My 1001 Albums Journey

125

Albums Rated

3.24

Average Rating

11%

Complete

964 albums remaining

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1950s

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Jazz

Favorite Genre

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5-Star Albums

1-Star Albums

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Albums

You Love More Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
Kala M.I.A.	5	2.91	+2.09
Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs Marty Robbins	5	3.33	+1.67
One Nation Under A Groove Funkadelic	5	3.42	+1.58
Licensed To Ill Beastie Boys	5	3.55	+1.45
In The Court Of The Crimson King King Crimson	5	3.6	+1.4
To Pimp A Butterfly Kendrick Lamar	5	3.62	+1.38
Birth Of The Cool Miles Davis	5	3.65	+1.35
Duck Rock Malcolm McLaren	4	2.65	+1.35
Getz/Gilberto Stan Getz	5	3.65	+1.35
Buena Vista Social Club Buena Vista Social Club	5	3.66	+1.34

You Love Less Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
Off The Wall Michael Jackson	1	3.78	-2.78
Highway to Hell AC/DC	2	3.66	-1.66
So Peter Gabriel	2	3.54	-1.54
Sign 'O' The Times Prince	2	3.45	-1.45
Parklife Blur	2	3.38	-1.38
Dub Housing Pere Ubu	1	2.35	-1.35
If I Should Fall From Grace With God The Pogues	2	3.34	-1.34
The Yes Album Yes	2	3.31	-1.31
Rum Sodomy & The Lash The Pogues	2	3.25	-1.25
School's Out Alice Cooper	2	3.2	-1.2

Artists

Favorites

Artist	Albums	Average
Beatles	3	4.67

5-Star Albums (17)

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Popular Reviews

Elephant

The White Stripes

5/5

A lot of times in this list I forget what a great album is supposed to be, and then something comes along to remind me. Just a great album, strong arrangements, focused and creative songwriting, emotion, and a cohesive and strong tracklist. All that done with a "less is more" approach, which I really appreciate after hearing so much bloated and meandering music. Seven Nation Army is up there as THE song of the early 2000s to the point where today you hear it as a ubiquitous chant at almost any crowd gathering.

4 likes

Call of the Valley

Shivkumar Sharma

4/5

Felt like I was playing Age of Empires 2 and Minecraft at times, kind of wild to me that this came out in the 60s.

1 likes

4-Star Albums (32)

1-Star Albums (3)

All Ratings

Moondance

Van Morrison

5/5

Overall enjoyed it, have heard a lot of these songs growing up.

Jagged Little Pill

Alanis Morissette

3/5

What I enjoyed: the hits land, the heavier tracks Very 90s for better or worse, can't say the emotional beats landed with me very much

Brothers

The Black Keys

4/5

I used to listen to this album a lot. It still is pretty good, relatively one-note but in a way where they nailed what they are going for with a few standout tracks. Reminds me of other alt-pop-rock-ish stuff.

Darkness on the Edge of Town

Bruce Springsteen

3/5

I've passively listened to a lot of Bruce Springsteen. It all kind of blends together for me. This album was all good and does all the stuff I've heard. I think the strongest track is upfront.

Young Americans

David Bowie

4/5

Power In Numbers

Jurassic 5

4/5

Had never heard of this album/group, interesting to place it alongside 90s and early 2000s hip hop. Felt like it rounded out a lot of stuff I had heard as more breaks/beat-focused. I probably prefer more sample-focused stuff, but good stuff all around. This also kind of filled in a gap around like a lot of hip hop in video games of this era.

If I Should Fall From Grace With God

The Pogues

2/5

I'm glad this is on the list, and it's interesting that it exists, but I couldn't make it through half the album.

The Number Of The Beast

Iron Maiden

3/5

Run to the Hills and some other tracks rip. Throwback to SSX on the gamecube. Some of the vocals don't really land for me, but when it all comes together right there's some great moments. It's hard for something to hold up for 40 years, and I couldn't tell how serious the album was supposed to be. I never realized Dragonforce was just Iron Maiden sped up until listening to this.

Shadowland

k.d. lang

3/5

Country and loungey, reminded me of Elvis at points. This album was not bad, but I can't say much stood out to me.

