377
Albums Rated
3.19
Average Rating
35%
Complete
712 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
2010
Favorite Decade
Metal
Favorite Genre
other
Top Origin
Wordsmith
Rater Style ?
29
5-Star Albums
17
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
Top Styles
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Movies
Holger Czukay
|
5 | 2.71 | +2.29 |
|
Autobahn
Kraftwerk
|
5 | 3.09 | +1.91 |
|
Le Tigre
Le Tigre
|
5 | 3.14 | +1.86 |
|
Trans Europe Express
Kraftwerk
|
5 | 3.15 | +1.85 |
|
1989
Taylor Swift
|
5 | 3.27 | +1.73 |
|
The Beach Boys Today!
The Beach Boys
|
5 | 3.27 | +1.73 |
|
You Want It Darker
Leonard Cohen
|
5 | 3.32 | +1.68 |
|
Neon Bible
Arcade Fire
|
5 | 3.34 | +1.66 |
|
The Downward Spiral
Nine Inch Nails
|
5 | 3.34 | +1.66 |
|
A Rush Of Blood To The Head
Coldplay
|
5 | 3.44 | +1.56 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Straight Outta Compton
N.W.A.
|
1 | 3.51 | -2.51 |
|
Ready To Die
The Notorious B.I.G.
|
1 | 3.36 | -2.36 |
|
The Chronic
Dr. Dre
|
1 | 3.32 | -2.32 |
|
The College Dropout
Kanye West
|
1 | 3.31 | -2.31 |
|
Music For The Jilted Generation
The Prodigy
|
1 | 3.07 | -2.07 |
|
Rapture
Anita Baker
|
1 | 2.94 | -1.94 |
|
Brown Sugar
D'Angelo
|
1 | 2.92 | -1.92 |
|
Infected
The The
|
1 | 2.92 | -1.92 |
|
Kick Out The Jams (Live)
MC5
|
1 | 2.91 | -1.91 |
|
Histoire De Melody Nelson
Serge Gainsbourg
|
1 | 2.74 | -1.74 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Black Sabbath | 3 | 5 |
| David Bowie | 6 | 4.33 |
| Arcade Fire | 3 | 4.67 |
| Kraftwerk | 2 | 5 |
| Michael Jackson | 2 | 5 |
| The Beach Boys | 2 | 5 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Slipknot | 2 | 1.5 |
Controversial
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Fleetwood Mac | 2, 5 |
| Elton John | 2, 5 |
5-Star Albums (29)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
White Denim · 2 likes
2/5
indie elevator music - sounds alright but couldn't hold my interest. can't decide if I like or dislike this cover art, but either way I don't think it fits the album.
SZA · 1 likes
2/5
another song about forrest gump, who i guess was lurking in the cultural imagination of the 2010s. i liked frank ocean's gump song better. is there possibly another gump tribute coming in the remaining 800 albums? weird al seems to have been snubbed in the list, but his gump song from 1996 would probably reign supreme
The Smiths · 1 likes
3/5
I don’t dislike this album but, between The Smiths and Morrissey’s solo projects, this is the fourth time for him to come up. I think I’ve got it; we can move on.
Paul Simon · 1 likes
3/5
The trombones on this album sound a lot like the ridiculous trombone-based rhythm game Trombone Champ to me, especially on the first tracks, which kind of changed the tone of this for me. Couldn't stop picturing the Trombone Champ avatars tooting along. That aside, just a very strange album stylistically and I had a hard time deciding on a rating.
Missy Elliott · 1 likes
4/5
Good stuff here! Pretty sure it's the hip hop album I've enjoyed the most so far. That said, some minor grumbles: I'm not sure how I feel about Missy interrupting the album to do DVD commentary; it bugs me that she starts so many songs by introducing them as Missy Elliott exclusives; and I'm having a hard time with the line "Can I put my booty-booty up in your spaghetti?" And there's no way 2002 Missy could have known where we were headed, but the commentary in the opening monologue about how Donald Trump doesn't waste time with pointless beefs is quite unfortunate.
4-Star Albums (115)
1-Star Albums (17)
All Ratings
Boston
3/5
It’s enjoyable (and recognizable) classic rock, but I had a hard time remembering it after I turned it off. Not a bad one to start on.
Fleetwood Mac
2/5
This one didn’t grab me, especially having heard Rumors recently where every song’s a certified hit. If I was in the mood for Fleetwood Mac I’d always reach for that one instead.
The Smiths
3/5
I don't love it, I don't hate it - interesting and distinct sound but just okay overall.
Bon Jovi
3/5
The first half of this album is stacked with 3 of the greatest hair metal bangers of all time, but inserted in the middle of those classics is an awkward and juvenile track about being so horny you need medical attention. The high points of this album are great, but when it dips into the middle-school stuff I have a hard time. What else should I expect from an album named Slippery When Wet, though? I'm rating as a 3 overall but if it stopped after track 5, probably a 4 instead.
The Go-Go's
4/5
Fun pop rock with summery vibes.
Van Morrison
4/5
I could not have told you what kind of music Van Morrison was before this album came up here, but I really liked it. Thanks to this week's albums I now know the difference between Morrissey and Van Morrison. "And It Stoned Me" is a great, catchy opener. "Into the Mystic" is the top track.
Beatles
2/5
My brain has always refused to latch on to the Beatles. I thought With The Beatles was alright at first, until I realized how much of the parts I liked were just covers and it lost me. Leave Meredith Willson's "Till There Was You" on the Music Man soundtrack where it was meant to be enjoyed, thank you.
Dion
1/5
This is the first 1001 Albums listen that I'm rating a 1. I'm not really sure what makes this notable and it doesn't feel like its inclusion on the list is really justified. Although, "Your Own Back Yard" is kind of interesting for being maybe the most drugs-forward song I've ever heard ("I can quit; let me finish what I got / After all, this stuff sure costs a lot").
The streaming service where I listened to Born To Be With You had it and Dion's next album, Streetheart, combined onto one. The Streetheart tracks seemed more interesting.
Supergrass
4/5
Wasn't familiar with this band or any of the songs here. Nothing earth-shattering but it's an interesting sound and it grew on me over repeat listens. Some standout tracks were "Richard III" and "Tonight" but it stays interesting throughout. Some odd sound choices mixed in too, which I think I like.
Slipknot
2/5
Didn't really care for this. There's screaming that I like and there's screaming I don't like - this album is a great example of the guttural "trying to impress you" screaming I don't like. The best parts of the album are when it's at its farthest from itself ("Snuff"). The darkness/nihilism in the lyrics comes off as mostly vapid to me. It feels like it's trying to be shocking... maybe it was in 2008 but it's pretty toothless now. Lastly, at 57:57 this is also just too big a dose of this for me (and the version I streamed had a handful of bonus tracks that added another 14 minutes).
Air
4/5
Great stuff. It's chill electronica that's perfect to work to or relax to, sort of an early precursor to the lo-fi beats study music that YouTube would eventually popularize. I wasn't aware of this group but I'll be returning to this album in the future. Also I find it kind of funny that on the album cover, next to the band and album name, it just says "French Band."
I also listened to the very faithful whole-album Moon Safari cover by Dave Depper from 2021 and enjoyed that as well.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
2/5
Not really familiar with Neil Young beyond "A Horse with No Name." Usually when a singer sounds like a muppet that's a plus for me, but I couldn't really get into Rust Never Sleeps. Seems like there is some good lyric work though.
Common
2/5
Somewhat enjoyed parts of this but it sort of lost me at the skit where Common beats up a woman. Get that he's poking fun at himself, but it's still weird to listen to. Some of the music's nice.
1/5
Unpolished, aimless, and mostly unremarkable other than maybe (if I'm being generous) "Motor City is Burning." Ends on the 8-minute "Starship" which is a weird sort of almost performance art piece. That kind of track usually works well for me, but even it wasn't really compelling.
Hole
4/5
That guitar riff and "Oh, make me over / I'm all I wanna be / A walking study / In demonology / Heyyy" slaps really hard as an album opener. Great track.
I'm rating the album at a 4. It's not as good as Live Through This but it's pretty solid; Love is in great form and the album stays consistently enjoyable throughout its run. However, I didn't think there were any standout songs other than the title track. The lyrics are often quite good though, and it's got clear themes and something to say.
Nina Simone
3/5
It's a quality album and Simone's performances are great, but this is a style and vibe I know I'd rarely find myself in the mood for. I was caught off guard but delighted by the "My name is... PEACHES!" ending to "Four Women" though. Giving this 3 stars as a matter of personal taste but it deserves its spot among the 1,001 Albums.
Stevie Wonder
3/5
I didn't get a whole lot out of this one - most of it just didn't click with me, including the only song I recognized, "Higher Ground." But I did like "Living for the City," and it picks up a bit near the end with "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing" and "He's Misstra Know-It-All."
Deep Purple
3/5
Smoooooke on the water. Made in Japan is 10 minutes of material stretched out to fill an hour and 15. Everything's generously padded out with rock show gimmicks and tomfoolery, including a drum solo that could have its own intermission. If you accept the premise, though, Made in Japan is quite good at capturing the feel and energy of this kind of a live show. I enjoyed the album and I can see myself returning to it. The main thing that holds it back for me (and prevents me from rating it higher) is that, with the exception of "Smoke on the Water," the songs themselves were only okay.
N.W.A.
1/5
Not a genre I have any familiarity with. I see some of the appeal here but the lyrics are really tough, and that's driving the 1-star rating from me. I'll stay vigilant against dope man but I doubt I'll ever listen to this again.
Jane's Addiction
2/5
Cold turkey. Don’t really like Farrell’s vocals and the songs are okay at best. Also for some reason the steel drum on “Jane Says” is really distracting to me.
Elvis Presley
3/5
It's not amazing, but it is good fun. I don't think I've ever sat down and deliberately listened to Elvis before but I liked this album more than I expected.
Unfortunately every time I hear Elvis sing "Tutti frutti, aw rooty" my brain reframes it as "Aw, Rudy" and calls to mind the miserable decline of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani. That scene in Borat... Aw, Rudy. This is a "me problem" and I haven't let it impact my rating.
Beatles
3/5
It's a good album and I'm sure it was exceptional in 1966. I like "Taxman," "Eleanor Rigby," and "Got To Get You Into My Life." "Now my advice for those who die / Declare the pennies on your eyes" is a great line. Several songs on here I would skip, though.
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
"Won't you lay me down in the tall grass / And let me do my stuff?" Rumours is the first album I've had come up here where I already knew the album, and it's also the first album I'm rating a 5. It's densely packed with great songs and enduring hits - a real embarrassment of riches. Genre-wise it sits outside my wheelhouse, but the material completely overcomes that. "Second Hand News," "Dreams," "The Chain," and "Gold Dust Woman" are my favorites.
Elvis Costello
2/5
I don't have any prior familiarity with Costello. Gave this one a few listens and it was okay. Nothing incredible but I do think a few songs could grow on me.
Baaba Maal
3/5
I appreciate when albums outside the US/UK pop and rock scenes come up here. Djam Leelii sets a nice atmosphere for the most part. It does run longer than I'd like, with many individual tracks running 6+ minutes and noticeably overstaying. Plus the 4 tracks added in the 1998 reissue add more than 20 minutes to the overall album length.
Jack White
3/5
There's good stuff on this album but it just didn't resonate that much with me personally. Also, I think I'm not really a fan of White's vocals.
Common
3/5
"As high as the stakes get when paper get low..."
I liked this one significantly more than Like Water for Chocolate. Reasonable runtime (not bloated) and a nice sound, with nothing I strongly disliked. Interesting sounds on "Be (Intro)." I also liked "Testify." I might return to this one, maybe.
I believe there have been references to the film The Matrix in both of the Common albums that have come up here (here in "They Say"), which makes me think Common saw it and was obsessed. Maybe that was all of us for a time after 1999.
The Electric Prunes
3/5
It opens really strong with "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)," and if it had managed to stay on that course for its full half-hour runtime - sharp, quasi-spooky psychedelic rock - I think this could've been really good. But, no, it's a Frankenstein's monster stitched from 2 or 3 identities. And "The Toonerville Trolley" is the abnormal brain?
For a brief moment when I first saw this, the funny name and cover image made me think this might be some kind of fake band or parody album.
Missy Elliott
4/5
Good stuff here! Pretty sure it's the hip hop album I've enjoyed the most so far. That said, some minor grumbles: I'm not sure how I feel about Missy interrupting the album to do DVD commentary; it bugs me that she starts so many songs by introducing them as Missy Elliott exclusives; and I'm having a hard time with the line "Can I put my booty-booty up in your spaghetti?" And there's no way 2002 Missy could have known where we were headed, but the commentary in the opening monologue about how Donald Trump doesn't waste time with pointless beefs is quite unfortunate.
Dizzee Rascal
1/5
Cool to hear a genre I probably haven't encountered before, but I don't enjoy this sound and I don't think it's for me.
The Notorious B.I.G.
1/5
I recognize that it's good and also influential, but I just don't enjoy it.
Louis Prima
4/5
A whole lot to like on this one: the music is joyous and energetic; the lyrics are a lot of fun and are a great fit with Prima's distinct voice and style; the humor works; and Keely Smith sounds great as well. "You took advantage of my hospitality and ate all my ravioli, so I can't wait to celebrate at your funeral" is the song theme I didn't know I was missing, but we've all been there.
Ten minutes of extra tracks were added in the 2002 reissue - the highlight being the goofy "Banana Split for My Baby" - but even with those extras, I could stand to have this thing go a little longer.
Just a little short of being a 5 for me, but it's a great album.
The Who
2/5
Never realized "Pinball Wizard" was part of a rock opera but I regret learning the story. Before, I was like an impressed bystander in the arcade watching this mysterious pinball prodigy smoke the machine and wondering about his secret sauce. Can't wait to get home from the arcade and tell my wife about this guy. But later I find out it's not his supple wrist, it's actually a byproduct of his childhood abuse, and now going to the arcade isn't fun anymore.
Overall, Tommy is a disappointment. It starts off promising - early in the album there's the little "You didn't hear it / You didn't see it / You won't say nothing to no one / Never in your life" part in "1921" which I really like. But the story's a big bummer and the songs mostly aren't that great. The 10-minute instrumental "Underture" is alright and "Pinball Wizard" is a classic but nothing else stands out.
On the bright side, there's a "Tommy can you hear me? Can you feel me near you?" joke in the 1991 Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode "Pod People" and I didn't get that reference until today. Great episode.
