1001 Albums Summary

Already know and love this album. Have it on LP. So fabulous.

It's... fine. Nothing special to really recommend it. There is no reason for this to be on a list of "must listen" albums. It's fine. It's a solid folk-rock album. But there's nothing special about it. It came out in 1979. It has some good songs, but doesn't pioneer, experiment, fuse, or perfect anything. Everything it does well has already been done better by earlier albums.

I really liked this. Didn't have enough chance to listen to it through closely to fully form an opinion, but I want to give it a closer listen. I did enjoy that it's a concept album. Musical variety and production quality were great. Didn't immediately jump out as something obviously super special. But very good.

Great album by one of my favorite artists. Will listen again. Would enjoy owning. Some fantastic but approachable soul-jazz.

Good stuff. Will listen again.

Funk yeah! Great piece of art. Great musicianship. Great arrangement. Solid production. Enjoyable to listen to, while also being hugely musically and culturally influential.

This was really great. I need time to sit down and listen to it more closely.

Great album. Solid alternative rock classic.

Fabulous jazz classic. Probably not for people who aren't already into jazz. It is almost ecstatic and impressionistic at times. Going off into near pure emotion. Masterful artists walking the very edge of spinning out of control.

This was surprisingly enjoyable. Lots of energy. Crazy good bassline. Raw punk energy.

This was surprisingly enjoyable. Lots of energy. Crazy good bassline. Raw punk energy.

It's Bowie. It's good. But not his best. Neither as experimental, or conceptual, or peak poppy as his other albums.

So hot. This album is fantastic, start to finish. "Walk On By" is possibly one of the greatest popular songs ever recorded. I've heard this called "Progressive Soul". I think that might be labeling it wrong. This arguably predates Progressive Rock. It's clearly doing it's own thing, too. And I think drawing from vastly divergent influences. It is sweeping and epic.

Solid. Fun.

This is everything good about early hip hop. If you went out to a street corner in New York, put down a boom box, and slapped "play" on a cassette of this, you would still have a party. Slap down some cardboard, and someone would randomly start break dancing. One song is a ballad where five grown, straight, men sing a love letter to Stevie Wonder because, "He's the greatest." 10/10. No notes.

Great album. Mix of latin, jazz, psychedluc rock. It is expansive and full of passion. The sort of exploration where you can imagine musical rituals taking casting magicspells and transporting your consciousness. 4.5 stars

Solid punk. Not their best album.

Solid and enjoyable Blue-Eyed-Soul. It's good stuff, but I don't think blazes many trails.

It sounds like a demo tape. The recording is too muddy and incomprehensible to really speak to the quality of musicianship.

Great live album. One of the few cases where the live recordings surpass the studio ones as the definitive versions of the songs.

Great album. Love it. My favorite Steely Dan, but not their best. Has some "meh" songs (Garrytown, and Through with Buzz). Not their finest work

Very nice. 3 or 4. Reminds me of Radiohead or Massive Attack, but with lush strings and wind instruments.

Just sort of rambles. I get that that's the point, and it's exploring. But like... it's like watered down jazz.

Dylan was/is very influential, but I don't care for most of his work. He opened a path, but I think he was surpassed by many other artist. Even among contemporaries, Paul Simon and Townes Van Zandt are better.

Seminal. Masterful.

This is The Blues.

Nearly unlistenable. First track was just noise. I sat with it for a while thinking it was maybe a "Close to the Edge" type of intro, but no. Just noise. Later tracks the audio quality was so distorted to be unpleasant.

Does not hold up. (Wasn't sure on 2 or 3 stars. I'll say 2.5) This certainly did a lot to bring EDM into the mainstream, but is honestly very lackluster. Today, the songs sound like someone who has finally learned how to use Garage Band. They're decent, but kind of bland. Even in it's day, it falls well behind the quality of other contemporary or even preceding music. There is nothing this does that wasn't already being done better by other artists. At same time, other artists were working in the same or adjacent genres and truly pioneering new ground.

At first I thought it was... fine. Sort of whatever. But it grew on me. It has an energy that their later music lacks. But with good playing. I found myself listening again.

