This is fine I guess. I don’t really get what this album is doing on this list. It sounds like a crooner filtered through British popular music, as if Dean Martin also did a stint with Blur. Deep soothing vocals and soaring string sections. It’s not bad by any means, but nothing exceptionally good or innovative or anything that I could ever say somebody must listen to before they die. I give it two stars because one star is reserved for truly unlistenable stuff. I think if the artist wasn’t British this would never have been included on the list.

It’s weird because it’s not what I’d call country now. Has much more of a big band jazz feel. It's nice, and Ray Charles is a great performer, but it's not really up my alley taste wise.

Oooh I love Van Halen. Listened to the first two a lot so it would be nice to delve into newer material. Some big hits here like Jump, Panama and Hot For Teacher. I don't know if it's my headphones but I'd expect it to sound "bigger". Also, Jump is such a perfect song. Eddie is awesome here, instead of shredding like he can, he gives us tasteful licks that really add to the songs that's driven by keyboards. Solo is shreddy yet short, and it ends like something out of Camel's The Snow Goose. Dynamics on Panama are to die for. Just great. It's different from their early stuff. Not as heavy probably. Still incredible. Drop Dead Legs is not as good. Similar formula. Nice muted riffs. Still very nice dynamics to keep the song interesting. Hot For Teacher is exciting. The start is kind of a homage to Eruption in a sense, in that it shows off Eddie's skills. Then it kinda morphs to a more bluesy ordeal and then picks up energy again. Gotta hand it to Van Halen for always keeping interesting dynamics in their songs. I feel like after Hot For Teacher the album kinda fizzes out. The famous singles are great but the album tracks not as much. I'll wait is nice, but it doesn't have that VH oomph. Girl Gone Bad is slightly better, still I feel like after Hot For Teacher the energy is gone. I like the vocal melody on House of Pain, but the mix is kinda bad making the vocals sit in the background instead of the forefront. The Keyboards are so 80s. All in all, a great addition to the catalog but uneven, not on par with VH and VHII IMHO. I'd call this three stars. Note that I'm rating the 1001 best albums ever here so three stars is a lot, it means par for the course. This inspired me to listen to other later VH albums. 5150 is so much better.

wow, went in really not knowing what to expect. This is quite a journey. I was surprised at the emotional landscapes it got me to. It started airy and light but at some point in the first track I felt claustrophobic and my chest started feeling under tremendous weight. This is really something. Not sure if I'll listen to it again of my free will, but it's something. Also, I read that this is jazz improv, but it didn't sound like jazz improv, more like... classical improv? Anyway this is truly something I'm better for having known. Easy five starts.

I only knew the bands hits. This album is much more bluesy than I thought it would be. Also pretty dull. Feels very samey throughout. Looking out my back door is not as bad. Energy come ups for a second for running through the jungle but then it disappears and things get dull again. It’s genuinely hard to just get through this album.

I never listened to this period Fleetwood Mac. I know Rumors obviously, and recently got into the Peter Green years which are great. This is post Rumors so I never got to listen to it. Sara is a great song. Also Storms. Stevie’s vocal performance here is just amazing. Gritty and honest. The album is much sparser than Rumors, took me a while to get used to that but I think it’s great in its own way. On "that’s all for everyone we get" an interesting vocal performance by Lindsay with a very compelling arrangement. This is very cool. Sisters of the moon another great song. WOW. Love the guitar on this one. Brown Eyes is another great song. Wikipedia tells me Peter Green did guitars here. This album is every bit as good as Rumors if not better, even though it’s much less accessible. I decided since this list is supposed to have all great albums I need to grade on a curve. So three start means "I get why it's on the list", five stars should be reserved to the best of the best, stuff that's a no brainer for a top 50 or top 100 list. One star is stuff that doesn't belong on the 1001 list. So according to that I'd put this as four stars. It's a great album, don't know if it's in my personal top 50-100 but it's really great.

I have a serious soft spot for psych pop/rock with a British accept. Frolicking drums and Beatlesque vocal harmonies, what more could you ever wish for? Thing is, while I do enjoy the soundscapes, I can't say any song in particular sticks in my memory. Even immediately after listening, it's all very forgettable. Feels like it has the superficial form of music I enjoy, but the songwriting is lacking. I can’t remember a single thing about a song after having listened to it.

