My 1001 Albums Journey

Albums Rated

2.78

Average Rating

Complete

1017 albums remaining

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1960s

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Soul

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5-Star Albums

1-Star Albums

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Albums

You Love More Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
It's Too Late to Stop Now Van Morrison	5	3.25	+1.75
The Wildest! Louis Prima	5	3.53	+1.47
Freak Out! The Mothers Of Invention	4	2.83	+1.17
Pet Sounds The Beach Boys	5	3.93	+1.07

You Love Less Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
London Calling The Clash	1	3.98	-2.98
White Blood Cells The White Stripes	1	3.67	-2.67
Superunknown Soundgarden	1	3.66	-2.66
The Clash The Clash	1	3.54	-2.54
Unknown Pleasures Joy Division	1	3.47	-2.47
Parachutes Coldplay	1	3.46	-2.46
Deep Purple In Rock Deep Purple	1	3.33	-2.33
Made In Japan Deep Purple	1	3.29	-2.29
Maxinquaye Tricky	1	3.04	-2.04
Talk Talk Talk The Psychedelic Furs	1	3.03	-2.03

5-Star Albums (5)

View Album Wall

1-Star Albums (11)

All Ratings

Superunknown

Soundgarden

1/5

Purple Rain

Prince

4/5

The Clash

1/5

People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

A Tribe Called Quest

4/5

My Aim Is True

Elvis Costello

3/5

L.A. Woman

The Doors

2/5

They had some good songs, even a couple great ones. But basically they were a psychedelic Holiday Inn lounge combo fronted by a drunken imbecile.

Deep Purple In Rock

Deep Purple

1/5

Scott 4

Scott Walker

3/5

Catch A Fire

Bob Marley & The Wailers

2/5

Peter Gabriel

2/5

Parachutes

Coldplay

1/5

New Boots And Panties

Ian Dury

3/5

Talk Talk Talk

The Psychedelic Furs

1/5

Exile On Main Street

The Rolling Stones

4/5

Bridge Over Troubled Water

Simon & Garfunkel

4/5

Sister

Sonic Youth

3/5

Music Has The Right To Children

Boards of Canada

3/5

Double Nickels On The Dime

Minutemen

3/5

Pet Sounds

The Beach Boys

5/5

Appetite For Destruction

Guns N' Roses

4/5

Led Zeppelin II

Led Zeppelin

3/5

Their weakest effort, excepting Coda. It was put together hurriedly, while touring, and it sounds it. There are high points ("Whole Lotta Love," "The Lemon Song"), and part of the problem is that it suffers by comparison with their rip-roaring debut. But on its own merits it's just not all there.

Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde

The Pharcyde

3/5

Live / Dead

Grateful Dead

1/5

This might be the worst thing I've ever heard by a supposedly great act. Deadheads always say that the studio albums don't tell the story; the Dead had to be experienced live. This recording disproves that. The Shaggs are better, and I'm not kidding. One star, only because it's not possible to give zero stars.

Harvest

Neil Young

3/5

Metallica

2/5

On its own merits it's not bad at all. But ranked against their first three, and even Justice, it's pretty weak. It sounds exactly like a record produced by a guy named Bob Rock should sound.

Maxinquaye

Tricky

1/5

Wild Wood

Paul Weller

3/5

Tapestry

Carole King

4/5

It's Too Late to Stop Now

Van Morrison

5/5

Van at his best, backed by the transcendent Caledonia Soul Orchestra. What a shame that such a great artist is such an awful human being.

London Calling

The Clash

1/5

Ragged Glory

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

2/5

It's nothing if not consistent, but it's pretty tedious: over 60 minutes of trying to tap back into the energy of "Rockin' in the Free World."

Shake Your Money Maker

The Black Crowes

2/5

Nevermind

Nirvana

5/5

It's probably really only a four-star record, but it deserves an extra star for making hair metal, which was already artistically irrelevant, also commercially irrelevant. And for nostalgia. You had to be 18-ish when it came out to fully appreciate it.

Channel Orange

Frank Ocean

3/5

Hot Buttered Soul

Isaac Hayes

4/5

Bookends

Simon & Garfunkel

4/5

The Visitors

ABBA

2/5

Not as good as I'd expected. Really only the hits are any good. The album tracks are surprisingly weak, especially the opener and "Happy Hawaii," which sounds like crappy mid-'70s Beach Boys ("Kona Coast").

The Man Who

Travis

2/5

Not terrible, but just typical late '90s formulaic alternative rock. In the late '90s, I would've given it an angry zero stars. But it's fair for what it is.

Parallel Lines

Blondie

4/5

Unknown Pleasures

Joy Division

1/5

I had the same reaction as when I first heard this in the late '80s: Is this a joke?

KE*A*H** (Psalm 69)

Ministry

3/5

Roger the Engineer

The Yardbirds

2/5

It has its moments, mostly thanks to Jeff ("Jeff's Boogie" is definitely the best cut—great Les Paul picking in there). They just weren't really up to the task of this kind of material.

The Holy Bible

Manic Street Preachers

3/5

Come Away With Me

Norah Jones

4/5

Neon Bible

Arcade Fire

2/5

This Is Hardcore

Pulp

2/5

They were trying so hard to be interesting, and there are scattered moments of value throughout. But they're too self-consciousness, and their singer can't decide if he wants to be David Bowie or Elvis Costello.

Thriller

Michael Jackson

5/5

First Off the Wall, then this. What a great few years for MJ.

The Grand Tour

George Jones

2/5

There's No Place Like America Today

Curtis Mayfield

3/5

White Blood Cells

The White Stripes

1/5

I've never understood what all the fuss is about.

Fun House

The Stooges

2/5

Never been a huge fan, but they were certainly ahead of their time. Whatever kind of antisocial rebel Jim Morrison thought he was, he wasn't even in the same sport, let alone the same ballpark, as Iggy.

Steve McQueen

Prefab Sprout

3/5

Five Leaves Left

Nick Drake

3/5

The Doors

2/5

From the first outing, the music was interesting and quite different from what surrounded it, but the lyrics and singing wrecked the show.

Blue

Joni Mitchell

4/5

Pretty close to sublime. I just happen to have a preference for what came after her all-acoustic, angelic hippie phase. This album begins the transition.

Headquarters

The Monkees

3/5

Interesting. Almost every track was an obvious attempt to sound like someone else: the Beatles, CCR, the Yardbirds, the Moody Blues, etc. They're like soundalike tracks created to avoid copyright infringement. And yet somehow it holds together and works pretty well.

The Wildest!

Louis Prima

5/5

This cat flat-out rocked. One of the all-time greats. And it's hard to top Keely Smith's voice.

Freak Out!

The Mothers Of Invention

4/5

Zappa got off to a great start. Whatever deficiencies there are, it's futile to point them out, as it's never clear whether they're planted deliberately to invite criticism that can then be contemptuously deflected. The man was a genius.

Abraxas

Santana

3/5

Darkness on the Edge of Town

Bruce Springsteen

3/5

Paul Simon

4/5

The Gershwin Songbook

Ella Fitzgerald

4/5

Fetch The Bolt Cutters