1001 Albums Summary

A justifiable classic, Dylan at his best. Tangled up in Blue never gets old but I also love the bluesy Meet me in the Morning and the wonderfully bitter Idiot Wind - “As a matter of fact the wheels have stopped, What's good is bad, what's bad is good, You'll find out when you reach the top, You're on the bottom” Peak Dylan, but I’ve knocked one star off because off because of the wretched Christmas song he wrote decades later.

I don’t think this one’s aged well, it’s pretty stodgy rock music - more proggy in places than I remembered, especially tracks like Strange World. But it paved the way for what was to come - it’s a paving slab of a record. Phantom the Opera is the obvious standout for me.

Just… not for me.

It’s always a pleasure to spend time in the company of this one. For this listen, I dug out the posh headphones, gave it the Dolby Atmos treatment and soaked up every second. It’s the same age as me but has worn considerably better. Timeless really. A wonderful record.

This record sounds very dated to me. De La Soul inject their own magic into the proceedings but it’s just not a genre I’ve ever managed to really connect with - I can hear the record’s influence though.

I love this record - highly deserving of its classic status. As moving and catchy as the day it was released. I could listen to it every single day. In fact, I think I will.

Because of the radio my mum listened to when I was growing up, this kind of thing will always be ‘Sunday Roast Music’ to me. This is no bad thing. I really enjoyed the big band sound - I’d never knowingly heard the album before but it was all cosily familiar. I’ll definitely listen again. Probably on Sunday.

I’d never listened to this album before - it sounds like a parody. I can see why Layla is the famous one - the first half of the song bursts out of the album as if it’s trying to escape, only then to be dragged back in by the second half, an interminable lump of nothing nailed on seemingly to remind the listener just how excruciating the album actually is..

Fairly bland, 90s singer-songwriter fare - pretty forgettable. I’m not sure what qualifies this album for the list given how many almost identical records there are out there. I kept expecting to hear one I recognised that would whisk me back to some memorable time and place but it didn’t happen. It was perfectly nice to listen to but it probably won’t occur to me to listen again.

I know he’s one of the Godfathers of Rock n Roll, but I only really know Blueberry Hill by Fats Domino. It’s a great song and I can see why it endures but listening to this, I wonder why I’m not more familiar with the rest of his work. I know plenty of his songs but mainly as covered by others. I liked this. It felt good. I’ll dig deeper.

I’ve always found New Order albums confusing affairs - is it an album? Is it a compilation? I always thought of them as a singles band, then they released that God-awful football song and I took to disliking them, in spite of everything. I like this though and it surprises me that I’ve never listened to it properly before now.

Not even forgettable as I barely noticed it was playing in the first place.

I don’t think I’ve ever listened to this album during the day before, and certainly never just with tea and biscuits to imbibe. I still really enjoyed it though. So that’s good.

It’s probably sacrilege to say this but I always found Billy McKenzie’s vocals a bit much - he seems to be frantically over-singing everything, to my ears at least. Perhaps that was the point. I like the music though - extraordinary as his voice was, it’s the music on this album that stands out for me. Aside from Party Fears Two of course, where the two come together brilliantly.

It’s hard to listen to Arcade Fire these days with the unresolved allegations around Win Butler still circulating but I soldiered in and quite enjoyed it. The well known songs were the least interesting, probably because I’ve over-heard them, but tracks like Ocean of Noise stood out and reminded me a bit of Calexico, who I love. Epic, cinematic, US indie rock - enjoyable enough, but I much preferred their earlier album, Funeral.

A bona fide, stone cold classic. Every track transports back me to when I first heard it in ‘92 when it flung the doors open for me to a world of US alternative rock I’d previously paid little to no attention too (Fugazi, Husker Du, Superchunk, et al) Every track is a joy but I’ll always have a special place for Conduit for Sale! I can almost taste the warm cider…

I know this is damming with faint praise but it’s nice to have on in the background. I like Miles Davis and especially enjoy it when he’s pushing the boundaries but this one just doesn’t have enough grit to hold my attention.

A fun album with no duff tracks - I haven’t listened in years so it was nice to revisit. It wears its post-punk/ new wave influences on its sleeve but that’s no bad thing. Good as it is, it probably wouldn’t be on my own list of 1001 essential albums, if I made one. Which I won’t.

Having spent the last 30 years putting Cut Your Hair and Range Life on just about every mix tape and playlist I’ve made, it was nice to hear these songs in their natural habitat again. Slanted and Enchanted cropped up on this list the other day - both albums have served to remind me just how much I like Pavement.

I’ve never really familiarised myself with this album before and only really knew Golden Years and Wild is the Wind. I enjoyed it a lot and listened through twice - I love the production and the bass sounds great. I’ll definitely be digging deeper.

Obviously, and quite famously a masterpiece - listening to it now it’s hard to believe it’s almost 60 years old. All these years later, it’s easy to take these song structures and production techniques for granted but this one album changed the pop record format forever. It’s hard sometimes to listen to a record of this stature and hear it objectively but really, everything else aside, these are all great songs. What an incredible album.

When I was growing up in the 80s, I assumed being an adult meant wearing pastel coloured suits with the sleeves rolled up, driving a Ford Capri, drinking cocktails in wine bars and listening to Sade. Mercifully, most of these things never came to pass - I do like a bit of Sade though. In my mind this music is inescapably ’wine bar’, but the soulful, understated vocals and smooth, jazz-lite music have a pleasing effect. I enjoyed listening to it.

One of those bands where I find myself listening more to the bands they’ve influenced. I know I like Cocteau Twins, and if it wasn’t for them, most of the bands I adored in the 90s probably wouldn’t have existed, I just rarely listen to them. A wrong I will right on the back of immersing myself in this gem. Some of the tracks, in particular the title track, have somehow been engrained in the psyche over the years, but it was a real treat to hear them again in the context of the album. If you need me, I’ll be down a Cocteau Twins rabbit hole.

Bloody hell, I had to grit my teeth for this one. In fairness, the chap can sing. The tunes have a mildly infectious quality. And I’m glad to live in a country where anyone can adorn themselves in the headgear of their choosing. But every time a new song started, I just wanted it to be over. I don’t know why, and I’m not going to spend any more time pondering it. And this lark is playing havoc with my algorithms.

I tend to recoil from that Hammond organ sound as it just reminds me of bad 70s quiz shows. This is a shame as it was probably the height of music tech when this was recorded, but for me the album takes off when the sax kicks in. Nice to listen to though.

A fine dose of proto-punk, and another one of those bands where I’m far more familiar with the groups they inspired. Much as I enjoyed the more energetic tracks, it’s songs like ‘Untitled’ that made me appreciate how far ahead of their time they were. That acoustic sound is great - something punk bands just didn’t do at the time but now is obligatory. And the brassy sound in ‘Know Your Product’ was great. Often compared to the Ramones apparently but way more interesting as far as I’m concerned.

I don’t think I’ve ever listened to this album before - I’ve been missing out. It sounds like nothing else from that time - it’s testament to their influence that it sounds more like a 90s low-fi indie record. The Murder Mystery was a real standout track for me. I’m going to be returning to this album again

I get how influential they are but to my ears, this stuff just hasn’t survived the test of time. It sounds tired and cliched. All it inspires me to do is to switch it off. In fact, listening to it now, it strikes me they well be partly to blame for Ocean Colour Scene, which is reason enough to wish this record out of existence.

I can see why he called it Low. Listening to this is a bit like doing maths homework - I know it’s important, and making the effort now might lead to greater things, but, ugh, do I have to? At times, it clicks into place and makes glorious sense, and I can hear how it influenced those post-punk, synth-pop records that I love, but for the most part, it just gave me a headache. Can I have a snack?

Yet another one of those artists where I like who they influenced more. I get why he’s influential, I just found this album a bit dry and… dull. Give me Gene Clark over this, any day. The Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers too. I just don’t get the appeal of this record…

I quite like Sleater Kinney - I like their frantic energy. Enjoyable as I find them, I’m not sure what marks this album out given they all sound essentially the same. I guess if you’re going to pick one, you may as well make it this one. I’d probably have suggested All Hands on the Bad One myself, but no one asked.

I bought this album years ago as it was so frequently cited as an influence by artists I loved as a teenager. It was an acknowledged classic when I came to it and more often than not, such records don’t have the impact on me I thought they would. Not this one though! It’s so unlike anything else and I can really appreciate how extraordinary it must have sounded when it first came out. I’ve never really enjoyed much else by Patti Smith, probably because I haven’t tried hard enough - maybe I’ll try harder having just listened to this again. What a great record.

It will never cease to be anything less than mind-blowing to me that just three or four years after recording songs like Til There Was You and Please Mister Postman, they were coming out with Tomorrow Never Knows and I Am the Walrus. Literally everything they did was groundbreaking and brimming with that magical, larger-than-life quality, yet I’ve had socks for longer than the Beatles were together. They were incredible. And so were the Beatles.

Much as I always liked Siouxsie, I never LOVED them in the same way I did The Cure or Sisters of Mercy. It was nice to listen to this after so many years though. I still have them down as a goth band but on this listening, I was far more aware of their choppy post-punk sound. I can definitely hear their lasting influence, might have to dig deeper…

This was a real eye-opener for me - these days, Dolly Parton is one of those celebs who’s synonymous with so many things you kind of forget just how great a singer-songwriter she is. The title track alone is up there with anything Johnny Cash did and She’d Never Met a Man… put me in mind of Willie Nelson. I’d always had her down more as a movie star/ pop singer (and philanthropist of course) but this is great songwriting, I enjoyed it a lot.

I really, really, dislike the Doors. The reverence heaped on Jim Morrison is baffling to me - to my ears, his lyrics are pure 6th Form. I tried to give this record a fair listen, and failed. Actually, I didn’t try very hard, and I’m fine with it.

Well that was remarkably unremarkable. The album just finished playing and I literally can’t remember ever listening to it. I gave it two stars because it didn’t have Free Fallin’ on it. If it did, I would have given it one star.

Probably my favourite Joni Mitchell album, certainly my most played. Car on a Hill is just perfection. A beautifully arranged, sumptuous-sounding record that I could (and do) listen to over and over.

It took me a while to warm to the National despite seeing them live a couple of times, including once in a comparatively small venue when they were touring their Boxer album. It wasn’t until The First Two Pages of Frankenstein album that the penny dropped and I fell under their moody, broody, almost Tindersticks-like spell. This isn’t my favourite National album but I really enjoyed listening to it - Anyone’s Ghost, the understated anthem Bloodbuzz Ohio and England probably being the standouts.

I like that this record exists, I just don’t really want to have to listen to it. I can enjoy stretches of it in the right mood, but it’s the kind of record I’d rather read about than actually listen too. Spaced Cowboy was a right shocker though - yodelling should be left to Focus, or better still, just left.

12 love songs would probably have done me. Long albums like this invariably end up including lots of tracks that should just have been b-sides, or left as demos to be released on coloured vinyl for Record Store Day years down the line. On the upside, I quite liked it! There’s some funny and moving songwriting here and if it was a 12-15 track album, I’d be all over it. That probably misses some kind of point, but I do think you can have too much of a good thing.

So, how does Bob Marley like his donuts? Wi jammin’. Ah, I’ll never tire of that. Nor will I tire of this record - it’s perfect. I think these songs are just part of the human DNA now, and we’re all the better for them.

I expected easy going ‘yacht rock’, so the proggy elements of Long Gone… were interesting, but overall, it didn’t do much for me. It kind of reminded me of Manic Street Preachers and I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. It probably sounds less dated today than it did twenty years ago - maybe I’ll listen again in twenty years’ time to see how it’s faring. Maybe I won’t.

I excitedly bought this album when it came out as it was his first with the Attractions for years, and I still listen to it often. 13 Steps Lead Down and You Tripped at Every Step are as good as anything they’ve ever done, as well as being among the best songs ever written about steps. My favourite here though is London’s Brilliant Parade - one of my favourite EC songs and one that was always playing in the back of my mind in the ten years I lived there. The old Hungerford foot bridge was replaced around 2000 but it’s a tiny piece of ‘my’ London captured perfectly and forever in this song.

When the mood takes me, I can really enjoy Daft Punk, especially their later stuff. Unfortunately, the mood left me pretty much where I was for this listening and I found it fairly plodding. I suppose it paved the way for what was to come but this one doesn’t really do it for me.

There’s so much praise and reverence heaped on The Band, it’s hardq to know where to begin. I decided long ago not to bother, I’ll just accept they’re legendary, quite probably for good reason. I’m sure if you were watching them in a field at a festival, stoned out of your mind, semi-naked and covered in mud, they’d be quite something. However, I’m at the kitchen table looking at a spreadsheet and their effect is a little lost on me. I don’t dislike it, it just sounds pretty ordinary.

I like The Kinks. They played a big part not just in shaping Heavy Metal and Britpop (whatever that might be), but also in pioneering the concept album — and they managed most of that within their first five years. I’m not entirely convinced that the so-called ‘quintessential Englishness’ they get labelled with ever actually existed, but that just shows how great their storytelling was, as well as their songwriting. This album nails their essence. Clever gits.

My introduction to this record, and to Springsteen generally, was Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s cover of the title track which I still think packs a lot of punch. I love the meandering tunes and the stories, characters and places on this record. It’s all very cinematic - an album you can lose yourself in, especially if you have the lyrics in front of you. And that full band sound is just perfect. Hard to believe this record is fifty years old, it certainly doesn’t sound it.

This is a big slab of proggy metal by a band that paved the way for so much of the music I grew up obsessing over, but even in my most metal-devouring years as a young teen, I never fully clicked with Black Sabbath. I ‘get’ them today but this isn’t an album I find myself turning to (I’ll take Sabbath Bloody Sabbath though, or Master of Reality). I find a lot of the stuff on here to be a bit stodgy for my tastes, and ‘Changes’ and ‘Laguna Sunrise’ sound like they’re on the wrong record. I love that Black Sabbath existed, but I can take or leave this one.

I quite enjoyed listening to this. I was an indie kid in the 80s with a stereotype to adhere to so I’ve never knowingly listened to a Madonna album before. I’ve quietly approved of some of her singles over the years (Borderline and Ray of Light for example) but I’ve never really considered myself to be in her demographic. Obviously, gospel singers can make anything sound good but this is neatly crafted pop and I was surprised at how many of these songs I knew. That said, I’m not sure how it qualifies for the list, it doesn’t stand out particularly, it’s just… quite good. If you like that sort of thing.

