The album was undeniably a cultural zeitgeist and I was a massive fan in high school because... I was in high school in the early 2000s. I despise this now. His cleverness and cultural questioning doesn't justify the raw hatred this man is spewing. I've listened to way more hip hop/rap since high school and there's just SO much out there that is so much better than this album. I gotta say, I really thought "1001 albums to listen to before you die" would base its ratings on "excellent music" and a little less on white boy popularity contest.

Big No to sterile corny white boy rap. Why tf is this album on the list of stuff to hear before you die. Ten thumbs down

It was definitely good music, but didn't captivate me. Lyrics are incredible. It just didn't tug me heart is all

Her voice is cool, unique, and groundbreaking. Lyrics are full of teen angst. Absolutely nothing about the composition or arrangement is interesting.

The strings, the crooning, the backup vocals... an absolute soundscape that pulls me gently into its flow. Charles' phrasing is literally perfect and I'm taking notes.

Ah, my fave Beck album! Beck's weirdness and talent come together perfectly on this concept album. His other stuff is excellent but doesn't touch Guero. His tone is unusually consistent across instruments, vocals, and the weird "Beck" touches that he likes to throw in songs. The overall effect is unusual but not at all dissonant. Would be five stars if it broke my overall experience with Beck: catchy, but doesn't move me.

I can clearly see how this influenced basically every hair metal and rock and roll band I've listened to from the 70s onward. Nice highlight of the blues roots of rock

Absolute goated album, been one of my faves since high school. Like others have mentioned, front to back I don't think this is their best album. yet another dad rock album on this list

The album was undeniably a cultural zeitgeist and I was a massive fan in high school because... I was in high school in the early 2000s. I despise this now. His cleverness and cultural questioning doesn't justify the raw hatred this man is spewing. I've listened to way more hip hop/rap since high school and there's just SO much out there that is so much better than this album. I gotta say, I really thought "1001 albums to listen to before you die" would base its ratings on "excellent music" and a little less on white boy popularity contest.

While this isn't music that I would regularly listen to, I found it very enjoyable while working. Definitely some cool sounds in there and nice squelches, I'm a sucker for a good EDM squelch. It was interesting enough to keep me engaged with the music, energetic enough to keep me engaged with my work. That said I find basically all EDM so repetitive and unemotional that it's only good for working on something tedious or for dancing mindlessly at the clurb. One notable exception is Jay Electronica, who I wish was on this list instead of Leftism.

I love the more gospel-y parts, like on We Are Not Helpless. The man is a stellar guitarist and songwriter and I loved a lot of this. But I wonder why gospel songs by a white dude from the 70s made it to this list, and not actual gospel

If my band had made this album, I'd be proud. Controversially I super enjoyed some parts of the comfortably numb cover, but the bad parts far eclipsed the good. (the BeeGees style Ha Ha Ha Ha inserted in different places, puke.) Overall, not a bad dancy album, but like... again my complaint for everything on this list is that there's so much better out there to represent the genres and styles they chose! for dancy synth pop, Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia is literally unstoppable. And Mag Bay's Mercurial World. I know nothing about music but I know this for sure

Me right now in 2025 is thinking that this album is the most classic 80s-90s rap sound, but that's in retrospect, and apparently this album started it? Hats off to the creators of a sound that I love. I just love how funky and high energy the hip hop is from that time. Being Canadian my first exposure to this sound was with Maestro Fresh Wes, and this album taught me that Wes shouts Public Enemy often in his music so that's cool. Wes sound clearly inspired by tracks like Night of the Living BaseHeads, so funky, so clean. Can also see how they influenced RAtM sound and Zack's rap style, especially from She Watch Channel Zero?!. Can't stand the repetitive aggressive stuff like in Mind Terrorist. Love the lyricism and beats on most other tracks. Overall a very interesting and intense album, they clearly went in with a vision and executed it perfectly.

Only listened to this one lightly so not a huge review this time. Clearly an excellent live performance by skilled musicians. To be honest though it's not as distinguishable from the other hair metal of the era as I would have wanted to see on this list.

I am a huge Tom Petty fan and this is by far neither his best nor his most influential work. Full Moon Fever should have been the album on this list. If you arent a Petty fan, stop listening to this debut Heartbreakers album and go listen to Full Moon Fever. I find the front half of this Heartbreakers album to be quite boring compared to other Petty stuff. This album also doesn't make the good use of Petty's unique voice. I saw another reviewer say this was his "Springsteen-influenced" era, I agree. Petty sounds best when he's doing Petty. I also think it's wild that this album is categorized as psychedelic rock, I don't hear that at all. It's pretty classic, meat and potatoes hint-of-blues rock to me.

Because of the cultural zeitgeist around this album I have of course avoided listening to it until now. And now I'm absolutely loving hearing how this album so clearly influenced the sounds that I listen to today, from the Oh Sees and the Melvins, who were mavericks of their time and belong on this list (plot twist: they are not on this list), to LCD Soundsystem (who seem to have basically copied their style from this album??). This album inspired so much of the stoner metal stuff I love. And of course all of the 90s post-punk that I dgaf about, but I see the culture

Beautiful narrative songwriting from CCR. Their songs flow seamlessly even when they're nonsense, like Backdoor. I have covered many of the songs on this album with my band so I'm biased.

