1001 Albums Summary

Liked and could hear lots of influences, like Beatles and David Bowie, that weren’t obvious to me when the album first came out.

Still amazing after all these years. One intriguing song I wasn’t familiar with: “Keep the Customer Satisfied.”

Might just be a little too esoteric and experimental for me. I admire but do not love. The album’s opening is pretty iconic, though.

So smart, so prescient. I would need to listen to the lyrics closely and repeatedly to really get its impact. Besides the songs I already knew, I really liked “Burn Hollywood Burn” and “Can’t Do Nuttin.” “Fight the Power” will be forever linked to Do the Right Thing as one of the best film musical combos of all time.

Transformer was delightful, not at all what I expected. It’s playful and even fun. The instrumentation and arrangements are creative, and Reed has a wry sensibility (and crystal clear enunciation) that somehow I didn’t know about. What a revelation!

Meh, I missed this album when it came out and I don’t find it compelling now.

While Sinatra’s voice is amazing, the album felt monotonous. All the songs kind of blended together for me.

Mellow and enjoyable.

Honestly, I would never have listened to this album if not for this project, and I was so glad to be introduced to it. The songs sound modern and fresh, and the grooves are irresistible.

On paper this band is up my alley, but I failed to get into their music 15 odd years ago and still am not feeling it. I like “Islands” but the album as a whole seemed drab and unremarkable.

Genre busting brilliance. There’s a little bit of everything and somehow it all works together.

Good, with some standouts.

It’s hard to separate this album from me at 17, but it still sounds great. “You Are the Everything” is my favorite now, probably not back then.

Another one suffused with nostalgia for me, but it didn’t live up to my hype. A few songs are magical, and obviously the sound was super influential for Brit pop, but much of the album is forgettable.

5 stars for originality. 0 stars for accessibility and enjoyment. That averages out to a 1. 😂 Maybe I would understand and appreciate better with repeated listens, but I have no interest in doing that, I’m afraid.

It’s amazing that this was 1974–the production is immaculate and you can hear Fagen enunciate every single word. I love the smoothness and ease, but also the bitterness.

Started off strong (and the lyrics are super interesting) but eventually became a slog for me.

I loved this album! Almost every song is a winner. Jazzy and mellow a lot of the time, but also intense.

“We used to wait / Sometimes it never came.” Twenty years later, I still think this album captured something about how life was changing in the twenty-first century. It’s so coherent and listenable. Torn between a 4 and 5 but going with my heart.

Lots of classics here. Enjoyable, but I wasn’t riveted. (Shh, don’t tell Mike.)

I’m just not a huge Dylan person, but I admire the album. “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat” is maliciously funny.

The first sentence of the blurb for this album on Apple Music reads: “No matter where you’re at in life, stepping into Pet Sounds can feel like stepping back into childhood.” That really resonated for me, even though my parents were definitely not listening to Pet Sounds when I was a kid. The hooks in “Sloop John B,” for instance, seem to be deeply imprinted in my subconscious. I also realized how deeply influential this album has been, decades later. Like, does Vampire Weekend or The Shins exist without it?

It was fine. I do like “Tangerine” an awful lot.

Some good/interesting songs here but I wasn’t blown away. We can go this deep into Radiohead’s catalog, but apparently we don’t have any women’s albums we can feature?? I know, we’re early in the 1001. Maybe today is the day?

Catchy.

OMG the misogyny, violence, and ugliness. But also: it kind of feels like we’re all living in Eminem’s world now. This is a pretty profound cultural document and piece of art. It’s not always possible to say when Em is expressing his own hate and when he is exposing it, and that seems like part of the point.

I’m sure it’s a personal failing, but I have never been drawn to the Blues, and this album did not sway me.

Oh yay, finally, a woman! 😂😂 But seriously, I thought this was charming and lovely. Her ad libs are so cool—I felt a little like I was in that club.

I forgot about “Thousands Are Sailing.” What a great song, along with others. Maybe it’s the extended version linked here, but the album started to flag for me after a while.

I liked but think The Suburbs is better.

Love the spiky, raw, but still kind of poppy qualities of many of these songs.

I only knew the hits off this album, and I liked this more than I thought I would but am not into the punk / hardcore / rapping thing that Kiedis does.

Still amazing after all these years. (Sorry for the bad joke.)

Just…why?? I can’t imagine putting this on a best of list.

Never heard of them and found album entirely unmemorable. I also made an executive decision only to listen through track 12 on first disc, since that was the end of the original album.

I wish I liked this more, but there were some highlights and overall it was enjoyable.

I found this one fascinating and weird and went down quite a rabbit hole reading all about Gene Clark.

Not quite what I expected. A lot more classic rocky.

Not more Brit pop! I never realized exactly how overrated the genre was until I started this project. I did re-appreciate “Lucky Man,” and “Bittersweet Symphony” is canonical, but that’s about it for me.

I love how you can see Metal and punk coming out of this. Pretty irrepressible spirit.

Wow, so this is where alt-country comes from! I’m embarrassed that I always just dismissed the band because of its name. These songs are amazing—I’m between a 4 and a 5.

Some gorgeous melodies here, like the somewhat disquieting “Thirteen.” I wasn’t quite as taken by this as our last couple from the same era, but I can see the innovation and influence of Big Star.

I’m a big fan of what I consider ELO’s signature sound. It’s so Beatlesque (Kinks, Beach Boys) but also so forward looking. I do think this album needed an edit; it felt a little baggy.

Probably really a 3.5, but I’m rounding up because “Down by the River” and “Cowgirls in the Sand” are epic.