Walk This Way is the big one here. It really does represent the worst of two worlds that I have zero interest in. This album is completely lost on me. But what do I know?

I always think I quite like Bob Dylan until I start listening to him. I find his story pretty fascinating but I could do without listening to the records. I went to see him live in the early 2000s - what a long night that was. He got ten minutes into one song before I realised it was Blowing in the Wind. As with so many of the classic, hugely influential albums from the birth of the pop record, it sounds very much of its time today, but I’m glad it exists.

They sound like the Monkees but with the fun stripped out. It’s all reasonably enjoyable for what it is (other than Melody for an Unknown Girl which was unspeakably dire - I almost cringed myself inside out listening to that) but others clearly did it better and more memorably. They sound to me more like an interesting footnote than anything especially essential. Surprised I’ve never heard of them though.

I asked an AI thingy how many rock/pop albums had been released since 1958. Its conservative estimate was 3-5 million, its more inclusive estimate was 8-12 million. So quite what this dross is doing on a list of 1001 ‘must-hear’ records is beyond me.

I love The Cure and consider this their first great album; it’s their first consistently Cure-ish album, and it set the tone for the next forty-plus years. Play For Today, M, and the title track Seventeen Seconds are probably among my favourite Cure tracks but the whole record hangs together brilliantly.

We had Born to Run recently, and there’s something about the songwriting, production, and the majestic-sounding band, especially the keys and brass, that really make it stand out as a great record. This one just doesn’t work the same magic - in fact it sounds like a compilation of b-sides to my ears. It’s pretty plodding in places and he often doesn’t sound like he has the energy to get through a whole song (e.g. Something in the Night and Racing in the Street). I’m not convinced it belongs in the list - I’m either really missing something or it’s an admin error.

I don’t like live albums at the best of times so a live album by Deep Purple… well, I feel like I’ve just done a 12 hour shift in a factory. In fact, I honestly think I should now be paid. An hour or so ago, I didn’t know this album existed. Great times.

What an absolute pile of dog shit.

For some reason, I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed this. I don’t know what I expected but it wasn’t this. It’s definitely one I need to listen to again to really get under its skin - there seems to be a lot here to unpack. There’s a curious, awkward, inventiveness lurking under its surface - it really feels like it’s holding something back. This is an album I’d like to get to know.

It’s hard to listen to Nick Drake objectively - he’s overly revered and his sound has drifted into cliche land over the years. I find it hard to shake off those sunny evening campfire vibes and just listen to the songs. All perfectly charming, just a teensy bit boring. Fun fact: Nick Drake’s second cousin, once removed, is William D Drake of Cardiacs, who happen to be the best band ever. What a world.

I love all the ‘American’ records - what a way to book-end a career. That raw, emotional production is perfect; there can’t be many artists with such a long career behind them that manage to produce some of their best work in their final few years. There’s lots to love on this record but the cover of NiN’s Hurt is the one that, reasonably enough, gets the most attention. Truly sublime.

Such a great pop record that still sounds remarkably fresh. I love all the tales surrounding its creation too - the stories of McCartney's retreat after the Beatles fell to pieces; recording a couple of albums by himself in an isolated Scottish farmhouse; forming a band, jumping in a van and turning up unannounced at university union bars asking to play... After two or three low-key, poorly received (at the time) albums, he wanted to go for a big production pop record and jetted off to Nigeria to record it where he was mugged at knifepoint and robbed of the demo tapes... You could write a book about his first three post-Beatles years alone, never mind the rest of them. It's probably fair to say Band on the Run is the record that properly launched his solo career, and it still sounds great (even though I can't listen to Jet without picturing Alan Partridge dancing in his hotel room...)

I like Joni Mitchell a lot and I know how highly regarded this record is, but I struggle with it - there's some great songwriting but it just doesn't grab my attention. It seems quite rambling and there are no melodies I can engage with - maybe that's the jazz influence, and I just need to keep at it and let it click into place. I probably won't though - I'll put Court and Spark on instead.

I’ve never really listened to Circle Jerks before, and now I have. That’s about as much as I can say, to be honest. None of it really stood out for me. Dead Kennedys and Husker Du remain my go-to for this kind of racket. Group Sex? I’ll stay on my own, thanks.

I don’t think I’ve ever listened to a Joan Armatrading album before - I really enjoyed this. I’m familiar with Love and Affection but it really struck me while listening just what an odd song it is - a really unusual arrangement. Wonderful stuff, I enjoyed the whole album - Tall in the Saddle also really stood out. I’m going to dig out more by her.

Much as I love Lennon’s solo work, and famous as the title track is, this is probably one of my least favourite of his records - Walls and Bridges, and Mind Games are my own faves and this one just doesn’t come close to them. He was in a pretty bitter and angry place when he recorded it and it shows in its disjointedness - it just doesn’t hang together as well as many of his other records. I find him and his life story endlessly fascinating though, so I know it’s a record I’ll always come back to.

Back in 91, my appreciation of grunge stretched as far as Mudhoney and Nirvana - 30+ years later, my I appreciation of grunge stretches as far as Nirvana, as I now know Mudhoney are essentially a garage rock band who continue to be way better than anything the grunge scene churned out. Pearl Jam always sounded like bad pub rock played by dads. Those wretched guitar solos that leap out of nowhere and just make you want to cry; that pained, phlegmy voice... And the songs just don't seem to end! I wondered if the years might have been kind to them - my tastes have certainly changed, so I was keen to give this record a fair go, but no. It's awful. I hope never to hear it again.

It’s adventurous, challenging and groundbreaking but also a bit jokey - more Bonzo’s than Beefheart. Maybe that’s a good thing, but I’m not sure it’s intended. When in the mood, I can enjoy the music but Zappa’s vocals can grate a bit. Not something I ever really need to put on, but I’m glad it exists.

Sweet Christ alive. What a turgid, stodgy, wedge of execrable dross. How did it get on the list? How did it even get made? Can I be put in charge of this list please? No one should ever have to listen to this rubbish.

Is it me? There’s always been a real buzz about this band, and this album in particular, but it completely washes over me - it doesn’t seem to have any defining characteristics at all. Maybe that’s the appeal - you can’t really compare it to anything or work out what their influences are, but those things alone don’t make it good. Unidentifiable and completely forgettable.

Finally, after a run of absolute drivel, a record thoroughly deserving of a place in this list. What an extraordinary record - there’s enough here for three great albums. It’s clearly a masterpiece and I’m never going to be able to write anything that comes close to capturing its greatness, so I’ll say this instead: 46 seconds into Sir Duke, I’m pretty sure he sings ‘Mick and Phylis are lovers…”

I really have to be in the right mood to listen to blues, and even then, I can only tolerate short bursts. This is a comparatively late-era Muddy Waters record and the sound hasn’t evolved at all. The early blues records can be interesting in a historical sense, but this is just re-treading a formula . I can’t see what makes it stand out. I confess I didn’t actually make it through the whole album but I don’t think I really need to in order to know it sounds largely the same as every other blues record.

Travis? Really?? If you’re looking for an example of a desperately uninteresting, ‘vanilla’, background record, look no further. Utterly nondescript songs by a band whose only vague contribution to popular culture is a haircut. Up there with Dido in terms of lowest common denominator, coffee shop, blandness. It’s hard to listen to Travis without thinking that maybe pop is dead after all. If not dead, certainly pale, sickly and very, very tired.

After some of the records this list has been churning out, it was a very pleasant surprise to see this one pop up. Safe to say, I can listen to pretty much anything by Smog/Bill Callaghan and fall immediately under its spell. This is a particularly good one - that rich orchestration and his sublime voice creating a rich, dream-like sound. A fabulous record.

I think it’s pretty much been agreed that Gimme Shelter has the greatest intro of all time - in fact, there’s a strong case for it being one of the greatest singles of all time. Jagger is obviously outstanding but Keith Richards and ‘backing’ (co-lead, more like) vocalist Merry Clayton steal the show. Any album with this track on it gets an immediate 5 stars, but the rest is pretty great too. Love in Vain, Monkey Man, Midnight Rambler, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, Country Honk… wait, not that one… I think that one was included by mistake. But what an album.

I bloody hated the Stone Roses at the time and I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve ever listened to this album. It must say something about them though that I knew all the songs, and it probably says something about me that I still think they’re rubbish. I just can’t get past the fact that Ian Brown absolutely cannot sing. Some front people get away with that pretty spectacularly (Mark E Smith for example) but check YouTube for ANY live Ian Brown performance and his vocals are so unlistenable, it’s hilarious. They struck a chord with the kidz at the time though, and there’s no denying their influence, I’m just relieved I don’t have to listen to them.

I’ve never listened to this before - I liked it. It doesn’t remotely sound like something from 1974 - his sound seems to have become timeless. This one doesn’t have quite the same feel about it as some of his other stuff, but a good listen nonetheless.

I just don’t think I’m built for hip hop - there are exceptions but for the most part, I just can’t connect with it. It’s just not for me. In the opening track, he just sounds bored! I didn’t think I’d make it any further but I enjoyed the music of the next one, Around the Way Girl - it has a more soul-like feel that I liked. It gave me hope for the rest of the album but, nope, it was an isolated incident. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Another Springsteen album? There must be literally millions of great albums out there and this is a list of just 1,001 of them - it feels like 500 are going to be by Springsteen. I like him, but not for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s a perfectly good album, all very Springsteeny, but of the millions of albums in existence, is it among the greatest? Probably not, but I’d definitely put it in my top 500,000.

I like the music and general feel of the production (especially the souly female vocals in tracks like Lodi Dodi) but the genre is just not for me. It was fun to hear the original version of Gin and Juice as I’m only familiar with the cover by The Gourds although, great a cover version as it is, I can’t decide how sincere it is. And I think that’s part of my problem with records like this Snoop Dogg one. I can’t work out how much he means it and how much he’s playing a character, and I feel completely unqualified to enter a discussion about it, but the language and tone just doesn’t resonate with me, in fact, it puts me right off. It doesn’t offend me - if they made a movie out of one of these tracks, I’d probably love it but as it is, I just feel a complete disconnect. My problem, not Mr Dogg’s.

Short and very sweet but, to my ears at least, it’s lacking the punchier, more robust production of records like Bookends and Bridge Over Troubled Water. It has a very, thin, whimsical quality to it. A nice listen nonetheless.

I’m not a giant Bowie fan - I do really enjoy much of his work but I’m no obsessive and my patience has its limits. Yet, every track here is seemingly engrained into my psyche - each song is so ridiculously familiar it’s like they’ve always been there. And the really odd thing about it, is I can listen to them again and again without (much) complaint. It was a pleasure listening to this - I didn’t skip a second and when it finished, I could have listened again. I didn’t though.

When it comes to ‘proper’ jazz, I think Charles Mingus is probably one of my favourites - he’s certainly the one I reach for the most when the mood takes me. The thing is, I have no idea how to express what I think about it - I just know I really enjoy losing myself in it. The genre can often be tricky to make sense of but although Mingus’ records always feel like the real deal in terms of the gritty technicalities, they often feel very accessible to an untrained ear. This isn’t my favourite Mingus record but it’s a mightily immersive album that will sweep you away if you let it.

I haven’t listened to this all the way through since it came out when I was a student in the 90s and this kind of thing was de rigueur, especially in the wee small hours. It was never really my kind of thing - I’d have been more likely to reach for the Orb or Future Sound of London to scratch whatever itch it is this scratches, but I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed it this time round. While some of it drifted past without me really noticing (Melt, for example), other tracks really drew me in, especially the Afro influenced ones. Open Up is the obvious biggy - I’ve seen John Lydon perform it live with PiL and it still sounds great - and Original was nice to hear again even if it now sounds like something from a TV ad. The album as a whole sounds very much of its time though. It was fun to hear it again, I almost felt nostalgic for a period of my life I don’t miss at all, but it’s still not something I’ll find myself reaching for.

Much as I love REM’s stratospheric years that followed the album after this one, it’s the records up to and including Green that stay with me the most. This one is the first of their albums I bought on release so I’ve always felt a special attachment to it. Although songs like Stand, Orange Crush and Pop Song 89 lean towards the stadium-friendly pop end of the spectrum they ended up embracing, they still sound wonderful and somehow unique. And World Leader Pretend and You Are The Everything remain among my favourite REM moments to this day.

I was expecting to like this more than I did. Although the influence of this record on that skinny-jeaned NYC new wave indie sound is very obvious, I found the whole album a bit of a tuneless slog. They’re very much a singles band to my mind, the famous tracks being the only real standouts for me. And it might just the version I was listening to (2006 remaster) but Chrissie Hynde’s vocals seemed way too upfront, it was distracting just how much they seemed to dominate the record. I think I’ll stick to their Best of…

Every once in a while, a record crops up on this list that makes me think, ‘God, this is going to be awful, I can’t do it.’ But I pull myself together, park my preconceptions and dive in with an open mind only to be rewarded by something surprising and oddly enjoyable, even if it’s something I wouldn’t normally give the time of day. Sadly, this wasn’t one of those records and I feel like every last drop of enthusiasm I may have had for life on earth has been sucked out of me. So yeah, thanks for that.

I’d been vaguely aware of Lana Del Rey for a good few years before this album came out but had never really paid her much attention, assuming her work just wasn’t aimed at me. A friend sent me a link saying, ‘Heard this? It’s quite good’. And that was all it took - from the opening few seconds I was utterly transfixed. This is an extraordinarily good record - the mood, that strained, intimate vocal delivery, the cinematic feel it conjures… It’s one of a handful of albums I’ll never tire of. An actual masterpiece.

The title track is an undeniably great pop song and stands head and shoulders above everything else here. Jennifer caught my attention too in fairness - it left me wondering what a Sisters of Mercy cover of it would be like. Everything else washed over me really. It’s a perfectly good album but not much more than that…

“So I broke into the Palace With a sponge and a rusty spanner She said: "I know and you cannot sing!" I said: "That's nothing, you should hear me play piano!" I spent years quoting these lines to anyone and everyone who complained to me that The Smiths were depressing. Yes, there's some morbidity littered about Morrissey's lyrics, but they were never depressing - there's a sharp sense of humour present in so much of what they did and it rings throughout this album, especially in tracks like Frankly, Mr Shankly, Cemetry Gates, Bigmouth..., and of course, There is a Light... I was 12 in 1984 when I first heard The Smiths - the perfect age. I overheard What Difference Does it Make on the radio at a friends house and my life was immediately redirected down an alternative-music-loving path that I still travel all these years later. For me, The Smiths came along at just the right time; I still love everything they did and play them often. Mercifully, I am these days able to separate the Morrissey of then from the Morrissey of now, although it pains me to think that the stubborn, joyless racist he appears to have become might always have been the real him, bubbling underneath the outward character that wrote and performed these magnificent songs. I still love this album, but I'm giving it four stars as, for me, Meat is Murder is their finest studio album, and Hatful of Hollow the best collection of their songs.

