149
Albums Rated
3.1
Average Rating
14%
Complete
940 albums remaining
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Taste Profile
1960s
Favorite Decade
Hip-hop
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US
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Balanced
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20
5-Star Albums
19
1-Star Albums
Taste Analysis
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You Love More Than Most
Albums you rated higher than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Slim Shady LP | 5 | 3.29 | +1.71 |
| Back At The Chicken Shack | 5 | 3.39 | +1.61 |
| Ellington at Newport | 5 | 3.43 | +1.57 |
| The Marshall Mathers LP | 5 | 3.49 | +1.51 |
| Straight Outta Compton | 5 | 3.51 | +1.49 |
| Haut de gamme / Koweït, rive gauche | 4 | 2.61 | +1.39 |
| To Pimp A Butterfly | 5 | 3.61 | +1.39 |
| People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm | 5 | 3.61 | +1.39 |
| Appetite For Destruction | 5 | 3.74 | +1.26 |
| Off The Wall | 5 | 3.78 | +1.22 |
You Love Less Than Most
Albums you rated lower than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Highway 61 Revisited | 1 | 3.77 | -2.77 |
| Pink Moon | 1 | 3.65 | -2.65 |
| Bringing It All Back Home | 1 | 3.65 | -2.65 |
| War | 1 | 3.47 | -2.47 |
| Yankee Hotel Foxtrot | 1 | 3.3 | -2.3 |
| Achtung Baby | 1 | 3.3 | -2.3 |
| Slippery When Wet | 1 | 3.29 | -2.29 |
| The Slider | 1 | 3.28 | -2.28 |
| The Seldom Seen Kid | 1 | 3.26 | -2.26 |
| Time Out Of Mind | 1 | 3.21 | -2.21 |
Artist Analysis
Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Nirvana | 2 | 5 |
| Eminem | 2 | 5 |
Least Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Bob Dylan | 3 | 1 |
| U2 | 2 | 1 |
| Wilco | 2 | 1.5 |
5-Star Albums (20)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
The Byrds
3/5
A mash up of country, pop, folk, and psychedelic rock with a ton of harmonizing - and it all comes together oh so moderately. Nothing is great but nothing is bad. The harmonies are nice, but every song is the same harmony. The folksy psychedelic rock just isn't very inspiring either. I laid on my bed staring at the ceiling listening to the back half of the album, it almost felt like the album beckoned me to my bed so I could long at the ceiling to have the deep thoughts of a 14 who just smoked a joint for the first time.
I can see the appeal of this album/genre but it’s just not my bag. I know The Byrds are a forgotten hero of 60s rock and need to be brought up more often when The Beatles and Boob Dylan are mentioned, because The Byrds had just as much impact and influence on the coming decade(s) of music as the former two.
The influence only goes so far, and if this were a random album by some band that’s trying to make it and not The Byrds, it would be a 3/10 but I get the historical vibe of this album. But this was towards the end of the peak of TB, they already pushed the psychedelic rock thing forward before this album and were just kind of riding that same wave here. I know there are 5 total TB albums on this list, and I think it should probably be 2 at most - and should be between any of the first three albums, as long as one of them is Fifth Dimension.
5.2/10
74/1001
3 likes
Aerosmith
3/5
Everyone know Aerosmith, right? Not that everyone likes them, but they are universal in The States. I don't think I have ever heard one of these songs, ever. They were all solid mid 70s bluesy rock and roll. The music was well played and executed, the vocals are well, classic Steven Tyler. This was a really solid album that I can see being an influence to lots of bands to come. Somewhere a young Axle Rose was playing this record over and over again. Not an amazing ground breaking album or some sort of masterpiece, but still deserving of being on this list.
7.0/10
144/1001
2 likes
JAY Z
4/5
I remember the day this album came out, as many of us do (but not the fact about the album). It was a clear and beautiful September day in 2001, a day that changed the course of history. On that Tuesday, like every Tuesday I would walk to the local record/cd shop for the new releases. I wasn't sure if they would be open, because so many other businesses had closed that day not knowing what would happen next, but being in Milwaukee, WI, the record store was pretty certain that a plane would not be directed their way. I bought this album, not being much of a Jay fan, really not at all, but I knew about the beef with Nas and "The Takeover" was already all over the early days of the internet and it was pretty slick (I was, and still am a big Nas fan).
I really like this album then, and still do today. This is really the only album of Jay's that I dig. It is probably due mostly to the production value. Guru, Timbo, Em, and a relatively unknown producer from the South Side of Chicago who would soon take the world by storm musically and later controversially.
Jay has some ok lyrics, but he has very minimal range in his storytelling and width or topics. His voice is ok, but he never changes his pitch or tone. His flow is damn near the same on every song. All that set aside, he actually pushes his limits on this album, to levels I don't think he evercame close to ever again.
Jay is severely overrated as a rapper/artist, but this album is really good, his magnum opus. It deserves to be on this list.
8.2/10
108/1001
2 likes
The War On Drugs
3/5
This album was a perfect fit for this rainy, cool, spring day in Denver. My office had more than half of the people working from home or off and it was really chill low-key day. Throw on Lost In The Dream and it matched the vibe perfectly.
It’s a slow burn of what is not quite soft rock but isn’t really rock. There is strong Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen influence on the vocals and delivery. Not bring a fan of either, this wasn’t one of the strongest parts of this album, though I do think it was a solid performance.
Each song kind of blends with the next since the tempos aren’t much different and the drum are seemingly just a loop of the same 4 notes over and over for a full hour.
Overall this is album was pretty good but lacking any real umph. The blend of Tom Petty, Springsteen, Dylan with a bit of 90s twist into a more modern feel is a good marriage but nothing that I would go running to tell anyone about. I will throw this on for some chill vibes when I need to focus.
This album lacks anything that would be considered unique, innovative, or just all round captivating and makes me wonder why this was added to the list. I don’t know if it was added by the original editor, but this vanilla album doesn’t seem to be one that deserves a 1001 (1089) ranking, even if I liked it more than some of the previously reviewed album.
5.8/10
#49/1001
1 likes
Crowded House
1/5
An extension of the bland soulless folksy pop rock from the 80s. The first song was pretty solid and I thought I was going to go on a fun adventure of something completely new, but then ensuing tracks were rather annoying, whiny, drab, and just a bit of nothing. This has no signs that the same band who made an iconic 80s song (Don’t Dream It’s Over), a song that is almost in any scene/flashback to the 80s on TV and movies. Definitely not an album that anyone has to hear before they die.
2.2/10
#60/1001
1 likes
4-Star Albums (38)
1-Star Albums (19)
All Ratings
Ray Charles
4/5
1/1001
Great way to start off this journey.
Amazing album. Ray’s vocals are strong, powerful, warm, and so uniquely Ray. His piano playing is also fantastic. The hybrid of blues, country, western, gospel, and early rock n roll all meld together perfectly. The album has so many great songs, but the arrangement is a bit off, going from a songs that makes you want to dance to a slower and lighter moods from track to track. The overall length becomes a bit tiresome towards the end. Better arrangement and cutting 2-3 song could make this album a 5.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
3/5
2/1001
Not my cup of tea, but can appreciate the talent.
Nirvana
5/5
3/1001
This album is quintessential 90s alternative/grunge/rock. Kurt is in a zone where is vocals are near mesmerizing. The band in acoustic elevates the band and showcases the talent of Nirvana. The covers on this album are so good and timeless and the acoustic versions of classic Nirvana tracks are fantastic. MTV unplugged was an amazing series with so many great artists doing classic shows, but Nirvana’s is the best of them all.
David Bowie
4/5
4/1001
I consider myself a fan of Bowie, and have heard most of these songs but I don’t think I’ve ever listened to this album as a whole before. It has strong Dylan and Beatles influence with a young Bowie stop finding his uniqueness. As I listened the Dylan influenced seemed to get stronger with each passing song and then a song dedicated to Bob Dylan shows up. All-in-all, this album is a standout from a year (‘71) that may have been the best year in music history (in the western world).
Bruce Springsteen
2/5
5/1001
I never understood the appeal of “The Boss.” Nothing about any of his music is special to me. His voice is remarkably awkward. The band is solid but nothing stands out as great. The lyrics are simple and basic. 45 minute album seemed like one long draw out song - each song sounds borderline indistinguishable from the last. There’s nothing terrible about this album, but there’s also nothing good.
Jimmy Smith
5/5
6/1001
It was albums like this that I was looking forward to hearing/finding when I started this list oh so shortly ago, something that I had little or no knowledge of, something band new, that just opened a new door of music for me. This album was exactly that. I have never knowingly heard Jimmy Smith, and this album was a delight. It was just smooth, velvety bounce of jazz that I was not anticipating. I like jazz but never ventured too far from Coltrane and Davis and a few other big names. I immediately dove into another 2 hours of Jimmy and I am loving it all. The 45 minute album felt like a blink.
The Mamas & The Papas
3/5
7/1001
Not a bad album, but nothing special either. I try to put myself in someone’s shoes who would’ve heard this for the first time in 1966 - it probably would have made big impact. The harmonies are what has kept TMATP a part pop culture for 6 decades. Most prose have heard California Dreamin’ and maybe even Monday, Monday - so they do stand the test of time. Those songs are iconic, but the rest of the album kind of sounds like a watered down version of The Beatles. I didn’t hate the album, and the times that’s California Dreamin’ and Monday, Monday show up in a commercial or movie or in a grocery store will be more than enough for me.
R.E.M.
4/5
8/1001
This was a solid album. Being mid eighties (‘87) it was ahead of its times. 80s kids who made rock/alternative music in the 90s were very much influenced by this album, and REM as a whole.
Not being familiar with much of the none popular REM songs this album was what I anticipated, but better. I have been mostly apathetic towards REM, they’re fine, never mad when they get played. But I knew their sound and thought a whole album of that sound would be tiresome. The songs were what I anticipated, but found myself enjoying it more, particularly as the album went along. Glad I heard this album, well add to my rotation.
N.W.A.
5/5
9/1001
Being very familiar with this album and can basically recite pretty every lyric, this album is more about influence, impact and how it shaped hip-hop, rap, and the music industry then it is about great timeless music. The whole crew from NWA bring something to the table but the raw talent of Cube, Dre and E is one of the great moments where 3 people lives cross at the perfect timing. Production quality and technologies have improved so much over the decades that a lot of rap songs from the 80s just don’t stand the test of time (37 years), and several tracks on this album are no different. Simplistic rhyme patterns and lyrics age poorly as well.
All that said, Straight Outta Compton has so many great moments and tracks that will still make my head bob. Ice Cube’s overall weight on this album alone is worth 3 stars. But there’s so much more here too. The controversy that was this album bad it known from Compton to Connecticut and beyond. It sprung a whole new sub genre of rap, in gangsta rap, and that would arguably be the sub genre to dominate the genre as a whole (at least as it became the most marketed) even to this day in 2025. SOC is probably one of the 10 or so most influential albums in American music history.
If SOC didn’t have the influence is did/does and was just a stand alone late 80s rap album, I would give it 3.5/5. But every hip hop and rap song from 1988 on owes a lot to SOC. Even if the artist never heard if NWA. Scale of 100, this album gets the hindsight review of 90/100. If this were in a vacuum 70/100. In a 5 star review, it gets 5 stars.
The Psychedelic Furs
3/5
10/1001
I went into this album completely blind, which is what l wish I could with every album on the list. I never heard of The Psychedelic Furs nor do I recognize any of their music (listened to a few other popular songs outside the album).
This album comes charging out of the gate with 3 great songs and I was amped. I figured this was going to be an epic ride of an album. That wasn't the case. The rest of the album is solid, I didn't hate any tracks, it just becomes a bit tiresome.
TPF clearly have been strongly influenced by David Bowie, where at times it seems like they even said to one another, "More Bowie like!" It all comes together very well in the end though.
Glad I listened, and will be adding a few of these tracks into some playlists. It definitely opened a door for me to explore more of the 80s most punk rock (a blind spot in my music knowledge). I wish there were half stars, this album is better than a 3 but not quite a 4.
Dion
2/5
11/1001
This was a weird album for me. They only Dion I was familiar with was 60s Do Wop Dion. Great energy, toe tapping, hip swingin music that was always fun to hear. I knew being that this album was from 1975, the Do Wop would probably being nonexistent, but the vocals and energy should still be there.
Welp, I was wrong. It took be a couple tries a different points in the day to listen to this. It is very low energy vocal and rather grey non-quite-folk, not-really-rock, almost-but-not-blues instrumentals. The topics are about loss and addictions but the lyrics are generic and shallow. Things I wrote in my notebook as a heart broken 16 y/o.
Dion definitely made a conscious decision to reinvent himself from the Do Wopper he is most known for. He was very much influenced by Bob Dylan and Billy Joel, and he blends those influences rather poorly.
