1001 Albums Summary

Better than I expected. Fun and a little more loose vs what I was anticipating.

An all-time great album.

Only able to listen to a few tracks that are available in the US. Chill

Birth of EMO A few genre defining songs

The birth of heavy metal. Heavy guitar and lyrics that haunt.

Heavy on ballads and a clear focus on vocals. More yacht rock pop vs disco, but the disco roots are starting to take hold with the thick drum and bass lines. Uninteresting at best.

Album is only partially available in the USA on Spotify. It was a mix of 60’s HAIR mashed with telecaster sparkle guitar licks.

An album that I know is a classic, but I just can’t get to it. The melodies are gorgeous, the lyrics are undoubtedly beautiful, but for some reason - I can’t reach it.

Helping alt-kids dance since 1981. Alt-Dance was born with this album, and that cannot be denied. The songs are maybe on the long side and might benefit from additional mixing, but it’s classic status and importance cannot be denied.

All time prog-rock classic. Samples by hip-hop royalty and covers by rock gods only cement the importance of this album.

When this was recorded, guitar rock/pop music was only 10 years old. They are caught somewhere between wanting to sound like early Beatles and Sgt Peppers Beatles. Time of the Season is a classic, but This Will Be Our Year is a personal all-time favorite.

A classic. Just not for me.

A really fun listen. No tracks shined brighter than the others, but as a whole, it’s a great album. So In Love seems to be the most popular song from this record and it’s a jam for sure. The horns!

No.

Unexpectedly fun listen.

A classic alt-garage-southern rock album. Literally every song on this album is worth a listen on repeat.

An all-time great album with songs that will be played forever.

It's been a really long time since I last listened to this album. Its alchemy cannot be denied. The magic of music is that it can transcend time and place. Listening to a song can instantly transport you from whatever mundane middle-aged moment you're experiencing and place you right back in the middle of an exciting memory that you haven't thought about in 30 years... The relationship between this album and me personally - that's exactly the problem - too many memories... When I hear the brooding music and the mysterious lyrics, it places me dead center of so many dumb antics from my teenage years that it's a tough record for me to listen to... Attempting to separate myself from my memories, this album is the culmination of a lot of great rock bands that preceded it, as this album also gave birth to exponentially more bands and even more want-to-be front men. I don't know how you give this album anything other than 5 stars. Every song triumphs (except for maybe 20th Century Fox.) I just really wish I wasn't such an idiot teenager.

As a proud dad of two amazing daughters, I’m comfortably in my Swiftie era. Evermore is a slow burner and offers a more mature take on her song writing…

A classic, but didn’t capture me on this listen.

An album that celebrates women is always a great thing, and this album is arguably one of the best at doing so.

If the animatronics from those 80s kids’ pizza party places cut a record…

Spiritual experience.

Seminal! A timeless blend of shimmering guitars, hypnotic rhythms, and swaggering vocals. After all these years, its infectious melodies and psychedelic groove still feels fresh, cementing it as one of the most influential British albums ever made.

A masterpiece that trades guitars for glitchy beats, haunting synths, and atmospheric textures without losing emotional depth. Its daring experimentation and otherworldly beauty reshaped me as a young adult. I learned of my grandmother’s passing while listening to this album, and this album helped get me through that time.

Stankonia is a kaleidoscopic burst of creativity. An all-time classic and a major part of the soundtrack to my college experience. Break!

A dazzling glimpse into a mind unafraid of theatrical excess and razor-sharp songwriting. The mix of glam swagger, surreal lyricism, and Mike Garson’s wild piano runs - it all feels like a fever dream.

Minute long songs are ideal in the world of streaming, but this isn't my jam.

This is a great find, just wish I would’ve found it 27 years sooner…

The music, the lyrics, the vibe = I love it all. It’s the heart of punk. I just can’t (I know this is lame) can’t do the vibrato… Said another way, I just wish the lyrics were sang the same way as “Stealing People’s Mail” on every song.

