1001 Albums Summary

Interesting to see that this one's average rating has fallen significantly - has there been a bit of a backlash against these guys? Some of the negative reviews mention car commercials and the like, so maybe that has been a factor. It is easy to see why this would appeal to ad-makers. The songs have an immediacy and a bit of punch. It all sounds a bit processed, though, and lacking in personality. My overall feeling was that this is good but not very lovable

An old favourite of mine, and a touch of nostalgia is probably pushing it up from a 4 to a 5 Hüsker Dü had disintegrated by the time I heard them and Bob Mould's early solo work was good but very bleak, so it was an unexpected delight when his new band turned up with a set of much brighter, catchier tunes. The lyrics are still depressing but this is terrific noise pop. If you want the darker, more abrasive songs from the same recording sessions they are found on 'Beaster': the 'bad Sugar' they siphoned off from this 'good Sugar'

I've always slightly avoided Pink Floyd and I'm hoping this project will give me a chance to appreciate them more. This wasn't the best start, though. There are a handful of good songs of which Comfortably Numb is comfortably the best, and I love Gilmour's fluid guitar playing, but I found most of this quite turgid.

Probably my favourite Tom Waits album, above even Raindogs. It is typically eclectic and I love the way he orchestrates such a wide variety of sounds (including whatever a chamberlin is). The tone here is more percussive with lots of banging, clanking noises, which I very much approve of. You can hear the sinews creaking as he groans about mortality. Love it.

Loud, fast and fun, but I guess I like my punk a bit more abrasive

Iggy's collaborations with Bowie are fascinating. This one is more like a Bowie album fronted by Iggy, and I miss some of Iggy's usual energy, but it's good and it points ahead in a few gothy directions

I like this album but I can't say it is a great one, and it is strange to have this listed when Zen Arcade is both more exciting and more influential. This is fine, and 'No Reservations' is beautiful, but other Hüsker Dü albums deserve to be here instead

A familiar pleasure, but doesn't quite connect with me the way it did when I was young. Still great, of course, and hugely influential

Nick Drake's reputation has risen over the years, climbing from a deserved reappraisal to being lauded as a tragic lost genius. I don't honestly think his music quite matches up to the mythology. Some people dislike the ornate production on this one. Personally I think it makes the most of some fairly slight material. There are not many memorable songs here (although I do love 'Northern Sky'). His singing is lifeless and his lyrics are not very interesting - it is just standard English pastoral with surprisingly little emotional connection to what we know of his life I will give a better score to Pink Moon, where his music finally linked up more with his feelings, but as doomed singer-songwriters go I don't think he had the talent of an Elliott Smith

Enjoyable and atmospheric, I love these kind of soundscapes

Pretty good, if a bit sweet for my tastes. I can't argue with Homeward Bound and For Emily is lovely (I don't mind some sweetness). The dig at Bob Dylan seemed slightly incongruous

This is great. The only reason I am not quite giving five stars is because it is mostly covers

Glad to be introduced to this and there may be moods in which I want to revisit it, but not very often

The fire alarm at work was malfunctioning today and it sounded a bit like this. I mean that in a good way as these guys knew how compelling an ominous drone can be. I could have done without the cheap jump scares and lewd groans - I see Rolling Stone's original review called it 'absolutely puerile', and I can't disagree - but this is still a unique and impressive record

These are mostly songs I don't like but in the best possible versions. That makes it tricky to rate. I'm guided by two considerations: i. I'm going to have to hear these songs anyway, so they might as well be done well ii. It's Christmas Go on then... 4 stars

Being more of a rock fan, I kind of regret the way rock has declined relative to other genres like hip-hop. But this is the kind of hip-hop I would have been happy to give way to - loud, angry and articulate, with a sound as confrontational as the lyrics

I kind of enjoyed this, even if some of that enjoyment was amusement. I preferred the first side which is more varied and sometimes closer to hardcore punk; side two is more consistently grinding. Neither set of vocals does anything for me. I'm glad to have listened to it but not often likely to return

I never really got the hype for this. Albarn was obviously trying out new ideas but I don't think things had really gelled yet. Demon Days is better

One thing I like about this is the way it takes the icy, alien sounds and turns them into something as everyday as a car journey

Subtle as a brick, but bricks work just great

I'm hovering between a four and a five here. I mean, it is really, really good and shows such a range of styles that Bowie was working with. The title track is absolutely great. This album doesn't quite settle into one of my favourites though, and it has some of Bowie's most theatrical vocals (which is a side of him I like less). So I'm going keep the five stars for a couple of his other albums and just give four to this one.