Coming into this already familiar with a lot of Biggie's work. First of all, shout out to the Doggystyle sampling. Secondly, this was a hilarious album choice to listen to while I do homework on a dry technical topic. Yes, the gunshots did make it harder to concentrate, so moment of gratitude that I normally have a quiet study zone. Classic beats that will be sampled til the end of time, smooth rhymes, absolutely unbeatable flow and character from Biggie. Special shout out to the creative freaky funkiness of the track in Machine Gun Funk. A bit of filler in songs like Warning, 1h 16min is a long album and it's impressive that so much of it is timeless quality. That said, the frequent skits, misogyny, violence, and gunshots overwhelm the album. Yes this is a classic but when this album gets listened to today, its with heavily censored and shortened versions, and for good reason. I don't normally like radio edits but it's the only way to cut through the production bullshit and see the genius of Biggie. I live for the funk ~

Not familiar with a lot of Brit folk, this caught me by surprise with how much I enjoyed it. I am an overall folk fan and I like that this album stayed true to folksy roots as much as possible while using modern rock instruments and modernized arrangements. The vocals stand out as versatile and dynamic. The string arrangements in general were fantastic and the fiddling in particular was beautiful. Matty Groves and Medley stood out to me as favourites, probably in large part because of the fiddle. Yes Matty Groves was 8 minutes but every minute was worth the listen. Definitely an album that will stay in my library.

I love this album. Absolute keystone metal album. The crazy shreds are one thing, but what's behind them is also solid catchy backing guitar and bass. Hope it's one of the few albums of this particular era of classic metal to show up on this list, because there are entire libraries of better metal made since. This decade of music sounds corny as hell today regardless of the genre. ~ if there's ever a new way / I'll be first in line / but it better work this time ~

I've only ever come across PJ Harvey through her collaborations with other artists like Homme and Lanegan. This album as a whole feels pretty classic 90s grunge with some added cleverness like the string section in Man-Size. Her vocals stand out as versatile and sensual and I particularly love her growls/screams/vocal fry, and when it sounds like she's singing through gritted teeth. Rub til it Bleeds is another stand out fave. To all the reviewers saying the production is shit, y'all, this is art that is intentionally raw. If this was produced like a pop album it would sound sterile.

First impression is the striking album cover, what a masterpiece of a cover, I'd pick this off the shelf instantly even if I didn't know Duran Duran. Honestly they're one of those bands who have been so ubiquitously quoted over my life that I never actually bothered to go in and give them a listen. Damn, this is 80s synth-pop at its absolute peak - literally every song has a killer bassline, and the synth manages to be uniquely interesting in each song. I'm a suck for their backing vocals in Hold Back the Rain and sax riffs in Rio and others. I love Eagles of Death Metal but their cover of Save a Prayer isn't as good as the original. that being said rating it 4 stars because this doesn't feel like "I'm about to die and I'm so glad I heard this"

This is my first Radiohead album from this list but I'm guessing there's a good 3-5 Radiohead albums in total just based on how biased this list has been so far towards angsty white boy rock. (I just checked and there are SIX radiohead albums on this list.) I do not need to hear this much radiohead before I die, there is so much variety out there. This list is crap. I do like the arrangement of strings and almost jazz-like percussion in Pyramid song. Pulk/pull Revolving Doors has some cool synthd sounds on it but I've been spoiled by the variety of other experimental synth bands out there and this is boring by comparison. You and Whose Army as well as Life in a Glasshouse are both shadows of Neutral Milk Hotel (who somehow did not make it to this 1001 list, despite their massive influence on indie sound as a whole, and clearly Radiohead). with all the love in the world Thom Yorke sounds the same on every track (including in his Smile stuff). I actually really like the chord progression in it but Morning Bell/Amnesiac sounds like a dozen other Radiohead songs, so I skipped it halfway through. Love the synth on Spinning Plates. Overall this album did stand out in a small but importnat (for me) way from other Radiohead albums - the percussion had lots of clear jazz influences. Would love to see the band pull more on that thread. Also even though they are playing from the Neutral Milk Hotel fake book, I do love that NMH sound so I enjoyed those bits of dissonant horns and wailing crackly half step melodies on this album. Yes I'm being harder on radiohead than I am for other bands on this list, because if you're going to take up 6/1001 spaces, you'd better deserve it. Queen is arguably both more influential and musically far superior and interesting, and they only have 3 albums on the list. Not impressed, Radiohead.

Mitchell's voice is on display at its most beautiful on this album. Help Me is a perfect example of both her range and her songwriting prowess, she has the power to jerk a listener around with her arrangements in a smooth and almost inevitable way and is probably the best song on the album. Hallelujah to the oddball harmonies and resolutions in Free Man in Paris and Down to You. The storytelling journey is especially strong in songs like Car on the Hill, and the piano breakdowns leave you wanting more. She is also exceptionally dynamic in a way that I don't hear often. I adore the jazz influences and arrangements on songs like Just Like This Train and Twisted (Twisted is just plain jazz, no pop nowhere). Raised by Robbery is the black sheep of the album, it's the biggest thematic departure. To me it's by far her most "standard" rock 'n' roll song, from the more "roll" days of rock. She does a great job but I probably wouldn't like her as much if she stuck to this genre, it's not where her arrangement style thrives. I see other peoples comments about her obviously being a poet first and songwriter almost as an afterthought. I agree with this for parts of the album, like People's Parties and The Same Situation. That said, her lyricism is groundbreaking and more than compensates for the poetic focus. Her phrasing is unusual as a result, but I think that's a plus. I don't see how this is supposed to be a pop album, or a folk album. Its jazz fusion if anything. Overall, I definitely needed to hear this before I die.

