Marquee Moon
TelevisionI could write 10,000 words about how phenomenal this record is. Not only one of the best records of the post-punk era, or even the 70s, but arguably one of the greatest rock records of all time.
I could write 10,000 words about how phenomenal this record is. Not only one of the best records of the post-punk era, or even the 70s, but arguably one of the greatest rock records of all time.
Deservedly classic status - but to me, not on the same level as some of the other top-tier Dylan albums like Blood On The Tracks, Blonde on Blonde, and Highway 61 Revisited.
Definitely seemed like I didn't 'get' Neil Young the first half, but the title track and a number of others made me remember the first time I heard 'Cinnamon Girl.' Looking forward to more.
Had already heard this one several times. Mostly written off Muse as an over-earnest combination of Radiohead and Rachmaninoff. From this point in their career it felt increasingly ham-handed and on the nose in its political treatments ('you'll burn in hell' obviously directed at George W. Bush, the cover to Drones, "United States of Eurasia"), to the point my friend and I started referring to Muse as Matt Bellamy and The Tinfoil Hats. Willingness to overlook the clumsiness in favor of its world-conquering pop appeal has me utterly convinced this list was written by a British man who was at least young-ish when Black Holes And Revelations was present in the zeitgeist. Even typing that title confirms it. Despite the obvious gifting the group has in dynamics and harmony, it's difficult to overcome Bellamy's lyrics - though it does work at times when it feels like you can hear it in the arena ("Starlight"). Absolution still feels like the purest iteration of their shtick - though "Map Of The Problematique" remains utterly compelling when you gloss over 'why can't you see / when we bleed, we bleed the same'. I am looking forward to "Knights of Cydonia" at the finish, though, even if it again recalls Radiohead in its opening soundscape straight from "Lucky". Edit: how did I ever get past 'no one's gonna take me alive'? Another review decried Muse's fans as prattling on about the band's 'skills' instead of paying attention to the songwriting, which feels about as concise as it gets. Bonus track "Glorious" reminded me of hearing this album for the first time - the fireworks are awe-inspiring, until you get hold of the lyrics and yet again feel like its reach far exceeds its grasp.
I can see why these guys are treated as the Progfathers and it struck me how early this album seems in comparison to the well-studied acolytes I later heard and were enthralled by in my youth (i.e. Dream Theater). 2112 is well into Rush's recording career, and in 1976 was only 5 years after Led Zeppelin IV. Still seems like a band I would like more if I'd discovered them as a teenager. Doesn't have the wider pop and rock appeal of a Zeppelin but all the same intrigue, grandiosity - and ultimately, nerdiness - of Plant and Page's cinematism. Geddy Lee has an absolutely stunning vocal range, and Lifeson demonstrates pretty cutting-edge chops in a pre-Halen world. Won't be mad if Moving Pictures comes up somewhere else on the list, though.
A trip through 1001 albums with listening notes is nothing short of personal, and I'd be lying if I said this wasn't a five-star album in my catalogue, if not the very best of Elliott's releases. I've spun this more times than I can remember and I'm still gobsmacked by his impressive grasp of the most basic building blocks of pop music - the marriage of melody and harmony. He gets compared to the Beatles rightfully in this sense - but his unique vocal and undeniably sad story help set him apart as an artist that still seems singular to me, even 20 years on from his death. It could be my age and genre comfort speaking, but an album like Either/Or or Figure 8 feel to me pretty timeless - not a lot of era signposts giving away their age, and good melody never goes out of style. It gives the music grace and appeal. I'm constantly trying to emulate his economy of writing in my own songwriting attempts, and I'm still blown away that "Somebody That I Used To Know" gets in, roves through some supremely charming motifs, breaks your heart, and gets out in just over two minutes. A less-wise songwriter would be trying to get more mileage out of such tightly-crafted chord changes. "Stupidity Tries" remains one of my favorite Elliott Smith tracks, and "Son Of Sam" may well have been the first of his songs I ever heard - I even recall seeing a Figure 8 sticker on a lamppost on campus. Having watched replays of his short-lived show, it's apparent that Jon Brion must have been listening to Elliott demo "Everything Means Nothing To Me" when describing his utter bewilderment at the beauty of his songs in the Elliott doc Heaven Adores You. Only something so intricate and baroque could have so impressed a classically-hardened virtuoso.
