1001 Albums Summary

Lightnin Hopkins could be a Chili Peps song.

A couple bangers and a nice vibe.

Welcome to the JetBlue lounge

Would launch a thousand copycats 40 years later.

It’s life and life only

The roots of rock perfection

Much better than I remember.

An already exceptional voice gaining character with age. You can feel Johnny and the Rick Rubin experiment winding down.

Desperation rock.

You’d never know this was a British list.

Knopfler > Clapton

This was bad house music at the time. It’s even worse now.

A long, boring slog to get to the only good song (Tusk)

The second-best movie soundtrack of all time (Caddyshack II)

Revolutionary in its day and still a rhythmic mind-blower.

Neo-baroque nepo-folk

I could go for some popcorn

I’d like to do something about global warming, but I also want to have sex with my car.

If he didn’t look so badass, people would mock him for this poetry slam claptrap.

So hilarious when Brits attempt hip-hop. These assholes heard Public Enemy and made Muzak for The Gap

Revenge of the nerds

Ronald Reagan’s best vocal performance

Pete is the best British guitar player

Billy is on our side

Do you realize this album is still pretty good??

The sweet spot between Nirvana and the Jonas Brothers.

Never hard any of these songs and it’s still a pretty good album.

Everybody knows this is awesome

Not the best Hello of all time.

What if the Kingston Trio had a cousin who told them about taking acid?

Ignoreland rulz

Spooooonman

Now I can die with sabor.

Was this band brilliant or fucking insufferable? Time hasn’t been kind.

Never thought I’d say this but has Noel Gallagher had a better post-band career than Albarn?

Relentless boredom

Even lesser Husker Du is moster than anyone else. Never clocked the REM similarities before, but they’re thick on this album.

A fun surprise, which is quite a feat for a German.

Nobody beats the king but the king

Some Brits can make a convincing Americans turn.

Jam punk innovation

What if The Rolling Stones were white?

Shouldn’t be surprised that Skylarking is a playful album, but “dear God” sets a tone that suggests otherwise.

I pee on twee

Weird works wonders.

Put early 90s rock in a blender. Maybe 6 too many songs.

Happy to get introduced to some new music, but this is taking up a space that should probably belong to Bob Seger.

More like fill my ears, amirite?

Chick can sing.

When Paul’s harmony comes in on “If I Fell,” … damn.

Rips

Misty Roses is a bona fide fuck jam.

A milestone in raga rock. Sagar is great

This is your funk on acid.

Bloody good, innit?

Frodo would be proud

Kids and parents lost their minds over this, for different reasons.

Severe drop-off after 3 songs.

The coolest white people ever got.

Bro, when Don’t Bother Me hits … George changes the game.

Could have been worse

Cock 7

I could go for a Second Helping

Blondie kinda rules

Gibberish never sounded so good.

Embryonic punk

Grindcore has come a long way

Nice in a British way.

Punk done right

Her real name is Dusty Sprungfeld

Dude can write

Too much fat on this steak. And cheese.

Pretty strong side B

Racing in the Street is a killer

A kick in the ass

Why does trip hop sound so dated?

At the end of every Leonard Cohen song, say “in bed.” Hilarious.

A hell of a step away from punk, as lame as that sounds.

The soundtrack of the “jerk-off” hand motion

Some great tunes, but Lars is the most timid metal drummer of all time.

Not as good as Thriller, but pretty damn close?

Not as good as Thriller, but pretty damn close?

One of the best album openers of all time?

Garbage flow.

Let’s go back to The Shire!

Perfect vibe

Solid grooves and kinda blah

It’s ok

Brits love trash

Jack Bruce!

Not her best songs/performances

Wish I was there, glad I wasn’t a tween girl there.

This is what happens when you smoke weed.

Always a lot of filler on a doors album.

SZA seems fun

Not the classic lineup, but the seed of a rock monster was planted.

The power of the acoustic guitar

Ain’t nuthin to fuck with

Annie deserved better than Dave Stewart.

What if Elton John was cock 7?

Maybe the dorks in high school were right…

I wish I was fluent in Hopelandic

This is the best French music ever made.

What buying a Kia Soul sounds like

Rocky III gets some love. Respect.

If you got a handjob in a girl’s dorm room in 1998, this album was playing.

Stupidity belongs in rock.

More British garbage taking up space that rightfully belongs to Bob Seger.

Punk grows a heart

White guys can do jazz sometimes

His dick sound amazing

The best album of all time. Second-best Beatles album.

Sure captures a moment, donit?

Still no Bob Seger

Brits can’t do this

One of the best voices in pop history, but this performance felt a little tame, especially considering King Curtis and his crew were backing.

“I shot my mouth off and he showed me what that hole was for.”

The warble wears me out.

I’m sure this choice has nothing to do with Rex Harrison.

Nerds

Women, amirite?

Eat shit, Nixon!

Albino excellence

Best album opener ever?

Look, Ray is an indisputable genius, but his skill is best displayed when he plays bluesy fuck jamz for sweaty teens.

Fun fun fun on the man machine

Brains 7 Heart 7 Cock 7

He has better albums, but he’s still Bob Dylan with writers block and a head cold.