The Clash are another one of the bands that are so culturally ubiquitous that I've never given them a serious listen. Turns out there's a great reason they're so culturally ubiquitous. First of all, Joe Strummer is a vocals blessing from the lord. His squawking is unique, perfectly suited to their music, and feels like it's pouring out of him spontaneously. One of the biggest reasons why The Clash's music feels like it's live from the floor emotion that taps straight into the lives of the average citizen and unites us all. I also have the hots for bands who can't pick one "genre". I use the term loosely because in my opinion good music isn't so easily classified. The switch between punk, ska, big band, and rockabilly keep the album so interesting you don't notice you've been listening for over an hour. Each track is also uniquely filled with energy. I especially love the transition between Spanish Bombs and The Right Profile, which are two high energy juicy songs in two completely different ways. there's a lot about The Clash that suggests they don't take themselves too seriously. A lot of lyrics poke fun at themselves, the bourgeoisie, and the layman. I love when Strummer breaks down into sputtering nonsense in The Right Profile. The lyrics and subject of Lost in the Supermarket are simultaneously relatable comedy while also earnestly describing the unique soullessness of suburban living. Even when the band is seemingly being minimalist in their sound, the arrangements have so many unique motifs that the flow of listening is uninterrupted. The Guns of Brixton is ostensibly simple on the surface but the dynamics are layered and nuanced. The dissonance in the chords immediately after the chorus lends anxiety and unpredictability to an otherwise simple song (though I could do without the "boi-oing" sounds). Towards the end, I did start to find the album too long.

One hell of an opener song. Love the tempo and texture changes. Though I hate the "boing oing" sounds that are so ubiquitous in this era of psych rock. Sitar is one thing but the boings are just so corny. I also found the Minotaur Song beautifully arranged, but the lyrics and the main vocals are so corny I can't keep from rolling my eyes. The wiki article also doesn't seem to really situate The Incredible String Band in the cultural context, so I don't have a point of reference that isn't "corny 60s psychedelia". They did mention that Led Zeppelin was directly inspired by TISB, which shows up pretty clearly in Zep music (though imo Zep did the sound way better, less corny). Overall, interesting and unique songwriting structure and arrangements that was clearly avant-garde in its time. I feel meh about hearing this before I die though so for that reason giving it a three star.

10/10 album cover. I love basically everything that Zappa has influenced (especially Ween, Primus, Steven Wilson, etc) but I've never really given his discog a listen. Holy shit, it's amazing, it manages to be "outsider music"-level weird while still having mass appeal composition. His resolutions are unpredictable and offbeat and deeply satisfying. Yes, people should hear some zappa before they die.

Oh god noooo, this is more of the same late-80s early-90s alt grunge again! Someone please tell me what is so unique and amazing about this album. Okay so it was the first of its kind and inspired like, every alt album since. I just think Pavement and Mitski did it better :) Four stars because I see and respect the influence of it all. That said, some great tracks where the style and/or tempo switch up fluidly bar to bar in a really pleasant way: Monkey's Gone to Heaven, Dead, Tame, Mr. Grieves, There Goes My Gun. The end of the album was not for me. I've decided whenever I get some 90s grunge esque repeat albums on this list that I'm going to look up "albums that should have been on the 1001 list" and listen to one of those instead. Today's is The Shaggs Philosophy of the World. Perfect mix of musical insanity and cult adoration plus zany backstory that I want to hear before I die.

I like the synth noises they make. The rest of it is totally uninspiring, slightly edgy pop music. We were so cringe in the 90s (actually, you all were cringe. I was a wee baby). There are some interesting departures into instrumental breaks, but otherwise it's formulaic and all over the exact saaaame 4/4 beat. Like... everything is so boring, the lyrics, the composition, the riffs, the melody, the percussion especially, this album absolutely limps. I skipped most songs halfway through. Why did I need to hear this before I die?

This guy has the sweetest clearest voice, kinda reminds me of Father John Misty. His composition is deceptively simple but is still rich enough to move you. I love the Rhodes tinkling in the background of some tracks like Winterwood, and the tempo switches in that song. I read some other reviews before giving this a listen. One of them suggested to start listening to this album in the fourth track, then come back around and listen to the first three afterwards, so you don't get blown away by the classic of classics (American Pie) and then get disappointed by the relative mediocrity of the rest of the album. I did this and I agree it was the move. I like this type of music in general and I'll absolutely play it in my living room while I'm drinking coffee. That said musically its not super interesting with the exception of his two "american treasure" songs on this album, so my rating reflects only the cultural zeitgeist of it all. Laughing at how Everybody Loves Me, Baby is just a straight up rip-off of American Pie. I do like the song though because it's one of the few points on the album where he goes a bit off the rails melody wise. I'd listen to his stuff more if he got weird with it more.

Now that's an opening line. Cover art brazenly sucks. I don't really like the fake Elvis stuff on songs like Wail. This music would feel more authentic if the lead singer wasn't doing that impression, it just feels like a shitty high school cover band that's trying too hard. I do love grungy and gross slimy distorted jarring guitar and synth tones, so all my stars in this rating come from my enjoyment of those dirty sounds. Shout out to the guitar distortion on 2Kindsalove. Same with the wah wah sounds on Chicken Dog (and the clogged-drain sounding clucks and cock-a-doodle-doos make this prob my fave song on the album, very Zappa, very Melvins). But the second half of the album totally lost me. The song Fuck Shit Up makes me want to go to sleep. Why did they have high energy on every song but this one?? More Gen X grunge-adjacent Ameri-Brit white boy stuff from the 80s-90s that won't move an audience outside of that small demographic. I've decided whenever I get yet another one of those 80s-90s angst repeat albums on this list that I'm going to look up "albums that should have been on the 1001 list" and listen to one of those instead. Because this guy wants to sound so much like Elvis, I decided to go with a recommendation of Elvis' first album. Absolutely beautiful album, emotional, talented, unique, cultural zeitgeist. Shout out to the black musicians around Elvis for creating the beautiful and timeless sound that he stole. 4 stars to Elvis. Final rating of Jon Spencer: Jack White, Injury Reserve, Elvis, King Woman, JPEGMAFIA, Melvins do it better. Why did I need to hear this before I die?

