Round and Round sounds like they're trying to be Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath, though less successfully. This album is so hokey at parts during its first half that "Walk This Way" is actually worse in context. "Sweet Emotion" is still cool and I think I liked the closing track.
I don't get lo-fi. These are demos. There are some good songs in here but they needed a producer and a pro mixer. I made recordings in my bedroom at 20 years old that had a similar quality. There are some good songs here, and there are some good song ideas here, but basically this feels like what you bring your bandmates when you're ready to make a new album, so you can all start working on it together.
Got better as it went along. Thought it was too folksy/country at times. Definitely more than what I usually enjoy. I thought it got more artsy in the second half and enjoyed that.
Really interesting, almost "progressive R&B" album. I really enjoyed parts of it but it might have been a little long for me.
Round and Round sounds like they're trying to be Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath, though less successfully. This album is so hokey at parts during its first half that "Walk This Way" is actually worse in context. "Sweet Emotion" is still cool and I think I liked the closing track.
Aside from Beautiful Day and Elevation, there's not a lot to love here. Skipped a couple of tracks.
You can hear other artists throughout this album, from U2 to Arcade Fire, and radio hits such as Don't You Forget About Me and I Melt with You. This album is very 80s post-punk at its core. Having the orchestra is nice, and there are some interesting ideas, but its mixing and production are so 80s pop that you have to listen too hard to get much deeper than the vocals. Overall, I see why it got mixed reviews upon release.
There's some really creative stuff here. It's better than I expected, though I know that this is generally considered the last masterpiece before the mess that was The Life of Pablo. I liked a lot of the beats and his flow was really good throughout. I can't stand most of his lyrics, unfortunately. The explicit nature of some pull me right out of the musical enjoyment. I would listen to this album again though.
Oof I hate the song I know from this band so I'm not looking forward to this but we'll see! I am shocked to learn this is not only not a one hit wonder band (the song from The Breakfast Club), but also that song isn't even on this album. I tried to find stuff to like in here but ultimately hated it.
Loved the surprise of Thom Yorke here, and suddenly realized how much some of these songs sounded like Radiohead. Definitely going to listen to it again. Update: listened again and really liked it despite it getting a little too "imperfect" at times. I can see why this is a classic. Some legitimately beautiful moments on here.
Did I find the right thing? There's only 4 songs. Holy shit those 4 songs take up 75 minutes??? What genre is this? Oh freeform jazz. Lol okay. Let's get into it. The first track takes about 7 minutes to get going. I think the third is the only one with vocals. There's a lot of great stuff in here that's surrounded by literal noise or buried within the vamps of improvisational jazz. This would be incredible to experience at a jazz club/bar. I can see how it informed progressive rock and opened the door for such groups as The Mars Volta (whose song Tetragrammaton is still the best 18 minute long song I've heard, sorry Soft Machine). My experience with jam sessions is to improv them and then find the song within and whittle it down to that. There was no whittling here. I enjoyed this but I don't see myself listening to it again.
Gah this is so cool. A history of Metallica would be incomplete without this. This is not just a live album. This is the biggest heavy metal / hard rock band in the world at the time, the best they'd ever sounded live in their careers to date, working with their hometown symphony orchestra to adapt two hours of their biggest hits for an arena to be played live together with said orchestra, based on an idea from their original bassist, who had died tragically in a bus accident on tour 13 years earlier. He was the one who introduced music theory and more complicated composition to the group and still influences their work to this day. This performance even includes the only recordings of two new songs, one of which became a radio hit itself. In my opinion, Master of Puppets made them the biggest band in heavy metal, 1991's Black Album made them radio staples, and S&M made them legendary. They could do whatever they wanted after this. And they did, writing the lead single for Mission: Impossible 2 the next year, releasing a garage metal album in 2003 that has aged far better than I expected it to, collaborating with Lou Reed in a double album in his final work before his death, and returning to thrash for 3 Metallica albums, this time with radio polish. Metallica even revisited the S&M concept 20 years after the original as the first event to open the new Golden State Warriors arena in San Francisco and I got to see that on one of its two nights in theaters before getting a copy on Blu-ray. I love this album and it's really obvious how it ended up on this list.
Never heard of this before. Don't know the artists. Didn't know there was a bossa nova craze in America in the 60s. Thought it was great! A couple times it strays a little close to "elevator music" but overall it's really cool.
Ooh wow. Always liked "Them Changes" and I remember trying this album out once while searching for something in The Home Depot. It didn't stick with me but I think I might've been too focused on the hardware shopping. Okay. This is the first legitimately "weird" album we've gotten. And I love it. One of the best bass players of his generation (Esperanza Spalding comes to mind) delivers an album that is uniquely him and is well worth the listen.
