My spiciest music take is that Bob Dylan is overrated. That’s not to deny his significance, though i think his role as Supreme Influencer is exaggerated, as if The Beatles, Springsteen, and U2 would be chimps scratching themselves with their instruments if not for Dylan’s obsidian obelisk. There was probably a time in my life that I would have gotten really into Dylan too, likely as an angsty twentysomething, but instead we ended up as missed connections and I listened to something stupid like Phish. The heart wants what it wants, Mr. Zimmerman.
Anyway, this is fine. I still struggle with finding it appreciable, nevermind GOAT, especially since Led Zeppelin IV came out like five years later. Like Thai food, single malt scotch, and Las Vegas — I get it — but it’s just not for me.
Aside from knowing the obvious hits on this album, I’ve never actually listened to it in totality. I guess I was expecting the hits surrounded by eight versions of “Listen to the Flower People.” Pleasantly surprised, it’s not that. What I like about this is that it doesn’t doodle around. Aside from the one mandatory blues ripoff — it was the law back in the 60s that bands had to do at least one boring blues track per album — the other songs are a neat and tidy three minutes long (approximately). Each song is representative of the area and time, with hints of The Dead, The Byrds, The Mommas and Pappas, etc. But unique too. Factor in the two classic hits here, with White Rabbit being one of the maybe top 100 songs ever, I think I’ve slept too long on JA. It didn’t blow me away, but maybe I’d listen again.
This is an album your dad likes.
Very listenable 80s album with several big hits.
Great sounds, so many drums. I would assume that Fela Kuti doesn’t come across in the studio versus live performance, so this is probably the best representation of an important artist/genre. But it’s only like four songs and a drum off.
Speaks to a time and place in America that’s almost unfathomable now: twangy country dance halls on a Saturday night with a band politely singing about honky tonk angels and repentant drunks. Nothing stands out particularly, however. Like Bob Dylan, I think the idea of the music has outlived its actual quality.
Sure? As someone who wore out a Go-Go’s Greatest Hits cassette in the 90s, I’m here for this, but other than the novelty of the all-girl band, it’s just an ok album surrounded by a hit song. I get that 1001 albums has to be a long list, but does that mean that every Taylor Swift album makes it? Or Radiohead? Or The Rolling Stones?
Thanks for making me review this on the day of his death. Smile is unlistenable, like a book that took too long to finish.
“Rumor Has It” is a great song.
Somewhere between Flaming Lips and Weird Al, I guess. Not for me.
Haha, I forgot how silly this album is.
Haha, I forgot how silly this album is.
Stuart Copeland is a god. So many cymbal tinkles.
I concede this album forms the foundation of alt music that developed through the 80s and 90s. Could have used a few more hits though.
I don’t know. This isn’t even a top five album for him. As a huge Bowie fan, this isn’t one I’d even recommend.
Is Dragonforce on this list? Cause they’re awesome.
I love music from this era, and recently threw positive reviews at Duran Duran and The The. But for some reason, The Fall could never interest me. Maybe I miss the point, but it’s not particularly defiant, passionate or even fun; it’s just mediocre.
Like with The Rolling Stones, you can hear the foundational elements that are going to make subsequent albums/songs the classics they are.
This is my second Dylan album, and if my rating from the first is any indication, I am not a Dylan fan. That said, this is my favorite of his works. Where we are now, musically and culturally (in general), I think it’s hard to explain Bob Dylan. It’s like explaining a rotary phone — it’s inconceivable to think of the time before its existence, but so much has happened since its heyday that it’s no longer appreciated.
Any person that can play and write music to me is worthy of admiration, and any person/band making a list like this is a true talent and credit to artistic achievement. Not every album on this list is going to grade well for me, and this is going into that pile. I struggle to see who would listen to this in 2025. Sure, it’s hard for me to hate on this and be a fan of a band like The Decemberists, but they at least have some edge and catchiness. This is like something you hear in the background at a Ren Faire.
I can never remember track listings for The Beatles, so I don’t think this is my favorite of their albums, but I can’t remember which one is. I’m sure it will be on here at some point. Ironically, this was my album on the day Taylor Swift announced a new album.
Listening to this straight thru, I don’t think I learned anything about Coldplay that I didn’t already know.
As a reward for giving a bland review to Coldplay’s first album, the next album was … more Coldplay. I’ve had enough, Chris.
I always have time for Jack White. This isn’t a classic, probably not his best work, but with all his songs you get the feeling that he just really loves making music, whatever he’s playing.
