I feel like I'm too sober to listen to this.
Bland. Average 90's Britpop. Inoffensive background music, really.
Two simultaneous truths: The Wall needs all of its tracks as a concept album, but it's also a bit bloated. There are fantastic hits on here, and yet it's one of Pink Floyd's weaker albums.
Tedious. Tiresome. Bland.
Delightful weirdness from when the century was still shiny and new. I'd never listened to Super Furry Animals before, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to discover them.
Mediocre white men: blues rock edition.
This album has its ups and downs, but it's overall a decent listen.
How had I never listened to this album before now? It's going in my regular rotation immediately.
Two things are contributing to my rating here:
1. Phil Spector was such a terrible person that the average dumpster fire seems pleasant in comparison. He'd been abusing women and children loooooooong before he committed murder at age 63.
2. On a less serious level, I can't stand Christmas music. I can't stand Christmas. Ugh. Even if it wasn't produced by a malignant person, I'd be avoiding this because it's a bad genre-to-listener mismatch for ME as a person.
In conclusion, NOPE NOPE NOPE
Probably the best I've heard from U2, but I'm not a straight white man so I'm just not the target audience. 🤷🏻♀️
Decent! It's not something I'm ever going to listen to in full album form again, but there are enough classic songs on here that they'll be hanging around my playlists.
I can hear why other people like this... but 50s music is NOT my thing.
My rating is absolutely biased by nostalgia, I've loved this album since I was in high school... the album being 30 doesn't make it any less amazing, though! 🤘
I am not the target audience for this.
At least I now have enough experience to state that I don't care for Frank Ocean? I didn't even know who he was before this album came up. Been living under a rock for the last 15 years, that's part of why I signed up for the 1001 albums in the first place. My middle aged horizons have been expanded in a direction I didn't particularly enjoy, but that's growth for you.
If you like slower, sensual music, this is the album for you! Unfortunately, it is not the album for me - I technically listened to the whole thing but I couldn't focus. There's nothing wrong with it, just not my thing!
Oof. A couple of highlights, a couple of tracks that were just plain uncomfortable to listen to, and the rest of it just seemed to highlight how huge an ego George had at the time. I know it's highly regarded, so I tried to like it, but... I'm too conflicted.
Rod Stewart has terrible hair. This has nothing to do with the album or how it sounds, but I needed to get that off my chest. It's almost painful to look at him, his hairstyle is SO BAD.
Luckily, I only had to listen to him with this album!
It's pretty solid rock music. Not a stand out favorite, but good enough to add to genre playlists. Not bad, not bad at all.
Unfortunately, I encountered Kanye's reputation before his music, and I find it incredibly difficult to separate the art from the artist.
I love Echo & The Bunnymen. I especially love The Killing Moon, a high point on an album I already enjoy.
Yeah, this is a biased review, but music taste is subjective, right? I'm happy, that's what matters.
Okay, look. I'm being aggressively subjective in my ratings. I'm not a professional music critic, I'm not preparing a chronicle of important developments in music history. I am but one middle-aged bisexual woman documenting her own personal taste.
That said...
You know how I figured out the bisexuality thing? The music videos for Only Happy When It Rains and Stupid Girl made me feel funny. The album with Queer on it helped me realize that I'm queer. This album is so significant to my personal history, I was honestly a bit surprised to see it come up in the generator!
I love this album to bits, obviously. 30 years later my youthful crush on Shirley Manson has faded into a warm fuzzy memory, but the music will never get old. This is absolutely my idea of a good time.
Ah, the British Invasion band that wasn't, thanks to a performance ban. The Kinks stopped trying to appeal to American audiences a couple of years before this album was released.
This album is beautifully, unapologetically English, right down to the title. It's not homogeneous, either - there's plenty of variation between tracks, enough to capture my interest and leave me feeling disappointed after the last track (of 15) ended.
Chester, I hope you have the peace now that you never had in life.
That said... listening to an entire album of "mental health crisis" is painful in multiple ways. Hybrid Theory wouldn't exist in a world with accessible, decent, affordable psychiatric care.
This is very good music... for someone else's taste.
Playful, fun rhyming to infectious beats.
While I wasn't angry to be listening to this (that's my threshold for giving out a one star rating, those are all albums that pissed me off) it's not exactly anything I want to ever listen to again. Wispy tenor with acoustic guitar? Pass.
It's great that this exists - it helped Leonard Cohen process the rapidly approaching end of his life, perhaps it can continue to help others who are grappling with the concept of death.
It's also slow, depressing, a bit too much of a reminder of how harsh life is. No escaping the senseless brutality of existence here.
Short of developing a terminal illness myself, I can't see this album in my future.
Sometimes three stars indicates mediocrity, sometimes it's uneven albums with a mix of tracks that might have gotten fives or ones on their own, and sometimes it's for good art I just don't mesh with.
Three stars. No meshing.
So tedious to listen to that it goes through boring and lands firmly in the "annoying as hell" category. Ugh.
It's not that I'm averse to bands experimenting with genre and structure - I regularly listen to Sparks, after all - but I have very little patience for slow, meandering quasi-tunes that never seem to find their way to an actual beat.
The funny thing, though... my husband has significantly more conventional tastes than I do, and I'm pretty sure he'd be fine with the tempo but be annoyed by the experimental, jazzy aspect. 🤷🏻♀️
Anyway, I'm listening to a Sparks song with a good beat to clean my ears of this nonsense.
Flower power folk, almost painfully earnest in its presentation. Any discussion of 60s music would be incomplete without mentioning Donovan.
For me, there's definitely a distinct sort of mood I have to be in to appreciate mellow folk like this... I had this album generated a couple weeks ago, actually, but I put it off until I finally entered one of those contemplative, under caffeinated states. It's a snow day, I've lost my voice, it's a good time to get a little wistful about the way the hippie dream got crushed by an avalanche of late stage capitalism.
Damn, this somehow manages to sound the way a combination of patchouli and dollar store incense smells. If you're the sort of person who likes this music, I'm probably questioning your life choices.
A fine example... of a genre I don't care for.
I put off listening to this for over a week after it was generated, waiting until I was in a sufficiently open minded state to give it a fair chance. It's decent for country, but, you know... it's country. Sorry.
Fantastic background music when you're hanging out with a bunch of people over 40. As active listening goes, meh. I'm unimpressed.
I love it when a band gives itself an accurate name.
R.I.P. Rick Buckler
Neil Young is one of those artists I've absolutely, utterly failed to connect with or appreciate on any level. We're talking about four decades of me going "ugh" every time I hear one of his songs.
So I tried to go into this with an open mind, I really did, but... Ugh. Too slow, too melancholy, too folk/country.
I just don't like Neil Young.
I sat on this one for over a month after it was generated, because I suspected I was going to hate the listening experience, but have successfully isolated myself from pop music for so long that I wasn't certain.
There's also a certain reluctance to contaminate my music recommendation algorithms, you know?
Anyway. Thirty three days later, I finally sucked it up and gave Taylor Swift a listen.
Shallow. Hollow. Overproduced. Prepackaged and sanitized for popular consumption.
I know I haven't quite made it through 10% of the albums on this project yet, and a few of my all time favorites are still in the future - so I'm going to go clean my ears by listening to one of those. Todd Rundgren, save me!
I've been putting off a few albums I either know nothing about, or know I'm not going to enjoy. This is the last remaining "I know nothing" album to get me caught up.
Hmmm. Okay, first impression was not great - indie rock/Britpop isn't my favorite - but I kept going, and then the South Asian elements really kicked in and it got good.
Pleasant yet forgettable; good background music. I don't think this really merits inclusion on the list. It's almost like LCD Soundsystem trying to perform while sleep deprived.
You need to be in a very specific mood to appreciate big beat. The Prodigy has the biggest nostalgia factor for me - elder millennial here - so The Chemical Brothers are already at a bit of a disadvantage. This sounds like playing a racing game on the original PlayStation feels: it was cool when I was a teenager but hasn't aged well at all.