Hard to believe this is their first album as they sound so fully formed - hard also to believe it came out in 1983. It sounds so unlike anything before or since. I’ve always thought Radio Free Europe is the odd one out here - it was released a couple of years earlier on the Chronic Town EP where it sounded far more at home. It sounds weirdly clunky and out of place here; it’s an odd choice for the opening track given the strengths of the others. We Walk is another oddity - much as I like it, it does sound like a B-side, albeit a great one. As for the rest of the tracks, it’s hard to pick a favourite. I’ve always thought of Murmur as a kind of blueprint that they stuck with until 1989’s Green when they took a slightly more adventurous turn. Much as I love Green, and the records that followed, the IRS years is the REM I fell in love with, and this record still sounds great.

Not a band I know anything about, only really being familiar with the big hit, Low Rider which I’m not a fan of due to over hearing it in the Marmite ad in the 90s. However, I really enjoyed listening to this - I’ll need to go back to it to get under its skin and I’m looking forward to doing so.

I have a strong suspicion there are hidden depths to this record that have passed me by completely - I’d be willing to give it another go at some point to see if it clicks. It may well do but right now, it’s just… a bit boring .

Lust for Life and Passenger are the big hits on this album for good reason - they’re great tracks, and way better than everything else on the record. I hoped something else might grab my attention in the same way - Some Weird Sin came close, but the rest just passed me by.

This really is one of those records that will always crop up on any 'greatest album ever' list - I get why, it is great, but I'm sure it's included out of habit these days. It's been bettered since it came out. I love the guitar sound but those slightly frantic-sounding vocals have always rankled a little and each track tends to ramble a bit. The influence it had on all that followed is clear for all to see, but it's time to move on, I reckon.

God, I wondered when this would crop up. The ongoing appeal of Oasis' stodgy, turgid, plod-rock is mystifying. Some of the tunes can snare you but this just distracts from the fact that none of the lyrics make any sense at all. This is tedious, lowest-common-denominator sludge for piss-hurling thugs. Liam Gallagher bought me a pint once but I've never spent a single penny on Oasis. This puts me up on the deal, and that's the only good thing I can say about them.

I like this record - it’s good. I like her voice, I like her evocative lyrics, the music is good. I like the cover art. I bought it when it came out - I thought it was good then and I think it’s good now. Is it among the greatest 1,001 albums ever? No. But it’s good.

I liked the song School’s Out for a brief period in the 80s when I was at school - it’s definitely a song you grow out of but I can still just about appreciate its charm. It’s never really occurred to me to listen to anything else by Alice Cooper though - in fact, I’d never listened to anything else by him until today when I heard a whole album. A whole album! Who knew such a thing existed? Anyway, it was all pretty awful so I can see why he only has one famous song. There were moments when I quite liked some of the music but they were few and far between. He sounds like he needs a Strepsil.

It's hard to consider this album without thinking about the Morrissey then and the Morrissey now. The 90s Morrissey apologist I was wouldn't forgive me for giving this any fewer than five stars. It's his first great solo album - his previous record, Kill Uncle, was dreadful but with this record, Morrissey really bounced back into life. The opening track, You're Gonna Need Someone... sounds like it's straight off the follow up to Strangeways, that never was - as do many of the songs here, but... But... BUT... then there's The National Front Disco, a song about a family losing their boy to the extreme right wing, elsewhere there are lyrics like, "We are the last truly British people you will ever know", "England for the English", etc... "But he's singing from the character in the song's point of view", we whimpered, in his defence... Well, he fooled us all, but there's no denying this is a really good record and I sang my head off (almost) all the way through. In terms of his solo stuff, it was bettered only by Vauxhall and I a couple of years later. He's dead to me now though.

The first time I heard Gorillaz, someone played Tomorrow Comes Today on the radio saying they were a new band and Damon Albarn had contributed guest vocals to the track. It piqued my interest and it was a while until I realised it was actually Albarn's new project so it's funny, listening again now for the first time in years, how much of it sounds like a lost Blur album. It felt like such a departure for him at the time. This is a really adventurous, fun, creative and intriguing album that's really standing the test of time.

The charts when this came out were full of schmaltzy crooners and saccharine orchestras - this record must’ve been a wake up call for the kids of the day. Yes there was Elvis, and all the other nascent rock n rollers starting to make waves but they all pale next to the energy of this record. Even all these years later you can appreciate the sheer joy and exuberance these songs must’ve generated. Little Richard just pounds each song out, even the slow ones, and they still sound great today. The influence he had on all that followed is incalculable. This was great fun to listen too.

There’s just something about Jack White’s voice that puts me right off everything he does - Hotel Yorba by the White Stripes is about the only song of his I can get all the way through, even then I’m grateful it’s only two minutes long. I quite like the music on this record - each time a new track started, I thought, Oh, this might be okay… then he’d sing and spoil it. I think, apart from anything else, I always have that wretched doorbell song in the back of my mind and I can never forgive him for it.

I like Hot Chip - I like their tunes, I like the vocals and listening to them tends to put a spring in my step. This is a really good record, I really enjoyed listening to it, I just wouldn’t put it on a list of 1001 albums to hear before you die - if I’d died while listening to it for the first time, not getting to the end of it would be way down the list of things that would’ve bothered me.

If there was a fight between Strangeways, Here we Come and Meat is Murder, I think this one would win, and be crowned my favourite studio album by the Smiths. Their eponymous debut was a disappointment after those early singles - that stodgy production pulled the life out of some great songs, and The Queen is Dead, while obviously a great record, has a couple of tracks that I really need to be in the mood for. Meat is Murder sparkled production-wise - this is peak Smiths: the humour, the melodies, those guitars and THAT bass - I swear Andy Rourke is the unsung hero in the Smiths... Anyway, yes, five stars - a belter.

I think there might be something wrong with me - i just can’t make sense of records like this. It might be amazing, I just can’t tell. It’s like I can’t hear it. The problem is all mine. Give me three chords, a middle eight and some shouting and I’m all over it. Sorry Common, I bet you’re great, you’re just not what I’m looking for.

I remember buying this on cassette when it came out and playing it endlessly for months - it's one of those albums that's just part of my DNA now. Lifelong friendships were formed around a love of this record. Each track is extraordinary. It's peak-Pixies, and a record I don't think they've ever bettered.

My heart sank a little when this one popped up. I know how influential this stuff is, and the history of blues music is something we should all be aware of and never forget, but I have to be in the mood to listen to it. And I really wasn't. At least I didn't think I was. The moment he started singing, I completely switched on to it. I had actual goosebumps at one point, and when the record finished playing, I played it all over again. I'm probably more familiar with the his later material when he was older and gruffer and I think that's what I was expecting, but this was just wonderful. His vocal performance really caught my attention and the music was a total joy. A great record that I'm glad to have finally found.

Although it's a record that would most certainly appear in my own list of 1,001 greatest albums, it's not a record I expected to see here for some reason. Although they had some of the spotlight in the late 80s and early 90s when they were saddled with the grunge tag, they've always seemed to operate just beneath the surface. It's a shame they're not better known - their brand of raw, garage rock (not grunge - leave that to bloody Pearl bloody Jam) has always cut right to the quick. Mark Arm's distinctive vocals, belting out over those jagged guitars are immediately identifiable. This whole package is great - the title, the artwork, the tunes. And it's got Broken Hands on it - an alt anthem everyone should know, but sadly very few do.

In places, it sounds like two or three completely different records playing at the same time. That drum 'n' bass sound was probably great at 3am on a Sunday morning in the late 90s while you were waiting for the drugs to ease off so you could go to your mum's for lunch, but in 2025 it sounds like someone in the studio made a mistake. I like some elements, like the string sounds and the Asian influences but for the most part, it sounds like the kind of record that gets played slightly too loudly in the kinds of bars I don't want to be in.

What can possibly be said about this album? Every song is an utter joy, and notably it’s their first record with no cover versions - they were really hitting their stride here. Yep, good, this.

Remarkably, this is the first time I’ve listened to a Rush album and quite enjoyed it - maybe the wind was blowing in the right direction, or perhaps I pressed play at the very moment the meds kicked in. I’ve tried to like Rush on many occasions and failed miserably - I often like the music, but that voice! I just can’t get to grips with it. Mercifully, it seemed quite toned down on this record - he sounds less like a Muppet on helium which helped me to enjoy things a little more. Growing up, I always had Rush down as a metal band, but musically, this sounds like a lot of contemporary prog bands. As a Porcupine Tree fan, I can really hear their influence. I’ve long since written Rush off as a band I might like, but this record might yet prove to be a way in…

it's all perfectly charming, but it just feels weirdly cliched these days. There’s something ’middle-class-coffee-table-book’ about the whole thing - for a while in the late 90s this stuff was everywhere which, although initially interesting, ended up rendering it all a bit boring. Harmless background music, at best.

Much as I like The Byrds, it's the Gene Clark/David Crosby era that really grabs my attention, especially when they were doing Dylan’s songs better than Dylan did them. With Gram Parsons, it all went a bit too 'Dukes of Hazard' for my liking, with the vocal harmonies and that signature chiming 12-string seeming to take a back seat. 'One Hundred Years from Now', stands out, harking back a little to their earlier sound, but for the most part, this one loses me a bit.

I really enjoy digging deep into ‘global’ music, or whatever the most appropriate term is. There’s so much incredible music out there, it seems a shame to restrict yourself to what are essentially variations if the same thing. Not this though. Definitely not this.

I enjoyed listening to this - it really isn't my thing, but I always thought there was always something quite fun about A Tribe Called Quest. Rightly or wrongly I put De La Soul in a similar bracket. It's the music that makes it for me in records like this, and this one just has a nice feel to it. I don't feel the need to hunt down everything they ever did, but I didn't want to turn it off screaming either. So that's good.

I don’t know what I’ve just listened too. I know I don’t like it, but it’s definitely interesting. I’ve a grudging appreciation of Ms Jackson too. The whole thing is quite unlike anything else, which is great butI can’t imagine listening to it out of choice.

Perfectly enjoyable for what it is, but it’s pretty generic at best. It sounds exactly like lots of other records released 1998/9. I played the whole thing but pretty much forgot it was on.

This wonderful, sophisticated, pop record is what we get when artists are allowed to grow and develop over a number of years rather than being rapidly built up then brutally knocked down by a revenue-hungry industry. In fairness, the time it took Pulp to reach these heights probably wasn't part of any grand plan, but that's the way things unfolded, and glorious records like this are what we get as a result. From the masterful pop of Mis-shapes and Disco 2000 to the rather more creepy, sinister epics like I Spy, Pulp deliver their sprawling tales of love, lust, revenge, obsession, regret, chance, class, suburbia, and anxiety with a brand of flare, humour and panache that I don’t think we’ve seen from anyone before or since. And I haven't even mentioned Common People - now so incredibly familiar but when you step back and consider it afresh, the lyrics, the structure, the energy - everything! It's like nothing else. One of the greatest pop singles ever and surely almost universally relatable. A great record from a band at the height of their powers.

Another one of those records where I think you had to be there to really appreciate it. Listening in 2025 it sounds like a good record by a great singer songwriter - I know there’s more to it but I just can’t feel a connection. I suspect there’s a context I need to be aware of to really get it. I did listen a couple of times and it’s probably a record I will click with given time but I don’t think I’ll ever consider it to be essential. That said, the cover of For No One is sublime.

This was fun to listen too - I especially enjoyed the live versions of familiar songs, like Chain Gang and Cupid but I can't get as excited about it all as Sam Cooke does. It captures these early soul/R&B club gigs very nicely but it feels like more of a historical document than a record I'd put on and listen to. And, dare I say it, it all sort of starts to sound the same after a while.

It feels like the lead track, 1999, has been played to death so I approached it expecting to be instantly bored. Good though, innit? It's almost impossible to believe it came out in 1982. This song, and the track that follows it, Little Red Corvette, are like pop music masterclasses, and both feel almost timeless. Then came Delirious, which sounds exactly like something that came out in 1982 - that chirpy little synth sound quickly became irritating and I had to skip the track. The rest of the album drifted into similar synth-funk territory that all sounds quite dated now, to me at least. I enjoyed listening to it though. I get the appeal of Prince - he was highly prolific, and seemingly consistently good, as well as being an extraordinary live performer who gave his fans 100%. I've just never really surrendered myself to it all - there are other Prince records I know I like more than this one (Parade springs immediately to mind), but I can see myself returning to this and maybe digging deeper into his back catalogue.

Devendra Banhart has largely passed me by for some reason, although on the evidence of this record, I don't feel like I've missed a great deal. The worst bits sound like songs that Donovan threw away, but the better moments put me in mind of Sufjan Stevens. It's an interesting enough record in places and I think if I'd paid attention to it at the time, it would have made a more positive impression. As it is, I find the vocal stylings overly-affected, and a bit annoying, and the whole thing just left me wondering if I could make my own Album You Must Hear Before You Die. (I couldn't).

Back in 2010, I saw Crosby, Stills and Nash supporting Paul McCartney in Hyde Park. It was a hot summer's day and the dust was being stirred up by the thousands of feet in attendance - despite being in the middle of London, the setting felt perfect, and to this day, that CSN show is one of the greatest life performances I've ever witnessed. They were utterly magnificent, capturing that laid-back, Laurel Canyon vibe in the way I'd hoped they would, but didn't for a second think they'd be able to pull off at this late stage in their careers. Anyway, it set me off on a journey exploring all things CSN&Y, and their multiple connected universes, and this record really stood out. I hadn't played it in ages, so it was great to turn it up and lose myself in it again - I'm playing it for a third time as I type. Yes, there's a degree of hippy-dippyness involved, the folky violins can be a bit yee-hah, and Jesus gets the odd mention, but these things just seem to belong in records l like this. I'm not going to pick through favourite tracks - suffice to say, I like this album a lot and it was great to be reunited with it.

If I had a favourite hip-hop/rap album, which I don’t, but if I did, it would probably be this one. But I don’t. The genre leaves me feeling old and bewildered, but this is a fun record and I enjoyed listening to it. As with all records in this genre, it’s the music that makes it for me.