I really enjoy this album. The music-scapes are gorgeous and the lyrics are beautiful. My only hang up here is in the production. It’s almost as if they attempted to make it low-fi by “dirtying” it up digitally. The highs are really high, the middle is muddled and the lows don’t exist. The production seems to steal from the multiple instrument layers, where it could be so much more.

Theatrical and fun listen

Interesting listen. Moody, emotional and wide open

I love this album. It’s punky beach vibes hit just right. In my mind it rounds down to a 4.5, but I can’t give it a 5 because there are a couple of weaker moments (Cecilia Ann, Blown Away) and 5’s should be reserved for masterpieces.

I have a soft place in my heart for late 90s Robbie Williams. So many fond memories. The happy pop music and entertaining lyrics equal a big fun listen!

Straightforward metal

Deeply personal and very raw. It’s a statement piece. I view this more as a self-portrait, and it’s beautiful and a little broken; just like all of us.

Punk goddess and gods. They punch, they sore and they come back for more!

An all-time great. The Hive’s introduction to the USA.

Birth of rock and rock and exploring what magic a guitar and an amp can make

Great album and Nick Cave at his most raw

Not my jam.

Wonderful noise jangle rock

Birth of rock, but can’t get past the personal stuff…

Great record and wonderfully produced. Cinnamon Girl is an all-time favorite of mine.

Blistering album

Amazing album and the birth of the Thin White Duke, and the springboard album to move production from LA (where this album was recorded) to Germany - where the Berlin trilogy will occur.

I wasn’t aware that this album existed until now. It’s proto-Lenny and a fun listen. Straightforward in its pop rock approach, but glimpses of what’s to become shine through.

War is a wild ride - never quite settling in but always having fun.

The birth of yacht rock? Maybe. Jazz deconstructed with funk bass lines and a desire to lay low and chill.

Amazing album that balances industrial sounds with delicate melodies, creating a poignant and influential sound that demonstrates depth and emotional resonance.

American Pie holds a very special place in my heart. It was the first karaoke song I ever did with friends... JMK Nippon's in Rockford for a high school dance dinner. Outside of that song this album is boring. It's honest and emotional, but ultimately just boring.

Aimless and rudderless with loads of imagination. Absence of melody makes it difficult to approach, but there are glimmers of great. Wish the production / mix was more coherent.

Bass lines are real

Seminal record!

Similar voice inflections to the mom from Mary Poppins.

Fun album to listen to.

A few gems, but literally thousands of samples

Iconic album, full of hits, but not in my window.

Original LP was 2 songs that were over 12 minutes each. The reissue doubled the tracks to 4 and clocks in at a whopping 53 minutes! The godfather of afrobeat!

Undeniable talent and thousands of samples have been ripped from this album, but it doesn’t move me.

Classic album with a handful of all-time great songs.

One of the most important albums to me personally. Every track is great!

Great album.

Classic album with so many great tracks!

Classic.

I prefer the US version of this album, but this is my teenage years. This cassette was literally stuck in my car and the only thing we could listen to - and we listened to it over and over and over again! Happily

Fun live album - jam packed

One of the greatest albums of all time, but even more than that - one of the most important albums to me personally.

Classic Songs and a Fun Listen

Very interesting listen. Amazing to hear the vision and insight

I love britpop more than most, and this is another good album.

A great pop record and set the stage for his pop takeover.

Heaven is all time favorite

It feels at once hypnotic and fragmented, drawing the listener through shifting textures, layers, and emotional tones. There’s also a melancholic, almost spiritual undercurrent — a sense that Shadow is archiving forgotten cultural fragments and giving them new life.

Seminal album and a pivot point in all of hip hop

Maybe not the right day mood for this listen, but fun.

Classic album and perhaps the official sound of the transition from 80s to the 90s. A few tracks that have stood the test of time and forever will.

An all time great. Rising from the aftermath of the untimely end to Nirvana, Dave gives the world this masterpiece.

