8.5/10 A really fantastic album I was sure I'd listened to before but seemingly never have in full. Definitely one to add to the rotation and even buy on vinyl because it's a zero skip album and I could easily imagine it growing on me on subsequent listens. At high volume it's even kind of dancy - had a little boogie in the kitchen with Moon. Highlights include The Passenger (of course), Tonight and Fall In Love WIth Me Listens: 2

6.5/10 A classic Stevie album, solid start to finish but no particular stand-outs for me. The music is fun and production funky and crisp but some of the lyrics were a little questionable/too preachy for my taste. Listens: 1

6/10 Quintessential Black Sabbath album, but not necessarily to my taste. Planet Caravan is the clear standout but there are a couple of other pleasantly surprising moments, such as the funky rhythm section in Hands of Doom. Listens: 1

7.5/10 I have mixed feelings about this album but enjoyed the full listen way more than I expected to from previous songs I'd heard - even outside of 'Good Feeling' which remains a fantastic song, even better in the setting of the album. Will give this a few more listens to pick out some other high points, although the overall effect still leaves me ambivalent due to the emo/alternative/green-day inspiring vocals in places grating on me. Listens: 1

5.5/10 Some good songs and fun energy but Thin Lizzy's output feels inconsistent and when listened to as a full album a little too 'countrified' for my taste. Not sure the live version particularly adds anything to the experience here. Listens: 1

8.5/10 A really fantastic album I was sure I'd listened to before but seemingly never have in full. Definitely one to add to the rotation and even buy on vinyl because it's a zero skip album and I could easily imagine it growing on me on subsequent listens. At high volume it's even kind of dancy - had a little boogie in the kitchen with Moon. Highlights include The Passenger (of course), Tonight and Fall In Love WIth Me Listens: 2

8/10 I've been meaning to listen to this album in full for ever. The singles I already knew remain the high points; Between the Bars is as heartachingly beautiful as ever, the driving rhythm of Angeles makes for a compelling listen, and Say Yes is a fantastic closer. Of the songs I hadn't heard before, Alameda and the Ballad of Big Nothing stood out. A tricky album to score because the high points are so high, but I felt the quality lulled a little in the middle. Listens: 3

6.5/10 The first pleasant surprise of my 1001 albums project. Some pre-adolescent memories of this band that may have been based on little more than an aversion to the pink album cover made me think I hated Garbage. It's still not music I can imagine revisiting particularly often but as my taste has veered a little more towards harder rock of late I quite enjoyed this. Stupid Girl isprobably the best song on the album, but Milk was a real surprise given its trip hop vibe which I did not expect to find on a Garbage album. Listens: 2

6/10 Hadn't heard of this John Martyn album despite being very familiar with some of his work on Over the Hill. Fairly underwhelming easy listening although there are probably some songs on here that would grow on me over repeat listens. Listens: 1

3/10 First time actually listening to Kiss and now I understand the need for the flamboyant aesthetic - their music is incredibly uninspired and uninteresting. Maybe my opinion of this would improve on subsequent listens but not going to invest any more time in it. Listens: 1

7/10 First time listening to the whole album, although so many of these songs have permeated popular culture that it doesn't exactly feel new to me. It's a pretty consistent album, although maybe it does fall into a bit of a repetitive formula. Nonetheless, it's a good listen - I like Moby more than I'd previously thought. Listens: 3

9.5/10 I haven't often committed to listening to a full Nick Cave album (I think only Ghosts and perhaps one other prior to this,) but now I'm sure that I've been missing out because this album is simply majestic I had started doing individual write-ups for each song, but let it suffice to say that I enjoy virtually all of them - considering this is a double album the songwriting is astoundingly consistent. I think I do have to be in a certain mood to listen to this given the darker tones in places and some of the melody choices being slightly too ploddy for me, yet even songs which on initial listens grated on me have endeared themselves either through fantastic lyricism (The Lyre of Orpheus) dramatic crescendos (Hiding All Away) or sheer novelty (Brown Ape). Overall, Cave's clever lyricism and alluring vocal performances are beautifully supplemented by the gospel backing singers, and the album strikes a perfect tonal balance, with songs like 'There She Goes, My Beautiful World' breaking through its overall dark tone. Standout songs: Cannibal's Hymn, Nature Boy, Breathless, O Children (although ask me a different day and get a different answer). Listens: 10+

