199
Albums Rated
3.36
Average Rating
18%
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890 albums remaining
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1950s
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✍️ Wordsmith
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47
5-Star Albums
15
1-Star Albums
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You Love More Than Most
Albums you rated higher than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tank Battles | 5 | 2.12 | +2.88 |
| Playing With Fire | 5 | 2.54 | +2.46 |
| Shalimar | 5 | 2.66 | +2.34 |
| One World | 5 | 2.82 | +2.18 |
| Mask | 5 | 2.85 | +2.15 |
| Music Has The Right To Children | 5 | 2.91 | +2.09 |
| Spiderland | 5 | 2.97 | +2.03 |
| Ray Of Light | 5 | 2.99 | +2.01 |
| Music From The Penguin Cafe | 5 | 3 | +2 |
| Savane | 5 | 3.02 | +1.98 |
You Love Less Than Most
Albums you rated lower than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bad | 1 | 3.8 | -2.8 |
| (Pronounced 'Leh-'Nérd 'Skin-'Nérd) | 1 | 3.76 | -2.76 |
| Maggot Brain | 1 | 3.6 | -2.6 |
| Definitely Maybe | 1 | 3.53 | -2.53 |
| The Suburbs | 1 | 3.5 | -2.5 |
| The Next Day | 1 | 3.3 | -2.3 |
| Shake Your Money Maker | 1 | 3.29 | -2.29 |
| The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars | 2 | 4.26 | -2.26 |
| Rust In Peace | 1 | 3.24 | -2.24 |
| Pyromania | 1 | 3.13 | -2.13 |
Artist Analysis
Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Kraftwerk | 2 | 5 |
Least Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Oasis | 2 | 1.5 |
| Megadeth | 2 | 1.5 |
| Arcade Fire | 2 | 1.5 |
Controversial Artists
Artists you rate inconsistently
| Artist | Albums | Variance |
|---|---|---|
| Metallica | 2 | 1.5 |
| The Doors | 3 | 1.25 |
| David Bowie | 4 | 1.12 |
5-Star Albums (47)
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Popular Reviews
The Stooges
4/5
#111/1001. Lets hear it from the critics:
"the worst album of the year” - Melody Maker.
(The Stooges are) “so exquisitely horrible and down and out that they are the ultimate psychedelic rock band in 1970”. - Rolling Stone
”This group’s first album was nominated here as the worst record of 1969; the present one is merely lousy" - The American Record Guide
"All I can hear is crude, repetitious, extremely dull material, no-talent instrumentalists and a pretentious, no-voice singer. The 10-minute ‘We Will Fall’, a constantly-repeated chant with some kind of mutterings by the lead singer (including several minutes of ‘goodbye’ at the end), is undoubtedly the worst rock track I have ever heard. In fact, I have little hesitation in nominating this as the worst album of the season."- The American Record Guide
"The group has been practicing, because the instrumental playing is now a bit better than incom¬petent, but still there is not an original idea to be heard anywhere and so the tracks are uniformly monotonous." - The American Record Guide
What else to add?
1 likes
Little Richard
5/5
#134/1001. I am not sure who put the ram in rama-lama-ding-dong, put my best guess would be Little Richard.
1 likes
The Beta Band
3/5
68/1001. Ahhh, The Beta band. There are bands (and albums) which sound super good and interesting, and when they are over, one forgets them instantly. This is what happens with me with the Beta band. Repeat listens might help, then again, should I bother?
1 likes
Linkin Park
2/5
62/1001. Based on my idea and empirical in-the-field test I let chatgpt write this review:
We listened to Hybrid Theory while frantically searching for a toilet for our son, who was in the throes of a full-blown poop crisis. As the album raged on, so did the urgency. The tension built track by track – One Step Closer indeed – but when we finally reached the bathroom, the anticipated catharsis refused to come.
Much like our son’s bowels, the album struggled to deliver. Loud, angsty, and emotionally overwrought, Hybrid Theory blends rap, metal, and teen turmoil into a sonic hybrid that often feels more engineered than sincere. As a musical experiment, it fuses emotional intensity with the slick, compressed production of early-2000s nu-metal – not always successfully.
In the end, this odd combination of parental panic, gastrointestinal suspense, and sonic angst is the only hybrid theory I truly found in the album.
1 likes
Bauhaus
5/5
# 107/1001. Let's paint our face black and white and go pogoing to the graveyard! Goth music is underrated. Glad to see Bauhaus on this list. This album wasn't so familiar to me, probably just by chance we bought different albums back in the day and got stuck with them. Then insert 30 years of neglect and boom, this music still rules.
1 likes
1-Star Albums (15)
All Ratings
Electric Light Orchestra
4/5
Prologue: This was selected as my first album out of 1001, although I have the book and have done some random picking / listening / discovering before.
I totally understand people who love this album. I totally understand people who hate this album. I'm not sure to which group I belong to though. Elo is not so familiar to me (not even blue sky, I am sure I've heard it...vaguely), overproduced aor (i wouldn't call this progressive rock) isn't my beef. But damn the production is magnificent. Too magnificent perhaps?
I can hear the influences, but also can here ELO in so many things that have come later, from Daft Punk to Divine Comedy to Quincy Jones productions and hoards of indie and electronic musicians of today. I don't care so much about the more or less traditional, basic rock songs which have been over-ornamented, but there are beautiful melodies and interesting song structures, some of which almost get hidden under the production, some of which would probably sound lame without the production. As someone mentioned here, the Concerto as a sort of minialbum in the middle is a masterpiece, have to agree on that.
Epilogue: In the end, would I buy it? Probably in a good enough condition from a discount bin. How often would I listen to it? Maybe once in 10 years. From the year 1977 I'd choose 10-20 punk records over this one. But it remains still quite an amazing gesamstkunstwerk. So I'll settle in a 4.
Jefferson Airplane
4/5
2/1001
I actually used to own this back in the early 90s, I don't remember if I sold it, gave it away or did it just vanish, as seems to happen to some LPs. Of course some of these tunes (white rabbit & someone to love especially) play more or less regularly ubiquitously. So anyhow this listen was a nice reminder as a whole. Actually there are many things here I've come to love over the years - acoustic folk guitaring especially. But for that I rather turn to British folk, mcCarthy, Jansch et al, Graham, etc. And If I need a soundtrack od the Pyschedelic era, the summer of love, California hippie scene, there are excellent compilations which gather all the hits (and yes, they probably include the two mentioned ones from this album). So nothing really wrong here, of course - like so many other bands and records from the same area / era - it hasn't aged so well, but still it is varied and interesting and full of great tunes, but it is not for me, not anymore.
My favourite LP dig from Haight-Ashbury area is a record for training your parakeet to say sentences. The image - no matter how inaccurate it may be - of hippies stoned and listening to 20 minutes of monotonous voice speking "hello budgie" over and over again makes me smile more than any late 1960's pop record ever can. Happy to say that record is now in Finland at the Arctic circle, I'll set up a listen any time you might pop around.
But for the White Rabbit alone a 4.
The Verve
4/5
8/1001. Ok amd rhe review I wrote got lost great. To cut the story short: heard? Check? Own? Maybe. Listened to in 20 years? No. Enjoyable album which has been obscured by the Bittersweet megahit, which must be in top 10 (5?) songs from the 90s. It's story of Rolling stones stealing "This May Be the Last Time,” from the Staple Singers and then getting pissed that the Verve used too much the sample from "Last time" and claiming 100% writer rights still makes me laugh and feel sorry for the Stones. Glad to hear that since 2019(!) Ashcroft has been returned the rights. Come on, one sample - although it makes most of the song, but it is really like claiming that our album cover had yellow init and now you are using it.
After listening ro this now it feels a tad too long (cd era, let's put everything in it, and I never got too fond of Brit pop, and it is not so dreamy, spacey and druggy as the Spiritualized (it must be included in 1001 albums, right?), but more than Oasis so 4 stars.
Fiona Apple
2/5
3/1001. I listened to this twice with about a week delay, the 2nd listen since I thought perhaps I didn't pay enough attention to the music or something. But no, this music doesn't speak to me. Somehow it sounds like a 17-year old who wants to tell her life story, cry her heart out, but there is not much to tell yet. Nothing too wrong about the music, but the songs roll out one after other without too much variation. I suppose she was one to start or at least to establish a genre, but the ones who came after really mastered it (perhaps her later albums as well). Nevertheless imho a surprisong pick for 1001 albums.
Dusty Springfield
4/5
Who else sang like this in the U.K / Europe in 1964? Ok, Lulu's Shout appeared a month later from the release of this, and then there was Cilla a bit later... But anyway Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien has to be seen as the pioneer, inspiration and role model to so much to what happened in the mid 60s in the whole Europe, be it yé-yé, schlager in Germany, Finland or France and even the Eurovision song contest. The Merseybeat did one thing, this one another. Then again the question is why this album in this list? A few years later Look of Love, Dusty in Memphis... songs written for her or songs made immortal by her... Here we are looking at a beginning, an interesting beginning, but shouldn't this type of collection concentrate on the madterpieces? Or then name the book 1001 records which changed the world. If they could find that many.
For me it was a nice chance to get to know some Dusty songs which are not in the classic albums or in the collections.
The Police
3/5
10/1001. confession #1: i'm an 80s fan boy. Confession #2: I've nevee listened to a full Police album. The hits have turned me away, and what a lost it seems, at least I felt that during the first few songs. But more the album went on the more I was ok with initial confession #2. There was a sense of a story - a dramtatic curve in the beginning (almost like a pop proge album) which faded away. Ok, so that's not what an album must need, right? But somehow while many of the non-hits were interesting they are overshadowed by the hits. And at least I have become so comfortably numb (yes i know a pink floyd not a police quote) to the hit(s) that they feel like every breath or daily bread.
Nirvana
4/5
12/1001. What do you get when an angry and depressed band gets world famous, pushed and pulled around? Add a bit of drugs to the mixture and they get angrier and more depressed, and it shows here. So for me this album is a diary of what was happening at that time to Nirvana / Cobain. Somehow I can't imagine what would have happened after this if what happened didn't happen with the band? Cobain sobered out, grunge craze gone by, next big thing in everyone's cd-walkmans — would they have mellowed out, wrote more savvy, still a bit grungy songs a la the Foo Fighters? Would the world have wanted that? And does this make this album better because of that improbable future never happened?
The album is honest, with great songs and amazing energy and rawness, but I don't really feel too comfortable reading or listening to someone's private life splattered over 12 songs. I liked Bleach when it came out and Nevermind was out of this world, and this album reminds us that Grunge Lives Matter.
2/5
13/1001. Guess I have to listen to a complete Oasis album. Wankers wanking with their guitars, and then putting up immortal classics is a tough mixture for me. I'm slowly realising this book seems to like electric guitars, and western pop way more than what my personal preferences are. But there is no similar website for the 1000 recordings you must hear before you die…
So what to say. Most of the songs for me are boring and bland and the attitude is obnoxious. But Wonderwall and Don't Look Back in Anger are undisputed classics to be ruined time and again in campfires around the world. A 2 for that.
Spacemen 3
5/5
14/1001. After some grunge and brit pop it is so refreshing to hear guitars used for something creative :) It takes quite a lot of courage to strip down to so much, to remove chord progressions, riffs and what not. Many seem to claim they could do it, but I really do doubt it, at least on this level. The songs undulate, grow, fade away and (some) contain beautiful melodies. I'm a fan of the Spiritualized, in knew about Spacemen 3, but never listened to them too much. The meditative / religious themes seem to stem already from here. Have to dig in deeper after this :)
If you open your mind a bit and think that music can also be about texture and tone rather than about Pop tunes crafted in an A B A or some other format this is for you. After all this I feel even more sad Spiritualized cancelled their show in 2023 for Epäjohdonmukaisten tanssiaiset.
Joni Mitchell
5/5
Simple yet complex. Delicate yet powerful. Quirky, sad, joyful, blue. I don’t know how this much of everything is possible to put in one album, but here it is.
Christina Aguilera
1/5
5/1001 This is the first time I listened to a full album of Aguilera. But hey, we all have to test our limits someday. It is worrying and troubling that a singer / star of such proprtion has to convince herself that she is good and shouldn't be looked down upon. What does that mean to an average 13-year old trying to survive in the pressure of today's surface-is-what-counts-world? The music is so pathetic as well, how much pain does she really hold inside? Or is it just a big performance of something totally empty inside? Do I smell Mickey Mouse club here? While I am sure this speaks to millions out there it left me more wondering than admiring. And yes, I do own quite a many R&B albums. Beautiful stuff here and there, awesome production, but when this doesn't speak to me then it doesn't. I am sort of sorry to say I am glad I don't have to listen to another album of her again.
John Lennon
3/5
15/1001. A familiar album from my childhood, but still some songs seemed quite unfamiliar. Besides the title there are some other classics here as well, Jealous Guy being my favourite. I was quite surprised how boring and similar some of the songs were, to be considered such a classic. Also the honesty Lennon wanted to bring in to his lyrics doesn't make the listener at home. First he sings the most universally know anthem about people living together in peace and then goes about trashing McCartney. That just doesn't feel right. Or Yoko again. I mean I like Yoko's stuff, perhaps more than Lennon's solo efforts, her music in all its naivete is much more interesting than Lennon in the 70s, sorry to say. But of course an anthem is an anthem, and there are not many people in the world who have been able to produce so many of them.
