My 1001 Albums Journey

126

Albums Rated

3.41

Average Rating

12%

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963 albums remaining

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Albums

You Love More Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
A Seat at the Table Solange	5	3.01	+1.99
They Were Wrong, So We Drowned Liars	4	2.11	+1.89
Double Nickels On The Dime Minutemen	5	3.12	+1.88
Little Earthquakes Tori Amos	5	3.23	+1.77
The College Dropout Kanye West	5	3.31	+1.69
Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea PJ Harvey	5	3.38	+1.62
Either Or Elliott Smith	5	3.38	+1.62
Raising Hell Run-D.M.C.	5	3.51	+1.49
3 + 3 The Isley Brothers	5	3.59	+1.41
Exile On Main Street The Rolling Stones	5	3.61	+1.39

You Love Less Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
The Slim Shady LP Eminem	1	3.29	-2.29
Hunting High And Low a-ha	1	3.12	-2.12
In The Court Of The Crimson King King Crimson	2	3.6	-1.6
Hybrid Theory Linkin Park	2	3.39	-1.39
Achtung Baby U2	2	3.31	-1.31
Beautiful Freak Eels	2	3.28	-1.28
The La's The La's	2	3.15	-1.15
Tubular Bells Mike Oldfield	2	3.1	-1.1
The Colour Of Spring Talk Talk	2	3.07	-1.07
The Last Broadcast Doves	2	3.05	-1.05

5-Star Albums (18)

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Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea

Popular Reviews

The College Dropout

Kanye West

5/5

I'm both a psychiatric and addictions registered nurse and a Kanye West fan. I've observed Kanye's career with equal amounts of hope and dread for many years now. In nursing school we watched a clip of Kanye on Jimmy Fallon speaking honestly and thoughtfully about the reality of being bipolar. Imagine having mental illness involving delusions of grandeur, believing you're one of the most important people on earth, except that in your case, you kind of are one of those people-- and on top of that, you're surrounded by sycophants who pay their bills by cosigning every paranoid or grandiose thought in your head. In this way I feel like Kanye has never really had a chance to get mentally healthy the way he was on this album. There are flashes of what's to come on The College Dropout. Ye drops a few self-deprecating bars, then gleefully raps about how his inflated ego keeps him afloat. He also constantly references surviving that brutal car wreck which maimed him and was clearly a traumatic event for him. But overall, it's someone that younger people never had the chance to know, sadly: an optimistic, wise-cracking genius who seemed to be very aware that he was on the brink of superstardom. I loved this album so much when it came out. These days, I cherish it as an almost perfect work of art created before the artist's mental health fell to an unimaginable, possibly irretrievable low point. I used to feel joy when I listened to The College Dropout. Now I feel nothing but sadness and yearning. I know that Kanye symbolizes something different to everyone. To many he is a mouthpiece for true evil, and that is a fair way to view this man. To me he's a symbol of the colossal failure of the mental health system I'm a willing participant in. It is hard to me to square the era of Kanye we hear on The College Dropout with the man he has become today. I miss the old Kanye.

1 likes

4-Star Albums (35)

A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector

1-Star Albums (2)

All Ratings

Doggystyle

Snoop Dogg

4/5

The Cars

4/5

Chirping Crickets

Buddy Holly & The Crickets

4/5

Off The Wall

Michael Jackson

3/5

This is a very good album but Michael clearly hadn't found his groove yet. The rock and roll edge to Michael's voice is completely missing on Off The Wall. Too much ooooooh, zero shamone.

Raising Hell

Run-D.M.C.

5/5

Exile On Main Street

The Rolling Stones

5/5

In The Court Of The Crimson King

King Crimson

2/5

Hunting High And Low

a-ha

1/5

Surrealistic Pillow

Jefferson Airplane

3/5

Imagine you're in a band with Grace freaking Slick and you're like, hmm yeah, we'll give her two songs, then let her sing a line here or there on the rest of the album

Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea

PJ Harvey

5/5

Hearts And Bones

Paul Simon

3/5

The Last Broadcast

Doves

2/5

Little Earthquakes

Tori Amos

5/5

I confess that I was never a Tori Girl when I was a nineties teen, but she's grown on me in adulthood. I saw her play in Boston last summer and one of her first tasks was to summon the Salem witches from across Boston Harbor to exact revenge on our behalf. If that moment isn't Tori Amos in a nutshell, I don't know what is. It is difficult to imagine a world that holds Alanis, Lady Gaga, and even Chappell Roan in its hands were Tori not there to clear a blazing path for them all. She is angry and contained, weird and wonderful, and there is no one quite like her. If you couldn't quite connect with Little Earthquakes and you don't understand what the hype is all about, I recommend reading wrestling legend Mick Foley's beautiful 2010 Slate article "The Wrestler and the Cornflake Girl," about how Little Earthquakes' Winter gave him a new perspective on both his own life and the world at large. That article made me curious to give Tori another chance, and I'm so glad that I did.

1999

Prince

4/5

Bayou Country

Creedence Clearwater Revival

3/5

Boy In Da Corner

Dizzee Rascal

3/5

Doolittle

Pixies

5/5

Honky Tonk Masquerade

Joe Ely

3/5

Despite being an American Southerner, until now Joe Ely is someone I only knew of via his proximity to The Clash. Upon first listen, he feels like someone I should've heard throughout my entire life. My only beef is that he can't quite hit those George Jones high notes he's always striving for.

The Blueprint

JAY Z

4/5

I'm really not understanding all the hate for this album. Yes, it contains materialistic subject matter, though far less than his peers at the time. Hov understands this, it's literally what Renegade on this album is about. I do feel like there are better and more important Jay-Z albums that should be on the list: The Black Album, Reasonable Doubt, and probably 4:44 are all worthy of inclusion. That's more a critique of the list than of Jay-Z, however. This album was absolutely everywhere when it came out. Every song could've been a single. It's incredibly influential, full of hits, and is completely deserving of its place on the list.

Drunk

Thundercat

3/5

Tokyo is freaking fantastic.

Moondance

Van Morrison

4/5

D.O.A. the Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle

Throbbing Gristle

3/5

Liege And Lief

Fairport Convention

4/5

Absolutely did not go on this journey thinking I'd listen to one album and start hunting down records by a band singing about the rise of fairy royalty on Halloween.

You Want It Darker

Leonard Cohen

3/5

Ambient 1/Music For Airports

Brian Eno

3/5

I'm pretty sure they play this when I get my eyebrows waxed.

Parallel Lines

Blondie

4/5

Parklife

Blur

3/5

The album tracks are meh but my god the singles are bangers

Hounds Of Love

Kate Bush

3/5

Highway 61 Revisited

Bob Dylan

5/5

One of the easiest five-star decisions on the list for sure. It's a shame that more of the artists who influenced Dylan in the making of this album aren't included on this list.

Nothing's Shocking

Jane's Addiction

3/5

Hybrid Theory

Linkin Park

2/5

I am a psychiatric and substance use disorder registered nurse and I've had a lot of patients describe this band as an enormous influence on their recovery, so I come to this with an open mind and an open heart. This is schlocky, overproduced mediocrity. But don't worry, I'll never tell my patients that I feel this way.

Roots

Sepultura

3/5

Medúlla

Björk

3/5

Oxygène

Jean-Michel Jarre

3/5

Tracy Chapman

3/5

Violent Femmes

4/5

Rumours

Fleetwood Mac

4/5

Iron Maiden

3/5

LP1

FKA twigs

2/5

Tubular Bells

Mike Oldfield

2/5

When he started naming all those instruments, I began to contemplate purchasing a one-way ticket to London so that I may commit seppuku on the front steps of Virgin Records

Black Metal

Venom

3/5

Sign 'O' The Times

Prince

4/5

Double Nickels On The Dime

Minutemen

5/5

Easily one of the best punk albums of all time by one of the most important and influential punk bands of all time. Minutemen were arguably the first band to fuse hardcore with punk and it changed everything. You can hear the influence of Minutemen in so many later bands that broke and made it big: Fugazi, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and especially Sublime. The loss of D. Boon permanently altered the sound of punk and in my mind is one of the most significant untimely losses in rock music history.

White Light / White Heat

The Velvet Underground

3/5

Far too much discussion about "suckin on ding songs" for my liking. Bring on the Nico years.

