This is easily in the top 50 albums on the list. A stone cold classic, referenced numerous times by all kinds of rap and non-rap artists. By far my fave connection is the Weezer song El Scorcho which borrows the "I'm the epitome of public enemy" line. I find the thought of skinny young nerdy Cuomo listening to Public Enemy and thinking he's a public enemy very funny. Which just goes to show how universally beloved, respected and influential It Takes a Nation of Millions... is. As a metalhead, I've always had a soft spot for She Watch Channel Zero, but pretty much every song is a winner. Party for Your Right to Fight is one of the best song names ever and almost eclipses the Beastie Boys track. Bring the Noise, Don't Believe the Hype, Louder than a Bomb, Rebel Without a Pause, Prophets of Rage... Damn what a tracklist.
Most of the reviews here are complaining about live albums being on the list at all. Couldn't disagree more. There are way too few lives, DJ mixes, compilations, demos, special releases etc. in this book.
Live albums are a specific format/artform which gets slander for no real reason. So many bands sound incredible live and dull on the studio releases. The raw energy of the real show cannot be fully encapsulated by an mp3 (or flac or wav or whatever), but it can get you close the original experience. And that's assuming the live album is a 1:1 mapping of the live show to audio, which often isn't the case. Sometimes you have recordings from more than 1 show, sometimes the recordings are altered (to have a better sounding release), sometimes it's a special performance designed for live audience and the live album is the only way to listen to it (by design). Numerous other examples, but you get the point - live album is a slightly different, but equally valid artform.
Now after this defense of the live album format™, let's talk about Live in Leeds. Spoiler alert: it's not among the best live albums out there. I'm a moderate The Who fan, love a lot of their songs (especially early ones), but they have only 1 album worth listening to all the way through (Who's Next), and even that one has some filler. However, they're a very good live band. The rawness and the jam/improvisational feel elevate most of the songs here. It's still an inconsistent release, but there's a lot to like here. Young Man Blues has never sounded better, Summertime Blues cover doesn't even have an official studio release (I think?), 15-minute My Generation medley rips. Substitute is my fave song here, it's one of their best tracks. Keith Moon's thunderous drumming is the highlight, he's free to do as he pleases in this live setting and it makes for some of the best drumming you'll hear. Overall, well worth a listen, but not essential imo.
Ah yes, the best album ever according to RYM (outdated info, To Pimp a Butterfly has overtaken it, apparently) and some other sources. It's not near the top here (number 19 rn), which is fine, I guess the users here prefer the boomer stuff.
I was never convinced this was the best album ever. That being said, it's very close to perfect and it might not even be Radiohead's best. It has some of the most legendary songs of all time. I tried listing top 5 tracks for this album, but it's kinda impossible. Airbag and Let Down are a lock, Paranoid Android, Lucky, Tourist, Climbing Up a Walls, Subterranean Homesick Alien are all in serious contention. I'm a pretentious idiot who doesn't like Karma Police and (especially) No Surprises that much. It's tough to say anything new and meaningful about one of the most celebrated albums of all time which has wonderfully withstood the test of time.
For a long time in my teens, this was THE album. Like, it's the best thing ever by default. It's not anymore, I've grown up and my tastes have changed, but it's still a foundational album in both the 70s hard rock expansion and in my personal listening history. Easily some of the best written boomer rock ever, the only negative I can think of is Four Sticks, which is clearly a few steps below the quality of other tracks.
"now this is blues.
clapton can fuck off."
indeed
Never heard about this one before, a nice surprise. Synthpop is hit or miss for me, post-punk is one of my fave styles. I haven't heard many albums which can be described as a clear combination of the two - perhaps some New Order or Fad Gadget stuff.
I don't mind calling Abbey Road the "greatest" album ever. It's very good, some would say almost perfect, has few fillers and even those are generally fun songs. It has the legendary medley, sounds great as a full album and has iconic singles. It's influential, uses new production techniques for the time, even has the first hidden song ever on a pop recording. And yeah, it's probably the best album by the world's most popular/greatest band of all time.
That being said, if someone asked me to pick the "greatest" album, I'd go for something else. Velvet Underground & Nico is way cooler and a better album overall, not to mention it might be THE most influential album of all time. Call me a contrarian.
So yeah, great stuff. Love I Want You (She's So Heavy), one of the most underrated Beatles songs.
Only heard this one a few years ago. One of the classics which I didn't expect to like, which is why I postponed listening to it for so long. Imagine my surprise when this wasn't some dull boomer rock - it's swampy! And cool! And has several overplayed classics which all sound much better in their original versions than the countless boring covers. I should not have doubted the musical education and tastes of one Mr. Lebowski.
There are so many great funk records. There are so many great Latin records. There are so many great Latin alternative records. This one is just not it. Feels like a token modern Latin album chosen by someone who isn't really into contemporary Latin music.
That being said, there are a few real bops (mostly hip hop ones) and I cannot in good conscious give this a 1/5 when I know there's a Kid Rock album on the list.
Heard this one years ago, remember it being nice. It's still just that - nice. Never reaches another level like the best folk music, but it does have several highlights and is consistently cool.
Nick Cave has been one of my fave artists for a long time. Dude can just write amazing songs, and has done that since The Birthday Party. This double album is middle of the pack for me, but it's still so damn consistent. Almost half of the songs are highlights and the rest is pretty good as well. Love the gospel style he presents here.
As a fan of 70s Genesis I've always been of the opinion that Hackett and Gabriel were the ones who made the band work, not Collins. Never dived deep into any of their solo work (or later day Genesis), but I've heard some stuff here and there. After listening to this, I can finally confirm my theory. I have now heard 2 Steve Hackett albums, 1 Peter Gabriel album and 1 Phil Collins album, as well as most of the 70s Genesis work and several singles by all 4 artists mentioned. Collins' Face Value is easily the worst album of the bunch and the only one I don't really like. No surprises there. What did surprise me is this third self titled album (known as Melt) by the former Genesis frontman. It's absolutely fantastic and doesn't lean into the outdated 80s pop production like Sledgehammer. It's artsy, has forward-thinking production and has laid the groundwork for a lot of 80s pop music. Gabriel is joined by a host of incredible musicians: his ex-bandmate Collins drums on several tracks, Kate Bush provides the backing vocals on No Self Control and Games Without Frontiers, Robert Fripp and Tony Levin of King Crimson play on a few tracks, as do Dave Gregory (of XTC), Paul Weller (of The Jam) and a bunch of others. It's all kept under control by Gabriel and the producer Steve Lillywhite. The result is some of the best art pop/rock of the time, several strong singles and an album I wish I'd heard before. There are 5 other Peter Gabriel albums I'd like to hear now.
This is easily their best album tbh
You know what? This might be the best Janis Joplin album. First time hearing it and even without Piece of My Heart which might be her best song, this is chock full of good tunes. Sam Andrew's vocals and the bigger influence of psychedelic music than on Joplin's solo work add another dimension. Interesting trick they used here is incorporating the "live audience sounds" even though only 1 song here was recorded live.
One of the better mainstream pop albums of the last ~10 years. It's cool that a one hit wonder, almost industry plant-type musician from New Zealand managed to build upon an initial hype and have an interesting career. And all based on her own songwriting, lyrical and vocal skills, with help from Antonoff. The result - a highly enjoyable album and (as of 2024) easily her peak work. Not many mainstream albums are this consistent, unique and forward-thinking.
Fun story. After Lorde was picked to perform Life on Mars for a David Bowie tribute album in 2017, Bowie's longtime pianist Mike Garson said: "David really liked Lorde, and he felt like she was the future of music, and they had a few wonderful moments together." Bowie was so God damn cool.
Early The Who is lovely. Moon's drumming and excellent singles set them apart from their peers. Although the collection of singles (Meaty Beaty Big & Bouncy) is better than their full albums, their debut My Generation is rightfully heralded as one of the most important Mod albums of all time.
This is so much fun lol. It's not an essential album and I'm not sure what it's doing in the 1001 book, but they do what they've set out to do. And they do it well while having infectious energy. Most of the time, that's enough. Faith Healer is an exquisite 70s rock jam.
Obligatory fuck Ye. But really, fuck this guy.
This ain't even close to his best, but it's still pretty great. Top 5, give or take. Several incredible tunes, a bunch of good songs, some stinkers, overall it's great but nothing mind-blowing to me. Never understood the hype tbh.
It is one of 3 most important albums of the 2010s (at least in the internet communities) along with TPAB and Blonde, I'll give it that. It would probably land in the 101 albums to listen to before you die as well, that's how massive its influence is. You should pirate it and listen.
One of the best post punk/garage albums of the time. That whole revival movement based in indie sounds of the early 2000s doesn't sound very exciting in 2024 (including The Strokes, Interpol, The National and Arctic Monkeys), but the bangers are still the bangers. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, as well as the mentioned bands, just know how to write great tunes. And out of those, I'd say Yeah Yeah Yeahs are rivaled only by Sleater-Kinney in terms of being the coolest, possibly the heaviest and most punk-adjacent major band. All the qualities I like. Fever to Tell ain't Turn on the Bright Lights, but it has withstood the test of time.
