1001 Albums Summary

“Starlings” has to be one of the finest opening tracks on an album that most causal music fans have never heard. Just breathtaking.

Besides 3 Feet High & Rising, this is easily the greatest use of samples ever on an album!

Where to begin? A revolution in sound. It didn't last, but the Alternative nation was an incredible era of music to grow up in.

The beauty of this record never ceases to amaze me. Homemade samples, scratches and Beth Gibbons’ immaculate voice.

“Inner City Life”, along with “Block Rockin’ Beats” by the Chemical Brothers opened my mind to EDM in high school. I’ve loved it ever since!

Bowie doesn’t get enough credit for being a kickass piano player!

Britpop 4 life!!!

Double the fun, double the Max, soluble the brilliance of Lindsey!!!

The sound of the resistance!

1,000 hip hop samples were taken from this bad boy!

The perfect double album, arranged, performed and produced to the nines!

One of the concept albums that never really leave my rotation. A glorious story of betrayal, murder and redemption.

This is just fine. I would prefer Bob Marley or even The Mighty Mighty Bosstones...but this is just fine!

So many great Aerosmith songs throughout their career, but this is the one true classic, 5-star Aerosmith album!

It’s hard to pick a fave, but I think this is mine for the best post-Beatles album by any member!

Biting, devastating, hilarious. All of the feelings with this album.

The king, killing the game that only he could play!

It's easy to forget how good of a pop album band Blondie was. Their singles were brilliant, but their albums were kinda perfect.

A headphone masterpiece, that you better hope involves wireless headphones because you are going to pull your stereo off its shelf dancing around if those headphones are wired in!

Hero worship of David Byrne begins here.

The title song of this album, though not widely known, is one of my go-to sad songs of all time.

Roots rock before that was eve a genre!

All in all, one of the finest stories ever put to vinyl. Pretty sure it got me through high school.

Pollard has written more songs than some people send texts in their lifetime!

Gold…Punk Gold!

Country folk at a level most artists outside of Willie Nelson never reach.

Swamp it up!

80’s Electronic pop with a sad soul.

The first classic Beatles album to feature all original compositions…and they all Rule!!!

A peak of the hip hop genre that has aged better than almost any album from the period.

The pre- Thriller MTV era in a nutshell…and a great dance pop album!

So perfect. So deeply sad.

The king of New Orleans soul gives us some of his finest sides!

Where Lana starts to become a major album artist.

Breakin' the law, Breakin the law!!!

Harder to listen to now because of the homophobia, but at the time of its release, one of the most important hip hop albums of all time.

Some would say this is better than Thriller. I wouldn't go that far (Thriller is my second favorite MJ album. My first? Bad.), but this is perfection from start to finish!

The versatility on this release. From the baroque folk of “Lady Jane” to the blues jam “I’m coming home”…Incredible stuff!

The most immaculate VU cover ever lived here.

New Wave Manna!!!

Early Beatles firing on all cylinders.

Such an incredible follow-up to something that probably felt impossible to each or surpass. Perfection.

A hip hop manifesto. Glorious stuff.

A singer/songwriter stretches his wings to give a hint of the path he would take in his experimental 1980s.

Literally save me life, this one.

A sea change at 33 1/3 RPMs

A bright and shining way to start a solo career!

A Sample-forward masterpiece.

The zenith of their power. They were good before and they were great after…but they were perfect here.

Absolute poetry.

Prog Rock moves into the 80’s gracefully with impact to spare!

Raw, powerful and one of the best album covers of the decade

A Last Burst of Pure Genius before the MAGA and the Madness set in.

Basie continues his string of albums that glide him gracefully through his later years!

A dream of a pop album: tough, melodic and sung to perfection.

Beautiful, esoteric and oh so French.

Overshadowed by Plastic Ono Band, this is Lennon and his poppiest, his most optimistic and his nastiest. An incredible statement.

Singer-songwriter Americana at its smoothest.

“The Last Resort” is the fifth greatest song of all time

Beautiful, off-kilter pop .

Best Xmas album ever.

Early Cure hits so differently and so good!

Never seen the appeal. I understand it is music that moves millions of people, but it is sounds super pedestrian to me.

The finest pop album of the early part of the 10’s!

The birth of metal. Delicious!

Metal perfection…almost Prog metal, but if not it, than it’s forefather!