It’s great! It’s good. It’s OK

Disgusting prog folk. Sick. Gross.

Ray expands the great American songbook, and rightly so, but these arrangements don’t always do the songs justice.

Groundbreaking grooves

All Dwight is good, but this ain’t his best album by a longshot.

An 8-second sample you must listen to before you die

Sexy as silk chocolate

Kinda rockin

Horny sophistication for 60s squares.

Welcome to the most boring dentist office

The best Morrissey I’ve ever heard.

Born-again Bowie ain’t bad.

I’m the son of Mr. Green Genes

This is the best French music ever made

This guy seems cool. World music sure has a sound.

Devolution is real

Rick Danko is the GOAT

This is the best French music ever made

Starting to think some of these Brit prog acts didn’t have much to say.

It’s 2003. You walk into the W Hotel. You hear the soundtrack to your life and realize you are a secret European spy. THIS IS THE REAL YOU.

Excessive, mostly in a fun way.

Pretty good gimmick. Lars never sounded better?

The sax turns like half these into the SNL theme.

Rusty Kershaw and honeyslides ftw.

Expected this to suck. It didn’t!

Chris Hillman is a vital organ of the American rock corpus. Discuss.

The start of something interesting

Eeediot

Air is good. This is fine

Still no Bob Seger

One for the hardcore pg heads.

All bangers

The best Nick Cave album I’ve heard?

Beyoncé: Can you sing a verse on my new album about our passionate love life, family and women’s sexual empowerment? Jay-Z: Imma beat it like Ike and Iron Mike

This is good. 90s good.

The authentic Starbucks sound

This motherfucker right here

Love this stuff. Not even ginger baker can ruin it.

Good for them

A hit in the UK! Mid Americana in the US.

That rhythm section tho

Speakerboxxx wins again.

The songs get better as the production improves.

This NPR-ass bullshit is example infinity for why Brits can’t do hip hop. Wish I could give it zero stars.

Beautiful all the way through

Endless Plain rules.

The doors can get bent.

Thousands were there, but only one of them started a band.

Pretty good!

I’m a part

Nerds love puddy too

Some baller stuff.

birth of the twee

Mike Patton is no Chest Rockwell

A good joke would be to give this 2 stars because of her boobs.

The origin story of Mr. Skin

What if we did hip-hop without the MC 25 years later? Still kinda fun

Mike Mills' harmony is one of the great gifts of rock

This list is losing all credibility. Still no Seger.

Pure 90s rock, better than it should be

Somethin for the honeys

Harbinger of musical genres to come

Context gives it import

This list is hilariously 95-05 heavy

Still no Bob seger

Baz Lhurmann does Dolemite

The snare is the star

Bill Berry is a damn drum god

Has a few compelling moments

British Invasion juuust before the acid hit.

Yikes

Really odd deep cut to put on this list. It's cool, but probably not even worthy of 1001 blues/jazz albums to listen to...

They actually get better

Never has a great voice done so little

Nice to learn about Eisler, but seriously what the fuck is this?

Some of the biggest dicks in pop music, trying to be as limp as possible.

Tortured bombast, the epitome of the aughties

They sound so wholesome!

One of Ry’s most tasteful moves was to let them play.

Some cool stuff I’d never heard before but man this fucking list

It’s fine

Not the sad strummer I was led to believe.

Kinda funny. Still no Seger

The best broadway.

Well, now I know.

I was really drunk at the time

Elton’s best

Turns out odd future lived up to the hype

Under the pressure indeed

You slog through one of the worst albums ever made only to be rewarded with a final, 10-minute track of farts. Epic.

He’s the GOAT for a reason

Nothing special

Strummy and sexy

Ain’t it like France to lionize lukewarm pop 10 years behind the zeitgeist

Great words. The delivery could use some pizzazz

This has aged OK

If Breakfast In America is also on this list I swear to fucking god man. Still no Seger.

Girl Talk for grandmas

Something new, something fine.

ACAB

Changed the world

You think it has one great titty song, but really every track is a great titty song.

The birth of a sneering, cynical, doo-wop loving countercultural genius.

What if Robert Goulet and Billy Corgan had a Jaguar?

Some nice songs

Motherfuckin’ OG Henny Loc strikes again.

One of the great works of American art

Did not expect to see G Love on this list.

The soundtrack to digging through a bag of pills in a mobile home

It’s possible The Stones understood gospel better than the blues.

Can’t go wrong with Curtis.

Pretty boring!

Yep. Smiths still mid.

Bruce gets it

Hard to beat Merle, but Ralph Mooney steals the show

Cock 7

Very nice

That guitar on Faith is surprisingly country. Gets a little same-y, but hits are hits

These guys were hot shit on the jam scene back in the day. Now it’s borderline cringe?

Innovative, influential, somewhat painful.

My horse won

The soundtrack to white privilege

Welcome to the revolution

It's the reason for the season

Seeing Summer Breeze live changed my life

Ding dong ding dang

Gets more compositionally boring and less emotionally convincing as it goes on. Criminal that HAIM gets the worst song on the album.

