This is over 30 years old!? Still scarily prescient. Rage has always been their own thing. No one has done it better (other than maybe Chuck D...which probably explains the later mash-up reincarnation as Prophets of Rage). A masterpiece of focused anger.

In listening to this I realized I don't think I've ever heard the 'No Woman No Cry" studio version. The live version seems to be the one we've all grown up hearing. Which is a great version. This is fine but...the drum machine just sounds out of place to me. Regardless, it's hard to find a bad song performed by Bob. And this album definitely foretold the quality of the rest of his 70s output. I hope we get some more reggae on this list.

This is the first one that has popped up that I don't actually own--nor have ever heard before. Weird how a seemingly popular album like that just can be completely missed out on. As for my thoughts...I dunno. It's interesting. But not terribly so. It's...fine? I'm honestly not sure why this is on the list other than it seems England was particularly enamored with this one. Glad I heard it. But I doubt I'll bother ever giving it another listen. It's not bad. Just not all that memorable to me. 2 stars. It's not BAD. But for being one of the 1001, this is just pretty boring.

"All apologies" is a classic. The rest is good.

This is what I was hoping to get out of this 1001 list...finding albums I either didn't know of, or knew of, but never really paid attention to. I found a copy of this on vinyl years and years ago back when you could still find interesting records for a dollar in a Goodwill bin. Probably played it once and forgot about it. So today it got a second spin. And...it's nice. I like it. Nothing profound or out of the ordinary, but a perfectly fine late 60s psych/rock/folk mashup. And even though everything seems to fit into that mashup of a genre, there's quite a bit of variety on here as well. Pleasantly surprised. They also seem to be having fun on here. Not taking these compositions all that seriously and allowing some silliness in. Also, TIL one of the band members was named "Banana" and played most of the instruments on this. All of that said, I'm not entirely sure why this is on the list. I had to track down a copy of the book and found that it's mainly because the author liked a few of the songs? I guess is the author's prerogative. I do agree with the author that the last track on this album is particularly good (I am also a sucker for the vibraphone). Also noticed while flipping through the actual book: holy crap there are a shit-ton of albums on this list from 1969! Anyways, that's my review. An OK album that somehow caused me to write the longest review yet. So there's that. PS: What is that supposed to be on the cover in the foreground? A pile of elephant dung?

"All apologies" is a classic. The rest is good.

What's not to like? It's Blondie. At their best.

This is forcing to do a bit more digging than I typically do. TIL that this is Isaac backed by the Bar-Kays. WhoSampled.com has 'Walk On By' listed 129 times. The one that immediately comes to mind is Hooverphonic's use of it. The number of other albums improved by the very existence of this one is immense. Track 2 is 10 minutes long, but feels like 20, in the best way possible. I don't have much to say about track 3. It's...fine? And finally, the almost 20 minute finale is mostly just Isaac doing a spoken word preamble. But it works. 4 tracks of Issac doing his own thing. RIP, Chef.

I haven't listened to this full album in probably 40 years. I wore it out as a kid, though. I don't think it holds up for me. But that could just be due to it being so very very 80s and that was a period as a kid where my music world was rather narrow and what was in it got played to death. But 'I'm On Fire' and 'Dancing In The Dark' are still great.

Forever intertwined with the appearance of the magnificent Jaguar shark. And that's OK.

This is the first one that has popped up that I don't actually own--nor have ever heard before. Weird how a seemingly popular album like that just can be completely missed out on. As for my thoughts...I dunno. It's interesting. But not terribly so. It's...fine? I'm honestly not sure why this is on the list other than it seems England was particularly enamored with this one. Glad I heard it. But I doubt I'll bother ever giving it another listen. It's not bad. Just not all that memorable to me. 2 stars. It's not BAD. But for being one of the 1001, this is just pretty boring.

One of the best opening tracks ever? Paired with one of the best closing tracks ever? A regret I have in life is not really getting deep into Sabbath until much later in life. So many wasted years!

If I were to grade this one solely on the cover art...it's 2 stars. The music brings it up to 3, though. Good stuff. Not great stuff. But very good stuff. The opening track's guitar is a highlight for me. I think I still prefer Making Movies as being their best (both in terms of music and album art).

I love me some trip-hop. This one is fine. But not anywhere near my top ten trip hop albums. I appreciate the production on this, though. I think Nightmare's 'Carboot Soul' ends up being a more enjoyable listen.

Hmmm...I guess these guys were big in Britain? I've always known of them. Can't say I ever sat down to listen to a full album. Confession: I still haven't. I couldn't make it all the way through this one. It's alright. But...nothing really hit me as being special. Maybe you had to be there.