7/10 This is a really difficult album for me to rate, in part because I suppose I haven't decided whether I'm going to be rating these 1001 albums based purely on my personal enjoyment, or what I perceive to be their musical merits regardless of my taste. There are lots of individual elements of this album that I love - Muddy's vocals, and everything from guitar to harmonica to piano is played brilliantly. Crosseyed Cat or the famous Mannish Boy are probably the songs that I'd choose to showcase this album at its best. The dichotomy for me is that I find it musically inspiring to learn how to play this stuff, and of course Muddy Waters has been incredibly influential on so many artists that I love, but in terms of just sitting and listening to it I don't derive much pleasure from the album. I guess I have a limited appreciation for twelve bar blues and a whole album of it is a bit much, although it does get my head bobbing. Muddy's legendary status shouldn't affect my rating, but listening to this album does really feel like listening to a legend do his stuff, which is pretty cool. All of that leaves me somewhere in the middle of the road with my final rating: ultimately I just didn't enjoy this as much as the albums I've given 4/5. Listens: 1

5/10 First band of my 1001 albums project that I'd never even heard of. Turns out I also didn't really know what shoegaze was. The first song had me hooked, thinking I was in for the treat of discovering something completely new that I really liked, but from there the album didn't really feel like it went anywhere, just dragging along. At their best, Ride are reminiscent of the Stone Roses, but the overall effect fell a long way short. Maybe in a different mood this album would resonate with me more but I can't imagine going back to it. Listens: 2

7/10 I didn't immediately realise this was Tricky of Massive Attack fame, nor did I know that he'd ever done a solo album. Judging the album by the cover, I thought I was going into some 90s alt rock album that I wasn't particularly looking forward to, so to hear the familiar sounds of trip hop once I pressed play was actually a delight. The beats are fantastic, Martina's vocals evoke the usual trip-hop feel a la Portishead, and Tricky's vocal contributions distinguish this from the other albums in the genre, adding a slightly sinister but really cool, funky vibe. The second half of the album has a couple of weaker tracks - Brand New You're Retro and You Don't - but this is nonetheless a consistently enjoyable listen that I'll be revisiting. Listens: 1

6/10 This was good background music while I was focussing on a job application but unfortunately that might not be a good thing - although the whistling on Lovely Head is as captivating as ever (I've been a fan of that song for a while). Listens: 2

7/10 As so many others have said on here this is a tough album to rate that feels like it does not belong on this list - certainly sitting through this for three hours does not seem like the best way to appreciate the majesty of Ella Fitzgerald. Anyway many of the songs are beautiful, it just drags on for far too long to listen in one go. Oh and it called me single one too many times... Listens: 0.6

8/10 Who would've thought Billy Joel would be ranking so highly on this list - but this is undeniably a great album. Obviously it's a bit cheesy and I get why people hate him, but it just sounds so clean and somehow fresh to me when listened to as a whole album. Listens: 1

4/10 Maybe haven't given this a fair chance but I think I just don't like the Pixies. Here Comes Your Man is a great song though. Listens: 1

2/10 Their cover of I Heard It Through The Grapevine is fantastic but the rest of the album is a long way from it. And apparently Grapevine was meant to be a B-side anyway. Won't be revisiting this one. Listens: 1

3/10 Costello's voice annoys me from the opening line of the album. There are moments in here that allow me an insight into why this album is beloved by music critics but they always end up being spoiled - for example I quite like the instrumental on 'The Beat' but the chorus ruins the song. 'Pump It Up' should be a highlights as the most played single and seems like it should be catchy, but instead it feels like such an obvious and repetitive riff which doesn't capture my musical imagination in the slightest. 'Little Triggers' was okay, kind of an interesting song and therefore my favourite from listening through this album, but again I can't really get past my dislike for Costello's voice. Supposedly the best Costello album which makes me hope there aren't any others on this list… Listens: 1

