1001 Albums Summary

Ah man, Jeff Buckley. What a damn tragedy. This album is beautiful, and has one of my most favourite guitar tracks ever on an album, So Real, which is the first song I properly learned on guitar. His voice is truly one of a kind, the range, the emotions, incredible. I like every track on this album. I could really talk for hours about it. 10/10 5/5 No notes.

This is a 5 star album for me. Huge when it came out, huge now. Incredible vocals, incredible production on every single track. The live instrumentation on Sweet Life, with that funky jazz bass guitar at the end is just so damn good. I love the lyricism on Super Rich Kids, and honestly I think Pyramids is a contender for one of the best songs of the 21st century though I do think the main part of the song is slightly dated now, though I really enjoy the production and mastering from about the 3 minute mark. A masterclass until the song ends. I also just can’t get enough of the melody and vocals on bad religion. Divine. And Pink Matter. Just crazy for the instrumentation on this and André 3000 too. A really cool, sexy track. This album began my love affair with similar artists like Solange, James Blake, Childish Gambino, Blood Orange, so absolutely a monumental album for me.

I have never been able to take to Taylor Swift, but I remember enjoying songs off this album when it came out. It has been a while since I've listened to them. Unfortunately I reeeeeeally (sorry Taylor), don't enjoy her singing voice at all snd find it annoying. I also find it hard to put aside my feelings about her when listening. I'll start with the low points on the album for me: don't enjoy Blank Space, I find the lyrics really corny, and the same goes for Wonderland. Shake it off really drives me crazy, but think that's more to do with it being so overplayed. I think Clean is poorly performed. That said, I the tracks I enjoyed then, I think still hold up now: Style (really like the chorus - very catchy), the bridge on Out of the Woods is decent as well. I think she sings well on Wildest Dreams, and again, it has a great bridge. My favourite track on the album is New Romantics. I think her vocal performance here is best, and it's a real feel-good pop anthem! Not bad.

My brother and I had a DVD years ago with all of MJ's music videos on it and we put it on most days after school, so I really feel I know his discography like the back of my hand. The album gets off to a sensational start. One of the things I like most about Michael Jackson is that his songs are so instantly recognizable. Each track is so rich instrumentally, and Thriller, THRILLER!?! Is there another song like it? It's absolutely insane. Beat It is probably the music video I watched the most and I remember finding absolutely everyone in the video incredibly attractive and thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I also grew up watching tons of Kung Fu/ Hong Kong gang movies - and it always reminded me of them. The imagery, styling, etc. My favourite tracks are Human Nature and P.Y.T (love the chorus). 5 stars, monumental album, clearly deserves to be on this list.

I unashamedly really like Radiohead even if it makes me an intense fan. Thom Yorke's vocals are just sooooooo good. Great start, and then straight into Paranoid Android and Subterranean Homesick Alien which is a personal highlight on this album - love the keys and guitar on this. Whenever I listen to Exit Music, it gives me this incredible cinematic feeling of moving forward while everything else warps around me. Just feel quite spacey yet cool and untouchable but also like my life is full of despair. Hopefully that's what Thom and the gang were going for. HATE Fitter Happier and it could almost make me want to knock the album down a point, but I'll let it slide. The noise on Electioneering is spot on, and Climbing Up the Walls just has new things to pick up on every time I listen to it. No Surprises :) Lucky is one of the only Radiohead songs I know all the words to. If I was part of a Radiohead tribute band, this would be on the setlist, as would the last song on this album.

First time listening all the way through from top to bottom and have mixed thoughts. The first half is where the album shines, “Tunic (Song for Karen)” and “Kool Thing” are the best tracks on the album, no doubt thanks to Kim Gordon’s distant, eerie vocals and that hypnotic bass line with the steady groove which was a hit with my toddler. However, things start to slip towards the midway point and some of the songs felt like filler and, despite the noise, quite flat. Overall a mixed bag, couldn’t listen to it often aside from a few tracks so giving it a 3. Good, but overrated.

