1001 Albums Summary

This is an incredible work, and I do believe it will join the list of best Bowie albums. Moving, experimental, haunting, even familiar in places. What a swan song!

I remember enjoying this mixture of Funk, Rock and Rap when it first came out—now, having not listened to it for decades, it does sound quite ‘samey’ so it could do with trimming a bit. As it stands, it feels too long to maintain peak interest over its entire runtime.

Absolute perfection. I don’t have the lyrical ability to describe this, so let me (probably mis)quote someone else I once heard long ago: Dylan sings like a dog with its leg caught in barbed wire. If that isn’t recommendation enough, I don’t know what is!

Immense, life-changing, and weirdly a little bit polished too. The best-known Punk album, though not the best. Time has tamed its sound and reputation somewhat, but it’s still excellent. Highly recommended.

Magnificent. A powerful debut album from Ice Cube after he split with NWA, this is filled with banger after banger, with production by Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad. Continuing the inner city themes but taking them to a whole new level, it’s a terrific original statement.

Great album. Clint Eastwood is, of course, a certified classic.

Glorious, and contains so many hit songs.

It’s… pleasant to listen to, but not overly exciting. Perhaps it sounded wider in the early ’60s?

This is actually the first the Traffic album I heard, and I loved it.

All very pleasant and inoffensive. It’s simply… OK. I’ll listen to it if it’s on and I can’t switch radio channels, but I wouldn’t buy it or put it on, myself.

Magnificent!

Terrific album!

This is a bona fide classic, with rocking numbers, and more sensitive songs too, like Sail Away. Of course, there are the (in)famous My My Hey Hey Blue…Black songs—one acoustic, the other electric—and my favourite: Powderfinger. The album is filled with great performances, lyrics and music. I can’t recommend it enough.

Dylan returned like an Old Testament prophet to reveal incredible music and poetry like ‘Not Dark Yet,’ ‘Tryin' to Get to Heaven’ and ‘Highlands’. Essential.

An incredible album. Groundbreaking, even. It showcases her wonderful vocal range and experimental songwriting, blending elements of Pop, Rock, and Art-Rock. I love it, and recommend it highly.

Based album.

Classic album that deserves the accolades it’s received over its lifetime.

Classic. Supreme, like the title says.

Phenomenal album that reworks old classics and adds some new ones in the form of cover versions. Top tier album.

Believe it or not, this was a flop on its release! A critical and commercial failure, with only the passing of time making critics and consumers see sense. That’s just nuts!

An outstanding classic which builds a beautifully designed narrative of the protagonist, despite not being a ‘proper’ concept album, through a variety of song types, all of them singularly excellent. Marvellous!

Why do I keep fucking up?

Excellent production, terrific lyrics and flow. Each member has his own style, and the album, while a little messy, is a thrill from start to finish. Shadowboxing, martial arts classic!

Incredible. Exciting, important, cosmic, futuristic… Highly recommended.

This was an absolute game-changer, with its new sound that influenced so many Rappers going forward. Snoop Dogg sounded so fresh and innovative on this. The sound of my mid-teens. Magnificent.

This is a jazz classic; heady Drum and Bass. I can understand that people nowadays may not get the hype behind it, but at the time it took things to a whole other level.

Classic!

An absolute classic, and an electronic music album for the ages.

I have no words, except to say it’s an utter classic. People have worded it more expertly me than I could, but this album is a top tier essential. Get it, spend time with it, cherish it.

Perfection, and the title track is my favourite Bowie song ever.

Big change in sound, but oh what a classic!

Absolutely incredible, and still influential. Plus Alan Vega sings like Elvis Presley!

Stone cold classic with incredible raps and inventive production featuring nifty samples. Bags of humour too. Mandatory listening.

Classic, with some magnificent songs on it. Buy it now and revel in it!

Phenomenal work with beautiful, distorted, but ultimately transcendent, songs. The original ended with ‘Vapour Trail’ which was so poignant it hurt. Magnificent album. A Shoegaze classic.

Catchy, danceable, machinic, but also oddly human too. Terrific album well worth your time.