Well. I could never have imagined I would find myself on a rainy Monday morning in 2025, listening to an album by ZZ Top on the premise it's essential I do so before anything terrible happens to me. The plodding, sludgy music aside, the lyrics are mostly horrendous and really do not belong on the 21st century. They're of their time, and fair enough, I just don't think they need to be trumpeted today. I honestly believe you could live a long and happy life without ever encountering this record. It should probably be returned to the 80s and buried in concrete.

There's only one Elvis. I can listen to (almost) anything by Elvis Costello at any time of the day or night. I love his voice, his songwriting and wordplay, those tunes - the whole lot. And I love his work with the Attractions even more - that distinctive keyboard sound and, more than anything else, Bruce Thomas' extraordinary bass playing... Yep, this album's a belter. Released at the tail-end of punk's peak, it bursts with an urgent, melodic, punchy energy that I just don't think anyone else came close to. What a great record.

Ah, I will never forget the laughter in the pub when I innocently announced to my mates that I'd like to get Bummed by the Happy Mondays. I did though, and I've no regrets.

On paper, this should be right up my street, but I’ve never got it. I just hear forgettable, thin, scratchy indie rock that paved the way for the White Stripes. Not a good thing. I think I’d like them more if people didn’t keep banging on about them - the praise they received seems hugely disproportionate to how good they are.

If you're interested in the evolution of the rock and pop record, then Led Zeppelin are essential listening - that rock sound, rooted in the blues, the soon-to-be-known as 'heavy metal' vocal delivery, the birth of the 'rock god', the arena-filling live shows... Led Zeppelin were at the forefront of it all. However, as with anything so popular and influential, it can quickly become tired and cliched - I find them a tough listen these days. It all sounds a bit Spinal Tap to me. It IS an adventurous, creative album, and if you try and imagine how it sounded when released in 1969 you can appreciate how groundbreaking it was. But there's also a weighty dourness to it, and listening right now, that's something I just can't get past.

Lots has been said about the best opening lines in a song but if there’s any discussion around the best closing lines, “The pump don’t work, coz the vandals took the handles” gets my vote. I have to admit, I let out an audible groan when another Dylan album cropped up and I nearly didn’t bother listening. Glad I did though, this is great. Subterranean Homesick Blues is a monumental opener that really sets the pace for the rest of the record. Bursting with sharp, entertaining wordplay throughout, this was a great listen. Next time I find myself thinking Dylan is massively overrated (it happens a lot) I’m going to listen to this album.

Not my favourite Pogues album (that'll be Rum, Sodomy, & the Lash) but it served as my introduction to them, with Fairytale of New York and Fiesta being the first of their songs I heard. This feels more 'pop' than their first two albums - slightly more polished, with fewer rough edges but the songwriting and storytelling are still great.

What load of overblown guff. It reminds me of a stomach ache I once had that ended very badly.

This was a great listen - I was familiar with the first track as it had quite a bit of radio play at the time on BBC 6Music, but for some reason I never explored them further. I'm glad this record cropped up, I've a feeling it's going to send me down a bit of a rabbit hole. Their description on Apple Music as a 'Desert Blues' band doesn't nearly do them justice - this is energetic, spirited, infectious music that needs to be played loud. The Led Zeppelin and Clash covers were good fun too.

I know it's cool to knock Coldplay, but I am absolutely not cool, and knock them simply because I think they're awful. Parachutes admittedly had a sprinkling of good tunes on it but everything thereafter is the epitome of dreary, pedestrian, guitar pop. They seem to be decent enough people though, and they appear to use their bafflingly elevated position to be a force for good, but I don’t understand why people love their music so much. This is a very dull and lifeless record.

I was pleasantly surprised to see this record crop up although I really can't put my finger on what it is I like about them. There's nothing especially different or unusual about The War On Drugs - they don't stand out particularly. If anything, their sound seems quite dated - they put me in mind of those 'grown up' bands that hung around just outside the Top 40 in the late 80s, like World Party, The Blue Nile, at al. They don't sound like those bands, they just remind me of them. Their sound seems to adhere to a well trodden path - I really don't think, in the grand scheme of things, this album is an essential listen, but I'm glad it exists. Crap name for a band though.

I always think Sting sounds like he needs to do his breathing and just calm himself down a bit. He often sings at levels of urgency that make him sound like he’s about to do himself a mischief. Obviously, Message in a Bottle and Walking on the Moon are the big ones here and they both still sound great, but, not being familiar with their album tracks, it was good to have my interest piqued by several others. For the ultimate version of Message in a Bottle though, look up the one by Leatherface. That’s how you do it.

I liked this record when it came out - 26 years later though, it all feels a bit... relentless. It was like chewing an oversized ball of gum with a headache. But in a good way. Possibly. Maybe I'm just happier now than I was then. Maybe I just like a nice chorus. The standout track by a country mile is Broken Little Sister, the guest vocals by Jim Reid making it sound every bit like a lost Jesus and Mary Chain track - it was great to hear it again. There's a decent list of guest vocalists with Reid, Iggy Pop, Dot Allison and Bobby Gillespie all getting in on the action and yes, it's a good record... it's just a bit of a chewy slog.

I was surprised by how dated this one sounded - I thought it would sparkle more. The well known tracks still sound great and Cass Elliot’s voice still shines but some songs, like Spanish Harlem, with those strings, sound like something by a crooner from 10 years earlier. I think I’ll stick with the Best Of…

Fairly standard sludgy rock with exhausting axe heroics liberally sprinkled throughout, but this album wasn’t quite as awful as I was expecting. The vocals didn’t annoy me as much as I thought they would and I almost enjoyed the overall choppiness and occasionally varied time signatures. I surprised myself by listening to the whole thing and although I hope never to hear it again, it’s not an experience I regret.

I love how divisive this kind of thing can be - people will probably either ADORE this record, or they they'll HATE it with every fibre of their being. Personally, I sit comfortably in the former camp. I'm not a big fan of the 'prog' label, but I do love music full of surprising twists and turns - to my ears, this kind of thing is endlessly compelling and it feels like there's something new to discover with each listen. I loved losing myself in this and when it had finished I went on to Relayer and Going for the One before moving on to some Gentle Giant, followed by, naturally, the mighty Cardiacs. Wonderful stuff.

As debut albums go, this is pretty spectacular - and a brilliantly appropriate band name too. I loved this record when it came out and it sounds every bit as furious today as it did 30+ years ago. I belted it out at battle volume (while the kids were at school, obviously) and it sounded great. It still fizzes with a raging energy, and there isn't a single weak moment in the whole thing. It's alarming to think, their message is probably more relevant today than it was when it came out. Nothing else they did ever caught my attention quite like this record - it's really not the kind of thing I listen to much these days so it was great to reacquaint myself with it.

I love the band name, I love the album title, I love the artwork (I love the font!), I have friends who love them - I like what I've read about BoC, and when I hear them referenced anywhere, I feel a warm smug glow because I know who they are... but bloody hell, it's a bit boring, isn't it? It just sounds like everything else by everyone else just like them. I feel like I could probably make a record like this on my phone if I had time to kill. It's a shame, that really is a nice font.

It's hard to listen to this objectively as it's been part of my life since it came out. I've been a fan of Blur since Modern Life is Rubbish, their best record in my view; I was lucky enough to see them touring the university circuit when Parklife came out, just before it launched them into the stratosphere. They were always a great live band, and this is a great, fun, pop record, bursting with Kinks-esque songwriting, wonderful tunes and just enough quirky twists and turns to keep it interesting, even after all these years.

Remarkably unremarkable, and yet here I am, remarking.

I really wanted to stand back from this one a bit - it’s one of those archetypal ’classic albums’ that appears in every list, to the point that you wonder if there some kind of conspiracy at play. How good can a record be? It’s surely now a habit now to call Blue a great album. It’s just a record. I didn’t want to call it great just because everyone says it’s great and therefore, it’s great. So I planned to pull a few bits off of it - I was going to have a stab at the occasional tendency for over-singing, like for example on My Old Man where Mitchell’s stretching the vocal cords into warbler mode but really, how could it be sung any differently? How could these songs be presented in any other way? This is perfection. A brilliant, brilliant record. Every second is pitch-perfect. A masterclass record.

I don’t know what to say about this album other than I love it just as much today as I did when it came out. It just doesn’t age - in fact, it still sounds like an album from the future. Impossibly good.

I love Drive-by Truckers so it was nice to see them crop up here. Wrong album though! This was the record that got them some attention, the concept double album that gave the critics lots to write about, but I’ve never really clicked with it. It’s lumpy southern rock by a great band one album away from really hitting their stride with Decoration Day, followed by The Dirty South - both records towering head and shoulders above this one. There’s still a lot to love here but there’s too much of it and the quality is inconsistent. A great band though, and some of the best live shows I’ve ever seen.

Great to hear this again, I hadn’t played it all the way through in years. My brief tenure as a Green Day fan began with their previous album, Kerplunk, and ended with this one - not because everything else wasn’t any good, just because these two created the blueprint and I didn’t need to hear them trying to make the same records over and over. This is great fun though - Longview, Paradise, Basket Case and She in particular still stand out as perfect blasts of punky pop.

I like this but, as with other jazz records on this list, I can't explain why. It just feels good. I can be in any mood to listen to it and it always makes me feel the same way. It's just good music. I know that a musician could probably talk for hours about why and how it's good, but I'm not one and so can't, which is probably for the best. A jazz aficionado would probably kick me square in the shin for saying this, but I don't think I mind if it's Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, whoever... I just like it. It's good.

I decided to put everything I think I know about Kanye West to the back of my mind to give this record a fair go but I really bloody hated it within the first three seconds. Once I got past that horrible narration, or whatever it is, and the music started, yeah, okay... it's not terrible. The music and the tunes were okay - the melodies are there and that's something I think is usually missing from hip-hop/rap records. It hasn't relieved me of my general disconnection with the genre but I didn't stamp on my laptop which is what I thought would happen. In fact, I listened to the whole thing and didn't hate it. Trust me, that's high praise. I didn't listen too closely to the lyrics - I suspect if I did, my rating would be adjusted downwards but I know I will never listen to this again, so let's move on.

Another concept album by the Kinks which, again, is packed with wonderful songwriting but this one is somehow not as compelling as Village Green. It feels a bit lacklustre in places - missing the oomph. That said, Victoria is an obvious classic (even if I prefer The Fall's cover version), and Australia and Shangri-La have a more adventurous, epic feel about them. I think it's probably an album that will make more sense the more I listen, and I'm certainly willing to put in the work. Lyrically, it's a joy throughout.

I hadn't listened to this album all the way through in YEARS. In the opening track, Disorder, you can immediately appreciate the influence the record has had over the years - straight away it reminded me of Interpol. This is definitely an album to wallow in - especially if you're in your teens as I was when I first heard it. Listening now, I was transported to those years in the late 80s when I was discovering this kind of thing for the first time, and the likes of Joy Division, Sisters of Mercy, The Cure and Bauhaus were on high rotation. It's good to have that connection to these songs because if I heard it for the first time today, much of it, especially the darker, gloomier ones, (so most of them then) just wouldn't resonate in the same way. That said, while it was a trip down memory lane for me (Disorder, New Dawn Fades and She's Lost Control sounding particularly brilliant), I love how the record continues to resonate and influence young musicians today. Who could've imagined this would all lead to that God awful World Cup song.

I always liked this record. It’s clearly an accomplished album by a talented chap, but in no way, shape or form is it essential listening. I just can’t work out what it’s doing on this list. I remember buying it on the strength of the single, Another Pearl, which still sounds good today. It’s an album of nice melodies, nice songwriting, a rich sound and production… it’s just… nice. But that’s about it. Pleasant as it is, none of it has had any particular lasting influence so far as I can tell.

I love the cynical, self-referential Rock n Roll Star, and tracks like Renaissance Fair and Everybody’s Been Burned gleam with David Crosby’s magic touch. The harmonies and chiming 12-string are in full flow, the signature sounds are all there, but it does feel like they’re getting to the end of something with this record. Mind Gardens in particular shows the listener where Crosby was heading. It’s a mish-mash of an album, but an interesting listen.

I love a bit of Bowie - I get his importance and influence and feel he deserved the fawning adoration he received but I don't consider myself a fan as such. He's way down the list when I think about my favourite artists - I also think he was responsible for some absolute rubbish. But this album, when it came out, blew me away - obviously, there was the tragedy of his death, and the way he seemed to combine the record's release with his passing to create one final, extraordinary artistic statement was very beautiful and moving but it made it hard to listen to the record in isolation from all that. But when you do, you're left with an amazingly progressive piece of work by someone who really should have stopped being essential many years before. Very probably my favourite Bowie album. No one can reasonably expect such a sumptuous, cohesive, adventurous record from anyone after so many years in the business. What a way to go.

I’d forgotten just how good this record is, all the more so when you think he did everything himself so soon after Nirvana came to such sudden, tragic end. Over the years, they’ve morphed into a fairly generic stadium rock band, but this one’s quite a belter.

I enjoyed reading about this record more than I enjoyed listening to it - that's not to say I didn't enjoy listening too. It was interesting to hear about the record's influence on artists I'm really fond of like George Harrison and David Crosby. It's not something I'll be reaching for myself, but I appreciate the introduction.

I can’t remember the last time I listened this record all the way through from beginning to end; I know for a fact I’ve never listened through and followed the lyrics as I have just now. Every second spent in the company of this record is a second well spent. Great band name, masterpiece of an album. I wish I didn’t hear ‘Ribena’ instead of Repeater, but what can you do?

The fact that Spector ended up dying in prison a convicted murderer somewhat taints the festive shimmer of this one. It also doesn't help that I'm listening to it in January. They're perfectly charming Christmas songs though, and there's no denying 'that' production style does bring a certain something to proceedings.

Every once in a while, I find myself disappearing down a Paul Simon rabbit hole. Much as I enjoy a bit of Simon & Garfunkel, it's Simon's solo work that really shines for me. With this record, he seemed to actively step away from that whimsical, folksy sound he'd honed with Garfunkel - a bold move when you consider how enormously successful that formula had been, but he absolutely nailed it. A beautiful, plush production that suits his voice fantastically, and some masterful songwriting - this is a great record.

I've never knowingly heard anything by Lorde before. I have now though, so... thanks? I suspect if I was fifteen rather than 53, this record might mean more to me than it does. As it is, it seems unremarkable and entirely forgettable. The world seems to be awash with records exactly like it.

