1001 Albums Summary

This is very self-aware new wave. Catchy, fun and at times a little too smart for its own good. Their cover of the Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction is clever but annoying on repeat listens. Devo tries to make being pretentious fun, and the idea of this record existing is better than actually listening to it.

It’s hard to find fault here. Classic R&B, soul, rock and roll with gospel vocals. I can’t say that this album has changed my view of anything or that it will be something that I return to often, but it is good stuff and I can see why many people could find a passion for this.

The arrival of a genius. He leaves behind his folky earthy songs and looks towards the stars.

Early 70’s British metal at its finest. It’s hard to dislike Maiden.

Sounds like old! I can appreciate this in spite of it being a soundtrack of a million movies I don’t remember. Oh my god, does this music cause dementia? Why does this record from the late 50’s sound like it came from the 30’s? All joking aside, this is good stuff. The greatness of a big jazz band sound has been lost over the decades. I doubt I will return to this album often, but it nice to hear the source material for The Caretaker’s albums.

I don’t like this. I can’t say she is untalented, and I get that she is merging 90’s hip hop with 30’s jazz, but it feels very contrived. I know she has passed, and it is a shame. I don’t feel like this music is for me, but worse it feels like the people who it is for should go listen to Billie Holiday and Lauryn Hill.

Wow, in the 90’s metal was bound to find drum machines. This is a foundational industrial album and a sound that may have been lost to history. They often rely upon the inherent musicality of a looped sample, which on tracks like NWO really makes the material feel dated. Elsewhere this record is scary, sometimes melodic, and often thrilling. “Jesus Built My Hotrod” is kind of like listening to every Kid Rock song playing on fast forward at the same time which is way better than Kid Rock’s actual music. It’s a stand out track and it has some humor which is lacking elsewhere on this album thanks to Gibby Haynes’ guest vocals. It’s not a great record, but it is very good and not lacking for significance.

It starts off with a disco classic, “Street Life” that would be completely fine as the 2-3 minute pop song it was born to be, but at 11 minutes it is exhausting. There are lots of songs that are way too long, but this is just the same melody over and over. The lyrical content feels like an after school special from that era, don’t use drugs, and don’t be a sex worker, while rhyming “old” and “cold”. Which is a shame, because the smooth jazz/ yacht rock that comes after it is quite nice.

The Replacements are one of the greatest bands of all time. Let it Be is the moment where they start to shed their party band reputation in favor of who they really are, the downtrodden band after the party. “Unsatisfied” is a gut punch to this day over 40 years later. “Seen Your Video” shows them aware of where the world is going and them holding on to a purist idea of what rock and roll is. Aside from a few leftover tracks from their party band days this is the beginning of the mature Replacements that would come to light on the next album, Tim. But many of the band’s best moments are right here. This is a big bang moment where a million indie rock bands that come in the next few decades would find so much inspiration. Paul Westerberg’s lyrics show a vulnerability in the mid 80’s, while metal guys dressed like women but wrote songs that were full of testosterone.

Please god, show him the way, because the devil has broken him down.

Loud, screeching rock and roll. One of the Zeppelin records, they really find their sound here. It’s before they get to into wizards and flutes, lots of “baby”, guitar swinging, and good stuff.

Very surprised how much I enjoyed this album.

When this album first came out, I remember it getting a pretty negative reception for its “cute” take on the orchestral pop the Lips introduced on the Soft Bulletin. I remember disregarding it after a single listen as a safe follow up to a break through album. It appears that after twenty-plus years the album has always had its fans and it has grown on me a bit. I still wouldn’t say it is the Flaming Lips’ best record but it is very good.

Amazing pure rock in its most molten form.

First off, don’t click the link to Spotify because whatever album they have on Spotify it is not this album. It’s some kind of collection of singles that isn’t anywhere near as good as this album. In general, not a huge fan of madness, but I really like this record. It’s a nice mix of ska, new wave and classic British pop. Enjoyed this record a lot once I found the right one.

Bowie’s Berlin era is among the best work of his career

Early Skynyrd, real classic rock and roll. Not really my taste but this is a good record. “Freebird” is a classic rock epic and the soundtrack of every biker’s funeral.