Kraftwerk
5/5
Definitely not going to be for everyone - some people will be looking for the ausfahrt - but I really enjoyed this one. I'm fond of early electronic music but I'm only familiar with a little of it, so it's nice to be guided to this. I've also got fond memories of Autobahn travel, so it's a winning combo.
There's basically two parts here: the heart of the album is "Autobahn," a 22-minute tribute to the German highway system; then there's 4 other tracks. "Autobahn" is a wonderful listen; it's really successful at what it's trying to evoke. I like the way it moves through different "sound scenes" while continuously returning to its main theme.
Among the B-side tracks, the highlight is definitely "Kometenmelodie 2," a beautiful song that could end up being one of my favorite electronic instrumental pieces ever. To me it conveys a really optimistic, forward-looking mood. None of the others come near "Kometenmelodie 2." I don't think they're unpleasant overall, just not as memorable and at parts some of them dip into sounds that are slightly grating. "Mitternacht" evokes being shackled in a dungeon next to a leaky pipe. Regardless, if you add "Autobahn" and "Kometenmelodie 2" together you have over 28 minutes of excellence so I think I'm comfortable rating this a 5.
Eagles
2/5
Starts off quite well with "Take It Easy" and "Witchy Woman" but then it peters out into bland, mostly unmemorable country rock. A bird gets trapped in the album midway through? "Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy" is a pretty good line though.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
If you told me that comedian Bobcat Goldthwait also had a music career and then played "Streets of Fire," I very well might have bought it.
I did warm up to this album a little bit after a few plays.
REVISION: Well, I think I shorted this one in my initial rating; it kept growing on me. I'm editing my rating from a 3 to a 4.
The Strokes
3/5
Is This It gets an "it's fine" from me. Don't mind listening to it but there wasn't anything special that'd make me want to return to it. Recognized a couple of songs.
The Only Ones
3/5
Had difficulty focusing at work today. Mind kept going back to thinking about how deranged the cover of The Only Ones by The Only Ones is.
The Youngbloods
4/5
What take is this, Dennis?
I wasn't familiar with this group but I thought this was pretty good. Consistently enjoyable and has a nice variety in its songs, including some good instrumentals (like "On Sir Francis Drake"). It does some quirky things here and there (like the fifteen second track or the sound effects in "Don't Let the Rain Bring You Down") but nothing that feels like too much. I like "Quicksand."
Bob Dylan
4/5
"It's President Kennedy callin' me up / He said, My friend, Bob, what do we need to make the country grow? / I said my friend, John, Brigitte Bardot / Anita Ekberg / Sophia Loren / Country'll grow."
The songwriting on this one's worthy of the acclaim. Favorites were "Blowin' in the Wind," "Masters of War," "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall."
Lorde
4/5
"They'll hang us in the Louvre / Down the back, but who cares—still the Louvre." Not my favorite style, but it's a really well-made pop album. Also I really like the album cover.
Paul Simon
3/5
The trombones on this album sound a lot like the ridiculous trombone-based rhythm game Trombone Champ to me, especially on the first tracks, which kind of changed the tone of this for me. Couldn't stop picturing the Trombone Champ avatars tooting along. That aside, just a very strange album stylistically and I had a hard time deciding on a rating.
Gang Of Four
3/5
No prior familiarity with Gang of Four. I felt fairly ambivalent towards this one. I'm giving it a 3 but it's a weak 3. Between Entertainment! and MC5's Kick Out the Jams, I'm starting to think maybe the early era of punk/punk-adjacent music isn't my favorite.
Taylor Swift
5/5
I listened through three versions of 1989 today: the original 2014 version; the 2023 Taylor's Version; and Ryan Adams' whole-album 1989 cover from 2015.
I'm sure Swift will be remembered as the most significant recording artist of the current century, and she almost certainly deserves another slot or two in the 1,001 at next publication. I don't connect with everything she does - her last few albums have been misses for me, and she shouldn't agreed to do Cats - but overall I like her. 1989 is my second favorite Swift album overall (behind Reputation) and kicks off my favorite period of hers.
It's an outstanding, catchy pop album. "Shake It Off" is a banger. "Blank Space," "Style," "Out of the Woods," and "Wildest Dreams" all get lodged in my head from time to time. While I like the refreshed sound on Taylor's Version, I think I prefer the album without the bonus "vault" tracks at the end.
1989 by Ryan Adams: This whole-album cover of 1989 was also available; since I already knew 1989, I thought I'd work Adams' version into today's listening so I could hear something new. Glad I did - it's a really interesting reinterpretation of the album that changes up the mood and makes it into something somber and dejected. I especially like his take on "Out of the Woods." I think this will stay the rotation for a bit. Fun "I get that reference" thing: Wikipedia says, "When recording the album, Adams said he found a sound somewhere between Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978) and the Smiths' Meat Is Murder (1985)." I've been exposed to both those albums in the last 2 months through this site, so that feels like a neat little reward for doing this project. Feels like I am learning!
Dexys Midnight Runners
2/5
There are brief flashes of something pretty interesting here, but the album is delivered in a deranged way. About 5 songs into the album I pick up my phone and discover that actually I'm only partway through track 2. I bring the volume up to try to hear what they're chatting about, and then I get blasted when the music kicks up unexpectedly.
Nick Drake
4/5
Went into this one completely blind. I enjoyed it. It's got a smooth, gentle folk sound.
Leonard Cohen
3/5
I generally enjoy Cohen but I don't think I've listened to a whole album of his before (mostly it's been "best of" playlists). I didn't have a great time with this album today. "So Long, Marianne" is the only song here that I'm really enthusiastic about (a few others like "Suzanne" are alright). Seems to be a strong sameyness to a lot of the songs here.
Doves
3/5
As many have commented, the Coldplay vibes here are clear; on some of these tracks I could've been tricked into believing it was them. It's enjoyable but probably wouldn't outrank any actual 2000s Coldplay album for me.
Morrissey
4/5
I enjoyed You Are the Quarry. Multiple great tracks, including 3 in a row at the beginning of the album. I also like "The World Is Full of Crashing Bores" and "First of the Gang to Die." At times it's kind of darkly humorous ("It brought you the hamburger / Well, America, you know where / You can shove your hamburger") which is enhanced by Morrissey's vocal delivery. There's a weird time-displaced quality to the album too; it doesn't feel like an album from 2004.
The Slits
4/5
I don't understand what's happening here but I really like it.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
4/5
Not my favorite genre but it's well-made. Good as unobtrusive background music.
Iron Maiden
4/5
First off - zombie guy can get tossed for popping up and scaring me when I clicked to finish rating the Dave Brubeck Quartet.
I know the name Iron Maiden but couldn't name any songs. I generally enjoy metal so based on the name recognition I expected to like this album. It beat my expectations - really good metal album. Vocals are in line with what I like for the genre. I think the album cover image kind of clashes with the actual content. I didn't recognize any of the songs.
Paul Weller
3/5
Another album that feels displaced from a different decade. There were parts of this one that I enjoyed... "Can You Heal Us (Holy Man)," "Has My Fire Really Gone Out?," and probably a few others.
Cat Stevens
4/5
Generally enjoyed it and there are a couple top-tier songs (“Wild World” and “Father And Son”).
I also listened to his 2020 re-recording, Tea for the Tillerman 2. Mix of upgrades and downgrades there - its “Wild World” sucks.
The La's
3/5
The album's fine but not especially memorable for me. "There She Goes" is good but not great.
The Smashing Pumpkins
4/5
Iconic album. I grew up in the 90s with a lot of alternative rock radio, and the singles from this are really evocative of those years for me. Sometimes I forget how much mid-90s MTV I watched. I'm unsure if I've ever listened to the full album before now - I know I didn't own it but I think a sibling might have. I went in optimistic.
The singles hold up. But, the double album thing is genuinely frustrating. It's lucky this one came up on a Friday and I got a few days to get through it a few times. It starts with a bland, pointless instrumental - like it's giving me time to get to my seat and get settled ("Tonight, Tonight" even seems geared to work as an album opener so I don't know why it doesn't just start there). By the end of track 6 it's already hit most its truly great songs. Then the album just slogs on, and on, and on for little benefit. There are at most a couple tracks in the back hour and a half that rank better than okay (I like "1979"). So much of it sounds so similar. I think my tastes are becoming clearer to me, that I would much rather have a half-hour album that I can digest than a long journey with so much material that it still feels only vaguely familiar on a second or third listen.
I went in thinking this might be a 5-star album. Maybe there is one here - just one that's sharing disc space with a pair of 2- or 3-star albums. I'm going to give it a 4 on the strength of the best parts, but in the middle of the black night of disc two I did feel tempted to go lower.
Television
3/5
Looks like it was a groundbreaking album. It’s fine, but I couldn’t really get into it.
Frank Ocean
3/5
There are some things on here that I like and that might end up stuck in my head a little, including “Lost” and “Pyramids” (although I don’t know why that one runs nearly 10 minutes). Nothing amazing though.
Steve Earle
2/5
It's not the worst but it's not really my cup of beer. A couple of reviews here used the word "cornball" and I think that's pretty accurate. Sorry to say that I don't think the intervening years have been very kind to the good ol' boys.
Stephen Stills
2/5
It's a double, broken up into four sides with somewhat different vibes: The Raven; The Wilderness; Consider; and Rock & Roll Is Here to Stay. Thankfully it's not absurdly long for a double (I'm fresh off the trauma of the Smashing Pumpkins). It's never awful but genre-wise it's mostly not really my thing. I think I like the Consider songs the least, and The Raven and Rock & Roll Is Here To Stay songs the most.
Sam Cooke
5/5
Really enjoyed this and I think I'll give his other live album a listen too. This one captures a fun little window into a different time.
REVISION: I'm editing my rating on this one to change it from a 4 to a 5. Live At The Harlem Square Club is so good. I think it ended up being my favorite "new to me" album of all of 2024. It's infectious; two months later I still find myself randomly singing parts of it.
The Zombies
4/5
Really great psych/pop/rock album that gives me the feelings I wish I got from the Beatles. Kept wondering during my first listen whether I’d hit a song I recognized, then “Time of the Season” hit right at the end. I like “Care of Cell 44,” “This Will Be Our Year,” and “Friends of Mine” too.
Bruce Springsteen
2/5
I rated Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town a 3 but later came to feel that I'd shorted it, so when Springsteen came up again I thought I'd have a chance to make it up to him. Nope. I really disliked Nebraska. It's just sort of miserable.
Morrissey
2/5
I didn't enjoy this one nearly as much as I enjoyed his You Are the Quarry from 10 years later.
Robert Wyatt
3/5
It's deeply weird - strange droning music, backwards singing, imitations of trumpet noises, even at one point what sounds to me like some kind of Dracula impersonation - but feels less "fun" than other weird albums I've enjoyed. Still, by the second listen I began to warm up to it somewhat. Worthwhile if you like experimental stuff.
Alice In Chains
2/5
Not my favorite vocals and a lot of the songs feel very samey to me. I like "Rooster" but I think overall this album's on the lower end of 90s grunge for me.
Herbie Hancock
3/5
An instrumental jazz/funk album with just 4 tracks. I enjoyed it but I wasn't overly enthusiastic about it. Sometimes it gets to be a little much (but only sometimes).
Astrud Gilberto
3/5
Pleasant and short bossa nova album. I was a little disappointed that the majority of the album is English language; I would have enjoyed more Portuguese but I think it was only "Canoeiro" plus parts of the dialog in the background on "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice." I feel guilty admitting it, but I do like the goofy parade song. I don't really enjoy watching parades but I think I like the idea of watching a parade.
Derek & The Dominos
2/5
Aside from "Layla" and some nice guitar bits scattered through, I found this to be a generic and mostly unmemorable classic rock album. In one ear, out the other. It also suffers from being way too long. "Layla" is a great track but not quite top tier.
Keith Jarrett
3/5
Extended live piano improvisation (accompanied by occasional grunting) done on an empty stomach and a suboptimal piano. My takeaway from this album is that solo piano probably isn't my preferred instrument for jazz improv.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
I enjoyed this one. It's the third Springsteen album to come up for me here and although I didn't enjoy Nebraska, I think I've otherwise come around to a moderate appreciation for Springsteen. My favorite track here was the title track.
The Offspring
4/5
You gotta keep 'em separated. This is a fun, angry pop-punk album with a couple great radio hits. Pretty solid throughout, except for those unfortunate cringe-inducing spoken bits.
PJ Harvey
4/5
"What is the glorious fruit of our land? / Its fruit is deformed children." Found this one interesting. It's an anti-war folk rock album (kind of brought to mind The Decemberists' "Sixteen Military Wives" for me, though tonally it's quite different). I don't think I've been exposed to PJ Harvey before but I'm probably interested in exploring more.
Paul McCartney
3/5
Credit to "Maybe I'm Amazed" but otherwise I agree with the criticisms saying this feels rough and half-unfinished.
Spiritualized
3/5
d r i f t i n g o u t i n t o s p a c e g o o d b y e
Executes quite well on what it sets out to do, at least.
Michael Jackson
5/5
I think the fact that Jackson has been deceased for quite a while now makes it easier to separate the art from the artist and appreciate his music. Bad came out when I was very young and it stands out to me as an iconic, decade-defining album from its time. Incredible singles here - including "Bad," "Man in the Mirror," and "Smooth Criminal."
The Police
3/5
Not bad overall. "Mother" and Every Breath You Take" (and maybe also the dinosaur song?) feel kind of incongruous with the rest of the album, for different reasons, although I like those tracks.
CHIC
3/5
I like the general vibe and sound of this album, but the tracks suffer from feeling overly repetitive and overly long. It's noticeable right away on "Chic Cheer," which plays like a 4-minute introduction to a song that never actually arrives. I'd still say it seems like a worthy inclusion to the 1,001 list, as a good representative of the disco genre.
Stevie Wonder
3/5
Mostly I think this is a well-executed album in a genre I don't get very much mileage from - however, "They Won't Go When I Go" is really fascinating and is going to stick with me. It's a stylistic departure for Wonder, dark and funereal, dissimilar from the other songs on this album. (YouTube has Wonder's performance of it from Michael Jackson's memorial service.)
Guided By Voices
3/5
Lo-fi rock with that uses a lot of short songs, some of which are like micro-tracks. Took me a few plays to warm up to this one but the sound is nice and there are some good hooks scattered throughout.
Led Zeppelin
3/5
Do I need to have seen the first Led Zeppelin to understand the plot of this one?
Talking Heads
2/5
Listened through this one twice and didn't really click with most of it. "Animals" maybe.