I totally get how influential Big Star are because I really like loads of the bands that cite them as a key influence. I've never clicked with them myself though. I quite enjoyed listening to this - it sounded quite Bowie in places, which I wasn't expecting, but there's something about that almost glam-style vocal sound that rattles me a bit. I'm glad they existed as we might not have Teenage Fanclub without them, and I really like Teenage Fanclub.

Other than their single, 'Can't Get Out of Bed', which I loved, I had no strong views on The Charlatans until seeing them live at a festival in 2004 when they completely blew me away. I came away a full blown fan, digging into their back catalogue and looking forward to each new thing they did. They've never released a bad record - in fact, some of their later records are my favourites. There aren't many bands these days that can get this far into their existence and still release truly great records. Tellin' Stories is a glorious pop record with a giant sound that needs to be played loud. Wonderful stuff.

There truly is nothing else quite like this record - people try but no one else comes close. It's one of those records that seems to exist in its own universe where even Kate Bush's other albums don't comfortably sit. It's a beautiful, bouncing, jarring, wonky, melodic, cinematic, pop masterpiece by a true artist.

I nearly didn't listen to this one, convinced as I was that this sweating waxwork of a singer would just screech and yelp his way through the whole thing and leave me wanting to kill people. But here we are. Who's first?

Bob Marley? Again? Good as this record is, I can't help thinking that if my days were numbered (which, thinking about it, I suppose they are - great, thanks for that) and I had 1,001 albums to wade through, I wouldn't necessarily want them all to be by Bob Marley. Yep, he was good, and this is another good album, one that in fairness, I'd never heard before, but shall we move on? And I don't mean to Bob Dylan.

A perfectly enjoyable listen but I can't for the life of me work out what makes this record stand out from the many others just like it. It actually sounds like something from ten years earlier so it's hardly a trailblazer either. I like it. I like toast too, but I wouldn't put it on a list of greatest foods ever.

I had to break my own rule and skip every track as there’s just no room in my head for this kind of turgid silliness. Each track is just a thudding dollop of merit-free tosh. I’m actually partial to a bit of metal, especially of the prog variety (I’m really hoping Tool make an appearance on this list at some point) but this, and every other Metallica record I’ve ever endured just bursts at the seams with everything I hate and absolutely nothing whatsoever of even the vaguest appeal. I can’t give zero stars so they can have one for the fade-in at the beginning. I can’t think of any other albums that fade in although there must be some. If there was a god, it would fade right out again though.

I'd sort of forgotten about Cypress Hill. When Black Sunday came out in '93 they were pretty much inescapable - they seemed to me to be at the more tolerable end of the genre and I would go so far as to say I quite liked that record once I got past the whiny vocal delivery. I'd never heard this record before but I do quite like their sound, even if the words are a bit shooty for my tastes. As with pretty much every record I've ever heard in this genre, I can't relate to a single word of it, but I guess I don't need to. It also starts to sounds very samey after a while - when it finished playing, I couldn't really remember any of it, and I was left with no real desire to remind myself.

Once, while I was listening to a disco playlist on headphones at the gym, a man came up to the treadmill next to mine and started doing some very elaborate warm-up exercises. They fitted perfectly with the Earth Wind & Fire song that was playing and it looked exactly like he was strutting his stuff to it. It very nearly killed me. Anyway, yes, I love this. I swear you could put this record on at any time of any day, irrespective of what you're doing, and your world will be a brighter, happier place for it. Most songs exude a very pure joy that it's hard not to like. The musicianship is extraordinary, especially the bass on tracks like Happy Feelin'. And Just look at them on the cover. They're loving it, and rightly so. More like this please.

There's such a bounding, urgent energy to this record, it's hard to believe anyone could possibly feel anything but total love for it. It's one of those era-defining records that lifelong friendships are formed over and it remains every bit as essential today as the day it was released which, given some of the subject matter, is a shame really. Five stars is not enough.

An apt title given this is the fourth Kinks album I've encountered on this list. As I've said about Bob Marley and Bob Dylan, yes, it's a great record but if you're selecting 1,001 albums from the whole of human history, it seems a bit restricting to keep selecting the same artists. This is a perfectly good pop record by a band I like a lot, but I don't think it would make it on to my list of 5,000 most essential albums, so I can't for the life of me fathom what it's doing here. I guess the point is to review the record rather than the list though so, yeah, it's good. It has some of my favourite Kinks tracks on it but the instrumentals sound dated - more like background music to an old TV show. Not even an essential Kinks album.

A cut above your average 80s pop album - brimming with tight, complex arrangements and a sense of drama, all wrapped in a lush, glossy production. The bass is especially striking. It's still very much an 80s pop album but you can hear the influence it's had on much that followed. I can't believe it's 44 years old - it's held up incredibly well, maintaining that fresh, punchy feel. It in no way sounds like a debut album either - it bursts with a fully-formed confidence. I enjoyed the whole album but All of my Heart really stood out as a highlight.

I saw The La’s live once and they played There She Goes three times in the same set. Having just listened to their album, I can now see why - it’s their only song. The rest is just plodding skiffle and instantly forgettable.

I enjoyed listening to this. It's all very smoochy and I didn't think it would really lend itself very well to a cold, grey, damp, Monday morning in January but it's a very calming, rich-sounding record and it quietly swept me away for half an hour while I pretended to understand a spreadsheet. So, thanks Marvin. And what a voice. Going to have to dig out more by him now.

I think I've probably spent too much time trying to 'get' The Band - they really do seem to be another one of those bands that are much more interesting to read about than to listen to. Their place in music history seems secure but the records themselves sound very much of their time, and, well, just a bit boring these days. I appreciate that this is an album that helped formed the foundations for a lot of more recent bands that I love, but while it's great to have a grasp of the family history, at the end of the day, I'd rather be out with my mates than out with my nan.

Well that was a nice surprise. I hadn't listened to this album in YEARS and certainly didn't expect it to crop up here. It's a record I owned around the time it came out but I'd never quite grasped just how influential it's been. Listening to it again now, it clearly set the tone for the 'proper' indie scene of the early 90s, in the UK at least. Great to hear it again.

It was nice to reacquaint myself with this one - a good, solid album of Stonesy, Eltony heartbreakers. I played it a lot when it came out and enjoyed it, but it's nothing special. It's pretty formulaic Americana rock/pop, but done well. The many allegations against him over the last few years make it hard to really enjoy it these days, but yeah, the songs are holding up well.

When they first appeared, I took a fairly immediate disliking to the Manics as I found their posturing and sloganeering all a bit forced and cliched. They piqued my interest though when I saw them live at a free festival in '93, then they released this album and I sort of clicked with them. At the time, I enjoyed the edgy urgency of this record, and the tunes really struck me and kept me coming back to it. I hadn't listened for years and looked forward to giving it a go again but it just doesn't have the spark I remembered. I accept that after all this time, it's most likely me that's lost the spark, but I found it a bit of a slog - something about the production of it maybe, that just feels heavy, in a dour kind of way, and a bit... exhausting. I'm not a Manics fan, but I like that they exist, and they seem like good people, but think I'll just stick with the Best Of...

In spite of everything, I still like this. I like the twists and turns the music takes, especially in tracks like Rebellion (Lies), Crown of Love and Wake Up - the latter being my favourite thing by them by some distance. The album has a big sound, the strings giving them an almost theatrical feel at times. This is the only record by them I’m really familiar with - it really embodies that early ’00’s American-Canadian indie sound when films like Garden State, and bands like The Shins and Broken Social Scene seemed to represent a new, fresh alternative. Life was especially enjoyable for me around that time and records like this were the soundtrack - listening now reminds me of many good times that even sex pest allegations can’t shake. (Win Butler’s, not mine…)

I wanted to like this more than I did. I'd never heard of the record or the artist and it started well, but it all began to sound a bit samey pretty quickly. I love the brassy sounds and the percussion that characterises a lot of Brazilian music, but that bird-like hooting sound* is maddeningly overused on this record, making it hard to listen to the whole thing all the way through. I could do with fewer whistles too. In short, not for me. *a Cuica, apparently. I looked it up. You live and learn.

J Mascis is one of those artists who seems to have been releasing the same record for 30+ years, but because that record is so good, it really doesn’t matter. Freak Scene was my introduction to the band back in the late 80s - it still sounds magnificent, and like something that could’ve come out last week. Alongside bands like Pixies, Buffalo Tom, etc this is the stuff that helped shape my tastes in my late teens and continues to resonate.

Hilariously relentless, it really is borderline unlistenable nonsense, but I LOVE that it exists. I remember listening to John Peel's late night BBC Radio One show in the 80s as a young teenager and hearing occasional 20 second bursts (i.e. two or three whole songs) of Napalm Death, Extreme Noise Terror, etc, and just being utterly thrilled by it. That sense of, 'whoah, what just happened?', still remains after all these years, which is pretty great, but a whole album? I'm fine, thanks... Oh, go on then. By way of a footnote, fast forward a few years and check out Napalm Death's cover version of To Go Off And Things by Cardiacs on YouTube. Magnificent.

Yes, Clapton has trashed his own legacy by being such a cretinous arse, but it’s hard to ignore his talent and influence. And yes, this is 'privileged white boy blues', but it’s directly influenced by the original blues players who were (and still to this day, are) openly cited and revered. And there's no escaping the fact that records like this one make up a significant part of the foundations for all the music that defined western popular culture over the last 60+ years. But, while I think this record deserves its place in the list, it makes for inescapably dull listening these days.

The rolling ‘r’ in ‘robots’ on the first track was almost enough to make me press stop and hurl it out of the window but once that track was out of the way, I could relax and enjoy the rest of the album. Growing up in the 80s, I’ve always had a soft spot for electronic music, especially the synth pop of the early 80s. Kraftwerk’s influence is extraordinary and they still sound incredibly fresh today. This isn’t music I will sit down and listen to intently, but, without wishing to label it as ‘background music’, it’s good company.

THIS is why recording studios have locks on the doors. I can only assume this record’s inclusion is some kind of administrative error. Who do we tell?

I was already under Calexico's spell when this came out, having first heard them around the time of Hot Rail in 2000 - I heard The Battle of Cable Hogue on a free CD with Uncut magazine, and I was hooked. Feast of Wire took their already well established cinematic, spaghetti western sound to entirely new levels. There isn't a single weak moment - it's brimming with a deeply atmospheric sense of place, and the whole thing seems to play out like a film. Put your headphones on, close your eyes, and you can taste the dust. Their run of albums from 1998's The Black Light through to 2008's Carried to Dust are untouchable, but Feast of Wire stands head and shoulders above them all in really capturing the essence of the band. I still reach for this album regularly - one of my all time favourites.

Much as I like Teenage Fanclub, I’ve never really clicked with this one. I find it odd that this is the album of theirs people always cite as a classic. It’s got a very sludgy sound to it and the songs feel a little half-baked compared to their fresher, more fully-formed records that followed. It feels very much of its time although some tunes, like Metal Baby and What You Do To Me provide indications of the band they’d grow into. Grand Prix is my go-to album of theirs.

Remember in the 80s when CDs first came out and they said you could eat your dinner off them, drive a steam roller over them and chuck them in the sea? I bet if you did, they would sound exactly like this. It’s not for me, but the world needs artists that plough their own furrow, and if you listen carefully to this album, you can hear their tractor.

I love Steely Dan. There, I said it. Until fairly recently, I'd have filed them under 'guilty pleasures', but as you get older, you realise there should be no such thing. To paraphrase Cardiacs' Tim Smith, it's all just tunes. And these are great tunes - the whole record just feels great to spend a bit of time with. Is it essential to hear this record before the Grim Reaper comes for you? Possibly not, but it might put a smile on your face.

I really don't understand the appeal of the White Stripes. Their records have a really thin sound - the songs feel like they should have some real clout but it's just not there. Each track sounds like a demo. Jack White's voice rattles me too, which doesn't help - in fact, the only stand-out track here for me is fronted by Meg, 'In the Cold, Cold Night'. The rest is completely forgettable, apart from Seven Nation Army which is memorable for the wrong reason in that it has an impossibly annoying bass line that just doesn't let go. A big fat no from me.

Really not my thing at all. It might be a masterpiece for all I know, but it makes no sense to me and has zero appeal. Boring, generic, nothingness.

Back in the late 90s when they were at their peak, popularity-wise, I took against the Divine Comedy. Neil Hannon seemed to me to sing everything with an irritating smugness that just annoyed me, so I sort of shut them out. What a fool I was. This is a lovely little pop gem, full of all the lyrical wit and charm I enjoy from a great songwriter, and the melodies and arrangements are great. That big, cinematic, orchestral sounds is a joy. There’s still a little unidentifiable something about his singing that doesn’t quite sit right with me, but everything else on offer sweeps any doubts I might have away. I really enjoyed listening to this.

I've always thought of Parliament as a funk Gong - I would LOVE to have heard a collaboration between George Clinton and Daevid Allen. I bought a second-hand vinyl copy of this record as a young teenager - my purchase was decided by the cover alone: how can a record with a cover like this NOT be great? (I bought 'Clones of Dr Funkenstein' on the same day, for the same reason). I think everyone needs a bit of Parliament in their lives. Like with Gong, listening on headphones while doing something completely mundane, such as your daily commute or the supermarket shopping, they provide you with a portal to another plane - this is joyously escapist music.

Records like this just seem to be the actual definition of 'classic album'. What is it about THAT sound that just makes it so special? It's not just her extraordinary voice, but the sound and feel of the band, and something about the recording techniques that just make it a record that commands attention and creates such an incredible atmosphere. Not sure I've ever listened to an album by Aretha Franklin before - I'm happy to right that wrong with this one.

Just a great, fun, guitar pop record. I remember seeing them at a small club gig before this came out and they were absolutely exploding with that ridiculous energy, vitality and enthusiasm that's seemingly unique to the very best 3-piece guitar bands. All these years later and every track is still utterly captivating - even Alright, which was inescapable for years, remains a magnificent pop song. They always seemed quite cartoonish and I'm not sure how seriously they were taken at the time but it seems to me, they never made a bad record.

Generic guff.

What a bizarre and surprising record. And I mean that in a good way. It came out in 1988 but sounds like something from an imagined, dystopian future. Or past, maybe? Whatever. I can't work this record out at all - it's left me completely baffled, and that's great. Do I like it though? I really don't know. I think after a few listens, I'm either going to love it or hate it, which again, is a good thing. Certainly a record (and artist) I will be returning to.

