My 1001 Albums Journey

Albums Rated

3.96

Average Rating

Complete

990 albums remaining

Rating Distribution

Rating Timeline

Taste Profile

1970s

Favorite Decade

Hard-rock

Favorite Genre

Top Origin

Enthusiast

Rater Style ?

5-Star Albums

1-Star Albums

Breakdown

By Genre

By Decade

By Origin

Albums

You Love More Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
Suicide	5	2.46	+2.54
GI	5	2.54	+2.46
The Sounds Of India	5	2.85	+2.15
Out of Step	5	2.92	+2.08
Tical	5	2.94	+2.06
The Dreaming	5	2.96	+2.04
The Colour Of Spring	5	3.07	+1.93
...The Dandy Warhols Come Down	5	3.13	+1.87
Astral Weeks	5	3.27	+1.73
In The Wee Small Hours	5	3.28	+1.72

You Love Less Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
Come Away With Me	1	3.39	-2.39
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot	1	3.3	-2.3
Picture Book	1	2.88	-1.88
Tusk	2	3.46	-1.46
...And Justice For All	2	3.43	-1.43
Led Zeppelin II	3	4.12	-1.12
Modern Kosmology	2	3.08	-1.08
Hypnotised	2	3.06	-1.06

Artists

Favorites

Artist	Albums	Average
David Bowie	3	5
Beatles	3	4.67
Jimi Hendrix	2	5
Rush	2	5

5-Star Albums (47)

View Album Wall

Popular Reviews

...And Justice For All

Metallica

2/5

Where's the bass?

1 likes

...The Dandy Warhols Come Down

The Dandy Warhols

5/5

An oasis of indie-rock goodness that emerged within a desert of cookie-cutter pop punk, Britpop, nu-metal, and grunge knock-offs in 1997.

1 likes

1-Star Albums (3)

All Ratings

Heroes

David Bowie

5/5

Stand!

Sly & The Family Stone

3/5

Dookie

Green Day

5/5

...And Justice For All

Metallica

2/5

Where's the bass?

Paranoid

Black Sabbath

5/5

Lady Soul

Aretha Franklin

5/5

Step below I Never Loved a Man... but still a must-listen.

The Dreaming

Kate Bush

5/5

My intro to Kate Bush and a brilliant album that now resides under the shadow created by its successor, Hounds of Love. It still belongs on this list.

OK Computer

Radiohead

4/5

An essential listen, no doubt. Bridges the gap between the more structured predecessor, The Bends, and the experimental successors, Kid A/Amnesiac. A little less cohesive than what came before and after.

Vol. 4

Black Sabbath

4/5

The first three Sabbath albums displayed an evolution of their sound, making them each heavily influential. Vol 4 doesn’t tread new territory, even though it has a great set of songs. Not a Top 1,001 album in my book.

Club Classics Vol. One

Soul II Soul

3/5

Pleasant neo-soul that incorporates elements of EDM and hip-hop, but not that groundbreaking. Massive Attack would do it so much better.

Pretenders

4/5

Foundational album, but I prefer the maturity and diversity of songs on Learning to Crawl, which would’ve been my choice.

Fragile

Yes

5/5

Epic. Essential prog album.

Get Behind Me Satan

The White Stripes

3/5

White Blood Cells was the breakthrough album and likely deserves to be in the book. Everything before and after that is either building or rehashing the sound that was best exemplified on White Blood Cells. Pass on this.

First Band On The Moon

The Cardigans

3/5

90s indie pop that rehashes 60s-era pop with a Bacharach vibe. Pleasant, but essential? Hardly.

At Newport 1960

Muddy Waters

5/5

Essential folk blues.

System Of A Down

3/5

Not as strong an album as Toxicity.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Elton John

5/5

Elton and Bernie at their best. Which is saying something.

Figure 8

Elliott Smith

4/5

Either/Or belongs in the book. This is a great album but doesn’t build on his earlier work. Several other great albums could’ve taken this place of this album in the book.

Station To Station

David Bowie

5/5

Either/Or belongs in the book. This is a great album but doesn’t build on his earlier work. Several other great albums could’ve taken this place of this album in the book.

Hotel California

Eagles

5/5

Featuring the Eagles’ best lineup and their strongest song selection to date.