Overall, this was a struggle to get through. Spotify actually has it combined with another album, but thankfully I looked up the track list elsewhere before I listen to 78 minutes instead of the 38 that is the actual album. I don’t think I would’ve made it.
After that overwhelming negative review I will say this album isn’t garbage, I just thought/feel that these albums were going to be eye opening in someway. I don’t really get why it’s on this list.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
3/5
12/1001
Second Neil Young album in my first 12 (CSN&Y -Deja Vu). It’s not bad, actually better than most Neil in my opinion, but just not my vibe. Not huge fan of his voice, it’s too whiny to me. But I can see how this could someone’s favorite album. The music is strong and Neil is a pretty good lyricist.
Neil Young
3/5
13/1001
Back to back Neil Young album and 3rd in the first 13 albums. I don’t hate this guy, but I don’t want to hear him again at least until I’m in the 100s. (I know between CSN&Y, Buffalo Springfield and all his other work he has 9 albums on this list, that seems excessive).
I feel the same about this album as the last 2 NY albums, and most likely the next 6, its not bad music, just not my vibe and his voice is too whiny. The very first note out of his mouth on this album was pitch perfect annoying whine Young. He doesn’t always hold the overly nasally pitch, and it made for a stronger song. He’s writes good lyrics, far above most.
Props to Neil for a long career of making music people love and having meaning in his lyrics. Now please, give me something else for the next several weeks, actually months.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
3/5
14/1001
This is a prank right?!? Someone’s messing with me? 14 albums so far 4 Neil Young, and 3 straight days of NY. Ugh! I swear if I hit send on this review and another f*&$ing Neil Young album pops up, Im out. I know there’re several more to go, but I better not see them until alum 400 or later.
Every Neil Young review for me is the same. Check out my previous reviews. FFS!
Elliott Smith
2/5
15/1001
Nothing stands out for me on this album. The music isn’t anything special. Elliot’s is below average voice, not bad but further from a good voice. The lyrics are ok. The slow melodies and tempo make it hard to sit through without any real shining star. The album kind of blurs into one 45 minute song (upon further review, the album was only 36 minutes, shows how tight it was on me lol).
I was 14 when this album came out and have never heard of it, or Elliot Smith, until today. A 14 y/o in 1997 hardly knew a wide range of music, but as popular as some of these reviews make it seem, I was surprised that I didn’t know anything about Elliot. After listening, I knew why. This album is just an amalgamation of all the unimaginative parts of 90s rock (a genre I feel overall is very innovative, creative, and imaginative, and one of my favorites). But this sounded so bland overall.
Elliot was clearly a fan of The Replacements and The Smiths in the 80s and takes a lot of inspiration from them, but he fails to capture their ability to create melodies and to carry a tone, even with an average voice.
At least on Cupids Trick, Elliot woke up and showed a bit of passion. The song is the best on the album and yet wouldn’t even get a seat at the 200 best rock songs of the decade’s table. But a dim light of talent in a sea of uninspired mediocrity.
The beauty of music, there’s so much and it is all subjective. Even when I can’t get down with a song, artists, album, genre; I usually appreciate the talent, effort, and passion that could captivate someone from another walk of life. This album was hard to find what that was, I guess just more for people who like gloomy, sad music. But there’s so much more that fits that bill and is good. To each their own! Not listening to this one again though.
Arcade Fire
4/5
16/1001
Solid album, not the peak of its era & genre but able to hang at the big kids table. I honestly liked the single and more pop stuff better overall, but the rest of the album was good. This isn’t really a full 4 star album, maybe closer to a 3.5 but rounding up because 3 seems too far off.
The Fall
3/5
17/1001
I don’t really have much of thoughtful insight for this album. I liked it, but I don’t think I would listen to it front to back again. I like most of the songs but as an entire work, it just becomes a bit repetitive. The vocals (like a lot of post punk) are a bit over the top and become tiresome. The bass lines are catchy, the drums are solid, and overall the music is really good. It is just the vocals that make it hard to want to listen to several songs in a row.
Sepultura
2/5
18/1001
I couldn’t bare it. I like metal, but the metal where they yell all the lyrics like Cookie Monster with a tracheotomy is just too much for me. I listened to the first 6 tracks. After the first 3 I was about to quit and change the album, but decided to give it one more chance. Then the 4th track “Ratamahatta” happened. It is so good, so unique, so different, with minimal and well placed screaming, and I should listen to more. Well the next 2 tracks were more screaming. And it was starting to ware me down. I couldn’t listen anymore. If this were an instrumental album, it would probably be a 5 star work of art. The screaming was just way too much to fight through. I will revisit this album a song or two at a time over the next few weeks. I want to hear the whole thing (my plan for all these albums).
The Notorious B.I.G.
4/5
19/1001
This album has some of the highest highs on any hip hop album, period. The five best songs on this record can go toe to toe with any five songs from any hip hop album and will probably be victorious against them all. Biggie really changed the game. There were plenty of rappers who had good/great flows and strong lyrical content: Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Q-Tip - just to name a few. But when Big hit the scene with a flow that could ride any beat and lyrical content that could paint a picture so crisp in your mind, it changed how every rapper (mostly on the East Coast) would approach their songs for at least the next decade. When Big was at his best, no one could come close.
All that to say, Big wasn’t always at his best on this album (or his sophomore follow up, Life After Death). A lot of this album is Biggie a step or two down from his peak abilities. This album is a classic in the hip hop world, as it should be. But this one gets put on a pedestal where it doesn’t belong. If this were boiled down to the 12 best tracks, it might be the greatest hip hop record of all time, but there’s just a few too many songs that never did it for me; Ready to Die (the title track), One More Chance, Respect, Friend of Mine, Unbelievable, are all mediocre songs at best. Mostly with poor production, but also not the best version of Biggie either (could be argued that it is hard to flow on such crap beats).
Gimme the Loot is one of my favorite tracks from any artist, in any genre. Big rides the beat with genius level expertise while telling a story from 2 different personas, using different voices for each character. It is as much of a joy to listen to it today as it was even I first heard it 30+ years ago. I blew my 12 year old brain away (the 90s were wild, I bought this album with the PA sticker on it from the record store as a 12 y/o in 1995 and played it in my Walkman with my headphones so my dad wouldn’t know what I was listening to.) I didn’t even realize the first couple times that it was Big as the two voices.
I can’t give this album a 5 though, just too many songs that hold it back. A lot of folks complain about the skits holding it back. I understand that point of view, but skits are just part of hip hop records. They rarely, if ever, are enjoyable, but they’re almost always there. They are a peek into the artist’s mind to see what they are trying to convey on that particular record.
Koffi Olomide
4/5
20/1001
This was a nice addition to the list and frustrated me a bit. Not because it didn’t belong, it absolutely belongs. I throughly enjoyed this record and am glad I learned about Koffi. It frustrated me because I am only 20 albums in and I’ve had 6 70s folk rock (4 being Neil Young) and 3 post punk/new wave albums. 1001 albums should be more diverse with more albums like this (not from US or UK). I’ve looked at the list and know of amazing albums from Spain, France, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Brazil that didn’t make the list. I think The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Elvis Costello, Neil Young, and Bruce Springsteen could all be limited to 2 or 3 albums and the point would still be made.
I know it isn’t possible to truly represent every country and/or genre, but the fact that about 12 or so artists own about 10% of this list when I know all their names and most of their work and there’s more artist like Koffi out there that aren’t on the list is a bit frustrating. To be “need to hear before you die” should entail more of the “obscure” and less of the stuff we in the US here in every grocery and gas station everyday. Ok, end rant, begin review.
This was so good, so fun, so energetic. I was at my desk dancing in my chair for the full hour (I listened to 3 more hours of Koffi and related artists afterwards). I speak a little French but by and large I knew no lyrics, but it didn’t matter. The passion and joy is his voice spoke a language we all can understand. The beats were infectious and the rhythms were captivating. Loved the album.
Manu Chao
4/5
21/1001
I enjoyed this album. I had some familiarity with Manu before this album. The mix of reggae bass lines, Spanish style guitar, and simple catchy melodies is a great summer bbq type album. The lyrics are simplistic and rather shallow but it’s made up for with a unique voice that cuts through the music but doesn’t over power. I gave it 4 stars, but it’s probably closer to a 3.5.
Kings of Leon
4/5
22/1001
I have had many encounters with Kings of Leon, from their giant hits, to some of the b-sides and always enjoyed their music. But I’ve never actually listened to a full album of their’s and none of the songs on this album sounded familiar.
I really enjoyed this record, it was raw but still had great musicianship, vocals, and lyrics. It was kind of short and left me wanting more, but that’s a good thing to me. The arrangement was fantastic, one song flowed into the next seamlessly at times to where I had to see off in fact the track had changed. 4 seems a bit too low, but this wasn’t a perfect 5. 4.25/5.
Public Enemy
4/5
23/1001
Another solid album this week, recovering from a brutal prior week. Public Enemy never really captivated me but I always respected and appreciated their music and heard plenty of it growing up. Chuck D always has control of what he’s doing. He somehow manages to be angry and yell at you for a whole hour and still don’t tune him out, although by the end I was ready for a change. He is so passionate and his poetry is so vivid, it is a joy to listen to voice that so uniquely his but you can hear and feel all the MCs of the early 80s melded into one strong and powerful flow.
The thing that make the whole of PE great is those snippets and samples and cut and scratches and all the collage of aggression and passion sewn together masterfully with Chuck giving you an earful is just so raw. They building the next generation of sampling and producing in hip hop that will be carried for all of the 90s and beyond in some form or fashion. These guys are pioneers that stand the test of time. Listening back 35 years after after it came out and it’s even better today then when I first heard it (which I can’t remember when that was, but probably around 2000). So many hip hop albums from the late 80s/ early 90s seem very dated. This album, while sounding very much like the era, it was done so well that it doesn’t age the same others have.
I may have considered a 5 if it were shorter, tho I don’t know which song(s) I’d cut to do so. Individually all these songs carry their weight, and as a complete work are very strong, but over an hour of all the parts is too much. As magnificent a MC that Chuck is, is voice and flow (which I love both) are just too much. I love pizza too, but I need I shouldn’t eat it for a whole hour straight. On top of that, Flavor Flav’s hype man act becomes tiresome too. Though he by and large is arranged perfectly where he fells love he is part of the music. The production is so heavy too that by the end my brain is over flowing with simulation. When I was done I had to put on some Coltrane to let my brain digest. But I guess that is the point of PE in a way. 8.5/10
Maxwell
4/5
24/1001
I’ve have probably heard every track on this record at least a dozen time, done several times more, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard this album in its entirety before. It is such a great 90s RnB record. Maxwell’s vocals are silky smooth and just pull you in. The funky, bouncy bass lines throughout the album are mesmerizing. This album blends jazz, funk, soul, with the sound of the mid 90s so well. 8.6/10
Eric Clapton
2/5
I don’t typically read the reviews before I listen to the album, I don’t want my analysis to be clouded by others opinions. But I was curious before hand because I am not much of a Clapton fan and wanted to see how the world viewed him. Well, all the top reviews talked about him as a POS human being (not gonna argue that, I try to just listen to the music tho, particularly for this list) and how middling this album is.
Well I couldn’t disagree more. Middling is such a, well, middling term. This album isn’t in the middle of anything, except for maybe the middle of a sea of shitty uninspired music. This album isn’t even plain vanilla, vanilla is a good and usual flavor. This is old wilted iceberg lettuce, flavorless and lacking any snap.
He covers some great songs with the enthusiasm of a middle school child going to help his distance relative paint their garage. I have heard Clapton’s version of I Shot the Sheriff more times than I need to. I was about 8 the first time I heard it and growing up in a Bob Marley house, I almost puked then and nothing has changed in 30+ years. He takes a song with so much meaning, depth, and passion and turns it into over cooked instant oatmeal. I said I wouldn’t skip any tracks on any album on this list, that was the toughest one.
Can Clapton play a good blues guitar, sure. And there are a few Cream and other Clapton songs that I don’t mind, not putting them on any of my playlists, but when they pop up somewhere, I can dig them. This album doesn’t have that at all. I’ve heard worse albums, but not yet on this list. Giving it a one seems too tough, but grading on the 1001 scale it might be fair. But there are some redeeming guitar rifts that can’t allow me to give it the lowest possible score.
3.5/10 ⭐️
#25/1001
5/5
This is not a perfect album, it’s not The Beatles best album, but it is a 5 star album. I try to hold the 5s for perfection, and this album is not perfect (honestly, I don’t think any Beatles album is, but it is in part of their greatness, they’re willing to experiment). But the influence this album has on so much music that came after it for decades to come is probably a top 10 in western music history.