Pixies
4/5
16/1001. I was never a big Pixies fan, although their music and style was exactly what I listened to at a certain time, before and around grunge broke off. They were in my radar and I remember watching their live concert on Finnish TV (now that's revolutionary considering late 80's early 90s Finland and pop/rock music in national channels).
After all these years listening to this reveals it has aged quite well, it is varied, interesting, full of energy and sprinkled humour. Melodic and harsh one after other, sometimes even simultaneously, quite an accomplishment. 15 songs totally felt much more than 38 minutes, perhaps a song or two made my mind wondering about, but focus was re-grabbed soon. A second or third listen will surely liven up those songs as well. If I would have to recommend someone an alt/rock album this might be it, although I am more of a sonic youth fan (perhaps that's post rock then?). 4/5, I'm stripping one star, since this really is not my type of music anymore, and replaying or digging deeper is not very likely.
Kelela
3/5
17/1001. An R& B Björk? Interesting? The album start is promising, the electronic production is great, her voice of course as well. But the atmosphere, mood, the energy level stay the same throughout the record. It feels there is no real songwriting? Her voice goes up and down, repeating the same-ish melodies over and over. Thanks for 1001 project for introducing this artist, something to keep an eye open for sure.
Harry Nilsson
4/5
18/1001. One more album I had in the shelf. But this one was in my "b-pile" for some reason. So a quote "Well now that I heard the whole thing it is actually quite good. Should we listen to it again?" fits. There are songs I recognized but would never have attributed to Nilsson. Coconut - I'm sure was in the Muppet show (they always had the best songs, right ;)? Without you, really written by him? Great. And to balance that you the have boring "I want to be like the Beatles after they broke up stuff" like Let the good times roll. Come on, who needs yet another song like that? Some of the echoes of the fab four or even similarities with the Mael brothers sprinkled here and there along with the epic Coconut and some quirky production lifts this back to my main LP shelf :)
Ali Farka Touré
5/5
19/1001. The first "world" music album to my list, which goes to show the bias of the book. Would be lovely to do a 1001 African albums you must hear before you die…or Asian, Caribbean or Brazilian. Oh, I'm sure we get some here, but this album alone is worth reminding that there is great music everywhere, and listening outside your typical Pitchfork/Rolling Stones/1001 selection can be an elevating experience. So I'm realising sadly, that the majority of this book and the project won't be about discovery but flogging on more or less dead (race) horses. I'm sure nice and new (to me) music to be discovered over there as well, but…
I've listened to Ali Farka Touré before, and the newer "Sahara blues" acts. (And of course Mulatu and basically the whole Ethiopiques collection, to South African Kwaito and more contemporary urban rhythms not to mention Tony Allen, Fela Kuti and many other Afro beat / Funk acts, compilations, online bootlegs. Analog Africa anyone?) This one not, but definitely will again. Such skill to craft hypnotic tunes from a few notes, with authenticity, feeling, passion, evident sense of death coming upon the maker. I hope I keep getting albums like this (anywhere in the world) to be listened to during the next 1070 or so albums (I just came to understand there is more than 1001 on this list!, cheaters :D)
Paul Simon
4/5
5 (or 6?)/1001. I used to own two LP copies of this one, the other one I probably got either from my mom or sister, and the other I bought because I remembered how good this was, not remembering I already owned it. For me this is an album one can put on any time there is a moment not to know what to play. It sounds really good on the background, but perhaps now giving a dedicated listen reveals a bit of inconsistency or I don't know what, something missing?. The songs are strong and musicians great, and I still love it. There are some albums between this and Graceland which I've never heard (not to mention stuff after that one), so perhaps I will dig into those at some point.
Lucinda Williams
2/5
7/1001. Many of my friends have said that recently they listen to mostly country music. Well screw them! ;) Ok, jokes aside. As a matter of fact I do own one Lucinda Williams cd, her voice is great and songs are simple enough. But thats maybe the problem - too simple songs – for me nothing really stands out here, and to call this album a masterpiece, or that it should be included in the list of albums one should hear before they die is just too much for my musical taste. Mellow and smooth and sometimes sad, sometimes funny, but hey, so are millions of other albums as well. Blame me for not understanding country & western and I'll go drink one for you. When I get to Inari I don't think I miss this record that much. Or even remember any of its songs.
The Lemonheads
2/5
11/1001. Should this list be more like 1001 similar albums? Maybe not too fair, but for me this album is here because a) the book is getting old, and b) someone was a fan of brit pop back then. Back in the 90s this was ok, I guess, and in 2025 this album doesn't really qualify even for that. It's perhaps a nice document of an era which came and went, nothing everlasting for me in this album. I agree the best tune is the cover of Simon & Garfunkel, and who gets the credit for that? It's a shame about Lemonheads.
Norah Jones
2/5
20/1001, and catched up missed albums (although this is bound to happen hundrerds of times).
I haven't really paid too much attention to Norah Jones, I think my sister liked her quite a bit, but that's about it. The initial reaction was: I love this. Then: is this a Christmas album? Then: are all the songs the same? Then: how to rate it? Then: when does it end? So from 5 to…2 I think. I don't know why I would listen to it again, the mood stays the same throughout the record, there are no standouts, it feels to made for the foreground, headphones didn't really reveal anything new. A few sassy but jazzy tunes here and there please, lift the tempo up, change instrumentation… Come away where? Sorry, but no thanks.
Missy Elliott
4/5
Wow, I really must listen to rap/hiphop more, if it is this good. Soulful, uncompromising (but sort of apologizing with all the spoken stuff?), fun and funny, groovy, nasty, varied, and it is always great when the n- or b-word count is in reasonable limits. This became one of my favourite albums of the genre, but have to admit, that my knowledge of the genre is quite limited — it basically consists of the hits, old school, some of the stuff of some of the well known acts and some local (Finnish) stuff. Maybe more than many, but nothing to brag about. Sure there are more gems out there, let's keep diggin. 4 for now, perhaps after a few listens a fiver?
The Doors
3/5
22/1001 ( I think). I am not a huge Doors fan, but heard the albums a few times, some of them more, and of course the hits keep playing over and over and over. This album is not in my top Doors list, mostly bluesy, basic rock with an attitude and a few good songs. Favourites: Peace Frog and Waiting for the Sun. Actually the more the songs step outside the blues norm the more they are interesting. A solid 3 for me.
Sonic Youth
4/5
23/1001. Third album from my shelf, and I think the first band I've sen live (missed Nirvana in LA in 1991 and in Finland a few years later...) For some reason I tend to always pick Goo, Dirty or Daydeam Nation if I want to listen to SY. I don't really know why, this is a solid sonic youth album which sounds like the sonic youth. Perhaps that is also a bit of an issue: no songs really stand out. But still I love the bands sound with alternative tuned guitars screeching out and in the middle of the noise beautiful melodies suddenly pop out. Gotta love them.
Gorillaz
4/5
24/1001. Hmmm, I might own a library sale cd copy of this? Anyway I hadn't really LISTENED to thw album before...many songs seem groovy, the sound is nice and funky, featuring artists bring a lot in, and the songs have interesting details in the background, but still overall feel is too lazy, like an album which is made stoned. I hope they had continued the virtual only band, they were really pioneering the thing and now you would have so many possibilities with virtual productions, motion detection, Fortnite concerts and what not. But hey, a Jim Henson award for creativity and a guinness world record!
Fred Neil
3/5
25/1001. I don't think I've heard about Fred Neil before. I thought this was his debut, but seems like rhe 2nd album. A bit blueay and more folky, psychedelic influences are there, hip and beat vibes all around. I file this to the same category with Tim Buckley, also by rating: I don't mind listening to this, but it didn't really become an instant hit with me either. So a 3.
Marilyn Manson
2/5
26/1001. So I have to bury my prejudice and listen to the whole album, ignoring the misogynism, rapes, sadism? As a dj I stopped playing Michael Jackson after seeing Leaving Neverland, should I do the same here? Well I haven't played MM any time nor do I think I ever will. To blame him / band on school shootings is just stupid and childish, but to blame on violence, rape, torture is quite another issue. Somehow I feel rhe Finnish guitarist Andy McCoy's quote fitting here: "you have to watch out what you wish for, you might get it".
To move to the music: yes, it is an angry album, which is partly due to the genre, but somehow close and personal and journal type of angry. To couple this with the brand of the band it is no surprise to see why this touches so many people (and might be misunderstood as a cause for violence in the weaker minds? Well I wouldn't blame it on one band, figure or a fictious character, try e.g. the news + commercials mindfuck done by TV). But it is at parts beautiful, the production remains interesting for most parts of the album with all nitty bitty details scattered to rhe left, right, up and down. I hear Reznor heavily here. Thumbs up always when mac text-to speech sounds are used.
But everything is a bit too much, the energy levels, the voice, the length, the hate and anger. Not my genre by far but it was an interesting listen, but still a 2.
Black Sabbath
4/5
27/1001. I think I had this - or my sister had it, about 35 years ago… Anyway, most songs are familiar, since I also had tabs for the best of Sabbath and probably still would know most of them by heart on a guitar.
The album must be considered a classic, basically it is one cornerstone in the history of metal. No blues scale really here but riffs and power chords. I wouldn’t call it a masterpiece though, a few easy to forget songs here and there and some jamming. But the sound is tight as ever, 55 years and it sounds as fresh as an ancient graveyard after rain.
Sonic Youth
4/5
28/1001. The first artist in my list to appear twice, just 5 days between this and the following album Sister, now in wrong order. But I don't mind, been a SY fan for 35 years or so. Interesting to see which albums will be featured in the 1001 list since I think they just kept getting better after these two quite early ones… even the newer albums are unique and continue their sonic experimentation, pop and rock songs, which mash up noise to beautiful melodies and create haunting spirit with an attitude.
Evol contains a few excellent tunes, but for me how it comes out nowadays is how it documents all the base ingredients which later will be polished — and challenged — by the band: an introduction to their sonic palette, song writing style, and how they manage to turn a waterfall of mood/sound in to a quiet pond (or vice versa) in one single bear. As with Sister I had forgotten how good this was. I haven't played this that much, even though I have it on my shelf, but then again I don't think I will be playing it any more in the future. There is so much good Sonic Youth albums out there, the selection rarely lands on these two albums. And perhaps even with all the experimentation in sound, melodies, song structure, tunings, noise, you name it‚ the problem is that they still sound quite the same, same experimentations from album to album — at least they make me feel quite the same. (Which is an ok feeling if you didn't read it between the lines already). So no more or less than 4.
Megadeth
1/5
29/1001. Ok, I just listened to Black Sabbath's title album a few titles ago, I'm all set for metal. "Brother will kill brother" are the first lyrics I hear. omg. I'm sure there will be long solos and heavy riffs, slow and fast sections and lot of "my dick is bigger than yours and the world is dying, death will release us all, join me in hell fuck the news". And I'm halfway to the first song. So let's give it a spin and fill in later. My sister in law who is (also) a metal fan always says, that you have to ignore some of the cliches in any one music genre, and especially heavy metal, not let it disturb the music. BUT "They killed my wife and my baby, with hopes to enslave me", seriously, ROFLMAO!" Ignore that you muthas!
Sorry to say, but from the first few riffs you know what the album is about. I didn't sign up for this to get back to the music I left behind already when I was a teenager…ok, maybe 16 or 17, but still.
The Beach Boys
3/5
30/1001. Was it random coincidence or does someone plan these? 2 days after Brian Wilson's death I get this on the plate. What to say? Well let's start with that I've seen the Beach Boys live! That was way back in 1991, at the Dodgers stadium in LA, and I can't say I enjoyed it, it was 4th of July celebration with Patriot missile style fireworks, you know after the Gulf war, which I hated. Didn't stand up for the national anthem (it wasn't my nation anyway). Ever since that year I spent there as an exchange student I've looked America with a crooked eye, what a waste to so much beauty and potential greatness it has become. Can't figure out why my sister wants to live there and stay there…
But to the music, yes. I do own this cd, but for some reason the Beach boys always sound too beach for me. The unofficial bootlegs of Smile and the final release of Brian Wilson's Smile are great, (I don't think I have actually heard Smiley Smile?) but this one for me is more surf than turf. I'm sure more BB albums are coming up, perhaps some interesting ones. perhaps.
Big Brother & The Holding Company
2/5
31/1001. Bluesy, hippy, raw and the one and only Janis. I already had Surrealistic Pillow on my turntable for this project, and I guess this — by geographic area and time at least — could be grouped together. But as Airplane was more varied in their songs, this one is about the ding-a-ling, and for me it just doesn't speak too much. Joplin's solo efforts were more interesting, and started exanding out of the hippie rock scene, but it seems every bit of cough she has ever produced has been put an a 14th extended-great-best-of-mega-box-special-edition collection, which kind of makes me go meh, (similar thing of course has happened to many others with similar fates, take Hendrix or Drake for example). But waiting for Pearl. 2
Common
4/5
33/1001. Another new artist for me, and another positive surprise coming from hip-hop. Funky, soulful, witty... but seems to repeat what's good. In the end the songs blend one to another and not too many stand out. Definitely have to check out some more Common. In the end an album with lines like "From bashful to asshole to international" deserves nothing less than 4.
