1001 Albums Summary

this being a #1 charting album is absurd. the torture in kurts lyrics and vocals is a good reminder of what being an artist whose most private moments are public is like. your life and thoughts dissected by thousands is a difficult dynamic to bear. there's no mega-hits like nevermind but all apologies, heart shaped box, rape me, and dumb are all worth returning to. track 1 - tough to make out lyrics but what i heard was pretty blunt. a bit unremarkable compared to what follows track 2 - no part of what i remember about this album included how harsh a sound is on this song track 3 - great pop/grunge song, love the guitar tone on the solo track 4 - iconic, the riff reminds me of smells like teen spirit and it draws you in before hitting you with "rape me" lyrics. dave kills it with his fills here and the melody is fantastic stuff track 5 - the loud/soft dynamic in the verses is okay but this one just lacks an engaging hook or melody. "i miss the comfort in being sad" is a cool lyric but the song's forgettable track 6 - insane to whip out an acoustic guitar and a cello mid-way through your noisiest album but it makes for a very memorable song. the cello especially does some interesting dissonant things in the 2nd half of the song. lyrically a great follow up to the previous track (comfort in sadness, happiness is stupidity) track 7 - very punky, cool whiny lead guitar buried in the mix. fun phrasing on the lyrics of verse 2 track 8 - there's something odd with the timing of the instruments during the quiet moments, that with kurts vocals make the song so uncomfortable track 9 - track 10 - insane guitar and bass riff, some metallica shit track 12 -

wish i was more familiar with earlier dire straits stuff to make a comparison to their earlier work, especially since it probably isnt fair to keep making springsteen comparisons but thats the rock artist from this era im the most familiar with. anyways this has a great mix of rock with some 80s new wavey atmosphere and synth. no idea how typical that is for them. each tracks has an unreal and unique intro. i love how sparingly distortion is used, you can appreciate the instruments precision when its laid out as clean as it is. knopfler plays guitar with so much grace and had an ear for layering instruments to build a song. track 1 - nice riff, the vocals reminded me a bit of bruce springsteen. easy song to listen to track 2 - very atmospheric intro with the arpeggiated synth and pink floyd style keys. the ramp up with the drums rocks. love a good slur track 3 - joy in a song, lovely organ intro and the rest of the instruments layer in beautifully. a modern take on a 50s song. he got the action, he got the motion track 4 - an intro of a trumpet solo into sax solo is so crazy. the guitar(s?) give great texture with the synths. strong springsteen vibe but more adventurous production for sure track 5 - yet another beautiful intro, this time delivered on a guitar. if track 3 was joy, this is hope and peace. "there should be laughter after pain/there should be sunshine after rain". the jam when the drums get snare-heavy rules, love how the bass sounds here. track 6 - once again the intro tone setting gives so much jungle atmosphere to the song, this time one with very militaristic lyrics. field recordings, the N64 synth sound, the trumpets bursting in and out of the mix, the tribal tone of the drums, the sustained chords of electric guitar and humid guitar solos hanging in the air like you heard them from a distance in a rainforest. i almost expected a lion to roar track 7 - another militaristic track, this time moving from a dense jungle sound to some more like CCR. cool when they play the big loud chord during the chorus you can still hear the rest of the big, nice bit of mastering. track 8 - hits you in the face with its intro, love how funky this one is. dont get how mark can play guitar like this and sing at the time time, mans a wizard. the gothy keys/synth half way are crazy. track 9 - entrancing use of synth and sparing guitar (plus that reverse reverb tone?)). this song has gravity like few ive ever heard. instead of outright anger at injustice, mark's tender vocals give meaning to a wars loss of life and depth to the longing for home that those sent to die must have felt.

the 22 minute, 8 track version on streaming platforms contains more aura than i was ready to experience in an album from 1964. jerry lee lewis plays piano with bravado, beatings on the keys and gliding through glissandos, and sings with raw energy including screams, purrs, growls, croons, and shouts. i will definitely look for the other 15 minutes.

there are too many songs on here to go one-by-one so i'll try to summarize each half instead. my hip hop vocabularly is painfully shallow speakerboxx - not a single miss. i havent felt a rap album click like this has in forever. every track has energy, emotion, drama, and eclectic production. big boi is meditative, thoughtful, bombastic, you name it. this is a performance through and through. i love how he will fuck with the tempo during his rapping, it's very reminiscent of how the best guitar solos arent just played on the beat but they hold or insert extra notes to give effect. "w-a-r-uh, there will be no tomorrow" is an unbelievable rhyme lol. tomb of the boom's rhythm section is unlike anything else you'll hear in the mainstream and that synth. killer mike's features on this rock so much, jay z has one of his best features (i cannot describe how much better he is here than when he shows up on kanye stuff), ludacris and lil john deliver the exact hype you'd want. i said it at the start but there isn't a miss on speakerboxx. the love below - the first half of love below centers on the theme of love (Shocking). everyone who's spent a little time on lyrics websites has had the "hey ya is actually a sad song sung happily" moment and it makes total sense now in the context of this album. andre is a player who leans into the one night stand culture until he finds a woman he really loves. hey ya comes at the moment when this new relationship falls apart under stress ("thank god for mom and dad for sticking together cuz we don't know how"), and the follow up of roses is the diss track we all have wanted to write about our ex immediately after a break-up. andre is unable to escape his cupid image from earlier in the album. i might be biased but i think love below hits its stride at hey ya. maybe it's a grower but i don't think i cared a crazy amount for the rest of the love below. speakerboxx had an infectious energy and that's totally the opposite of what you get from andre. the songwriting is interesting and the production takes you all over the place (just like disc 1) but i dont think it has the hooks of speakerboxx. of course its not meant to be that way, i just have a hard time considering it as fondly and i already consider disc 1 after one listen. this is definitely something i will come back to though, to revisit the things i loved on disc 1 and discover more to love about disc 2.

unbelievable this is over 50 years old as of 2024. there are genuine soundscapes on this that you’d be impressed to hear today. the horns and strings on one woman and by the time were magical and emotional. they don’t dominate the whole mix but when they come in, they come in loud and draw your attention. the keys (both piano and organ) have some beautiful, understated moments. this was really lovely, the track lengths seemed intimidating but their length felt natural and if anything a couple could’ve had a little more at the end. this album once again shows what soul had to offer in the 60s. this is grandiose, romantic, psychedelic, and full of soul.