If this album came out in 1974 its a 3.5. There are 13 tracks, at least 3 are skips and 2 more are mediocre. But the remaining 8 are so good *chef’s kiss* that if another artist made these tracks over a ten year career, they’d be in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.
Ok, hyperbole aside, SPLHCB is an amazing work of art. Paul’s ability to make a melody that will stick in your head for hours on end without be annoying or campy, even almost 60 years later along with lyrics might not be the most unique or mind bending but have beautiful poetry. John’s ability to paint a picture in such a way that you can smell the flowers. As their egos grew and they wanted to be better than the other, their song writing hit an amazing level. But they still were band mates and would do wherever it took to mage sure the songs were done to their utmost capabilities.
9.4/10⭐️
#26/1001
Metallica
4/5
This album jumps out to a hot start with a great speedy shredder of a track in Blackened and does not look back for the next hour. James' vocals blend the perfect balance of yelling, singing, and riding the rhythm. With a new bassist having to fill some very big shoes, Jason Nested did a great job in hold his own in his first of many Metallica albums.
The long tracks might be the one downside of this album, but also a reason it is so amazing. James and Lars wanted to take their catalog to the next level and create a album with so much range and complexity. In one song you can have 3-4 small songs happening with different tempos and and several different guitar riffs. It makes for an epic run of thrashing.
This is not Metallica's best album and neither is it perfect, but it is a great progression of the bands music as they go on to create great music for the next 30+ years after this album.
9.0/10
#27/1001
Tori Amos
2/5
I don't know if I can give this a solid review of what was good and/or bad. I remember the first 3-5 songs being slow and mundane, but her lyrics being rather poetic and nice. But it was just so bland overall my brain tuned it out, and when it was over, and Spotify played something different my brain woke back up and I was like, did I even listen to the album. I guess with that, nothing stood out in a good or bad way, which I think is kind of bad if this is an album I needed to hear before I die.
3.2/10
#28/1001
Bon Jovi
1/5
This alum has everything the 80's has to offer, but only the bad stuff. Bon Jovi's vocals are a mix between Bruce Springsteen, Axle Rose, and Steve Perry and is not married well at all. The lyrics are so basic and predictable. The rhyming patterns are maybe a hair above what a kindergartener would come up with. I knew roughly half this album from it being played at ball games, grocery stores, crap bars in suburbia, and gas stations. I don't get how this album/music/artist is revered at all, let alone 40 years after this crap came out. Bon Jovi is for D students who peaked in 10th grade and work at an instant oil change place down the road from their ex-wife's house, hoping she comes in for an oil change so he can win her back.
1.5/10
#29/1001
Miles Davis
5/5
Miles is so smooth; add in John Coltrane, and it is pure magic. The nine tracks flow together in perfect harmony. The only downside is that sometimes the trumpet can be so piercing that it takes me out of the beautiful flow of the music. I have listened to this album many times before and will listen to it many times again.
9.2/10
#30/1001
Gotan Project
4/5
If the top, this album came out with its best forward. The lo fi hip hop style with Mediterranean vibes was a nice surprise and change of pace from what I expected (this list has is biases on American and British music, but the few international albums thus far have been enjoyable). There wasn’t much depth or variety on this album but I dug the vibe all the way through. I will throw a couple of these songs in my rotation for sure but I don’t know if I will revisit the entirety of this album again, though I am looking forward to digging into Gotan Projects catalog further.
7.5/10
#31/1001
Tim Buckley
2/5
I had never heard of Tim Buckley before this list. When I initially looked over all the artists on this list before I started in, I saw his name on it, not once or twice but three times and looked forward to discovering his music.
I really wanted to like this album, truly. There are so many things that seem like the makings of compilation of good songs. But honestly each songs sounded like a hodgepodge of popular sounds. There’s some solid blues guitar and piano, there’s some funky bass lines, and some solid rnb style vocal rhythms. But none of it went well with one another. Top that with Buckley seemingly trying to sound like Mick Jagger on pretty much every song, it made for a bad recipe. To add on, Buckley’s lyrics were ok by and large, but there were some really odd moments where I turned my head and thought, he said what?!? And the skatting was overall a bad touch.
This album just seemed like a guy with an above average musical talent level was experimenting with popular songs of the late 50s to early 70s to try to create something unique. He accomplished that, it is unique. But unique doesn’t always make something good.
There were so many moments in pretty much every song where I thought that they’d bring it together and make a good song but they couldn’t get over the hump.
4.8/10
#32/1001
3/5
This was a solid 60s era British rock. I was really only familiar with the big hits from The Kinks, so came into this one blind. Where The Kinks sound like the little brothers of The Stones and The Beatles, they do have their own little corner of this genre and era.
Musically this was a well put together simple rock album. The lyrically content was probably the strongest part and even a bit ahead of its time.
I will revisit this album because first, because I enjoyed it for what it is and when it’s from, but I feel that there are probably some layers to this one I missed. I look forward to digging into their catalog more as well.
7.1/10
#33/1001
Britney Spears
1/5
There’s been worse albums on this list (only 34 in), but there is zero moments that are special about this album. This came out when I was a freshman in high school and I remember how big of a deal it was then and how you couldn’t turn a corner without seeing/hearing the lead single. It blew my mind as a 15 year old, and I sit here even more bewildered that a legit music critic/author felt that this needed to noted in the annals of history.
This album was trash, it’s not a dumpster fire, or anything like that. It is just generic, regurgitated pop. Britney doesn’t have an amazing voice, its not awful either, maybe a C- in terms of pop stars. The music is so bland too, even bad pop music will get my toes tappin from time to time. The melodies are catchy, but that is far from a reason to immortalize this record.
Putting this album on this list is the equivalent of putting 7/11 pizza on the 1001 dishes you need to eat before you die list. I’ve heard these songs, I never enjoy hearing these songs but sometimes these songs pop up. I’ve eaten 7/11 pizza, I am never happy when I eat 7/11 pizza, but sometimes you end up eating 7/11 pizza.
The entire time I wrote this review (and assuredly for hits to come) the title track’s hook looped through my head painfully.
2.5/10
#34/1001
3/5
Having zero knowledge of Spirit, even after listening to their top streams on Spotify, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. This album wasn't anything amazing but it fits the title of the list. There is so much great music from this era and I could write a list 10 pages long of the great band, albums, and songs from the years surrounding this album (1970) and would have never mentioned Spirit nor this album. I was born in the 80s, so it wasn't something I would have been around in my personal environment, even though this was my dad's era of music and in line with his tastes (but my dad isnt much of a musicophile).
This album was strong and captivating. It had a good mix of what the late 60s psychedelic rock was becoming and also stepping into it's own lane and being slightly unique. It had a darker vibe than a lot of it's contemporaries (even in a genre that got pretty heavy/dark at times), but they found a way to make it feel like you were drowning in their drug fueled existence. I will be giving this another go for sure and will dive into the rest of Spirits catalog as well.
6.8/10
#35/1001
Dire Straits
4/5
This is good 80s rock, that toes a line of pop rock. Dire Straits brings together so many elements from the 70s era and blends together with 80s production and sounds. The blues guitar and funky, swift bass lines are so groovy. They write goods songs that have catchy vocals with good range and the lyrics are not mind blowing but are more than just cliches and have actual substance.
Dire Straits does everything Bruce Springsteen does, but better and with more soul.
Franz Ferdinand
4/5
This is a chuggin, whinin, whaling guitar music with catchy, poppy, punk-adjacent-distorted vocals and crashing drum and all done so well. FF is a talented band that made great 2000s pop rock. Lyrics are really only there as another instrument in the orchestra, and it works.
It feels like these guys might have been the last band where The Beatles dna was clearly visible. A 2000s five generations removed Beatles is still really good.
The arrangement has a energy where you never it too much fast paced chugging or the softer sing-songy stuff. 38 minutes is perfect length.
8.2/10
#37/1001
System Of A Down
3/5
Listening to this as I made breakfast on a Saturday morning was a choice. I like metal music, but wouldn’t consider myself even in the vicinity of being a metal head. The thing that usually throws me off in nu metal is the Cookie Monster growling. SOAD balances the growling with other strong vocals where listening to the song is tolerable at worst, but most of these songs are pretty good, and Serj Tankian has a great voice when he’s actually utilizing it. The “oooooghh who can believe you” part on Sugar is so cool and makes me slam dance in my kitchen.
The downside of this album is so ADHD. Each song has 4-6 different tempos, 4-6 different vocal stylings, same for the arrangements, chords, and keys. I like most of what these sections of each songs brings, but wish it were pared down to just 2 or 3 of these switches, or even just ride out for a full 4 minutes in one of these. For a song or two it is fun but almost an hour of such fasted paced music going 20 seconds here and 30 seconds there is just dizzying.
I liked this album, but prefer a song or two on a playlist rather than listening to an hour straight of the scattered nature of album can be just a bit too much.
The live portion of the deluxe version of this album are pretty good, and bring a different angle to the band.
7.1/10
#38/1001
Air
3/5
Lo-fi, electro, triphop with nothing amazing about it. Kind of the summary of the genre in general. I listen to this kind of stuff for several hours a month while really needing to focus at work. This music has the ability to put me in a great zone, but honestly for no other reason then it is simple rhythmically and nothing that really deviates from the path.
This album accomplishes what it sets out to do (in my opinion) of being something you can set in the background a vibe without really knowing there’s music being played.
I like this album and will be listening again soon when I need to get in the zone, but this isn’t anything amazing a feels out of place here. I think the Robert Dimery wants the reader to see the best of the best, and game changing albums in as many genres as he deems fit, but this genre isn’t anything “you must hear before you die.”
6.2/10
#39/1001
Funkadelic
4/5
Unfortunately this is not on Spotify but I find it on YouTube. The quality was the greatest, so I will seek it out to hear a better mastered version because I feel I lost a lot of the nuance that is Funkadelic. I we familiar with several songs but never listened to the album as a whole before.
This album is full of great music, smooth, bouncy basslines, good guitar, great rhythm, soulful and doesn’t take itself too seriously. But the unseriousness can be too much at point with repetitive goofy lines about fear of sandwiches and whatnot. The goody lines themselves aren’t necessarily bad, they make me smirk as my neck swings my head to the groove. But repeating them for 7 minutes is like a 3 year old finding a funny word and saying all afternoon long.
I like Funkadelic, and the latter incarnation Parliament and don’t listen for lyrics, but sometimes it just annoying. I love the groove that they bring as well, but a 10 minute track in almost every case is uncalled for.
This album that definitely belongs on this list, not because it’s a 5 star album, it’s not, but because it is so influential on not just the funk music that follows but rnb, so much rap, and even alternative rock and jam band rock. Listening to this album I could hear so many different bands and groups putting their spin on things. Good album too listen to but great album for history.
7.8/10
#40/1001
Le Tigre
3/5
Great blend of 60s pop, 70s punk, 90s girl rock. None of those things are superbly done, but they all come together to make a really good album. The first song that Spotify played when the album was over was Hole “Violet” and it made me think that if Le Tigre had that level of production that they probably could’ve been a huge success.
6.8/10
#41/1001
Lynyrd Skynyrd
4/5
Great, classic, southern rock album. Some of the most classic songs of it’s era.
8.5/10
#42/1001
Björk
2/5
I don’t get Bjork. The music itself is ok; lofi, trance, trip pop, winding road of instrumentals that by itself isn’t bad. It is very whimsy and airy and floaty. I don’t hate it, but it’s nothing special. Then you add Bjork’s whining ranging vocals that follow no pattern, no melody, no structure, no format whatsoever on top of the mediocre instrumentals and it becomes a wild mess. I understand being experimental and pushing boundaries and trying new things, many great songs, albums, and artists have come from that.
Reading reviews for this album, I was floored at how many 5s it got. I know that the subjective nature of music is such a wide scoop, but sometimes it shocks. 43 albums in and this isn’t the worst one, but it just doesn’t do it for me. I feel that on some level Bjork gets elevated because she’s different, not because she’s good. Her voice is rather harsh and her lyrics are so hyper avant garde that it just seems to be being weird for weird’s sake.
3.2/10
#43/1001
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
The older I get, the more I appreciate Fleetwood Mac. This was a band of my upbringing. My dad didn’t listen to a lot of music and Fleetwood Mac Greatest Hits was one of maybe 6-7 cassettes (all of the collection were greatest hits album). Of his humble collection, Fleetwood was just meh. I didn’t hate it, but I enjoyed the other ones better. As I got older heard more and more of their catalog and it was always a distinct sound that was enjoyable but never resonated. Now, decades later I find myself putting on FM albums a couple times of year.
Musically they are a really good band. They have a sound that to me is as distinct as any bands ever. Stevie’s vocals are even more distinct than their music and that creates just great classic rock.
FM is one of those bands that I don’t necessarily think about them as an amazing band when short list are talk about but then listen to their music and think that era and genre, they are on a short list of the best.