First time hearing this album. They are clearly influenced by The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and blues soaked British Invasion. This is an amazing album! The American version of Dr Feelgood

Pioneer. Genius.

Didn’t know this album existed. Fun listen

Amazing album and I’ve loved it since it landed in 2004.

Sad. Depressing. But amazing!

An amazing look into the energy, emotion, creativity of a legend and his band at the top of their game.

Shite.

Dark 80s pinnacle record.

Lame

So good.

Yeah.

Great album and so many tracks that are loaded with meaning. An album that worthy of a full weekend experience to listen to the album, watch the movie, digest and discuss.

16 tracks in under 35 minutes. What could be better?!?

Interesting point in time performance. Love some of the unique takes on the songs.

Genius album of self exploration

💩💦🚽

Fantastic album open to close

Somber Happiness

More than the sum of the songs. A good listen.

All-time great album and means a whole lot to me personally.

New find and a great proto-metal album

A couple of all-time great songs mixed in with classic Elvis Costello jams.

Theatrical concept album that’s both pure 70s and pure Alice Cooper. Couple of standout tracks with the biggest being ‘No More Mr Nice Guy’

The UKs response to NY’s 2000s Post Garage. Filled with happy dance pop music

The USA answer to Nevermind the Bollocks. We win.

Proto-punk

Loud. Very loud.

Great album

Classic

The link between prog rock and techno. A really fun listen.

Soundtrack to youth

Great 60s rock

Early 2000 soundtrack

80s classic

Place and time

Just can’t get to it.

Wonderful album that was off of my radar. A touch BritPop, a touch Twee, a touch Serge Gainsbourg. Really surprised this wasn’t on my radar before now.

Continuation of great form from the Arctic Monkeys leading man.

Everyone knows ‘Brimful of Asha’ - especially the Norman Cook mix, but it’s all worth a listen. This album has always reminded me of the 60s party albums. So to me this is the BritPop party album - it’s a little disjointed, a little rough, but fun all the way though.

With the crowd jeering and pleading for him to go back and continue the acoustic set - Dylan instead turns to his band and says “play it fucking loud!” we witness the birth of punk rock! Another stand out moment is when a crowd member calls Dylan “Judas” - but the band continue on and play their plugged in jams.

All time classic!

There’s nothing more smooth than Marvin’s voice. Nothing.

I loved this album when I was a kid and still love these songs. Listening to it again now - there are a lot of skits and interludes. Just a fun album!

Classic rock classic

A few all time classics packaged in a blue-eyed soul masterpiece

Just can’t get there

Zeitgeist Of the slacker 90s

Melodic and purely Paul Simon at his finest.

It’s a me problem but I just can’t get there…

I loved this album when it came out and turns out I still do. I always felt they were the happier version of The Coral and love how they weaponized the saxophone.

Perfection.

Blues, cocaine, reggae and weed =

Modern Guitar masterclass!

Undeniable beautiful voice. The late 80s/early 90s music is a trip down memory lane.

Lauren Hill’s voice shines, the production is solid and the vibe is legendary. Still wish Pras had more bars, but amazing album!

Just not able to find my groove here.

I just can’t get here. I have nothing but love and respect for Joan Baez - especially her song writing, but it’s just not me.

Just not my personal cup of tea, but interesting backstory.

Mixed results, but the blueprint is clearly in place.

Seminal mid-90s album.

Fantastic late 80s album that helped usher the world into the 90s.

Haven’t listened to this album in a LONG time and it was well worth the spin. The bluesy - straightforward rock sound is vintage Doors.

A wonderful recording of a seminal time in music.

Interesting to listen to this album - a departure from their more popular songs, but found myself enjoying this much more!

Terrific album to round out the aughts!

80s pop gold

Grrrl Rock goddesses

60s pop at its height.

70s male female duet bliss

Jefferson Starship sister from another mister.

Amazing Christmas album and stacked with Phil’s wall of sound.

Just can’t get to Nick Drake. I try, but can’t get there.

I love glam rock but I can’t shake the feeling that they’re trying to be something that they are not. The songs are strong and production is great.

