1001 Albums Journey

Near perfect album, enjoyable from start to finish. The weakest songs still have enough appeal to maintain interest and forward momentum.

It’s not hard to understand the appeal of a JLL show at his prime. This is high energy by any standard and I’m not sure what kind of precedent may have existed before Jerry came along. That being said, it’s not my taste. I was born decades later and this is more or less a curiosity for me. An interesting reference for how we got to where we are and what shaped the artists that I grew up loving. But I’m never going to cue this up again for my own recreational listening.

Three songs in, this is definitely not my jam. This is the music that you get embarrassed about when your parents sing along to it when your friends are over, especially when they attempt the high notes. Listening to this, it's obvious that The Beatles were an outsized influence and, in the same way that Bush was accused of trying to be Nirvana in the 90s, I imagine Harry was accused of trying to be The Beatles in the early 70s. Okay, so Without You is a good song that I wouldn't mind hearing again. Coconut is silly. Obviously, a recognizable tune but I can't imagine being anything but annoyed by it. It's the kind of novelty song that's inescapable for a summer or so and people sing parts of it in casual conversation like some kind of punchline in and of itself and you kind of smile and hope they stop but don't want them to think that you think that they're being cringey. I would not doubt you at all if you told me it was The Macarena of its time. I skipped it twenty seconds in. Sorry, Harry. So the back half of the album does away with a lot of the sillier bits and is more listenable, if not necessarily memorable. I wouldn't mind having everything that comes after Coconut just playing in the background as something inoffensive and somewhat pleasant to drown out silence while working or eating or something. All that being said: I can see the appeal. I imagine I'd have been more interested in this kind of thing if I'd been around in '71, especially if I'd been in my later 20s or older at the time. These are well written pop songs, they're just very of their time, like a house with wood panel walls and a very Orange/Yellow/Brown color scheme and a shag carpet. It's the best a house could possibly look with that aesthetic, constructed and decorated by the best contractors in town. In many ways it adds polish and flourish to a well worn but still popular style. But it's still a house with wood paneled walls and an Orange/Yellow/Brown color scheme and a shag carpet. Hopefully they're at least holding some wicked key parties in there.

That is a stone classic album cover. Like, damn. That being said, having grown up on slightly more modern "angry" music, it's hard to imagine getting that worked up while playing any of the songs on this record. Not knocking it, just an observation. There's several songs that I really like on this record that I'd never heard before. There's also several songs that... I could do without. The reggae flair on the punk/rock songs is fun and lifting but this isn't a reggae band and the flat out reggae songs don't work for me at all. But I'm biased 'cause I don't much care for reggae. Overall, this isn't an album I can listen to top to bottom but it's got at least half a dozen excellent tunes. As an aside, the production quality really illustrates how deep the divide was back then between the well funded major label records and the relatively low budget stuff like this. By the standards of the last 20 years or so, this would be considered nearly unacceptable production quality even for a basement recording but, 45 years ago, this would've been far beyond the reach of anyone without established backing or very deep pockets. For better or worse, we've really come a long way.

So I'm biased against this album from the get go. Bat Out of Hell II was a massive hit in 1993 and the songs were inescapable but I hated them so... sorry Mr Loaf. However, I did my best to go in with fresh ears and... it's a fine album. Very well done. Good production. Good songwriting. Good pacing and flow as an album. It's also very much not my thing. "Rock Opera." Yeah, it's showtunes. I mean, call it whatever you need to call it and kudos if you convinced some jock meatheads to expand their horizons a bit but it's showtunes. I listened to the whole thing and ultimately, I'm glad I did. Not necessarily because I liked it but because the songs *are* good and I am trying to expand my own horizons a bit. That being said, I'm glad it was a tight and snappy 45 minutes and not a double album.