One of the best elephant-themed album covers ever. And yea, it's a good album.

I feel this album is more important than it is timeless. Definitely a good album and a milestone of the hard bop era but...just a good jazz album in 2025. Might have meant a lot more back then.

This album was unescapable for a period of time and yet, somehow, I never sat down and listened to the whole thing. It's definitely it's own thing and deserves a spot on the list because of that. For me, though, it sits on the fence between "overly precious" and "catchy". It's good. Really good. But maybe a bit too much. It feels like the audio equivalent of eating a 3rd piece of birthday cake...when you know you really should have stopped at one.

More Sabbath? Already? Yay! Hard to deny the impact of this album. The dawn of heavy metal. Even more amazing is the fact that this entire album was recorded live in 12 hours.

I feel this 5th album is *the* Simple Minds album if you are on the East side of the Atlantic. While those on the other side know them more for their 7th album. Which means, I think I prefer their later 7th album over this one. It's fine. Very 80s. Definitely a predictor of what was to come.

Always knew this hit off of this one (The Weight -- which is a great song) But didn't really know the album as a whole until much more recently. At which point I became completely obsessed over 'Chest Fever'. I can't get enough of that organ riff. Also, TIL the cover was painted by Dylan, and the album jacket was designed by Milton Glaser.

Not super familiar with Hugh's larger body of work and have never heard this one before. Not sure how to describe it beyond it simply being "a lovely album". I think I need to find a copy to add to the collection.

I forgot how great of a catchy pop song 'Shake It Off' is. Taylor deserves her success. She's good.

Production is pretty amazing on this. Music is...fine? It's alright. Not entirely sure why this specific album is on this list though.

I've never sat and listened to this album until now. Turns out I knew WAY more songs from this than I realized. I probably didn't even realize they were Nilson songs. While not a perfect album, it's really pleasant overall. Nice Saturday afternoon type of listen. I'm still not sure if coconut is so dumb it's good, or if it's simply just good.

Perfect Day is a perfect song. The rest of the album is excellent. That said, it's a little disappointing to hear the start of Walk on the Wild Side and not hear the snare jump in with Q-tip, but I suppose that's just a testament as to how influential this album was.

[this is good]

Legendary. And STILL a really fun listen nearly 40 years later.

Disclaimer: I was a giant Queen fan as a kid. If I had to pick the Queen albums to be on the 1001 list, not sure II would have been one of them. But am glad to give a Queen album a spin. You do hear all the parts of "future queen" on this one...the multi-tracked voices, the ambitious range of genres and, of course, the pomposity of it all. This album is also quite a bit heavier than I remember. And I will never tire of Brian's guitar tone. (PS, if you are a Queen fan, Brian just remastered Queen I and it sounds pretty amazing...)

As Jack Black said "It's going to be ok..."

The Band, Dylan, The Band...all in a week? Seems we're stuck in a rut here of random selections. Not a BAD rut. But...hoping for a bit more variety next week. Anyways...this album...I like it better than Big Pink. Maybe just because more of the hits are on this one. But...that's enough The Band for now. Let's something new going on...

My favorite Bob Dylan Album...cover artwork. I just really like that photo.

This is what I was hoping to get out of this 1001 list...finding albums I either didn't know of, or knew of, but never really paid attention to. I found a copy of this on vinyl years and years ago back when you could still find interesting records for a dollar in a Goodwill bin. Probably played it once and forgot about it. So today it got a second spin. And...it's nice. I like it. Nothing profound or out of the ordinary, but a perfectly fine late 60s psych/rock/folk mashup. And even though everything seems to fit into that mashup of a genre, there's quite a bit of variety on here as well. Pleasantly surprised. They also seem to be having fun on here. Not taking these compositions all that seriously and allowing some silliness in. Also, TIL one of the band members was named "Banana" and played most of the instruments on this. All of that said, I'm not entirely sure why this is on the list. I had to track down a copy of the book and found that it's mainly because the author liked a few of the songs? I guess is the author's prerogative. I do agree with the author that the last track on this album is particularly good (I am also a sucker for the vibraphone). Also noticed while flipping through the actual book: holy crap there are a shit-ton of albums on this list from 1969! Anyways, that's my review. An OK album that somehow caused me to write the longest review yet. So there's that. PS: What is that supposed to be on the cover in the foreground? A pile of elephant dung?

Screamadelica is an all time favorite. But somehow I never listened to this other one by them. Very different. Very late-90s. Very good. A little bit trip-hop, a little bit industrial. I did recognize the one track that made it onto the Trainspotting album. "Star" is pretty great, too. But I still prefer Screamadelica.