Yeah, sorry, this is just as much a snapshot of the 90s as Donovan's Sunshine Superman is a snapshot of the 60s, but with a lot less heart. I'd rather leave this in the late 90s with my sequined spaghetti strap tank top where it belongs.
Damn, somehow I made it into my early forties before listening to this album. It's right up my alley - energetic, experimenting with stylistic differences between tracks while remaining recognizably coherent as the same band. The production is excellent.
Some albums I can't finish before I react to them. This album got added to my Tidal library after four tracks. Album and listener were perfectly matched today.
Okay, this is 28 tracks long. Let's see how much of Billy Corgan's BS I can slog my way through.
... four and a half tracks before I noped out.
I'm not great at separating the art from the artist, so it's genuinely more difficult for me to hear the artistic merit in Smashing Pumpkins music with my extremely low opinion of Billy Corgan as a person. It is a pretty significant part of the 90s music scene, and very influential on later artists in multiple genres. Three stars, I guess?
Peter Gabriel going way over the top with his creative vision. I don't find it particularly appealing - I enjoy the Phil Collins version of Genesis way more - but maaaaaaaaaan, the sheer effort that was poured into this. No wonder Gabriel split from the band after this.
While this didn't knock my socks off, it's perfectly good Senegalese music. Yeah, the synth element is a bit of a giveaway that it's from the 80s, but it is what it is and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
So, uh, I tried to listen to Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and fell asleep. Nice refreshing 7 hours, but not a great endorsement.
2002. I was 18 when this album came out, and I remember being politely baffled by all the people who loved it. It's perfectly lovely music, I don't hate it, it's just not giving off the energy I look for in music I actively listen to.
Quiet storm is typically way too smooth and mellow for my taste, but I'll give Anita a chance...
Smooth. Mellow. Great music for other people. Doesn't feel particularly essential to the history of music, unless you're specifically talking about popular 80s music that wasn't new wave.
Meh.
Nirvana! A pleasant surprise for my Gen X husband, who has to deal with my eclectic tastes and my decision to take on the 1001 albums. 😅
Scentless Apprentice is brutally unpleasant to listen to. The other eleven tracks range from fine to excellent, but the screeching. The screeching! Extremely skippable track. I know this is the final finished artistic product of a tormented mind, but eeeeeeesh.
Love the Albini production, love Albini's snarky dismissal of Nirvana as a band. I was 9 when this album came out, and I liked MTV back then (before it turned into a reality show dumpster fire) so a few of these tracks are woven into the soundscape of my youth. I have my biases.
Four stars. Yeah, Scentless Apprentice is that bad.
Day 81 and I finally get the first of nine total Bowie albums within the one thousand and however many (since we're listening to all the albums from all editions). Also the first of those nine chronologically. Bowie was, what, 24 when he made this?
First listen was through my phone speaker while skeining my latest handspun yarn. Not the best sound quality, but the mellow meditative activity paired nicely with the softer piano melodies on the album. Gotta relisten with headphones on sometime later.
Dang. This is some good stuff. Welcome to my music library, Hunky Dory.
Hot damn! This is big band/swing proving - quite explosively - that it never faded into irrelevance. Phenomenal.
There's something about that country guitar twanginess that I find really off-putting. I wanted to like this album more than I actually did.
Hypothesis: whatever genre you happen to dislike, you will think there's way too much of it as you work your way through the 1001+ albums in this project.
I've seen people complain that there's too much electronica. Too much post-punk. Too much Bowie.
It's not Maxwell's fault that he helped me form this hypothesis, as I reacted to his music with "WTF, more R&B?!" but I did not enjoy the listening experience.
For me, the project has too much R&B. Sorry, Maxwell; it's not you, it's me.
I have a pre-existing bias heavily in favor of this album.
I'm not going to fight the bias.
5/5 kickass Queen album, will absolutely keep listening to
What the fuck? This came out when I was 8?
*double checks release date*
Is Michael Franti a time traveler? Did he escape from our current hellscape back to 1992 to give us a (distressingly unheeded) warning?
I'm sad now.
Beautiful, avant garde, definitely interesting enough to hold my focus. Another delightful experience.
For the other listeners on the same journey of discovery: if you don't like Waking the Witch, never hand me the aux. I'm in my happy place here.
Is this an album you must listen to before you die so you know what not to do if you make an album of your own? Yow.
Boring boring bland blah beige WHAT THE FUCK?!?!
That was certainly different.
It seems, from reading other reviews, that Born To Run is an album you either connect with or not, regardless of how you feel about Springsteen as a person.
I'm in the camp that appreciates Bruce Springsteen more for his personality than his music. Failure to connect. I'm not his audience.
Okay. Led Zeppelin made some pretty fantastic music, but they also made some pretty tedious music that's difficult for my ADHD brain to stick with... and yeah, this particular album is nearly impossible for me to get through in one sitting. Good songs individually, but MAN. It's a lot.
This is chill, you can definitely put this album on and get shit done, but the quality isn't consistent to my ears. Some tracks are absolutely amazing, some are meandering and lose me partway through. I think it averages out to a 4 star rating overall.
Headphones: on.
Volume: at the high end of the range that's safe for one's hearing.
Me: getting absolutely lost in the music.
My criteria for five stars seems to be a lot more lenient than some other listeners on this project. I'm not after technical skills, I'm after how the music makes me feel. Did I enjoy the album enough to add it to my library? That's a five.
Violator really needs the headphones, though. It's not the same just echoing through my kitchen while I figure out what ingredients need to be used for dinner.
What the fuck did I just listen to?
I appreciate creativity and experimentation. I usually appreciate post-punk - my love of recent post-punk revival bands is what led me to this project in the first place.
It's just... on a personal level, as a listener, I'd like this album more without that infernal country-style twang.
The fact that this album came up a few days ago and I saved it for my next bout of insomnia... yeah, that about sums it up. Dull but occasionally useful. 🥱
The style of this album doesn't really suit me as a listener. The country and gospel elements are off-putting. It's not terrible - it lands somewhere between meh and annoying.
This is one of those albums that's absolutely amazing if you're in the correct mood for it, and mediocre otherwise. I was not in the correct mood today. 🤷🏻♀️
Goddamnit, I do NOT want to deal with more tedious white boy ego tripping bullshit. Red Hot Chili Peppers would be a lot more enjoyable if it was just instrumental - Kiedis is awful. AWFUL.
If I found this in my household CD collection, I would give it away.
After the first three songs, I honestly forgot that I'd put this album on for the project instead of personal listening enjoyment. It's right up my alley, excellent stuff.
I have some money here for you, so reach into me and grab it
And I've never understood why anybody likes Lenny Kravitz
I see no reason for this to continue
I don't have anything else to put in you
Now go back home girl, and do whatever it is that you do
- from the song "Lenny Kravitz" by Electric Six
Meh.
Something I've realized about myself, going through this project - while music that's too smooth, like quiet storm, gets low ratings for bouncing right off of my ADHD brain, the twangy sound of "country" grabs hold a little too well, and ends up annoying me so much I automatically deduct a star. Even the finest Johnny Cash album can't squeak past four stars with me. And this is... okay, I hear the bits that influenced a lot of later acts, but I wouldn't necessarily call it good music.
What do I like? Skillful use of electric instruments, like guitars and synth. I also react more favorably to eccentricity than to mainstream pandering. I'm currently listening to the Django Django album that I know is somewhere in the generator, wishing I was reviewing something I vibe with today.
🤷🏻♀️
Oooh, another delightful discovery courtesy of this project. A playful, fun concept album with excellent beats - no boredom here!
Ehhh. Overproduced and sanitized, too pop. Somehow, despite the correlation with Neil Tennant coming out of the closet shortly after this album was released, it feels... bland and inauthentic? Probably the production giving me that vibe.