Sticky Fingers

The Rolling Stones

5/5

The Stones' best album. Back to more of a roots-rock sound but grittier, featuring the band's best lineup with Mick Taylor.

The Wall

Pink Floyd

5/5

Essential concept album, even though Waters’ power play was ripping the band apart during this production.

The White Album

Beatles

4/5

Uneven, but influential nonetheless. Condense the great songs into a single album and this might have been the Beatles’ greatest LP.

At San Quentin

Johnny Cash

4/5

More rollicking and raucous than the Folsom Prison recording (aided in large part by the audience.) Great as it is, Folsom Prison has a stronger list of songs and better overall sound.

Young Americans

David Bowie

5/5

Bowie's glam persona had become a little long in the tooth (as displayed on the over-rated Diamond Dogs), and this album was a welcome pivot to warmer R&B sounds. Calling it "plastic soul" is a bit of a disservice, as the songs display some legit Philly soul credibility, while still showcasing Bowie's trademark voice. And "Fame" is a slow-burning banger. A top Bowie album in my books, and the one I'd consider most under-rated in his catalogue.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Beatles

5/5

Obvious game-changer, raising the bar on how the studio could be used as an instrument. While the Sgt. Pepper-themed material hasn’t aged so well, tracks like “Within You Without You” and “A Day in the Life” sound as fresh and innovative today as they did all those years ago…

The Stone Roses

5/5

Atmospheric jangle-pop interspersed with innovative dance beats. Still sounds fresh and relevant. Definitive recording that documents the Madchester era.

Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor

Lupe Fiasco

4/5

Displays a penchant for pop hooks that make the socially-conscious subject matter more palatable. It remains a mystery why the over-indulgent "Outro" made the final cut for inclusion.

Hot Rats

Frank Zappa

5/5

Zappa's (and even with his minimal contribution, Captain Beefheart's) best album.

Axis: Bold As Love

Jimi Hendrix

5/5

Doesn’t quite resonate like Are You Experienced, but an exceptional release nonetheless.

In Our Heads

Hot Chip

3/5

Decent electronic band, but nothing in their sound is particularly ground-breaking. If any album of theirs would warrant being in this book, it is The Warning, and even that sounds pedestrian compared to electronic dance albums being released by Justice and LCD Soundsystem in the same time frame.

Homework

Daft Punk

3/5

The Sun Rises In The East

Jeru The Damaja

4/5

Exceptional East Coast hip-hop, but essential?

The Sounds Of India

Ravi Shankar

5/5

A foundational work that introduced foreign audiences to the essential sounds of the Indian subcontinent.

Moving Pictures

Rush

5/5

Prog met new wave to form beautiful musical alchemy. Rush got the balance right here between the guitars, synths, and complex drum parts.

Zombie

Fela Kuti

5/5

Django Django

3/5

Decent danceable indie pop, but an essential recording? Not in my book.

Out of Step

Minor Threat

5/5

Van Halen

5/5

Essential album. It has the virtuosic flare of prog rock with Eddie Van Halen's classically-influenced fretboard finger taps, the distorted drive of heavy metal, and a campy - albeit memorable - crooner in David Lee Roth. Suffice it to say that countless failed novelists known as rock critics hated the album, which makes it sound even better to these ears.

Warehouse: Songs And Stories

Hüsker Dü

4/5

Interesting choice. Another case for me of a great potential single album ruined by another album's worth of filler material. While the band had honed their songwriting craft by this point, the muted production really did no service to their trademark punk sound. New Day Rising is a superior effort that deftly balances their sonic fury and solid melodic foundation.

Bayou Country

Creedence Clearwater Revival

3/5

“Proud Mary” and “Born on the Bayou” aside, the remaining material doesn’t represent CCR at their best. Better albums to come for this band.

Raw Like Sushi

Neneh Cherry

2/5

Funeral

Arcade Fire

3/5

Are You Experienced

Jimi Hendrix

5/5

A foundational recording, aptly demonstrating the infinite possibilities one could achieve with electric guitar.

Medúlla

Björk

3/5

At Folsom Prison

Johnny Cash

5/5

The seminal outlaw country album.