It’s funny, Cat Stevens is one of these places whose name I obviously know, and I know a lot of people appreciate, but honestly I couldn’t name a single song by them. This would be interesting. OK I obviously know some of this stuff. From now on if I’ll try to name a Cat Stevens song I can go for Wild World. Oh, Father and Son, that also. I have to say of all things this reminds me of Peter Gabriel era Genesis. Probably a poppier version but still. It’s not just the singing which is very much reminiscent of Gabriel, it’s also the general composition and production. After some Googling it turns out I was right, but in the wrong direction. It was actually Peter Gabriel who was a huge fan of Cat Stevens and actually tried to imitate his singing style. This started good and got even better. Really grew on me. Not sure if this is something I’ll listen to again of my own accord, since I usually like my singer songwriters to be a bit grittier, but it’s really all top tier. I just put it on for another listen. This makes me want to listen to the rest of the catalog. This is easily four stars. Sad Lisa is my favorite song on here.

I knew this for its hits obviously. Would never have considered listening to the album. Many hits on this album, Rehab, Love is a Losing Game, You Know I’m No Good, Back To Black. I think the album tracks are as good. I can see why it would be considered a good album of soulful hip hoppy pop. I just don’t really like the music. Not saying it’s objectively bad because that’s definitely not the case, I just don’t like it.

This one’s a real treat. Again a pop album where I knew the hit singles (Monday Monday and California Dreaming), but was surprised by the strength of the album tracks. This is beatlesque/beach boysesque psych pop at its finest. Beautiful vocal harmonies, tasty guitar and keyboard licks. Very memorable melodies and great songwriting. My favorite is probably Got a Feelin’. I wanted to say that this album got very strong Rubber Soul influences, but I see it got released just a couple of months after Rubber Soul, so maybe it’s more of a parallel development kind of thing.

This is not what I expected. I used to have a lot of family in Brazil (all moved away in the last decade), and we used to listen to a lot of Brazilian music at home. I think I heard the name Milton Nascimento but I don’t remember any music and either way it wasn’t as prominent as say Caeteno Veloso or Gilberto Gil. I guess my biggest surprise here is how non Brazilian this sounds. I mean, it’s in Brazilian Portuguese and there are some Brazilian influences, but it’s not Bossa Nova or Samba. If I have to peg this to a genre I’d say this is prog rock more than anything. Some mix of Camel, Genesis and Pink Floyd, but on the mellower side of things. An extremely varied album. Great vocals and interesting arrangements.

This is funny. Of course I know the title track. One of the most famous rock songs ever. Couldn’t name a single Eagles song outside of that. Let’s see. It’s interesting that the album opens with the title track and its most famous song. It then goes into “New Kid in Town” which is also quite a hit in its own right. I have to say it drops off pretty quickly then. I mean, the songs are still fine, and the playing is great and everything, but it’s not like there are ten hidden Hotel California’s here. There isn’t even one. The title track alone is enough to merit inclusion on this list, but I wish the album tracks were stronger.

I… don’t like this. I’m not a big fan of jazz in general, and this type of jazz in particular. I just don’t get anything here, it doesn’t mean anything to me. I’m sure these are very talented musicians who are all time greats but I would never choose to listen to this again.

Oooh wow. This is one of my all time favorites. Beautiful and intricate eighties pop. Some of the greatest songs ever - Head Over Heels, The Working Hour, Everybody Wants to Rule the World, Shout, Mothers Talk. This is just a perfect collection of perfect songs. I’m sure this sounded fresh in the eighties (I was born the year the album was released) and it sound just as fresh today. A great range of emotions and instrumentation. Powerful music that tugs at your heart strings but can also make you dance and even meditate. It even has great guitar solos! What more could you want. I listened to these songs so many times and it feels like there's still more beauty to discover in them. I just love everything here, the synths, the drum machine, the guitar, obviously the vocals. The songs dynamics are great, the lyrical topics are varied and introspective. It's just so good.

I mean, I like the aesthetics of this. The screamed vocals, overdriven guitars and rhythms we will later call punk. It’s just that the songs aren’t all that good, I mean it’s either pretty bad covers of Chuck Berry or pretty bad original songs. I’m sure it inspired a lot of bands I like, but I don’t like the album as is. This only belongs on such a list for historical significance I guess. Right after this one Spotify gave me The Chocolate Watchband, this really drove the one star home. The Chocolate Watchband were an amazing example of how good garage rock can be, and The Sonics are not such an example.