My album before this was 'Play' by Moby. For two artists so superficially similar, these albums could not be more different. Where 'Play' was very "meh", 'Odelay' really holds up and soars. This is an absurdly fun album. It is experimental, playful, absurd, and almost poking fun at itself - but it does so with so much conviction and intention to pass through the realm of being a joke, to coming full circle to being serious art. It includes intentionally absurd samples, nonsense lyrics, or jarring and dissonant instrumentals - but it knows exactly what it is doing throwing them in.

Good 90's Brit-hop. A bit trite, but good at what it is. If this is your sort of thing it will give happy feels, but not exceptional. If this isn't your thing, it is very "meh". The title track "Connected" is a certified banger though.

I was fully prepared to be bored with this as trite boy-band schlock. I enjoyed it more than I expected to. It's a bit dated and not edgy at all, but... I'm impressed that THIS is what a corporately manufactured boy band used to sound like. Real singing. Real instruments. DIFFERENT instruments. Like harpsichord an banjo?!? WTF? "Zilch" is fun and absurd and actually experimental. It's incredibly playful and listening to it was just... joyful. Still not quite my thing. But I went from rolling my eyes to happily listening through the whole album.

I wanted to hate this more than I do. Definitely not going to keep listening, but I can't bring myself to hate it. It's competently done. The mixing is surprisingly energetic and organic after being so used to mainstream music being pitch-corrected and quantized to death. I can very easily see why this was so popular and influential. But in the end... It's kinda schlocky and trite white middle-class rebellion.

I was prepared to be hard on this album. I was expecting the songs to be trite and cliche in hindsight. Instead I got a soaring, gliding, elegant album. Listening after a massive break from U2's music. This is better than I remembered.

Remember when MTV used to play music videos? Those were great times... 4.5/5 stars. (really 6/7) This one is a bit tough to rate. The first 3 songs "So Far Away From Me", "Money for Nothing", and "Walk of Life" are 5/5 easy. "Money for Nothing" is one of the greatest guitar riffs of all time. Find the best guitarist you know, and watch how fast they would "nope" out of being challenged to play it. The rest of the album after it is great, but doesn't rise to the level of those first three songs. I'd tell anyone to listen to those first three (with caveat to younger people about how much culture has changed since "Money for Nothing" was recorded), but the rest of the album isn't going to excite everyone.

Stank face out the gate.

Enjoyable New Wave.

Another album I was prepared to roll my eyes at being over-hyped boomer-bait, but I think it lives up to its reputation. Not an album for everyone. I will probably not return to this often, but an album that is truly worth listening to for every music fan.

A beautiful work of elegant simplicity. Spare and personal, often just one voice and one guitar. The minimalism is personal. It is perfect in its raw imperfection.

The overproduction on this killed it for me. She's got a great voice. Just let me hear what it actually sounds like. Yeah, I'm an older generation than this is meant for, but I don't think that was the issue. I actually think there were some good songs underneath and some heartfelt lyrics... but the over-processing of her voice blanketed over the humanity. Not in an artistic way of adding distortion to make a statement of pain or dehumanization or anything, because that's not what the songs were about and it was the same effects on every song. Tough to rate. I think it's better than a 2, but I feel like a 3 may be overly generous. 2.5 maybe.

It has some fantastic and iconic songs, but I think it is just "meh" as an album. The lesser songs drag things down. I was set to rate this a 3 until I got to "Everyday People". From there on, it hits a better stride. But still not great. 3.7

Classic blue-eyed soul. Rich orchestration. Some fantastic tracks.

Ugh. This is basically a bunch of covers of blues and rock and roll songs by black American artists. But nowhere near matches the quality of the original versions of these songs. The only reason it's on here is because iT's ThE rOlLiNg StOnEs!!1! Yes. They did great albums throughout their career, but this is NOT one of them. This album is not worth a listen, unless you're listening to this to be reminded how unfair the music industry has been to black musicians.

Good god yall!

