I find this album fun and enjoyable, a really solid adult debut (she released a self titled record as a child believe it or not, pre-Sugarcubes!) but it does get weighed down a bit with its "of the time" production. Her next three records aged really well and transcend the sound of the era to a certain extent but this one lacks a bit of punch for me.
One of the most iconic jazz funk albums of the 1970's and while it's not my favorite Hancock album with this band in this style, it's about as flawless as you can get, honestly. Timeless classic. My only complaint is with the cover art haha
Not a perfect record, but god damn the first half of this album nearly is. Starts off with 3 of the best songs these guys ever wrote, honestly. Amazing way to go out.
One of the greatest disco and pop records of the 1970s and an incredible showcase of talent from Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards. I love the story behind Le Freak, a song written on NYE when Nile and Bernard were unable to get into Studio 54. The original words were "fuck off!"
It's a lush, glitchy ode to deeply falling in love (and Bjork's first album leveraging IDM production styles in a similar vein to Radiohead's Kid A and Madonna's Ray of Light). Inspired by her Matthew Barney honeymoon period and one bookend to her eventual breakup album Vulnicura, one would think with my tastes this would be my favorite Bjork record, but it really isn't, unfortunately. It felt like some of the sharp, powerful edges of Post and Homogenic were sanded down, and the gentle, delicate textures and amorous vocals, while gorgeous, lack the passion I crave from Bjork in her best songs.
Still an amazing album, with some gorgeous, expressive songs, but not her pinnacle work.
Never could connect with this band and especially this album.
My favorite Talk Talk album though Laughing Stock isn't too far behind. An all time headphone classic and an album I listen to for therapeutic purposes
Pretty obvious how ridiculously awesome this record is.
I first heard this in the fall/winter of 1999 before its US debut. I was following FatCat Records because of its experimental IDM adjacent roster of artists and was quite astonished by this album when it came out. Could only get it on Napster too. Sheer guitar bowing epic grandeur. It remains my favorite Sigur Ros album to this day.
Nice followup to Kid A but it's pretty clear this is actually Kid B
I adore Abby Road and it boosts some of my favorite Beatles songs of all time but the first side is spotty with some of Paul's most annoying songs.
It's the last decent Metallica album. And the one I listen to the least these days.
I'm a huge huge fan of Liz Frasier and while my intro to her was This Mortal Coil and Massive Attacks Mezzanine album, it's clear she's at her up beat poppy best here on this, my favorite Cocteau Twins album.
One of the best post punk albums of all time. An ultimate "record store nerd" record but it actually rocks and holds up to the hype.
Lovely album but not nearly their best work. Doesn't deserve to be here.
This album feels timeless, one of the greatest debuts of the decade with wall to wall bangers and an innovative and powerful sound that sadly was imitated and appropriated to the garbage genre of nu metal. Yet the OG still slaps so very much
The last great Lennon album IMHO.
My intro to the band and it remains a favorite of mine along with Trans Europe Express and Computer World. This one really plants the seeds of electro and techno though and I'd hold up as the album to play someone to better understand where modern pop and elections music originates.
One of my favorite albums of all time and my favorite Bowie album. Insanely beautiful yet desolate atmosphere. Even features some of my favorite sax playing by him too.
While amazing and "important" in retrospect it falls far behind the rest of their albums up to the end of the millennium
I'm a massive Kate Bush fan and love this album but it's a step down from The Kick Inside, The Dreaming and Hounds of Love. Not sure it belongs on this list since if those three others aren't on it.
This was my intro to pop chamber folk and I have a lot of nostalgia and bias towards this record. The first half is absolutely flawless and beautiful but it does drag a bit towards the end.
All time bangers on this but it is a bit meandering on the back half. Probably the most iconic cover art though!
I walked into this not wanting to like it since it's newish (2018) and the 1001 albums list still doesn't have two of the greatest albums of the decade (both released in 2018) that could have easily taken the place of this album (Rosalia's El Mal Querer and Low's Double Negative).
Despite that, I actually really liked this. A lot. I'm a sucker for psychedelic sounds, krautrock minimalism and buildups in rock. Some really great bass guitar and textures throughout. The actual opener and the track called Opener are huge highlights. Lyrics are a bit trite and the hooks aren't the most memorable, though. Has a very late "millenial" vocal sound, which is a touch grating, but overall a good album
Never really listened to these guys so this is very new to me. I find this album intriguing as it has a mix of textures and moods and interesting lyrics, but the overall vibe and production isn't much to my liking.