The Stone Roses
4/5
34/1001. Shoegaze meets britpop in this classic. Yes, I have it and yes it was important for me at a time ...and still manages to play nicely in most situations it seems (this time mostly in the car and with headphones). So much has been written about this album and the band and the long-waited sequel which I guess was a disappointment for everyone that it is hard to add anything relevant. Somehow this seems to fit right between a musical gap in the history of western pop & rock music, and that is probably the reason it is on this list (and on my shelf). Does this mean I love it? Well not immensely. But I like it.
Al Green
3/5
35/1001. I love Al Green, but at the same time if this record didn't exist I'm sure I would not think there is something missing from the world. It comes and goes, mostly harmless.
Joe Ely
2/5
36/1001. Unknown artist for me, and I can't really claim to be a country music afficionado. By the third song I think I have to get to know the artist and the genre better, but then Jericho drops the mood down, and it just keeps going down. A promising 4 turns to 2 as I walk by the railroad tracks towards the next album.
Alanis Morissette
3/5
32/1001. This probably is the soundtrack of mid 90's for many: the drum patterns, the guitars, the typography and graphic design, the videos, the voice. For me not so much, back then I more or less dissed anything that went top 10. I don't think I ever listened to the whole album before, the hits were pouring in and that was plenty. So, what is revealed after 30 years? Nothing that gets me excited about now either. Yes, some young energy and freshness is there, no fancy overproduced shite, pardon me stuff, like so much of today's music. Songwriting is at times great, I guess the hits are hits for a reason, although the chord progressions are nothing new. But somehow I can't get this out of 1995-96, ghosts of trip-hop drums and grunge guitars apart from the Spice Girls, who were much more fun and still raise a heck on the dance floor when played today. Somehow the album holds through, although I don't see a reason to listen to it again. Perhaps it is just the the amount of distorted guitars of 1995.
Django Django
5/5
37/1001. I started this project to encounter interesting artists like these, which I have missed for once reason or another. Back in 2012 I was probably to busy looking for cool cumbia, scouting through brazil bossa and beats, had a trip or two across african music plateaus, while re-re-visiting electronic 80s obscurities. So, I guess I missed quite a lot what was happening in the indie-/alternative-/ art music scene. Super duper nice that these kinds of things pop up here on this list as well: sonic exploration, adventures in digital production, retroesque harmony arrangements á la beach boys / Brian Wilson, stereolabish synth grooves, FourTet / Animal Collective sound collages, Tame Impala indie attitude... fun and interesting, I don't mind that song writing is rather simple or that perhaps too many hours have been spent on a computer to create these pieces. I want more!
Pixies
3/5
38/1001. 2nd Pixies in this list so far, and I guess a few more to come. This one is more raw, and showcase a younger band perhaps still looking for it's place / songwriting style. That said it does sound very Pixies. But something in this doesn't speak to me that much, the songs aren't that good you know?
Beatles
5/5
39/1001. First, and I'm sure not the last, Beatles album hear. And also this happens to be one of my favourites, familiar from my childhood, as mum lived through the Beatle-craze and owned two or three Beatle records (music was expensive back then!). And since they got rid of their record player I got to keep the vinyls :) btw, my grandparents hated "this trash" at that time, but I think they later changed their minds after hearing me listen to heavy metal ;) Anyway, another album full of classic songs only, and the sonic and production experimentation and eastern influences never feel additive. Somehow I think if the hippy movement had ever happened without this album. Taxman and I want to tell you also showcase Harrison's rising talent as a songwriter, which for whatever reason even Lennon & McCartney sometimes criticized (another Harrisong?). So all in all amazing album. Ok, I could live without Yellow Submarine, but for me this is Beatles at their bestles.
Jane's Addiction
5/5
40/1001. Another "yes I've had it for the last 35 years" albums. So what did this listening reveal? That at least the spotify version had extra song(s?) which just made the whole worse? Let's just ignore that. I got introduced to Jabe's Addiction in LA during my exchange year, but didn't manage to see any of their shows. Either they were sold out or at 18+ places. But they were happening there back then. And for some reason (drugs? Artistic disagreements?) they also lost it quite fast after Ritual de lo Habitual, which in 1990-91 was constantly on my turntable. But slowly this album has grown past it I think, hard to say, they are both great. They really know how to make more delicate and fragile sounding, slowly growing songs. But also the rock-funk-groove and energy is there, with a sound like no other. And after 30-35 years it still sounds fresh as fuck.
2/5
41/1001. Own? Yes. Do I love it? No. I guess I have been buying Bowie albums since every good record collector and music appreciator does. But besides some good songs they are quite a drag to listen to, and this album is one example. I don't know how this repeatedly gets picked to top 100, 50 or even 10 lists, just because of Starman? The playing is lazy, the drummer sounds like he is almost late, the story is sas stupid as Bowies interest in pantomime... for me the highlight this time was It ain't easy - and that turned out to be a cover song. IMHO Bowie is way overrated.
DJ Shadow
5/5
42/1001. Own? Yes (a cd though, which kind of seems like a disgrace here). For me, a dj has always been a person, who spent their lives picking on LPs as depicted in the cover, and through that knows some kick ass music history, can introduce some crazy funky beats on top of familiar melodies you almost don't recognize anymore and spices it up with some speech samples. At least I'm like that as a dj :) I don't think mash-ups or bootlegs were yet a too hot thing when this came out, and while most of them are fun they present two of three top pop songs which fit together so nicely that they sound like another pop hit song. A totally different aesthetic is at play here. Crafting new songs out of samples which don't seem to belong together is a rare skill and DJ shadow is the master of it. I highly also recommend to search for the project where someone digged out all the original songs where the samples are from. Actually the word sample doesn't do proper justice here - song building blocks maybe? A classic, a milestone, adventure in modern recording for sure.
Bob Dylan
3/5
43/1001. I guess this is the album when Dylan went electric to a huge disappointment to some folk purists. Well boo-hoo. I haven't listened to this one as a whole before - actually haven't listened to any Dylan too much - nor do I think I ever will (well if I finish this project I'm sure a few albums will pop up). But I never realized how punk he was. No wonder they called him an anarchist (in the U.K), "Give the anarchist a cigarette" -quote (especially sang by Chumbawamba) is a classic. But then, it is all about lyrics, isn't it? I don't tend to listen to lyrics too much when I listen to music - the music should speak to itself. Here the music is raw and rough (read: out of tune), which is great, but but still blues- / folk-based. Uncompromising. Boring, as is his voice. Screeching, blasting your ears with a harmonica (why?). Punk. Not much to love in these quite simple and too long songs wothout the lyrics? So mixed feelings here. I liked it more than the Bowie album I just reviewed though - no fake moonage sci-fi pantomime theatre here, but quite an assault, surprised that common people at that time bought it and loved it. But still a mixed 3.
Kendrick Lamar
4/5
44/1001. Own? Yes, although a library sale copy, which I probably played once. I think I got interested in this after hearing King Kunta in a street dance competition. Around the same time short docufeatures about this album (rap albums which shook the world of something like that) came out. But I think only now I listened to the whole piece concentrated. Or at least tried to concentrate - 1h 20 minutes is just too much to take in for this whitey. Not that any of it is bad, but is more really more in this case? Some thoughts : it has a lot of humour, Kendrick would make an excellent guest in the Muppet Show 😅 But at the same time the thing (not only the lyrics) is dead serious. Hard to find such an interesting mix of the two. The groove is there, the message is there, the little I understand as a cis European male. I don't get the use of the N, F or B words in rap music, shouldn't they spell out NFL or better yet NBA? :D
Creedence Clearwater Revival
2/5
45/1001. Not all bands went to full psychdelic frenzy in the late 60's. Too bad. This was better than I thought, but as we say in Finnish "pessimisti ei pety".
Genesis
2/5
46/1001. First I thought it was fresh to hear some progressive rock, but somewhere before the middle all the riffs and changes and extwnded songs were just too much. If they comw up with something interesting one can be sure that they will change quickly in to something else and necer return. Meh.
Jungle Brothers
4/5
47/1001. This name didn't really say too much beforehand. Perhaps should take a closer look. Tight stuff and good grooves, filling what ever missing links there might have been between funk and hip-hop. Towards the end of the album it got a bit repetitive for mw, and when the album started over it was clearly time to move on. But still a powerful bash of music.
Oasis
1/5
48/1001. How come this album is on this list? It doesn't have any hits, the playing is lazy and the sound is boring, singers wank out their frustration to life.
Laibach
4/5
50/1001. First I thought this is some joke, kind of like when Gregorians did cover versions of famous pop songs. Ok, this is not a joke, but there is definitely some very very dark humour at play herw. At least I hope there is. Well, of they did the soundtrack to Finnish film Iron Sky that proves this point. But a humor band or a joke album this is not. Beats every wanking brit pop album without question.
Beastie Boys
2/5
49/1001. I used to own this a long time ago, and haven't probably listened to this in 30 years. While it has the raw energy of the youth I'm glad they changed from abnoxious teen party hip-hop band in to abnoxious adult I-don't-know-whats-gonna-happen-next -hip-hop band. Their delivery is as fun and crafted as their shouting and voices are annoying.
Johnny Cash
5/5
51/1001. I am not a big fan of country music but Johnny Cash is an exception and this album is the best live album in the world, period. Anyone not agreeing with this should spend some time in their local prison and wait in vain for such a gig to happen. Love that it includes all the interruptions, booing to the prison staff, hickups and mistakes and stories. The atmosphere is thick with imprisoned joy and anger. I feel this could have lead to a riot.
Prince
3/5
52/1001. I do own many Prince LPs, but for some reason have missed this. We'll the catalog is quite immense, right? And with that comes maybe the weakness - no matter how genius one might be, there is no way all the material can be great. For me the music sounds will crafted and I like the way he turns positive what ever limitations there are e.g. in the choice of instrumentation, and also that he doesn't want to let the listener gwt out too easily. But then the problem is that are there any hits, good tunes, memorable songs? Well some, but others just go in one war and out the other, the simplicity-complexity craft not fitting to your brain cells and their patterns. Which is also a positive thing: I'm sure you can listen to this album (as other Prince albums as well) over and over again and discover new things, new favorites, songs you didn't remember were in it. A 3 or 4? I think there will be more Prince here that I'm more familiar of, so only a three here - I didn't discover nothing new really about the man, the myth - the legend.
4/5
53/1001. I think this was the first PJ Harvey album I didn't buy, and first listen didn't revwal much. However, throughout the years this has grown on me an almost on par with the her other classics. But you know some albums mean more to you because they were THE albums at the time, and these newer ones can never reach that something. So I'm waiting for Bring You My Love and Rid Of Me...meanwhile a steong four. Beautiful but indie. Her voice is amazing, fuck Courtney Love.
Slint
5/5
54/1001. I had no idea what this band or music is about. First few bars remind me of Tortoise, then after the distortion kicks in it feels like a missing link between hard-core and grunge and the American post- rock a la Tortoise et al. And sure enough, reading the band's history, the breadcrumb trail leads from hc to Tortoise. I didn't know this missing link but am glad that it popped up here. There is always new to learn about artists and albums around one's favourite artists, one reason I am doing this project. Meditative, raw, surprising, beautiful, simple, complex, well tuned guitars with new strings creating interesting intervals and harmonies with the bass, Pärt of pop suddenly torn to shreds... I love it when music is all these at the same time. Millions of people claiming this is simple and "I could do it without trying" have no clue (and I'm sure they wet their pants over a Nirvana or Ramones record).
Run-D.M.C.
4/5
55/1001. Golden age of hip-hop, classic album, greatest hits of the 80s in this genre. Keep it real and minimal, not illin'
Dwight Yoakam
1/5
56/1001. The story so far: we need more hip-hop and less country.
David Bowie
3/5
57/1001. 2nd Bowie in this list and for the three first songs I thought it was Bowie at his lowest. If avant-garde is synonymous to boring, uninteresting songwriting, songs that are not more than demos, count me out. Thank god Sound and Vision saved that thought, for a moment. Around about the B-side (stupid Spotify doesn’t let me flip the album) the music began to be interesting again, which I credit more to Eno than Bowie — this might be a wrong thought but perhaps not far from the truth (which is: David Bowie alone is super boring). Well, according to wikipedia: ”Eno arrived after the backing tracks for side one were "essentially" finished.” So, for that and Sound and vision, a 3
Ride
2/5
58/1001. I think I used to own it. But haven't missed it if I sold it. I also recommend listening to only the original LP length, which is 8 songs. That is probably enough shoegaze for mid 2020's for a while. 2 for the nostalgia.