This is much more playful than Can and occasionally strays too far into silliness, especially on the opening track. I enjoyed the rest though, particularly 'O Lord, give us more money' which deserves a favourable response from the Lord

Too shiny for me. And too precise

This is so close to being my kind of thing. I like the roughness of it. I like the readiness to try out ideas. I didn't think I could complain that the songs are too short. But... they are too short, and I wish some of them had been given a bit more space to grow. I might have loved it then

You can hear him start to branch out from Simon & Garfunkel here, with a wider range of influences. I particularly liked 'Peace Like a River' which I had never heard before

As a Brit, I am more familiar with Fun Boy Three's version of Our Lips Are Sealed, which has a much more sombre feel. I like both, and I guess I knew Jane Wiedlin could write a sparkling pop tune, as she did with Rush Hour. The more joyful take on Our Lips Are Sealed is typical of the album's mood. It's just a really fun album with most tracks matching up to the singles.

Long time since I last listened to this. I always thought it was good but overrated. I would now say it is very good but overrated

I am not fond of Clapton for various reasons but he is good here. The drum solo less so. White people playing the blues? One of these reviews said it is like a white British person in 2010 covering 1990s gangsta rap. I can see their point... but rap is a genre much more built on recounting your personal experience. Blues has always had far more standard songs, so it is hard to argue that you have to have lived them to sing them. And aren't some of them relatable enough outside their origins? One of the reasons why black American musicians found an appreciative but largely white audience in 1960s Britain is because divisions between races were less stark in the UK. The notion that black and white people should restrict themselves to certain kinds of music would have been quite alien here. So which aspect of US culture should we have appropriated: the blues? or the racial segregation of music?

Some of these songs are still inescapable thirty years later and I might be downrating it a bit because they are so overplayed. On the other hand, I was quite lukewarm about them at the time as well.

This seems like a real step forward from Spacemen 3, with a wider array of instruments and a dreamier, blissful feel. They got even better with Ladies and Gentlemen... I was hovering between 3 and 4 but have rounded it down for spelling. That may seem harsh, but with no half stars available there are bound to be some narrow calls. Zorry Jazon

Bit surprised to see 'What's the Story?' scoring higher. This is better, and came before they got too irksome

I was aware of Cheap Trick but I don't think I had ever heard anything by them. At first I was puzzled by the 'pop rock' label because the first side just sounded like humdrum rock, about on a par with Status Quo. The second side had a couple of better songs but overall it wasn't great.

Didn't know much about Quicksilver Messenger Service. Some kind of hippy jam band. I like Bo Diddley though, and was intrigued that the whole first side of this album is listed as a song suite based on the wondrous 'Who Do You Love?' Turns out it is just an extended live jam which soon ran out of steam. Oddly, though, I enjoyed the bit where they seemed to get bored and just experimented with some different guitar sounds. Side two started with another Bo Diddley cover: slowed down again but with more bite. Rather good and I liked this side better. It had some inventive guitar work, using feedback and sounds that are closer to the stuff I usually like. Not exactly Sonic Youth territory but not so far removed from it. Is there any actual Bo Diddley on this list?

I am all in favour of the list including a band's most distinctive album, and this is The Cure at their most Cure

I quite liked the Cedar Room but most of this was really quite boring

Still not quite as good as Low

His most commercial album but still plenty of variety and artiness in these songs, and some real emotional pull to some of them

Blandly pleasant

Synth-pop isn't a favourite genre of mine but there is no more essential example of it than this. Dated? Of course - that will happen with a style defined by using the latest technology of the time. But if this sounds quintessentially 80s it is because it set a large part of the template for what the 80s would be.