Didn't much care for this! Pretty hippy-dippy for my tastes. Title track, "Once I Was," and "I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain" brightened the outlook in the second half somewhat. The front end was difficult to endure. Has me dreading Starsailor coming up, which I've listened to in the past and didn't really care for. Huge fan of Jeff Buckley, and expected to be fonder of his father's work, even though they weren't supposedly close.
Way better than expected. Can hear a lot of these songwriting grooves and motifs moving forward even into the pop of the 90s. Really good clarity on recording as well for the era.
Absolutely adore this record. Harrison finally allowed to soar unrestrained and shows himself to be a truly S-tier songwriter. Amazing arrangements, such a great showcase for his slide guitar as well. Classic as they come.
A fun classic. Wouldn’t make my top 500 though.
Wasn't sure I "got" it in the front half, which was disappointing having loved other Miles records. Definitely started to sink in, and the entire second half was instant genius. Brilliant jazz record.
Absolutely loved it. Definitely among my new favorite albums of its era - have listened to a bunch of Kate Bush before but never this album somehow. Magical. Amazing melodies and arrangements.
Coming in, TPAB was not the absolute top-tier listen that Good Kid, m.A.A.d City or DAMN. is, but still a really amazing rap album. Felt like it sat in that category of mid-2010s hip-hop album that is making strides in advanced in its scope and artistry, but somewhat at the cost of listenability and fun factor, similar to Frank Ocean's Blonde and Solange Knowles' A Seat At The Table. And listening now, I feel I was wrong. Incredible and newfound respect for it.
Loved revisiting Neil Young early in this list.
Fantastic Britpop entry.
Goes to show how far a great voice can carry a band, and boy does Caleb Followill have one. Very middle-of-the-road rock album to my ears, lyrically and musically, though "17" was more creative than I would have expected for a song of its content. I want to rate it low, but don't have a great reason. It's a 5/10 but I'll give it two stars.
Not for me I don't think.
Perfectly listenable album, but on an all-time-essentials list, an oddly pedestrian selection (even inside 2002 alone which saw the release of The Eminem Show, The Blueprint 2, Lord Willin', Fantastic Damage, and Legend of the Liquid Sword). Feels like a choice made by a hip-hop novice. Rating is for its inclusion, not its quality.
The undisputed greatest-ever of cool and a great early compilation of key steps in his lengthy journey as the dominant 20th-century figure shaping jazz and beyond.
A flawed masterpiece — I somehow can't give less than five stars. This is some of Brian Wilson's weirdest, wonderful-est music, and a great document detailing the fractured structure of the Beach Boys at a pivotal moment in their storied career. One of my favorite Beach Boys records.
A lovely listen, not transcendent to my ears - but a solid 7/10. Some fun tracks. Once again - feels like an inclusion localized to the whims and age of its selector.
A band aping AC/DC is always going to be less enjoyable than just listening to AC/DC — critics that make their comparison seemingly fail to recognize the force of nature that is Angus Young. I remember seeing The Cult at a festival show and thinking they were old and out of touch. Let's find out if they sound that way in their heyday. They don't feel particularly tight in the rhythm section — flubbed double-kicks in "Peace Dog" and "Aphrodisiac Jacket" — and the album winds up feeling 'loose' in none of the charming ways Zeppelin ever did. It doesn't come across as comparatively powerful-feeling in terms of the engineering and capture, either — guitars are over-bright, out of tune, and there are numerous drum takes that needed another take, have sloppy edits, or suffer from bad dynamics/compression. Back In Black was the supposed starting place for the guitar sounds of Electric - a comparison of their sonic similarities underscores the guitarists' old adage: "tone is in the fingers," because to my seasoned ears, they don't sound much alike. Listening to the intro of "Aphrodisiac Jacket," Angus and Malcom's guitars are much more mid-forward. Ian Astbury clearly grew up listening to Diamond Dave yowling his way through early Halen records, and this feels dated having been released nearly a decade after 1978's Van Halen I, with nowhere near the caliber of musicianship propelling it, and the comparison doesn't get rosier in either direction, either to Robert Plant's urgent wail on 1973's Zeppelin IV or alongside Guns 'N Roses' razor-sharp hedonism on Appetite For Destruction which also came out in 1987. Despite the above, "Bad Fun" and "Aphodisiac Jacket" have swagger to spare. An album, ONCE AGAIN, that feels selected as "essential" by an Englishman suffering from Nostalgia Fever. Should have stayed goth-rock if you ask me; they were heaps more compelling and forward-looking on 1985's sparkling "She Sells Sanctuary." Really didn't care much for this!