Competent, but not impressive. I'm only passingly familiar with hip-hop, but this sounds like a stepping-stone album that maybe laid the groundworker for future masterpieces, but is not a masterpiece itself. It reminded me a bit of Wu-Tang and Tribe Called quests. But this came out in '91, whereas 'Midnight Marauder' and 'Enter the 36 Chambers' both came out in '93. So it may have been a strong influence on some of the greatest hip hop of the 90's (or all time). But was nowhere close to perfecting what it was doing the way those other artists and albums were.

Wow. This album is banger after banger. Is this a guilty pleasure album? Possibly. I want to be harder on it, rate it lower for being schlock or something. It's not a grand political statement, sweeping concept epic, or pioneering of anything new. It's just really good rock and roll for the 2000's. Can't quite bring myself to give it a full 5-stars, but it is easily 4+. 4.5/5

Smells like hairspray. I'm pretty sure this album had a measurable impact on the hole in the ozone layer. I can't fault the job it does at being what it is. But it's very dated at this point. I'm sure this will bring back a lot of memories for a lot of people. But if you weren't the right age when this came out... it's just fine.

4.5/5 This surprised and thrilled me. A wonderful and modern mixing of musical influences. Clearly exists primarily in the Hip-Hop/R&B genre, but draws heavily from all over - reggae, jazz, Latin, tango. Nods to Amy Winehouse and Outkast. And all of it feels like authentic and loving incorporation, not aping styles you don't understand for novelty. The instrumentation and production were fantastic. No lazy shortcuts. If a live instrument is the right choice, they use one. No lazy samples. I'm very tempted to give this a 5/5, but don't know if it quite rises that high. So a strong 4.5/5.

Up its own butt. Too artsy for its own good. Tries to use a bunch of spicy and complex chords, but the singing is not precise enough to pull them off, so they just sound atonal. Songs are long and dragging and lacking true movement. I kept skipping ahead looking for things to gel to a purpose, but they just stayed the same. Contrast to things like "Close to the Edge" that starts dissonant and chaotic, but builds to a purpose and has movements. This is all just self involved.

A developmental album moving towards eventual seminal works, but not there yet. Massive Attack are one of the greatest Trip-Hop acts. This album you can hear the beginnings of what they turn into, but they're not there yet. They are still trying to be hip-hop, reminiscent of acts like Tribe Called Quest. But they're just... okay... at that. You can hear the beginnings of their eventual sound and style, but it's still evolving. They haven't fully found or embraced the genre they will go on to define.

It is the middle of January, 2026. This album made me cry. Remembering that this was originally organized to play on an LP record helps understand it. It is in two distinct halves. The first half is "Natural Mystic" through "Exodus". It is fire and anger at oppression and injustice. An ever burning flame that we have to keep fighting. Keep marching. Keep standing up against oppression. Keep moving forward. The second half is "Jammin'" through "One Love / People Get Ready". It is pure love and compassion. That however hard the fight is, we can and must still take time to relax and care for ourselves and for each other. Because only Love will conquer Hate. But that second half is not a different album with a different message. It is the other side of the same fight. Listening to it as a whole, really makes the messages of those songs clear. Take "Jammin'". I used to think how it was just a chill out, smoke some weed, "no worries" kind of song. Not so. It is a call to rest between the hard fights, and the lyrics make that clear: " No bullet could stop us now, we neither beg nor we won't bow Neither can be bought nor sold We all defend the right, Jah-Jah children must unite Oh, life is worth much more than gold " It is not naive to the danger and threat. It just recognizes how vital rest and replenishment is to that struggle. We must embody the good we want to bring into the world. Even "Three Little Birds" is really, "Every little thing is GOING TO BE alright." It isn't now. But it will be if we keep the fire burning against tyranny and oppression, and show love for each other. 6/5 stars.

Meh Americana rock. Very derivative of Bruce Springsteen, but doesn't really tread new ground. The album art really encompasses the feel of the whole album. A blatant nod to 'Born in the USA', but without the same weight and energy.

Tainted Love is a fabulous song. The rest of the album is everything you would make fun of about the 80's. Like... I can't tell if this is serious or Andy Kaufman level satire.