Jarvis Cocker is the most charismatic frontman in rock since Bowie. He possesses everything an American could love about an Englishman: snark, wit, upper-class sensibility, sex, and of course the accent. The music tends towards grandiosity and theatrics, often hinging on some of the best executed bridge-to-chorus transitions in pop. The lyrics tend towards commentary on the British, society, the turn of the century, sex, and just about anything else Jarvis felt like. Who else gets away with his many "la la la"s? You've never heard scathing critique until you hear how Jarvis characterizes his countrymen in Mis-Shapes. Listen to the elation at the climax of Common People (it's tragic the radio version for this even exists), building off those little guitar and piano parts. Notice at the end of I Spy how in control of your emotions Jarvis was the entire time. Disco 2000 is an 80s pop-punk song published in the 90s. Jarvis writes more character development over the course of Something Changed than you'll see in most novels, showing the power of love on causality. You could find Sorted For E's & Whizz on a George Harrison or Bowie best-of, with an honest look at the qualities of drug-induced euphoria. In FEELINGCALLEDLOVE Jarvis sheds the Hallmark trappings of Valentines Day love in favor of raw sexual desire, wonderfully executing a soft-loud dynamic with layers of singing, moaning, sultry narration, and crooning to depict the physical love he is imaging alongside dramatic synth-strings and guitars. Underwear does a lot with just it's commentary on one-night stands (intense physical desire to fuck, regret afterwards) but the chorus throws in Jarvis' own voyeuristic desires and the song has a whole new layer that you can even extrapolate to the modern porn industry. The first chorus of Monday Mornings teases you before it finally pays off later in the track, while the lyrics of the song hammer home of banality even party every night can bring.

Funny that an album just as erotic as Different Classes would come next. Tim Buckley wants to have some sex and he doesn't seem to care much who it's with. I've heard Happy Sad and Starsailor so I'm familiar with how incredible a singer Tim was but this is a whole new style that's just as impressive. Words won't do his vocal performance justice but I'll say I think across the 3 albums I've heard he has a solid argument for best rock singer ever. These songs drip with energy, total joy to listen to. My main critique is that as nice as this is to hear once, it's so jam-focused I can't imagine myself coming back to the full album without being a bit annoyed at it's length. It's a vibe-album I suppose, definitely not totally timeless, and the quirks get a little old by the full length of the album.

definitely not something (band or album) i ever thought id listen to. its hard to imagine there being another album on this list that ill dislike this much but i suppose im ready to be surprised. age has done all hope is gone no favors. i dont think those first few songs were too bad but by track 5 this album sounded so rote. double bass drums, shitty guitar tones and riffs, corny sound effects, the most generic vocals youve ever heard (screaming, shouting, and singing). i wont say the anger on this album is inauthentic but compare this to something like converge. the music here is loud and the vocals sound mad but there are so many theatrics that make the whole thing feel performative. go listen to all converge - we love we leave behind instead. the intro+gematria are alright, solid mood and intensity though a lacking in punch. the breakdown on sulfur is kinda nuts, the riffs are tough, but those chorus vocals fucking suck. psychosocial has a metallica-ass riff and that group vocals chanting in the chorus is some dogshit but theres something to the rhythm section here that really works (probably something to do with the metallica ripoff) and honestly the chorus vocals have a good melody. why do they have a whole song of clean vocals for dead memories though, what is this mickey mouse shit with that god-awful guitar solo. i bet the chorus of vendetta went so hard in 2010's ESPN hype videos, i wouldve eaten this shit up when i was 12. by butchers hook im ready for this album to be over. the scooby doo noises on gehanna man. this cold black's vocal clipping may be this albums most interesting production choice, probably the albums best song overall. following it up with an anthem to nihilism just sucks, wherein lies continue is school shooter song. snuff is a legit brand new song, the guitar sounds awful on that solo but i enjoy the vocal performance here.

i probably made a bit of a mistake listening to youre living all over me before this because that album is better. bug is still a solid follow-up, just a step down. it relies less on memorable hooks (a difficult songwriting strategy to consistently pull off) in favor of more even songs with some jams in it. similar to YLAOM, i enjoyed the final track the least but the other 8 are all songs id be happy to have come on in a shuffle. there's nothing as memorable as in a jar or the lung but there are still solid vocal and guitar melodies through out and like i said before, this is a very even listen until don't, none of the songs stand out much for better or for worse.

this is fine and competently made but totally lacking in aura. the vocals and melodies are bland, the guitar and bass and drums are unharmoniously fighting each other for the starring roles, and the lyrics seem utterly meaningless. i do not like eric clapton. he's one of the most overrated guitarists ever, he sings like shit, and his lyrically let you know exactly how big a piece of shit he is. i suppose i wouldnt mind any of these songs coming on the radio but as a whole album listen this is uninteresting. give me a 30 minute dinosaur jr album any day over this. the whole A side sounds like an absolute mess of band in-fighting manifesting on tape. not one member in those 5 songs is willing to take a backseat. ginger baker also, for all his talents on drums, is no ringo when it comes to drummer-turned-singer/songwriter. on the b-side, tales of brave ulysses is the albums high point. clapton seems to finally take a back seat (until, understandably, he solos), leaving the bass and drums to really do their thing. SWLABR rocks and we're going wrong has solid atmosphere though ends a bit short. outside woman blues may be the bluesiest track here but it doesnt reach near the beautiful songwritings heights of layla to water down clapton's reprehensible lyrical content. take it back is solid, the harmonica is a nice touch and clapton thankfully has little impact on the song until a nice fill at the end of the song. no reason to talk about mothers lament really.

unremarkable. there is value in how easy this is to listen to but it is utterly lacking in emotion. this wouldnt stand out in any restaurant or cafes music selection.

