1001 Albums Summary

Ethereal soundscapes interspersed between the bigger hits. It’s sooo good! I didn’t want to say it but thought the last third or so got a little same-y but I reckon I just need more listens

Miles runs the voodoo down is a fav so far. I think so anyway. Not like I can remember all that’s come before it! Bitches Brew was cool I think! But spooky towards the end. Hopefully in the future I’ll look back and say that I didn’t know enough about jazz to get everything out of this album. I look forward to that. In the meantime, I did really enjoy it though I cant say I wasn’t glad to have finished it - it is bloody long.

In Heroes, David Bowie was clearly inspired by the artist David Bowie and his album Low. David Bowie pays homage to David Bowie’s album Low and its formula of having a broadly instrumental B side, very unlike the more rock-orientated A side. While Heroes is an excellent emulation by David Bowie, David Bowie’s album is certainly a more rounded and more enjoyable album all in all. Side A becomes so much more when I start paying attention to Robert Fripp’s guitar. Blackout is thrilling, Joe the Lion is such electric. Sons of the Silent Age is like if the middle of Court of the Crimson King was more lively. Also love that so many of the songs fade out. Adds to the chaos - a constant sprawl of Krautrock-y mayhem. And god I love some piano in a rock song. Ben Folds Five will always astonish me. Be My Wife is my favourite Low track and there’s so much to love on Heroes with that dirty piano energy. Beauty and the Beast the most obvious to me.

Apparently Robby Krieger said this album “sounds almost like a rehearsal. It’s pure Doors.” Yeah, that’s it! It’s so cool and casual despite being incredibly good. It’s like if slacker rock went blues-y.

Yesterday’s album was LA Woman so it’s been great fun hearing just how differently you can interpret a basic blues structure! Definitely needs a second listen. Sure, all albums get better after multiple listens but particularly with albums like this where the songs don’t massively distance themselves from each other in style, theme and energy, it’s never more needed. Listen 1 was a nice gentle folky mush. Listen 2 was more refined and more moving. I’ll find time for Listen 3. Looking forward to it! For the turnstiles sounds like an Elliott Smith song!

Incredible fun. Pure, simple, electric. The drums sound incredible! The snare sounds like machine gun chatter. Impossible not to love. My Who knowledge isn’t as good as it should be so I imagine my experience would only be heightened if I knew their previous discography really well.

Particularly love A Poem on the Underground Wall and The Dangling Conversation. The imagery in both is so beautiful! The jazzy double bass sound in The 59th Street Bridge Song is so cool and can’t get over the brilliant piss-take that is A Simple Desultory Philippic! Already familiar with Scarborough Fair and Homeward Bound. Overall just beautiful little album. Really short as well! It all just works.

Generally, really good fun. Managed to be both cheesy and mature. Some moments felt repetitive and dull which is annoying an album that's over an hour long where you can definitely shorten it in places But the blend of rock and funk was great! Particularly loved the title track, Who says a Funk Band...., and Cholly, Also, the guitar on Lunchmeataphobia was amazing! Sounded like if Black Sabbath went Funk!

C’est tres bien

It's Warren Zevon: The Musical Catchy and fun at times! But it's basically a musical soundtrack and I really can't stand musical songs most of the times. OK, I like the folk rock essence of some of it and some of the hard rock moments were nice though they felt really diluted by the musical-y tone. Almost oxymoronic. Like a wrestler whose entrance song is the muppets theme tune. Doesn't work. I think I liked it less and less as it went on. The first few seconds of the title track had me convinced I was gonna find a new favourite album. By the final musical-y twang on All Revved Up... I felt ill. The last two tracks couldn't have gone quick enough. Demonstrably, I think it's a good album. It's just not for me. At all. I'm very glad I've listened to it. I can imagine I might revisit the first two tracks very occasionally but that's it. But hey, Two Out of Eight Ain't Bad. But it's close.

