It's really hard to separate this from my preconceived notion of what it was going to be like. She's got a great voice but the songs themselves are a bit hit and miss. I'm not 100% sure whether "Man will seek the mystic rails of the mystery" is deep or doggerel (though I've got a suspicion.)
A fantastic album - all the more remarkable because it's probably not their best.
Not quite a four. Pioneers of a kind of music I really like but not something I'm going to play very often. I know it's pretty sparse already but I like the bits without the melody or singing best.
OK I guess but not really a genre that does much for me. Doesn't feel like a 1001 album.
Can't really see what the fuss is about this album. Not a big country fan though.
Love that his voice is kind of thin and reedy. If it weren't for that it'd all slip down a bit too easy. Moondance is a great tune though.
I hadn't heard this before. The hits are great but a lot of the rest of it seemed dull and weirdly misogynistic which I didn't expect at all.
Great voice, songs don't really do it for me. More mandolin than I was expecting.
It's brilliantly done, it sounds lovely, a technical achievement, some amazing songs. Am I likely to listen to it in the next 12 months? No.
Pretty good - better than I remember them being.
I never really know whether I get Steely Dan or not - and I quite like that. If the songs were more obvious or less interesting then it'd all be a bit too slick but as it is I keep going back every once in a while.
I love this album despite its flaws - some dubious lyrics and at least one track that probably didn't need to be 8+ minutes - but that's Prince all over.
I didn't really get this one after two listens. Felt like it could do with a serious edit.
That's pretty good. Certainly picked up in the second half. I'll probably stick it on in the background in the future. 2.5 but will round it up.
One of the first LPs I ever bought. So familiar it's really hard to rate.
It seems weird that this used to top so many polls of the greatest album of all time when it's definitely not their best. Maybe you had to be there when it was first released to get the impact.
I didn't know this other than the singles.
I kind of like his voice but the songs don't do anything for me.
I really liked a couple of the tracks but most of it is very much not my thing. I feel bad giving it a 2 somehow.
Really enjoyed most of it. Only managed one listen and it started to feel a bit samey towards the end. I'm sure it would be better with more time.
Two listens and it didn't really stick. I'm not a big fan of the kind of Americana that this resembles so it had an uphill battle with me.
This went from a 4 to a 5 on repeated listens. I didn't know this album at all - I'd heard a few famous Funkadelic tracks and like a bit of Parliament but certainly wasn't expecting a 10 minute guitar solo as the opening track.
Never properly listened to this before. Loved it!
It's somewhere between a 4 and a 5 so let's call it 5.
If I'd heard this as a teenager I'm sure it would have been an all time favourite. It's got some of the things I love about the first two Talking Heads albums.
This makes me feel old. Hip-hop after about 1991 - with some big exceptions - kind of loses me. That's 35 years! I feel like Abe Simpson - "I used to be with it but then they changed what it was..."
It might have got three but I really hate skits between tracks.
I was worried my intense dislike of John Lennon after The Beatles and my complete loathing of the title track would skew my rating unfairly. Luckily, the album is pretty poor anyway. I can't give it nil so let's say the one point is for Bryan Ferry's cover of Jealous Guy.
Really good! Not listened to it before. Half the tracks are really well known of course but thoroughly enjoyed the rest of it too.
It feels like heresy but Kraftwerk don't really do it for me. I've can't put my finger on why not. Everything thing I think about singling out is something that I like in other electronic acts.
I don't dislike them but so many artists I love cite them as a huge influence that I feel like I should like them more 🙂
There are some great tracks on here though - the last one especially.
Interesting. I liked one of the middle Baba Yagas best - Curse, I think. Can't say I'm likely to play it in full again.
Found it hard to get a grip on this one.
Didn't know anything by her but it's kind of what I imagined it would be. Great voice but it's not something I'm likely to listen to again.
I know I don't get majority of the references but it sounds good.
I'm not sure it gets any better than this. In my interchangeable top 3 Bowie albums.
Very well done, the singles are excellent. It's a 3 or a 4 but given that I'm very unlikely to stick the whole album on again it gets a 3.
I really like this but I don't love it.
I did wonder whether there was some kind of Sliding Doors moment in my teens where Peter Gabriel's early solo albums could have taken the spot that Brian Eno's have for me. I don't think so though. There's a seriousness to some of the Gabriel stuff that would probably have stopped that - I'm a very shallow person 🙂
I forget how good his voice is, even when the songs are not the strongest. I think I stopped buying his records just before this album. I don't think this is as good as his earliest solo stuff and that wasn't as good as The Smiths so it gets a 3.
I just can't connect with the early Beatles stuff. I really gave it a go here but it's just not for me. It feels so oddly dated to me in a way a lot of other music, just as old or older, doesn't.
Nice but didn't grab me.
This is much better than I remember from just the singles. This probably wasn't what I was looking for as a 17 year old but it sounds great now.
The most unconvincing steam roller/cement mixer/napalm bomb ever.
Great craft, terribly dull, not for me.
This album is a big deal for me. I heard it in about 1983, in my mid teens, and it had a huge impact on the music I've listened to ever since. A lot of the artists I discovered by exploring off the back of this are still favourites of mine today.
It's an album I still listen to frequently and so an easy 5 for me.
I didn't spot this was the legacy edition at first so I listened to the regular version initially and couldn't see why it would have been included in the 1001 - songs are samey, a lot of talking for a short run time.
The I checked the right version and baulked at the running time! But it's so much better. I'm not sure it's something I'd listen to often but it certainly won't me over. The short version would have got a 2 at best.
If I had to nominate an all time best or favourite album, I'd try to dodge the question of course - but it would be this one that sprang instantly to mind.
