My 1001 Albums Journey

Albums Rated

3.08

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1028 albums remaining

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1970s

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Hip-hop

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Albums

You Love More Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
To Pimp A Butterfly Kendrick Lamar	5	3.61	+1.39
Violator Depeche Mode	5	3.7	+1.3
Phaedra Tangerine Dream	4	2.74	+1.26
Konnichiwa Skepta	4	2.74	+1.26
Siamese Dream The Smashing Pumpkins	5	3.83	+1.17
Ctrl SZA	4	2.91	+1.09
Viva Hate Morrissey	4	2.96	+1.04

You Love Less Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
Maxinquaye Tricky	1	3.04	-2.04
Basket of Light Pentangle	1	2.76	-1.76
Our Aim Is To Satisfy Red Snapper	1	2.74	-1.74
Playing With Fire Spacemen 3	1	2.54	-1.54
Unknown Pleasures Joy Division	2	3.47	-1.47
Hail To the Thief Radiohead	2	3.44	-1.44
My Generation The Who	2	3.43	-1.43
Locust Abortion Technician Butthole Surfers	1	2.39	-1.39
Elvis Presley Elvis Presley	2	3.38	-1.38
Blue Lines Massive Attack	2	3.38	-1.38

5-Star Albums (3)

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1-Star Albums (5)

All Ratings

Ctrl

SZA

4/5

+: Love Galore, The Weekend, Drew Barrymore, Broken Clocks, Anything, Wavy - should have been longer -: Supermodel, Go Gina, Normal Girl Well produced, a few moments of too much noise. Thematically aligned, major focus on womanhood, although difficult at times to understand SZA. Kendrick would kill a performative male competition with that verse. I don’t know shit about reviewing so we’ll see if I’m “on track”. I’ve always gone back to Love Galore and Broken Clocks, but I’m not sure I’d want to go back cover to cover again.

Elvis Presley

2/5

He really was ahead of his time. 2:30 run times on songs, immediately into the hook. Elvis would have loved TikTok. Kind of a slog to listen to though. His voice on some of those runs really takes you out of the music. I’m at like a 2.5.

OK Computer

Radiohead

4/5

Overall, the instrumental performances are varied and ear-catching. Gen X prog rock. Given the albums reputation for having a strong theme, I would expect to have a more understandable vocal performance. But then again some of my negative songs were ones I could understand. I guess my issue is that I know they can manage a large soundscape with intelligible lyrics because of other albums and it would have really sent this one over the top.

Meat Is Murder

The Smiths

3/5

Another album that I felt really engaged with instrumentally but have to take points because of the vocals. This time, the difficulty comes from the direct diary reading of lyrics. The best songs on this album come when the listener gets to digest. Nowhere Fast, How Soon is Now?, What She Said, Well I Wonder, all give that room to let everything sink in. Whereas other albums I have issues with vocals, I feel this one it’s not a distraction - I just wish there was a little less of it. But this is always the shot taken at Morrissey - that he takes the spotlight far too often. I’m certainly not the first to discover this. Also why did they play with the volume like that in That Joke? Strange choice - but funny, considering it gave space for the band to breathe after it came back in. Did they also know?

Bat Out Of Hell

Meat Loaf

3/5

3.5 Really surprised this was one of the highest selling albums of all time as the format is not the most accessible. Also looks like they almost didn’t even get to make it in the first place. Lots of large set pieces. Occasional wolf throats? Tracks felt a little disjointed from each other. I was expecting a little more cohesion from a rock opera. Was an enjoyable listen but probably won’t revisit anytime soon

Larks' Tongues In Aspic

King Crimson

2/5

I’m clearly not intelligent enough for this one. Give me the Court though, that one is dumb enough for me.

KIWANUKA

Michael Kiwanuka

3/5

Was a pleasant listen. Wish it would have done more. Felt very repetitive.

Master Of Puppets

Metallica

3/5

At first I felt the album was thrashing just to thrash. But that thrashing allowed me to really get enveloped by the parts where they let the melody ride. The juxtaposition really works here. Guitar was used to keep time in a way I found interesting. In the end, the ride couldn’t out weigh the thrash and it became kind of a slog by the end. Only so much of that cycle that I wanted to go through.

Iron Maiden

4/5

Aha Shake Heartbreak

Kings of Leon

2/5

Unknown Pleasures

Joy Division

2/5

Not sure this is the best work from this lineup. I’m a much bigger fan of New Order and the sound they developed in the 80s.