Right, going in open-minded. Gonna focus on all the positives, let's do it OK, thought the opener is fun but a little dull I've heard Blank Space before. It's a great song! Oh yeah, I've heard Style before as well. Yeah, really fun chorus! Great bridge as well! Out of the Woods isn't for me. To me it sounds like a spoof of a pop song. Like something they'd play at the end of an episode of Smack the Pony. not mad about All You Had to Do Was Stay. The thing is, I'd love all the songs I'm not enjoying if I was a pop song. Which is to say they're all great pop songs! But it's not what I'd choose to listen to so even great examples of it are boring for me. Shake it Off is great. Probably gonna be my favourite on the album. I've obviously heard it plenty of times before but focusing on it here, the drum groove is brilliant! The open high hats make the song if you ask me. Builds really well, chorus is really fun. The 'rap' bit will never not sound ridiculous but who cares, it's a great song. I've heard that the snares on I Wish You Would are inspired by She Drives Me Crazy, the Fine Young Cannibals song. I love that song. I can hear the resemblance here. Especially in the last few seconds. Don't think anyone would've been able to notice it if it wasn't revealed though. Still, it's a nice song. Feels like a bit of a filler to me. Heard Bad Blood before as well, of course. Again only now noticing the great drum groove. Simple but really effective. Never loved this song. Liked it a bit more on this listen but not one of my favourites. Oh, I've heard Wildest Dreams before as well! Christ she's everywhere. It's nice. I don't know that the strings work with the bass. Don't think those things mix so well. Good song though! How You Get the Girl: Oooooh OK did not like that. Sounded like a country artist doing a cover of a 00s song by a manufactured band of 16-year-olds. Thought This Love was boring. Oh no, album. Please don't totally shrivel away. I Know Places: Well I sincerely hated the verse and then the chorus came in and totally saved it. Still didn't enjoy it but could've been a lot worse without the decent chorus. God, it's the 'I, I, I, I'... felt abusive. Clean was really boring. I really tried. It's not for me. But I can appreciate it.

Devo is Talking Heads if David Byrne got an early autism diagnosis. All the beautiful, neurodivergent angst and chaos of, say, Fear of Music, but with no intention from the musicians to be anyone but themselves. Even if that occasionally came at the expense of the music. All I know is I will be blasting Mongoloid at every house party I go to from now on to ensure nobody ever lets me connect to a speaker again.

Yeah it’s alright!

This album is so brilliant that I always forget it has bohemian rhapsody on it

God bless the second listen. Was so uninterested on my first listen. Sounded plain, uninspiring and mainly derivative. I then learned that the album preceded most of the artists it seemed to derive from. It sounds very Oasis-y and Madchester-ish generally. On the second listen, it all came together to create something really special. I love the first few tracks collectively. The final track Is This Music is easily the best on the album. Sounds so so much like a Cure song. A discarded intro to a song from Disintegration that Robert Smith never got around to writing lyrics to. Pet Rock is also a favourite. It’s a great album. You just need to listen to it again.

I really didn’t want to be one of those people that just vaguely says that it’s not for them. They tried and it’s just not their type of music. So I wasn’t that kind of person. And it turns out it’s a fantastic album! No denying it. Loved it!

Beautiful, ethereal soundscape. And with drums that are basically the lead instrument! This album is what this whole website is all about.

If I didn’t look at the year it came out then I’d say they were clearly inspired by Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Bit of King Crimson and elements of Doors in there too. But then I’d look at the year it came out and realise it deserves a lot more credit than I’d given it.

Yep. Yep yep yep. Lyrics are amazing. Her voice is amazing. I loved all the jazz inflections. I get the Joni Mitchell appeal.

Actually pretty funny after a while. God, he was really going through it!

I love this album. Bloody Well Right is enough to earn it five stars in and off itself. Add to that Asylum and Hide in Your Shell and it’s brilliant. Yeah I saw the comment saying this is “prog for people who think billy joel “rocks”” but hey! Guess what! You can think this is a great rock album while also loving hard rock albums! And I do! And so should you!

I can't knock it too much. I get why it's a classic! It was just hard to take entirely seriously. Lyrics certainly weren't subtle. But the music itself is godly. Wincing my way through tracks like Fiddle About where made easier by the insane brilliance that is Keith Moon. Without the drums, I might have given this a three to be honest! But I'll try to relisten at some point. I reckon I'll appreciate it more over time.

