1001 Albums Summary

I was going to be generous and give this 3 starts until “This Song”’s radial speaker thing made me literally sick

Started strong with some big bangers and went out with a little bit of a whimper. Good instrumentation!

Is this the Beatles before they were cool? Vocals all being in exclusively the right ear is not pleasant.

Some absolute generational bangers in here. Album falls off in the second half.

Fun, groovy. They’re really talented musicians. I see what the hype is about.

This is my first time hearing Hello in its original form. Wild. Very good singing but bland otherwise.

Angry, novel. Very British. Sounds like British Invasion punk/alt.

It’s all good, but the thing is… it all sounds the same.

I can feel how this is influential on what would follow. Feels like proto-techno.

Competent but dull

So much fun stuff going on. Blues is Jazz, but for the peeeeeople.

Feels like a bad ruined by the meteoric rise of a single, which then defined them in everyone's eyes. Kinda fun until I had the realization they sound like U2 and then finishing was tough.

First time I’d encountered a concept album outside the confines of prog rock. Amazing story, amazing execution. Kendrick’s Magnum Opus of story telling. Swimming Pools is a masterpiece masquerading as a turn-up song.

Good but not for me

Runaway child, running wild is the standout so far. This is nice. Super wide stereo balance again, though. Not so nice in headphones.

Trying to find some redeeming qualities, but this is so grating. Some of the sax instrumentation is nice. Guitar too. The vocalist though, ugh…

Ayyy, I’m tryna fuck

No extra points for pretentiousness, unfortunately, and I just can't with this man's voice. Lots and lots of this album sound like local studio jams that show flashes of brilliance, but nothing inherently cohesive or enjoyable.

Good but dull can only go so far, and apparently this is the limit.

Okay listening to a few of these tracks here I think there’s some interesting sampling stuff going on back when sampling wasn’t exactly trivial. Particularly on “Time To Get Ill” is when I first caught wind of that, but I think there’s more than that. It actually reminds me a lot of that video of when A-Trak won the DJ championships in… idk 1999, at the age of 14 or something like that.

For reasons I can’t put my finger on, this agreed with me more than other late 60s music that is stylistically similar.

A somewhat fun bass line and tone carried me through this one. Maybe punk is not for me? This was a slog.

Not the Jay Z album I’d have selected

Oi, you sed whut, m8? I’ll bsh ur fkin’ ‘ed in m8. Swear on me mum.

Old enough it’s cool again. Enjoyable. Call and response backup singers were fun, as was the little doowop kinda vibe on some tracks.

This is fun G-funk stuff and everything, but can I get a little more funk with it or something? Idk, just doesn't do it for me like 2Pac/Biggie/NWA. Solid, but meh.

Great 90s alt rock

Sounds like I’m 8 years old chillin’ in front of the Jukebox at The 50’s Grill.

Can all Jazz be like this, pretty please?

Excellent guitar throughout. I hate belting, but Janis makes it work.

Very, very good instrumentation, but I enjoy goofy lyrical Zappa more. 3/5

3

Considerably more mature than the other, but still has plenty of laddish moments. Leaned more into the MC thing, which was fun. Had some adult instrumentation in some stuff (Ricky’s Theme) which was a neat little surprise. Overall better than the last. Maybe less fun, but significantly more mature.

The amount of influence this had on modern hip hop is quite clear. A lot of this has aged well. Pac walked so Kendrick could run.

This one genuinely surprised me. I’m so tired of the played out tracks off this, but they’re so iconic and so anthemic I couldn’t not bob my head. This feels like it was probably the Hybrid Theory of its day. I also am contractually obligated to score this high given there’s a solid chance I was conceived to this album. I was stuck between a 3 and a 4 on this one and I went with a 3 because the album drops off at the end. It’s less an album that’s amazing and more a collection of banger singles.

This man writes stories into music like his last name is Hemingway.

Felt like proto-metal, vaguely? A very good album.

