My 1001 Albums Journey

Albums Rated

3.64

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Complete

999 albums remaining

Rating Distribution

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1980

Favorite Decade

Hip-hop

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5-Star Albums

1-Star Albums

Breakdown

By Genre

By Decade

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Albums

You Love More Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite Maxwell	5	2.9	+2.1
The Gilded Palace Of Sin The Flying Burrito Brothers	5	2.93	+2.07
Copper Blue Sugar	5	2.97	+2.03
Car Wheels On A Gravel Road Lucinda Williams	5	3	+2
Get Rich Or Die Tryin' 50 Cent	5	3.05	+1.95
Third Portishead	5	3.13	+1.87
The Predator Ice Cube	5	3.26	+1.74
Liquid Swords GZA	5	3.28	+1.72
Live Through This Hole	5	3.29	+1.71
A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector Various Artists	5	3.3	+1.7

You Love Less Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
Sunday At The Village Vanguard Bill Evans Trio	1	3.31	-2.31
Solid Air John Martyn	1	3.17	-2.17
Talking Timbuktu Ali Farka Touré	1	3.13	-2.13
Djam Leelii Baaba Maal	1	2.79	-1.79
A Love Supreme John Coltrane	2	3.63	-1.63
The Madcap Laughs Syd Barrett	1	2.62	-1.62
Rising Above Bedlam Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart	1	2.61	-1.61
Maggot Brain Funkadelic	2	3.6	-1.6
Bryter Layter Nick Drake	2	3.51	-1.51
Winter In America Gil Scott-Heron	2	3.25	-1.25

Artists

Favorites

Artist	Albums	Average
Led Zeppelin	3	4.67
Pink Floyd	2	5
Portishead	2	5

5-Star Albums (36)

View Album Wall

Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols

A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector

1-Star Albums (6)

All Ratings

Technique

New Order

4/5

Right in the first track you can hear what will be the sound of rave culture. In that respect alone it makes for an interesting listen. I admit I’m not a huge fan of New Order. But, for the Pop history that it is, that automatically gets 2 stars right out of the gate.

Wish You Were Here

Pink Floyd

5/5

The first Pink Floyd album I ever heard. I picked it up strictly because of the cover art. And then ai heard the music! There really isn’t a bad track on this album!

Surfer Rosa

Pixies

3/5

To me, Doolittle is the better album. You can hear the pop hooks underneath the punk rock noise & Kim Deal nearly steals the whole album with “Gigantic”. And the loud-quiet-loud dynamic is starting to take shape. Which would of course be put to good use by a lot of other bands in the years to come.

Maggot Brain

Funkadelic

2/5

While I understand Naggot Brain’s appeal & I can definitely get into the title track & “You & Your Folks, Me & My Folks”. Overall, the album just doesn’t do it for me.

The Stone Roses

5/5

Lost In The Dream

The War On Drugs

5/5

Oh. My. God. I’ve heard about The War On Drugs, but never actually heard The War On Drugs before. I so glad this came up on here. A fantastic album from start to finish.

Hotel California

Eagles

5/5

What can you say? It’s The Eagles. You either love em, or hate em.

Endtroducing.....

DJ Shadow

5/5

…Endtroducing restored my faith in hip hop. At the time it just seemed boring & bloated & along came this! Every song is genius level with all the samples & cuts & scratches. Do yourself a favour & listen to the deluxe edition to hear some alternate takes & remixes (especially Cut Chemist’s remix of The Number Song) you won’t be disappointed.

Being There

Wilco

2/5

Maybe this is genius & I’m just to lowbrow to know, but to me the songs are just…boring. It felt like a chore to get through the whole thing. Not for me.

Rising Above Bedlam

Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart

1/5

I’m stealing parts of to reviews cause they explain this album better then anything I old ever say. You remember that kid from your floor freshman year with the guitar? This is what he makes when he’s in his 40’s, after a trip to India in which he thinks he’s found some life-changing revelation while talking to the first yogi he can find. He’s not deep, he’s not insightful, and he’s certainly ignorant. Oh and he paid for the trip to India with the money from the divorce settlement. This music would be at home in a Starbucks Putumayo collection cd. One star for basic musical competence. Zero stars for the songs, arrangements, production, and lack of taste.