It’s ok I guess. I mean, “Just what I needed” is rightfully a hit. Some other good songs like All Mixed Up, but also a lot of filler. Nice pop rock, nothing seminal.

The moment I saw it’s hip hop from the eighties I had very low expectations… and after listening to the music I was vindicated. I mean, I’m no huge hip hop fan, but I can enjoy a lot of it, and really like some stuff like The Roots, Kanye or Dead Prez. Thing is about old school hip hop is that you usually get a very basic drum loop, a rapper that would be considered no good by modern standards, and maybe some basic loop sample. This is what we get here. It’s all very basic and dull. I can accept that it’s historically and culturally significant, and it could be a ton of fun to dance to in a party, but just as listening material it’s not enough.

This is a surprise, I would’ve expected to find either one of the first four albums which are the most critically acclaimed, or Out of Time which is the most successful one. This album is the follow up to Out of Time which was the band’s mainstreaming breakout album. I listened to both a lot in my childhood and teen years. Some very big hits on this album including Everybody Hurts with its iconic music video, nightswimming, Drive and Man on the Moon. I am pleasantly surprised. This album is somber but much more dynamic than I remember, many great album tracks like Try Not To Breath and The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight (Wikipedia claims the latter was a single, didn’t remember that). Monty Got a Raw Deal another great song, also Find The River. I haven’t listened to this album in over a decade, likely two, and I’m surprised at how good it is. I think this is four stars. REM has a very strong discography and this stands out as one of their best albums, even if it’s not my personal favorite (that would be Life’s Rich Pageant).

I love The Clash, though I think they reached their creative peak in later albums such as London Calling, Sandinista and Combat Rock, so I didn’t spend as much time with this one in the past. This is a good punk album. Rough and gritty yet melodic and catchy. Anthemic yet relatable. It got some very strong songs like What’s My Name and 48 Hours. On Police & Thieves we get hints of their future musical tendencies to involve ska into their sound. Thing is I don’t it stands up to the rest of their catalog, and if this album was the only thing The Clash ever released… then they wouldn’t be The Clash. I don’t think it belongs on this list and as much as it pains me I can’t give it more than two stars.

This is interesting. They start by singing “feels good, wanna move” but quickly after a couple of songs we get to “my only weapon is my pain”. Sly and the Family Stone is a name I’ve heard, but not anything I’ve ever listened to. To be honest, funk isn’t really my type of music and I didn’t know what I’d get and if I’d like it. Overall it’s been a good surprise. Interesting and varied arrangement, soulful singing and a funky rhythm throughout. What’s more interesting is the juxtaposition of the musical material and the lyrical themes which sound darker. Some discussing personal struggles, other talking about black liberation. Very cool.

This is one of my favorite albums, love seeing it here! I think their next album, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, is even better. But this one’s great. The ultimate in slacker millennial vibes. Somehow both disaffected and emotional. That’s the nineties paradox, the coolest thing is not to care, so you try to project that image while deep down you’re in a turmoil. While being their debut, Slanted and Enchanted fully embodies the Pavement sound. Guitars are distorted but somehow not fully in your face. Orchestration is noisy but very spacious. Catchy melodies are sometimes obscured by this general sloppy feeling. This airy sloppy feeling is part of what keeps the songs fresh and varied. Pavement is unpolished and loose, and that makes it feel more honest and personal. They’re not giving you a polished rock star show, but a draft of their feelings. Sometimes it sounds downright silly or unprofessional, shouldn’t they have re-recorded this guitar part? Does the backing vocals really make sense (“shalalala”s on Trigger Cut)? It doesn’t matter, it’s all part of the package. Styling aside, this is also just a collection or very good songs. A lot of music in this genre tends to be overly introspective and sophisticated but Pavement are just fun. This is just fun to listen to. Four stars because I like Crooked Rain better.

I think I heard the name kd lang but up to this point I didn’t even know it was a woman, so I don’t know what to expect. This is kind of adult contemporary pop. I can’t say I’m a fan. It’s very dull. KD Lang is a strong vocalist and the arrangements do well to showcase her voice. It’s just that outside of that there’s nothing going on and the songs are pretty corny. I find it very hard to get through this thing.