I liked this more than I thought I would. I'm not super familiar with The Cure outside of their hits and this moody, minimalist album kinda hooked me and made me want to explore their other music from the late 70's early 80's.
All time classic, I listened to the excellent Detroit 2022 mix. So good!
One of those records that's undeniable. And Miles has written like 4 albums on that level
How can you deny this album's awesomeness???!!!
Adult Contemporary-tronica? Not really feeling this.
I was completely obsessed with this album when it came out - was a very cathartic listen. Knights of Cydonia and Starlight are still instant classics to this day, but it's not quite a perfect record.
Never was that much into the Clash, more of a Sex Pistols and Wire guy. That said this debut is pretty decent, stripped down and raw in a good way that London Calling sorta lacks for me.
One of his best records but not quite perfect IMHO. Features two of his best songs I feel he's written with the opening and closing tracks and the themes and timing of the release and his passing are beyond eerie. When he left this plane so did sanity and decency in society.
Not the best Cocteau Twins album, that's Heaven or Las Vegas, but this is probably my second favorite. It's a bit front loaded though Liz's vocals really start getting more ambitious and playful. You can really see where artists like Bjork and Tori Amos would take some inspiration (in addition to Liz's contemporary Kate Bush) a decade later.
I remember getting this through a mail order CD subscription service in the 90's. Loved some of the singles, but I grew to dislike West Coast pop punk which this album iconically made mainstream along with bands like Rancid. More a personal taste thing now
It's their pop hit album? Never really got super in to them, so their albums are flawed beyond their debut, which is truly an amazing album from start to finish.
Classic acid rock masterpiece. Some of these songs literally represent the latter part of the decade of the 60's in their entirety but the album actually holds up as an end to end listen too.
Not terrible, but not my style. It's funny I didn't realize Meat Loaf was a major contributor to writing the songs for Rocky Horror Picture Show, and if you listen to Bat Out Of Hell through that lens of musical theater and rock operas, with an emphasis on the over-dramatic and flamboyant, this record makes a lot of sense. It's kinda wild it grew to be as popular as it did. Listening now it feels it should be far more fringe.
I have a lot of nostalgia for this one. Was my favorite album of the year when it came out. Absolute freak out in a great way and produced to perfection
Okay this might be the first album so far that's actually something completely unknown to me, and also something I want to acquire and listen to repeatedly. This is some sick late west coast 60's acid rock. Kinda reminds of me of The Doors and Jefferson Airplane. And it's not an ersatz derivative of those sounds at all. The cover art and album title totally threw me off. I want to drop a tab and freak out to this shit
I didn't need to listen to this before I die
Okay this was a lot of fun and made me want to be there. The call/response of getting all the girls to scream "owwww" in the extended performance of Lost Someone is classic.
There's probably 10 RS albums I prefer to their debut, which is nifty, has a couple solid songs, but is very rough around the edges. Sure it may have seeded a specific style of rock and along with the Beatles spearheaded the British invasion, but like Please Please Me, it's only importance is in what it represented as a genesis and what was to follow.
It's ... nice. Unsure why this album is on this list. It's got a relaxed, instantly recognizable Aussie/Euro vibe distinct from US/UK pop music (and not knowing the band, I wasn't surprised at all to find they are Australian). Weather With You is lovely, and a genuinely great single, but the rest of the album is pretty forgettable. I see Australians find it to be in their top 5 of domestically produced albums so maybe that's why it finds itself in this list. Personally, if we need some Aussie representation, let's get Amyl And the Sniffers' debut on this list instead haha
I ... just can't with this album. Everything about it I am disliking: the production, the mastering (whatever is up on Spotify is garbage sounding), the style, etc. The lyrics themselves aren't terrible, and I understand why this album is popular, though its title track is very much not seen for what it is: an anti-war song.
Having given it a listen it absolutely revealed to me where Arcade Fire gets some of its arena/anthemic inspiration from, though: Springsteen.
Revisiting this after not really listening to it for over a decade is a kick. Also, the drum/bass/low end mixing on this thing is really impressive and speaks to my basshead loving nature.
The non-hit tracks still rock, and it's clear with hindsight it was a pretty inspired album that probably got too big for the band's good. I can clearly hear inspiration in the production taken by Fiona Apple for Fetch the Bolt Cutters.
Nice change up. Interesting mix of reggae and Latin styles and French, Spanish, Portuguese and English lyrics. Never heard of the artist or this album before. Interesting story behind it, and even more curious it found success. For me it's a bit haphazard stylistically and the fact there's two songs with identical instrumental backing is a bit distracting.