Thick, dissonant layers of samples, often pulled from Funk, Soul, and Rock, combined with sirens, scratches, and breaks. Production team the Bomb Squad’s approach here is to layer sounds in a way that mirror the social tension and complexity in the lyrics—tracks like “Fight the Power” exemplify this with its stacked samples and driving rhythm, creating a sense of urgency. The production choices on songs like “911 Is a Joke” and “Burn Hollywood Burn” keep the listener off balance, as sounds collide and voices weave in and out, reinforcing the messages in the lyrics. Lyrically, Chuck D’s verses are relentless, addressing systemic racism, media manipulation, and cultural appropriation with sharp precision. “Welcome to the Terrordome” confronts criticism of the group head-on, turning controversy into a rallying cry, while “Fear of a Black Planet” examines racial paranoia and social power dynamics. Flava Flav’s interjections add a level of satire and comic relief but also underscore the serious themes. All in all, this is a top-tier album and you need to listen to it now !

Despite Lars deliberately killing Jason Newsted’s bass, this is one terrific album. Their songs grew longer, more technical, yet still with memorable riffs. Everything about this album is exquisite. They moved beyond simple Thrash with this one. Probably their best.

Top tier. Up there with Illmatic by Nas, which should let you know how great it is !

Still their best. Complex yet accessible, incredible riffs, drumming and lyrics, with brilliant song structures. Contains the classic ‘Hangar 18’ too. I still listen to this album avidly. Mandatory !

Good.

Acoustic, music-hall, R＆B… It’s all very serene and elegant, though there are some rocking portions on here too. Great melodies and lyrics. Well worth your time.

Affirmed classic, the face of Grunge, and top tier production values. Not my favourite by them, but it still merits 5 stars!

Superb !

Cet album est génial ! Clairement un classique, et il est aussi bon que tout le monde le dit. Écoute-le tout de suite et tu vas en tomber amoureux !

This is great, with some terrific songs on it. My favourite is ‘Tales of Brave Ulysses’.

Magnifique !

One of the best albums of all time, and definitely MJ’s greatest work. Every single song is a hit. This is glorious. Get it, listen, love it forever.

Glorious !

Astounding. This is one hell of a trip !

One of his best… but he has so many of those !

Rocking… a massive sound, heartfelt lyrics where the ordinary and mundane becomes fantastic and romantic. This is an utter classic and still sounds amazing. Top tier.

I actually prefer this to the Ziggy Stardust that came before it. Incredible songs, some even camp (Time, which is my favourite on the album), or melodramatic (Lady Grinning Soul). This is glorious.

Monumental !

Incredible.

Storming album with a great message. Can’t go wrong with Peter Tosh!

Terrific, supremely inventive, and catchy af. Doesn’t quite rise to the heights of its successor album Discovery, but wonderful all the same.

One of the best albums ever ! Takes you on a proper journey from start to finish. My favourite is A Butcher’s Tale, which adds deep gravitas in the form of imagined narratives from ordinary soldiers in the First World War.

Stunning classic. Holds up to this day.

This is a certified classic. Mindbender. Innovative production as is always the case with the Bomb Squad. Lyrics are intelligent yet accessible too. Early Public Enemy is top tier.

Incredible !

A glorious racket !

A bit of blasphemous of me to say so, but I think this ambit would have worked better as an E.P. with the best songs collated on it, instead of a lacklustre album that initially fooled us with its harder sound.

A mind-bending classic !

Good stuff !

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This is one terrific album, probably my favourite by Muse. Twists and turns, terrific electronic sounds amongst the Rock guitars, thoughtful lyrics. It’s an all-round blinder. Seeing them perform this live with all the visuals was an astounding experience too. Get the album! Get it!

I love it.

Good stuff, albeit not as much as Exile… or …Fingers.

Magnificent album with classic songs on it.

It’s one of my favourite Beatles albums (though not my top, which would be either Rubber Soul, or Revolver), especially for the medley of songs on the B-side. The way ‘Golden Slumbers’ segues into ‘Carry That Weight’ never fails to send shivers up and down my spine. Glorious.

I enjoyed a couple of songs on it, but didn’t really listen to much of it again.

They look like accountants or thereabouts, but sound like voodoo or something. Incredible, brilliant, bonkers album.

Just not my sort of thing at all. Only OK. Very same-sounding.

Astoundingly good.

Awesome.

’s all right.

Excellent and mature album with brilliant songs, though different to their earlier material.

