1001 Albums Summary

Where's the bass?

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Epic. Essential prog album.

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.

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

Essential folk blues.

Not as strong an album as Toxicity.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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…

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

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.

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

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

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.

Exceptional East Coast hip-hop, but essential?

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

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

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

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.

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.

“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.

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

The seminal outlaw country album.

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.

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.

Vapid aural wallpaper.

Insipid karaoke-grade takes on Philly Soul.

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.

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

Best of the Bon Scott era.

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

A masterclass in improvisation.

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.

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.

The most essential punk album of all time.

We hit peak Madonna with Ray of Light.

The quintessential blue-eyed soul album.

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

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

The Big Bang for the glam rock era.

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

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

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

Vegan cafe muzak.

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.

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

The Sound of Starbucks.

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

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

The epitome of ‘60s West Coast pop.

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

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

Epic.

Quintessential dream pop.

The magna carta of hard blues rock for classic rock programmers.

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.

The 🐐

Epic.

Should’ve been credited to Morrison and Richard Davis, given the latter’s bass work made the album a true classic.

Basically two solo albums. Weakest “OutKast” album in their catalog.