1/10 Feel harsh giving out my first 1/10 especially when I haven't listened to the full album but this just does absolutely nothing for me. Sounds a lot like what an album named after fuzz pedals might be expected to I suppose. When the first two songs are the two most played and I hate both of them it feels like a waste of time to try and listen to the whole thing. So far this project seems to be teaching me that the only genre I really dislike is grunge which is a bit of a surprise. Listens: 0.3

Elvis Presley 5/10 'Blue Suede Shoes' is a great opener and an example of Elvis at his best, beyond that this just feels too repetitive to be listened to as an album. Quite interesting to read the assessments on here of Elvis's popularity as a product of him being the 'acceptable' white face of blues and rock and roll - kind of explains why this doesn't really hold up compared to other artists of the same era such as Muddy Waters (who I've already reviewed on this list). Similarly, while listening to 'Tutti Frutti' I was thinking I could see how this would have been a revelation on the dancehalls of the 1950s, but it turns out to be a cover of a Little Richard song anyway. All in all tough to rate this album in a way that doesn't feel disrespectful to Elvis so I'm just rating based on my enjoyment of the music sitting in my bedroom in 2025. Listens: 2

5/10 At times I thought this was going to be a really fun listen but in the end it was probably just a bit too punk-y for my taste: a bit too discordant and droning and I’m really not a fan of the guitar tones. Best songs: Hot Topic, What’s Yr Take on Cassavetes?, Slideshow At Free University Listens: 2

2/10 This was a tough listen for me, just not my genre and struggled to pick out any redeeming qualities to individual songs. Actually listened to this on shuffle accidentally which is obviously complete sacrilege but I very much doubt an in-order listen would redeem it. Regular John gave me promise that the rest of the album would be palatable, with the vocals being right up my street despite the chugging guitars they are set to. Sadly, nothing else hit the same spot and even Regular John isn't really worth revisiting for me. Best songs: Regular John Listens: 1?

8/10 Who would've thought Queen could sound so much like Led Zeppelin? Not that I'm doubting Queen's rock credentials, but during 'The Loser In The End' Freddie Mercury's voice sounded so much like Robert Plant that I had to pull out my phone to check I was still listening to the right band. Loads of fun songs on here and just enough glam to keep that core Queen identity. Can't imagine that this will be on regular rotation for me but will be a fun listen whenever I do come back to it. Listens: 1

5/10 I've got a soft spot for Goldie because of my step-dad's love for him, but this is music that needs to be listened to in the right setting to be fully enjoyed. Even then, a song like 'Timeless', which could genuinely be a great song, is undone by the ridiculous length. I'm not sure even Goldie fans are going back and listening to this whole record - I know my step-dad isn't. Obviously a groundbreaking album for DnB/Jungle, and in places it really has stood the test of time, but in others it hasn't aged nearly so gracefully. Not an easy album to get through all in all. Listens: 1

6/10 I haven't listened to this allbum for years (if I ever had in full), but went into this thinking I was going to enjoy the nostalgia of it a lot. Coldplay were what got me into music - I have a very specific memory of my mum showing me X&Y on her ipod when I was about 8 and listening to the whole thing while playing the parachute game. I got my own ipod for my birthday a couple of months later and from there I was away, finally developing my own music taste. So Coldplay were a starting point for me and for all the shit they've put out over the years I can't help but have a soft spot for some of their earlier stuff. Not remembering what was on this album, I assumed it would be Coldplay at their stripped back best. In a way, it is, but so many of these songs just don't stand on their own. Yellow is undeniably a fantastic song, but so much of the rest of the album is forgettable - I'd forgotten it before and now I'm sure to forget it again. Listens: 1

