1001 Albums Summary

Shit goes hard.

I despise jazz, but this isn't too terrible, really.

It's alright. Has its place. Ska's not really my bag.

Seems like the sort of thing I'd have been into but this one slipped right past me at the time.

Nah. This ain't for me.

Not for me. Kind of twee (derogatory), I guess?

I am pre-disposed to dislike prog but this is just unlistenable.

I'd give it 3.5 if I could. It's too noodly, tbh.

I'd give it 3.5 if I could. It's too noodly, tbh.

Not for me, but I get its historical place.

One of the single hardest album openings of all time. A long-time karaoke standard for me.

Just not my kind of music, but this is less grating than most.

Not really my jam, but a few of the tracks are OK; British hip hop just doesn't land for me.

Good God no. I hate Jazz.

An absolute classic. Non-stop bangers. He was taken from us much too soon.

He's an absolute fucking wank but his early solo stuff like this was quite good, albeit not as good as The Smiths. Would never listen to his solo stuff voluntarily nowadays, though.

I'd give it 3.5 if I could. Pretty decent versions of these songs but the underlying ickiness of Phil Spector takes the shine off it.

I'd give it 3.5 if I could. I need to listen to it a few more times. It doesn't seem to quite land for me, but I thnk I need to know the songs a bit more.

An incredible album and a delight to listen to at anytime. BY FAR the best of all "Britpop" type albums.

Not for me. Trying too hard. Liked it at the time.

A stone cold classic. I prefer angry electric Neil to contemplative acoustic Neil, but both are great.

This goes hard, actually. A nice little discovery. Gonna listen to it twice.

A classic. Somehow a band both in transition and at their peak. Probably the album with the most Keith.

Absolutely tremendous and probably the coda of P-Funk's prime, more or less.

4.5 stars. Loses 12 a star for Morrisey being an utterly repulsive human being.

Nah. Not for me. This is music for happy people who don't hate their existence every single day.

This album goes so hard it actually managed to cut through my anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation for a few minutes.

Unlistenable junk. Definitely made sure to keep a careful eye on YouTube so I wouldn't actually listen to the remixes and bullshit rom the Extended Edition.

It's OK, but I kind of want it to go harder. Whole album just has kind of a depressed nostalgia vibe.

Probably really 2.5 stars, but: (1) this thing doesn't let me give 1/2 stars; and (2) it deserves an extra star for managing to get me all the way to "this isn't that bad" and thus somewhat overcome my lifelong anti-Willie bias derived from my Dad hating him and call him "The Bedbug."

Enjoyed it and like a lot of stuff in this genre, but probably requires a bit more of a sit down and listen than a "have it playing while you're at work. Four stars because I automatically support any attempt at reviving the rock opera format with gusto.

I have tremendous respect for the historical significance of these particular bleeps and bloops but it really just doesn't fuck at all, does it?

Really, it's 2.5 stars. Not for me but a few of these songs at least sound like a blander version of CHVRCHES.

Goes pretty hard, tbh. It's utterly mindless and pretty derivative but a good time nonetheless.

Oh fuck yes! I have had a lifelong antipathy to country music (largely due to the racist fake cowboys I went to high school with) but this album absolutely fucks and is a big part of what got me to give some country music a chance.

Some of these songs go a little bit, actually, especially the title track but it felt very derivative/bandwagony at the time and it's not something I'd ever listen to of my own volition.

Not a big Elvis guy, really, but it cannot be denied that In the Ghetto/Suspicious Minds back-to-back absolutely slaps. It's really 3.5, not 4, but I'm rounding up on principle because Memphis is one of my very favourite places.

I actually like Doolittle better but this is just such a great album. Too bad some of the videos on YouTube are age-restricted because I simply will not log into YouTube.

Ass. Noodly ass. Mark Knopfler's got to be the most over-rated guitarist of all time.

This album gives me an instant erection. Too bad the girl who had this CD in her purse at all times and insisted on me putting it on every time we fucked turned out to be an absolute nutter. Good while it lasted, though. Six stars, really.

This is some novelty song garbage. Unlistenable dreck, but with naughty words. It will get one listen ever and that's it.

I just don't really jibe with early 80s R&B that isn't straight-up funk, really. It just sounds way too smoothed out and over-produced. Very sterile.

I can't review this noodly bullshit because I died of boredom listening to it.

Oh. No thank you. I couldn't possibly. (Just not much of a fan of the half-mumbly/whispery acoustic singer-songwriter type thing, really.)

I loved this when I was made up almost entirely of teenage angst. Now it seems like it's made up almost entirely of teenage angst and much too juvenile.

It's alright. Some good tracks but it's a bit . . . whiny isn't quite the right word but the tone is a bit off or something.

Has some good tracks but can't stand up to The Black Album at all. Really 3.5 stars but you don't gimme my granularities!

Pretty good 70s grooves. Made me listen to the Dan the rest of the day.

The two-and-a-half singles are great; all-time classics. The album tracks are dreck; unlistenable garbage. Gets you three stars - smack in the middle of the bell curve.

Never realized that this album had a different (and very off-putting) cover in the UK. Regardless, I loved the Big Beat scene at the time and although this has aged poorly it still puts one in a pretty good mood.

Peace Frog absolutely slaps and there are a few other decent tracks here. The bluesy tone kind of balances out Morrison's performative weirdness a bit more here than on other albums

Awful. Just awful. Basically an auditory war crime. I want to fight them both and their stupid dorky faces. Worst thing I've ever heard. Also what the hell is with the album cover? Why is Paul blocking half of Art's face? What kind of art direction is this?

Hitting me with Simon and Garfunkel and jazz on back-to-back days is lowdown and dirty. Cute album cover, though, and I didn't mind the organny bits. Then the saxophone kicked in.

"Psycho Killer" rules but the rest of it is a bit meh and David Byrne has always just struck me as exactly the kind of art school kid who'd annoy the absolute fuck out of me.

Much more of a Stax guy than a Motown guy but there are just some great cuts here.

I much prefer their later work , but they were really cooking with this one.

LOL. I wrote a review for Boy instead of War because it's the same kid on the cover. Love this album, but I really don't think it's aged well probably because it's peak over-the-top earnest Bono - which has become very hard to take over the years. Some great work by Adam Clayton on this album.

"Rolling in the Deep" and "Rumour Has It" go hard as fuck and then it becomes nothing but intolerable sad-girl-with-a-piano music. The cover of "Lovesong" is OK.

It doesn't really sound at all like what I'm used to the Bee Gees sounding like, which is good. But it also doesn't sound like anything good, which is bad.

Didn't expect to like it but didn't expect to hate it this much. Doesn't even have his one good song, "Wishing Well."

Not to my tastes at all, but undeniably has some bops and definitely presses some nostalgia buttons. I generally feel uncomfortable listening to anything from the Jacksons, though, due to all the ickiness. A solid 3, though.

We are just on a stinky stinky stinky run of music I don't like right now. All You Good People or whatever it's called is OK, but this is very not for me.

Just couldn't get into it at all. I think I might like this is I was five days younger.

This is just unlistenable atonal noise. When I say I really hate jazz this nonsense is exactly what I'm talking about. This is getting-Noriega-to-leave-the-embassy level noise.

Just not for me. Obviously Bohemian Rhapsody is ridiculous and fun - mainly because of the Wayne's World connection - but the rest of it is annoying.

Walll to wall bangers. An absolute classic. I'm not too cool to unabashedly love The Boss.