Surprisingly never heard this one. I love his first three records but this one is much slower, funkier and dark. Sounds great too with a focus on the bass guitar for most of it.
Wat. Never really listened to them. Sound like an ersatz Queen that drank a few too many whiskies playing in a shit bar in Tucson
Another example of a forgettable album I didn't need to hear before I died. Some of these are more like (why did I waste 0.0005% of my remaining existence listening to this?
Haaa I remember listening to this on college. The way it was hyped you'd think it was the next coming of Christ but it's just another example of jungle being used by an artist to be "cool" (see David Bowie's Earthling as the biggest example).
Going back to it and it has aged poorly and is absolutely not a good example of the genre. If anything it's a great example of the somewhat lacking depth of knowledge the authors have with 90's electronic music and what was truly culturally and artistically impactful.
Not their best but still very good. Very bassy bluesy sound. L'America has a creepy holloween vibe for real that has unfortunately aged well. And how can you deny the epic LA Woman and Riders on the Storm? Solid record but not what I would put on this list to represent the band.
A great album marred by very poor mixing. No justice for the sound engineers!
However, this is like the third or fourth best Metallica album and not one of their more culturally impactful releases. Why is it here?
Truly one of the best albums of the 90's (of all time?) and a record DJ Shadow is forever either trying to live up to or haunted by. It's gotta be weird when your debut is such a classic and clearly stands head and shoulders above the rest of your ouvre but what can you do...
Myself, I got into this a bit later in college so 98-2000. Shadow was everywhere, he had just dropped Unkle's Psyence Fiction with Lavelle and his second album and it felt like he was the true king of West Coast hip hop production only to go full punk fuck you and peter out into niche sounds and uninspired beats on a steak that lasts until this day. He still rips it live though.
But that late 90's era was pretty peak. Also bay area artists ftw
Also nice to have an album worthy of this list for once in minute
More arty, loungy and darker than A Different Class I thought this album was a transition to something more and left me wanting. Another curious entry into the list of albums that are in the shadow of something better and more culturally impactful by the same artist that don't deserve to be here.
Enjoyed this more than I was expecting! One of my first thoughts was how much I would love to be out on the town hearing this music in a live setting dancing, drinking and enjoying the evening with a beautiful woman. For once in a long minute it def sounds like this is a worthy album to listen to before you die.
While I've been a huge Metallica fan since high school, I've largely avoided hearing much of Iron Maiden's music. I recall this cover art, and was aware these dudes kinda rose out of the punk/prog rock scenes with a proto-metal sound on their debut, but never sat down and actually listened to it. Well damn, this thing rocks and has fucking riffs for days. Especially on tracks like Phantom of the Opera you can hear how many other bands have absolutely ripped these guys off (looking at you Muse with your amazing Knights of Cydonia, now I see where you stole the riff from)
Perhaps it's the early 80's production I adore, this album is warm, thick, bassey and raw. When I think of traditional British 80's hair metal which I associate with Iron Maiden, I think of overly crisp guitars, reverb, operatic and screechy vocals, mixing focusing on 6-8khz rather than 200-500hz and a general vibe that feels like it has a veneer of plasticky chrome, rather than fire and brimstone.
I could not be more wrong with these presumptions and this album. It's got a real prog rock vibe to it, with real ebbs and flows and absolute insane musicality that while not quite King Crimsonesque, is still so much more than I was expecting. This rocks!
Postscript: I went ahead and listened to a few tracks from the Dickinson 80's records and his voice is exactly the style I hate in this genre. I guess I'll stick with this one and Killers (which more than their debut reminds me of early Queen if you believe it, also Paul Di'Anno sounds a lot like Queen's drummer Roger Taylor, who famously ripped on the vocals for I'm In Love With My Car)
One hit wonder albums should not be on this list at all! Ugh. BTW Spotify has absolutely fucked this up using multiple sources for the tracks with different mastering levels. The singles are loud, the album is quiet. Take On Me is pretty all time as a single but the rest of this album is generic sounding and boring mid 80's new wave afterbirth.
Meh..
I adore Bowie, like so much, but come on now, this is like his 7th or 8th most relevant record. Was Plastic Soul supposed to expose 70's Black Music to a wider audience, or merely to culturally appropriate and exploit for profit? With heavily coked out Bowie, I'm not so sure.
Nifty early 80's American punk mixed with some other interesting styles. Doesn't have the annoying aspects of pop punk and west coast punk I am not a fan of, but is decentish.
Classic but I have a bias against Dylan's vocal tone and style.