I have a decent tolerance for Aerosmith in small doses - which is handy, since I married a Gen X white guy who loves listening to classic rock stations in the car - but an entire album is a bit too much. Plus there's that thing where Steven Tyler is a shit human, and his vocals aren't even that good.
Yeah, there's a couple decent tracks on here, but making myself listen to the whole thing was annoying. I save one star ratings for albums I hate, and I don't outright hate Pump... but it's a fairly low 2.
TV On The Radio! Yay!
Oh man, I haven't listened to this album in...
*checks last.fm stats*
...five whole weeks! Gosh, it's been such a long time since late February.
This time I've got my tortoiseshell cat trying to stick her tail in my eye, so it's still technically a new experience, right?
Anyway. My biggest disappointment is knowing that there's no more TV On The Radio left for me to review in this project. However, Tunde Adebimpe is releasing his first solo album in a couple of weeks, so I still have something to look forward to!
This list of albums you MUST hear before you die was put together by someone who really loves British post-punk, huh?
I also enjoy British post-punk, so I'm not mad about it.
My thoughts can be summed up by a photo of a cat with wide eyes and ears flattened back.
2013. David Bowie, in his mid-sixties, puts forth one heck of a creative effort, but he does not sound good for a man in his sixties. His health must have already been in decline; Blackstar was his farewell, this is the dark themed lead up to that farewell.
I mean, it's damned good for what it is, the musings of a powerful talent contained in a weak flesh vessel that was breaking down. It's got to be taken in context, though.
Oh wow, this is an album I'd put on if I had to explain what Gen X was like back in the nineties to modern kids.
I'm an elder Millennial with a Gen X husband, I've got a definite soft spot for a portion of that cohort, but I feel like I'm just a bit too young to truly appreciate this... drunken jam session? That's what it sounds like, anyway.
Good music with bad lyrics.
The title track of this album is my favorite Marvin Gaye song, but the album overall is still smooth and gentle enough that I can't stay focused on it. I assume it's fantastic if you don't have ADHD getting in between the rest of your own brain and the music?
Definitely not my thing. Yeowch.
Live albums are usually not as good as studio recordings.
Usually.
Muddy Waters is the exception that proves the rule. DAMN, was he ever good.
Good nostalgia listen, but Billy Corgan is still a giant asshole.
On one hand, it's a live album. On the other hand, it's The Who, and they're being endearingly silly when they're not playing the music.
Definitely one of the better live albums I've listened to.
I love Locomotive Breath in particular, it's a jam.
Rock with flute doesn't work for some people, but it works for me!
Turns out, I like Frank Black a lot more as a solo artist than I do with The Pixies. I find it a lot easier to connect with.
This album is in my library now.
Soft spot: this album sounds like childhood. I probably "ought" to be more critical of it than I am, but... aw hell, Eliminator was released after I was conceived but before my mom figured out she was going to BE a mom, it's in that very distinct Nostalgia Zone for me. It's just a good listen for me.
Biased as hell 5 stars.
This was a tedious listen.
A brief Internet search suggests that my dislike of slow music is actually one of my ADHD symptoms.
This is slow. I don't like it.
Other reviews call this "ethereal" which usually means it's going to be very difficult for my ADHD brain to hold onto as a primary focus. Therefore, I'll be rating on the "how well does this help me focus on other stuff and get shit done" scale instead of the "is this music enjoyable to listen to as an activity" scale.
Mmmm. Synths get a bit distractingly 80s at times, but nothing too bad. Decent, unlike the vocalist's views.
My husband always insists that I need to stop calling myself weird.
It appears that my genuine enjoyment of They Were Wrong, So We Drowned may be a good counter, because I'm pretty sure this is an album for weirdos.
Evocative, interesting, probably too much for the normal people.
Separation of the art and the artist, ACTIVATE!
Good music! Fun, energetic punk that shook up the 70s. Thoroughly enjoyable.
T. Rex in the glam rock era! If this project has taught me anything about my own music taste, it's that glam rock is absolutely my jam. I enjoyed the hell out of this.
I listened to the 2021 remaster with 14 tracks.
Lively! Catchy! There's a little punk rock energy in there with the power pop, it's right up my alley. Any time the end of a 14-track album catches me by surprise, you know I was enjoying the listening experience.
Great album. Adding to my library.
Really good resource to have on hand in case of serious insomnia.
A white English shitbag borrowing "blues" sounds does not make an album important enough to be one of the 1000+. I've heard Layla quite a few times thanks to classic rock radio, and even then it's one of those "just sit through this and we'll get back to better stuff" tracks for me.
Feel free to never listen to this before you die, friends.
Fuck me sideways, a live double album from a musician I'm usually happy to ignore, and will happily return to ignoring very soon.
This shit was so boring and slow it actually pissed me off - I'm seeing why other reviews compared Elbow to Radiohead and Coldplay, two other bands that are so dull it's irritating. Ugh. Why did I have to listen to this?
Catchy, danceable world fusion music, made by an artist who started out sus and has only gotten worse over time. WAY worse.
There are quite a few humorless bastards on my side of the political divide who cannot handle the thought of enjoying art by artists who are shitty, shitty humans. I've been doing my best to distance myself from that crowd. I can loathe M.I.A. while liking her music.
I think my grandparents may have owned this album, because I'm getting some pretty strong flashbacks to attempting to sit still while warily eyeballing some suspicious vegetables. Have they been boiled to death? Have a taste and find out!
Despite all the memories it's dredging up, this music isn't bad!
Is it incredibly influential? Yes.
Do I enjoy listening to Beatles music? Not really.
Haha, I had to turn to YouTube for this album: it's not on Tidal!
I can definitely tell why enjoyers of conventional music are hating this experience... this is some weird shit.
I like weird shit. This was fun, and now my YouTube recs are going to be a little bit weirder, which is also fun. What a good time.
This is certainly a Bob Dylan album.
I made it all of three seconds into this album before I recognized the agonizing waiting room/elevator staple "Don't Know Why" and noped out HARD. New record for shortest time spent listening!
The top five star review on this album is by some misogynistic Republican Boomer who seems to adore the sort of "white guys do the blues" thing that drives me up the wall... and has several of my favorite albums in his one star collection. Based on the quality of that reviewer's taste alone, I suspect I'll be giving this two, maybe three stars. Three would be a stretch.
Cover art: juvenile, tacky.
I already know "Brown Sugar" is an atrocity going in - I'd give it one star by itself - so I'll just skip that and see what the rest of this album is like.
... yeah, it's full of that white guy blues crap. Not a single track on here I could actually enjoy. Nothing else as grotesque as "Brown Sugar" and I'm not angry about listening, so it's two stars. I reserve one star reviews for the albums I'm mad about having in my streaming history.
Anyway, I'm off to listen to one of the top reviewer's one star albums to clean out my ears. Fever Ray's self-titled album appeals to me today. 🎶
Sweet fuck, ambient electronica? I envy the dopamine content of the brains of anyone who can treat this as an active listening exercise.
Alas, I have a dopamine-starved ADHD brain. The only way I can review ambient is by putting it on while I do chores - it's actually an effective focus enhancer for tedious tasks. My rating is going to be based on how well I manage to get through the mountain of clean laundry I've been needing to put away for a couple days now. Yaaaaaay.
Okay! I was pretty productive until it reached Aquarius, now I'm distracted. 4/5.
I've been repulsed by every single Kendrick Lamar song I've ever had the misfortune of hearing, and this is no exception.
Excellent music for establishing an atmosphere. Mumbling, heavy instrumentals, kinda monotonous and gloomy. If you're running an RPG set in the mid-ninties, play this to establish the mood!
I found it dull, yet inoffensive.
Superb. This album was released when I was a mere embryo, but it sounds more like my childhood. Also A+ xylophone use.
It's good, but something about The Pixies has always failed to captivate my interest. I can hear the influence on later music, but I'd rather be listening to that later music, you know?