This goes hard. I'm generally anti-sax for the most part but for some reason it really works with this kind of punk.

Not quite as intense as seeing them in person at the Commodore in Vancouver, but still about as intense as straight-ahead power trio rock can get.

I've heard worse. Probably decent for the era in moving towards heavier and kerrangier rock but doesn't really hit like other stuff from back then.

Just absolutely not for me. Not as bad as the last jazz they made me listen to, which was some kind of "punk" jazz but still made me feel like I was at the dentist's office.

I get what he's trying to do, and it kind of works, but it's not something I'd choose to listen to. I might enjoy reading an illustrated book of the lyrics more.

Much more fun and loose than some of their other stuff. You can almost dance to some of it instead of just trying to be cool.

Janis at her very best. Just one of the best to ever do it.

An absolute classic in it's genre - whatever that is - or any genre. One of my all-time "need to feel a bit better about life" albums.

I kind of get where it fits in the grand scheme of things historically, but it is - like most prog - very not for me.

A few good tracks in a nostalgic "I remember this from when I was a kid" way, but not a "Oh yeah - this is my jam" way.

Just insufferable - and that was before all the stuff about him actually being as creepy as he was made out to be coming out. Beautiful People is a good enough track to get a 2nd star, though.

Don't know if I'd buy it or listen to it on my own unprompted but it is crazy how far ahead of its time this sounds. It's like at least 5 years ahead.

I just don't like jazz. It gives me the heebie jeebies.

Definitely a top 10 desert island disc for me. Stevie's absolute peak. A transcendent delight and surefire mood lifter.

Margo Timmins has a beautiful voice and I fuck with the stripped-down sound. Also, scratches a powerful Canuck nostalgia itch.

A master at the absolute peak of his craft. God knows how many different drugs he was on and this may be one of the albums he has no memory of recording but it all produced magic.

This isn't my kind of stuff, but it's actually pretty fun and it's crazy how many songs from this album are covers that I didn't realize were covers. Might actually be 3.5 but I'm in a rounding down kinda mood.

Never listened to this before. Was interesting and atmospheric, but not as accessible/fun as her earlier stuff. More Sigur Rós than Sugarcubes, I guess.

I have some time for this genre, broadly speaking, but none of these songs would get my ass on the dance floor then or now. Like Jason Mendoza at a Skrillex concert I'll be waiting for the bass to drop. And it, it'll never come. Too bleepy bloopy.

Case in point, re: music I do not like. Annoys me, has always annoyed me, will always annoy me. Probably because I don't do drugs and never have, I guess. Two stars for its historical significance and inescapability, I guess.

Definitely has its place in history, but his stuff has always felt a bit lightweight to me. Also, you know, the whole "marrying his teenaged cousin" thing kind of casts everything in a dark light.

I get that Paul Weller felt "restricted" by "the rock myth and the rock culture" but while he was restricted The Jam produced banger after banger whereas The Style Council produced twee muck.

The absolute pinnacle of the somewhat commercially silly but artistically tremendous "Shoegaze" movement. This album presses my very most powerful late teens/early 20s earnest yearning nostalgia buttons and brings to mind the faces of many girls I never asked out.

It's truly great - albeit with some filler - and was groundbreaking at the time, but wow is it depressing to listen to now. Loses a star because of that.

I get it and the "California surf punk meets proto-punk" is interesting, but it doesn't really connect for me.

The only thing that could possibly improve this masterpiece would be to find a way to play it as loud as they played the title track at that concert I went to at The Commodore in Vancouver in 2002 or so that left me half-deaf for three or four days.

I know. I get it. I'd probably enjoy an all-covers version of this album. But maybe not that much.

A masterpiece from a pair of absolute geniuses. ATL at its finest, though it's probably only my favourite album by them about 25% of the time depending on my mood.

As evidenced by the album cover, it's a bit too grandiose for my liking but there is no denying that parts of this go extremely hard. Really 3.5 stars, but I'm feeling generous enough to round up. Not something that would be in the regular rotation, but might flip it on when I'm in a certain anthemic-needing mood.

Really enjoy this when I remember to put it on. Some real highlights but some of the deep cuts are a little bit kinda wish-washy/fillerish. "Dear God" is a classic.

Sam's great. A little too much banter in the performance but I relistened to this one immediately because it's a dandy pick-me-up on a gloomy Monday morning while I'm having an existential crisis.

Absolute garbage. I hate jazz on principle for the most part but this is even worse than the norm. Sounds like somebody who just ate a half dozen bean burritos from Taco Bell farting into a microphone.

Weird the site says "Jimi Hendrix" instead of "The Jimi Hendrix Experience" but it's absolutely wall-to-wall with great tracks. Seem to remember every noted even though I haven't listened to this in ages.

Really 3.5 stars but it gets a bit of a bump up because of the GOTG influence from Mr. Blue Sky. Pretty pathetic to be nostalgic for a movie less than 10 years old, but there was at least still some hope for humanity and the future back then. Did listen to it twice.

An iconic genius at her absolute peak. Classic after classic after classic. My only regret is that she didn't record it at Stax.

This one goes in the category of "I can appreciate it's historical importance in a genre that I like but I just don't really fuck with it." Gonna give it a second listen but I'm just not hearing it.

Fela's stuff rules, but he was so incredibly prolific that it's hard to keep it all straight. I prefer "Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsesnse" but this is great and set me off in the direction of a 55-video Fela playlist on YouTube.

His stuff felt tired in the late 90s, tbh. I recognize a couple of these tracks but this all seems very unnecessary to me and an odd addition to this list.

I recognize the technical quality and some of the riffs are cool but, although I like some other stuff in the genre, Slayer has just never ever connected for me. It's almost felt very sterile somehow.

I really liked drum and bass back in the late 90s, but this one just doesn't stick with me. Listened to it a month ago, forgot to write a review, listened to it again. Still doesn't do anything for me like a lot of stuff in similar genres from that era does.

Goes hard as fuck, but not quite as hard as Funhouse. The stuff about how fucked up the mix is was interesting - they used three out of 24 tracks and when they brought David Bowie in to mix it he was like "What do you expect me to do here?"

It's OK. Sounds like the music a hack director would play over a scene just to indicate to the less attentive audience members "We're in Latin America now!"

British people simply should not be allowed to rap.

It definitely has a sense of time and space and I listened to it three times to try and see if any of the tracks stood out, but none really did.

There are some excellent tracks on here but "Sledgehammer" and "Big Time" got so overplayed on both MuchMusic and terrestrial radio that it's a hard listen.

Kind of like reggae but very very boring and unmemorable. Another one that I listened to a month ago, didn't get around to reviewing at the time, and had to return to.

Not my favourite Velvet Underground album but tremendous from start to finish. Has always made me wanted to start a band, until I remember I have no musical talent or hand-eye co-ordination.

Even though this album is much older than I am it reminds me of being young and having hope. Therefore I hate it very much, but it's still good for what it is.

This album is go damn good I don't even mind that Marvin couldn't even make it to Side B before ripping off the title/opening track with "Keep Gettin' It On." An absolute master at the height of his powers. I don't recommend listening to "You Sure Love to Ball" at work, though.

This felt like a form of punishment. Went to Wikipedia and "Scottish psychedlic folk" felt like a threat. I want to fight everyone on this album cover, including the small children and the dog.