this album is wild, the production has to have been an inspiration for Yeezus. the songwriting is lacking at times but boyz, jimmy, 20 dollar, world town, xr2, and of course paper planes are all strong moments. aggressive synths, unique percussive sounds, a sample from the pixies and the clash, and afro/indian world influence make this a fascinating listen, with its main detractions stemming from repetitive songwriting and some songs cooking up a clogged mix. the absolute highlight of Kala (and the song probably competing with Hey Ya (ironically from an album i got 2 weeks ago) for best pop song of the entire 2000s) is paper planes. sampling the clash (!!), Mia created one of histories most triumphant tracks. tell me you arent tapping your foot from the start with those sampled opening notes. tell me "i fly like paper get high like planes" isnt one of the most stylish opening lines you've ever heard. tell me these lyrics haven't gotten more relevant every single year since 2008. tell me that the whining guitar, the childrens choir chorus, the finger-snap percussion, the spoken word bit "i got more records than the KGB" don't create a densely layered and intriguing atmosphere. you cant tell me any of that because this song compels you to believe it all just like the bang bang bang kachink hook compels you to bust out the finger guns and mime along gunshot-reload-cash register open. bombastic, iconic, singular, eccentric, and catchy. there is no other song that sounds like paper planes.

the first album here that I've been pretty familiar with beforehand. this thing is stacked for all 35 minutes of it's run time. it's got some of the strange icy nature of post-punk, some of the simplicity and riffs of punk, some of power pop's ear for melody, and, importantly, a lot of tasteful new wave synths to fill out the mix. they clearly drew from the best of 60's rock and 70's punk but had plenty of their own ideas (the epic organ synth on You're All I've Got Tonight, the bizarre sound effects on I'm In Touch With Your World, the playful synth in the aptly-titled Moving in Stereo). every pop punk or garage rock band ever (hi Weezer and The Killers) owes something to The Cars. rarely does something this radio-friendly have this much quality but that quality is evidenced in how brilliant the last 4 songs of the album are. on their own, You're All I've Got Tonight and Bye Bye Love rock (I love Ric's melody when he sings the lullaby line right before the chorus), but the transitions between the four tracks elevate them significantly. Moving In Stereo keeps the energy with some genius synth melodies, throwing tremolo effects on the vocals and panning the synths in and out of channels. Ric Ocaseck's vocals get so much darker on the B-side here, it's a real joy. All Mixed Up is fittingly a little bit of a mess but at its core the synth drives forward the song with a haunting urgency and gives way to Ric's best vocal performance on the album. this is really such a pure set of songs, it's a joy to listen to what is surely amongst the most defining albums of the entire 80's.

the ballads on this (like on Rain Dogs) touch the soul. Tom's rasping vocals give tender texture to his mournful musings on life, death, and time. I never realized how much Modest Mouse drew from Tom Wait's (especially on Good News) until hearing this. In some ways this may be the truest blues record a white man ever recorded. I don't love the aggressive and weird tracks on there like I love Who Are You and A Little Rain but it's hard to deny how well Tom crafts this albums atmosphere. His performance at minimum is fascinating and commendable even if it doesn't always quite appeal to me. At its lowest moments this album still sounds more cohesive than that Cream album from earlier and more angry than the Slipknot album too.

lovely, my favorite jazz album of the admittedly few I've heard. probably because it features so much guitar. McLaughlin's tone in Shh/Peaceful steals the show. his intro on In A Silent Way duels with the keys to create an otherworldly track for Davis' trumpet to play alongside. About halfway through In A Silent Way while Davis does his thing on trumpet, the rhythm section has such a nice melodic thing going, they kill it on this album. this felt very direct compared to what jazz I know, surely because the guitar makes things so much more comfortable to approach for me.

largely beautiful folk rock. Long Time Gone strays into bluesy electric guitar and is the albums only real miss for me. CS&N and their skill with harmony plays perfect foil to the unharmonious nature of Cream - Disreali Gears from last week. Marrakesh Express, Guinnevere, Lady of the Island, Helplessly Hoping, and 49 Byes-Byes are highlights. The backing vocals on 49 Byes-Byes' chorus play with the lead vocals in such a joyous way, all of the many melodies make this one of the great soft rock tracks ever. Helpless Hoping takes such a simple melody and works it up through harmony and layering into something captivating. Guinnevere is a hypnotic acoustic track, recalling (in my mind) a kind of medieval, bardic love song ("She shall be free-eee-eee-eee"). This has all the trappings of the Beatles or Beach Boys but much more traditional and folky than pop/rock. Truly pleasant to listen to.

I initially wrote a review calling this department store music. Giving a few tracks a relisten (and the great Don't Dream It's Over too), that assessment was unfair. The songwriting here is definitely above average, especially the vocal melodies and lyrics. The second half especially contains the albums more adventurous and impressive side. Chocolate Cake soured me significantly and it took until the brilliant Fame Is for me to realize that I just disliked Chocolate Cake, not the rest of the album. How Will You Go is a particularly beautiful track.

one of the greats, there's nothing to be said that hasn't already been said about black sabbath. love you tony iommi

sabu's ability to play deeply complex rhythms at the speed he plays them at while also managing to make it sound structured and coherent impressed me. unfortunately this album was a total chore. at a club or party, in the right live environment, im sure this has unbelievable energy. the recording is stiff however and as cool as the rhythm play is, i dont think i can ever love music as un-melodic as this. i would never go as far as to call this not music (and it's probably straight up racist to do so), it is far too expressive (a core goal of art being expression) and technical to be insulted in that way. things shine on tracks 3, 6, and 8, which all feature prominent and fascinating guitar melodies played by arsenio rodriguez. i would be much more interested in an album that blended the guitar playing of those tracks with the rhythm section on the rest of the album. honestly just for introducing me to rodriguez's guitar skills, this was worth the listen

