I’m not going to review this album. This collection features possibly the greatest American voice singing the collection of possibly the greatest American songwriter, produced by a legendary producer at the highest level of care and quality available at that time. That’s why this collection is here. If you appreciate music, you should be aware of this and listen to it. Is that not the point of this list? The whiny reviews are frankly embarrassing. Who cares that it is a compilation. This collection is a monstrous musical achievement, including as a way to ensure that Gershwin’s genius was fully captured. You don’t have to listen to all 3 hours (or 4 if you listen to the revamped versions). You can listen to 20 minutes and understand what’s there. Stop complaining.

This album surprised me - and not in a good way. I have so much love and respect for The Temptations, and love Motown, R&B, and Funk music. And this album fell really flat for me. There is terrific musicianship on this album, and the production (apart from the first song) is terrific. I've tried to put my finger on why it didn't work for me, and the best I can come up with is that it feels like they aren't fully into it...it feels forced. I think Papa Was A Rollin Stone is phenomenal - it pushes the envelope and is so impressive. But apart from that, this felt like a forced effort to keep The Temptations relevant. Funky Music Sho Nuff might have been a great piece, but they made the odd choice to make it seem like a live number. The less said about Run Charlie Run the better, but the Temptations didn't want to do it and it shows. The lyrics throughout the album are uninspired. Being harsh, the funk sounds like it is watered down for Grandma and Grandpa, and their more traditional R&B/soul efforts are lyrically corny and musically well done but unoriginal. I just can't help but think about what else was available now - Ohio Players "Pleasure" came out this same year! Think of the music groups like Sly and the Family Stone and The Meters had already been putting out for several years. This is a nice album from The Temptations, with a great anchor song. But I just can't see this album as something exceptional.

Despite being very familiar with the singles from this album, I had never listened to it before. Definitely an iconic album that catapulted Blondie's fame, and listening to the album really highlighted the influence that this record had on rock and pop music at that time. They are so genre-defying - elements of straight-up rock, punk, art rock, doo wop are all in there. And Debby Harry is just amazing - love her voice and the range of tones she can access. I found myself really enjoying the middle of the album - Fade Away and Radiate really made an impression on me and I love its weirdness, and I really enjoyed 11:59, Will Anything Happen, and Sunday Girl. I'm not sure there were any real hidden gems on the album, however - lots of enjoyable songs that definitely establish a clear sound and musical outlook, but nothing that made me sit up in my chair. I also thought the last two tracks were real throwaways. I wasn't crazy about the song order, either; I've seen reviews that feel quite the opposite, so I may be alone on that! But for example I found Heart of Glass strangely buried - it has such a strong, pulsing opening, I thought it would have made much more sense as the opening track of side 2. I give an overall 4 recognizing it as a truly iconic and influential album and the overall quality of the music. My personal rating is a 3. Enjoyable album that I'd listen to again, but not one I'd likely go to again on my own.

Obviously an iconic album - one I had as a kid, and haven't listened to beginning to end in a very long time. I really appreciate the degree of experimentation going on here and the musicianship and production are just incredible. It is so over the top and that's part of what I love about it - there is nothing subtle here, lol. It's a really cohesive album - I thought Beautiful Ones and Computer Blue were just ok and sounded particularly dated to my 2025 ears, but those low points for me aside the album has a great flow and a clear outlook.

I took the time to listen to this album twice, and that really paid off. Although I'm a huge fan of jazz, I had not heard Hugh Masekela's music before - so this album suggestion revealed a big gap in my knowledge and experience and introduced me to some amazing music. The music is just masterful. My first listen I liked it, but was unsure - and it is clear that was just me digesting something new. The second listen really captured me fully. There is something simultaneously calming and invigorating about this album, an aspect that became clearer to me when I listened on headphones and was able to pick up the extraordinary texture and detail in the music. This is music that is great for contemplation, great on a long walk or something where you can just be inside your own head. The final track, Ingoo Pow-Pow (Children's Song) is also worth mentioning. It is completely different from the rest of the album, more explicitly connecting traditional South African music with jazz. I loved this track on many levels, including the ways it uses jazz in a non-western musical form. Go ahead and try and figure out the time signature ;)

I love so much of Stevie Wonder's music and I know this is regarded as an iconic album - but this album just didn't do it for me. Higher Ground and Living for the City blow me away every time I hear them, and I really enjoyed Golden Lady which I didn't know before. But I found the rest of the album incredibly uneven, and some of it just isn't to my taste. I found the lyricism lacking in many of the songs, as well as the quality of his vocals. And many of the songs just felt corny to me - occasionally even showtune-y. Overall just not my cup of tea.