It's the reverse of a lot of artists because swaths of this album are pretty offensive if not downright misogynist, but it's kind of OK because they all matured into awesome dudes (RIP MCA) which kind of makes it tolerable. Also, it goes hard.

I love all the various versions of Neil and Harvest has a few great tracks on it but I must reserve my greatest acclaim for Neil for the harder rocking versions of Neil. Alabama goes hard, though.

I'm a sucker for the mid-to-late 90s big beat/electronica sound (even though I never did MDMA and found people who did unbearably annoying) and this is one of my very favourite albums in that genre.

Almost took a star off because this album is another one that brings back powerful feelings of being young and happy and having hope for the future, but I have to admit it's still awesome.

Having to listen to this felt like I was in trouble for something. It's bad enough when it's all folky and droning but then it gets kind of jazzy as it goes along? Blech.

This album does not fuck. At all. It is entirely possible no album has ever fucked less. Is that a theremin I'm hearing or a glockenspiel? Who gives a fuck. Never ever listening to this shit again.

One of five Funkadelic albums (and three Parliament albums) I listened to on the weekend and it's one of their very finest. Some great - and heavy - guitar work on this album.

This is, for the most part, the harder rocking version of Neil that I love unreservedly. Powderfinger rules. Shame about the Kurt Cobain suicide lyrics; that guy did Neil dirty.

Possibly my most hated album of all time. The songs are fine to good, actually, but Side 1 of it was the warm-up tape for the late 80s/early 90s Richmond Colts and fuck them. They tried to play this during the warm-up to the 1990 BC Final, but Ollie High wouldn't stand for that and there was a big kerfuffle at the scorer's table. Then we beat that ass.

British people still should not be allowed to rap. (Gets a 2nd star because the beats on some of the tracks aren't bad.)

It's a damn shame this man couldn't keep doing cocaine at this heroic level because this is an absolutely brilliant album. His later stuff is good too, but even though he didn't quite remember recording it this might be his best.

I have heard of this band but never heard it. Had no idea they even had a female singer. I guess it's OK but it seemed like all the songs were trying to be big grandiose anthems without actually accomplishing that.

If this mumbly motherfucker can't be bothered to actually sing I can't be bothered to ever listen to this utter garbage again. This is a desperate "add something new" entry to the list. Gets a second star because it very nearly helped me have a nice little desk nap.

I'd heard of this and I think that - as a diehard 90s alternative music snob - I'm supposed to like this, but I don't. I wasn't at all surprised when I checked Wikipedia and discovered one of them was French.

Never heard of this guy in my life but after one listen I'm now dedicating the rest of my life to be really insufferably into the desert blues.

Another one that I don't really vibe with. Get that it has its place in history but I just find it boring - possibly partly because of that terrible song with the Matchbox 20 guy from like 40 years later.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Boring acoustic folk garbage where every mumbly song sounds the same. Not aggressively terrible, but profoundly uninteresting.

I am a long-time confirmed hater of Jazz, but this actually isn't bad. Not something I'd prefer to listen to but nowhere near as grating as most jazz as something playing in the background. Also, the pianist could definitely go.

A stone cold classic. If a space alien asked you what rock and roll was, this is the album I'd play them. Well, this and Let it Bleed and Sticky Fingers. No notes whatsoever. Listened to it four straight times.

Loved it at the time but it feels just a little bit dated at the time. I've always liked the Sugarcubes a bit more than her solo stuff anyhow. Mostly, though, I really want to go out with the cover of this album.

By the time this album finished I didn't remember having listened to it. I'm sure it was jangly.

My colleague just walked into my office and asked me "What the fuck are you listening to now?!" Specifically, it was track #10, "The Masked Marauder." Here are the complete lyrics: La la la la la la la la la La la la la la la la la la La la la la la la la la la La la la la la la la la la La la la la la la la la la La la la la la la la la la

Janis was brilliant. She's one of the greatest rock and roll singers of all time and it's a shame we never got more from her. Backing band is pretty good too. A lot of late 60s American rock music is over-rated dreck but this is really good.

Absolutely unfuckwithable.

The lessest of the Seattle grunge bands. Absolutely has some standout tracks, but a bit uneven overall. Really a 3.49. I would've given it 3.5 and rounded up buy Layne Staley's chin ponytail and wraparound shades STILL annoy the shit out of me.

I appreciate its historical place and gave it two listens but nothing stuck in my brain except for "Blueberry Hill."

Didn't mind this at all. Seems a bit more "authentic" than much of the godawful unlistenable schlock that has come out of Nashville since. Wild that Willie was his guitarist.

TIL Thin Lizzy had at least 15 other songs that weren't about the boys being back in town or a jailbreak. They're pretty good too!

I don't actually like this, but I'm giving it four stars anyhow because I'm a sucker for "this dude played all the instruments on this album." Such a weird little guy thing to do. Just puttering around in his basement doing his thing.

Listening to "Moving in Stereo" at the office: perhaps the very most dangerous game.

This was astonishingly unmemorable. Never heard of them before and will likely never hear of them again but this bears a whiff off DEI for white guys playing guitar-based music in the 21st Century.

Tina is an all-time great, but this is some arid and soulless 1980s synthesized slop. Gets an extra star because, even though Simply the Best isn't actually on this album, it was very funny how mad Rangers were when Celtic started singing it at Ibrox.

Noodly easy-listening dreck. I know Knopfler's supposed to be a genius but this album has just never done anything for me.

Many are much too cool for them, but I think it's really interesting and enjoyable to hear where they started from and appreciate how far they travelled musically over the next half-decade.

I have never taken drugs but were I to take drugs I would want to take the drugs that Pete Townsend was on when he came up with this one.

I like his stuff/this genre generally, but this album has a bunch of his best tracks: "Radio Radio," "Pump It Up," "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea," "This Year's Model." A tryhard nerd icon.

This albums is so good that it's absolutely mind-boggling that it's not a Stax release. Absolutely wall-to-wall and no skips.

Jangly crap. "The harmonies are wonderful"; yeah, awesome to hear shitty songs three times over. Useless without Neil, imo.

Without question my desert island disc. An incredibly diverse album that effortlessly traverses an absolutely wild range of musical styles. Six stars if I could.

Good album, but not my favourite of theirs. They sure pumped out a lot of good material in under five years, even though their albums tended to have some serious b-side filler.

Perfect music to have a nervous breakdown to. New Order was great but Ian Curtis may be #2 to Otis in the "taken from us much much too soon" stakes.

I love this album, but it really suffers from the Use Your Illusion syndrome of "You know this would be awesome if you'd exercised a little bit of self-control and kept it to a tight 12 tracks, right?" The madness is kind of what makes it great in both cases, though.

My impressions of this are probably a bit coloured by his subsequent descent into being a human meme, but it really screams "past his prime, lost his edge, and searching for a new gimmick" to me.

Honestly, I don't really want to hear from Bob Dylan, let alone his hugely boring back-up band or whatever.

It's not bad for a major label debut/commerical/"sellout" album and "Orange Crush" is one of their very best tracks, but overall it's a steeeeeeep dropoff from their first five albums.

I know Fugazi is supposed to be important to the history of punk somehow but after listening to this one three times I have got absolutely nothing for you. It's . . . fine but completely unmemorable.

A surprisingly fun little slice of place-and-time delight. Pretty much every track is listenable when you'd think it would be as "two/three hits and lots of filler as any album going.

A great album in isolation, but it pales in contrast to the other four albums he put out in this era. It's like being a 5th starter with a 3.00 ERA when the other four starters are all sub 2.00.