I tried. I’m a 50-year-old white man. I’m sure it’s empowering for women to finally get to sing/rap about their genitals too, but it’s hard for me to seriously consider this within days of getting to review The Beatles. I’m sure SZA will do fine without my approval.
The Jam are probably the definition of underrated for their era. This is just a solid album that serves as a nice alternative to when you’re in the mood for The Clash or Elvis Costello but want something different.
I fucking love this album. Poor Amy. This begs the theme timeless question of the universe as to whether her end was tragic or perfect. In another time, would this album be tarnished by a weaken Amy Winhouse doing her inevitable residency at The Sphere? Probably.
As a child of the 80s, of course I know this album. I was pleasantly surprised to listen straight through, remembering the hits and enjoying the deep cuts. THAT SONG and Cyndi’s personality probably overshadowed what is an underrated and otherwise great pop album.
I was thinking about the scope of this project, arguably spanning over 50 years with 1000 albums, which calculates to like 20 albums per year. Perhaps that explains how this one snuck through. I line Alice Cooper and it opens with a classic rock anthem, but then it’s mostly crap. Maybe there’s an interesting backstory here, but I don’t even think this is representative of the somewhat innovative artist that Alice Cooper was. Is Britney Fox going to make this list? What about Silverchair?
Oh God. Back in the 90s, before streaming music, Yes was the bane of my existence. They would stop your classic rock radio station in its tracks. “Muthafucka, I came for Led Zeppelin, not ten minutes of carnival organ.” Swearing off this for 25 years, now it’s … pretty good. I get it. Let’s bury this thing, Yes.
As context, I was going to offer a spicy take that this album is better than Nevermind. But in listening to it for like the 1000th time, there’s something missing from it. It’s (perhaps unintentionally) a concept album about the destruction of addiction, and grounded by the real tragedy of Layne Staley … it feels like it’s too dark, if that makes sense. Like a book or a movie you experience once, recognize for what it is, but then never need to experience it again. I think there’s utility in using art (music) to feed emotion, even our darker emotions, but this is too much. Maybe this came up on the wrong day, but an album I was for-sure ready to give five stars only gets four because it wasn’t diverse enough. At least, not today.
It’s unfathomable that these shows even happened. How fast would Johnny Cash be cancelled in 2025? Celebs can’t even advertise jeans without causing national uproar. Anyway, the nice thing about this expanded version is you get the between songs banter, which highlights his humor and humanity. The Fulsom album was probably better production value, but this is worth listening to.
I didn’t get a chance to hear this. I’ll default give it three stars.
This is the second album I’ve had to review from The Jam. It’s fine, I guess.
I’ve seen dozens of iterations of these lists, and they always manage to place a different album by The Kinks on it. I don’t think this is a positive. They’re clearly a good band and have some type of branch on the Tree of Rock, but lacking a universally accepted watershed album is really a detriment, IMO. And honestly, if you snuck “Listen to the Flower People” into the mix of this album, I wouldn’t have noticed.
Strong evidence for an argument that music is a drug that alters us chemically is the fact that it can affect us differently as we evolve/change chemically too. I know every note by heart on this album and it’s one of the most important albums to me, in terms of emotional development through my late teens and early 20s. Now? It’s fine. Trent’s success several decades later and how he’s evolved probably speaks to that too. The collapse and drama of TDS seems kinda silly when you picture him holding an Oscar twenty years later, and the raw music he made just hits different when you’re older. I can think of probably a dozen other angsty albums from that era that I’d recommend to a brooding teen who needs art to feel connected. It’s still really good though, maybe just a little much.
I’ve commented about the size of this project before and how ranking 1000 albums is going to inherently result in many mediocre choices being ranked. I’m a middle aged white guy, so I have plenty of time for Steely Dan. But this is obviously not their best work, and not even a fan’s choice of underappreciated album (I like “Coubtdown to Ecstasy” personally. It’s fine, and again as a middle aged white man, who doesn’t like to be reminded of that scene in Say Anything when John Mahoney is cruising around to “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”?
ChatGPE. I was there for this. After banging out three of the best rap albums of all time, I think the PE-o-sphere got disillusioned with the success, which inevitably involved their fan base shifting to white suburban kids like me, and they phoned in this album before evolving into their next phase. I don’t remember albums of theirs after this, which there clearly was, which was probably the way Chuck wanted it. Love PE, but this is not their best work.