Every song is too long, however, the energy is undeniable.

I do like this album, just didn’t hit at the right time for me. For me, this is for late winter. The songwriting and milieu are both somber, but the faint glimmers of hope come from his innocent sounding voice.

Legendary album from the queen

No denying her talent, but not for me.

Masterpiece in song writing

A solid album / but not my favorite from them

Important Brit invasion album

Unimpressed. Late 60s pop-psych-drudgery.

The Queen at her best

The “Plastic Soul” album. It stands because it helped introduce soul and R&B to a much larger audience, but it’s also clear that Bowie was wading foreign waters. ‘Fame’ is an all-time favorite of mine, the cultural significance is there, the songs are largely middling.

I’m a Dylan guy and this my favorite Dylan album. 5 Stars

Pass

An all-time classic

The beautiful place somewhere between industrial and early 80s pop and shoegazer. No clear singles. No obvious melodies. Yet it keeps hold of your ears the whole way through.

Act of Spades instantly brings back hours and days if playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 in my college dorm.

Several legendary tracks but this album has always felt uneven and perhaps a little disjointed.

Was only able to find this album on YouTube - it was a recording from a cassette. Throwing Muses is always fascinating, and this album lives up to that.

Blue eyed blues at their best

This is what I’d vote as the most punk ECA album

A seminal album that brought the Kinks into the next phase of their greatness. This is arguably the first concept album - various takes on the thought of what it meant to be British. With multiple influences (American, European, Indian, etc) shaping new parts of the British life - the songs work as windows into that shapeshifting.

I have never been able to go all-in Kate Bush. I have all of the respect for her music and appreciate how avant garde her stylings are and certainly were. I’m thankful for her experimentation and dedication to taking risks. She’s amazing and incredible.

Classic.

Solid.

Fun, punk excitement

A couple of great tracks here, but I just can’t get to it.

Beat posthumous album - maybe ever. Stacked album that was only beginning to show where she was taking the industry.

2000s queen

Great album.

Perfection.

My first ever musical ringtone came from this album!

A stacked, all-time great album!

The 80s bad that Kurt Kobain saved!

An all-time favorite of mine and loved it from the first listen - bought this the same day as the police slow motioned chased OJ’s white Bronco down the Los Angeles highway system.

Funky grooves that melt into the next movement - what more could you ask for?!

The best execution of a concept album of all time.

I’ve tried really hard to get to Nick Drake, but I just can’t get there. This is my favorite of his 3 studio albums. The songs are pretty and the melodies float gently around the lyrics. I think this album and its production offers the best visage of his music.

Crunchy industrial meets flowing pop and for the most part it works

I loved this album from the first listen back in the middle aughts.

Showing his knack for creating great melodies and building strong song structure.

The more I listen to this album the more I continue to find new things I love about it.

Just can’t get to it.

I lived this album as a kid - mostly because I loved the video for Take on Me. Still one of my all time favorite videos. Several great songs here, a couple stinkers too. Loads of nostalgia

Emotional journey through the lens of the Icelandic goddess

Not available on streaming.

An all-time great album stacked full of bangers

An amazing early 90s time capsule. Many of these songs continue to stand on their own by taking new shapes and covering new ground by being timeless and fitting culture in ways that couldn’t have been considered in 1992.

Sounds like the soundtrack to an 80s movie about temptation and regret.

I’m certainly not as high on this album as the press was when it landed. Over the years it has grown on me a bit more. It’s a good album and the storytelling is great, the beats are spacey and the mood is impossible to escape.

Raekwon is a master

The best album title of all time. One of the best covers of all time my time. Jam packed with done if the best songs of the Beatles catalogue.

Mellow and sentimental.

Punk greatness

Great album

Fun album

I’ve only recently connected with this album. The sonic layers are amazing and the lyrics are so personal

Timing of this album couldn’t have been better

The genesis of rock

My personal favorite 2Pac album because of how direct and personal the lyrics and feelings are here in every song.