I actually quite like the Manics, especially that one album that's really good whose name I can't remember, but I listened to this twice today and I literally can't remember anything about it. Hope they find the guy who's been missing, 30 years though.

Ground-breaking production and all, but B-Real's voice annoys the fucking shit out of me (and songs about weed are boring, although there was more of that on their later albums.)

Probably their peak. Bought a copy of Tattoo You on vinyl this week and while it's a perfectly cromulent album it doesn't even remotely compare to this masterpiece.

A master at the peak of his powers. Great songwriting an storytelling with record-breaking levels of raspiness. One star off for being a Tory bastard.

This album is absolute garbage with no redeeming artistic or cultural value whatsoever. I love it so fucking much.

This album fucks. Seems like they were much less into Tolkien at the time.

Modern R&B bores me to tears. This one made it through my eardrums but not a single track made it to the part of my brain that remembers tunes. Pretty sure I already listened to this when I was listening to Rolling Stone's top 500 albums in order.

Every Dylan album should have been required to come out with an accompanying cover album by people who can actually sing. We need to resurrected Otis Redding. Two stars off for the horrible sounds.

Wonder if it's a coincidence that this got served up the day after Brian Wilson died. You can tell that he wasn't as involved in this one because, uh, I dunno, it's just kind of there, I guess? Listened to it twice and nothing stuck. Really weird to hear a huge nostalgia band's album and not recognize a single track.

I have never listened to this album in its entirety before but I know almost every song on here, entirely against my will. Just derivative beige song after derivative beige song after derivative beige song. I hate it so so much.

Not absolutely peak Dans but pretty good Dans, all things considered.

Mumble. Mumble. Mumble. Mumble. Mumble. Mumble. I think I already listened to this auditory ZzzQuil when I was listening to the Rolling Stone 500 Album list in order and it has not become any more memorable.

I know some consider it the weakest real Metallica album, but I love it. The bit where they turned Newsted's bass way way down in the final mix is hilarious, though.

I shall be released . . . from listening to this dogshit album. One bonus star for that one song that has the organ bit that's been used in a lot of movies.

I guess it's alright for what it is. I don't mind trip hop type stuff, but this really felt like "elevator music for people who like drugs" or something.

I forgot how much I love this album. Might actually be better/deeper than Urban Hymns. Loses a star for reminding me of being young and having hope for my life and the world, though.

This is "gritty Kingston" Bob Marley much more than "dorm room poster" Bob Marley and it's all the better for it. Never listened to him in a non-greatest hits format before but it was well worth it.

Boring bleeps and bloops, but harmless. Never heard it before and I'll never hear it again.

When this first came out I thought it was the worst thing I'd ever heard in my damn life and that it was a harbinger of the inexorable decay of society. I was right.

It's not quite Rumours but it fucks pretty consistently. Still seem to be a few good songs about how much everybody in the band hates everybody else. Loses one star because USC destroyed the Pac-12.

This sounds just like Bob Dylan would if he didn't suck quite so bad. "Pretty Good" is an out-and-out banger. He's trying a little bit too hard with the album cover, though.

Boy oh boy are these ever a lot of songs about feelings. I've killed all those so this does nothing for me. She only has one song I fuck with, and it's not on this album.

Not the worst bleeps and blorps I've ever heard but not really worth listening to again unless I do a dissertation on the history of electronic music and the alientation of the self in our technological age.

This is probably the last indie/alternative type album I really loved before I became fully formed as a hateful curmudgeon. One star off for reminding me of the last tiny glimpses of hope.

Not sure if this is his absolute peak, but if it isn't it's close. Half point off for the title track being over played during Y2K and half point off for too much purple.

He's brilliant and all, but by fuck is this painful to listen to in 2025 (and I could barely tolerate it at the time). A whole album of a guy you just want to tell to shut the fuck up the whole time.

At first it aged really well, but now it's really old and some of the low points are really low. I massively respect them for trying something totally different even if it was a bit out of their lane.

This goes pretty hard, actually (once you get past Tutti Frutti and the sub-Flair quality wooing). I'm a sucker for early rock and roll stuff. Really 3.5 but I'm rounding up for historical and cultural reasons.

Listened to this twice and literally can't remember a note of it. I think Sinead and Bono may have been features? I know this guy was in PIL at some point? I'm not even sure what genre this is supposed to be.

Seems harmless but did absolutely nothing for me.

I really really dislike smooth sax-heavy 80s R&B. Smooth Operator? Much too smooth for my liking.

I was such a snooty little NME-reading alt rock/indie kid that I actually disliked this stone cold classic at the time, to my eternal shame. Listening to this and The Chronic back-to-back does make me wonder just how much George Clinton made off of Dr. Dre's producing over the years, though.

I dislike performatively deep male voices like this. It's a poor substitute for being an interesting vocalist. This did nothing for me and I think I listened to the dreaded Expanded Edition by accident.

I was having a shitty enough day and then this stupid fucking website made me listen to jazz. Unlistenable and insufferable garbage. Damn near threw my computer out the window.

Has there every been an album with a blurry picture of a sad-looking white guy on the cover that didn't suck? Heard it once now; will never hear it again.

Me a few albums ago: "I dislike performatively deep male voices like this." Me today: "I dislike performatively deep male voices like this even more when they're whispery." Dude has bars, but I'd rather read it than listen to it.

Rock solid top-to-bottom. I'm a sucker for all things new wave and post punk and this one is right up there, tbh.

This album voted for Brexit. Nothing surer.

I have absolutely no idea what any of these dudes are singing about in these songs, but I absolutely love this album. It's an all-time "What the fuck is this garbage?" album from my youth. The jocks haaaaaated it.

I absolutely adore the Brit Beeps and Bloops from this era but Leftism is just one notch behind Underworld, The Orb and Orbital for me. Keep in mind that this is the opinion of somebody who's never taken a drug harder than caffeine, though.

I actually quite like a lot of RHCP stuff, especially Mother's Milk, but this is soooooooooooooooooooo fucking bad. Two stars because there are a few songs where they let Flea remind them this is supposed to be - to some extent - funky and punky.

Slow songs are torture (he shouldn't be allowed to cover Stevie) but the up-tempo songs are tolerable. An extra star for the time I was dancing with an absolutely stunning med student friend-of-a-friend's-girlfriend to Freedom and, after an exchange of flirtatious banter, she two-hand shoved me while I was of my feet and accidentally sent me flying about 20' across the dance floor taking people out like bowling pins. Did I end up hooking up with her? God no, she burst out crying and ran out of the club bawling her eyes out, but it was one of the very funniest of the many many ways I've managed to not get laid over the years.

I just don't like 2Pac and never really have, with the exception of California Love. He always felt super-fake to me, even in a genre of very fake personas. Might just be that people who I knew who were really into 2Pac were super-annoying.

I did not need to hear this album before I died or at any other time.

This CD is buried somewhere in the dashboard of my "champagne"/beige 20021 Honda Civic sedan because I managed to insert the CD between the stereo and the dashboard instead of in the slot where CDs go. Too bad, it's a more than decent album, except for the last song which might be the single worst thing I've ever heard; should have called it a day at 11 tracks.

Twingy twangy, something about the Bible. I'm sure it's fine but just not at all my cup of tea, really.

I always thought my contempt for this was just some residual teenaged snobbery but now that I've listened to the whole album, no, this just absolutely sucks. Musical/opera sounding bullshit with strings and nonsense. Get it to fuck.