Another band that I more or less hated in high school, although in this case it wasn't because I was overexposed or really felt strongly one way or the other about their songs but because I was a wiener about being a metalhead and hated almost anything that wasn't metal more or less by default. Given the popular opinion of Radiohead, especially their material of the late 90s and early 00s, I'm actually looking forward to listening to this. First track is great. I'm wondering why I was such a lil bitch about this band for so long. 2+2=5 makes me want to write music like it. Next few tracks are... there. This isn't bad. I don't hate it. But it sounds kind of like noodling sessions that got dressed up a bit. "Experimental" as they say when they are being generous. I'm up to There, There and haven't heard any other standout tracks but I will cede that the album has been extremely consistent thus far. The back half is more or less the same. Rounding out the symmetry, I love the final track. Overall, Radiohead is much better than I was ready to admit in high school. I would not be upset to listen to this album again but I'm not going to cue it up myself either.

Story time because apparently each of these is turning into me reminiscing about the past: In the mid to late 00s, there was an explosion of "indie" artists that aped a lofi production and simplified, even childlike even, songwriting aesthetic and a whole swath of Millennials put on their finest, most shapeless American Apparel outfits and got haircuts that double dog dared the whole world to find them attractive. Like most trends in popular music, the best artists got swiftly buried by an avalanche of major label signings that were almost pathologically incapable of understanding good songwriting but were peopled by incredibly fuckable band members who could play their instruments just well enough to front whatever random songs their A&R guy told them to play. Anyway, this album came out relatively late in that whole scene and it ditches all the silliness. This is a competently recorded album of excellent songs that do not go out of their way to be silly or twee or anything else. It adds polish and flourish to the best parts of a genre that was getting worn out while ditching all the bullshit. In other words, this is a great album. I really like it. And I'm saying that as someone who hated this genre at the time and still has trouble recognizing the redeeming qualities that were present. I will absolutely listen to this again. Top to bottom.

Firstly, this is a tight half hour. No filler, no need to stretch the album out to 40-60 minutes. While this isn't what I'd consider driving music and I can't really see myself sitting down to jam with this, it's very good. It's evocative of its time without falling into a caricature of its time. And it's sexy, man. I mean, wow. I don't know anything about Serge but I'm guessing this is a time in his life where we never had to suffer a full day without someone offering him sexual favors. I have no trouble believing that this album was the soundtrack to many an intimate evening.

So I get that this was incredibly technically innovative for it's time, pushing the limits of the multitrack recording technology of the day. But nothing really stands out on it. At least not for me. Of course, this album was released 27 years before I was born and, even at that, the Beach *Boys* were Beach Men at this point and the music reflected that. Pedantry regarding the naming aside, this isn't my jam and that wouldn't change if it had been released under a different name or by a different band. I'm glad it exists because I understand it's place in modern pop music history and I'm glad it demonstrated that a modern studio held far more potential for unique art than had been previously illustrated. But I'm also glad I'm finished listening to it.

Well I can tell what my favorite goth and industrial musicians were listening to. I can definitely hear the basis of a lot of music that I like but this is also a bit too stuck in "cheesy 80s synth" sounds for me to really enjoy as a standalone work. It's interesting listening though and I'm glad I listened to it even if I probably won't revisit it.

This album starts off *strong.* Three hits, back to back. Then track 4... perhaps should have been left behind. Maybe a B-Side or something. But then it picks up again and there's more radio hits and some other great tunes. Outstanding pop songwriting and New Wave style. Would listen again.

So the hits are A+ killer pop tunes. It’s no wonder that Bad and Smooth Criminal are *still* jams to this day. The rest of the album though. It sounds like they recorded a the world's most incredible EP and then stuffed it with enough filler to charge full LP price. Some outstanding bass synths but also a lot of very 1987 synths. Crazy that it’s only two years out from Pretty Hate Machine and three years from Violator completely upending what everyone thought synth/sampler based music could sound like.

This album whips. Aside from Killing In The Name being overplayed to the point of absurdity (I never liked that one very much to begin with) this is consistently killer.

