1001 Albums Summary

Great singles with lots of filler. The Greatest Hits is all you need from Roxy.

I never tire of listening to the Man In Black. One of life's good guys. Had a little weep along to some of the songs on this album.

The Louvre was a decent song and it did get better as it went on. It's vastly better than all the early 70s rock on this list... However, her style of emotive singing does get my goat from time to time. All a bit "6th form talent contest" for my liking. The number of support acts I've heard at small gigs aping Lorde's style ruins it a bit ...

Dear lord. Proof that the early 70s really was the low point for rock music. I hate everything about this album. I hate the twiddly guitars. I hate the trite lyrics. I hate the stadium rock aesthetic. I hate the haircuts. Punk couldn't come soon enough...

I know he'd only get 0.0001p per stream, but I'm not going to make this amoeba-brained Nazi moron even 0.0001p richer by playing his album online. I don't care how "classic" this album is, Kanye can do one.

If this was a white artist singing about whores, would it be alright? No, of course not! I don't care who recorded this misogynistic shit, it's NEVER alright in any context. I'm old enough to remember this coming out, and it wasn't acceptable then, so you can't say we didn't know any better at the time. No excuses. The actual music is/was cool. The lyrics are not. I don't care if they were meant to be ironic or funny or whatever. They really do encourage braincell-deficient men to treat women badly. NO EXCUSES!

Nice to hear this again after so many years. Still sounds great! Kurt always seemed to know where he'd come from and was so helpful to other artists he admired. I loved The Vaselines at the time, but they would have remained completely obscure without Nirvana's covers. I like to think that Kurt would have remained a decent guy if he'd lived. I genuinely can't imagine he'd be a MAGA numpty. A sad loss to music and humanity in general.

40 years old, but sounds like it could have been recorded right now. Side 2 drifted into wispy nothingness towards the end, but still worth a listen. Side 1, 5 stars.

Sorry, I can't separate the artist from the criminal. Whatever next, Gary Glitter? FFS.

Oof. Well, this album is in every "Best Ever" list that's ever been published and I'd never listened to it before, so I was looking forward to it. But, but... it's an unlistenable, jazzy dirge. It's basically one very long song with few tempo changes and Marvin whinging about the state of the world. It has the dullest backing track imaginable. Goes on a bit.

Expected tuneless caterwauling and was not disappointed. Although, to be fair to the lads, Bodysnatchers is a rocking tune (never thought I'd say that about Radiohead...). The rest of this album just cements my opinion of Radiohead as pretentious, irritating, overrated guff.

Before listening to Nilsson Scmilsson, I'd only knowingly heard two of his songs before: Everybody's Talkin', which is a nailed-on all-time classic, and Without You, a maudlin staple of FM hits radio. Disappointed to see that Everybody's Talkin' wasn't on this album. It turns out that his two best-known songs were both covers! Upon closer inspection, it appears that Coconut was a Nilsson song when I thought it must have been a cover of an old calypso classic. Apparently not! Cultural appropriation it might be, but it's a tune nonetheless. The cover of Let the Good Times Roll is irredeemably bad though. Enjoyed the drum solo during Jump Into the Fire, although the first half of that song is horrible 70s rock. Clearly a talented songwriter, but this is not an album I'll ever listen to again. No regrets on hearing it once though.

Mellow. Relaxed. Lovely!

A very odd choice to be Husker Du's sole representative on this list. Makes me wonder if the compilers know the rest of their catalogue, or is it here because they "should be represented" and it took critics so long to catch onto them that they chose their sub-par swansong. A double album which would have been an incredible single album if they'd stopped halfway through. It could have reached Flip Your Wig levels of perfection. That good! It's not even their best double album though. That's the endlessly inventive Zen Arcade. Not even close! Giving 5 stars to the band that invented 90s rock in the mid-80s as I know they won't appear again (and yet there are five Steely Dan LPs on this list...shows you can't trust critics...).

