The first song I loved on this album was Angeles, then it was Alameda (I did most of my growing up a few blocks downhill from that street), then I loved Say Yes, then Rose Parade, then No Name No. 5. I think it’s easier to like a story when it’s about a place you call home, and I was a teen in Portland in the 1990s, that was home. Smith’s quick chord changes keep the album lively, his sparing use of drums increase the dynamic range, and if you listen close you can hear when he switches between dual- and single-tracked vocals, like some understated accent mark. There’s an intimacy here and a conviction, each song feels like it’s from the (jaded, sarcastic) heart. It's his first album with a cover photo of himself on it, complete with a song lamenting the fact, "Pictures of me." The lyrics are filled with care for the words inside. This was my first Elliott Smith album, I bought it at the Music Millennium on East Burnside in 1997. I grew up in PDX, but I didn’t know about Elliott Smith and I should be ashamed that I first heard any song from the album in Good Will Hunting, saw it in a theater across the river in Vancouver Washington. I was home over winter break my junior year of college, saw it with my Aunt Diane, and when Angeles played in the credits I knew I had to get whatever album was attached to that song. My partner Meredith, who also grew up in Portland (well, West Linn), was cooler than I was in high school and actually saw Heatmiser live and witnessed Smith’s solo rise. Early on knowing each other we were emailing about Smith, either/or, and Alameda in particular, she wrote me this: WALKED down ALaMEda SHUFF-el-ing your DECK of TRICK cards OVer EVeree ONE like some PRECious ONly SON This works because of the way that we expect him to say (to me) walked down Alameda shuffling your feet but NO! It's a deck of TRICK cards (extra syllable in shuff-el-ling AND with trick so syncopation against the musical beat) which, then, is actually a beautiful shuffle-step in the line. THAT's why he's a genius, really. Because it's a trick, and it's a shuffle, and then it's over every (beautiful internal rhyme).

Love that Nirvana got to make the album they wanted, not the album the studio wanted, and shoutout the band for having the balls to land that ship. Not all noise needs a purpose.

Isaac Hayes second solo album! No longer in the shadow of Otis Redding and other Stax hitmakers! So much in this album is so fundamental to the music that was to come!

So, Springsteen first wrote Born in the USA for his Nebraska album, and when he played it for the E Street Band the keyboard player Roy Bittan immediately caught a new riff and changed that song forever. Check out the demo ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22Gh1wQEe1I ), it's worlds different, sent chills down my spine the first time I heard it.

This album is such a vibe. Who cares if you don't understand the words, the vocals are an *instrument*, man. It soars, it dips, it glides across foreign countrysides. There's a freaking starchild on the cover.

I agree with everyone else asking why is this album part of the collection? Were they friends with the author of the book? Am I an eagle? If I were, would I fly and poop on this band's house? Do they even have a house? What does their label think about them, like, honestly? Does their label wish they could be eagles too?

Hell yes, everything about this album. Hell yes all the hits, hell yes the rest of it, hell yes the guitars, hell yes.

This sounds like what you'd expect the first Dire Straits album to sound like bob, sure does bill, glad we had this conversation bob, me too bill.

I like this band, they're fine, this album, it's okay.

Once again, not sure why this album was included.

I've never been a Costello fan. Listening to this album... nope. nope. nope. nopety nope nope nope, sorry Elvis but John Darnielle is the only overly verbose white dude singer for me.

There's some jazz I like, though I don't know why, so having a worthwhile opinion before "me likey" is a little rough here. I liked this enough to listen to it three times.

I last lived in Chicago on Jan. 3 2004, when I drove a truck with a motorcycle, an old Ford Contour and the rest of my belongings down Western Ave. to Augusta and to the highway headed south. This album landed a year later, and my collected years in Illinois drew my interest close enough to download the mp3s on soulseek. According to my last.fm, I listened to this album three times in 2006, but hearing "Chicago" just now for the first time in nearly a decade gave me the chills. So about the music: It's not my type and I'd like it less if I didn't give a shit about Chicago, but there's a tenderness to the curiosity and imagination that's rife here and it sits well. Unrelated, I try to avoid taking delight at the misfortune of others, but the fact that Sufjan's Broadway adaptation of Illinoise! is still going strong while the Avett Brothers fizzled within weeks gives me hope for audiences and the artform.

Imagine enjoying Led Zeppelin's first album and then Black Sabbath shows up with this.

Listened to it three times, really like Glittering Prize, but the rest of this sounds meh?

I'm sorry, I know people enjoy this band, but there is nothing in this album for me. I had to skip part of a song for the first time on this 1,001 album journey. Why do they sound so whiny all the time? Canada, you can do better.