I really hate folk. This one slipped past the censors because its genre is officially "folktronica" but really only a handful of these falls under that umbrella. I liked maybe 3 of the songs and the rest were just not my thing at all.
A very strange album, filled with folksy musings on the narrator's observations of the world around him. The lyrics offer dated descriptions of ethnic groups, delivered in Waits's signature voice that sounds like Bruce Springsteen raked over a cheese grater. Sometimes you can't even tell what note he's singing as he sounds more and more like Cookie Monster. Waits's music is truly eccentric, and I'm glad I listened to this album, though I may never listen again, save for the opener.
I never really "got" The Cars before. I knew 4 of these songs really well and a fifth I feel like I've heard. This album is filled with candy-coated power pop that I always assumed was 80s but a closer listen reveals it's very much rooted in 1970s guitar-based music, played by people with a love for the synthesizer. Having grown up with several songs by this band as a constant presence on TV and in movies, I didn't realize that I'd never truly listened to them. This is an impressive debut album. The "other songs" on the album are really good. In my opinion, this band towers over other acts known as new wave. I'm glad I listened to this album.
It's telling that the best song on this album by far is the one Clapton didn't write. His funk cover of Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" is fantastic. It is surrounded by 6 boring and forgettable blues songs, a country song, and 2 blues rock songs that are also pretty forgettable.
Pretty cool. Definitely feels raw and early but never fails to be interesting.
Really cool. Very strange. This is the first modern one to show up for me here that was never on my radar. Never heard of this group. Loved it.
Awful. I will never understand how "post-punk" and "post-punk revival" are supposed to be similar, considering some of my favorite music ever is described as 00s post-punk revival and I've never heard any post-punk that I've liked. It's like this guy literally doesn't WANT to sing on key. But not in a snotty "fuck the rules" way, like punk, but rather like in a "I want to croon like Sinatra and I don't care if you like it" kind of way.
Though on the surface this seems like it would be too folksy for my taste (and indeed it is too folksy for me to have listened to on my own), it is immediately apparent that Joni Mitchell is special. I really enjoyed the jazz influences that can be heard throughout, and when she really leans into the jazzy stuff, thus album is really fun. I will revisit this but it is unlikely to go into my rotation.
Ughhhh..... not a fan of this band. I only know the title track here so we'll see. Yeah, no. Terrible. Not for me at all.
David Bowie made such cool music. I only knew Golden Years and TVC-15. Found out he played saxophone. Just so cool, artistically. Loved experiencing this album for the first time.
Really interesting to hear this album with its context. I agree with the contemporary reviews that said many songs sounded unfinished, but still, there's something there. The album has a distinctly Paul McCartney charm to it, and as a recording project, experimenting with instrumentation and being the first record on which Paul played everything, it is fascinating.
Terrible. Just noise for most of it. I feel justified being like the only person I knew who didn't like Paper Planes back in the day.
I'm learning that I hate 80s post-punk/new wave.
A group of songs that don't really make you wonder why you know other versions better. This is unfortunately even the case for Respect, an original to this album.
This band sounds like if Death from Above 1979 didn't want to have commercial success. Pretty interesting. Something worth studying. Not exactly an album I would play over and over though.
This is definitely not grunge. You can tell it was recorded live. It's interesting. I was promised this would rock harder than it does, but Neil Young is a folk singer at heart.
Such a talent. The arrangements sound so ahead of their time and her voice is amazing.
This would be cool to have been present for but ultimately the songs all blended together and nothing was vibrant enough to stand out as vital. The story is more interesting than the music, unfortunately. Still, not bad by any means.
This did not stand out on first listen, but I felt like I definitely needed to listen to it again, and I knew I had the weekend without new albums to do so. I realized throughout the weekend that I wasn't exactly excited to give it another listen. Finally did a little late, and a few songs jumped out a little better on the second listen. I'll try again someday. This is the album that made me confirm my suspicion that the author of the 1001 book is British. I really think a lot of these British works would not have made the cut if the organizer of the list weren't British. But there are groups I never would have heard of without that, so it's okay.
4 songs in had me feeling like it is no surprise at all why this was my dad's favorite band when he was young. The first half of this album is absolutely ridiculous. I don't like "Tangerine" at all, and the back half gets a little too folksy for me personally, but it's still pretty good (if you remove "Tangerine").
Wow what is this. Ever since I first gave "Lovefool" a proper listen as an adult, I've thought it was so cool, and the rest of this album matches that energy. I truly loved this album. It's weird in a unique way that is still accessible. The reference to "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" rocks, and the cover of "Iron Man"--a song I've always hated--is amazing. Loved it all.