Moby
3/5
A few tracks stand out, like "Honey" and "South Side," but overall it's not my favorite electronica. Evidently this was licensed a lot but nothing sounds familiar to me, so there's no nostalgia to help sell me on it. Overly long too.
Aerosmith
3/5
I don't know any of these songs. Album was alright, but in keeping with the spirit of the age, I feel it should be removed from the 1,001 list and replaced with The Electric Mayhem by Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.
R.E.M.
4/5
90s alternative rock with a distinctive sound and a soft, gentle kind of outlook. Not all of the songs wowed me but some of the ones that land ("Drive," "Everybody Hurts," "Man on the Moon") are quite great. The music video for "Everybody Hurts" was seared into my developing brain. I found myself singing along to "Man on the Moon." A little annoyed by the balance of sound on "Ignoreland" - couldn't seem to make out the lyrics over the music.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4/5
First off - brilliant album cover.
This is a very solid, ear-wormy synth-pop-rock album. I do prefer the rowdy art punk style of Fever to Tell but this'll still be entering the rotation for me too. It is a little front-loaded, losing some steam after the first few songs (except the excellent "Runaway" deeper in the album at track 7, currently stuck in my head alongside "Zero"). Karen O does a great job with the vocals and I'm currently trying to decide if I need to begin clearing mental space for a pedestal to put her on.
Charles Mingus
3/5
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is an experimental jazz composition from the 60s. Interesting uses of the instruments here - for example, sometimes the brass sounds like it's trying to imitate speech or vocals. I didn't get a whole lot of mileage out of it, but it's clearly quite good.
Tangerine Dream
4/5
1,001 Albums, you can feel free to keep the 1970s electronica coming. I wasn't aware of Tangerine Dream, so this furthers my education on the genre. I liked Phaedra. Noticed it shares a similar structure to another 1974 electronica album that's come up for me here, Kraftwerk's Autobahn - with a long title track occupying the full Side A, and then a handful of shorter pieces coming together for Side B.
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
4/5
It's a (mostly) instrumental album that's a little odd/experimental but quite great. Really listenable and it feels like there's a nice variety from song to song. I landed on a 4-star rating but it's a high 4.
Slipknot
1/5
I gave All Hope Is Gone a 2 and this one is worse. Mr. Dimery, please, one of these albums is enough.
Van Halen
3/5
I enjoyed this one less than I expected (based on the name recognition). Might be partly because the technical proficiency with the guitar mostly goes over my head. Favorite track was "You Really Got Me" but that's just a cover so it only awards partial credit. "Eruption" is fun. "Runnin' with the Devil" is alright.
Ray Charles
3/5
no letter today :( i have waited since dawn
It's good stuff but genre-wise it's outside my wheelhouse. It'd help if I knew more of the songs it was reinventing... when it's covering ones I do know, like "Bye Bye Love" and "You Are My Sunshine," it's a pretty good time.
Marianne Faithfull
4/5
Never heard of her, but this is a memorable and interesting work. Although I don't *think* I like Faithfull's "wrecked" voice, it's really suited to the tone of the album. Her "Working Class Hero" cover works really well. "Broken English," "Guilt," "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan" - all good tracks. Then there's "Why D'Ya Do It" which is in a kind of must-hear category of its own. Glad Broken English is on this list as I'd never have encountered it otherwise.
The Beau Brummels
3/5
Sunny 60s psychedelic folk rock. Most it strikes me as just okay, but there are a few highlights. "The Keeper of Time" has fun bursts of jangly folk energy, and "The Wolf of Velvet Fortune" has a nice fantasy-rock sound. I'll give it "Are You Happy?" and "Old Kentucky Home" too. "Nine Pound Hammer" is nice but I find that hammer ping sound mildly annoying; at least it stops for most the song and only returns briefly.
Eminem
3/5
Gross and uncomfortable lyrics and subject matter (1 star), but outside that everything else is quite good (4-5 stars). Kind of a familiar refrain for me with these hardcore hip hop albums, but I like this one more than any of the others I've encountered here. Decided to split the difference on it and land in the middle on 3 stars. But worst skits of any album so far, I think.
Elton John
2/5
Hold me closer, Tony Danza.
I'm not really a big Elton listener but I've always liked his radio hits well enough. Unfortunately, here that's only "Tiny Dancer" (possibly "Levon" too, but I didn't recognize it). He gets "Tiny Dancer" out of the way immediately, and then to my ears the rest of the album largely just smears into unmemorable Elton-textured soup. "Indian Sunset" is a big "we don't do this anymore" kind of song. And the album cover is pretty bad too.
Black Sabbath
5/5
About 100 albums in now and a handful of metal albums have come up - stuff from Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, and a few others - but Paranoid is the clear frontrunner. This album rules. It kind of nails exactly what I want out of the genre, lyrically and... uh... guitarically. Never heard "War Pigs" before but it's perfect.
Aerosmith
2/5
Aerosmith's next album after this one, Rocks, has come up for me here already and I gave that one 3 stars. I think having a second Aerosmith album from the same time period come up in close proximity here has given me some Aerosmith fatigue, or maybe I rated Rocks too highly to begin with. I'm dropping to a 2 for Toys in the Attic. Unlike Rocks, I do recognize a couple of these songs ("Walk This Way" and "Sweet Emotion," of course) and they are alright, but the rest was uninteresting and unmemorable 70s rock. Should also assign some blame to "Big Ten Inch Record" (which I'm surprised to learn is a cover).
Various Artists
3/5
I generally enjoy having Christmas music around for December, and Christmas music of all stripes - sacred, secular, traditional, classic, modern, weird, reverent, irreverent, whatever. I liked A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector by Various Artists well enough. Plenty of well-known songs from the general Christmas radio rotation. These mostly aren't my personal favorite recordings of these songs - "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" was done better by The Jackson 5, I like Autry's original "Here Comes Santa Claus" best, and so on - but there's something to be said for having an album with a bunch of classics handled in a fairly consistent style. Makes for a nice listening experience. Wish it didn't have the outro narration by Phil though.
B.B. King
4/5
These 60s live blues/soul/R&B performances are working for me. Overall this one's a really good and enjoyable performance, and some of the audience responses are pretty funny.
Radiohead
4/5
I can understand how someone might not enjoy Radiohead or not enjoy this album in particular, but I think it's pretty strong. Runs just a touch too long, maybe.
Beatles
4/5
Once again, back to the Beatles. There is some incredible work on this album but also baffling choices that make me feel like I'm losing my grip on reality. This is a 5-star album living in a duplex home with a 2-star album - a common curse of these double albums. It's insane to me that the Beatles chose to place one of the most beautiful and poetic songs of the decade ("Blackbird") here next to "oink oink piggies." Then I guess we should thank this album for - as improbable as it sounds - inspiring the Marvel character Rocket Raccoon. The low point of the White Album is probably "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?"
I think sides 1 and 2 are pretty solid overall, with only a couple of real clunkers (the offenders mentioned above). I even like "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da." The quality seems to dip on the other disc though, with a lot more songs on sides 3 and 4 that I marked as neutral or "thumbs down." I do like "Birthday" and "Revolution 1." I don't dislike the experimental "Revolution 9" near the end - it's a cool and enjoyable experimental piece - but it feels incongruous with the rest of the White Album.
Funkadelic
2/5
Starts off sounding promising with the strange spoken word bit at the beginning, followed by that great long instrumental opener. But I wasn’t into much of the album after that first 10 minutes. The final track sounds like they’d just bought a sound effects pack and had to try all the clips out.
Pavement
3/5
Lo-fi 90s indie slacker rock with a rough, unpolished sound. Not immediately to my tastes, and it grew on me a little but not by a lot. I knew the song "Here" from a cover by Soccer Mommy, and that was (consequently) my favorite track off the album.
Emmylou Harris
2/5
Good performance, but the style mostly doesn't interest me. Sometimes I feel guilty for complaining about length but I'm still going to do it here: every song on Red Dirt Girl feels too long. Until you get to the last 2 tracks, everything runs 4 or 5 minutes. As a consequence, the album runs nearly an hour. Sigh.
Curtis Mayfield
2/5
The funk - good sounding music. Mayfield's falsetto vocals though - think they're a "no" from me. Not the worst album but I don't think I'm likely to ever want to return to it.
Metallica
4/5
I have a hazy recollection that Metallica did something disagreeable back in the wild west days of online music but I've forgotten the details of what they did wrong. Something like an overly aggressive response to music piracy? I'm choosing not to look it up. But for a long time I've had it in my head that Metallica is kind of a heel band, and I've been disinclined to seek them out.
That said - this album's pretty good, pretty consistently over its 65-minute runtime. "One" is the standout track and sits a tier above any of the other songs on the album; I was singing or humming it most the rest of the day. The rest of the album's a little less memorable but still very enjoyable.
I'm rating this one at 4 stars but it's a high 4, and I think it's pretty possible there's another Metallica album out there that could get a 5 from me (peeking at the 1991 album's track list - maybe that one?). Even if Lars Ulrich unleashed the dogs on Winamp or something.
Lou Reed
2/5
"Men of good fortune / Often cause empires to fall / While men of poor beginning / Often can't do anything at all."
It's a concept album with a miserable bummer of a concept. I kind of like "Men of Good Fortune," quoted above, and several other songs at least have pieces I like. I almost rated this at a 1 because the subject matter sucks so bad, especially near the end, but listening back through it one last time I found more parts to like than I'd remembered.
Goldfrapp
4/5
Wow, really enjoyed this one and I'll probably dig through more of Goldfrapp's discography now that I know they exist. This one is chill 60's lounge music filtered gently through an eerie sci-fi lens. The soundscape feels very inventive and unique. Fascist designer babies and beautiful severed Frankenstein heads never sounded so refined.
I especially enjoy the album's technique of using the Korg MS-20 synthesizer on the vocals; the result sounds similar to - but also distinct from - the theremin. I sometimes joke that there are two genres of theremin music: spooky and sci-fi. Felt Mountain is actually kind of a nice synthesis of those two moods.
Buena Vista Social Club
3/5
It's well-made and the history behind it is cool, but it's a style that doesn't seem to give me a whole lot of mileage. Fine in the background.
The Cure
3/5
Moody goth rock. It's pretty good if that's what you're looking for. It could be plundered for a subdued Halloween season playlist.
Franz Ferdinand
3/5
Ages passably. I like “Jacqueline” and “Take Me Out.” Neutral on a lot of the rest of it.
Orbital
2/5
I have been introduced to some excellent electronic music through this list, albums like Autobahn that I'm sure I'll enjoy for years to come... and then I have also been introduced to Orbital. If there was a media player embedded in the Wikipedia article for techno music, there to play you a generic royalty-free example of the genre, it'd probably sound a lot like something off Orbital 2. There are some tracks here that are a little better (like "Remind") but they're still not great. Lots of bloated 7+ minute runtimes on tracks that could barely justify 3. I don't mind the Michael Dorn dialog loop part too much but I bet it's very unpopular in my listening group.
I was caught off-guard at the end by "Halcyon + On + On," a song I remember from the soundtrack to the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie. I was 10 in 1995 and we didn't own a whole lot of music then, but somehow that CD made it in (not a choice I would make today). I am kind of fond of "Halcyon," just maybe not for 9 minutes; it's got good "ending the movie" vibes. Apparently the track name "Halcyon + On + On" is a reference to the "Ariston and on and on" advertising slogan for Ariston washing machines; somehow this song isn't even my favorite piece of electronica related to Ariston washers.
Moby Grape
3/5
60s psych rock. Nothing wrong with it but I didn't find it all that remarkable either. Had to piece it together on YouTube because Spotify only had part of the album.
Peter Gabriel
4/5
I found it quirky and interesting. Possibly a little ahead of its time? I like "Moribund the Burgermeister" and "Modern Love."
4/5
I really like "With a Little Help from My Friends" and "When I'm Sixty-Four," and sort of like several others (including "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "Getting Better").
Willie Nelson
3/5
Genre-wise this is mostly not my thing, but I liked it well enough. I am not very familiar with Willie, but his talents are on pretty good display here and I think it's raised my opinion of him.
Fela Kuti
4/5
Good inclusion - I enjoyed the music, there's an interesting history around it, it's an underrepresented genre, and I wouldn't have encountered it outside this list.
Beastie Boys
4/5
you arrive late to the party. i spot you moving toward the food table and i move closer. as you reach for the ladle i make eye contact and subtly signal "no." later i will explain what happened before you arrived, but for now you trust me - you do not take any mashed potatoes
Kanye West
1/5
In a vacuum I'd probably rate this one as a 3 - that's where I put Common's Kanye-produced album Be, which to me feels like a spiritual cousin to this album - but I'm choosing to apply an artist turd penalty here. West is a still living, still active artist who sucks a whole lot and who played a nasty role in American politics for a season.
Not sure where I'd draw the line on this - I didn't let the fact that Phil Spector murdered someone weigh down my rating of his Christmas album - but I think Kanye's over it. (Don't know if he's on the list, but I'd probably also punt Marilyn Manson?)
Pink Floyd
3/5
It's alright. Didn't mind listening and there are some good parts buried in the long runtime, but I didn't find myself especially drawn in.
Blur
2/5
Found it mostly uninteresting. "Song 2" is iconic but I'm not sure I'm really that jazzed about it as a thing to listen to on its own, outside the context of a high-energy TV commercial for cars or basketball.
Dexys Midnight Runners
2/5
Album cover pops up. "Oh boy, these guys again." A couple months ago I rated DMR's Don't Stand Me Down as a 2, but parts of it have stuck with me ("they all sounded the saaaame"); I remember it as being weird and obnoxious but with flashes of greatness. Searching for the Young Soul Rebels avoids doing the really annoying stuff - like blasting you with music after quiet bits of talking - but unfortunately the flashes of greatness are gone too. I liked Don't Stand Me Down better.
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
Mostly outside my wheelhouse but I do think it's quite good. I'm going to round up to a 4. One or two of the songs on here feel slightly familiar but I'm not sure I've actually heard them before.
"I been Phil Spectored, resurrected" maybe evokes something slightly different now than it did back in 1965. I do like the jangly, rambling "A Simple Desultory Philippic;" apparently it's a parody of Dylan's style and, now that I read that, I feel it.
The album ends on "7 O'Clock News / Silent Night," juxtaposing a bleak nightly news report with a Christmas Carol about peace. I think this one's effective, especially hearing it filtered through the lens of the current moment's non-stop parade of news nightmares (it's late January 2025).
Sugar
2/5
Bland and unremarkable '90s rock.
Queen
4/5
It's pretty good; "Brighton Rock" (guitars!) and "Killer Queen" are the standouts. I suspect there's probably another Queen album out there that I'll like more than this one.