Generally speaking, I enjoyed the music on the album. It almost felt like I was listening to 2000s alternative radio - I got a Strokes song, The Killers, a David Bowie song thrown in, a little Fat Boy Slim, is that Talking Heads song? I'd enjoy hearing songs from this album on the radio or as part of a mix. A whole album of it, however, did end up feeling a bit much. The music within each song is quite repetitive, and so...many...sixteenth notes. By the end it sort of felt like I'd spent an hour in a club. I don't mean to be too critical - the songs were fun, it just wasn't the best album-listening experience.

Really cool album - great songwriting, incredibly ambient music, somehow felt old and new at the same time. This was a completely new album for me and so glad to listen to it. It is slower than what I more typically listen to, and after a while it did fade a bit into the background for me. That's just an element of personal taste. Beautiful music with an incredible vibe.

Had this been made a single album rather than a double album, this would likely be regarded as a perfect record. As it is, there’s unevenness to the production and a handful of songs that I could really do without (the 14 minute merman song is a remarkable time capsule and very much a parody of itself - although it’s also obvious they are completely and utters serious in their performances!) This keeps it from a 5 star rating from me. However the better parts of the album are truly sublime. Some of the best rock music ever is on the album for sure.

The music on this album is adjacent to a good bit of punk, hardcore, and metal that I really enjoy. For the record, though, I wouldn’t say I enjoy listening to this album. There are a handful of songs I enjoy - like She’s Hit, Kiss Me Black, 6” Gold Blade. But most of it I don’t enjoy listening to. I probably like it more as an art piece than as an album of music. The album made me think a lot - made me think about music and what commentary they were making, and where it fits in the spectrum of music before and after. I love the absolute rejection of standard expectations of popular music. It’s taking aspects of the punk ethos to its logical extreme. And it also clearly informs a lot of hard core and harder core metal (vs hair metal) that comes later. I am also drawn to the darkness of the lyrics. 6” Gold Blade felt like a modern, post punk Murder Ballad. Definitely more of an interesting thing to experience.

First half of the album was frankly boring for me. I appreciate the ambient quality of it, but overall I found it musically uninteresting. I like Notget and from that point of the album on I found it all much more interesting. But overall the album was a bit of a navel gaze for me.

Eh. This fades into the background for me almost immediately. I just can’t connect with music like this. Not for me.

I’m really surprised by the negativity in the reviews. This isn’t my cup of tea personally, but the top review says they can’t understand how anyone could have an emotional reaction to this music? Let’s be serious. This is outstanding pop music. Plenty of hooks, well produced, and Adele’s powerful voice has plenty of personality. Plus I’m always a sucker for an artist who made it from the bottom to the top - and Adele’s is the ultimate such story. I will almost certainly not listen to this album ever again. But I can enjoy the pop hooks, appreciate the vocals and the very personal songwriting, and admire the enormous impact this album had.

I’m not going to review this album. This collection features possibly the greatest American voice singing the collection of possibly the greatest American songwriter, produced by a legendary producer at the highest level of care and quality available at that time. That’s why this collection is here. If you appreciate music, you should be aware of this and listen to it. Is that not the point of this list? The whiny reviews are frankly embarrassing. Who cares that it is a compilation. This collection is a monstrous musical achievement, including as a way to ensure that Gershwin’s genius was fully captured. You don’t have to listen to all 3 hours (or 4 if you listen to the revamped versions). You can listen to 20 minutes and understand what’s there. Stop complaining.

I'm not that far into listening to the albums, but of all the albums I've been given this is the one I have the hardest time understanding why it is essential to listen to. It seems like good synth pop, but it is pretty unremarkable. I appreciate that they brought forward the sounds of the 80s into 2010 pop, and maybe that's the simple reason they are here - this album as an archetype of that particular moment in music. Completely listenable, but altogether pretty just...fine.