Every new track it sounds more like a musical. The opener is like the overture, with several musical motifs leading into an eight-minute title track. I was surprised to find Jim Steinman didn't also write musicals - you can hear the entire thing taking place on a stage with exposition and characters, etc. I get that it's an important album, but despite growing up listening to Andrew Lloyd Weber and other Broadway hits collections, I wouldn't ever put this on to vibe to.
You're a nut! You're crazy in the coconut! A certified 2000s indie classic! Listened many times before and it's a treat. Along with DJ Shadow's ...Endtroducing, it brought head-nodding plunderphonics to the headphones of many a listener of its era and beyond. Absolutely love this record. "Frontier Psychiatry" is the track I quote without hesitation when the mood strikes me. That boy needs therapy.
Another irresistible 2000s-era indie record, that like its Bruegel painting album art, hides a wealth of detail to be uncovered, stuff you might have missed the first time around. When I first heard this record, I knew it came with a lot of accompanying hype, and I was quick to dismiss it, perhaps because I wanted to play spoiler or it couldn't live up to impossibly high expectations. Before long I was revisiting it and have been proven wrong again and again ever since. Dense with a rainbow of Beach Boys-inspired harmonies, a depth of affecting songwriting, and richly strummed folk arrangements, it's truly one of the high water marks of its decade. Pretty rare that a band or songwriter manages to put it all together so quickly in their career; Robin Pecknold is a gift and an unreal vocal talent.
Enjoyed this more than expected. Classy pop music, great horn arrangements. I have a copy of Astral Weeks that rarely gets played, and I'm sure I'll see it on this list sooner or later.
If this album had Candle In The Wind, Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting, and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, and 45 minutes of Elton John banging on a trashcan lid and screaming, it would still probably be a five star album
Probably my favorite Police record. Don't have to hesitate, five stars. A classic Art From Adversity record - some of Sting's very best songwriting. The band's best arrangement sense is on display, stripping tracks back in arrangement and mixing to their more essential parts. "Wrapped Around Your Finger" might still be my favorite Police song, and having it couched deep in a record loaded front-to-back with huge hits like "Every Breath You Take," "Synchronicity I," "Synchronicity II," and "King of Pain," this is one of the easiest five-star ratings I've yet given.
Just heard the inspiration for Roger Radcliffe's "Cruella de Vil" song in 101 Dalmatians in "Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues Are," and my mind was pretty blown.
Absolute banger. Such an important sound at the peak of the disco resurgence and an amazing showcase for Nile Rodgers as an arranger and guitar player. Bernard Edwards' bass is deep and grooving throughout — and from the drop on "Good Times" you immediately hear again all the places it went: Daft Punk's "Around The World," Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight," and inspiring Queen's John Deacon on "Another One Bites The Dust." The songwriting takes you all sorts of places as you hear who grew up listening to them - the chord progressions and harmony got deposited in dance artists of all stripes, again including Stardust and Daft Punk, even before they famously collaborated with Nile on Random Access Memories, as well as the grooves and whispers of "A Warm Summer Night" pointing ahead to Khruangbin ("Como Me Quieres"), whose guitarist Mark Speer also sports a trademark Strat.