Probably my favorite Floyd album and one I ritually came up to while tripping my freshman year of college. One of the most impeccably produced albums of all time with an insane story behind it (Syd visiting the studio while recording is an all timer).
Total classic and Hallmark of SF soul and funk
I really liked this when it came out. Hard to listen to now. Hard to divorce art from the artist and where society has transitioned to since this came out as well. For a while it was maybe a top 2 Kanye album for me, high praise, but now I can't really listen to him anymore.
Really?
Classic, but flawed.
Absolute classic, however, now that I go back to it and listen to it as an album, the repeated motif around Lucy that ends a number of tracks and acts as a repeated, thematic interlude of poetry takes me out of the experience of this record. To this day I see DAMN as his pinnacle, but this was an insanely brilliant artistic statement that built on his debut.
More of a fan of Going Blank Again, but this rates highly.
An absolute timeless classic of downtempo IDM/trip hop beats that not only defined an era but influenced a number of artists moving forward. Kinda wall to wall bangers (if you want to call them that) and to this day my favorite album they've released end to end. Some later records may have some better singular tracks, but this is their best "statement"
Now THIS is sick. Really amazing live set of absolute cosmic jams and peak riffs with that wonderful element of flute and early 70's drugged out haze. Would definitely spin again.
Not timeless at all, very much of a time. And unfortunately even then I was not that into them. Understand why this is here though...
wtf is this super white washed reggae and R&B schlock? Is this here to inform you of the "light rock" this album would influence in the coming years or something? A far better offering for that would be Roxy Music's Avalon (not in this list)
Alternative classic from 1985:
Dead Can Dance - Spleen & Ideal
Gotta say, this list is making me realize I kinda like late 70's early 80's British thrash metal.
One of my favorite all time albums (I've been obsessed with Kate Bush for some time now). The "Downward Spiral" of 80's British synth pop. Huge couple of hits (Cloudbusting is my favorite single and song off the album - and the video is ridiculously fun and a bit on the nose, like the cover art of this album I suppose), yet The Ninth Wave is where this album truly shines. If you like this, please check out The Dreaming, Sensual World and especially Aerial, one of the greatest "comeback" albums of all time imho.
Stone cold classic. My intro to proper 70s funk
Title track is one of Bowie's best songs - I remember hearing the Sacred Silversexuals (amazing SF Bowie cover band that performed with glammy drag queens) play it back in 2012 and it was my introduction to the song in full. The rest of the album has some high points, Golden Years, Stay, TVC15, but none of these hit the heights of the title track or of many other of Bowie's albums in terms of consistency. Still, great record, great production and sound. My favorite fun fact about this album is apparently Bowie was so coked out while recording it, he has no memory of doing so. Wild.
Never were my thing, really dislike this kind of hokey faux white boy alterna-blues rock that was popular in the 90s.
This will forever be ingrained in my memory as the album that stole Album of the Year from Radiohead for OK Computer. Full disclosure, I dislike Dylan's voice on a good day, when he was young. I can barely listen to anything he's done past 1975. While he's made some classics, he's still one of the most overrated artists of the 20th century imho. This record shouldn't have garnered more acclaim than Cohen's 10 New Songs or something, but boomers gonna boomer.
Alternative offerings from 1997:
Notorious BIG - Life After Death
Fluke - Risotto
Mouse on Mars - Autoditacker
Bjork - Homogenic (one of her few not in the list?)
Portishead - Portishead (their best album)
Carl Craig - More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art
This band is a one hit wonder band, they make singles that are the definition of, and surround it with backwash. Only reason this is on this list is they are at the pinnacle of late 90's early 00's alterna-arena bands that made ballad like one hit wonder singles. That said, I looked up the plays, and noticed The Scientist actually has more plays than Clocks? Wild! I wonder why that is. Coldplay being on this list is one of many reasons it's tiresome to follow it. They are taking a spot from contemporary classics not represented here like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcachofa_(album)
Probably the only Talking Heads album I still consistently listen to from start to finish. Brilliant collaboration between Eno and the band on the production, and an incredible stylistic left turn to even take to begin with. Truly an album to hear before you die.
A millennial classic. If there's an album that defines an aughts era style onward it's this one. And it definitely holds up.
All time. Best guitar solo ever to open it up. Probably my favorite album by either parliament or funkadelic. They sound so tight and focused on this record. The story behind how Hazel played the title track's solo under the direction to imagine how he'd feel like if his mother died is crazy. Super Stupid is super amazing and my favorite song on either side. Classic that still kinda sounds fresh to this day
