My 1001 Albums Journey

164

Albums Rated

3.53

Average Rating

15%

Complete

925 albums remaining

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2000

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Hip-hop

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1-Star Albums

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Albums

You Love More Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
Kollaps Einstürzende Neubauten	5	1.93	+3.07
Time (The Revelator) Gillian Welch	5	3.05	+1.95
Third Portishead	5	3.13	+1.87
Fetch The Bolt Cutters Fiona Apple	5	3.2	+1.8
Horses Patti Smith	5	3.31	+1.69
Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea PJ Harvey	5	3.38	+1.62
Debut Björk	5	3.38	+1.62
Paul's Boutique Beastie Boys	5	3.46	+1.54
Five Leaves Left Nick Drake	5	3.46	+1.54
Unknown Pleasures Joy Division	5	3.48	+1.52

You Love Less Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
Californication Red Hot Chili Peppers	1	3.69	-2.69
Come Find Yourself Fun Lovin' Criminals	1	2.92	-1.92
Destroyer KISS	1	2.85	-1.85
Appetite For Destruction Guns N' Roses	2	3.71	-1.71
Hotel California Eagles	2	3.59	-1.59
Foo Fighters Foo Fighters	2	3.48	-1.48
...And Justice For All Metallica	2	3.42	-1.42
2112 Rush	2	3.37	-1.37
Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs Marty Robbins	2	3.33	-1.33
Made In Japan Deep Purple	2	3.29	-1.29

5-Star Albums (22)

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Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea

Popular Reviews

Paul's Boutique

Beastie Boys · 3 likes

5/5

Not my personal favorite Beasties album, but probably their most important one. They abandoned the ironic frat boy rap/rock of their debut (which much of their fandom didn't realize was ironic) and, with the help of the Dust Brothers, produced a sample-heavy masterpiece. Chuck D says that when Public Enemy heard it, they realized they needed to seriously up their game.

Destroyer

KISS · 2 likes

1/5

I can't leave zero stars, so I'm just going to say the one star goes to "God of Thunder" because it reminded me of "Big Bottom" by Spinal Tap.

1-Star Albums (4)

All Ratings

Rum Sodomy & The Lash

The Pogues

4/5

A Love Supreme

John Coltrane

5/5

I don't know much about jazz, but I know this album and I know it's great. Scores of people smarter than me have explained why.

Young Americans

David Bowie

3/5

David Bowie has some great albums, but I don't think this is one of them. It got a lot of attention on release for the big genre swing, but in 2025 it mostly sounds like Bowie doing R&B not nearly as well as the artists who helped invent it. "Fame" is great, but I could do without most of this album.

Peter Gabriel

3/5

This is going in the "not for me" pile. I appreciate the craft behind these songs, and I recognize that this is some of the best pop music of the time. But I'm kind of allergic to that 80s pop sound.

All Directions

The Temptations

4/5

I guess I had no idea what The Temptations sounded like, because this is much funkier than I expected. Songs in the second half like "I Ain't Got Nothin'" and this group's version of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" are closer to the soul vocal group that I think I was expecting. But songs like "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" and "Funky Music..." have much more going on instrumentally and are more jam-oriented than I would have guessed. I especially love the live opening track, which really highlights what an incredible band they were.

Physical Graffiti

Led Zeppelin

4/5

Physical Graffiti find Led Zeppelin at the height of their success and (maybe) their musicianship. But this album is also the beginning of the end of their creative streak. There are great songs on here, arguably some of the best they ever wrote, but the album is also bogged down by its excess.

