1001 Albums Summary

Excellent music for a quiet time of day. I liked the first two tracks the most, but none of them were bad.

I appreciate the "economy" of pumping out 12 songs in less than 30 minutes, but this isn't all that great. That opening track is pretty dang good, and so is track 7, but this is exactly the kind of album that turned me into a "singles" kind of guy in my youth. Record companies tend to churn out "product" (albums) with one to three good/great songs on them, and then add a whole bunch of "filler" to pad the album. This is a pretty typical example of that. That last track sounds like a companion piece to Dr. Hook's "Freakin' At The Freaker's Ball." This probably should not make the list of the 1001 albums you should hear before you bite the dust. Mediocre at best. Meh.

It's not that it's bad or anything, it's just that this is not well-suited to my tastes. It's self-indulgent. It's too dang long. It's got more head than heart involved in the creation of it. It's very clever. And I'm a fan of cleverness in lots of human endeavors, but not really in music all that much. I think it could use an editor. I'd prefer it if it were in two-and-a-half to five minute long chunks instead of in overblown 18 minute long slogs. These guys are incredible musician's. They are capable of greatness. This album is just a little too far up its own butthole for me to really enjoy it.

This is absolute greatness. It's one of the best albums I've ever heard. "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine." Brilliant. There's not one single bad track on the entire collection. It also contains some of my favorite songs: "Free Money" "Kimberly" "Redondo Beach" "Break It Up" etc. etc. etc. Everyone should definitely hear this album. It's fantastic.

Look, there are things I love about this album. I love the jazz/rock synergy, for one. Great musicianship overall. Fantastic voices abound. But there are things I loathe about it, too - primarily their complete inability to edit themselves. Let's just look at the Steve Winwood masterpiece "I'm A Man" that Chicago covers on this album. The original succinct, tight little pop/rock and roll tune comes in at 2:58. These long-winded mofos in Chicago turn that into a 7 minute and 43 seconds long atrocity. MORE is not always BETTER. Not every musical inclination need be indulged. Sometimes, and I think this is the case here, less could have been much, much more.