1001 Albums Summary

It‘s an album that's close to my heart. Side 3 is stunning.

I never was a big Dylan fan, but as I get older, I can appreciate his songs, his craftsmanship and his huge influence on the pop culture more. I'm more familiar with his later albums, but this one is awesome, especially the rockier first half. "Maggie's Farm", "Outlaw Blues", and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" are all huge favorites. Great album! ("Tambourine Man" is overrated though …)

This is one of Neil Young's best work. I love the sparseness of the title track, the heartfelt apocalypse painted in "Don't Let It Bring You Down", and the folky "Only Love Can Break Your Heart". Amazing album!

This is one of the best albums of the 80s, full of genius melodies and masterful arrangements. "Head Over Heels" is a song that transcends time and emotions, such as grand song. "Shout" and "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" are genius singles. But also the deep cuts are fascinating, like the Robert Wyatt pastiche "I Believe" or the powerful rage of "Broken". This is one of my all-time favorite records, and nothing less than a masterpiece.

I had heard the album once or twice before, but never paid much attention to it. Now, having played it again, I think it's rightly regarded as a groundbreaking album of the neo-RnB movement. Especially the multi-layered "Pyramid" and the irresistible "Lost" are amazingly produced, very special soul pop songs by an amazing songwriter and singer. Right now, I'm rating it four stars, but this has the potential to become even better for me.

Not a big fan of the pop punk songs which all sound kind of samey. They certainly knew how to fuse Ramones-like angriness with a touch of early Beatles melodies, but nothing much stood out for me in terms of composition or sound. "Teenage Kicks" is a genius song, though.

It‘s hard to argue against the big hits of the album. "Riders On The Storm" is a soothing, hypnotic song, the title track is wonderfully ecstatic, and "The Changeling" is a personal favourite. But overall, the blues nature of the deep cuts fade into the realms of forgetfulness pretty fast. You can hear Jim Morrison drifting off into madness, which is fascinating, but not an overall pleasant listen.

While hip hop is not my favorite genre, I can appreciate its high points - the goofiness of De La Soul, the emotional depth of Kendrick Llamar, the soul-shattering lyricism of Public Enemy, heck, I even like Outkast. Jeru was someone I was not familiar with, and I was a bit puzzled as to why this album is regarded as one of the best of the genre. Maybe it's because of the production, because DJ Premier is on fire here. The dissonant blocks of piano in "D. Original" are as experimental as something by Dälek, the beat in "My Mind Spray" is amazing. But I was not too keen on Jeru's verses, especially in "Da Bichez", which has not aged well. So, this is a mixed bag for me, but ultimately, I didn't find it too interesting or engaging. Just a typical 90s hip hop record, apart from said highlights when it got a little more experimental.

This is certainly a great album, marking Bowie's transition from glam superstar into a pop enigma. The slick arrangements radiate with a glacier-like quality, with Bowie crooning over it like a romanticized version of Scott Walker. "TVC-15" and especially "Stay" are highlights on the album, rhythm-driven alien pop funk. The multi-sectioned title track is one of Bowie's most interesting experiments, though I feel overall, the album suffers from its singles, the doo-wop of "Golden Years" does not live up to the rest of the material, in my opinion. But it's definitely in my top 5 of Bowie albums (with other favorites being "Blackstar", "Outside" and "Lodger").

Gosh, even now, almost 45 years later, this album sounds like pure freedom. It's in the tapping, wildly over-the-top guitar solos of "The Prisoner", in the the shifting rhythms of "22 Acacia Avenue" (a Black Sabbath homage if I ever heard one), it's in the genius heavy cinematic grandiosity of "Hallowed Be The Name". With the title track, you're transported into a different realm - Steve Harris' genius bass catapulting you down into hell. It's fun there - warm, sweaty, and you can head bang all day long. I'm all for it.

I get the love and fascination for this album, I really do. Given the space of a double album, Hendrix explores the psychedelic sixties in all its glory. First and foremost, there's his version of "All Along The Watchtower", probably the definitive interpretation of a song that's always been an enigma to me. I can't relate to the lyrics or see the genius behind it. To me, it's just okay at best. But the album is much better than its biggest and most famous song. Take the light-hearted sweetness of "Little Miss Strange" and "Burning of the Midnight Lamp", the hard-hitting blues of "Crosstown Traffic", and "Voodoo Chile", probably the most accurate sonic depiction of a night club in the sixties. Would this album be better if it was a single album? Probably. Would it still be this fascinating and consuming if it wasn't for the lengthy explorations? Probably not.

I once had a friend who dragged me along to a show by The Divine Comedy, at Gloria, one of the most beautiful venues in Cologne. I hadn't heard anything by them, but was enthralled. Especially the song "Lady Of A Certain Age" is so vividly in my mind, how Neil Hannon sighed '... no, you couldn't be', brushing off a lady's answer to how old she actually is. I got the album with said track ("Victory for the Comic Muse"), and years later, someone recommended "Regeneration", which I played a lot during the pandemic, a Radiohead-ish fever dream of an album, that feels torn between two worlds of indie stardom and Hannon's kitsch-heavy pop of his usual songwriting. That said, I'd never heard "Casanova", and while I could see how this album got The Divine Comedy through the roof, as it certainly was quite unique for the time, I didn't really enjoy it as the other two records I know of them. While I loved the weird, timeless aura around it - it's a record that could've only been made during the height of Britpop, yet it breathes the lushness of a sixties Scott Walker solo record - and love songs like "Something For The Weekend" and the hilarious, yet heartbreakingly sad "Frog Princess", I found a few things that I usually cannot stand in other types of music. There's the greasy spoken word in "Middle Class Heroes" and the self-referential "Theme from Casanova". So, I guess, this won't ever become my favorite Divine Comedy record. But one I still really enjoy.

