1001 Albums Summary

Eh. I understand why people like it - she has a great voice - but it's bland to me.

I wanted to hate it because he's become such a twunt since, but it's actually full of bangers. Have to separate the art from the artist sometimes.

Cannot argue with this album. Many people like Mellon Collie... more, but I never really connected with that in the way I did this when it came out. It is absolutely of an era, but is standing the test of time very well. I sound old to say: they don't make 'em like this anymore.

The album that kicked off my Rush fandom. The end of side 2 gets dark and it's fantastic.

The least commercial thing you could imagine, ironically helping propel them to become one of the biggest bands in the world. This is pure we-don't-care-about-success, capital-A Art, and it is brilliant.

She brought such a unique and personal sound. It was an instant treasure when it was relased, and remains powerful writing and music.

Arguably their best, most consistent album.

Such energy, so fun. I'd heard all these songs before but not this live album, and I completely understand why it is so loved. Few live albums put you so wholly in the room as this. Definitely will get many, many more listens.

Having seen the B.I.G. biopic, I get the importance of this album, and it has some good cuts. It also has a lot of fluff and interludes that seem purely designed to build an image, and I found it more of a distraction than an enhancement to the listening.

From the first note there are hints of the global music influences that took nearly 15 more years to coalesce into the landmark of Graceland: Caribbean/reggae rhythms on "Mother and Child Reunion," Andean flutes on "Duncan," and Brazilian percussion on "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard." Other songs are clearly more to his folk singer/storyteller past. Many of these are lovely, but I think it's far more fascinating to hear this album in light of his later success, and consider the deep influence Simon has taken from musical around the world throughout his entire career.

It's boggling to me that this is over 30 years old. I'd wager that not since Never Mind the Bollocks... did an album have this kind of landscape-shifting impact, and that there has been nothing comparable since. It didn't simply codify a nascent genre as commercially viable, it defined a generation.

A complete revelation when it came out, it still holds up as a terrific introduction to the Cuban sound.

Not my usual style, but I've a bit of an unexplained soft spot for Solange. This is an album to be heard as a whole, though, and it takes some patience. It's brave and raw and digs into an experience that I (as a middle class white dude) will simply never be able to fully understand. But I don't think it's *for* me, and I appreciate it for that.

Full of things that became big hits, but there's a surprising amount of slower, jazzy grooves here too that I really didn't expect. It's a mature and confident third album.

Pleasant enough. Nice for a low-key Sunday afternoon.

It's hard to overstate the influence of this album. Entire genres have spawned from this album, and it still sounds fresher and more interesting than much of what has come in the 54 years since it was released.

Not sure I'd ever intentionally listened to this whole album before, and was surprised by how much of it I knew. Take Me Out will forever be associated with RockBand for me, but the rest is surprisingly good, with little feeling of filler. It's upbeat and sharp in ways that really stood out at the time of release.

This is an album packed with what are now some stone-cold classics, and a number of other lesser-known gems. It may not be the greatest rock album of all time, but it f*king rocks.

What great fun.

I've enjoyed Rufus from afar for years, but have never listened to a full album. Marvellous, heartfelt, theatrical, passionate, and vintage are all words that come to mind, and it all comes together in such a uniquely rich and unique way. Love it.

I love some of it, I could leave some of it, and some of it is better covered in later years. It warrants multiple listens. It isn't fully polished, and it is ultimately a somewhat uneven collection of songs across a variety of styles, but its place in musical history can't be overstated.

Love love love it, and have since day 1. 30 years on and it still sounds fresh.

A lovely epitaph for a legend.

Vintage Monk, yet one that I'd not previously heard entirely. Great to have an excuse to just sit and listen to a master.

Always hard to decide whether I think this or Sky Blue Sky is a more perfect record, but it is like comparing Abbey Road to the White Album. And yes, I made that parallel, because Wilco is that good. I think this is a culmination of everything the band (and Jeff Tweedy before Wilco) had been doing in the years before, while the addition of Nels Cline on the next album took things to an entirely new level. Both are always worth the listen.