Perfect pop album! One of the two vinyl albums I bought on the same day from Woolworths as a 14-year-old. My first of X-thousand over the years and still one of the best! Perfect pop from the opening chord (telephone bell...) to the final fade-out. Every song a winner. The other record I bought with my pocket money that day was Love Bites by Buzzcocks, which I've probably played more times over the years. Sod it, going to play that one now and pretend I'm fourteen again...

My friend Goo knows a thing or two. She knows that rock music radio had gone stale in the mid-80s. She knows that if you tune your guitars differently, you can invent a new sound. She knows that if you have a strong female singer that takes no shit from the male-dominated biz, you can start to change attitudes. She knows that you won't get heard without big record label money. She knows you have to have killer tunes. Such an important band. This was their breakthrough album. Sonic Youth for the win.

An album of foot stomping bangers. Except three songs. Loses a star for having filler. In my own personal Top 1089 Albums of All Time, Ziggy would scrape in at number 846. Not as good as The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Veronica Falls or Young Marble Giants. Soz.

Plodding early 70s dreariness. Its place in the rock canon says more about which generation the (overwhelmingly white, male, American, no doubt...) critics belonged to than the quality of the music. My first Neil Young album with many more to come. Sigh...

Tom and Jerry jazz with Spike the dog singing. Absolutely dreadful.

If I had a karaoke machine with Bon Jovi on it, I would smash it into tiny pieces rather than sing along to this vapid shite.

When the weekly music papers died around the turn of the century, we turned to Pitchfork for our opinions on the day's music scene. They were often far up themselves with misguided promotion of new-prog nonsense like Animal Collective, but they got it right with Arcade Fire. This album is just beautiful. There are great tunes to leaven some of the Pitchfork-friendly pretentiousness, which sets them far apart from most of their contemporaries. A stunning debut album which they will never better because it's impossible to do so.

I'd never heard this before, but I knew all the songs. If I'd been old enough to buy this on the day it came out, would I have been impressed? Probably! Has it aged well? Mostly! Bravo to those talented moptops!

Excellent, just what I needed on a filthy December Monday having fought through the traffic to do my menial office job for about half of what I should be paid... An album made by millionaires jacked up on Class As sitting around in their mansions writing half-arsed songs about their cocaine addictions... Whoopy-do. The Stones should have disbanded at the same time as The Beatles and saved us all from having to listen to this dreck.

I thought I was going to hate this. After all, metal gets on my nerves big time. But, no! After some of my recent albums on here, this was upbeat and refreshing. At least it has some oomph!

I know someone who knows Kate Bush quite well. Apparently, she's the loveliest person in music, very down to earth and "normal". I'd love to share a pot of tea and a couple of seed cakes with her. As for this album, I was right in the mood for it. Hit the spot! Kate sprinkled the fairy dust throughout the album. Ethereal and a little magical.

Well, I wasn't sure whether I loved or hated this album until the cover of Memphis Tennessee came on and I remembered that there are NO Chuck Berry albums on this list! Chuck did that song so much better... Apparently Buck was a huge influence on Dwight Yoakam. And I'm supposed to be impressed?!

Football commentator Jonathan Pearce loves this album apparently. Does he have good taste in music or is this just one of those albums that had hundreds of thousands thrown at it by the record company and became popular because it was unavoidable? Right, so she has a great voice - she can both sing and rap with equal aplomb. But like a lot of modern R&B records, it has the sort of production that smooths out all the rough edges. It's AOR for the 21st century. As a rule, inoffensive = popular, unfortunately. There's a great record in there somewhere, but it feels sanded down. I like to catch a splinter or two off of the music I listen to. Also, wayyy too long!

Whilst I enjoyed this album, I can't help but think that its inclusion is entirely down to the Julian Casablancas link. I have a few African albums in my collection, but there's no way I'm an expert on the music of the continent just because I know who King Sunny Ade is. If there was a separate 1001 African Albums list, I'd like to see it, but it would have to be compiled by people that know and love the subject. In the meantime, the dozen or so albums in this list that aren't from the Anglosphere feel a little tokenistic, however great they are.