Led Zeppelin III

Led Zeppelin

4/5

Music From Big Pink

The Band

3/5

This is one of those bands I think I'm supposed to like, but it doesn't do anything for me

Let's Get Killed

David Holmes

3/5

The Velvet Underground & Nico

The Velvet Underground

5/5

Great songwriting combined with uncompromising experimentalism make one of the greatest albums of all time

Tank Battles

Dagmar Krause

2/5

Paul's Boutique

Beastie Boys

5/5

Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul

Otis Redding

4/5

Superfuzz Bigmuff

Mudhoney

4/5

I was kind of meh on this one until the final track

Stankonia

OutKast

5/5

Immigrés

Youssou N'Dour

4/5

Queens of the Stone Age

Queens Of The Stone Age

3/5

Legalize It

Peter Tosh

3/5

Synchronicity

The Police

3/5

I was about to chalk this up as more well-crafted 80s pop that I just don't have a taste for, but then "Mother" started. I had to check that I was still listening to the same album. It sounds like it would be more at home on a Birthday Party record than here. It at least made me think I should listen to this album a little more closely to see if there are any other interesting surprises. There were not.

Made In Japan

Deep Purple

2/5

I felt like I had put a fair amount of time in this album, heard several impressive guitar solos, a lot of high-pitched wailing, a couple slower sections, definitely enough to get the overall feel of the album. I was getting a little bit bored with it, though, and checked to see how much was left before I can move on to something else. I was still on track 2 3 Stars UPDATE: I got to the part on Strange Kind of Woman where the singer starts a call and response with the guitar, so I'm downgrading this to 2 stars

Sound of Silver

LCD Soundsystem

4/5

Sign 'O' The Times

Prince

4/5

Dirty

Sonic Youth

4/5

E.V.O.L.

Sonic Youth

4/5

Time (The Revelator)

Gillian Welch

5/5

Exile On Main Street

The Rolling Stones

4/5

Talking With the Taxman About Poetry

Billy Bragg

3/5

Fleet Foxes

4/5

Harvest

Neil Young

5/5

Mask

Bauhaus

4/5

Hypnotised

The Undertones

3/5

Siamese Dream

The Smashing Pumpkins

5/5

The Madcap Laughs

Syd Barrett

4/5

Stand!

Sly & The Family Stone

4/5

Bridge Over Troubled Water

Simon & Garfunkel

5/5

Surf's Up

The Beach Boys

4/5

Buenas Noches From A Lonely Room

Dwight Yoakam

3/5

Felt Mountain

Goldfrapp

3/5

If Portishead ever made a mediocre album, it might sound a little like this

Court And Spark

Joni Mitchell

4/5

Diamond Life

Sade

3/5

808 State

3/5

The Pleasure Principle

Gary Numan

3/5

Foo Fighters

2/5

Maxinquaye

Tricky

4/5

The Idiot

Iggy Pop

3/5

Adele

3/5

evermore

Taylor Swift

3/5

Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)

The Kinks

3/5

Private Dancer

Tina Turner

4/5

Disraeli Gears

Cream

4/5

The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter

The Incredible String Band

1/5

They lost me the moment the jaw harp came in on the first track. The rest of the album played out as a series of similarly cringy hippie noodlings on quirky instruments with little substance

Deja Vu

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

4/5

All Mod Cons

The Jam

3/5

A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector

Various Artists

4/5

What really struck me about this is how many of the songs I already know by heart. Like, all of them. And not just the songs but these specific recordings. I guess I've just absorbed them all from hearing them over shopping mall speakers and over the end credits of Christmas movies for my entire life. They've always kind of been cultural wallpaper, but it's clear now that this album is basically the boomer Christmas music ur-text. Any time a movie director needs to evoke a universally pleasant modern Christmas atmosphere, they'll pull something from this record. None of this I mean as a criticism. There's a reason that these recordings are so enduring. They are extremely well performed and produced, and I'm sure I'll be putting this back into rotation each Christmas when I need some comfortably familiar holiday music.

