Hadn’t given this album a listen in 15+ years. Starts off really strong but the last few songs are the weakest on the album and so it fizzles out with four rather samey tracks. Dare I say that the spoke. Word style in the middle of ‘Of Wolf and Man’ is quite Mustaine-esq…
Will be giving this one another listen. Fantastic singer! She brings such character to each song. There could well be a different vocalist for Willow Weep For Me and Just One Of Those Things. Stairway To The Stars is a fantastic tune.
Far more psychedelic than I thought it was going to be but the clue is in the name! Can You Get To That is a stone cold classic.
Definitely in my top 5 live albums. The original LP is nowhere near as good as the Legacy version as it’s largely truncated and cuts out most of the interactions between Cash and his captive audience. The way he is able to hold them in the palm of his hand is incredible and their reaction when he has the audacity to play San Quentin again is brilliant. Old 97 is probably the best song about a train ever. I’ve listened to some of Cash’s studio albums and they don’t capture his energy and presence anything nearly as closely as his two live prison albums. Fantastic stuff.
Must confess that this is the first David Bowie album I’ve listened to. Aside from the two really well known tracks there were a couple of mediocre fillers and a couple of really decent songs (Andy Warhole, Queen Bitch) which certainly sound like a blue print for the music that was to come in the 70s. Need to listen to more of his albums to understand where this sits in his catalog.
Decent. Jack White was definitely tapping into the vocal style in the early days of the White Stripes. Where Is My Mind is the stand out attack but I enjoyed the gruniness and hardcore punk vibes elsewhere on the album.
Very different from their first album which I am far more familiar with. Their change of direction to more electronic sound might have reflected their increasing popularity as I can imagine this having a wider appeal and sounding amazing live.
When I review jazz albums like this I feel like it’s the equivalent of me writing a review of a foreign language film that I’ve watched without subtitles. I’ve got some idea of the main plot but will miss out on most of the nuances and then someone who speaks the language will tell me that I’ve misunderstood the main plot anyway. So did I enjoy this album? Yes. Can I explain why it’s in the top 1001 and what sets it apart from other jazz albums? No.
I’m a bit partial to the odd bit of country music now and again. There’s quite a wide variety of styles available on this album from honky-tonk to Carter family style folky stuff. Really enjoyed Early Morning Breeze but not all to my taste.
Brilliant album that’s more than just the hit single There She Goes. A blueprint for indie music that followed. Timeless Melody and Looking Glass are two standout tracks but every track is strong.
Looking at the top 1001 albums released in 1984, this is one I would probably have picked last to listen to. However, that’s what makes this project interesting, you never know what hidden gems you might discover. Unfortunately, in this case... not much. It’s really not my cup of tea.
I was already familiar with the opening two tracks from radio play, and while it was nice to sit down and listen more closely, there wasn’t much beyond that. There are some interesting layers in those first two songs that I hadn’t picked up on before, but that was where the intrigue ended for me.
"Cherry Pie" was decent, but the rest of the album felt like background music a wealthy yuppie might play in 1984 to show off their brand new CD player at a party. Overall it's just not my thing.
Thought this album would be decent but fairly average after listening to the first two songs. Nice songs but nothing special.
The album really starts to evolve during City, Country, City and then gets more interesting in the psychedelic Four Cornered Room. The World Is A Ghetto has some nice Gil-Scott Heron vibes and again marked a distinct shift in tone. Definitely worthy of being the album’s title track.
Overall, the different musical stylings work to create a cohesive and very listenable album.
Wikipedia says “Springsteen is a pioneer of heartland rock… reflecting the issues of working class American life.” So I’m sure this album has a broad appeal to a wide demographic which probably stretches across both sides of the Atlantic but this album didn’t do anything for me.
Wikipedia also says that Springsteen’s energetic concerts last four hours or do they maybe just feel like it because this album certainly felt longer than its runtime.
The music is quite repetitive so I started looking at the lyrics on Spotify thinking that there might be some interesting, socially conscious lyrics hidden behind the macho drum sounds but alas. In one song he travels from New York and tries to impress a ‘little girl’ by telling her $200 is a lot of money.