One of the easiest five stars yet. Such a distinctive and addictive sound, and the lyricism is fantastic. The political commentaries are beautifully described and I love when Weller's brilliant, spikey cockney accent is used to sing incredibly sweet love songs like English Rose or The Place I Love. In so many songs, the bass acts at the lead guitar and the lead as the rhythm. It complements Weller's gritty voice perfectly. I only knew English Rose and Down In The Tube Station... before I listened and as soon as the the first track All Mod Cons came on I knew it'd be five stars. The album is 37 minutes of pumping cockney poetry and I could listen to it forever.

Weirdly, my album two days ago was All Mod Cons. At no point during that did I think "this is all very good... but I wish Paul Weller would start rapping." That track excluded, the album is great fun. I love the jazzy instrumentally tracks and the politically charged songs in between. Big fan.

Jesus Christ this is amazing. Was really lucky to have not listened to this before. I've listened to their first album and to White Blood Cells but other than Seven Nation Army, Hardest Button... and Ball and Biscuit, Elephant was new to me. Black math is a perfect statement of intent for the rest of the album. There No Home... is literally just Dead Leaves in the Dirty Ground with new lyrics but I'm not complaining. Other highlights for me were Little Acorns, Hypnotize and Girl You Have No Faith... but I absolutely loved every song and could and will and almost already have listened to this album countless times.

Yeah, it’s alright! Pretty fun

Ah ok I get the hype.

Argh I doooon’t get it. I really want to. I hate that I don’t. But I did just get bored. I’ll come back to it some day and try again.

I do like it! It's one of those albums I probably wouldn't have got around to listening to were it not for this project. I think I was always hesitant because the very little I'd heard from it before hadn't astonished me like it seemed to for other people. And that problem is still there a bit to be honest. I do have a big fear that I'll soon come to see this as a masterpiece and I'll deeply regret giving it four stars. I'm sorry future me! I didn't know yet!

Exactly the sort of thing I was hoping this website would help me with. Rap has always been an embarrassingly large gap in my music knowledge but I haven't known the best way in. This may have been it! I love the blend of rock and hip hop and I just found the whole thing incredibly listenable. I want to take a closer look at the lyrics some time soon, I'm sure it'd only make me appreciate the album more.

Jet is a masterpiece, the title track is brilliant, 1985 is great and the rest of the album definitely doesn't sway too far from those assessments.

I had Wings' Band on the Run yesterday and now this! Maybe tomorrow I'll get an album by the main man: Ringo. I've always said this is the best Beatles solo album (just beating RAM I reckon). Such a distinctive sound throughout with a slide guitar which (thankfully) never goes full country. There's a couple of close calls like Behind that Locked Door but that's excused because it's followed by Let it Down. If Not For You might be my favourite. Amazing song already but covered so well by Harrison, making it a whole different animal. Great, great, great album.

The three singles are all great obviously. They clearly knew that and decided to make every other song on the album as similar as possible. That can work in some cases but here it means you end up with over an hour of mumbled, soporific rock mush.

Hadn't come across this one before. Really enjoyed it. Particularly liked Lively Up Yourself, Them Belly Full, Talkin’ Blues and Am-A-Do

Sort of album you really have to listen to multiple times. Second listen immediately better and more colourful than the first. Opener has a great Queen-esque feel that feels like synth before synth Love the drums! Especially on Starship Trooper where the drummer sort of floats in and out of the beat I haven’t even properly read the lyrics but I bet they’re taking inspiration from King Crimson. Has that biographical feel. Doesn’t seem like it would’ve reinvented the wheel at the time… more research for me to do!

I really didn’t want to be this person but my unfortunately my entitled expectations were correct. Really boring, nothing-y lyrics… I just felt sorry for her. Having a bunch of blokes sit around and write a song about ejaculation for a teenager to sing. I know it’s said to be an incredibly important and influential album but I can’t give it any more stars for that alone. At least there were some catchy moments here and there and the title track is objectively a good pop song.