My heart sinks every time I see the years 1971 and 1972 appear on here as the albums are invariably rammed full of pretentious noodling from drug-addled hippy goons (99% blokes). Well, thank goodness for Marc Bolan, someone who understood that life needs more than noodling. At a time when every other critical darling was so far up their own rectum, Marc remembered that the milkman needed something to whistle on his morning round. So yes, there is a fair amount of pretentiousness going on here, hence the 3 star rating, but there are also some banging tunes. No idea what Jeepster is about, but what an absolute belter it is! Bolan and Bowie are just about all you need from this era. Everyone else can get in the sea, quite frankly.

A lot of screaming on here. I presume they were screaming to be let out? Strong "little people of Stone'enge" vibes going on. I've heard better live performances from third on the bill bands at my local pub.

Um, well this sounds just like the music my grandad played on a Sunday morning in the 1970s. As he grew up in one of the poorer parts of London before joining the navy and fighting in the war, I think he related to the stories told in country music about hardship and loss. And they are good stories, well related by the talented Dolly. I don't especially connect with these songs myself, but I do appreciate the skill and craft that went into making them. My grandad didn't necessarily have the coolest taste in music, but his C&W collection was infinitely preferable to my uncle's Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull albums, which scarred me for life 😬 I miss my grandparents and their tasty Sunday dinners...

Am I the baddie? Everyone else seems to like this tedious white man faux-blues dadrock. Saved from one-star oblivion because I know that Brothers In Arms, their other album on here, stinks to high heaven. At least this one wasn't made for MTV.

"Please hold the line. One of our operators will be with you shortly..."

Subtitled: A collection of Bowie b-sides and outtakes.

90s shoegaze done right! Even though they were moving away from pure effects-pedal-rock at this point... If you want to hear the Boos doing pure shoegaze, check out their first album, Ichabod and I, my personal favourite of theirs. Although their best song - Barney (... And Me) - is on this album. NME'S Album of the Year for 1993, which is why it's on this list. It loses a star for being 20 minutes too long, but then it was Peak CD Era when every other album was unnecessarily bloated.

1968; Three blokes down the pub: Let's bang out a load of covers (because we can't write our own songs). Let's play them all out of tune. Let's record them through a condenser microphone on a cheap tape recorder and release it as an album. Stoned Rolling Stone critics: This is incredible! So original! One of the all-time greats! Me in 2025: Get in the sea, lads. Absolutely unlistenable.

There is more than one version of this album, but it was no hardship listening to both! The version recorded in Jamaica is my preference. I have to admit that I prefer the older Wailers, produced by Lee Scratch Perry. The Marley albums created for American and European audiences feel a little watered down, not tuff enough, hence a one star reduction.

Being from the original punk generation, where The Clash's first album was Year Zero and everything that came before it needed sweeping away, I've always had a downer on Led Zep. One of those bands that the irritating, arrogant, know-it-all older kids at school all liked (see also: Rush, Yes and Genesis). Therefore, they must be shit. Hence, I've never listened to a Led Zep album before. But do you know what? I didn't hate this! There are some godawful tracks on here that deserve my punky disdain, but it's impossible to dislike Immigrant Song, Bron-yr-aur Stomp and Hats Off... (which is the best Robert Johnson pastiche I've ever heard apart from early White Stripes)! Overall, not terrible, although a lot of bands that copied them are.

I first heard Cities aged 14 on a local radio station's "alternative" show. I saved up my pocket money and bought Fear of Music. I was a weirdo then. I still am. Fuck the straight world with its boring music. I ain't got time for that now.

I was going to make a joke along the lines of "Call of the Poppadoms" or something similar, but then I actually listened to this... Absolutely lovely. If this is playing the next time I'm in my local Indian, I will be very happy indeed.

Perfect in every way, even though Phil Spector was a murdering scumbag.

Crispy, crunchy beats. Snap, crackle, bop! There's some terrific stuff on here - BOB, Gasoline Dreams, Ms Jackson... But, as others have said, it's just too long. Just because a CD has a 73 minute capacity, it doesn't mean you have to fill it to the brim. Loses a star for being 30 minutes too long.