I'm biased because I like a lot of Bowie. The opening track is one of his more experimental tracks, but I hate it, I think it was a dumb choice for an opening track. The repetitive "I'm a blackstar" is a massive and annoying distraction from what is otherwise a stellar instrumental arrangement, and it should not be 10 mins long. Love the horns Bowie is using on this. Especially nice paired with the driving bass on Lazarus. Love especially the cute trills towards the end of the breakdown on that song, makes you feel like you're going deliciously insane in a Bowie way. Sue is another great track, super odd sounding with the jungle/breakbeat as a backbone. Yes to the dissonant synth chords gently throwing you off the ledge of comfort zone underneath the melody. I saw in the wiki that this album was influenced by Death Grips?? lol. you don't really hear it until the end of Sue imo. I wish Bowie messed around with more of that style of sound before he passed. That said, one overall trend of this album is my bone to pick wiith a lot of Bowie stuff in general - where tf is the melody? the man has the world's most recognizable wail but on this album it felt more wandering than clever, evocative, or catchy. This album feels overall more soundscape and ethereal than some of his other stuff. This is a decent album, but as far as representative Bowie to hear before I die, I think I would have picked more Ziggy or Space Oddity. Either way, the man has a beautiful catalogue that this list is prompting me to dig into more deeply.

The other reviews criticizing the lyrics clearly have not actually listened to the lyrics. Lamar has always been a powerhouse of political, astute, and culturally critical lyricism. Some of it is subtle and Lamar has been known to play with listener expectations by loading lyrics with the strong language and violence that is associated with rap. In other words, the exact listeners who don't dive beneath the skits and the n-words to process Lamar's actual message are ironically the listeners he is criticizing and poking fun at. When listeners fall into this trap of their own bigotry I picture Lamar saying "dance, monkey". This album was a central musical point in my life, played on repeat for almost an entire year alongside Good Kid, mAAd City in my friend group during the third year of our undergrad. It was the backdrop to a lot of formative memories and it's hard to listen to it now 8 years later trying to separate those memories from the "listen before you die" experience of this list. The first thing that strikes me after those 8 years is how dated this album already sounds after not even a decade. I'm a big FlyLo and Thundercat fan, and their influences shine clearly on this album, but they're also the biggest contributors to it sounding dated. The keyboard and synth tones and progression choices are so clearly 2015-era FlyLo and Thundercat. To me, Lamar's later stuff has a bit less of this fingerprint. I like Kendrick's voice and flow because he exercises both in a way that not a lot of other rappers do, he has more range and he explores it fully. I don't like his teenage voice crack affect in u, but I admire the musical experiment of it all. I still love this album 8 years later, but its excellence now pales next to Good Kid. Even DAMN and Mr. Morale stand out above this album in my eyes. Once again a surprising choice from this list.

Very stomp, clap, hey of grungy drone music. I do appreciate seeing how TVotR clearly influenced Alt J, who I really love. I also love a drone. And a discordant vocal harmony. So why is this music so boring to me?? I think it's the lack of dynamic and overall lack of energy. Alt J has a lot of pop composition and production and I think that's one good way of balancing the chore that TVotR drone is and frankly drone as a genre can easily be. I love a gnarly drone with discord and repetitiveness but it has to have dynamic and some kind of punch. Doesn't necessarily have to have pop production like Alt J. Go listen to some Russian Circles, Cloudkicker, or Elder and you'll see what I mean. I'm halfway through the album and finally seeing a small bit of dynamic on Wear You Out, but that song still managed to wear me out with its repetitiveness and sleepy energy. I do like the way that song ends though, so discordant in a jarring and discomfiting way, I wish the rest of the song was as interesting. Some other cool weird endings on songs like You Could Be Love. Do the start and middle of the songs next please. When looking up more about TVotR on Spotify, in the recommended artists you can find a dozen other artists on this list who make very similar music in a similarly mediocre way (Silvesun Pickups, LCD Soundsystem (sorry but they are mediocre), Arcade Fire (I swear to god if there's an arcade fire album on this list!!), Spoon, Beck). This list is just what some Gen X white dude heard on the radio when he was young enough to be at the skate park. this list is just a man wanking over James Murphy and Thom Yorke and writing a book documenting his wanks for some reason. It's not the worst thing I've heard on this list but I definitely did not need to hear this before I die. They have the exact same drum beat on every damn song. Possibly even the same bassline. Mercy please

Yes, finally a master! Had the immense privilege of seeing Hancock at a Jazzfest in 2023. The man is an icon of groove. He is himself The Culture. Whenever something goes wrong in the world, you can know that God still exists and cares about humanity just by listening to this album. shout out to the weird opening/closing of one of the greatest songs of all time on watermelon man. shout out to one of the most beautiful relationships to have ever existed as being between a Black man and a rhodes piano. I will have this stuck in my head on my deathbed

Adele's voice is unique, mesmerizing, and talented. This album was a centerpiece of 2011 and 2012 for almost everyone in the Western hemisphere, myself included. But that was 14 years ago, and Adele is not standing the test of time for me. The instrumentals that surrounds her voice are SO basic and rote. Her layers of vocals on tracks like Rolling in the Deep are the most interesting "instrument". Everyone talks about her Gospel, Soul, Motown influences... but all of these genres contained so much more expression, nuance, detail in composition and arrangement, and rawness of emotion than what she's displaying on 21. The repetitive claps on Rumor Has It chorus drive me bonkers. The constant eighth-note hammering seems to be the main mechanism for emphasis on this album, which is boring as fuck. In the first track it was the piano, second track it's this clapping. Set Fire to the Rain has a 4-on-the-floor bass and snare throughout the entire song, literally doesn't vary at all between verse and chorus. Frankly every song has the most generic copy paste percussion on the planet. Piano is arpeggiated standard 4 chords over and over again. I wish this album had been arranged and produced like a soul or motown album and not like a pop album. He Won't Go is ironically a song I've never heard on the radio but has a way more interesting percussion arrangement than anything I've heard so far on the album (and still very bland compared to soul/motown percussion). Still boring, because the producer won't let Adele vamp or let go of ABABCB. Waiting for You is one of my faves. Percussion is moderately interesting, piano moderately interesting, ooh there are some horns, gospel-ish chorus, a couple vocal rasps slip through the iron grip of production. A hint of how incredibly raw Adele could sound with a different producer. It's great until the absolutely brain dead section C (basically every song has a brain dead section C tbh). Does Adele feel anything at all when she sings? Three stars for her voice alone. The composition is shit. I would have preferred her to do more improvisational vocal acapella stuff.