Had heard songs on this before but never the whole thing, it's such a banger of a pop album. Enjoyed every track but maybe Bad Blood and Clean.

I feel like I get what this album is trying to do, I just didn't enjoy it all that much.

Heard of this album, and heard a couple songs on it but never listened to it all the way through. I'm a big fan of the Cooper Black font on the cover here, such a classic font, and I'm also now a fan of this album, such a classic album. Cooper Black has been around since 1922 and has found many uses in display lettering, on storefronts, signs, print ads, online ads, album covers etc. in that time; this album has been around since 1971 and has surely been accompanying dinner parties and lazy Sunday afternoons, since then. One of my favorite things about music law is that when you cover someone else's song, the original songwriter (or whoever owns the song I guess) gets the royalties. So putting a cover on your album means you love that song enough to make someone else some money. Harry Nilsson cared enough about Let the Good Times Roll to make Shirley Goodman's estate some dough. I've been trying to find a place to use the word "rollicking" in these comments and I never quite found it, so I'll put it here: god damned rollicking.

Lou..... Reed..... solo..... album..... and this is s'posed to be his good one. Some classics for sure but...... I'll take his Hudson River Wind Meditations.

I like to imagine hearing certain albums played live, in the era and place where the album landed, and this is one of them. There's a counterpoint between the sparseness of the production and how full the songs feel that must have been mesmerizing to witness in person.

SO MUCH FUN HOLY SHIT how much fun were these guys having when they made this album THE ANSWER IS SO MUCH FUN.

Not a 2.... definitely not a 4.... three it is.

I'm not a big Bob Dylan guy but this album was a lot of fun. Really enjoyed the adverb "obviously" in "Obviously Five Believers." Appreciated the "fuck you I'm Bob Dylan I can do anything" vibes present throughout, all the foolery reminded me of my old roommate Tom (RIP) and his delight. "Nonsense makes no sense" he'd chortle. Tom and I spent a decent chunk of our twenties in Chicago living in an $800-a-month three bedroom, he was trying to get his band (the Interociter) off the ground, I was working on a freelance design / web dev business. His last name was Zimmerman too.

Do we really need two The Band albums on this list? No, the answer is No. I heard everything I didn't need to hear the first time around. So I listened to this thing all the way through but it wasn't easy, didn't like it, and don't want to do it again. There better not be a third The Band album on this list.

Conflicted on whether to give this a 3 or a 4, enjoyed it but doubt I'd listen again.

oh shit, I honestly never knew Bob Dylan wrote Blowin' in the Wind. We used to sing that song at church when I was young. Fine album but Blonde on Blonde was better.

Almost turned it off after that dreadful opening track, but I didn't, and this album grew on me.

Liked this more than I thought I was gonna.

This isn't really a review it's just a bunch of blabbing. This album was the soundtrack of my summer of 2006, and I had a damn fine summer that year. I mean it was okay. I'd been into the Stones' best of in high school, Goat's Head Soup in college, and this was another step in my Rolling Stones appreciation tour. Guess it would be the last because I never really listened to them intently afterward, nothing against the album, it's a great album covers a lot of ground. According to my last.fm, I've listened to it at least 30 times.

I love a half-hour album.... but I didn't love this one.

I get that people really love these guys, they've got a message, it's political, they're rock 'n' roll hall of famers etc. and maybe it's just I need to listen to this album a bunch more than I already did but... nope.

Roller Coaster is a jam! Fuck yeah Roky Erickson!

Is this Kendrick's best album? I paid attention and really liked ...M.A.A.D City but never gave butterfly a good listen until now.

This album is a party from front to back and top to bottom, it's still relevant today, I mean, not as relevant as it was in the 1980s — I still remember my elementary schoolfriends reciting Paul Revere — but what a trip this is. My only question about this banger of a debut album is the Beastie Boys were around for five years before its release: Do you really need five years to formulate a first-album?

Really didn't like this on first listen, second listen it was more digestible, but still don't understand why this album was included?

First off, 16 songs in 40 minutes? You're speaking my language. Only four tracks come in at longer than three minutes? Beautiful. Even though half the band came from Suede they don't let that hinder them, this act manages to be worlds more interesting. I've heard this album a few times, years and years ago, but found a lot that I still enjoyed. Metric tons of bops. And while the songs sound similar, the don't sound the same. There's a minor chord here, a spotlighted riff there, paired vocals sometimes but not too much so it gets old. It's a shame the last track left me cold, which was notable because everything else rated so hot.

The sound on this album is outstanding and it's got a reasonable number of hits!