This has got to be one of the single greatest guitar albums of all time. Nothing else sounds quite like it. Shame they were damn near one and done.

I really enjoyed this. I've always known the Yardbirds are historically important, but never knew where to put them. Still don't know where to put them but this is fun.

Well, this is absolutely the "One Album a Day" version of a cheap pop and a way to goose the numbers for this album, but it absolutely goes hard as fuck and would fully deserve the 5 stars on any other day as well. RIP Ozzy

Literally no album has ever been less necessary. I'd say it ruined their legacy, but pretty much everything they'd recorded since "...And Justice For All" had already done that. "Nominally speed metal with a symphony" remains one of the single dumbest ideas I've heard of nevertheless.

Althought I'd never listened to it I was pretty sure I hated this album based on the singles (except for Life in the Fast Lane, which gets a pass for its use in Fast Times at Ridgemont High). It's actually even worse than I thought.

Twee, but not insufferably so. Decent enough background music but I'd be surprised if I ever listened to it again.

Enjoyed this, but I'll be damned if it didn't make me ravenously hungry for an Indian buffet. Also the first album I've been served up that didn't have a Wikipedia page.

An absolutely delightful surprise. An updated take on Ali Farka Toure's desert blues; will be listening to the rest of their stuff now. Also, second album in a row without a Wikipedia page.

An album that goes so hard I was able to overcome my decades-long aversion to Iron Maiden caused by Brad Smoliak, the bully who tormented me every day of Grade 5. Until I put his ass in the hospital.

I would have given this four stars, because I really do like some of these songs (although they're extremely out of fashion), but The End may be the single worst track ever included on a major label release.

There's really not a lot here beyond Tainted Love, which is an all-time great cover. I did like that there was a song called Sex Dwarf, though - not that I remember what it sounded like.

Good mindless fun and a great singalong. Noel Gallagher will always primarily be the Inspiral Carpets' roadie to me, though.

The more Celtic-sounding bits are close to being good, but nah. It's supposed to be folk rock but there's very little rock here, tbh. Just makes me want to listen to the Wolfetones or The Pogues.

I don't like jazz. I like Brazilian jazz more than some other jazz, but I still don't like jazz.

I had heard of this band but never heard any of their songs. Somehow, just from the year of the album, the album cover, and the name I knew exactly what they'd sound like. It's fine, but I think 1996 is the dividing line after which all indie-type stuff is for the youths, not me.

A shimmering work of incadescent genius. Listened to it three times straight. I'm like 99% sure I'd find every single one of them absolutely insufferable (and would want to fight Lou reed within about two minutes), but this is the best of the best and the top of the tops.

Just didn't do anything for me. I'd listen to it a second time to see if it hits different on repeat, but I don't want to.

It's kind of like Joy Division, but if they couldn't make songs that sound good. Unfortunately, this is not the album with Bela Lugosi's Dead on it.

I love Sad Bruce singing about losers so so much. Way better than The Boss, who is also great. Probably not a great sign for my mental health how much I identify with the loser protagonists in these songs.

This must have been mind-blowing to hear at the time but it doesn't quite stand up to his later peak. He must not have discovered quite the right cocktail of drugs yet.

I like these bleeps and blorps much better. This album fucks, actually. Mindless fun during our current exeptionally grim times.

It's alright, I guess. The Young isn't quite enough to make up for the Crosby, Stills, & Nash, imo.

Don't like it as much as Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, which is fucking astonishingly good, but I listened to it four times in a row, so it must be pretty damn good too.

Damn it. I'm going to have to find a copy of this on vinyl, aren't I? I love The Who, but this is an ever more interesting listen than I'd thought. You can see just a bit of Townshend's subsequent weirdness poking through.

This album is just Boomer suburbanism in its purest form. A few decent tracks, I guess.

I generally despise folk rock - plug your fucking guitar into an amp, FFS. This is worse than most, but it gets a bonus star because that one song worked really well in one of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.

Is it "Deerhunter" by Halcyon Digest or "Halcyon Digest" by Deerhunter? I'll never know because this is unlistenable dreck.

An absolute masterpiece that I would probably hate if it was something new that came out in 2025 that I accidentally heard.

The sound of an entire genre of music falling dead on its ass as a meaningful cultural force. Wretched.

n the immortal words of DJ Hennessy Youngman: "Awwwwwwww! Sad white guy!" Bonus star for a funny bit in the YouTube clip for the song "Pictures of Me" where they cut from a picture of the sad white guy to a blank screen when he says "So sick of pictures of me." I chuckled.

I'm on a serious run of sad white guy music right now. Genre variously described as sophisti-pop, synth-pop, ambient, and blue-eyed soul. Whatever it is, it's not for me.

The algorithm must know I'm a sad white guy these days because I am on a horrible run of sad white guy music and I don't like it.

Choosing to listen to this album voluntarily would be like choosing to sit in the back of my Mom's metallic green Buick in 1979.

I was horribly snobby at the time and though I was too good for this bland nonsense. I was right.

There are some good songs here but it's all just too reverse derivative of a lot of jangly harmonizing stuff that I used to love but now kind of hate because it seems like happy person music.

I know it's a stereotype for snooty little shits like me who think they have impeccable musical taste to hate on this band/album but, honestly, if I could punch any album in its face this would be the one. Formerly unavaoidable utter crap.

A straight up fucking masterpiece. No album has ever been more my shit. Fuck it, I'm listening to it for the rest of the work day.

Had never actually listened to this, but it's quite good. Ignored it because "band broke up immediately after releasing this album" albums tend to be a bit shite, but it's closer to The Three EPs and their debut than I'd have thought.

I got The Suburbs earlier this week and it still hit, but this one really doesn't hit at all anymore. Weird.

Saw the album title. Thought "Fuck yeah! AC/DC! Five stars!" Re-read the album title. Thought "Fuck yeah! Amy Winehouse! Five Stars!"

I have no idea what we call this genre, where in Africa or the African diaspora this dude is from, or what in the hell he is singing about, but it had me absolutely bopping in my office chair.

I didn't mind the opening instrumental, but the rest of this is a kind of smooth mid-90s R&B I can't stand (probably largely because no girls wanted to dance with me to songs like this).

A good album, but not quite a great album. They absolutely hit their peak with Violator. This one has a few too many slow/whiny songs.

Yet another masterpiece I have on vinyl and listened to the other day. Sly was an absolute genius. Too bad he did just a little bit too much of the wrong kind of drugs to sustain his peak for a few more albums.

Classic for a reason. I still revile modern commercial country music but The Man in Black is the real deal (and quite funny to boot). I also like he went back to the prison concert well repeatedly.

I am a sucker for rock opera but I absolutely hate rock where the singer is trying to sing opera. This albums is absolute dogshit, except for a couple of songs where other people sing.

Forgot how much I like stuff like this and Rancid; much much better than the subsequent derivative "pop" "punk" dreck it inspired. Denied a 5th star by the idiotic hidden track.

Decent Rod but nowhere near his creative peak, imo. Doesn't really hit for me except for "It's All Over Now," which is fantastic.

This has got to be an all-time "Oh no, this genius has too much money and is too famous and the quality of his music is about to go straight off a cliff" album. Love the little purple guy but this is much worse than I remembered.

Just don't get this one at all. There must be at least six other Elvis Costello albums in the book because this one doesn't have anything noteworthy at all about it. It's a paradigmatic "this guy used to be good" album.