Looking forward to Nic’s comments (his 33 1/3 book on this album comes out in 2026!!) but I love this one as much as I did when I first started hearing it around the dorms in the late 80s. Are there are any mediocre songs? Not to my ears. It’s raw, jagged, desperate, angry, melancholy, sometimes ugly, but also buoyant, silly, and sexy. It sounded and sounds completely distinctive, instantly recognizable.

There were some moments when I got really into this, but other times I lost the plot. That might be partly a lack of cultural context on my part.

I owned this on cd but haven’t listened to it in decades. She’s doing some pioneering work fusing rap, funk, soul, and pop, especially as a female artist with a strong lyric point of view, but disappointingly, the production sounds dated and some of the songs are mediocre.

I don’t own the album but know most of these songs—it really is packed with classics. Robert Plant’s voice is insanely good. One star off for the mean anti-woman stuff.

I saw we were back with the Blues and my heart sank a little. But actually I ended up really enjoying this. The music just moves, and it has a New Orleans (Delta?) kind of jazzy vibe in places that is awesome, as are Waters’ vocals.

There are a couple of beauts, and I just rewatched the video for “New Frontier,” which is sublime. I can’t believe the assortment of music that I watched on MTV in those early days. But most of the album did not impress me.

Not my thing, but I like that the “random” generator paid its respects to Ozzy, and there was more diversity to the music than I was expecting.

More muted than I thought it would be. Somehow the live atmosphere didn’t come through for me.

I think this holds up well. They sound both very identifiable as a turn of the century band and very much just themselves.

Oh generator, I don’t have time to listen to 6 discs, amounting to more than 3 hours of music. However, I wish I had that much time because the songbook is spectacular. Fitzgerald’s voice is smooth and silky but also so powerful, the lyrics are often genius, and the melodies are gorgeous. Plus the arrangements and instrumentation. This is definitely going into my permanent rotation.

Hmm, there were some moments I could kind of get into, but this felt too much like the Muzak of my childhood.

You couldn’t have paid me money in 1998 to listen to this, and I just did it for free and enjoyed much of it. 😂 Twenty five plus years later, I can appreciate that there is craftsmanship here and that he’s bringing together genres in ways that have since become standard. Plus, some of the songs are just good!

Perhaps not the epochal album it was heralded as at the time, but still sounds tight and was fun to listen to. Between a 3 and 4 for me, but rounding up because it ends on such a high note with “Take It or Leave It.”

Not a big fan of their sound, though how could you not appreciate Grace Slick’s voice, and of course the two big songs here deserve to be classics.

This was truly weird, mostly in good ways, though some of it did not land for me. I can see the influence on Prince and others.

Fun listen. He’s so exuberant as a vocalist and trumpet player, and I love the big band inflected jazz. The songs did get repetitive after a while, though.

My hopes lifted after the first song, which was catchy, but they quickly settled back down. Mid, as the kids say.

Now we’re talking. These songs purr, crackle, groove. Each one is worth listening to in its own right. What a talent Badu is.

Too much mediocre Brit Pop!!

I’m interested by how ground-breaking their sound was but also how you can hear affinities with less “cool” rap of the time.

Oh I really loved this. I’ve listened to plenty of her songs but had not made my way through a whole album. The songs are gorgeous and often moving (you can hear the Jack Antonoff of it) but avoid the obvious pop choices for more surprising ones.

I was reminded that “Vincent” was momentarily popular with my friend group in high school. This is at the intersection of too on the nose and even cheesy, and kind of fun to listen to.

I have respect for Sonic Youth on paper, but this was more visceral and accessible than I thought it would be. Particularly loved “Cotton Crown” and “Master-Dik.”

I wasn’t expecting covers, but I liked many of his interpretations, especially of “Satisfaction.”

Not as uniformly strong as I wished it was. Love the big three, though, which are spiky, electric, and have great pop hooks.

One of my all-time faves, and seriously underregarded, imo. What can’t Monáe do? She moves seamlessly between genres and makes them her own. The album is both eccentric and poppy, full of weird intervals and luscious hooks. I just love it.

I almost gave this a 1. Most songs are blah and the vocals are unexpectedly awful in a couple of places. A couple of songs are better, elevating it to a 2.

This listen clarified for me that The Killers were never really an indie / alt band (despite the title of the last song!). They’re a mainstream pop rock band, and they know what they’re doing when it comes to crafting big pop rock songs. In retrospect, it makes perfect sense that “Mr. Brightside” became a studio anthem.

Okay, I had never actually listened to this album before. It’s worth a lot of listens. They only ever sound like themselves, and at the same time, you can hear how they absorb global genres and lay down a kind of blueprint that later western artists have continued to follow.

Yikes. “Under the Bridge” is a classic, but most of the rest are forgettable, obnoxious bro rock (well I guess you have to give them credit for helping to invent that category).

I cannot overstate the degree to which 12 year old me absorbed this album. I still love it and think it represents the epitome of great 80s pop: bouncy, synthy, with an undercurrent of darkness. And Lauper’s voice is a gift.

Really strong throughout. It was kind of a comeback album, right? But it may be their best. They mastered that place where punk and pop meet.

It’s enjoyable to listen to Willie sing almost anything with his mellow, restrained, poignant voice, and the arrangements are often lovely.

Ooh this was fun. Silky smooth, delicious, full arrangements. Sounds completely contemporary.

I just find these songs so beautiful. The album is cohesive too—it’s all one melancholy, wistful, and a little funny vibe.

Never much of a Rod Stewart fan, but I can see why this album made the list. There are some real charmers here, especially “Country Comfort.”

Sounds both ahead of its time and completely of its time. Some of the songs did not click for me, though.

Brit Pop strikes again. This album is completely forgettable, wannabe Oasis. I did not need to hear it in this (or any) lifetime.