8/10 This album punches you in the face with 'Whole Lotta Love' and manages to live up to an opener of that quality. To be honest, despite having heard 'Whole Lotta Love' many, many times, I'd not quite appreciated just how good a song it is until blasting it at full blast for the umpteenth time while listening to this album for this review. There are parts of this album I'm not fond of - with more than fifty years of music evolution sometimes the chord progressions feel a little route one blues, and sometimes the guitar licks are less than inspiring, or there's the drum break in Moby Dick which is honestly just dull to listen to, but these moments are few and far between - hardly something to quibble about when dealing with an album that is otherwise entirely deserving of legendary status. For me, the best moments are the slightly less heavy - 'Thank You' and 'Ramble On' - but that might be in part a product of my musical preferences, which have kept me away from a deep dive into the Zeppelin for years and years despite being a lover of 'Stairway' (aka basic bitch). Best songs: Whole Lotta Love, Ramble On, Thank You Listens 7+

3/10 I get why people like Green Day, I'm just never going to be one of those people. Green Day's sound, in particular Billie Joe Armstrong's singing style, has been one of my biggest pet peeves in music for as long as I can remember. Heard in the context of this full album, (I was trying to give it a fair chance,) I was surprised that it was kind of okay - certainly far better than when Green Day songs come on during some shitty Propaganda style club night. Having said that, I'm never going to try and make an effort to get into this band because if I don't emotionally connect to their music to begin with I can't imagine that there's any reward or depth worth the effort of becoming a Green Day fan. Billie, my answer is no, I do not have the time to listen to you whine. Listens: 1

7/10 Put off rating this one for ages because I have no idea how to. I think taking this album out of its musical context removes any sense of the awe it should probably inspire in me. It just sounds like well-performed but nondescript jazz - really nice as background music though. I'm expecting later Miles Davis work to excite me a lot more. Listens: 1

4/10 Faces are undoubtedly the best version of Rod Stewart but somehow this album still leaves me as cold as the rest of his ouvre. I actually thought it would be better based on the strength of 'Stay With Me', but while the rest of the album is perfectly serviceable bluesy 70s rock it's just not an album I would ever feel the need to revisit. Debris was quite a nice tune though. Listens: 1

6/10 The songs are all nice songs but I just don’t know when I’m in the mood to listen to The Beach Boys. Based on this and Pet Sounds I don’t really feel like they ever moved past being a complete product of the 60s in the same way the Beatles were able to. Listens: 1

9/10 I'm grateful that this came up on this list for the title track alone. 'London Calling' is a phenomenal song that I've always liked but am only now fully appreciating as one of the best songs ever written. With an opening track of that calibre, the rest of the record has an awful lot to live up to, and it does - but not consistently. Songs like 'Jimmy Jazz' are catchy and undeniably fun to listen to, but feel out of place relative to the highest points on the album. It is really cool to hear the diversity of styles employed on the album - far beyond anything I would've expected going into it - but for as much as this may have been a huge part of what made this album just so influential, I'd probably have preferred an album that sounded more like the opener. I would argue that the following 10 song album would be a perfect album: London Calling Rudie Can't Fail Spanish Bombs The Right Profile Lost in the Supermarket Clampdown The Guns of Brixton Wrong 'Em Boyo Death or Glory Train in Vain (Stand By Me) Standout songs (that I didn't already know): 'The Right Profile', 'Wrong 'Em Boyo' Admittedly, had I been a teenager when this was released as a double LP for the price of a single album, there's no way I would've been quibbling over the length, that's very much the quibble of a listener in the age of music streaming, and either way, this album is clearly deserving of its place in the music pantheon. Listens: 2

10/10 I've found that I keep coming back to this album and so I'm revising my original 9/10 to a 10. I originally described this album as being both classy and an unexpectedly fun listen. The joy in this performance has continued to infect me with every listen, but having read more about Cooke's life I think this is now tinged with a little more of a bittersweet feeling. The energy of the crowd and Cooke himself are frenetic and jubilant, the rawness of the recording and Cooke's performance combining to feel like an incredibly precious insight into the real Sam Cooke. As much as I love Sam Cooke's studio work, now that I have discovered this album I feel like it's all overshadowed by this live recording. Music at its best can transport you to another time, another place, and another emotional state, and this album is one of the most powerful examples I can think of: it's brought me to tears multiple times, and listening to this while singing along with the live crowd is just an incredible experience. To pick out a few of my favourites, 'Feel It (Don't Fight It)' is an effortlessly seductive performance, 'Chain Gang' is a powerful anthem with an irresistible call and response, 'Bring it on Home to Me' demonstrates a little more of the complexity in Cooke's relationships, some more incredible crowd work, and somehow sounds incredibly contemporary, and 'It's All Right/For Sentimental Reasons' remains my favourite song on the record, evoking the strongest emotional response. Listens 5+