Led Zeppelin
3/5
Music’s great but the bloat on this double album makes me waver on my rating. Like, I really like the song Kashmir but it’s too repetitive to run for 8+ minutes.
The Byrds
3/5
I didn't find myself that interested in it, but for 60s psych/folk rock it's really probably pretty good and well-written. I feel kinda bad that they (presumably) never got to meet aliens. Reading about this album did lead me to find out that there's a 1994 Kermit the Frog album called Kermit Unpigged (Mr. the Frog covered "Mr. Spaceman"), so that's worth something.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
Back to Springsteen again. I had high expectations going into this one, since I've been warming to Springsteen through this list and Born in the U.S.A. seemed like it might be "the big one." I wasn't totally blown away but overall I did enjoy it.
I decided I'm not a fan of the title track "Born in the U.S.A." While the themes - like disillusionment at a crumbling America - are really well-executed, I find the song itself a bit repetitive, flat, and kind of musically uninteresting.
"Darlington County" feels like I'm stuck in the car with Bruce while he rolls up on women to catcall them. I'll pass.
"Downbound Train" is really good; definitely the standout from the album.
Took me a minute to figure out why "I'm on Fire" sounded familiar - there's a Soccer Mommy cover of that one. Second time that's been the answer to a "where do I know this?" headscratcher (first time was "Here" from Pavement's Slanted and Enchanted). I might've overlooked this track if the cover hadn't already softened me up, but it's a good song. (She picks good covers.)
"Dancing in the Dark" is pretty solid too. Then there are plenty of alright tracks to round the album out - "Working on the Highway" with its manic goofy chorus, "No Surrender," "I'm Goin' Down," "Glory Days," and "My Hometown." Giving this one a 4 overall.
I think there's some kind of pro-Springsteen conspiracy in the algorithm; in 129 albums we've already managed to hit 4 of the 5 Springsteen albums on the list. (David Bowie has 9 in the list and we've yet to hit even 1 of them.)
5/5
From the reviews here it seems like a lot of people get physically ill at the thought of Oasis but I don't get it. I was around 10 when this came out, an age when I watched a fair amount of MTV and listened to a fair amount of alternative radio so there's definitely a halo of nostalgia at play here, but to me Morning Glory is an excellent album that's aged really well. Back in the 90s I would've only known the singles - mainly "Wonderwall," "Don't Look Back in Anger," and "Champagne Supernova" - but a couple years ago I listened to the full thing. It's a 5-star album for me, easy, and "Wonderwall" and "Don't Look Back in Anger" are both 5-and-a-half star tracks.
It's got some other bangers outside the singles too. I like "She's Electric," even if the lyrics are admittedly a little goofy or lazy. "Some Might Say" is solid. And even on the lesser tracks on the album, I'm always feeling the music. It's just good clean work with brilliant hooks. I've realized that "sing-a-long-ability" is an important trait for me - the more fun something is to sing (even later when the music's no longer playing), the better a song's chances are of hitting the upper tiers of my personal ratings; Morning Glory scores really well on that metric.
Anyway, here's "Wonderwall."
Pearl Jam
3/5
Mostly I remember Pearl Jam as a plot point from episode 12 of season 3 of the children's sitcom Clarissa Explains It All ("Marshall's Parents Visit"), when Clarissa landed backstage passes to see Pearl Jam on the same night she was obligated to DJ her grandparents' anniversary party. Pearl Jam isn't really heard or seen in the episode, but each time they're mentioned there's a brief Pearl Jam-like musical stinger. When I saw this episode as a kid I didn't know what Pearl Jam sounded like and my brain made something up. Got that sorted out now. Actually I recognized a decent amount of Ten, just hadn't known who it was - "Even Flow," "Alive," "Black," and "Jeremy," all familiar. Not my favorite but it's definitely higher-tier 90s grunge.
Fatboy Slim
2/5
"Right Here, Right Now," "The Rockafeller Skank," and "Praise You" all have some good stuff going on but overall the album is kind of obnoxious. It dethrones Orbital 2 by Orbital as my least favorite techno album on the list.
Machito
3/5
Instrumental Afro-Cuban jazz. Another one of these albums where it’s high quality but the style doesn’t appeal to me all that much.
Kings of Leon
3/5
Looks like 3 Kings of Leon albums have come and gone off the 1,001 list. I'm guessing this is the one I'll recognize the most material from, but I didn't get much mileage out of it. Doesn't bode well for the others. Even the radio hits here are just kind of okay.
The Beta Band
3/5
Interesting sound; electronic rock with sort of soft vibes that maybe feels... distant? It's okay but not incredible. Couple crackin' bits of weird lyrics though... "Sell to them the killing gem, attack to get it back." Or, "Or because the power ranger robots in disguise / Have called a war to you honey?"
OutKast
4/5
Really good. I think The Love Below has the top individual songs (“Roses,” “Hey Ya!”) but Speakerboxxx is more consistently enjoyable for me. Distill these two down into a single album with their best ~50 minutes and it’d be 5 stars.
The Band
3/5
Some tracks on here I kind of like - “The Weight” and “Long Black Veil.” “The Weight” sounds quasi-familiar but it might just be me thinking of something else that sounds similar. Great album cover - love that guy being held by his feet as he reaches over the top of the piano to play.
4/5
I liked this one and I felt like I’d heard parts of it before. Good pair of openers in “Take a Bow” and “Starlight.” There was a comment elsewhere here about Coldplay inheriting the quiet end of Radiohead and Muse inheriting the loud end and I can definitely see that.
Baaba Maal
3/5
I think I enjoyed this one a little more than Djam Leelii (though that one was more than a hundred albums ago and I didn't go back to relisten to confirm).
Lana Del Rey
3/5
Lana Del Ehhhh. I don't dislike this enough to drop it down to a 2 but I was disappointed. I don't really enjoy the whispery, ethereal style she's using here; she sings like a ghost that hasn't realized it's dead yet. Downatthemeninmusicbusinessconference...
Arcade Fire
4/5
An album about looking back on suburban childhood from a disillusioned adult vantage point. I like Arcade Fire quite a bit, but out of the albums of theirs that I know The Suburbs is the one I've listened to the least. It's nearly 15 years old but I only listened to it for the first time only about 6 months ago. It has a few songs I really like and nothing I really dislike.
The opening track "The Suburbs" is superlative Arcade Fire, the band operating at its very best. If the whole album ran at this level it'd be an all-timer. This one evokes a strong emotional response for me but it's difficult to pin down. There's a kind of brokenness here... looking back at the expectations you used to have about the future, recognizing how off you were. It lands especially well this year as the wheels feel like they're beginning to come off American society. My favorite bit: "And all of the walls that they built in the seventies finally fall / And all of the houses they built in the seventies finally fall / Meant nothing at all / Meant nothing at all, it meant nothing."
After that "Ready to Start" returns to a kind of baseline quality; it's fine. "Modern Man" is a pretty good one though; mostly kind of slower and more relaxed, but with some nice small builds. I can't decide how I feel about "Rococo" - is it too silly to fit tonally in the album, and does the seriousness of the delivery only make that worse? My favorite bit of it is... uh... "Rococo, rococo, rococo, rococo / Rococo, rococo, rococo, rococo." "City with No Children" is pretty strong. "You never trust a millionaire / Quoting the sermon on the mount / I used to think I was not like them / But I'm beginning to have my doubts." Then some tracks I like in the back half are "Month of May," Deep Blue," "We Used to Wait," and "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)." It wraps with "The Suburbs (Continued)," which sounds a bit like surveying the aftermath of a war.
Right now I feel like the overall album here comes just shy of hitting 5 stars for me (I don't give out a ton of those) but it's definitely on the higher end of the 4s. It may just need a little nostalgic aging to nudge it up.
Björk
3/5
Weird and very innovative for 1993. I wanted to like it more than I did. My heart remains open to future Björk. Special shoutout to "There's More to Life Than This (Recorded Live at the Milk Bar Toilets)" for its unusual approach (being recorded live from the Milk Bar toilets).
Marty Robbins
4/5
This one's cut from a different cloth. It's not actually the oldest album to come up for our group but it definitely *feels* the oldest. Maybe a little bit one-note, but it's a pretty good note.
k.d. lang
2/5
I wasn't familiar with k.d. lang. She seems to be a talented vocalist, but I found the slate of songs on this album to be really dull.
Dirty Projectors
3/5
Unusual, original sound. I think that the more I listened, the less interested I became. I don't particularly like David Longstreth's vocals here. I do really like the album cover though; it's simple but I find it striking. I'm not sure I could have guessed how they were going to pronounce the words "Temecula Sunrise" in 20 guesses.
Santana
3/5
Really good guitar work but that didn't end up being enough to get me really into this. "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen" and "Oye Cómo Va" are the highlights. I think I might I know "Oye Cómo Va" from something silly - maybe the Dexter soundtrack?
Michael Jackson
5/5
In the middle of this album there's the 3-track run of "Thriller," "Beat It," and "Billie Jean," which is just an incredibly strong sequence. All iconic pieces of 80s pop music. Aside from those greats I also like "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)." The other 5 tracks on Thriller, I didn't seem to recognize.
The song "Thriller" is its own beast - basically doomed to stick out out like a sore, rotting thumb on anything short of a full Halloween album. It's so iconic and well-known I think it's easy to overlook how very good it is, and it has one of the all-time great music videos as well. Every Halloween our neighbor across the street sets up his turntables in his driveway and DJs a dance party for the hundreds of trick-or-treaters we get on our street; "Thriller" is basically the cornerstone of that setlist. The Vincent Price dialog helps seal it as best-in-class; there simply isn't another voice that could compete with that delivery. Is it my favorite spooky pop song? No, but it's very good and I bet most people would struggle to name anything else after it and the Ghostbusters theme.
King Crimson
2/5
Meandering, partly instrumental prog rock. I wasn't into it.
Minutemen
2/5
There's a lot of it and I mostly wasn't able to get into it.
LTJ Bukem
1/5
ended up writing out a checklist of all the tracks from this album to mark off as I hunted down the individual songs across platforms, to make sure I heard everything. not worth the effort... just really uninteresting stuff. I've rated 180 albums so far and I really think this is probably in 180th place. it seems like the list generally avoids compilation albums and I don't understand why this got an exception to that rule; it's totally undeserving
Miles Davis
3/5
It's good work. I'm just continuing to find that I oftentimes don't respond very enthusiastically to jazz.
Radiohead
3/5
Yeah, that’s Radiohead alright. Think I liked this one a little less than the others I’ve heard.
Nanci Griffith
4/5
Kind of liked it; Nanci's vocals are perfect for country folk and I'd say it's one of the better country albums to come up so far from the 80s/90s time period. "Love at the Five & Dime" is the highlight.
Lupe Fiasco
4/5
Never heard of Lupe Fiasco before, but I found this to be one of the more enjoyable hip-hop albums to come up here. More albums should have the confidence to end with 12 minutes of credits.
Bob Dylan
4/5
It's a pretty good sign when I'm already starting to sing along with a song partway through my first time listening to it ("Tombstone Blues").
The Stooges
2/5
I didn’t really care for it. The more lurid parts felt kind of like parody?
The Cure
4/5
Great sound. I enjoyed this one more than Seventeen Seconds. Disintegration's songs are maybe kind of same-y but that didn't bother me so much here. With more time I think my rating on this one might go up. I recognized "Lovesong."
Ozomatli
4/5
Latin hip-hop fusion kind of thing from the mid-2000s. Even though the writing's maybe not the strongest I found this to be a fairly enjoyable time, especially when it's rapping, but it also makes sense to me that this one didn't survive to later editions of the 1,001 book.
The Jam
3/5
Late 70s British new wave punk. Decent, but not especially my cup of tea.
Aretha Franklin
4/5
Really good classic R&B. If this genre was a little bit more in my personal wheelhouse it might be a 5, but it's very good and there are some landmarks on it like "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" and "Chain of Fools."
Soundgarden
3/5
"Black Hole Sun" is an all-timer and seeing it on the tracklist raised my expectations, but the rest of the album largely didn't capture my attention. There are some other okay tracks (like "Fell On Black Days," maybe "Spoonman"). I don't especially like the vocals, which is more of an issue at this dosage (an overlong hour and ten minutes).
The Mandela effect is telling me this band's name was originally Soundgarten.
Jethro Tull
3/5
Ehh-thro Tull. (I don't have a problem with the flute though.)
Syd Barrett
2/5
Mostly uninteresting late 60s psych rock. I think this one's mainly going to be of interest to people who are invested in the history of that era, who care about these personalities. So, not for me.
Q-Tip
3/5
"But what good is a ear if a Q-Tip isn't in it?" Wouldn't go that far, but this album is alright. And he fits in not only Luke Cage, but also Doctor Strange.
Sepultura
3/5
Would like to have been able to see the band's faces when someone showed them this Michael Whelan cover art for the first time. I bet they were grinning all afternoon. The album is okay as far as death metal goes.
Leonard Cohen
5/5
More or less a spoken word poetry album. Cohen died 17 days after its release, and media coverage of his death is what had prompted me to first start listening to him (more through compilations and playlists than individual albums - I know I heard the title track off this album back then but I'm not sure about the rest). This is a very good (but bleak) album, and the context around its recording gives it an extra weight that gets it into 5-star territory for me.
Booker T. & The MG's
3/5
Instrumental R&B. Didn't know what to expect when I started this album but it hits you with a very recognizable track straight out of the gate. Don't see myself reaching for this one often, but it does make a pretty pleasant background for working.
Dead Kennedys
4/5
It's early April 2025 - the global economy is being melted for no real purpose. Tracks like "Kill the Poor" land a little different. Or maybe they don't.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Third Led Zeppelin album to come up for me here and it’s the best so far. Some all-timers on here (including “Stairway to Heaven”).
Jamiroquai
4/5
I enjoy the Jamiroquai songs I know, but I hadn't heard any of their albums in full and I didn't recognize anything off Emergency On Planet Earth. I found it a little disappointing at first but it did grow on me somewhat. I'm skeptical that this is the best selection to be the one Jamiroquai album recognized on the list... again, I haven't heard it, but surely we'd be better served with Travelling Without Moving ("Virtual Insanity")?
The Temptations
3/5
I was kind of disappointed by this album's recording of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine."
Rush
3/5
"Weird to throw a bit of 1812 Overture in there..." *looks at album title again* "Ohhh."