How had I never heard “Country Honk” before? I enjoy this version of the Stones.

Gothic synth. The hits still resonate; some of the rest are interesting but not spectacular.

Never heard of her before, let alone heard her music, but I was completely blown away by this album. Or maybe mesmerised is the right word. The production, the lyrics, the melodies—all are stunning on a first listen, blending folk, electronica, and pop. First time I’m giving 5 stars to an album I didn’t already know and love.

Not exactly my thing, but lots of admiration for this politically fearless, smart, head-on album.

This is the third Blur album we’ve gotten. 😳 It’s not bad—the first half is pretty good, in fact—but it’s not great either.

Really wanted to love this one, but the title track is in its own league.

Could use an edit, but there are a lot of highs and they’re really great. It’s a wonder how The Clash is able to sound so angry and so joyous at the same time, and their pop instincts are impeccable.

I love the mordant humor of songs like “Girlfriend in a Coma.” They definitely anticipate (and skewer) the incel mentality. But some of the tracks are just ho-hum.

Truly an all-time classic. The lyrics, the production, the arrangements, the hooks—all are stellar, and Lauryn Hill is the magnetic center of it all.

It was fun hearing The Eagles becoming themselves on this album. I had a little trouble deciding if the overall vibe was a tiny bit lacklustre or whether it was just mellow in that early 70s way. 3.5 would be my preferred rating.

You can’t deny the influence of this album, and I did enjoy a lot of it. But it’s really ugly and crude too. That’s Kanye, I guess.

There are no weak links here. Lou Reed and Nico have two weird, great voices, and the music breaks new ground while somehow also seeming understated and modest.

At times, I was totally on board with the trip hop complexity. At others it bogged down for me.

Never heard of him before but honestly found this album pretty delightful. Kind of meditative, yet also propulsive.

It brings rap and pop into the new century, looking backward and forward. I did eventually yield to exhaustion: just too much goodness.

Like a small precious jewel. It does one thing and does it perfectly.

I know I’m supposed to like this, but at the end of the day it left me cold. “Guiding Light” was an exception.

The more folky songs were pleasant; the more psychedelic ones droned on a bit. Kind of mid.

There are some poignant songs here, but how can you compare to his older stuff? The structures seem more basic and the lyrics less specific, like he’s playing it safe.

I was skeptical, but this lovely collection of songs won me over. I enjoyed their retro, sun washed, melancholy sound. There are some real songwriting chops in evidence.

Love the vibe on this album. Even the lesser known songs are appealing, and “Sympathy for the Devil” is one of the greatest ever.

Hard to imagine a better opening song than “Hell’s Bells.” I’m teaching Macbeth right now, and it would play perfectly in the Porter scene! The album is tight and rocking (of course). I’m no AC/DC fan but considered giving it a 5.

Underwhelmed by The Undertones. Seemed like completely pedestrian punk rock. Maybe I would feel differently if I grew up listening to their stuff, but I can’t recover whatever it is that made them special.

There’s a staggering immediacy and intimacy to this album. It’s hard to believe it was recorded over half a century ago. Imagine writing a song for the audience (“San Quentin”), performing it for them (twice!), and the experience becoming a legend.

I kind of like the slinky oddball electronic songs on the back half and thought the first half was solid.

One of the greatest ever. Even the “minor”songs are electric.

Has not aged well. Maybe didn’t start off that great either, though the crunch, the buzz, and the whine are definitely iconic of the Dre sound and that era of rap.

Love me some Pet Shop Boys. They were ahead of their time and our time too. So danceable and fun, so melancholy and smart and politically astute. “King’s Cross” is a stunner I don’t remember hearing before.

I’m ashamed to say I never listened to this album before. It’s punchy and edgy and full of energy. Would there be Avril Lavigne or Olivia Roderigo or Willow without them?

This is my Rubicon. Cannot cross.

Poignant and moving, and wonderfully creative. Plus it’s not every day that a song is named after a seventeenth-century revenge tragedy!

A little silly, but obviously they were onto something.

Four songs in 48 min is wild. I got a little lost in the middle, but it was an enjoyable ride.

Kind of appropriate to listen to this while 30,000 feet in the air. I can appreciate the Dead and this was not an unpleasant experience, but I confess to not really feeling them.

Peak TS and an almost perfect pop album — there’s not a bad song on it.

The 17 year old was intrigued enough about “Thrasher” to ask who the singer was. That was one of my favorites on the album too. Overall, a little uneven.

I wasn’t sold on this later version of The Cure at first—I missed the jagged, manic edge. But the baroque lugubrious qualities grew on me and I ended up a fan.

Kind of fun to hear one of the early ventures into prog rock.

Ska is too narrow a label for the range of musical sounds and arrangements here. Sometimes I heard New Orleans jazz, sometimes mariachi. Overall quirky and brilliant.

Melodic and pleasant but didn’t really stand out for me.

I feel as if I should like this more than I do. I was a little bored, tbh. Maybe it’s better appreciated live? Or maybe I am just so conditioned to funk’s use in pop that the unadulterated thing is too concentrated for me at this point?

I’m a Garbage fan, but this album is not as consistent as their next one. There are some hits (“Queer” is phenomenal) and a few misses, and Shirley Manson sounds a little too restrained at times.

Struggling for words to describe The Band’s sound—rootsy and rocking, spare but also emotionally resonant is the best I can come up with. “Cripple Creek” may actually be my least favorite because I’ve heard it too many times; there are so many gems other than that. “The Unfaithful Servant,” for example.

I own this album but hadn’t listened to it for at least twenty years. Orton’s voice is remarkable, and the album creates an evocative moodscape, dreamy but grounded.