I get that the Kinks are "important," but not sure I got this album. Looking forward to revisiting it and hearing Something Else and Village Green Preservation Society, have enjoyed those in the past.
I've listened to a bunch of R.E.M.'s early catalogue since I grew up hearing hits from Automatic For The People, Monster, and Out Of Time, and not sure if I ever got all the way through Murmur. It strikes me how muscular the band sounds despite a skeleton trio of musicians, and how fully formed they feel for a debut. "Radio Free Europe" is a heck of an opening statement, and you can already hear the latent wistfulness to come on later releases on "Perfect Circle." As jangle pop acts go, I was surprised to see Murmur beat The Smiths to the punch in terms of the year it was released. Enjoyed this a lot.
Not expecting to like this much. "Blister In The Sun" always struck me as a song that got radio play for its weirdness more than its tunefulness -- which with many other albums has been a tick in the plus column. Not sure it is for me this time. I love Daniel Johnston, Pavement, Tom Waits - all the weird, wacky, idiosyncratic, messy artists, but at some point the rubber meets the road and music should ultimately be something you want to listen to again and again. And on that basis, this album has overwhelmingly earned its one star, because I don't have the slightest desire to ever hear this again. I did genuinely enjoy "Prove My Love," however. Hated it. Glad I listened.
Fantastic album. I'd somehow never heard "Racing In The Street" before and it's utterly heartbreaking.
Be interested to see if there's more entries - Boy With The Arab Strap or The Life Pursuit. Just on the side of four stars and an enjoyable listen from Belle & Sebastian.
Reading the history of Industrial Metal and Rock, Ministry hardly seems like the first to do what they're achieving here, with even popular industrial bands like Nine Inch Nails having released 1989's Pretty Hate Machine — to say nothing of earlier contributions from Neu!, Joy Division, or Iggy Pop, and even artists before them. It's fun to hear the crevices that an influence like Ministry will have crept into, even in more recent releases, things like Factory Floor, Women, and Viet Cong / Preoccupations. Still, have to say I enjoyed this more than expected. There's a lot more room for creativity in expression through repetition than we often realize — and as many house and dance music aficionados could attest.
Heard this album about a million times. Despite it being down-the-center boomer rock and a little cheesy in the lyrics department, it's a certified classic and a production master class by the genius that is Tom Scholz - the story behind it being an incredible covert recording operation that put big-name producers in fancy studios to shame.
I heard the lead singer of The Chats once distill punk as something like, 'it's easy to play punk rock, it's much harder to BE punk rock.' And I think that mostly captures the significance of this record. Iggy Pop was punk before punk existed, which was perhaps as consequential an achievement as the songwriting and technical execution of Iggy & The Stooges' actual songs and albums. On Raw Power, I can naturally hear ahead to The Ramones, The Clash, and The Sex Pistols, but also even as far ahead as Queens of The Stone Age ("Go With The Flow" lifting the driving riffs and banging piano from "Raw Power" + "I Wanna Be Your Dog" from Iggy's S/T). Looking forward to hearing more, probably at least Lust For Life and The Idiot. Still, in my view 'punk' and 'cred' for their own sake do not a great artist make of Iggy Pop any more than they do of GG Allin. Moreover, on a pure listening level, with its eight songs comprising 34 minutes of music: fully 50 years removed, it's certainly a classic, but it's hard to think of Raw Power as a true five-star album.
Kid B! I'm a reasonable man, get off my case. A staggeringly complex and important record from a band in one of its golden periods. Absolutely love this record!
Amazing how "old school" and corny the Jurassic 5 record sounded by comparison to an actual honest-to-God Old School classic rap record.
Undeniable talent. Gone too soon.
I could write 10,000 words about how phenomenal this record is. Not only one of the best records of the post-punk era, or even the 70s, but arguably one of the greatest rock records of all time.
See: previous notes about an Englishman editor overly fond of missable good-not-great records of his youth.