This has "Tumbling Dice" on it...which I would argue is the best song the Stones ever wrote. And it also has 17 other songs that are all...alright, I guess. Is this the Stones album I put on when I have the rare urge to listen to a Stones album? No, it is not. But I will put on Tumbling Dice.

I'm a 50+ year old dad. Of course I have this album. I think we all get the Steely Dan discography when we turn 50. Sort of like getting your first AARPA invitation. I assume this is on the list mainly because the author was also a 50+ dad. 3 stars = 1 for being Steely Dan, 1 for being a passable album cover (something Steely Dan seems to have struggled with) and 1 for me being over 50.

This was an album I remember hearing constantly for a period in the Sophomore dorms at college. So there's some nostalgia there. Hard to deny Snoop's style and Dre's production. Incredibly dumb lyrics, though.

This is over 30 years old!? Still scarily prescient. Rage has always been their own thing. No one has done it better (other than maybe Chuck D...which probably explains the later mash-up reincarnation as Prophets of Rage). A masterpiece of focused anger.

I like it for what it is and understand its significance. But...one listen was probably enough for me. I do love that album cover, though.

I guess this is considered one of the first Britpop albums. Which is why I guess it's on the list. I think this completely missed those of us on the other side of the ocean. (Is that a thing anymore? Are artists region-locked like they were back then?) It's a nice album. I really liked "Pantomime Horse". Had I heard this back then, it'd probably have stuck with me. As it is now listening to it for the first time 30 years later, it's nice, but not something I will likely revisit.

I'm not the right person to judge this. I do like the ambition on this album and really love some of the tracks, though.

Not unlike the Snoop Dogg album...a hugely popular and influential release in the history of hip-hop tainted by some ridiculously childish and misogynistic lyrics. But the album does deserve it's landmark status, and gave us the Beasties, arguably one of the best thing to happen to music. And even they in later years made amends for the lyrics on this one. RIP, MCA.

I don't recognize a single song off of this one. Which is kind of fun. I suppose this just went under the radar in the US. Music-wise it's alright. Nice enough.

I guess I have to just accept the fact that this list of 1001 albums is very "white dude from England"-centric. I think I've heard *of* Doves, but can't say I've ever heard anything they've done. This sounds like U2 if U2 had started during the BritPop era. It's OK. I feel like I'm getting in a rut here. This is becoming "1001 OK albums" for me.

So...I never knew Elastica was British. That likely explains why they are on this list. :/ I see a lot of criticism that they ripped off Wire and Buzzcocks. I don't undertand how that's something to criticize. That seems like two excellent bands to rip off. I would have lumped them into grunge in the past but after giving this a new listen, they're definitely coming at it from a very different angle. And it's a good angle. I like it! I've always like the singles that came off of this one and after giving the entire album a thorough listen, I like it!

"Everybody Wants To Rule The World" is simply one of the best pop songs ever written. And still gut-punchingly prescient. (Oddly, the Wikipedia page for the song has omits any connection this song has to popcorn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1FMJdqqLiM ). The rest of the album is solid, and surprisingly not as laden with 80s over-production as I thought it might be. 80s, for sure. But in a good way.

An album that, as it ages, seems to appeal more and more to those of us that are also aging. I've never put on a Sade album and thought "nah, not in the mood..." Good stuff.

Desert blues! My favorite "new" genre I've discovered this past decade. I'm a big fan of Bombino, Mdou Moctar, and Tinariwen. I somehow never sat down and listened to these guys, though. It's good. And a touching story regarding their formation as, well, exiles. I would't say this is my favorite desert blues album by any stretch, but it's a solid album.

I knew the title track (and loved it). Didn't know the rest. The rest is as great as the title track. This is an amazing album. A very bad description would be "Men At Work" pretending they were "The Talking Heads".

I was expecting more folk, but got a bit more rock, which was a bit of a surprise, but this just isn't my thing. The album feels ambitious and well performed and produced. Just not something I will be returning to.

This was a nice one for the weekend. Good Saturday morning music...

Not sure what's to say about this one. I think everyone is familiar with Carole's body of work. Amazing songwriter.

I suppose this is how we ended up with Wilco. Which I guess is a good outcome. It's fine. I understand it's importance as being that first 'alt country' kinda thing. Do I ever need to listen to it again? No. Bonus star for the great album artwork, though.

For anyone of a certain age this album (or at least all the singles--the bulk of this album) is etched into their brain somewhere. For better or worse. Which maybe makes this hard to objectively review some 35 years later. It's iconic, for sure. "Escapade" is still a great pop song.