You know, I don't think I ever heard the non-single version of Smooth Operator. That spoken word intro felt new. Why would you want to delay the satisfaction of getting into the actual song? Lovely album.

Not the vibe I was expecting from the song title. Rip it up? More like "gently separate one side of the paper from the other being careful to not make a level of noise that would disturb anyone else." I get that this band was trying to be cutesy, but there's nothing cutesy about its cliche-ridden stabs at lyricism. I can see how this act was a precursor of sorts to Belle & Sebastian, but that doesn't make me like them any more.

A British folk-rock album only a Brit could like. I'm a fan of Dungeon Synth stuff, which feels vaguely relevant here, but maybe I like dungeon synth because nobody sings in dungeon synth and that's the root of my dissatisfaction with this weird-in-a-bad-way album.

What joy in that voice!

Many bangers, could use more percussion though (jk)

This album is pretty I guess but I feel like it also might be responsible for slop like the Old Crow Medicine Show-esque faux-nostalgia tripe? Can't condone that.

Hell yeah everything about this album.

Never listened to this Canadian all that much but there's a nice lil ridiculosity to his lyrics and man does he sound like a happy Thom Yorke or what? Go pick some tulips Rufus come back and tell us about your tulips

Hadn't really listened to this Bowie album before and really enjoyed it. Only one of his big hits but the rest of the album holds up with a lot of depth in the sound there.

This is fine.

I've listened to this album at least five times, and my favorite songs are the last two: Soul Clappin' II and My Brain. Followed by Sex Machine. Not sure why?

I always wondered if, in my older age, that I'd start liking the Pixies. I'm glad this project gave me the chance to figure that out. For an album that hits my sweet spot on song length (all but three songs take less than 3 minutes) I... don't like it. And I like dark and noisy minor-chord rock. I get this band is important and that's fine but nope.

Ballads, rock 'n' roll joints, riffs, grooves, this album does so much. Never really listened to it before but will listen to again.

Listen, I don't hate reggae. Sure I had a reggae phase, and yes I was there cheering along in amazement in 1998 when WNUR played their Reggae Christmas marathon. And I've branched into reggae beyond Bob's greatest hits volume 1 and volume 2 – I've made it into The Harder They Come soundtrack, which must be worth something (and if that album's not a part of this project I will shake my fists at the air in protest). So this album? I'm a fan. Enjoyed the early-version (?) No Woman No Cry, the rest of it sounded good and listened well. Shit yeah mister marley.

First complaint: These guys spell it "Crazee" in the song titles but say it "Crazay" in the actual songs. This is something an editor or producer could have caught. But did they? No, sir, they did not. Throughout this album Slade has a clever lil' wink and a nod attitude toward their career and their industry. This I firmly believe the band thought would be endearing. Was it? No, hell no, it was not. But was this a fun album, and should we reward bands with the ability to communicate a good time? Hell yes it was, hell yes we should. I may get some grief for this but.... four stars.

Not as grabby as Licensed to Ill but that almost makes me respect it more. Multi-genre, multi-collaborator. Of note: Flute Loop is the third-most listened track of the album on Spotify, and excluding the hits is my fave track.

Heckuva debut, and heckuva kick-off song on a heckuva debut. First three songs all bangers. Second half forgettable. But what an album to launch a band on.

This spoke to me in a way Doolittle just didn't. The noise felt more purposeful, not that noise has to be purposeful, it just felt like the noise had something to say. Also, Stormy Weather is silly-great, and now I want to figure out how to make a collection of all songs that are only six words long.

I was OBSESSED with She Bangs the Drums when it came out, I was in middle school and I only heard it on the radio, never knew its title or band, took me more than a decade before I actually found it, remember how difficult it sometimes was to find the artist behind songs you heard in passing?

I am all for everything this album has going on (except Handcuffs, that song kinda sucked). The imagination, the coined slang, the call and response.

This was the first "good album" I was introduced to growing up, the idea that the whole of a rock album could be good and worth listening to. It's hard to figure this one out.

I got chills listening to the fourth song on this album so I went and looked up the backstory for To Zion, and holy hell I did not know that she wrote for her first child, Zion, who she considered aborting. Maybe some people only have one (solo) album in them, but if their album is anywhere as good as this, I'll call that a win.

Smarmy overkill.

I was over Radiohead by the time this landed but man this album this band doses alienation and dystopia so well it doesn't feel like a twenty year old album it feels like now.

Wide ranging album with a steady river running through it: Patti Smith's no-fucks-needed no fucks given jaunt.

I like the band and this album is fine, but just because an album is likable doesn't necessarily make it worthy of some rando best albums list, does it? I don't see what this album does that's notable that makes it worthy.