I stood up and I said yeah! Unqualified monster of an album and one of my favorites of the 90s. Wayne Coyne's broken tenor always sounds so tender and sweet, Steven Drozd pulling double duty as a truly inspired drummer and guitarist at the same time...and Michael Ivins' bass definitely had a breakthrough on this and Yoshimi. Not to mention a celebrated producer in Dave Fridmann really shooting the gap by both helping a band yearning to experiment and helping them sound their best while doing it. I've commented that it's a shame bands like The Flaming Lips could hardly ever exist anymore — to be given five albums' worth of leash by a major label (and nine albums total) before everyone could agree they'd truly hit their stride. Love this album.
Enjoyed this more than expected! Can hear the direct lines to contemporaries The Prodigy and Aphex Twin. Enjoyably lengthy meditations on the hypnotic slow evolution of a beat.
A disco classic and surely among the greatest of Michael's incredible career alongside Bad and Thriller.
Another good-not-great UK album is selected by an English editor. I listened and enjoyed but it's hard to see this approaching 'essential.'
Frustrating how many times (in the first 50 albums alone!) I feel like the editor was trapped in his own bubble, foisting UK artists up as more impactful or significant than they really were. Opener "Dreamin'" feels woefully behind its time; before the vocals start, it sounds like a Sonic The Hedgehog soundtrack entry unearthed nearly a decade after the game was released. Thankfully it gets brighter from there - easy to see a line ahead to Justice's emergence in 2006-07 on "Soft Machine," and "Music Makes You Lose Control" got to Hot Streak's source six years ahead of Missy Elliot. I think the vocal performances and samples are so earnest they feel dated, as if they could sit alongside La Bouche or Corona, but thinking back, I remember thinking the same about Romanthony's turns on Daft Punk's Discovery. Still, hearing a vocal positively dripping with vibrato warbling "the fullness of a great love are bells and wedding rings," fully three years after the Spice Girls dropped "Wannabe," makes "Take A Little Time" sound about as fresh as hair metal after Nevermind dropped. You can hear Fatboy Slim in the air as "Brothers" was put together. Overall it feels really uneven, less "omnivorous" than just herking and jerking between disparate influences that are not well blended.
Such a great record. Never heard The Temptations for a full LP's length. "Runaway Child, Running Wild" feels so wonderfully out of place for a 60s record, running nine minutes in an album full of tracks that otherwise average well under three minutes. Lush harmonies and arrangements, brilliant grooves.
About as good as rock concept albums get and undoubtedly one of the high points of Green Day's career. Not just huge hits but a real palpable sense of depth and foresight.
There is “songwriting” without scope or revision, there is “singing” without tunefulness, there is “a band” without much discernible musuc being played in concert between its members. It sounds like they’re watching each other play through glass and guessing what would work. I can draw lines to Velvet Underground, Joy Division, even modern bands like Women and Preoccupations, but this is completely meaningless to me. Maybe there is some depth to be gleaned from this for someone else, but to my ears it sounds almost antithetical to the entire point of listening to music.
Not much to add, one of the greatest records ever made by one of the world's biggest and best bands.
Fantastic old pop jazz record! Really enjoyed this! Some old classics I had no idea went this far back.
Love Doolittle. Looking forward to seeing some more Pixies on this list as well.
I used to get so many copies of this record at auction when waiting for furniture to come up for bid. I have some fond memories of listening to them, and it's hard to deny an era-icon smash like "Dancing Queen," but ABBA are for me a Greatest Hits type of group.
Adele has such an incredible and singular voice. Immaculately produced and performed, but in my view doesn't ascend to the very highest tier of pop songwriting.
Never listened to a Genesis record before! Really loved it.
A decent metal album. Not far enough into the roots of the genre to really feel or see its impact. Not overly special to me as an outsider to this era.
Records like this illuminate why Eric Clapton was such an important and influential figure in western popular music for the last 50+ years.
Listened once, didn't really get it. Turned it up on round two and really enjoyed this.
Intro (3 minutes) and Outro (12 minutes!) were dumb and overlong, and everything in between was pretty phenomenal.
All the elements are there, just not really for me I don't think.
Not an idea I'm aware of having been tried before this, and an interesting one that was well executed. Gripes about Metallica's mid-to-late period transition, this still captures the band delivering a lot of Black-era and prior tracks in an entirely different light. "No Leaf Clover" was a welcome revisit as well.