We Are Family

Sister Sledge

3/5

Architecture And Morality

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

4/5

Roxy Music

4/5

Unknown Pleasures

Joy Division

5/5

Blood, Sweat & Tears

2/5

Double Nickels On The Dime

Minutemen

4/5

Come Find Yourself

Fun Lovin' Criminals

1/5

The Wall

Pink Floyd

3/5

Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs

Derek & The Dominos

3/5

My Generation

The Who

4/5

The Low End Theory

A Tribe Called Quest

5/5

Moby Grape

3/5

Fire Of Love

The Gun Club

3/5

Bayou Country

Creedence Clearwater Revival

3/5

Nebraska

Bruce Springsteen

4/5

The Stone Roses

3/5

Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs

Marty Robbins

2/5

This Year's Model

Elvis Costello & The Attractions

3/5

High Violet

The National

4/5

Another Music In A Different Kitchen

Buzzcocks

4/5

Different Class

Pulp

4/5

Getz/Gilberto

Stan Getz

3/5

Kimono My House

Sparks

4/5

Oxygène

Jean-Michel Jarre

3/5

Live At The Harlem Square Club

Sam Cooke

4/5

Kick Out The Jams (Live)

MC5

3/5

Kala

M.I.A.

3/5

C'est Chic

CHIC

3/5

Low

David Bowie

4/5

Giant Steps

The Boo Radleys

3/5

In It For The Money

Supergrass

3/5

The Clash

4/5

Tarkus

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

2/5

Modern Kosmology

Jane Weaver

3/5

Imagine

John Lennon

3/5

Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Wu-Tang Clan

5/5

No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith (Live)

Motörhead

2/5

Here, My Dear

Marvin Gaye

4/5

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Beatles

5/5

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

4/5

Californication

Red Hot Chili Peppers

1/5

AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted

Ice Cube

3/5

Appetite For Destruction

Guns N' Roses

2/5

Crazysexycool

TLC

3/5

Red Headed Stranger

Willie Nelson

3/5

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

Lauryn Hill

4/5

This Is Hardcore

Pulp

3/5

Because I enjoyed A Different Class so much, I gave this album several more listens than I normally would. But even after my fifth time through, I feel like nothing really sticks. Whatever moments of earnestness existed in their previous album are completely absent here, replaced with Jarvis Cocker's dull ennui. He sounds as bored singing these songs as I feel listening to them. The music sounds pleasant enough, but it all kind of blends into a kind of sonic wallpaper

I Should Coco

Supergrass

3/5

Destroyer

KISS

1/5

I can't leave zero stars, so I'm just going to say the one star goes to "God of Thunder" because it reminded me of "Big Bottom" by Spinal Tap.

Funeral

Arcade Fire

3/5

Fetch The Bolt Cutters

Fiona Apple

5/5

It's hard to explain why this is my favorite Fiona Apple album. For starters, I don't think she knows how to make a bad album. But this one stands apart from the rest of her catalogue for its exciting and audacious experimentations. I love the manic piano and all the wild percussion across this record. But at the heart of it is really good song craft with melodies and lyrics that are genuinely catchy. It's just a lot of fun to listen to, and, as another reviewer put it, I hardly ever turn down a chance to listen to it when I scroll past it in my library

...And Justice For All

Metallica

2/5

Joan Armatrading

4/5

Now this is what I signed up to this website for. An excellent album by an artist that seems to have been largely forgotten by the listening public, despite a long career and multiple award nominations. The first track immediately grabbed me with its catchy melody, steel guitar, and soulful vocals. The whole album doesn't quite follow through on what that first track promises, but there's enough here to keep me coming back

Document

R.E.M.

4/5

Lust For Life

Iggy Pop

4/5

From Elvis In Memphis

Elvis Presley

3/5

With The Beatles

Beatles

4/5

Who Killed...... The Zutons?