This is maybe where I get petty. Or lazy. Or probably both. I didn't make it through this one. I really do not mesh with Rufus' voice. (Though for some reason I love Martha's...go figure.) Super talented dude. But yea, just can't do that voice.

Can't deny the importance of this band and this album (and the Stax label). Some of the songs on here are great (as is the title track, of course). Some of it feels a little bit like filler, but that's how it was back then. Solid album.

Bowie!

I decided to pass on this one.

What's not to love about Sly and the Family? Glad to see the recognition he and the band has been getting as of late thanks to Questlove. Fun, danceable album with some pretty heavy themes. And the 14min Sex Machine is epic, of course.

History is going to look back on the early part of the 21st century and there will be a list of the biggest fuck-ups of the century. On that list will be: • Blockbuster not getting their shit together and laughing at an offer to buy Netflix • America not getting their shit together and electing Donald Trump • America not getting their shit together and electing Donald Trump. Again. and, of course • Black Francis not getting his shit together and running Kim out of the band. This band was SOOO good with Kim.

Consistently on my top 10 albums of all time list. And probably on my top 10 album covers of all time list. So yea, 5 stars.

In listening to this I realized I don't think I've ever heard the 'No Woman No Cry" studio version. The live version seems to be the one we've all grown up hearing. Which is a great version. This is fine but...the drum machine just sounds out of place to me. Regardless, it's hard to find a bad song performed by Bob. And this album definitely foretold the quality of the rest of his 70s output. I hope we get some more reggae on this list.

Without Slade there may never have been a succesful Quiet Riot. Without Quiet Riot we may never have had hair metal. And then what? Would the world have been worse off? Or maybe better off? I dunno. Dumb, fun, rock n roll. AC/DC took this and ran with it.

The Beastie Boys' run of four albums--from their second (Paul's Boutique) to their fifth (Hello Nasty) with 'Check Your Head' and this one in the middle--is arguably one of the greatest 4-album runs of any band in history.

I always grab ECM releases when I find them out in the wild. To mixed results. But always a fun gamble. I don't know that this feels like jazz to me, but it's nice. Really glad I listened to this one. This is the kind of discoveries I was hoping to get out of this list. The Wikipedia article is worth a read, BTW. Sounds like everything that could go wrong did go wrong with this concert and yet, he pulled off something pretty amazing in the end.

What's not to love about this one? It was also fun to get reacquainted with "I'm in Touch With Your World". What a wonderfully weird song.

From one huge debut (The Cars) to another...both with gigantic hits as their first three tracks. The big difference is the format era...The Cars being released at the height of vinyl, and this one at the height of CDs. I think the Cars win out here being forced to whittle down their output to a nice-sized 9 tracks, while the Foo Fighters had the need to fill up much more of a 80 minute CD. As such, this albums starts out great but tires soon after and I had to struggle a bit to get through all 12 tracks. To be fair, part of that is likely just due to the amount of times I heard this all through the latter half of the 90s. Maybe this is one of those albums that I just got burnt out on. All that said, no doubt this is an iconic and important album of the era. Signaling that transition from 100% grunge into a more pop-song direction.

WTF? Not a single bossa nova tune on here. I feel a bit robbed. But what is on here is great, of course. Odd to have a second Pixies album already. 14 song is a lot. But in under 40 minutes, they're nice and short. Weird Wikipedia trivia about the recording of this album: "The three band members (while Kim stayed in the UK to record The Breeders album) lived in the Oakwood apartments (In LA), along with comic Garrett Morris and members of the band White Lion."

I have admittedly never listened to this entire album until now. It's really great. Not the album cover. I never did like that. (What is it? A cutting board? A Jackson Pollock?) Oh. Wait. Just read the Wikipedia article on the artwork. "The cover was named by Q magazine as one of 'The 100 Best Record Covers of All Time.'" Umm...no. YOU ARE WRONG, Q! WRONG! But the music is really great. Also, TIL, my favorite track from this album (Fool's Gold) wasn't actually on this album. It was a single-only release they tacked on to the end of this album in later reissues.

It is funky.