Another example of a legendary album that holds up to its reputation. Marley's arrangement is minimalist without being in any way boring. His music creates a direct emotional lifeline between his heart and the listener's with that beautiful happy-sad dichotomy of blues and reggae. I love the guitar glittering and shimmering its little accent lines like a deer slipping through the trees of the core backing instruments. The well known tracks are of course excellent. But I'm impressed by some of the stuff that didn't make it mainstream (to my knowledge anyway) - Rebel Music has an incredible intro that grabs you and sucks you in immediately. Marley may have no birth certificate but he sure has poignant things to say and many beautiful voices to say them with. ~ Forget your sickness, and dance / forget your weakness, and dance ~

Just some of the most classic, beautiful soul of my lifetime.

One of the best albums of all time, no doubt. Trying to keep an open mind for this listen though. Should be doable as I only ever listen to individual songs from this album, never the whole thing front to back. Second Hand News took me by surprise immediately because it was a) not one of their big hits and b) a weird song. Fleetwood Mac's strong grasp of vocal harmony and interesting song structure shone through even though it's not my fave song of theirs. I can see how the minimalist arrangements can sometimes delude listeners into thinking some songs are "boring", but really, these songs have just what they need and no more, which is such a rare gift in any kind of art. It's so so easy to keep adding elements until our ADHD brains are appeased, but these arrangements are so sparse that it results in a clear emphasis on the interesting parts (a little bass noodle here, a small drum flourish there, a quiet but important backing vocal). Never Going Back Again has one of the most beautiful guitar melodies in the Western Canon and deserves to be a song you must listen to before you die. Songbird has to be the only mediocre song on the album. I forgive it for existing, because nothing on this earth is perfect, but Rumours comes pretty damn close. I didn't really notice the creative tones/fx on the bass until this listen - they add a lot to the sound without being overbearing or corny. Vocals are often haunting when they're not layered in a complex and beautiful harmony (see Gold Dust Woman).

weird ahh attention grabbing intro right into pure rap gold. Lyric, tone and flow are good and occasionally great. At this point in my music journey I've had the pleasure of listening to some truly groundbreaking flow, beats, and lyrics, and while Roots are excellent, I'm not sure that this is the album of theirs that I needed to hear before I die! It's pretty hard to beat Do You Want More???!?! Like others have mentioned, this album is stylistically all over the place. I like each song individually, though I gotta say the album flow is not smooth and they definitely could have had a better flow in and out of genres. I also wish they'd taken a longer journey down the thrash punk of !!!!!. Overall the one thread that is pulled at consistently throughout the album is the addition of the ambient/house style electronica lurking behind the flows. I enjoyed that overall. Roots, like a lot of Black rappers, call out their bigoted listeners hard. I love the sentiment though I've always wondered why this is so common, because the people who need that message are the least likely to listen to the artists who would call them out period, much less dig into lyrical meaning. All the same I hope their message reaches people. I love love Rolling with Heat, it's the exact type of testosterone packed energy that I'm most attracted to, and Roots absolutely kill it. They aren't even super misogynist about it either. I also adore the shout track Thought@Work, as a scientist I love to say I'm standing on the shoulders of giants, you love to see the Roots acknowledge this too right before breaking into arguably the best song on the album. They are part of an entire legacy, a dynasty, and they know it and they cherish it. Then they turn it up even more by rolling Thought@Work right into The Seed, version 2, upgraded, polished, gilded. Absolutely beautiful song. Then right into the smoothness of Break You Off. Then cranking up the pace and bringing back the energy with Water. Interesting that halfway through the album they're starting to merge styles and genres much more gracefully. Another fave late on the album is Pussy Galore.

Sometimes I can't stand Bob Dylan's voice, other times it's the most beautiful and unique thing I've ever heard. In a music fight though Joni Mitchell would (and did) win. One of the greatest musical storytellers of our time.

In my opinion, this is precisely the album that this list was made for. Absolutely timeless, influential to entire generations and literal nations, and all of that created and played by a one-in-a-billion musical talent.

I love this type of country music! Full of slide guitar and dust and sun and slow movement, not a pop production in sight. The spoken/sung vocals play exceptionally well with the guitar, sometimes I don't like how affected they are in songs like Six Blade Knife though, it feels forced. The life-like personality of the guitar riffs, fills, and backing more than makes up for any vocal transgressions. Faves: Water of Love, Setting Me Up, Sultans of Swing, In the Gallery (purely for the guitar personality), Wild West End Love it. Not sure that I needed to hear it before I die.

Big No to sterile corny white boy rap. Why tf is this album on the list of stuff to hear before you die. Ten thumbs down

In my mind, she defined contemporary R&B. Honey is an absolute banger of an opening track. I love her harmonies and backing vocal style. Incredible voice, but as some other reviewers have said, the songs are a bit same-y and her vocal range is limited to one specific style of breathiness that I can only listen to for so long. She also limits herself to a lot of the same vocal flourishes, the long chromatic runs, the "ooh-ooh-ooh" bracketing every line. Mimi you should let loose! Emancipation of Mimi is much better. I like Mariah's sound but did not need to hear this album before I die.