It's a nice album. I think? I’ve just never really been a big fan of Bob Dylan. He’s fine, I can respect what he’s doing, and I get that he's a huge figure in music history, but I never find myself wanting to play his songs. Most of the time, I just find them a bit boring. He feels like a bit of a marmite (or vegemite??) artist, you either love him or you don’t, and I just don’t. There are a couple of tracks that stand out, sure, but overall I’m not really sure when or why I’d ever put this album on. I’m not planning any campfire singalongs or sitting on a veranda with a toothpick and a thousand-yard stare anytime soon. The album is fiiiiiine, I get its place in the world, but it’s just not for me. And yeah, it weirdly makes me feel like a bad person to say that… but it just does not hit.

This album is only 30 minutes long! Is it the best Beatles record? Could be, I think it's waaaaaay underrated. Reminds me of my grandparents (not just because grandma looked like Paul), an easy listen. I think it's ahead of its time, and I am obsessed with the instrumentation on And I Love Her, my favourite track on the album. The bongos are just. so. good. A feel-good, earnest album that feels great to dance to.

So pleasantly surprised by this. Way surpassed my expectations. To be honest I knew nothing about them apart from one song (La Grange, coincidentally on this album - cheers Guitar Hero), and that they have a lot of hair. I was immediately hooked by the first track, and thoroughly enjoyed listening until the end. I have some, possibly insane, takes about this album: I reckon this record is more influential than it appears, there’s just way too much on this album that connects directly to more modern stuff for it to just be a coincidence. There’s a real funk and groove to the whole thing. At some points I heard whispers of Red Hot Chili Peppers, vocally Billy Gibbons (thanks Google), falls somewhere between the gravelly baritone Eddie Vedder and the same sort of laid-back vibe of Anthony Kiedis. I felt the whole thing was effortlessly cool. Standout track for me was "Precious and Grace", just thought it was really fun. The beginning of "Move Me on Down the Line" came on and it sounded like Reptilia. Surely it can't just be me, but maybe ZZ Top is just way more influential than I thought, I feel like you can hear its DNA everywhere - but that might be because it's so old and everything's been done already.

Don't know much about R.E.M so didn't have any feelings going into this other than I thought it might be boring. I wasn't completely wrong. I thought a lot of the songs sounded too samey, and the main vocalists voice was really bloody annoying after a few songs. "Perfect Circle" was particularly crap, and the last three songs on the album were a terrible way to finish, I almost can't believe how lame "West of the Fields" was as an end to the record. Some highs: enjoyed "Pilgrimage", chorus on "Moral Kiosk", "Sitting Still" would be decent in a car, and "9-9" was at least sonically interesting and jarring in a good way. Was going to give it a 3 for being alright, but changing to a 2 because I've become more pissed off with the vocalists voice while writing this review, and for how shit the ending was.

I'm a Bossa Nova girlie and Stan Getz is a big name but I am not a big fan of the old guy - his music is great, he didn't seem to be. Great to listen to while doing work, a good mood booster. Not a whole bunch to say, I really like the music and could listen to it all the time as with any Bossa Nova really. Also makes me feel extremely distinguished. But Getz/Gilberto is the better album. 4 from me!

Is this THE Bob Marley album? I don't know many songs, but became very familiar with reggae as a uni student living with a bunch of stoners. As a result, immediately transported back to a grotty house in Plymouth which isn't a listening experience I often want. However, I didn't not enjoy listening. I was just able to let it play while I got on with work and it was pleasant. Favourite track was "Turn Your Lights Down". Good ending, feel good album. On listen, more musically interesting than I was expecting. 3.5, but will round up to a 4.

BIt of a snoozefest (put me to sleep when I should have been doing work) but only 28 minutes so at least I was able to get through it. Also knew some of the songs already (Homeward Bound, 59th Street...). The Dangling Conversation sounds nice on the surface but the lyrics are sooooo extemely lame and pretentious. Final track is quite cool considering it came out in 1966. But it's another grandma and grandpa record - give me something more exciting!!

This is a five star album. I like every song, and they all regularly come up on shuffle. There's a song for every mood and every ocassion on this album. Some standouts: Dreams - ugh, so good. Stevie's vocals are golden, the simplicity of the music is sublime. Songbird - I actually grew up with the Eva Cassidy version in my house as a child which I prefer. To me it's always been a really sad song, but I think it's probably because Eva Cassidy died so young. Christine McVie sounds great here though. The Chain - this is such a cool song, another for my setlist if I was ever in a cover band. You Make Loving Fun - It's like Dreams' carefree older sister, love both songs on this album. Only critique of this album is that I don't LOVE Gold Dust Woman as the final song. And, all I could think about when listening was WWF legend and hall-of-famer Golddust. So much so, I looked it up to see if this was where he got his ringname from: "The character was portrayed as a drag queen obsessed with films and everything gold, which is a parody of the Oscars statuette. Dust, is a play on his real name". Not quite.