The Zutons

4/5

Metallica

3/5

Brothers In Arms

Dire Straits

3/5

Risque

CHIC

2/5

Aftermath

The Rolling Stones

3/5

Third

Portishead

5/5

According to last.fm, I've listened to this album all the way through about forty times. 18 years after its release, I still put it on when I stumble across it in my library and it still feels fresh and exciting. Every Portishead album is a perfect five for me, but this one still somehow stands apart from the others. Coming a full decade after their sophomore album, it feels like a true evolution in their sound, moving from trip hop to more diverse range of electronic influences. Much of it sounds harder and more driving than their other works, but at the same time it's still unmistakably and inimitably Portishead. Who knows if we ever get another album from this group. But it's hard to imagine a better swan song than this

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme

Simon & Garfunkel

4/5

Five Leaves Left

Nick Drake

5/5

Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea

PJ Harvey

5/5

Black Sabbath

3/5

Coles Corner

Richard Hawley

3/5

2112

Rush

2/5

Let's Stay Together

Al Green

4/5

Darkness on the Edge of Town

Bruce Springsteen

4/5

Feast of Wire

Calexico

4/5

Fever To Tell

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

4/5

Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Red Hot Chili Peppers

3/5

Car Wheels On A Gravel Road

Lucinda Williams

4/5

Under Construction

Missy Elliott

4/5

KIWANUKA

Michael Kiwanuka

5/5

Lost In The Dream

The War On Drugs

4/5

The Renaissance

Q-Tip

4/5

Third

Soft Machine

3/5

The Number Of The Beast

Iron Maiden

3/5

#1 Record

Big Star

4/5

Music for the Masses

Depeche Mode

4/5

Kings Of The Wild Frontier

Adam & The Ants

3/5

Horses

Patti Smith

5/5

The Fat Of The Land

The Prodigy

4/5

american dream

LCD Soundsystem

4/5

Hotel California

Eagles

2/5

This is the musical equivalent of plain mayonnaise on white bread

Countdown To Ecstasy

Steely Dan

4/5

Fromohio

fIREHOSE

3/5

Marquee Moon

Television

4/5

More Songs About Buildings And Food

Talking Heads

4/5

Ray Of Light

Madonna

2/5

I feel like I just listened to the same bland song on repeat for 67 minutes

Kollaps

Einstürzende Neubauten

5/5

Obviously this is not going to be for everyone. The band goes far out of its way to be abrasive and alienating. Through texture, rhythm, and an uncompromising aesthetic they create a whole other world for you to feel uncomfortable in. This is what I signed up to this project for, not to hear Hotel California for the thousandth time

(Pronounced 'Leh-'Nérd 'Skin-'Nérd)

Lynyrd Skynyrd

3/5

Paris 1919

John Cale

3/5

Exodus

Bob Marley & The Wailers

4/5

Talking Heads 77

Talking Heads

4/5

Debut

Björk

5/5

Manassas

Stephen Stills

2/5

What's That Noise?

Coldcut

3/5

Electric Ladyland

Jimi Hendrix

5/5

The Jimi Hendrix Experience formed in 1966. They released two albums in 1967 and a third, Electricladyland, in 1968. Just two years later, Jimi Hendrix was dead. Jimi Hendrix is universally praised as one of the greatest and most influential guitar players of all time. What is really astonishing, though, is how he established this legacy through a handful of albums released in the span of just a few years.

Too Rye Ay

Dexys Midnight Runners

3/5

Power In Numbers

Jurassic 5

4/5

In Rainbows

Radiohead

5/5

Surrealistic Pillow

Jefferson Airplane

4/5

Moon Safari

Air

3/5

The Seldom Seen Kid

Elbow

3/5

The Bends

Radiohead

4/5

This album was seen as a huge creative leap for Radiohead on its release. Given what the band would do be doing just 2 years later on OK Computer or 6 years later on Kid A, The Bends now sounds downright conventional. But this is where Radiohead began to mature as a band and develop a sound distinctly their own. "Fake Plastic Trees" and "High and Dry" are probably responsible for people assuming they just make boring sad songs, but there are also some genuine rockers on "The Bends" and the incredible "Just." Radiohead's defiance of easy categorization and tendency to push themselves into new territory start in earnest here

Rid Of Me

PJ Harvey

4/5