I'm glad this exists, but it's not going into my library.
Experimental music with glam rock elements and a good beat? I'm in love. How have I never listened to this pure delight before? I'm only a decade younger than this album, we should have crossed paths before now.
People with mainstream taste are going to bounce right off of this, and that's okay. I bounce right off of a lot of the really popular music. Life would be so boring without us weirdos!
In the world of cheesy music, this is a package of Kraft singles.
This is one of those albums that requires active listening, as the witty lyrics are far and away the best part. Or you could just read the lyrics on Genius, that works too. The country-folk sound isn't my favorite, but the poetry! Man oh man. Four stars just for that.
Tremendous ninth grade art class energy from this cover.
... and the eager, earnest, adolescent energy continues in the actual music!
It's new wave, it sounds very much like 1982, and yet it's also incredibly gorgeous. 1982 at its finest.
Good instrumentals, it's a shame that Perry Farrell is the vocalist.
Weird music for weird people.
I'm weird.
🥳
Perfectly good music that doesn't suit my tastes.
Legendary. The album that started metal.
... and I'd probably be giving it five stars if it didn't sound like the band warming up in preparation for Paranoid. Great, absolutely significant, it merits its place on the list, but it's not Black Sabbath at their best.
Bahaha, the cheesy 80s synth made Leonard Cohen sound interesting for once. Usually he's too slow and mellow, and I wander off to find something that'll actually grab my attention.
Achievement finally unlocked: listen to an entire Leonard Cohen album!
Now, having read some of the other reviews, I know at least one other person doing this project is going to be running away from me really fast:
This is my favorite Leonard Cohen album.
The contrast between dreary vocals and cheery synth made my day. Instant mood boost!
Another "good music for someone other than me" three-star review.
(insert GIF of a cat retching here)
Huh. I've never heard anything quite like that before.
distilled essence of 1994
Fantastic! It's not often I find a new-to-me album that helps my insomnia.
This isn't an insult to Tubular Bells - sleep music, for me, needs to be interesting enough to capture my attention and evocative enough to get my imagination going with imagery that has nothing to do with the stresses of daily life.
A++ soothing of my jumpy nervous system. Adding to my library.
You know an album has issues when "You Can Call Me Al" is the best track on it. Auditory mid life crisis with a generous helping of cultural appropriation and a side of screwing over collaborating musicians.
The title track is outstanding, the rest of the album is pretty good but doesn't grab me, you know? I wound up listening while watching a mandatory Excel chart-making tutorial for work, knitting a sock, and eating mac and cheese. Maybe it was just the mandatory dull video kicking the ol' ADHD into high gear, but this is pretty good at being the fourth simultaneous task I'm engaged in, not great on its own.
wheee dopamine
Welp. This certainly fills a niche.
Sometimes, with material that has been very influential on subsequent music... I'd rather just listen to the subsequent music, as it feels more refined. Like this was the raw sonic ore that was melted down to form the much sturdier hip-hop of later musicians.
Also it's very, VERY difficult to force myself to consume the artistic output of any individual who seemingly spent decades repeatedly committing one of the most heinous crimes imaginable. Yikes.
200? I've reached 200 albums generated? Neat.
Hey, look, it's an album I'm familiar with! Last played on January 24, so it's been a few months, but it's not a novelty.
For music that doesn't hype me up, this is damn good stuff. Yeah, it's more of an evening "wind down for bed" kind of listen. For what it is, it does an excellent job.
Supertramp! Heck yeah!
I haven't given many "this was already in my music library" five star ratings yet, so this is a special occasion! 🥳
(Supertramp are in my top 50 all time artists on last.fm, at #39, so this was a foregone conclusion. Just wait until the one album from my number one most listened artist turns up!)
I rate these albums based on the vibes, the energy.
A+. The energy is undeniable.
You can tell that this was written at a tumultuous time in Bowie's life, this definitely isn't his best work.
Pro-Bowie bias showing: I'd still rather listen to this album than ANYTHING by The Beatles, and they're just... kinda meh, not even bad.
Honestly, this just sounds silly. I kept picturing Animal from The Muppets while listening.
It's not actually all that bad, it's just waaaaaay over the top. I'll keep this album in mind the next time I need to make myself laugh.
edit 10/28/25: it's grown on me, it really has. I've added Scum to my library and bumped up my star rating accordingly.
Yeah, I'm already a White Stripes fan. This five star rating is, naturally, biased as hell.
Not bad for modern music, but the energy is off and there's too many skit bits.
This precedes all the Kings of Leon songs I've actually heard before by two albums. I'm dubious, especially since the songs I'm familiar with fall on my husband's side of our music taste Venn diagram, but okay.
Oh. This is worse than I thought it would be going in. Why? Why was this deemed a necessity to hear?
I don't hate the Beatles. I don't LIKE them, but I don't hate them, either.
Yeah this ain't my thing. Sorry, small army of furiously masturbating pretentious music "connoisseurs".
So I've got a history of finding R&B painfully dull, but I'll give this a shot.
NOPE this hurts. Ouch. Back To Life is just good enough to rescue it from the one star pit of despair, but I DO. NOT. ENJOY. R&B.
This isn't the first time in this project that I've been pleasantly surprised by how much I vibed with an album. This is FANTASTIC for helping me focus! I got shit done!
Active listening? Naaaaaah. I shall accept this gift from the ADHD gods.
My cat dies AND I get stuck with this pointless turd of an album? What a shit day.
Maudlin queer county, not as bad as modern pop country (which is way better than dudebro country) but still doesn't really do anything for me.
The musical equivalent of cotton candy at the state fair that's been sitting around for a while, getting a strange texture from the humidity in the air, and you just know that anything that touches it is getting stained pink.
I don't fault Britney Spears for essentially doing as she was told. I fault the greedy adults around her who valued mainstream appeal and sales numbers over anything with artistic integrity.
Wreckers of civilization, transgressive performing artists exposing the dark side of human civilization, Throbbing Gristle.
This album is supposed to make people uncomfortable. Mission successful, well done!
Uneven. Inconsistent. Peaks and valleys aplenty.
"Highly Evolved" indicates a lifeform that's undergone a substantial amount of mutation, and that seems about right for this mess.
Not bad for a movie soundtrack, but there's some inherent cheesiness that goes with fitting a bunch of songs to a single film's overall theme.
Not something I'll be listening to again.
Billy Bragg is one of those artists I can only take in small doses. One or two songs? Great! This album? Tedious as hell!
Ozzy's demise led to me getting two Black Sabbath albums a mere two days apart. As soon as I heard the news, I knew I'd be getting Paranoid.
Fan-fucking-tastic album - not just for honoring Ozzy's legacy, but in general. If I made my own list of 1001 albums to listen to before you die, Paranoid would be on the first page of the list as I was coming up with ideas. Absolutely outstanding. A legend.
🤘😭🤘
I would like to thank the 1001 Albums Generator for helping me discover that I love funk.
Side A: COCAINE!!!! Five stars.
Side B: cocaine wearing off :( Three stars.
Cocaine helps boost a lot of normal people into a zone that my ADHD appreciates, it seems.
Rikki Don't Lose That Number aside, this is incredibly forgettable. Too pop to be rock, too mellow to hold an edge.
This is definitely a challenging listen! I prefer challenging to boring - however, my husband disagrees, so this is a headphones only album.
This may not be a favorite, long term, but I do appreciate the opportunity to listen to it.
Ten years ago today, I was four months into having Clint Eastwood stuck in my head nonstop - it didn't get dislodged until CHVRCHES released their alarm Every Open Eye that September, and replaced the earworm with Make Them Gold.
I would have been a lot more upset to get this album in 2015 than I am in 2025, when the 6 month earworm is just a funny story from the past.
Anyway. Pretty good, but Gorillaz did improve with subsequent albums, and this feels like the warmup for the really good stuff.