Mick Jaeger takes his coffee like he takes his women: Black

The king of pop at his zenith?

Some parts are nice but utterly forgettable. I couldn’t even tell when Spotify fell off the album and started shuffling across other generic UK bands that sounded equally bland.

First four singles are the first four songs on the album? Clever. There are things to like here: crispy production, nice vocalist. It’s just all so dull when assembled together.

Some wandering about that feels contemporary, but some absolute excellence in here.

Best Value Smashing Pumpkins

This is kind of an album with the same song happening again and again, but it’s pleasant.

I’m so tired of britpop

Such a weird mix of bangers and duds. Also, why is this man yelling at me? I dig the massive 80s snare and shoegazey guitar tones. I’m forgiving some shit songs with this rating because some of the others are pretty cool for the era.

Oh so we’re doing Beatles meets Stones? Derivative.

4

This album is phenomenal. So many good features. So many “wait, I know that voice” experiences. So much good conscience hip hop. Kanye before he was ultra self aggrandizing.

Can anyone tell me why Courtney is so angy? Big chunks of this are bad, but in the deliberately bad way grunge kinda was.

This is the ceiling of “amazing composition, but not for me.” Fantastic and interesting music, but it’s just from an era that I am not from. If the outro scene from The Graduate was an album, it would be this album.

Such a pleasant listen

This was a challenging one to rate. Am I rating the singles, or the cohesive album as a whole? I went with the latter. This album is *awful*. Many Michael Jackson level poppy bangers but so, so, so much absolute shite to sift through to get to them.

Jazz piano is the most enjoyable improvisational jazz to listen to.

This is perfection.

Bonus points for being obviously influential on a lot of music I love. It’s just a little too acid rock / psychedelia for me.

I recognized a bunch of these voices from Linkin Park’s reanimation. A really enjoyable, poetic MC album.

Lots of fun tracks on here!

So is this dude Spanish or French. I don’t get it.

One good song. I’m sure this one was blazing all sorts of trails and such, but this era of music just feels *so* antiquated at this point.

Overall a very nice funky/disco-ey album. Some parts get irritatingly repetitive, but the instrumentation throughout is classy and nice - particularly the bass and the brass.

There are some good tracks on here, but even the good ones are just so beige. Drums are dull and generic, guitar is repeating 4ish chord sequences, singing is very American idol (derogatory). This is what happens when good musicians make bland choices.

I’m not the target audience for this album. Some of it’s nice, but broadly this is what Carole King would be had someone shown her the gospel of instruments-other-than-piano.

Kinda cool to hear what black music sounded liked after disco and before the G-Funk era. Solid, and fun. Not my typical listening, but enjoyable.

Wow, did anyone stop to tell The Clash that they're supposed to be bad at writing music and playing their instruments? This album is a stain on the Punk Rock Genre.

Please stop with this man. We’ve got 1001 albums to listen to and he deserves TWO?!

The songwriting on this one is excellent. I’m shocked, I tell you. Shocked. Also, where tf did that 9th track come from? Sounds like Dylan.

Absolutely forgettable.

Parts are fun, but other parts are relentless attacks to the senses, and I cannot.

This album really is all over the place stylistically and for once I mean that as a compliment. Flute, organ, harmonica, brass, etc. all orbiting around a rock and roll center. Singer reminds me of Seger and I like that!

Compelling vocal performance and excellent instrumentation throughout. Not my home base musically, but enjoyable cover to cover.

Wait, so where are these guys from again? I didn’t quite catch it.

Guys! Look at my shoes! My shoes are amazing!

She gets clowned so bad, maybe deservedly so, but this is good music with “voice of a generation” level vocals. I enjoyed this way more than I expected to!

Started out super crappy, but then got interesting, floaty, vibey. Extremely psy as well. Feels dated, but I can tell how this influenced what followed. Without this album I don’t think we’d have gotten Infected Mushroom?