This is obviously a classic. It’s crazy to think this was their ninth album, such a huge body of work for the Stones. This is quintessential stones, bluesy, rhythmic, rough and just super cool. The songs are fun, sexy, sometimes outright jammy (Can’t You Hear Me Knocking). The songs are great and have an amazing range from the balladry of Wild Horses, through the heavy dirge of Sister Morphine to the hard rocking riffs of Bitch. The stone showcase a range of songwriting and playing abilities. I love the production. It’s so airy and non compressed. Even though the music has an overall rugged feel, you can clearly hear everything and nothing is too in your face. Timeless classic from all time greats. Easy easy five stars.

This is another case of something I’m only vaguely familiar with, so I didn’t really know what to expect. WOW this is not what I expected at all. It’s so cool. The vocalist is super incredible, an amazing range of expression. The music and production reminds me of trip hop more than anything. It’s like Portishead just a shade less cinematic and a bit more hip hop. Super catchy music, very soulful vocals, trip hoppy production, hip hop beats, and just an amazing air of cool. Not sure how all that coolness works with the album being called control. This feels loose and intuitive, not overly done and controlled. Another thing I really like is how the vocals are used in a variety of roles. I mean sometimes you get the vocals clean as a “lead”. Other times they’re treated with delay to be used as something more of a rhythm instrument. Sometimes it’s jammy and jazzy, other times pop. This is just beautiful. I also really like how sparse the production is. It allows for really great dynamics within the songs and the album as a whole. The album closer “20 something” is a real treat. Not exactly folk but it got a folksy guitar, not really soul but it got soulful singing, just something unique and beautiful. This is an incredible album and an easy five star.

I have a problem with Big Star. I know I'm supposed to love them. So much of the music I love is supposed to be inspired by them, if it's anything indie rock, power pop, emo, punk. But they just suck. I mean, I love the Replacements, they love Big Star, how come I don't like Big Star? I don't get it. The production is somehow both empty and muddy. The singing is annoying. The guitar tone is bleh and the riffs are not interesting at all. The songs are boring, muddling along. I don't know if the band even cares about them. Some of them are even worse then boring, they're downright annoying. What are those weird chicken picking riffs in Femme Fatale? And the weird croon? Is it attempt at a dig against the Velvet Underground somehow? urgh, even the covers on this album are soooo bad, really showcasing how this is just a very bad band. I just don't get it. It's not even the type of not getting where I can get why other people like them, or why they are good at what they do. I think it's just bad and overhyped for some weird reason. One star (and not even a big one).

I’m getting quite an education in funk here. Never heard about this before. This isn’t at all what I expected. Such a great range of expression, amazing dynamics, songs that are both jammy and catchy. Very intense emotional content. This is really a revelation for me and I want to explore the rest of the band’s catalog. Easy five stars and this is exactly the kind of album I want to learn about from this list.

Didn’t really know much about this going in. I remembered it’s some classic hard rock band. Indeed that’s what it is. Cool power chord riffs and great heavy metal singing. Overall it’s pretty good but nothing earth shattering. Bad Fun is a cool song. Outlaw has a cool riff. It’s not a bad album but I can’t see how it belongs in this list, so two stars. I have to say I gave a listen to their previous album, Love, and I feel it’s much stronger than this one.

I don't like ELP. I do like some prog rock - Genesis, King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Camel but I feel ELP is the epitome of prog rock succumbing to it's self indulgent tendencies over just making good music. I've heard this record before, can't say I remember much over feeling it to be over the top, so I'm definitely coming it with a prejudice. It starts with the album's namesake. A twenty minute opus, quite obviously a case where the song's length was limited by the length of a record side. And I mean, this song is exactly everything that's bad about ELP. Instead of creating a good song, that's appealing to the listening emotionally, I keep feeling like they're trying to impress me. I mean, this might be fun for them to play, it's definitely challenging to figure out what's going on, it just doesn't appeal to the listener as much as it impresses the listener with how good of players these folks are. This is like a book in dire need of an editor. It's like an ADHD child constantly tugging at your sleeve saying "here, listen to this cool passage". Yeah it's cool but where is this all going. I mean, the guitar solo at about 14:30 in is cool, you could use it a in a song, but what does it mean in the context of the song? then there's a short interlude and then a harmonized guitar solo. How does that fit with what happened up to now? As a guitar passage they're cool, it just doesn't work as a song. The second side is a change of pace, with a bunch of shorter songs. On Jeremy Bender we have a keyboard hook, an interesting vocal melody, some hand clapping (which I usually like but here it's just weird) and a much more standard song structure. It's still a weird song but it feels like it has some aim. In Bitches Crystal it's still a short song, but right from the start we get complicated meters and dissonance and while that's fine to do in music, I don't get what it's trying to make me feel. The Only Way sounds like a nod to some classical piece. I dunno, the song is just not a good song. I know these are excellent musicians (and as mentioned above, I'm a King Crimson fan so obviously I've hear plenty of Greg Lake's earlier work), I just find this to be an example of all of the worse self indulgent prog rock. One could argue that this album has historical significance, I just don't want to listen to it ever again. One star.

