1001 Albums Summary

Perfect; a gift to the world.

The Eagles have several jams (Lyin Eyes, I Can’t Tell You Why, etc.); alas, they are not to be found on this album. Love a singing drummer, although Don is a prick.

Not my fave but I will still rep for “Wonderful” (song, not album).

This works if you approach it like a drone record and let yourself be lulled by the repetition and mumble-shouting. Could’ve gone harder, though. Also, a real missed opportunity not to call a band the Brians.

Really three and-a-half stars. (Why can’t I give half stars? I’m oppressed.) But five stars for Just What I Needed, an undeniable pop banger.

Not my favorite Joni album, or even in my top five, but it’s still Joni. And enlisting three of your exes to play on your record is hilarious.

It’s not Sade’s fault that Smooth Operator reached an Eye of the Tiger level of ripeness for irony. This album offers plenty to appreciate, including an impeccable commitment to the vibe. The best Sade album is still Love Deluxe, though. (No Ordinary Love: a jam.)

Any musical “revival” is likely to make me go, ehhh. But a much worse band could have helmed this particular revival (and some tried). Credit due for committing to an aesthetic, cultivating some mystique, and pretending to be siblings well past the point of credulity.

The “crowd” noise has a bit of an uncanny valley effect, and the best songs are the covers. But if I’d been a teen in the late sixties I would’ve been enormously into this.

Has its moments in the middle. Could’ve used some editing; sure, obviously, though a tidy album would not exactly have been in the spirit of the endeavor. Last song is a disaster. Yeah, well, so’s the world, baby! Lol

Tragically I missed out on seeing David Bowie as a teen because I didn’t want to pay to see Moby (for whom Bowie was OPENING; what a travesty). I thought there would be more chances! And that’s middle-age disappointment in a nutshell. Anyway, this is music for commercials; it makes me feel less than nothing.

Really two and-a-half stars. Has a few moments.

Randomly saw these guys play last year, and they still sounded as immediate as they do here. Most importantly, Hetfield can pull off leather pants in his 60s, which is really an inspiration. (This probably deserves more than three stars. My Napster-era youth was prejudicial.)

Taylor Swift could write catchy songs for any milieu from Music Row to Madison Avenue. (Welcome to New York, for one, sounds like it was written for a chamber of commerce.) She churns out hooks and hits, and this album is full of both. Style and Wildest Dreams shimmer despite some weird phrasings (I blame the Swedes), but most of the hits are a bit goofy. She needed a few more tries to make an album with no overtly embarrassing moments. Two of the better tunes are relegated to the “deluxe edition” (capitalism!): You Are in Love, which evokes Secret Garden-era Bruce (complimentary), and New Romantics, which unbelievably was never used in an episode of Girls (lol).

Really can’t overstate how much I would’ve loved KISS if I’d been a kid in the seventies. Thin Lizzy and others did this type of thing much better, but I do appreciate the commitment to the bit.

An understated and mostly backward-looking album with some nice playing, especially on sax. Ibrahim is a generous composer who plays like he has nothing to prove. Some of the records he made in the seventies are more compelling (my fave is probably The Journey). This one goes down easy and does not match the immediacy of those (or of its influences).