Wasn’t expecting any trip hop on 1001. A pleasant surprise.

Honestly some really cool sampling amongst all of this but there’s just so many tracks that are total duds - over repetitive and not in a positive way. That said there’s some absolutely iconic tracks here.

2 feels a little stingy because this is better than that, but damn if it didn’t almost put me to sleep.

The fact that this preceded Dark Side should be studied because this poop and Dark Side is amazing. There are whispers of the Pink Floyd I’m familiar with in here, but this sounds like Pink Floyd does The Doors x The Beatles, and I don’t like it.

I liked this more than I expected to, given my memories of the singles as being bland radio play. She’s better than the singles would suggest. I like the Smokey jazz lounge vibes. My main critique: the album contains too many tracks and would benefit from some trimming.

This is what Taylor Swift would sound like if she wasn’t awful - and I say that with regard to both lyrical topic *and also* musical accompaniment. A common criticism when I rag on Taylor is that her music isn’t for me. I can’t really argue that’s wrong. I’m not the target audience. Fair. Amy’s music is *also* definitely not for me, and by way of contrast with Taylor, is still fucking excellent.

Some guy said: “Complex rock/punk with folk based influences” and I couldn’t agree more. This album is excellent, in a time when post punk was shit, grunge was just around the corner, and the junk drawer of “alternative” was still being carved out.

My favorite anarcho-syndicalist speedfreak road-movie record! This is weird and experimental and all over the place and some of the tracks are kinda shit, but some of the experiments really do land nicely. Pieces are an amalgam of The Crystal Method and Pink Floyd, with a dollop of The Pixies thrown in for good measure.

I just wanna give this man a hug. He has so many feelings.

What else can be said that hasn’t already been said? This is one of the greatest albums humanity has ever produced.

This may be influential, but boy is it shite.

The fact that these sounds came out in 1994 is a little wild to me. Safe to say Trent was blazing a trail back then.

Faaaaaaame

Not my thing, but thank fuck for something other than a shitty Brit pop record.

Jazz is such a double edged sword. Some stuff is like this: disorganized and overstimulating as fuck. I *know* the instrumentation here is special… I know there is virtuoso playing… but it just doesn’t sound nice.

Bowie if Bowie was The Beatles! I like Bowie.

Are we gonna call this party rock? Party metal? A little dated feeling but that fella can sing within his range.

Definitely more duds on here than on Bad, but this album has three of the top ten greatest pop songs of all time, so i’m contractually obligated to give it five years old. Oops, wait, I meant five stars! My bad.

Probably the best boomer music I’ve ever heard, if I’m honest. Instrumentation is a proper 10/10. It doesn’t have the gravitas (or for that matter, angst) of Dark Side in my opinion, but the level of pizazz here is just stupendous. I’ve never heard a single track on this album before, but I’ll definitely do a cover to cover again in the future.

Some cool tracks and nice production/composition. Really cool sounds. It’s just not cohesive. I was trying to place why it isn’t as good as Violator, and I think that’s it.

The voice of a generation, in Chester, and the Stairway of the 2000s, in “In The End.” Not only that, but this entire album fucks. Not a single miss. A fusion of genres that didn’t work before this album. Blink-182 is more popular and Korn is heavier and angstier, but this is more betterer.

sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... sexy boy... 3

1001 needs more Neil Young albums, for sure

This is an extremely challenging album to rate because there is lots of odd composition and delays and screwing with envelope that makes it feel like two songs are playing at once… but it’s clearly deliberate. There’s parts that are pretty an other parts where I feel like I’m being attacked. This is really a 1-star and a 5-star in the same album.

Musically pleasant, but I hate hate hate the vocal across the entire album. Is it double tracked Elvis and he’s not synced up with himself? Is the backup singer someone else and a true novice? Let’s take it down 4dB so we can hear the rest of the mix, shall we?

The grunge era could have benefited from more baddies.

I’m going to generously give this a three, because for the most part this isn’t for me.