9.2/10
#44/1001
Drive Like Jehu
3/5
A crazy mash up of punk, metal, grunge and pre-emo. Each element is done well enough. Thrashing, whiny metal guitar with the punk rhythms and drums is actually pretty good. The vocals have a Kurt Cobain quality to them, but if he grew up in San Diego and was a spoiled brat. An hour and ten minutes to far too much for this album, and with 2 songs going over 9 minutes and 2 more going over 7, it becomes very tiresome.
There are some really great moments on this album. The last 2 minutes or so to Super Unison (one of the 7+ minute tracks) was great. The band was firing on all cylinders and the vocals were minimal.
I think the music is a 4/5 but the whining, screaming, screeching vocals bring it down considerably. I personally can’t stand that style of “singing,” never made sense to me. Who wants to be screamed at? It’s hard to understand the lyrics too.
I find myself enjoying the music a lot, wasn’t sure that’d be the case but the vocal really killed it for me, particularly at 70 minutes. If this had more of the “tame” vocals like on track New Math, I could give this album a 4 or even consider a 5. But it’s a 3. Typically a these type vocals would bring it down even more, but the music is so damn good.
6.6/10
#45/1001
Bob Dylan
1/5
I finally get Bob Dylan. After not liking and/or understanding his music at all for decades, I get it now. He’s not a musician, he’s not a writer, he’s not a poet, he’s a comedian. This album was hilarious. I get it now. And now I must troll people to think he’s great until they get the joke too.
This album is so bad. I used to give Bob the benefit of the doubt as a “writer/poet” because so many people said so. I didn’t like his voice so maybe I couldn’t hear through it to actually hear his brilliant lyricism. Over the last several years I have listened to many Dylan records with my ear tuned in. It still didn’t really hit me as amazing. This album today was comical though. I finished his lyrics for him because it was so elementary rhymey and predictable. He sounded like a heart broken middle schooler most of the album.
His voice somehow was worst than ever. Its a raspy, gravelly, bad Tom Waits impersonation.
If you take off the intro and outro songs, maybe this album is a 2, probably not, but the first and last songs are 2 of the worst songs I’ve heard. The last being damn near 17 minutes long. It was a rambling internal thoughts of a man lost, over the same loop of crappy lofi blues. I imagine hell is just that for eternity.
Bob Dylan the comedian 6/10
Bob Dylan the musician 1/10
1/10
#46/1001
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
Short and sweet. Jamming blues guitar and John Fogerty howlin’ like no one’s business. It always amazes me that this band is from the Bay Area and we’re arguably the best southern rock band of all time. Fogerty knew what could be and took charge. It cost him a lot over time but was just an unbelievable run of great music. This album is great but not even their best from 1969.
8.5/10
#47/1001
Kings of Leon
3/5
I enjoyed this album. There are a few good peaks and the lows are more of stable plateaus. There’s nothing practically amazing about this album and overall I don’t think KOL has a huge range but they’re really good in their silo.
6.8/10
#48/1001
The War On Drugs
3/5
This album was a perfect fit for this rainy, cool, spring day in Denver. My office had more than half of the people working from home or off and it was really chill low-key day. Throw on Lost In The Dream and it matched the vibe perfectly.
It’s a slow burn of what is not quite soft rock but isn’t really rock. There is strong Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen influence on the vocals and delivery. Not bring a fan of either, this wasn’t one of the strongest parts of this album, though I do think it was a solid performance.
Each song kind of blends with the next since the tempos aren’t much different and the drum are seemingly just a loop of the same 4 notes over and over for a full hour.
Overall this is album was pretty good but lacking any real umph. The blend of Tom Petty, Springsteen, Dylan with a bit of 90s twist into a more modern feel is a good marriage but nothing that I would go running to tell anyone about. I will throw this on for some chill vibes when I need to focus.
This album lacks anything that would be considered unique, innovative, or just all round captivating and makes me wonder why this was added to the list. I don’t know if it was added by the original editor, but this vanilla album doesn’t seem to be one that deserves a 1001 (1089) ranking, even if I liked it more than some of the previously reviewed album.
5.8/10
#49/1001
Amy Winehouse
4/5
Amy has an amazing, unique voice that has so much soul to it. You don’t often hear such soul from British singers, at least until Amy came along and sprang a slew of copycats in the US and UK. The influence that this album had on the next decade plus of pop/rnb/neo-soul female acts is astonishing, and actually kind of annoying. I like Amy and her sound, I even enjoy a fair share of her impersonators, but the sheer volume of people who clearly don’t have their own sound and/or style that do what became almost a caricature of AW is just too much. From that alone, this album deserves to be on this list. It is a historical marker for where a particular singing style came from (even though hers is a evolution of many rnb singers from the 50s-70s).
Production on this album is really strong as well. The beats and rhythms are all catchy but not so pop that they lose their appeal after a few listens. Ive listened to listen album dozens of times and hear songs from it quite often, even still in 2025, in bars, restaurants, etc. and it still as enjoyable as it was almost 20 years ago.
7.5/10
#50/1001
The Cars
3/5
I’ve known of The Cars and have heard pretty much this whole album as one off songs, but I didn’t know any of the songs as The Cars before today. There’s nothing special about this band or album. The first 3 tracks are deeply rooted in Americana rock history, but are honestly mediocre songs are any era. They have a good harmonizing cadence that they find a hook and chant it for a few minutes over decent guitar riffs. Overall the vibe is cheesy 70s pop rock, not bad as a throw in song on a mix, but whole album, even at 35 minutes, is too much.
5/10
#52/1001
The Black Crowes
2/5
The Black Crows seem like a long lineage of blue rocks that devolved over the decades. They’re solid musicians and the lead singer is Eddie Vedder adjacent and not unpleasant to listen to. Overall this music is uninspired and unoriginal. They sound like a bad mix of several great bands before them; Skynyrd, Zepplin, Stones, Queen, to name a few. There are albums on this list that are worse but are on the list for being innovative, creative, inspiring, and/or genre defining, but this doesn’t have any of that, or anything that would help shape the understanding of music history. It didn’t shape the way 90s rock would sound, it was shaped by the prior 3 decades. It didn’t inspire the likes of Nirvana, Green Day, The Strokes, TV on the Radio, or any rock band after it, it sounds like a dozen before it. It doesn’t stand out in a crowd, it blends in. I didn’t hate it, but it wasn’t anything special and doesn’t belong on a list of 2001 albums you need to hear. If you ever saw a good cover band at a popular bar venue, you’ve heard The Black Crows.
4.8/10
#52/1001
Alice Cooper
3/5
This album surprised me. I always try to keep an open mind when listening to this list, but my preconceived notions of Alice Cooper was that they were a little forced and corny. This album had some corny, campy, cheesey, forced moments but it wasn’t to over the top, even though “I Love the Dead” was a poor choice to wrap this album up.
This was 40 minutes of solid rock n roll. The music was great, and Cooper himself was great. Lyrics were a bit simple, but never a downside of a song. These dudes put together a really strong album that deserves to be on this list. You can hear influence from this album in so many acts from the late 70s to the mid 90s. I will definitely be checking out more of their catalog.
7.1/10
#53/1001
Amy Winehouse
3/5
I like Amy’s music and was familiar with over half is this album, that was predominantly the good half, the other half was a young singer trying to find her footing. It wasn’t bad, it was actually kind of enjoyable to hear the roots of what was to come (the good and the bad, sadly). It was Amy in rawest form. I had Back To Black about 5 or so albums ago, and the growth she has between these 2 albums is amazing. She truly blossomed into a wonderful artist.
All that said, this album was mediocre in the grand scheme of things. I mildly understand why it would be on this list; for purposes of showing a talent is the rough, for the juxtaposition of growth. But it doesn’t seem qualified to be a member of the club - maybe in towards the back of the line to get in the club, but not a member. And I think Back To Black fully deserves to be in the club.
6.8/10
#54/1001
George Harrison
3/5
The remastered/rereleased version of this record is a mess. There are so many repeats (different versions) of songs and extended versions and every song is in a different order than the original pressing. I love how modern tech can gives us the ability to hear all of these albums without having to go and get the physical copy someway, but I wish I could hear this in its original form.
This album could be cut back by at least 40% and still be really good, but the length is a bit much, particularly since there are like 4 songs that have 2 versions. I really like early George stuff, and shows that he was more than just a really good guitarist, he can write some strong lyrical content too.
7.0/10
#55/1001
Fiona Apple
2/5
Fiona is a great poet and lyricist, and her voice has aged in a beautiful way. Her sound is so unique, and it is often imitated but never duplicated. But this album is boring, slow, repetitive, and just not good. I don't know when this album got added to this list, but I don't feel it fits. Fiona's poetry wins it some point but there is nothing in the record that makes be think she is changing the game, influencing the future, or anything that makes it worth a 1001 before you die record.
4.5/10
#56/1001
Saint Etienne
3/5
This was an enjoyable, kind of lo fi trip hop, electro pop fusion thing. I have heard a few of these songs at some point in my life and were always good background tracks. This album is pretty much just that, background music. I forgot I was listening to it at a couple points.
Even though I enjoyed this album and will definitely listen to it again to get some good focus time going, it does not belong on this list. It wasn’t revelatory in any fashion. This record is over 30 years old and hearing it didn’t make me think, how has this escaped my attention for 3 decades.
6.8/10
#56/1001
Green Day
4/5
The first CD I ever bought was Green Day Dookie with money from my 12th birthday in 1995. I loved that album (still do!). I was a huge GD fan. When American Idiot came out, they had changed their style slightly, to be a little more traditional and mainstream. As a 20 y/o with loads of angst, I wasn’t a fan. I haven’t truly revisited this album since the mid 2000s.
Boy was I wrong. 20 years of separation showed me this is a really good album and Billie Joe and the boys has to evolve. They were getting older. There’s something that is inherently anti punk about growing old. Green Day is and forever will be punk rock, but they evolved into a more grown up, toned down version on American Idiot. The drums are always amazing, Billie Joe can write and sing with the best of them. And the energy is always the leader of it all.
Glad I got the opportunity to revisit this album, now I need to go check my youthful biases and see what else I thought was stupid in my teens and early 20s.
8.2/10
#58/1001
Wilco
1/5
Just not good. Whiny, boring, bad lyrics, worse vocals, drab nothingness of music. And at some point I will encounter another one of their albums on this list, yieeeesh. Wilco and this album are if Modest Mouse had to fight the aliens from SpaceJam (The Monstars) and when lose, they lose all their talent and any ability to feel emotions.
1.2/10
59/1001
Crowded House
1/5
An extension of the bland soulless folksy pop rock from the 80s. The first song was pretty solid and I thought I was going to go on a fun adventure of something completely new, but then ensuing tracks were rather annoying, whiny, drab, and just a bit of nothing. This has no signs that the same band who made an iconic 80s song (Don’t Dream It’s Over), a song that is almost in any scene/flashback to the 80s on TV and movies. Definitely not an album that anyone has to hear before they die.
2.2/10
#60/1001
Bob Dylan
1/5
As Bob Dylan goes, this album is good. As good music goes, this is not. This is one of Bob’s most tolerable albums. The folksy side is toned down a pitch and the bluesy rock is turned up a degree.
Bob is widely recognized as one the greatest lyricist ever, that is something I have tried really hard in my life to agree with, but I cannot. He changed the way lyrics were written in western music (or at least music sang in English). His influence is undeniable but; he has a shit voice, can never find a real melody, the band/music is never anything amazing, and the production values are always lacking (compared to his contemporaries).
This album has a few toe tapping moments but is quickly ruined by his squealing, nasally voice or a high pitched harmonica mixed to be waaaay too loud. Most of his singing is to a melody of a 2nd grader reading a haiku to his class about his favorite Disney character.
I have tried to like Bob, I truly have. I’ve listen to this album several times before today, as well as many others. My conclusion is that either all Bob fans are in on a giant troll job or they all intentionally contrarian. I almost always have laugh out loud moments while listening to a Dylan record, this one at least five moments like that.
This album is in so many Top 10, 20 list and it is astonishing to me that any record that has Thin Man and Desolation Road on it could be considered for anything other than a crime against music.
Ballad of a Thin Man is a prime example of why Bob is trash. Those lyrics are just bad, period - I will take objectors! And Desolation Road is a run-on ramblings of someone who thinks what’s he’s saying is cool/relevant/worthwhile. It is grade A pretension at its finest.
1.8/10
#61/1001
Judas Priest
3/5
I’ve known of Judas Priest and heard some of their music second hand from old school metal heads throughout my life, but never really listened to them. I had lowish expectations for this album and they totally blew through those expectations. This album was pretty damn good. The lead singer has a great metal voice and the band can really shred. This album is a perfect bridge from 70s metal (Sabbath/Motörhead/Deep Purple) to the 80s that will just takeout off with so many great metal bands (Metallica/Anthrax/pantera/Megadeath and so many more). This has the sounds of the 70s but with strong fire shadowing of what the next decade of metal will bring.
