1001 Albums Summary

Good midtempo, loved the guitar parts and layering with tremelos and delays.

Nobody flows like Biggie. Some societal messages and imagery are just as relevant and vivid as life today as they were then. It's awesome to see how far we've come and sad to see how far we still have to go.

What an amazing album. Great vocals, great tones, great vibes, interesting breakthroughs and bridges and transitions into really cool ideas. Has some lulls, but is a front-to-back listen for me and I'll definitely keep it in my library.

Very early 80's. Okay, didn't fall in love with anything in particular. If I had a cheap casio keyboard and 100 hours, I could make something similarly thin sounding.

I had never heard this album before. I really liked this album. It went from just another pop album made in the 80's into its own little world. I was surprised by the orchestration and production. Lots of versatility across all aspects. Great album, will listen again.

This is an album that you need to R-E-S-P-E-C-T. I've obviously heard the hits, but with Respect being the only big one on the album, and it being the opener, I was a bit worried but I shouldn't have been. Aretha really brings it home with her performance.

Meh, didn't really do anything for me. Never seemed to evolve or change or try to say something in particular. Just sounded like a noisier more boring beach boys.

Pink Floyd makes sense now.

Drummer rips, great piano ebbs and flows, bassist holding it all together. Some dynamics, but typically sat in the pocket and at points it seemed to meander aimlessly. Overall, really liked it and will probably listen again.

Catchy pop punk rhythms. Great sounding guitar work, they were certainly not sloppy with their time like a lot of bands in this genre can be. Interesting layered vocals with a weird tremolo/vibrato at times. Too many songs that just fade out because they reach a state of endless repetition, but not all of them. Anyway, the music is fun, and wouldn't be out of place in a Tony Hawk game.

1/1 - interesting, defined, loved the little melodies dancing throughout. The long draw of the organ puts you in a place. The piano warms it. Really liked the ambiance it builds. 2/1 - not interesting, unless you like really slow swells made from boring vocal samples. I wouldn't listen to this while doing yoga, but I'd play it if I was struggling to sleep at night. 1/2 - Took the good piano from the first song and ruined it with the same bad samples from the previous song. 2/2 - Now, let's turn the bad samples into some okay sounding horns, but keep the swells. I wouldn't listen to this in an airport. It's not for an airport. It's more suited to a late night drive after you broke up with your S.O., or as a soundtrack to a short indie film about a someone struggling with depression. But, that's what most ambient music sounds like to me.

I really liked this album. My taste in electronic music in general is really limited, but I can say that I like this almost as much as Daft Punk, and I really like Daft Punk. There are a few parts of this album that really stand out to me, like Genesis and "TTHHEE PPAARRTTYY". Added to library and will definitely listen again.

Overall - Liked it, didn't love it. The musicians and the arrangements are great. It's kind of like actual salsa. It really works with everything it does, but you do have to switch it the condiments and you're not just going to eat a bowl of it. If the album were instrumental-only, and the arrangement was shortened by like 15 minutes, I would love this album. Maybe even add it to the library. Sadly not today, Plastico - Blew me away with the opening. Slappy bass, disco strings/horns, vibey vocals. Then it morphed into salsa. Buscando Guayaba - Basically exactly what you would expect from vocal jazz if it was salsa-based. It's almost a commercial for morphing into salsa. Pedro Navaja - Basically the salsa version of Mack the Knife. Opens with an a police siren, then it morphed into salsa. María Lionza - Opens with an awesome, dissonant, dark piano and chanting "oh!"... then it morphed into salsa. Ojos - It's just salsa. Dime - Super catchy piano and bass progression, the stabby horns give it a nice melody to play with. Even the singing doesn't bring out too much of the salsa. Then, about two and a half minutes in, it starts to morph into full salsa. Then, for the last minute or so, it has a nice vocal jazz break/outro where the vocals are way too loud. Siembra - Really nice outro and string arrangement! But, at this point, I am physically tired of listening to salsa.

Overall - I really liked this album. I hadn't heard most of these songs before. I've listened to it like 3 times now, and all I can really say is, I'm adding it to my library. I really loved Time and Aladdin Sane. Some of it sounds very Bowie, some of it sounds very Bowie doing Rolling Stones. I really loved how Drive-In Saturday and The Prettiest Star have a 50's do-wop ballad vibe, and how well they mesh with Time.

Okay, let's go over this for a moment... I was nine when this album came out. My barely-younger sister absolutely LOVED this album. When I saw this pop up, the ONLY thing I thought of was how annoying this album was, except I learned that I was conflating it with how annoying my sister was. WHAT. AN. ALBUM. There's a reason she became a household name. This album had people talking, and her follow-up (Oops I did it again) solidified Britney's place in pop culture. My god, to think about how she recoreded this album when she was (checks notes) 16-17 years old! MY GOD WHAT A PERFORMANCE. The vocals are sooooo goood. Like, sometimes as good or better than what you would expect from Mariah, or Janet, or even Whitney. Perfectly timed tremelos and vibrato along with the vocal overdubs will remind you of 90's production techniques, while also reminding you of how versatile and accurate Britney's voice really is. I hate loving this album. I feel like a corporate shill when I think of this as a business-created album from JIVE records. I've never felt so guilty loving an album, especially the covers. But, it's still the 8th highest selling female album of all time FOR A REASON. The duality has me loving and hating myself for this at the same time... Added to library.

Well, yesterday I had Britney Spears (and hated that I loved it), so this is a welcome change of pace. This is an easy album to love. Except... WAIT A MINUTE - IS THIS THE SAME AS …BABY ONE MORE TIME?!?! Hear me out - it opens with the hit. The one that you remember. The one that was on the radio. The one that the album is named after. The one that runs 42 minutes. The one where the songs were written over and over by a committee until they were perfect. The ones where you just zone out into the vibe. Both these albums were the first release by them to break the Billboard Top 100. Also (hard to verify), but it seems like it was also the first album that each vocalists employed a vocal coach for the album. To further the conspiracy, AC/DC came out first with 9 tracks. ...Baby One More Time came out afterwards, with 11 tracks... 9/11. All f*ckery aside, I enjoyed this one a bit more. But I'm really realizing that it's because it's the one I'm programmed to like more. I can't really say there is anything other than an aesthetic difference in the two. And, it's really hard for me to admit, worse yet saying out loud. AC/DC is one of those legacy bands that released a large catalog of music, and really nailed a lot of the hits. This album is no different. It is all unmistakably AC/DC. Added to library.

At just over an hour, this album ranks in at the longest one (so far) on my journey. I grew up listening to "ska". More specifically, 2000's white suburban kid ska. I had no idea who The Pogues were until this album. This has an interesting intertwining of musical stylings. Still all something you would expect from a Dropkick Murphys or Flogging Molly album. I think it's safe for me to say that I liked it, but I didn't love it. I'll definitely mix it into the playlist if I ever decide to return to "ska".

Good album. Definitely one of the great grunge albums. That said, I didn't add it to my library because I grew out of grunge rock after high school. Nothing against it, there is some great craftsmanship in this album. From the razor-sharp guitar work and the super tight rhythm section, and the vocals that sit surprisingly well in a very full mix. Worth a spin.

Great album. Again, grew out of Green Day after high school, but the weird part was, I knew most of the album. My brain suddenly remembered all the catchy hooks and cool riffs. I was surprised to hear how culturally relevant it still was. Definitely on my "Rebel against the world" playlist, so it's made its way back into my library for a glory run that it deserves.

Good blues album. Didn't add to my library, but I liked it.