6/10 I listened to this album a lot with my dad and my sister when it first came out - we were all fans - and surprisingly my sister still often listens to 'build a rocket boys!' despite her music taste having changed substantially in the years since. This album held up much better than I thought it might. On the one hand, Elbow's sound feels a little trite and easy to parody, factors that contribute to my surprise in them being included on this list. On the other hand the instrumentation is beautifully done: the swelling strings and crisp production creating an incredibly spacious sound. Guy's vocals are distinctive and fit perfectly with the sounds they create in this album. Surprising amount of variety in the album, with the vocals the only real constant stylistically: 'Grounds for Divorce' kicks in with its bluesy feel and thumping drums to breathe fresh air into the middle of the album. The melody on the main vocal hook is also very appealing to me. 'The Fix' is cool - it feels a bit like something from a musical. Songs like 'The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver' get a little bogged down in their grandiosity. 'One Day Like This' remains an outstanding piece of music. It's a good album, carefully crafted, with plenty of good songs, but I suppose it falls well short of greatness, or provoking a sufficient emotional response to really stick with me. It's hard to imagine that this would still be worthy of inclusion on an 1001 albums list written 20 or even 10 years from now. Best songs: Grounds For Divorce, One Day Like This Listens: 3

8/10 This is just a fantastic album, completely blew me away against which is not what I'd have expected if someone told me to listen to a 90s dance album. 'Justified & Ancient' makes for a great bookend that fits more with my usual listening taste, but there's no denying that when the opening track is interrupted by 'What Time Is Love?' it goes unbelievably hard. Listening to this also meant that I got to a fun deep dive into the K Foundation's burning of £1 million, a stunt I'd never heard about before. In places the vocals and beats perhaps haven't aged perfectly - in a sceptical mood I might call it cheesy in places - but honestly this adds to the vibe. The only reason for not scoring even higher is that it's a little repetitive, but this is a really fun record I'm glad to have discovered (beyond 'What Time Is Love', which I'd definitely heard before). No doubt I'll be revisiting this. Best Songs: 'Last Train to Trancentral', 'Build a Fire', '3am Eternal', 'Justified & Ancient' Listens: 3

5/10 To me this all but confirmed that Tom Petty is best enjoyed by listening to the singles and not bothering with full albums, although I'll probably give some of his work another chance at some point. I've always absolutely loved 'Breakdown' - it oozes style and sex appeal in a way that few songs can - but beyond that the rest of this album was filled with disappointingly middle-of-the-road soft rock filler. Even American Girl, by the time I reached it, had me questioning whether I'd ever enjoyed the song at all – although I'm pretty sure that was just me being jaded by the rest of the album. Impossible for me to go higher than a 5 here despite the strength of the singles. Best songs: Breakdown, American Girl Listens: 1

9.5/10 It's refreshing to be given an album that there can be no doubt belongs on this 1001 albums list. 'Otis Blue' is a seminal work by one of Soul's very greatest artists, so me rating it feels like a fairly redundant exercise. The rating exercise is made even more difficult by my familiarity with the biggest hits from the album, which tends to lead to fixation on some of the less-known songs on here that I hadn't heard before. Nonetheless, even these are well worth the listen. Perhaps 'Shake' is the only song which I could do without but I'm hardly going to complain about its inclusion here, especially since it forms part of Redding's tribute to Sam Cooke. My favourite from the album is probably 'A Change Is Gonna Come' -every bit as beautiful in Redding's rendition as Cooke's. Incidentally, how tragic is it that Redding recorded this after Cooke's death in an effort to fill the void he had left only to die just two years later in a plane crash. It's strange to hear this version of 'Respect', which I'd always thought was an Aretha Franklin original - lyrically Franklin's version has clearly aged far better, but musically Redding's version is still a good song. All in all, this is a sublime album, an example of one of the greatest soul singers at his very best. Listens: 4