Club Classics Vol. One

Soul II Soul

2/5

I listen to a lot of electronic/dance stuff and this is a snooze, though it was probably more impactful in the 80s or early 90s. There's nothing terrible about most of these, just boring as an album. On the plus side I got to find out where some prominent Girl Talk samples came from.

Parklife

Blur

2/5

Not bad, I kind of think of this as stereotypical "british rock". Girls & Boys is a great song. Nothing else on the album did much for me tbh, but it's a fine album.

Diamond Life

Sade

4/5

Strong 4, Smooth Operator is an all time song, and the vibes are great.

The Stooges

3/5

Hard to rate. For the 60s this was apparently super influential and I believe it, that being said I think it's a couple of good songs and a bunch of meandering. I need to stick with did I enjoy listening to this without context, so probably just a 3.

Metallica

5/5

Pretty awesome. A bit longer than it needs to be and kinda one-note, but that one-note is really good. I haven't listened to any other Metallica so maybe that is coloring my opinion compared to their other albums, but this one hit the spot.

Off The Wall

Michael Jackson

1/5

Just going to 1 star this and move on...

Let Love Rule

Lenny Kravitz

2/5

A lot of this felt cliche/boring/meandering. I generally prefer stuff that pushes strongly in a direction, not sure that this accomplishes that.

Greetings From L.A.

Tim Buckley

2/5

Dude... I was excited to see a short album, but then my excitement quickly waned after realizing what this was. I thought the instrumentals were actually good, but the overall horniness and meandering nature of the songs brought this down a lot. Would love to know why this album was included.

Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)

The Kinks

3/5

This is good. Liked the commentary about modern life, feel like that still holds up today. I think a couple of songs stood out more along those lines, maybe the rest blends together a bit, but overall is decent. It's hard not to feel the Beatles influence here, and at the same time wish the songwriting was as grabbing and interesting as the Beatles.

The Wildest!

Louis Prima

4/5

A fun one, and his voice is a classic. I think this hits a certain vibe/era extremely well.

D.O.A. the Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle

Throbbing Gristle

2/5

Weird and experimental which makes it worth listening to. I can't say its very musical or enjoyable, but from a creativity of sound standpoint it's an interesting artifact to hear at least once. This is cool in the same way much of early electronic music is cool, as a historical artifact.

Station To Station

David Bowie

3/5

Arc Of A Diver

Steve Winwood

3/5

This was not bad, more synthy than I expected.

Slanted And Enchanted

Pavement

3/5

Homework

Daft Punk

4/5

It's good, but still to me maybe the weakest of the Daft Punk original trilogy. I think the other two are more listenable, and this one sort of makes me wish a lot of these songs were the Alive 2007 versions that feature those tracks instead. I think the composition is more towards club track / DJ tool vs. listenable song here.

Odessey And Oracle

The Zombies

3/5

Time of the Season is fantastic, the rest is forgettable.

evermore

Taylor Swift

3/5

It's fine, something about the music and lyrics rarely hits for me with Taylor Swift, but there's nothing wrong with this album. I really liked the Bon Iver feature as a song, the rest kinda blended together for me.

Aha Shake Heartbreak

Kings of Leon

3/5

Couple good songs and a bit boring.

Harvest

Neil Young

5/5

This was great, the emotions hit home, especially in the second half. More interesting than I'd expect from what seemed like a "country" album. Another one that I was raised listening to songs from so also pushes it up a bit.

Bryter Layter

Nick Drake

3/5

Folky and flutey. Pleasant to listen to, but I won't say much stood out to me. Some nice songs and good background music?

Red Headed Stranger

Willie Nelson

3/5

I am conflicted on this one, on the one hand it does a very good job at what it does. On the other hand that is not something I was super into.

They Were Wrong, So We Drowned

Liars

2/5

And now for something completely different...

Paul Simon

3/5

I felt like the hits are some of the greatest songs ever written with a bunch of middling stuff in-between.

Unhalfbricking

Fairport Convention

4/5

Really nice and a more interesting blend of sounds with the folk and 60s sounds than you get with a lot of stuff of that era that kept it from being boring or samey.