I saw another reviewers take on this, and I’ll just borrow their work: “I am 1/3 of the way through this list. There has been no Pearl Jam, no Snoop Dogg, no Alice in Chains, no Soundgarden, no Stone Temple Pilots, no Tool and yet I have to stomach third-tier BritPop garbage that sounds like Blur on clonazepam? No, man, no.”

This is so weird and so explorative. Definitely influenced trip hop to follow. It’s a mixed bag on where pieces of it land, however. Some gold in here and some poop.

Top shelf bleed out music. Does this album have lyrics?

Oasis meets Dylan. It’s a little beige, and monotone, but there’s enough movement that it’s kinda nice and fun.

This would be a 3, but as a Minnesotan, I am contractually obligated...

This has a dark edginess to it, similar to contemporary artists like Black Sabbath, but if you slid it one notch in the direction of Brit Punk that would come a little later. Lots of big cinematic parts too, à la Dark Side. Pretty neat. Also, whoever did the 2015 remaster did a phenomenal job.

A pleasant enough listen, but I won’t listen again.

If we’re going to call this “punk,” which I understand might be a bit reductive, this is the best punk album yet by a *wide* margin. This is properly good.

I dig the educational angle of this one. Indian music is cool and makes me hungry for Dhal Bhat and Samosas.

Objectively good, but extremely not for me. This rating is a compromise.

Mom: “we have Rolling Stones at home”

3

This, and the Abba album are how I finally figured out I don't like unison style group singing. Lots of this album is musically sensational.

This album fucks.

Guys, it’s bad on purpose. That’s the aesthetic.

In a shocking turn of events, Rush good.

This is on the better side of punk, but good lord does a punk album’s assault-to-the-senses vibes drag on after say track 7 or 8.

Can you yell at me a little louder alt rock daddy?

Have you ever asked yourself: “What if Metallica, but with a significantly better drummer, a dueling pair of lead guitars, and a frontman who is a witness of Jehova?” Look no further! This album kicked more ass than I anticipated, but I’m kinda a sucker for this sound and time period.

Jazz is better, like so many other things, when they start with the end in mind. I’m not asserting none of this album is improvisational, midflight, but I am asserting none of it *feels* like it. Despite Jazz featuring some of the most talented musicians across all genres, it does not escape this basic fact. Flopping your gigantic, classically trained dick on the table does not make a disorganized mess sound more pleasing to the ear. This album threads the needle on giving the musicians space to play, within a defined skeleton that keeps it tight. Best Jazz album yet.

Andre 3000 and Frank Ocean merged to form an archon, and the resultant extra dimensional being identifies as a woman with cybernetic enhancements.

Decent moments, but this is more of the same junk 1001 gives us simply too much of. This album does not deserve a place in this list.

Best proto-grunge / punk album we’ve had yet.

Am I at a circus? Is the Romani woman distracting me so her cousin can steal my horse?

Inoffensive. An okay album. Won’t listen again.

Some tracks are great. Some are grating. It’s hit or miss for me, but the great tracks are *much* better than the best of the other Radiohead album we had.

Most of side 2 is poo, but that notwithstanding, this is the Beatles have every sounded to me.

This album answers the question: “Which minority makes better music: Straight black men, or gay white men?”

If being bad on purpose and landing it with pizzaz is supposed to be a punk calling card, then this album fits that bill. I’m not sure what to make of their bio making it sound like they slept their way to the top because they were hot and therefore had access to producers who could and would turn dog shit into a marketable product. I don’t like it. Couple that with the rather on-the-nose band name? Still, reggae punk vibes is an under-explored sound, today, let alone back then. That AND Cobain listed this as an influential album. Several other notables said similar things, especially among female musicians. I think those two things paired together come out in the wash.

It’s no Nevermind. Some good tracks, but I can see why nobody had the cover art for this as a poster in their room.

Random encounter with Brian Eno!

Swing fucks

I like Frank