Herbie Hancock
5/5
59/1001. The first Jazz album on this list for me so far, which I hope tells more about the random algorithm which picks the play order, than how much jazz actually is included to the book. C'mon, I've listened to 5,9% of the project already! I'm sure Jazz consistency in the top 1001 albums is at least 14,7%! This said, I can't claim to be a big jazz fan or afficionado, but groovy, funky jazz is just the greatest thing after pickled herrings. And this one also happens to be an album which I own and love. Herbie Hancock is one of the giants, also later merging jazzy stuff to sampling, beats, creating a huge part of the electronic sound of eighties. Here the various synthesizers and their possibilities in combination with more traditional instruments and some kick ass percussion are explored to create an irresistable jazz-funk groove, be it original compositions or a fresh arrangement of old Hancock classic (Watermelon Man). Mindblowing stuff, the importance and greatness of this album only grows over time. Glad also to notice the year the album was made, good vintage (I might be biased about that though).
Def Leppard
1/5
60/1001. File under hard rock. I don't know a situation where I would voluntary listen to this album. Wait a minute, I just did? What was the purpose of this project: to expand musical horizons, to go out of one's comfort zone? Was it worth it? No, not really.
Beck
5/5
61/1001. After sauna grillaamista (barbecue), next to the outdoor fireplace which is falling apart, made out of an unused concrete well ring (tai mitä vittuja kaivonrenkaat englanniksi ovatkaan), sun is shining even though it is near midnight (yay Inari!), Beck's Odelay is playing. What a time to be alive!
Linkin Park
2/5
62/1001. Based on my idea and empirical in-the-field test I let chatgpt write this review:
We listened to Hybrid Theory while frantically searching for a toilet for our son, who was in the throes of a full-blown poop crisis. As the album raged on, so did the urgency. The tension built track by track – One Step Closer indeed – but when we finally reached the bathroom, the anticipated catharsis refused to come.
Much like our son’s bowels, the album struggled to deliver. Loud, angsty, and emotionally overwrought, Hybrid Theory blends rap, metal, and teen turmoil into a sonic hybrid that often feels more engineered than sincere. As a musical experiment, it fuses emotional intensity with the slick, compressed production of early-2000s nu-metal – not always successfully.
In the end, this odd combination of parental panic, gastrointestinal suspense, and sonic angst is the only hybrid theory I truly found in the album.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
3/5
63/1001. While I am a big fan of experimental music, and have been listening to Beefheart albums for a long time, in Safe as Milk there is much still yet to emerge out from the traditional blues / rock / pop mold. Using weird instruments or funny (ok, you can call it everchanging) voice with mostly quite traditional song structures and chord progressions doesn't really make this much different from a comedy album. Better stuff to come, hope also in this list.
The La's
4/5
64/1001. File under "missed when it came out which is too bad I would have enjoyed it quite a lot sounds quite nice but it might be too late to fall in love with this band anymore definitely worth a few more listens sounds like Britpop of the 90s which it is rather than timeless I don't have anything against the bassist James Joyce's skills but I still prefer his books". Or did I write this kind of review already?
Ramones
5/5
65/1001.
Repetitive. Repetitive. Repetitive.
And the punk who I stole this line from, and gave a 1 couldn't even spell, so I must be right.
Björk
4/5
66/1001. Loved it when it came out, but now seems a bit aged. Hope more Björk to pop up.
The Yardbirds
4/5
67/1001. Don't know too much about the Yardbirds except that Clapton, Page and Beck all were guitarists at some point, and that this is the album my sister had and we jammed along with it in the late 80's. Good feeling and quite a fun album for.mw then. Next.
The Beta Band
3/5
68/1001. Ahhh, The Beta band. There are bands (and albums) which sound super good and interesting, and when they are over, one forgets them instantly. This is what happens with me with the Beta band. Repeat listens might help, then again, should I bother?
The Who
4/5
69/1001. We all love how the Who brought art and rock together as so called "rock operas" in concept albums. We all hate how the Who brought art and rock together as so called "rock operas" in concept albums.
For me this one leans a bit more on the love side, it is 69 (year and my 69th generated album) after all. And I remember Tina Turner kick ass as the acid queen in the film version, plus they are calling my name. I might imagine buying this LP.
Kendrick Lamar
3/5
70/1001. Another Lamar for me, tpab was first, so this is sort of in the wrong order. This definitely is an album that would need more listens. But the problem is that I don't really listen to this kind of music. Nor that I wouldn't want to, but there is just too much beyatch to get over.
Black Sabbath
5/5
71/1001. I guess this not a coincidence that the album is in my plate the day after Ozzy left us, or is it? A secret war pigs algorithm which puts forward recently deceased artists albums? What are the odds, same as the betting ratio between Iron man vs. Jack the Stripper? Is this a message from an electric funeral in a planet caravan? Hand of doom preparing some rat salad? I think I am paranoid.
Happy Mondays
3/5
72/1001. I saw the movie 24 hour party people and ecer since have tried to find a good, danceable, party song by the Happy Mondays, but never succeeded. Most of their stuff just floats around, which I guess is their thing. In the end it all feels mediocre.
Blondie
5/5
73/1001. There are those albums, which you love and own,but which you don’t listen that much. And then there are those, which you own and love and listen to over and over again. This is one of those latter albums.
Janelle Monáe
5/5
74/1001. Before listening I had no idea what this was. After listening I have no idea what this was.
David Holmes
2/5
75/1001. This I think I have, but I don't know why. The name keeps popping up and the sounds remind of an era but nothing seems to stand out. After half a day of listening I can't recall anything that was in it and don't want or need to go back.
Fatboy Slim
3/5
76/1001.
Is this album a lot of fun?
- He'll yeah.
Would you consider this to be one of the 1000 masterpieces of popular music?
-...
Dagmar Krause
5/5
77/1001. Used the YouTuble playlist. I'm a fan of weill/brech and this clearly falls in to the same category. I've xome across Krause in Willners superb Lost in the Stars album (also check out the September Songs movie!) compilation. To file this under agit pop or protest songs is a major mistake. The voice and the production is amazing, and the songwriting is great. 26 songs is a lot, but over all this collection of 1001 great album needs more divergence like this one.
Bobby Womack
3/5
78/1001.
To quote Hitchhiker's Guide to tje Galaxy: mostly harmless.
Jamiroquai
4/5
79/1001. I saw Jamiroquai about 25 years ago, back in 1999 in Helsinki. Red Hot Chili Peppers played the next day at the same place but we chose this gig instead (couldn't afford both as poor students you know). The gig was good and fun, but still I think that perhaps we should have picked RHCP. Well, it seems they are still in business so perhaps it's not too late... My favourite album from J-roquai is Synkronized, this one is a bit too Stevie Wonder pastusche. Well aren't they all? But good grooving and solid tunes.
R.E.M.
5/5
80/1001. Definitely my favourite R.E.M. album. I'm sure I haven't heard them all but enough to make this stand out from the others. I love the instrumentals, the slowly swirling low guitars which fit / complement Michael Stipe's voice perfectly, the minimalism, the droning synth and guitars. Excellent tunes all over, and even radio hits. Another one of those timeless albums for me which I can (and have done countless of times over about 30 years) put on and cjill.
The Sugarcubes
4/5
81/1001. Although Björk at some point was a sort of a goddess a la Kate Bush for me, I never digged too deep to her earlier production. Well Gling-glo yes and some sugarcubes, but they were not so interesting. Listening to Sugacubes debut arises mixed feelings: on the other hand it is energetic, on the other the music isn't too innovative. Björk's singing is an instrument on it's own, the comes Einar with his crappy output. I don't know if they wanted to create an unmatched pair for a reason, but that's what we hear. Our perhaps they all were to good friends to tell him not to sing. Or most likely just so punk that they wanted to have the shitty output and poor mixing as part of rhe show. Well it is raw and rough, and somehow part of the attraction of it - otherwise it sounds more dated than late 80's in general. But come on, looking back: the band was angry that all the media focused on Björk - well what the fuck else is there to focus on? 3 stars +1 for the supernova called Björk.
Btw. i've performed on stage while Björk was in the audience at the Reykjavík city theatre (as a host, not as a musician). God damn you crazy s.l.a.t.u.r. people, or perhaps thanks for not telling me beforehand. I love you all.
The Go-Betweens
3/5
82/1001. Now I know where to turn to if I need slightly more obscure than average love songs, which sounds like a criticism, which is not true (necessarily). Looking from the bottom of the lake, the light still reaches this album, but it is a shitty place to listen to music.
Duke Ellington
4/5
83/1001. The oldest album at least by a decade. Well they didn't really make albums innthe fifties, right? In the beginning the weird speeches interrupted the good mood and at some point I got bored, but then I put in the headphones and the band started to play for me. Crazy energy and vibes from 70 years ago. Some licks and talented musicians, the recording quality of a gig is what it is, it is 1956 for god's sake. I had some kind of extended version which started putting out some outtakes after the gig finished, and just had to stop. It was good enough already.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
2/5
84/1001. "The album continues to evoke a highly divided reaction among critics." I think I used to own this and even listen to this. Now I don't really see why. A lot of the early electronic stuff is really boring — there are some interesting sonical experiment things done for sure in radio workshops and by some pioneers, with buchla and tapeloops and all sorts of weird machines, but using a moog to recreate classical music is nowadays imho was and is mistake. Sorry Walter / Wendy Carlos, sorry ELP. I guess this album has created highly divided reactions even within me. There is some groove going on at places and some beautiful moments, so a 2.
John Martyn
5/5
85/1001. The following might include some hallucinations:
"Hey chatgpt + music generator, can you create an imaginary artist? He should be a British folk singer/songwriter with a deep and rough voice, incorporates jazz and early electronic elements on his music a bit like pink floyd and progressive rock. I'd like to get a name, short bio and an album from the later part of 1970's"
"What an interesting and inspiring combination. Let's create an experimental folk artist which takes folk music beyond Davy Graham, The Pentangle and John Fahey.
The artist John Martyn started in the British folk scene in the 1960's, but after befriending BBC radio electronic experimentation lab people and listening to early American psychedelic rock, especially the more experimental section of it, quickly realised his true potential would be combining jazz and electronic music to more traditional folk tunes. His records from the late 1960s to the mid 1970s document the process very well. His masterpiece album "One World" from 1977 was hailed by the critics but failed commercially. Instead of glueing very different styles together, it singlehandedly seemed to define a whole new genre.
The new version of ChatGPT can also generate this album for you, would you like to listen to it?"
"Yes, please"
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
5/5
86/1001. This album (and the band behind it) is a living proof that humans with penguin heads do exist and that they make interesting, odd but gentle music. I've known it for the last 30 years since I've owned this album and a few others, and cannot rate this lower than 5, otherwise the hatrded of these demigods will be upon us, they'll curse us, making us unable to incorporate ukuleles on pop / jazz / folk / rock / soul / easy listening music ever again (they will be allowed only on musical albums which contain sampled tape loops of telephone ringing tones).
Ghostface Killah
3/5
87/1001. Interesting. Starts up as a gangsta rap album with a very angry inside reporter from the drug scene, has soul / rnb love songs and skits about domestic violence and ends up with a very angry inside reporter from the drug scene. Wasn't boring to say the least, but as for me - the closest to a bar...was that ballet class? - I don't know if there is a place and time when and where this music would speak to me. Perhaps if and when I want to be evil.
Metallica
5/5
88/1001. Megadeth - Metallica 1-5.
The Smiths
5/5
89/1001. I wonder how all of the reviews do far have missed the point of this album, which of course is the undeniable fact that Morrissey & The Smiths foresaw and predicted Princess Diana's death and the message is hidden all over the place, in the cover, the group photo, the lyrics. Oh, and it apparently is also linked to the death of Jayne Mansfield as well. Here is some solid proof:
- There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” and the Underpass: The song talks about a car crash with a loved one, and contains the line “darkened underpass” — eerily like the Alma Tunnel, where Princess Diana died. There is a Flame of Liberty memorial (a light that never goes out) above the crash site. The song was only ever released as a single in France, where the accident happened.
- Cover Art & Film Links: The album cover shows actor Alain Delon in Le Passage, where his character dies in a car crash.
It can also be connected to actress Jayne Mansfield’s fatal car crash: The character in the film lived from 1933-1961. Jayne Mansfield was born in 1933. Princess Diana was born in 1961. ...
- Cemetry Gates: “Keats and Yeats are on your side / but you lose / because Wilde is on mine.” Oscar Wilde died in Paris, the same city where Diana passed away.
- In the official lyrics that are printed with the vinyl edition of THE QUEEN IS DEAD,
Morrissey's 13th word on Side 1 is "arches" and his 13th word on Side 2 is "smash." Diana will "smash" into the 13th of the "arches" formed by the pillars in an underpass.
THEM WAS ROTTEN DAYS" is etched on Side 2 of THE QUEEN IS DEAD. It's a line from the film SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING.
Princess Diana crashed twenty-five minutes after midnight on "SATURDAY NIGHT" and she died in the hospital at four o'clock on "SUNDAY MORNING."
-In the film"No Place to Hide" A CD of THE QUEEN IS DEAD is handled in Building 31 while the soundtrack plays an unrelated song, EVERY LITTLE BIT OF MY HEART, whose title is listed in the closing credits directly after the words "Paris, France." Within three minutes of THE QUEEN IS DEAD and EVERY LITTLE BIT OF MY HEART, a woman's fatal car crash is shown. Diana, "queen of hearts" was killed in a car crash on August 31 ("Building 31") in Paris, France.