So this album comes with a ton of baggage and I'm trying my best to set that aside. So quick aside; in the 90s, there were three albums that instantly grabbed me and ended up becoming foundational to my relationship with broader pop culture. The Downward Spiral, Astro-Creep, and Antichrist Superstar (releasted when I was 12, 13, and 14, respectively) influenced how I judged and experienced music, movies, and style for more or less the rest of my life. Anyway... If I had been a teenager when this album came out, it would have been *the* most important album of my life. No question. Even now, 45+ years out, I can recognize that there is an energy here that just didn't really exist in pop music at the time. That being said, listening to it for more or less the first time (aside from hearing covers of most of it from other bands), it's kinda dull. Hearing the influences, the prototypes, of what you love after a lifetime of hearing the polish and flair that its successors added, doesn't make it easy to hear the shine that everyone heard when this debuted in the 70s. Four stars in recognition, loses a star because I don't actually like listening to it that much.

There's so much of this that I really like. The production is just fucking rad. I wish I'd known about this as a teen, it would've given me a much better point of reference for hip-hop and rap than what was on the radio/MTV at the time. The choices of samples and the arrangements are much like what I would want to do today and lyrically, it's avoids to empty materialism or the macho violence and misogyny of most rap before or since while also not being as serious and messaged as the socially conscious rap that was more or less the primary alternative to gangsta rap. That being said, some of the lyrics get pretty silly and juvenile. But it's still cool. I dig this. Great tracks. Great production. Original lyrical content. Excellent.

There's so much of this that I really like. The production is just fucking rad. I wish I'd known about this as a teen, it would've given me a much better point of reference for hip-hop and rap than what was on the radio/MTV at the time. The choices of samples and the arrangements are much like what I would want to do today and lyrically, it's avoids to empty materialism or the macho violence and misogyny of most rap before or since while also not being as serious and messaged as the socially conscious rap that was more or less the primary alternative to gangsta rap. That being said, some of the lyrics get pretty silly and juvenile. But it's still cool. I dig this. Great tracks. Great production. Original lyrical content. Excellent.

Maybe it's because I've been conditioned by Martin Scorsese to associate Gimme Shelter with some of my favorite movies but I *love* that song. I *love* this recording of that song. This is one of the very few songs from the era that I like which I don't prefer some cover that had slicker production or a harder style performance. The Hellacopters made a valiant effort but the original stands tall. So this album starts off strong, for sure. I've frequently said that The Rolling Stones have recorded a near perfect LP of songs that I absolutely adore. It just took them a few decades and several albums to do it. This is the first time I've listened a Stones album top to bottom and... I haven't really changed my stance. It's not that the rest of the songs on this album are bad. They're certainly not. But they're also not really that memorable either. I found the rest of the album a bit boring, TBH. Now, some of the songs do have that swagger about them that I most associate with the band. There is definitely a dick swinging confidence to the groove of several of the tunes that I'm not sure really existed in the mid to late 60s when all the other bands were wearing tie dye and singing about hippy bullshit. This was the band that stepped in with tight pants and borrowed your girlfriend for the night. Like so many bands and albums from before my time, I'm sure I would've been a fan had I been of a certain age when this was released. This band especially, I think would've been more or less my fav if I'd been a teen in the late 60s. But I was a teen in the 90s and so it just doesn't stick very well for me.

Awww yeah. I've never listened to this album before. Or really any Priest aside from "Breakin' the Law" which is silly but I get that it was an anthem of rebellion at the time. Although I'm guessing the band also probably thought it was silly. I would've recorded a silly "rebellion" tune and played it with a straight face at that age too because that's a great bit. Aaaaand... meh. It's kinda what I expected. Pre-Metallica, mid-tempo metal. The production is pretty bad. I'm guessing they were working with a limited budget and not everybody can afford to record with Mutt Lange in the Bahamas but like could the recording engineers have maybe not cut all the low frequencies out of the record? Later albums would see the band embrace the evolving styles of contemporary metal of the day and have access to much, much better production. Britisih Steel seems more like a curio, a peek at a genre that was still finding itself and a record that nobody would've cared about just a few years later. But they did it early enough that it helped define the decade to come.