Went into this one with no idea what to expect. I think I liked parts of it but it's kind of uneven. Side A's sci-fi plotline is a little trite - a guy from a society where creativity is outlawed finds a guitar in a cave and rediscovers music - but it at least adds a little off-kilter flavor and the music is generally enjoyable. After that 7-part, 20-minute opener there's the weed tourism anthem "A Passage To Bangkok"- dumb. "The Twilight Zone" gets it back on track but then "Lessons" and "Tears" are forgettable.
The Stooges
4/5
The kind of album Animal from the Muppets might make. Some of the other proto-punk on the list hasn't quite appealed to me, but I liked this one. I was on the fence between a 3-star rating or a 4, but I think the deranged saxophone carries it over the line. Favorite track: "T.V. Eye."
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
2/5
I found myself enjoying the sound of this album but some parts I thought were in kind of weird taste (like the talk of a "final solution" in "Chemistry Class" or, well, "Two Little Hitlers"). The slurs suck too (definitely jarred on my first listen of "Oliver's Army").
Bad Company
3/5
Didn't really speak to me but in fairness I think it's well-made and sounds reasonably good - I've had better company but I've also had much worse.
The White Stripes
3/5
Can't quite put my finger on why but I just don't care for Jack White all that much. This album's alright but I didn't find it particularly engaging ("Seven Nation Army" excepted).
The Velvet Underground
4/5
Went into this one completely blind and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Relaxed, soft, charming. Lots of great material - "Candy Says," "Pale Blue Eyes," the long experimental "The Murder Mysteries," and more. More time with this one might bump it up higher for me. Surprised to see this is Lou Reed, since I disliked Berlin.
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
3/5
I don't think I'm that into blues rock, but this seems like a solid album for those who are.
Fleet Foxes
4/5
Sparse, crisp folk rock with an emphasis on vocals. Good sound - just generally a pretty good time.
Thin Lizzy
4/5
I said the boys are back in town.
The Velvet Underground
3/5
Got 2 of the list's 3 Velvet Underground albums in the same week... I quite enjoyed The Velvet Underground (their 1969 album) so I was optimistic going into this one. I enjoyed parts of it, but I wasn't as enamored as I was with the 1969 album. Top track is probably "Heroin," which has the interesting approach of sort of musically emulating heroin usage.
Marvin Gaye
3/5
The threat the children are facing in "Save the Children" is too nebulous and undefined. Save them from what, exactly? What's going on? What's happening brother? An okay album overall.
Gil Scott-Heron
3/5
I'm mostly neutral on this album, except for the really interesting spoken word piece ("H2Ogate Blues" - it's like a little time capsule).
De La Soul
2/5
Most of the album was okay but not great; I liked "The Magic Number" up at the front and maybe a few other tracks. The humor mostly didn't land for me. Speaking of which... reading about this album, it looks like this one is credited with starting the trend of hip-hop albums having skits? Hip-hop skits have been a continual source of fascination to me since starting this project so I'm actually pretty grateful to have a bit of that background filled in. It's weird because... the recurring skit here is pretty bad? Real cornball.
Turbonegro
4/5
Musically I found this enjoyable enough - it does a pretty good job of scratching a glam-punk itch - but the juvenile lyrics and the not-quite-correctly-used swearing really elevate it into something special. Phrases like "Rock Against Ass" and "Rendezvous with Anus" (?) are hilarious and somehow also endearing. I assume the band's in on the joke, but this works so much better for me than, say, Slipknot trying to convey "All Hope Is Gone." Several little moments that stuck with me the next day after listening... I like the guitar part that imitates a clock chime in "The Age of Pamparius." I like, "I got a headache in my pants" in "Back to Dungaree High."
A selection of great track and album titles from elsewhere in Turbonegro's discography: Ass Cobra; "I Got Erection;" "Turbonegro Hate the Kids;" "The Midnight NAMBLA;" Hot Cars and Spent Contraceptives; "Shake Your Shit Machine;" "You Give Me Worms;" "Blow Me (Like the Wind);" and "Wipe It 'Til It Bleeds." And then there's this nugget from Wikipedia, "Initially, the band had two running ideas for band names: Nazipenis and Turbonegro. They were advised that a band named Nazipenis would never sell records, so they chose Turbonegro as a more consumer-friendly choice." Not sure I can safely go any further down the Turbonegro rabbit hole without reading something that makes it all fall apart, so I better leave things here.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
Really enjoyable album. "Concrete Jungle" is fantastic.
David Bowie
5/5
Love the Kraftwerk-esque instrumental electronic tracks; before I heard this album I hadn't realized Bowie had anything like them in his catalog. I've warmed up to some of the tracks with vocals too but it's definitely the instrumentals that make Low a 5-star album for me. Shoutout to the little "vrrrt-vvrrttt" noises in "Breaking Glass."
The National
4/5
Some memorable weird lines in this one ("I was carried to Ohio in a swarm of bees"). I wasn't familiar with The National but I think I really enjoyed this album. It helped that it happened to kind of suit the mood for the day. I found it really easy to just let this one keep looping.
Bruce Springsteen
2/5
bad inclusion. album popped up and i saw the release year, the artist, the album name - and i had a hunch. a worry that was pretty quickly founded. heroically going "Into the Fire," mourning a big "Empty Sky" - this is bruce doing a 9/11 album. i know it could be worse - at least it's not toby keith "shock'n y'all" jingoistic crap - but it's an off-putting theme for me, or at least it is with this kind of approach. setting that aside: songs are okay at best, a little boring to me.
Yes
3/5
It's at least a Maybe. I do like the sound. The tracks are completely overstuffed though. I was going to say it feels kind of disjointed, but I think it might just be "The Clap" driving that feeling.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
Ok, I love the genre name "swamp rock" for this. I see the swamp rock tag on this album and I think "yes, it certainly is." Perfectly evocative. Stylistically Green River is a little outside my wheelhouse but I do think it's a very good work, and "Bad Moon Rising" is perfect.
Miles Davis
3/5
kind of blew. just kidding. it’s good, sure, but i’ve figured out by this point that even great jazz doesn’t move the needle much for me.
Paul Simon
4/5
Highlights: "Mother and Child Reunion;" "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard." This is the third Paul Simon or Simon & Garfunkel thing to come up here and at this point I'm starting to feel like I can say I enjoy Paul Simon.
Isaac Hayes
4/5
Overall, pretty enjoyable; sounds great for '69. The long dialog in "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" makes repeat listens just a little more tedious.
Arrested Development
3/5
Some songs on here I kind of like. The positivity makes it a little easier to enjoy.
Dr. Dre
1/5
Another one from the gangsta rap genre, with all the customary ick, but at least it has the pervasive presence of Snoop as a bright spot.
Jeff Buckley
3/5
Wikipedia says David Bowie considered this the best album ever made; au contraire, Dave. Nearly fell asleep and crashed my car around "Lilac Wine" or "So Real" before the excellent "Hallelujah" cover revitalized me. I started to like the album a little more the third time through but I still doubt I’ll be back for a fourth.
Drive-By Truckers
2/5
"Cause He knows that blood red carpet at the Salem Church of Christ / Ain't gonna ever see no wedding between me and you." ("Zip City")
The most interesting parts of this album were the Dale Gribble soundalike's spoken word tracks, but there are only 2 of those in the overlong 90-minute runtime. The music is alright at times but never great, and the length is definitely unjustified. I think the fact that this is from 2001 is a knock against its inclusion - it doesn't feel really noteworthy, influential, or representative for 2001. I think I'd be more forgiving/understanding if it was from 10+ years earlier.
Kate Bush
4/5
The pervasive weirdness is fun, "Running Up That Hill" rules, and every time I hear Kate do a strange thing with her voice I become a little more infatuated with her ("When I was a child, running in the NiGhT"). If there were a couple more 5-star tracks I'd put this one at a 5 overall.
The Lemonheads
2/5
It's a decent album but not nearly good enough or noteworthy enough in my eyes to deserve a slot here. I did find "Frank Mills" funny though. I've thought about writing this about some of the previous 90s albums, and I think it's appropriate to put here on It's A Shame About Ray: it's an injustice that there isn't anything by The Cranberries on the 1,001 list. They're a way better, way more influential, and way more distinctive alt rock act with material from around the same time as this Lemonheads album. I'd swap any of the 4 Cranberries albums from the 1990s for this one, but especially 1994's No Need to Argue. (Think I'm going to permit myself a Cranberries rant about once every 200 album reviews and steadily up the length each time.)
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
Overlong, but good. Little rude to make me wait over an hour for "All Along the Watchtower."
Marvin Gaye
3/5
I'm giving this 3 stars but in fairness to the album I feel I should acknowledge that I didn't make any effort to try to listen to it in the way it was intended to be heard (during intercourse).
2/5
A well-executed but ultimately somewhat dull Latin acid jazz album. The bright spot here is Cibelle's great vocals (I had added Cibelle's The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves to an Amazon wish list 15+ years ago just based on the algorithm putting it in front of me, back in my CD-buying days, but I never actually got around to buying it or listening to it. This reminds me I can go back and stream that now).
David Bowie
4/5
I really like Bowie but I don't have a very deep knowledge of his catalog. One thing I've been surprised to discover lately, first through Low and again here, is how much I enjoy his instrumental pieces. Like "Neuköln" - a great track. I'm hoping there's at least a little more like this out there waiting in the parts of his discography I've yet to explore.
The Sabres Of Paradise
1/5
There are a small number of tracks on here that are a little more interesting than the others (for example, "Wilmot"), but mostly I don't appreciate this.
Ray Charles
3/5
Let the good-but-not-great times roll.
Nick Drake
3/5
Wasn’t sure if it was just the novelty of Drake’s vocal style wearing off, but I felt like this wasn’t as good as Bryter Layter. Ended up going back and listening to Bryter Layter again afterward… I was right, I do like it better.
SZA
2/5
another song about forrest gump, who i guess was lurking in the cultural imagination of the 2010s. i liked frank ocean's gump song better. is there possibly another gump tribute coming in the remaining 800 albums? weird al seems to have been snubbed in the list, but his gump song from 1996 would probably reign supreme
Joni Mitchell
4/5
This kind of female-fronted classic folk is a genre I dip into every now and then. Mitchell, Collins... I think it reminds me of riding in the car with my grandparents as a kid. "River" is the only song off Blue that I recognized (it's pushed its way into the Christmas music canon) but the others grew on me over a few plays.
The Pharcyde
2/5
who are you? why are you calling my house? stop calling here.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Enjoyable classic rock, even if I found parts of it unmemorable. I like “Brown Sugar” and I had “Wild Horses” in my head all weekend.
Talking Heads
3/5
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was.... It's good but I'm surprised I didn't like it more - it's art rock with talk-singing, both things I enjoy. Highlight - "Once in a Lifetime."
Quicksilver Messenger Service
4/5
The standout here is the 13-minute western-infused psych rock instrumental "Calvary" near the end of the album. Really unique sound and I think it absolutely rips. I'm less enthusiastic about most the rest of the album - wouldn't say I don't enjoy it but it's more of a "fine background music" type of deal. There's an awful lot of guitar noodling.
Mariah Carey
2/5
When it popped up I expected I might enjoy this one. Nope - found it pretty uninteresting. I don't think it's aged well. "Butterfly" has middle school choir concert energy.
The Smiths
3/5
I don’t dislike this album but, between The Smiths and Morrissey’s solo projects, this is the fourth time for him to come up. I think I’ve got it; we can move on.
The Police
3/5
It's alright but I did feel like I got tired of it relatively quickly.
Big Brother & The Holding Company
4/5
i guess i didn't know what janice joplin sounded like - the woman performs like a deranged muppet on this album. you could slap some of this audio over footage of sy snootles wailing jizz for an audience of bounty hunters in jabba's palace and nobody would think anything was off. not complaining, by the way. it's excellent.
love the announcer at the end of the live bonus tracks letting us know the electric prunes will be playing the venue soon. hopefully jabba drops them into the rancor pit in the middle of "the toonerville trolley"
Def Leppard
3/5
Spinal Tap vibes, for sure. Feels very dated. I don't dislike it but I'd rank it near the bottom of all the metal albums that have come up here.
Peter Tosh
4/5
Wouldn't have sought out an album named "Legalize It," but this was actually pretty enjoyable? Better than last week's white reggae album by The Police. Please see a doctor if you have tuberculosis.
The Beach Boys
5/5
I appreciate this one being bumped up to the front of the queue for everyone the day after Brian Wilson's passing. Easy 5 for me - it's a masterpiece that deserves its place in the canon. Some individual track comments:
"Wouldn't It Be Nice" - Excellent writing; I always related to this one when I was young and anxious to get married.
"I'm Waiting for the Day" - Love the drum sound on this one, and the big dramatic swing around the 2:35 mark right when it feels like it might be ending. Great energy.
"Sloop John B" - They even made a sea shanty sound great.
"God Only Knows" - Great representative of the dreamy atmosphere of Pet Sounds. I love the "bah bah bah" part here (I'm mostly a "sing the bah bah bahs" kind of person).
"I Know There's An Answer" - Think this one's new to me but I like it.
"I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" - Electro-theremin solo! Apparently this is the first instance of theremin-like sounds being used on a rock album. Very cool.
"Caroline, No" - Great closer. For all the effort crafting a consistent mood across the album, they couldn't resist slapping on a random train sound effect. The name of the train is The Owl, by the way.
All that and more in a tight, cohesive 36 minutes. I've got a Beach Boys "best of" compilation I bought years ago that has many of these songs, but they play even better in the context of the album (I happen to like the "beach party"-type songs like "Help Me, Rhonda" too but they're a different vibe).
Linkin Park
3/5
I don't get much out of 2000s rap metal/nu metal, but I'm willing to believe Hybrid Theory is one of the better examples of the genre.
Pixies
4/5
Grunge art punk. This is a good inclusion. Great sound, and I don't mind the disjointedness. Favorite: "Where Is My Mind?"
Bob Marley & The Wailers
3/5
If you count Reggatta De Blanc, 3 of our last 8 albums have been reggae. I'd say this one's alright (I preferred Catch a Fire), but there are a couple of classics on side two ("Jamming" and "One Love/People Get Ready"). You can probably credit my affinity for "Jamming" to the Simpsons episode where Hank Azaria ad-libs Chief Wiggum singing it over the closing credits. Maybe it's kind of a shallow song - I still like it.
Cocteau Twins
3/5
"(for Cindy)" ruins what might otherwise have been the most aesthetically pleasing slate of track titles from the last 200+ albums. hope it was worth it, cindy.
this is a weird, ethereal, dreamy thing from the 80s. new to me. enjoyable but not a revelation. sometimes i couldn't tell if the lyrics were in english, in another language, or just dream-scat
White Denim
2/5
indie elevator music - sounds alright but couldn't hold my interest. can't decide if I like or dislike this cover art, but either way I don't think it fits the album.