The Joshua Tree

5/5

This is the album where U2 bacame, well…U2. And why they would rule as one of the best pop rock bands for the next decade. The first 4 songs are Bonaire radio hits, that alone makes it a five star record. The fact that the rest of it can hold up to that just shows how much that wanted to step up to the next level. Amazing record from start to finish.

Hard Again

Muddy Waters

5/5

Wow! I had never heard this album before. Johnny Winter seems to have brought out the best in Muddy & the rest of the band. Blues at its finest. And it has (newer version of) Mannish Boy on it. That alone makes it a great record!

Can't Buy A Thrill

Steely Dan

4/5

Crosby, Stills & Nash

3/5

A bit too hippy dippy for me. I always thought they were better when Neil Young came along & showed them all how to rock. Can’t deny the magic of the harmonies though.

Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite

Maxwell

5/5

Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols

Sex Pistols

5/5

Is it as scary as it was back in the 70’s? No. Can you feel the venom that was being thrown at contemporary society? Most definitely. So full of punk rock energy that it’s bursting at the seams. It’s not often that you can say you listened to history changing. You can with this record. And that’s what makes it essential.

To Pimp A Butterfly

Kendrick Lamar

4/5

Electric Music For The Mind And Body

Country Joe & The Fish

2/5

Ugh. Just ugh. Bad blues based rock that’s been done a lot better before & since.

Liquid Swords

GZA

5/5

Was there a better or more prolific hip hop band in the 90’s then the Wu Tang Clan? 9 members & every one of them put out an individual album! Method Man may get all the commercial play, but the Gza/Genius proved his name with this masterpiece.

Sound of Silver

LCD Soundsystem

3/5

Hailed as the DJ to the coolest dance party that you weren’t invited to, LCD Soundsystem were another band that I heard of, but never actually heard. So I was excited to hear this album. And it is good, it really is. If I’m miraculously at the party & wouldn’t be mad at the music I was hearing. But, it feels like there’s something missing, something I can’t quite explain. All I know is, I listened to it once, if it was on somewhere else I’d listen to it again, but I’m not going to seek it out anytime soon.

The Wall

Pink Floyd

5/5

A Love Supreme

John Coltrane

2/5

Ever see a painting, think that it so does nothing for you & then someone tells you it’s only because you don’t understand the technique & where the artist was coming from & all these other things. So you go &!find out everything & then look at it again and…it still does nothing for you. For years I couldn’t stand the argument, that “If you just knew the theory behind Modal Jazz, it would be so much better” dominant & found out about modal jazz and…I still can’t stand jazz. And that’s the problem, to me you shouldn’t need to understand music theory, or the history of music, or anything else to listen & decide whether you like something or not. Just my opinion. Anyway, is John Coltrane one hell of a saxophonist? Yep, are all these guys technically superior to everyone else in this list of albums? Yep. Do I personally think it’s any good? Nope.

Oracular Spectacular

MGMT

3/5

The singles are pure pop perfection. The rest of the album doesn’t quite live up to them though unfortunately.

Caetano Veloso

2/5

Get Rich Or Die Tryin'

50 Cent

5/5

A classic by the last true great Hip Hop artist. Hip Hop went down hill (fast!) after this. I could listen to this album over & over. To use one of 50’s lines: I love this album like a fat kid love cake!

L.A. Woman

The Doors

5/5

Bryter Layter

Nick Drake

2/5

Singer /Songwriters seemed to be a dime a dozen in the 70’s. And, quite frankly, I can’t stand most of them. It’s just some whiny dude whining about how lonely & depressed he is cause he can’t get laid. Boo hoo. And to top it all off I can’t stand Nick Drake’s voice. The instrumentals were nice though.

I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight

Richard Thompson

4/5

I wasn’t expecting much. But came out of it pleasantly surprised. A very good folk rock record. And the title track is now added to my favourites.

Exodus

Bob Marley & The Wailers

5/5

The Gilded Palace Of Sin

The Flying Burrito Brothers

5/5

Everything about this album is perfect, from the nudie suits they’re wearing to the cover of Do Right Woman. To me, this is what real Country should sound like, or as Gram Parsons called it “Cosmic American Music”. Just beautiful stuff.