Springsteen's greatest achievement. Heartland Rock will never produce something as enchanting as Born to Run. The density of the production reveals a new instrument every time I re-listen. This time around, the bass play from Gary Tallent blew me away. It’s positioned wonderfully in the mix and often serves as the songs’ melodic core (very similar to Eric Judy of Modest Mouse). Get some good headphones and really listen for it on Backstreets and Born To Run especially. Two theses bookend this album: in Thunder Road screen doors slam, dresses wave, and the protagonist abandons his hometown in the lonely cool of dawn. In Jungleland we find our hero trapped in The City, his own dreams gunning him down. Thunder Road gives us The Man too big for his upbringing. A headstrong man of dreams, ambitions, and style. Jungleland tears that apart. Along the way, from Thunder Road in Hometown, USA to the mythical city akin to a jungle, the Man learns the price of his ambition. He fights in shootouts on Tenth Avenue. He works all day to meet his girl and ignites the highway at night. He spends summers getting wasted with her, trying and failing to hide his past from her and his love from rival street gangs. He despairs that he isn't anything special, that he'll never be like the heroes on the screen. But still, he's different, he was born to run, he's found The One. Until he goes across the river, to the Jungleland. He does worse and worse things, and loses himself in that city he thought would make his own. And then the city claims him for itself. What did he really escape from? Where was he born to run? Was losing it all worthwhile? I don’t know. Neither does Bruce. As he writes at the end of Jungleland, the poets aren’t the ones suffering the consequences of what they’re writing about. The characters in their stories are who suffers. Tonight in Jungleland, someones dreams will die alongside them. This album is the closest we as the poets will ever get to knowing what that feels like. While we stand back and let it all be. “A screen door slams. Mary your dress waves...” “There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away...” “So Mary climb in. It's a town full of losers and I'm pulling out of here to win!” “At night sometimes it seemed you could hear that whole damn city crying.” “Baby this town rips the bones from your back. It's a death trap. It's a suicide rap.” “The highways jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive” “Someday girl, I don't know when, we're gonna get to that place where we really wanna go and we'll walk in the sun...” “The midnight gangs assembled and picked a rendezvous for the night. They’ll meet ‘neath that giant Exxon sign that brings this fair city light. Man there’s an opera out on the Turnpike. There’s a ballet being fought in the alley...” “Beneath the city two hearts beat...”

On Station to Station, Low, and Heroes, David Bowie was at the peak of his powers. He perfected his sound on those 3 albums. Some of the most tasteful art rock ever recorded. Gone were the over-dramatic theatrics and showy glam of Ziggy Stardust. He put forward a much more sophisticated look and sound in The Thin White Duke and was all the better for it. The ten-minute title track opens with an expansive soundscape reminiscent of a Western (I get a mental image of Bowie in a cowboy outfit, standing on the dirt street of a settlers town) before settling into a tremendous progressive art rock song. You can definitely hear some Pink Floyd here until it suddenly shifts midway to uptempo piano rock like an artsy Billy Joel. I love the vocal melody (it's too late!!), Bowie's energy uplifts an already high-energy song. The funky nature and grouped backing vocals on Golden Years wouldn't be out of place on a Talking Heads album. You also hear exactly what makes Bowie one of histories greatest singers here. He effortlessly blends the vocal styles of Elvis and David Byrne in with his own. Word on a Wing is a more straightforward, bittersweet ballad. The piano takes lead and Bowie's vocal melody is inspired and powerful. I would love to be able to sing like he does on the choruses, with so much intensity while maintaining such a beautiful tone. Love the fade out with just organ and angelic choral vocals. Something haunts the atmosphere of TVC15, never allowing for a moment of clarity in the mix. Distorted guitars, a saxophone, a rather loud piano (well multiple pianos) crowd the sound while Bowie sings T-V-C-1-5 like a mantra. Cool, groovy, and dramatic. Earl Slick's bent guitar notes highlight the intro of Stay until a tight rhythm section reins in the track to introduce Bowie's vocals. The riff becomes very soulful and Bowie duets himself with both a high and low register performance. The track closes on a very danceable, very enjoyable extended jam, and when Slick returns for a closing solo he matches the funk of the scratchy riff with something rhythmic and wonderful. Wild Is The Wind is another bittersweet ballad. The guitar tones reminds me of The Cure - Lovesong, in fact this entire performance must have been an inspiration for Robert Smith. The vocals have a slight distortion and reverb, the bass carries parts of the songs melody, and acoustic guitars keep the mix full. Bowie's deranged performance throughout Station to Station keeps this from being a true pop-hit like his other work, but it trades radio-friendliness for expansive experimentation. This album sounds a bit like watching Twin Peaks feels. Not nearly as abstract but still quite dream-like, with something sinister under the surface that you never quite notice until you wake up. Yet even at its weirdest, the hooks and melodies of these songs stick with me and in a good way leave me wanting more of this era of Bowie.

sabu's ability to play deeply complex rhythms at the speed he plays them at while also managing to make it sound structured and coherent impressed me. unfortunately this album was a total chore. at a club or party, in the right live environment, im sure this has unbelievable energy. the recording is stiff however and as cool as the rhythm play is, i dont think i can ever love music as un-melodic as this. i would never go as far as to call this not music (and it's probably straight up racist to do so), it is far too expressive (a core goal of art being expression) and technical to be insulted in that way. things shine on tracks 3, 6, and 8, which all feature prominent and fascinating guitar melodies played by arsenio rodriguez. i would be much more interested in an album that blended the guitar playing of those tracks with the rhythm section on the rest of the album. honestly just for introducing me to rodriguez's guitar skills, this was worth the listen

this is either one of the most politically prescient albums I've heard or nothing has changed in American politics in 30 years. the beats and rapping are alright, this is mostly a spoken word hip hop album so I felt like it was somewhat emotionally flat in spite of how charged the lyrics are. the industrial influence is cool.