Neil Young
3/5
I would like to use this space to retract an earlier album review comment where I mistakenly attributed the popular folk rock song "A Horse with No Name" to singer-songwriter Neil Young.
Joni Mitchell
3/5
Maybe I’m just in a different mood but I don’t think I enjoyed this one as much as Blue. “Raised on Robbery” and “Twisted” felt a bit different and helped keep the album from dipping below a 3.
Tori Amos
3/5
This one didn't really speak to me. Sorry, Tori.
I checked the album credits to see if they credited the person rapidly panting like a dog during "Precious Things." Conclusion: probably a sample?
Kraftwerk
5/5
Inject this beautiful minimalism straight into my veins; I like everything on this one, start to finish.
The Soft Boys
4/5
I appreciate the weird bits in this one. "You've been layin' eggs under my skin / Now they're hatching out under my chin / Now there's tiny insects showin' through / And all them tiny insects look like you." Didn't go through the frightening mountain of extra material - I focused on the original 36-minute release.
Stevie Wonder
4/5
This is his *eighteenth* studio album and it's somehow still packed with memorable songs. "Sir Duke," "As," "Isn't She Lovely." Somehow I wasn't aware of "Pastime Paradise" and I almost had to go lay down after I heard it. "I Wish" walked so "Wild Wild West" could run. Probably others too I am forgetting. I think this is a big step up in quality above the other two Stevie albums that have come up. My only complaint is the runtime - Stevie, you obviously you like making lots of albums, just cut this up and pad out the count even further.
Sister Sledge
2/5
Not really big on this one. CHIC was better disco. But, if you needed to find a song to play in an Ancestry.com commercial, I guess "We Are Family" would be useful to have.
I usually don't listen to deluxe editions or bonus tracks from rereleases, but the version of We Are Family I streamed had the bonus tracks from the 1995 CD rerelease. They make the listening experience worse, diluting the original 1979 vision with remixes from a different era (and dragging it out another half hour).
Neneh Cherry
3/5
"Operate on a baby? Uhhnn! Sick."
A 1989 hip-hip/pop debut by a Swedish artist that's maybe a little bit cornball. It has some charm and I don't hate it, but it does feel dated.
Roxy Music
2/5
basically sounds like dracula tried to release an art rock album under a pseudonym and totally bombed
The Icarus Line
2/5
Uninteresting and unremarkable noise rock from a band I've never heard of. Got bored within the first few minutes and it never recovered.
Fiona Apple
4/5
"Sleep to Dream" and "Criminal" come on and I sing them. It's partly familiarity and nostalgia - radio singles from a time when I listened to the radio - but I love both those and I think they're a step above the rest of the album. There's a nice variety to Tidal but I kind of wish she carried the "Sleep to Dream" aggro spoken word jazz fusion style through more songs. "Never Is a Promise" started to catch my ear on relistens though.
Bonus round, from a couple years after Tidal: Every now and then I queue up the music video for Apple's cover of "Across the Universe" from the Pleasantville soundtrack. One-two punch of a really great video and a really great cover.
Sarah Vaughan
3/5
This one has some stuff going for it - Vaughan gives a good performance, her personality and ad libs are fun - but overall the album didn't wow me. I think the fault might lie with the song selection.
Caetano Veloso
4/5
I know who Veloso is and I'm familiar with a couple covers of his "Baby" (one of which, we'll eventually get to on here) but I think this is my first time listening to the man himself. I kind of enjoy tropicália and I found this to be a pretty good time.
The Doors
3/5
Can't say this one really did anything for me.
Coldplay
5/5
My interest in Coldplay dropped off around Mylo Xyloto but their first four albums were a solid run; I don't put them on very often anymore, but I still enjoy them. I'd rank A Rush of Blood at #2 (I think X&Y would be my #1; looks like that one missed the 1,001 cut). It's good throughout, but some standouts are "Politik," "The Scientist" (an all-timer, more than likely Coldplay's best track), and "Clocks." Sometimes I do feel unsatisfied by the opaqueness of most Coldplay's lyrics - few of their songs ever seem to me to be about anything concrete. Instead they seem more focused on delivering texture; you bring your own thoughts and emotions to project onto them.
Frank Zappa
3/5
Instrumental jazz with weird lipstick.
John Lennon
4/5
slightly bummed out to have to admit I actually enjoyed this one quite a bit
Little Simz
4/5
My favorite piece of Wikipedia trivia for this one is that Little Simz appears as herself in Sony's "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," performing the song "Venom" off this album during a rave scene. I was pleasantly surprised here - I went into this album with low expectations and it way exceeded them. It's a tight 35-minute slice of energetic modern UK rap from a really good performer. "Offence" into "Boss" is a great kickoff. I think I'd listen to more from her.
D'Angelo
1/5
This album is an incredible accomplishment: it achieves a level of uninterestingness that surpasses even that LTJ Bukem drum and bass compilation album. 237 albums rated so far and this would be in my bottom 3.
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
3/5
I feel like I could talk myself into any rating from 2 stars to 4 stars on this one, so I'll go in the middle. Sometimes it's cooking ("The Message") and sometimes it feels like some guys' high school project. The low point is probably that Stevie Wonder song. "The Message" is referenced in Hamilton, so that's a fun bonus.
Beastie Boys
3/5
*takes off the headset and looks at you* okay this is definitely the beastie boys
Guns N' Roses
3/5
Three hard rock classics here, but a lot of middling off-putting sleaze too.
The Clash
4/5
I found this one pretty enjoyable.
Black Sabbath
5/5
Rest in violence Ozzy. I was barely familiar with Black Sabbath before starting this project but I've really enjoyed both the albums that have come up here. Out of the list's metal albums so far, I think Black Sabbath takes both my #1 (Paranoid) and #2 (this one).
Travis
4/5
Never heard of this group or album but this was an enjoyable listen. I think I liked most everything here except possibly the hidden track. "Writing to Reach You" makes a really good first impression. I was only able to get 2 of the 3 song references in "Slide Show" (didn't know "A Design for Life").
Anyway, here's some references to "Wonderwall."
Steely Dan
3/5
Before now, my brain had only an imagined idea of what Steely Dan sounded like, based solely on context clues from references to Steely Dan in other media. I thought it was something like classic arena rock, comparable to perhaps a Boston or a Kansas. Turns out, the actual Steely Dan is more of a funky, jazzy pop rock thing.
Nick Drake
4/5
This one closes out the Nick Drake studio album discography for me, after Bryter Layter last year and Five Leaves Left a couple months ago. Drake is a very interesting, very unique artist and I'm glad to have been introduced to his work. Mood-wise it's on a wavelength all its own. It does sometimes feel like the songs begin to run together a bit; there was one on here where for a moment I thought, "didn't I already hear this one on one of the other albums?"
Final Nick Drake rankings: #1 Bryter Layter, #2 Pink Moon, #3 Five Leaves Left.
The Replacements
3/5
Hey, where's Tommy?
Someone find Tommy
We're out on the road
Moving equipment
Where's the equipment?
Soon we're going home
Then we'll have a party (then)
Then we'll have a party (then)
Then we'll have a party (then)
Rock and rollin' 'til the break of dawn
(Rock'n'rollin' 'til the break of dawn)
Anita Baker
1/5
Nothing here for me - I think this kind of adult contemporary is just not my thing at all. Baker's vocal performance might be good but absent any interesting songs it's like breaking out the fancy dishware to eat plain yogurt.
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
i listened to loveless 3 times all the way through today and i’m finding myself really hard-pressed to say anything about it. it’s an album. i didn’t feel strongly about it, positive or negative. the cover is very pink - the album name is nearly swallowed in the stormy pinkness. they go to town on the pedals.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
I'm not into the big choir-backed bombastic gospel sound, but I can understand why plenty of people would enjoy it. Sometimes Cave's delivery gets me - like the line "Sent sparks zapping out your face" from "Hiding All Away."
Blondie
3/5
The album cover made a bad first impression but I found the material reasonably enjoyable; I think it was within striking distance of 4 stars. Highlight: "Heart of Glass" (which I also recently heard covered by Miley on Plastic Hearts).
Roxy Music
3/5
Okay, this was better than the last Roxy Music album that came up (For Your Pleasure). Not totally in love with it but I feel closer to understanding why it'd be on the list. I still think he sounds like Dracula on "Bitters End" but at least it's confined to there. Highlight: "If There is Something."
2/5
hard to imagine anything else on the list having “mom vibes” as strong as this album cover’s. i don’t think i’m totally opposed to this style but nothing on this album connected strongly with me.
Van Halen
4/5
I found this one to be a lot stronger than their self-titled album from '78. If I were more interested in the glam metal genre this might be a 5. I especially like the synth-driven opening tracks on side A (and even the electronic instrumental at the beginning is a nice touch).
The Cars
4/5
New wave synth-rock. I've never sought out the Cars before but I know some of the hits off this (of course). Looks like this is the Cars' only album on the list but I wouldn't mind hearing more; this was a good time. "Describe a girl" is a songwriting mode I seem to enjoy; tell me about the suede blue eyes, the talking in her sleep, the nuclear boots. There's an obscure They Might Be Giants song I really like where they're doing an idiosyncratic girl description in a style parody of the Cars - "Vancouver," a.k.a. Richard's on Richards (off Venue Songs).
Thelonious Monk
3/5
feels like every 30 albums or so we've gotta slide in another instrumental jazz record to keep the cool cats contented. they're fungible to me; commodities. at least they're easy to rate.
Wild Beasts
2/5
you sure about this one, mr. dimery?
The Monks
4/5
Good and slightly deranged. Some of the other proto-punk albums here have been misses for me... I mostly like this one.
George Harrison
3/5
In the movie Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" plays as the protagonists arrive on the Edenic planet of Ego, a god-like Celestial inhabiting the image of Kurt Russell. Later in the movie Ego reveals his villainous plan to rapidly and violently terraform countless inhabited planets into extensions of himself. On All Things Must Pass, George Harrison commits what could be viewed as a similar sin: greatly overestimating the amount of himself that should be dumped out into the universe in one go. In doing so, George spoils what would otherwise be a pretty good album.
Elton John
5/5
Can't hear Bennie and the Jets without thinking of this Chris Fleming bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzzkhS_goJk
The first 4 tracks on this album - "Funeral for a Friend," "Candle in the Wind," "Bennie and the Jets," and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" - are an incredibly good run. Unfortunately the album continues on for another 50 minutes after the end of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" without ever hitting that same level again... maybe Elton really *is* bound to the piano by some kind of unseen malevolent force. Decided to weight the first 23 minutes and let it have 5 stars.
The Specials
3/5
Slightly out of the ordinary genre-wise on here - late 70s punk ska. I found it enjoyable enough. I don't hold the sins of third-wave ska against them.
Le Tigre
5/5
This album was completely in my wheelhouse. Really enjoyed lots of different elements of its sound, including the instrumentation, the vocals, and its use of clips or samples. A lot of the tracks are built out of these short and simple looping repetitions that seem to pair really well with the looser vocals. But the variety is actually really strong as well - they might share some of these common elements but every song feels distinct.
"Deceptacon" - Great opener. I especially love the way her voice breaks on lines like, "Wanna disco? Wanna see me disco?"
"Phanta" - One of my favorites. I can't really interpret what's supposed to be going on in this song, but I like the "tower communication" dialog clips anyway.
"My My MetroCard" - I was skimming the Wikipedia article before I started listening and my expectations for the album went up when I saw there was a Rudy Giuliani diss track.
"Friendship Station" - Love the "I wanna be there /
I wanna take you there" chant (including the way it's delivered).
"Dude Yr So Crazy!!" - I'm totally a sucker for stream-of-consciousness noun list songs. They are kind of hard to come by - They Might Be Giants has at least two but I'm struggling to recall any others.
So this ended up being one of my favorite recent finds off the 1,001 and I'm sure I'll work through Le Tigre's other stuff later.
Small Faces
3/5
I believe I have a fairly high tolerance for zaniness in music but this one challenged me. When I'm listening to Unwin on the "Happiness Stan" side I feel like I've had a stroke. Highlight: Before things get out of hand there's "Afterglow," which is a total banger.
Dusty Springfield
4/5
I think this is a really strong album, but because the songs aren't original to the artist I'm inclined to cap my rating at 4 stars. The song selection is great though. "Mama Said," "You Don't Own Me," "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes," "Mockingbird," "Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa," "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," "Wishin' and Hopin'" - all of these, great. I don't know if Dusty's recordings are the versions of some of these that I'm familiar with, but she does them well. Easy to imagine this might end up being best-in-class for this style of traditional 50s/60s pop album.
AC/DC
5/5
The quintessential metal album.
Elvis Presley
3/5
I didn't get a lot of mileage out of most the songs on this one (maybe "In the Ghetto"). Expand out to the 2000 edition bonus tracks and you at least get "Suspicious Minds" (great) and "Don't Cry Daddy" (*not* great, but memorably tone-deaf - sort of like, "let's go pick out a new mommy; that will cheer you up daddy"). I'm glad Wikipedia had an explanation for the weird volume dip on "Suspicious Minds."
Holger Czukay
5/5
I'm realizing the German experimental music of this era seems to have a lot of stuff that's on my wavelength. Get over the weirdness of the sometimes off-the-wall samples and I genuinely think this is a great listening experience. Happy to have been pointed in the direction of something I might never have found otherwise.
Also - pretty good album cover. The cold blue of the TV contrasted with his warm-colored face. The smoke plume on the television screen capturing his reflection.
Roxy Music
3/5
A lot of the songs on this one hover around the upper edge of "okay" for me - I wouldn't quite say they were good, but they're kinda almost there. He dips into his Dracula voice occasionally but it's not as prevalent.
This finishes me on the list's trio of Roxy Music albums. We got all 3 of these within a span of about 40 albums - For Your Pleasure came up as album 234 in July, Roxy Music was 258 in early August, and now Country Life is 274. I'm ready to put this group in the rearview.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
I don't think I'm particularly fond of Nick's style/vibe, although I liked this album a little more than I liked their double album Abattoir / Orpheus.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
Just shy of a 5, I think. There's a lot of quality material here but the highlight for me was their excellent version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine." Not sure what's going on with the album cover here - it doesn't fit my image of this group at all, especially the yellow clown balloon font.