Tracy Chapman

3/5

Fast Car is a great song, a lot of these kind of felt like similar ideas, but don't quite get going or have the songwriting to the same extent.

Are You Experienced

Jimi Hendrix

3/5

Haunted Dancehall

The Sabres Of Paradise

2/5

I felt like this album was a joke, was this ever relevant? If you look at other stuff coming out in 1994 like The Prodigy, Moby, Nine Inch Nails, Jamiroquai, etc. there are just so much better electronic picks. This album felt dub-influenced and surely there are even better dub albums out there. I love electronic music but the songwriting is bland, the sounds are grating, and today this feels like stuff someone could make with 10s of hours looping some stock sounds + effects in Ableton without too much regard. There is the occasional good idea in here though.

Like Water For Chocolate

Common

4/5

If You Can Believe Your Eyes & Ears

The Mamas & The Papas

3/5

It is okay 60s music. California Dreamin is good, the rest is a bit boring/uninspired compared to the greats. Sort of derivative of Beatles + Beach Boys I think?

Stardust

Willie Nelson

4/5

All the renditions were really good, enjoyed this.

Hms Fable

Shack

2/5

Questionable inclusion in the list for sure.

Buena Vista Social Club

5/5

Great stuff

The Trinity Session

Cowboy Junkies

2/5

Sad cowboy.

Elephant Mountain

The Youngbloods

4/5

Cool to see 60s music that has some more interesting influences.

Trout Mask Replica

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band

2/5

A hard listen, but I don't hate it, I don't know.

Beggars Banquet

The Rolling Stones

3/5

The Gershwin Songbook

Ella Fitzgerald

4/5

3 Feet High and Rising

De La Soul

4/5

Remedy

Basement Jaxx

3/5

It was okay

Play

Moby

3/5

The hits are good, everything else is probably a bit meandering/repetitive or just not quite as good, but overall enjoyed it.

Goo

Sonic Youth

4/5

Melodrama

Lorde

3/5

Kollaps

Einstürzende Neubauten

1/5

There was an unironic use of what sounded like a smoke detector beep at some point. This is probably sick sample fodder though. I appreciate on this list that it is not another rock album.

Rage Against The Machine

5/5

This was sick, wish I listened to it sooner.

The White Room

The KLF

4/5

Cool and weird and 90s.

Call of the Valley

Shivkumar Sharma

4/5

Felt like I was playing Age of Empires 2 and Minecraft at times, kind of wild to me that this came out in the 60s.

Sheer Heart Attack

Queen

3/5

Queen has some absolute hits, but I just don't think most of this album lives up to the hits, and I think the hits are Queen at their best writing really unique songs.

The Queen Is Dead

The Smiths

4/5

Fromohio

fIREHOSE

3/5

Songs Of Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen

3/5

Oar

Alexander 'Skip' Spence

2/5

An interesting historical artifact, but not that great.

Music in Exile

Songhoy Blues

4/5

Solid interesting album, good stuff.

Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs

Marty Robbins

5/5

There's a snake in my boot!

Automatic For The People

R.E.M.

3/5

The hits are good, the rest is pretty boring.

Hunting High And Low

a-ha

3/5

Great single, nothing else comes close to it.

From Elvis In Memphis

Elvis Presley

3/5

Hard to rank a whole Elvis album, for me Suspicious Minds is an all-time great song, but the rest doesn't raise to the level of the hits and doesn't add much to listen as an album.

School's Out

Alice Cooper

2/5

Did I expect a west side story cover? No. Is this album anything special beyond one song? No, not really. The variety was alright, but I didn't feel like many of the songs excelled at much, and a lot felt meandering/repetitive in a not great way.

A Hard Day's Night

Beatles

4/5

Hotel California

Eagles

3/5

3 good songs and boredom after those.

The Yes Album

Yes

2/5

In The Court Of The Crimson King

King Crimson

5/5

Great stuff. Never listened to this before, but upon listening the reputation is deserved. Flows well as an album as an added bonus!

Selling England By The Pound

Genesis

4/5

Really like the progressive rock sections of this, less into the "intros", but overall really good once the songs get going. Some awesome/fresh ideas that clearly influenced a lot after them in surprising ways and great drumming.

