1001 Albums Summary

Had a few moments of enjoyment, but was overall an unpleasant listen. Music can be a lot of things, but melody and harmony are the bare minimum and this doesn’t have much of them.

Landmark, instant classic. Real songs performed by real people, warts and all. Great writing instrumentally, Meg plays to the song and Jack is Jack. Has everything it needs and nothing more. Perfect!

This genre is not really my thing, but I enjoyed listening nonetheless. The gentler tracks like Thousands are Sailing stuck out to me as particularly moving. The more polka sounding songs were kind of a miss. I feel like there are probably some insightful lyrics, though they aren’t easily understood. Fun, but probably won’t be revisiting this.

Fun listen. This has been referenced and sampled so much since it came out it almost feels trite, but I’m sure was impactful at the time. The cover cuts were a pleasant surprise.

Probably not fair to judge this from a modern lens, but this hasn’t aged well. Most of this is cartoony and tropey without anything all that creative. I’d rather listen to early Beatles.

What a start! Instant great vibe from the opening track. Really good chord choices in A Rose for Emily. Lots of unexpected harmonic turns which are really fun. I feel like this probably influenced a lot of the Elephant 6 collective stuff I love. This feels made for me, I love it, I’m so glad it was recommended to me.

First track was a real snooze. Black Magic Woman is the hit here I guess, but it’s pretty noodley. Oye Como Va has a good groove but gets repetitive quick. Incident at Neshabur is actually cool, is this a jazz album? Mother’s Daughter is sort of typical 70s fare. Samba Pa Ti has such potential but the guitar and organ tone is grating. This is fine with a few enjoyable moments but overall just isn’t my thing.

Some good guitar playing, occasionally. The whole thing drips with 80s production and instrumentation that precludes this album from being timeless. Not bad, not great.

Sonically, this has some truly unlistenable moments. Thematically, it’s grim and dark and overall unpleasant. But there are some really compelling and nice musical motifs scattered throughout the din and noise. Overall this is not my thing at all but there are a few redeeming qualities.

Boring, sterile, car dealership music. Beautiful Day was a good single but everything else on this is a total slog.

Enjoyed this much more than I expected. Everybody loves to clown on James Murphy but the songs are good, even if they usually overstay their welcome. Someone Great and All My Friends are my personal standouts but honorable mentions for North American Scum and Us V Them, which were surprise hitters for me. Really enjoyed.

The Wikipedia article gives some much needed context on this. I figured there had to be some drama about the mix since there are so many versions to choose from. After listening to both, it seems clear they didn’t have much to work with. The Bowie cuts are ice-picky and shrill. The Pop cuts are muddy and lack definition. Nonetheless, not a bad record, there are some good riffs in here, particularly Penetration. The slow label-enforced ballads are predictably a slog. Historically and culturally significant I’m sure, but probably won’t return to this because it just doesn’t sound very good.

What’s not to like? Fun grooves, interesting harmonies and chord choices, well recorded. Lots of unique and cool instrumentation. I don’t know much about this genre but this seems like a good representation of it.

Nothing here that compelled me. Most reggae is totally interchangeable for me.

Pretty corny all around. No clever wordplay, no grooves, no interesting production decisions. Probably impactful at the time but doesn’t hold up.

Knopfler is one of the best to ever do it. Worth listening to just to hear him play, but the whole thing is well recorded and well produced. Certainly a classic, hard to believe this is a debut album.

A wonderful album. Some of the best guitar playing and songwriting I’ve maybe ever heard from a lovely soul. Timeless and classic.