1001 Albums Summary

More trad blues/rock than I expected. I thought Creedence were psychedelic hippies. Not bad.

Great, I'll be listening to this again.

Brilliant. I'd heard some Fela, but never this, which is clearly a very important album in all sorts of ways.

First one that I had never heard of before. I enjoyed it but wasn't blown away - suprising mix of influences from country, jazz, crooner, soul, rock and roll. I knew one or two of the songs from parody versions but not the originals.

Another one that I've always meant to gove a listen. Unfortunately it easily becomes wallpaper if you just put it on while working , like I did. Interesting though.

The first one to come up that I already know well. Love it.

Didn't manage to listen to this properly but maybe I'll come back to it

Not my usual sort of thing, but he does what he does very well, and I found this quite moving despite it feeling a bit sentimental at first. Some dreadful rhymes though.

Interesting. I had only heard Beck's more experimental stuff before. For me, this suffered from coming the day after Frank Sinatra. I am much more the intedned audience for Beck, and I think this record is more creative and interesting in lots of ways than the Sinatra. But Sinatra somehow communicates melancholy and loss in an elemental, archetypal way, and this feels a bit wan in comparison.

I genuinely had no idea what I was listening to at first. Amazing creativity and mashup of genres, and I like the politics. The music didn't connect for me personally though.

Another one I already know and love, but it really rewarded a more careful listen. Surprised to see it on this list though. I would have guessed something by Husker Dü would be included, but if anything by Sugar was on here I'd have guessed it'd be Beaster.

For whatever reason, Elton John's music has always pretty much left me cold, and this hasn't changed my mind. I was surprised by 'Indian Summer', which seems like well-meaning but clueless cultural appropriation - and even more surprised to learn that he was still singing it live in 2011.

Not confident rating this, as rap really requires careful listening and this is a monster of an album, so I dind't have time to do it justice. Clearly a very ambitious piece of work - not my usual style but I'm glad I gave it some attention.

Nice to have finally heard the originals after knowing some of these songs from Nirvana Unplugged, but nothing grabbed me especially.

Nice to have finally heard the originals after knowing some of these songs from Nirvana Unplugged, but nothing grabbed me especially.

This kind of smooth soul washes over me and all the songs feel a bit samey. I realise this is because I'm not familiar enough with the genre to appreciate the nuances of arragment and performance properly. Hopefully this project will educate me a bit.

Another gap filled in my musical education -never heard any of these songs before. I liked it musically but often found the lyrics and singing style hard to take seriously.

Great to properly listen to some Krautrock, having been generally aware of the genre vand a bit familiar with Kraftwerk. Very interesting how this switches, often within the same song, between electronic noises that feel decades ahead of their time and much more conventional seventies psychedelic rock.

I kn ew some of the songs from this but it's nice to hear the album. I'm in two minds about Cat Stevens - I like the music but for some reason a lot of the lyrics slightly give me the ick. I think they feel a bit smug and condescending.

Love it! The combination of funk with a sixties wildness is great.

Nice but nothing stood out about it for me.

First time listening to a whole album by Fatboy Slim, even though I love big beat. When it came out I had a bit of a hipsterish dislike of it because it was so popular. But having listened properly I'm still not taken with it. It doesn't have the playfulness of Bentley Rhythm Ace or Propellerheads, or the transcendent euphoria of the Chemical Brothers. It just feels emptily hedonistic, a perfect soundtrack for the mad-fer-it laddishness of Cool Britannia.

Brilliant! The mix of funk and Latin styles is so much fun. I found myself dancing to this more than any of the other albums I've listened to on the list.

I've been meaning to listen to more Lana Del Rey. This is clearly very good but I'm still finding what I have before - I find it hard to connect with the songs emotionally, a lot of it feels a bit detached and artful to me. I think that's a me problem though. I'll give this another listen at some point.

I've been meaning to listen to more Lana Del Rey. This is clearly very good but I'm still finding what I have before - I find it hard to connect with the songs emotionally, a lot of it feels a bit detached and artful to me. I think that's a me problem though. I'll give this another listen at some point.

Not my kind of thing but it's clearly very good and I can see how influential it's been. I really like 'Lost In Music'.

Modern R&B is not my thing but I was surprised by how creative the production and use of samples etc is on this. If anything, the production is a bit busy for my taste, with lots of layers of stuff going on.

I already knew and loved this. I think it holds up, but I'm less comfortable these days with a white artist making millions off samples of Black artists...