Diana crashed while trying to hide from the paparazzi. The name of this film is NO PLACE TO HIDE.
- In 2005, PETA presented the "Linda McCartney Memorial Award" to Morrissey. ...
The first recipient ever of PETA'S "Linda McCartney Memorial Award" was actress Pamela Anderson. ...
Pamela Anderson was born July 1. ...
Princess Diana was born July 1. ...
Before becoming a Princess, Diana's first official title was "Lady" Diana. ...
Pamela Anderson was born on "Lady" Diana's birthday in "LadySmith." ...
"Lady" Diana's death was foreshadowed on THE QUEEN IS DEAD by The "Smiths."...
Pamela Anderson was born in 1967 on Lady Diana's birthday two days after the car crash that killed Jayne Mansfield.
It goes on, read more at http://www.dianamystery.com/
Oh and the music?
Boards of Canada
5/5
90/1001. Fourth day of bad / almost no sleep behind, listening to BoC feels like a plush toy in the already surreal mood. Pioneers(?) of the nowadays popular (?) loFi genre, mixing ambient with beats in an ever expaning sonic cinematic landscape. If music can paint it is an abstract Richter but in cooler colors.
Koffi Olomide
3/5
91/1001. I'm surprised how little world music, especially African music, is on this list. I think this my 2nd album in both categories so far. (This also means that there hasn't been any Brazilian, Jamaican, Columbian, Cuban or any other Latin brilliance, no Indenesian / Balian music, no Siberian throat singing, no mysterious voices from Bulgaria, etc...at least yet).
As far as this album goes, a few things: firstly, there always will be a new African superstar, who I've never heard of (and I've tried to listen to quite a lot of African music). Secondly almost all African music I hear is interesting: full of polyphonic melodies and rhythms, call and responses, groovy jamming and excellent musicians. Still, for me at least, Soukos, Highlife, Sungura and many other clean guitar picking music genres lack a sense of danger. The most well known artists kind of sound like they are tailored for western audiences, although that is probably not true. But this is what happened listening this album. I can imagine it being played at a world music festival with a culturally conscious, upper middle class whiteys drinking prosecco and dancing their fat and guilt off. Nothing wrong with that I guess? Groovy music - danger = 3
Talking Heads
5/5
92/1001.
FEAR OF MUSIC
is a green staircase to nowhere,
rattling like a typewriter eating rain.
Houses in motion?
No — the houses breathe.
The floorboards whisper,
“I Zimbra” in zebra Morse code,
while cities turn upside down to comb their hair.
This record is not a record,
it is a black rectangle filled with invisible giraffes dancing to the sound of boiled clocks.
David Byrne’s voice?
An umbrella that refuses to open.
The bassline?
A polite earthquake wearing silk pajamas.
You don’t listen to Fear of Music —
it listens to you,
then nods and rearranges your furniture
in alphabetical order.
The Flaming Lips
4/5
93/1001. I used to love this album, and there are still a few bangers. However, for some reason listening to this lately doesn't really seem interesting or important. The whole seems quite monotonous and slow, of course the few highlights (Yoshimi pt 1 and 2, Do you realize??) brighten it up. Somehow it is not surreal and dreamy enough, it's a bit too rock?
Sisters Of Mercy
4/5
94/1001. The first goth album for me on this list? What took so long? But this one is a classic, although definitely "file under grandiose". Everything is dark and big and echoey and low and, well …gothic. But This Corrosion still rocks and can be played in the middle of any dj set. Well, perhaps not any, but it is a banger.
Arcade Fire
2/5
95/1001. Never knew Arcade Fire too well (never bothered to listen to a full album that is), but it seems I didn't miss too much. A sort of a 1990s U2 of 2000s? And that is not a compliment. If this is Indie, I wonder what mainstream commercial rock / pop music is then, Coldplay?. For me this sounds bland, calculated, uninteresting, uninspired, dishonest… Nothing that would light my fire. Well, I didn't totally hate it, so 2.
Hugh Masekela
4/5
96/1001. Yes, I know. I've been ranting about more jazz and more Africa. Well here they fucking are. By the first two or three songs I was cursing myself. Where is Mulatu? But then slowly the album opens / opened. Some banger grooves march in. Some jamming, some exquisite orchestrations. Some non-western melodies, syncopation, rhythms. Luckily they fill the rest of the album. Not an instant classic for me, but I don't see reasons not to spin this time and again in the future decades to come.
Arctic Monkeys
3/5
97/1001. I can clearly see how all the music press went crazy over the next sensation: the Arctic Monkeys - restoring rock ‘n’ roll, making music, great again, giving hope to guitar based music, going back to the basic, the next Strokes etc. And partly why not, it is fresh and has energy, it seems the band had fun, it is not overproduced etc. BUT (add your favourite thing why it also sucks). My kids seem still to love them and their later ouvre, and whenever they have played it I haven't had to squirmish in pain. I guess that count for something. Lastly, as a person living in the Arctic I am ever so grateful for the band for bringing the global focus to the North. Or was it climate change? Well maybe you are to blame about turning my city to a tourist hellhole for 5 months in the fall-winter-spring.
Public Image Ltd.
2/5
98/1001. How do you rate an album which is mostly uncompromising and which is mostly shit? 2, since is not total shit.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
2/5
99/1001. The story of Johnny Rotten: well i just ended up hating P.I.L's Metal Box in the last review. But I don't know about Neil Young, some people claim he's the profet and without him there wouldn't be any grunge and whatnot. For me this is not music to mildly hurt some for. So the same amount of stars as mr. Rotten.
The Doors
2/5
100/1001. What is new and refreshing about this album? ___________________.
What is memorable, what makes it worth listening to the album as a whole a second time?____________________.
What makes this album a masterpiece? __________________.
You fill in the blanks, I didn't find them. If this was an average blues band I'd give them 3 stars. Now that this is a Doors album I have to subtract one, not that I hate them but I know they have more intersting stuff. But L.A. Woman and Riders on the Storm for me save it from a total bore. Basically again any song which is as far as possible from the basic blues formula makes Doors worth listening to.
Arcade Fire
1/5
101/1001. 2nd AF album in a week? And as boring AF again. Come on, they play basic melodies with basic chords and chord progressions and then overlay some production values and orchestrations bought with a lot of $$$ and go out and have a no 1 in three countries on the week the album comes out. And that I guess defines indie rock nowadays.
George Harrison
3/5
102/1001. Six sides of Harrisongs is a bit much. The anniversary and extended versions, which seem to be the only ones in Spotify add some more. But most of the stuff remain interesting, there are some surprises here and there, and some classics. Some of my favourite Beatles tunes are by Harrison, so I am more or less sold. But don't see myself listening through this whole in a while.
King Crimson
5/5
# 103/1001. Words cannot really describe this album.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
# 104/1001. I thought I was going to listen to some Led Zep, which I didn't know so well beforehand (I have I, II and III in my shelf) but turns out I knew every song, and most of them are still bangers. Apparently my distraction from rock and blues and boogiewookiehonkytonk diddidii hasn't distracted me from this teenage favourite. The length is long, yes, but the material stays great apart from a song or two (jammings etc in the D side), and the talent is there. So, well, it still rocks.
Frank Zappa
2/5
#105 / 1001. Starts up with jazz, then goes to some Zappaesque craziness, then the rest sounds like an jam session where the players play out of sheet notes. Didn't really move me too much.
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
2/5
#106/1001. 12 songs, 26 minutes. Is this the Ramones? Well, at least makes me understand the Ramones better. Glad to hear more stuff from the 50s, but where is Little Richard and Chuck Berry? I guess coming up later. This is quite a polished version of the raw power which was out there at that time.
Bauhaus
5/5
# 107/1001. Let's paint our face black and white and go pogoing to the graveyard! Goth music is underrated. Glad to see Bauhaus on this list. This album wasn't so familiar to me, probably just by chance we bought different albums back in the day and got stuck with them. Then insert 30 years of neglect and boom, this music still rules.
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
#108/1001. This list has surprisingle little (so far) of rhe 80's. For me it was an inventive era, punk movement maybe died or turned in to hardcore, but it opened up the doors to so many kinds of styles, experimentations, new and old sounds, non-western influences, funk, soull, ska, folk... Era of massive proge and rock giants was over (and era of massive pop giants begun). Dexy's is known from a few songs, but other than that I assume most of their production os unknown for many not living in the U.K at that time. And perhaps to many who were there as well, there were so many things going on. After all, It is a decent album, but for me there is nothing in the whole which makes this a masterpiece. One nice Polaroid of the 80s.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
4/5
#109/1001. More jazz and 2nd LP from tje fifties in this week. A refreshing change. Some nice unusual rhythm grooves, which they unfortunately break out of during most of the solos. Kind of white man's intellectual grooves? Take Five is of course the masterpiece here, which we learned about already in 5th or 6th grade. After catching my attention in the beginning I lost focus, which for me means the music failed to inspire through the whole. But for the excellent bits a four.
Megadeth
2/5
#110/1001. Lets see, I gave 1 star for the first Megaderh that popped up here and this one gets 2. Will that trend continue? Highly unlikely.
The Stooges
4/5
#111/1001. Lets hear it from the critics:
"the worst album of the year” - Melody Maker.
(The Stooges are) “so exquisitely horrible and down and out that they are the ultimate psychedelic rock band in 1970”. - Rolling Stone
”This group’s first album was nominated here as the worst record of 1969; the present one is merely lousy" - The American Record Guide
"All I can hear is crude, repetitious, extremely dull material, no-talent instrumentalists and a pretentious, no-voice singer. The 10-minute ‘We Will Fall’, a constantly-repeated chant with some kind of mutterings by the lead singer (including several minutes of ‘goodbye’ at the end), is undoubtedly the worst rock track I have ever heard. In fact, I have little hesitation in nominating this as the worst album of the season."- The American Record Guide
"The group has been practicing, because the instrumental playing is now a bit better than incom¬petent, but still there is not an original idea to be heard anywhere and so the tracks are uniformly monotonous." - The American Record Guide
What else to add?
David Ackles
4/5
#112/1001. File under: singer/songwriters from the U.S which I haven't heard before, and perhaps should have, you know the kind of singer who tells stories, which unfortunately people nowadays have no time or interest to listen to with attention, just next to Bobby Russell, Harry Chapin, Tim Buckley, Fred Neil, Jimmy Webb and the like, some of whom I am sure I will still encounter or have already discovered on the 1001 albums project.
Nirvana
4/5
#113/1001.
“Unplugged”
Verse 1
Wooden strings, candle smoke,
notes fall short, bend, choke.
groan instead of climb,
we follow the ache down.
Chorus
Groan it out,
hurt is the song.
Simple bones,
bare not wrong.
Verse 2
Bowie in a paper mask,
Meat Puppets in a borrowed flask.
Leadbelly digs through the floorboards,
asking where vaseline has gone.
Chorus
Groan it out,
hurt is the song.
Simple bones,
Fuzz is wrong.
Bridge
Silence rattles louder than the storm,
pretty scars, too clean, too warm.
What’s missing hides in the scream
we never hear.
Outro
Groan it out,
the beauty breaks.
Groan it out,
until nothing aches.
With some help from good'ol chatgpt, I'm sure Kurt would have hated that.
PJ Harvey
5/5
#114/1001. I discovered PJ Harvey around Rid of Me and 50 ft Queenie on MTV Alternative Nation / 120 minutes somewhere around -92 or -93 I think. Then To Bring You My Love really blew me away, and I had to get her back catalogue (which by the way seem to be my most valuable vinyls nowadays since everyone around me was already bracing the cd world). Ok, it might be that the current collection contains a disc or two from my sister as she didn't want to take her vinyls overseas when she moved to the States. Anyway, for some reason Dry is the Record I have played the least, and now listening closely I don't know why. For me she is the perfect missing link between top of the pop Morrissettes and "I don't give shit" Riot grrrls, I think both of these extremes have dozens of clones, but there is only one PJH. The songwriting is clever, but mostly listener friendly, yet the sound is in no way polished or forgiving, if rhat is a fitting word here...i love the use of the strings, not to mellow out the tunes - exactly the opposite: distorted guitar sounds mellow compared to the staccatos here. Somehow the song mood changes are perfected on Bring You My Love, but they are present over here as well, making the album an exploration, a trip, which can be taken again and again, with something new revealed every time.
Frank Sinatra
5/5
#115/1001. There is only one Frank Sinatra. Which is great, since if there was more, there would be way too much crooning and swinging. I was wondering what will be the oldest LP on this list (I think it is another Sinatra record) and meanwhile searched for a bit of LP format history. Turns out a Sinatra album was among the first LPs released as a batch in 1948 - although that album had been issued as a set of four 78 rpm discs earlier. This one at the table here is as far as I understood a collection of existing popular songs handpicked for Sinatra, who in turn made the definite standard classic and eternal versions out of so many. Individually they all shine, but something about rhe instrumentation, the delivery and the general swinging mood just repeats itself. Which I guess is a blessing more than a curse.
