Yessss. When this album popped up a slow smile grew across my dumb kisser. A perfect excuse to blow the dust off my ragged old LP. Those dueling guitars. This album f’ck’n rules from the first second to the last.
This band manages something impressive: it takes a bunch of musical elements that I love, blends them, and creates something abominable. Good job.
Medium-good Radiohead album. Very medium-good.
Didn’t spend too much time with this one at the time. I determined that the album is the perfect soundtrack for decorating the yard for Halloween. High praise indeed.
Sorry dh, are you kidding me? This album slaps. 3.5 stars, bumped up for the image of someone listening three full times to award it a 1-star review. Rolling Stone Magazine watch: five mentions in album Wikipedia page. Note: album Wikipedia page in unconscionable.
koff koff…ahem…
Aretha is so amazing and she elevates these tracks so high, it feels a bit cheap to dig on the band, who stay only serviceable. So, because of that one thing, I won’t award this album six stars. Six is too generous.
Ponderous themes and ponderous production. But sometimes it kind of rocks?
Some albums just stand the test of time, exposing new layers and depths when you listen at different stages of your own life. Fine wine classics. This is not one of them.
Watching Iggy hobble around the stage at age 76 with no shirt, looking like a saddle bag full of live cats (see Wikipedia photo for reference), converting drunk fratboys song by vigorous song, is one of my fondest festival memories. This sleazy sack of wormmeat only enhances the legend.
Listening to Rain Dogs makes me profoundly happy. The world would be such a better place if we’d all just take some time to love the wonderful carnival of Tom Waits’ mind for awhile.
I have a soft spot for soul sisters singing sweetly. This album has a ton of great tracks. It doesn’t hang together as a unified album necessarily, so runs way too long. But I like plucking tracks from this for other playlists. How to rate?
Never heard of this one before. After getting over my initial surprise that Devandra Barnhart is a man, I proceeded to first become hypnotized and then obsessed by this absolutely wonderful flurry of ideas. Listening to Rejoicing In The Hands has made me 10x more excited for what other hidden gems this 1001 Albums business may cough up. Rolling Stone Magazine watch: One instance on the album Wikipedia page. Receives my first 5-star review
I don’t know why I really was avoiding this album in the history. I’d just keep imagining Coldplay songs I know and it would make me feel tired and bored without even pressing PLAY. Honestly, though, it wasn’t so bad. Pleasant enough and all that.
I like everything about this. Rolling Stone Magazine Watch: mentioned zero times on album Wikipedia page. Bonus point for including a song about the magazine.
Very of it's time. Wholly unoriginal but not wholly unfun. I feel this album falls into a magic perfectly-average place. It would have benefitted greatly from shaving 10-15 minutes off the runtime. Rolling Stone Magazine watch: zero mentions in the album Wikipedia page. Well done Ash. Well done.
Ah, the original pop-princess-turns-twisted album. This stuff was so pervasive it’s hard to be objective. The relationship bitterness has gone a bit from “da-a-a-amn, girl” to “tee hee”, but I was bopping to the album quite a bit. Easy to forget how unapologetically odd and personal these tracks are, and Alanis Morrisette’s voice, much imitated since, is very unique and expressive. Liked it way more than I expected. Turn it up and singalong. Rolling Stone Magazine watch: five instances in the album Wikipedia page. Ouch, Alanis.
I’ve loved this album for all my life. And I know it’s not even Yusuf’s best. My heart wants to give this five stars. My brain wants to give this four stars. Rolling Stone Magazine watch: one instance on album Wikipedia page.
Come on, 1001. Just entering that Friday night vibe and you drop Phrenology on my lap to crank on my headphones, as if to challenge me: “rate this one two-stars…I dare you.” This game is rigged. Listening to Phrenology is the best I’ve felt all week. Rolling Stone Magazine watch: I’m tired of this joke.
An angry album with heavy things on its mind. Cube isn’t my favourite MC, but these beats are untouchable. As the bad behaviour policy requires: cha-ch-ch-check yo’self before…
Garbage. How to review an album ans omnipresent in commercials, television, movies and radio as Garbage? I don’t know. Review: It was fine. I will give it a big full bonus star for being one of my partner’s all-time favourite albums. She was vibing hard. Happy wife, happy life.
Yaaaah. Now we’re talking. If you spin this absolute gem and just don’t have a great time….well, I don’t know what else to tell you.
First time I’ve ever listened to this album…and it is incredible! Also second time I listened to this album. Sounds SO GOOD! The third time I listened I locked in the rating.
New Order has a sound. Perfect in the background. Still fine for the foreground, but better in the background. Some legit bangers on this album. Reminded me of clubbing when I was 20.
Takes awhile to get going, but once it does… The Who have always been a band I respect more than I love, but are rock gods there to be respected, or worshipped? And this album fits that mold exactly. I respect it I guess.
What an amazing Friday evening listen. Just right, baby.
Knowing Mike Oldfield played every instrument does increase the interest. I managed to stay pretty engaged, but wasn’t exactly amped. 2 1/2, nudged to a three due to a couple of sweet parts.
One of the most fascinating aspects of music is how it can completely hijack my physiology. The rhythms in which I move and the moods in which I’m thinking. My jazz education is weak, and it always takes me awhile to switch gears to the jazz mindset. But once I do, it’s good it’s good. This one took a couple tracks, so I had to listen through a couple times. Once I was vibing: it’s good it’s good.
Ministry did have a moment, and I thrashed this album when it came out many times. Today my world has turned, and while I remembered why it resonated for a teenage version, now it feels a bit simplistic. Still, very fun revisit.
I’ve given Def Leppard a lot of grief over the years. Much of it was deserved. But when you shut off the old brain and just listen, Pyromania ain’t half bad.
Thin Lizzy is a very fun band. I nudged the volume up once, twice, three times. Does TL have the most songs that have the same names as other famous songs but aren’t actually the same song? Sounds like a good Masters thesis.
I’ve heard of these guys. Will they stand the test of m time?
This album is trash. Fills my heart with garbage.
I believe Rolling Stone magazine probably would have called this “an assured debut.” I call it fckn rad!
How can I express my thoughts about an album that is so intensely beloved as this one without sounding like a complete asshole? Those multitudes who connected REALLY connected. I’ll go this way: I like the songs. The delivery and her voice are just so plain that it accomplishes whatever the opposite of “elevating” is. I feel like maybe if I spent more time listening it could grow on me though. Bonus star for how when I was singing “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman” at the top of my lungs the whole family laughed.
4-star first spin. Idiosyncratic and intriguing. Got lost in the 15-minute final track. Then during the second spin I got very interested in shutting it off halfway. Ask me again in a month.
This shoegaze hypno-pop kinda music can hit real nice with the right cocktail, but doesn’t work as well on a sober school night. That said, I’ve heard way waaaay worse versions than this.
GK is a maniac, and those slinky soul samples are so smooth. The closer you listen to the lyrics the more insane it becomes. Full marks for this sweet baby! PS: that this album is pushing 20 years old is ill.
After getting through the interminable Shout, a bunch of decent tracks on here, all culminating with a resounding thud of a closer. Still, a 3-star experience.
I wanted to really dig this one, but felt more neutral. I didn’t dislike it at all. Neutral isn’t good.
Oh, Canada. I often find mid-aughts records don’t age that well. This one stills feels very good. This music on this album fills a room in a way that is cozy and epic at the same time.
My favourite 80’s pop album not made by Prince. I have listened to this thing seems like a hundred times. Still gets a spin a few times a year.
Knowing the two massive radio hits primed me with low expectations. But then, suddenly, I didn’t mind it much at all!
Yessss. When this album popped up a slow smile grew across my dumb kisser. A perfect excuse to blow the dust off my ragged old LP. Those dueling guitars. This album f’ck’n rules from the first second to the last.
Party album! The skits bugged me but the songs were a ton of fun.
The production and DJing on this album is still unparalleled, and the rapping is fun but definitely of it’s time.
I played this tape cassette a lot when I was in grade 12. I recalled it as long and meandering. Turns out it’s pretty tight and good.
2012? 2012???? Practically a new release! I’m not saying I disliked it. I didn’t. There were some cold tracks I think would sound great popping up on a road trip set list. I just don’t see how an album like this could ever be someone’s personal favourite. Just didn’t have enough wow. Solid mid.
Sometimes simplicity is a good hang.
This is an album with some great songs. But way too long, and very inconsistent.
The legend exceeds the reality. But still a very off-kilter weirdo of an album, perfect for Halloween. It reminded me of Abbey Road: a bunch of great ideas poured into a blender and presented with some charm.