I will definitely give this a another listen or two and can see why it’s on this list. This album, and band, have their fingerprints all over 80s metal, and beyond.
7/10
#62/1001
Def Leppard
2/5
Quick story of an encounter with Def Leppard, I used to live across the street from a racetrack, and there would be concerts there several times a year, my wife and I would sit in the front yard and listen to the shows often, even if we didn’t care for the artist(s) (we were close enough to hear the music and see the lights, but far enough that we could chat quietly while hanging). DL played there one time and we sat there and had a blast, it was mainly for the people watching - this was roughly 2013 and all the people who peaked 30 years earlier super stoked to see Def Leppard live was enjoyable. But, the show was solid for a bunch of aging rockers.
This album had some moments where it is entertaining. It is never down right awful, but there are some pretty low points as well. I honestly don’t know what to think of this album. It is peak 80s glam/hair metal, a genre just pretty crappy in my opinion, but the reason this album is on here is because it is the definition of this genre. Is it almost a meme is it so comically glam rock / hair metal.
Listening to this I can hear so many shitty 80s bands that were just carbon copies of each other; White Snake, Poison, Motley Crue, Ratt and so many others. For that reason, it belongs on the list, as a record for a sound that opened the airwaves of suburia for pretty much a decade. Thankfully a decade I am to young to fully remember, but
4.8/10
#63/1001
Massive Attack
3/5
I had very little experience with Massive Attack before this album. I only ever heard one track from them, which I love, Teardrop. So I had a vague idea what I what I was getting into. It mostly fit into the box of what I anticipated. Blue Lines being their debut album and 7 years before Teardrop, was definitely Massive Attack in the raw. Unpolished and eager to show the world their creations. For that, I can see why it’s on this list. A forerunner of the genre in it budding stages.
What I didn’t see coming was the bad attempts at rapping. I know it was 1991, but by this time De La Soul, Tribe, Ice Cube, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, amongst many others had all elevated the lyrical game years earlier. The lyricism and flows on these songs is bad and a bit disappointing.
This record could have been a strong 4 of the script read more like the strong trip hop, trance, with easy flowing female vocals. I was loving those tracks. And the beats in the rapping tracks were all great beats, just ruined by the vocals. It’s like having an original Monet and drawing one of those S’s where you connect the 6 hash lines to create a pointy “wannabe graffiti” S right over top of the masterpiece.
6.6/10
#64/1001
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
I don’t even know how to articulate how good this album is, and it’s not even his best album. Kendrick is a genius with his lyrics and the layers on his story telling and just rolls with a silky bouncy west coast flow. I will cut the review there because everything I want to say just comes off so hyperbolic.
9.6/10
#65/1001
Guided By Voices
2/5
If The Beatles were born 25 years later with 1/5 the talent they would be Guided By Voices. There is nothing intrinsically bad about this album, there’s nothing that holds me to want to give this another go. The songs are under developed, the production style of having it sound like it was recorded on $20 microphones during an electric storm in an echoey warehouse was an interesting choice. The instrumentation was solid, the vocals and melody were catchy but nothing revolutionary.
I listen to this list with an open mind and keen ear to try and understand why it’s considered 1 of 1001 albums you need to hear. I feel that if it is something that is genre changing, genre creating, trend setting, the peak of decade, peak of a career, a magnum opus, boundary pushing or just a plain masterpiece, that’s what should be on this list - not some haphazardly crafted pop alt-rock creation by a person clearly suffering from ADHD.
41 minutes is a sweat spot for album length, but dividing that into 28 songs is a weird mind fuck that makes the album seem a lot longer than it is.
3.5/10
#66/1001
PJ Harvey
4/5
This album was a really unique concept and I think overall well done. This is a really good album, something that I do believe deserves the post publishing addition to this list.
I like this album, I think it is 4 stars, but I will never this to this again. It’s almost like a movie with a big twist at the end, once you’ve seen it, a second watch isn’t as good. One listen and I can say that’s a great album, but one listen is all I want. A lot because its a bit of a downer, very gloomy, dark imagery that I don’t typically listen to. I also don’t want to hear someone plead for England for 40 minutes.
I had only heard the name PJ Harvey, didn’t know a jack about her. I honestly thought PJ was a dude, I’ll check my biases at the door next time. She is a wonderful poet and paints not just with her lyrics, but her tone and delivery strengthen the places she’s crying out for.
There are a few moments that get mildly repetitive toeing a line where I sometimes will audibly say, enough already. But that’s really me being a little nitpicky. The production is great, PJ really did an excellent job of creating a very cohesive work.
8.4/10
#66/1001
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
Tribe in the raw. I absolutely love this album, hit after hit after hit. Phife and Tip are young and hungry with so much contagious energy. The golden age of sampling for hip hop. This was an album that was a such a great continuation of what the fun in hip hop was/is supposed to be. Their next 2 albums blow this one out of the water though. This is great, but they are still finding themselves and their voices.
8.9/10
#67/1001
Bob Marley & The Wailers
5/5
I’ve loved this album since I was a child My dad didn’t listen to a lot music, but Bob was one that he loved. Almost 40 years of contentiously be aware of Bob Marley and he never gets old. The love he has for music pours out of the speakers. The love he has for mankind is even strong. His poetry is direct, powerful, and still holds weight almost 50 years later. His ability to create a melody is up there with anyone ever. There are so many timeless songs on this album. This is a Top 10 all-time album to me.
9.9/10
#69/1001
Tangerine Dream
3/5
Surprisingly good, chill, electro trance. Knew nothing about it going in, judging the book by its cover and length of songs was ready for a disaster. I rather liked it. Nothing special though. Well listen to again, good focus music.
6.5/10
70/1001
Hugh Masekela
4/5
Really enjoy jazz album. I am in my early 40s and never really appreciated jazz, but in the last 3-4 years have started to get into it. I don’t much about the genre as a whole and love discovering new artists and hearing the different sounds and styles.
Jazz is so unique and complex that I don’t think I could give a fair review outside the fact this album put me in a good mood and I thought the overall quality of the music and composition was great.
8.5/10
71/1001
Boston
3/5
Boston’s peak hits are fun. I enjoy their harmonies, and the prog rock/pre glam/pre hair rock/big ballot 70s rock is well rock. But the schtick gets tiresome by the end of the 37 minutes. It isn’t bad, but pushing the amount of time I care to listen to this genre. But this album is clearly so influential to all the pop rock bands of the early/mid 80s. That bumps it up an extra point.
6.5/10
72/1001
The Byrds
3/5
A mash up of country, pop, folk, and psychedelic rock with a ton of harmonizing - and it all comes together oh so moderately. Nothing is great but nothing is bad. The harmonies are nice, but every song is the same harmony. The folksy psychedelic rock just isn't very inspiring either. I laid on my bed staring at the ceiling listening to the back half of the album, it almost felt like the album beckoned me to my bed so I could long at the ceiling to have the deep thoughts of a 14 who just smoked a joint for the first time.
I can see the appeal of this album/genre but it’s just not my bag. I know The Byrds are a forgotten hero of 60s rock and need to be brought up more often when The Beatles and Boob Dylan are mentioned, because The Byrds had just as much impact and influence on the coming decade(s) of music as the former two.
The influence only goes so far, and if this were a random album by some band that’s trying to make it and not The Byrds, it would be a 3/10 but I get the historical vibe of this album. But this was towards the end of the peak of TB, they already pushed the psychedelic rock thing forward before this album and were just kind of riding that same wave here. I know there are 5 total TB albums on this list, and I think it should probably be 2 at most - and should be between any of the first three albums, as long as one of them is Fifth Dimension.
5.2/10
74/1001
Frank Black
4/5
I feel is Frank would’ve bill this down to a ~45 minute lp, it might have been absolutely amazing, but it dragged in several places. But I really enjoyed the record. I know the Pixies, might basically the hits but never was aware of Frank Black.
This album came out when I was 11, and if 13 would’ve been aware of this record I would've been absolutely in love with it and probably would be giving it a 5/5, but I heard it 30 years later and there are parts that seemed dated.
I’m glad I heard this, and believe it belongs on the list because of the mashup of punk, prog, art rock, alternative, ska, and a bunch of others melds so well from track to track.
7.4/10
74/1001
The xx
2/5
Never listening to this album, nor truly being familiar with the xx (I have the intro to this album saved but honestly could not have told you who the artist was if you asked me 12 hours ago). So when the intro came on, I was stoked because I do really like that song as a mellow chill focus on my work vibe. I thought it would be more of that lofi techno chill hop kind of an album, but it turned out to be lofi whisper pop. After the second song I was still bought in, and the intro still had me pumped for more after the 3rd song, but by the time the 4th song started I realized I’d been duped. Overall a boring disappointment. Nothing was done poorly, but nothing was really done at all.
4.2/10
#75/1001
New York Dolls
1/5
When you ask your mom for a Rolling Stones album, but she says we have The Rolling Stones at home.
This was a tough one for me to fight through. These guys are just a bad mix of Billy Joel, the Stones and Elton John. Artist I like and respect, these guys don’t do them any justice.
2.8/10
#76/1001
Eminem
5/5
Peak Eminem. This album absolutely dominated 2000. It was such a huge crossover success, and for good reason. Em’s flow, rhyming patterns, lyrics and overall mastery is on full display throughout. The album it a bit long, and taking out the 3 D12 songs would probably make this a perfect 100. Dre’s production and oversight rings this into nothing shy of a hip-hop classic.
9.6/10
76/1001
The Beach Boys
3/5
Elevated version of earlier Beach Boys, but nothing special in the sense that it belongs on this list. As beautiful as there harmonies can be, they are a re bit dated and can become tiresome. The Beach Boys know how to put together a good catchy song, and even enough to fill an entire album, doesn't make it an album you must hear.
6.5/10
77/1001
Norah Jones
3/5
I remember when this album came out, my senior year in high school. It was a rather big deal. Nora is a beautiful woman with an amazing voice. But just like 23 years ago, it is very slow and rather boring. The music is such a simple acoustic snooze fest that were made to let Nora's voice shine, but it adds a layer of elevator aura that is hard to get through. This album was born in a Starbuck and raised in an elevator by a dad in a fidora who no one knows his occupation is and a mother who sells thrifted dresses that she adds sunflower patches to.
6.0/10
78/1001
Alice In Chains
4/5
This album is so damn good. It blends alternative, metal, grunge, and rock so damn well. Lane and Cantrell are so damn good together, their voices and lyrics are unmatched - and listening to this again, for the 1,000th time, I am reminded of how many bands and act that they have influenced in the 3-plus decades since this album has come out.
8.8/10
80/1001
Roxy Music
3/5
This is a good album, and I am sure that in 1972 it had some buzz, but that year and era has so much more to offer. It is good classic rock but fells like one of the contributors to this list got this 45 ep for his 15th birthday and fell in love with it. There is nothing special about this album in general, but it is still enjoyable. But I did not "need to hear" this album to have more deeper understanding about music history and progression.
6.6/10
81/1001
Duran Duran
3/5
Iconic pop album that is a quintessential 80s vibe - pick a track and put it on your movie soundtrack and you have the right cred as an 80s movie. This music isn't necessarily my choice, but I can respect it's influence and I am never upset when it gets played, that said, I do enjoy several of these songs and tap my toes to most of these. Duran Duran have a very distinct sound that was imitated a lot in the ensuing 15 years, but never duplicated.
7.4/10
82/1001
Stevie Wonder
4/5
I am a big Stevie fan, but this album was in my blind spot, though I did know several of these tracks. I wouldn't say it is his best showing, but is still better than at least half of the albums I've listened to thus far.
The problem with this list overall is that there is so much good music from all over the world and from every walk of life, but Stevie Wonder (who is an amazing artist and an all-time favorite for me) takes up space with multiple albums. The greats like Stevie, The Beatles, Zepplin, etc. should be limited to 2 or 3 albums, because even though they may have 5, 6, or 7 amazing albums, they are still that artist and very few of them change that much over the course of their careers to a point where they are truly changing music and you "need to hear this"
I think this album was good, and I am glad it was on this list because it was in a blind spot for me. I will listen to it again (and again). I wouldn't say anyone "needs to hear" this album though.
7.9/10
83/1001
Skunk Anansie
2/5
I had zero knowledge of Skunk Anansie before today and at this point I have a mix opinion. This album was not good, at all. The vocal were rough, the music was ok but nothing special, just typical alternative 90s sounds. But after the album ended Spotify played me more of there music and I actually really liked it. The lead singer's voice was more refined on their older stuff oddly enough. She seemed very angry on this album, which I can get behind, but it did not come across in a creative and/or enjoyable way.