Does it sound like it's from 1987? Definitely.
Depeche Mode making that shift from new wave to the darker sound that they do so, so we'll. Yeah, take the auditory time machine back 38 years. It's worth it.
Funk blended with soul. Genre mashups like this are challenging if you're someone who happens to appreciate one of the component genres way more than the other one.
It's me. I like funk, but apparently I'm too white to even have a soul and all the smoothness just leaves me feeling flat and bored.
"Visions" is the one track that I just could not handle. Too slow too smooth not enough dopamine inside my head. Stevie Wonder is definitely an incredible talent, but that one track. Man. If you need to make me go away from somewhere, start playing "Visions" and that should do the trick.
Overall, decent experience... am I going to listen again? No. But I have listened once before I die, that's good enough.
I made it 31 seconds into this album before I had to go clean my ears with some King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
Traditional Indian instruments did NOTHING to deserve this crap.
This album pioneered the genre of trip-hop!
I don't like trip-hop.
I'm sober, and I'm pretty sure this isn't music made with sober people in mind.
This was a passion project, not intended to be a commercial success, and the love for the art really shines.
A fun album, but not consistent in quality - it's a little bit of a roller coaster, moodwise.
Information Society covered (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang in 2016, and that's the version I heard first. It's always interesting when you hear the original version after the cover.
Unfortunately, this is another album of uneven quality - and I'm saying this as someone who's rather fond of 80's synthpop. Song With No Name was a particularly painful listen.
Funk is fun with an extra letter! Very enjoyable listening.
I like the first half of this album!
original one star review: Music for people who cry when they masturbate.
Editing this review because my original was really snarky and mean-spirited, and I regret it now.
OK Computer is a struggle for me to listen to. My original snark was written after only listening to the first track and a half. Months later, I finally sat down and listened to the entire thing. While I still don't like it and will hopefully never listen to it again, there's enough decent guitar work on there for me to actually bump it up from a 1 to a 2.
Maybe hit "did not listen" and sit with your reaction for a while when you get an album you know you don't like, kids.
As for why I don't like it... it's way, WAY too depressing for me. I don't listen to music to end up in a worse mood than when I started.
Another album that requires separation of the art and the artist.
Album: ridiculous, over the top, bombastic silly fun.
The artist? Well, let's just say I wasn't sad when he died.
This is a review of the album, so... yes, excellent nonsense, five stars.
"But the one thing I hate
'Cause I can't concentrate
No, I just can't abide
Yeah, I've never the time to 69"
- lyrics from "69" by Self Esteem
Don't know why I kept thinking of that Self Esteem song while attempting to listen to this tedious slog of an album. It's a mystery!
This album started out by startling the tortoiseshell cat who was peacefully washing herself on my lap. She is NOT a fan.
Okay, it's sleazy gay synthpop. Quality uneven from track to track. Sex Dwarf is inherently ridiculous.
My rating: three stars.
The tortie's rating: one star *hiss*
I'm an elder Millennial and listening to this album with headphones on helped me understand what nostalgia truly is. It's just... it's a little bit weird that I get nostalgic about shit like The Prodigy and Rammstein, right?
10/10 time machine back to the simpler times of being a freshman in high school, will definitely keep listening whenever I'm in the mood to forget about the 21st century for a while.
Nothing wrong with this, but it didn't grab me.
Oooh, another album I'd never heard of before that really works well for my brain. Excellent. This sort of thing is why I signed up for this project in the first place.
My husband has significantly more conventional music taste than I do, and if he was doing this project he'd be giving this album a one star rating. He's made me turn off a Squid album before for being too much shouty noise.
I still listen to "shouty noise" music, I just use my headphones so I'm not annoying the Gen Xer with conventional taste and no urge to explore new sounds.
So here we are. For the most part, I vibed with this album - notable exception being Don't, which sounds like someone recorded the sensation of screaming into the void - and I'd definitely be willing to listen to more Dinosaur Jr. going forward.
Listening to Bob Dylan is a chore. It is the opposite of fun. I know he's a good poet, but I can read lyrics on Genius and skip the interminable tedium of... this.
Oh no, it's more mopey soft rock.
Hey, everyone, did you know that this Missy Elliott album is full of Missy Elliott exclusives?!?!
Fun music with good energy, but I'm subtracting one star for lyrics that made me cringe when I zoned in enough to pay attention. (At least that only happened twice?)
As "get shit done" music for my ADHD? Fantastic!
Can I give five stars to Ritchie Blackmore specifically?
No?
Fine, I suppose the whole '72 lineup can share.
This album sounds like a 14-year-old boy's bedroom smells.
This album has been miscategorized, it isn't rock. This is pop music that happens to involve some guitar.
Things I try to avoid when listening to music:
sad indie
lo-fi
country vibes
slow songs
This album is SPECTACULARLY not suited to my taste. BRB gonna go relisten to Trout Mask Replica to clean my ears.
Something about hearing Frankie Goes To Hollywood cover "San Jose (The Way) hit my funny bone in exactly the right way. I hadn't laughed that hard in ages. Thank you for the mood boost, generator!
Absurdity of the cover songs aside, this is peak queer 80s synthpop - I much prefer this to Soft Cell.
When I told my husband that I got a Lambchop album for today, he laughed and said "you're not going to like it!"
That man knows me.
This is the music of my nightmares - some sort of slow country pop... thing. I know it's more difficult for me to detect nuance in the music I don't like, and I think that's true for a lot of people - it all just sounds like a reason to scramble for the skip button.
If this is more your style, I'm sorry I'm currently incapable of giving it a fair shot. I tried, multiple times, over the course of hours, and physically recoiled each time. Visceral, gut-level NOPE.
Hot, Blue and Righteous is a skip.
The other nine tracks? I'm vibing. Hard rock is definitely one of my preferred genres, and ZZ Top even make that Southern white guy blues rock thing enjoyable for me.
Holy fucking shit.
Bravo, Keith.
The hell of listening to The Smiths is that it's got good instruments, right up my post-punk alley, but then: Morrissey.
Three star ratings are dual purpose for me - it can either indicate indifference or conflicting feelings I can't resolve within the day of the listen. This album gets a VERY conflicted 3.
Okay. I realize I have an anti-Beatles bias and a chip on my shoulder about it - trying to preemptively defend myself against the masses who adore them.
I made an effort here to get past my biases.
This album is full of squeaky clean, inoffensive sixties pop. I can definitely hear the foundation for a lot of future music I enjoy being laid down - influential for sure.
I also completely failed to enjoy the listening experience. I turned down the volume twice before I started petting a cat so my hands would be too busy to do that again, and then I got very involved in petting the cat. At least she's happy!
My rating: two stars
My eternally needy little tortie who got an extra half hour of dedicated attention out of this: five slow blinks out of five
Incredibly influential on future artists? Yup.
A spot in my regular listening rotation? Not so much.
Classic blues rock, on an album short enough that the end sneaks up on you. Excellent listening.
I loathe the cover art of this album so much. The excessive white space, the incredibly uncomfortable cropping on the photo... it's like a graphic design "what not to do" sample.
It's taken me weeks to convince myself to actually listen to the music lurking behind that awful image. I already know and dislike "Don't You Want Me" which doesn't help, but at least it's the last track so I can hit the stop button without remorse.
Ugh, more of the same. Cold, naked synth and a pretentious douchebag on lead vocals, without much else to distract. It's not "catapult this into the sun" awful but it's getting buried in the "do not relisten" pile so I don't have to look at that awful cover again.
This album is in my regular listening rotation already! Fever Ray knows how to create an evocative, surreal dreamscape with nothing but sound. (The stage costumes do help, mind, but they're not NECESSARY.)
So, uh. Seeing as how they were one of my favorites even before I started this project, I fear my five star rating is very much biased.
yup, this sure sounds American, all right
Decent, aside from the vocals.
