1001 Albums Summary

Pretty okay album, I wouldn't say it was the Beatles' best but contains their best song so its not too bad. This is the Beatles stripped back to basics but tbh I prefer their more progressive/psychedelic stuff, at times it can sound underdeveloped and too simple but LP 2 is a stark improvement with a needed injection from the electric guitar. However the album does also provide a track I refuse to ever listen to again in Revolution 9 with it being like if 'Fitter Happier' was 8 minutes long. Not sure how its Leo's favourite, has he listened to Sgt peppers or Abbey Road? 7.5/10 Not too bad. Thursday 6th of February 2025. Top tracks -> While My Guitar Gently Weeps -> I Will -> Birthday -> Revolution 1

Somehow makes me want to attend a disco which I can't say I've felt since year 6, I had no clue the 'freak out' song is by them. Chic mix disco with more RnB and I could definitely see my mum dancing to it. With an at times lush instrumentation on tracks like 'Savoir Faire' and a sort of Gayeish quality to tracks like 'Happy Man'. Shame the racism hadn't been removed from America by the 1980s with the 'disco sucks' campaign as I'm sure this album would be far better known in the modern day (or perhaps I'm in the dark). 8/10 Surprisingly good listen. Top Tracks -> Le Freak -> Savoir Faire -> Happy Man -> (Funny) Bone

Really not my type of thing, I don't care for the voice nor anything that is going on, it doesn't reek of the 80's but frankly its rubbish. 'I Know What I Know' I found particularly annoying and could well have been heard playing at the New Inn, 'You Can Call Me Al' was recognisable and okay but I'm hesitant to add it to the top tracks as it's not saying much considering I didn't like a single other track. Folk music is uninspiring to me so I was unlikely to ever like this but I'm unsure how Mr Young, deep within the 1980s, makes music which sounds all the same. How 'The Queen is Dead' and this {Graceland} were made in the same year is beyond me, the backdrop of Apartheid is certainly interesting but in no way makes this album listenable to me. In no way will I ever listen to this again. 1/10 flat and dull. Top Tracks -> You Can Call Me Al

Pretty cool in all honesty, blues isn't always my kind of thing but its hard to dislike what's going on with this album. Even in 1965 BB King's sound is modern with an impressive combination of clean guitar playing and walls of trumpeted sound filling the air. This is made even more impressive with the fact that it's all done live. Mr King is known as the best guitar player of the blues and that's clear to see here, tracks such as 'Sweet Little Angel' and 'Please Love Me' in particular I found to be what I'd say were the coolest tracks for me. Cool really is the best way to describe this album's essence with the incredibly smooth instrumentation present on this album. If I were to have a critique I would say some of the songs can sound quite 'samey' but that's really not as harsh of a critique as I like what is being played. Cool 7/10 Top Tracks -> Sweet Little Angel -> Please Love Me -> How Blue Can You Get

Probably not built for the modern age, I'm sure I would appreciate this being played live in front me but to my ears this isn't really my thing. I do appreciate what's going on though, incredibly technically proficient drumming and piano playing would provide calming backdrop to a cool bar. I also enjoy hearing the conversation in the background of tracks like 'Alice In Wonderland' which makes me feel like I'm right where its being recorded. However, I don't particularly appreciate that most of the album repeats itself leading to me having to listen to the same song twice before I can move on to the next. For my current ears this isn't my thing but in the right setting it could be higher but purely as background music, SATVV doesn't hold up well to active listening but whilst searching for my girlfriends presents for valentines day it did help with focus. 5/10 Technically good but unlikely to revisit any time soon. Top Tracks -> Gloria's Step -> Solar -> Alice In Wonderland

There’s probably not much I can say about this album that hasn’t been said before but this album is brilliantly rich in it's simplicity. AC/DC are by no means making a masterful composition with HTH but it’s lucidity is its greatest aspect; laden with guitar solos, Bon Scott’s screeching voice and simple and effective guitar riffs make it an unpretentious and brilliant album. ‘Girls Got Rhythm’ is groovy, 'Night Prowler' makes sure to take its time, and 'Highway To Hell' is infectiously catchy. The AC/DC formula , riff, rest of band, 2 choruses then a solo, would have you assume that each track is 'samey' but you'll find the variation to make each track sound fresh. 9/10 Great listen. Top tracks -> Highway to Hell -> Girls Got Rhythm -> Night Prowler