This was cool because it was on the way to but it was NOT G-funk. I enjoy G-funk quite a bit but this was more like funky sociopolitical hip-hop. This is a little too early to have the studio polish of the G-funk era. Socially conscious lyrics and really creative selection of samples made this a fun listen, but it wasn't quite commercial enough for me to want to devote multiple listens to it despite it clearly being an achievement for the genre. "Doin' Our Own Dang" was the best one on the album to me.
This was really cool. The decision not to use cymbals is really interesting and inspired a lot of creativity in composition and recording. I really enjoyed this, though it dragged a little at the end.
There's some cool stuff on here but overall a bit too "punk rock" for me. The album felt short and long at the same time. Like each song was short but the album still went on too long.
This is the best album I've had so far from this project that was never on my radar before. Never heard of the band or any of its members, didn't know anything about them, none of the songs were familiar to me at all. And I loved it. Singer reminded me of Jim Ward of Sparta. Songs took interesting detours. Just great.
More folksy than I usually listen to but less folksy than I was expecting. This album makes interesting use of the stereo soundscape, and it's cool to hear their experimentation in instrumentation and sound recording develop throughout. I liked a few songs and will probably listen again.
I reeeally liked this. First time I've heard of "sophisti-pop." It feels almost like this album is the answer to "what if post-punk and new wave were actually good?"
Pretty good, but it didn't grab me like I think it should. It made me think of a more electronic sophisti-pop.
Overall, I love the way psychedelia transforms the underlying blues on this album, but there's way too much rapid panning of guitars and psychedelic sound effects on this album that distract from the songs themselves. The rapid panning immediately took me out of it several times. I'm also not a fan of 18 minute long songs that don't vary their song structure enough to justify their duration. I would listen to this again and skip the overlong songs. All Along the Watchtower and Crosstown Traffic still slap.
The first half of the album is much more accessible. I know Sonic Youth loved to make noise, and that really comes across throughout the album but especially in the second half. I liked several songs on the first half but really thought a lot of the back half wasn't worth listening to.
I'm not a big fan of punk rock. Too simple in both song structure and technical musicality while also deliberately avoiding any form of musical beauty. A couple songs maybe stand out but not enough to figure out which ones they were.
Trite 60s pop made by at least one absolutely terrible person. California Dreamin' is a pretty good song and I can see why Monday, Monday was popular.
God, I love Stevie Wonder. I only knew two of these songs before listening to this as part of this project. I had no idea that Stevie was ever a "one man band" or even that he could play the drums. This is a beautiful album, filled with sonic experimentation. I love that it's described as progressive soul and I love that it's considered one of his finest, one of the greatest albums ever, and highly influential in its genre. It's always so cool to me when somebody's singular creative genius is recognized as such, and Stevie's one of the best ever to do it.
Terrible album art, which gives a misleading impression of what the listener is about to hear. "Supergrass," specifically with that photo, seems like it's going to be bluegrass or folk or something like that but it was BRITPOP. I really liked it, specifically over the first half. Sounds a lot like the Oasis stuff I like.
The first Queen album I've heard in its entirety, this is a great album. I only know the hits but I really enjoyed this.
Some of the samples are interesting but he rides almost all of them too long, so they overstay their welcome. None of this really stood out to me.
Most of the songs sound the same as each other and it's all folk. Just a really boring listen.
I only knew singles by this band. As I grew up and got older, I understood Rage Against the Machine much better. It is still shocking that this band became such a success with their overtly political lyrics being screamed at you over outrageous and often experimental instrumentation. But the band is so tight, and some of the songs are unbelievably fun to shout along with. Listening to this album for the first time today, it finally clicked in my brain that they are funk metal. This album doesn't have all of my favorite Rage songs (notably Sleep Now in the Fire and Guerrilla Radio were later) but it's hard to believe that they came out with Killing in the Name right out the gate. They sound so fresh and new but also like they've been playing together forever. It's no surprise that the three instrumentalists found further success after Rage with Audioslave. They have incredible chemistry. By the end of its 52 minute run time, I'm definitely tired of being screamed at, but overall, this is a solid album, and thirty years later it still stands out as unique. 3.5 stars
I hated their other album in this project. I hated this one a little less. Too often, they don't care to stay in key with each other, and I hate it.
A lot of this sounds like it was written as the score for a spy mystery film. There's some really cool sounding songs on here. Not always my thing, but definitely interesting.
Oh my God. I love this album so much and did NOT expect to see it here. What a great surprise. I didn't know that anybody really knew about this album. Pharrell's funk rock album. It's just awesome. It's cool to see other people recognize it as special.
Oooh a vocal jazz album! An enjoyable listen, very nice to have on in the background. Rarely calls attention to itself, so nothing jumps out, despite all being very good.