Very sleek production but has enough punch to keep me interested. Very good of it's kind

There is something about ELO that just rubs me up the wrong way. I think it is the combination of playfulness and overwroughtness. I don't mind playfulness, and I can sometimes tolerate music that is overwrought if I can feel the passion behind it. But the two things together? No. No. No There are snippets that were alright. 'Believe Me Now' almost felt sincere for eighty seconds. And I can enjoy the sillness of 'Mr Blue Sky' for its duration. But a double album of this stuff is way too much for me

A bit folkier than I remembered, with acoustic guitars playing a big part. Stray Cat Blues is pure filth, in the good sense as well as the bad

A very consistent tone of heartbreak which could easily have dragged, but I found myself more drawn into it as it went on. A more vulnerable Frank without any brashness - I appreciated that

There are people I love who get a lot of pleasure from listening to Queen, so I am grateful for that, but personally I don't even like most of the singles. As for the filler on this... the car song, the seaside song and the prophet song do at least provide a wide variety of different kinds of trash. Remarkably, the ukelele song isn't even the worst. I didn't mind Brian May's '39' but I can't quite push beyond a 'didn't mind'. Then there is the Behemoth Rhapsody. I don't always hate it. There are parts of it I quite like, and then it always ends up with the scaramouche fandango stuff and I am back to hating it again. The album ends with 'God Save the Queen', of all things, but nothing can.

I was never keen on Suede. I didn't care for Brett's melodramatic vocals and they were usually a bit too glam for me. That was mainly based on the singles, which tended to show their Mott the Hoople side. This album is more varied than I expected and pretty consistent in quality, with some quieter songs I enjoyed

Less/More Interesting to see another comment mention Young Marble Giants. It does seem like a much-more polished (and very well-produced) update on them

As a child I really enjoyed this and maybe 12 year old me still would, but it has not aged well - worse than the earlier stuff before they added all these layers of synthetic sheen to the chortling misogyny. Great beards though

As much folk as country, with influences from much further afield than Americana within the echoey backing. Quite enjoyed it

Very varied, covering a huge range of styles. Always kept me interested

The Mercury Prize has a disappointing record when it comes to identifying acts that will have a lasting impact. Too many winners have been people whose moment soon passes, and few exemplify that more than Klaxons. They may have made reference to writers like Pynchon and Ballard but this only has a flashy surface without much content and it doesn't reward repeated listening. At least their name was apt: like a klaxon the sound is frantic and attention-grabbing but I was happy when it sped away into the distance

As a kid in the 80s I remember disliking the following album, Seven and the Ragged Tiger. The stuff up to Rio was alright but we still viewed them as pretty boys that the girls liked while we listened to cooler stuff like, er, Genesis. This album has aged better than I expected, possibly because their best musician was the bass player and there tends to be more emphasis on that now

I knew the name fIREHOSE but didn't realise their connection with Minutemen. This is a bit stop-start at times but I definitely enjoyed it

There is no doubting the skill but this is just so lifeless The worst track is a vapid cover of East St Louis Toodle-oo. It was so weak I ended up listening to Duke Ellington to see if the original song is really that bad. It isn't - it is quite playful and kind of fun, with a bit of moodiness in the background. The way Steely Dan play it is just so damned careful. What is the point of that? I am not a big jazz fan but one thing I definitely don't want from jazz is predictability

I mean, I really like this but is it a 4 or a 5? I'm going to give it the extra star because it has influenced so much music I like - especially through I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better, which is just the blueprint for every great jangly song since

More house than I remembered. Human Behaviour is really good

I'm in a record shop in 1990 and they're playing Welcome to the Terrordrome. I belatedly realised that hip-hop could be as exciting as the rock I mainly listened to, so I will always be grateful for that. I don't think this has aged quite as well as It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back as there is more filler but Fight the Power is still great

Previous Nick Cave albums I have heard have been slightly disappointing, even though he seems like the sort of artist I should really like. So I wasn't particularly looking forward to this double album, but it's excellent. Lots of hard edges, a few good choruses and the gospel elements really work with the dark blues core. A rare five stars on first listen

I prefer the live version of No Woman No Cry and this didn't quite grab me as much as Catch a Fire

A concerted attempt to be current in 2000, which did not set it up to age particularly well. She could still find some songs that worked for the dancefloor but too much of this feels like her trying on clothes that don't quite fit. The last song about authenticity is a bit ludicrous when this is Madonna using clumsy autotune and dressed as a cowgirl I skipped the bonus track. You know the one