To be honest i’m shocked i’ve never listened to this one previously with the title track being particularly nostalgic to me as it was one of the few songs on my playlist (of which i overplayed to the point of being unable to listen to those tracks for years) when i went on my trip to Poland just before Covid-19 hit. Anyways, this album starts off incredibly strong. The aforementioned track ‘The Suburbs’ is catchy and nostalgic which then bridges nicely into the next track ‘Ready To Start’ with some lingering strings, following on from that is ‘Modern Man’ with its clever syncopation. AF have an interestingly spacial sound with the drums and vocals sounding almost as if they’re in a different room. Arcade Fire are unlikely to be my favourite band any time soon but their chord progression is undeniably incredible, not a single track whether I liked it or not had a song which fell flat due to each song always reaching a point of climax. 8/10 Nostalgic. Top Tracks -> The Suburbs -> Ready To Start -> Modern Man -> Half Light II (No Celebration) -> Suburban War

As Progressive rock goes, this is actually terrible. Just stuff happening for the sake of it, when Greg Lake shouts to the audience "do you want more music' I'm astounded they chanted for it to go on although I suppose for 1971 this was groundbreaking. The freaks on RYM probably lap this crap up and if I told them my thoughts on this album I'd likely be told 'I just don't get it' but I can't fathom how of all the prog-rock albums out there this one is considered in the upper echelons of this genre. The best track is 'the Great Gates of Kiev' which is a run of the mill progressive rock song which I can't necessarily knock with the first full vocal performance of the album and harmless synthesiser playing making it the standout track but really nothing special. I actually find this album to be a disappointment to me as the idea behind it incredibly cool, turning composer Modeste Mussorgsky's work into a progressive rock performance. This idea (if well executed) would have been incredibly cool but sadly the whole performance feels overdone, good music is hinted at with generally okay bass playing but the synthesiser work is so poor and the fleeting vocal performances rarely speak to me. This album is not the worst album I've listened to yet, but its probably second bottom. 2/10 Needlessly Progressive. Top Tracks -> The Great Gates of Kiev

deep purple is one those bands I've heard about but never actually gave them a try but I like what's going on. the opener 'Speed King' is a great start with some incredible bass playing and 'Bloodsucker' is great too which I was surprised at with only 80k streams on Spotify. Hendrix-esque riffs combined with hard rock screaming makes a great sound. 'Child In Time' is the real standout here with its growing intensity for roughly 3 minutes until it kicks in with another great Hendrix-esque riff and at times Bowie-like singing. However the album did fail to keep my attention at parts, with some tracks blending into one another due to the formulaic nature of their songs. 6.5/10 Would re-listen Top tracks -> Speed King -> Child in Time

Eh, after 'More Than a Feeling' very little stands out to me. It is by no means a bad album but it fails to leave a lasting impact upon me. I see the track listing to be a major issue here, with the bigger hits coming at the front of the album ,having less for the listener to look forward to. An album is more likely to get relistened to if the back end is as strong as its start. The 'feeling' I get from this album is that the blueprint began with MTAF and then the rest of the album is filling all of that out. In situations such as this I'd employ the phantom menace strategy of ending so well that it leaves you thinking the album is great when in reality there is little happening for most of the runtime. In my opinion 'Peace of Mind' should have been the second to last track as opposed to the second which follows into ' Let Me Take You Home Tonight'. An album such as 'Nevermind' is similar in its incredibly strong opening 3 tracks but it's able to pad the album out better than Boston with more diverse songs such as 'Polly' and ending on the incredible 'Something in the Way'. 6/10 Not got enough of an edge. Top Tracks -> More Than a Feeling -> Peace of Mind -> Foreplay/ Long Time -> Let Me Take You Home Tonight

At first I was unsure but the transition from 'Never, Never Land' into 'Tic, Tic, Tic, It Wears Off' convinced me to this album. The record is a collection of minute long songs for the first half of its runtime, leaving 6-7 tracks to feel more like 1 or 2. At times it sounds like a soundtrack and other times like it was recorded on another planet, it can suffer from being over-futuristic on tracks such as 'flamingo' but the album feels coherent and about 20 years ahead of its time. The high points for me were on 'Zen Archer' with its spacey and atmospheric outro, and the peacefulness that is 'Medley: I'm So Proud/ Ooh Baby Baby/ La La Means I Love You'. 8.5/10 Wacky and Cool. Top Tracks -> Tic, Tic, Tic, It wears Off -> Zen Archer -> Medley: I'm So Proud/ Ooh Baby Baby/ La La means I Love You'

I seriously will never understand the praise R.E.M get because their music sounds so plain to me. Artists from Thom Yorke to Kurt Cobain have praised their work endlessly and countless will tell me they're brilliant but I don't understand it. It's a feeling I cannot place my finger on but their music doesn't speak to me, however I will be forever thankful to Michael Stipe for his contribution to 'How To Disappear Completely'. Although a okay album there's very little that stands out for me, even on albums I have given a 1 star there's the odd standout track but these all blended together for me bar maybe 'I Remember California'. 4/10 Overrated band. Top Tracks -> I Remember California