Yep. I get it now. I knew this was shoegaze and was expecting a very mellow tone throughout. Was happily surprised within the first second! The opener was like Sonic Youth meets Psychedelic Furs with Bjork on vocals. That blend of gritty, unkempt, feedback-riddled instrumentation and soft, mumbled vocals was just as captivating throughout the rest of the album. God, I love this website.

I found it grew to a point of real beauty upon multiple relistens. I had to pause this project for a fair while to have enough time to properly understand this album. Overall, I think the arrangements are quite Disney-esque which isn't really my jam but, I mean, you just can't not appreciate the majesty of the instrumentation none the less. It doesn't quite scrape 5 stars for me based purely on subjective takes but I have absolutely no problem understanding its placement on this list. I mean, some of the songs here... Casimir Pulaski Day? Fuck. Me. Just... utterly soul-crushing and beautiful. Sitting down to properly pour over the lyrics made me feel like someone was squeezing my fucking wind pipe. It's the way the lyrics so brilliantly demonstrate the narrator's youth and naivity. It brings to mind Bowie's Five Years and how the emotions of a tragic event is made so much stronger by having them described by someone young and ignorant. You feel such an aching sorrow for them. I also do appreciate that even a overtly religious song comes nowhere near to proselytising. It's just frank and earnest and beautiful and harrowing and therefore equally powerful for everyone, from a heathen like myself to a devout Christian. Oh what am I doing? Five stars. Has to be. Well done, Sufjan, well done.

I liked it! Only knew Stupid Boy going in. Loved the genre-bending mess of it. Preferred the grungier elements to the poppier parts

So many small moments that stick out like the Waterloo Sunset-esque riff on Valentine’s Day, the percussion on Love is Lost, or that little bass tickle on Boss of Me. Boss of Me also keeps sounding like it’s about to turn into the song Layla! The drums are soooo good on so much of the album. Must be the amount the toms are used. Gives the album such an earthy, intense sound. And the guitar makes that happen as well! Like the solo on Set The World On Fire, Jesus! Every song feels like it’s taken a basic musical template and added just a couple of small, stand-out elements which elevate the song so much and make the whole album captivating. I love the synth-y, shoegaze-y sound on some of the album like on Dancing Out In Space which sounds like Visconti got his hands on a My Bloody Valentine track and made it rock. Some really engrossing themes and narratives in the lyrics. All made better when you remember this was a surprise album release!

I am not proud of the fact that I hate ABBA. It's not some medal I wear with pride or an opinion I've purposefully selected in order to appear Edgy and Different and Cool. I would love to love ABBA - I feel like I'm missing out! This is all to say that I went into this album with an open mind. In fact, I actively wanted to enjoy it! And I actively did not. I say this was active regret and disappointment: I hated it so much. I do understand, of course, how people can enjoy this album. Or at least I'm very keen to try and understand how people can enjoy this album. I'm not going to be quite so arrogant as to say that it's objectively bad and everyone who disagrees is wrong. So I'll try and present this review in a way that clearly shows that this is just my personal, subjective opinion. [I personally think that] this album sounds like a spoof of itself. [I personally find myself asking:] how can anyone hear songs like Dum Dum Diddle or hear those blood-curdling whispers on Knowing Me, Knowing You and NOT think that it was created by a sketch comedy group with a very basic knowledge of music theory and a deep-rooted vendetta against Eurovision fans? It sound like a joke [to me personally]. Everyone talks about how happy and upbeat ABBA's music is but I cannot decipher any emotion whatsoever in any of it. It sounds [to me] like music made by a Martian trying to disguise themselves as a popstar - like Ziggy Stardust on a cocktail of sertraline, melatonin and Calpol. Every song sounds like it's going to end with the sound of the vocals slowing down and getting deeper in pitch as the band slowly power down and enter hibernation mode... in my opinion.

Plenty to really really like. To name a few, the Instrumental opener, Deal’s pounding bass lines throughout, the guitar oli on Alison, the theramin on Velouria. But it’s nothing crazy by Pixies’ standards I think As far as their post-Doolittle albums go, I’ll always prefer Trompe Le Mondo and I’m not sure why that isn’t a much more popular opinion

Led Zeppelin always sound fantastic. I just wish their songs didn't sound quite so much like they know that.