Wowza. What a record. Immediately downloaded. Great to listen to when doing work. Googled him later and found out he once married 27 women in one day - what a geezer, but NOT a sleaze. Go 'ed Fela. 5 stars.

Piss off. 1 star.

I like the album artwork. The record is just absolutely fine but nothing to write home about. I would listen to it, nice to have on at home when pottering around. Reminds me of my grandparents and the Honky Tonk Man.

Am I going to get flamed for this review? Had never heard of this album, nor the band. Immediately downloaded the entire thing. This was FUN. The instrumentation on this thing is nuts. I hear a lot of bands I like in this record, there's a bit of everything here. Best tracks: Definitive Gaze (excellent opener), Recoil (HUGE energy), Burst, The Great Beautician in the Sky (had to listen to this three times just to really take it all in), Parade (the instrumentation at the beginning of this would fit right into a Tekken 2 cut scene). This is my favourite so far (of albums previously unknown)!

I have a neutral-positive opinion of Fleet Foxes. I don't know anything about them really but have listened to songs of theirs since I was a teen. The songs I do know, I have always enjoyed, but I've never really sought them out, so this was my first time listen to an album of theirs in its entirety. Got off to a decent start, Sun It Rises felt like an album opener, WWH is a song I've known and enjoyed for years, really enjoy the vocal melody and performance of it, and it's great to sing along to. Lyrics are simple and I enjoy them but I don't really know what's going on. As I keep listening, I'm brought back to my days as a teen where I wanted to be a really cool (lame) folk singer, and wrote really cool (corny) lyrics. I think the album is nice overall. It's not something I'd listen to often, but there are a small handful of tracks I'd save on Spotify at least. 3.49 / 5 to round down to 3, it's not a 4.

Just can't bring myself to give it a 5, but very enjoyable nonetheless. Knew more songs than I thought I would, and for me, Electric Feel is the standout (but I knew that already).

I am a big fat hater of the Killers so went into this fully expecting to be irritated by it. Immediately annoyed by Mr Brightside but then Smile Like You Mean It came on so I couldn’t help myself and started singing along. When that ended I was quickly bombarded by the next two tracks which brought me back to being a preteen and I couldn’t figure out if I enjoyed that or not. However immediately after they were done, I was back to being a hater and thinking about how much Brendan Flowers vocals make me want to tear my hair out because all the songs sound the saaaaaaaaame. I did save Smile Like You Mean It, but man, the Killers is such a lame band.

This is a really monumental album for me and I think it was the catalyst that helped shape me into such a pretentious and quite insufferable music listener. Intro… what an intro! VCR reminds me of the guy I used to be crazy about at the time so while the track is great, I’m put off by it now (curse you, guy!) I used to play a lot of these songs with my uni flatmates, and Crystalized was always fun, as was Islands!! What a tune. Was never fussed on Heart Skipped a Beat but like it more now, especially the last minute of the song. I LOVE Fantasy, but my god, I was just the WORST because all I thought of here was being sat in my window at uni chain smoking. I am now, unfortunately, being confronted by how massively embarrassing that is. What a dick! Moving on, I really love the instrumentation and production on Shelter, and it’s immediately followed by Basic Space which is fun, but I’ve always felt a disconnect on that track between the track itself and the vocals which I find jarring. I think I would enjoy it more without the vocals entirely. Infinity is another of those chain smoking songs for me so again, filled with embarrassment and disdain towards myself while listening. I’m so conflicted about this album. It’s hard to separate myself and my memories of it from this listening experience right now. It is not my favourite XX album, and I do actually prefer Jamie XX’s solo releases, particularly what he’s put out this year. I THINK it’s a 4 from me. And I’ll probably never listen again. Who ever allowed me to be such a twat!

Didn't take long to get to this one. As I said in my previous Stan Getz review, this is the superior album. Very cool. 5 estrelas!