1001 Albums Summary

Not owned: Streaming I’m not as versed in Ray Charles as I probably should be? I think this is one of my brother’s favorites (will ask him tomorrow when I see him!) To point out the obvious, the vocal performance is superb. Arresting on “I Love You So Much It Hurts.” Production is clean. Prefer the band over the strings; recorded in two separate sessions? Strings eventually sound like Xmas music. Length is apparent when songs sound similar. 3/5

Owned Always loved this showcase of talent. Not much I can add to this. Could subtract the Phil Spector spoken word part but eh.

•Owned •I remember how scared I was when I first heard them as a kid. It’s funny to listen to this in that context and hear the anger and energy now. •4/5

•Not owned: Streaming •For a collection of singles (common for “albums” of that time) it doesn’t get too homogenous. Production is pretty good, given its time—care was put in on a couple of tracks to highlight the guitarist as well. •4/5

•own, 3-4 times over •This is the first record on this that I’ve listened to a million times but I’m going to focus on how it sounds as an album—as compared to an article from my life. That said, I hear the filler that people complain about, even RH fans. It’s a formative record—you can pick which songs came from the Pablo Honey sessions, which ones lead them to OK Computer—and it still contains some of their greatest songs (Street Spirit, Just, Fake Plastic Trees) and some of Thom’s best lyrics (“Drying up in conversation/ You will be the one who cannot talk. / All your insides fall to pieces/ You just sit there wishing you could still make love.”) And yes, that also includes comparing a lover to Coca Cola. •4/5

•Not owned: Streaming •Full disclosure: I’ve never heard of this album. oof. I hate to say it but I did not enjoy it all. Instrumentation is kinda blah; lyrics are folk poetry misfirings (“All the sailors with their seasick mamas”; are we sure Vampire Blues wasn’t written by Fred Armisen?) •1/5

·Not owned: Streaming ·Pretty harmless pop album that starts off promising (love the chronicle of the opening track), has catchy tunes, but then overstays its welcome a bit. I appreciate the simplicity of "The End of the World." ·2/5

•Not Owned: Streaming •Solid garage album. Has a live feel to the whole album that culminates in a lovely (actually) live anthem about Mother Earth—perfect for the preceding looking-back lyrics that string album together. Really appreciate the dedication to sound: each piece is a jam, solos are load bearing walls. •4/5

•Not owned: Streaming. •Will get. •Great album, full of energy. Love the chop fest on “Newport Up” and the performance on “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue.” •4/5

•Owned •Haven’t revisited this one in a while so it was nice to sit with it. My brother and I once discussed the brightness of the instrumentation—how the synth/soprano combo could sound tinny in places, and it’s hard to not hear now. Still, love the first three tracks—diverse even for a pretty accessible album. Overall, it’s a great collection of talent, with post–Miles alumni teaming up with the ridiculous Jaco Pastorius, who at times is playing his own tunes over others. •3/5

•Owned •Masterful performances by Mark Knopfler and Pick Withers over a debut that is simultaneously tight and in development. "Sultans of Swing" still sounds fresh. •3/5

•Not owned: Streaming •Once owned; will get again •I forgot how much I enjoyed this album—probably haven’t listened to it since the Required Johnny Cash Period of my 20s. The energy between Cash and the crowd feels almost like communion; Cash and Co. play with such spirit, you’d think they were playing for early release. (I can’t be the first person to say this.) What a fantastic album. •5/5

•Owned •While I prefer the Sometimes-Y version of this band, it was nice revisiting this. They strike a great balance between individual expression and group harmony (check “Lady of the Island” leading into “Helplessly Hoping”). •4/5

•Not owned: Streaming •Nice jammy psyche rock .The handling of blues reminds me of the the Who's Live at Leeds (released the following year). Accessible psychedelia always tells me the band is stoned and having a great time—also evident with opening the second track with "This next one is rock and roll"... coming off a 20 minute burner of an opening track. • 4/5

•Not owned: Streaming •Never been prone to prog my rock but I listened with an open mind (in multiple time signatures). Quality production/mixing but it just sounds like Hobbit rock to me. Exception: “Heart of the Sunrise,” whose licks and vocal performances I actually enjoyed. • 2/5

•Not owned: Streaming •This album is more like a document—a moment in time that I never had—so I don’t need to review it. I will say, it sounded much, much better than I thought it would. •4/5

•Not owned: Streaming •Meticulously balanced baroque pop album that also shakes the pop rulebook with the Let's Get Old ideal of "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and the invoking of God in "God Only Knows," which also knows the exact length it should be (and still manages to end with a tumbling round outro). •4/5