It's definitely fun old skool punk! Three stars for obvious influence on the culture, but the music didn't touch my cold punk heart. The Damned, with an album also on this list, was similar old skool punk era but had emotions and movement behind it, so this stays at three stars. Some good tracks on this for sure, but tracks like Lonely Planet Boy are absolute snoozefests.

This is fun, I got Lamar's Pimp a Butterfly just last week and referenced this album as being better and belonging more on this list. Just going to copy paste my opening caveat from that album review: "This album was a central musical point in my life, played on repeat for almost an entire year alongside [Pimp a butterfly] in my friend group during the third year of our undergrad. It was the backdrop to a lot of formative memories and it's hard to listen to it now 8 years later trying to separate those memories from the "listen before you die" experience of this list." Alright, so let's see how this aged. Opening on Sherane gives you an immediate plunge into the depths of Kendrick's talent and childhood. He comes out of the gate showcasing storytelling, smooth flow, tension... and the skits arent corny. From that peak of a song we flow right into the Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe, simultaneously an anthem and a sociopolitical commentary, then right into the Backseat Freestyle filled with equally catchy motifs, energetic maschismo, and satire. Then the Art of Peer Pressure, yet another satirical social commentary with killer lines and transitions. I could continue this throughout literally the entire track list. Yes, I listened to this album on repeat every day for close to a year. And now ten years later, every bar still holds up. And his backing tracks are anything but boring. Kendrick is not only a lyricist and flow master but he fully composes, with jazz, synth, gospel, blues elements carrying the flow of his storytelling on a rolling wave. Money trees is the perfect place for shade. All killer, zero filler. An absolute must listen before you die.

Beautiful croons <3

Roadhouse Blues is ubiquitous! I unfortunately only had the chance to skim this album today, but I do think it's a classic and belongs on this list, though three stars because it did not blow me away like many other albums did. Hope to come across more blues music by black musicians too.

I actually like this music (I like elevator music). What's wrong with some low key vibes for a lazy Sunday morning reading the newspaper in the sun. But needing to hear this before I die?? Embarrassing. To quote Aesop Rock, these are songs for people "who have never had a day a snow cone couldn't fix".

This is some pretty classic CCR. I adore this band and this album makes a good soundtrack to a lot of my life. That said, this list is too short to have the same band have more than one album on it unless it is ~exceptional~. And this album is not CCR's exceptional one. Cosmo's Factory was WAY better. It gets 4/5 stars for musicality, and only 3 stars for this list because I'm harder on bands that have >1 album.

This is LIVE???!?!! Dear lord this man's voice. Lost Someone has me twisting and shouting. Beautiful, clever, playful arrangements full of emotion and soulful human condition. Truly timeless, intergenerational music. Elvis wishes he could. I'm ready for the night train ~ and everyone should hear this before they die!

First of all, these men look sooo beautiful on the cover. Then the black and white flag behind them is a clear sign that politics are going to feature heavily. And the beautiful cover is an accurate prediction of what comes from the music. The skit interludes are a bit distracting but the music is so excellent that it overshadows the silliness of the skits. So Fresh, So Clean is a true representation of its namesake. Ms. Jackson is absolutely iconic and such a human story presented alongside some killer beats and licks. Only negative I have to say about that song is the genuine misogynist lyrics in the bridge (the rest of the song is surprisingly free of misogyny considering the subject matter). Not into the corny trap beat in Snappin n Trappin. Love the Killer Mike verses, his voice and flow are perfect fits for this album, wish I could hear him do a less corny song. The synth lick is also gross (derogatory). It's all good though because it comes right back in Spaghetti Junction. The flows are so punchy, they pull the best styles and beats from older skool rap and modernize them in a way that seamlessly fits the style. I'll Call B4 I Cum is a weird song lyrically, only because it's so unusual to see the hip hop flavour of sex music be actually feminist. Some great flows from Outkast and then lines from two female rappers is a cherry on top. then to go straight from the laid back loving of I'll Call right into the frantic energy of B.O.B. is whiplash but keeps your attention. I love the tone of the synth in B.O.B., I hear that tone a lot in Tobacco/Black Moth Super Rainbow sound and I love it. Then Xplosion is such an entrancing mix of unsettling, powerful, and that flavour of can't-look-away-from-the-train-wreck attraction. Love this coming right before the killer combo of Outkast Octane Energy with Erykah's smooth vibey style in Humble Mumble. A mid-song beat switchup will always tickle my brain. This is my first time actually paying attention to the lyrics though, and I'm so glad I did, they're beautifully heartbreaking in their bullseye politic. Gangsta Sh*t is less interesting to me overall though I love the echo-y guitar licks accompanying the flows. Toilet Trisha is devastating. Stankonia is just plain weird and is one of the album's misses in my opinion, though the gospel backing vocs kind of make up for it. The slowed-down ending is hilarious and almost redeems the rest of the song, makes me wonder if the whole thing was meant to be silly. Overall an excellent album that I'm very happy I heard before I died. I'm a longtime lover of Andre 3000 and this pairing is stellar, and the collabs they do over the course of the album are bespoke buttery smooth.