This Is Fats Domino

Fats Domino

4/5

A Nod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse

Faces

3/5

They Were Wrong, So We Drowned

Liars

4/5

I completely missed Liars the first time around. I heard people talking about them constantly but I never took the time to check them out. I truly regret that. What a weird, fantastic album.

Fleet Foxes

3/5

Endtroducing.....

DJ Shadow

3/5

All Directions

The Temptations

3/5

Come Find Yourself

Fun Lovin' Criminals

2/5

This album's inclusion is a perfect example of the overrepresentation of English tastes in this list. Despite being from NYC, Fun Lovin' Criminals never took off in the States. They were huge in England, though, so much so that the singer moved there in order to capitalize on his fame abroad. This is the first time I've listened to them and I get why they never caught on in the US. They're simply not that good. There was much better hip-hop available nationally (and locally, if you lived in a city with any sort of a rap scene, either burgeoning or established). England can have this.

The College Dropout

Kanye West

5/5

Pretenders

4/5

The Colour Of Spring

Talk Talk

2/5

Porcupine

Echo And The Bunnymen

3/5

Achtung Baby

2/5

There are some U2 albums that are essential listening. This isn't one of them.

Exodus

Bob Marley & The Wailers

4/5

Junkyard

The Birthday Party

2/5

Never has an album cover so accurately provided a preview as to its content

Brilliant Corners

Thelonious Monk

4/5

Before And After Science

Brian Eno

3/5

Dance Mania

Tito Puente

4/5

Live!

Fela Kuti

4/5

How is this a live album!!?? It's studio quality, zero errors! Insanity!!!

The Slim Shady LP

Eminem

1/5

I was a teenage girl in middle America when The Slim Shady LP came out. I have no different opinion of this album than I did when it came out. I dreaded clicking on the review for this, but I was pleasantly surprised. I am heartened by all the men who loved this album in their youth but are now alarmed by what they hear. Eminem in 2024 seems more complicated and interesting than the Eminem on this album: endorsing a Black woman for president; risking an enormous fine to kneel in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick. I wish he'd address his past in an honest and open way, but he's apparently too much of a chicken to do so, despite being willing to take a stand in other ways. All the men who used to love this album but are dropping ones and twos now, that's what gives me hope for this country and for our collective future.

Vauxhall And I

Morrissey

3/5

Young Americans

David Bowie

3/5

Vol. 4

Black Sabbath

3/5

Crooked Rain Crooked Rain

Pavement

4/5

Ctrl

SZA

3/5

Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul

Otis Redding

5/5

One of the easiest five star reviews I've had.

Synchronicity

The Police

3/5

Colour By Numbers

Culture Club

2/5

When I was four years old, Boy George was my first crush. Now that I've grown up to be a lesbian, it all makes sense.

Back To Black

Amy Winehouse

5/5

In hindsight this is a gimmicky album, at least the production is. Despite this, it's a rare no skips record. It's bananas to think about what Amy could've accomplished if she'd achieved sobriety. She was a genius and that's evident in every breath she took on this album.

Odelay

Beck

3/5

Frampton Comes Alive

Peter Frampton

3/5

Led Zeppelin II

Led Zeppelin

5/5

If I Could Only Remember My Name

David Crosby

3/5

The La's

2/5

This is fine, I guess. There is just no way that this was one of only 1001 albums that I should have heard before I die.

MTV Unplugged In New York

Nirvana

4/5

I was fourteen years old when I heard on the radio that Kurt died. I was in the backseat of my family's ancient minivan at a random crappy street corner in Memphis. It was a Friday afternoon and I didn't leave my bedroom until the following Monday morning when I had to go to school. The truth is that this live album isn't very consistent. This version of Come As You Are is dialed in, like something you'd hear at a bar off the interstate on a road trip. On the other hand, these versions of Something In The Way and Where Did You Sleep Last Night are some of the darkest, most evocative music you may ever choose to listen to. It's some of his best work. In the thirty years since Kurt died, I have watched countless friends die in the most awful, fucked up ways. At least a dozen overdoses and a few really dark suicides. I'm a dual diagnosis psychiatric and substance use disorder nurse now. I don't listen to Nirvana very much these days, nowhere near as much as I did in my early teens. But I think of Kurt often when a patient comes up to me during detox looking sweaty and sick and needing comfort meds. Where Did You Sleep Last Night runs through my head at least once a week when I'm digging through my med cart for Clonidine and Valium. I long for a time traveling societal redo where medication assisted treatment was possible for Kurt. It didn't have to be this way.