Some greatness here, of course, but I was surprised by the blah quality of several of the lesser known songs.

I think of reggae as a highly specific genre, but the album reveals Bob Marley as versatile across many genres, yet always himself. I could have listened to this all day.

Still fresh, still jams.

I was in no way prepared for this album. I thought I was getting an album’s worth of “School’s Out” the song. Instead I got something far more playful, funny, and ambitious: a true concept album. I loved the West Side story motif and so much else.

Some of it is just sonically past my limits, but other parts are more enjoyable. I definitely hear the influence they’ve had, with the combination of gauze and something more percussive and hard-driving, all the way to the likes of Billie Eilish.

I think I heard “Catch me if you can” or variant in several songs, a sharp message in this Vietnam era album, but layered in luxurious waves of folk country rock. Sidebar: I don’t like when the linked version of the album is padded with deluxe and bonus tracks. I only listened through “Space Odyssey,” the last song on the original work.

Amazing that this was the #1 Billboard album of 1973. It’s a really sophisticated blend of genres, and I liked but didn’t love it, though maybe it would grow on me with repeated listens.

Meh, I don’t know. I tried and failed to get into them decades ago. Just lost in the wall of noise for much of this album, though some moments did break through.

It’s hard to listen to this with fresh ears since, amazingly enough, all the songs are classic rock radio staples. And PF have always been too ponderous and self-important for my tastes. But they also had a keen sense for melody and the guitar work and arrangements can be stunning.

Very tough sledding for me. Only giving it a 2 to acknowledge their significance and the fact that there is some substance to the music, but this was in no way an enjoyable experience.

Daffy and kind of fun. I don’t think honestly I really understand what is going on here.

I’m not sure this needs to be on the list. It’s enjoyable enough, but it’s kind of standard issue Beck (which is good, don’t get me wrong). I can’t help but feel that there may be overlooked worthier contenders. Janet Jackson, say?

Meditative off-center melodies and lyrics. You hear the folk and other traditions he comes from, but he makes them his own. I would need to listen to this a number of times to fully appreciate.

Smart, prescient, uncompromising—but also just great beats.

Really not a standout, in hindsight. “Stop” is probably the best song on the album.

Perfect music for Thanksgiving prep. Love the Cold War vibe that is both spacey and swingy.

Illmatic has it all: Nas’s gritty, real lyrics and incredible flow; nonstop hooks; jazzy, cool arrangements. Still the rap album to beat.

I was working a temp job in 1987 just as this album was breaking, and my slightly older teenage coworker told me a story about partying with Guns n Roses which I wish I had written down. Anyway, this has not held up very well, imo. A lot of the songs sound, well, juvenile. It’s getting three stars because it also has three enduring classics.

Part of the problem here for me is lack of context (which I don’t have time to rectify), but I didn’t find this terribly compelling or interesting.

I enjoyed it in an atmospheric way, and I appreciate its political assertiveness, but it didn’t make a big impression.

I did not own this album back in the day, though like everyone, I knew each of its many hits. But I was really kind of blown away by how strong this is all the way through. Her voice is a wonder: it can do all kinds of things and she’s not afraid to make it really flawed, like, appropriately, on “Perfect.” The album is a template for the singer songwriters who came in her wake. No Taylor Swift without Alanis.

Soundgarden coaxes a space where pop, rock, punk, and metal can co-exist. That’s one way of describing grunge, I guess. Tuneful songs and Chris Cornell’s voice make it all cohere.

Solid, well-crafted collection that is pretty palatable to a non-metal head (me).

I missed the boat on this (and anything country adjacent, for that matter) in the 80s. There’s something so fresh and refreshing about this album, even almost 40 years later.

I like the musical theater vibe of many of these songs, and “Panic in Detroit” is pretty amazing.

Sounds a bit like warmed over Sgt Peppers. Not really doing it for me.

Okay, interesting to hear the early version of ZZ Top. I knew only “La Grange.”

I knew a bunch of these songs from classic rock radio (thank you, Labor Day/Memorial Day countdowns) but hearing as a collection was pretty stupendous. The singing harmonizes with the guitars and the guitars battle and play. This may be the apotheosis of guitar god rock.

Smooth and yes, spacey. Even a little playful. I liked it.

She takes control over every song and doesn’t let go.

I’m a Rufus Wainwright fan: I love his voice, his theatricality, and the meandering, intricate quality of many of his songs. But I do not think this album belongs on this list. It’s fine, but just blah, compared to his other work, let alone to a body of great albums.

What a treat. So accessible and even catchy without sacrificing complexity and polyphony.

Some great songs here—the live album is a little bit hard to compare to a regular one.

More mediocre British pop. Found it very boring; my family was begging me to stop listening in the car.

I wasn’t particularly impressed, though the energy was fun on some songs.

Thanks, generator, for this sparkly gift.

This is a debut that snaps and crackles. The punk energy is palpable, but the sound is more diverse than just punk. Chrissy Hynde is really one of a kind.

This band has never connected for me. “Jeeper” is perhaps the best of the lot.

More metally / hard rock, less punk than I was expecting, though the generator is teaching me that those lines were very porous in the 70s. I can’t say I really enjoyed most of these songs, though.

Has a pastiche effect, some of it successful, though some parts also just feel a little betwixt and between.

Just okay for me. Hard to live up to someone like Aretha, whose album we listened to recently.

My heart sank when I saw this album, fearing more brit pop, but this is pretty good. I didn’t fully appreciate the apocalyptic theme or whatever it was, but there are good hooks and lots of fun callbacks to all kinds of bands and genres from the 70s and 80s.

