1001 Albums Summary

I spent a lot of 1/31/2024 contextualizing Beggar's Banquet. I read reviews from people who were alive at the time of release. I listened to their previous album, Their Satanic Majesties Request, and I listened to The Beatles' Revolver. I do this because I find music more enjoyable when it's contextualized in the culture, period, and politic of the time. I could listen to Beggar's Banquet and say, meh, rolling stones, never liked em. Or I could try to understand why this album was so culturally impactful; listen to accounts of the impassioned fans, understand the history of where the music is coming from, check out the production stories of the album. There is a relationship that forms with the album as research and listening goes on. It's a similar effect to reading through a vinyl cover or CD/cassette insert about the album. You have images in your head of what went into recording in the room, the live shows, the life experiences of the artists. It isn't necessarily a positive or negative one, but certainly a one of curiosity. My favorite account was a RYM user noting his preparation of the tape to bring to the Vietnam War, only for it to be blasting out of every war machine and stereo in the army. This isn't an album that just played on the radio. We are talking about the soundscape of an imperial/colonial war. That's a majorly distinct context for an album to exist in. Beggars Banquet leans hard into the group's original blues inspiration. Songs like Dear Doctor and Parachute Woman follow this traditional blues sound with acoustic guitars and harmonicas. Meanwhile other tracks like Sympathy for the Devil and Jigsaw Puzzle amps the guitars up to accompany a kind of gizzard reminiscent variety of sound. Perhaps, the Stones compositions are a bit more poppy, repetitive, or even flat, but they are certainly the highlights of the album. The flute in Jigsaw puzzle sings in the back, the Factory Girl fiddle yearns for love, the ragtime piano adds to the chaos of Sympathy, and the slide guitar glides around the album. Yet, I just don't care much for Mick Jagger's voice personally. Mick doesn't have the punchy anger of Dylan (who was another inspiration for this album), the charismatic sadness of any of the blues masters, and his elongated whines don't make a lot of the lyrics work for me. This is a shame because the lyrics are about 40/60 hit or fucking flaming miss, on a spectrum from "I'll shout and scream, I'll kill the king" to "It's no capital crime, I can see that you're fifteen years old" (the former song's next lyric is about raping the king's servants.........). Even something more calm and pretty like Factory Girl just doesn't really land for me as a result. Ugh! What a bummer. Mick just kind of seems like an annoying shitty dude, and I say Mick because he is singing most of them! I know Keith Richards helped write both of these songs and that the band was all like this. So I'm not super into this group as a fan really. This was kind of my expectation going into Beggar's Banquet. Shitty British dudes iterating on sounds from other cultures, while heedlessly appropriating it, and just....making something alright. I wish I could say it was awful out of contrarian disdain because I do kind of hate that pedophile stuff. However, there is some alright musicianship, and it's hard to discount the anti-government, anti-boss sentiments throughout the album. That being said, it doesn't really make the sheer fervor for this album make sense for me against all my other critiques. I'm giving this a 2.5 on RYM. I wanted to give it a 3 for it's consistency, but the bad taste in my brain from Stray Cat Blues really got me bad. Almost wanted to give it a 2 because of that and maybe I still will. But for now it remains.

If could give a 3.5 I would! Solid album but I don’t understand the hype!

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this is gonna be an album I can appreciate for now but maybe some day it will click more. I can appreciate what it was doing for the time, I like the instrument work, and definitely its soft, mossy, murky texture. I think it only goes so far for me though.

Solid jams with words that aren’t as deep.

What I find refreshing about the pixies is the screeching raw sound that they produce with each track. It’s not a screech of horror, and it certainly is not unlistenable, but my primary experience listening felt like I was drowning, screeching, guitars, and wailing artists. I don’t know if any of the songs will be particularly memorable or ones that I will seek out to listen outside of the album, however, that is not a knock on the album quality nor it’s experience.

The beats are sick as hell and the group is having a great fuckin time. It's totally infatuating! After a few listens I think some of the group's language about "Chinese women" and raping other MC's throws off my jam when I'm really feeling it. Unfortunately this happens in majority of the tracks! Good thing the title track is sick as hell and is so wrapped up in the lore that they seemed to miss any weird bigoted language.

beautiful.

I have listened to a few live and studio Dolly albums but never this release. I don't think I ever knew what release to really listen to so I always found a song or two and moved on. Coat of Many Colors really stands out from my previous listens. It starts with a strong concept, if not a bit corny in classic Dolly fashion, before diving into various tales of heartbreak and love. The best Dolly tracks are where her distinct voice comes together with the backing musicians to take you to an outdoor valley where she sings you tales. Early Morning Breeze is the ultimate example of this.

I'm going to make a point in saying that a 1 on this website in particular is not bad every time, but sometimes its just me saying "This album is just alright and I don't think it belongs in the 1001". Hypnotised is a good listen for someone who follows the history of The Undertones sonic development but anyone looking for a cultural touchstone may find it more difficult to latch onto than their self-titled. Songs are less poppy, lyrics are sardonic but still a bit cutesy. The melodies don't land as well here.

Tori sings refreshing tales of abuse, loss, neglect, and many more sad tales at the beginning of the 90's. Some moments are beautiful, I particularly liked Precious Things. However, I think the sole piano along with most of the songs evoking a sort of pitiful gender dynamic (not saying this as a critique) kind of glaze over as the album goes on. This is likely just my disinterest in vocal ballad as a genre, or maybe just Tori's vocal ballads. Unsure. There is certainly a lot of Kate Bush influence in her writing and singing, and I hear it only develops further with each later release. Excited to listen to more!

This was my first dive into Samba-rock so I took some time listening to a few others albums in the genre before rating. Each time returning, I found myself completely refreshed, as though it was a bright, shining first listen. The sound is such a fresh take on funk samba-rock for the time, and it wasn't even the first for it's time. That's just Jorge Ben!

Some of this is solid sludgey trudgey classic heavy metal, but a lot of its just alright

Beautiful in lyrics and sound. Groundbreaking grungepop. Striking immediately and never stops.

a silly jam album full of blues and yelling with some alright instrumentation. Nothing will stick with me because this particular niche isnt for me but i appreciated it.

Iron Maiden is best when the entire unit pulls out each other's skillsets on display through song structure mix ups like in Children of The Damned, maybe even Number of the Beast, but a lot of the songs feel a bit long. Also, growing up with Run to the Hills on rockband I thought I would have a nostalgic callback to it but...........idk! Just didnt hit!

The smooth sounds Kanye's production brings to this album makes sense for Common, especially as it appears he made this album after the birth of his daughter. Feels like he's coming at this LP with a lot slower flow, a bit more accessible for some. I think it ends up being a decent album, not one I will say is a classic like many others but a good album still. Some of Common's lyrics are just a bit too blunt at times for my liking, even if they make sense, and I think the peak of the best songs instrumentation and sampling overshadow the worst ones to make them a bit unmemorable.