Either Or

Elliott Smith

5/5

I've been listening to this album regularly since the year it came out and it still makes me cry

The Boatman's Call

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

3/5

Nick Cave, babe, please, we're begging you to get a vocal coach. Please

Tusk

Fleetwood Mac

3/5

I know the band lore behind this album, that the disjointedness of it all reflects their interpersonal problems. And I'm definitely a Stevie fan, when it comes down to it. That said: it really feels like Lindsey Buckingham was onto something with his songs on Tusk. I kinda wish everyone else would've just gotten out of his way and let him cook.

Frank

Amy Winehouse

3/5

Back At The Chicken Shack

Jimmy Smith

4/5

McCartney

Paul McCartney

4/5

Paul McCartney: the original Wife Guy

Pearl

Janis Joplin

4/5

Bitte Orca

Dirty Projectors

4/5

It's super difficult to rate this. It's all over the place and so much of it is tedious, but Stillness Is The Move is legitimately one of the best songs I've ever heard in my life.

Copper Blue

Sugar

3/5

The Stranger

Billy Joel

4/5

Ellington at Newport

Duke Ellington

3/5

Protection

Massive Attack

3/5

Apple Venus Volume 1

XTC

3/5

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

OutKast

4/5

Five stars for Speakerboxx, which is a dang near perfect piece of art. Two and a half stars for The Love Below, which is a tedious slog with a couple of gems on it. Rounding up to four stars because it's Outkast, and their classic Stankonia (an easy five star album) isn't on this list.

At Mister Kelly's

Sarah Vaughan

4/5

I had no Idea that Sarah Vaughan had an impeccable sense of humor!

Want Two

Rufus Wainwright

3/5

...Baby One More Time

Britney Spears

2/5

It is a crime against humanity that Baby One More Time makes the list but BLACKOUT is omitted. Called the "Bible of Pop" by critics and fans alike, Blackout is considered Britney's greatest musical achievement, was imitated for years, and was added to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's musical archive only five years after its release.

Wish You Were Here

Pink Floyd

4/5

Thriller

Michael Jackson

5/5

Jack Takes the Floor

Ramblin' Jack Elliott

3/5

When he said that some of life's most troubling challenges are found in one's bed, I most certainly did not expect the next line to be him hollering, "Bedbugs is mean and evil!"

Lady Soul

Aretha Franklin

5/5

I want to fight anyone who thinks this is anything less than a five. Come ON.

Revolver

Beatles

5/5

Blood And Chocolate

Elvis Costello & The Attractions

3/5

The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

Pink Floyd

4/5

Time Out

The Dave Brubeck Quartet

5/5

After The Gold Rush

Neil Young

4/5

Joan Armatrading

4/5

Court And Spark

Joni Mitchell

4/5

Help Me is one of the greatest songs of all the twentieth century

Melody A.M.

Röyksopp

3/5

A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector

Various Artists

4/5

3 + 3

The Isley Brothers

5/5

Beautiful Freak

Eels

2/5

Suicide

2/5

The Fat Of The Land

The Prodigy

3/5

Darklands

The Jesus And Mary Chain

3/5

School's Out

Alice Cooper

3/5

Music From Big Pink

The Band

3/5

A Seat at the Table

Solange

5/5

Connected

Stereo MC's

2/5

Odessey And Oracle

The Zombies

3/5

GREY Area

Little Simz

3/5

Signing Off

UB40

3/5

Warehouse: Songs And Stories

Hüsker Dü

3/5

This is not the best Hüsker Dü album by any stretch of the imagination but listening to it today, I can hear the impact it made on all the small town punk bands who came along directly after they did.

Ten

Pearl Jam

4/5

Devotional Songs

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

3/5

1989

Taylor Swift

4/5

I am pleasantly surprised! I was totally prepared to give this two stars but it refused to allow me to hate it.

Wonderful Rainbow

Lightning Bolt

3/5

Tommy

The Who

3/5