Dig Me Out

Sleater-Kinney

3/5

One can appreciate Corin Tucker's low-register guitar lines, but they fail to supplant what a bonafide bassist could bring to the mix. You're left with a light version of what should be a high-octane musical elixir.

Destroyer

KISS

4/5

The band's impact on pop culture and music is undeniable. That said, the studio albums do not convey the energy of their live recordings. Either Kiss Alive (overdubs and all) or Alive II would've been better candidates for this book.

Music in Exile

Songhoy Blues

4/5

Come Away With Me

Norah Jones

1/5

Vapid aural wallpaper.

Gorillaz

3/5

Play

Moby

3/5

Here's Little Richard

Little Richard

5/5

Picture Book

Simply Red

1/5

Insipid karaoke-grade takes on Philly Soul.

The Colour Of Spring

Talk Talk

5/5

Effectively bridges the period between their refined synth-pop era and their quieter, more contemplative post-rock phase. Their best album. The lower-end piano riff on "Life's What You Make It" provides one of the most memorable song openers of the '80s.

Chirping Crickets

Buddy Holly & The Crickets

5/5

One of the essential early rock albums. A no-brainer that you must listen to this.

Highway to Hell

AC/DC

5/5

Best of the Bon Scott era.

Parallel Lines

Blondie

5/5

New Wave classic. Whether they liked it or not, Mike Chapman brought out the best in Debbie Harry and the band.

The Köln Concert

Keith Jarrett

5/5

A masterclass in improvisation.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Wilco

1/5

Reprise called it right when they refused to release this. Impressive studio work only gets you so far when you're working with weak songs, and I'd argue that Tweedy and Bennett's disjointed songwriting process bore some half-baked goods here.

Nilsson Schmilsson

Harry Nilsson

5/5

A wide and varied collection of brilliant pop rock tunes. Nilsson took the torch from the Beatles and had a brief but spectacular run with this album.

Suicide

5/5

The most essential punk album of all time.

Music

Madonna

2/5

We hit peak Madonna with Ray of Light.

Dusty In Memphis

Dusty Springfield

5/5

The quintessential blue-eyed soul album.

Safe As Milk

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band

4/5

Captain Beefheart in his most coherent form, aided significantly by the guitar contributions of Ry Cooder.

Germs

5/5

One of the better L.A. hardcore albums, in large part due to Joan Jett’s production.

Electric Warrior

T. Rex

5/5

The Big Bang for the glam rock era.

Ragged Glory

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

3/5

Diminishing returns from the sound he honed on Rust Never Sleeps.

Boy In Da Corner

Dizzee Rascal

4/5

Chemtrails Over The Country Club

Lana Del Rey

4/5

Although it features her best album title to date, the music within delivers diminishing returns when compared to Ultraviolence or NFR!

Smash

The Offspring

4/5

Functional pop-punk. Lived up to the billing of its title.

Third/Sister Lovers

Big Star

3/5

Strange Cargo III

William Orbit

3/5

Vegan cafe muzak.

Elephant

The White Stripes

3/5

Best of the White Stripes' takes on '60s garage rock, if only for Jack White's efforts to fill in the sound with bass lines on his old Kay guitar.

Tusk

Fleetwood Mac

2/5

Yet another followup to a massively successful album that ventured into more experimental territory, with diminishing returns.

Modern Kosmology

Jane Weaver

2/5

The Sound of Starbucks.

Blur

3/5

The band's pivot to lo-fi indie delivered mixed results, with the grunge diss track "Song 2" being the clear highlight.

Iron Maiden

3/5

Better days to come once Dickinson took over the lead mic.

If You Can Believe Your Eyes & Ears

The Mamas & The Papas

5/5

The epitome of ‘60s West Coast pop.

Tical

Method Man

5/5

Epic. Flies under the radar of Cuban Linx Pt 1 and Liquid Swords, but is one of the classic Wu-Tang bangers.

The College Dropout

Kanye West

5/5

All the classic Ye attributes - Jesus worship juxtaposed with a fair dose of megalomania - but toned down enough to highlight his superior producer skills.

Forever Changes

Love

3/5

Off The Wall

Michael Jackson

5/5

Epic.

Heaven Or Las Vegas

Cocteau Twins

5/5

Quintessential dream pop.

The Suburbs