This is again of these thing where I obviously heard of Billy Joel and know his big hits, but can’t say I ever purposely listened to his music. I was surprised by the cool, almost heavy metal sounding, guitar work. I knew Joel for his piano playing. The title track has really cool guitars apparently being played by a session musician. After hearing the whole thing, this is just a great pop record top to bottom. Every single song is a banger, great songwriting, Joel’s vocals are incredible, great arrangements and instrumentation, great emotional range. Just awesome. Only four stars because I’m not a big fan of this type of music and unlikely to listen to this again.

I love this album! Had it on repeat for ages when it came out. Wilco were one of the groups to usher in this mixing of alt country with indie pop. And they were great at it. It’s a genre defining album for this mix of country song writing and indie production and soundscapes giving us the best of both worlds - honest beautiful songwriting with a host of interesting intricacies to keep surprising the listener. Four stars, I love this album, it's not a top 100 of all time though.

Anything Hendrix is instant five stars for me. This album also got what might be the prettiest song ever - Little Wing. It's hardly a unique take to say Hendrix was the greatest guitarist ever. For me it's for this unique blend he had - he had a modern and interesting approach to the instrument, really taking its expressive powers forwards, while being extremely rooted in blues traditions. He had unique arrangements, effortless technique, while still creating popular songs that a lot of people could enjoy. He's super influential, but nobody can ever sound quite like him. In a sense, he also shaped the image of the guitar hero, the lead guitar legend as the main instrument in a rock band. By the way, Hendrix was also a tremendous rock-blues singer, full of expression. The band does so many different things, funky songs, psychedelic swing, it’s all extremely original, inventive and fun.

I knew Talking Heads before, mostly their big hits. And I’ve listened to this album before since it’s very highly rated. I never got it. Listened to it again, I still don’t get it. I mean I’m sure it’s great and beloved by many, I just don’t see how this is fun or interesting to listen to. Incessant beats that are somehow not intuitively rhythmic, just overpowering. Disaffected vocals. Very sparse instrumentation. Feels like some sort of weird sermon. Maybe some folks get some deep emotional connection to this stuff but I don’t. I give it two stars because I can see how it might be considered a seminal work for the genre, I just don’t like listening to it.

This will be hard to judge without prejudice but let’s try. I have to say I liked it when it came out but then succumbed to the popular opinion in the metal scene which rejected nu metal. This is simply beautiful. Just perfect teenage angst music. Is it overproduced? Sure, are the riffs simplistic? Yeah, is the rapping kinda bad? Who cares????? This connects to the natural feelings of pain and alienation so many of us feel during our teen years. The album tracks are generally as strong as the very strong singles here (album tracks like Runaway and A Place for My Head could be great singles). This is pure fun to listen to top to bottom. I’m sure this album inspired countless kids to pick up a guitar and start a band, and gave a positive outlet to so many hard emotions. I think I’m inclined to give it five stars. I actually read through the other reviews saying this is poppy, over produced, and other ways to say this isn’t “pure” or “true”. I agree with all of that, but it’s still perfect. Is it my personal favorite album? No, but it’s definitely a seminal work in the history of rock music. You can hate on this album all you want, but countless people have and will rock out to it.

This is another one of these cases, of course I’ve heard of The Bee Gees and I know their hit songs, but I never listened to a full album, and actually don’t think I ever heard any song in hear. So I gave it a listen without prejudice and… It’s crap. This is simply awful. The most sappy, corny music and lyrics. Why would anybody want to hear this? It’s so overly sentimental to the point of parody. I mean yeah they have great vocal harmonies but this is pure dreadful kitsch. One star.