I've never really understood the appeal of this record. I suspect you have to be in a certain kind of mood to really appreciate it although I can't for the life of me imagine what kind of mood that would be. Certainly not one I've ever experienced, or would wish to experience. I'll give it one star as I know it's influenced a lot of artists I love, and another because it reminded me I haven't listened to Mazzy Star for ages.

It wasn't a conscious effort to be cool (that's way beyond anything I am capable of), but just as Depeche Mode went stratospheric, I sort of went off them. I'd loved them throughout the eighties, but this is the last album I bought by them. Much as I love it, I didn't connect with it in the same way I did with the previous five. There are some outstanding tracks, the opener in particular remains one of my favourite Depeche Mode songs, and Behind the Wheel and Sacred also have that classic Depeche feel to them, but there were also a fair few duller moments that were missing from their previous efforts (Little 15, To Have and to Hold, I Want You Now). It was good to listen to this again, and I should probably listen to Violator one day but for me, Construction Time Again is peak Depeche Mode.

I bet in their late 60s / early 70s heyday, The Who were a force to be reckoned with - Moon and Entwistle were an absolute powerhouse and it's a shame to see Daltrey and Townshend withering on the vine without them. This record's a belter though, and played loud, it still has its clout. 'Behind Blue Eyes' and 'Won't Get Fooled Again' are the obvious ones to call out but they really are great songs. Actually, the whole record, hangs together brilliantly - the only problem I have is whenever I start to lose myself in listening to The Who, I remember Roger Daltrey's aggressively ignorant and selfish stance on Brexit and I have to switch them off.

I was mightily happy to see a Dexys record crop up here, even if it is the wrong one! Personally, I think Searching For The Young Soul Rebel stands head and shoulders above this one in essentiality, if that's a word. I can't help thinking that the inclusion of Too Rye Ay instead, absolutely wonderful as it is, only helps to confirm most peoples view that Dexys only had one song, or two at most; that they were something of a novelty act and their most memorable career highlight was performing on Top of the Pops in front of a picture of a darts player. But seriously - just LISTEN to this record. Loud. It's a joyously brilliant album, with tunes that sear themselves into your brain. Kevin Rowland really is something of an under-appreciated creative genius - I will never tire of listening to this record.

Whenever I listen to the Pogues, I find myself wondering just how on earth they became so popular and successful. They just seem to defy all the rules of the pop charts - they're not pop, they're not rock, they're not indie, or R&B, or any of those pigeonholes that dominate the charts and propel people to stardom. They're a gnarly, raucous, London/Irish folk band that have words like sodomy in their album titles. You can smell the booze on the record sleeves, and yet I think everyone has a favourite Pogues song. This is a great record and it always will be.

Well that was pretty wonderful. I've never listened to a Fela Kuti album before - more fool me, hugely enjoyable. I made the mistake of listening to this in the gym - I'm knackered now.

It's just a bunch of people with guitars, drums and voices - how can it be so incredible? What is it about a great album that generates such a mental and physical response? I had goosebumps by the second track and by the third song, I wondered if I'd put a 'Best of' on by mistake. I was going to say this is about as good as a guitar pop record can get, but there's more to it than that. Listening properly for the first time in years to songs like Picture This, and Sunday Girl - these are perfectly crafted songs. And Heart of Glass!? What is that? It STILL sounds like something from the future, or maybe from another planet. I really, really, like this record - five stars is not enough.

Yes, yes, I know, he’s a legend, it was tragic, extraordinary voice, hugely influential, blah, blah, etc. I get it. However, my ears only ever hear screechy, warbling, directionless twaddle. It’s my loss. It really is something that should tick all the boxes for me but I think I must be allergic, or something. I’ve never made it all the way through a single song on this record, and I probably never will.

Not for me

I love the downbeat, broody, experimentalism of this record but it never really occurs to me to put it on. In my memory, it's a long, slow, indulgent, trudge, but listening again now, there are some real highs. Pyramid Song, You and Whose Army?, and the spectacular Knives Out, really leapt out at me. I'd kind of forgotten how good this record is. I've always loved how Radiohead have ploughed their own furrow - they're not always an easy listen and that they seem to push the boundaries and remain so successful is as thrilling as it is mystifying.

This is a remarkably unremarkable record that sounds exactly how you would expect a Steve Winwood record to sound. I'd never heard it before now but I could probably have hummed the whole thing before I'd even listened. Musically, it's really not dated well - he clearly got a synth for Christmas that year. On the right songs, I quite like his voice, and there are some nice bass lines, but this album just sounds like a collection of incidental background tracks from a forgotten 80s daytime TV drama.

Given how much of an influence they are on bands I like a lot, I've always felt I should like Jethro Tull way more than I do (which is not at all). I've tried repeatedly, but they just don't click. Although there's so much going on musically, it all just sounds so one-dimensional. I just find them tremendously dull - maybe you had to be there.

I like the surprise element of doing this and often find myself looking forward to each day's album, so I've never looked at the complete list as I don't want to spoil the fun. However, I'm beginning to think all of Bob Dylan's 40-odd studio albums might well make an appearance at various stages. I really hope not as there are some real duds. That said, this is an acceptable one - the playful opener, the well known ones like I Want You and Just Like a Woman, and Dylan doing his best Dylan impression all make for a perfectly enjoyable Dylan experience. But you can have too much of a good thing.

I've used the phrase, "you probably had to be there" several times while commenting on these albums, and I'm going to apply it again for this one but with a slight adjustment - see if you can spot it: You DEFINITELY had to be there. I'm pretty certain that if I was fourteen in 1973 and living in a gloomy suburban housing estate, peering out of the window into the misty, grey, rainy, horizon, and Personality Crisis or Trash came on the transistor radio, it might very well have been a life-changing moment. They're the missing link between the Stones and punk - there's a lot of mould-busting energy in this record, and I bet they were great to see live in the early days. I get that they were a precursor for punk, and loads of the indie/alternative bands that I grew up with, but they're probably also responsible for an awful lot of poodle rock guff that should not be allowed to exist. I'm ultimately glad this record is out there and that it had the impact it did - it's just not for me.

If I can’t get to grips with rap in English when I can understand what they’re effing and jeffing about, I don’t stand a chance with this one. The only French I know is petit pois and the numbers one to three, so unless there are any tracks about counting small quantities of peas, I’m out of this round.

A charming and enjoyable listen. I love how it was pretty much ignored on its release but its influence still resonates all these years later. Personally I preferred the more, floaty, psychy, aspects of the record and found some of the more twangy tracks a bit grating, but ultimately, the melodies and harmonies are standing the test of time pretty nicely.

This just sounds so dated, it's like a parody of a cheesy lounge act. The first track made me wonder if they knew they were recording as it sounds like they're just tuning up. I can't for the life of me fathom what makes this record 'essential'.

God, that doorbell song. I hate it. I really, really, hate it. It's the one of the worst things anyone's ever done, and I'm not just limiting that to music. Of all the despicable crimes humans are capable of, that wretched song is right up there. If one more White Stripes record crops up on this list, I'll... well, I don't know what I'll do, BUT I'LL BLOODY THINK OF SOMETHING. I haven't listened to the rest of the album, and I'm not bloody going to because it'll be shit.

I like Meat Puppets and own a few of their albums, including this one. I suspect like many others, I was introduced to them by the Nirvana Unplugged performance - the tracks they covered are on this album and they all sound great. They're a peculiar band - tightly performed music that defies categorisation but clearly influenced the Grunge scene and that so-called, 'slacker' sound of the 90s, Pavement, etc. This is a good record that I don't listen to enough, but Up On The Sun has always been my go-to.

Such an odd band. They still sound pretty 'out there' all these years later. Although Bjork famously (and wonderfully) lends her loopiness to proceedings, the male vocals score equally highly on the barking mad scale. I think Motorcrash was the first thing I heard by them as a teenager in the 80s, whilst searching for new, unusual music that most people were unaware of. I discovered them around the same time I heard Stump (who most certainly won't be appearing on this list, more's the pity) and I still think they sound great together. I kind of forced myself to like The Sugarcubes as I knew they were the latest indie darlings and I thought that dropping them into conversation would propel me socially into a new and exciting league of interesting, like-minded people. Unfortunately, I didn't really know anyone to have conversations with at the time so it's nice to be able to express my appreciation of them now. Fancy a pint?

I always had Girls Against Boys filed under 'awful', and listening now, for the first time in over 30 years, has confirmed I was right to do so.

Judging it entirely by the cover alone, I thought I was going to love this record - it just looks like a classic. And it's good, in its way, I just thought it all sounded a bit cobbled together. None of the songs really stood out to me - they just kind of drifted by. Maybe I wasn't in the mood and I should come back to it.

The name of Louis Prima wasn't immediately familiar to me but his voice was instantly recognisable from 'I Wanna Be Like You' in the Jungle Book. Once that had clicked, it was hard to shake the image, but I really enjoyed this record. I've a soft spot for that big band jazz sound so this was a good, fun, listen.

It's not exactly bursting at the seams with toe-tapping hits, but I like that about Bjork - I like that she's so willing and eager to experiment. It would have been so easy for her to continue in that 90s pop hits vein - I'm sure she could have made variations of Debut over and over again, but she didn't. She's an artist before she's a pop star and I love that. I also love that there's no one standing over me, forcing me to listen and I can just press stop halfway through. Which is what I did.

As a Cardiacs nut, this record ticks a lot of boxes for me - that urgent, mathy, prog sound is right up my street. I bought this record when it came out but haven't listened in years - it hasn't dated at all and remains every bit as compelling as I remember. I love with records like this how, despite the apparent chaos and turmoil of the music, you're left humming the hooks and melodies for days. Very much enjoyed revisiting this one.

It drifted by a bit, and I can't really understand why it would be an essential listen, but yeah, it's... good.

I like a bit of Steely Dan - as a child, these were the songs that played in the background on the radio so they instantly transport me to simpler times. I like their rich, smooth sound, it’s just… nice. Is this an essential album? Not sure. To be honest, I’d be happy with a best of.

Well, what a brilliant record. Just brilliant. One of the great things about working through this list is when an old favourite I haven’t listened to in years crops up and I find myself transported back in time to when it soundtracked my days. This is one of those records - I was singing my head off within moments, and lost in reverie. For some reason, their other records never clicked with me but I think I’ll give them another go having rediscovered this belter.

I never really clicked with Giant Sand which is a shame as I love the dusty Americana of their close relatives, Calexico. I’d never listed to this one though and it really drew me in. I really enjoyed that slightly off-kilter sound - it feels very delicate, like it could all fall to bits at any moment. I’d long since written Giant Sand off as something I didn’t get on with so I’m glad to have heard this record, I clearly have some serious catching up to do.

I like the Buzzcocks and it was fun to listen to this. They’re always labelled as punk but this leans much more into that post-punk sound of Wire, etc al, which is a good thing. Whatever the label, this is a fine burst of frantic, melodic, guitar pop that paved the way for so many, even if it does all sound a bit samey…

I love how they can be a Motown pop group one minute, and funky, psychy, experimentalists the next - they seem to cover both ends of the spectrum on this record. I found it a bit meandering and aimless in places, but the world’s a better place for them.

I will never be a fan of the genre but I can tolerate Public Enemy for longer than most artists under the Hip-hop/Rap banner. There's something about their sound and style that sets them aside - I can't put my finger on what it is and I really don't want to spend too much time thinking about it, but, yes - tolerable.

I love every second of this album and there's not a single moment of any day when listening to it wouldn't put a spring in my step. The melodies, the crisp production, the sun-drenched harmonies - this is a flawless, timeless record. I saw CSN supporting Paul McCartney back in 2010, and great as it was to be in the presence of a living, breathing Beatle, there was something so extraordinary about seeing CSN doing their thing - one of the best live shows I've ever seen.

I must’ve heard it a billion times, but Teenage Kicks remains an entirely justified thing of wonder - it really is a perfect pop record and it sounds even more magnificent in the context of the album. I love The Undertones’ short, sharp, punchy sound - I love the songwriting, and I REALLY love Feargal Sharkey’s frantic vocal delivery. The album sounds very much of its time now, but what a time. Here Comes the Summer and Get Over You also sounded especially wonderful, and Jimmy Jimmy… and… ah, whatever. All of it. It all sounds great.

In the late 90s, I moved, to a new city by myself, to a house-share full of strangers, thinking it would be a great way to embrace a fresh start. I ended up spending an awful lot of time sitting by myself in my room, drinking too much and listening to the likes of Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen. And it was great. Although it did actually end up being the new start I was looking for, for a while there, I was happy to wallow in this music, and listening again now takes me right back there. And I think that's what you need with music like this - you need something to hang it on. In isolation, I suspect it's a rather hard listen but it soundtracked a few pivotal months for me - it was wonderful company then, and it's wonderful company now.

While I quite enjoy a bit of Massive Attack when the wind is blowing in the right direction, I’ve never ‘got’ the idea of trip-hop as some kind of musical revolution. I like my musical revolutions with a burst of urgency. This just sounds like the birth of the coffee shop record.

Bloated, self-important, rubbish. I really, really, hated this record (admittedly based on the first 20 seconds of the first four tracks, which was way, way more than I could actually tolerate.)

I don't know why I've never clicked with Skunk Anansie - on paper, I love them. I saw them live in the mid-90s and there's absolutely no doubting Skin is an incredibly talented vocalist and front person. I've never listened to this album and it's more inventive and angular than I expected - it's just all so thin and cold. There's a lot of technical excellence on display, but seemingly no spirit - nothing gripping or compelling. It's just not for me.

If you have plenty of time on your hands and you're in the mood to listen to a perfectly acceptable New Order record on which New Order perform New Order songs in a very New Ordery fashion, you could do worse than listen to this. It's... fine. If your days are numbered however, and you feel compelled to listen to something life-affirming before you pop your clogs, you might want to look elsewhere.

I was looking forward to listening to this - I fully expected to find myself bathed in that glorious, sun-drenched, Laurel Canyon, singer-songwriter vibe that I'm so partial to... but... meh. Fire and Rain is a classic but it's literally the only one here that caught my attention. The rest just sounded very dry and a little trite - singer-songwritier-by-numbers - even though I know he was at the forefront of that whole scene. It was done better elsewhere by JT and his peers.

A perfectly enjoyable album that's very much of its time. I liked his voice, and I enjoyed those 50s/60s arrangements but I kind of expected to stumble upon one or two familiar songs - I know the name but I don't seem to know a single song by him. So yes, a nice find - I'd be interested to hear more by him, but I'm not in any hurry.