I could be really harsh and say this album is pure boomer fantasy fiction but I can see/hear why this would appeal to some. Perhaps the older and more conservative I get the more I will like this album.
This was the first time I’d listened to an Elvis Costello album and perhaps a bit more familiarity with his other works might help to better understand where this sits.
He can certainly write a decent song and there’s probably more to discover in his lyrics with repeated listens. Can’t tell if he’s much imitated since or just doing what others had done before and blending musical styles together to make something that’s new.
I’m sitting on the fence with this one!
Never heard or heard of this band or album so was surprised that it wasn’t too far away in sound from music of the same era that I like.
There’s a lot to like on this album, and I enjoyed listening to it. That said, it feels like it’s just after the high point of the late '60s, Woodstock era. The album touches on a lot of different styles, but nothing here really blew me away.
They do the country/rock crossover thing well, kind of similar to what The Beatles were experimenting with at the time. "On Sir Francis Drake" stood out.
I liked it, but I’m not sure I’ll be revisiting it anytime soon.
Enjoyable enough. Not quite the cuica my heart but decent.
Perhaps starting to ‘get’ Costello after listening to two albums.
I can see his appeal to the adolescent who was too cool for ABBA and too sensitive for punk back in 1977. But the appeal is not there for me.
Favourite songs were the bluesy Blame It On Cain and Waiting For The End Of The World.
Really enjoyed listening to this. Never owned it on CD and glad that it’s now available to stream.
It’s like it’s been made my the cool, clever, funny kids a couple of years above you at school that you aspire to be but never will.
Struggled to get through this. Not a fan of the electronic drum sounds not the vocals. At times it felt like listening to selected tracks from a musical such were the different vocal styles of the lead singer.
I can imagine the meeting where this concert is suggested probably at a time when the band is wondering what to do next and is just about all out of ideas. ‘Why don’t we get a fucking orchestra!’ Someone shouts in desperation. ‘Yeah, that could work’ is the unexpected reply.
Does it work? At times it’s so insane it’s incredible. I had the DVD if this once upon a time and it’s pretty epic in its scale and audacity. However, I find that in the course of a single song the orchestra can go from adding incredible depth and drama to sounding like they’re playing a completely different song and there is no or very little symphony between them and the band at all. Master of Puppet and One are where I felt this the most. The orchestra worked best, perhaps unsurprisingly given the change in musical direction they took, in their more recent songs. Until it Sleeps and Human are not Metallica songs that I would turn to but if I did I would listen to the versions from S&M over the studio recordings.
It was enjoyable, even at two hours plus, and been great to revisit. It’s a bit of self indulgent fun from the worlds biggest heavy metal band.
First album that I’ve listened to in this project that I’ve really question its place on the list. It’s just straightforward country. Absolutely nothing noteworthy about this whatsoever. Nothing. Nadda.
Quite enjoyed it on the first listen but less so the second time around. A little bit samey at times and not too sure if they aren’t taking themselves a bit too seriously. Clearly they were popular at the time and the formulas used on this album don’t seem much different to those used on their big hits.
Reviewing with a huge heap of nostalgia as it’s right up there amongst my favourite albums from my teens. Great fun and thoroughly enjoyable. The albums not bad either 😅
Like David Bowie, Prince was not in my musical radar until starting this project. Might take me a few other albums before I start to full ‘get’ him but this was an enjoyable start. Lots of well written songs covering just about any genre you can imagine. From pop songs like I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man to whatever was going on at 3.50 in Play in the Sunshine plus some proper ear worms with Hot Thing and U Got the Look plenty here to explore.
Third slice of pure Americana thrown my way in this project. Can’t say it’s growing on me but this wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever heard either.
If someone was to tell me that this was the album that was a major influence on club music in the 90s/2000s then I could well believe that. Switches from really radio friendly pop numbers to club-ready dance anthems. Probably captured several early 90s zeitgeists (zeigeisten?): the aftermath of the Cold War, the rise of club music/culture, and the expanding visibility and empowerment of LGBTQ+ communities. I guess you had to be there at the time of its release to really have felt its impact and understand its significance.