This album fuckin' rips. Like holy shit it's easy to see why this was such a big deal, even aside from the guitar playing. The songs have the energy of the early punk records but the production value of the big rock bands. I'm not saying I remember every song on the record or that I'd go back to the individual tunes necessarily but, as an album, it's all killer no filler top to bottom.

I didn't make it very far into this one. I remember Paper Planes being a big single at the time and the rest sounds like what I would expect the rest of the album to sounds like. Not really my thing. Also not really anything special.

So this is one of those albums that I appreciate but don't really enjoy. The music is there and I really like that the lyrics aren't all about gang life and clubbing. But it's also not really my thing. Would be nice if more like this had become mainstream at the time but I know well enough to know that this group and this album were hugely influential even if I wasn't aware of them as a kid.

I like his voice and the songs are mostly there but a lot of the instrumentation and arrangement is pretty dated. Some cool songs here.

I loved this. I've always liked Motown era/style tunes and this is very similar but with modern production (I can hear the individual drums!). I never paid this much mind when it was released (not metal 👿) but this is going into heavy rotation going forward.

So I’m realizing that hip hop just isn’t really my thing. I’ve heard some excellent hip hop that I really enjoyed but, as a whole, it’s not really connecting. This is another album where I’d be hard pressed to say that it’s bad or even short of excellent. But it’s also not for me. Then again, if any of these songs came on spontaneously, I wouldn’t complain either.

I loved the second track. The rest of the album… exists. I’m sure there’s a niche audience out there that adores this band but they were never going to be more than indie darlings (actual indie darlings, not a multi platinum group of supermodels with a lofi aesthetic) at best.

As a lifelong guitarist, I've been conditioned to believe I'm supposed to like Muddy Waters (and other guitarists of his day, but especially Blues guitarists) and I understand and appreciate that he was a key influence on the artists that were themselves key influences on the artists that I hold dear. But man, it's a slog. I'm a big fan of Boom Boom which is *not* on this album. Definitely some cool guitar playing but also a lot of... guitar playing. I will give points because I know he scared the shit out of well-to-do white parents of the day and I'll always have a soft spot for anyone that scares the shit out of well-to-do white parents, especially with naught but a simple guitar and the temerity to exist.

Sam Cooke makes ya move. More of this yes please

Sam Cooke makes ya move. More of this yes please

So I kinda hated this band when this album was released because it sounded like rock for hipsters who don’t actually like rock. Coming in 23 years later… can’t say I feel much differently. Rich kids cosplaying as street urchins and buying their way into a career as rock stars on the strength of the Elite Modeling Agency fortune. I mean, I get it. Nu-Metal was getting pretty stale and these guys were different than that. I am forever grateful that this was nearing the end of music trends being dictated by terrestrial radio and major labels.

NGL. This is just too out there. At the end of the day, I just like nice pop songs. When I was in high school, System of a Down was big and I couldn’t ever get into them because they, as I used to say, “keep going out of their way to be weird.” Well, maybe this is where they learned that from.

Now we’re talkin’. Top to bottom this is killer, didn’t skip a single track. Five stars ⭐️

Aww yeah, high school vibes right here. The album isn’t as consistent as people like to remember but the high points are high enough that they lift the valleys. Them Bones is just all time classic metal. Like all good middle aged folk who were teens in the 90s, this band is a favorite.

This is one of those where it's super clear that this was hugely influential on a lot of the musicians that I adore and, it's likely that I would've been into them had I been a certain age in 1977. But at this point, it's just too far from my taste to be something I'd listen to.

If I had been born 20 years earlier, this album would probably occupy the space in my head that Portishead’s Dummy currently does. This is pretty far from what I’d assume I might like but it’s also so undeniably good that I can’t turn away. It’s like show tunes but for moody proto goth kids. This is absolutely what I’d have been listening to while smearing on eye shadow and shaving my legs (and everything else). My only gripe is the lyrics. I’m listening to a song about rotting peaches. Not really the kind of thing I’d be obsessing over and transcribing on my school binders.

This is... "experimental" I guess. I couldn't get very far with that vocal delivery. Definitely from the tail end of an era of artists that adopted unlistenable as an aesthetic. The music seemed alright, from what I heard. This is the musical equivalent of a 20 something with a nice body who goes out of their way to wear the least flattering clothes they could find at the thrift store.