There's an indisputable energy to this record, and Janice Joplin's performance is off the scale alongside everything else that was going on at the time. I don't know who the lead guitarist is, but it felt like there were several moments in almost every song where I just wanted him to do his breathing and have a think about what he was doing. And given it's not actually a live recording, why do the guitars sound so bad? The Robert Crumb cover is great, and way ahead of its time - this is NOT how record covers looked in 1968. Joplin could really belt it out but I think you can have too much of a good thing so towards the end, I just wanted her to take a breather and gargle some salt water. I'm glad I listened though - I've never heard it before and spending a little time with it felt like a musical education.

I thought this was just childish rubbish when it came out in the 80s, and all these years later, I think even less of it. When they grew up, they went on to make some pretty great records, but this is just the sound of whining, spoilt, rich kids trying to be controversial. I'm probably missing the irony - it might be one of the cleverest records ever made for all I know, but I can't bear it.

Harmless, floaty, inoffensive, background music, but background music nonetheless. There was a lot of this kind of thing around at the time - Lemon Jelly were another lot - so I struggle to understand why it's considered essential. It's funny how I seem to know most of the tracks without ever having owned, or actively paid any attention to the album - perhaps it was endlessly fleeced for TV ads, etc, meaning I just soaked it up without ever really intending too. This is ironic, because really, it's the kind of record you only need to listen to once. That said, it was good to hear All I Need again as it reminded me that my car insurance is due.

Seriously? SERIOUSLY? I am not allowing this crap anywhere near my algorithms. Unplayed. No stars. In fact, this record should give ME some stars.

It's not that I didn't want to play it (I mean, in fairness, it is partly that), it's more that I simply can't. I brought it up in Apple Music, went to press play, and my finger just... stopped. I tried pulling the phone towards my finger, but again, like opposing magnets, I just couldn't make contact. Then, when I brought it up in YouTube, I just fell to the floor shaking, vomiting and crying, and I found myself overwhelmed by an all encompassing despair for the future of the human species. My instincts in these matters are generally pretty reliable, so I decided it was probably best to just move on and hope that tomorrow's record isn't a horrible dollop of shit by some vile, witless, dick.

I get how it fits into the history, both of electronic music, and the pop music of the 80s and beyond, and I get how it inspired so much that followed, but there’s a slightly cheesy pomp and extravagance to Jean-Michel Jarre that you don’t necessarily associate with the likes of Kraftwerk, Vangelis, Mike Oldfield, Tangerine Dream, etc. His music seems to lean more into the smooth, pop direction than the experimental dabblings of his peers, but I guess that’s what makes this an influential record in that it kind of bridges a gap. I don't feel compelled to listen to anything else by Jean-Michel Jarre, but I'm glad I listened to this.

This record was my introduction to Elliot Smith - I bought it on the back of the single Son of Sam back in 2000 and fell immediately under its spell. It remains a great album, as do all of his records, but they're all tinged with a genuine sadness, given what happened. For this reason, I don't listen to him as much as I probably should.

I love that while the punk scene was in full swing, Dire Straits seemingly came out of nowhere, fully formed, with this record. They're one of those bands that sound like nothing before or since but for some reason, I still have them filed under 'Guilty Pleasures'. I really don't know why - I'm not trying to impress anyone, but there's just something about my enjoyment of them that I'd prefer to keep quiet. In fact, if anything, they probably deserve a bit more credit than they get - I'm pretty certain they could have reformed, toured the world, and pocketed mega-billions but they never have. They walked away at the height of their powers on good terms and left their work to fend for itself, displaying a level of integrity missing from so many other big bands. They've always been a bit of a 'dad band', but there's a comfort to their sound, and I don't care what anyone says, Sultans of Swing is a wonderful track and I could listen to it endlessly. I REALLY enjoyed listening to this album. There, I said it. (These reviews are anonymous, yeah?)

I was ten when this came out - I remember buying it on cassette because literally everyone else seemed to own a copy. Although I've always found the title track itself a bit annoying, I enjoyed the rest of it and it still stands up pretty well today. I like that polished, souly, pop sound, and he did have a unique voice. The allegations around his private life hang very heavily though, making listening to Michael Jackson records an awkward, conflicting experience these days. I can still grit my teeth and enjoy Off the Wall, but when I do, I keep the volume down and shut the windows. Thriller is the last of his records I liked but it wouldn't occur to me to put it on these days - it was nice to listen again today, but it probably won't happen again.

I've never knowingly heard anything by Kendrick Lamar, and when I caught sight of the Rap/Hop-hop tag, I nearly didn't bother with it - I just assumed I wouldn't like it. I was in no mood for 'gangsta rap' which in my ignorance, I assumed it would be. The Rap/Hip-hop genre really, REALLY, is not for me, but on a whim, I pressed play and... well, it hooked me in within moments, and really stood out to me as something pretty different. This is an unusual record - the music and production are great - that jazzy, funky sound is really compelling - but the disjointedness of it all really, struck me. I love an awkward time signature and this record seems to be subtly full of them. It's a melting pot of influences and it feels genuinely adventurous and experimental. I can't say I paid particularly close attention to the lyrics (swearing doesn’t offend me but it’s overuse gets boring very quickly) but they didn't seem to be quite as loaded with the guns, drugs and misogyny that taint so many records in this genre. I listened to the whole thing. I'm over 250 albums into this list and this is without doubt the most surprising record I've encountered. I might even listen again.

It's a fairly challenging listen, but all the better for it. I love it when artists veer away from the 4/4, verse-verse-chorus-verse, approach - I had to concentrate and follow the lyrics for it to really sink in. There are hooks, but you have to put a bit of effort in to find them and make sense of it all. In that way, it reminded me a lot of Joanna Newsom's album, 'Ys' - an absolute masterpiece that makes little to no sense on the first few listens, but when it sinks in, it sinks in very deeply, and stays for a long time. For me, this is solitary, headphones & laptop music - that's how I listened, in a darkened room, by myself, with a whisky or two nearby, and I didn't want it to stop. It was a moving, challenging and utterly absorbing listen - it's the first time I've heard this record but it definitely won't be the last.

I loved this album when it came out - this and the EP that preceded it, Sun Giant, soundtracked that period for me and it’s a shame that nothing else they did came close to these records. It’s a very beautiful, harmonious, if slightly whimsical record that sounds pretty wonderful on this sunny spring morning.

Style-wise, it's all over the place, but there's a lot to enjoy if you dig in. Without You is the obvious one - the mega-hit, originally by Apple Records/ Mal Evans prodigies, Badfinger, is a fine vehicle for Nilsson's incredible voice, but Gotta Get Up and Coconut might also be familiar to many from the Reservoir Dogs and Russian Doll soundtracks respectively, where they're used wonderfully. These three songs alone are so weirdly different from one another, it's just bizarre that they should be by the same person, never mind appear on the same album. I like a bit of Nilsson, but the quality is patchy to say the least - he's another one of those artists that's probably more enjoyable to read about than to listen to. His relationship with John Lennon, especially during the latter's 'lost weekend' period makes for facinating reading and is enough to put you off alcohol for life. Beyond the well-known songs here, tracks like Driving Along and Down also stood out for me. I like that big, piano-led, brassy sound that Lennon also drew on in his solo albums - you can hear the influence they clearly had on each other. With a bit of context, this record makes for an interesting listen but as a standalone album in isolation, it probably won't be on high rotation for many.

This record literally has zero appeal. Sometimes it's possible to feel misty-eyed and nostalgic about music you remember from your youth, well, early twenties for me in this instance, even if you didn't like it at the time. To say I didn't like Stereo MCs at the time doesn't really do justice to just how much I didn't like them. There's absolutely nothing essential about this record, and I find it staggering that anyone remembered it six months after it was released, never mind 30-plus years later.

On the one hand, you could argue that what Hendrix did was unique, original and genre-defying - genre-creating, even. But on the other hand, you could argue that it was, well, awful. I'm in the latter camp. Although I totally understand his influence, and appreciate just how talented he was, I find everything by him pretty much unlistenable, screechy, mumbly, drivel. It's conflicting because pretty much every record I like that's been released since, say, 1970, has probably been influenced in some way by Hendrix and his relationship with the guitar, but there's something about his records that just activates my defence mechanism. The walls go up, and I can't listen to it. It all just sounds like he's making it up as he goes along - every song sounds like a soundcheck. Yes, even THOSE ones. Maybe that's the charm. Maybe I'm just a terrible, terrible person but I listened to most of this record and remain unconvinced. Thank god he existed though otherwise my record collection would sound pretty different. He can have one star for that.

Guns, violence, misogyny, ‘Look at me, I’m amazing’… This record seems to capture everything I hate about this genre’s leanings, which is its only achievement as far as I’m concerned. But then I can’t help thinking I’m probably not really Ice T’s key demographic. Tedious, egotistical, rubbish, but each to their own, eh?

An interesting enough listen but there’s nothing going on here that makes me want to listen again. In fact, it all feels weirdly oppressive and I was relieved when it finished. It sort of sounds like a migraine. Getting Johnny Cash to turn Hurt into a timeless masterpiece was a genius move.

I don't think I've ever listened to Aftermath in full before and there are definite peaks and troughs. It's got that sound of a band in transition - there's the outright pop direction of songs like Mother's Little Helper, Under My Thumb, and Out of Time, then there are the blues tracks like Going Home (which was a slog), High and Dry, etc. The two styles don't sit comfortably alongside one another here to my mind, but they merged these influences almost seamlessly on their future records. An awkward listen all in all. Fun as their earlier years were, I think they had to get their next album (Between the Buttons) and their clumsy psychedelic effort (Their Satanic Majesties) out of the way before they could really get going in earnest. Personally, I don't think you need to listen to anything before Beggar's Banquet. From then on, they were untouchable.

Well, that was... Actually, I don't know what that was. It's left me feeling slightly bewildered. I know of the Incredible String Band, I know they're often cited as influential by bands I like, especially on the folky, proggy, side of things, but I've never connected with them myself. They sound like a spoof - if you told me this record was actually written by Eric Idle and Neil Innes, I would probably listen again and enjoy it. In places, brought to mind images of Graham Chapman clapping coconut shells together, and I'm pretty sure that's not what they were going for. Two stars for amusing me, albeit unintentionally.

The opening track, Praying for Time, was a considerably more enjoyable listen than I remember it being, and Freedom is a harmless enough pop song, but a whole album of this stuff just starts to feel a bit… vanilla. There’s a warm, rich production sound, but seemingly no tunes. As an 80s/90s indie pop kid, it was my duty to be sniffy about people like George Michael but you get a lot more forgiving and open minded as you get older. He actually seems like a good guy who led a troubled life and I hear his music differently these days, but this one just doesn’t click with me.

I Saw The Light is a classic for good reason - one of those timeless pop tunes that never seems to age - but aside from that, one or two yacht rock style tracks and a playful tune here and there, it all sounds a bit drawn out and aimless to me. He’s an impressively talented multi-instrumentalist and studio whizz, but doesn’t he just know it. I’d have whittled it down to ten tracks, held a few back for b-sides then binned the rest but what do I know? He seems to have done pretty well for himself without any input from me.

There's a very twee, saccharine sheen to this record and an early mention of a 'cosmic train' seemed to set the tone for the rest of the album. There was a cover of Wild World in the 80s by Maxi Priest - had that version never existed, I might have been able to tolerate this album more than I did. I like a good singer/songwriter record, but not this one. It's not all bad, but it's mostly bad.

I recognise the album cover, but I've never heard this record before - in fact, I don't think I've heard any of the songs on it before. Which is a bit weird. For the most part, it's a nice enough record - very laid back, very relaxed - it just sort of innocently and harmlessly pootles along. It starts, it ambles, then it ends. Which is... nice. If you like that sort of thing. Stevie Wonder is at his best when the melodies make your tummy go funny, but there's none of that going on here. By the end of it, I still felt like I'd never heard it.

Finally! After a seemingly endless run of utter sludge comes this total gem of a record. Modern Life is Rubbish blew me away when it was released, and it still blows me away today. I was dismissive of Blur when they first arrived - She's So High and There's No Other Way were perfectly charming pop tunes, but they gave no real indication that Blur would become anything more than bit part players. The ‘Madchester', 'baggy' sound that had dominated the UK’s indie scene for a few years was giving way to Grunge, and these two singles seemed to be trying too hard to cling on to a fading trend. I forgot all about Blur until I was offered free tickets for a show they were headlining at the Town & Country Club in London in July 1992. I wasn't particularly interested but went anyway as Mega City Four were supporting (as were Suede, who’d just released their first single). In no mood for a washed up band of 'baggy' has beens, I nearly left before Blur came on - how glad I am that I stayed. It's become something of a legendary gig for the band - they were visibly very drunk, and apparently convinced they were about to be dropped by their label. Damon stumbled onto the stage announcing "we're fvcking shit" before launching into a visceral set of songs, most of which would appear on Modern Life is Rubbish about a year later. Yes, they were very drunk, and no, they didn’t play brilliantly well, but it was like nothing I've seen before or since - the ‘poster boy popstar' image I thought they were trading on was nowhere to be seen, and the ‘baggy' pop sounds of Leisure were the sounds of a different band. This was something else - a transformation. It was a raucous, discordant assault of energy and awkward time signatures that I swear no one saw coming. I was excited for the album and when it came out, I was not disappointed - how could a band go from Leisure to this? It helped punch Grunge back across the Atlantic and flung the doors open for a sound that would define an era. These character-driven songs that blatantly mash up the bands influences from Bowie to Cardiacs make up not only Blur's greatest record, but one of the pivotal albums in British music. Oh,and Blue Jeans is one of the most perfect songs ever written.

It's fun to listen to records like this and get a sense of how they've influenced others - Primal Scream for example, have definitely spent a lot of time with this record, and Prince must've been a fan. It's much more accessible, groovy and coherent than I was expecting - it has a great buzz to it. Sex Machine in particular really stood out for me. This is definitely an album I'll be revisiting. Ha - I actually just called it 'groovy'. I'm going to show my kids this review so they know how hip and cool I am.

If anyone ever asks me what my favourite Miles Davis record is, I will probably say Bitches Brew because it will make me look clever. It hasn't happened yet, but if it ever does, I'll be ready. I do genuinely like it but yes, it's hard work and you have to be in the mood. I'm far happier listening to the proggy, psychy side of Miles Davies than the candle-lit dinner jazz side. I love a challenge in music, and this record is a challenge but a rewarding one, if you're willing to put the time in. I recommend a darkened room, some good headphones and a drop or two of something intoxicating to aid digestion.