Ramones
3/5
Expected to get a little more out of this one but I was underwhelmed. It's got a lot of similar-sounding songs that run together and something about the sound didn't click for me. "Blitzkrieg Bop" ended up being the best track (not surprising).
Ali Farka Touré
3/5
Malian folk. I thought it had a relaxing vibe, sometimes almost dreamy.
TV On The Radio
3/5
Up through track 4 this felt like a "why is this on here?" kind of album but then with "Ambulance" it started to present a more interesting and unique sound. I think I liked a few other tracks in the back half too. So it got better, but I'm not surprised to see it got dropped from later editions of the 1,001 book.
The Libertines
3/5
Grew on me a little over a couple of listens, but still didn't feel quite like it'd earned its spot on the list.
Sade
2/5
"Yeah, but that's Liz's!" "Yeah, but she did dump you." *throws Diamond Life*
Through this project I've identified adult contemporary as one of my least favorite music genres. This is possibly a better example of the genre, but I still wouldn't want to return to this.
Curtis Mayfield
2/5
Curtis Mayfield and his falsetto, back once again. Similar feelings to what I felt on There's No Place Like America Today - the music's fairly good but the vocals wear on me. Overstays its welcome.
The Chemical Brothers
2/5
*tired sigh* back with another one of those block rockin' beats. highlight (being generous here): "Where Do I Begin"
Astor Piazzolla
3/5
Different style of instrumental music - apparently one pioneered by Piazzolla, the "new tango." I wasn't wowed but I liked it alright. Nice to get an instrumental album that isn't another jazz piano selection.
Black Sabbath
5/5
The third and final Black Sabbath album for our listening group. I'd definitely have been up for more; all three albums were excellent. No songs I recognized on here, and some of the stylistic departures from the previous albums ("Changes") were surprising.
The Prodigy
3/5
Reminds me of being driven around town by my brother in the late 90s. I think this is a pretty good album in a genre I don't really enjoy all that much. Great album cover though... and there was an anniversary reissue where they edited tons more crabs into it?
Billy Joel
4/5
I don't know much about Joel's discography but I'm kind of surprised he's only got this single album on the list. I found it pretty enjoyable. Keywords: "Ack"
John Lennon
4/5
There are a few moments on here where Lennon's vocals get into screams with an almost frightening character (like on "Mother"). And he randomly says "cookie" in a menacing way in the middle of "Hold On." He sets off a bomb at the end of "Remember." It's a little weird to be menaced by John Lennon like this but I guess it works for me; I think this is a strong album. I think Lennon is growing on me.
Highlights: "Mother," "Working Class Hero." I might like some cover versions of "Working Class Hero" better than the original (I remember Marianne Faithfull's version on Broken English) but credit to Lennon for writing a good one.
Alice Cooper
3/5
I believe my only real prior exposure to Alice Cooper has been when he was a guest on the Muppet Show, so that may be contributing to crossed wires here... but at times on this album his voice does seem to me to have a muppet-like quality. not sure how I feel about that being paired with a tongue-in-cheek (ew) song about necrophilia. I did also watch a Mr. Bean sketch covering one of the songs on this album (thankfully *not* "I Love the Dead"). overall I was skeptical that I'd enjoy a shock rock album like this but it's actually pretty decent.
Belle & Sebastian
4/5
Sounds like the Decemberists filtered through Nick Drake. For 1996 I think this album is impressive; I'd have guessed it was from a little later (that's probably due to its own influence in the early 2000s). Highlight pick: "Like Dylan in the Movies."
Judas Priest
3/5
Couldn't have named a single Judas Priest song. I actually think my brain knows "Breakin' the law! Breakin' the law!" more as a Beavis and Butthead quote than as an actual song. Album sounds fine but didn't do much for me.
Iggy Pop
3/5
face is too big
David Bowie
5/5
"Time may change me. But I can't trace time."
My second favorite Bowie Album, although I'm reasonably sure "Life on Mars?" is my favorite pre-1990 rock song. The first side of this album is especially stacked, with that one plus "Changes" and "Oh! You Pretty Things." The album cover is a dud though.
Slade
2/5
very little on this album is interesting to me. if I think about this one later, it's most likely going to be because of the gimmick of deliberately misspelling track names. I guess they did "Cum On Feel the Noize" but, like how I've waited through two Dexys Midnight Runners albums for "Come On Eileen," it's not here
nipple note: this album cover is actually kind of funny but the man on the right absolutely should not have been allowed to take his shirt off
Arctic Monkeys
4/5
I wasn't familiar with the Arctic Monkeys beyond just recognizing the band name. This is a really good debut. I'm guessing I'd be rating it more highly if I'd heard it closer to 2006. Highlight: "The View From the Afternoon"
Bob Dylan
4/5
Had a harder time getting into this one than I did with Highway 61 Revisited or The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, but I think I got there eventually.
Arcade Fire
5/5
Nice to get an easy one. I've owned Funeral on CD since probably 2007 or 2008 and it still sounds great to me in 2025. I think it's actually my favorite indie rock album of the 2000s (English-language one, at least).
I think my two favorite tracks on it are the bookends. "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" is an excellent album opener; this is an album where I can push play in my mental stereo and hear a perfect recreation of the opening bits. It builds from that slower string, piano, and vocal opening into the loud, crashing, cathartic sound that I associate with the album. I'm into the song's surreal imagery - digging snow tunnels window-to-window, regressing into some kind of unsocialized winter hermit, not remembering how to name babies. "Then we think of our parents / Well, what ever happened to them?" Great song.
There's other good stuff in the middle. Then Funeral ends on the Chassagne-led "In the Backseat," which spins riding in the backseat of a car into a great metaphor for growing up and having to give up the freedom of youth and innocence. I lost a parent about a year ago to a kind of drawn out - but on the other hand also kind of sudden - illness and I thought of this song sometimes during those months. I'm at the stage of my life where "adult" no longer exists as a separate class of person above me. The wheel's been mine for a while now, and I drive around with my eleven-year-old getting his own time in the backseat. Anyway, I always like the Régine Chassagne tracks and "In the Backseat" is her best one. It's great, and it was already great even back in the 2000s when I was barely an adult and didn't have any meaningful emotions attached to it.
The Psychedelic Furs
2/5
probably never going to think about this one again
Ride
3/5
I expect any remaining shoegaze albums to land in about this same spot: It’s fine. Just fine. Works alright in the background.
David Bowie
4/5
I like Bowie a lot but I don't have a very deep knowledge of his catalog. This was one of the gaps... only a few tracks sounded familiar ("Time," "The Jean Genie," maybe "Aladdin Sane").
Lou Reed
4/5
Really enjoyed this album - much, much more than Berlin. Reed is batting a thousand on side one; "Vicious," "Andy's Chest" (apparently written to cheer up Andy Warhol after someone shot him in the chest), "Perfect Day," "Hangin' 'Round," and "Walk on the Wild Side" are all great. I don't like side two quite as much (the quirky "New York Telephone Conversation" is fun though). I'd have considered rating this a 5 if there was a little more power on side two.
Reed looks like Frankenstein's Monster on the album cover. Just an observation, not a criticism.
Kendrick Lamar
3/5
this is a good hip hop album. the only thing I really know about Kendrick Lamar is that he had a big beef with Drake where he just absolutely destroyed him. later he got to do a Superbowl performance of the song where he accused Drake of being a pedophile.
Solomon Burke
3/5
Not a bad album, but it did just make me want to put on Sam Cooke.
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart
1/5
the invasion of my heart has been successfully repelled.
Sly & The Family Stone
2/5
alright-ish but not especially exciting to me. sometimes funk stuff hits for me (but I'm never wild for it), and sometimes it misses.
New Order
3/5
i can smell a ghost soldier twist coming a mile away
Michael Kiwanuka
4/5
Wasn't familiar with Michael Kiwanuka, but this is a wonderful album with a great sound. A great find.
Suede
2/5
"Displaying a sound of Britishness..." - the Suede article on Wikipedia.
Incredible Bongo Band
4/5
Whatever concerns I may have had when I saw an hour and eighteen minute bongo rock album pop up were put to rest by track 1; this is a rather enjoyable instrumental funk album. I would say it has just the right dosage of bongos and congas. Sometimes they don't even really feel like the main focus, but sooner or later they come tapping back.
It looks like this was just a side product that made use of some unoccupied studio musicians, and some or all of it is covers, so in some ways it feels like an odd thing to include in the 1,001. But, on top of just being a fun listen it appears to have gone on to be fairly influential in hip-hop sampling, so let's let it slide. There's a cover album of this called Tabla Rock with an Indian-influenced sound... I listened to that too and thought it worked pretty well.
The Prodigy
1/5
i rated the other Prodigy album a 3 but it had some decent, memorable tracks and a really cool picture of a crab on the cover. here on Music for the Jilted Generation we have 78 minutes of forgettable techno and no crab. instead you get (if you bother to go look it up) a dumb inner sleeve painting of a guy flipping off the thought police from the other side of an indiana jones rope bridge
Arcade Fire
5/5
A dark Americana album reflecting the anxieties of the mid-aughts. It's got a dissonant, threatening atmosphere. Been a fan of this one for a long time... I think it's incredibly solid, start to finish. In fact I started to list out the tracks I especially like, but I realized there's actually only 1 out of the 11 that I'm even ambivalent about ("Keep the Car Running"). Instead then, some of my favorite parts: the opening climb in "Black Mirror" (fun fact: this song is where the anthology television series Black Mirror gets its name); when "Black Wave" flips to "Bad Vibrations" ("eating-in-the-ghetto-on-a-hundred-dollar-plate"); and the big crash at 2:10 in "My Body Is a Cage."
Funeral is my favorite Arcade Fire album but this one gives it a really close competition.
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
3/5
moderately impressive for four babies.
Beastie Boys
3/5
Mixed feelings. The album is good, but I do find I get tired of it relatively quickly. "Girls," "Fight for Your Right," and "No Sleep till Brooklyn" are all classics though. This one's my third of the three Beastie Boys albums on the list. I think two would be the right number... keep this one, keep Ill Communication, and drop Paul's Boutique.
Milton Nascimento
4/5
It's too long and varied of an album for me to really feel like I can wrap my head around it in a short amount of time, but my impression after a pair of listens is that it's very good. It's experimental, has a nice range of different sounds, and is often kind of beautiful. The lyrics are generally on a level where it's not hard for me to partway follow if I'm paying attention. Going with a 4 for an overall rating but it seems very likely there's enough really good material that it could be trimmed/tightened down into a 5-star album - or more time to get familiar with it might just push it to 5 anyway.
The The
1/5
Dang, I found this one incredibly awkward. Feels like being at a musical theater show where the cast members are starting to come down the aisles into the audience; you just want to bury your face and hide till it's over. Can't believe 2 albums from this band made the 1,001.
Cocteau Twins
3/5
Ethereal dream pop. I wrote on Treasure that it was "enjoyable but not a revelation" and that's true for this one too, although (going off memory) I think this one's an improvement.
Joy Division
3/5
The 70s giving way to the 80s. It's a great soundscape - lots of interesting, well-utilized effects and experiments throughout, and I like the guitar parts. The part I'm less enthusiastic about is the vocals.
John Martyn
3/5
if you were casting for an animated musical and needed someone to voice an anthropomorphic vintage car, seems like John Martyn would work. his character could be named "Big Muff."
highlight here: definitely the serene, beautiful closer "Small Hours." minimal lyrics but plenty of geese - it's just on a separate level from the rest of the album.
Portishead
4/5
I wasn't familiar with Portishead but I found this album to be pretty strong. Halloween's this week, so it's good timing for something a little haunted, a little sinister.
Megadeth
3/5
Meh-gadeth. Not my favorite flavor of metal. Highlight: "Peace Sells."
Supertramp
3/5
There's some okay stuff on side one here... maybe "Bloody Well Right," and I like when the piano hits midway through "School."
Kendrick Lamar
2/5
To listen to the 1,001 is to study the history of the hip-hop skit, from the artform's origin in De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising through its modern decline as a victim of playlist-based listening. Here we have a later example from 2012 that uses skits not as comic relief but to build narrative (except the guy yelling about his Domino's - I'm unclear on whether this is about pizza or if it's something else I'm too sheltered to know). I didn't enjoy the skits but I respect the artistry. Ditto for the overall album.
Serge Gainsbourg
1/5
Had to drive a few hours today and midway through I turned this album on without knowing anything about it. By track two I'd figured out it was a concept album but, not speaking French and not being in a position to look it up, I had no idea what it was about. Turns out I was much better off not knowing. I still would've only rated this a 2 if I'd just listened and never researched it further.
Gang Starr
3/5
Found myself enjoying this one at first, but then as it went on it did feel a bit repetitive/flat. Think the style of delivery contributes to that. Still not bad overall.
JAY Z
2/5
two themes you'll hear in this album are "my records are selling really well" and "i beat the charges." okay then jay-z. okay. the highlight is when eminem shows up.
David Bowie
4/5
It's always neat when the albums on the list are in dialog with one another. One of our group's earliest albums here was Nina Simone's Wild Is The Wind; more than 300 albums later, here we get Bowie offering a great take on that album's title track.
U2
4/5
I'm kind of ambivalent on U2 (and Bono) overall, although they are one of the very, very few big-name acts that I've seen live (it might *only* be them and KISS - neither of those would've been my first choice). War (the album) is alright - I'm rating it four stars but its grip on the fourth one is a little loose. Highlight is "New Year's Day."
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
3/5
A rowdy, sometimes crass "punk blues" album. Not a 4-star album for me but it's generally enjoyable and occasionally hits highs ("R.L. Got Soul" and probably some other parts I am forgetting).
Ian Dury
1/5
british pervert album. i hope that over time i will forget this experience
Cypress Hill
2/5
Break it up, Cypress Hill.
The Kinks
4/5
Nice quirky, sunny, 60s psych rock kind of vibe - I enjoyed it.
Hugh Masekela
2/5
76 minutes of jazz. I'd have worn a nicer wristwatch if I'd known how long I was going to spend staring at it today.
Steely Dan
2/5
To my ears this is mostly uncompelling. Good album cover though.
Parliament
4/5
A good time... they had me at "the Chocolate Milky Way." Probably my favorite funk album so far; it has a playfulness that I think pairs extremely well with the genre. You could criticize some of the tracks for being fairly repetitive but that didn't really bother me here. Highlights: "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)" is a juggernaut, and I liked "P. Funk" as well.
Prince
2/5
Knowing Prince by reputation, I went into this album expecting something good-to-great. Surprised to find it mostly disappointing. None of the songs really made a strong impression and it's about 35 minutes too long. I think maybe it just hasn't aged well. I can kind of see why you'd listen to this and think he might be a good choice for the soundtrack to a campy Batman movie?