I'm rating this high. Could be personal bias. I think it's one of the best albums of its style. On the fence between 4 and 5, I'm giving it the full 5 just because of how fantastic the conversation between "Fire and Rain" is with Carole King's "You've Got a Friend".

I enjoy some hip-hop, but not my primary genre. Among hip-hop, this isn't the style I usually lean towards. But it is so good and so influential, I've got to give it props. This isn't my thing. I probably won't listen again, but I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it at least once.

One of the greatest live albums ever. This is why live albums exist.

Discordant and half baked. Unpleasant, but doesn't feel like it's really challenging anything or trying to push boundaries. Most like an inferior attempt at Velvet Underground or Talking Heads.

"Bohemian Rhapsody" is the greatest song in western popular music. Go watch the video of the entire crowd singing it (and doing all the harmonies) before a Green Day concert.

This is a fabulous album. It is also *very* much a sound of it's times. It is dripping with the sort of 80's production styling that has not aged well and makes albums from this era sound dated and cliche. But for this album, it *works*. This album is what all those bad 80's albums desperately wanted to be, but could never achieve. In fact, it does those 80's stylings so well that I can't imagine this album *without* them. If this had been made 10 years later with different production sensibilities it would not have been as perfect as it is.

If aliens came to Earth and asked, "What is this 'rock-and-roll' that we have heard of?" First I would show them Chuck Berry Then I would show them 'Back in Black'

I recognize how influential Bob Dylan is and how significant and influential he has been on music. But the music itself...? It fails my basic test for "great music": Rewards Attention, but does not Demand it. I'm sure there's a lot going on in this poetry. That it says a lot if you sit down and analyze it. But you would have to sit down and analyze it. And if you don't do that, it's mostly... monotonous and runs way too long. His voice is hard to understand. When the poetry is what matters, that makes it hard to appreciate. His delivery does not cue you in to when you really need to pay attention. It just sort of rambles. And the snippets you catch? Lack the weight on their own that you would get if you isolated a random line by Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Townes Van Zandt, Kendrick Lamar, Leonard Cohen, or Tom Waits. His lines aren't interesting on their own from either a melodic or rhythmic perspective. They don't mix up. And he goes on like that for 6 minutes straight (6/9 songs on this album are >5:30).

I normally love Paul Simon. This is handily the worst album of his that I've listened to. It almost sounds like self-parody at times.

It's Sabbath. It's great metal. But it's not the best Sabbath. I would not tell anyone interested in listening to Black Sabbath to start here.

This is what Auture indie rock aspires to be. Very much the idiosyncratic voice of the creator. Strange and experimental at times. But executed so masterfully that it is also completely accessible.

Meh. Rough and evolving. Not there yet. Sonic Youth has a harsh, experimental sound generally. Later albums, they managed to make it Click and pull off something that should not work. For this album... it still doesn't.

You know how there is a song or artist that you would sing mockingly back in your youth, but then you relisten years later and admit that it was secretly a banger...? ... this is not that. It's not *bad*. It's just very mediocre corporate radio pop with R&B flavor. It was pretty mediocre for its day, and it does not hold up. Their voices are good though. Nice to hear real musicians actually singing, and not a bunch of auto-tuning or quantization or anything.

Skilled musicians trying to sound like they don't know how to play. I enjoy some punk, but not all. I wasn't expecting this to be my speed, but I really liked it. A lot of fun going on.

Coldplay gets an undeservedly bad rap. People like to talk trash about them like Creed or Nickelback or something. Their music is actually well written, fairly complex, and well performed. It's just softer and not pushing boundaries like Radiohead or Muse, who I'd most closely compare them to. It's nice to have something that's just nice.

Was going to write it off until I saw how early this came out. Interesting as proto-punk. Some fun songs.

"Green Onions" is the coolest song ever. Fight me.

It's a live rock album from the 70's. The band is good. (Most of) the songs are good. I'm sure the concert was great. But the quality of the recording makes it better as a historical artifact than a good album. The studio recordings are far more enjoyable to listen to.