Sometimes I find it difficult to really listen attentively to Motown doo-wop because it sounds like the landscape of life, literally the background. This has some of that quality, but also songs that make you sit up and take notice.

Rock of all flavors mixes here, sometimes even verging on the incoherent.

Lots of fun: airy but also somehow grounded, and always delightfully bizarre.

I can’t get past the silly parody version of The Monkees. These songs sound like burlesques of 60s sounds.

I enjoyed, and there are some all-time greats here; somehow this one didn’t wow me quite as much as the first Aretha album we listened to.

Smart and doesn’t take any sh*t, great rhymes, great hooks. Listening to it now also makes me miss New York in the 90s.

It grew tedious at points, but at its best, the experimental energy was bracing and interesting.

Never heard of it but really kind of loved it. “Don’t Want to Know” was my favorite. The sound is folky and grungy, and his voice can turn on a dime.

I’m so sad that I missed out on this when it came out. It truly is one of the most beautiful pieces I’ve heard in a long time. Crystalline, ethereal, and emotional, but never precious.

What a response to the unrest and restlessness of the 60s. My sister sent it to me in a care package my freshman year of college, and my son stops and listens when he passes through the room. It has extraordinary longevity and appeal.

Really catchy. Never quite sure how to evaluate their significance.

Drum and bass is not my genre. There were some cool sounds and I can see why people get into it, but this felt pretty endless.

His voice is remarkable, but to me this album is more about potential than full realization.

Completely nondescript 80s. I don’t get it.

I wish this had aged better than it has. Still a nostalgic listen, though.

Spirited romp through British rock, with echoes of The Kinks, Beatles, and Stones jumping out to me.

Brisk, economical, working man’s rock. In some respects, doesn’t really match their provocative (for the time), clownish image.

Warmed over Beatles, or a parody of itself. Generator, you can do better.

I don’t even particularly like the one hit song I know on this album. The rest seem like mid-tempo boring 90s pop rock.

Great album, taking 80s indy rock to new heights and laying the groundwork for the 90s.

Hard not to be engaged by the bluesy, emotional warmth and grit on display here. So many well-earned classics.

To my knowledge, I had never even heard of this ensemble, and yet the first song was completely familiar. That sort of sums up this album: it’s really obscure, traversing strange byways between classical and jazz and pop, and yet also sometimes landing on groovy melodies that sound like tv show themes.

Great storylines and some real bops, too. I like this iteration of Kendrick a lot.

Standard boring late 90s grunge hard rock. What am I missing?

This album made me sad for the rest of her career that we never got to hear. It reveals the different textures of her astonishing voice. Plus the great songs here are really era-defining and transcendent.

Um, a very masculine production is my first thought, in both fine and not so fine ways.

“Paper Planes” is a great song. The rest is sonically innovative and a creative cultural melange, but doesn’t quite rise to the same level.

It doesn’t pack the punch of her earlier stuff with which I’m more familiar, but I thought it was a fascinating project and I would listen again to it.

The hits here still hit, but the rest? Disappointing is an understatement. I think I owned this album on vinyl when it first came out, but if so, I was skipping most of the songs.

A stone cold classic that, if anything, speaks louder today than it did when it was released. (But I loved it back then, too.) I cried through a couple. There is no filler either; each song is worth listening to.

Caught between a 4 and a 5. This album is a legend, deservedly so. “Us and Them” is probably my favorite, a floating trip that just goes on and on. But there is also a ponderous quality that I’ve always found alienating.

Pleasant enough but didn’t make much of an impression other than noticing there was a bridge quality between 70s classic rock and something more 80s.

Apparently it’s Paul Weller week. I connected with this iteration a little better, but I still don’t quite get the hugeness of this singer in the UK.

A little Bjork-ish Scandinavian electro-pop in some interesting variations.

Harvest edges this out for me, but it’s still strong, end to end: searing, cantankerous, but capable of tenderness.

Love the groove and the immaculate production. Some of the songs are a little filler-ish.

I’m always a bit confused about how to assess live albums next to studio albums since they seem like fundamentally different projects. This album gives me a faint second-hand sense of what it would have been like to be present for an exciting live experience but doesn’t do much for me as an album.

I have a soft spot for this yacht rock (not what it would have been called at the time, I know) soul vibe. If only the rest of the album was as locked in as the first three songs.

Too bad I wasn’t cool enough in college to know about them—I’m taken by their sound and the way it is close to 80s new wave and indie (Depeche Mode, New Order, even Yaz) but also pushes into new terrain—I guess technically acid house, but in the bigger picture, planting the seeds for EDM. “Pacific State” is a pretty stellar song.

The lesser known Queen, for a reason, I’m afraid. I almost felt as if I was listening to. Queen parody band, and the silly medievalism didn’t help.

There are high highlights, to be sure, but as a rock opera, it doesn’t sustain itself fully.

I began this listen skeptical but was won over by rapping skill, genre fusion, and lush sparkly production. I feel a little provincial for not knowing about him earlier — but that is why this project is fun!

Admittedly cheesy, but I’m here for this nostalgic bubblegum punk pop.

A few glimmers of the moody vibe I associate with Roxy Music, but this album was all over the place, and not in a good way.

The Pixies are amazing, but this album sadly is not. There’s little spark here and the songs settled into a blah flat line for me.

Back to back Pixies was a generator surprise. This is pretty great all the way through—and to my ears, pushing the boundaries of what pop was at that time.

I would be more interested if the Brazilian indigenous sounds had broken through more. The unadulterated metal is a world with high walls that I cannot enter.

Hard to find fault with this pick. Don’t like beautiful pop melodies? Seamless harmonies and the singular voices of Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie? Songs about love and betrayal? Then I guess you could find fault. But not me. There’s a reason they are arguably even bigger now than they were at the time.