mellow and touching on magical at times (girl child linda for example). slightly too laid back to deliver something timeless or cathartic (such as astral weeks) but enjoyable nonetheless. the orchestral arrangements are often the highlights of sunshine superman and they compliment donovans own excellent ear for melody. girl child linda and celeste are highlights

heavy, progressive, jammy metal. always been my favorite metallica album, probably because it lays off the thrash just a tad to let in the prog. don't think i ever noticed how californian james sounds but it makes his vocal delivery iconic. one has some of the coolest progressive metal transitions ever in it. the one 2/3 through where lars introduces his drum beat and then the guitars layer in is so fucking cool. i think overall it's the little acoustic moments (often on intros) that make me really love this album. the lyrics are heavy, the music is often heavy, but the little moments when the songs contrast weight with softness are entrancing.

my only real complaint is that Black Man is just We Didn't Start the Fire for 1970's American race relations and it is the longest track here which makes it stick out. Moments where the album drags (Ordinary Pain, Black Man/Ngicuela) are immediately followed by highlights (Isn't She Lovely, If It's Magic) and preceded by highlights (the run from Sir Duke to Summertime Soft, Joy Inside My Tears). One of the few albums where I knew it was a classic from a first listen, it's an absolute titan of soul and melody. The strings on Village Ghetto Land and the harmonica on Isn't She Lovely are my two favorites pieces of the music on Songs in the Key of Life. This could easily be a 5/5 on further listens if I warm up to those previously mentioned drags.

i'm struggling to think of a reason why i consider this much worse than something like age of consent which released 2 years later and im realizing there is no single reason. new order was just a band with better ear for melody, better lyrics, better singing (impressive to have worse vocals than fucking bernard sumner), better use of a repetitive synth motif (im looking at you bizarre love triangle), better understanding of song dynamics. human league was a bold band and the mixing of the synths is interesting. whereas the cars used them to fill space, human league songs have no space that isnt synth aside from oakleys vocals. they are loud to a fault and the songs often have no layers to them whatsoever. someone on RYM wrote this feels like an album you have to been there for when it released and i totally agree. whereas that criticism will be thrown at a band like the beatles, the difference really is just that the beatles genuinely hold up melodically as well as from songwriting and production standpoints (at minimum for pop rock). Dare's most admirable quality is probably just how aggressive sounding and mixed the synths are, you can absolutely hear how someone like john maus heard this album and then did what he did. honestly Dare reminds me a lot of 808's & Heartbreaks, another album that has aged horrendously in the face of modern music production but was incredibly, obviously influential. i truly Dare anyone to name one thing this album does better than other classics in its own genre. synth-led albums that came out within 3 years after this are so signficantly more enjoyable (OMD, New Order, Depeche Mode, even Duran Duran had better singles) and synthpop classics are still being made today such as Little Dark Age Seconds was far and away my favorite song here, it has a very dramatic and nostalgic melody from both the synth and Oakley's voice and it contains the only notable lyrics on the album about the assassination of JFK. these are a lot of negative words for an album that's not downright horrible, especially one that is a staple of the genre. it's just that in the face of what immediate succeeded this album, im struggling to rate this positively. it's not human leagues fault necessarily, most bands are not transcendent enough to both innovate entire genres and create the greatest albums ever, and Dare totally deserves to be on a list such as 1001.

shouty british vocals, a bass player giving it all he's got, and a machine behind the drum kit. sounds like post punk to me. what really differentiates this from the icy Joy Division that all albums of this genre inevitably must be compared to is the warmth. reds and oranges on the album art clue the listener in that Entertainment! will come with some heat. the mix is often spacious with just the bass, drums, and one guitar playing, allowing the aggressive, punk guitar riffs to carry the albums intensity with its vocals. this honestly has a lot more in common with This Heat (my favorite band of the genre) than it does with Joy Division, just far more radio friendly than the majority of This Heat. I can even hear on tracks like I Found That Essence Rare where R.E.M. would get some of their early guitar sound from (this also has to be the album modern post-punk/PPR are really trying to recreate, so much of this sound is in The Strokes or Parquet Courts). overall, loved the energy of Entertainment! and it's surprisingly competent vocal melodies (Glass especially sounds fantastic). one of the fastest 40 minutes i've ever spent, this is the most danceable post-punks ever sounded to me.

i know reggae is an established genre and all but this is the first time im really hearing a full album in the genre. to me, it's a very pleasant to listen to mix of soul, folk, and some psychedelia with a bit of jazz. natty dread is not a titan of instrumentation but certainly is quality, with all kinds of instruments having highlights. this album is far less "One Love *peace sign*" than i expected, much more socially conscious in ways you can see rap would clearly draw from. bob marley has a wonderful ear for melody (the chorus of no woman, no cry a highlight). if i had to give an criticism, some of the organs sound very church/gospel to me in an off-putting way. the longer songs meander, which im sure is the point but its not in an interesting, exploratory manner, just looped really. not that big of a deal however. natty dread isn't something ill find myself giving repeat listens to but im certainly glad to have heard it.

a neurological enema indeed

My favorite distortion preset on my guitar amp is called JAMC. I can sit down any day, switch to that preset, and it feels like a cheat code to creating a full sounding song. This is an album literally anyone can hear and immediately attempt to inject its sound into their own music. The Beatles would've gone crazy if they'd known about noise pop (they maybe kind of did on Helter Skelter). The influence Psychocandy had is obvious. From just the 1001 albums on this list alone: Nirvana, My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr, Pixies, Ride, Pavement, Smashing Pumpkins. Pretty much any band that used non-pop sounds (namely distortion and feedback) to make pop songs. Where this differs from The Human League - Dare is that while JAMC did not perfect the art of pop songwriting but they did more or less perfect the sound of noise pop. This is the intersection of no wave, The Velvet Underground, post-punk, acid rock, and psychedelia. Better songwriters (see the list above and more like Stereolab, Alvvays, Yo La Tengo, and Shinsei Kamettechan) made better songs than are on Psychocandy but it wasn't until glitch/electronic made it's way into the genre that the actual noise pop was meaningfully progressed. I'm always surprised listening to this that Just Like Honey is the big song when The Hardest Walk or Taste of Cindy or Sowing Seeds or Something's Wrong have more flavorful melodies and song dynamics. Not a knock on the track, it's just sort of plodding in comparison to the rest.