3.1/10
84/1001
Gorillaz
4/5
Just such a unique blend of hip hop and grunge and rock and something else intangible. The vocal are great, the beats are fantastic. The concept of this band and album are amazing.
8.8/10
85//1001
Elton John
5/5
It’s hard to find a bad thing to say about this album. This is peak Elton (a peak that would last for a while). I typically don’t like 60+ minute albums, but there’s always exceptions, and this album is one of them. EJ’s melodies, lyrics, and piano playing are exemplary. He influenced music with in almost every genre with this album and it has some of the most iconic tracks in all English language music.
9.5/10
87/1001
T. Rex
1/5
I went to the Spotify link and noticed that the whole album was blacked out so I went to YouTube to listen. If it weren't for the commercials on YT I would not have known where one song ended and the next began because they all sound the exact same. Same notes, same cadence, same vocals. I went back to the Spotify to see what songs of T Rex were available, none of them were, but then I remembered T Rex is the only band on Spotify that I blocked from playing so that this crap doesn't pop up when I want to listen to 70s rock.
2.4/10
88/1001
The Waterboys
3/5
This was a bit of a surprise to me, after the first song I thought I was going to be asleep at my desk but by the end I found a new artist that I look forward to diving deeper into their catalog. This album was definitely too long, with several song being over 7 minutes. It can be a bit to folksy for me at times (which it seems that the contributors to this list love folk music). Overall I enjoyed and glad I heard it.
6.5/10
89/1001
Led Zeppelin
5/5
A great classic rock album, probably my favorite of the LZ collection. LZ was and still is a band that has so much influence on the music to come, see Greta Van Fleet. Influence, originality, timeless - this has to be a 5 star album.
9.5/10
90/1001
The Associates
1/5
If David Bowie were born and raised in a basement and only got to listen to the clanging of the pipes for music and one day was set free and heard real music for the first time and decided to give it a shot - that is this album.
At the 90 album mark and so close to being 10% done and get thrown this hot garbage. Albums like this make drudging through this list really hard.
Method Man
2/5
I have seen Wu Tang in concert twice and Method Man 3 times with Redman. I am a hip-hop fan through and through but Wu and the affiliates have never done it for me. I think they all have great tracks together, solo, and as features, but they don't really put together good albums. Meth has some classics and amazing features, but this album is not very good. I know part of the allure of Wu is their raw, rough, and rugged style of rap and production, but it is hard to sit through an hour of it for me. Rza growth over his career as a producer is amazing.
Meth is the cool and popular member of Wu, but he really isn't the most talented or creative. Rae is a word smith, Ghost is a stoytelling poet, Rza and Gza have crazy analytical brains, Deck has great flow, ODB was a larger than life personality, Masta is well rounded but nothing special and U-God is well, a member. But Meth has style and charisma on stage and on a screen (that's why he has starred in many TV and movies).
Wu as a whole has been very influential and Meth is a huge part of that and I don't hate, or even dislike their music, but it just gets put on a pedestal that I don't think it is deserving of.
With all that, this album is a pretty poor showing for an all-time type hip-hop artist. IMO there are at least 50 hip-hop albums better than this (one of them being his first album with Redman), and that is being kind to Iron Lungs.
4.1/10
91/1001
Mike Oldfield
3/5
I dont know what the heck just happened. 2 well-made yet bizarre songs that lasted almost an hour. This has been the most confusing album in the 92 I have so far listened to. I didn't hate it, but nor will I ever purposefully listen to it again, though I do know a couple people in my life who I will recommend this to (though they probably already are aware of it). Mike Oldfield is obviously a talented musician with a wild imagination and kudos to him for this album. This is one that belongs on this list, even if I don't give it the highest of marks.
6.8/10
92/1001
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
5/5
Time Out is wonderful and masterful showing in jazz. I absolutely love this album and can't find anthing bad to say. It was calming, relaxing, peaceful, but yet something that you can really dive into and digest.
9.8/10
93/1001
Turbonegro
3/5
An interesting blend of glam rock and punk. The music was pretty good but the vocals and lyrics were too goofy and sophomoric for me (and I am goofy and sophomoric almost always). I give them some credit for doing this in their non-native language, and I assume they belive they are being edgy, but it gives the vibes of a rebellious 11 year old who learned all the bad language he could absorb at a sleep over at a friend who has a college aged brother.
These guys clearly loved Kiss and The Ramones and they blended those styles and genres pretty well. I probably would have like this album a bit more if they sung in Norwegian and I didn't know what they were saying.
5.8/10
94/1001
Michael Jackson
5/5
There are very few pairings in the world better than Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones. This album is simply put, amazing. And this isn't even the duos best album together (that is obviously Thriller). Michael vocals and harmonies are so strong that he would have been a star regardless of who was his producer, as was the case for much of his early career. As Quincy was an amazing producer with dozen of other artist in his career, but this pairing was a match made in heaven. This album is 46 years old, 4 years older than I am, and if it was released today it would be number one, no question.
9.8/10
95/1001
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Classic late 60's rock jam packed with some of the most iconic songs of the era. As I get older, I appreciate The Stones more and more, but am far from a fan. I like them, I will listen to them, but I rarely if ever purposefully put on a song or record by them, but in the insentces that I do listen to an entire album, I enjoy it. In another 5-10 years, I might actually really dig them. All that to say, this is a good album andmight just revisit it someday (I have heard this one before - several times).
8.2/10
96/1001
Eminem
5/5
Eminem is vulgar, crass, sexist, homophobic, misogynistic, etc, etc. Who cares. It is music, it is art. He is not a 4th grade teacher spewing these things to your children, though I know plenty of 4th grade have listen to this album - but that is the parents fault, not Eminem's. No one has a problem when these subjects are in movies and HBO shows, why isn't music allowed the same platform? Are some of the things he raps about gross, terrible, inhuman, degenerate behavior, 110% yes, but he uses his lyrics and rhyming patterns is such as marvelous way that it is entertaining and enjoyable.
This album is pure genius from the production of Dr. Dre (and his knowing that this poor white kid from Detriot could be a star) to the song topics, and to what makes Em one of the best to ever grab a mic, his lyrics and flow. Em can twist words and syllables to make rhymes that shouldn't even exist.
Yes he talks about killing his mom, his wife, raping women, raping under aged women, doing copious amounts of drugs, arson, homophobic topics and slurs, and the list goes on, and I get why that can and does turn people off - but this is just theater of the mind and Em produces and directs an amazing 3 act play from the beginning to end of this alsum.
9.6/10
97/1001
Nick Drake
1/5
How many slow, drab, minimal talent folk rock acts are there on this list?!? I am just shy of 100 albums listened to and this is my 414th folk rock album. There is nothing about this album that I needed to hear. His vocals are fine but nothing to admire, the 2 cords of a guitar is lame and annoying, the complete lack of soul and any kind of rhythm is exhausting by the 3rd track. The somber strumming of the guitar seems very novice. This album is really just slightly elevated camp fire music. There is a reason I have never heard of Nick Drake - he's not very good. One redeeming quality for this album is it is only 28 minutes long.
2.8/10
98/1001
The Incredible String Band
1/5
Absolutely not!! This is awful. I haven't skipped an album yet through 98 albums, and I said I would listen to every track on every album for all 1001 albums, well this one broke me. This is an amalgamation of tripped out Scottish hippies who only ever heard The Beatles and never learned how to make music but within their commune and small circle who live in a cave, they are talented. I listened to somewhere between the first 30 and 60 seconds of every song and literally felt like torture on every single song. What a fucking joke. There is literally bath water as an instrument in one song (about water) which isn't in and of itself a terrible idea but mixed with jingle bells and singing through their nose and the flute from Zelda just makes it more insane. I can't forgot to mention the horribly played sitar aimlessly placed throughout the record. What the fuck was this? This has to be a joke that it is on this list. The last song you can literally hear the spit in the person singing's mouth stick on his tongue.
.2/10 (credit for putting themselves and there art out in the world)
99/1001
The Smiths
4/5
The Smiths are a perfect blend of pre-emo and post-punk. They changed the way alternative music was not only played and recorded but also received by the public. This album and The Smiths on paper are not a band or style I typically vibe with, but I am a huge fan of these guys and this album is so good, and maybe not even their best (honestly a tough choice).
8.8/10
100/1001
Simple Minds
2/5
Such mediocre existence of what I personal think is the most mediocre time in modern music history, the 80's (the decade I was born). The post punk/new wave genre that dominated the early to mid 80's is one the genres that did not age well/carry over to new generations. I say this the day after giving The Smiths a 4 star rating for an ablum that stood out in the crowd, this album does not do that. I literally forgot I was listening to it, while actively listening to it. Overall immemorable, never out right bothered me or caught me off guard, just bland meh nothingness, a generic saltine cracker.
3.8/10
101/1001
The Go-Go's
3/5
Fun, upbeat and the right length for what it is. I wouldn't say that this is an amazing album but one that should be listened to if you like music history to see the progression from disco to 80s pop music. I liked this album and knew several tracks, most likely won't list to it ever again though.
6.4/10
102/1001
Guns N' Roses
5/5
GNR is blends the perfect amount of glam and hair (smallest amount) into their more overall metal style. They’re not Pantera or Metallica but a close cousin to those bands then they are the likes of Motley Crue or Poison, but aren’t with many parallels. GNR wrote real songs with lyrics that were deeper than their contemporaries and the music is just pure magical adrenaline. Slash is quite possibly the best guitarist of his era, and maybe ever. Axle’s unique voice and ability to belt out his lyrics at the top of his lungs and at some raids speeds at times, is a leader in what alternative and grunge and metal will morph into in the 90s. The influence this album had in the 80s and early 90s is all this album needs to be on this list, but beyond that it is just a masterpiece.
9.1/10
103/1001
Stevie Wonder
5/5
On almost every one of Stevie's albums he is head and shoulders above his contemporaries, but on this album he is light years ahead of everybody. This is one of those special moments in music where the artist is tapped into the ether and can turn the simplest of expressions into an amazing song(s). This album can still be heard in rnb, funk, pop, and rock albums today (2025). He blends all of the aforementioned genres as well as jazz into a beautiful package.
10/10
104/1001
Songhoy Blues
4/5
This was a nice break from all the US/UK dominate music that is this list, particularly all the bland folk rock. THis was a funky blend of blues guitar with West African rhythms. I obviously had no idea what they were saying, but the vocal were strong and enjoyable. This was only my 2nd non english album through 105, I hope that the ratio is better weighted to international music as this list progress, there is so much great Spanish, French, West African, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese music that I am aware of and I would hope this list would enlighten me beyond that.
This was a solid album that I am glad I heard and that will help guide me to more similar music.
7.4/10
105/1001
The Smiths
3/5
My least favorite Smiths album, but still a solid showing. And it is not my least favorite because I eat meat, the vibes are just a bit to slow and whiney to me, more so than most of their music. They can and usually do have great tempo and Morrissey has more rhythm to his voice, this album is a bit of a drag comparatively. With several other Smiths albums on this list, this one feels like the editor's reaching for a favorite band situation, it does not belong on this list. Again, I still like it, but I own several Smith records, this one is not one of them though.
6.5/10
106/1001
Prince
3/5
Prince is undoubtedly one of the most talented artist of modern times (his guitar playing being criminally underrated). He blends jazz, rock n roll, funk, rnb, soul, pop, and even hip-hop into his seemingly endless catalogue of work. This album is a testament to his talent and vision but should have been just one disc, there is so much filler in here that it becomes a bit tiresome. The peaks of this album are great, and the valleys are still better than what most artist will ever accomplish, the the 2 don't blend well.
All that to say that I love Prince and put him towards (if not) the top of almost any musical list, but this album is not his best showing, and I think one of the great things about Prince is not that his albums are the greatest thing, but his catalogue is damn near unmatched. He made so much music, that along the way he made a few misses amongst all his hits. He is kind of the Brett Favre of music, a ton of interceptions and fumbles along the way but was amazing to watch play. That is Prince, maybe not as many turnovers as Favre though lol. I do enjoy this album nonetheless and is better than at least half that album I have listened to so far on this list, just not Prince Rogers Nelson's best showing.
6.9/10
107/1001
JAY Z
4/5
I remember the day this album came out, as many of us do (but not the fact about the album). It was a clear and beautiful September day in 2001, a day that changed the course of history. On that Tuesday, like every Tuesday I would walk to the local record/cd shop for the new releases. I wasn't sure if they would be open, because so many other businesses had closed that day not knowing what would happen next, but being in Milwaukee, WI, the record store was pretty certain that a plane would not be directed their way. I bought this album, not being much of a Jay fan, really not at all, but I knew about the beef with Nas and "The Takeover" was already all over the early days of the internet and it was pretty slick (I was, and still am a big Nas fan).
