Solid work. Very familiar with their better known songs, but hadn't listened to a lot of their deeper cuts. This album sounds like classic CCR. One might wish they mixed up tempo a little bit from time to time, but it's pretty enjoyable.

Jack White might be a guitar virtuoso, but holy shit, I can't finish this album. It's so boring. Jack White has always been pretty hit and miss with me, but apart from the familiar song or two from this album, it sounds like a bunch of album filler. It's not that this record is out and out bad, per se, it's that I can't keep myself engaged enough to finish it. Every song feels like background noise. Admittedly, I've always been annoyed by Meg White's drumming, but I don't think this explains why I find just about every song so grating. I like some of Jack White's solo stuff, and he really is a fantastic player, but after listening to most of this record, I still don't understand how this band has garnered the popularity and success they've achieved. This, one of their most critically acclaimed records, is a hard listen for me.

I've heard some of Sufjan's work over the years and always found him to be interesting and lyrically insightful, yet his music has never really "clicked" with me. At about the 1/3 point of this record, I still feel the same way. He does some really cool stuff with instrumentation and arrangement, and his lyrics have some great depth, and yet, I'm looking forward to listening to something else. I kind of wonder if this isn't one of those records that needs a couple spins before it grabs your attention? I likely won't find out, though I will put forth a concerted effort to finish this one.

This one was a bit of a surprise; I thought I’d kind of hate it. Although I don’t think I’ll revisit it, I quite enjoyed the Gershwin’s music. Ella Fitzgerald is very talented, even if she didn’t feature for the first third of the record. The production is first rate. The problem is that I don’t feel like the record gives me a compelling reason to listen to it again; I guess that’s to say that, as enjoyable as its constituent parts are, I don’t care to dive back in repeatedly. They can’t all resonate with me, I guess.

Ugh. I like old U2 alright, but this is the album I checked out on this band with. It might not be their fault, other than that they wrote this album full of hits that I’ve heard soooo many times that I just can’t handle them anymore. I’m probably leaving this record an unfair 2, but a 2 nonetheless; it’s just that everything on this record is just. So. Boring. And off-putting.

The track that the Spotify linked to sounds fun, but it wasn't the full record. So, who knows if the whole record is any good, cause it seems extremely difficult to find, at least on Spotify.

I've never sat down and listened to this record, but much of it is familiar. I don't generally love an over emphasis on synthesizers and drum machines and what not, but this record does all of that really right, and there's at least 3 tracks on here that I already revisit somewhat often. For me, this record is creeping up on a 4-star rating because I genuinely really enjoy parts of it and will listen to those tracks again. I think I give it a 3 because there aren't quite enough of those to qualify it as a hard 4, but this is probably my favorite record presented in 1001 so far, with the exception of Wish You Were Here, which is a hard 5 star record.

Really just not an interesting genre for me. Didn’t finish the record.

First thoughts as this album gets rolling: this might require the kind of patience that I don’t have. By Relax, I’m still not into it. Not gonna finish. Life is too short, and there’s 1000 records here.

Love The Beach Boys harmonies, but if you’ve heard one record, you’ve kind of heard all of them (Pet Sounds probably being the exception). Their hits are fun, the rest feel a little filler-y.

Love this record. As far as I’m concerned, Offspring could have started and finished their career with Smash (Ignition was good too, but no Smash); after that, I lost a lot of interest as Offspring really started to pander to their audience and seemed very concerned with writing hits to get them on TRL, but Smash is awesome.

Big Aerosmith fan, mostly of this era (though Permanent Vacation is fun and Pump is my favorite as a whole record). This record has some of my favorite Aerosmith songs, but there are a couple tracks that bog down the record a little bit. Even still, Joe Perry is an incredible guitarist and there’s some cool instrumentation on this record; Aerosmith is the quintessential “rock star” band, and Steven Tyler is a classic front man. Toys in the Attick is a classic.

Really? This is one of the 1001 records I NEED to listen to before I die? Didn’t finish.

This one was a bit of a surprise. I’ve liked what little Count Basie I’ve heard in the past, but never really sat down and really invested. I really like it in the background, and will probably give it another spin at some point. I wish the mix was just a bit more bottom heavy, but the music is fun and lively and interesting.

Note before I start this: I don’t think I’m gonna be able to make it through this. I kind of hated Elephant, and I don’t expect this to be anything different. But, we’ll see. Alright, this is better than expected. It’s far more varied and interesting than Elephant. Alright, the more I listen to this one, the more I like it. Funny thing is that I don’t remember this album getting nearly as much attention as Elephant, but it feels like a more fleshed out, mature White Stripes. I recognize some of the songs, but the other songs that I don’t recognize because of the radio are so much more interesting than the filler on Elephant. I’d listen to this record again, though I don’t love it so much that I’d put it on repeat. This is probably a solid 3-star approaching 4-star record for me, which is probably high praise considering how bored I was with Elephant.

"Move Any Mountain" I'm familiar with, but I never much cared for the song. 90's dance music was never a genre that resonated with me at all, and this record, I can already tell, is not going to be the one to make me rethink that position. I won't be finishing this one.

I always liked the Who alright. Never been a super fan, but loved the hits. This record feels like it’s somehow avoided most of those hits. It’s not bad, but it’s easy to lose focus. I am gaining more awareness and appreciation for John Entwistle’s bass lines, which come through the mix pretty clearly. Keith Moon is a beast. Townsend is great. Still kinda bored though. Don’t hate it, probably a hard 3, but will likely never revisit just cause if I need to listen to the Who, I’ll find a different studio record or something.

Honestly I’m sort of annoyed that a compilation record counts as an “album that must be listened to before I die”. That said, I don’t hate the songs on here at all, but I’ll never search them out. This record feels like the equivalent of not changing the station when something comes on that you don’t care about, but you just quit paying attention instead of putting in the hard work of changing the channel. I dunno. I feel like this is just on the cusp of being enjoyable, but just falls short for me. The only thing that would probably save this for me would be a nostalgic connection, but I don’t have that, so, maybe this is a sort of disingenuous 2 for me. I feel like it’s not actually bad enough to warrant a 2, but it’s not a 3 for me either. 2.8, maybe? I just don’t want to round up.

Love the music, hate Morrissey’s voice. And his persona. And his lack of interest in song structure. He’s sort of just singing his shitty poetry over jangly music; the Smiths has always felt like a band doing something totally different than Morrissey is doing at any given point. I’ve heard plenty of the Smiths over the years, but never sat down to try and tolerate my way through a whole record at once. Well, here we are. It sucks every bit as much as I remember, but now it sucks for 39 minutes straight. I don’t understand how Johnny Marr can be so badass, but Morrissey sucks so hard that he actually ruins what Johnny Marr is doing. Fuck, this is terrible. 1, and only because Morrissey’s self-absorbed caterwauling ruins all the good things that the rest of the Smiths do. Morrissey is so much worse than the Smiths are good.