i love peter's voice but god he overproduced the shit out of this album. far too many dramatics, far too much social pandering, such a sappy, hammy sounding album. i love over-explaining and over-criticizing but i dont want to even critically examine this and have to listen to it again. and jesus christ Don't Give Up has to be the worst way possible to use a Kate Bush feature. i need to go listen to Hounds of Love

if there's one thing i've taken from this project 34 albums in, it's that phil spector really did change music forever. the production of this (and the earlier born to run) is exactly what i love about pop production. there are not quiet moments on these albums, not truly. or maybe it's more accurate to say every moment in this production style is a busy moment, maximized to the edge of overproduction. would another melody sound good here? how about another instrument? perhaps another harmony? more keys? if the sound is harmonious, it gets included. its hard to get a voice, guitar, bass, and drums to sound magical. its even harder to do what rundgren and springsteen and many others were doing after phil spector unleashed this on the world. Something/Anything is the perfect album to follow up yesterday's Peter Gabriel - So. So will never leave the 80s, it is wholly married to the sound of that decade. Gabriel's wonderful voice and melodies will always be marred to me by a sound that was in fashion until it wasn't. Its synths, sax, and airbrushed dramatics helped define The Sound of the 80's but what about every other decade of music? It's not that there is no place for it but it's so shortsighted in eschewing the timeless for the timely, and often for something to achieve greatness it must be timeless, befitting any era of music. This is what I discovered for myself last year finally giving the great classical composers a true listen. The way they made music wasn't the same but the melodic and harmonic heart of their compositions can last through any era. That's what Rundgren does on Something / Anything? (and the next year, A Wizard / A True Star), it's what Beethoven did on his 5th Symphony, it's what the Beatles and the Beach Boys did, it's what Phil Spector did on all his hits, it's what Phil Elverum did on The Glow Pt. 2, it's what Joanna Newsom continues to do today, it's what Black Country, New Road did in 2022 on Ants From Up There. I'm definitely getting ahead of myself though, after not knowing quite how to express my feelings on So I had to get all that out. I'm not sure S/A and AW/ATS carry the emotional weight that those albums/bands do that make them my all time favorites but these albums absolutely carry the musical weight of the greatest. I don't think I have many words for the actual songs on the album itself. Similar to Songs in the Key of Life, this is just something I instantly knew I would love and I absolutely want to give it more listens. It's length is a little imposing but it's not like its a wasted 90 minutes, it just will take more time to dig through. It kinda does every genre and idea well, in a way that may annoy some who'd rather hear it excel at one thing but I don't mind at all. I enjoyed my constant "damn." moments and really do look forward to hearing this again and again.

often more focused on its southern rock aesthetic than powerful songwriting, bayou country is solid swamp rock but not nearly as transcendent as CCR would get on the next 3 albums. proud mary is as close as we get but even it plods a bit. i'd never noticed how much CCR influence there was in Tom Waits music though, interesting. the sound definitely matches the hazy heat of the album art. the guitar tone on good golly miss molly rocks, the pre-chorus with just drums and vocals rock.

Lovely jazz record. There are so many motifs and rich melodies I nearly came away from this thinking about it like a pop album, humming the at random one of the myriad hooks these songs contain. After this and In A Silent Way it is obvious to me Jazz Fusion was what I'd been missing from my jazz listening. Maybe that makes me a casual but there is so much wonderful music in these two albums. I was definitely trepidatious about listening due to the 75 minute run time but few seconds were wasted. Minawa is amongst the best jazz I've ever heard. The piano was beautiful (and at times otherworldly, sounding almost like Avey Tare of Animal Collective), the sax and horn soulful, the bass melodic and powerful, and the crashing drums set the stage so well for the melodic brilliance of the piano/brass in the climax. Totally flawless track. Another highlight is Maseru, trading the ethereal beauty of Minawa for breakneck pace and a horn melody that, in the face of the songs rapidity, resolves itself with sadness rather than triumph. Also, the drum solo on Blues For Huey is nuts. "Call an ambulance!" indeed. The albums only real misstep for me was the final track, those vocals did nothing for me just like that Sabu album.

I have definitely not listened to this enough for how much I love Neil Young. A Man Needs A Maid and There's A World have orchestral arrangements that cause the tracks to sound overproduced as hell and come across as very cheesy but they are Harvest's only large misses. Heart of Gold and Old Man are eternal classics, Alabama and Harvest should have been, and aside from the previously mentioned orchestral arrangements, Harvest has such a well-realized acoustic rock sound. It rarely steps on itself and allows Neil's guitar, voice, and harmonica to speak as they choose. The electric guitar-led jam at the end of Words is a phenomenal closer.

we really shouldnt be leaving the british to their own devices

i vibe with the neo-psychedelic americana sound but the songwriting here lacks punch, causing the songs to wind up being a little unremarkable. in 2012 the killers pretty much did this album, replacing the cool neo-psych with pop dramatics and i much prefer that personally. an ocean in between was the stand out here

there's some really corny shit on here (super rich kids, rock, forrest gump). each track feels fairly fresh on a first listen but it's almost less than the sum of its parts because it lacks a cohesive sound. more of a collection of singles than anything, and way safer than an album so highly regarded ought to be. because this album feels so scattered, the skits end up coming across as forced and not serving any grander purpose. to give a comparison, 808's & heartbreaks may be rougher around the edges but its sound and production create a much more even landscape plus kanye writes hooks with far more pop and punch than ocean. not to dump on this the whole time though, thinkin bout you and lost were definite highlights even if they do kind of sound like drake songs. actually, in a way a lot of channel orange sounds like if drake was 20% more talented. im hopeful for blonde when it inevitably comes up though.