I remember being blown away by this when it first came out. It made suicidal depression seem like the most exhilarating experience known to mankind. Intricate, complex, deceptively simple, magnificent songs and sounds, turbosynthed guitars, terrific lyrics. Just absolute perfection.

I liked some of it.

Stupendous album. Iconic.

Weirdly classed as Grunge upon release because of Nirvana taking Grunge into the spotlight, this magnificent album was way darker (it’s all about Layne’s heroin addiction), with brutally honest lyrics. A masterpiece that everyone needs to hear.

Magnificent.

Perfection. Beautiful songs and instrumentals, but the real highlights are the covers of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ and, especially, Benjamin Britton’s ‘Corpus Christi Carol’. The latter ranks as one of my favourite songs and song versions of all time.

Third album, so still early days. The Pop songs of yesteryear, all extremely short: I don’t think a single one of them even hits the 3-minute mark! Yet these are perfectly crafted gems. A terrific album.

One of the best albums they have done. The Bends, arguably, might have (some) better songs, but that album feels simply like a collection of songs. This one coheres as an actual long-form album, and the songs are terrific. Airbag and Karma Police have some great delay FX on them, and Paranoid Android is a blast from start to finish. More delights await you.

À phénoménal début with terrific songs.

It’s Tricky to rate this album.

Absolute classic.

Near perfect. Superb collection of songs.

Stunningly beautiful album. In some ways I prefer this to Astral Weeks. Favourite song: ‘Into the Mystic’.

Forget the Sex Pistols. For me, THIS is the golden standard as far as Punk is concerned. Terrific music and fiercely biting, intelligent, political lyrics. Best thing they’ve done.

Incredible.

Brilliant.

Absolutely top-tier.

Terrific album. Lots of Warp Records influence. My favourites are How to Disappear Completely, and Idioteque.

Powerful and inventive stuff !

Mesmerising!

Stone cold classic. I was absolutely obsessed with this album when it came out. Also the first introduction of Body Count.

Amazing.

A terrific album, although not my all-time favourite by Marley (that would be Uprising). Beautiful songs, a combination of political, religious, and spiritual vibes. Amazing, and spawned hit singles like ‘Three Little Birds’.

Incredible album !

Superb songs with an exciting sound and some surprisingly poetic lyrics bête and there.

Great stuff.

Absolute banger of an album. Enough new and old styles to keep longstanding and neophyte fans happy. ‘Mindfields’ is a killer of a track, as is ‘Climbatize’.

It’s all right.

Fox in the Snow is absolutely breathtaking.

Very Rolling Stones sounding ’70s Rock music. Decent.

Top tier genius.

This is still a magnificent album with some terrific songs on it. The lyrics to Paranoid itself are not about paranoia but more like melancholy. RIP Ozzy.

All four of the numbered albums are top class, but this is third best. Well worth your time though.

Killer songs, killer album, killer Queen!

Glorious, witty, musically perfect. Top tier album.

Beautiful.

This was a beautiful album.

Terrific Rock’n’Roll music. At first the songs sounded samey to me. Then I put some of them on different compilation tapes and realised the sheer brilliance of them. This is up there with Sticky Fingers and Let It Bleed.

Stupendous album with terrific riffs on it. Dead Embryonic Cells is a favourite.

Yeah, it’s all right. I probably need more time with it. At the moment I’d rate it 2½, but since that’s not an option, and 2 seems too stingy, I’ll go for 3. Quicksand is a great song, by the way.

Top tier album; almost as good as Bleach.

Terrific album, and innovative for its time.

Terrific.

Amazing.

This isn’t the original album cover. This is an absolute powerhouse of an album, with masterful Blues, jamming, Rock, and that incredible cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘All Along the Watchtower’. Mandatory listening!

Monster of an album!

Stupendous album with some beautiful songs on it.

This is held up as a classic, and yes, I can hear it has some good songs—but I simply can’t get over that awful, quintessentially ’80s sound.

Literally my favourite album by the Beatles. Even though it’s surpassed in some ways by « Revolver » the difference is there is no filler here. Yes, even the song sung by Ringo. And ‘In My Life’ has to rank as one of the all-time greatest songs ever. Top-tier.

Yeah, it’s good, innit.