•Owned •A project that represents the dual return-to-roots themes that dominated hip hop in the late 90s: a focus on the MC, on the art of rap; digging in jazz and funk crates for inspiration. The result is Common's composition book taped together and backed by some of the most genuine producers hip hop has ever seen. Wait until we get to Things Fall Apart... •4/5

•Not owned •Yeah, nothing more punk than ripping off blues artists and then depicting violence against the very same people who birthed the music. All while using derogatory terms. Call it what you want—“performance,” sure…—but it just feels exploitive. •1/5

•Owned •As a collection of pop standards, this album is wisely dedicated to the voice and the melody. Arranging and production are both treated with restrain (example: the coda of "Georgia on My Mind"), resulting in a perfect album. •5/5

• Not owned: Streaming. • Solid pop tunes with licks that range from honky-tonk to glam, all with well-used Beatle influence. "Thirteen" and "Don't Lie to Me" stand out. • 3/5

•Not owned: Streaming •Meticulous production and great use of tempo and riffs. •3.5/5

•Owned •The impending doom of adulthood—even with the coming wars, deteriorating landscape, more or less hinted at—is the backdrop for getting together biblically before it all happens. A danceable singalong for all, regardless of what you partake in that night, or even remain clear headed. Don’t sell out for anything else. •4.5/5

•Owned •Thee Live Rock Album. Cheap Trick turns the Budokan into a cauldron with an inferno of a set. Even when they swing with Fats Domino’s “Ain’t That a Shame”, they also rock. I would, indeed, like to do a number with them. (I saw them live about 20 years ago, at the Date Festival of all places, and they still played their hearts out then.) •4.5/5

•Not owned: Streaming •Teeny bopper in subject matter, mature in its orchestration and production. Plenty of great moments—the rumbling opening track, the bouncy "Help Me, Ronda"—and ends on a weird but kinda neat(?) audio blurb. •3.5/5

•Not owned: Streaming •Tight orchestration with performances that punch and bounce and sway, all when they should. •4/5

•Not owned: Streaming •A demanding fever dream of improvisation. Moments feel like a walk in a neon-lit noir city—you pick which coast—safe and strolling but unaware of the eyes that peer from the shadows. Others gain momentum and then abandon you on the sidewalk. You come to at the end of its 40 minute run and wonder when it's going to return. •5/5

•Owned •Massive effort of experimentation in genre and production. The differing voices of a band falling apart are all here: as a result, the album sprawls in emotion, tone. Even still, it's hard to imagine where "Helter Skelter" came from but it still burns as it plays. •4/4

•Not owned: Streaming •Never has an album cover matched the musical content so perfectly. Great use of industrial sounds to bring the metal imagery to life. Great cuts: “United,” “Living After Midnight,” and “Metal Gods.” Check the dub influence on “The Rage.” •4/5

•Owned •An album that remains a testament to Prince’s masterful songwriting: the sweetness of “If I Was Your Girlfriend” that gets dashed by the inherent toxicity of obsession; the fear of the opening/title track that is answered—with deep conviction—with “The Cross.” In between are burning tracks—“I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man”, “It”—as well as the funk gospel of “Housequake.” •5/5

•Not owned: Streaming •Kind of all over the place. Great cuts—"Mother Nature", "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone"— that have to carry the weight of a poorly recorded live opener and the goofy lyrics of "I Ain't Got Nothin'". I wanted so much more from this. •3/5

•Owned •An album that frantically (often coldly) jumps between social commentary/breaking news and ballads/dance pop, Rhythm Nation expects you to dance to the hits but demands that you hear the message it's brought along. All with love and no cynicism. The New Jack Swing palate may feel dated, but hey, these goosebumps are still happening. •5/5

•Not owned: Streaming •Smacks of way too much whimsy for me to forgive that its best parts are (kind of) Nilsson rip offs. •1.5/5

•Not owned: Streaming •Fantastic record with enormous talent—not limited to Hendrix, whose talent is not limited to the guitar—that marks the end of a fiery run. Hendrix's mastery of blues and psyche rock peaks across the track listing, most notably on the lost-in-time "Voodoo Chile" and "All Along the Watchtower". He somehow manages to not outshine his bandmates—even playing sideman on the still tight "Little Miss Strange". •4/5

•Owned •After taking a few years to process his departure from Genesis, 3 (or Melt) is a breakthrough in PG’s career, with the artist focusing on themes that he would carry long after: war, tribalism, human rights. PG also plays with unpopular concepts, peaking into the minds of a home invader (“Intruder”) and an assassin (“Family Snapshot”—100 listens later and I’m still unsure if we’re meant to sympathize with him or not); only to conclude with a prayer for Steve Biko. A pivotal moment in a career of influence, Melt also introduced the gated reverb that would dominate the decade. •4.5/5