I know nothing about this. I'm sure I heard the name Isaac Hayes, but can't really associate it with anything. It starts amazing, the fuzzy intro guitar on Walk On By cuts straight to my soul. This ten minute jam encompasses everything that’s great and beautiful about this album. It’s catchy yet jammy and open. Heart wrenching yet uplifting and danceable. I think my main takeaway from this project so far is that I’m a latent soul and funk fan.

The ultimate millennial hit album. Heart this a ton when it came out and MGMT were the flavor of the week in indie circles. Interesting to see if it holds up. I mean, it's a cool album. This flavor of danceable indie pop is cool, but I don't think it's a very strong album when listening to it right now. The Bowie-esque "Weekend Wars" is very cool, but the rest of the album is like a watered down version of Of Montreal. It's still a fun listen but I'd rate it as two stars because it's definitely not a must listen.

This is nice. It's post punk where you can still hear the punk. Energetic and melodic. Very anthemic. It's good fun music. The lead guitar is very post punk sounding, and the lead vocals are great. I can't say that I get why this album is on this list though. I mean, if somebody told me they really like Mission of Burma and the Buzzcocks and want something similar I might let them have a listen to this. It's far from a must listen though, it's just nice and cool. That's what I call two stars.

I remember I had a phase a while back where I couldn't believe that Kiss were so popular despite all of their music being so terribly boring. So I went and listened to their back catalog and... found nothing. This album is emblematic of it. It's trying to fake being a hard rock band but with zero song writing talent. The songs are so humdrum and boring. I accept that the bands theatrics and stage show were innovative and significance, but judging on music alone it's so boring. The songs are repetitive and there's so little to them, it's really a chore to get through the entire thing. Compare this with Alice Cooper, where they had the stage theatrics but the first several albums also have incredible music. So you can really have both, and Kiss don't have the music to back up their image.

Oh god another CCR. Cosmo’s factory was one of the worst albums I had to listen to on this project. I don’t understand why this band merits more than one entry on this list if at all. This album is better than Cosmo’s Factory. Songs are a bit more memorable and we got some tasty licks. Still, listening to the entire thing is such a chore. A can enjoy a single song, but at two songs it gets tedious. One star. I think if I’m getting CCR again I might just skip after listening to a song or two. I don’t get the credit they get here.

I obviously know Eminem and his many hits, but I don’t think I ever listened to a full album of his so this would be interesting. This is vintage Eminem, using his classic sound of fast rapping of comically violent and outrageous lyrics. Beats are mostly straightforward, and the melody lines are simple and effective. This got a couple of Eminem’s career defining hits - Stan and The Way I Am. The other songs in the album are also good. I personally found it got a bit tedious about midway (I’m Back) but I’m sure that fans of Eminem’s style can enjoy this front to back. This album definitely merits inclusion in this list, being the mainstream breakout of the best selling musician ever. I can’t say that this has become my favorite album or anything. Three stars.

This is fine I guess. I don’t really get what this album is doing on this list. It sounds like a crooner filtered through British popular music, as if Dean Martin also did a stint with Blur. Deep soothing vocals and soaring string sections. It’s not bad by any means, but nothing exceptionally good or innovative or anything that I could ever say somebody must listen to before they die. I give it two stars because one star is reserved for truly unlistenable stuff. I think if the artist wasn’t British this would never have been included on the list.

I don’t think I ever listened to this one. I’ve heard plenty of the albums bookending it - Innervisions and Songs In The Key of Life, and they are both masterpieces. So you could say I have high expectations here. It’s a beautiful album. Wonder has that amazing ability to create music that is sophisticated and interesting but also deeply emotional and relatable. There’s quite a range here, from almost Bossa Nova bouncy Bird of Beauty to the haunting They Won’t Go When I Go through the rhythmic jazzy adlibs of Boogie On Raggae Woman. I’m going to give this four stars because it’s a great album. If it was the only thing Wonder ever did then it would’ve been a good career, but I know he did even better.

This is an interesting choice. I listened to and love many classic Bowie albums like Ziggy Stardust, Low, Hunky Dory, Aladdin Sane, Heroes and so on. Never heard this one. I do have to say I usually dislike "back to form" albums. I’m having a hard time rating this one. It’s a good album, it just sounds like David Bowie. Is it as good as Aladdin Sane or Scary Monsters? Not by a long shot. Does it have some very good songs? Yeah. I mean, the songwriting is great and the singing is great and the instrumentation is great. This would be the best album on the discography of many artists. I just expect more of Bowie. I expect some new sound, some unique brash weirdness, and this is ordinary. I’m going to give it two stars. It’s a fine album and it’s entirely possible I’ll listen to it again in the future, but it doesn’t even crack Bowie’s top ten so how can it be on the top 1000 ever.