Supergrass
4/5
#116/1001. Since rhe band really wants to know, here are some places the strange ones go to:
- abandoned nuclear icebreaker harbours
- Polish milk bars
- Nightclubs where you can sing Karaoke
- old water towers
- nearly abandoned villages in Estonia countryside
- sauna (often)
- North of 70°
- Russian war memorials
- Under the Eiffel tower
- Last bus home
- Reindeer round-up places
- Forest paths you shouldn't bike on with a bike
- Old mining sites
- Iceland, especially places where a hot river and a cold river meet to swim
- Somewhere else than a Supergrass gig
However, I can only tell from my experience.
Nice pop alternative album from a band which doesn't take itself to seriously, always a pleasure to find an artist like that.
Eminem
2/5
#117/1001. It took me quite a bit to start not liking this album. Then not too long after to hate it. Or something in between. Seems like there is excellent humor, storytelling and production, but he just doesn't giiiveee aaa fuuuuccckkkkk, and decides to act and rap like a thirteen year old brat with a backwards cap and newly disovered fact that some words slap.
Sister Sledge
5/5
#118/1001. Well isn't this chic! Some time ago, I watched a three episode documentary about Nile Rodgers, and according to him he has defined and redefined most of the existing pop music from the 70s to this day. Well the list is quite impressive, but still... Anyways, I just realised when this album popped up that there hasn't been any disco yet in this list. Come on, it is 2025 and the disco sucks movement should be buried deep somewhere in the cis male subconscious so it will never surface again. What really is wrong with music which is created to enjoy our lives and music that you can dance to? More disco! And don't come complaining that so many of the disco records or artists have just one hit - there is already countless of of one-hit bands or albums which I have reviewed, and I'm only somewhere around 10% of the project so far. So how about a bit of celebration in your life, change those habits, turn hate to love, try dancing instead of saying you can't do it, have some fun instead of glooming in the corner (I know I did). Probably would give this a 3 or 4 otherwise but since we need more disco it is a 5.
Nightmares On Wax
3/5
#119/1001. Not counting DJ Shadow earlier I think this is the first instrumental album on this list for me, which makes me think does good music need lyrics? And if the answer is yes, how come they are 98% in English? Well, the album is full of good music, but perhaps it becomes a bit too mellow and chill and background since there are no singing melodies to listen to. I typically don't care too much about lyrics, but, well, we've learned music by singing, right? Something is missing kinda feeling, which doesn't happen with all instrumental music out there. But diggin the grooves and the retro lounge sleazefilm sounds, man... 2 and a half?
Pink Floyd
5/5
#120/1001. My most fond memories of this album is as we tested out the hoo-haw theory that this album works as the audio track for the film Wizard of Oz. We had an improvised movie festival at a friends cottege. Some people had never seen the film, so they were more concerned what happens in the story (we replaced the original sound completely). There are some key moments, perhaps by accident, and I guess peoples’ minds are constructed in a way that we try to see patterns where no-one really planned them. If you want to try it out, check out where the image changes from black and white to color, or when the witch has a "Great Gig in the Sky". More recognised patterns can be found online.
After the night of watching films we spent a few days at the cottage. Dark Side of the Moon was playing in a constant loop inside, ruining my Last.fm stats and oversaturating my meed to ever listen to it again. But that was 20+ years ago and the album sounds as classic as ever.
De La Soul
5/5
#121/1001. What a fireworks for an album. I'm sure there is a Religion and a Church of De La Soul out there somewhere, where their lyrics, beats and samples are studied as meticulously as the Talmud. The Gospel of Good and the Bad and the Soul and the Hip Hop and Peace, the Da Inner Sound, Y’all. First time listening (?) to the whole album, these Inputs and Outputs of sound coupled together with the crate digging and humor by P.Paul and all make me understand much of the later and earlier music, potholes in the lawn accross the world. Classic.
Hole
2/5
#122/1001. The album was playing on as I had a boating accident in my garden, failing to change my mood for the good or for the worse. Had to give it a second chance though.
2nd listen: solid playing, good production, ok songs, and music that just doesn't interest me at all.
Beatles
4/5
#123/1001. Browsing to find rhe original instead of the remastered version, I noticed I could have picked also Rubber Soul by "the Beatles complete version on Ukulele", the Doraemons' super sleazy lounge version complete with ooh-aah choirs and a whirling wurlitzer, a more recent tribute from a band called Rubber Soul, techno / experimental electronica version (which only seems to borrow the album and the song names) from Ruslan Barysiuk, a jazz version or a few acoustic / unplugged / strings versions (although in some of these songs were a bit here from there or not at least in the typical order). Actually as I was sampling these I thought I had struck on a country band version at What Goes On 😅. Also noticed that the original U.K. pressing seems to have a different song order from some later prints e.g. in the US. Nevertheless, any band's status as a legend is proportonional to the amount of cover bands and cover songs out there. I probably could comple most of the Beatles albums from Finnish cover versions, (in Finland we have been making bad and not so bad cover versions for a long long time, after the 80s it slowly - but not completely -faded away, a tradition, which we are proud/ashamed about (pick your preference)).
So I decided not really talk too much about this album, you all know it right? I never actually owned this album so besides the hits and the other will known songs there are some tunes here which haven't worn out (if Beatles' songs can wear out). For me the next albums are much more important and interesting. This seems to dominate the 1001 list currently as the top album btw.
The Hives
3/5
#127/1001 (not Ministry, which was the 128th listened to). Ok, one of those bands again, who not only discovered rock and roll again, but most likely also saved it, at least if you believe UK and/or US press, at least I assume. But yes, they are fun, and come in with some good tunes, touring the "if a song is over 2 minutes it must be boring" kind of in your face garage mentality. There are a few bands in Finland at least as good as these ones, and perhaps comparisons to hundreds of other acts might be valid as well. So I'm sorry if I didn't become a convert.
Skunk Anansie
2/5
#124/1001. For some reason I get a lot of 90's grunge or post-grunge and rock based stuff in a row. (ok, also 2001). Well, what can I do. I can say that yes, she has a great voice, I remember them from Strange Days, most of the album is boring, next.
Ministry
2/5
#127/1001. I used to own this one as well, but it has gotten lost, stolen, or sold. Haven't really missed it, too metal for me even back then. Now Lard was fun! And Jesus built my hot rod as well. Otherwise it is just the same guitar sound, electronic drums and sound effects, processed et voice. I guess the band / Jourgensen has its place on the musical map, but I am reading a different map.
Van Morrison
2/5
#125/1001. An album to chill out in the middle of grunge, metal, industrial and mod/garage rock. Didn't really know to much about Van Morrison beforehand, not a big name in Finland I guess. Will I knew the name and was expecting something like what was delivered. A few fun and surprising songs (the title song for example), somehow I felt his time had been and gone, he had done his share of influencing other artists, and the demand for this music or album is not really needed anymore. I didn't really like the mix either, many songs had instruments just above hearing threshold level, perhaps contributing to the sound, but somehow annoying to try to pick up if is there a piano or hammond there or not.might be worth a revisit, but somehow I feel more like this will be on the list. I prefer my singer-songwriters with a bit less honky tonk, thanks.
The Who
5/5
#126/1001. My 2nd The Who album on this list, and I am sold. This doesn't sound aged at all, unlike Van Morrison which was on the plate yesterday. This is the first punk record perhaps? And what songs, harmonies, rough sound, tight playing and a nice bonus from the piano. I could have skipped the two Brown numbers, I guess some rubber soul was in the air in 1965, but good damn this is much more relevant and fresh and energetic music than the Beatles, at least in 1965.
AC/DC
2/5
#129/1001. Ränttätänttärokkenrollia, as we say in Finnish. I guess some consider this as a standard for which to compare other rock records. Well be my fucking guest. For some of the minimalism a 2.
Sarah Vaughan
4/5
#130/1001. Didn’t really get in to this album, don’t know why since Sarahbis on the top of Jazz singers and jazz is always a welcome change for all the guitar based macho scheisse on this list. Someone else said this is the only Vaughan album on the list? Wtf. For that alone the rationg goes up.
Destiny's Child
2/5
#131/1001. For me, there is two kinds of rnb. Those, in which the singers yodel and squirm, and those, which I secretely love. I really wished this was the latter. But no. Ränkistelyä ja jolinaa. I loved the mash-up of bootylicious and smells like teen spirit, and I thing both songs are equally great. But for some reason it is not on this album. I’m pretty confident I will encoubter Beyonce solo albums on this list later on. Let’s review those masterpieces then.
Incubus
1/5
#132/1001. I thought I already listened to the album but shit there is like 6 songs still. Really thought of skipping, but kind of promised I won't because I'm stupid and want to follow orders and please some wanking music journalists/ experts who put this (so far mostly either cliche classics or hit-of-this-year albums) book together. This one is clearly the latter, at least according to some critics who think it was an original (and good idea to put a dj scratching with a band, who sound like a lame version of Faith No More. Worth listening to before I die? Cmon.
Metallica
2/5
#133/1001....And Justice for all was the last Metallica album I was interested - and could play through the riffs with my guitar (probably still can, but that was about 35 years ago, so perhaps not so well). This does have undeniable classics, which I guess a) made them one of the biggest rock bands in the world or b) shows that they sold out or c) both. For me it doesn't really matter (nothing really matters, as long as you don't upload this album to Napster), since the hit songs wouldn't be something I'd listen to anymore, and the rest of the album is pretty mediocre.
Little Richard
5/5
#134/1001. I am not sure who put the ram in rama-lama-ding-dong, put my best guess would be Little Richard.
Paul Simon
2/5
#135/1001. Paul Simon marries the 80s and it ends up in a divorce three years later in Graceland. Claims for divorce were grounded on the infidelity with at least 35 musicians who came and went for the album sessions, and at least as many techical personnel people - the 8 second engineers all wanted equal share claiming they were the true 2nd engineer, and bousting their superiority over the 5 additional engineers. More evidence were given by Art Garfunkel, and the court was unanimous in the judgement: mostly good and some okayish songs covered with 80s overproduction and confetti should be outlawed and mr. Simon should perhaps look for inspiration in world music, perhaps South Africa or something.
Taylor Swift
2/5
#136/1001. I don't think I've never listened to a whole Swift album. Many friends with good musical taste have become swifties, so why not give it a fresh listen. But the 2nd or third song the pattern was more or less clear: too perfect pop songs meant for stadiums of swifties, or dancing at your home on a fake white oak-patterned floor holding an alcohol free bacardi mojito on your hand. The songs are so perfect there is no guessing how they will turn out and play, a feature I am sure millions of her fans expect and want. More danger please. I really tried, but this is not for me.
The Black Keys
4/5
#137/1001. This was a new band to me. Alica keyes vs black eyed peas vs. Black sabbath / crowes or what? This could benefit from a second listen, and out of the many savers of rocknroll inevitably on this book/list for me sounds interesting enough, although everything is so retro it must have been planned meticulously. But I'm buying it!
The Waterboys
2/5
#140/1001. I don't know how many days it took to finish this album. It was a busy week, and I tried to sqeeze in a bit of waterboys every now and then. Still it seemed like ages when I finally had time to sit down and listen it to the end. Perhaps the music didn't really inspire either. Some quite basic celtic rock and some quite beautiful numbers. But I could have lived the rest of my life happily without listening to this.
Robbie Williams
3/5
#141/1001. I’m not a huge fan of overproduced pop, but something about this album managed to feel not so calculated. Most of the songs come and go, but then there are eternal classics. Actually just a few days later I played Let Me Entertain You on my dj gig - a bit late when most of the audience had gone, but I didn't see anyone not dancing out of those who had stayed. And that is pretty good if you think that the audience was art teachers and students - not perhaps the obvious pop loving audience.
Kraftwerk
5/5
#139/1001. In the documentary film about Kraftwerk done music theorists claim that Kraftwerk has influenced contemporary music more than the Beatles. I totally buy that idea (although my predictive typing app doesn't agree): there were tens and hundreds of other guitar, bass, drums, singing combos, but only a tiny handful of electronic acts and perhaps Kraftwerk was the only one who could create pop tunes with this level of richness, detail, catching melodies, new sounds. Just look how much of the music today is based on electronic instruments and production. Go Techno! I hope there will be as many Kraftwerk albums on this list as Beatles albums, I own most of them (released after 1 and 2, that is) and all of them rule. Afrika Bambaata considered this to be the music of the future and space travel, and still this holds true.
Santana
5/5
#138/1001. All the Santana hits in one album? I didn't realize this was the case. I think I am only familiar eith couple other albums from some reason. But this rocks, the original superstar who brought Latin grooves to hippie consciousness and beyond. I'm also glad how the guitar master sometimes steps aside and let's the band shine.
Belle & Sebastian
2/5
#142/1001. I've always wanted to be a Belle and Sebastian fan, but they never adopted me.
The Flaming Lips
3/5
#143/1001. Sounds like another great Flaming Lips album. Sounds like the other ones, without the good songs in the other ones. But I was totally ok to play this again a few times. If I would have to remember any of the stuff later I couldn't.
