this album is just wonderful.

I got this on vinyl when it came out -- not for the hits, but for "Climbatize."

Solid post punk I guess? Lots of energy but nothing really stands out sonically. Very good production for this kind of band.

NONE MORE BLACK

Thriller was the first album I ever owned and I and everyone I knew loved it, but by the time Bad came out I had moved on from MJ. So I never listened this all the way through until now, though a lot of these songs were constantly on the radio and MTV. Today the slick production sounds kind of thin and tinny. I really like The Way You Make Me Feel and especially Smooth Criminal, but I can't hear the title track without thinking of Weird Al. It's interesting that the closing track asks us to let MJ be his weird self in his personal life. He would get a lot weirder after this, and a hell of lot weirder than Weird Al.

So very very Grime.

GREAT way to start my morning!

Only Love Can Break Your Heart is a great track -- the Neil Young melody incongruously combined with early 90's house music production just works somehow. But the rest of this is pretty thin, mostly owing to the weak vocals. Great cover art.

Black Hole Sun is arguably the House of the Rising Sun of the 90's -- a big dirge, overplayed, inescapable. Still, I liked this record at the time -- my impression then was that it was one of the better executed grunge-band-goes-mainstream efforts. Soundgarden had an original guitar sound, sludgy and detuned and dirty, but not thrashy. And Chris Cornell had one of the most powerful voices in rock. They somehow seemed less corny than many of their peers. I was never a huge fan, but I had respect. Listening to this now, I'm struck by 1) how bluesy a lot of it is, 2) how incredible the rhythm section sounds, and 3) how much Soundgarden owes to Led Zeppelin. Stands up surprisingly well.

I've never heard anything like this. Incredible.

I wasn't ready for quiet-and-earnest-Beck when this came out, but I like it more now. Great production, especially love the steel guitar.

Well it's the fucking Pixies, right?

I wouldn't want to be left alone with this guy.

I don't dislike this. Kind of a happier Nick Cave or a Brit-Pop Jim Morrison.

I think I subconsciously ignored this guy because I don't like Bryan Adams. But this is so great. Love the songs and the vibe.

I only listened to the 11 tracks of the original version, but this is just fantastic. Amazing voice, amazing band.

Nobody could sing the blues like her.

I never cared for the "Hurt" cover, but the rest of these songs are pretty great. Highlights are "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," "I Hung My Head", "Streets of Laredo", and "Tear Stained Letter".

It's a lot of love songs. But I listened to them all. Sort of a hipster White Album. The filler is good, and some songs are great.

This blew me away back in the day, and wow does it stand up, both musically and lyrically. Powerful shit.

Still a perfect album for me.

It blows my mind that this music was recorded in the late 70's.

It's not my favorite Zeppelin album -- this is essentially their White Album, so it's a little too long -- but it's got some of their best songs: In My Time of Dying, Trampled Underfoot, Kashmir, Ten Years Gone, In the Light, The Wanton Song. Bron-Yr-Aur is one of Page's best acoustic numbers. Even the filler tracks are pretty solid. Also, the production on this album is incredible -- in particular, the drums sound huge on every track. It's too bad that classic rock radio has overplayed every song they ever recorded -- I would love to hear these songs for the first time.

The hip sound of a pill-fueled bender. Hard for me to stomach in our current post-ironic hellscape.

Just now figured out where Trent Reznor got half of his sound.

I know this is some California hippy shit, but the harmonies are glorious.

This is the kind of thing my parents used to play at dinnertime.