6.5/10 If nothing else, this album has a fantastic introduction. The mix of Price's silky smooth vocals with honky tonk instrumentals and some fairly dark lyrics makes combine to make this a mostly interesting and enjoyable listen. On the other hand, the honky tonk backing does become pretty repetitive by the time you reach the back half of the record, and all in all 37 minutes is more than enough - I can't imagine coming back to this. Standout Songs: 'The Wild Side of Life', 'Sittin' and Thinkin'' Listens: 1

2/10 Foo Fighters have always left me cold - listening to them just makes me feel like an old man baffled by how this music could be popular with anyone, despite it being a product of a year before I was born. Only the slightly slower numbers really demonstrated any semblance of musical merit to me: 'Floaty' and 'Big Me'. Even then, I'd happily never listen to any of these songs again. Listens: 1

3/10 Rating is kind of irrelevant and unfair on this one because I couldn't get through it, it's just not my kind of music. Despite being a guitarist I've never been a big fan of shredding and even though I cranked this up to try and appreciate it how it's supposed to be listened to I decided it wasn't worth subjecting myself to the full album having got through the first few tracks which are apparently the most popular anyway. Feel like I can't really give it a 1 because I haven't listened to it all and there's definitely some musicality to it, I was tapping along to the bassline on Peace Sells at least Listens: 0.3

8/10 My first listen to this was in the background while I was in the kitchen, and I was ready to write it off as a fairly uninspiring debut. 'Radio Free Europe' as the lead single and album opener, didn't exactly fill me with hope that I was going to be blown away by the rest of the album, and I proceeded to not pay much attention. Having finished the washing up and switched to headphones for 9-9, I promptly realised that this album deserved a proper listen. I have always had a soft spot for R.E.M., but that has mainly manifested as a love for 'Automatic for the People', never having got any further into either side of their discography than 'Green' and 'Out of Time'. The jangling sound that defines R.E.M. was clearly present from the start, and I've always enjoyed Michael Stipe as a vocalist even if I have no idea what he's blathering on about on this album - I'm not convinced that these lyrics are necessarily that poetic but I don't think it really matters much, I've never been one to concentrate too much on lyrics over instrumentation anyway. Speaking of instrumentation, it's pretty remarkable how well formulated the R.E.M. sound was on their debut, the drumming and creative guitar riffs are pretty stellar in places. I do feel like the second side of the album is substantially stronger than the first, some of whose songs blend together a bit, so not going any higher than an 8 for this record. Standout songs: 9-9, Shaking Through, We Walk, Moral Kiosk Listens: 3

6.5/10 Astrud Gilberto's voice is lovely, and this is an enjoyable listen for the image of a cocktail party in a Peter Sellers film it conjures up in my mind, but unfortunately the actual songs are fairly forgettable collectively and individually. 'You Didn't Have To Be So Nice' is distinctive for the duet with a child, and is probably the only song I might return to from the album, but even that is doubtful. A pleasant but inessential album that doesn't really seem to belong on this 1001 albums list. Standout song: 'You Didn't Have To Be So Nice' Listens: 1

6/10 This album is the best example I've had so far of just how much music has changed in the last 70 years: it's genuinely staggering to think that crooners were once the most widespread and popular form of music. It's obvious why this did appeal and still does to some extent - Frank's voice is as smooth as butter - but with so much else to listen to I'm not sure there's anything here that would bring me back to this album. Obviously there's no denying the impact Sinatra had on modern music - I'm reading Bob Dylan's 'Chronicles' at the moment and the number of Sinatra mentions is testament to that - but to call this one of the earliest concept albums just because all the songs are about heartbreak seems like a stretch to me. If anything, it's to the detriment of the album because every song sounds so similar. Listens: 1