Still sounds edgy and oddball and loose, all these decades later.

Not even my favorite Beatles album, but I haven’t listened to it in many years and realized anew its formidable qualities and powerful influence, though formidable is not quite the right word for a group of songs that sounds so psychedelic, so melancholy, and occasionally so jaunty.

Man, this is good. From opening of the first track, “Hanging on the Telephone,” every detail is on point. The album glides effortlessly between punk, disco, rock, and even 50s doo wop, with Debbie Harry effortlessly in control.

I know Kraftwerk is legendary. They sound like they’re from another planet. I’m glad I finally listened to one of their albums. To be honest, I probably don’t need to listen to this one again.

The angst that sounded plaintive and edgy in the younger Morrissey does not wear well here. Or maybe it’s just the songs that aren’t as good.

Karen O is the driving force here. “Maps” is stellar and there are a few other standouts, but also some more mediocre fare.

Dusty had a distinct style, all her own, supported with world-class songwriting. The best tracks here still shine.

I wasn’t expecting elevator music, but once it was underway, I realized that this ultra-prouduced, super cheesy sound was my childhood impression of Elvis. It doesn’t help that the two best songs weren’t even on the original track listing.

Bracing electronic, done at a very high level. It may be a little too rigorous for me, but I respect it and found myself nodding and tapping along.

Delicious grooves topped with smooth, powerful singing. “He’s the Greatest Dancer” alone is worth the price of admission. Just a smidge away from a a 4 for me.

Started off better than I thought with catchy, well-produced tracks, but went downhill from there to become tedious and grating.

The album title is intriguing but I was underwhelmed by this collection of songs. Unremitting falsetto and lugubrious slow jams.

Metal will never be my preferred genre, but this is just superior music. So tight and disciplined—and has a pop sensibility buried in there somewhere too. I know it is also political, though I wasn’t all that tuned into the lyrics.

Another band I knew was “important” but never actually listened to before. Their songs are right on the edge between something more experimental and something poppy.

This one’s a little tough for me. On the one hand, I don’t think Kravitz got as much credit as he deserved because he didn’t fit the late 80s categories, with their racial/racist assumptions. On the other hand, some of these songs are a little blah. On the whole, though, the album is more interesting and more original than I realized, with its Beatlesque song craft and social critique.

I admit that I didn’t want to like this, perhaps not for any good reason. But it’s actually pretty good—I’ve been struck during this 1001 albums project that so much early 70s rock is profoundly theatrical, seemingly in dialogue with musicals of the time, and this one is no exception. It’s hard not to fall for the ragtime stylings of “Mary Ann,” for instance. I was less enamoured by tracks that leaned more towards metal, but overall this album was kind of fun.

So many classic all-timers. The lesser known tracks are almost as good.

Just no. Too much pompous ridiculosity, not enough music you really want to listen to.

Unexpectedly gentle at times, restrained, jagged, and punchy. Lou Reed is not a belter but really has a voice for the ages, and the lyrics are pretty brilliant.

L.A. is a good song. Aside from that, I was underwhelmed. What even is post-punk? In this case, it seems to connote off-kilter, minor rock songs.

Fun listen. I like how he takes a more conventional melody and twists it into something new and the way that his songs are leavened with a quirky humor.

Musically, I enjoy this iteration of the Stones with its well-crafted pop gems and different genre leanings. The baroque stylings of “Lady Jane” are particularly cool. The misogyny is over the top, though.

Love the smart sardonic quality in Elvis Costello. I feel like he’s a beloved hip, curmudgeonly uncle.

The nasty misogyny is still there, but it is hard not to give in to the sheer brilliance and sweet sounds of this album. The Stones, and Jagger in particular, at the top of their game.

An all-out assault—there’s just too much sonic pain for me. I think music should cause more pleasure than pain.

I owned this on vinyl when it came out and liked it okay. Youth is wasted on the young: this album is much more amazing than I remembered. It might live in the shadow of Purple Rain. It’s baggier and less cohesive, but honestly it’s not a second too long. I adore all the sides of Prince on display here: the funk and soul and new wave, and the weird trippy screams that are his hallmark.

Loose and swingy; virtuosic. I listened to this one on background, I admit.

As the saying goes, I would listen to him sing the phonebook. (This saying is severely aged, I know.) These songs are sweet; some are on the minor side.

The melodies hew to the (pleasing) formula, but Loretta Lynn masters and transcends with her wit and clarity, sharp as a knife.

I’m still not sure that live albums should be on the 1001 list, but there is no denying how extraordinary this double set is. It’s a tour de force, and every song hits. Dylan’s voice is on, and both acoustic and electric make their impact.

Probably unfair to compare to Dylan live, our previous listen, but this came out at around the same time, and well, there’s no comparison. It sounds wan and thin, despite the active genre experimentation, and only a few of the songs stood out. Maybe just dated, at this point.

More potential here than what is actualised. There’s so much sadness and despair layered in the stupid bravado—the emotions are moving and the flow is great, but the music isn’t always up to par.

This was my early 90s—I bought this cd at the Tower Records at 86th St in NY. It holds up okay—the better songs still boast an impressive guitar wall of sound and their hooks are intact. But the album needed an edit—some songs are pretty forgettable; indeed, I had forgotten them.

This is about as close as music can come to being genreless, as in you can’t name its genre category. It’s inventive, disorienting, and at times enjoyable, but often annoying and tiring too, at least for me.

Fun and funny are not adjectives with which I associate The Smiths. But they apply here: there is levity in their very British wryness on this album, plus an unerring pop sensibility. My teenager discovered The Smiths on his own, and it is apparent why.