Not my fave, exactly. But still very good. Would listen again.

Gotta be in the mood for this but it’s good stuff. Not really driving music.

NGL, I've heard enough Queen in my life from classic rock radio. It's not that it's bad, it's that I heard Freddie Mercury's voice daily until 2009, which was when I finally stopped listening to terrestrial radio for good.

This is the kind of thing I love hearing in movies and tv but then it’s hard to stay interested when removed from that cinematic context. I’m just too far removed from the era, I think.

This is VERY 90s electronica. It took a special ear (and maybe a healthy dose of Molly) to get into this.

So Mariah is an undeniably great vocalist but this 90s pop/R&B production is not doing her any favors. I wish they’d been a bit less maximal with the backing vocals and all the other fluff because Mariah Fucking Carey’s vocals are the thing that’s worth listening to! Anyway, this album ended up being very of its time, right down to the “dangerous” rappers throwing a verse here and there on the “innocent lil white girl’s” pop record. I can practically smell the teenage brother listening to Korn in the next room.

There is some genuinely cool stuff here. Clint Eastwood is a helluva jam. There's also a lot of filler. White boy hip hop from across the pond. It's "artistic" in that way that requires scare quotes. I believed then and I still believe now that Gorillaz would've faded into obscurity by the end of 2001 if not for the "cartoon band" gimmick. Not saying they're bad, but I am saying they're not as good, or at least weren't as good with the first album, as the general public was excited to give them credit for.

This is so extremely early 90s. The era where hair metal was fading and “alternative” was catching on but was also so loosely defined that labels didn’t know what to do so they just kinda started signing every weirdo they came across hoping something would stick. Thanks to that era for making a hit out of Jesus Built My Hotrod. It’s probably for the best that this one was allowed to fade into obscurity.

So the two big singles are dope AF but the rest of it is kinda the pre-Violator DM that I always associated with them (and the genre as a whole) before I'd ever heard Violator. It's a nice preview of what they had coming but this isn't one I'm gonna be coming back to.

This album fucks so hard. Outstanding production, strong pop sensibilities, great voice and delivery from Biggie, it's got it all. The lyrics are kinda juvenile in a lot of places but I get it, they were basically kids. I wrote terrible lyrics/poetry at that age too. Anyways, now that I'm not a shitty teenaged metal snob, I can totally understand how this became huge and how (along with the Death Row stuff) rap/hip hop broadly became such a sensation around this time. I mean, not that it wasn't already popular but rap was basically the default soundtrack to the 90s. My only beef with this album is Big Poppa copping the West Coast style G-Funk sound. It's out of place. I mean, it sounds good, but it sounds like they were trying to dip their toes into waters that Dre basically owned. Other than that, this is basically flawless.

I'm betting whatever single off of this record was a total fave among college radio nerds. It's got it's charms but it also screams to me "snobby record store clerk" and isn't really my thing.

Jesus Christ with this fucking band. "Our drummer is barely competent and we recorded in a bathroom using a dictaphone!" The American music buying public: "YES!"

I remember this album from middle school. Or high school. Whichever. Pretty stoked that Nirvana's drummer was going to carry on and the first single was pretty decent. Then the next single wasn't. Then there was the kinda cute video aping the Mentos commercials but the song wasn't really all that great. Borrowed the album from a friend and was pretty disappointed altogether. Maybe they just needed to get the bad stuff out because the next album was pretty great.

OK I fucking get it. Led Zeppelin was great and all. I'm sure they would've been my favorite band if I'd been a teen back in the 70s but holy shit y'all, Bonham was dead and the band was broken up *years* before I was even born. It is before my time. Thanks for inspiring my faves but can we go a fucking day without Boomers and or pop culture at large demanding that we listen to and praise a 50+ year old album?

This album has got some jams on it. Pearl Jam was super inconsistent. Like they put every brain fart that they could flesh out into a song to tape and released it. But what a debut!