Uneven, but that’s part of Black Francis’ charm.

Golden

Nope.

Late 80s party

Great early 80s punk

A couple of real gems on this album and the melodies are class throughout.

Classic BritPop with London swagger

Classic greatness

The 90s grunge/rock/pop prototype album - in every way

My favorite NYPD Blue rebel cop

Good vibes

Always pushing the envelope of melody

Masterpiece

Fascinating journey

It’s tough to hear Marvin not be happy. It’s not typically the vibe you’re looking for when you put Marvin on, but the album is strong and no doubt about it being pointed. But the cover art is awful.

80s doing 80s

All-time great classic stacked with songs that have only grown more and more popular through time

Fun 90s listen

Epitome of 70s funk with a message. All time great and culturally important record.

A great album. A bit disjointed in moments, but it’s greatness cannot be underestimated

I was obsessed with this album when it first dropped. I even have the OG Superman copy. Lol

So good they made a documentary about it! Genuinely a personal favorite and one of the most important albums of the early aughts.

Shoe gazer greatness!

Conflated. This album is ambitious, but would’ve benefited from additional production and a heaping of artistic focus. You can hear the shoegaze, the pop sensibilities, the reggae influence, the orchestral swell, but they’re all very much individual and just kind of smooshed together.

90s gold

What you say about Shaft? You’re damn right.

Get some culture!

One of the last truly great grunge albums.

An interesting and captivating album from the late 60s.

French showmanship at its zenith.

Classic metal

Greatness

A solid album - with an even better companion album!

90s pop happiness

Loud and ambitious!

Greatness!

Hot teenage shock garbage

I have always loved that Skepta’s first album was called Greatest Hits. Just amazing! I’m team Dylan Mills, but Skepta’s grim is always worth the jam! The Streets

Easy, breezy Neil!

Prof Rick champs reign supreme

An all-time great album that is a building block for music to this day.

So much goodness!

80s garage rock giving birth to grunge

The home of Proud Mary

Art world darling

Amazing and in your face!

This album scared me as a kid, and is one of the most textured albums of Waits’ catalogue

One of the most important albums to me personally. The storytelling, the melodies, the attitudes, the character / all amazing!

I’ve heard Cult of Personality hundred - if not thousands - of times before, but pretty sure this is the first time I’ve listened to the rest of the album. It’s still very late 80s, but some of it is way more Huey Lewis sounding than I expected. I hear the mid-80s melodies and late-80s bass drums. I certainly appreciate their impact on 90s music much more after listening to the complete album.

I love Nick Cave. His imagery and characters are always so vivid. I would hate to be inside his mind.

I say no to Morrissey

The sound and melody Brian always wanted the world to hear.

A great early 2000s masterpiece

The songs are too long, the production is too compressed, but there’s no doubt that the distortion is where punk found its anchor.

Art rock experimentation that confounds. Don Van Vliet pushes the boundaries and sometimes stumbles upon something interesting, but most of the time it’s just aimless.

Great album by a troubled dude

Dance pop is always fun

I appreciate what Kate Bush is and her approach to her songwriting. She pushes when others pull. She zigs to the industry’s zags. I love that a whole lot folks discovered her with Running Up That Hill found second-fame in Stranger Things. Well deserved. The samples and tones she employs here were truly avant guard when this was released and that’s worth celebrating. Her song craft has been directly and indirectly ripped off a million times over since. I just can’t get to this album. I’m the one who’s too thick and shallow to fully appreciate.

My dad had this album when I was a kid. I remember holding it and thinking the colors were cool and the space shuttle pulling into the giant SIMON game was neat. It was “old people music” to me then and it’s “old people music” to me now. The melodies are contagious and the lyrics are often thoughtful, but unless you were born before maybe 1970 - it’s probably not that interesting. It’s quintessential 70s radio pop - complete with too much production and it’s overly layered with orchestral strings and vocals. Dancing with my mom in the living room to Mr Blue Sky is a happy memory.