The music sounds exactly how the cover looks. It's great, just plain fun and silliness, yeah it's a little corny, but who cares when you're having fun? It at least takes the time to be interesting and corny, which is way more than I can say for many other albums on this list. Riding a rollercoaster into a vulva-shaped theme park. Rolling down the street, sipping on gin and juice, listening to Oh Shit. I've been a casual Pharcyde listener for a while now but I didn't realize they invented this entire genre. I can hear this behind Del the Funky Homosapien, obviously Hieroglyphics, Jurassic 5, been listening to this sound since high school and I didn't know it was "alternative" I genuinely thought this sound was a big thing. Like, how many times has Passing Me By been sampled?? Five stars because this is interesting, talented, unique, zeitgeist-setting. I hope the author had the sense to only put one album of this genre on the list cause the next one I see isn't getting 5 stars even if it's Del. Sick of this guy who thinks one band deserves >5 albums on this list and doesn't include anything by Fairouz. Girl there are other parts of the world than the US and UK. My favourite part is when when they pass the mic to everyone they know

The guitar is the only interesting part of this album. The vocals, drums, and... bass? Can anyone hear any bass in this? ..are all milquetoast, bland, off-white wall, bread-and-dripping for dinner. There's no way anyone in the world needs to hear this before they die, it's laughable actually. More Gen X grunge-adjacent Ameri-Brit white boy stuff from the 80s-90s that won't move an audience outside of that small demographic. I've decided whenever I get yet another one of those 80s-90s angst repeat albums on this list that I'm going to look up "albums that should have been on the 1001 list" and listen to one of those instead. Today I got Yellow Magic Orchestra's self-titled second album. I'm so excited for this because everything YMO has put out was overflowing with musical and compositional talent, it was *groundbreaking*, it inspired a truly immense amount of music. Each of the members is individually a powerhouse and the way they come together is something you need to hear before you die. The guy who wrote this list has never heard of East Asia I guess. Though hard to imagine he has never played a video game... but clearly not realized where *any* video game music came from. Spoiler alert - it came from YMO! You should listen! Track 1 of YMO (song names are all in Japanese) is like an entire soundboard for the quintessential video game action noises we all know and love from the first Nintendo games. Every jump, every block break, every failed attempt to walk through a wall - all those sounds originate here. Track 2 is an absolute treasure of an upbeat melody. Track 3 is immediately recognizable as the melodic inspiration for the backing music of SO many early video games, and has a killer piano melody show up about halfway through the song. I could keep going but this is as far as I got for detailed reviews for the day. Fuck Suede, listen to YMO!

This man *explodes* into his music. I have serious band energy envy. Okay Fela is amazing but can anyone else hear how this clearly inspired "Chacarron" by El Chombo? Black Man's Cry is incredible. I am listening to this song while reading a news article about Trump relocating "persecuted" white South Africans to the US as "refugees" after denying refugee status to black and brown people. The persecution these White South Africans face is quite literally them having 20x the household wealth as the average Black South African family as well as 4x lower unemployment rate. Read that and re-listen to Kuti's cries. Ye Ye De Smell is a bop front to back. no notes. Egbe Mi O also stellar. Ginger v Allen is GOATED. Kuti is amongst the greatest musicians of all time. Finally - I like how the nice man talks to the audience between songs

Oh hi, it's me, the masses! Out of the gate this is not for the masses, it is a Gothic rock-pop with shouts to early Industrial. Both of which I adore. I am a bit surprised (once again) that Depeche Mode was chosen over the more obvious bands to represent these genres (hello King Woman, Electric Wizard, Sleep, Melvins, Kyuss, Helmet, Mudhoney, later years of The Damned, etc...). First track is a banger. Second track drags, the beat and chimes could have been used to go so much harder imo. To quote Jack Harlow, "whole track sound like an intro". Sacred is layered and atmospheric in a really interesting way but somehow manages to squeak just under being catchy. Little 15 - I'm guessing this is a pedo song? (Looked up the lyrics and yes it is.) Is it just me or is new wave filled with this topic? Just came out of listening to Oingo Boingo's Little Girls. I Want You Now is one of the most fun songs on the album. The layers of vocals doing the heavy lifting of percussion, bass, backing vox and special fx is pretty cool and there is some interesting discord. I have the same gripe about this song as I do for the other songs on this album - there is so much potential for the song to get larger and more dramatic after the chiller, tense "intro". Again the entire song sounds like an intro. Maybe I've just been ruined by modern music. But I Want You Now feels like the blue balls of music. Nothing fortunately brought this album back to life. While the song could have been an intro, it also stood on its own as a eerie bop new wave gothic. The synth and organ are the perfect tone to go along with the gloomy wailing vox. The last two songs have similar dark flavours and tones and end the album on some interest. That said Agent Orange is another "entire song is an intro" kinda track and reminds me of old skool James Bond video game load screen music. Not bad, but it's load screen music. The version of this album I found on spotify had some remixes at the end and I'm sorry to say that they were all better than the originals and transcended the original tracks past intro status. Overall, fun new wave album with pretty tight production and a strong undercurrent of darkness. Did I need to hear this before I die? Absolutely not. Was it moderately enjoyable? Yes. Three stars because compared to other New Wave on this list (hello Duran Duran) this is mildly less interesting.

A garage band is allowed to peak a mic, a dusty side of the road clip of the local fiddler is allowed to peak a mic. Why on earth is Columbia Records letting a Springsteen album be released with many, many, many peaks? it wouldn't be so that Springsteen could cheesily fake an identity as a blue collar country boy, would it? Is his voice only good because it's covered liberally in reverb, like frosting on a wedding cake? Are any of his woebegone lyrics as good as the poetry of the closing line of this review? @ me. I'm picturing the producer falling asleep on the mixing board during this recording session while bruce strokes himself to a 40 min 13 sec finish using only a guitar and his raspy gullet

This is the first actual soul album that I've come across on this list. So, so heart-wrenchingly beautiful. The songs pulse and sway like a human heartbeat. This is always my favourite thing about good soul - the music is so undeniably a direct capture of the human condition. Sweet in its sadness, uplifting when the world brings you down. This album finds me with a tightness at the back of my throat and a tear in my eye for all 35 minutes. I am not Christian, but when I hear Jesus, I feel a spirit move within me. This album is a wonderful example of how music connects us all, regardless of tribe. An absolute must-listen before you die. Will be frequently replayed in my house.