The monstrous hits from this album are fun, and culturally omnipresent. But the album is actually a drag. AC/DC has a very clear formula for their music...and boy do they stick with it. I don't think there's a different drum beat across the 42 minutes of music on this album, nor is there a double hit on the bass drum. This is just straightforward, uninventive rock music. And it is pretty much a double-entendre concept album, as a friend of mine put it. I recognize the cultural impact of this album, and respect the hooks and riffs that drove it to selling millions of copies. But this album is formulaic and conventional, and tiresome in its adolescent obsession with sexual innuendo - oftentimes in problematic ways.

I have never cared for Joni Mitchell's singing style - tone or phrasing - and her music typically is not a style I generally like. In that context, this album surprised me. I did like a lot of the music on this album - it's inventive and interesting, and diverse across the album. I enjoyed listening to it well beyond my expectations, and Jungle Line is actually a song I'd say I enjoyed! I still can't click with her vocals and lyrical style, and I won't listen to this album again. But certainly glad this project got me to listen to it this once.

Hmmm. I really enjoy listening to this album, have to be honest. They're just great musicians and that's on display here. I don't disagree with the criticisms of Keidis' vocals and lyrics. That's really nothing new, and is just part of their sound; the vapidity of it is wearing, though, and it is tedious to listen to a then-nearly 40 year old man continue to make sophomoric and questionable sexual innuendo. But there's a great range of music on this album, and I didn't find it bland nor did I find the non-hits to be filler. Great rock music all the way around. I'd probably give it a 3.5 if I could give half stars.

Appreciate the minimalism on a certain level and this album has a vibe, for sure. If an album could be two awkward people in their early twenties trying to hang out and get to know each other, this would be it. Don't want to be too harsh, but the minimalism was a bit too minimalist at times - some songs feel like ideas that never got fully fleshed out; I would lose track of when a song began and ended, and quite a bit sounds the same. But I appreciate the homegrown nature of this album and there are a few songs on here that are exceptional.

I had this album as a kid when it first came out - really loved it, remembered it as a fun album that was a big part of the musical story of that time. And I haven't listened to it since. My sense of Cyndi Lauper has also evolved significantly over time. In the moment (and in the eyes of a kid/early teen) she seemed fun and whacky, and a bit shticky. As time has gone on, however, I really came to understand Cyndi Lauper's deeper talent and artistry - I mean, she won a Tony for the music for Kinky Boots! She's had a remarkably consistent career with so many highlights - I've come to deeply respect her as a person and artist. In this context, it was so fantastic to revisit this album. I don't want to go overboard - it is a pop album, not a musical masterpiece per se. But I do think it is a pop masterpiece. Lauper - through her music and her self presentation - vaulted pop and new wave aesthetics into the mainstream. The music on the album is varied and interesting, with tons of personality and a good chunk of subversion (how can you not admire a top 5 hit about the joys of masturbation!) The vocals on Time After Time - which is a remarkably well composed pop ballad - are phenomenal, showing off Lauper's pure singing talent. The album perfectly captures the music of the time, but I found it completely and utterly listenable 42 years later. Lauper deserves all the flowers for carving out an incredibly successful career while being her authentic, iconoclastic self and this album captures that perfectly. And all that context aside, its just a fun listen.

This album surprised me - and not in a good way. I have so much love and respect for The Temptations, and love Motown, R&B, and Funk music. And this album fell really flat for me. There is terrific musicianship on this album, and the production (apart from the first song) is terrific. I've tried to put my finger on why it didn't work for me, and the best I can come up with is that it feels like they aren't fully into it...it feels forced. I think Papa Was A Rollin Stone is phenomenal - it pushes the envelope and is so impressive. But apart from that, this felt like a forced effort to keep The Temptations relevant. Funky Music Sho Nuff might have been a great piece, but they made the odd choice to make it seem like a live number. The less said about Run Charlie Run the better, but the Temptations didn't want to do it and it shows. The lyrics throughout the album are uninspired. Being harsh, the funk sounds like it is watered down for Grandma and Grandpa, and their more traditional R&B/soul efforts are lyrically corny and musically well done but unoriginal. I just can't help but think about what else was available now - Ohio Players "Pleasure" came out this same year! Think of the music groups like Sly and the Family Stone and The Meters had already been putting out for several years. This is a nice album from The Temptations, with a great anchor song. But I just can't see this album as something exceptional.

Glad I was introduced to this and challenged to listen to avant garde jazz. It’s difficult to listen to and I don’t particularly care for it. I found myself marveling at the speed at which they are capable of playing, and the moments of sense that emerge in the music. A fatal flaw for me is the double drums which very often created an overwhelming wall of static. I could not perceive any individual drum hits - it was just interference. Maybe that was the goal and or maybe I just don’t understand that. And maybe that’s the point. Maybe that’s better live. I dunno.

Just a phenomal live album. Phil Lynott was such a great front man, and the whole band is clearly just keyed in together and going all out for the full performance. So much energy comes through. Awesome call out at the end to Huey Lewis who was their harmonica player!

For starters, this is just beautiful music. There's a certain sparseness that I loved, and such understated control over the music by everyone involved. I had mixed feelings about the mess ups - the improv on willow weep for me was fun, but it didn't work for me in the last number. And it strangely lacked more of a live music energy. A harsher view might be that there was just a determination to make an album at Mister Kelly's, so they went and did it - and it is great because of the extraordinary abilities of everyone involved, but they weren't excited to be performing in front of a live audience...they had a job to take care of. Maybe too harsh, and that only dampened the experience slightly for me.

Generally speaking, I dislike country music. I tried very hard to go into this album with an open mind, and I know Waylon Jennings is a legend. Try as I might, however, this just doesn't work for me. The story telling was unconvincing, in part because the lyrics seem simple and obvious, and each song felt like just the same story told just a little bit differently. It feels like a lot of cosplaying about some imagined past (or present) reality. And while the music is good, it's not notable in any way...not something a long list of good musicians could produce. A harsh review that undoubtedly speaks to my general dislike of the genre. If one likes the genre, I can see liking this album a lot for sure. Even then, I'm not convinced this is in the top 1001 one needs to here. As ever, glad I gave something a try I never would have listened to on my own.

Overall a great listen. While there is definitely something to the criticism of the being a lack of cohesion to the songs on the album, I'd argue there's a cohesive vibe to this album. It's a bit all over the place in one sense, but really it's a great exploration of so many shades of American blues music. And each song on its own shows of the phenomenal musical connection they all have with each other. Overall, its a great rock and roll album. I do not, however, quite get why this album is considered their very best or regarded as one of the all time great albums. There's too much inconsistency in the quality of the songs themselves (there's a solid handful of songs on here that are no better than stock in trade/paint by numbers blues songs) and there isn't much I'd consider musically inventive. Also, not sure why there's so much excitement about Keith Richards being given the chance to sing lead on a song. He's a TERRIBLE singer lol.

Reasonably enjoyable listen. I appreciated the ambient alt-pop sound. Nothing notably inventive and the Wikipedia entry should just be ignored (I read a great review here from someone who did the forensics and unearthed that the praise being referred to came from a sell piece on the album - so it’s just promotional fluff). 25 albums in I am moving away from the notion that these 1001 albums are in some way the greatest of all time, as the “listen to before you die” might suggest. Instead it’s more of a compilation of albums that one might select to give a comprehensive sampling of popular music over the last 70 or so years. Otherwise I can’t justify or understand the inclusion of an album like this (or a few others I’ve heard even this early on). Im glad I listened to it - it’s something I would have never otherwise tried and it did expose me to another corner of the music world.

Have to confess my bias upfront - this was a favorite album of mine when it came out, and this was the second concert I went to. So I have a real soft spot for this album. That being said, I do genuinely believe this is a phenomenal album - superbly crafted pop rock, completely captures its time without by and large feeling dated, impeccably produced with exceptional attention to detail (which unfortunately became something of a hurdle for Orzabal going forward), on the cutting edge at the time in use of technology, and very interesting in terms of the range of genres and musical ideas explored (for a pop album). I'd give it 4.5 stars if I could, and will let my soft spot elevate it to a 5.

Dont be a hater. Tito Puente was the Mambo King! Top flight musicians playing phenomenal Latin Jazz. Just have fun with it.