Much better than Eliminator

Completely new to me, as the Humpty Dance wasn't a hit in the UK. I'm not sure we were missing much. The concept could actually have been interesting because the idea of substituting technology for sex is more relevant now than it was in 1990. It could have been a prescient exploration of how that might affect human intimacy. It isn't, of course. It's a silly adolescent fantasy about making women disposable (and men, but mostly women). Oh well

It's quite good but nothing groudbreaking or outstanding. I think I liked the last track best where it turned a bit shoegazey

Two contrasting sides, with their new style on side 1 and the older style on side 2. The funkier first side is more interesting, although I am not sure we needed to hear the crying child in Runaway Child, Running Wild

'I'm in love with rock and roll'. Me too, Jonathan, me too It is not a work of genius, but it is the work of someone honest and guileless, and sometimes that is worth treasuring. I found it a bit of a mixed bag, in truth, but there are a couple of great garagey songs that I really enjoyed (She Cracked, Roadrunner)

My favourite Bowie I want to be cool and say I like the second side best but actually it is tracks 4-6 that form my favourite sequence on any Bowie album. Sound and Vision is a brilliant single with the confidence to leave the vocals until half-way through, knowing it has enough rhythmic interest to keep us entertained. Then I love the way the guitars and synths weave in and out of each other on Always Crashing in the Same Car, a woozy masterpiece on the verge of collision. I kind of like his voice here too - sometimes he is a bit too theatrical but on this song he sounds completely washed out and distant. It was obviously a bad time for him, but it works for me. Be My Wife is a forgotten single that is actually one of my favourites of his. As a rule, sad songs are slow songs. This one is achingly lonely but still keeps up momentum with a propulsive piano riff leading into some gorgeous weeping guitars. The rest is very good too, but that section is the highlight for me

This is so much of its time, but it is a time I remember and I was one of the indie wallflowers that Loaded dragged uncertainly onto the dancefloor. It is such a mixture of styles that some bits have aged more than others: the acid house elements are more dated than the gospel, dub and what bits of rock survived the mixing process (it always seemed much more Weatherall's album than Gillespie's). It certainly brings back memories but is not really an album I have carried with me

I was once a bookish young man but I was never daft enough to imagine that was cool or sexy. Lloyd Cole's naive pretentiousness was always a bit annoying, to be honest, but I might excuse his naivety more now I am so much older than he was. Decent songs, on the whole

'I had the taste of blood and chocolate in my mouth, the one as hateful as the other' - Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf. Bit surprised to learn that is not where the title comes from Costello even angrier than usual, and may be his nastiest album. I Want You is a great song but it leaves a bitter aftertaste

I miss Cale here, and regret that no band would showcase as much discordant viola again. Murder Mystery would be better with him involved. But this album showcases what a fine and sensitive songwriter Reed had become

As someone born in 1970 just up the M69 from Cov, this totally speaks to the world I grew up in. That grimy, fertile mixture of industrial decline and emerging multiculturalism is the grit that 2 Tone grew out of. Amazing that a brand of dance music is such a potent vehicle for anger. Yet it clearly is, and each successive wave of ska has brought it closer to punk. I don't think it ever got more pointed than this, though.

I don't know why, but somehow I never really click with Stevie Wonder. That is obviously on me, not him. The nearest comparison I can make is when I hear some younger people say they don't get Prince. My first instinct is to say: Can't you hear how talented he was? How many styles he brought together? How incredibly prolific he was? And they say something like 'yeah, but it doesn't do much for me'. So that's me with Stevie Wonder. I admire him but I am rubbish at listening to him

Not my kind of thing and there were parts I disliked, but at least they still sounded like a rock band and I've Seen All Good People was just about good enough to scrape it up to a 3

I loved the rhythms in this and the samples just provided a wide array of sounds to sculpt with, so it didn't really matter where they came from. I think that's one of the joys of sampling - that you can take an excerpt from one context and transpose it into something completely different. I am tempted to say that this shows some of David Byrne's talent without him spoiling it by singing, but that would be a bit mean

I am not quite as scruffy as I used to be, but this sound is still too squeaky clean for me