Oops, it's a Morrissey solo album, the vocals are supposed to be the point, aren't they?
Reality is grim enough for me, thanks.
People really listen to Radiohead on purpose?
Of course they do. Just about every piece of art out there appeals to someone or other.
Still, I'm looking forward to getting the remaining three Radiohead albums from the generator so I can be done with them. I've seen a lot of people say it took repeat listening to start appreciating them, but I think I'm going to be okay going the rest of my life without giving myself some kind of sad British guitar Stockholm Syndrome.
The subject matter is incredibly meaningful, but John Grant's singing style is one that I need to take in small doses. Good album, difficult to get through in a single listening session. Ideally I'd mix this into a playlist.
Inoffensive to the ears, even if that one song gets played to death on 80s radio stations while the rest of the album gets ignored. Still white guy ska, though. You're never going to find me listening to this on purpose.
My husband and I have very different opinions of this album. He thinks it's boring - he lacks the patience for a slow buildup of sound.
For me, the experience is a delight. I just have to save this listening experience for when I'm wearing headphones or have an evening to myself.
Delightful and educational! Absolutely an album that merits its place on the list.
This album suits my overall vibe more than I care to admit.
It's great music, but it's also incredibly melancholy music, and it requires a matching melancholy mood for maximum appreciation. This is NOT an album for my regular rotation.
Good music, but BOY do those lyrics ever lack subtlety.
Oh, this album goes in the ADHD Get Shit Done bucket, not the Active Listening bucket. Time to clean the kitchen, motherfuckers!
wait, what in the ridiculous car commercial hell is this?
Okay. It's well made, but I have no place for it in my library. It doesn't really work as a focus aid, and I didn't enjoy the hour I sunk into it. (At one point I wandered off to feed the cats and Moby got drowned out by a chorus of meows... an improvement.)
For a well made album I'll never listen to again? Three stars.
I tried to let go of everything I know about the members of Pantera and approach this album with an open mind, I really did. There's a lot of enjoyable metal music out there, you know? Maybe this has potential!
Nah. It's off-putting and unpleasant. "Vulgar" is an incredibly apt description. I appreciate its place in the evolution of the metal genre, but I'm never going to listen to Pantera again if I can help it.
Headphones on for this one. Gotta soak up the experience.
Ancestral to many genres, a product of its time. I've mostly heard Marty Robbins' music used to establish atmosphere, which is something it's very useful for.
Still, he was pretty clearly romanticizing frontier life and doing his part to glamorize the image of the Extremely Rugged Cowboy Survivalist, and the testosterone poisoning oozing throughout these classic western songs doesn't sit well with me.
I listened to this while falling asleep and had good dreams.
I've got an uncontrollable urge... to give DEVO five stars.
yeahyeahyeahyeahyeahyeahyeahyeah
Pleasant enough for early seventies folk rock - a bit Dylanesque, but not aggressively so - but it's one of those albums that slipped out of my head entirely as soon as my streaming switched to another artist. I mean, *technically* I listened to it before I died, right? Even if it didn't stick?
Very sweet, very personal lyrics. Twang not overwhelming. Vocals heavy on vibratto, but that's part of her signature style, isn't it?
Another exception to my general dislike of country.
Days since I last listened to this album before it came up in the generator: 11
Bob Marley the cat, 2013-2025
It took me nearly six months to listen to this album after it got generated, my cat's death in July hurt me more than I was letting on. Yeah, I still have four cats, but I used to have five, and cats are living creatures with unique personalities and... yeah, losing Marley the cat got to me, all right.
That said, he was named after an incredibly talented musician. I'm glad I finally got around to listening.
I'm glad I was too old for kid's movies by the time Randy Newman started doing their soundtracks. His style really doesn't work for me.
You know, the original Candle In the Wind is a lot easier to listen to than the '97 version. It just feels kind of wistful, remembering a superstar from Elton's youth who imploded at a young age, not like the bizarre parasocial raw grief of the Princess Di rewrite that got severely overplayed during my early teenage years.
Ahem.
My Elder Millennial youth experience aside, this is a damn good album, and even as a double it never really dragged (my least favorite track being second, it's all up from there!) and didn't feel excessive. Elton was wandering all over the place, experimenting with different styles, and I am here for it.
(O.G. Candle In the Wind is decent enough to not knock the album as a whole down to four stars, but I still don't LIKE it. C'est la vie.)
Good beats, if you can ignore the lyrics.
Unfortunately, I can't ignore the lyrics. The cover art is a pretty good clue about how much objectification of women is going on here. Grotesque.
Prince has always been one of those artists I only end up listening to because other people like him, and this album didn't change my mind one bit. I'm not going to leave the room if this comes on, but I'd much rather listen to Trout Mask Replica.
Goldfrapp: really good at putting me to sleep.
That's not a complaint, I have insomnia half the time. Still. Difficult to judge it on its merits when I'm drifting off, you know?
Either I've grown and changed in the 11 months I've been doing this project, or I've developed something akin to Stockholm Syndrome for this variety of folksy poetry recital. Either way, I actually enjoyed listening to this album!
Hmmm. First impression: this music is way too treble-heavy for my tastes. Did this help set the trend for annoyingly tinny pop that seems to have taken over the airwaves as I age into my curmudgeon era?
Ah, yes, there are three songs on here that get enough radio play for me to recognize, but I wouldn't say I'd ever ENJOYED those tracks.
Meh. Mildly irritating, but I don't hate it. That's a two.
Way to sneak an extra Bowie album onto the list, Dimery!
I'm not dressed appropriately for listening to incredibly energetic electronica from 1994. I need a necklace that's just several colorful plastic pacifiers on a string, and one of those felt Cat In The Hat-style hats. For atmospheric reasons, you understand.
1978 Bruce Springsteen and 2025 Bruce Springsteen are very different people. The '78 version seemed to be in need of some good snuggle time with the friendly animal of his choice. I've been snuggling with a six month old kitten, and she does wonders for my mood.
Anyway, this Bruce doesn't sound like he was in the best place mentally. The listening was a challenge! But then: kitten snuggles, all better.
Challenging listens aren't bad. I'm not adding this to my regular rotation by any means, but it was definitely a worthwhile experience.
I'm listening to this album around 7 in the morning on a gray, chilly Tuesday in early November, the day after my most recent temp placement ended, feeling uncertain about the future while I wait to hear back about the next one...
I'm not completely focused on the music, but it's providing an excellent soundtrack for this particular moment in my life, you know?
Meh. Maybe I'll revisit this one later, but it's not working for me now.
I've just been violently flung into my memories of high school. Ouch.
track 1: holding hands at the roller rink
track 2: awkward fumbling attempt at touching a boob
track 3: back to skating, no holding hands this time
track 4: "okay, wait until we're in the parking lot and then you can touch a boob"
track 5: faux pas committed, offer rescinded
track 6: *awkward teenage boy sobs*
track 7: school isn't going to be fun tomorrow
I know why Billie Holiday was significant, but this isn't the sort of music I listen to for fun.
Music for ren faire weirdos! I found it delightful, but then, I'm a ren faire weirdo.
The auditory equivalent of an alpaca fleece: sure, it's incredibly soft, but it's not very practical for making everyday garments. Alpaca would make a nice basic scarf to show off at the coffee shop where you're playing your acoustic guitar, though.
I most recently listened to this a week and a half ago for funsies, what kind of star rating do you expect from me? I am heckin' biased, friends!
Qualities I appreciate in music:
- experimentation
- a sense of humor
- enough dynamic range to make using over-ear headphones worth it
- an energetic tempo
So, I'd never sat down and actually listened to 10cc before - I've heard them on occasion on classic rock radio, but that's the extent of my familiarity.
This is an album that pushes the "happy chemicals" button inside my brain. I'm adding it to my library after only a single listen.
This sure does sound like music from 1990!
Oh no.
I've got no issues with the rapping, it's the EDM half of the "grime" sound that's nooooooot working for me. Yeesh.