I've listened to a lot of JB and I feel like this is not his best live recording but maybe it's that it was his first live recording that makes it stand out? I mean, JB's worst is better than most people's best and the way the crowd is clearly enthralled is a delight to behold. Imagine being in the audience for this show.

I listened to this multiple times and... it's fine...

Never even knew this album existed but how special it is.

Kind of a struggle to get through this album (sorry) though that Something 2 Dance 2 was a nice little bit at the end.

Kinda boring and 1-dimensional (sorry).

The carefree joy of this album!

You don't see many understated albums on this list. Most of the music here is really going for it, whatever "it" is. Appreciated the change of pace and the vibe of this whole thing. Would absolutely listen again.

Not gonna lie I kinda loved the chaos.

The first song I loved on this album was Angeles, then it was Alameda (I did most of my growing up a few blocks downhill from that street), then I loved Say Yes, then Rose Parade, then No Name No. 5. I think it’s easier to like a story when it’s about a place you call home, and I was a teen in Portland in the 1990s, that was home. Smith’s quick chord changes keep the album lively, his sparing use of drums increase the dynamic range, and if you listen close you can hear when he switches between dual- and single-tracked vocals, like some understated accent mark. There’s an intimacy here and a conviction, each song feels like it’s from the (jaded, sarcastic) heart. It's his first album with a cover photo of himself on it, complete with a song lamenting the fact, "Pictures of me." The lyrics are filled with care for the words inside. This was my first Elliott Smith album, I bought it at the Music Millennium on East Burnside in 1997. I grew up in PDX, but I didn’t know about Elliott Smith and I should be ashamed that I first heard any song from the album in Good Will Hunting, saw it in a theater across the river in Vancouver Washington. I was home over winter break my junior year of college, saw it with my Aunt Diane, and when Angeles played in the credits I knew I had to get whatever album was attached to that song. My partner Meredith, who also grew up in Portland (well, West Linn), was cooler than I was in high school and actually saw Heatmiser live and witnessed Smith’s solo rise. Early on knowing each other we were emailing about Smith, either/or, and Alameda in particular, she wrote me this: WALKED down ALaMEda SHUFF-el-ing your DECK of TRICK cards OVer EVeree ONE like some PRECious ONly SON This works because of the way that we expect him to say (to me) walked down Alameda shuffling your feet but NO! It's a deck of TRICK cards (extra syllable in shuff-el-ling AND with trick so syncopation against the musical beat) which, then, is actually a beautiful shuffle-step in the line. THAT's why he's a genius, really. Because it's a trick, and it's a shuffle, and then it's over every (beautiful internal rhyme).

Just here to say how much I appreciate alex-v-cook’s reviews. "Perfect disposable NYC lifestyle rock"! What a choice phrase! So many terrific concise descriptions that Alex delivers. A+ reviewer (C+ album).

Had never listened to this album before. It sure gets noodly!

I like Aimee Mann! I don't like this Aimee Mann.

Definitely different!

Oh these tunes are nice and slightly generic and I do love it when artists sing songs to specific names (Andy, Natalie etc) but this album does not send me to the moon or anywhere even close.

Enjoyed this album, I don't know why I'm thinking about James Brown right now but I believe his spirit is somewhere listening to this music and smiling.

Tried to like this, failed.

Loved the covers! Frank Mills was a hilarious delight!

I used to be a big Al Green fan — I pitched and landed "Al Green 1 p.m. listening hour" at work — but after learning about his history of domestic abuse I dropped him. This album is ok.

I liked this album and listened to it four or five times, never having listened to much Santana, but was still on the fence after all those listens.

I feel like, had he lived longer, Jim Morrison would have had a blast writing a Broadway musical, that he would have fallen in love with writing musicals, and would have spent the rest of his life penning musicals with titles like "Temptress Sally" and "The Vegas Deathfire" and "Love, Not For Me" ....

Interesting to see some DNB on this list. LTJ Bukem is a fine pick to represent the genre, saw them play House of Blues Chicago in the late 1990s, met a woman there from Madison Wisconsin who knew the Onion people AND ALSO (I realized later) LOOKED JUST LIKE the young woman featured for years in the Onion's American Voices person-on-the-street column. Anyway, I know this is a compilation but still...

Sledgehammer is an automatic extra star on top of whatever this album would have earned anyway.

oh my goodness I listened to Raw Power 13 times for this review, just trying to figure out what I couldn't understand about it — this is the kind of music that on paper is right up my alley, but man I tried, I tried and I could not find a way into it.

• There's something stupidly plaintive about Idiot Wind that speaks to me. • Shelter from the Storm... meh. • Hard to know if Dylan was repeating cliches or coining phrases.