His voice isn't very good, the lyrics are trite and the composition is competent but obviously derivative He puts everything into it, though, so I will give him two stars for effort. Well done for trying

I love a bit of 'uncertain piano', and it only takes a moment of the title track to set me drifting on an ocean with a neon bottle floating beside me Transitional albums are often the most interesting snapshots into an artist's career, and Eno was just starting to feel his way towards ambient. It was interesting to learn that he was stuck for ideas when he started recording it. Hard to believe, when you hear the results. But it seems like that lack of a clear intention made him experiment with lots of different techniques, and helped us end up with this collection of all kinds of beautiful

A bit of a surprise to me, as I only really knew Goldfrapp for glitzy stompers like Ooh La La. I like this more and the airy songs give her wispy voice more chance to shine

Like many in Britain, I have never knowingly heard any Grateful Dead before, despite how significant they obviously are in the US. This fell some way below my expectations. Even the track of feedback was boring

Random

These drug-addled slobs were never built to last but their peak was magnificent and it is right here. Totally on groove, and with plenty of wit under its loose fitting clothes

What's left to say? The importance is obvious, for every kind of alternative music. Not just the ones you can hear here (which is everything from lo-fi to noise rock) but just opening up the space for every other sort of experimentation. And it's also a joy to listen to, with Heroin still one of the best songs ever

They should have got more credit at the time, but at least more people now realise how great this album is. Punkier than Nirvana, and personally I like them better

This is all kind of stretched out. The instrumentals are sometimes over-extended and a bit aimless at times. I was more interested in the way Buckley extends his voice to make it more sonorous. It is a showy style of singing, but without the acrobatics of a lot of other showy singers (except on Gypsy Woman). Instead he mainly explores the tones of his voice and the range of resonance it has

I liked The Roof and Fly Away and was quite impressed by Breakdown, but I find it hard to stomach too much of the frillery

When I think of all the great records on independent labels it is a bit of a shock to learn that this is the best selling independent album ever

A handful of my favourite Beatles songs and a lot of songs that are not. I like the interesting experiments (and I am happy to include Revolution 9 in that) but there are too many flimsy throwaways. Even by double album standards, the lack of quality control is exceptional

I owned and loved Slanted and Enchanted, so I am not sure why I never bought this one. I guess I just couldn't be arsed, which is probably in the spirit of the thing

I only knew Chicago from their 80s hits which I never liked. I was hoping to like this version of the band much more, but I don't really

I was a kid when this came out, but not quite juvenile enough

Often a little underwhelming, but that may be how they prefer to be

Rough hewn and powerful

The generator, in its wisdom, currently claims that folk is my favourite genre. It is wrong (I am more of an alternative rock guy), but it has certainly been serving up some very fine folk and folk-adjacent albums. This is another one, with Denny and Swarbrick shining

I didn't like the first track, but enjoyed the rest. It was cleaner and less psychedelic than I expected. It's no surprise to hear that they split up straight afterwards, though, as Mason and Winwood's songs sound like different bands

Genesis were my favourite band in my early teens before I veered off to music that is more... direct, shall we say. I still listen to a few of their songs (and Carpet Crawlers and Fly on a Windshield are definitely among them) but it is a long time since I listened to a full album. And this is overfull. The fantastical storyline is still ridiculous and there is plenty of bombast I now prefer to do without. The first disc is much better than the second, though: on its own, the first disc would be four stars

Phantom of the Opera has a great intro that makes me want to drink Lucozade, but much of this album has too much widdly-diddly for me

Twin guitar heaven.

AC/DC always do their thing, and they do it well. 'Industrial-strength boogie' is the best description I've seen

I would call them more Old Wave than New Wave. Dexys turned their back on punk to look for a more retro sound, but they still had a rebellious attitude and came up with this energetic brand of soul. I like this more than their other albums. I struggle with Kevin Rowland's mannered vocals but I like the raucous brass and the Northern Soul stompiness. It's a good album. Do they need three albums on this list? No, of course not. But if you want to understand why they are so over-represented... yes, they had more hits in the UK, but also - the British music press loved them. Kevin Rowland was always enthusiastic, contrarian and unpredictable. You never knew what harebrained scheme he was planning next: Hi band! You know how I hired you as horn players? Well you can ditch the trumpet and trombone because now you are all wearing dungarees and playing the violin. What do you mean you haven’t played one before? They were always good copy. Whether they were always good music... well, you have ample opportunity to judge

It feels like they hadn't quite figured out Who they were yet. This has bits of everything - some blues (which they weren't very good at), some old-school pop, a couple of James Brown numbers. Moon's frenetic drumming and Townshend's fiery guitar hint at what was trying to burst out of it all. Then, in the middle of this mess, they suddenly conjure up the title song which is great.