The Only Ones are often mentioned alongside the Sex Pistols and the Clash, except, the Only Ones are feel mediocre by comparison.

Brilliant! I lived in NYC in the late 90’s and early aughts and spent a lot of time at the Downtown Music Gallery, and John Zorn’s name was everywhere and it was exhausting. This dude literally puts out a dozen records a year and plays shows every night. I disregarded his music and after hearing this I want to kick myself. This album is wonderful. The interpretation of Ornette Coleman’s music into hardcore punk/thrash is like nothing I heard before and I love it. Note you may have to go to YouTube to hear this album and it is incomplete. On Spotify there’s a note from Zorn to buy his CD’s, except this album is long out of print and he has dozens of other records on Spotify, just not this one. It’s a shame, this album is fantastic.

This is blandest distillation of late 60’s psych pop (low emphasis on the psych) imaginable. When I listen to this, I feel like I don’t know exactly who this is, but I know exactly when it was recorded. Any artistic endeavor that is more closely tied to the years it came from than the creators involved is pretty unremarkable. I read a bit about them and discovered Steve Winwood is the front man which makes a lot of sense. His work in the 80s sounds more like the 80s than a vision of an artist. I doubt I would ever listen to this again. I would rather listen to the better acts that they were copying.

From 2004-2014 the Arcade Fire had a pretty argument for being the best band in the world. Their passionate take on Orchestral Indie Pop was exhilarating. This is their best album. Clever, catchy and exciting, a great record that defined an era.

Excellent debut from Elvis Costello. What if Buddy Holly was a cool nerd (ok he was)? Who also listened to punk, and had an early new wave flair? That is this album.

Paul is one of the great melodic songwriters of all time, and this album is very light, catchy fun.

This is such a fun record.

Sometimes psychedelic rock means you’d have to be tripping to enjoy this. This album could be the epitome of that. I have wanted to like the Grateful Dead at various points in my life. However that has never occurred while I was listening to them. “Dark Star” is a 23 minutes slog that starts as a song until they change their minds. One of the biggest issues with this record is how the band never allows anything to rise to the surface, or sink to the bottom. Very little in the way of dynamics. “The Eleven” is famous for its 11/8 time signature which is the time signature that you arrive at when everyone solos at once. Easily, the best track in this is “Feedback” which like “The Eleven” is not a title so much as it is a description. The most remarkable thing about this band is how much mileage they got out of being awful.

This is just awful. Korn represents the mall rat douche bags who populated the suburbs at the end of the 20th century whose lives oozed with privilege but they were angry about something. The songs all slog along a mid tempo hip-hop beat while the guitarists dick around with harmonics and effects rigs. Listening to this is the aural equivalent of a of eating a Taco Bell Mexican pizza from a dumpster behind the mall with a very large Mountain Dew.

The greatest indie rock record of all time hands down full stop. Advertising good looks and who needs chops? With songs like these you don’t need a second drummer that can swim.

Rush is Van Halen for losers.

Has not aged well, repackaged hair metal for the grunge era.

It feels like a kind of cynical rich guy cashing in on music he heard at shows.

This record brings me back to a record store trip I made in ‘97 where I bought this record and Radiohead’s Ok Computer. I thought this album had the potential to be the Never Mind the Bullocks… of electronic music. I also bought Ok Computer as my kind of safe bet figuring I liked Radiohead’s last album, so this should be pretty good. I liked the Prodigy album, it was cool but I loved the Radiohead album. Little did I know both albums would be industry changing for different reasons. This album didn’t hit with me right away, and while it grew on me over time, it hasn’t aged very well, in fact, listening to it now, it sounds extremely dated. There’s lots of good stuff here, but thinking back to that day in ‘97 reminds me of the joy of discovery record stores used to provide.

The four stars are for the music not the man. This is one of the best hip hop records of all time, unfortunately, Ye is complicated. If I were reviewing him, it would be lower. Patrick Star has never betrayed anyone.

My Way is a pretty good song, but this album is mostly reprehensible trash that doesn’t belong in the material world.