Yes, rumours are true. 2 years before Nevermind dropped, alternative music poked its little head out of its dirt hole and gave mainstream listeners a little kiss on the cheek. And it sounds even better now. Breakfast at my house never sounded so good.
Red Headed Stranger is as cozy as they come. Bona fide campfire music. I still haven’t figured out the full story of what’s going on through it though.
Schmilsson makes me feel good. It is a super sweet and topical vibe for first thing in the morning. Singalong bliss.
It’s been a week for cozy mellow albums.this is one of those types that sounds good, and is always reminding me of other albums I want to listen to more. The Christian Life is absolutely bone-chilling.
I thought this was something else. Or else it was what I thought and I am dumb. All I know is I physically could not pay attention to this album. I will perhaps revisit another time and revise this one.
How do I fully digest a 90-minute concept album I’ve never heard a single note of before that also happens to be Peter Gabriel’s Genesis’ magnum opus in one day? Answer: I don’t.
This is so far from what I would ever listen to on y own, which is something I like about this Project. It reminds me of something a schoolmate would play during a college study sesh. I don’t know how to handle it. C-grade.
Daddy like. I do think it’s worth mentioning that producers of digital media who tag hip hop skits onto the beginning or end of the music tracks will all burn in hell.
Finally some concrete proof that Scientology works! Why he disavowed it I’ll never know.
Albums that amount to a glorified DJ set are tough to rank. It was a fine listen and a bit of fun, but hard to care about. If I only ever listen to 1001 albums my whole life, is this really one of them? I was thinking 2 stars, but I don’t want to be ungenerous.
The Psychedelic Furs’ first three albums are top-to-bottom gold. While I slightly favour their debut album, Dumb Waiters is maybe my favourite track by them, so it all evens out in the end. This is a serious jam. Play loud.
Nestled comfortably between Hobbiton and a militant Covid response sits a third cultural juggernaut which shared with the other two an uncanny ability to hold a mirror up to the New Zealand character while simultaneously defining it. Never before has a nation’s reputation been so thoroughly captured and enshrined in the eyes of the world forever.
I fell to my knees and cried out “Oh, Sweet Mother! Please send me something that will wash my ears clean of the memory of Lorde and her ultra-bland toadie Jack Antonoff!” The Sweet Mother replied, “hold my beer.” I have never heard of this before and I have no idea what the legacy will be in my life. All I know is that for 40 beautiful minutes it ripped off my head this morning and howled.
One of those solid albums hipsters love to throw on to prove how cool they are. But still. Solid album.
This band manages something impressive: it takes a bunch of musical elements that I love, blends them, and creates something abominable. Good job.
What more is there to say about a 5-star classic as good as this one? Perhaps just this: I hope it gets auto-generated again right now.
I have a few tracks off this one on set lists, and while not really breaking new ground Little Simz has great flow and decent beats. Solid, quick little album I’m happy to see show up on this list.
I wasn’t a part of the Oasis hive, probably turned off by all the drama. I was a bit surprised this album is actually so straight-forward. Just a standard rocker that doesn’t really do anything new, but has a few great tracks I liked a lot? Maybe it was worth all that drama! (PS- no it wasn’t worth all that drama)
This was a fun spin. It was one I approached with some indifference, but once it started I tumbled all in.
JA was an arm of alt-music I’ve blamed in the past for paving the way for other, worse bands in the late 90’s that I really did not like. That said, this album remains pretty great, and in my opinion, hangs together as a full album a lot better than any of the individual tracks on their own score.
I sort of recognized the album cover from record shops and was astonished it wasn’t some classic rock routine! It was kind of a wonderful listen I was happy to pay attention to once. Once.
I have a turbulent history with R.E.M. it’s undeniable their early album inspired me and greatly opened my mind to new kinds of music. But I turned against them hard as they grew into superstars. Green hangs right in the nexus of those two feelings. Some parts turn me on, some parts turn me off. But it definitely transported me to a different phase of my life. I really really want to give it 3 1/2 stars. Both 3 and 4 seem too extreme to me in opposite directions..
Outdated soft rock for lame dads or sexy proto-yacht rock for sexy daddies? Well, I’m pretty hot, and I like it. Bonus star for the Pointer Sisters’ cover of Dirty Work being a high point for all music. Guess what? It didn’t need the bonus star because I already love this record.