Machine Head

Deep Purple

5/5

Classic Rock at its finest. Overblown guitar solos that seem to take 10 minutes, lyrics about Cars, Girls & Excess. Perfect. And of course the chords that every beginner guitarist learns in Smoke on the Water. Absolute must listen.

Moon Safari

Air

4/5

The best way I can sum up this album is to say that Air is the perfect name for this band as that’s what the music sounds like. Like the soundtrack to an old 70’s Romance film. Very good background music or to chill out with when the party’s winding down.

Violent Femmes

5/5

When I first heard about Violent Femmes it was in comparison to They Might be Giants & Ween. Two bands that I did not like (I’ve since softened on Ween though). So I never listened for a long time. What a mistake! So awesome & all acoustic too.

The Stranger

Billy Joel

3/5

Led Zeppelin IV

Led Zeppelin

5/5

If I could give this a 10 out of 5 stars I would. And if you don’t get why, then I have to say you probably don’t like Rock N Roll!

Moondance

Van Morrison

4/5

I’m not a big fan of Van the Man. But I must admit, Moondance is a really good album. One of those ones you can put on & just chill out to.

...And Justice For All

Metallica

4/5

When I was a kid I saw a review that said Metallica put the h in thrash metal. I believe that to be true. The problem is my 51 year old self can’t keep up with thrash metal anymore. So while I understand the importance of this album & I love “One”, I couldn’t listen to it more than once. So, therefore the me now ranks this a 3 out of 5. But the 18 year old me that first heard this gave it a 5 out of 5 and listened to it on repeat. So I’ll split the difference, and give it a 4

Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

4/5

808 State

2/5

I dunno. I assume this has some historical significance, like it was the precursor to the rave culture in Britain. But every song sounds exactly the same to me & because of that every one bleeds into the other. Boring, boring, boring.

Basket of Light

Pentangle

2/5

Typical British 60’s Folk Rock. Pretentious & boring.

Odessey And Oracle

The Zombies

3/5

Starts strong “Care of Cell 44” & ends even stronger with “Tine of the Season”. The middle however left a lot to be desired.

Thriller

Michael Jackson

4/5

It’s hard not love this album. Six of nine tracks were radio singles & “Thriller” was an event unto itself. I know there’s a dark shadow hanging over it with what happens afterwards, so it do make it harder to love. But I tell myself all that stuff happened after this album & therefore I can enjoy it. A stupid compromise I know.

Winter In America

Gil Scott-Heron

2/5

Oedipus Schmoedipus

Barry Adamson

3/5

Here Come The Warm Jets

Brian Eno

2/5

In my experience, when someone tells you that an artist isn’t for everyone, but this album is their most accessible, it never bodes well. An once again “Here Comes the Warm Jets” proves it to be true. Eno’s “different” way to make albums may inspire artists to make great art (U2), but left to his own devices the songs are just…weird.

The Suburbs

Arcade Fire

3/5

Nebraska

Bruce Springsteen

5/5

Loveless

My Bloody Valentine

2/5

Third/Sister Lovers

Big Star

2/5

Sunday At The Village Vanguard

Bill Evans Trio

1/5

I don’t like jazz.

The Number Of The Beast

Iron Maiden

5/5

The first Metal album I ever heard. And it still stands up!

Black Sabbath

5/5

I mean, it’s Black Fucking Sabbath! If you don’t like this, you probably don’t like Rock n Roll!

Elvis Is Back

Elvis Presley

2/5

Back To Black

Amy Winehouse

5/5

Solid Air

John Martyn

1/5

Doolittle

Pixies

5/5

Play

Moby

3/5

Talking Timbuktu

Ali Farka Touré

1/5

The Man Who

Travis

3/5

Djam Leelii

Baaba Maal

1/5

Pretenders

4/5

Raw Power

The Stooges

5/5

It’s so weird. What mix do you listen to? The Bowie Mix? The Iggy Mix? The latest Remastered version? The credit that this album gets comes from the fact that no matter which one you listen to, it still fucking rocks! BTW, I listened to the Iggy Mix Remastered edition

In Rainbows

Radiohead

3/5

Car Wheels On A Gravel Road

Lucinda Williams

5/5

Want One

Rufus Wainwright

3/5

Physical Graffiti

Led Zeppelin

4/5