I really like this album then, and still do today. This is really the only album of Jay's that I dig. It is probably due mostly to the production value. Guru, Timbo, Em, and a relatively unknown producer from the South Side of Chicago who would soon take the world by storm musically and later controversially.
Jay has some ok lyrics, but he has very minimal range in his storytelling and width or topics. His voice is ok, but he never changes his pitch or tone. His flow is damn near the same on every song. All that set aside, he actually pushes his limits on this album, to levels I don't think he evercame close to ever again.
Jay is severely overrated as a rapper/artist, but this album is really good, his magnum opus. It deserves to be on this list.
8.2/10
108/1001
U2
1/5
What a long winded blah fest. U2 does not make good music. They make crap grocery store music. I just don't get how they are so popular.
2.2/10
109/1001
Queen
3/5
I grew up listening to a lot of Queen, one of the few bands my dad actually liked (not much of a music person strangely). But this album was never in rotation and I did not know about it until much later in life. And really for good reason, it isn't a bad album and none of the songs are awful, it is just meh. The cool thing about this album is that you can hear the early workings of what will make them an iconic band.
5.9/10
110/1001
Madness
1/5
The beats, tempos, arrangements, cords, vocals, and lyrics all felt like they were fighting against each other and had no idea that they were being recorded. This was bad. Madness is a very apropos name for this band.
1.1/10
110/1001
Fiona Apple
3/5
Individually all these tracks are really solid, collectively they become repetitive and a bit of a snooze fest. I like Fiona Apple and teenage me had a huge crush on her when this album came out. She’s a good poet/songwriter but the album as a whole is lacking.
6.8/10
112/1001
Girls Against Boys
3/5
Not something that I would seek out again but was a pretty solid album. It got a bit repetitive and seemed like 3 or 4 songs just kind of blurred into 1 song.
6.4/10
113/1001
The Smashing Pumpkins
3/5
This album came out just after my 12th birthday and was ten or so cd's I ever bought. My thought back then was this album had a handful of really great songs but was waaaaaaay too long and Billy Crogan's voice quickly wears out its welcome. My thought almost 30 years later is pretty much the exact same. I listened to this album in full the first time around and have never again done so until today and it was rough to get through this 121 minutes. This music is pretty solid throughout and Billy is a good lyricist, but I can only handle his whininess in small batches - a song or two at a time. I am not a Pumpkins expert or even close to a big fan, but this was a great undertaking of an album and they deserve credit, but it probably isn't their best work. This album could be a really strong 4+ if they cut it down to the 50 minute mark, but just too much unneeded stuff along the way that really makes it drag.
5.8/10
114/1001
Bob Dylan
1/5
I have tried to like Bob for years, decades even, and the older I get and the more I listen to him, the worse he gets. He is NOT a good lyricist, that is the biggest lie ever told in all of music lore. He is not deep, he just says a bunch of bullshit and uses a couple of good descriptive words from time-to-time. His voice is probably the worst of anyone that has ever sold a records at this level, and I just reviewed Smashing Pumpkins for my last album (Billy Corgan is on that list but far away from Boob).
Full discloser, folksy harmonica with simple guitar strummin' just does not resonated with me, but there are some exceptions - this aint one of those exceptions. But I thought after reading about this album that the rock and roll would be a good change of pace, but it is just a bad. The music is mediocre at best and topped with his awful vocals and lyrics that are so bad at points it is comical (there is not a BD record that I listen to that at some point I don't laugh out loud, his lyrics and rhymes are so bad and elementary at times). Every time I see a Bob Dylan record on this list or any other list that ranks the best of whatever, I wait for Aston Kutcher to pop out and tell me I have been Punk'd.
His garbled mess of word salads that he likes to spew with some seventh grade vocab words while he tries to pretend that he sees all the ills of the world is just as pretentious as it is annoying. I think I still have 4 or 5 more Bob albums to listen to over the next 900 😮💨
1.2/10
115/1001
The Human League
3/5
Nu-wave early 80s synth-pop just isn't my thing. This isn't bad, I just don't vibe with it. If I was born in 1970 maybe this would speak to be in some way. The music is fine, the vocals are just like every other vocals in the genre. I don't hate this and I can see why it is on the list, but this is not one I heard before today and will not be one I listen to ever again.
5.5/10
116/1001
Willie Nelson
4/5
Everyone know who Willie Nelson is, he is a classic American figure. But I have to admit, I never actively listened to Willie. I have heard several songs in my over 4 decades of life, and could pick out his distinct voice on any song. For what could be considered my maiden voyage into Willie, I really enjoyed this slow and mildly bluesy version where he covers some of the most popular songs of all time. I know he is more of an outlaw country singer/performer but this was a quaint and enjoyable album that I am glad I heard. I have been saying for years I was going to dive into Willie's catalog, maybe this will jump start my adventure.
8.1/10
117/1001
Iggy Pop
2/5
I can hear the Bowie in the music but Iggy doing his Bowie impersonation was just awful. And honestly not Bowie's best showing on the music side. This was a long 38 minutes. I knew Iggy from the Stooges and he has a famous name but never really listened to his music, I think I will keep it that way.
3.5/10
118/1001
Black Sabbath
4/5
The fact that I got this album the day after Ozzy passed away is a bit eerie, but the perfect way to send him off! This is one of the few albums so far on this list that I 100% agree with being on this list, not because it is something amazing (which it was/is) but because how much this band and this album changed the course of music history. They brought metal to the forefront and never looked back. This album is really good but does get a bit shakey when given the test of time. I never really listened to BS outside of the hits and and few jukebox songs played in bars over the years but always enjoyed them. The influence of this album is right up there with any single album you want to say is the most influential. The influence of this album gets it 3 stars right off the bat and the fact that it still jams 55 years later, that is worth something too.
I had to listen on YouTube becasue Spotify was missing a few tracks and wanted to make sure I got the full experience, but I don't know if it is just that it is older or if the sound quality of the particular YT channel I was on, but it wasn't the best quality.
8.3/10
119/1001
Leftfield
2/5
If you dig Techo and EDM this is probably a cornstone album 🤷🏿♂️ but a whole hour of this was a bit brutal. I can get down on any one of these tracks individually with a huge gap between the next time I hear another (like a few days). Like JP in Grandma's Boy said "You'd like it if you had robot ears." I don't and I don't.
3.1/10
120/1001
Joan Armatrading
4/5
I was completely unaware of Joan Armatrading before today, and I have to say I am disappointed in that - after listening to just this album I know she should be far more revered and talk about. This album is well written, she has a wonderful voice. She is Tracy Chapman looong before Tracy Chapman.
I accidently had my Spotify on shuffle so the tone and vibe of the album seemed off and a bit choatic to me but then I realized it was my fauly and the producer's doing. Overall this was a really good album, one that most definitely belongs on this list and I am happy to have stumbled upon a new artist that I will absolutely be listening to for years to come.
8.2/10
121/1001
Roni Size
2/5
I like drum and bass at my core and I can get down with some techno/EDM stuff - but this album was to long (multiple song over 7 minutes), to repetitive (like most electronic music), and nothing that seems ground breaking (this is from 1997, my neighbor in the mid 90s was playing this stuff for me - maybe even some Roni Size for that matter - but I heard all these drum beats and rhythms in 95/96 and many times over. Aphex Twin was making this shit years earlier, and maybe even slightly better).
Did I hate this album, no. Will I listen ever again, that's a bigger no. Nothing jumped out that was reasonable to have this album on the 1001. It is not ground breaking, it is not genre defining, it is not unique, it is not a master class, it is a techno/drum and bass album from the late 90s that sound very similar. If you skip forward on any song you wouldn't even notice because all 4-9 minutes are just a loop of the same beat.
4.2/10
122/1001
Elbow
1/5
This hard to get through - it was like listening to a far worse version of Radiohead with mediocre music drowned out by terrible and painful vocals. I am 123 albums into this list and this is the 45th album from a UK artist Some of the greatest bands and albums are from the UK but to think that a tiny little island in the North Atlantic should have 37% of the must hear albums of all time is comical. Your British superiority complex is showing! This album is trash, just like huge swath of UK album I've listen to on this list.
2.1/10
123/1001
Beatles
4/5
Like most Beatles album this has a lot of filler. If they distilled this down to 12-15 tracks it would be up there with any one of their best albums but it is so long and has so many songs that just aren't S tier Beatles songs. With that being said, there are some of the best Beatles songs on this album and, just like every other Beatles album, the top tier songs are so damn good they outshine the mediocre songs and make the album seem perfect. When these 4 lads hit the right notes and keys, their songs can me magical.
I love The Beatles and this album, but I am not sure it deserves to be on this list. They have I believe 7 albums on this list, which seems far too many for any one group or artist, even The Beatles. And this album, while great, wasn't anything special, it was basically John and Paul following their tried and true formulas and refining their skills to a more mature and learned level than before.
8.8/10
124/1001
Super Furry Animals
3/5
Great - another no name shitty band from the UK. This is 8 straight albums from the UK and 47 out of 125 - is there no other music on this planet then middling rock from the UK?!? This is not a bad album, but I don't think it belongs on a list that has the 2002 albums you need to hear. Solid mid 90s alternative rock. Had some good moments and fun rifts and was not cookie cutter, but nothing overly unique. The length of this album was good, any longer I probably would have marked it down a half point or more. The editor and contributors are clearly biased on all things UK.
5.5/10
125/1001
David Gray
1/5
9 straight albums from the UK and 48/126 - what the absolute fuck is this!?! There are 194 other countries on this planet that all make music. I know the US and UK will hold a bulk of this list, but some of this is just a British circle jerk of what they listened to when they broke up with their girl friend or went on a road trip with their 'mates.'
This is a generic dentist office waiting room album - I can partically hear the whizzing of the dentist's drill in the. background and clacking of the block on that rainbow colored loop-di-loop thing meant to keep kids occupied while they wait for their appointment. I was 15 when this album came out and have never heard one of these songs or this artist, and somehow it is so special that it need to be heard before you die?!? This guys vocals are so basic and bland that it wouldn't surprise me if it was a baked potato singing. It is so bland that I forgot I was listening to it for 3-4 tracks. The only list this belongs on is albums you must hear in order to become a right proper English twat. This list is really testing my dedication the last 2 weeks.
2.8/10
126/1001
The Rolling Stones
4/5
The older I get the more I appreciate The Stones. The time I heard this album, I was not impressed - not that I thought it was trash, it is just regarded as one of the best albums of all-time. I still wouldn't wouldn't put it in the top 50 (where most put it in the top 10-25), but I do like it and understand it now. I don't know why I didn't care much for it, maybe it is the bluesy nature (I can only handle so much blues guitar), maybe it's Mic Jager's voice, I'm not sure. But I know now that not only this is a well done album from front to back and that its influence reaches for decades after it was released. There are only a literal few Rolling Stones song that I will purposefully play, and that happens about as often as Cleveland Browns in the playoffs, but I repect their work and know that they are damn good at their craft.
8.5/10
127/1001
Portishead
3/5
I've heard this album several times, because it is such a highly acclaimed and lived album. I just don't get it. It is not bad by any means, it just is so average. The overall tones is very bland and repetitive, there is very little distinction between any tracks, they all sound so very similar. It is a good album to throw on a zone out if you have some work to get done, the is nothing that will distract you and the hour will be over in no time.
6.5/10
128/1001
The Who
3/5
It is becoming comical, this is the 12th straight day of an artist from the UK. Some good, some great and some shitty. I don't know if The Who belong in the good or the shit column. I guess they are not shit, but they aren't good either - they are just another 60s era English rock band that tries to not be The Beatles but in doing so just sound like a worse version of The Beatles. This album is fine, and maybe I am jaded by the continuous inundation of British music for 2 straight weeks, but it doesn't belong on this list. They didn't do anything unique, original, ground-breaking, trend-setting, genre-defining, or overly influential. They were just a solid band that did the main stream music of their time. There is nothing special about this album.
6/10
129/1001
Motörhead
2/5
13, 13, THIRTEEN straight album from the UK. For fuck sake, there are 194 other countries on the blue marble that make music - trying listening to something that isn't from your damp foggy island. British excellence is a joke!! As for Motorhead, good rock music with shitty vocals and worse lyrics. There is literally a song about being a fucking pedo -Jailbait. What the actual fuck! How was the rest of the band cool with this, were they all just trying to bones teenagers? minus 1 star just for that song!
4/10
130/1001
U2
1/5
After 13 straight days of music from the Uk, I get to travel a whole 12 miles Ireland to get an album from what may be my least favorite band of all time. This is album 131, I don't know how much more of this self induced torture I can take.