It's not perfect - it definitely tails off towards the end - but the rest of it more than makes up for that. The polyrhythms and layered vocals are the very definition of my kind of thing.
This won me over on repeated plays. The only track I knew before was Wilmot but I can see me playing this, especially Theme, regularly in the future.
Bob Marley has been completely ruined for me by working in retail in the early 90s and Legend being one of three albums played to death at Christmas because they sold in droves whenever you put them on. He's linked in my head with Simply Red and Tina Turner.
I really can't separate it from that so I'm giving it a 3 which is not really fair.
I have a horribly vivid memory of buying this on CD a few years after it came out and it playing in the car before I'd got to know the lyrics. There was some sniggering from my teenage daughters when Spread came on - I think they were enjoying my embarrassment and seeing whether I was going to skip the track or try and act like it was all no big deal.
I don't think I've listened to it much since then and I'd forgotten how good it is! It's a bit self-indulgent, especially in the second half, and I really do hate spoken word interludes but I still think it's a 5.
I hate Oasis but I had this memory of the first album being good. On listening again, it's OK. Starting your first LP with Rock n Roll Star is fun but it's all downhill from there. I do like the chorus of Colombia and the weird way some of the words are stretched out on Cigarettes and Alcohol though.
That's pretty good. I've never really listened to anything by them before. A definite 3.5 but not quite a 4.
Just slipped on by and I didn't really get a feeling for it.
Supertramp was one of the first bands I discovered through friends and loved in my early teens. I remember really liking this album but I'm really not sure why when I hear it now. I like both of their voices but the rest of it not so much.
Great craft and talent but not something that I'm likely to listen to again. Hard to separate it in my mind from the Paul Simon thing.
Sounded good at the time, still sounds good now.
Kind of odd but not bad.
It's fine. What I imagined a RS album from this time to sound like. Would have been a 3 without Paint It Black
Enjoyable but not one I'm likely to revisit.
Was never a big fan of The Jam and this didn't convert me. Pretty good though - would have been a 3.5 probably if we did those.
I sometimes reckon I have a kind of allergy to sincerity in song lyrics. I think it might really be that it's not often done this well.
I know most of the songs, they're mostly really good but for some reason it's not an album (or a band) I ever go to listen to - I'm not really sure why!
I remember this coming out and it seemed like a big deal - a complete change of image and sound.
Listening to it now, it's hard to get that feeling again. I still love The Fly though.
I had a friend who loved this when it first came out. Couldn't see it then or now really.
Another interesting album I'd never heard before, might grow to appreciate more over a longer period but will likely not listen to again
I don't know - is Shaun Ryder an idiot savant or is this just rubbish? I've always loved Wrote for Luck and I'd forgotten how good Do it Better is in its own daft way so I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Not normally my kind of thing but this was great.
I enjoyed this much more than I expected. There's no doubting her voice or the quality of the songwriting but I thought it was going to be one of those that I appreciated more than loved.
Lauren Hill has got a great voice but the album isn't as good as I remember.
I haven't listened to this in a long time. It's almost a five but not quite.
If I've heard this before it was probably when it was new - had a friend who loved this stuff.
I wasn't really looking forward to it but it's much better than I expected.
How do I rate this? It's difficult.
On the Bowie Scale, where, say, Station to Station is a 5, this is probably a 3.75 (if I try and filter out the sentimental factor around the timing of the release.)
A 3.75 on the Bowie Scale is at least a 4.5 on any other measure so I think I have to give it a 5, even though it feels like I'm going to end up rating every DB album on this list the same.
Really doesn't do anything for me but giving it a 2 feels harsh.
Started off really well. I sort of lost interest part way through though. All new to me I think apart from The Day Before You Came, which I mainly know through the Blancmange cover.
I only knew the singles but I quite liked this. Might try their other albums on the strength of this.
Never listened to anything by her before. Really good - will have to check out her other stuff.
Really not very good. Jet is quite enjoyable but the lyrics make those on the recently reviewed Happy Mondays album look like genius.
I really enjoyed this. I thought I'd listened to it before but I only knew Seven Seas. I liked the progginess of it.
It's fine.
I didn't really want to engage with a long album about grief and loss on a Thursday. I'm don't know whether I'd play it again because I'm not sure I ever want engage with long albums about grief and loss. Some of the lyrics are very good and the music fits them well. That sounds like faint praise - I don't know, still gets a 4.
It was fine.
I remember really not liking Ride but I couldn't remember why. Listening to the first track and really enjoying it, I was hopeful that I was wrong all those years ago. Unfortunately not. For me, mixing mid tempo indie pop with a load of reverbed guitars just ends up as a muddy mess. Not for me at all.
I thought I knew this album at least a bit but I really don't. I quite like Bruce, I know these songs are good but it's not an album that does a huge amount for me on two listens.
Starts strong and it is pretty good. Feel like it should be a 4 but I can't quite do it.
From the description I had high hopes for this, never having heard it before. Sadly it did nothing for me and the guy's voice is really quite irritating. I love lots of vocalists that can't sing in the traditional sense but this just got on my nerves for some reason. The music wasn't that interesting either.
Better then I thought it would be but still very unlikely to listen to it again.
Another one that's clearly a decent album but does absolutely nothing for me.
A strong 3 but 3 all the same.
Not quite what I was expecting
Great voice, entirely not my cup of tea though. Predictably a 3.
Kind of dull. I thought it might have had more bite to it but maybe I'm thinking of their earlier stuff.
I'd heard this was supposed to be good, influence on Blur etc but I'd never listened to it. Maybe that biased me in its favour but I thought it was excellent.
Very good - though the yodelling was unexpected.
I really hope those are milk bottles on track three.
Better than I expected. The two big singles sound great, not having heard them in an age. Gets a bit samey after a while though.