I was excited for this album, as I’ve always liked what I’ve heard from The National and “Bloodbuzz Ohio” is a phenomenal song. First pass through of this … I liked it. It’s not a ringing endorsement to call something “accessible” but that’s how I felt about it. I’ll listen to it again, but I don’t feel like I was listening to anything timeless or classic. Solid three stars.
I’m like 70 albums into this and I’ve had to review two albums by The Jam and one now by Paul Weller. As the kids say, I’m tired, boss. It’s fine but, as the kids also say, suss.
Any time I listen to legendary jazz, it always evokes cinematic images of big cities bustling with movement and life. Jazz is organic. It didn’t really hit well enough, however, to keep my attention while driving down semi-rural roads. I also don’t think that jazz is ever going to soothe/heal me in the way that lyric-based music does.
I’d describe this as the “deep cut” of The Cure anthology — just a buried gem that was both unique and prescient to what would come from them. Listening to it reminded me of the almost unfathomable way that music was consumed in the 80s. You couldn’t buy this album, and maybe some gloomy friend had an older college-age sibling that could dub it for you. I was nine years old when this came out, and would be another six years at least that it would even interest me. Sam Goody did not stock it, there was no internet and no eBay, and most independent music stores had a small section of “alternative” music that was basically a dozen copies of REM’s Green. It’s been a few weeks, but this is definitely an album lost in history but worth listening to.
Eric Clapton is a really good guitarist.
I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve never heard of this dude. The instinct is to classify it, which I guess is crooner parody, maybe, but that also insults it, because it’s not musically composed to be written off as a joke. Vastly different sounds, but it reminds me of Frank Zappa, in the way that it’s smarter than it comes across. But at the end of the day, this isn’t making it into my collection.
Lacks maybe the pep of his subsequent albums, but still a fun listen.
Is it possible that Elvis is underrated? I grew up in a household raised on The Beatles, Bee-Gees and Broadway showtimes. My mother calibrated her moral compass on the sixties counterculture, so Elvis’ venal anti-hippie conservative persona made him unwelcome in my home. Then he became parody. But now decades later, a gilded Vegas-loving kung fu rock star with a catalog of hits and prone to batshit antics? Sign me up.
I knew a little of his tragic backstory, but did not realize the nearness of his death to this album and how the album’s lack of success affected him. Maybe it’s me, but it’s sad that the tragedy gives this album some more resonance. It’s otherwise a stark and stripped down acoustic set that to me feels like it falls short of really pulling you in. The title track gives it an extra star, however.
I’m a huge fan of sone of the bands that drew inspiration from Big Star, so I’ll always have time for them. This kinda seems like a spectacle, though. Part of the album is good (maybe great), other parts are phoned-in filler.
Unfamiliar with this, my first impression was that it sounded like an Arctic Monkeys-Muse mashup, which I guess was half right. It’s good. Hints of 60s era theater tunes and Sergio Leone. Maybe could have used a banger hit to distinguish itself.
I’m aware of Leonard Cohen but never really took the time to really listen to him. This was what I expected, but better, perhaps because being at the end of his life made it more profound. It’s definitely one of the most haunting albums I’ve had on this list. And that’s fine.
This is a great album, with my only critique being that it probably could have elevated to legendary status or S-tier or whatever we’re calling it now, if the 13-minute jam and maybe another filler track was swapped out for another hit, which we know Sly was capable of.
I feel like there’s two Bee Gees. There’s the Disco Era group responsible for the greatest movie soundtrack in cinema history, which I’m sure will be on this list at some point. Then there is the early almost-folk band responsible for songs like “I Started a Joke.” This album falls under the latter. It’s contains no big hits, is unnecessarily symphonic at some points … yet I found myself getting lost in it (a little) while driving down my semi-rural country road in the Fall. I think I need more early Bee Gees in my life.
I enjoy that this project exposes me to new music. I do my best to be receptive, but in the end it comes down to just liking what you hear. I don’t want to dump on Deerhunter as a band because they’re well received and it’s high quality and creative. But meh, nothing new for me to see here. Thanks, anyway.
I almost skipped this, glad I didn’t. Nice vibes, hints of Tribe Called Quest and Rakim’s rhythm pace. Not life changing but a good listen from start to finish.
As someone who thinks REM’s catalog is comparable to The Beatles, I was giving this five stars when it came up. That said, not sure it’s even one of their three best.
I found myself aimlessly driving around, just as an excuse to keep listening. Obviously “Take Five” is the staple that everyone knows, but as someone that generally doesn’t like jazz, the easy and pop pacing makes it enjoyable.