Smash

The Offspring

4/5

Parachutes

Coldplay

4/5

I think I really like that early 2000s guitar sound

Horses

Patti Smith

2/5

Blue Lines

Massive Attack

2/5

There’s some good moments but this suffers from the early electronic repetitiveness. I think a better example from this year would be Dreamland from Black Box

Supa Dupa Fly

Missy Elliott

3/5

Incredibly influential album but I know Missy and Timbaland hit their stride a few years later. Thinking 30 years ago this was probably a breath of fresh air but it’s just missing that spark for me to rate it higher, especially knowing what they do later.

Pretenders

3/5

The Dark Side Of The Moon

Pink Floyd

4/5

Nowhere

Ride

4/5

Heroes to Zeros

The Beta Band

2/5

Pretty boring. Not sure how this was influential?

Crosby, Stills & Nash

4/5

Harmonies ever present. Was enjoyable and certainly influential. Some moments were a little grating. Wooden Ships might be the model for all yacht rock. Long Island Radio / 5

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

3/5

Hail To the Thief

Radiohead

2/5

Vulgar Display Of Power

Pantera

3/5

I wonder if all of the bands on this list are also annoyed that their songs go from excellent to okay once their singers start.

John Prine

4/5

Like an audiobook set to music. An entertaining listen, not sure I’d come back to it, but defintely worth the time.

Heavy Weather

Weather Report

3/5

Ready To Die

The Notorious B.I.G.

4/5

I Should Coco

Supergrass

4/5

Fun

Siamese Dream

The Smashing Pumpkins

5/5

Sometimes I wonder how they achieved popularity in the radio era. On bad speakers there’s some guitar tinnitus - the rhythm guitar plays a drone note with only subtle changes and restrums leading to a a constant minimum sound all other parts have to beat. When you are able to catch those subtleties, songs get much more bounce and an almost “shoegaze” layering of sound that allows for everything to have room. It really cannot be appreciated to its fullest with small speakers or at low volume.

Vincebus Eruptum

Blue Cheer

2/5

Sounds like a parody of this era. No wonder the Beatles were so successful if this is what they were up against.

Playing With Fire

Spacemen 3

1/5

Trash. So many great albums lost their spot to this.

The Score

Fugees

4/5

Parklife

Blur

3/5

I wish it had more of a distinctive quality to it. It’s fine, just could use something to make it memorable.

So Much For The City

The Thrills

2/5

Never heard of this group and cannot understand why we burned a spot on this album. Not horrible but nothing I want to return to. If I want to listen to this, The Flaming Lips did it all much better and much more memorably.

Basket of Light

Pentangle

1/5

The woman singing reminds me of the Yoko Ono clip with Chuck Berry and the man singing is like Morrissey singing but in lowercase. Absolute cacophony of sounds that just do not make anything pleasing or worth revisiting. Album #3 that I refuse to believe provided any real influence.

I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got

Sinead O'Connor

3/5

The middle of the album is full of insightful lyrics and enough dynamics to keep it interesting. The bookends fall a little flat for me.

Hotel California

Eagles

4/5

My Generation

The Who

2/5

Phaedra

Tangerine Dream

4/5

Accomplishes what it sets out to do. Not really daily listening material though.

Konnichiwa

Skepta

4/5

There were moments I was really with it and moments I wasn’t. The skits are ridiculous and really pull you out. Huge influence for the UK rap scene. Enough good to give it a 4.

Tank Battles

Dagmar Krause

2/5

Talking Heads 77

Talking Heads

4/5

Document

R.E.M.

4/5

Says a lot but really says nothing? Probably the issue our boy Dane has with them.

James Brown Live At The Apollo

James Brown

4/5

I’m impressed the recording quality is so high. He really proved his range on this one.

Live 1966 (The Royal Albert Hall Concert)

Bob Dylan

3/5

Locust Abortion Technician

Butthole Surfers

1/5

Almost unlistenable. Best part of the whole album was the Black Sabbath sample - always a great sign when your high is someone else’s.

To Pimp A Butterfly

Kendrick Lamar

5/5

Can't Buy A Thrill

Steely Dan

4/5

This was a great listen!

Our Aim Is To Satisfy

Red Snapper

1/5

...The Dandy Warhols Come Down

The Dandy Warhols

3/5

Usually these shoegaze groups are a flash in the pan but they had some sustained success leaning more into that punk rock revival early 2000s scene with the Vines/Hives ect. This album was enjoyable. Nothing incredibly memorable though. Seems like the list should have included their 2000 release instead? The late 90s early 00s albums right before this list was originally released don’t have that same staying power, which makes sense since they didn’t get to marinade as long.

Hot Rats

Frank Zappa

3/5

Graceland

Paul Simon

3/5

The Marshall Mathers LP

Eminem

3/5

Maxinquaye

Tricky

1/5