So the theme is 'childhood memories', and that is largely where Madness reside for me. I still think they were more of a singles band than an albums band

I remember being stunned the first time I heard Angels on the radio. I couldn't believe the cheeky sod had come up with a song that good, and I had to give Guy Chambers a lot of credit Listening now, I liked Killing Me as well, but much of the rest is blaring pop/rock as subtle as Robbie's ego. And the tetchiness of Hello Sir is... interesting

The first half of this album still gladdens my heart as it starts out with terrific energy, but it fizzles out quite badly

I know they were popular in Australia as well as the US but Violent Femmes never really found an audience here in the UK. Was there too much cow in their cowpunk? Had The Smiths cornered the market in strumming teenage angst? Not that they sound anything like The Smiths, of course - the nearest UK equivalent I could think of was some of the Wonder Stuff, but that was always tongue-in-cheek and I don't think Violent Femmes were. To these British ears, Gordon Gano sounds a bit off - I think he was being sincere, but he sounds like he isn't Anyway, I enjoyed this and applaud them for having a xylophone solo

A few days ago I had 'The Rise and Fall' by Madness - another concept album about childhood. That, though, was more like childhood memories from a culture I am familiar with. This felt more like a mythology of childhood: a dream trying to capture a mythical purity that never truly existed. Maybe that is what 'Smile' will always be

An exceptionally patchy album, but the highs are very high

I knew one song (Thin White Rope did a cover of They're Hanging Me Tonight) but otherwise totally unfamiliar with this. Enjoyable story-telling and some good tunes but the rhythms are a bit monotonous

The electonic backings are far more interesting than the cocktail lounge stuff they made before, with some trip-hop, some mild drum 'n' bass and occasional bits of house. Not sure about having two remixes on an album though

There is a lot going on and at times I found it a bit exhausting, but I am sure I will go back to it so that is a win. And Frontier Psychiatrist is just good fun

I don't mind the proggy song structures if the musical textures are interesting, but here the textures are too pop/yacht rock for me. There is more grit in the lyrics than the music. I think I had previously mistaken Dreamer for ELO and I hadn't realised I already knew School. That was my favourite song here, or at the least the first four minutes of it were.

I like Dinosaur Jr and I like lo-fi, so why had I never listened to any Sebadoh? This was pretty good, even if the democratic mix of songwriters made things a bit patchy as Barlow's songs were often better than Gaffney's in particular.

If an album leads to the army attacking your compound, beating you up and killing your mother then it truly is an album that needs to be heard It also slaps

I only knew The Adverts for Gary Gilmore's Eyes. This is a very solid punk album; not exceptional, but consistently good

Too opulent for my taste

I love it when the generator serves up albums that were important to me in my youth. This still sounds great when you immerse yourself into all its layers

I listened to this while watching cricket, which seemed to fit the chilled out vibe. It helped me relax while watching Leicestershire lose

I now realise I know most of these songs from their single edits, and I don't mind embracing the silliness for that long. But this is too much too muchness

Difficult one this, as the music is excellent but the subject matter is loathsome. I don't think it should be entirely off-limits, but for me the question is: do I trust Gainsbourg with the subject matter? And the answer has to be no. I don't think he is condoning the narrator as the narrator is clearly a fool, even before he meets Melody - foolish enough to be dangerously distracted by the statuette on his own car. But Gainsbourg enjoyed being provocative. He seemed to think it is OK to offer this underage sleaze as a tease. I'm going to dock it a star for that. Some people will deduct a lot more than one star, and some people will have more reason to. I absolutely understand that. Is it one of the 1001 best albums ever made? Yes, I'm pretty sure it is. Should everyone be expected to listen to it? No

Strange that their 'concept album' is their least cohesive. There are fewer harmonies here and the 15 minute 'life-cycle' is too short to convey much. I'm really not sure what 'Voices of Old People' was meant to achieve, unless you never listen to anyone old. There is a sprinkling of great songs ('America' above all) but the deep cuts don't seem as deep on this one.