While Freddy Mercury was cool and Queen are clearly incredible musicians, their grandiose theatrical style has never appealed to me. Singing nonsense doggerel about ogres and fairies doesn't help. Pompous, po-faced, showy and ridiculous.

I was curious about this, having only heard 'Another Girl Another Planet'. It was pretty much as I expected - post punk with a Velvet Underground influence, although there were some surprisingly jazzy bits. 'Another Girl Another Planet' is very much the standout track, I would have liked more like that.

Dolly Parton is, by all accounts, an amazing person, and has written some great songs. But nothing on this album grabbed me much. The wisdom on offer is a bit too simple and folksy for my taste, and none of the songs stood out much for me

Not really my sort of thing, but a fascinating listen. You can really hear the blues and rockabilly elements meeting the punk rawness, and see what an influence this must have been on Pixies.

This is fascinating. Everyone goes on about the innovations in Pet Sounds and Sergeant Pepper, but this came out a year later and sounds way more modern and pioneering in a lot of ways. The content of the songs doesn't have the slightly conservative nostalgia that I think you find in those other records, either. Not an easy listen though, very spiky and strange.

One I know and love already. It was good to give it a closer listen. In the context of the other albums on this list, it stands out for having relatively simple arrangements, with the emphasis very much on the lyrics and songwriting.

I tend to think concept albums aren't strictly the same kind of thing as most of the other albums on here, and need to be listened to differently. This has more in common with a musical or an opera than it does with a rival rock album. And I'm not very interested in any of those things. Added to that, the theme and style put me off. A rich famous rockstar can certainly make interesting music about his personal angst and suffering, but when it's delivered in such an epic, theatrical style, it feels self-absorbed and pretentious to me.

Beautiful. I've never properly listened to Goldfrapp before, and I was expecting chilly electronica, so I was pleasantly surprised at how warm and human this is. I'll be listening again.

The subject matter sounds great, but I remain unfamiliar with R&B as a genre so it all sort of washes over me. I did figure out that R&B sounds terrible through tinny phone speakers though - I'll listen to future R&B albums through hewadphones or decent speakers. I enjoyed it much more once there was some decent bass.

Musically great, love the guitar and it had me boogying in the kitchen. Lyrically it felt a bit repetitive, I can only take so many songs about beautiful ladies and lonesome nights one after another. I think I'd enjoy the songs individually more than I did listening to the whole album. But it grew on me as it went, and I might enjoy it more on a second listen.

I have tried quite a few times to listen to and appreciate this album. I thought maybe this time would be the charm, but sadly not. I love all Radiohead's albums up to OK Computer but have always been ambivalent about their later work. I respect their decision to be more experimental and leftfield and, mainly, less commercial. But I have never really enjoyed any of the music. This is so dour and dreary that it eventually started irritating me.

I'm baffled as to how this made the list. I'm not a fan of nu-metal anyway, but surely there are much better and more influential examples of the genre. Utterly uninteresting to me.

I liked this a lot. I know 'All is Dream' but hadn't heard much other Mercury Rev. To me, this sounds a bit like they're developing the dreamy, soaring-strings sound that I love on that album, but haven't quite got there yet. Still great and I'll be listening again.

I knoew and liked this already. It's beautiful, and listening again made me want to look up a translation of the lyrics. Hopefully that will help me listen again a bit more deeply - with very dreamy/ambient music like this, I tend to let it wash over me and don't really engage with it actively.

This is the first one I couldn't be bothered to finish. I can normally spearate the art from the artist, but a known racist profiting from uninspired cover versions of songs by Black artists makes that impossible. Naming the album after the fancy house he was living in at the time just adds to my disdain for this man. A good guitarist but none of the performances on here interested me at all.

I'm afraid I had this on in the background and let it drift over me a bit - which was easy to do because the orchestra/strings seemed to be as prominent as the funk. I think it sounded good though!

20-minute prog-rock epics about the priests of Syrinx are very much not my thing. Neither are screamy metal songs featuring offensive Orientalist stereotypes. Self-indulgent, dreary nonsense. It would have been 2 stars but then I learned it's somehow based on Ayn Rand. Fuck this shit.

This was great. Amazing power, anger and focused message. I'd only heard It Takes a Nation of Millions before, but I think I'll be looking up their other albums now,

This was fun but as I grow older, I have less patience for the more whimsical bits of psychedelia - I'm more aware these days of how much of it is just privileged white boys pissing about. This is a better example of it though, I like Syd Barrett.

I love Spiritualized so I should have listened to Spacemen 3 a long time ago. I was expecting it to be spikier and more electronic, but found I really liked it. You can really see the through line from this to early Spiritualized, and in fact Spiritualized still play some of the songs live.