No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith (Live)

Motörhead

2/5

Fine and fun, but one note and the audio quality is poor. Nowhere close to the greatest live album of all time if you include stuff like Talking Heads, Alive 2007, Justice's live albums, and many many others.

This Year's Model

Elvis Costello & The Attractions

3/5

This was fine

Murmur

R.E.M.

3/5

Happy Trails

Quicksilver Messenger Service

2/5

It had its moments, but just a lot of meandering psychedlic-ish guitar stuff.

Tanto Tempo

Bebel Gilberto

4/5

Hard to judge as I lack genre familiarity, but I enjoyed it.

At Mister Kelly's

Sarah Vaughan

3/5

Fear Of Music

Talking Heads

4/5

The Sensual World

Kate Bush

4/5

I thought this was good in a meandering dreamy kind of way. I would assume this album isn't as good as her previous and seemingly more popular album, but I haven't listened to that yet!

Peter Gabriel

2/5

This album manages to encompass both the best and worst of what I think of as the most stereotypical 80s pop. In Your Eyes is pretty great and hits the mark with some 80s cheese but in a good way. Stuff like Sledgehammer and Big Time are 100% cheese -- Sledgehammer being the worst offender with innuendo so uncreative that it's been basically parodied to death at this point.

Paul's Boutique

Beastie Boys

3/5

Scott 4

Scott Walker

2/5

Songs For Swingin' Lovers!

Frank Sinatra

4/5

Good and smooth, there is probably a better Sinatra album out there, but enjoyable.

Slippery When Wet

Bon Jovi

4/5

Hits hits hits.

Birth Of The Cool

Miles Davis

5/5

Very cool, very cool.

Iron Maiden

4/5

Somehow I liked this a lot more than the later Iron Maiden with the high-pitched vocals.

One Nation Under A Groove

Funkadelic

5/5

This was very good and had some variety/flow that felt like it added up to a largely solid album. Excited for when we get Maggot Brain hopefully, though interesting to me that this came out after that, maybe this is a sleeper that is even better? Much better than so many of the albums here that are a few hits and collections of okay songs. Sad this isn't on Spotify.

Let's Get It On

Marvin Gaye

4/5

Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

George Michael

2/5

🥱 adult contemporary

To Pimp A Butterfly

Kendrick Lamar

5/5

I've listened to this so many times, but still one of the all time great albums. Great songs, great variety, great storytelling, great features and sessions musicians, an overall thematic journey that ties the whole album together. Few albums reach the level this one does on any level, let alone across so many fronts at once. I probably prefer GKMC to this at the end of the day, but this album is easily one of the GOATs and it's criminally underrated on this site seemingly because its rap/hip-hop and contains profanity. Unfortunate.

Fever To Tell

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

3/5

This album was okay. Maps is a very good song, but what else?

Shleep

Robert Wyatt

2/5

I wanted to give this a 1, but really I can't justify it. It has the occasional compelling moment, which is then almost always followed by one of the most lackluster things you've heard.

Kala

M.I.A.

5/5

It's a banger. I first listened to this album back in like 8th grade a ton, still sounds cool and fresh today, and you can see a bunch of influences play out.

Colour By Numbers

Culture Club

2/5

Karma Chameleon is so far above every other song on this album, but the rest is okay. Can't really say its a good album overall.

Is This It

The Strokes

4/5

Music

Madonna

2/5

Parallel Lines

Blondie

4/5

All the Blondie hits except for Call Me.

Dub Housing

Pere Ubu

1/5

Creative, but just absolute trash. Was curious if this is some sort of outside art/music.

Kings Of The Wild Frontier

Adam & The Ants

3/5

Sort of so bad its good, I mean it's not actual good, but in a goofy way where you lose all musical criteria there's something compelling here. I can't bring myself to say its actually good, but an interesting listen. How do you rate such a thing? To me a fun 2 that is elevated to a 3 by being weird and crazy in a good way. Can't bring myself to give this a 4 though. Ant music for sex people, sex music for ant people,

Violent Femmes

4/5

Pearl

Janis Joplin

3/5

Fuzzy

Grant Lee Buffalo

2/5

🥱 not sure what this is doing that it deserves to be on this list?