Every album you discover of Elvis Costello's is such a unique, rewarding experience. Blood and Chocolate is no exception!

The Riff alone is worth 5 stars. The rest of the album is superb as well!

1st major label album, and it set off a run on Warner Brothers that most bands would sell their souls for!

Bob Ezrin finally made this band sound on record like they did at their live shows...Such an incredible record.

Dance away the pain.

Bowie-produced madness. ESSENTIAL.

John Cage-produced bedroom rawk...Essential!

What a journey this album takes you on. Trevor Horn is a production god.

A punk manifesto.

I've heard the sound was not mixed well in the room, but it sounds immaculate on this live recording...Orchestral Metal is a powerful freakin' thing.

Eno, Fripp, Visconti & the Thin White Duke...Making magic in Berlin.

Close your eyes and listen...and you hear Jeff Buckley...It's uncanny!

My fave MJ album, now and forever.

Like their idols The Beatles before them, this is a perfect debut album.

A Pandora's Box into prime singer/songwriter manna, that once opened, can never be closed again. Lives are changed with every song on this one.

Maybe it wasn't trying to be a concept album...but it's the best Prog variety this side of Genesis' Lamb.

Funk metal with a sardonic and biting edge.

Perfect in every way. Never better, never duplicated.

Back when samples ran wild…and the headphones all transmitted masterpieces.

A murderer’s row of talent on a perfect freaking album.

One of those albums that once it enters your conscience, it never leaves your rotation.

This, and Genesis' Trick of the Tail, show that sometimes you can go on without your original lead singer quite successfully!

Post-Punk perfection, from a band whose influence is greatly underappreciated in American.

Sometimes, albums that only got 3 1/2 stars in the Rolling Stone Album Guide are my favorite albums by that artist!

Vocal gold.

Rage against the dying of the light.

Country clawing it’s way through the 70’s fresh, vital and important.

Power Pop never reached these heights again, until Ocasek produced the first Weezer album!

Metal, as a genre, as a product and as an artform, peaked right here.

How do you put out your first album and shred this hard!??!

Bey's sister got pipes.

Madchester seemed to peak hear...and then came the Gallagher brothers!

The Queeniest Queen this side of Queen!!!

One of the founding fathers of Prog. Still makes you wish things had gone different for Syd.

The most opulent Nick ever got...and god is it gorgeous.

Afrobeat starts here!

On of the 5 greatest live albums of all time.

Progressive Rock, after many starts and fits, is born with this earth-shattering classic for the ages.

Such perfect pop that even a progger like Mike Oldfield had to cover the title song!

Pop rock of the mid 90's variety rarely got better than this!

An unheralded banger from the birth of the San Francisco psychedelic ballroom scene

"I got Music on My Mind, I got Talking Book, I got Fufinity, Fulfillity, fuck it, you know, the GOOD one!" - Eddie Murphy, Delirious

Trip-Hop took me a minute to get. When I did, this was my bible.

Honky Tonk Angels, All!

Krautrock’s Krazy Krings

A beautiful 60s folk album that somehow was recorded and released in the 80s

Electronic glory!

Hate it all you want, it’s a debut for the ages.

Gold R&B Classic right here

It's hard to think of a more fully formed band on their first record.

Nile Rodgers/ Bernard Edwards-produced perfection!

The true out-there journeys jazz could take you on are in full effect on this release.

Best white boys ever in the game…sit down, Marshall.

A rebirth, excellent in it’s sad fury.

It's hard not to award every Zep album five stars...So why fight it?!?

I want "Moonlight Mile" played at my celebration of life.

The balls it took to make this brilliant work. Just astounding

Sounds transcendent on vinyl

Britpop doesn’t happen without him. The current king pays his respects.

A film in an album’s clothing

Freak Folk lo-fi perfectrion.

PERFECT SUNDAY MONING COFFEE MUSIC ALERT!!!

Pop albums, with the exception of Beyoncé’s Lemonade, rarely get better.

Hair metal never topped this peak.

Legit a life changer.

This is how you splinter from a group and come out FANTASTIC

Glorious instrumental Memphis soul!!!

Deliciously silly punk!

That’s how you debut!

One of the most unique albums I’ve ever heard

Still subversive, otherworldly and idiosyncratic.

