1001 Albums Summary

First Album Foreword: This is the account of a person with god-awful music taste trying to expand their horizons, as of Easter 2024. My only requirements in reviewing these albums is that I must include my favorite and least favorite track, and a ranking out 10 stars. Also, I'll touch on my pretty simple procedure in order to maintain relative consistency. The process will be simple: Once the album is revealed, I must go directly to the album and press play, without reading/researching anything I do not already know. I'm doing this in order to document my natural first impressions of the songs without having outside context/opinions to tell me which tracks I should like. After the first listen, however, any research, re-listens, etc. is fair game. Some albums I might gloss straight through, write up a review and be done with- others I might listen to five times and end up further diving into the artist's discography before I write the review. These things are fine, but the main point here is that the album must MAKE me want to do those things. Each album is going to get as fair of a first impression as I can give it, but if I miss something in the album or don't think too highly of a song because it has to "soak in" first, that's beyond me. I'm not going to require myself to write 1001 and essays, therefor each album will get the length/quality of review that I feel it's earned of me. Now, with housekeeping out of the way, let's get started. I can already imagine now that future me will look back on this review and roll his eyes, for how overly optimistic I am about this project and the first album, but I just have to say to you, future Ben, man this is a good album. Have you listened to recently? Carole King has been such a weird name in music for me, along with many, many other prolific songwriters. I've heard her name many of times, often in conversation about the greatest music artists of all time. This is hard to admit, but often when I heard her name in such high regard I internally rolled my eyes, thinking, "Oh, another outdated nobody who Mr. XYZ thinks is cool to give praises to because their music taste is so much better than everyone else." Then I listened to this album and felt very dumb. Firstly, I need to say that if you had put me on the spot one hour ago and asked me to name one Carole King song, I couldn't have gave you an answer. Maybe in my best state of mind, I would've said "I feel the Earth Move," but only because of the iconic Becky Roach American Idol rendition of the track. Now, however, I'm cultured. Honestly, I think I recognized about 75% of the songs on this album. Some of them I know for a fact I've heard on my Pappaw's old radio stations on the way to the bottom to put out corn on a summer afternoon (descriptive, I know, but Carole's got me in that kind of mood). I feel that I understand the legend status now. Although I do feel that the album sounds pretty "of it's time," Carole's lyrics and sound is the perfect mix of simple and complex. She's easy to digest, and I know this due to the fact that I can say I enjoyed this album and many of it's tracks on first listen- something I often can't even say about some of my favorite artist's albums. She isn't hitting you with constant obnoxiously heavy metaphors, but her lyrics still speak to the soul. While her sound isn't exactly what I think of when I think "pop," I understand why she's seen as such a way-maker in the genre. Her songs are fairly short and packaged, but I feel she puts more focus into the lyrics rather than just making a catchy hook. I also want to compliment Carole's voice. I think her vocal delivery is a part of what makes this album so great. That slight strain in her voice when she sings "Something inside has dieeed," really makes It's Too Late one of my favorite tracks on the album. Her voice adds another dimension of story-telling to the album. I have very little music knowledge so I hope I can be excused for my lack of proper terminology, but the way she sings certain lines almost sounds like a groan, a plead, a sigh. For a singer-songwriter, I think she really holds her own in the "singer" aspect. This might be controversial, but I feel one star needs to be deducted for the fact that my two favorite songs are the album are covers: "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman". The other songs are great, and it's not that I have a problem with covers in general, but man, those two are really a step above the rest of the album, to the point I was conflicted whether I should reward it or not. Will You Love Me Tomorrow genuinely almost brought me to tears. The lyrics (although she didn't write them) are amazing, but as I mentioned, are just taken to another to another level by her vocal delivery. The slight shakiness in her belts (definitely not the proper terminology for saying that), just saturates the song with the underlying anxiety in the lyrics. Natural Woman is a song I've heard many times, whether it be at the end of rom-coms or in dating app commercials, but is not a song that I had ever sat down and purposefully pressed play on. While I admittedly need to listen to Aretha's version from start to finish, I just have to say, Carole's version just gave the song a whole new meaning to me. How good it must feel to feel like a real, natural, person. To have someone to love you for you, for how you naturally are. The black choir version I've heard so many times before always came across so two-dimensionally happy- this cover has layers. Carole's voice set to the piano really brings out the past-tense sadness in Aretha's lyrics. The song shouldn't have had to be written, but its existence makes us realize how twisted in knots this world can make us and how sweet it is to finally find the one who understands. In an effort to refrain from setting two high of a standard for my future 1000 reviews, I'll cut the review off here. I can see a future between me and many of the self-written songs on this album, namely So Far Away, It's too Late, and Home Again. While this opinion is bound to improve, I'll lock in these reviews, Favorite Track: Will You Love Me Tomorrow?; It's too Late (original) Least Favorite Track: Beautiful - Not a bad song but it didn't really resonate with me. Final Score: 8 out of 10