I think this is their high point. I would say it's "Revolver," which goes a bit harder, but my socialist principles preclude me from giving the nod to an album that opens with "Taxman."

I think I've listened to this album six times in a row now and I still don't know whether I like it or not, but I guess I don't hate it? It probably squeaks a 3.5 and gets rounded up because Solsbury Hill is a great song.

Had to listen to it all the way through to try to figure out if there was a way to give it six stars (even though I actually think Orbital is their best album rather than Orbital).

As is so often the case for me, a band's album with the heaviest guitars is my favourite album of theirs.

Not even remotely my cup of tea, but the singles have OK hooks and in my old age I'm much more amendable to late 90s stuff that's sort of mindless fun . A remarkable lack of effort was put into the non-singles here.

Sunny spring Sunday afternoon music (complimentary). This album consists largely of songs I know but didn't know I knew or know who sang them.

Listened to this one so many times, but I just couldn't get my head around whether I liked it. Turns out, I don't. It's the glam rock equivalent of Jason Mendoza's Skrillex concert where the beat never drops.

Has some good songs, but Louder than Love and Badmotorfinger absolutely blow it out of the water. Yes I know I'm an insufferable "I actually prefer their earlier stuff from before you plebes had even heard of them" guy but in this case I'm entirely right.

I liked this. No idea what these songs are about but it had kind of a chill vibe. Seems like the kind of thing I'd enjoy listening to while drinking a beer in the sun. You know, if I drank beer or could stand setting in the sun.

Probably their best album, although there are a couple of terrible tracks hidden in there. Still, at least it doesn't have The Beta Band Rap on it.

More like Nick Cave and the Bad Songs, imo. I hated this album so much I stayed at the album an hour late just so I wouldn't have to listen to the rest of it in the morning.

This album/soundtrack fucking rules, although it's kinda funny they didn't actually cast Isaac Hayes as John Shaft.

I have a "post review right after listening" rule, so it took me 10 times through to decide whether I still like this or not. I don't think I do. I still really respect what he did here by incorporating samples of old blues tracks into modern electronic stuff, but it doesn't hit.

I might like this if I was Australian and I grew up with it? All much too jangly and twee and unmemorable for my liking.

My sister and I had a big fight when she derided Side 2 as "some hippy bullshit" and I said Side 2 was better than Side 1. I was right - it really holds up. Loses a star because the Canucks stopped using "Where the Streets Have No Name" as their intro music.

Boy, I really don't fuck with this kind of folk music at all. A 2nd star because Fast Car has a Dylanesque "if somebody with a decent voice and an electric guitar covered this it might go, actually" vibe to it.

This was alright, Kind of sounds like The Beta Band but bland. The Beta Bland.

I put "Fuck yeah!" in my notes but forgot to finish the review. Upon further reflection, that's entirely sufficient. An album so innovative I'd Mandela Effected it coming out 5-7 years later than it did.

Decidedly mid and surprisingly inconsequential. Gets a 2nd star for what's his face's use of the title track in the paddling/hazing scene in Dazed and Confused.

I like some of the sounds these dudes make but none of the sounds actually seem to amount to songs.

Somehow this one entirely slipped past me even though it's from my era. I liked it. Might listen to it again sometime.

Iconic. Legendary. Impactful. A vibe. One of the worst album covers I've ever seen in my life. Looks like a guy who failed out of mime college. Also, I'm pretty sure track 9 was written and recorded by a Canada Goose.

I dunno, it kind of falls between the two stools of punk and post punk for me, I guess? Nothing I actively hated but nothing that stuck. I'm probably just too old.

First time I listened to this, I thought "this kind of sounds like Dollar Store Daft Punk." Turns out they're also French folks signed to the same label. Thought it was decent, but I'm in the office by myself, so I turned it up as loud as I could and it's quite good.

Incredibly good considering it's basically just an odds and sods album. It has Kashmir on it. It has to get five stars. That's the law.

f you love hip hop and you've never listened to this madness you absolutely should. Apache is the obvious one but there are a bunch of other tracks here that have been sampled into oblivion. A the-good-drugs-from-the-early-70s-fuelled instrumental masterpiece.

If there's one thing y'all need to know about me it's that I loves me some chooglin'. I might need to choogle on down to New Orleans in 2029.

Didn't really fuck with this at the time. Don't fuck with it now.

I'd never listened to this album before. I like Manson as a singer and the singles are decent but I dislike something about them as a band.

As time has gone on I've really mellowed on some stuff I absolutely despised as a kid and come to quite like some of it as my snobbery has lessened. But not ABBA. Not fucking ABBA.

They came in super hot with a huge Peter Hookesque bassline on the first track, then kind of settled down into some fun and kooky stuff. 4th star for getting in super early on making fun of Rudy Giuliani.

Almost gave it six stars by accident. An all-time favourite and I only regret that my desktop doesn't have near enough volume to play this at blindness-inducing volumes.

Best "kosmiche" album I've ever listened to. Will almost certainly be the only I ever listen to but it wasn't bad for this kind of thing.

I intentionaly avoid understanding anything about music. It's like not wanting to know a magician's tricks. So I don't know why this sounds so awesome and unique, but it does.

Vocal harmonies aren't a substitute for writing a song that doesn't fucking suck. This band seems like the most annoying kids you went to school with.

I gather from Wikipedia that this is supposed to be good or remarkable or something. To me it just feels like I'm in trouble for something. This is the exact kind of music you hear against your will at a depressing bar in a huge soulless hotel attached to a convention centre.

This is just the worst every try-hard, look-how-cultured-and-hip-and-better-than-you-I-am nonsense music ever. Absolutely fucking love it; just wish I could play it loud enough at the office.

Bleepy and bloopy, but kind of fun in a 70s sci-fi optimism kind of way.

Wall to wall bangers. A masterpiece. A culmination of a five-album run that's arguably the greatest in the history of popular music - only slightly tripped up by Fullingness' First Finale being like a quarter notch below the other four. Flip it and Songs in the Key of Life and you have a season 5 of The Wire equivalent.

It's a damn shame we never got more from Lauryn Hill; it's also a damn shame we got this much from Pras and Wyclef. Wyclef did seem like a good dude that time we were both stuck at the border, though.

Totes adorbs, imo. Also, never would have gotten the incandescently ridiculous glories of Tommy and Quadrophenia without this precursor.

This wasn't completely terrible. I mean, I thought it was the first time around, but on the second time through I was paying enough attention to hear In the Pines, which is great (even though I still like Cobain's version better).

Utterly unfuckwithable. The amount of great music they put out in literally 2.5 years is absolutely insane.

It goes hard as fuck, but it suffers from being an influence on a whole lot of terrible terrible bands that didn't have the redeeming political content.

I'm listening to this for about the 10th straight time. It goes so hard. It's like the missing link between late-70s punk and mid-80s industrial

This is a great album and a breakthrough, but I need to leave some room for his future greatnesses even though I don't know if they'll be in the book or not.

A transcendent genius at the absolute height of his powers. However, every time I listen to this I wonder was Nikki masturbating "with a magazine" or "WITH a magazine" because the latter sound potentially painful. Or maybe I'm just a bit of a baby about paper cuts.

A stone cold classic. We all know Son of a Preacher Man, but there are plenty of other great tracks here. Unfortunately, one star off because her final vocal tracks were actually recorded in New York.

Nope. Not at all. Not one little bit. Absolutely not. And fuck off with the twee "we put all our song titles in lower case because we're artistes" nonsense.