I have nothing against Todd Rundgren, he’s obviously talented and creative. Listening to this album made me consider whether the other major fields of artistic expression tolerate experimentation as much as music. This album is well regarded among musicians, but it’s kind of crap to listen to, at least in the sense of consuming music for an emotional experience (relaxation, nostalgia, elation, romance). I remember years ago hearing Trent Reznor once say that he only wanted to release music that people would want to listen to. Who knows if that’s true, but that’s maybe the problem with this.
I’m enjoying the exposure to “world music” and sounds outside my American tastes. I’ve heard of Youssou N’Dour because of his collab with Peter Gabriel. This is fine, good, not life changing.
I expected this album to come up when Nick Lowe was a selection a few weeks ago. The thought/question I have for myself about Elliott Smith and other musical artists with similar tragic backstories is whether they’re listenable because of enjoyment for the music or whether we’re trying to learn something from their art. The answer is probably both — listening and learning — which is probably why Smith has a lasting following. I think his music is just okay, though, but I’m intrigued to mine it for clues that might help me figure out my own shit.
Heard of Sarah Vaughan, never listened to her. What a talent. The old live albums are great because you get to heard the interplay with the audience and get a taste of the artist’s personality.
Stevie Wonder is a musical genius and virtuoso. But I don’t think this is one of his better albums.
Surprisingly progressive, with electronic sounds and almost an 80s feel to it, but I struggled to get into it.
How have I never heard of Alex Harvey? I’m embarrassed. Kind of a cross between Bon Scott era AC/DC and Iggy Popp, but sillier. This album is really fun.
Having heard of this band, but not heard them, this was not what I expected. I expected like a weak Oasis clone which, at the time in the 90s, I didn’t particular needed because I didn’t particularly like Oasis. Pleasantly surprised by this. They sound like Fugazi with production values. Nothing stands out but I’d listen again.
As a Zeppelin fan, I’m going to exaggerate everything about their impact, but I think the opening riff of this album is the very essence of rock music. Zeppelin embodied everything about their impact genre in ways that other bands, maybe better bands, did not or could not do. And their strength is that this is unarguably not even their best album.
Pink Floyd has always been interesting to me in the sense that, when speaking with their fans, you always get a different opinion on their favorite album: DSOTM, Animals, Syd Barrett solo work. Their body of work and the way that (mostly) Roger Watters mined himself for material is so impressive. Love this album.
I liked this but it brought up an interesting internal question for me: what makes a rap album good? I was around in the 80s, when rap rose to mainstream, so I can put older stuff into historical context. But since 2000, I feel like other than vibes, I couldn’t tell you why this album is any better than Lil Snotzy or some other made up rapper that I’ve barely heard of. I’m old. And white.
Good album, notable for the way it/they would influence “industrial” bands that I loved in the early 90s (NIN, Ministry, nu metal). I also point out how lucky modern music fans, that want to experience ALL music are in the digital age. This album was not available when I was growing up. You had to know someone that had a cool older sibling Will to copy stuff like this.
I’m pretty sure I already reviewed this. Whatever. It fucking rules.
I joked on an earlier review that The Kinks always make Top 100 albums list but there never seems to be a consensus on which album should make it. This was fine. It was before my time but I’d be curious to hear how fans considered them in an era that The Beatles seemed to control.
I’m a big Bowie fan. His productivity during this era, fueled by drugs sure, is pretty astounding. That said, this album, aside from the classic titular song, is kinda just bonus tracks to “Low” (which is my personal favorite Bowie album). It’s part of his canon, for sure, but not what I’d consider to be an indispensable Bowie album needed for any good collection.
I wasn’t going to listen to this album, because RATM was a regular rotation band for me in the 90s and I know what you get here. I wanted to hot take that this album is overrated and maybe a little boring, thirty years later (and I’m still a fan). It’s not. Still great. Anger is a gift.
This album triggered a lot of introspection from me, specifically about whether it is fair to criticize art at all and whether a lack of seriousness is a fair factor in that criticism. This wasn’t for me. But it’s clear that a lot of craft and devotion was applied to create it too, which alone makes it exceptional. The introspection for me was why I can enjoy a comparable like Morissey but shrugged this away … and it kept coming back to the intentional lightness and humor (or humour, I guess) of this music, which served as a negative for me. But that’s unfair too, I realize. I think Neil Hammon will be fine without my support, either way.
I said this in an earlier note: Elvis is underrated. In an era of Vegas residencies and The Eras Tour and my nine-year-old daughter calling everything “iconic” … Elvis paved the way for so many things that were silly at the time but now undeniably cool. And all that starts with the music.
I saw Nirvana touring this album, maybe a few months before Kurt’s suicide. Truth be told, they were not a great live band, probably because of Kurt’s aversion to stardom. Anyway, I enjoy seeing kids/teens wearing Nirvana gear, maybe liking the music. I wonder what generations later think of them. This is a great album, beyond what it represented at the time and where is stands in musical history. I’m glad I got to be a front row fan to everything about this band.
I’ve written this before, but evaluating rap albums is a blind-spot for me. Eminem seems almost like a contemporary to me, as well similar aged and I can remember his career from Dre protégé to music icon. I stopped listening to his music decades ago, so I don’t know how he’s considered in the rap community, but culturally he’s attained almost a mythic status, mostly because of the way he shielded himself from celebrity and drama. As a result, it seems like when he does something, it actually matters, like true artistry, on par with the way a novelist might work. This album is probably not his master work, and in retrospect it’s a creative cry for help (in a way), but it also establishes what he does: mix pain with humor, in a way that is decisively human. I’m sure Eminem will come up again on this list at some point.
As a general music fan, of course I’m aware of Leonard Cohen, but I’ve struggled to enjoy him. Thinking about this “review” all day, I still can’t articulate a good reason. There’s a strong emotion to his music, but it just doesn’t hit for me, which is weird because I get cynical, pragmatic, realistic or anything else one would use to describe his music. I just get more bored listening to him than anything else. Is Canandian an emotion?
Given that every book has already been written, I’m sure that someone has written about the history of the supergroup with appropriate rankings. I’m too young to know what level of “super” CSN and Y occupied, as my understanding of their musical tree always starts with them and not the root groups. I wonder if Buffalo Springfield is the 60s equivalent of Screaming Trees or Sunny Day Real Estate. Anyway, I grew up on classic rock, and this album sounds like a greatest hits more than just a stand-alone, which tells you all you really need to know.
It’s interesting to me how different bands/artists will hit different depending on what age or phase of life you’re in. The Talking Heads have become one of my favorite bands since hitting age 50, even though I mostly ignored them for the bulk of my life. This is a great album. It’s pretty sophisticated for what was I think their debut, and filled with the catchy well-paced funky that would define them in moving forward. If you’re 50 and you don’t listen to The Talking Heads, now’s your chance to feel cool again without making it weird.
Only slightly familiar with them, my first listen and natural instinct to categorize them was as “Grateful Dead with Live-At-Leeds era Pete Townsend on guitar.” Seeing they were actually SF contemporary of The Dead was completely unsurprising. It’s good, hard, but ultimately jam-band material that either grows tiring or doesn’t age well, at least not outside a live experience. I concede that it’s unfair to criticize/compare a live music experience to how it should plays in recording. “You had to be there, man.” Yes. Yes I did. It’s fine otherwise. Moving on.
I described a previous album on this list as music to shop too, and the cover art for this album makes it even more blatant. Obviously there’s a need and a crowd for this genre, and its creation is not without talent, but there’s a missing aspect of it that makes it impossible for me. Maybe it’s the years of talent I know it takes to master an instrument, or the physical effort that it takes. I think of someone like Lemmy being physically broken at the end but still wanting to play, versus whoever made this album, sipping a latte behind an iPad. It’s not the same to me.
I remember hearing Bjork’s voice the first time on The Sugarcubes “Coldsweat” and thinking to myself, “What was that?” Aside from the distinctive sound and eccentricity, I think only she can sing like that, as the native Icelandic seems to distort the inflection points of her English language in a terrific way. It’s a good album, from start to finish.
In my early twenties I went out one summer night to a semi-popular bar in Hampton Bays. Bar was packed, jumping, with a live band. Moments into being there, they went into “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out.” This moment stays with me thirty years later because it epitomizes some of what makes The Boss and his Band so timeless: they created a party you are always invited to.
Anyway, the iconic status of Springsteen and this album doesn’t need defending. It’s musical storytelling, maybe the best there is, but the brilliance of it is that the music itself always matches the mood. It’s like rock Broadway without the need for a stage. This album, the peak of his artistic power, is one of the best albums ever made.
I don’t think I finished this album. It’s not that it’s bad or that I dislike the band, I just think it’s such a distinctive sound that hearing one song feels like you’ve heard them all.