Being the first of what I'm sure will be many rock albums to come, I want to clarify my current relationship with the genre: I respect it, but it isn't my forte. But who isn't familiar with Queen? I'm happy to say that this album did grow on me, and I'm thankful that I don't have to write a bad review for it, because I got a taste of what that would feel like this morning about half way through my first listen. I'm glad that I decided to re-listen to some of the songs on here at a later time, and furthermore look into the album a bit, because I can now proudly say that I have grown to appreciate it more and that I enjoy a rock album. Well, half of a rock album. One disadvantage of listening to this album in the modern era is that you lose the whole Side A, Side B structure to the album, which apparently, this one relies pretty heavily on. Upon first listen, I noticed that I liked the second half of the album a lot more, starting at Ogre Battle (a bop), and especially into the March of The Black Queen. I realized that the second half was written by Freddie Mercury (the only member of Queen who's name I could tell you), but also, upon further research, I found out that this was the Side B of the vinyl, and that these songs were entitled 'Side Black'. The wiki points out that these tracks lean more into a more fantastical theme versus the first half of the album which is set more in reality, and I must say, this, along with the overall sound puts the second half much above the first, for me. A realization I've had today is that Queen songs can have a LOT going on, and I think the first half really misuses this trait. It just doesn't really work with the rock outfit those first 5 tracks wear. The second half leans more into Queen's iconic flamboyance, and that's where the album truly starts for me. You've got tales of Ogres, Fairies, Black Queens, and even swashbucklers. The final run is just a fun experience, but I think this album overall is a bit peg-legged. I know I'm really drilling what some might consider some great songs, but those first few tracks really don't give the album good feet to stand on. That being said, I can see why this album is not very esteemed amongst the rest of their discography, and the way I had to scroll a good ways down their profile on Apple Music to find a singular track from the album speaks to that. Do I like it? Yes. Do I love it? No. Favorite Track: Ogre Battle - I think Black Queen will grow on me, but man, I just want to hear this one over the speakers opening the second half of a football game this season. I got to reward this one for reviving the album for me. Least Favorite Track: Father to Son - This one kind of symbolizes the entire first half of the album for me. It's so long, the instrumentals are fine but don't really catch my ear, and the words just kind of blend in amongst the music. The kind of song I would maybe enjoy more live. It's just too much going on and not in the way that Bohemian Rhapsody does it. I couldn't have handled a full album of this. Final Rating: 6 out of 10.

I've hit the first snag in the road on my album journey- should I be rating objectively or subjectively? This would have been something good to have decided two albums ago, but per usual in projects of mine, this will just have to develop as I go. Luckily, I feel my subjective and objective opinions line up pretty well for the albums I have listened to thus far. This, however, will be the first minor exception... Objectively, this album is perfect. 5 Stars. It does what it set out to do, and while I've never dipped my feet into jazz, this feels like a great introduction. This kind of work feels timeless. It's aged for sure, but more so aged like fine-wine rather than some church lady hard candy that's been in their purse for 8 years. I want this album to be played from the heavens when I go to New Orleans, or to some fancy restaurant, or just that New Orleans-themed part of Disney World. It's simply so easy to listen to. If I had a record player, I would swoop this one up if I saw it in a store, no hesitation. Unfortunately, however, I can't give this album 5 stars, merely based on the fact that I will never willingly listen to a track on here again. I know that sounds harsh, but deep down, I know it's true. I mentioned that I would love to hear this album on vinyl, or in a restaurant, and you'll notice that a common theme along those fantasies is that they all involve me listening to the album as I am doing something else. That's my gripe. I don't even mean this to the music's detriment- I'm not sure it was intended to be listened to through AirPod Pros in a cramped college dorm room at 10 in the morning on a random Tuesday. I simply just can't extract a lot of concentrated pleasure out of many of the tracks on this album, and it would feel wrong to put rate this 5 stars above albums that I have actually begun to shuffle into my playlists. To you, Louis, you are (were?) awesome. Great work. In conclusion, this is a good album that's easy on the ears, but not much more than that. Oh yeah, and I guess from now I can say I'll be rating based on some weird mish-mash of subjectivity and objectivity. Favorite Track: Just a Gigolo - I knew this song before, but still, I got to put it up highest. I know lyrics aren't a main focus on this album, but I honestly enjoy the message on this track. Least Favorite Track: Oh Marie - Not sure on this one... I really do mean it when I say it's hard to find a track not to like on this album. I just think around this point things start to get a bit dull. Final Score: 7 out of 10.