I really, really wanted to like this, but it felt so bloated and self-indulgent. I wanted to sing along to some killer tunes whilst dancing my nuts off, but I can't imagine dancing to this, and there were no songs with catchy hooks. I really wanted to like this album, but it went nowhere and did nothing for me whatsoever until the last song, which was completely bonkers and saved the whole thing from being a single star letdown.

Flabbergasted that this band are on the list. Not because they're bad - quite the opposite! I've heard so many tedious classic rock albums from the early 1970s that I'd forgotten how great some of the underground bands of the early 2000s were. Americana, alt-country, call it what you like, but there were a few excellent artists updating the sounds of the American south-west around this time. Calexico and The Handsome Family were the two I listened to the most. Both still sound fresh to these jaded ears. Having said all that, this is my least favourite Calexico album. Typical! The Black Light and Hot Rail both enthuse me more than this one.

An overblown, pretentious, pompous, annoying, overrated turd of an album which goes on and on and on. And on. Wankstains on the silky sheet of classic rock.

Any album that includes Let's Go Crazy and When Doves Cry ain't going to be a one star record. However, I didn't hear much else on here to make me want to go back and listen again. That 80s electrofunk sound isn't for me.

Question: Is there a more perfect opening four albums than those by the Talking Heads? Answer: No! Possibly only equalled by contemporaries Echo and the Bunnymen. I brook no argument, sire 🧐

Started off by liking the rocking garagey stuff. Not so keen on the jazzy slowies. Nodded off halfway through.

The results are in from the juries all across Europe, and it appears as though Norway has scored nul points... Utter shite. Sounds like a punk band created by AI.

There's a fine line between loveliness and tedium when you produce an album full of long, slow songs. The Cure mostly fall on the right side of that line on Disintegration.

What a difference a decade makes! To think that this was the popular sound of 1955 and then compare to the music of 1965! The Beatles, Stones and Motown still sound reasonably modern. This feels like music from a different century. Even just two years later, the first Chuck Berry album came out, which might as well have come from a different planet... I appreciate the quality of the voice and musicianship, but oof, this sounds as ancient as the pyramids!

Oh dear, this band ticks every single box in my List of Irritations: Up Their Own Backsides-Faux-Cleverness, Dad Rock Smoothness, Unnecessary Jazz Syndrome, Smug Punchable Faces... The band that invented FM Rock, FFS. They even managed to annoy me with the novelty tune about East St Louis Street. I love novelty tunes done well with some affection for whatever is being lampooned, but I felt as though they were laughing AT Duke Ellington's composition, not laughing along WITH the country's musical heritage. An insufferable album from a pair of insufferable beardy twats.

The band that named themselves after a steam-powered dildo. Honestly, I'd rather spend 40 minutes being dry-rogered by a strap-on steaming hot dildo than to ever have to listen to this pompous FM radio rock ever again. Absolutely excruciating.

Lukewarm meat and potatoes rock music with tasteless, lumpy gravy and the gristliest, chewiest meat that may well be boiled raccoon. Axl sings like a wasp has flown into his Y-fronts.

The people who dropped tabs to this in 1990 are now 60 years old and run corporations. The first half was trying too hard to please and is generally dull. The second half is more experimental and is far more interesting.

The good: The samples, the flow, the general feel. Top quality. The ugly: The lyrics. The misogyny, the violence, the homophobia. Unacceptable. I don't care if this was autobiographical or whatever, I fucking hate this shit. And yes, my opinion would be the same if they were white before you condescendingly call me racist.

"Iron Maiden are an institution" apparently. Should be locked up in an institution for crimes against music IMHO. Spinal Tap got it spot on. That film wasn't a spoof, it was reality for the likes of Iron Maiden.

A nostalgic listen from the days when we used to, er, "collect" car badges. We were young and stupid and this was our music. No regrets.

Absolutely no way I'm listening to this all the way through! Yet another example of a piss poor album from the early 1970s clogging up this list. It seems like every time critic Robert Christgau farted during this period, it was written down and treated as gospel. Substandard versions of songs I don't like in the first place? No thanks! Also...hang on, this was only Volume 1?! Dear lord... White Van Man Sings The Blues (Extremely Badly) DNF, unsurprisingly.

