My 1001 Albums Journey

Albums Rated

3.32

Average Rating

Complete

1036 albums remaining

Rating Distribution

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Taste Profile

1980

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Pop

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Wordsmith

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5-Star Albums

1-Star Albums

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Albums

You Love More Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts Brian Eno	5	2.79	+2.21
Entertainment Gang Of Four	5	3.26	+1.74
Haunted Dancehall The Sabres Of Paradise	4	2.38	+1.62
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below OutKast	5	3.46	+1.54
Rio Duran Duran	5	3.5	+1.5
The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground	5	3.53	+1.47
1999 Prince	5	3.59	+1.41
Maggot Brain Funkadelic	5	3.6	+1.4
Remain In Light Talking Heads	5	3.67	+1.33
Hunky Dory David Bowie	5	3.99	+1.01

You Love Less Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
Imagine John Lennon	1	3.45	-2.45
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Elton John	2	3.92	-1.92
Moondance Van Morrison	2	3.69	-1.69
Lost In The Dream The War On Drugs	2	3.38	-1.38
Red Headed Stranger Willie Nelson	2	3.34	-1.34
Every Picture Tells A Story Rod Stewart	2	3.24	-1.24
Sweet Baby James James Taylor	2	3.23	-1.23
Mermaid Avenue Billy Bragg	2	3.17	-1.17
Truth Jeff Beck	2	3.16	-1.16
Too Rye Ay Dexys Midnight Runners	2	3.12	-1.12

5-Star Albums (10)

View Album Wall

1-Star Albums (1)

All Ratings

Rio

Duran Duran

5/5

Coat Of Many Colors

Dolly Parton

3/5

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.)

Idlewild

Everything But The Girl

2/5

Disraeli Gears

Cream

3/5

Revolver

Beatles

4/5

The Velvet Underground

5/5

A fantastic album - all the more remarkable because it's probably not their best.

Trans Europe Express

Kraftwerk

3/5

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.

Scream, Dracula, Scream

Rocket From The Crypt

2/5

OK I guess but not really a genre that does much for me. Doesn't feel like a 1001 album.

Red Headed Stranger

Willie Nelson

2/5

Can't really see what the fuss is about this album. Not a big country fan though.

Moondance

Van Morrison

2/5

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.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Elton John

2/5

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.

Every Picture Tells A Story

Rod Stewart

2/5

Great voice, songs don't really do it for me. More mandolin than I was expecting.

Five Leaves Left

Nick Drake

3/5

Rocks

Aerosmith

3/5

Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)

The Kinks

3/5

Pet Sounds

The Beach Boys

4/5

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.

Post Orgasmic Chill

Skunk Anansie

3/5

Pretty good - better than I remember them being.

Can't Buy A Thrill

Steely Dan

4/5

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.

Crosby, Stills & Nash

3/5

1999

Prince

5/5

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.

Something/Anything?

Todd Rundgren

3/5

I didn't really get this one after two listens. Felt like it could do with a serious edit.

São Paulo Confessions

Suba

3/5

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.

Tubular Bells

Mike Oldfield

4/5

One of the first LPs I ever bought. So familiar it's really hard to rate.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Beatles

4/5

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.

Back To Black

Amy Winehouse

5/5

I didn't know this other than the singles.

Too Rye Ay

Dexys Midnight Runners

2/5

I kind of like his voice but the songs don't do anything for me.

Mermaid Avenue

Billy Bragg

2/5

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.

1989

Taylor Swift

3/5

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.

Lost In The Dream

The War On Drugs

2/5

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.

Maggot Brain

Funkadelic

5/5

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.

Entertainment

Gang Of Four

5/5

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.

Fishscale

Ghostface Killah

2/5

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.

Imagine

John Lennon

1/5

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.

Let It Bleed

The Rolling Stones

4/5

Really good! Not listened to it before. Half the tracks are really well known of course but thoroughly enjoyed the rest of it too.

The Man Machine

Kraftwerk

3/5

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.

Pictures At An Exhibition

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

3/5

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.

Truth

Jeff Beck

2/5

Found it hard to get a grip on this one.

Joan Baez

3/5

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.

To Pimp A Butterfly

Kendrick Lamar

4/5

I know I don't get majority of the references but it sounds good.

Hunky Dory

David Bowie

5/5

I'm not sure it gets any better than this. In my interchangeable top 3 Bowie albums.

Survivor

Destiny's Child

3/5

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.

Peter Gabriel 3

Peter Gabriel

4/5

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 🙂

Your Arsenal

Morrissey

3/5

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.

With The Beatles

Beatles

3/5

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.

Fleet Foxes

3/5

Nice but didn't grab me.

Diamond Life

Sade

4/5

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.

Sweet Baby James

James Taylor

2/5

The most unconvincing steam roller/cement mixer/napalm bomb ever. Great craft, terribly dull, not for me.

My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts

Brian Eno

5/5

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.

At San Quentin

Johnny Cash

4/5

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.

Remain In Light

Talking Heads

5/5

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.

Haunted Dancehall

The Sabres Of Paradise

4/5

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.

Catch A Fire

Bob Marley & The Wailers

3/5

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.

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

OutKast

5/5

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.