The messages here are powerful and amazingly seem still relevant based on news and politics from across the pond. I’m not sure that musically this is their strongest work. It Takes a Nation of Millions… works better as an album. The skits and guest appearances don’t work for me here. Nice to revisit but might be a while before I come again.
An album of two half’s both of which failed to ignite. Is he singing out of tune on the last song?
Thoroughly enjoyed this album. Every track delivers something, even if it’s not always spectacular. Bookended by a couple of bangers.
Perfectly competent and even interesting at times. Not sure if my life is that much more complete after listening through. Might be worth a revisit.
I only skim-listened to this after ripping it from whomever’s hard drive back in the day. Settled on OK Computer as my Radiohead album of choice and that was that. Kind of glad that that’s how things worked out because listening to this has been like seeing a Van Gogh painting for the first time. Imagine not being aware that Starry Night existed? So many more layers than OK Computer. Just an incredible listening experience.
100% agree with the assessment of Iron Maiden in in the top review for Number of the Beast but this album is slightly different. Replacing Paul Di’anno with Bruce Dickinson was the right thing to do commercially and artistically too but Iron Maiden never had the same edge after the first two albums. Bruce Dickinson is a talented fencer whereas Di’anno was arrested for carrying an offensive weapon in public. Di’anno gives the band real menace with the punk aesthetic his voice has. It makes Maiden far more listenable and interesting than their later works (even if the song writing gets better post-Di’anno).
My mum would like this album.
Not my thing but next time I’m on a come down I might give it another spin.
I could well imagine giving this album 5/5 if I was more familiar with it. Such a diverse range of musical styles! Some songs seem to fade out suddenly which is disappointing but overall the album was thoroughly enjoyable.
Another album that’s probably captured perfectly the flavour of the month but there’s very little variety here and it means very little to me. My favourite track was actually the first of the bonus tracks. Bland.
I liked the first two tracks but at over an hour in length the album really started to drag towards the end.
Not without merit but not my jam.
Huge heap of nostalgia probably adding an extra star to this album for me. Still know all the words to the introduction! A couple of songs feel a bit ‘okay grandpa’ after 30 years but I enjoyed when I first listened and I enjoyed it as much this time around.
There’s something lacking and disjointed about this album that I can’t quite put my finger on. I’m just not sure if it’s curated very well as an album. I love the rock and roll stuff which is raw and edgy but the ballady type songs are a bit of a drag and not as good as Elvis at Sun.
Like the film Titanic this is not the best album ever made but sold an awful lot of copies. Why? Probably because it hits that sweet spot of appealing to the masses perfectly: brilliant singer, universal themes in the lyrics and decent enough tunes which use inoffensive sound palettes.
The Rick Rubin produced songs sound the best and I’m surprised that Adele doesn’t seemed to have worked with him again. He strips away some unnecessary layers to create a much cleaner sound.
Also, to the person who took this album off the list and left Steve Earle on: whilst 21 isn’t Dark Side of The Moon or Abbey road I don’t hear Year 7 bands playing ‘Little Rock n Roller’ or hear ‘Guitar Town’ being sung at a karaoke or open mic night whereas ‘Rolling In The Deep’ and ‘Someone Like You’ are absolute staples of pop culture. Maybe deep in the heart of Americana Steve Earle is their Adele but not in my world so surely 21 still deserves a place on the list?
Got to admit that Someone Like You hits a lot harder when you’re listening at home alone but I didn’t cry at the end of Titanic either…
Once I’d finally listened to the right album the experience was pretty good. Nice proto-grunge sound. It has merited a second spin. I enjoyed Soul Soldier.
Very late-80s, very mid-Atlantic. Very mid.
A couple of well know tunes sandwiching a fairly decent album.
Quite a lot heavier than I was expecting! Feels a little overproduced at times. Still very enjoyable!
Smells Like Teen Spirit still has the ability to transport me back to the feeling I had when I first listened to it.
