1001 Albums Summary

Fine, but I probably won’t return to it.

What a mess.

One of the best examples of its era’s sounds.

Funnier than I remembered!

Completely unlistenable

Wow, so much better than any debut by their peers.

Weird, dark, and very very cool. So, it’s Tom Waits.

This is a weird one. Music for when you’re at the bar tooooo late.

REM rules

Lot of reviewers here don’t like the polished performances by world class musicians. I do.

There’s some brilliant music here, but a lot of filler and attempts at things that others did better.

The more I listen to The Who, the more I realize how bad they are.

I mean, cool I guess but nothing I’d want to come back to really.

Some prog rock bands lean into rock and some lean into prog. These guys definitely leaned into the prog, and have the chops to back it up.

At first blush, don’t love it. My theory is that there’s more than meets the eye. Probably need to come back later.

Absolutely phenomenal, composition playing, the worlds. Zappa’s use of timbre and texture is really striking on this one.

One of my favorite albums by one of my favorite artists!

I guess I just don’t get this dude or this band.

Awesome riffs, lyrics, eh not so much.

Not life changing, but definitely some nice moments.

This band is incredible. 4 stars only because some of this too-long record could have been left on the cutting room floor without any negative consequences.

I thought that an older, wiser version of me would have gotten over this. No way - so good!

Classic top to bottom.

Every young guitar player needs to study all of Jimi’s work, but especially this album. Not only is there enough vocabulary here to make a career of, but the experimentation and soundscapes are supplemented by some really good writing. Incredible rhythm section work too. An absolute classic.

Absolute masterpiece.

Absolutely incredible record by an absolutely incredible band.

I really don’t know what to do with this one. Normally I try to rate these by some kind of criterion. By the criterion of psychedelic rock, I guess this is fine. I don’t know enough about Sitar traditions to rate it base on that. I guess I’ll do this one by whether or not I liked it alone…

It’s wild to me that so many of the reviews on this site use the words “smooth” or “polished” as a pejorative. I would posit that good music can sound like it’s made by well-trained and competent musicians sometimes. This is grown folk music, and very good at that.

Classic wu tang

Not sure what to do with this one. We’ll say a neutral 3.

Cool, but ultimately forgettable.

In addition to being a sea change for rock music, the writing on here is also impeccable.

Some interesting moments, but not enough to warrant this many tracks.

It’s hard to figure out what to do with this one. The production is great, the political commentary and storytelling too. But the misogyny, yikes.

Man, this is good. Also this band came out swinging fully formed.

Some really cool sounds here.

My theory always was that Winwood is what made Blind Faith cooler than Clapton’s other bands. My theory was correct.

Man, this is great. Good writing, production, the whole 9.

By far the best thing ever influenced by Ayn Rand. Mostly cause these dudes can shred.

Nothing too special here.

Better than I thought, but not the best work of anyone involved.

I mean, of course it’s good.

I’ve noticed reading other reviews that two types of listeners seem to be drawn to this list: those listening for vibes and those actually interested in music (melody, harmony, timbre, texture.) All the bad reviews of this are clearly written by the former. Anyone who’s ever touched an instrument understands why this is 5 stars.

I’m sure it was influential or important in some way, but I don’t get it.

Man, the best of the Byrds and a country rock classic.

Folsom Prison is better, but the band is on fire here.

Honestly, better than I expected.

There are a lot of great Dylan albums, but this may be the best.