Nostalgic to listen to. Hits lack depth but are super fun. The rest is mostly filler and I just don’t need to hear 40 year olds and their corny lyrics about sex. Not sorry to listen to it again and I appreciate the significance of the ways this relaunched Aerosmith.

This was such a huge hit when it came out, and the hit songs on here are pretty fun - not worth thinking about too hard, definitely not worth paying attention to the lyrics too closely, but fun pop rock hits. But for me time was not kind to this album. The vapidity of the hits is made tolerable by their catchiness and fun factor. The vapidity of the rest of the album...not so tolerable. A lot of the songs felt like filler - some of them sounded like rough drafts of the hits. And I don't really know what happened to them musically. Boring guitar solos. Uninspired melodies. And Frank Beard sounds like a beginning drummer. I know he is capable of much more...but apparently he was just their drum machine on this album. I didn't come into this expected to be so disappointed - I thought it would be a fun and nostalgic ride. And I suppose it was for 3 songs. But as an album experience, this is a dud.

The Band has been a mystery for me for years. I don’t quite see why they are singled out by some as so profoundly influential, as a band that “changed the vocabulary of rock and roll” and other such praise. And I still don’t. But Im glad I listened to this album carefully. I came away much more excited by the music than I expected to be. There is some phenomenal musicianship here, especially the bass and keyboards, and they play so well together. There’s more country flavor than suits me, but I still get the quality of the music. But the vocals. They’re just awful. Consistently bad. And for a band that has a reputation for evocative storytelling songs, the lyrics aren’t all that good. Sometimes downright bad. This really drags down their music for me.

Brilliant album. Lots of great reviews here already that explain well why this album is beautiful in its own right as well as why it was so profoundly influential. Im still waiting for a negative review that actually makes sense (apart from those that simply note it’s just not their type of music).

I’ve never really been able to get into reggae, so I’m glad this project got me to listen to Burning Spear. Love the political lyrics and the music is great. Still not my thing but I see how great an example of the genre this is.

Im generally not a fan of American folk and folk-oriented rock so I’ve always been just ok on CSN. Listening to a full album was interesting. The harmonizing, which is their signature, seemed forced at times. Hits and misses across the album. Stephen Stills is a great musician and I appreciated more exposure to that. A better experience than I expected overall, tbh, but still not my bag personally.

I've never listened to this album and I was excited, thinking this might end up a hidden gem. Alas, in the end I can't get past Kevin Rowland's weak vocals - I like plenty of music with folks who don't technically sing well, but I couldn't even get with Rowland's poor phrasing and the character of his voice just grated on me. There's tremendous musical potential here, and I like a number of the songs - particularly Keep It and There There My Dear. And I can see how the album would make more of an impact in its time. But in the end the vocals really did me in.

Love it. Weird, endearing and charming, genre busting, fun. Curt's singing is terrible, there's no question about that - and I'm not sure how much of the bad singing is on purpose or not. But for whatever reason it works well enough (and sometimes wonderfully). It's also easy to see why Kurt Cobain played three of their songs on Unplugged and credited them as a strong influence - their stamp is all over Nirvana's music, and the Seattle scene in general. I loved this the first time through, and it just grows on me with every listen. Lots of musically interesting work on here. Overall the album is a DIY triumph.

Fantastic stuff.

Such a great album. Totally captures the time period it comes, and yet doesn't sound dated. In fact, Beck's output predicted the future of music a lot better than most of what was coming out in the mid-90s, imo. This album is also a reminder of one of the best aspects of the 90s - it was a a period when such an incredibly eclectic mix of music got mainstream attention. This album is weird, and so was the 90s, and that's what we love about it. Some of the negative reviews surprise me (but to each their own, of course!) I love the ridiculous variety of songs on this album - I don't find it haphazard, disorganized, nonsensical. It's crazy and weird in certain ways, but also every song is fully composed. And the range of genres and sounds Beck draws from makes total sense to me. Maybe it is that we are essentially the same age? His frame of reference is completely familiar for me, and when I listen to Beck I've always felt like he was connecting a lot of the dots of my musical life and figuring out where it should go next. The music also captures LA in the late 80s/90s extremely well - the sounds and musical techniques on this album were all over LA for sure.