Beautiful, beautiful album, which I'd never heard all of before. I was working outside when I listened to this and just loved the whole flow of it. I found myself dancing throughout and singing along when classics I know like "Mercy, Mercy Me" came on. Listening closely, I really paid attention to the doubled vocals and what Marvin Gaye did to perform dueling lead melodies at times and deliver harmonies at others. This album just feels like one where everything all came together exactly the right way. And it just feels good to listen to.
It's never good if I can tell with a degree of confidence that an album is from the 80s. Breaking the Law and Rapid Fire are cool. Living After Midnight and United are awful. A bunch of this album sounded too much like AC/DC for me.
I don't get lo-fi. These are demos. There are some good songs in here but they needed a producer and a pro mixer. I made recordings in my bedroom at 20 years old that had a similar quality. There are some good songs here, and there are some good song ideas here, but basically this feels like what you bring your bandmates when you're ready to make a new album, so you can all start working on it together.
Great album. I've known this one about 10 years. From the opening track, "Girls & Boys," the sound of the album stands out uniquely within its genre. For all the discussion of the Britpop wars between Oasis and Blur, this album came out a year and a half before Oasis released anything that could come close to competing with this album. And as much as I love "Wonderwall" and "Champagne Supernova," they don't strike you the way this album does, with the addictively weird instrumental accents on "Girls & Boys," the French passages in "To the End," the carnival instrumental of "The Debt Collector," or the upbeat rock of "Trouble in the Message Center." This album showed an eclectic mix of genres and styles that really shines and when you think about it, makes Damon Albarn's transition to Gorillaz frontman way less surprising than if you only knew him from "Song #2" beforehand. Everything they tried on this album feels wildly successful when viewed altogether, and is clearly the best Britpop album I know, if for no other reason than it is immediately and obviously unique.
Most of this is exactly the kind of blues that I find super boring.
This is the first one in this project that I truly couldn't listen to. The singer isn't singing. He's making guttural sounds. Not my thing.
My first thought was that the vocals on the first track were abrasive and offkey and his repeated command to "tell me how much you can take" at the end sounded like he was daring me to get through the whole album. I ended up really enjoying the funk of "East Easy Rider," and "The American Lite" also stood out to me. Overall, I enjoyed the album a lot more than I thought I would based on the first track, even though it did sometimes veer into that British new wave territory I've learned I hate (especially in the vocal production). I was surprised by the end by my thought that I might listen to this again.
I don't know any of these songs but you are going to have a really hard time convincing me that anybody was having more fun on the night of January 12, 1963 than Mr. Sam Cooke. Wow. What a great idea to make sure you recorded this man live. His voice sounds great, you can tell he's playing to the crowd and he even coaches them through a sing-along section without missing a beat himself and he made it sound like natural ad-libbing instead of the obnoxious way I've heard other singers basically break up their set to make the crowd play along with their egos. This guy's just having the time of his life and wants everybody else to have a fraction of the good time he's having. Wow. This is one of the best live albums I've ever heard, and certainly the best I've heard where I didn't already know any of the songs. I can't believe they shelved it for over two decades.
I heard this album one or two times when it came out and dismissed it as boring, frustrated by the slow tempos I felt occupied the entire album. This hit me now differently. I haven't listened to Adele in a long time. What a beautiful, powerful voice. I'm astonished at her control. I'm not surprised she stood out when I caught an early TV performance. I enjoyed this album a lot more this time than I did 9 years ago. It doesn't have any of my favorite Adele songs on it, but 25 does have the one that got so big it became a joke, even being lampooned by SNL. And hearing it now and really listening to it, I was really impressed by "Hello." 25 is not always my thing, but is impressive the whole way through.
I liked this album more than I expected to. I hated the last Eric Clapton album in this project. This blues was a lot less boring, which I think comes from it being filled with songs that were already "tried-and-true" classics, but played with a then-fresh loose, blues rock feel. Pretty cool.
I was excited for this album when I saw who it was, but then surprised by what it actually was. A cacophony of samples melded together by the ears of Eno and Byrne. The shock of the decision to forgo "traditional" vocals makes this album a little less enjoyable for me as a listener, but academically, it is super cool and interesting. I don't think I would just listen to this, but I want to know more about it and how it was made.
Wow, Slipknot??? I can't believe it. I remember disliking "Psychosocial" when it came out and my friends were talking about it, and really haven't heard it ever since. I think I liked it this time. I didn't like when this album went into death metal territory but when Corey Taylor (who has one of the most impressively diverse voices in rock music currently) really sang, on top of groove metal riffs that I didn't know Slipknot had in them, it was awesome. I have always preferred Stone Sour to Slipknot, but held "Duality" and "Before I Forget" close. I'm really not a fan of when Taylor screams his way through a track, but had no idea Slipknot had a more musical and groovy side, and I'm glad I discovered it here.