I’d been meaning to get into Grateful Dead for ages, felt like it was a real gap in my music knowledge. So I really enjoyed listening to this album because it showed me that I was never really missing out.

Really loved it. Loved hearing how this sound became the rock that followed. Loved the covers and loved the originals. Can’t understand why people didn’t enjoy it!

Not many bands can make album after album exclusively about surfboards, bikinis, and travelling to different places to go surfing with women in bikinis, and then just casually pump out this masterpiece. That’d be like if Bridge Over Troubled Water was made by Chas and Dave.

Should've called it Otis Blueing

God this feels like sacrilege. It’s just… it’s sounds like very same-y songs with good lyrics and a very cool suite-like theme of the songs blending into one another for at least most of the album. And that’s it. I’m sure I’m in the wrong here. This isn’t even my first Marvin Gaye album! I had Here My Dear (AKA the divorce album) and I gave that four stars! Am I just having an off day? What’s wrong with me? Am I malfunctioning?

Fucking hell, it's good Widely understood Children devil-warned Whole new genre spawned Tuning sounds amiss Lyrics look like this

I really don’t like the opening track. The rest of the album comes to its aid. Perhaps I’m just never gonna be a massive Dylan fan. Maybe I just haven’t looked in the right places yet

I really don't understand the hate! This is awesome!

It’s brilliant. John Maher is an absolute animal.

Will never forget listening to born under punches for the first time while I was mean to be revising for my GCSEs. I became a talking heads aficionado soon after. I failed History.

Really cool, moody stuff. The drums are awesome. It’s great.

Here’s my running log from listening to this album for the first time: The Ledge was pretty cool Quite liked the drum groove switch ups on What Makes You Think… Not getting much out of this at all… I Know I’m Not Wrong I don’t mind God, I’m bored. I simply could not tell you what makes this album special. Some really cool instrumentation on the title track. And what a boring song to end on. Yep, finished it now and it felt so unmemorable. Some interesting ideas here and there (for instance, I’ve now grown very fond of The Ledge!) but otherwise, dull track after dull track. I’d love someone to explain to me why this album is so special and revered. I really can’t figure it out.

Give Farage a chance, eh Stew? Well I just gave you a chance and it was bang bloody average at best.

All in all, it’s not as prog as I’d maybe thought. My previous prog knowledge comes from the likes of Beefheart, Zappa, King Crimson where the prog element is perhaps more on the nose. The opener is a great example actually. It’s prog-y, sure, but it’s also pretty pop-y and catchy. And generally I love the blend of experimentation and dependable hooks. Like on Back in NYC which I think is in 7/8! But is also just a very solid tune. Or the very Zappa-esque Here Comes the Supernatural Anaesthetist which is also a good mix of whacky and catchy. The lyrics make me laugh. I didn’t focus on them much but I can see why Genesis are kind of looked down upon nowadays by some. Not to say I necessarily agree, but I see how the lyrics can be a bit cringy. I think the lyrics are sort of Black Sabbath-esque but with the verbosity of King Crimson. So it ends up being these wild, florid descriptions that do feel a bit cheesy at times. Also… it does get a bit tiring before long. It just feels like it doesn’t need to be this long… but if this album is the best thing since sliced bread for you, then I can totally see that this being a double album would be ideal. Just not so much for me. Maybe that’s partially because of when I’m listening to it. If I heard it when it first came out in ‘74 it could very well have blown my mind… then again, King Crimson released more mind-blowing stuff in ‘69 soooo… I dunno. I just can’t justify giving it more than 3 stars personally. But if it’s any consolation, I do feel bad for doing so.

It’s brilliant.

If I’m being honest with myself, it was a lot better than I think I wanted it to be.

Yeah that was pretty stunning

Being familiar with later QOTSA stuff, I was underwhelmed at first. But when I got into my head that this was proper stoner rock and not like their later stuff, I enjoyed it a lot more That said, I feel like it takes itself too seriously