Maybe it's a sign that this generator gave me two R.E.M. albums in a row because I quite liked this. After 'Green' I was certain I wouldn't like any R.E.M. album due to the lacklustre chord progression and Michael Stipe's monotonous voice. However on this these issues are not present, the chord progression is solid especially on tracks like 'West of the Fields' and on this record Stipe's voice is less at the forefront, rendering this no longer an issue for me. This album incorporates an Indie/Post-punk style with the album art evoking this Post-punk/ gothic style, this is especially noticeable with the drum beats on 'Moral Kiosk' and the great bass playing throughout. I am also hearing Math-rock present here on tracks like 'Sitting Still' and '9-9'. From what I have been told 'Murmur' was a blueprint for the future indie rock scene which is clear to hear on the latter half of the record, which is the better half in my opinion. On first listen I even considered the prestigious 5 stars but on re-listen the first half sadly doesn't reflect the stellar second. 8/10 Really Good. Top Tracks -> Radio Free Europe -> Talk About A Passion -> Sitting Still -> 9-9 -> Shaking Through

Every single song on this album followed the same formula whereby I thought "okay this one might be good" only for it to devolve into something reminiscent of an Ed Sheeran track. This record if based off of each track's first 20 seconds would be a solid 8/10 but I struggle like anything that's going on. Chord-progression is non-existent leaving songs only 3 minutes long to feel like they've overstayed their welcome. Lead single 'E-Pro' Is fine but I won't sing its praises for too long due to the wasted potential of the opening riff. Reviews on this site have sadly warned me that there are 3 to 4 more Beck albums i'll have to sit through which I by no means am looking forward to. 2/10 Wasted potential. Top Tracks -> E-Pro

I did really want to like this album due to the political context surrounding it but it wasn't anything exceptional musically. Musically it provides very little for me with neither of the four tracks being added to a playlist. But the sheer fact that the release of this album lead to his subsequent arrest and the death of his mother at the hands of the Nigerian police instantly makes this a cool album for me. This is a protest album which does the excellent job of demonstrating the struggles within Kuti's home country. Although I am unlikely to listen to it again the context is still incredibly intriguing. 6/10 Cool political context.

Albums such as this make me slightly disappointed that hip-hop hasn't gotten any better than the 90s. The creative usage of samples combined with Jeru's silky smooth voice create a brilliant Hip-Hop album. Record spinning sound effects and booming electronic drums are a main stay across the record amongst the wide array of creative samples, with the highlight being 'Ain't The Devil Happy'. I also have to give credence to the hilariously terrible album cover which easily brings this album up for me, . The creativity of samples cannot be understated here, 'Perverted Monks In The House' somehow turns a load of crowd noise into a sample. The album gets better as it goes on, with Jeru saving the best for last, from 'Perverted Monks' onwards its a flawless 90s hiphop album. 9/10 Incredible sampling. Top Tracks -> Mental Stamina -> Da Bichez -> You Can't Stop The Prophet -> Ain't The Devil Happy

Despite having listened to Siamese Dream a good few times in my life I'm surprised at myself for not having listened to this album yet. The 2hr runtime does leave it to be a fairly daunting listen but once you hear 'Tonight Tonight' it's clear to be worth the full experience. Instrumentation is far more present here with strings aplenty, however the 'grungy' style they are known for is still present on tracks such as 'Zero', 'Jellybelly' and 'Bullet with Butterfly Wings'. The edge that this album provides over previous albums such as Siamese Dream, Gish and Pisces Iscariot is certainly its stronger chord progression. The Smashing Pumpkins of the past would have been unable to have made a track such as '1979' or 'Tonight, Tonight', or be able to blend the tranquility with the grunge sound on tracks like 'Here is No Why'. I would also add to anyone who liked the album to give B-side track 'Pennies' a go as for me its one of the best tracks of this SP era. I will say the second half of this LP has weaker tracks which at times leaves me thinking this could be a single LP. But the length is justified due to the concept, this album has been called the 90s iteration of 'The Wall' and as such i'll judge the weaker tracks to their commitment to the concept overall as opposed to a track per track basis. Incredible album 9.5/10. Top Tracks -> Tonight, Tonight -> Zero -> Here Is No Why -> Bullet With Butterfly Wings -> To Forgive -> Cupid De Locke -> Galapagos -> 1979 -> Thru The Eyes of Ruby -> Stumbleine -> By Starlight

Unbelievable live album, being able to make these heavy grunge songs sound quite beautiful on an acoustic guitar. 10/10 perfect. Best Tracks ->Come As You Are ->Man Who Sold the World ->Something in the Way ->Where Did You Sleep Last Night?