Album's not even done and it's just not for me. I'd heard Sade was well-regarded critically, and had really hoped for more - repeated listens aren't going to change my opinion of some milquetoast soft rock.
One of my favorite Stevie Wonder records! A really strong entry in a stunningly lengthy golden period for one of the true greats.
Enjoyed this way more than expected. Really strong melodies and musicianship. Grooves for days.
Back-to-back on the African Continent! Enjoyed this as well. There's a fun interplay between the two guitars; Cooder's rangy American influence and Touré's African style blend really nicely.
Headed into the center of the Berlin period after this, Young Americans is a great record from Bowie, but for me not one of his upper-upper-tier ones.
Two Stevie Wonder golden-era records in one week's time! This is probably the third of my three favorite Stevie records, along with Innervisions and Talking Book. A worthy and timeless culmination of his best period. Imagining a 26-year-old writing, arranging, and recording nearly everything here by himself is utterly flabbergasting. It still stands untarnished today, a testament to his genius. Probably somewhere on my shortlist for greatest albums ever recorded.
Absolute legend of a singer-songwriter. Love this record.
Never knew all the history of folk, country, and rock & roll that was wrapped up in the making of this band and record. Loved it.
Definitely feels like a classic of its era and genre, probably just won't ever be essential to me personally. Loved it.
Some people would probably write this off as generic touristy beach music, but I think it's so reminiscent of that because of its cool evocative power - really enjoyed this.
I have a pretty wide palate, but it's difficult to imagine this being in a rotation of music I would listen to for any kind of traditional enjoyment. There just aren't many contexts in which this music is appropriate or exciting.
The Boss remains a pretty singular artist all these years later.
Expected to enjoy this, sounded very dated and unexciting. Have to revisit.
Reggae music just won't ever mean that much to me.
I expected to like this record, but it absolutely blew me away. I've loved Frank Sinatra for years, but never sat down to a start-to-finish on any of his 'classic' records. This record's nearly eighty years old and you can still sense and revisit his heartbreak over Ava Gardner from start to finish. In The Wee Small Hours is a mood and a half.
I've seen BB King perform live, but listening to him wail in his prime, it's clear why he had the enduring legacy and respect I saw him enjoy in his twilight years. He is a force of nature — in both his playing and singing.
Mostly down-the-center songwriting, and nothing about the arrangements, the timeliness of the instrumentation, or artistic flair elevates it beyond that middling foundation. "Just My Imagination," "Stand Up," and "If You Think You're Lonely Now" nearly rescued this up to a four. Well delivered and I'm sure it was enjoyable in its time. In retrospect, aggressively mediocre.
Still captures the dawn-of-internet era sentiment like no other. In my personal top 5 and one of the greatest albums ever recorded, full stop.
Just a fantastically sad singer-songwriter record. Packed front-to-back with songs that on their face, are simple and memorable but are secretly more harmonically astute, more lyrically sly, and as many guitarists have discovered - way more difficult to play than they sound. My personal favorite Elliott Smith record and his most essential entry - at the apex of his self-recorded mastery.
Really enjoyed this and could see revisiting. Super vibey and sparse for an alt-country act in 1988!
I'll never forget when I stumbled over a YouTube recording of MC5 playing on a 1972 German television broadcast of Beat Club. Rob Tyner's larger-than-life stage presence and afro bobbing around as he glistened and fist-pumped his way through "Kick Out The Jams" instantly made me lose my cool. From the drop they don't miss; the band opens with four titanic blasts of guitar, bass and drums, and throughout the whole set are clearly in tight command of their groove. I wish this record were as well-mixed as that broadcast was! MC5 is clearly an essential document of its time and forerunner to punk - have to give it five stars, but it bums me out to know even Wayne Kramer described this recording as not their best night.
Enjoyed this classic. It's on the border, but can't put it in five-star territory.
Enjoyed this - not an essential listen I'll revisit soon, but a mature set of songs with some fun production flourishes.