1001 Albums Summary

highlight tracks: come on feel the illinoise, chicago, casimir pulaski day, man of metropolis, and most of side 2 tbh bass playing is great all over the album production is gr8 across the whole record, too. Especially the banjo timbre on Casimir and that song's overall instrumentation - the trio of acoustic, banjo and horns go so perfectly together. Also good production on Man of Metropolis, especially the full band sections. Reminds me of Elliott Smith, but if ES had a lot more Paul McCartney in him, rather than being pretty balance before all 4 beatles. (I subscribe to the idea the ES is all 4 beatles in one person) Sufjans voice is good and soothing, but at the same time comes off as a bit (for lack of a better word) lame and cheesy (ie gay), lyrics are also a bit lame here and there, but on the other hand they come off as very personal, which I respect a lot. Brings Roman Candle to mind. These are criticisms that I 100% believe will fade with repeated listens. Predatory Wasps and the song before are also gr8. Horns are always done well on this album and don't come off as too corny, which is a hard things for horns to usually do IMO. Reminds me of nmh horns with ES/Figure 8 production. In fact, all the instrumentation on Predatory Wasps is great, keyboards especially. It was easier for me to get into these keyboards on first listen than Elliott's piano playing on XO (on first listen) which is probably a really good sign. They are Night Zombies reminds me of Kanye's (?) Jesus Walks, which is kinda hilarious to me actually. I can see how those tastes intersect with this specific song, and why the internet raves about both.

I've read about this album and was aware the sequencing was gonna be good and is well praised, but the abrupt switches from Save the Children to God is Love to Mercy Mercy Me was really well done. The album kinda sounds like one long performance so far, which is a huge plus, remind me of The Ramones or The Strokes first album in that regard, but a completely different style of music of course. Maybe if RHCP were good? The songs that change pace are right there when you need them, like Right On or the third or so song (?). ESPECIALLY Wholy Holy. The album is on the shorter side which adds to its one-long-single-song thing more by avoiding listener fatigue and increasing replayability. The BASS all over this is such groove. The strings have such a good timbre, especially on Right On breakdown and Wholy Holy. I swear I've heard them sampled by MF Doom/king geedorah. Blueprint string production. How the songs are clumped/pairedtogether is perfect. Wholy Holy really expands the string sounds introduced as a forefront instrument on the earlier song. The last 3 songs (THE STRINGS) were the best on an album that's perfectly consistent, and the first song makes me want to spin the whole album again. The timbre of the strings really elevates this album into something very special, and now I hear them so prominently on relistening. They're a little more prominent on the first side. The instrumentation is so layered and lush I can tell this would be a very rewarding album upon relistens