Facts:
- I am an elder Millennial
- as a teenager, I was one of those insufferable "I'm not like other girls!" types who deliberately chose mostly male friends
- those male friends? they liked Foo Fighters
- I trained myself to like Foo Fighters because my friends did
- I'm in my 40s now and still enjoy Foo Fighters because that's what I taught myself to do nearly 3 decades ago
ANYWAY it's not anything that produces genuine enthusiasm, but the pressure I put on myself to fit in with my chosen friend group is somehow still active and I can happily put this on as background noise and use it to convince my ADHD brain to get shit done.
Yeah. Five stars, but quite possibly the weirdest five stars I've given out yet, because it has so little to do with the actual musical talent involved.
Oooh, Malian music, always a feast for the ears. I hit "add to library" before I finished the album. Excellent inclusion on the list, absolutely fantastic all around.
Buckle up, it's time for an incredibly Jeff Lynne experience!
I had no idea what to expect, as Stereolab is one of those bands I've managed to avoid entirely from a lack of exposure. What a pleasant surprise! It almost felt like getting a warm hug from the concept of 1996.
I've already given one rap album a "grotesque misogyny" one-star review, but apparently some themes repeat themselves. Why'd I get stuck with this shit for my birthday?
I'm an elder Millennial and Beastie Boys is party vibes
around the world around the world
around the world around the world
around the world around the world
around the world around the world
Daft Punk is excellent in small doses or if you're in an altered state of consciousness. Sober, alert, the listening experience starts to drag a bit.
I'm just not mopey enough for The Cure. 🤷🏻♀️
I can definitely hear why it is significant, how it's been influential... but I just don't connect with it as a listener. That's the beauty of music, there's plenty of good stuff out there but absolutely NOTHING that appeals to everyone!
Another situation where I like the art but not the artist. Assholes can be talented musicians!
A product of its time, a 40-something woman with a powerful voice adapting herself to the current trends and absolutely CRUSHING it. I have zero desire to adapt myself to current trends, but if I did I'd be striving to do it even half as well as Tina Turner.
Also there's a cat in the album art, bonus points.
Aww. This sort of gentle positivity needs to be in my mood boosting toolbox. Added to library.
....man, I've CHANGED over the year I've been doing this. I'm more open to softer, gentler music than I used to be. Perhaps it'll be a good time to revisit some of my previous 1 and 2 star ratings during the holidays?
Oh, to be half my current age and awkwardly failing to flirt with girls again.
Good beats, skillful rapping...
...a whole song bragging about his dick followed by a track of sex noises? Casual misogyny? Yeah, gross.
80s post-punk with Björk, the album that put Iceland on the pop culture music map. I love Björk and her unapologetic eccentricity, so this album was already in my library. Good stuff.
Cheesier than Tillamook dairy, and a double album because every track is twice as long as it needs to be. Prince is one of those artists I've had to learn to put up with because so many other people like him, but I wouldn't ever choose to listen on my own.
Beatles album 4 of 7. Oof. This is a LOT for a non-fan.
Well, I can definitely hear how influential this wound up being on the music industry for the past 56 years, but... honestly, I didn't enjoy the experience. This was a listen for educational purposes only.
I'm just glad I got this over with. I'm past the Beatles halfway point barely over a year in, hooray!
Iconic. As an enjoyer of punk, the similarities between tracks don't bother me - I acknowledge that it's probably annoying to the punk non-enjoyers! - and 14 tracks in under 30 minutes is the perfect serving size. I listened twice within 24 hours, and that's actually pretty rare for me with albums from this project!
First impression: ten tracks, 75 minutes? The opposite of the delightful Ramones treat I got yesterday. Oof.
Electronic is one of those hit or miss genres for me. When it's good, it's really good, sometimes it's not necessarily good for active listening but it's useful for getting my ADHD ass to get some tasks accomplished, and sometimes it's a hollow, disappointing experience. We'll see where this 75 minutes takes me.
...yep, this sure is 90s electronica. It'll be useful for getting tasks accomplished if I'm in a very specific, well caffeinated mood.
The ultimate trippy classic rock album for thinking deep thoughts to while in an altered state of consciousness. No critiques, no complaints.
Fantastic dumb party music from start to finish. I love the Beastie Boys.
This album is going to remain relevant until the human species goes extinct, isn't it?
It's really nice to discover music like this through the project! Artists still crafting excellent albums instead of throwing together a loose collection of singles is a beautiful thing.
What a festive pick for Christmas Eve! Just look at all those trees!
Speakerboxxx: excellent bops all the way through 5/5
The Love Below: uneven quality, Hey Ya is the high point 3/5
Average between the two albums: 4/5
Iggy Pop at his finest.
Yes, there's still some of the Bowie energy that the entirety of The Idiot was powered by. 'Tonight' is especially Bowie-esque. 'Sixteen' is creepy, but if I stopped listening to every artist who sang about the barely legal my 70s playlist would be nearly empty.
Oh no, indie rock. This stuff tends to leave me cold. I am not the target audience.
Worst Album Art Award 🏆
Elvis Costello seems to be a natural inhabitant of the four-star zone for me. He'll venture out to other star ratings sometimes, but four is his home.
Oooh, I LIKE this. Experimental, yet tuneful, absolutely perfect listening for being cocooned in blankets with my headphones on on a cold winter night.
I like it when a band sounds like its members all like to read, but also like dancing. Alex Kapranos especially sounds like he's probably got a fantastic bookshelf in his home.
This album came out when I was 20. I love it just as much as a 42-year-old as I did back then.
I'd give this six stars if I could.
Not gonna lie, I've got a soft spot for weird indie genre mashup nonsense as long as it's got a good beat - which this definitely does. Every once in a while I'll throw on this album and just vibe with it while I get some knitting done. I was just about due for another round of that when the generator seemingly read my mind.
Just finished a new pair of socks for myself, by the way.
This sure is goth music! I don't think I have enough black eyeliner to listen to this on a regular basis, but it's definitely a good example of the genre.
I am no longer a person who claims to dislike all country music. Congratulations, 1001 Albums, you did it! You got me past my prejudice!
I've listened to this album so many times over the years.
I'm sorry, I have Elvis Costello fatigue at this point. He's a small doses kind of artist.
This particular album is also far from being his best work. I listened once, that's enough for my remaining lifespan.
System Of A Down is the least tiresome nu metal band out there, but it's still a LOT of work to listen to it whole album at once instead of adding tracks here and there to large playlists.
How much heroin went into the creation of this album?
It's like the Beastie Boys had a drunken one night stand with Beck. Very on trend for the mid 90s, for sure, but... it's not aging well. Not at all.
It's only been an hour since I listened to Daydream Nation, and I've already pretty much forgotten what it sounded like.
A band from PDX having a song called "Minnesoter" sure hits different in January 2026!
The tunes are good, the singing is good, the lyrics are a cringe fest. Pulp had so much potential, if only Jarvis Cocker could stop thinking about his Jarvis Cock.
I hate that I'm saying that an album that came out when I was 25 sounds dated now, but... it does. This was one of my favorites back when it was new, yet the luster is wearing away.
Excuse me, sir, your voice sounds quite hoarse. May I recommend a nice cup of hot lemon tea with honey?
My lifetime weed consumption is significantly below the threshold required to think that Grateful Dead are amazing.
for a project that's supposed to be about the heritage of the Zulu people, this particular album of theirs sure does seem to be targeted to white people who want to feel "cultured"
Mekons have 921 fans on Deezer as I write this review. That places them firmly into niche territory, so let's have a listen to find out why this album has been deemed essential.
Ah, founding a new genre by melding two existing ones, I see.
Yeah this is weird. It rules, added to my digital library. Another of the delightful discoveries this generator brings us!
I've already heard plenty of "guy with acoustic guitar singing in a voice so raspy you want to offer them a glass of water" music from the nineties, thanks.