Every 60s brit musician wanted to do Vaudeville

I've listened to this so many times and it just won't click

Nobody does rock minimalism as perfectly as this.

Sounds woefully wholesome these days.

Mostly forgettable.

Would be a good album if not for Morrissey’s voice.

More influence on the White Stripes than you might expect

Fucking rips

M&M as a pedo serial killer just works

A whole album of 80s TV theme songs. Still no Seger

Time to put God away.

LSD is a crazy drug

I appreciate the Kinks, but they never seem to put it all together on one album...

Jack White never misses

Such high hopes for an album is never heard of. But it’s Neil Diamond with extra schmaltz.

Probably a friend of the author?

We’ve got Bush!

Dat voice doe

Billions of Spotify plays can't be wrong! Slightly more exciting than the standard adult-contempo fare.

Never really my thing, but I think Green Day might be a great band.

Glam groove

Glad I finally gave them a chance

Glyn Johns also thought these guys were pussies

Undeniable. But Songs for Young Lovers is better

I’ll give them an extra star for being Scottish?

RIP Brian Jones

As hard as they come

He invented all your favorite music

One of the greatest works of human creation

My jamband ass would have loved to see this live.

A goddamm masterpiece. 7-7-7.

This is good shit

An incredible band and one incredible song. And some other stuff.

Aside from Lydon's voice, this shit is clean and tight

It's nice to have some of these old-timers on record, but this shit drags and is a c-hair from being an exercise in cringe pandering.

The drum tone on Fantail is glorious. 5-Star album cover

Never heard it before. It's OK

So many Smiths. No Segers. Ugh.

I get the importance, and Ian’s voice gets better throughout, but I’m not coming back to this one

Blood harmonies

Just the sort of derivative drivel I expect from a Mancunian.

“Knight Moves” comes on my headphones and a finger of the monkey’s paw curls.

Overplayed and overhyped, but goddamm what a singular voice, and the production is killer.

Unbelievable

I liked this album at the time, but it’s boring

One of the greatest works of art in American history

Hilarious

Lukewarm Zappa. Humorless bombast

A classic for a reason

Midlife angst sounds boring

7-7-7

If Wes Anderson was an album.

Beck is good

Like T. Rex and Queen took Molly together at an EDM festival but then accidentally got locked in a porta-john overnight?

Monkey Man puts it over the top

Too lame to give a fuck

This shit kicks ass. Cock 7

Some cool stuff

Some bangers

I love Jack white like a little brother

I loved this era of weirdo rap. Highly influential to Odd Future et al

Starts pretty good but damn it drops off HARD

Wind me up, Chuck

Top drawer

My favorite album cover as a kid

Some of my favorite metal, but I’m not enough of a fan to enjoy a whole album.

I expected this to be some euro garbage this list writer fell in love with in 7th grade, and I was right, but it’s a notch above garbage.

The were good once

Best album ever. Day in the life is the best song ever.

It’s fine

Your mom is gonna cum

Hard organ

The only Radiohead album I like. And I love it.

I never had a pager

really testing my poptimist tendencies. Still no Seger.

A singular, stubborn weirdo

Cool shit periodically interrupted by spa music.

I know this is important, and I've tried soooo many times. She seems amazing, but...

One nation under a groove

A mid Wilco makes the list. Will Son Volt?

Mid. Guess this list needed some Africadabra

Bowie goes jamband

My fave talking heads

There better be 100 3rd Bass albums on this list

Meh

A nice surprise

Atomic Punk FTW

Pop greatness

I was not familiar with the world's 4th greatest singer of all time according to the LA Times, but I'm glad to know him. Inspired a rewarding trip to YouTube.

Snide Tom Jones having fun

Robert Dimery must owe these guys money.

More rockin than the D&D titles suggest

After 3 songs, I thought maybe I misjudged this band back in the day. Nope.

Mellow moodiness

The album that made white college students think they could play funk

Kick ass

Now do a song about Louis Kahn!

What are you gonna do when Maggie Thatcher destroys your future? Molly.

These guys needed disco more than disco needed them

Not bad for a Scottish band.

Bratty white parody of hip-hop has gained stature

A perfect album

Billy Joe Shaver gets Waylon on the right track

No bangers, but it turns out broadening my Simple Minds horizon was a good move.

grew up with this one

Seger deserves reparations. Zero stars.

Planting the seeds for the future of music

Like if Randy Newman had a stroke and lost his sense of humor.

People love a comeback.

What a happy hooker song!

Heavy pitch wheel work on this bad boy. Love little Stevie

Shout out to Trump! Beyoncé ruins everything

Bangers on bangers

Sometimes beautiful, but sad in a lot of ways

Loses steam, but an undeniable classic

I still don't get why hipsters fucking loved this band

A better album than expected from what I assumed was a singles band.

Some cool quick hitters.

I'm learning to appreciate shoegaze!

Another critical darling I've never given a chance. This one pays off.

I can see why this was influential, but it leans too heavily theatrical.

Love how it fucks with my head

what if a movie, but for blind people?

Peter Cetera used to be cool

Vampire fuck jamz

A fine ragga album