There really are a lot of records out there, aren’t there? And this, without a shadow of a doubt, is one of them. And that’s about all I can think to say about it without swearing, spitting and gesticulating.

While the songs themselves didn't really gel with me, production-wise, it seems to be full of funny little noises and studio wizardry that just about piqued my interest. I wondered at various points in Grandaddy might be fans of this record. A curious album that I probably need to spend a little more time with to really make sense of it.

I've tried to appreciate the Grateful Dead on a few occasions as, on paper at least, they're right up my street, but there's just so much of it and it all kind of sounds the same. This album, and to be honest, I'm no fan of live albums, seems to start with what felt like a 25 minute noodly warm-up which was completely lost on me. They might as well have recorded their bus trip to the venue, it would have been just as interesting. The whole album seems to bend space and time. Each time I checked to see how much was left, there were about three days remaining. I'm worried I may have missed my kids' birthdays. If you're a fan of the Dead, this record probably epitomises everything that's great about them. Maybe I just don't have that gene. Personally, I came away feeling like I'd been lobotomised.

Sweet Christ. Bob Dylan. Again! I feel like I've listened to everything Dylan has ever done now. They can't ALL be essential, can they? I get that this is the show of the famous 'Judas' comment (sadly missing from the version I listened to) and I appreciate what that moment means in the history of popular music, but it's a moment to read about rather than listen to. This is not an essential album - it's a badly recorded live record. Yes, it captures a pivotal time in Dylan's evolution, and in the wider history of popular music, but it's just a crappy live record. I've had more fun at the dentist.

Fair to say that as a fifty-something bloke, I'm probably not really in Taylor Swift's key demographic and if I didn't have two young daughters, she'd probably have passed me by completely. It's easy to be sniffy about what appears on the surface to be just chart-friendly pop music but the Taylor Swift story is pretty inspirational. If the kids are going to look up to a pop star, they can do far worse than looking up to this one. This really is an album brimming with perfectly formed pop toons - it isn't something I would normally listen to myself, but I get it and I'm glad I listened.

In the spirit of the purpose of the list, yes, I agree this is a record everyone should listen to at least once. It IS groundbreaking, he was a talented guitarist, and this record's influence on everything that followed is pretty immeasurable. Do I like it? No, I bloody don't. While some of the poppier moments, such as Crosstown Traffic, and of course Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) (and absolutely NOT that epic 15-minute dirge earlier in the album) are bearable, to the point of almost being enjoyable, much of it is a rambling barrage of twiddly, mumbling, squawky, silliness that I could do without. It has its place, but not in my house.

Nile Rodgers is a genius. I know this for a fact because I went to see him play live a couple of years ago and he spent much of the show telling the audience just how amazing he is. The weird thing is, if it was anyone else, it would have come across as unbearable bragging - with Rodgers, it was, well, fair enough. The body of work he's either directly produced or had a major hand in bringing to life is extraordinary. I bought a second-hand vinyl copy of this record back in the early 90s, way before Chic became cool again. I bought it because I assumed it would be cheesy and amusing, I really didn't expect to love it to bits as a genuinely masterful pop record. Nile Rodgers gets to bask in the glory these days, but bassist co-founder Bernard Edwards should be on a pedestal alongside him - his contributions were staggering and the way they played together is like nothing before or since. (Robert Wyatt's version of At Last I Am Free is better than the original - give it a listen.)

I love this record - 35 minutes of blisteringly good guitar pop that begs to be played loud. They're a hugely under-appreciated band - their sound can be heard in all the jangly, indie, punk pop bands that followed in the 80s and 90s. Green Day, for one, would have sounded very different without the Go Go's influence. There are a couple of slightly lacklustre moments but when they're bounding along at a pace, they absolutely shine. And those bass lines are glorious. The first thing I did when this album finished playing was bang it on again. Our Lips Are Sealed - how is it possible for a single song to be THIS good? Wonderful stuff.

It’s an extraordinary achievement for its time but it sounds mightily dated today. It was very effective in the Exorcist, but I’ve never really felt the need to sit and listen to the whole thing. I get its influence, and it certainly belongs on the list but I’m happy to continue avoiding it if I can.

I'd completely forgotten about this record, which probably speaks volumes. I was never that familiar with it but it was an interesting enough isten - just about. Presumably it's considered some kind of early IDM record these days - it certainly puts me in mind of the likes of Autechre, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, etc - all of whom I really like. It's not the kind of thing I play regularly, but when I do, it can really hit the spot. This one though, while being interesting enough, doesn't have any of the twisty, disjointed, whoomf, I turn to IDM for - it all feels a bit thin. Good for its time though.

There were about 15 minutes somewhere in the mid-80s where, for me, Iron Maiden were just about the greatest band on earth. I didn't appreciate at the time just how fresh and influential their sound really was - the New Wave of British Heavy Metal tag meant nothing to me - I just assumed they were tired old rockers who'd been doing this for years. Listening now, it's great to appreciate the influence they've had. The musicianship and vocal performances are pretty phenomenal really - and the tunes really do grab hold of you. This record is a quantum leap from their previous efforts - Bruce Dickinson made them what they are. They're a bit of a guilty pleasure these days - I'll give them a blast once in a while, just for fun and they always scratch that itch. Best not to listen to the lyrics too closely though.

I've always had a soft spot for Elton John - the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album was a background staple as a kid in the 70s. Although he's delivered his fair share of duds, his ear for a melody is almost superhuman - and those live performances when he was at his peak were just incredible. The partnership between him and Bernie Taupin and the life and career they've shared makes for such an extraordinary tale it's like a work of fiction. I'm already pretty familiar with this record - it's always felt a little bit understated, like it's holding back a little but the dramatic string arrangements give it a boost. This is definitely an album I'll happily lose myself in once in a while.

That was altogether more rich, varied and enjoyable than I thought it was going to be. When I saw it came out in 1996 I braced myself for something akin to the grumpy yelpings of Alanis Morrisette, but what heard instead really took me by surprise. In fact, I have to keep checking that date. 1996? Really?? It could have come out last week. I've never knowingly heard anything by Fiona Apple, but I'm really impressed with this. Nice find - I will investigate further.

As a bit of a progger, I've always felt I should like Muse more than I do, which is not very much. Actually, it's not so much that I don't like them, they just don't seem to register with me even though, on paper, we should be BFFs. There's just an air of Rush/Queen-like pomp to them that makes me squirm a bit. It feels like they've been created - pieced together out of the box to be 'psychy', 'out there' stadium fillers. It's all a bit over-produced for my liking - a lot of style over substance. Their music conjures images of a live stage show full of dry ice and white strobes in lieu of actual tunes. Hats off to them though, I suppose - they've done their bit to bring elements of prog to the kidz of the 21st century, but I think they're more Emerson Lake & Palmer than Gentle Giant. And that's not a good thing, by the way.

The title track has to be one of the greatest rock songs of all time. It doesn't matter how many times I hear it, it remains monumentally good - it just thunders along and it blows me away every time. Sadly, nothing else on this record comes anywhere near it. How could it? If they'd put Ace of Spades on it ten times, I'd consider it a great album but the rest of this record really is just guff. And the lyrics are appalling. But none of it matters, because Ace of Spades is on it.

I will never get tired of listening to Talking Heads. Their influence always seems to be everywhere, no matter what era of music you listen to. Even Phil Collins recently said he wishes he was David Byrne (or words to that effect). This is a record of wonderfully artful, jarring, angular, flowing, rhythmic, pop that's (evidently) really hard to describe. Byrne remains to this day a uniquely intoxicating performer. Much as I love them, this isn't my favourite of theirs - it does start to feel a bit samey - but it's a joy nonetheless.

Nick Drake is another one of those artists who's considered 'legendary', and is revered seemingly for good enough reason, that I just can't be bothered to fully engage with. I've never listened to this album before now, and it's exactly what I thought it would be. It's left me with an overwhelming dread that I'm about to be accosted by a stoned student in the middle of an epiphany about the meaning of life and humanity's place in the the cosmos and now I need to reset myself with some Dead Kennedy's or something. 'One Of These Things First' stands out as something rather wonderful but for the most part, it veers a little too far into the drippy end of the spectrum for my sensibilities. And I quite like drippy. In short, it's all perfectly acceptable, but please don't talk to me about it. Or anything, for that matter.

I like Jane's Addiction - Perry Farrell is an incredible frontman and they kind of soundtracked some of the early 90s for me. This isn't my favourite of their records and I'm not convinced it belongs on the list, but it was good to listen again. Much as I love them, I think they're partly responsible for that godawful 'nu-metal' sound that followed in their wake. This is unforgivable so I am docking one star. Not much of a punishment for such a crime, but I don't wield any real power, sadly.

This is just a very plain, borderline annoying, 1997 pop record. I don't know what it's doing on this list. The only list I would put it on is a list of very plain, borderline annoying 1997 pop records. Even After All was vaguely acceptable, I suppose - the rest just passed me by.

Although I'm not convinced this record necessarily belongs on a list like this, it's definitely a style of music I can blissfully lose myself in from time to time. That said, I am much more likely to reach for a Willie Nelson album when this particular need arises - there's something very 'clean' about this record and I much prefer Nelson's more ragged approach. A nice listen though.

Utter bilge. And he's not even a real doctor.

I find myself saying this a lot, but what on earth is this doing on the list? It's not even an especially good Black Keys album. I liked El Camino but I've barely been aware of anything else by them. This record seems to start, fuzzily crackle and bumble along, then stop. I can't remember a thing about it. It was like one really long song but apparently I've just listened to 18 tracks. Meh.

What a thudding great indigestible dollop of a record. The cover was very familiar, but I've never listened to it before. I wish I could still say that. Maybe it just sounds horribly dated but it's hard to think this stuff was ever considered to be good. Maybe get rid of that ridiculous keyboard sound, and lighten the production up a bit, and it would be a little more palatable. As it is, it's a tuneless load of old stodge that left me gasping for air.

What a beautiful, breathtaking, dream-like record. Lovely to have a bit of Robert Wyatt to lose myself in after a run of truly awful records (Deep Purple, I'm looking at you). This is the antidote to, well, everything terrible. When I'm listening to a Robert Wyatt record, all is well with the world. That floaty, psychy soundtrack accompanying that delicate, fractured voice is just utter perfection. This is quite a late-period record from him, coming out just a few years before retiring from music after a 50-plus year career. That he was still creating music like this after so many years is phenomenal really. A great record.

That Memphis sound really is something special. From Dusty Springfield and Al Green right up to Primal Scream and beyond - it's such an evocative, captivating sound and I just love to lose myself in it once in a while. I soaked this album up and it was a total joy.

As I write, we're in the midst of yet another heatwave here in the UK that we're simply not equipped for. It could well be that I'm delirious, but this really is a pretty wonderful record, sounding all the more perfect in the hot sunshine. I'm familiar with Unfinished Sympathy as it's surely one of the most blissfully perfect singles of the last thirty-odd years - a real masterpiece - and it sounds all the more magnificent in the context of the album. Some tracks fall a bit flat in my opinion (Daydreaming, for example) but for the most part, yes, this is a fine record indeed.

I can enjoy some of their 80s output in small doses, when the wind is blowing in the right direction, and I'm feeling generous, and possibly slightly drunk, but I was never able to get on board with the 'trip-hop' version of Everything But The Girl. This, to my ears, is very... well, boring. It all sounds the same and doesn't seem to go anywhere. That said, a world in which Tracey Thorn sings is no bad place to be, I just find this record a bit plain. I absolutely loved her book, Bedsit Disco Queen, though, and heartily recommend it to the house.

When this record came out in 1994, this is exactly the kind of thing I spent most of my waking hours listening to, so I'm surprised to say I've never heard of this band or this record. Or at least, if I have, I've completely forgotten about them. I enjoyed listening to it, even if it's not something I tend to reach for much these days, but I'm not sure I understand why it's on the list. I think this kind of thing was done better by others, but maybe I only think that because I'm 30 years older and somehow missed out on this record first time round. Some records, you just need to be in with at the time for them to resonate years later - maybe I missed out, maybe I didn't.

A perfectly enjoyable, breezy R&B record with some compelling arrangements, this record swept me along for the ride but I'm not sure there's enough here to bring me back for another listen. It didn't really hook me in and I kind of wished it had. It all drifts by at the same pace - I kept thinking it was going to do something to surprise me but it just didn't deliver. Nice enough though.

If, like me, you spent any time at all between say 1999 and 2001 in even the vaguest of sentient states, you will probably be overly familiar with every track on this album, even if you've never owned a copy. It really was ubiquitous - in every bar, every radio station, in every car that drove by, every TV advert... This is no bad thing, either. It's a hugely enjoyable soundtrack of a time - not just background music either, it's a genuinely inventive, absorbing and compelling listen, that's richly produced and that stands up really well today. I haven't heard it in years but even now, every single track felt fresh and familiar, as if I was only listening to it last week. When it popped up on the list, I groaned a little and felt a grumpy review coming on having been over-exposed to it back in the day, but on pressing play, I was just swept along with it all over again. It's actually a rather blissful listen. I'm pleasantly surprised at just how much I enjoyed spending time with this record again.

It’s probably because I know this was their last album for IRS before signing to a major label but this record has always felt like their last indie/college rock record - it has that introverted feel to it that the next record, Green, blew wide apart. After Document, they had a much bigger, more sweeping sound and just a couple of years later, for better or for worse, were a stadium-filling rock band. I love every REM phase but the IRS years are by far my favourite. There are a couple of tracks here that weaken the record a little, Strange for example, so it’s not my favourite of the era, but I love it nonetheless. The One I Love was their breakthrough hit and it still sounds magnificent today. I love that people have walked down the aisle to this record - “A simple prop, to occupy my time”.

I bloody love this record, and actually let out a little yelp of joy when it cropped up on the list. It blows most of the albums I've sat through in recent times out of the water. Dead Kennedys' blistering urgency and sardonic fury is at full-throttle here - there isn't a wasted second. Thought provoking as so much of this record, and indeed all of DK's output is, it's the sheer energy that puts me in a total spin. This is a staggeringly great record that will never age. Quite apart from anything else, 'Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables' is one of the best titles for anything, ever.

While the world is certainly a better place for having Norman Cook in it, and this IS an undeniably fun record, it does feel like a bit of a one trick pony. It launches into its stride immediately and doesn't really change gear throughout. It's fun, bouncy, dance music from the 90s that sits nicely alongside all the other fun, bouncy dance music from the 90s. I listened to the whole thing, but I probably didn't really need to.