I listened to this album with an open mind, as I have done with the previous 130 on this list. And to my surprise this album was actually really bad. I don't like U2 as previous stated, but honestly had a bit of higher expectations being the younger and the more raw U2 might actually deliver something strong and enjoyable...nope. This only strengthens my belief that they are the worst band. More specifically, Bono is annoying and tiresome. His lyrics could be pure magic, but I can't make out the words because I can't stand his voice. The music is fine, the vocals just make my skin crawl. Sorry U2 fans, we all have our things and this ain't mine.
2.5/10
131/1001
Primal Scream
2/5
Kind of a big nothing burger. Nothing stood out as bad or good. It was just on, nothing that was captivating. Don't see how an album that invokes so little emotion in any direction can be considered a must listen, but this list love mediocre music from the UK.
4.4/10
132/1001
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart
1/5
This list is becoming exhausting. Not even 15% done and I keep getting shit like this. A white dude from England that goes by Jah. How does anyone need to hear this crap. Jah Wobble has 11,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. Now listeners does not equal good or bad, but I have friends I grew up with that have larger following and better music than this. I am getting close to throwing in the towel on the British circle jerk of a list. 2 more albums this week and they better be bangers or this journey is over. There is something to say about me not liking wildly accepted classic albums like Boob Dylan and U2, but what the fuck is this.
Album review, it sounds like a shallow white guy that appreciates other cultures and did a crap job of blending cultures into one sound. It is not good, it is not coherent, it is not worthwhile, it is not unique, it is shit.
1.8/10
133/1001
Ali Farka Touré
2/5
I was excited to finally break away from the UK and get something that was international (even if an American was playing blues guitar on it).My excited quickly evaporated as the second and third songs continued on the same path as the first. By the fourth track, I was pretty much over it, there was no range in this album, it all sounded so very similar throughout. I finally get to listen to an album that isn't from the UK (or the US) and it is one of the most vanilla albums the continent of Africa may have ever produced. I didn't hate the album, but am really starting to hate this list. The album was just so-so. But Dimery and this list so far (134 albums in) get a 3.3/10. 195 countries on this planet and a century of modern music and we only get shit from the UK from 1955 onward. I may just complete this list in a rage and hate on every album along the way or I may lose my shit when I hit submit on this review and see my next album is Dimery's cousin's band that played 3 shows at a local park back in 1987.
Bad review for this list, mediocre review for this album.
4.8/10
134/1001
Nirvana
5/5
This album was absolutely everywhere in the 90s and has been baked into the fabric of Gen X and Millennial culture. The top songs on this album are absolutely incredible but the few songs that are not all-timers are not even that good and are borderline annoying. That makes it hard to give this album a perfect score. I love this record and have listened to it 100s of times over its 30+ years of existence, but it is not a perfect album, but 100% an album that should be heard before you die. This album's influence may be just as strong today in 2025 as it was when it came out. Everywhere I go I see 12-18 year olds with Nirvana shirts (it could be just a cool thing and they dont know the actual music). As I write this, I guess the influence this album has deserves that 5th star.
8.5/10
135/1001
Van Morrison
4/5
There is something about Van Morrison's voice that is so soothing. I have always enjoyed his music, but the things I like about it, the folksy music and his nasally vocals, are what make it hard to listen to an entire album. I think the 39 minute mark is perfect for a VM album. I heard most of these songs before but never as a collection.
8.2/10
136/1001
The Sonics
3/5
I don't think I would ever listen to this album again, but glad I heard it. The screeching vocals were very taxing about half way through. But I do get why this album, even if the songs were mostly covers, is on this list. These guys for sure had influence in changing how rock n roll were be played in the coming decade(s). Now I dont think they were as influencial as their cleaner cut, more buttoned-up British counter parts, The Beatles. But this is one of those album on this list where I say, "Ok Dimery, you nailed it." And 137 albums in that sentiment has not been applied very often. The album on it's own is below average, but in the context of history, it gains some merit and credit.
5.4/10
137/1001
Björk
3/5
My second of Bjork's 4 albums on this list, not a fan, but this is her debut, so maybe there is something a little more raw in there that will resonate with me...
Well, that hour was the longest week of my life. I can see the appeal of Bjork in this album, but I will be happy if I never hear her music again (which if I complete this list will not be the case). Her voice is grating, there is no tempo, rhythm, or beat to her music - it is jazz that was brought up in the cold dark winters of Iceland, hung out with Kraftwerks, took ice plunges in the North Atlantic all while smoking salvia. I can appreciate the uniqueness of her music and style and can see why people like her, but this aint for me. I will grade it on it originality and avant garde approach.
Side note, the next 2 Bjork songs that Spotify played after the album, were actually pretty solid.
5.2/10
138/1001
Klaxons
2/5
How does this make a list of must hear albums? It is below average mid 2000s British Indie rock. When people ask me what kind of music I like, I typically say pretty much everything. This list made me realize I am a fucking liar. I think I hate most music, that's at least how this album makes me feel.
3.5/10
139/1001
Wilco
2/5
I was dreading this day after listening to their Yankee Hotel Foxtrot mess of a record (which I think has been my least favorite album thus far [139 down]) about 80 or so albums ago. And then I see that it is 77 minutes long..... ugh fuck me. Welp here goes nothing, be back in what presumably will feel like a fortnight.
Well, it was far better than the last album of their I listened too, but that was a pretty low bar to clear. They clearly have an eclectic sound that covers a range from country, indie, pop, shoe gazed and even a pinch of grunge. They don't do any particularly well and there were several moment where I sighed in annoyance of the lyrics and vocals. The music was rather boring, even when it had some energy behind it.
Overall, Wilco sounds like a talentless, soulless version of Modest Mouse. I don't get how they have an ablum on this list, let alone 3. I can't see a scenario where this is a must hear album, unless it is a lesson on what audio version of watching paint dry is, and how to avoid making such music.
3.1/10
140/1001
The Yardbirds
4/5
This list has been working my nerves the last 3+ weeks and I went into this one with a huge negative vibe, "great another British rock album." But I was pleasantly surprised. I rather liked it. I will definitely give this another listen in the near future, I would assume I will like it even more.
Historical context helps make this album that much more amazing. My first listen was, damn, these dudes are technically sound and really understand the concepts of what makes a good blues/rock n roll song. Then I realized this was from 1966 and the shit they are doing on this album was way ahead of the curve and rather ground breaking. They mix blues, rock, rnb and psychedelic into a beautiful package. They do pretty everything well on this album. The vocals have range and don't get stale or repetitive, they have great rhythm, their melodies are engaging without being cliche pop melodies, the music is played very well and is thoughtfully produced. The album has a great progression to it as well. And I would be remised if I didn't mention the guitar on this album, Jeff Beck really flexes his muscles on this album. Overall this is a very good album that showcases a band that might not get the recognition that some our their contemporaries receive, but make music that can hang with the best of them. This album definitely belongs on this list, great piece of work.
I really don't comment on album art, but I love this seemingly random sketch as the cover.
8.8/10
141/1001
Creedence Clearwater Revival
5/5
Now we're talking, this is an absolute must listen. John Fogerty and CCR were on another level 1968-70. John's vocals and the bands twangy bluesy bayou southern rock (even though they are from California) is just so perfect. They capture their time and era in every song while creating music that is just as good almost 60 years later. For my money, no one was making better music in the late 60s than CCR, in a sea of amazing music and artist. It is a shame John's ego was as big as it was, because these guys could've broken the music industry I also don't fault John's ego being what it is/was, he was pretty much the reason they were relevant. Before John took over everything in the band, they were a mediocre local act. But the band wanted their say in the music too. Fogerty solo was no where near as good as CCR.
9.5/10
142/1001
Madonna
2/5
I legitimately thought the opeing track was over 10 ten minutes, I went to check and I was at 4 minutes of the 5 total minutes - this album is off to a great start /s.
No one thinks of Madonna as an amazing artist, does she have some iconic songs, absolutely. Can she carry a tune, very much so. I have never heard her name brought up in any conversations about top or favorite artist, and I grew up when Madonna was at her peak.
To me, Madonna is one of the biggest look at me posers in the music biz. She tries to capitalize on what is popular at any given moment in her 40+ year career. She yearns for the spotlight and always comes off as disingenuous. She gets good production because she has the money to pay and is willing to shell it out because the payoff for her is to be part of the zeitgeist.
Her music is not out right bad, it is just not what I would deem as "real," there is no real soul behind it, it is talented producers and musician helping an aging, albeit talented, vocalist stay relevant and it comes off as just that.
There was another comment that said "Hello fellow youths!" That is the perfect meme to Madonna post 1990.
4.8/10
143/1001
Aerosmith
3/5
Everyone know Aerosmith, right? Not that everyone likes them, but they are universal in The States. I don't think I have ever heard one of these songs, ever. They were all solid mid 70s bluesy rock and roll. The music was well played and executed, the vocals are well, classic Steven Tyler. This was a really solid album that I can see being an influence to lots of bands to come. Somewhere a young Axle Rose was playing this record over and over again. Not an amazing ground breaking album or some sort of masterpiece, but still deserving of being on this list.
7.0/10
144/1001
Jefferson Airplane
4/5
There is psychedelic rock and then there is good psychedelic rock and Jefferson Airplane are the latter. Most psych rock just sounds like they were on bad acid. I am no musician, but when I am trippin' that is not the sounds I want to hear or would make if I had the talent. JA on the other hand make really good music that I have never listened to while trippin' but I might given it a try in the future, but listening to their music sober is very music enjoyable. Good riffs, good and unique melodies, strong vocals, and a presence and a tone that is distinctly them, even as the added and subtracted and changed members through the years.
This is definitely an album that belongs on this list. There are many bands that come to mind when talking about psych rock, but to me they are at or near the top of that list.
8.2/10
145/1001
Big Brother & The Holding Company
3/5
This was a solid album, nothing that I feel needs to be heard before you die. Janis is Janis, an amazing vocalist that can drive my ears crazy after a few songs. The music was solid. The R Crumb cover is pretty sweet sans the overtly racist depiction of a black woman. I didn't know anything about BB&HC before today - so I am glad to have heard of them and this album, but wouldn't call it a must listen.
6.2/10
146/1001
Pixies
4/5
This album is to me what the definition of what I thought this list would be. Not necessarily an obsure band, but one one on the fringes of the underground/mainstream fray that clearly makes excellent music.
I have always enjoyed Pixies, but never actively listen to them. I know their top hits and maybe a hand full of B-Sides, but that's it. This album is great. And the influence that this band and album had on, bare minimum, the next ten years of alternative rock music (among other genres) is undeniable. Great rhythms, unique vocals that are not taxing but rather enjoyable, concepts that have a freshness to them compared to the decades before, and the arrangement keeps the album moving where the 40 minutes flies by and keep the listener in a state of wanting more.
In 147 album there have been maybe a couple dozen that I absolutely agree with the need to hear before you di,e this is one of them. I personally look at this list from a standpoint of historical context - did this album change/influence something, was it the absolute peak of something (genre/style/year/decade),did it introduce something new to the lexicon, or is just absolutely perfectly executed. things of that nature. So far most albums on this list are just a British circle jerk of mediocrity, but this album stands out amonst all of that. It is not a perfect album, but it is one that should be listened to. And I look forward to listening to it many more times.
8.9/10
147/1001
1/5
The music by defintion is subjective. This was an interesting 40 minutes. I didn't like this at all and tried to understand where the band was coming from and why some people find this good. There were a few moments where I thought I had grasped something, but those were so fleeting that I could not wrap my brain around this album. My teenage daughter came into the room where I was listening to this and confusingly asked what I was listening to. I found myself unable to concentrate on the music, my brain was slowly drowning it out because it was anxiety inducing. The beautiful thing about humanity is we are all our own individual person, and sometime millions of people like the same thing and sometimes only 3 people like it. Is it good, is it bad, no - it just is. (100 Million people listen to Taylor Swift a month on Spotify - I can't stand her music and 46,000 listen to these guys - I would arguably willingly listen to this again over a Taylor album). But if this gets your toes tappin or head bangin, good on ya - but as the wise philospher Austin Powers once said "it's not my bag baby!" And all that to say, this does not belong on any list 1001, 5005, 800000008, no need to hear this. You dig it, great - not anything that needs historical cataloguing.
2.2/10
148/1001
Duke Ellington
5/5
This is the only Duke album on this list, giving him the same amount of must hear albums as Britney Spears, Limp Bizkit, and the B-52's and less than Morrissey, Massive Attack, M.I.A., Def Leopard, Beck, Slipknot, Primal Screams - more evidence that Dimery is a moron. This album has some of the highest of highs in jazz, but is tough to sit through all the BS commotion of the crowd and the MC.
If this album were recorded in a studio and distilled down to roughly an hour, is might be perfect.
9.2/10
149/1001