1001 Albums Summary

I'm not super into rap but this was charming in how much of a throwback it was. I do like that 90's-mid 2000's style a lot more than what is popular now. even when the sound was relatively stripped back, the rap was holding a rhythm you could groove to - not so much the case with today. Obviously this was hugely influential - I could hear Salt N Pepa, Lauryn Hill, Dr Dre's "The Next Episode". Maybe I should check out some more Wu-Tang.

My 4th grade jam - just completely etched into my brain. The hits still hit, You Oughta Know is the banger to end all bangers, but the fillers are pretty filler-y.

Ok I guess. Not sure I'm into 25 minute long improvisational pieces.

Haven't listened to this one in a while. Short and sweet, gets in, rocks your head off, and goes. 4 stars for the album, 5 stars for Maps.

Slower and less fun than I thought it would be

This went down easy. With or Without You still rules.

Is there merit here? Sure. Do I like Billy Joel? No.

it's ok

Like a rock band doing the Wiggles

Another one that I had and haven't listened to in forever. 3.5

Not convinced that this needed to be on the list. Funeral eats Neon Bible's lunch.

neat

Why are you booing me? I'm right.

The fake radio show bit is incredibly annoying. The hip hop is so dated it's hard to take seriously - like the wholesome interstitial music of a nineties educational children's show. I don't understand why the last track was suddenly a hoe-down.

Great Christmas album! Still a Christmas album.

Why is 80s music so fucking tinny?

A little too theatrical for me but pretty good.

kept me bopping along but also didn't really grab me

There is something so goofy about this. A fake rock band for a broadway musical about count from sesame street.

Very quickly learning that if there is a UK band I've never heard of on the list, it's for a good reason. There is absolutely no reality in which it was necessary to listen to this, ever. 2 stars for being shit, -1 for wasting my damn time.

Ok, but I don't see what's really special about this. I thought I didn't know any of these songs but I do know "Alright". I like the singles from the 99 album better.

ok. 2.5

Flashes of something special but it didn't fully come together for me. Bold as Love was my fave by a lot. 3.5 stars.

I liked Explain it To Me the first time I heard it, and I still do. The rest is fine.

Expected to hate this, but it's not bad. Not my taste, though.

Do I hate new wave? Maybe I hate new wave.

Ooh those harmonies.

I don't get it.

3.5 What's with all the fucking skits? Kanye is very talented, shame he's such a shitty person.

2.5 Fine, I guess. Lots of covers of songs done better by other people. The lead's voice is annoying. If this is supposedly better than the Rolling Stones album, why is that also on the list? Why are there also 5 more Rolling Stones albums on the list? 1001 albums to cover the entire breadth of all music released from the beginning of time, and we have to listen to 5-10 albums each of this guy's favorite 15 bands. I'm sure I will get angrier about this as I move forward.

Did they invent 90s rock? This almost rules - like 2 inches away from being actually good. 3.99999

Thought I would like this more than I did. Apparently the good version of "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" is by Marvin Gaye. 2.5

I wanted to be blown away by this but mostly found it pleasant and sleepy. Track 2 got a bit too repetitive in the middle, but the end was a whole Explosions in the Sky type vibe.

I don't hate this but I also don't particularly want to listen to it. 2.5

I've listened to this 4 times now and there's still something that's not quite clicking. I want to like this more than I do! I love This Woman's Work! I love all the Kate Bush-inspired girlies! Unfortunately I think it's that 80's production holding it back for me. I'll probably keep trying though.

I liked it, but I had to listen to some of it a few times because it kept slipping through my ears while I was working. I wish it had a little more KAPOW. 3.5

oh yeah

Wow, the first band I knew nothing about that I felt really excited listening to. Track 1 rules, and imagine my surprise to hear a Sleigh Bells riff on track 2. I thought the first half was stronger, though.

That sure was some honky tonk. 2.5

Cheesy but still kind of fun. Felt like the blueprint for a lot of 80s rock.

Could use a little more melody with the noise. 2.5

OK

Some cool songs, some really tough ones. And Time After Time is a stone-cold classic, of course, but I still like it better when someone else is singing. Sorry, Cyndi.