I've never been a fan of country, but never listened to enough to write it off and this was really pretty good. The songs have a bit of steel and clarity to them, and Jennings had a strong voice and a fine band to drive things along. The last song, the one billed as the big single on the cover, had some syrupy Nashville strings - which reminded me of what I was glad to be missing in the rest.

OK. There is definitely a case for including this one. It is a very good album. It was their biggest seller. And if you wanted to list one album to illustrate the whole course of Talk Talk's career then this would have to be the one. It is the midpoint where they were still pop but moving towards the pioneering 'post-rock' of the last two albums. But I don't think the two halves of Talk Talk's career need to be given equal weight. If we only have one of their albums on the list, surely it should be Spirit of Eden? Even people who prefer Laughing Stock are likely to agree that Spirit of Eden is historically their most important album because that was the game changer, both for Talk Talk themselves and for every artist they have influenced. Anyway, let's stick with The Colour of Spring and enjoy it on its own merits. Even when Talk Talk were a synthpop band they had a slightly different sound palette to the rest of their contemporaries. Their fondness for animal noises always hinted at Mark Hollis's longing for something more organic, and on this album they shift towards that with more physical instruments. Harris and Webb proved to be a much more versatile rhythm section then a synthpop band had any right to possess, and I have always loved the emotional pull of Hollis's tremulous voice, even if the lyrics don't always warrant the amount of feeling he invested them with. Compositionally (I think that was starting to be the right word) they were newly inspired by Coltrane, Satie and Bartok's string quartets ie. they were getting more ambitious/pretentious (delete according to taste). Yet Hollis could form these arty elements into an absolute banger like 'Life's What You Make It' and he was still writing big choruses for some of the songs. What starts to emerge on this album, though, is the increasingly confident use of the spaces within songs. That stands out on the less structured tracks like 'Chameleon Day' and 'April 5th' (his wife's birthday) which are the clearest pointers towards what happened next. Please listen to what happened next

I don't even like Drop the Pressure, really. I mean, it all bounced along nicely enough but nearly an hour of this made me feel like I probably had better things to do

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I certainly wasn't expecting this bizarre lounge rock confection. It has bits of every kind of music jumbled together and coated in layers of cheese. I guess it is never boring, but I can't say I enjoyed it. And why did they open and close with bits of Erik Satie, a composer whose sparseness could hardly be further removed from this excess?

Boo Radleys fell a bit between the two stools of shoegaze and Britpop. Their tunes were too sweet for the former and their tones too noisy and psychedelic for the latter. Chronologically, they fell between the two as well. So 1993 was the point when they seemed most at home and produced their best album. Another review on here compares them to early Mercury Rev and Flaming Lips, which seems appropriate: maybe those would have been better companions than anyone else in the UK.

Light, cheerful and with a commercial sheen that doesn't really appeal to me

The first side is surprisingly gentle, with waves washing over us. I half expected someone to tell me to imagine I was on my favourite beach and let go of all my worries. The second side is louder and faster but still smooth enough to luxuriate in

I would have preferred it with less harp

While I rarely find myself wanting to listen to a Dylan album, he wrote loads of songs I admire and It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) is certainly one of my favourites of his

The production sounds well ahead of its time and the album starts off really well but loses steam a bit before the end

Bit of a leftfield inclusion, but a good one. Plenty of motorik influences and it is all quite Stereolabby. My favourite tracks were The Architect and the opening H>A>K but I also liked the transitions between songs: this is definitely an album that works best as an album

I sometimes find ELO a bit annoying. They are nowhere near as annoying as this

This is a really daft album. Adam Ant stitched together his sound from all the bits he found in the dressing-up box and delivered it with unabashed enthusiasm and extra drums. Occasionally it had me shaking my head at how gauche it all is, but mostly it made me smile. Four stars is probably generous but I appreciate this reminder of a time when the pop charts were open to stuff as idiosyncratic as this.