I like the Stooges, but this album is just okay. It descends a bit too far into psychedelic faffery. I wouldn't recommend it to people who are not already fans of this style. It was cool to spot how this clearly influenced later musicians who I like - from the guitar riff that RatM lifted for "Sleep Now in the Fire" to wild horn sections that Tom Waits has made great use of. However, this is one of those cases of laying foundation that later artists actually did much better.

This is about as Disco as you can get. Solid hooks. Doesn't really hold up.

I like much of Adam and the Ants, but this album is just... okay. I would not recommend it to anyone who is not already a fan.

More just-okay British niche faff from this list.

I was not expecting this album to give me stank face. I was expecting reasonably competent 80's bubblegum pop. And it doesn't fail if that's all you're looking for. But it succeeds at SO much more. Completely blowing my expectations out of the water. This is top level post-punk or pop punk. The musicianship is incredible. Sounds like a team of top-flight session musicians. I say that as high praise. Incredible playing - tight, technical, skilled - without feeling like there's showing off or ego. The rhythm section goes HARD.

One-hit-wonder Britpop.

I like REM, and this is a goid album - especially for a debut. But later albums are better.

Pre-disco Bee Gees. This is crap. It's almost like a parody of Moody Blues or other psychedlic Prog rock. It has an unsettling amount of reverb over pretty much everything except for the guitar. If 'This is Spinal Tap' had a bit in the bands history showing how they went from "Flower People" to "Stonehenge" it would sound like this.

Theatrical, melodramatic, and absurd... in the best possible way. It's like the soundtrack to an unreleased rock-and-roll musical. It's self aware of how goofy it is, but delivered with such complete earnesty to come full circle to be earnest again. This doesn't have to be your favorite style, and you will still find it amusing to give a full listen to at least once.

Meandering pointless psychedelia. Still hadn't figured out what they were doing.

4.5/5 An excellent album. Morrisey's lyrics and delivery are fantastic, unique, and massively influential. The musical styling is impeccable. Rating 4.5 because I don't know that it fully crosses my 5-star threshold. 5 stars = an iconic or superlative album that I recommend any music lover will enjoy and gain from listening to, at least once, even if it's not one of their usual styles/genres. 4 Stars = Excellent album. If you like this style, you'll love it. If you are getting interested in exploring a genre, a good work to listen to.

Mostly a poor Beatles knockoff. I see what it's *trying* to do, but it fails. The Beatles without gorgeous and flowing melodies. Pink Floyd without the swell and instrumentation. The Who without songwriting. The mixing and production is terrible. Instruments are frequently panned hard to one side or the other without clear purpose. It was painfully distracting in headphones, and even awkward on a car stereo. Frequently descends into chaotic faffery. Discordant, competing cacophonies in each ear frequently left me skipping the last third of tracks for the sake of comfort.

If someone says "Jazz", this is exactly what people picture in their heads. For good and for ill. If you like jazz and want to listen to musicians lock in with each other and pass ideas around in novel and experimental ways - this delivers that. If you hate jazz because it devolves into noodling without a clear melody that is more for the musicians playing it than the listeners - this delivers that.

It starts with 9 minutes of screaming. It doesn't get much better from there. I think this album wants to make you hate it, and it succeeds.

I get it. This lives up to the hype. I was ready to hate on it, because Kanye is a garbage person, and I always kind of thought that. But as a work of art, I can't deny how fantastic this album is.

It's fine trancey, melodic EDM. A few good songs, but overall kind of disappointing. It doesn't really blaze new ground or even refine upon 90's and early '00's electronica. Not as good despite having more powerful production tools. Interestingly, the tracks I liked the best ("Performance") were the ones that set aside the MIDI instrumentation and used physical strings to create the sounds that were then processed. That sounded cool and was a more unique sound that would have been prohibitive with earlier tools. But... it still falls behind other contemporary bands like Glass Animals.

I've got an old copy of the LP in my record collection. I love the back cover notes. They have a long essay that is regularly interspersed with a plea to: "Listen to the Record!" Today this seems like a played out cliche album, and forget that this was a radical leap of faith by a couple guys independently producing a record in one guy's basement using home-made equipment. This album still holds up. "More Than a Feeling" and "Foreplay / Long Time" especially are masterpieces. The rest of the album is incredibly solid as well. No duds. It doesn't have to be your style. You might consider these tracks played out. This album remains a seminal work worth listening to.