This is one of the greatest rock albums, a quintessential rock opera. It’s still fun to listen to but you can definitely throw out half the songs and end up with something even better.

Wow, this is really cool! This is another one of these cases where I obviously know who Janet Jackson is and I know her nineties hits, but never heard anything from this album. This is a great selection that runs the gamut of eighties pop, from funk to hard rock. Super cool and makes you want to dance.

This is one of the greatest albums ever. Probably in my personal top ten. This is the pinnacle of The Cure’s style. Waves of sound, beautiful melodies, sweet and sad. The rhythms can go from flowing to claustrophobic. It’s just perfect.

This is a masterpiece. Some of the greatest pieces of music ever recorded. It’s funky, soulful, joyous, sophisticated. I remember listening to this for the first time, such a revelation. Didn’t know music can do all that.

I… thought it would be better. I knew Tupac’s hits but this album isn’t it. Tupac is a strong vocalist and has a great voice and delivery, but the songs are sooooooo dulllll uhhhh. I’m willing to give it two stars.

Liars are another darling of the early oughts post punk inspired indie rock. I remember liking them but not sure if it was that notable to merit inclusion on this list. Let's give it another go. This is different from their first album, which was much more post punk-y. This is experimental noise rock. I'm not one to shy away from experimental music so I'm giving it a try. The challenge with experimental music is how to make meaningful and interesting experiments while remaining communicative and engaging. Just making noise that doesn't connect to anybody emotionally is pointless. I'm afraid this is closer to the pointless side of the map. Compared, say, to something like Neurosis/Tribes of Neurot or Xiu Xiu who take this kind of music to someplace where the listener actually cares. I applaud the ambition but I think the result is unlistenable, and as somebody who does sometimes like music like this, I wouldn't say this is a notable work.

This is a classic of nineties chill ambient electronica. Definitely not my kind of music, but I listened to this before because it was very popular. The music washes over you with various electronic and acoustic soundscapes. Sometimes some soft vocals, and a persistent muted beat in the background. Some songs try to add some variation but it’s still pretty minimal. It all sounds like a movie soundtrack. Thing is with a movie soundtrack there’s the movie to keep you interested and here there’s nothing like that. It’s all very relaxing but kinda boring. Giving it three stars since it’s good for the genre and I think it's considered an important work and not actively offensive. I just don’t like the genre.

I don’t know. I tried listening to this album many times. I know it’s very critically acclaimed, I just done jive with it. I mean stylistically it’s very close to what I like, rugged singer songwriter with distorted guitars. It’s just too unaffected, too bored, it doesn’t connect with me.

From the moments I heard the first few seconds of the first song I knew I’m gonna hate it. But then I listened some more. This sure is some quirky artsy rock of the type this list absolutely loves. But this one actually works! We got weird quasi-operatic vocals, polyrhythmic keyboards and yes-like bass, but it all forms together to a cohesive whole. This album is fun, emotional and exciting while being downright weird and that’s beautiful.

This is a great folk rock album. Rooted in blues and country but also rocks hard. Great songs, great singers, great players that weave in and out of jams. This is just great. Lead guitar on This Wheel’s on Fire is simply delectable.

If there’s one thing I picked up from this list is that funk music is incredible. This list got me to seriously listen to bands like War, Isaac Hayes and Sly & The Family Stone and that became some of my favorite music. James Brown is the originator of this style of music. The man who single handedly created this musical vocabulary. This show includes the essence of the style. Its jazz origins, the evocative vocals, the rhythmic styling. It’s all there with a great performance to cap it. I’m giving it four stars because I think Funk music has gone on to even greater heights since but this is a great listen.

Wow such a great album! I didn’t know what to expect. I know jay zs hits but none of them are here. Some songs like Renegade and Heart of the City are as good as any hip hop. Great vocal delivery, amazing dynamics, killer beats and varied and effective use of samples and instrumentation.

Another Wonder classic. He was cooking during that era and really couldn't produce anything less than a masterpiece.