This is the 'band' Steely Dan vs. every other album which was the 'duo' Steely Dan. That's neither good nor bad. Just different. "Rolling In The Years" is was of those songs I loathed growing up for whatever reason (likely it's constant playing on classic rock stations was pretty much the only exposure I had to music in my early years). But as a part of the broader album, I have an appreciation for it now. More weird Wikipedia trivia (I think I'm having more fun just finding weird shit on Wikipedia for each album: *** Sometime after recording Can't Buy a Thrill, Steely Dan wrote and recorded a jingle for Schlitz Beer that was rejected and never aired. Long considered lost, it was rediscovered in July 2023 by Cimcie Nichols in the archive of her late father Roger Nichols.[24] The 1 minute and 50 second jingle has a distinct Steely Dan sound with layered vocals by Fagen, after a spoken word introduction in Spanish by Baxter (in a squeaky inhaled helium voice), with Fagen speaking an English translation. Recording took place in Studio A at The Village in Los Angeles. At the session, a photo was taken of Fagen in reindeer sweater and Dias in overalls and sombrero while holding a tank of helium that subsequently appeared on the back cover of Katy Lied. ***

This is the one with "Here Comes The Sun" which is the best Beatles song. Supposedly, the mixing of this song was the very last time all 4 Beatles were in the studio together. They left on a high note.

It's...fine? Nice? Perfectly OK?

It's kind of crazy this is the only solo album she ever released. I guess when you release a debut album with that level of success, there's no need to ty and top it.

I like Ella. I'm not listening to this entire thing, though.

Even after all these years, I still don't "get" radiohead. It's fine? "Light industrial droning"? Oddly, I'm liking the recent incarnation as The Smile. But yea...it's really hard for me to sit through an entire Radiohead album. I went looking for why this was on the list and...I dunno...it seems to be "because they made another album." There's 3 other Radiohead albums on this list, fer fuck's sake. I'm getting the feeling this list is really the "1001 albums you must hear before you die (that were performed by artists from the UK or US only)."

One of my all time faves. Perfect album. Her take on Gloria is up there with Cash's 'Hurt' where the cover version becomes the definitive version. And Redondo Beach is a song I will never, ever, ever get sick of listening to. She was punk before punk, new wave before new wave. And the album still stands strong some (checks notes...yikes...almost fifty!?) 49 years later.

Such a uniquely and wonderfully weird band. Looking forward to see them on their current tour this fall.

Wikipedia trivia: "MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer cited Live at the Apollo as the inspiration to 'Kick Out the Jams'" A fun time capsule.

oh! I like this one! I really only know some of Goldfrapp's later hits after they went in a more dance-music direction. This particular album is very different from those later songs. I really like this. Feels like a natural progression from where Portishead left off with their first 2 albums. Glad this is on the list. Something I wasn't familiar with that I ended up really liking!

If you have a Willie Nelson album in your collection, it probably should be this one.

Ice Cube is one of the greatest MCs of all time. Not always a fan of his lyrical choices, but there's no denying he knows how to deliver them with, well, attitude. PS: fuck the police.

If I had to explain what this album by XTC sounds like, I'd have to say this album sounds like XTC. And by that, everyone knows what that means. It sounds like Partridge. No one else sounds like him. I'm not entirely sure why THIS XTC album is on the list. It's a 'lovely' album...nice acoustic/orchestral/brooding/meandering soundscape type of thing. Maybe this is Andrew's interpretation of Enya. I dunno. It's perfectly fine. But not really the XTC album I'd reach for if I wanted to listen to XTC.

While I see where alex is coming from with the comparison to Gallagher, I don't think I'd go that far. I think a better analogy is with the person that took both his schtick and his songs...David Lee Roth. Gallagher's talent is...narrow. He can smash watermelons. I'm going to give David and Louis a bit more of a lane when it comes to their talent. Yes, perhaps still one-trick ponies, but it's a trick that feels more sincere--even if its not. Plus, the musicians on here are pretty tight. Seems like everyone is having a bit of fun here. I think I got my copy of this out of a goodwill and had grabbed it for the cover more than the music. But ended up being sucked in to the schtick. It's fun. Sometimes fun is all we need.

We all know Birthday. Essentially Bjork's debut to the world. Has there ever been a debut song that has topped that? I don't think so. The 'Bjork growl' is uniquely Bjork. And the opening riff on the song is just [chef's kiss]. Perhaps the downside of the ubiquitousness of that song is that the album as a whole has been overlooked by many (though by no means everyone, given this is the album that put Iceland on the music map). Also, I never noticed the genitalia on the cover before. Heh. Cute.

Light a joint. Find a comfy chair. Put this on.

Jangly goth attitude. Perhaps a bit repetitive but some may call that meditative. Nice background music to set a mood.

ummmmm...huh. Thrash-jazz, eh? I feel this is like modern art at the museum. It's meant to create a reaction, even if it is "WTF is this?" and I think it succeeds on that level. But is it music I will ever listen to again? Nope.

Not my favorite desert blues album but he deserves a spot on the list for sure.

Our second album consisting primarily of unintelligible lyrics (not that that is a bad thing). Not sure what to say about this one that hasn't already been said. It's just lovely. A sound like no one else.