•Not owned: Streaming •Pretty straightforward Afrobeat album that is at times a solo-fest, others a display of a tight rhythm section. •3.5/5

•Not owned: Streaming; Will get •A masterpiece that follows the thread from one person of vision, Innervisions is pitch-perfect example of composition, execution and production. It's a perfect album. •5/5

•Owned •Lyrically, this is an album in line with Springsteen's work up until this point, but the bright, almost sterile production undermines it. However, that same pop production is what ushered the artist's message—namely against war and the underselling of the working class—to an even larger audience. •4/5

•Not owned: Streaming •I've struggled to climb The Wall multiple times; this time I found that the narrative is lost in the writer's self-indulgence. And maybe that's the point? I appreciate the experimentation to push the listener inside, but it only makes the second half—when the sound really keys in—more confounding. •3/5

•Not owned: Streaming •Pop sounds that are too formulaic and predictable to be admired beyond the few body moving hits contained within ("One More Chance", "Heart"), all from one of the more uninteresting singing voices from the genre. •2/5

•Owned •From the off kilter opening track until the drop off ending (the latter they would perfect on Doolittle), the Pixies chew their way through songs about who knows what?: there's the unearned yet true lust of "Gigantic"; the unhinged passion of "Cactus" that bleeds and feels warm; and then there's "Where Is My Mind?" which is owned by anyone who's heard it. The vocal harmony between Kim Deal and Black Francis would be short lived, and for a band that created their own, unique sound, Surfer Rosa is where this element of it peaked. We're still gifted with tracks where Deal leads and her day-after-screaming-all-night voice might still be the album's rawest aspect. Producer Steve Albini's presence is subtle yet looming; Surfer Rosa is a great example of Albini's ability to capture a band in the studio, not limited to the tape blips to studio chatter. (Fun fact: the ending of "Where Is My Mind?" *is* the sound of the tape ending—it had ran out while they were recording the backing track and they left it, leaving Deal's isolated vocal to take the song out.) •5/5

•Not owned: YouTube (not on streaming platforms, probably because Tommy Boy was a disaster and legal cases have kept the label in digital purgatory) •Dedicated to sampling, this album picks from everything, from SNL to the telephone. Rips a little too much from Kraftwerk—aside from the telephone track, which Ralf und Co. did 3 years before, there are a handful of beats/grooves I’ve heard before…—but the experimental angle suggests exploration not exploitation. Ultimately, this experimentation obscures the album’s intention—does it want me to dance? or just come in its dorm to hear what it’s been working on all week?—but it’s still an interesting slice of time. •3.5/5

•Not owned: Streaming •I tried. I could not get into this album. I have nothing positive or negative to say about it. •3/5

•Not owned: Streaming •Great voice and vocal performance, backed by a band that took the title of the album to heart. •3.5/5

•Not owned: Streaming •Interesting jazz project from Paul Weller who clearly loves the art form—and the many avenues it offers him, all put to good use. •3.5/5

•Owned •With each MC's style clearly defined, and relying heavily on the sounds that defined J5—boom bap beats, obscure but jammy licks, harmonic choruses—Power in Numbers is a slicker successor to their debut. The harmony breaks down a little when they contradict one another, even on neighboring tracks. Sounds nitpicky of me (sure), but J5 were lauded for their thoughtful lyrics. Listening closer doesn't always support this. Still a handful of tracks are a reminder of how J5 helped bring lyricism to the mainstream. •3/5

•Not owned: Streaming •Just a great album that highlights just what a wonderful vocalist Ray Charles was—while still retaining great instrumentation and arrangements. •4/5

•Owned •Great album whose exploration gives us a pop tracks with smart instrumentation, and a sweeping blues fantasy. •4/5

•Not owned: Streaming •Besides the opener—which is too tinny for me to forgive—this is a solid pop album that Tina Turner brings her all too. Standouts include "Steel Claw", the title track, and a perfectly arranged cover "I Can't Stand the Rain". •4/5

•Not owned: Streaming •Recorded at a time when rock music was undergoing major changes, U2 pulled from numerous genres—electronica, hip hop, funk—employed them in subtle ways, and found their own sound. The result is Achtung Baby, a bright album of a dozen well-executed tracks, rich with textures. •4/5

•Owned •Supported by Daniel Lanois' and Brian Enos' masterful production, The Joshua Tree's environment elevates the band's discussion of America, often highly mythologized, sometimes criticized. All this underlines the human condition at the core of the album—all of us, looking for love, freedom, opportunities, justice. •4.5/5

•Not owned: Streaming •2.5/5