At least it doesn't have as much Yoko as Double Fantasy, I guess? When you know a bit about Lennon's personal history "Jealous Guy" is incredibly offputting/creepy.

Nah. Literally nothing here of value but the title track.

I'll never be entirely confident that prog rock wasn't an elaborate and long-running practical joke. Second star because some of this is so absurdly noodly that I chuckled.

I don't even get how this is considered punk rock, let alone one of the greatest albums of all time. Like, it's not bad at all but whenever I listen to this I'm like "So, that's it, huh?"

3 absolute bangers and 8 of the most deeply mediocre rock-by-numbers filler tracks you'll ever hear in your life. Can't give it more than three stars in good conscience.

This is a lot like Kate Bush but if Kate Bush was, like suuuuuuuuuuper boring instead of being awesome. Every note of this is like "I am an . . . ARTIST!"

Fuck. English rap again. I'm a firm believer in the value of diversity but that doesn't extend to letting Brits try to rap. (Review posted 45 seconds into the first track.)

An awesome album, but I'm only giving it 4 stars just in case their two albums I like better are on the list. RIP Phife Dawg.

Just fantastic pure garage rock with a tinge of proto-punk and maybe deep roots of eventual grunge that came out of the same neck of the woods. And now I'm looking for this on Discogs. Damn it.

Listened to this 2.5 times and really wanted to like it but it's just one of those albums where literally none of the tracks can adhere to my brain.

Probably their best album, which means it should rightfully be given six stars. However, in silly social media ranking exercies, as in life, I oppose grade inflation.

I'm never sure if my hatred for prog is snobbery or reverse snobbery, but this is crap regardless of that. I tried to give it a chance but it was super-noodly. THEN the guy started announcing the names of instruments. THEN, in Pt. II some guy started growling? Get me the fuck outta here.

I like but don't love this, but I love so much music that it obviously influenced.

Liked it enough to listen to it two more times and it hit on the 3rd lesson. Will probably listen to some of her recent stuff, which seems to consist mostly of covers of interesting stuff.

This entire album is nothing but the "AWWWWWWWW SAD WHITE GUY" drop from CVS Bangers. This is just the guy with an acoustic guitar at a party singing his original compositions nobody actually wants to hear. Not for me. I must be a different kind of sad white guy.

Me out loud after literally one bar: "Oh fuck. Not jazz again. I thought it might be something interesting."

Utterly inconsequential disposable nonsense.

It's OK, but too noodly. I don't like jams; I like songs.

Listened to this like four times through now and, like, the music is good and her voice is fine but I just don't like the songs, I guess? Not terrible, though.

Stone cold classic old school hip hop, but doesn't have any true standout tracks. Hella consistent, though.

I can totally hear how it has tentacles that influenced all kinds of music I love that came out in the following couple of decades but the "experiments" to "songs that go hard" ratio is just too far out of wack to stand up to a bunch of true five-star albums of his from this era.

Never heard this (or heard of it) before. Probably not a good sign than I thought they were German. I've heard worse though, tbh.

I like trip hop and I like Tricky in Massive Attack, but this is just kind of there. Probably one I'd have liked better if I'd heard it at the time. Did make me want to listen to It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, though.

If I ever need to be reminded what it feels like to be a moody and troubled youth this classic will always be there for me. One star off because Moz is a wanker.

For whatever reason, this is the all-time "I know almost all of these songs and absolutely love several of them ("Gotta Get Up" and "Jump Into the Fire") but have no idea who sang them" album. Shame we didn't get more from him.

I've always liked Elvis Costello but this one goes off a cliff after the first half of Side A for me. Only Elvis Costello album I own but I literally forgot I had this one until I saw the alternate cover on Wikipedia.

Some of the music is actually not bad and goes a little bit, but I've got no idea what the fuck is going on with the plot. Makes Tommy seems sensible. Also does Peter Gabriel sound like Phil Collins or vice versa?

This is a really fun little album. It would be a bit too much to take on heavy rotation but Rock Lobster and Planet Claire are classics (especially because my longest-lived cat was named for the latter.)

I like trip hop but I have no idea how this nothingness could possibly have made the list when there's already been a decent amount of trip hop. It's just . . . there? Not terrible, but completely unmemorable.

Does what it says on the can. A good solid bit of popular music history without any true standout tracks.

It is literally impossible to listen to this album all the way through since Side 1 Track 1 is "Immigrant Song"; I just enc up listening to that over an over even if I'm not what Ragnarok. I can only assume the remaining tracks also go that hard.

Avant garde is sometimes code for utter crap. I like weird ambient stuff but this is just unlistenable too clever by half dogshit. Also, that's a really fucked up album cover.

It's fine, but B.B. King's songs always sound kind of same-ish to me and there's nothing here that really makes it pop.

An all-timer from an all-timer. I have no choice but to rate this five stars because: (1) it entirely deserves it; and (2) I'm pretty sure Ladyfriend would kill me in my sleep if I didn't.

Ethereal AF. The kind of music I really liked as a teen but never bought on cassette and kind of forgot about. Album holds up all the way through.

I love Jimi, but this is definitely his "best-selling author refuses to have an editor anymore after two huge hits and you can really really tell" album. Couple of great tracks but not enough for a double album.

This sounds like music for people who are happy. I hate it. Nails on a chalkboard. Too twee by three quarters.

An absolute hydrogen bomb of an album. It's either the most fuckwithable album of the most unfuckwithable album at all time. I would take 1/10th of a point off for the female orgasm sounds in Rocket Queen, though; I get caught out by that every time I listen to this at the office.

This is a prank, right? Wikipedia genres: (1) Avant-pop; (2) dark wave; (3) experimental; and (4) post-punk. More like post-music. Get it in the fucking bin.

German (pejorative). Turns out it's actually Slovenian but I stand by my original - and correct - take.

TIL Imagine is just as terrible a song with the lyrics in Arabic. Started out strong then fell off a cliff with this terrible cover then bounced back a bit. Three stars but for the Lennonization. Probably still going to get shawarma for lunch tomorrow, though.

I truly won't stop 'til I get enough. Listening to it for a 4th time.

I hate the singles but the deep cuts are even worse. Not sure any band has ever had a steeper drop off that the one they had from Mother's Milk to this dreck.

By far the least of the Big 4 thrash metal bands. I was going to say the only good thing they ever did was get a riff sampled by Public Enemy, but that was Slayer.

This is a damn good album. I clearly haven't listened to enough of Sabbath's catalogue. Changes has got to be one of the most " I owe you an apology I wasn't really familiar with your game" tracks of all time.

Astonishingly brilliant. Ian Curtis was simply an enormous loss and Peter Hook did some simply incredible work on the bass here.

This wasn't what I expected, but that doesn't mean it was particularly good. It was almost like soft rock, but without any good hooks. Harmless, really.

You probably know two tracks on this album from Nirvana's Unplugged (and they're both great here and there) but this is a really good album overall.

Who the fuck put flute in my rock and roll? Terrible idea. One song has a decent riff but I'll be damned if I'm going to go back and look up which one.

Inconsequential utter dugshite. Terrible Tom Waits-like singtalking but without even having interesting storytelling. An instrumental version would be fine.

I dunno, I used to like some Sinatra but I don't think this is the Sinatra I used to like. Harmless, though.