This album has one good song on it. Everything else is hot garbage. Sounds like they're trying to be Sonic Youth or The White Stripes, and failing utterly on both counts. (Although it helps you appreciate Meg White's drumming.) One SONG does not justify an ALBUM to listen to. But it's British, so it made this list.

It's often commented about this artist or that band how, "If they'd only ever made [one seminal album], they'd still be one of the greatest and most influential musical acts of all time." Jeff Buckley is that artist and 'Grace' is that album. He has influenced the likes of Thom Yorke (Radiohead) and Matt Bellamy (Muse). And countless others. (I once auditioned for a melodic metal band, and Jeff Buckley influenced the sound as much as Deftones and Tool.) This album masterfully covers more sonic landscape than most artists manage across their entire careers. Single tracks like the titular "Grace" explore more tonal ground than most albums. Jeff Buckley conveys more emotion into a single exhale than most artists do in entire songs. RIP Jeff Buckley. Taken too soon. Leaving to much art unmade.

A casualty of the Loudness Wars*. If this were mixed better, it would easily be 4 stars. Very good songwriting and musical performances. Unfortunately, the volume being maxed out and flattened just kills everything. The dynamics are all gone. It just becomes monotonous, flat, and fatiguing. And it's entirely the fault of the mastering. *For those who don't know... this got bad in the late 90's and early 00's. When mastering a recording, if you turn up the volume level in a mix, it eventually hits a ceiling. Eventually the quiet parts are just as loud as the loudest parts. So there is no dynamic contrast. But recording studios did this so that, when played on the radio, your song wouldn't be quieter than the ones around it.

I enjoy this album. I like The Cult's blending of hair-metal-esque arena rock, with new wave,and a bit of goth. But on the whole, this album is just good, but not exceptional. If this isn't your style, then it'll be whatever. 'Love' is a far superior album, and where they really start blazing new ground. 3/5 - fun if already your style, but not worth branching into if it isn't already

Interesting to go back and listen to. It's the Beatles, so of course it's well done. But it sits at an interesting point in their musical career. Not sappy boppy like their earlier commercial work, but not yet crossing that Sergeant Pepper line into real experimentalism. Frankly, this is lest daring than the Beach Boys' 'Pet Sounds'. You can hear them trying to rise to that bar. So it remains a very solid album for what it is and very enjoyable to listen to. It has some excellent songs that remain relevant today. But not growing up with this and really experiencing that musical transition, I would expect this to feel very "meh" to a lot of newer audiences.

It's simple, hooky, party rock. If you're a teenager growing up while this was new and popular, it would be a lot of fun to sing along to in your car, especially with friends. Perfect fodder for a foundational experience. I bet it makes for a fun concert, too. If you didn't grow up with it like that... it's very meh.

This is 90's British Rave Music. That context matters. At a 90's Rave, I can see how this might be the perfect music. Always floating at roughly the same energy level to enjoy being in a crowd of people while on mind-altering substances. Although, I suspect it would actually be better mixed live by DJ who can feel and shape the energy of a crowd in the moment. Divorced from that context... it doesn't work. It's not interesting to listen to while on a run or driving to work by myself.

Ruined by bad mixing. Stereo mix has every instrument hard-panned to one side or the other with no logic of why. Very disconcerting, and the music is nothing worth getting excited to put up with it. Might be good in a mono mix.

Not a review of the album. Just a related story. One of the best musical experiences I ever had was one time listening to "Everything In It's Right Place". One day at the brewery where I work, this comes on the stereo and the strange acoustics of the space are... perfect... for this song. The sound filled the room in a strange 3d sonic sculpture. As you moved around the space, the different lines and instruments popped out in different spaces. It was fascinatingly a perfect representation of the song. Then the speakers got moved just a bit putting stuff in/out of storage, and I was never able to recreate the effect. We've added more tanks and it would now be completely impossible. But it was amazing once.