Incredible voice, incredibly underused.

A quirky, yet abrasive and dark slice of manufactured mid-90s grunge. Whatever Butch Vig might have had in mind when founding the band, Shirley Manson certainly threw everything overboard, with her rage and at times brilliant lyrics dealing with mental health and equality shining through all of the songs. "Stupid Girl" is a stand-out for me, a song which was very present during my teenage years of watching MTV. But there are some deep cuts here that I really enjoyed as well - "My Lover's Box" for instance, a shockingly open song about desire. But ultimately, I think it didn't really grab my attention for more than several songs. Despite the great musicianship, most of the material sounds quite similar - usually a problem for me with grunge per se. So, it's a mixed bag, but one I might return to in the future.

To be honest, I never truly understood the appeal of early Strokes. Everything sounds the same to me, and this to me is one of the overhyped, overrated albums of all time. I'd rather be listening to the Arctic Monkeys.

Wow, this is absolutely stunning! I never really paid much attention to the Minutemen - a huge mistake, as it turns out. This double album is filled with uncompromising snapshots of punk, post-punk, funk, art-rock and even musique concrete. Never for one second I got bored, even though the 40+ songs are a lot to take in. A genius record that is my first *real* surprise in this challenge.

I've never heard of Sabres Of Paradise before, even though they're right up my alley: dark, hypnotic electronica that's heavily infused with the Warp Records vocabulary. Although "Haunted Dancehall" definitely *was* a hypnotic listen, I wasn't too keen on the dub influences on here. Some sounds sound indeed a bit dated, unlike other contemporary artists (Aphex Twin's early work, for example ...) It's certainly not a pleasant listen, especially not during broad daylight, as I listened to it in the morning, but I can feel myself vibing to it more with the lights dimmed down.

Even though this is not their best work - this would be the incredible gut punch of 2023's "My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross" - this is still music that radiates with beauty. Anohni's voice is not too far from Klaus Nomi's unique high-pitched vibrato, though it does have a more mellow quality, almost like David Sylvian. I'm quite fond of this, musically, and have a huge respect for Anohni, both musically and as a human.

Boring, forgettable blues rock, played by white men who think they can sound like their heroes. This is an album I wouldn't recommend anyone listening to at all.

Groundbreaking album - love the artsy, punky angst that's radiating from the compositions. "Strange" for example is incredible, and so ahead of its time, like the rest of the album.

Miiid-Lite ... No, honestly, I didn't mind it, and even liked some of the more quirky production styles throughout. The samples in "E.S.P." are hilarious. But overall, this is too much of a superficial sound to fully catch my interest.

This is not my favorite Floyd album by any means. I much more prefer "Animals", which I think is their best, "WYWH" and "Meddle". Though I can certainly see the appeal of this overblown, yet franticly cold concept album. Waters is slowly and quite literally drifting off into a fascist mindset, as is evident in "In The Flesh", "Run Like Hell", and "Waiting For The Worms" - something he's certainly showing even more nowadays. I don't particularly care for all his interludes and Ezrin's cold production style (looking at you, "Vera", "Bring The Boys ..." and "Stop"), and "The Trial" is just utter nonsense ... But when the album hits, it hits. I had forgotten how strong side 2 is, with "One Of My Turns" almost becoming a highlight for me. "Comfortably Numb" is an all-time classic, as is "Another Brick In The Wall", and I love the more mellow pieces like "Goodbye Blue Sky" and "Nobody Home" (the latter probably being one of Waters' last really exceptionally great songs). But yeah, I'd much rather listen to a different Floyd album than this one.

Even fifty years later, this sounds like alien pop music, with its wobbling synths, surreal lyrics and futuristic sounds. Amazing album!

I never really appreciated reggae fully in my life and I doubt I'll ever will, but it's hard to deny that "Natty Dread" is a great album. The horn section on the irresistible opener "Lively Up Yourself" is unbelievably tight, "Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)" reeks with dread and despair, and "Talkin' Blues" masterfully fuses blues with the syncopated Jamaican rhythms. The repetitive nature of the music and its vibe that's just so associated with joints and drug culture makes it hard for me to fully connect with it emotionally, but still, "Natty Dread" is a huge achievement, especially when you think of where Bob Marley was in his career at the time, just having cut all strings from two of his closest collaborators. ("No Woman No Cry" is infinitely better in the live version though, the studio version lacks its power, though it's a lovely, soft arrangement.)

One of the bleakest, darkest and yet comforting indie albums of all time. Genius record!

We're all just living in Kraftwerk's future. Groundbreaking album!