Nas
2/5
#144/1001. The flow is great, the beats are good, the songs are copies each ither and the lyrics tell me nothing to me about my life.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
3/5
#145/1001. I used to not like reggae, then my friend got me in to it. Then slowly I started disliking it. Then another friend played Concrete Jungle (I think this version,.I tried to find it afterwards and there are lousy versing out there). After that I have understood that many genres have classics and bangers, but still most of the album doesn't speak to me. All this has averaged in this list to either 2 or 3. So yes, je regrette mon reggae phase.
Parliament
5/5
#146/1001. Good ol p-funk! Music like this should be more on this list, so we would do something else than just sit there. I knew couple of songs from some parliament/funkadelic collection, but never listened to this album as a whole. I'm glad I did before the funk hits the fan.
Neu!
5/5
147/1001. Krautrock is still one of my favorite musical sausages, a bit hard to tell why since it is based on repetition - not many dishes, which consist of seemingly few ingredients can be eaten again and again. Maybe it is the local and fresh ingredients and the right spices here now and then. The taste is solid and doesn't become too monotonous. It can be consumed (both sides of a) plate after plate, without feeling that one is too much full. I have tasted Neu! before, although I am more familiar of eraly Kraftwerk, Faust, Can and later culinary mixtures of Stereolab and Circle to name a few. This plate was a good reminder to consume the band more and taste their ealier offerings as well as various side offerings and solo ouvres that the master chefs have prepared for us to enjoy.
What did you say? KrautROCK, not wurst?
Lynyrd Skynyrd
1/5
148/1001. (Pronounced 'wʌɾə ˈloːɾəv ˈkræəp')
The National
4/5
#149/1001. I had only a vague idea what kind of music The National plays - perhaps something in between Coldplay and the xx. And to Bo honest this is what this album sounds like. And if I had to choose which one it reminds more it would be xx, thank God for that. I like the layers of sounds, how they texture the sky with multitudinous clouds, yet still the 80s sun shines through here and there, revealing a sophisticated and mature approach of song making and a nod to the past, building on what has been instead of just xeroxing a bad copy.
A Tribe Called Quest
3/5
#150/1001. My wife said that this is hip hop she understands, and that is a great compliment from her. For me it falls somewhere in the middle, not super innovative, not terrible. The flow and the beats are again good, and there is a bit less ghetto and anger, which for me is a plus. But still a 3.
Liz Phair
4/5
#151/1001. Can’t sayI knew too much about Liz. The first few songs didn’t really speak to me, generic songs in a way I think has been done hundreds of times. But then the album grows, has some great tunes and moments, quiet and loud, simple and less simple meditative instrumentations. The simplicity works here and I’m interested in listening more. What else could a first listen achieve?
The Stooges
5/5
#155/1001. Again during this project was a phase that albums to be reviewed queue got a bit longer, and for some reason I picked them out leaving a better moment for this. Well that better moment never came, unless you set your mind in to thinking every moment is a potential raw power moment. I think I first heard about Iggy in the 80s when metal was the thing and my cousin talked about this funny song in which the singer wanted to kive on dog food. How did she get exposed to it - I don’t know if she hanged out with the wrong people or was it just because she was Swedish. Later on in the 90s I saw Iggy, opening for the Ramones. I remember thinking that “man, that old dude can rock”. And that is over 40 years ago? I guess he is still doing shows? Hail the new Ozzy. Iggy / stooges has never been in my album collection or turntable, perhaps after 40 years or so when my kids drag me in to old peoples’ home I can blast this out, twist and jerk around semi-naked around in my leather pants, showing nurses born in 2040s how to rock.
Fela Kuti
4/5
#153/1001. Yet another interesting choice: from the wonderful Fela Kuti / Afrobeat / Tony Allen ouvre a live album with a random white guy? Ok perhaps not so random, but still. Of course Fela is great live, but I don’t think they captured all of the moves and grooves, the heat and the beat. Well they tried with the one album side long drum duel…which I read is a bonus track. Fuck bonus tracks, but if I never need to pull a 16 minute drum jam, i need to look no further.
Rahul Dev Burman
5/5
#152/1001. I give this album a 5 because:
A) it is a banger
B) this list should have more variety in the selected music
C) baby let’s dance together
D) i don’t care if it is a soundtrack
E) none of the above
F) all of the above
Stevie Wonder
5/5
#154/1001. Yes, this is the album with Superstition in it. 3 albums in about a year? And most of them contain classics. No wonder his name is Wonder. And this is the one or if the classics I don't own, perhaps need to change that.
Aretha Franklin
5/5
#156/1001. R.e.s.p.e.c.t.
Madonna
5/5
#156/1001. My favourite Madonna album, easily. For me everything that came after is her trying to reach this album mixed with trying to reach the 80s mixed with trying not to get old. All the electronics start sounding the same, a bit too new agey - for me the album is not really experimental - unless of course if you compare it to her previous work or what was happening at the top ten at the time. But yes, we did have electronica artists in the mainstream, and also artists like Björk and Beck creating big hits mixing electronics, pop sensibility and weird shit. Or artists like Prince -while not heavily using electronics - still constantly redefined what a pop song / hot 100 hit might sound like. But the beauty and genius of Madonna and Orbit in this album is that you mix a quite a simple song and melody and layer electronics, instruments and all droning and circling around the main melody, creating a sound which is meditative, easy to approach, interesting and at times instant dance floor classics.
Michael Jackson
1/5
#158/1001.
Earlier I was thinking I'll skip this album. Before that I saw Leaving Neverland, and have refused to play MJ as a dj ever since. Before that I was a big fan. Well, what if all that is lies and people who are after his money? Let's see.
In 1993, Jackson was accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy, Jordan Chandler. Jackson denied the claims and settled the case out of court for US$23 million. In April 2005, Ralph Chacon, a former security guard at Neverland Ranch, testified that he had seen Jackson performing oral sex on Chandler in the early 1990s. Chacon also described seeing Jackson passionately kiss Chandler and place his hand on Chandler's crotch.
Jackson made an out-of-court settlement with the mother of another boy, Jason Francia, for more than US$2 million, who, in 1993, previously told police that Jackson never molested him.
A former maid at the ranch, Adrian McManus, testified that she had seen Jackson kissing boys including the actor Macaulay Culkin, and described Jackson touching Culkin's leg and rear. She told the court that she had seen Jackson touching Chandler's genitals. Phillip LeMarque, Jackson's cook, said that he entered Jackson's room and saw Jackson with his hand in Culkin's underpants.
Wade Robson and James Safechuck were depicted in the film Leaving neverland, providing descriptions of Jackson's alleged sex acts, including masturbation, oral sex and anal sex. Safechuck's mother Stephanie describes feeling elated and dancing upon hearing of Jackson's death: "'Oh thank God, he can't hurt any more children!'
In the film Living with Michael Jackson, MJ was seen holding hands with 12-year-old Gavin Arvizo and talked about sharing a bed with him. In the 2005 criminal trial People v. Jackson (full title: 1133603: The People of the State of California v. Michael Joe Jackson) Jackson was indicted on four counts of molesting a minor, four counts of intoxicating a minor to molest him, one count of attempted child molestation, one count of conspiring to hold the Arvizo family captive, and conspiring to commit extortion and child abduction. Jackson had begun serving him and his younger brother wine, sometimes concealed in soda cans, showing them pornography and making sexual advances. He said that Jackson had twice manually stimulated him to ejaculation after they had drunk alcohol, and then told him that if men do not masturbate, they "might rape a girl". Gavin's younger brother, Star, told the court that he had twice seen Jackson molest Gavin. He also said that Jackson had displayed his erection and masturbated in front of them, telling them that "everyone did it", and encouraged them to try it.
"We expected better evidence, something that was a little more convincing. It just wasn't there."
For me MJ remains not BAD, but filthy, foul, nasty, dirty, lousy, smutty, sleazy, bum, cheap, cheesy, chintzy, crummy, punk, tinny, seamy, seedy, sordid, squalid, kinky, distorted, misrepresented, twisted, depraved, perverse, reprobate, and immoral.
and the album sounds and feels very plastic nowadays.
Jimi Hendrix
3/5
#159/1001. I am experienced enough to know that when you put a U.K release and a U.S. release together with some random singles and end up with 17 songs the concept of an "album" is totally shattered, exploding in all directions. If there would be one exception one might assume it to be Jimi Hendrix, but no. Most of these are classic songs, but I think I already sold my Hendrix albums in the late 90s and haven't really missed them. But every now and then as a DJ I play "puita kaminaan", which is an excellent Finnish cover version of Fire by Manifest. Surprises Finnish and international audiences alike. The final verdict is 3, which is kind of a curse — a 1 star or 5 star review both have an attitude, but a 3 is just something average, which for me this now is.
Steve Earle
1/5
#160/1001. I am super glad I got to listen to this album before I died so I can tell the rock and roll angel in the afterlife that "Hey, I already listened to this in my previous life, so could you please shut that off".
Billy Joel
2/5
#161/1001. Another musical gap in my life filled, this time in the shape and size of a full Billy Joel album, 9 songs, 42 minutes. How does this fixture protect me from the various atrocities laid upon us by mankind? Weakly. I can't really cling on the saxophone solos, or to the "this must be from a musical" feeling. There is no songs to play to the four horsemen of the apocalypse, or to play on repeat while stuck in limbo waiting for the final verdict: bottle of red, bottle of white - perhaps rose instead? There might be a place and time for this, so I'll give it a second spin when they invent space-time and alternative universe travel.
The Doors
5/5
#162/1001. Mother! Yrs son? I want to…rate this album 5 stars!
Guided By Voices
2/5
#163/1001. This was the best demo tape of b-sides from an indie band which sounds exactly like X and has been obviously inspired by Y. I couldn't get any grip on the album so I started it all over again. Didn't help. But perhaps that is just the fun of it. Or perhaps this a clarevoyant depiction of our fragmented time and a metaphor or our chaotic world. Nah. It is a demo tape.
David Bowie
4/5
#164/1001. I've had a few familiar DB albums here before, and will probably have a few more later. I don't know why, but the classics I had to review for me sounded nowadays fake and too theatrical. And theatrical is again a key word here, but fake? No way. Fragile and weird perhaps, the songs and the blackstar video kind of convinces is that David Bowie's overtheatricality is not fake acting, that's who he is (was). The album is at times aged and uses sounds and instruments which are not in any way current - even sounding at times like they are from a wrong era - but still there is an interesting mystic atmosphere fluttering around. As a final word, a manifesto some parts of the album make sense, then again it has some out of the context diibadaaba songs, which I guess he wanted to include since this would be the last shot. I mean, (gangsta rap aside) how many living musicians would get away with a song title such as "'tis a pity she was a whore?" But yes, this album did speak to me, like a Greek drama. But would I want to watch /listen to the same drama again and again? But suddenly this was raised high in my Bowie album lists.
Goldfrapp
3/5
#166/1001. This introduced an unknown Goldfrapp for me. The folky sounds lured me to the same old story. With the first two songs I was in love with this album. Then settings went on, and as with love often, the passionate feeling started fading away, and changed first into liking, then to whatever. I don't know if I could live happily ever after with this album. I'm pretty sure I would fall in to infidelity with some other artist. I don't have anything against visiting the album again, hoping to revive initial moments of attraction, but would that help? I don't think it is an album that I'll keep around till death do us apart. Sorry Goldfrapp, it was fun while it lasted, hope you have better luck with someone else.
Sigur Rós
5/5
#165/1001. Once in a while a band comes out who seems to create their own musical and lyrical universe. In the case of Sigur Rós, they also did the unexpected by doing this and gaining international attention and fame. I have been a fan of this for a long time and actually own this on vinyl, and it doesn't grow old. For me it remains fresh, interesting and new and ageless, genuine and out of this world at the same time. I've been to Iceland many times and recommend listening this through headphones while driving or walking through the alien planet landscape. Suddenly it all makes sense.
3/5
#167/1001. Well, this sounds like a blur album. Decent Brit pop, nothing to hate too much, nothing to love too much.
Adele
2/5
#168/1001. Hello from the other side - from the listener side. I honestly think you have your right to express all your big and sad and awful and disgusting feelings and emotions with your amazing voice, but I feel it is all a bit too much. You know all the emotions sound quite the same, or at least the songs do, I am not sure if singing them aloud helps you or some other listeners or should you perhaps consult a therapist or something. Perhaps you have and there were a lot of things to discuss and a lot of trauma to go through. Yes it does feel sincere here too, but it is not anything I would really need in my life at the moment. Thanks and goodbye.
Funkadelic
1/5
#169/1001. I tried to listen to this on my car radio, and couldn't make anything out of it. Clearly it was not produced for listening in cars. Then I listened to it on my headphones and couldn't make anything of it. And i thought I loved all p-funk.
The Soft Boys
4/5
#170/1001. Yet another case when I start listening to an album, and it just keeps on going and going. Yes, the original had only 10 songs instead of the 40 supplied by the system. God damn, the special editions are for hardcore fans, and have already spoiled many a good review and album as a whole. Had to give it another spin to hear it as it should be.