Awh, this is the sweetest, chillest hip-hop funk / jazz I've heard in a while. I'm sad that this ethos of hip hop seemed to just die outright after the 80s. Other commenters mentioned that gangsta hip hop just dominated so hard that softer, more joyful styles just outright died from lack of attention. So sad! I like all of this, from the upbeat beats, the vigor behind the vocals, the little flourishes of gospel and scatting to break up otherwise very similar rap flows. My gripe for music of this era (and generally, rap albums) is that you can have great flow and stellar beats but still have all the tracks sound same-y without putting a lot of thought into arrangements. While I like Jungle Brothers sound a lot, I do struggle to distinguish different songs on this album. Shout out to Sunshine for its interesting break style beat. And also for the heavily sampled section, everybody's got a little light under the sun! Under the sun! (Listen to Snoop's Doggystyle if you want to hear the dirtier take on this). "Do what you want / but move every muscle" and the grooviest beat on What U Waitin For? right afterwards. Another solid track with a good flow and tension between bassline and synth. AND they sample Parliament? Love. Great album, stellar flows, conscious lyrics, interesting blend of hip hop jazz gospel and funk. I'm glad I heard it. Not sure that this is a listen-before-death level album but I will have it on repeat for a while. Four stars because I really enjoyed the ride.

Holy shit, this woman is turning her flesh prison inside out while pulling at the thread of her own weird artistic impulses. I've never heard anything like this. Absolutely a must listen for anyone before they die.

Everyone who thinks this album belongs on a list of music to hear before you die is a middle class north merican white boy who is probably just cresting the "acceptance" part of their balding journey. Yes, of course I love it, of course it hits all my nostalgia buttons, I grew up with this exact white suburban rage. I used to sneak out of my teenagehood suburban house in the middle of the night with Basket Case playing in my head to go slurp on a mickey with my friends in a park. But that's as far as the nostalgia for this album should go, let's not be inflicting it on other folks and wasting the precious remaining 1001 days before they die.

The instrumentals are so incredible that the vocals are a massive letdown in comparison and really ruin the sound. The big band jazz sound needs something grittier on top. Lyrics are also atrocious and trite. would happily listen to vocal-less tracks on repeat though. Especially love the keys

Crying with laughter at this album title. What is this album?? It's weird top to bottom. I like musical weirdos, this stuff is so unnecessarily misogynist for a list like this though... and it's not the type of weird I needed to hear before I die. (Weird I need to hear before I die: The Shaggs Philosophy of the World.) The music is well arranged, the vocals are decent, the songs are interesting enough. The only thing that stands out though are the lyrics and those are edgy teen jokes written by a 50 year old. Don't need to hear this before I die at all.

I gotta be honest, I would have much preferred if this album were actually bossa nova. I hope there is even a single bossa nova album here instead of just more of the same white boy 80s-90s brit pop punk grunge. Because that's what this pixies album was to me - more of that fade-into-the-background spoilt rich white adolescent 90s brit grunge. Doolittle is already on this list and absolutely no more Pixies are permitted on the list.

Boowy is a cool man with a cool voice and cool music. He really only drops rock operas of the highest quality. He is one of the few artists that I accept being on this list multiple times. This'll be in my regular rotation for sure.

I love jazz in most of its forms, especially experimental, so I'm biased. Jazz is storytelling in its most primal elements. This is what I heard from Coltrane. There is this air of the instruments fluttering around the opening track Acknowledgement like a bird in the fresh morning. Slowly, flower heads unfurl, motifs emerge that ground the listener in the music and allow them to see the direction and purpose behind the seemingly random instrumental flight. Then just when you're starting to Get It, See It, out comes Coltrane with "A Love Supreme" - and could it be any more obvious where these melodies are going? Just after the realization hits, the joyful chaos is guided to rest by a graceful bassline, and the listener is left basking in the emotional experience, lingering in a new desire for flight. Once you have Acknowledged your life's new pull, you can dive into the journey towards the heart of the issue in Resolution. Along the journey you face discomfort and fear, but also new relationships, both within and without yourself. You change, you grow, out of the conflict and into assuredness. The second track feels much more like safety of being underground at nighttime. You fall asleep in this close dark space, rid of any anxieties of the future. Your waking is abrupt, urgent with the energy of Pursuance percussion. You are immediately hot on the trail, bounding out of your den with renewed energy and scampering nimbly through the landscape. At first it is imperceptible, but gradually you notice you've been running uphill, and by the time you become aware, you're at a wondrous elevation. It's too late to turn back - you're out of breath, you've come this far already, and you push on through your second and third wind. The air is getting thinner. Your movements are getting less and less controlled. With a final breathless push, you shift an entire mountain and emerge panting onto the rocky peak plateau, with the entire world stretching around you as far as you can see. As the blood returns to your brain and the sun re-turns towards the horizon, the knowledge of how far you have travelled starts to hit you. Was the sun over your shoulder when you sprinted away from last night's shelter? Can you find your way back? It feels so different up here, exposed, raw. And now, feet and lungs aching, your breath forms the shape of a Psalm as you realize you are not alone. When your eyes first opened to acknowledgement, when you gained strength in resolution, when you sprinted through pursuit, you were never alone. Your voice cries out with the saxophone, trying to make sense of this Being you've witnessed, why your heart has been so closed to Their Presence this entire time. With you is the guide you've been aching for. It doesn't matter which way you turn down the mountain to continue life's neverending flow - you walk every cardinal direction with blessed feet. The open sky, once so tender and bare, forever now folds around you like a cloak. THIS is the type of music you should listen to before you die.

She's got a stellar voice and the songs have literally perfect smooth flow. when she hits those low notes it makes me sigh. I love the tinkly bits of piano and synth that play around the gently driving beat. Still didn't need to hear this before I die. There exists better bossa nova, though this is excellent. 3 stars for musicality alone, and one extra star because I'm thanking the good sweet lord above that I didn't get another gen x white boy grunge album from this list.