Snarky and cooler than cool. Lou Reed being himself and channeling early 70s New York.

It must have been fun to hear them live back in the day, and the guitar work is amazing, but I didn’t need an hour plus of this, especially because only some songs were great.

Is it my favorite Beatles album? Probably not. Is it still worthy of 5 stars? Absolutely. It stuns today as it must have in 1969.

Further Brit pop mediocrity. A few tracks elevated this to a 2, but I was pretty disengaged throughout.

I love the Eurythmics, except it turns out I only love about three songs on this album. The rest sounds dated: thin synths and wan melodies that don’t do justice to Annie Lennox’s voice.

On paper, this seems to be too on the nose as political music. Maybe it was, for its time. But today it’s pretty perfect and so prescient. The level of commitment to the ethos is unbelievable, and the music also works as music, not just politics.

This did feel like being lost in a dream, in an enjoyable way. There are Dylan and even Grateful Dead echoes, but The War On Drugs shows more pop discipline. No one song stood out, but the arrangements produce continuous, rolling deep waves of sound.

Some all-time greats here and no real weak links. “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream” is astounding.

I love “Poisoned Arrow” and especially “The Look of Love” so much. They’re perfect early 80s New Wave pop, with bursting horns and classic synths, and I’m fond of Martin Fry’s voice. There are a couple of other good songs but also some disappointing filler. Might not deserve a 3 but I’m erring in that direction.

Holy moly—this is a monster album. I didn’t own this album but know every song well; all eight are classic rock radio staples. And there’s a reason for that: there is not a lame song in the bunch. I wouldn’t consider myself a big power/prog rock fan, but the melodies, harmonies, shiny guitar-forward arrangements are beautifully done. Boston is actually more comparable to Fleetwood Mac, their contemporaries, than I realized. Maybe they’re due for a rediscovery by Gen Z?

Velvety and deep tones, but there is something a little bit one-note about the album.

Perhaps not quite as fully realized as later albums, but many of the essential Bjork elements are in place here, with lots of genres represented, unexpected melodic turns and instrumentation, and of course, her unpredictable but always compelling vocals.

Such a sad album, made even more so by the lightness and buoyancy of some of the music.

Coincidentally, the music podcast I listen to just did an episode on Joanna Newsom, sometime partner of Callahan and in the same scene. This sometimes veers toward affectation but mostly stays on the right side, thanks to solid songcraft and interesting lyrics.

Very much a mixed bag. I was taken by “Shades of Scarlett Conquering” and “Harry’s House,” but some of these songs sound to me like failed experiments.

Whole lot of rockin packed into this album. It definitely marked a transition in decades and musical ethos.

Some loveliness and some great songs here, along with a few that are not so memorable.

One of my best loved of the 90s. There was so much hatred toward—and even worse, dismissal—of Courtney Love. But this album is fantastic, and each and every track shines. The grooves are undeniable and the anger, love, desperation, and determination are real. It sounds just as good as when it was first released.

Beyoncé enters an adventurous era, one marked by bold risk-taking and embrace of dissonance, while still using a pop framework. She pulls it off pretty well, but future albums would deploy the approach even more successfully.

Talk about gravitas—this album exudes it, with a pun on heading toward the grave (I think Johnny Cash would embrace this pun). Rarely do you hear a piece of mainstream music that confronts mortality so viscerally, but there is joy and humor to be had here too. Not every song hits, but almost all are worth the listen.

CCR putting their trademark spin on blues rock. Solid throughout, if not transcendent.

Two decades on, this compares favorably to a lot of other albums from bands in the 90s and early 2000s. (Brit pop, I’m looking at you.) It’s moody, sometimes dark, but disciplined and propulsive pop rock.

There’s just something about the light, wry touch of his voice, intersecting with his funny, poignant, real lyrics. He’s one of our living treasures, and this album showcases some of the reasons why.

Gram Parsons’ voice is sweet, befitting the album title, and the arrangements are lovely. Their fusion of folk, country, and rock just worked, and it spawned so much great music to come.

You instantly know the Dire Straits by the guitar, and then by Knopfler’s vocals. They seem already fully formed on this debut, which features some great songs. The opener of “Down to the Waterline” is terrific. But there are some less memorable songs here too.

I know, let’s write 43 very DYI, mostly underwhelming songs and put them all out there as an album. Just not my cup of tea.

It’s slick and perhaps over produced. It’s almost a cliche of 70s pop rock. It’s not my favorite version of the Eagles. But it’s still pretty great: the songs pop and the lyrics capture and satirize the post-60s malaise.

All the trademarks are here: expansive wall of sound, questioning lyrics, great hooks. No one song stood out from the pack, but I enjoyed the listen.

I guess this is supposed to be avant garde or something? I found it inchoate and just pretty boring.

Hmm, I didn’t always love this, but you can’t look away. “The Gift” reveals the gift of grisly storytelling, in kind of a Sweeney Todd way. “Here She Comes Now” is as great as ever. Torn between 3 and 4 here.

I had no expectations going in, but this was pretty awesome. Catchy songs, edgy, political lyrics, great singing. Poly Styrene is something else. It feels like it would fit right in 2026.

Deadpan and gorgeous, morbid but with a light touch. What a feat.

This was spacier and jammier, even jazzier, than I thought it would be. The funk is still the thread, of course, and the horns in particular really stand out.

“Dirty Old Town” is a classic. I found most of the rest enjoyable and predictable.

Snappy doesn’t even begin to cover it—blink and you miss it. It’s an invigorating brief ride.

Does it get any cooler than this? But though I love the vibe, I found the album uneven: some songs just wandered off into the ether.

No comment on the Gallagher brothers as people, but they figured out with this one how to make simple songs beautifully complicated, or maybe it’s the reverse? So good I listened to it twice.