This album is so damn good I almost willingly listened to the extra 45 tracks on the Super Mega Deluxe Edition. Damn shame the Davies brothers were the proto-Gallaghers and got themselves banned from playing in the US. By far the most under-rated British invasion-type band.

This was a fun little album that I'd never heard of and will definitely listen to again if I remember. Got to get through my backlog right now. Steely Dan kind of vibes.

One of their best, but not their very best. Actually surprisingly weak relative to some of their other albums after the title track.

I guess this is his "no bangers" album? It's alright but far from his best work and a weird choice for inclusion in this book. TIL the movie "Napoleon Dynamite" is named after the painting on the cover here.

Not my cup of tea, but for whatever reason the version of the title track on YouTube has the bass turned way the hell up and it's actually funky as hell. No wonder Pops Stargell fucked with it.

A perfectly fine album, but I'm going to lose my shit if Tical's on the list but Only Built for Cuban Linx... and Liquid Swords aren't I'll lose my shit. Hell, I'd put Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version above this too. Meth's great but best in small doses.

One of the very first cassettes I ever bought and still an all-time favourite. Incomprehensible mumbling and a unique sound I much prefer to all the mandolins and whatever that came later on.

I liked this. Not sure what he's talking about or what's going on, but it seems like Jorge Ben here is having a good time.

You will never ever convince me that Tom Waits isn't a decades long practical joke/Bob Dylan satire.

My deeply ingrained 90s know-nothing-at-all-about-music-but-snooty-about-it-anyhow brain feels like I should think this album is beneath, but I don't. It's fun (non-compulsory).

I'm generally into historically significant early rock and roll stuff, but this one just has way way way way too much "bop bop bop bop" to it.

I had to listen to this album all the way through six times because the abridge nine-minute version of Free Bird is too short for my liking so I immediately go watch the 11-minute version from the Oakland Coliseum in 1977 and then forget to do my review.

This is a truly great album but I can only give it 4 stars in case the far superior A Ghost is Born or Sky Blue Sky are on the list. Most Chicago album cover of all time, though.

This is almost good but gets a bit too kinda violiny for my liking; better when it's more fiddly. Also, the suits on the cover give me the ick; better when it's overalls.

A hood masterpiece. To my shame, when Biggie came on the scene I thought he was literally a novelty act like the Fat Boyz. Still we wish we could excise Puffy from this, though.

A couple of stellar tracks on here, but it can't stand up to masterpiece that is Blue Lines and the cover of "Light My Fire" that ends the album just screams "Oh shit! We're 100% out of ideas!"

Wikipedia's best guess at the genre: "Pop, chamber music, minimalism, avant-folk, chamber jazz, modern classical." Yeah, nobody knows what this is even supposed to be. Bonus star for the album cover where the crow is mansplaining something to the penguin, though.

This seems like an album I SHOULD like but I absolutely do not. Probably released just a year or more too late for me.

By far the greatest accidental "we were just messing about in the studio and came up with something" album of all time. The early 70s collapse of Stax is one of the biggest tragedies in American cultural history.

So harmless I didn't even realize when it ended, tbh. Might listen to it again at some point to see if I missed anything.

One of the two albums where they were at their absolute creative peak but my socialist principles preclude me from giving five stars to an album that leads off with the putrescence that is "Taxman."

Kate Bush is an absolute genius. I still have no idea what the hell is going on with Side 2 of this album but I love it dearly nevertheless.

An incredibly good album. I'm a sucker for clangy post-punk type guitars.

I can't possibly give this one less than four stars due to the magnificent majesty of the three singles - three of the best yellalong songs of all time - but my god do the album cuts suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Incredibly low effort.

"Peaceful Easy Feeling" makes me legitimately homicidal. "Take it Easy"? Fuck off. Absolutely not.

59 "American standards" performed by a jazz singer and a jazz band is incredibly mean to me in particular.

This is one of those "jam bands" isn't it? Fuck.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I can never remember if it's Nick Cave or Nick Drake whom I absolutely despise but it must be Cave because this is too non-descript and unmemorable to really get my dander up.

Love Jimi and I know this is only his second album but it's got a little bit of a flavour of "can't tell me a damn thing."

French (pejorative).

Not quite as good as This is the Sea, but still a masterpiece that is one of my all-time "Why wasn't this an absolutely enormous commercial hit? Hmmm, probably because these people have no fucking taste" albums.

This was even worse than I expected. It's like a sound check. I think they forgot to do songs. Admittedly I have a deep bias against jam band-type nonsense but this suuuuuuucked.

Cinnamon Girl, Down by the River, and Cowgirl in the Sand all on one album is absolutely filthy work and more than enough to make up for this album being 57.1% filler tracks.

Ma'am. Respectfully.

Zzzquil in musical form. I guess it's not that bad and maybe I'll listen to it again to see if I missed anything but "fuzzy" is far too good a description of this one:

Not as bad as the other Cohen album inflicted on me but still deeply unpleasant. I don't mind terrible singers but terrible singtalking is not my thing.

The only possible explanation for this being in a book called 1001 Albums to Hear Before You Die is if it is the last album you ever here because it makes you lose the will to continue living in a fallen world.

Insufferably twee. The most "American indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2002" album imaginable. Like Arcade Fire if they had no song-writing talent. You don't even need to listen to this album to hate it; just read the frontman's quotes on the Wikipedia page.

I was absolutely shocked by how good this album I'd never heard of was; would definitely pick it up if I ever found it in the crates. Also, all the Manson Family stuff is absolutely wild - "OK, uh, you can have my house. I'm just gonna go now."

I regret to inform you that this kinda slaps, actually. Ska's good sometimes, especially on a Friday.

German (pejorative). I can almost see where it's going sometimes but it never actually gets there.

Not bad. Pretty listenable and almost Neil Young-ish actually. Probably because I had no idea who he was and feared it might be jazz, but still a pleasant surprise.

Meh when it came out. Even more meh now. Huuuuuuuge drop off from his first few albums.

Late 90s "alternative metal" at its absolute worst. A nails on a chalkboard cultural wasteland.

This is by far the best "never heard of it" album I've gotten from the site and I'm 402 albums in. Listened to it twice. A hidden gem or whatnot.

This is pretty decent and I like this kind of stuff, but it was damn near impossible to find a full version on YouTube because copyright nonsense. Three stars on the assumption the muted tracks are neither great nor terrible.

This is half-decent Dylan, which means I actually like some of the songs but would massively prefer cover versions of the songs. At least it's not the pure folkie stuff.

German (pejorative). It's just noise. Unpleasant noise.

Can definitely hear how influential this was on a lot of later stuff that I really like but I don't really like this all that much. Heard worse.

Polly Jean had me from the xylophone here. 3.5 stars, really but rounded up because xylophone.

This smells suspiciously like jam band.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I don't even hate Smoke on the Water and the main riff in Space Truckin' is pretty good but I just can't with 19-minute version of songs featuring drum solos and "improvisation" and whatnot. Just play the song like you're supposed to.

Musically, this is 100% my jam; I'm a sucker for new wave/post punk type stuff. Singing and lyrics, maybe not so much. Good enough for me to listen to a couple more of their albums for sure.

"Personal Jesus" is pretty much their big song but it's probably my least favourite on this album (and I like it just fine). They're a bit too mopey for my liking at times (I can do that fine myself) but this is an excellent album.

A lovely album, though I like the one dude's music quite a bit more than the other dude's singing

The singer-songwriter/folk/soft rock/songs about feelings things is just not for me. Bonus star for the kitty on the album cover.