Summery. Light. Floating. Enjoyable.

Fun listen drenched in 80s vibes

The birth of rock and roll for white people. Elvis never wrote a song and never used original material, but he knew what was great and brought it to the airwaves and radio waves.

While the world needs more 22 minute albums of pure punk - I can deal without the straight edge tude. (Embracing people where they are is the win.)

The jangly guitars, the emotion and the styling is all here - the part missing is arguably the melodies.

Donovan’s albums have always struck me as disjointed. There are invariably layers of extra production cluttering the mix - sitars, orchestral strings, harpsichords, additional percussion, and more. The overall impression is of an artist who set out to make an early-60s British folk record in the vein of Dylan, only to have the label get their hands on it. You can almost hear the notes being passed down: make this one feel more like Revolver, give this track a Stones edge, polish this one up for radio. The result is an album that never quite settles into its own identity.

Soaking wet layers of samples snipped and snapped together to create soundscapes that take you away

An all-time great

An all time great and possible the best triple studio album release ever.

Nope.

Vibe and cgeck

I remember when this album dropped and Pitchfork and the burgeoning music blogs all collectively loved it. I didn’t get it then. Still don’t get it. I promise I’m trying.

I love glam, and have always had Roxy Music as a band to “explore more” but haven’t ever really committed to making the time. Took this opportunity to really listen to the album. All of the ingredients are there for me to love it: layered guitars & synths, punchy lyrics, driving percussion, and inventive melodies. However, I do feel that the horns are often more distracting than additive. It’s clear to hear their influence on other acts that I love: Talking Heads, Nick Cave, Pulp, the broader Cool Britannia scene and many more. There’s just something keeping from really being able to connect.

I love his voice and what he brought to the record was always his best.

Tiny Dancer is an all-time great track. Levon is also a plus track. However, most of the rest of the album suffers from a lack of focus and/or comes out as bloated.

A genuine classic

The three singles are the only songs worth playing. I’m sure this album made more sense in the context of the scene it landed in - but without the familiar melodies of the singles there’s nothing pulling me in to listen again.

J5 is golden. I really enjoy this album. It would’ve benefited from some additional clipping, however. Clocking in at just under an hour, it would’ve been an even stronger effort if was 45 minutes.

I’ve tried many times with Kiss, but can never find my way there. It’s a me problem.

Just never got into it.

Prog Rock 🫠

A magically enchanted electronic album fuses folk and jazz.

Melodic Husker Dü, and that’s what it’s supposed to be. Listening to this, you can clearly hear Bob Mould’s influence on Husker Dü. His "loud-quiet-loud" song craft is here too, which is where you can also hear Mould’s impact on bands like Nirvana. Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic said that Nirvana's musical style was "nothing new; Hüsker Dü did it before us."

I fell in love with this album just now!

Only a few tracks are available for streaming so I wasn’t able to listen to it all the way through, but realized it was a gap in my collection - so I’ve ordered the record 👍

I just didn’t get it

The Faces before Rod Stewart is a win

One of the greatest alt dance records of all time.

Loved this album when it was first released, and obviously continues to make its imprint on the general public

Dance! Dance! Dance!

Can you explain the 80’s without this album?

The album that introduced me to Jeff and the gang back in the early 2000s. Am all time favorite

I spent a lot of time with this album in college. I remember wondering why/how he was so comfortable with the guitar mistakes, spending hours deciphering the lyrics and wondering how he was able to craft such imagery with his word choice and how the uneven production was ‘approved’ by the record company at a time when the label had all of the power… I love this album in the way one would love a spouse’s art project - you love it because they love it. Ice cream ‘scuse me I’ve seen you looking good the other evening!

One of my favorite parts of this exercise is trying to imagine the album of the day in the context of when it was released. Trying to imagine what it must have felt like to take each album home - not knowing what was hidden in the record grooves and exploring the record, the sounds, the textures for the first time. I never understood why or how Elvis Costello was/is considered punk. It’s power pop. Pure, straightforward, pop.