“Desolation Row” alone is worth the price of admission. There’s a lot to unpack here, and I barely scratched the surface, but the sound Dylan is carving out here between folk and electric is dynamic and durable.

This live album isn’t doing the band any favors. Most of the songs struck me as dull and/or annoying. Maybe its novel edge just got eclipsed over time, too.

Clever, innovative, and fun to listen to. “Chameleon” could go for another 15 minutes and still work.

I was kind of into the proto-new wave, jaunty and still hard sound at the beginning. I don’t know if the songs in the second half were just worse or if the shtick wore thin, but I had had enough well before the end.

They make weird work beautifully here. Can’t beat the opening of the album, and the resonant, moving dissonance continues throughout.

It’s a classic, for sure, and it’s interesting how fully it has been folded into the cultural mainstream fifty years later. Some of the lesser known songs are just mid, though.

A master class in rock. Listening all the way through even allowed me to hear “Stairway to Heaven” with fresh ears.

Lots of fun. Many of the songs pop, and the lyrics and flow are on point.

The sound is an interesting fusion, but I didn’t think the songs were good at all. Maybe just not my thing.

It’s hard not to listen to this through a veil of nostalgia and wistfulness. Somehow those feelings harmonize with the set Nirvana played that day. Kurt Cobain and the band make it all cohere.

Petty and his band are endearing on this debut, even if they’re still coming into their own. “Breakdown” is probably my favorite here, but of course “American Girl” is undeniable too.

Stereotypical macho white Southern rock, yes. And their lyrics are often cringe. But this album is also pretty great. Their bluesy rock is so crunchy and it just rocks. “Simple Man” is hard to fault and “Gimme Three Steps” is a gem of a story song. “Free Bird” can be annoying, but only because it is emblazoned in our psyches. There’s a reason for its ubiquity.

No doubt that Lemper’s voice is a strong and astonishingly versatile instrument, and I was intrigued by a couple of the earlier tracks. But the appeal really wore off — this album needed a serious edit. It started to sound like a parody of itself.

Everything about this just works. Talk about creating a vibe. I love that my 18 year old connects to it too (thanks, Stranger Things).

“Four Women” is a novel and an opera. The album as a whole is strong and tender, and Simone is superhuman in the different personae and cadences she can adopt.

Peak Beastie Boys. Sounds like the best of the 90s across genres, and they laid a blueprint for the next decade, too.

“Constant Craving” is (ironically, given its title) a satisfying song. There are a couple of other winners here. But not enough—the album seriously flags in places, the songs becoming understated to the point of blah.

Not the juggernaut of Vespertine, but still has its moments. Bjork knows how to walk the line between control and its surrender. All the little electronic sounds—bleeps and blurps, etc—push the songs pretty far out of the comfort zone, but never abandon the music entirely to experiment.

Perfect album title for this collection, and the songs actually give “Blue” layers and textures. Airy, light, and aching, all at the same time.

Pretty cool futuristic stuff for the late 70s. I would love to hear “The Model” make a comeback.

I never got on the Prodigy train and am not starting now. The best songs were the songs I already knew, and I found this album repetitive and way too long.

Pleasant fuzzy pop rock. I hope this isn’t blasphemy, but nothing really stuck out here.

A immersive listening experience. As I walked the dog, I had my own personal soundtrack for the world. Gorgeous and lush.

Exceedingly minor, sometimes winning, alt country folk rock. I don’t have the faintest idea what it’s doing on this list.

There’s just something risible about the combination of lead singer’s vocal style, heavy guitar riffs, and incessant flute. The lyrics don’t help either.

A little less overawing than the follow-up, but still has plenty of highlights. I’ve come to the conclusion that Oasis’s success has a lot to do with their commitment to get the full potential out of each and every song. A track that starts off sounding pretty modest and simple becomes something more 4 or 5 minutes later. It’s a maximalist approach, and it works for them.

In places, it’s juvenile and kind of dated, but J has personality and charisma in spades, with a crucial dose of vulnerability. And the rap pop still pops.

I like some Mariah Carey songs, but unfortunately I realized that none of them are on this album, which is a snooze fest. Too many languorous slow jams, not enough of what makes her great.

So smart, so prescient, so urgent. I would need to listen to the lyrics closely and repeatedly to really get its impact. Besides the songs I already knew, I really liked “Burn Hollywood Burn” and “Can’t Do Nuttin.” “Fight the Power” will be forever linked to Do the Right Thing as one of the best film musical combos of all time.

Probably unfair, but he has always struck me as David Bowie lite. This was fun at times —“The Passenger” is solid—but as a whole didn’t sway me.

The hits and some others had me bobbing my head and having a little 90s nostalgia. There were some mundane stretches, though. Album could have been a third shorter and still done its job.

Somehow this album’s title and cover image fit the vibe, even though you wouldn’t necessarily describe this as beach music. Still, there’s something restful and chilled out in these brooding, melancholy tracks.

There’s an integration that works here between the smoky back rooms and the dance club. And having said all that, it’s nice to chill out with on the back porch.

First one half to two thirds rocks. After that, it’s a little too much “wall of noise” for me.

This one stands the test of time and stands on its own. There’s no one else like her, back then or now. Jazz, folk, and punk fury come together in a weird and satisfying synthesis.

“Pyramids” is a tour de force, and most of the other tracks are strong too. You can’t hear R & B now without hearing it through the filter of Frank Ocean.

Meh, I think Kanye is already starting to go downhill on this one. Not a fan of his industrial turn, and he mostly just sounds angry. I really don’t like what he does to Billie Holiday on “Blood on the Leaves” either.