Madness moving on from their ska roots. Influenced by music hall, Saturday night TV variety shows, Spike Milligan, and 60s artists such as The Kinks. I approve! Even so, the very definition of a Singles Band. Always at their best on the 45s.

Well, there's certainly a lot of samples! I was hoping it would be a surprise hit as everyone seems to rate this. Left me cold though. I won't be revisiting. You can't dance to this. You can't sing along...what were they aiming for? Impressing hot girls? Impressing nerdy boys? Impressing hot nerdy girls?Impressing critics? Definitely scored with the latter option. Just failed to impress me...

The dictionary definition of Tedium. Make the boring man go away, mummy!

2011 was Peak TV Reality Show time, was it not? When the general public were impressed by loud singers that made dogs howl... This was so bland. The only time I normally ever hear music like this is at the dentist where they play Radio 2. Thus, I associate stuff like this with anxiety and pain. It's certainly painful on the ears. Also... it's 5 years since her last album. Must be due "35" in 2026? God help us all 😬

John Grant, formerly of a band I've never heard of, got together with a band that was on a CD given away with Uncut magazine circa 2005 that I didn't listen to... He then proceeds to make a dull album that could have been released in 1972 (and be hailed as a genius by Robert Christgau...). A couple of decent folk rock tunes, but mostly will be used as a cure for insomnia in this house.

Kanye, mate...you do realise that your heroes hate you, right?! Hitler would have sent you to the gas chambers because you're Not Aryan. Trump would gladly have you shot in the street by his personal death squads because you're Not White. You are the Suella Braverman of hip-hop. A useful idiot. Massive twat.

Pretty boring. Yet another artist whose only worthwhile albums are of the Greatest Hits variety. Elton's "deep cuts" are dreary as heck.

Despite being British and growing up with Depeche Mode as a constant presence both in the pop charts and in the type of "alternative" discos I used to frequent, I've never listened to one of their albums. I assumed I wouldn't enjoy 45 minutes of their goth-synth sound. I was wrong. This was ace! It turns out that 45 minutes of synthpop in one sitting isn't too much, after all. The goth phase must have come later. I still don't think I'd like that, but I'll probably give it a chance at some point.

Well, I guess PE were Black America's answer to Bob Marley. They were hugely influential worldwide with their political messaging, which still resonates today with White Power supremacists in the White House. Powerful stuff and mostly devoid of the misogyny and homophobia of gangsta rap, which came later and ruined hip hop for me. Not as varied as Yo! Bum Rush The Show or It Takes A Nation..., but still pretty essential.

Along with MBV, the last rock band to do something different with the traditional guitar/bass/drums/vocals setup. Unfortunately, that unique sound was heard on Come On Pilgrim, Surfa Rosa and Doolittle. Bossanova is more of a straightforward rock album and easily the weakest of their initial run of LPs. I want to give it five stars coz Kim Deal (how are The Breeders not on this list, by the way?), but it really isn't a five star album and probably wouldn't be in my own personal 1001 list despite my love for this band.

Utterly unlistenable. The guitar sounds like a dying whale. Fusion music is the worst. I wouldn't eat chicken and chocolate on the same dish, so why would I want to listen to a mixture of latin, jazz and dying whale rock guitar in the same song? Lock it all in a box and shoot it off into space. Torture some poor bloody aliens with this shit, not me!

YOWWW! I feel good after this one! Wild, outta sight! I would have liked to have been in the audience for this. Probably would have joined in with the screaming 🙀

I love three minute pop songs. Two of the greatest ever written are on this album. Walk On By and By The Time I Get To Phoenix are bone fide classics...or at least the originals are. Extending these perfect pop songs beyond the 10 minute mark isn't big and it isn't clever. It's just annoying. Nope!

Fabulous! Played this whilst I was working and found it to be the perfect background music for my task today. Mellow and mellifluous. All artists should pose with their pets on their album covers from now on. When I'm World King, it'll be the first - and most important - law that I mandate.

I was quite happy when this album appeared this morning. I'd never heard a Paul Simon song that I'd disliked before today. Sadly, I found a lot of the lyrics supercilious. If Paul was starting out on his life journey now, I reckon he'd be an insufferable Instagram influencer, full of pointless and annoying life hacks. Saved from a one star rating by Julio, which I can't find it in my heart to hate, even if it is a bit sub-Dylan.

I'm going to Moss Side next month. Terrifying! This will not be the soundtrack to my visit though. That will be something more lively and with tunes.

Well, that was as bonkers as I wanted it to be! Full of grooves, tunes and madness! How did George Clinton access my nightmares? The fear of being eaten by a sandwich is a recurring theme in my subconscious...

Expected sub-Radiohead noodling, but was pleasantly surprised by the variety of sounds and moods. Yes, it's experimental, which normally translates as "unlistenable", but I actually enjoyed this. It would be a great soundtrack to a Moomins film. Hemulens would enjoy this. And yes, I do know they're singing in Icelandic and not Swedish... Hate the cover though. That foetus is a scary bugger.

Fabulous album, but like many early 1960s collections, there's an awful lot of cover versions! Not necessarily a bad thing when they're done well, as they are here. It's only taken me my entire life, but I've only just realised that green onions are the American equivalent of spring onions - my least favourite type of onion. Ah well. Nice in some Asian cooking, I suppose, but NEVER RAW!

Conflicted about this one. I grew up with The Smiths. Morrissey articulated the feelings of the socially awkward young man so well, it was hard to believe that he was actually a flag-shagging friend of the skinheads - the vile idiots who would chase us down the streets and give us a good kicking if they caught us just because we were different to them. There had been clues - the "Reggae is vile" comment, for example, but hey, perhaps Morrissey just didn't like reggae. Fair enough, the music had been commandeered by the likes of Sting, who was clearly not one of us...it didn't mean Morrissey was racist. And when he urged us to "Hang the DJ", we took that to mean Radio 1 daytime DJs, the gatekeepers of popular music at the time. And let's face it, 80s chart music was, and still is, some of the worst music ever made, so fair dos. Every time he said something slightly dodgy in an NME interview, we gave him the benefit of the doubt as Morrissey understood us. Surely he was just being contrary? I've given other right-wing morons one star just because of their views, but The Smiths meant so much to me and my generation, I'm judging their albums on musical merit. Yep, I'm still a delicate boy/man, but it appears I'm also a hypocrite. I'd rank this as their third best proper LP, behind The Queen Is Dead and the self-titled debut (which isn't on this list, astonishingly, despite its massive impact on my generation). It's overly-maudlin in parts and it was probably the right time for them to split. Even so, five stars for the feelings of inclusion that The Smiths gave to me and other painfully shy young white boys at the time. With sincere apologies to my non-white friends. I'll rip into the racist twat when one of his solo albums turns up...

The first reggae album I ever bought. Played it loads at the time, but haven't listened to it in over 30 years! I'd credit UB40 and the 2-Tone bands for introducing me to Jamaican music, for which I'm forever grateful. But if I want to listen to reggae now, I don't go to UB40, I'll slap on a Trojan compilation or a Lee Scratch Perry album. These artists, along with punk bands such as The Clash, taught me to be a kind, empathetic person towards people who were different to me, because I sure as heck wasn't taught that at school or by 1970s/early 80s popular culture. Memories of growing up on a British council estate at a time of massive social upheaval then. Thatcher was just beginning to dismantle the post-war consensus. All of our current problems stem from the Tory government of that time who influenced Reagan, who in turn inspired successive right-wing governments worldwide to crack down on the workers whilst syphoning off the world's wealth for themselves. Bastards, the lot of them. Thanks to UB40 and their contemporaries for showing us there's another way away from the Daily Mail worldview. Eternally grateful for that. However, there's far better reggae out there. And by the way, the last three tracks on Spotify weren't on the original album, so you don't have to listen to them!

Pleasant enough background music which had rave reviews in the British broadsheets at the time, but it's really just early 90s coffee table music which means nothing to me.