Interesting listening to this with 70 years(!!!) of hindsight. How does it stack up to modern sensibilities about a white guy covering black musicians and seeing more wealth and fame from their music than they did? It's a really good album. Those black artists deserved better than they got, but Elvis still deserves his fame. The covers respect the source and take the music in a unique direction. When I listened to the Rolling Stones debut album, it was *all* bland covers of black music. Doing what the original songs did, but only half as well. I won't say Elvis is better than Ray Charles or Little Richard, but he is different. Yeah, it's more palatable to a white audience, but... that's not Elvis' fault. It's the fault of the culture at the time. Arguably, Elvis helped spread the music of the black artists he admired to an audience that never would have listened to them. I don't know. It's complicated.

Chances are, this is not "your style". That's fine, and this is one of the genuine stars in this list of albums you *should* listed to, even if it is not your style. Astor Piazzolla created a new genre that he is showing off in full form here. He took Tango and mixed it with Jazz and Classical music to create something new. He is doing with Tango - a traditional, popular, dance music - what George Gershwin did with Jazz. He is an instrumental virtuoso who is redefining, expanding, and creating a new genre of music much like Gershwin, Ray Charles, or Miles Davis. I have a philosophy that: The best Art rewards attention, but does not demand it. Normally I point to artists like Stevie Wonder, creating pop songs that are actually deceptively complex. This sort of goes the other direction - more "arty" while remaining fully rooted in an accessible popular form that you don't need a music degree to appreciate.

Perfectly competent. But sounds like a satire. Like it's simultaneously taking the piss out of Nick Cave and musical theater.

Dylan just doesn't do it for me. This was probably the most I've been able to enjoy a Dylan album so far though. Less instrumentation made it easier to hear his voice, which wasn't as rough as in later years. Easier to hear the poetry and it worked better for me. Listening to this though, I kept thinking it doesn't do anything that Paul Simon, Townes Van Zandt, or Woodie Guthrie don't do better. (Draws a direct comparison to Simon and Garfunkel's superior "Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme".) I hated the harmonica. It was piercing and obnoxious. Made me ready to skip to the next track every time. 3.5 stars - but would have been 4 without the stupid harmonica.

I enjoy this album a lot because it's my style of music from my formative teenage years. But it's not really exceptional beyond that. Not as good as bands like The Breeders or Veruca Salt who I would recommend to people first. "Connection" is a total banger.

Yas queen!

6 out of 7. I got this not too long after 'It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back'. Listening to them together, shows the genius of Public Enemy. They have created and are exploring a fictional universe, and it is awesome. Imagine an 80's or 90's Saturday morning cartoon. Public Enemy are the elite special agents of secret resistance that resides in some underground bunker, launching guerilla missions to fight and defeat the injustice of The System. We're talking spy planes taking off from out of secret volcano lairs with giant multi-screen displays kind of stuff. The origin story was in 'It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back', when the government imprisoned Chuck D for refusing to be drafted into their army. This resistance force recognized his value, broke him out of jail, and now has recruited them. And here we see their crazy Saturday morning exploits in full glory.

4.5/5 This album was a surprise gem. I can hear this having been a massive influence on artists like Tracy Chapman and Natalie Merchant.

5/5 Album. Even if it is not your style of music (no album is everyone's), someone with a broad and general appreciation for music will find this a worthwhile listening experience at least once. "My Blue Sky" is the most joyful song ever recorded. But listening to it in isolation doesn't showcase the full genius of this album. You don't have to listen to it on vinyl, but you do need to *understand* it in the context of a vinyl LP. The entire Side 3 is a suite - 'Concerto for a Rainy Day - that goes from "Standin' in the Rain" (which is missing from Spotify!), to "Big Wheels", to "Summer and Lightning", and only finally concludes with "Mr. Blue Sky". This concerto exploring the emotions of intimidating weather giving way to Mr Blue Sky conveys the full weight of that emotion that you don't experience if you only listen to the one song. I'd argue also gets lost when there is no clear break to delineate this concerto as separate from the rest of the album. Oh yeah... and this clearly was a major influence on Daft Punk creating 'Random Access Memories' which is the greatest album of all time.

RIP Dolly. A great human being.