A crate digging masterpiece. Beck may have never been better, but the Dust Brother’s production should be hung in the Louvre.

It’s insane that the 2007 revolution of this album’s release is now the secondary story to how freakin good it is.

A 90’s electronica classic.

A legend starts her trek post-trend setting band

Indeed we are.

An incredibly well sequenced album.

An incredible album, but maaaan, this guy is so unlikeable!!!

I love double albums. This one towers over most of them.

Synth blues rawk..One-of-a-kind!!!

Still sounds like the future all of these years later.

Folk Rock beauty.

Love albums have become a new obsession for me. This one always was since first hearing it.

Essentially a soul funk concept album, that somehow seamlessly doubles as a movie soundtrack!

Like a classic 70’s Motown album…a statement and a triumph.

A plunderphonic masterpiece

Bomb Squad + the conscience of NWA…Glorious.

The absolute peak of industrial music.

The beginnings of a movement

Looking back, this may have been where backpack rap peaked.

Still so hard and so important!

Best double album of the 90s.Only Life After Death comes close to it.

Starting of the late aughts musically, a game changer

Discovering this, after no American AirPlay practically, felt like discovering one of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Can’t be objective…this album is perfect.

The beginning of the middle of her career…and it’s a triumph!

A Giant among a genre that’s one of my faves.

New journeys on every listen.

Metal + a DJ…Game changing.

Their best, never bettered.

A golden folk platter!

Jazz’s first million selling long player. Absolute joy on wax.

Somehow, Dire Straits moved to Philly and became a jam band.

Sometimes, when the moon is in the right house and the summer wine is flowing, it’s the greatest album ever made.

Family harmonies sound so pure.

Lightning in a bottle. He never made another like it…but honestly, who could?!?

Hi legacy is tainted, but this album is undeniably a classic.

Brit Pop Lite at its finest

An absolute stunner that sometimes gets overlooked because of the classic that preceded it…but spoiler alert: This one’s even better than Dark Side!!!

Brian Eno makes everything better.

White boy blues rarely got better.

So many great songs…and then you get “El Paso”…SWOOOOOOOON

The poppiest of Brit pop.

Live Manna

Ziggy in America

A fine wine, this record.

The king of the 00's Brit Renaissance

It’s just perfect. I don’t know what else I can say.

Somehow one of the first , and still one of the best, heavy metal albums.

So much better than you remember…even if you adore it.

Biko...Nuff said!

Glam and Prog, beautifully rolled into one!

Blur moves pass Brit Pop in fascinating ways

Birth of a whole thing.

It goes without saying, but this shit SLAPS!!!

Philly Plastic Soul...and the Debut of Luthor Vandross!!!

"The Dolphins" has been known to save lives

A major step forward, from an already perfect debut.

Pre-Punk…err…Punk!

Falling apart in love never sounded so good.

It's perfect. Wouldn't cut a single track.

Perfect in every sense of the word.

If it was just the title song, it would be worth the price of admission…But then there’s “Vincent” too

Fusion....The encyclopedia definition of it, to be exact.

Still sizzling guitar work that has rarely been matched.

"Cry to Me" should've been on the Voyager Golden Record.

Punk Folk Freedom

A debut for the ages.

Sophomore slumps don’t exist.

Prog?Pop?Rock? Whatever, it’s perfect.

It should be a musical. Yes, I know there already is one...But it should be a GOOD musical.

Spoooooonman!!! Nuff said!

I wish I could go back to the first time I heard "She Talks To Angels"...What an earth-shattering moment.

Oh, a listen that takes you back to a time where almost any rock album took you on an aural journey. I miss those days.

Blues live is always better

Divorce albums are the BOMB

How Elvis got his groove back

Exciting art pop that should be better remembered

Philly gold

The 21st century was born here in 1997

The first of untold classic albums for this guy.

An absolute masterclass in punk, folk, hell, almost any genre you can think of!

So good they made a musical out of it

One of the defining albums of the blog era.

Jazz that serves a higher power..

Easily the finest debut in an era of fine debuts.

Golden songbook bangers and original classics.

Prog Queen is such a vibe.

Jazz Folk...What a concept...What a record.

Darker, realer and waaaaay more sophisticated...Sophomore Slump is a myth.

Burn one down and blast this bad boy!

Listen to this album if you think U2 is boring.

Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine...