Already listened to before doing this challenge
already listened to this before the challenge
already listened to this before the challenge
(First record picked that I did not hear beforehand)
Later era Elvis is its own appeal from the traditional hey-day 50s period of Elvis. More soulful, country roots touched on versus the rockability rock and roll he was best known for. This would be amazing if he didn't do a bunch of movies and did the typical 1950s men thing of being in the Korean War (he didn't go in combat naturally). This album is in 1969, the US became a much different place. Should have done some acid Elvis because that would've made you even cooler.
The record itself is alright, good morning music but really the best part of the album is the second half where the best known songs are. Elvis still is a singles guy more than an album guy, but for historical reasons this one is still up there for him. Shouldn't have done free PR for Nixon though, yuck.
I had something pre-written but I didn't save it right so I'll be briefer.
Historically important album, Marvin Gaye is a legend although I prefer What's Going On and his more socially conscious stuff. I just prefer soul music sung by women over men as a personal preference.
Joshua Tree is an album that touches on 1987 politics themes almost primarily and the production done on the record is incredibly solid. A very powerful 1-2-3-4 to start the record and give it its iconic status.
However I can't really care too much about U2 and would rather care more about how Brian Eno and Daniel Lenois helped make this record really great. The best U2 song is still New Years Day for me, but Bullet the Blue Sky helps solidify a three star ranking because I am biased and will continue my bias. I will give special shoutouts to In God's Country, Trip Through Wires, and Mothers of the Disappeared. Now may I please get some semi-obscure album instead of music I already know about that would be great.
Finally been given an album I haven't fully heard of before, reminding me the reason why I did this challenge. To finally listen to some of these bands that I've heard of or remembered or otherwise find and learn new music that is highly regarded that isn't something super famous. I know of Faces primarily knowing it as where Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood had to go to get away from the crazy and fluid Jeff Beck.
What makes this a "must hear before you die" record is Ronnie Wood being a boogie guitar hero. Especially on Memphis and That's All You Need, quite a hypnotic rhythm from the soon-to-be Rolling Stones member. It's otherwise a "dad rock" record, or 'Classic Rock' record if you ever listened to the radio for music before you ever used music streaming services.
A Nod Is As Good As A Wink... captures that true rock energy before punk/new wave/metal would shape music going forward. Boogie rock is perhaps better heard in bands like CCR or John Lee Hooker, bands from America where blues began, but the English side of it (sans Clapton thank the Lord) also shows an interesting perspective and twist on it. I'm biased in favor of the John Lee Hooker type since it's what I was raised on, but this is still a good capture of that blues rock sound as it was beginning to wane out.
Rumours is an album. I have now listened to it, even though I have listened to this album via the radio for my whole life. They sure did make a whole lot of money, that Fleetwood Mac. Wonder if that made them all happy. This band would be significantly less insufferable if every member had no problem with orgies. But maybe that means they would have made less money. The music business.
The greatest singer of all time. You don't need any other notes to write about Aretha. One of the saving graces of American society.
I primarily know The La's for That One Song everyone pretty much knows: There She Goes. I did not think that much else about the band, nor its influence on Jangle Pop and the Britpop scene for an album in 1990 that stood apart from the rest of the rising musical trends of the late 80s ushering into the 90s. Turns out they were much more than one hit wonders: one album wonders.
The bands perfectionist tendencies would self-immolate the bands future, but the results of their efforts are not in vain: this is a great sounding album. Jangle sounds nice, but it's never a sound I've felt like chasing music wise, R.E.M. aside. Nothing against it, more of a preference for dissonant atonal stuff on my end, though you can tell The La's wanted to feel unique next to bands like MBV or the Madchester scene.
Certain parts of this album I like and there's parts of it I can care less for. Son Of A Gun is a weird opening track that kind of shows what the album will be about albeit in a more sing-songy way than most other songs on the album. As someone that likes jam bands and thus long music, the album's closer, Looking Glass, isn't really doing it for me. Freedom Song sounds like an intentionally dull 90s irony scene way. Other songs in between are kind of samey-sounding and not too eye-catching, bad pun may or may not be intended.
There are some good positives on this album (aside from There She Goes which is a great song that does carry the record as well as the band's reputation as a whole): Aside from Son of a Gun (which is okay really) the album starts off strong up to Way Out. But that trademark contextual song that made this band stand out and attract influence for the next decade and a half or so of indie music just gets very samey.
Like the same pastures of jangle pop guitar sound----it's really all that is. Would be very interesting to see this band evolve more but it seems that Lee Mavers takes the Mark Hollis approach to fame: getting out of the spotlight as best as possible and never answer any questions. I respect that. This was a nice rabbit hole of music to discover, but overall it's alright. Must hear before you die? If you like indie music absolutely, but for everyone else? I disagree.
I guess I am (un)fortunate enough to get both Fleetwood Mac albums within a 3 or 4 day span, lucky me. If only it was the Peter Green albums, my dad (and I)'s preferred Fleetwood Mac period. Glad they chose to not sound more like Rumours and instead sound like if Fleetwood Mac were more influenced by postpunk and all the music changes from the mid 70s onward to the album's publishing date. Great approach!
I don't think this album suffers from bloat with its length of songs and being over an hour. There's a couple of songs I could relisten to on my ultimate shuffle placement like Not That Funny or Sisters of the Moon. Between That's All For Everyone and That's Enough For Me is ironically my favorite group of songs on the album. Aside from the self-titled song and maybe Over and Over and Think About Me, the rest just sounds like regular old Fleetwood Mac without any extra spicyness to it.
Other than that, it's not bad. I don't particularly care for it, or post Peter Green era aside. It's good it existed and wasn't just standard pop music and was experimental for the genre (and their label's money). Okay that's enough. Please give me some random jazz musician by now please. I think I'm spared from further Fleetwood Mac selections, that's a relief.
Simply Red must be a band huge in England but as an American born a decade after the formation of Simply Red, I have literally never heard of them until this popped up in the 1001+ album generator. I'm going in as blind into an album as any other band thus far, the closest before was Faces--a band I already knew about.
Quite an interesting album: the first sound sounds very disco inspired as the second one sounds like a big band live(?) performance with a crooner. Then they finally go in on the 80s synths on "Look At You Now"(holy DX7 batman). There's a Talking Heads cover of Heaven on here, and it's not good. Jericho closes side one to make this record definitely feel like it's stuck in the 80s.
Side two opens with the two biggest hits on the album that launched Simply Red into the UK pop landscape. Money's Too Tight is a cover from an R&B band from Cincinnati that translates well to a UK audience. I'll Keep Holding On is the big hit Simply Red had in America, which is one of those songs you hear extensively in grocery stores and no where else. I used to work at one of those places, which makes me biased against the song when it's played on those crappy speakers. Now at home with a more hi-fi set up, hearing the little extra session music instrumentation adds much needed spice to the song, but it's still not something I would seek or search for, but it makes the DX7 sound a lot more grand.
The rest of Side 2: Red Box feels like filler: nothing special happening in this song. No Direction is a nice shake-up of tempo, though at this point in the album I'm getting a bit tired of Hucknall's vocals. Picture Book, the self-titled song, concludes the album in a big (reverb) sounding fashion, with cryptic lyrics that finish an album filled of a variety of different sounds, blurring together as a 1980s cocktail of experimental, pop-infused innovation on a variety of blues/rhythm and blues inspired music.
This is probably the most "okay" record I've heard thus far. I see its influence, not as much its importance beyond its presentation. I am so whelmed that it does not change my adamant nature on this album: probably really engaging when it came out, but sounds stuck in the 80s. Not a lot of re-engagement for me on this one, my favorite tracks being Sad Old Red and Look At You Now.
I don't really want to write more about this. Is it worthy of being in the 1000+ music to hear before you die? very strong "eh" there, the big hits on this album are still played on 80s stations, but Simply Red did not realyl breakout overseas, they seemed like they were content being a UK/European band or sound of the time, America preferred pop music that was much more into vanity, something like this would not last too long. I would've replaced this album with something like Seal II. Perhaps I discount some good number of artists that loved Simply Red and were very inspired by this record to do their own famous records, but I don't hear any of that discussion.
Going to be fully honest: I never dug deep into The Cure aside from their popular singles that continue to hit the airwaves and affect pop culture. So this is overdue, and a good place to start in the band for me.
There's some great tone and aggression on the album: very fun listening and not at all slow or otherwise passive pop variations of some 'woe is me' stereotypes one would have of Goth music. Pornography is upbeat, ready to hug your ears with 1982's form of abrasive music. The Cure would later get lighter (less so lyrically for the most part, but certainly of this kind of sound) but I see its relevance in the 1001+ album, given how much influence that not just the band themselves had, but how this was very much postpunk inspired and how other bands can see this album of The Cure alone and mold it into their own gothic image. Great record.
I'm not going to pretend I know anything about Khaled, how he has sold as many records as UB40, is basically king of Middle Eastern pop music, and uhhhhhh yeah that's all I could find out about him. Glad to see this list isn't just euro/american-centric. I love hearing music from countries that most of us fellow American cannot find on a map (I can find Algeria on a map though, it has a distinct shape). Let's hear it:
It's interesting to hear a lot of western influence on this record, while still maintaining the Rai identity: at points on this album you can hear R&B, blues, latin, even some 90s electronic touches on it. There's like maybe one line in English, on the Imagine cover, while most of the songs are in Arabic save for one or two in French.
Khaled is definitely a very good, powerful singer. I think it's important to hear from artists like Khaled to truly understand music as a global art form, rather than our skewed perspective on it from Western Culture (which in turn, was influenced from Eastern Culture a very long time ago, I digress). Is it truly "must hear before you die?", I mean I don't know his other records, and whether or not they were more influential perhaps if they were in Algeria or among the Arab-French community, but this is at least a good example of Rai and Middle Eastern pop music for us Western, typically English speaking folk to get a grasp of his music. It's good to step outside your comfort zone in music, it's something I don't see enough when people listen to music.
Did I enjoy this album? Kind of. I'm very appreciative to hear it, it partially matches my own music sensibilities, but a record like this goes to more of the curious music hobbyists. You might not be let down to hear this.
I'm mostly familiar with Cash's classic albums of the 60s/70s/etc. Never really cared for cover albums, even with the Hurt cover being a focal part of it. The last album an artist ever releases (while they are still alive) can often leave the biggest impact for their presence not just on earth, but as a musician's final will and testament. Think of Bowie's Black Star or Tom Waits last album (as of time of review writing): it's hard to admit you're giving your final word and the approach of it, which explains that these are all songs (aside from the intro, which Cash wrote) are all covers. Johnny doesn't have much else to add, but will like to make various shoutouts to musicians many wouldn't think he would have time to listen to or otherwise appreciate at the end of life: covering stuff like Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode, along with the covers of songwriters and folk/country musicians of his time.
For me, it's amazing how much his cover of NiN's Hurt is one of the biggest songs Johnny Cash has ever recorded. We're talking about a man with a whole line of country standards: Ring of Fire, Boy Named Sue (a cover, though the Folsom performance is just that iconic), I Walk The Line, The Man In Black, among many others. You can hear throughout the album that Cash doesn't have a lot of time left on this planet, his voice more gravelly than it ordinarily is. Cash would pass away a year later, recently widowed with the loss of the love of his life, June Carter Cash.
For my own personal tastes, this record is so slow (naturally, but I like stuff a little more faster than my resting heart rate). Impactful, yes. Not denying the legacy of this record or its appearance in the 1001+ albums (could be a bubble pick but ultimately does have enough of a lasting impact). Of course the slowness makes sense, a settling down atmosphere for a music legend. It works for something like In My Life.
Not much else to add after that. Good record.
I've listened to this album quite a lot as a kid, one of the many CDs my dad just sort of let available for me to burn onto my computer. Before I listened to so much music that my big shuffle folder went beyond insane for even a big music listener, I had maybe 15-20ish albums that I would always hear a few songs every other day or so: The Cars was one of them. And man oh man,. does this album have hooks for days. So many hooks, it's impossible to not hear this album and not have something linger in your head for at least a week.
The Cars came at the right musical year of 1978: when the initial wave of punk rock is starting to distillate into a post-punk world, The Cars approached the crossroads of old school rock and roll and the emerging new wave/synthesizer driven music that was to become a big force beyond the disco era. They managed to combine both avenues like how Roxy Music approached glam pop with progressive rock, and make it work. The Cars were one of the big bands of the late 70s (and to very specifically note, again, not the 80s just yet) to make pop rock work with synthesizers to such a degree that it still has that futuristic sound that they went for. Almost ageless, if you don't notice the partially sarcastic lyrics from songs that became used in so many commercials that the sarcasm has been scratched away.
In short, The Cars is a solid pop-rock album that helped define New Wave in its infancy. Still sounds great, has its legacy, yadda yadda yadda.
I've listened to this album quite a lot as a kid, one of the many CDs my dad just sort of let available for me to burn onto my computer. Before I listened to so much music that my big shuffle folder went beyond insane for even a big music listener, I had maybe 15-20ish albums that I would always hear a few songs every other day or so: The Cars was one of them. And man oh man,. does this album have hooks for days. So many hooks, it's impossible to not hear this album and not have something linger in your head for at least a week.
The Cars came at the right musical year of 1978: when the initial wave of punk rock is starting to distillate into a post-punk world, The Cars approached the crossroads of old school rock and roll and the emerging new wave/synthesizer driven music that was to become a big force beyond the disco era. They managed to combine both avenues like how Roxy Music approached glam pop with progressive rock, and make it work. The Cars were one of the big bands of the late 70s (and to very specifically note, again, not the 80s just yet) to make pop rock work with synthesizers to such a degree that it still has that futuristic sound that they went for. Almost ageless, if you don't notice the partially sarcastic lyrics from songs that became used in so many commercials that the sarcasm has been scratched away.
In short, The Cars is a solid pop-rock album that helped define New Wave in its infancy. Still sounds great, has its legacy, yadda yadda yadda.
Given Nirvana's short timespan of existence, they did not hand us many albums, and this as the only official live album they published in the band's existence. I've never listened to it in full before this, although I've heard over half the songs from this show many times.
I'm making this review short: good album, kind of overrated (the Lake of Fire cover is horrible), probably belongs in the 1001+ albums (definitely more than some other albums I've gotten to), I only plead that people listen to other grunge music that isn't just Nirvana. The genre has plenty to offer.
After about 20 albums, I finally have a hip hop album. As a Californian (not SoCal), I must support one Cypress Hill, who helped put West Coast Hip Hop on the charts and to be noticed. Just as groundbreaking as Cypress Hill was for that fact, they were also essentially the first mainstream Latino Hip Hop acts. Also they love marijuana, otherwise known as a million other things, like cannabis.
The more I reflect on this album and listen, the more I really see its importance in the world, its ripple effect on gangsta rap and what would follow hip hop throughout the decade, on its image for hip hop throughout the world. And all I can say is: damn I am incredibly high.
Raw Power is goated. Arguably the moment Punk was born, especially in the production booth. As for the production on the album....................best to stick to a modern mastering of it, albeit the album title pretty much is the warning that it's gonna sound, well, raw.
I've made modest effort to look into Wilco for the past year, by doing the sidequest albums with Billy Bragg. I've heard Yankee Hotel Foxtrot maybe a few years before that. I do know Someone Else's Song, it was my introduction to Wilco. I first heard it in the 'Meet the Engineer' video Valve created for Team Fortress 2, the greatest video game of all time in its prime.
Lots of subversion going on, songs sounding pitiful and soft and then erupting with lots of fun loud guitars and other assorted madness going on from it. Not the biggest fan of Tweedy's vocals, as much as it works for a lot of the songs. That nasally white male indie voice thing is not my thing. Overall I did enjoy the majority of Being There and kind of understand why it would be on this list. It's certainly better than some other questionable choices. Wilco's a significant enough band to have a few albums on there, and I can see why this one was a choice along that other album Pitchfork loves.
R.E.M. is one of those first bands I really liked, long before music became a more serious topic of my life. Green represents the experimental transformation of R.E.M. as this college-aged band already known for their ambiguous and/or incomprehensible lyrics and were titans of a burgeoning scene in Athens, Georgia. Only R.E.M. would find a way to be mainstream and still sound like themselves without completely compromising their artistic integrity.
I've already listened to this album before the challenge, so I'm not adding more than that it's a good album, probably not the only R.E.M. album on this list (and if it is, it begs quite a number of questions). They are an important enough band to have about 3 records on the list, Green probably being my third answer after Automatic and Murmur. Those three albums do a great job of briefly summarizing most of their music. Moving on.
Despite being very focused on music history, culture, and the ethnomusicography in between music and society/sociology, I feel like I must have failed something here. I'm from SF and I've never heard of Flamin Groovies, not from my parents growing up or from consuming as much music culture as I can to educate myself. Flamin Groovies were starting in San Francisco around the time the Hippie movement and psychedelia's presence in popular music was waning, but Punk and New Wave were not of age yet. Lot of the music left in between (and what would be the peak popularity of Flamin Groovies career) were somewhere in between, either fully Power Pop like The Beatles or going back to rock's roots with something Blues infused, like what The Rolling Stones would do. The one notable quote about this album that I can find via Wikipedia was a Mick Jagger quote saying that Teenage Head did the blues rock thing better than their own record that year, one Sticky Fingers(!). That's a hearty recommendation, but does that justify a slot to be a "must hear before you die album"?
High Flyin' Baby opens the record--straight with the blues rock to go. That aggression is certainly felt on the percussion, not just the drums but the tambourine in addition to the (as expected with rock) guitar. City Lights follows up with a much more specific blues focus with a slower syncopated drumbeat and played on an acoustic. An interesting 1-2 to the record that gets followed up back to HFB's energy with Have You Seen My Baby?, a song that definitely sounds like where rock and roll was in 1971 if you ignored that Canterbury Scene influence.
Teenage Head as an album (and the follow-up, Shake Some Action) seems to be the record where the San Francisco Psychedelic sound would informally end the first phase of the SF music scene, setting up the city for its foray into Punk to come. Michigan acts like Stooges or MC5 had some popularity here, but that music scene wasn't mainstream for the SF sound or viewed as anything other than the 'other delinquent music', for people that wanted no acid and purely wanted to drink and do the blues. Flamin Groovies represents the band of the scene that was firmly between both these camps, with Teenage Head being the record to say "we're blues rock guys" and they did deliver on that sound.
On the other hand, you can hear why music critics of the time were skeptical of this record, or viewed any impact from it. Teenage Head represents that middle ground that was the early 70s: the aftermath of psychedelia after the rough end of Hendrix, Pigpen-era Grateful Dead (as they went to the country/folk path and retreaded their blues/R&B roots as the mainstay of the SF Sound). Teenage head holds some historical significance as a photograph of a very particular era of SF Music history, one that very much reflects the sign of the times of rock and roll evolving into a new era, it does suffer from that 'dad rock' fatigue that wouldn't really pull in many new (read: younger) people into it, let alone to find the significance beside its time capsule of blues rock. Aside from that, quite a solid record for people that would like to enjoy something on the guise of Montrose minus the studio trickery of the time or Bad Company without its polished production. There is a raw element in this recording that feels very distinctly like a music studio using mid 60s recording gear in 1971.
Aside from grabbing as much context as I can find for this album, I still don't think it really fits in the 1001+ album mold. The Rolling Stones would, of course, overlap any influence this album could have in the mainstream the following year with Exile on Main Street, lot of critics and people upholding that as the greatest Blues Rock album ever (rightly so). The development of blues rock, like blues and rock separately, is a focal part of the evolution of American music and music as a whole. But I fear such a selection like Flamin Groovies adds a spot to cover an already well-cataloged list of albums that include those three genres. It feels quite Eurocentric in that regard. I feel like such a list (that this website/we all go around) could cover much more international acts, and for that to occur a band like Flamin Groovies would, again in history, be overshadowed by something else. Teenage Head is a good record, albeit obscured in history because of how fast the music scene was evolving in the 1970s-a phenomenon that affected pop music even more so than an SF Blues Rock band that can now be seen as underrated.
I think that covers my thoughts on this album, and its inclusion on the essential albums to hear before death list. For the most part, a quite enjoyable record. I could leave out City Lights because it's a bit too slow for my rocking senses, but they're definitely a lot fucking better than Simply Red.
Highlights: High Flying Baby, Evil Hearted Ada (Elvis impersonation), Whiskey Woman
Not on the official album but the extra content filled with blues/R&B covers to me are almost as good as the album while also summarizing how bands like Flaming Groovies started back then. Many of them would cover songs they would already know (think of the music they listened to growing up like Louie Louie or something like Wipeout---songs not too hard to learn without formal tools available back then) and playing as fast or hard as possible. That represents the same era of music that this album selection is to represent. It'll make things I said here make a lot more sense.
This site does a bad job of actually saving album reviews when your computer crashes multiple times a day. It's utilizing the local cache wrong for whatever reason and it's annoying. Anyways this was a pleasant surprise of an album I've never heard before and enjoyed it. A key album to understand how the psychedelic music scene didn't fully waver by the 80s. This shows itself as a predecessor to shoegaze (especially with the album's finale in When I Dream. Other cool tracks included: Sleeping Gas, Treason, Bouncing Babies.
Hunky Dory isn't among my favorite Bowie albums, but is an important album for Bowie as much as it is for the Art Pop genre. No historical ranting this time, Hunky Dory is what David Bowie gathered the good aspects of pop music of his time into a better than average pop album for its time. Still probably his worst album that appears on this list. Yay.
One of the greatest and defining country folk albums ever recorded. I'm biased, born and raised by Deadheads, to view this way. Grateful Dead are primarily known as a hippie band that play concerts that last a long time, but they also threaded the needle of blending American music roots, weaved into the cloth and fabric of Americana. The country, folk, blues, R&B influences are touched here with the polished songwriting help of Robert Hunter. If you had to hear a Grateful Dead album and refuse to hear any of their live concerts you can find on archive.org right now, this and Workingman's Dead are essential for a "must hear album list", with American Beauty probably the better of the two.
But a real peak list would include Anthem of the Sun and Live/Dead too :)
Curtis Mayfield is one of those big name artists I haven't found time to get to. I don't normally seek out soul music, and have been slacking in the funk department, so this is a good time to learn more about the Gentle Genius.
There's great musical instrumentation on this album, coupled with Mayfield's famous soul-inflected voice filled with raspy cries for a better life, whether for America's soul and/or for a better tomorrow. Some songs here I don't really vibe with, but I can feel Curtis's messaging in tact. An important album for sure (equally important artist) although it's not my cup of tea, I don't regret hearing it like a few albums I've heard so far.
tl;dr: it's neat.
Dion! That's definitely a name. Mainly known for his early rock and roll singles before the British Invasion, Dion enjoyed an extensively lengthy career (still alive and making music today at 89!) and anyone that's continued a music career that long spanning across numerous genre movements, could have an album on a long list like this. I think my parents had this album on vinyl, but never ever talked about Dion. Maybe it was one of those albums that everyone had to get back in the day to play at parties, even if they didn't like the music. I'm not fully sure what I'm getting into, but 70s pop doesn't exactly inspire me to think I will enjoy it, but I can be wrong.
It's a great sounding record, and not to discredit Dion as a singer or anything but it's definitely not the sort of music I seek out. I did like the psychedelic influence on the album, however mild it may be it is noticed. I like the self-titled track the most, but even as a Phish fan I thought it went on a bit too long (which was the norm of 70s pop music).
70s Pop and 80s pop are kind of night and day difference. Songs got shorter in the 80s and were much more driven by synthesizers. 70s pop was in the singer/songwriter and slower R&B thing until Disco and Punk movements told pop to get more energetic, leading to new wave/etc. I can understand why it's on the 1001+ list but aside from Fleetwood Mac, Cher, and maybe a good half dozen of all other 70s pop that predates disco, I'd put this one on the bubble of being replaced by something newer that'll be more influencial in the future, something like Brat or the inevitable Next Frank Ocean Album (trademark). At least it's not yacht rock.
Interestingly enough I have listened to one Pogues album five years ago, Rum, Sodamy and the Lash and thought it was alright. Perhaps too Celtic for my tastes (I'm not a fan of chamber music which lots of classic Irish music is based upon), but I didn't hear If I Should Fall Grace With God.
I enjoyed this much more than Run Sodomy and Lash, much more refined and poignant with the material. Don't really care for the Christmas song, but the production and the whole ensemble around the band's sound was fantastic. Not fully my cup of tea or Guinness but I won't deny its importance or anything else.
Interestingly enough I have listened to one Pogues album five years ago, Rum, Sodamy and the Lash and thought it was alright. Perhaps too Celtic for my tastes (I'm not a fan of chamber music which lots of classic Irish music is based upon), but I didn't hear If I Should Fall Grace With God.
I enjoyed this much more than Run Sodomy and Lash, much more refined and poignant with the material. Don't really care for the Christmas song, but the production and the whole ensemble around the band's sound was fantastic. Not fully my cup of tea or Guinness but I won't deny its importance or anything else.
I'm now gonna listen to the rest of Janelle Monae's discography because that shit was awesome
Where punk formally began and got its name. Say no more.
Like most people, I think (and already listened to) All The Young Dudes when it comes to Mott The Hoople, and their influence on glam rock and the 70s and something else about David Bowie.
And well, this album doesn't have that song. It's otherwise what standard glam rock music sounds like in 1973. And while the album is fine and the band is good, I'm not sure about where Mott The Hoople stands in the music history world and what music it has influenced 50+ years from now, aside from glam rock itself as a genre. Mott The Hoople was a focal part of glam rock. Given that this is the only Mott The Hoople record in the 1001 list, I assume this would be the best representation of the band (instead of their biggest single). This is a long winded way to say that I guess this album would pass my own criteria if I were to let it stay or be removed from a revised version of the list.
shoutout to I'm a Cadillac/El Camino Dolo Roso
My main exposure to SFA before this was their song, "The Man Don't Give A Fuck", primarily from their sampling of Steely Dan song 'Show Biz Kids' as the main hook. IYKYK. Never looked more into their discography after that, although I liked the song.
They capture a very eclectic, maximalist sound. You can hear how critics would think this sound would usher in the new millennium, up until a few months later in September of that year when some big global event would change our imagination and sense of direction for the future. This album sounds like the dreams of the 90s that have been achieved. I wish more stuff in the 2000s had this sound instead of what felt like a mini-era of devolution of music being boiled down to postgrunge, wangsty one-note pop punk/rock songs, nu metal, and whatnot.
Certainly a fun listen, and maybe more of a hallmark of a short lived techno-optimist world that we were making in the late 90s/pre 9/11 world that maybe, just maybe, would be better if Al Gore won the presidency. Then again I'm talking about a band from Wales, and I don't really know how big Super Furry Animals are/were in America. But Rings Around The World is worth a heads up to check out, especially if you like music that sounds like a bunch of genres blurred together.
I was not raised, nor on my own volition, could get into the Beach Boys. Nothing against their work as musicians or their influence, it's weird optimism young boy harmonizing sound is something I just don't want to hear.
Dennis is the drummer of the Beach Boys (I don't care about the band's history after he died or kokomo; it's cringe) and here was the one album he did finish in his lifetime. And it's okay. Noteworthy in the sense that his fellow band members thought it would be one of the better Beach Boys albums (I can see that) and that it was pretty much the only thing he could finish in his wild and chaotic lifestyle. Most of this album isn't my thing: bunch of soft stuff. I'm sure it's really good for certain kinds of people, but I'm a music weirdo and this one just doesn't cut it for me.
Bombastic, big sounding album that was the ultimate bridge of heavier rock music with the fast tempo rave/electronic music scenes crossing together perfectly.
If you can't jive to this we can't be friends.
Neil Young's magnum opus creates America's best selling album in 1972. I love Neil Young's blend of country, folk, and hard rock combined with brilliant songwriting crafted from his own life that translates well to anyone even in the modern age. Nothing short of brilliant.
Would put this on a list of 100 most essential albums to listen to. Words about it will not do justice, it is legendary.
Much more of a progressive, crazier space for a Hip Hop album during the tailend of the Gangsta Rap era. People cite Kanye West and The College Dropout for the mainstream hip hop appeal moving to a rapper's more personal matters rather than the old-fashioned "gangsta shit" but for the headier hip hop, that train was grooving and Phrenology gave The Roots a place for alternative hip hop again, mainly cause Dead Prez refused to get that commercial. Anyways, this album is the shit, Kanye is a piece of shit (derogatory) and this is a stellar, creative and fun hip hop album that goes to places and spaces you wouldn't normally take hip hop to go to. Not in the jazz fashion like Guru or Tribe, but even further than that into other genres.
Frank may not be the culture-shifting smash hit that was Back to Black, but represents the other side of Amy Winehouse: her original initial musical self with much more inflection of jazz (the R&B and Soul were always there, the jazz was toned down a bit on BtB). Given her short career and enormous impact that followed (RIP), I suppose it's fair that Frank is in the 1001+ album list, since Amy was a real, genuine talent. Especially in the UK, where those kinds of gravelly soul singers are harder to find then say, the American South. It's not fun to play what-if's, but man Amy could be as big as Taylor if it weren't for the alcohol and other vices.
The Monks were pretty much right there in protopunk. A bunch of American GIs stationed in West Germany, thankful they didn't lose the military draft lottery of getting their asses sent to Vietnam but plenty bored enough standing around, doing nothing, decided to make their own rock and roll band. Free from their hometown values of the USA and seeing the rise of the Beatles and the British Invasion from Europe gave them a special creative place in the 60s: to make some foul mouthed anti-war, pro-fornicating riff-based boogie rock.
What The Monks talked about wasn't totally new in the recording industry, The Fugs were even more vulgar and four times as political as Monks. What made The Monks stand out more was that they were much more musical than The Fugs and less laser-focused on left-wing ideology (they were, after all, in West Germany not East Germany). But the catharsis of being in the mid 60s is all present in Black Monk Time (their sole album). Everything you would expect in punk music but placed in 1966, and without the 70s standards of recording technology.
This was before Sgt. Pepper and the Psychedelic explosion that would change music forever. The punk sentiment was there, not just having long hair and defying nuclear family middle-american norms, but talking shit and being more explicit about fucking. MC5 would become The Monks on steroids (and like The Fugs, making music about left-wing 'Revolution') and The Stooges would take heavy inspiration from Monks to do their own thing. Those other two artists are seen as kingpins of Protopunk, which Monks can't take full credit for creating, but are definitely the bridge between music from the early 60s that was derivative at the time (The Kinks - You Really Got Me) and the latter 60s where the music sounded as chaotic as the lyrics. The bridge before the bridge between punk and post punk.
While at the time Black Monk Time was not successfully commercially and nearly forgotten about in its initial time, until more musicians decades from its release would go out to praise Black Monk Time for inspiring them, people like Jello, Mark E Smith, Jack White and the Beastie Boys to name a few. The Monks are as important to rock and roll as the Sex Pistols or the Stones: being saved from history and being reissued several times after their one-and-done. It sounds maybe a little more primitive today--but that energy is still raw and right there. These guys dressed up as monks and talked shit about anything that they didn't like and made songs about wanting to bang women (which was the style at the time). Their influence is still felt on music today, perhaps more than they ever thought when they were just fucking around, being bored as hell stationed in West Germany and decided to make a rock album.
Yeah I don't like Coldplay. It's good music for someone that doesn't dive deeply into music but I understand its appeal. I did listen to it, which more or less validated my own beliefs about the band. The two songs I thought were alright were God Put a Smile on Your Face and A Whisper. If Coldplay were a shoegaze band they would be 1000 times better, but then people will complain about not hearing Chris Martin's ULTRA CRISPY DRY VOCALS which people like to hear. Whatever.
This band is a bigass rabbit hole that I have no time to explain. The music is comfortably weird. I would have 0 idea how to recommend this album unless they knew industrial music. If you like 80s uhhh martial (think of like if John Phillips Sousa had synthesizers) industrial music. The whole Yugoslavia thing was before I was born. I like weird shit, so it works. Before this album I had A Rush of Blood To The Head by Coldplay, and this is definitely cooler. Check out that time they played in North Korea
I cannot care for the critical acclaim of an album that aged like milk (50% artist, 50% that this style of music did not age well or evolved into something better a la System of a Down). There's already two RATM albums on this list, the Beastie Boys are surely covered. This is a waste of an album space that should go to some critically acclaimed band from China or Central Asia that a 'Westerner' wouldn't know about. Or like, a single Ween album.
You know, I'm a millennial and I haven't listened to Arcade Fire. This band is currently self-immolating with controversy that I'm not versed with, but it's not good stuff. I associate them with indie pop and that's just not my thing at all, critics love it like they love dramas over comedies. This is a full blind run for me on this album.
And well, there's a lot in here about why I don't like indie music or its influence on 21st century music. I can't say Arcade Fire are unimportant or whatever, but it's certainly not for my taste. It's like if Coldplay were French-Canadian and wrote about more American I mean North American topics. The male singer is a total whatever, the female one is better in that she stands out more and doesn't sound like some whiny white boy singing about how his good upbringing has distorted his myopic view of the world crap. I can't hear lyrics in songs too well (unless I hear it 100 times) and so I won't go in depth about it. I guess they are fine.
The instrumentation/compositions are fine. I don't have any big complaints on that, except that Sprawl II seems like a worse version of Prince's Mountains. In particular, my favorite songs from this album were: Rococo, Empty Room, and Month of May. Everything else sounded like generic indie pop (insert 'Seinfeld is Unfunny effect here, except I never liked that kind of sound to begin with) or millennial angst about the world not being perfect since you were born. Just because something is well produced doesn't mean that it's good, Raw Power is a total opposite of this album sound-wise but still manages to execute what it was going for. I have nothing against the maximalist sound of the record (it's one of the best strengths going for The Suburbs), but I wish it could lean more into that rather than the vocals which are not good. Not horrible, but above par.
This album will work for certain people and their mindsets. It does not do that for me. So many backing strings and other assorted music and there's no distinctive drum beats or riffs that are catchy or engaging to my mind. It's impressively dull in a way this band is stereotyped for millennial coffee shops. It drags on like an unimpressive prog album. I cannot understand the hype because my brain isn't smooth enough.
LL Cool J represents the bridge from the golden age of hip hop to the new age, which was a shift in the style of hip hop we see today departing more from the soul/funk roots and leaning more into the rapping aspect of hip hop. LL Cool J was simply the master of that era that ended way before 1990, when Mama Said Knock You Out came out. This album cemented LL Cool J as a legend rather than a rapper whose star shined the brighten in a 3 year era of an emerging musical movement. Don't call it a comeback: LL remains a legend and reminds us why.
I love getting music selections that I would otherwise in my life, probably never hear. This album was pleasant to hear, something different and idyllic with songs longer than the western pop music for something seemingly accessible from Central Africa.
That's all I can really say about it because that's what it sounds. For an hour. It's completely cromulent. I'm more of a fan of Afrobeat/that Nigeran West African scene as a percussion lover. I don't know, listen to this album on a beach in good weather I guess.
Iconic folk album blah blah blah
Al Green is one of the great later-era Soul Singers and this album has his most known song (Talking Heads fans be damned). I'm more into female soul singers for this genre and Al Green is quite an iconic voice and presence, but isn't something I'm going to seek out and put on very often. Nevertheless, the record is still enjoyable but misses something to really gravitate it better for me. I think I'd like some of his other albums more than this one.
I couldn't get into SOAD because I had a roommate in College that would the very same 8-9 songs every day for two semesters. Given that was 10 years ago, I guess I can finally listen to SOAD and not have to hear the same shit over and over again.
I would've thought their next two albums would be on this list over their debut, they were more commercially successful and might have more of their memorable songs. At least they would make more sense than fucking Kid Rock being on this list.
In any case, the SOAD self-titled debut is for people like me that find SOAD to be a bit obnoxious in their delivery, but in terms of nu metal this is a top tier record. That's mainly because of Sturgeon's Law, but Nu Metal as it was forming in the late 90s was becoming its own movement bringing metal with hip hop and pop punk elements. Genre bullshit aside, it's a fine record. Wait Korn is on this list aren't they? oh nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
A quick bossa nova album that pioneered the genre and was generally okay for the most part. This is grandparent music :)
I could write almost forever (read: 15-20 pages) about this album, but there are many albums to write about so I'll try and be concise. Yes the album was made entirely with samples/sample manipulation and it's beautifully executed. But I'd like to add something more personal:
There's music you like and can really relate to in one way or another, personal experience to something that connects to your metaphysical sense of reality and aspires you to act or change and/or hopefully improve yourself from it. Endtroducing(...) was the definitive album that made me want to become a musician.
Then I looked into sampling laws and getting copyright approval, and went to buying a bunch of synthesizers instead as an alternative means to recreate the feelings and general soundscape Endtroducing provides. Fear, anxiety, wonder, chilled out, mellow, groove. There's a lot of emotions that run through the album and it never feels like it's out of place (IE: for 90s hip hop, the filler parts are working too). It's a transformative remix of humanity working as a reflection of 20th century art. With the horrific advent of "AI Music", this album will stand the test of time as one of the best testaments to the creativity of homo sapiens.
classic blah blah blah, but I want to point out that When The Levee Breaks is one of the greatest songs of all time. pure drumming bliss
Iconic album not just for Thrash Metal, but for metal as a whole. I prefer other Slayer albums, but it's obvious that Reign In Blood is their most iconic and emblematic work they've done. Rest in Power Jeff Hanneman
I listened to this album quite a bit in that transitional period between middle school and high school. That was (reading notes) around 15 years ago, when I was definitely not listening to this album with good quality headphones/speakers. It's a very good audiophile album in that regard, plenty of detail to hear better than some shitty 2000s monitor that came with speakers (skull emoji).
It's a great album with a notable thing going against it: it's two fucking hours long. I shouldn't bitch when I like jam band music and stuff like Swans always released albums that are already lengthy. Other than that, Mellon Collie is a cornucopia of the 90s music sound in America (probably the western world too but I'm avoiding getting ahead of myself). Lot of genres represented under the 'alternative rock' banner (not sure why this site calls it grunge, its in a similar scene but I wouldn't lump the Smashing Pumpkins sound with something like Mudhoney or Alice in Chains). There's something in this album for any music lover, just be patient.
Also that one star review guy at the top of the reviews is too British, you can ignore his opinion.
Fats Domino is one of the most important people of the 20th century for christening Rock and Roll. The repercussions of such music has affected so much of the cultural history of humanity and who knows what to humanity and creativity. Or to put it quite simply: this fucks. It fucked so hard in the 1950s it helped desegregate America because black and white people wanted to get drunk and boogie down to this dude. Elvis said he was the King of Rock and Roll, and it's impossible not to hear anything from this record and not hear the trickle
Really just a classic fun hip hop record. The other side of the LA rap scene that wasn't as glamorized vs gangsta rap. Bay Area had that rap scene focused more on partying and hustling over the gangsta shit, but that doesn't scare white people reading the news as much as NWA. Fun stuff.
I'm going to keep my personal thoughts about this album offline. But it's good.
Overall a pleasant, if boring album. Norah Jones propped up her career at the right time as corporate coffee shops became big and wanted to promote an environment where you can think or be in a calm place while drinking your overpriced caffeinated beverage and or a sweet pastry. Very uncontroversial and safe, especially after 9/11. This isn't my thing, but it's probably a lot of other peoples thing, the pop minded folks or the boring corporate legal/other world types. I like my music more rock-focused or crazy, none of that is here. Some good instrumental parts are here, but again this just isn't music for me, but definitely has that wide appeal that works so well. Norah is clearly talented (and comes from a music family) and it shows here.
this shit would go wild on some nitrous in the middle of an acid trip
At some point I had to cover the Smiths for this list. They exist. Morrissey's self-indulgent personality ("oh woe is me" personified and of course it would be someone British) is the one factor that separates The Smiths from being one of the greatest. OF course that gets rid of a good half of their songs. Insert joke about how Queen Elizabeth actually died here except I'm like a year too late to make that joke.
The Sgt. Peppers of Hip Hop in terms of the creativity and complexity of how it transformed the genre like The Beatles did with rock/psychedelic rock, Outkast created a timeless classic for generations to come.
shoutout to Frank Zappa and having some idiot with a flare gun at one of his concerts inspire rock music's Louie Louie riff part two.
Was going to have to go through some country albums, which after getting constant classic, rock albums I've already listened to several times before. The Louvin Brothers were classic (nepo babies) Grand Ole Opry country/folk musicians. One brother known for a violent temper and "womanizing", the other for being not that. At least most of these songs are darker in nature, because it could get worse.
There's something to be said about the golden era of vocal harmonies that started around the 50s/60s, and its the strength of this album. Alas it is a old country record back when the music business was just as crooked but also more formal and business-like when it came to creating music (quickly) and releasing singles at incredibly random times. There's a couple songs here I like In The Pines, Katie Dear and Knoxville Girl, but my favorite is the opening track Kentucky, where the strengths of the Louvin Brothers and that close harmony-era is as beautiful as it was the day it was recorded.
The flaws? If I wanted that sound I would listen to something more upbeat and good like Motown records. But for the sake of Americana music culture, it would be hard-pressed to skip this album. Not the most iconic country record ever (Louvin Brothers would have a short career together as one of them died from a car accident), so I guess this was 'the one' aside from the memed-upon 'Satan is Real' Gospel record. I'd rather hear country than Gospel, and I haven't come across any Gospel albums yet. Not sure how to end this review, it's more of a historic relic compared to some more exciting 50s records, that are almost all surprisingly jazz and blues related.....
A transformative early 70s album, the impact of glam rock on rock and roll/pop music and its influence today is still felt in the pop world and in the perception of rock and roll. While this is an iconic album, I wish it was a bit more uptempo (like all songs were like Rip Off), but still an enjoyable listen. RIP Marc Bolan and Mark Volman (no relation)
I've listened to a lot of Nirvana and can never really figure out my opinion on this album, until right now. It's about four stars, give or take.
Never heard of this guy before this selection. It's easy to see a Canadian artist and quietly think to yourself if the government funded promotion of Canadian musical artists has struck gold with this guy. I also question why that very same government can't help an impeccable band like Voivod, but alas.
I'll get this out of the way: not a chamber music fella. I like rhythm and upbeat stuff, and chamber is simply not for my musical DNA. When my favorite artist Frank Zappa composed a chamber music album I still disliked it. Baroque stuff I don't feel as strongly. That stuff works well. The production is incredibly well put together. Lots of background instruments in good space from one another, creating a great theatrical vibe while feeling like some sort of Britpop record at times, except with better production (I'm explicitly calling out Oasis right here).
The slower parts of this album make me question why this could be pop when it doesn't really gauge the listener too much, especially with longer than average pop tracks for all but two songs. I wish it blended more of an art rock sort of sound because this dude surely loves to use banjos on a bunch of songs.
I can recognize that this simply isn't for me, with a couple of tracks I can highlight that I liked: Vicious World, Movies of Myself (mainly for the piano/organ/synthesizers) and Beautiful Child. But the rest is droll at best and I hate to say it but the album is just a drag to listen to and get to. It will appeal to probably some more musical-inclined people, chamber music folk, but I NEED DRUMS. I NEED PERCUSSION. I NEED RHYTHM AHHHHHH SHIT GOD DAMN FUCK. Fucking get vibraphones and make them louder or something. Marimbas are a fine substitute, but all this extra background shit and you only add percussive stuff on a couple songs is where it pushes me too far.
Listen Canada, you're 1:1 with good and bad music. That's good! But it's also bad. As a result, there's plenty of mid. I'm sure there are better representation of your country's music than this guy. Great production only goes so far to save an album. This album has a sequel that is also in this collection. Perhaps I'm not aware of the significance of Rufus Wainwright in the chamber/baroque/"pop opera" world, but I don't think he needs two albums to be mentioned here.
My favorite Byrds album, and it is much better than Rubber Soul.
It's been a while since I've put on this album, and with a new sound system vs whatever I was using in high school when I last listened to this album in full, it's even better than I remember. Read whatever other people wrote about this album that made it significant for Manchester/England and its impact on music today. Very special kind of sound that is often imitated but never really quite replicated.
Ahh yes, the "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" guys, as they are known to Americans like me who have viewed this band as a One Hit Wonder in our country. I was messaging a girl on one of those contrived dating apps many moons ago and she told me her favorite band was The Darkness, and she was seriously into them even as she knew not many people knew about them. But you don't forget "I Believe In A Thing Called Love", a very early 2000s rock song that...works actually.
And this album was....surprisingly pretty good. Especially as rock and roll was beginning to decline from its highest points of the 60s-90s. Even more surprising from a band that actually manages to mix glam metal and hard rock to make it not so very "cringe". I'm not sure there's much else to explore from this band, one of many to "suffer" with their debut album also being their creative best. They have a cultish following in America and are probably bigger in their homeland in the UK. Does it belong on this list? Ehhhhhhh, there's a lot worse on this list and The Darkness are sort of rock and roll (and more certainly for Glam Metal)'s last grasp of being in the mainstream.
Also god damn yeah that dude can sing incredibly high pitched. That's probably worthy of the inclusion alone aside from their biggest hit. Wonder how many glasses he broke as a pub trick. The Darkness might have peaked quick and early, but they left some kind of impact: that you can make glam metal and not be totally cringe or too in on the joke like Steel Panther (good band).
The definitive Psychedelic Folk Pop record. Tragic story about the frontman. Definitely "peak" as for 60s hippie music goes.
Yo white boy speakin mad facts. If you want to know why people make fun of Bob Dylan just hear him on this album babble on like the beatnik he is. Not my favorite Dylan record but it shows that moment he was making early 60s rendition of earlier folk/blues records before he went electric and became modestly more palatable for people's earholes
This challenge has given me a good introduction to Psychedelic Soul: a genre I was probably interested in all along and never got around to it. This is so much better than My Girl.
The beginning of what the pop world would see as 'electronic music'. Sure there were other rock bands that used synthesizers like the Mothers of Invention, Sun Ra (I said rock bands but as a synth guy I would be hard pressed to mention who Moog gave their first minimoog to) or Silver Apples and 20th century composers that incorporated electronic music with avant-garde results but Kraftwerk were perhaps the first to make it all make sense in the formal dictionary definition of pop music (for the 70s). It's a bit more approachable than The Stooges we'll say.
It's nothing short of an iconic record, but I'll shout out the other side of the album that doesn't get nearly the same amount of attention as Autobahn the song. Kometenmelodie 1+2 are dope
I just turned 10 when this album came out, and while I didn't truly begin my attention towards music listening for a couple years after, the songs of this album were unavoidable like hearing Rumors on the Adult Contemporary radio. And despite being the prime age for this record and all that post-DC emo bullshit and Linkin Park nu-metal drek, I NEVER wanted to hear this record. It's not that I hate Green Day (could care less/more into Dookie), it's that I could tell at a young age that it wasn't for me. Time to me a good sport and hear this record.
American Idiot, the self-titled song, is good enough even though the guitar riff - stop - guitar riff rhythm is annoying. It shows the review theme of this album for me: when the tempo is high, it's fine. The slower song? Oh my G-d there is a reason that this album was very divisive. It was such a commercial success that Green Day changed their slacker 90s punk rock image into......well Green Day of today. As I would normally say, there's plenty of shitty bands in the world and I wouldn't put Green Day in that category. I would for Linkin Park though, fight me.
Jesus of Suburbia, sort of a punk medley of 3-4 songs, is kind of a modern A Quick One While He's Away. The best parts of JoS is the middle. It's otherwise cromulent.
Holiday I think is the best song of the album. The riff and chorus work perfectly together here. Not sure why some streamed versions combine Holiday with "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", a song to me at this point has lost all meaning and is essentially a meme. That and Wonderwall should not be these big explosive rock songs that people that had to think of rock music would think of those two songs before some better songs that I won't list that will make me feel like a boomer. The composition to Boulevard is good, which makes it superior to Wake Me Up When September Ends, which is essentially everything negative I said about Boulevard of Broken Dreams, but worse.
After those songs, I think I'm at the point where I don't know the other half of the album. Are We The Waiting reminds me of how very hit or miss Billie Joe Armstrong's are, and get even worse with that backing chorus too. St. Jimmy is better (again I do not know why some of these songs are combined on streaming). Give Me Novocaine is alright, not much of a standout. She's a Rebel is fine, it's upbeat on this album so it's definitely not bad.
Extraordinary Girl sounds like a generic late 90s/2000s rock song. At this point I should bring up that this is a concept album/rock opera about a story that can be summarized like this: young millennial feels jaded about the world!!!!! It's something that's very on-par for the 2000s (and to be fair, it's justified FUCK GEORGE W BUSH). I'll admit I can't be assed to read more deep into the rock opera stuff, though I respect the band's decision to try and not make it hamfisted about the Iraq War (which would've been more fun) in order to preserve the album's legacy. A bit of a costly trade-off for the time, because we could've really used Good Music in the early War on Terror-era over all the shitty "patriotic" country bullshit. One could argue the soul of punk died there without a bigger response against the Iraq/Afghanistan bullshit, but it did exist. Rock Against Bush was around, although not as popular as the dumbass Americans that felt like we needed revenge and not think about the consequence of our retaliation (that sounds very familiar....). I couldn't tell you more about how the general consensus of Americans were thinking at the time, because I was in grade school.
Okay back to the album. Letterbomb is the good kind of energy I wish was universal for the album, even if it won't sell as many records as the next song up, that September bullshit song I already talked about. Homecoming is the second of the actually-a-medley song, and it's 9 minutes of basically the same power chord-Billy Joe singing structure that pretty much defines Green Day. It's at that point where American Idiot as an album gets too repetitive for its own good: there was a sharp reason why the Ramones never made an album longer than 50 minutes (aside from live records). THIS FUCKING ALBUM DRAGS ON, your nostalgia glasses can't really blind that. The few interesting guitar parts are on the bridge for the song, which makes it very shortlived. It crumbles on itself, other than the message the album brings out which is probably the strongest part of American Idiot: the idea itself before the executed concept. That sound is coupled with the Loudness Wars in peak form: the perfect storm of many early 2000s rock/metal music. There's dynamics funny enough, washed away by the singing and guitar. I'm curious how Tre Cool views the production on this album because it makes me feel bad for the guy.
The last song (on the original release) is Whatsername. That's the name of the women-interest of the album's rock opera. I think I've had enough mini diatribes at this point for a review. The song itself sounds like almost everything else that came out in 2003/2004. This is a real love it or hate it album, but there's very few things I like from the album. The nostalgia of hating the War on Terror/Bush/Osama feels dainty 20 years in the future, as pretty much all of our problems from back then have not been fixed today and things have gone worse for the most part. In short, if you liked emo music and metalcore or nu metal or whatever cringe music was popular at the time: this record is an all-timer. If you're anyone else that has no passion for that era or those music genres: you have a generic (in a Seinfeld is Unfunny effect, although not 100% but plays a part) rock sound for the early 2000s that contributed to the staleness of the genre that would struggle to evolve further in the 21st century. I do leave finishing this album appreciating it maybe 10% more than I normally did (which was maybe at almost zero), but it does not give me a satisfactory feeling to listen or go through it, as the good parts of this album were all spaced from each other.
But yeah, I know. People that don't really seek out the weeds of music know "American Idiot", "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", "Holiday" (the good song), and that shit "Wake Me Up When September Ends" crap and are a mainstay in rock canon as the genre struggles to achieve the heights it had in the 50s-90s. Billy Joe Armstrong's voice is divisive, but I think the worst parts of this album is that the power chords and guitar just sound the same on almost every track. Again, the lack of dynamics is understandable for a punk record, but you're making a punk rock opera that's almost an hour long. You NEED dynamics to make that shit sound like you're doing something with it. It just sounds like a loud pop punk record which fucking Blink 182, another band I don't want to care for, could sound better. Green Day made a significant number of moneys from this album, stuck to their new popular image, and essentially retries the same formula from this album over and over again to success (mostly from their large fanbase, good on them to have one). This band would never stay as the pop/skate punk darlings of the 90s that Dookie created for them. Is this "selling out"? I'll leave that question as philosophical insight.
Ultimately, I get why this album is on the list. It's iconic, which is a sign for the word that iconic doesn't necessarily mean good or epic or a must listen, just that it was very big for its time against an unpopular war (that started out very popular) and along with Californication by RHCP, some of the last big "rock and roll records". I don't know if it aged well with the loudness war shit, but I didn't fully hate it like I thought I would. I do still dislike the record, in part because most of it sounds too similar and most of the reasons you hear people not liking Green Day come into effect very much so here. Check out next time when I have to listen to Black Parade by MCR and write even more negatively about a band I also never cared for from around the same era that sounds worse. Joy!
No idea about anything regarding Calexico the band or this album specifically before I started listening to Feast of Wire. And it's another great pleasant surprise from the generator!. Calexico is a band that is pretty hard to define. "Alternative country" but maybe 2-3 songs on the album sound country. Regardless of whether or not its a notable album of music history, it is sonically a great album from a pretty unique space given that time period of music in the early 2000s. True indie gold.
I knew this band as one of the greatest band names of all time before I heard any of there music, until today. This is quite an eclectic record, especially for the mid 80s. Reminds me of Foetus but more approachable for weirdos that haven't gotten fully out there. Take 80s pop with strong post punk sensibilities and make it even weirder.
Right at the pinnacle of Eric Clapton's height and would be the best record he was on if it wasn't for Cream existing. Duane Allman (RIP) is the one that shines the most on this album, and it really pisses me off that Clapton the racist is the last one alive from this band. Although Jim Gordon did murder his mom and was genuinely an insane individual, at least he (probably) wasn't a racist bigot.
But this is also one of the best blues rocks (studio) albums ever. Drags on for a bit more than the typical album of its time? Yeah but Duane Allman's time on this planet was short and his impact on the guitar is immeasurable like Hendrix. I implore you weird normies of this website: ignore the Clapton, praise Duane. Duane only did good in his short life. Fuck you if otherwise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'll try and be brief: I really liked this album and was in a phase of my life at the end of high school/starting college when I listened to this album heavily and got into Kanye (thanks to a 21st Century Schizoid man sample in 'Power') for a while. I even saw him live with Kendrick Lamar opening for him. This album is a hip hop masterpiece in and of itself, Kanye at his creative height beyond the producer-turned-college-dropout indie rapper and into this maximalist king of both worlds (and still suck at mixing drums right).
But he's also an avid nazi. Not even just a sympathizer, a nazi. He can fuck off. Outkast weren't nazis and made albums just as creative as ABDTF, and perhaps even better. 5/5 otherwise. But nazis are hateful scum. Such a shame.
Foreward: Aside from knowing the hit singles, I only heard Pornography from The Cure, earlier on in this challenge like two or three months ago. Excited to check out what Kyle Brolofski would call, "the greatest album ever".
I would prefer Pornography over Disintegration but I like hearing more of that same sound than the mid 80s poppy The Cure. My only complaint is that Lovesong is kind of boring thanks to overexposure (probably helped by being one of the few pop-sounding songs for radio on the album). Solid band, terrific albums.
I don't celebrate Christmas and Phil Spector is a murderer. Never cared for Christmas music as a result. Pass.