Beatles albums should be here. This? I don't think so. 2.5

Completely makes sense that the wiki entry is 3 sentences. How is this a significant release? 2.5

Fine, but I've heard this done better dozens of times.

Groovy but also much too long. Most of it is missing that particular Beatles twinkle but it's way better than Imagine.

Soooo old-school, the record scratching kind of cracked me up. The beats were pretty great, though. Fun! 3.5

This guy is clearly good at what he does. But it's not for me. 2.5

His voice is not my fave. I like it better when it's more folky and less honky tonk.

A LOT all at once, but so many classics here. All I'm missing is Weapon of Choice.

If you want some jazzy crooning, Sinatra's your guy.

This was kind of a weird one for me. Not really what I expected.

ehhhhh. Isn't Surfer Rosa the one I should be listening to?

Side A rules, Side B not so much. How come nobody told me Isaac Hayes invented trip hop in 1969???

CCR doing what they do.

Pretty mellow, but kind of in one ear out the other.

You know what you need to listen to before you die? A bunch of jackasses vamping on their guitars for twenty minutes at a time. Live!

Well now I know who to blame for that fucking lime in the coconut song. 2.5

Kind of like if Elvis was a country singer. 3.5

The good parts sound like old-school 40s and 50s jazz, so why wouldn't I just listen to that?

Jesus Christ, this and Grateful Dead in one week? At least I made it all the way through this one. 2.5

The opener and closer are the best songs the Stones have ever done. The rest is not that interesting. 3.5

Nick Drake is better.

Pleasant enough, but hookless, and so completely overshadowed by OK Computer it's not even funny. You don't have to put 5 of every band's albums on the list!! You can just do the best one! 3.5

It's good, but I get tired after 2 Bob Marley songs in a row. 3.5

When your lead singer sounds like that you think you'd do a bit more to cover it up but w/e 2.5

let's boogie

Those repetitive horn and whistle sounds are excruciating

not my thing but ok

Maybe this was more interesting in 1993 but I don't think it belongs on this list.

I know this guy from remixes and collabs, but I've never heard his solo work. Chill, but is it special?

Parachutes, they could never make me hate you

fine

The band that dares to ask: what if the Strokes, but worse?

generally dislike live albums but Sam Cooke is a legend

The original cast recording of Andrew Lloyd Weber's least successful musical. This better not fuck up my algorithms

What I start composing on day 6 in the padded cell

30 seconds in, I thought, hmm, maybe I'll like this. I didn't.

I liked it but I also wish that there was a bit more structure. 3.5

kinda good, kinda bullshit

So good it makes me sad that nothing since has lived up to it.

I'm trying, Kate, I'm trying! 3.99

Pretty good background music, but doesn't get beyond that for me. And too long!

I liked the sound of this much better than a lot of 80s pop, but I still wanted something more. 3.5

Belle & Sebastian has just never done that much for me. I did like I Don't Love Anyone.

ok

Summery and pleasant, but it starts to be too much after a while. I'd like a song or two on a playlist, not a whole album. 3.5

I hate this.

jazzy

mom music, but good mom music

liked the first half better

Not quite my taste but I respect it. 3.5

fine

fine

For the first thirty seconds, I was excited. Where are we going? And then we went nowhere. And then we went to Nick Cave-ville. 2.5

Now I get what yacht rock is.

started vibey but swerved from that as it went on. ok

blah 2.5

So self-indulgent to take 15 bangers and dilute them with a bunch of also-rans. Nobody wants to listen to a fucking triple album. Stop it. 2.5

bluesy-er than I expected

doesn't quite hit me straight on, but it's good. Very Kanye. 3.5

Well, I liked the sound of some of the instrumentation better than a lot of 80s stuff, but it mostly felt like sitting around waiting for something to happen.

Pretty good rock when he's not on his jack skellington bullshit. Retroactive 1 for Murder Ballads since he can make half-decent music and just chose not to.

Album is a 3, God Only Knows is a 10, so 4??

Interesting to experience someone who is an icon for half the world, but a minor footnote in the US. I'm surprised he didn't do better, because a lot of this album sounds like the kind of alternative-rock inspired pop that did numbers here in the late 90s. Wasn't crazy about Angels, which is apparently his biggest hit of all time. Oops

certainly sounds like aerosmith. not doing much for me 2.5

banger

Morrissey's voice is tolerable at certain frequencies. Unfortunately, he often ventures beyond those frequencies. Otherwise ok.

Borderline novelty music at times (dandruff song??) but the beats are cool and the whole thing feels sunshiney. 3.5

Insanely over the top musical theater fever dream/nightmare but it commits so hard that I kind of like it anyway? 3.5

I'm finally free!!!!!! Stop doing double albums, everybody. I mean it.

starts to go there but then doesn't stay there

The B-52s if they were less good and also vaguely Halloween-themed. I thought the Cramps were a punk band?? 2.5

liked this a lot more than I expected to

I like Sinatra and I like bossa nova but I think they're better served separately. 3.5

started strong but fell off

nice mix of heavy but still melodic

1st half: banger city. 2nd half doesn't live up to it.

wanted to bop to it a little more, but it was good. 3.5

Fine but also completely unremarkable? (Shocker - it's British) 2.5

I respect the musicianship, but I do NOT like their voices, especially when they blast all at the same time. 2.5

Pleasantly groovy. Some songs go on too long. 3.5

It seems like this guy is legendary in his area, and this album is a minor footnote - so why?? 2.5

My forever girl

Pretty good! Love a little harmonica action

ok for ten minutes, but for two hours? woof

This is good. Would probably hit harder if I was 16

I appreciate what's happening musically, but the rapping is soooo dorky. I guess all prog is dorky

Ok. Some of those harmonies were UGLY. I liked Vapour Trail.

nice enough but also who gives a shit

yes

very french

Falling on the border of like & ok. Not crazy about the vocals, but I loved the energy from rhythm & drums. Mostly it made me want to listen to suspect device.

I like Aimee Mann better when she's being really depressing.

A little too mellow in the wrong way for me - I kept making it louder and it kept hiding away in the corner. But I did like "Like Fire" and "Tall in the Saddle", especially the guitar work. I bet Ani DiFranco loved her.

fine

this dude's voice is ANNOYING

nice but I also wanted it to go harder 3.5

the middle section was pretty good - did not love the beginning or end

Genius of Love is still so groovy, but I wish they had autotune going for Lorelei. Overall ok.

sounds exactly like the 90s but it's kind of monotonous over the course of an hour

ok

generally dislike metal but this is pretty good. 3.5

I felt every minute of that hour. 2.5

I kind of hate the song Hotel California, but these guys know what they want to do and they're good at it. 3.5

not really my thing but good for what it is. last song was annoying as hell

Didn't love a few songs but overall I enjoyed it a lot!

I liked the funky instrumentation, but the songs mostly felt like a lot of noodling that didn't really go anywhere.

was ok, then it started to annoy me, and it just kept going. 2.5

Something that really makes you ask "is this music?" I get that that's the point, but yeesh

nice 3.5

pretty good

Video game loading screen music looping in the background because someone was too lazy to turn off the tv. Youtube started playing something else just like this and I didn't even notice. 1.5

An undeniable classic, but quite uneven.

kind of agitated me but maybe today was the wrong day for it, idk. I did like father & son & how it sounds like fight test

More annoying the longer it went on. I do not like Lars's voice, especially when he tries to shout

ok

Fine, but not good enough on its own merits to be here, and completely unspecial for 2012, so..... why? Oh, UK. Got it.

pretty good but as usual the best parts are when Morrissey isn't singing

no

Way more lowkey than I expected from the bat biters. 3.5

Unpleasantly repetitive. Once in a Lifetime was ok. 2.5

Did not realize Ryan Adams was a Bob Dylan cosplayer. I like the harmonica, I really like Girl from the North Country, the rest was ok.

basically the opposite of my thing but I respect how hard they're going for it

fine

I just had bob dylan and now there's more. Not as good as the first one

aggressively fine

thousands of years from now in a sci-fi space travel drama, this will be the background sound of my cryo-chamber as I am locked in for my two hundred year journey

ok. I liked in the back of my mind. last track was pointless.

I like this

ok except for the turns into musical theater

bleh

bleh

ok

More mid British bullshit? Hot diggity! 2.5

grooves that go nowhere :(

w/e

long sigh

classic

Potential hot take: 19 is Adele's best and each subsequent album is worse than the one that came before. 21 isn't bad, it's just kind of boring and one-note. Once you've heard the first twelve seconds of a song, you've heard everywhere it's going to go, and then it continues for five minutes. And radio overplaying it to death hasn't helped.

hated the first few songs but then it kind of hit??

I like when the music gets a little triphoppy but it's also giving college student's musical thesis

whatever. minus 1 star for naming yourself primal scream when you sound like hall & oates doing house music

I don't know that I loved it. I like to feel jazz a little more in my body than I felt this. But I wasn't waiting for it to end. 3.5

could probably perform 75% of this in a pinch

ok

pleasant and relaxing

Apparently Garfunkel was load-bearing. 2.5

I know Tori Amos loved this one

rock operas are a mistake 2.5

let's go to the sock hop! 3.5

red alert was good. no thanks to everything else

What is this? Metal/country/proto-grunge? It's ok

fine

ok. Hero was kind of Strokes-y. 3.5

OK. Would have preferred they take the 10 best snippets and make full-length songs.

The instrumentation is pretty good. The singing is pretty bad. Do I need to be on peyote for this?

Perfectly pleasant to listen to, but it felt somewhat removed from me??? Maybe too polished, idk.

Fine. They're at least honest about what they sound like unlike a lot of these other fakeass "hardcore hard rock heavy metal" bands

this dude likes west side story, huh

nasty person, great musician

Too long. I was done with it halfway through. And I could do without the extra-sappy cover of Imagine. Otherwise ok. 2.5

Same problem as the Smiths - good music that whiny vocals take a shit all over. Ok I guess

if you told me this was 100% improvised on the spot I would believe you 2.5

the ne plus ultra of gangsta rap

not my thing 2.5

insane choice. if you want to listen to Destiny's Child listen to Writing's on the Wall, and you can just do the singles, even. This album could be chopped in half and it would only improve. 2.5

nice 3.5

ok i guess 2.5

this is what I expected black sabbath to sound like. 3.5

ok. liked the second half better 3.5

pretty pretty pretty good 3.5

feels like I need to be freebasing something to enjoy this

lowkey rules

I get that the Beatles are THE BEATLES, but this is such an also-ran album from them. 2.5

the clarity is really nice

eh

not my fave jazz

Not something I want to listen to every day, but once in a while it Hits

Kind of perplexing as a choice from the Swift oeuvre - it's probably her least impactful album since it's basically "folklore, and it's completely different but also still folklore". And while I like quite a few of the songs on their own merits, somehow the album comes across as less than the sum of its parts. Still good though.

The last cd I bought in the cd era. Vocals get a smidge grating here and there but it's still a banger deluxe. 4.5

6 discs is absolutely crazy work, but Ella is THAT girl and it's so easy to listen to.

Clint Eastwood really carries this.

None of these songs would be in my personal top 14 for the Beatles, but it might be their best album start-to-finish? Though it's a weird choice to end with a jaunty tune about murdering your girlfriend.

ooooh that jazz. feels like I need to let it cook more

eh

T Swift's flag on the pop moon

nice 3.5

ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 2.5

not a fun time

good stuff

banger

permanently altered my brain chemistry at 15

The first track got me hyped but the album was just ok for me. 3.5

I prefer N.E.R.D. when they're more grr and less la-la-di-da 3.5

ok. the long songs tend to go off the rails

Gotta listen to this more often. Such a vibe, especially this time of year. 4.75

ok

Hits so hard in November

Veers a little too close to Billy Joel-ville at times, but there's more classics here than on a greatest hits record. Damn, Carole, I didn't know Tapestry was the soil we grow in and the air we breathe

Middle section suuuuucks but there are some all-timers here. Why is All I Wanna Do not the first track??? 3.5

I was looking forward to this :( 2.5

Fleet Foxes is perfectly pleasant, but it's like being in a coffeeshop with good vibes, and you enjoy sitting there with your book and never ever look up who's playing the music. 3.5

Only know the title track but this is groovy

Banger. Still hate double albums

extremely 80s

Those hits are so fucking good. The rest is pleasant

Sedate jazz

Hits are still good, but the style in general is so dated that nothing else will penetrate my brain. 3.5

Hard to believe this is a special example of anything

idek, man

more of a pink moon girlie 3.5

More into Heartbreaker & Love is Hell, but this is good if you're in the mood for it.

not for me the, not for me now 2.5

confused them with the black keys who I am eh about. I am also eh about this 2.5

ok background music

I like Yoshimi better but there's some good stuff here

not my fave album by them but is sigur ros ever not the vibe??? 4.5

zebra is still so good

Patiently listened to the whole thing, hoping I would like a song or two. One started and I was like, yes! this is the one! But the album was over and it was by the flaming lips. 2.5

ok

meh

elite

too musical theater-y 2.5

Sounds perfectly 80s without that horrible 80s production? Madonna, how did you do it??

eh

very 80s. not very catchy

kind of interesting 3.5

never crazy about all the interludes but TLC always makes smooth-ass r&b

Would have rather listened to Groove is in the Heart 12 times in a row. 2.5

The kind of music that makes a great 30 second needledrop in a heist movie, but is extremely tedious as an album 2.5

ok - definitely better than sign o the times. I like when he leans more towards rock and away from 80s carnival music

Not sure if it's the mix, the recording, or her vocal quality when she's belting, but there is an unpleasant tone to it at times, especially on the deep cuts. Like most of the hits though

I don't like bon jovi

so nostalgic

Never heard this album before, but I liked Souljacker. Beautiful Freak sounded very familiar overall, probably because it fits in so well with the 90s alternative zeitgeist 3.5

It's good but I like a bit more pep in my jazz. And I prefer Toma Cinco to Take Five. 3.5

ok 3.5

no

better than the other abba album

I did it! Not as tedious as some of the garbage I had to suffer through on this list, and at least they sound like shit on purpose. 2.5

Courtney Love & Hole do not get enough credit for how much they fucking rule. Liked the first half better 4.5

So all over the place but there's some great tunes

nice. not crazy about her scatting. 3.5

ok 3.5

her voice is not my fave

ok

eh

eh 3

too strident for my earballs :(

Ok - his voice is not great without a lot of instrumentation to support it. I liked Babe I'm Gonna Leave You and Black Mountain Side the best. 3.5

ehhhhhhhhh 2.5

ok

Thought I would like this better than I did, but it's still pretty good. 3.5

ok. did not know glory days was a springsteen song

too repetitive

love me some louie

kinda cool 3.5

sublime

bleh 2.5

1 hour of boring-ass beats

pleasant. maybe I am a philistine idk

saved it all for "maybe i'm amazed" and the rest was just kind of there 3.5

absolutely horrendous start to a pretty ok album 2.5

distilled essence of 90's alternative. surprised I never heard of it

started off bad but by the end I was slightly brainwashed 2.5

good

ok

not my fave but I started to get into the back half 2.5

could have easily trimmed 30 minutes of self-indulgent bullshit

overall good with a couple of all-timers 4.5

eh

very chill

fine. less annoying than 21 because it is less overplayed. my adele opinions remain the same

don't think I have the springsteen gene

w/e

was kind of into it at the start but it didn't really go anywhere

good stuff

ok

pleasant 3.5

nice 3.5

come pick me up is still so good

fine

I wanted a little more mania from dance mania but it was nice 3.5

eh

bleh

remembered liking this more 3.5

two weeks sounds nothing like the rest of the album

ok

eh

3.5 like intro of course but kind of samey overall