4/5
I've now listened to three of Harvey's releases, from three different decades: this one from 2000; Let England Shake from 2011; and (straying off the 1,001 list) 2023's I Inside the Old Year Dying (my favorite of the three, with its unique neo-pastoral sound). I'm finding her work pretty consistently enjoyable, even as she crosses through somewhat different genres (here, alternative rock).
The Temptations
2/5
Eh, I enjoyed this album less than I expected to.
The Beach Boys
5/5
I remain partial to the Beach Boys. I blame Nick Jr occasionally running the Muppets music video cover of "Kokomo" when I was a kid (I understand "Kokomo" is not their best work - the Beach Boys or the Muppets). I wouldn't cite this album as a masterpiece the way I think of "Pet Sounds," but it still lands quite well for me. Pop beach party is a winning album formula. Highlights here: "Help Me, Ronda," "When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)," and "Do You Wanna Dance?" I could maybe do without the sandwich chatter track.
Nirvana
5/5
Landmark stuff; an easy 5 stars. This is our first time hitting Nirvana, 339 albums in... even as we've finished full trios from Arcade Fire, Roxy Music, The Beastie Boys, Nick Drake, and possibly others. I'll be looking forward to hitting them again. Favorites here: "About a Girl," "Come as You Are," "Lake of Fire," "All Apologies," "Where Did You Sleep Last Night," and the one I especially love - the cover of Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World." For a stretch in my pre-teen years mom had settled on our local alternative station in the car, and that track got some play there (probably some other Unplugged stuff too - believe that's the only way I could know "Lake of Fire"). So there's nostalgia at play here, even though most of this is new to me. (A little weird now to think of my mom choosing "Z104.5 the Edge" on the radio dial... we're getting close to one year since she passed, and I miss her.)
LL Cool J
2/5
did mama say "knock him out" or was it more like "bore him to sleep?"
Bill Evans Trio
3/5
nice background music for a classy restaurant or cafe - but I don't own a restaurant or cafe, let alone a classy one. highlight: let's say "alice in wonderland."
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
3/5
lotta guys here. Highlight: "Our House"
Grant Lee Buffalo
2/5
a passable alt country album. not the worst, but also not remotely the most interesting thing going on in music in 1993. this over Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?
Sisters Of Mercy
3/5
barely a 3. do not lure me in with deceptive promises of goth sisters when all you have to offer is a goth mister.
Elvis Costello
3/5
My favorite Costello album so far - better than My Aim Is True or Armed Forces. I like some of the songwriting and it has some strong They Might Be Giants vibes (I know the inspiration really runs the opposite direction but I've got 30+ years of TMBG under me and only a handful of Costello listens; digging around, it looks like Costello nearly produced their 1992 album Apollo 18 and they opened for Elvis for a month in August 1995).
Meat Loaf
4/5
This album is... a lot. It's a melodramatic romance album where everything's been dialed up to 11. Sometimes the music gets so forceful the album barely seems able to contain it, multiple tracks run over the 8-minute mark, and even the packaging is outrageous - a motorcycle exploding from the grounds of a cemetery in an apocalyptic red landscape. I can understand why someone wouldn't enjoy this but it definitely works for me. This was a Friday album so I had a chance to "sleep on it" and I'm going with a 4-star rating, but it's a great inclusion in the list and I'm very happy to have been exposed to it. I'm an overnight Meat Loaf fan.
The bombastic opener "Bat Out of Hell" sets the stage for the album pretty perfectly (then again, it has nearly 10 minutes to do the job). It's great - completely gonzo. Somehow it was written about Peter Pan? Then "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth" begins with a dialog bit that, frankly, makes me very uncomfortable. It's my least favorite part of the album. "Again, will he offer me his hunger?" I almost forget that there's a whole song after that. The song's alright. One of the album's trademarks is its sense of humor: "And then you took the words right out of my mouth / Oh it must have been while you were kissing me / You took the words right out of my mouth / Oh, and I swear it's true, I was just about to say I love you." That humor comes up most notably, of course, in the chorus of the 5-star song "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad." Hilarious. I've been singing it all weekend.
Little Richard
3/5
It's alright, held back a little bit by the song selection maybe. Fun to do the "hoOoO!"s with him though.
This is the third album here to feature "Tutti Frutti" and I think I might be trapped in a cycle where I start looking at the day's album on Wikipedia, learn of the sexually explicit original lyrics of "Tutti Frutti," banish that information from my mind, and then rediscover it all again when "Tutti Frutti" inevitably comes back around.
ZZ Top
4/5
Great piece of blues rock. Something was making me think these songs sounded "commercial," as in they belonged as backing to an advertisement or a movie... I think I may have tracked this feeling back to the usage of "Gimme All Your Lovin'" in the third act of Tim Allen's The Santa Clause. "Sharp Dressed Man" was also the theme to a big TV show. Also - I only just now discovered that the unauthorized ZZ Top cameo in the bar in Sierra On-Line's Space Quest I (1986) includes a rough MIDI version of "Well Dressed Man."
Violent Femmes
4/5
Quite courteous of them to open with the "what would I know you from?" track "Blister in the Sun." "Blister" is really, really good; in the right commercial I bet it could really move a ton of hamburgers. The rest of the album's reasonably good. The folk punk sound works pretty well for me. Low 4.
Tim Buckley
3/5
Joni Man-chell, basically. highlights: "No Man Can Find the War," and maybe also "Pleasant Street." overall I had a fine time with this one.
Beck
4/5
Not the Beck I'm familiar with, but I enjoyed it. Looks like "boring" is a theme in the reviews... not my experience.
Metallica
4/5
Some tracks have a tendency to run too long for the amount of material and start feeling repetitive, but otherwise it's a very good metal album. Couple rabbit trails:
First - I was amused by the Cthulhu references in "The Thing That Should Not Be." I was curious whether, beyond just familiarity with Lovecraft's stories, there was any evidence of Metallica having also played the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game. It came out in 1981 so the timeline would work. From what I could find it looks like the answer is probably yes - at least Burton and Hammett did. Fun. I didn't have Metallica on my radar for Arkham Horror background music but I'll have to keep it in mind.
Second - the instrumental "Orion" is by far the standout track on the album. It rules. I don't know Metallica's catalog well enough to know whether they did instrumentals often, but "Orion" makes me hope they did. Ok - there is a section of this song that starts around the 4:00 mark... I don't really recall exactly how we got started doing this but, years ago, we ended up training our poodles to have a Pavlovian response to us singing the notes from that section (set to the words "puppy dogs"). Silly, but if they heard it they knew it was time to eat. Eventually we got these automatic dog food dispensers that let you set a short recording to play whenever they dispensed. So we'd hear our adaptation of "Orion" played automatically twice a day. The dogs are pretty old now and too deaf for it to work anymore, but I still avoid doing "Orion" around them so that I don't accidentally disappoint them.
Ash
3/5
Alright but not great. I wasn't familiar with the band, although I think I've *maybe* heard "Kung Fu" before. The highlight is probably "Girl from Mars."
Supergrass
4/5
I think of In It for the Money as our listening group's first good discovery to come out of this project - it came up really early (our 9th album), nobody in our group was familiar with Supergrass, and everyone rated it a 4 or 5. So it's nice to welcome Supergrass back again a few hundred albums later. Mostly worth the wait - I liked this album (the chipmunky "We're Not Supposed To" aside). I hadn't known "Alright" was Supergrass so that was kind of a nice surprise.
Steely Dan
3/5
Classic soft rock from Steely Dan. I wasn't hugely into it, but it's not bad. Except the cover art; that *is* bad. Highlight: "Reelin' In The Years."
Talking Heads
3/5
yep, this is pretty much what the Talking Heads sound like. and they're doing... the Big Mouth Billy Bass song?
Radiohead
5/5
Sounds great; it's the clear frontrunner out of the handful of Radiohead albums I've heard. Highlights: "Paranoid Android" (stellar); "Let Down;" "Karma Police;" and "No Surprises" (love the Beach Boys-inspired guitar on this one). The music video for "Paranoid Android" is... not what I would have pictured.
Rufus Wainwright
3/5
simultaneously interesting and obnoxious. "Memphis Skyline" is a nice tribute to Jeff Buckley.
Beach House
3/5
I don't know this band but I found this to be a reasonably enjoyable dream pop album, able to hold its own against some of the other shoegaze albums that've come up here. It's also probably doomed to slide out of memory fairly easily though.
Harry Nilsson
3/5
he slams it out of the park with the excellent "Without You" and then he chooses to follow that up with the kooky "Coconut." *shakes head* i am going to brick him up inside the tunnel under ocean boulevard like "The Cask of Amontillado"
The Flaming Lips
4/5
Despite being a fellow Oklahoman, I wasn't familiar with The Flaming Lips. Just knew the name and knew "Do You Realize??" but didn't know it was them. My bad - I really like this album and probably would've loved it even more back in the 2000s when it first came out. Favorite tracks are "Fight Test," "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1," "Are You a Hypnotist??," and "Do You Realize??" Great space rock sound.
For a brief time "Do You Realize??" was the Official Rock Song of Oklahoma, but it was done via excecutive order so it was a fragile designation. When Mary "more of a country music gal" Fallin took office she let us lapse back into a state of rocklessness. It could be worse. We need to let this problem go under the radar for now, otherwise one of our legislators will put forward a Kid Rock song.
Beatles
5/5
I think Rubber Soul is probably "the" Beatles album for me. A trim 35 minutes of great original material... no covers and no bad tracks. "Drive My Car" is really fun ("Beep-beep-mm-beep-beep, yeah!") and I also like "You Won't See Me," "Nowhere Man," "Michelle," and "Run For Your Life." And then, operating at a level above all of the rest, is the all-timer "In My Life." "In My Life" was one of my mom's favorite songs; I think that was a good call.
Christina Aguilera
2/5
An early 2000s R&B/pop album. I thought this might be a good time but I was mostly underwhelmed (basically a repeat of the way I took Mariah Carey's Butterfly). The long runtime (an hour and seventeen minutes) rubs me the wrong way for this kind of album... "stripped" is a misnomer. There are some good moments here and there but there's a lot of road between those best parts. "Beautiful" is well-done but not something I'm likely to reach for. "Fighter" is the highlight.
Massive Attack
3/5
The original "trip hop" album. Not bad; I can understand the appeal. What spoke to me the most were the very British raps ("Blue Lines," for example).
Megadeth
4/5
Went into this without much enthusiasm but it ended up beating my expectations. The guitar work really lands. And bonus points for the gonzo album cover - it feels like the maximal version of whatever subgenre of album artwork this is.
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
A great folk rock album, one of the best to have come up thus far on the list. Paul Simon's won me over at this point. Also I might've laughed more at this album cover than any other.
"Bridge Over Troubled Water" - This was in our middle school choir repertoire... before hearing this album I don't believe that I would have told you I liked this song, but, it's a standout here. We almost certainly weren't doing this song justice. Because of the song's gospel tilt I initially assumed this was Simon and Garfunkel doing a cover of an older song; it's a pleasant surprise to learn it was written for this album.
"Keep the Customer Satisfied" - "I get slandered, libeled / I hear words I never heard in the Bible." A+ lyrics, Paul...
"The Boxer" - "Lie-la-lie." ...and also A+ non-lyrics.
Tears For Fears
4/5
Feels like it's fresh out of a time capsule. It might be a defensible choice for a shortlist of representative albums from the 80s. I like it. On our last trip to Epcot, we got "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" as one of our Cosmic Rewind songs (the coaster picks a song for your ride, out of six or so options). My son latched on to the song and now I associate it with him. That nudges the album a little higher for me.
Public Enemy
4/5
Respect for Flavor Flav. Overall I liked this one and thought it compared favorably to other late 80s/early 90s hip hop albums that have come up here.
"When the quiet storm comes on, I fall asleep." - Me too.
David Holmes
4/5
Our second trip hop album to come up in a little more than a week. I didn't think this was my genre but I mostly enjoyed this one. It's a very nice background music kind of album. It uses samples from recordings taken around New York City as a throughline, which gives the album more of an identity. And it also samples... Histoire de Melody Nelson? Funny for that to make a reappearance.
The best clip is the guy talking about being harassed out of the Continental Club. "Cause, if you can't dance, you can't release THIS ENERGY!!"
Sebadoh
2/5
"Soul and Fire" grew on me over a couple listens ("When I lose control, I need a kind, forgiving friend / But I think our love is coming to an end"). But most of the album, I wouldn't recommend.
Nine Inch Nails
5/5
An iconic album for its era. It has a lot going for it:
a really memorable "industrial alternative" sound (innovative probably?); some really high highs ("Closer" and "Hurt"); I really like Reznor's vocals on it; and it's had a big cultural and artistic impact (including the eventual Cash cover). Had a real struggle trying to decide between a 4 or a 5 here, and I think it's just the bleakness that I'm getting hung up on a little. We'll give it the 5.
It's cool that Reznor is still pretty relevant today, 30 years later, mainly now for his film and TV score work (I really enjoyed the "Life on Mars" cover from his Watchmen score a while back).
Bob Marley & The Wailers
3/5
This is our third Bob Marley album and, while I kind of enjoy him (in small doses maybe?), Natty Dread felt like diminishing returns. Not helped by the fact that Exodus and Catch a Fire had better selections of songs. Highlight: "No Woman, No Cry."
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
Great, classic sound; I'm not well-versed in Hendrix but it's easy to see this as groundbreaking. Highlight: "Fire"
DJ Shadow
3/5
Sometimes you hear the first 20 seconds of an album and you just sigh. Fortunately, it's only a short off-putting intro track here... the rest of the album is alright, although I think it's a real stretch to say this is a must-hear.
Screaming Trees
4/5
Alright, I enjoyed this album but I do question its inclusion. It's 90s psych rock grunge from a band I'm completely unfamiliar with. Every so often I let myself say "this slot could have gone to the Cranberries." And Dust is "this slot could have gone to the Cranberries"-ing pretty hard. Notability aside, if you like grunge (as our group tends to) then you could do a lot worse than this. Highlights: "All I Know" and "Traveler."
The Doors
4/5
I'm not totally enthralled by this, but I liked it a lot more than Morrison Hotel. Highlights: "Break On Through (To the Other Side)," "Twentieth Century Fox," and "Light My Fire."
David Bowie
4/5
I love Bowie’s work. I think The Next Day is him at his most okay-est. Still retains a lot of his charm.