Well, sounds like the early 1980s, some post punk touch topped with ringing guitars, echo here and there, punky - nearly goth - bass and drums, psychedelic influences, neat pop songs, the whole is mostly harmless than scary or weird or painful as many contemporaries were. The 2nd listen reveals a neglected classic which nearly got buried under 2h 27 minutes.
Super Furry Animals
3/5
#171/1001. Not much to rant about this album. It wasn't good, it wasn't bad.
Shack
1/5
#172/1001. There is a grave in between stadium rock and insie pop in which this album should be buried.
The Isley Brothers
4/5
#173/1001. Refreshing to hear such good soul/funk after too much 90s brit pop. An album worth coming back to.
Franz Ferdinand
2/5
#174/1001. Ok, se we all probably know Take me out. Let's see if rest of the album sounds the same. Well it does and songs are worse. Too many of these end up here, although this isn't really bad - just one ear in other ear out stuff.
Scritti Politti
3/5
#175/1001. Let's see if these count as valid 80s band and album:
- band was formed after seeing Sex Pistols on their debut tour
- art school background
-started with punk, turned in to something else
- heavyly diy in the beginning
- formed their own label
-moved to London and lived in a squat
- members changed frequently after musical styles changed
- stage fright
- bad habits
- long breaks and getaways
- intellectual lyrics
- marxist leanings
- inspired by French deconstrucionist and linguistic philosophers
- turned to more commercial pop
- reggae influence
- soul, funk and hip-hop influence
- collaborations with key musicians
- new york period
- heavy use of synths, e.g. horns, chords with echo and reverb
- heavy use of drum machines, samplers, sequencers
- syncopated percussion
- top notch production
- weird name
...yeah, that just about cuts it.
Crosby, Stills & Nash
5/5
#176/1001. I was perhaps expecting some kind of country western boogaloo, but instead got a most beautiful album of americana psychedelic folk. I've been raised with two albums of Bristish and Finnish late 60s- early 70s folk (Pentangle and Pihasoittajat) so this is a sweet spot for me. But why not, the songs are beautiful, a bit trippy here and there, harmonies are great, songwriting is good. what's not to love?
The Black Crowes
1/5
#177/1001. I vaguely remember Black Crowes being labeled as yet another of those saviours of rock'n'roll by the press. But I forgot that it was title always given to a band who did everything to the fax copy same way 1001 other bands had done through the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s etc. And most likely the trend still goes on. Listen to Black Flag's Jealous Again and Black Crowes' Jealous Again and tell honestly which one rocks harder.
Tim Buckley
4/5
#178/1001. A buckley album worth listening to. I always preferred the sr over the sr.
Belle & Sebastian
3/5
#179/1001. I think this is a beautiful example of a young fresh Independent band showcasing all of their ideas, which for them were fresh and new. This is BS in a way that I’ve never had it before. It did sound like a demo of a band which just came out of the crypt. Fresher than the later ones I’ve heard. OK this was a drunk review, I have to admit. perhaps I was wrong, perhaps I was right, perhaps I was somewhere in the middle.
3/5
#
180/1001. U2 + Radiohead + Coldplay + progressive metal+ mediocre songwriting + knights of cyd equals 3.
Lana Del Rey
4/5
#181/1001. Lana Del Rays music is the equivalent of post coital quality time. It is the smell of coffee made from freshly ground beans. It is slipping under cool satin bedcloth. The feeling on your skin and scent of a day in the morning when you know the day will be warm. A jump of a single fish in a pond. You know, those feelings and sensations which are irrelevant for survival, but which make life worth living, but which also could be replaced with a ton of other sensations. Very few do it with their music though.
Killing Joke
4/5
#182/1001.
- Dad, what is post-punk?
- Well, glad you asked, son. Hand me over that cheap cabernet sauvignon and I'll pour you aswell a drink, you're already 14 after all. Now let's put on the Killing Joke debut and let them explain everything, for I am too wasted to explain it further. Fuckin' smashing, aye?
Joni Mitchell
4/5
#183/1001. Joni somewhere between folk, jazz and the inevitable 80s sonic experimentation (read: outdated and overused synths). Somehow this album feels like it is on transition to something or from something. But so are we all all the time, right? The thing which bothers me most is the amount of stories and text. Feels like she just has too much to recount and using songs to do that works sometimes, sometimes not. Our perhaps it is only me, who wouldn't / couldn't pay attention for every small and big story. Well or might be a good reason to revisit.
Slipknot
1/5
#184/1001.
- So dad, what is Nu-metal?
(Dad bursts out half-a mouthful of red wine in surprise, disbelief and contempt). - What the fuck, is this another joke? Don't you simpleton EVER mention that term in this house again! Get the fuck away to your room! Where you gonna be in the five next years?
- but Dad, Slipknot really...
- Shut the fuck up you stupid fucking stupid fuck! That's it, you're grounded for the week! Get this or die: If I hear that name again you'll have to suck the snot end of the tip of my prick, you fucking cunt!
- (Dad to himself: what the hell (the hell) did I do to deserve all of this?
Continued from my review 182/1001.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
2/5
#185/1001. Don't know why, but always when I try to get into Neil Young's music I find it super boring. Wheather he reinvented americana or created something of his own, I don't care since it is so dull.
2/5
#186/1001. When the album started I thought this would be a refreshing change to all the rock music canon this list is made of. Instead we got an album full of washed out Brazilian sounds and westernified latin rhythms. Someone went to Ibiza, soent their time hanging out at the hotel pool and bar instead of clubbing and grabbed a best of Cafe del Mar compilation at the airport, fell in love with the opening track. Wtf is this book's focus? Brazil is a fucking musical wikipedia, and an album like this gets picked up?
Dire Straits
2/5
#187/1001. I suppose there are tons of people who keep the original version of this album in a safe, have bought the remasterd cd, a few extra cd copies (one for the car, one for the garage), listen to this on streaming services daily and have the nth anniversary special 380 gram 8-vinyl release on display prominently on their coffee table. But why? This album was much more boring than I remembered, the only song which might make an impression - Money for nothing - would be a banger, but it has been banging on the radio and karaoke systems all around the globe so much that it more or less has lost its meaning and memeing.
Aerosmith
2/5
#190/1001. I had low expectations, so I wasn't disappointed too much. Don't see a reason to listen to it again, it has a few ok songs and the rest are more or less fillers. The Run D.M.C version is better, but it is refreshing to hear the original Walk This Way once in a while.
Kraftwerk
5/5
#188/1001. Another classic Kraftwerk. Still a bit ambient and evolving, but I often prefer these tracks to the hit song(s). Hall of mirrors has been my new favourite Kraftwerk track for some time. Use of vocoder, drum sounds, the feeling of locomotion with some metallic noise, synthetic melodies and harmonies, what's not to love?
Prince
5/5
191/1001. What a classic album, has been on my shelf for decades. Still there are songs which I don't remember. That is the curse of Prince - he has songs which renewed the whole industry, and then songs with sounds like nothing you ever heard before (doves cry?), but which are utterly boring in the end. Nevertheless, amazing stuff even in these forgettable bits. It is the eternal battle between form and the function. At best there are both, at worst the form.
Stevie Vai, I believe back in the late 80s in Guitar Player magazine discussed how one can express emotions and feeling with guitar playing (solos and more), and he said something like "Prince's solos all are about an orgasm". He was wrong. It is every instrument, the whole song, the whole album, the whole catalog. And my guess is that he also met people who faked their orgasms and he put that superficiality (form) in to some of his songs. And the function is the Grind, grind, grind, grind - at best they meet unlike any artist I know of. !gnimoc m'I ,ecnirP
Miles Davis
5/5
#189/1001. I've been trying to listen to Miles Davis but always bumped in to some psychedelic grooves (bitches brew); some fairly basic jazz (cookin', relaxin', workin' etc.); or overly orchestrated stuff (miles ahead), never finding this one, although even the name screams it is a classic. Top musicians at their peak (over of the peak for many of them for sure). If you'd have to explain what jazz is to an alien, this would be a good record to play. Talking about aliens, I wonder what it felt like to be the white policeman who beat up Miles without a reason around the time the album came out, wheather he ever thought what he did was wrong - he must have found out who the guy was then or later on. And now it is 2025 that was 65 years ago and the same shit goes on. I wonder which future talents they are beating up or shooting today.
The Chemical Brothers
4/5
#192/1001. The story went something like this: “We’ll be the Dust Brothers! No… Well it wasn’t wise to use the same name as our inspiration, we need an exit plan, exit from planet dust!”
On a lecture on music vs sound art the teacher talked about music made only with ‘sounds’ instead of instruments and played Block Rocking Beats as an example. Although they were in no way pioneering this kind of production (and also neglecting to call bass lines, synths and drums as music), ever since listening to the Chemical Brothers I am spotting the sounds, wondering about sonic collages, ways of layering sounds to create compositions in the new world.
Here’s the sonical journey seems to travel song to song, like adj gig in a club, inviting singers towards the end to finish the gig in style. Good start for the Brothers, but more bangers are yet to come.
Talking Heads
4/5
#193/1001. Wtf happened to the site ui? Not good. The weird thing about the Talking Heads is, that the first time you listen to one of their albums, you notice the hit song(s) and the rest remain more or less unnoticed. The more you listen to the album though, the more the other songs pop out, and the hit song - well, still is a hit song. I have owned this album for a long, long time, but still now that I listened to it for this project, it felt like I had never listened to it before, and it is full of excellency. Then I’m also sure I will forget these songs again. Perhaps it is like a suit that changes size slowly - although my experience is that clothes shrink instead of grow over time. I wonder if that will happen to the other Talking Heads albums in this list…songs grow and shrink in their greatness…
New Order
3/5
#194/1001. It took three albums for New Order to emerge from the legacy of Joy Division and the blend into the by then ubiquitous sound of the 80s. There are signs of the massive hits which will fill the dance floors all around the world 30 years later, but still for me this album is sort of between.
Yes
2/5
#195/1001.
Lets see what kind of people enjoy progressive music:
- people who think rock music should have similar rules like classical music
- nerds who think the more the music is like math the better
- people who are stoned
- those boys who never learned more than 3 chords on the guitar
- people who don’t understand what good songwriting consists of
- people who enjoy when 5 songs are glued together into one 14 minute ”song”
All these or none of these. Not for me though.
Derek & The Dominos
3/5
#196/1001. Can't confirm myself as a fan of mr. Clapton's and his friends blues. There is some great shredding here and even funky and soulful stuff with the inevitable psychedelic organs and effects - I did read about the band basically living on hard drugs at the time, which might explain some of that for sure. But as with the sister project, the Harrison album All Things Must Pass, there is a bit too much jamming to my taste, and less nice things for my ear. I was thinking 2, but my daughter is called Laila - not after the song though - so I'll ramp the number up to 3.
The Temptations
4/5
#197/1001. Well, i don't think this shot was just as a oassing phase, and thank God the producer Norman Whitfield changed this opinion in a few months in '68. But I have my doubts that cloud nine is about a state of mind. Come on, it is 1968! The times were hip and people turned on, tuned in and dropped out. This is psychedelic soul / funk, and according to ai,
The term psychedelic comes from two Greek roots:
• psyche (ψυχή) — mind, soul, spirit
• delos (δηλος) — to make visible, to reveal, to manifest
So psychedelic literally means “mind-manifesting” or “revealing the soul.”
What better way to manifest the concept than a gospel / motown / rnb band turing in to a funkier, urban, new dimensions seeking sound. Album retrrats to old manners at some point though, but it was a bold move for an old band, and it has stood the test of time.
Sugar
3/5
198/1001. First comment from my wife when CarPlay started album of the day playlist from Sporify: "I thought this was a 2nd hand 90s radio station, which plays all the leftovers, you know 2nd rate songs and albums from 90s". I did give it a closer listening, and also the name Sugar reminded me of something, and sure enough it was Bob Mould from Hüsker Dü. Many people claim this band tries to imitate the grunge / R.E.M sound, but actually it is quite the opposite, most bands took influence of the Dü. Then again Nevermind came out, and Mould was inspired, but this time perhaps didn't go too far? Or went in to quite a safe direction? The album flows quite nicely, the songs change on the spot just before they get boring. But the overall feel is a bit laggy, and production isn't superb. Unfortunately, it is one of those albums dangerously close to the label "what happened in the nineties should stay in the nineties". But not quite, there has been a lot worse crap from the decade on this list so far, and I fear more is to come. Kind of weird to like and not like an album which falls straight into middle.
Still, get this: the album was voted as NME best album of the year, beating other indies and mainstream acts like Sonic Youth's Dirty, Faith No More's Angel Dust and R.E.M's Automatic For The People, not to mention Pavement, Alice in Chains, R.A.T.M, Dr. Dre, Neal Young, Beasties...
David Bowie
1/5
#199/1001. The story didn't really go like this: 1001 album book critics talk to the editor:
- "You know Bowie died, right? We should include all his work in the book"
- "All? I mean he has already 7 albums on the list"
-"Yes, all of them"
-"Even the boring ones?"
-"Yes. Even them"
- "Even the newest ones?"
-"Well we first thought no, but it has to be all of them. He is David Bowie after all."
-"You got a point there."
My new nickname forhis work is David Bowring.