it's a new soundtrack i could dance to this beat pop in the 00's was missing a zeitgeist-defining figure like taylor swift (or, funnily, 2010's kanye). some of the comparison is ridiculous (her attention to visual aesthetic and choregraphy is no where near michael jackson's) but she genuinely is the michael jackson of her time. i dont mind calling it now, blank space and style will be remembered as two of the best pop songs of the entire century, they certainly already were of their decade. i may have hated shake it off in high school but a decade later there is something to be said that it is one of the most (the most?) recognizable songs of its decade. the production on it is really enjoyable, i somehow never noticed all the brass on it. the bridge to out of the woods is amongst her most powerful, and we're at a point where she is delivering career-best moments in songwriting. there is a lot to love about the albums that came before 1989 but they all suffer from studio meddling at times. 1989 doesnt have the lyrical depth that taylor swift would hit on her late 10's/early 20's albums but it is her most consistent and concentrated pop album. it makes me want to speak in superlatives and romanticize everything i say. the biggest knock on this album is that the lyrics are often cliche-ridden. as smart as the songwriting is and as tight as the tracklist is, it can't make up for often vapid lyrics that can feel madlibbed together at times. i dont think 1989 is exceptional but it is incredibly listenable and its opening 4 track run is amongst the best in her career.

kd lang has a pretty voice and the songs sound like elvis. not much to hate here but it doesn't ever cross into greatness anywhere either. just a short, enjoyable listen.

when i opened this album and saw 70s psych rock i dreaded what id be listening to. coming out of it though, 12 Dream is way fresher than I thought it would sound going in. the electric guitar heavy songs are solid, melodic psych rock but what is really interesting is the less guitar-focused tracks. they are honestly edging pretty close to prog/psych pop in ways i never would've expected. the trumpets on morning will come are rapturous. randy california (great name) has a perfect voice for this kind of music and both his performance and his ear for melody stand out. fresh really is the word i kept coming back to, this is such a unique sounding record and other than maybe some guitar tones it truly sounds timeless to me. these are the best kinds of boomer tunes. im not factoring in the two bonus tracks Rougher Road and Red Light Roll On but they are worth listening to if available. a bit paint by the numbers but both have some fun ideas that, while done better elsewhere on the album, were still entertaining.

low-register female vocals, sliding guitar notes, layers of melody and instrumentation, and an effort to evoke nostalgia in the listener make Teen Dream a wonderful mood album. obviously Beach House uses reverb well, obviously the mood leans on descriptors like Dreamy and Ethereal, obviously repetition is one of their primary songwriting tricks. it is a fair criticism to say most Beach House songs sound similar. Actually play out some of the guitar parts to these songs though and you will find the key to what makes these solid tracks: most of BH translates very well to acoustic guitar. most great shoegaze/dream pop does and most bad shoegaze/dream pop does not. at its core shoegaze is rock musics premier guitar-focused genre. it is the genre where guitar is the true "frontman" of the music. With all that said, I don't love this album really. It's full of songs that I wouldn't skip on a playlist but also probably wouldn't seek out on my own. Their next two albums are much more melodically rich in my opinion while this one sets a nice stage for what they will deliver.

dont know what the rest of their music sounds like but It's Blitz! is the sound of a band that would've existed in the scott pilgrim universe. a 2000's garage rock/ppr band that is heavily nostalgic for 80s dance/synthpop. sounds cool to me.

The Unloveables - Crush Boyfriend Heartbreak is my favorite pop punk album ever. It will never show up on a list like this but if there is anyone out there who reads this review and liked Go-Go's - Beauty and the Beat, please check out CBH. Beauty and the Beat is as much an album of the 80's as CBH is an album of the 00's and Team Dresch/Sleater Kinney and the Riot Grrrl bands were of the 90's. I'd assumed The Unloveables were influenced by those 90's bands but I had no idea there was an early 80's album that so much effect on them. Too often, women have to "prove" their genuine interest in male-dominated spaces but I think The Go-Go's do enough just musically for it to have been obvious from the start they paid attention to rock music and were very much a part of it. Songs like We Got The Beat and Our Lips Are Sealed have a fun surf rock quality to them that proves these girls had been keyed into the music scene for a while. The musicianship is just as competent as literally any band on the radio at the time. Belinda Carlisle sings great melodies, I especially loved on Fading Fast how wistful she sounds. In saying that, there needs to be more room for female-vocals who aren't amazing singers but have all the passion required. If the public can stomach Bernard Sumner singing they can handle off-key women singers too. Belinda's voice has more than enough emotion to match both the music and the content of the lyrics. I'm glad this band existed and were successful. It's possible they could have still had the influence they did on the bands above even without the commercial success a la The Velvet Underground but this album rocks on its own. Anyways, please listen to The Unloveables.

The Unloveables - Crush Boyfriend Heartbreak is my favorite pop punk album ever. It will never show up on a list like this but if there is anyone out there who reads this review and liked Go-Go's - Beauty and the Beat, please check out CBH. Beauty and the Beat is as much an album of the 80's as CBH is an album of the 00's and Team Dresch/Sleater Kinney and the Riot Grrrl bands were of the 90's. I'd assumed The Unloveables were influenced by those 90's bands but I had no idea there was an early 80's album that so much effect on them. Too often, women have to "prove" their genuine interest in male-dominated spaces but I think The Go-Go's do enough just musically for it to have been obvious from the start they paid attention to rock music and were very much a part of it. Songs like We Got The Beat and Our Lips Are Sealed have a fun surf rock quality to them that proves these girls had been keyed into the music scene for a while. The musicianship is just as competent as literally any band on the radio at the time. Belinda Carlisle sings great melodies, I especially loved on Fading Fast how wistful she sounds. In saying that, there needs to be more room for female-vocals who aren't amazing singers but have all the passion required. If the public can stomach Bernard Sumner singing they can handle off-key women singers too. Belinda's voice has more than enough emotion to match both the music and the content of the lyrics. I'm glad this band existed and were successful. It's possible they could have still had the influence they did on the bands above even without the commercial success a la The Velvet Underground but this album rocks on its own. Anyways, please listen to The Unloveables.