Also, what's with the Boomer selfie on the cover?
Americana, folk, rock, and country all put in a blender and the results poured out over a book of poetry.
Let it out, Marvin. Let all of the complicated, messy emotions out.
Alice Cooper, a pioneer in being obnoxiously "transgressive" for shock value and making incredibly mediocre music for white guys to feel edgy about listening to.
More relevant today than ever.
Meh. Arcade Fire isn't my thing, I guess.
It's good, very Megadeth, but I don't quite understand why this album in particular made the list. It doesn't feel special enough, you know?
someone go back to the 80s and introduce these two to the magic of caffeine, please, because this album is an energy sapping mood disaster
so tame, so safe, so inoffensive, so blah
hey look, it's a Mercury Prize winner
in 34 years of Mercury Prize history, two albums I like well enough to own have been winners, so I daresay my tastes don't overlap with the selection panel much
anyway this is. uh. adequate. I'm not impressed.
Okay. It's definitely got some fun late 80s/early 90s vibes, and the concept is inherently ridiculous, but the lyrics... man, times have changed since 1990.
This kinda feels like it lands somewhere between Beach Boys and Foo Fighters and my ears were confused, but it's also good early 90s rock.
What a marvelously eccentric discovery! A perfect Valentine's Day gift from the generator. 💖
Oh. Aerosmith.
Time to separate the art from the artist again, because Steven Tyler has a dumpster fire where his personality ought to be.
Yep, good guitar, good drums, Steven fucking Tyler on vocals. Decent enough on average.
I don't know what I was expecting, but this absolutely blew me away. Wow.
Overproduced plaintive wailing about heartbreak is NOT something I vibe with. One or two Adele songs? Great! A whole album of it? Tedious.
teenage memories, whacked in the face by nostalgia
Laibach, a band with an intentional approach to art that's meant to make people deeply uncomfortable with human nature. Fascism does lie deep within the hearts of many people, as we've seen demonstrated VERY clearly over the past year, and Laibach's artistic style has been shining a light on that uglier side of humanity for decades.
So I'm not going to judge them for the ambiguous political message. I'm going to judge them for the music.
The music is deep growly industrial! The core of my music taste formed in 1997-98, and one of the artists I was listening to the most at that time was Rammstein. Laibach sounds similar enough that I enjoyed the hell out of this listen. Judge me if you want!
Meh. Not nearly as interesting as the cover suggests. I quite literally fell asleep listening to this album...
That said, it's not offensive in its blandness. It gets the three stars of "meh" mediocrity.
Jack Elliott earned the Ramblin' in front of his name for being garrulous, so it's hardly a surprise that he's chatty between songs even on a recording.
The music itself is decent, but nothing to write home about.
Okay, this is one of those albums where you don't need to see the release date before you listen to know when it was made. This is what 1997 sounded like.
I suspect that this might be an album that grows on me with future listens, but today it didn't quite sit right. Will probably revisit this review with the edit option in a few weeks.
Pleasant, but not particularly interesting. Background music for sure.
Getting this back to back with Bebel Gilberto was a little odd. South America weekend!
There's some definite contrast between Bebel's samba and the electronic tango of Gotan Project, though. I dug the vibe of this album more, it's got rhythms that actually held my interest for active listening.
Overall, a fun experience! I'll probably revisit this album at a later date.
The album cover deliberately looks like a printing error, how delightfully Eno!
The music is exactly what the title implies: soothing background music to hopefully take one's stress level down a notch, not at all intended for the active listening involved in doing this 1001 albums thing. Luckily for our pal Brian, I'm happy to rate music based on how well it fills a niche, not just how well it holds up as active listening.
Would I put this on when I'm in the mood for music? No. When I'm just trying to quietly coexist with my cats and maybe read a book? That's the time for this album. Fantastic if applied correctly.
If you think New Wave is a good time and 80s themed parties are your jam, this is essential listening. Everyone else will probably be just fine not hearing this album before they die.
Björk is one of those artists I have to be in the correct mood for, since she makes that sort of ethereal dreamscape music with an extra helping of eccentricity... but when I AM in the correct mood, it's a delightful experience. Mellow weird goodness.
Even the most well-made movie soundtrack is still, ultimately, a movie soundtrack. There's not quite enough substance to elevate it to a five star rating for me... presumably the experience of watching the film is what provides that substance. (I watch maybe two or three movies a year, it's not my preferred form of entertainment.)
Props to Nico for not giving up on the entertainment business altogether after having... THIS kind of botched production job on her work.
This is a very good lesson on how vital it is to find the right producer!
Good grief, that's a lot of rouge they're wearing.
The music itself isn't bad, but I didn't particularly enjoy it and am perfectly content with hearing it precisely once before I die.
The retro-spacey synth thing is definitely right up my alley.
Influential on pop culture for sure, but we've got a severe case of listener/music mismatch going on when I have to white-knuckle my way through a 63 minute album over the course of three hours, taking breaks between every track.
Absolutely, brutally, profoundly not to my tastes.
I was really digging the guitar work, but then I got to the wet farts in the last track and got such a case of the giggles that my husband had to check on me. 🤣
New record for time between my most recent listen of an album for enjoyment and the generator giving me that same album:
11 hours.
This is a lovely, trippy experience, a brain dump that wanders all over the place. I adore it.
A Wizard, A True ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Not available on Deezer, had to turn to YouTube. The music is so phenomenal that I couldn't even get that annoyed at the ads being thrown in every other track. I'm thinking about getting this one in a physical media format so I can enjoy it properly.
Fun dance music to turn your brain off to.
Absolutely a vital record in the history of punk music.
This sounds like nobody was close enough to their microphones during recording - tinny and hollow. Production matters! Maybe try being sober for at least part of the recording process?
Underneath the issues, there's some decent tunes. What could have been...
Good beats. Worth committing murder over? Now there's the real question.
Music for people who enjoy hanging out in coffee shops. Nothing wrong with that, no judgement, it's just really not my kinda thing.
Good solid classics on this album, nothing I feel particularly passionate about.
Just within the scope of the 1001 Albums Generator, I've heard so many other acts make better versions of this style of music. This is only a must listen if you need an annoyingly mediocre baseline to make other acts like New Order sound even better by comparison.
I think Oasis is a Small Doses Band. One song in a mix? Cool. Twelve songs in a row? I was swearing under my breath after track 8. All of their songs sound very similar to my ears, it got tedious.
Good turn-of-the-millenium fun.
Beck is so good at putting together an eccentric collection of sounds and making it work. Genuinely love this album, listened to it last night after getting it from the generator and again this morning just for funsies.
"Mom, can we get some Britpop?"
"We have Britpop at home."
the Britpop at home: New Wave by The Auteurs
Hot damn, I finally developed a taste for Bob Dylan. Time to revisit the previous albums I got from him.
Was he having a manic episode when this was recorded? I mean, the guy's biography reads like three mental illnesses in a trenchcoat.
Don't Wish Me Well was the only song that stood out in a formless sea of pretty vocals.
I could really do without the moaning in Same Old Show, but otherwise this is a pretty decent example of late 90s electronica.
yeah I'm a basic White Stripes loving elder Millennial deep down inside, I'm sorry
Holy crap, why had I never heard this album before? Added to library immediately, damn.
there's a track with my first name as a title on this album, oh boy
I get spectacularly awkward when I hear my name in a song... okay, the song Perfume by Sparks gets a pass because there's so many other names being dropped and I already know that I don't wear no perfume, but still. The album Crystal Ball by Styx has probably the worst song-with-my-name that I can think of. The Eurythmics one is... mid-range, I suppose? Orange hair and green eyes is a much more accurate description of one of my cats, IDK.
ADHD rambling brain dump aside, this is a damned fine example of a synthpop album! Definitely worth the listen.
The raw energy and cynicism of Gen Xers in their youth, distilled into album form.