Elephant

The White Stripes

5/5

Abbey Road

Beatles

5/5

Easiest 5 star of my life, what can you even say. The songs at the beginning are great, the run at the end is legendary. This could come out today and be a hit. Changed the course of music completely, etc. etc. The amount of pretty boring 60s music (and onwards!) on this list really shows how far ahead the Beatles were for their time. Probably the best Beatles album?

Moving Pictures

Rush

3/5

Tom Sawyer is a great song, the rest of this is alright. Nothing against Rush, but also just not that into them.

Gorillaz

3/5

I love Demon Days and also think Plastic Beach is great, and Clint Eastwood is a great song, so I was ready to love this and unfortunately it's just a bit boring. The tight ideas, memorable songs, etc. aren't really there. It's kind of amazing to me that Demon Days came out after this given how good and tight everything is on there compared to this. This kind of feels like a proto-Gorillaz grab-bag rather than a properly written and put together album. Alas.

Leftism

Leftfield

2/5

This was probably pretty out there and groundbreaking for the time, but can't say it holds up super well in todays world of electronic music. I wish the songwriting was more compelling, I wish the grooves were better, I wish there was a bit more interesting stuff going on.

Revolver

Beatles

5/5

Hard to not give this a 5 -- its not my #1 Beatles album, but its undeniable.

Hearts And Bones

Paul Simon

2/5

Cars are cars, all over the world. This is an album of a man who seems unhappy with his relationships, and also lacking inspiration for what to write about outside of that. Doesn't quite get going, definitely could have cut the songs about cars and allergies. Not great. Paul Simon has some great songs but none of them are on this album, arguably not even notable enough for this list.

Duck Rock

Malcolm McLaren

4/5

Low-key a gem for 1983 with some cool famous samples showing up. Cool to hear this one, kind of an odd collection of songs, also confusing to me who the actual musicians and artists were as there are plenty of singers etc. but no one credited.

Back In Black

AC/DC

4/5

Very good, the hits are huge, they nailed a specific sound, but you can just listen to like the 3-4 hits vs. the whole album here.

All Things Must Pass

George Harrison

3/5

Sweetheart Of The Rodeo

The Byrds

3/5

It was the most country of country. Not bad.

Sign 'O' The Times

Prince

2/5

Creative, but not that good...

Disintegration

The Cure

5/5

Great album, great atmosphere. Strong emotion and really nailed a feeling.

Heavy Weather

Weather Report

3/5

This is almost the type of music they play on the Watercolors station that your Uber driver or local breakfast restaurant listens to. Opening track is pretty great, I guess less stands out from later on though.

Dry

PJ Harvey

3/5

Solid album, probably very influential, but can't say its the type of thing I enjoy a ton or that does much for me.

Smokers Delight

Nightmares On Wax

4/5

Very nice downtempo chillout stuff, it's no Carboot Soul though which is a great one.

Licensed To Ill

Beastie Boys

5/5

Ali Baba and the forty thieves... Ali Baba and the forty thieves... Ali Baba and the forty thieves... ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES This album is so goofy, the peak hits are often worse than the rest of the album, the vocal delivery gets grating, and yet its undeniably fun, creative throughout, the boom bap rock stuff is done really well. I can see why a lot of people will hate this, but it's an awesome album.

She's So Unusual

Cyndi Lauper

3/5

A couple of hits, I can't say I really like Cyndi Lauper that much beyond those.

Black Metal

Venom

2/5

I'm sure this is here because its super influential and where black metal comes from, but as an album its simultaneously cool and a bit boring. Sound quality is poor, songwriting all kinda blends together, hard to understand and hear the lyrics, the whole album kinda sounds like if you stood outside a black metal concert to some extent and overhead "this is sort of what black metal sounds like"...

Roxy Music

2/5

Getz/Gilberto

Stan Getz

5/5

Just a great listen all around.

Highway to Hell

AC/DC

2/5

So boring and repetitive... not the best AC/DC album.

Rum Sodomy & The Lash

The Pogues

2/5

This list did not need two Pogues albums...