In light of my existential musing yesterday in regards to approaching the 1001 Albums to Hear Before You Die, I took the advice of a reviewer from RYM and actually listened to 5 John Coltrane albums chronologically (I think) back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back over the course of a few hours. They were, in order, Blue Train, Giant Steps, Africa/Brass, Impressions, and A Love Supreme. Below are a mixture of me noting musical highlights and me providing actual musical review where I feel I can offer it. This was a lot of fun and while I won’t do it for every artist I’m glad I did with Coltrane (and probably should have done it with Davis earlier. Maybe I will when Kind of Blue shows up). Jazz has always been a mountain to climb in my eyes. It never made sense to be flown up to the summit only to walk down. Blue Train - the drumming switch-ups throughout the title track. the main melody of moment's notice. the understated keys on locomotion (and the song sounds like a moving train). im old fashioned gives me the same wistful vibes as (and possibly has melodic similiarties to) that song from Wall-E and i love the piano solo. lazy bird sounds anything but, chirping along at what felt like the most blistering pace on the record. loved the two short bass/drum solos, especially how the bass was played with a bow. overall 5 excellent tracks, i enjoyed just about every minute. maybe a little too light and "dinner party" but thats something that keeps it from greatness rather than something that drags it down if that makes sense. Giant Steps - forgive me for a pun but: i hope a giant cant step at the pace this album goes at! the title tracks tempo gets my heart racing and there's no reprieve from the mania until spiral. this is a foot-tapper of an album if there ever was one. when it slows down on spiral it is only relative to the blistering first 3 tracks. i think coltrane's melodies on spiral are amongst my favorite from him so far. love the playful call-and-response at the end of syeeda's song flute. love how the mournful piano is given its moment on naima. love that we get to torture the metronome once more for the finale. that scale or whatever trane plays to open mr pc rocks. the drums in the last two minutes rock. the piano rocks. mr pc has got to be my favorite coltrane song so far, it's astounding. i think i got sweaty just listening to this album. Africa/Brass – This new quartet is a giant step in the quality of Coltrane’s band mates (sorry). the production on the drum solo in Africa blows my mind. the whole track does honestly. the atmosphere is cinematic, the musicians are actors, and the composition is a script. tones are set, a story is told, the players play, and Coltrane provides the pyrotechnics. Apparently Greensleeves is a well-known folk song but I don’t know a thing about that. For me, Greensleeves is (are?) bombastic, spacious drums and a sax that flows between notes like a seal in the ocean, with an anxious touch of the foreboding Great White in the murk. The accompanying brass of Blues Minor bolsters the song into something grand. I'm really not sure if it's intentional but Coltrane being mostly in my left ear and Jones' drums being in my right gives a this track the feel of a duet. Immersion - I somehow serendipitously had this queued up for my drive home from work which reinforces it as my least favorite of the 5 albums. It centers on two tracks, India and Impressions, that contain the most off-putting sax tone of what I listened to today. After the Rain was beautiful though and it blended it A Love Supreme very well. A Love Supreme - This one has got to be the best full-band effort of the 5. Each member has a chance to shine (Coltrane the most of course) and the repeated motifs here are rock solid. I've kind of run out of steam at the end of these reviews but I do think I appreciate this album more after hearing the first 4 than before when I listened to it in isolation. I let Blue Train run for a bit afterwards and you absolutely hear the difference 8 years made in Coltrane's music. I think Giant Step and Africa/Brass had higher highs, and especially Africa/Bass made me feel the most, but A Love Supreme sounds the most complete by far. All 4 (3?) tracks are completely equal in quality, mood, and musicianship. I think I'll still take In A Silent Way over this but it is much closer than it used to be. I look forward to continuing to explore.

an absolute chore to listen to

beautiful and powerful. hard to believe it's improvised with how well he controls the listener's emotions. constant shifts in the tempo that pull you in a different emotional direction with each switch. sometimes i wish he stuck with a melody for longer but im sure it's a difficult balance when live and it does keep the pieces moving forwards to not linger too long.

an alt-rock classic that contains all the DNA for what would become Automatic for the People. in spite of the in-studio explorations the band was making at the time it does feel less adventurous than any of their previous 5 albums. they lost some edge after Lifes Beauty Pagaent and didn't fully replace it until they mastered this sound on AFTP.

instrumentally solid but below-average songwriting. closer to 3 stars than 2 but it left almost no impression on me

weird album and not really in the experimental way. i mean the original tracks are fairly experimental and proggy synthpop/80s rock but they aren't much weirder than the average 80s album. i guess it's the covers in the albums middle that destroy Welcome to the Pleasuredome's sound and coherence. dunno, this is more of a mixtape than an album. or maybe its a mixtape plus an EP? if i loved the 80s more it'd be fine but i came away from it remembering the cover of Born to Run the most, yet id much rather just go listen to that song than the cover here. apparently i bought a vinyl of this like 6 years ago? like i said, weird album.

imagine being a kid and finding a beetle. you take it back to your room and get a pair of tweezers and a magnifying glass. you have no idea what makes a beetle tick so you start pulling it apart. you get its wings, legs, antennae, head, torso, etc. all laid out. then for the next week you go do the same for other bugs ,but find out the butterfly has far more intricate wing design, the stick-bug has superior leg structure, even the fly has more unique eyes. hotel california is that first beetle. every single piece of it is done far better somewhere else. it is an amalgamation of rock mediocrity and it only seems special in the light of it being the first thing you were exposed to. ive jokingly maintained for a long time that hotel california is my least favorite song ever. it probably isnt really (it truly is listenable unlike the metal albums ive heard on this list) but it does represent a lot of what i hate about rock music. sappy, soulless ballads and horrendous rockers, all containing the worlds most vapid lyricism. these songs have no interesting melodies. he harmonies are no where near CSN. they do have occasionally good guitar progressions but it's not like robbie basho or john fahey or something. it's just a progression that i can think "huh, thatd sound cool to strum". this music is the opposite of transcendtal, it is a degression of what rock music can be.

read every other review of this album. especially read Paul Williams review in the Fourth Issue of Crawdaddy in August of 1966. this is genuinely special music. i didn't care for some of the bluesier, stranger tracks like Rainy Day Woman but at it's best Blonde on Blonde is unmatched in rock. the things Dylan can make you feel with a single phrase are magical.