This felt like the jazz equivalent of The Fall for me. I'm glad I've heard it, I like to know that people are pushing aginst the boundaries of a form and being genuinely experimental, but it's absolutely not the kind of thing I would listen to normally. Without a strong interest in avant-garde jazz, it's hard not to find that bits of this sound like cats fighting in a bag.

Sonic Youth are another band I always meant to pay more attention to. The bits I've heard didn't grab me much. I enjoyed this a bit more, but I can't help thinking that Nirvana listened to this and went, 'This is great, but what if it had actual tunes and the vocals weren't drowned in guitar soup?'

I've never liked what I've heard of the Bee Gees and I've learned to dread the appearance of a concept album on this list, so this was not off to a good start. Musically I didn't hate it, but the mix of styles and subjects felt all over the place and incoherent. Why are pieces that sound like film scores sitting next to country music and faintly psychedelic songs?

The macho masturbatory guitar solos, the lyrical content, and the well known behaviour of the band members all combine to make me feel that this is what toxic masculinity would sound like if you turned it into music. And all the wailing and moaning just sounds risible to me. Very much not my cup of tea.

Liked this a lot - but my unfamiliarity with reggae means it all washes over me a bit, and just gives me a warm mellow feeling rather than inspiring critical opinions. On this listen, nothing leapt out as being a classic like 'Redemption Song' or 'Get Up Stand Up'.

Short and sweet, and really good. I knew the famous Blondie songs but had never listened to them properly before. Love the guitars, and her voice is amazing.

I liked this. Nice arrangements and orchestration. Avoids being twee like a lot of psychedelia, or macho and pretentious like the Doors. None of the songs grabbed me especially though.

I'm glad I've heard this because it's so influential. It was a less difficult listen than other experimental jazz I've heard on the list, but still not entirely my cup of tea.

Nice. I enjoyed the second half more than the big band stuff in the first half. I think there's other stuff by Ray Charles that would appeal to me more, I should seek it out.

I haven't listened to the Doors for ages, and I enjoyed it more than I expected to. I like Riders on the Storm, and I also liked the gentler bluesier bits.

Queen are still not my cup of tea at all, but this was better than their previous appearance on the list. It hangs together surprisingly well for an album with such a mix of styles, it has a sense of humour which felt sadly lacking in the previous effort, and there are no ogres this time. An extra star just for Bohemian Rhapsody.

One of the things I'm enjoying most about this project is getting to know more hip-hop. I like this, and I think it must have been influential on other stuff I've heard. The constant rectum jokes were a bit much after a while though.

Not sure how it's never heard of Liz Phair before, as she's very much in the same area as artists I'm a fan of like Ani DiFranco and Jill Sobule. I enjoyed this and immediately listened to a couple more of her albums.

I have heard bits of this before, but I don't think I've listened to the whole album. This is the kind of concept album I can get on with - thoughtful reflections on a theme, rather than a bombastic opera about the random interests of coked-up rock stars. The mix of 90s trip-hop beats with world music is very much my cup of tea.

Never really listened to Talking Heads before, so it's good to get a sense of what they were about. I like their use of Afrobeat influences, to create something new rather than just stealing. But it's a shame that it all feels a bit detached and doesn't have the groove of Fela Kuti.

I'd heard a couple of tracks but never a full album. Interesting to hear what a big influence this must have been on Vent 414, a band I am familiar with.

Not really my thing but the hits are fun. I felt there wasn't much variation in style, and the other songs tended to feel a bit samey.

I'm afraid I had this on in the background while working, so it didn't get my full attention. No tracks leapt out at me, but I may come back to it some time.

I liked this - I definitely enjoy the rhythms and humour in New York hip-hop like this and De La Soul.

As with other Tom Waits I've heard, I'm glad I heard it, I'm glad someone is out there doing this kind of weird stuff, and it isn't something I'd listen to regularly.

I want sure I knew any Eels tracks, then it started and I was immediately hit by a rush of nostalgia for mid-90s student days. I really liked this, there's something about the style and arrangements that just appealed to me.

Of course I already knew and loved this. Listening carefully reminded me just how strange and varied it is. Embarrassingly, it's also only now that I realised how few women there are on this list. Shameful.

Good to be removed if this and give it a proper listen. An amazing piece of work.

Listened to the first couple of tracks, and I was bewildered how this uninteresting nonsense got to be on the list - especially given my discovery a couple of days ago that less than 20% of the albums on here are by women. Is there really no album by a woman that deserves a place more than this? I looked up the band to see if I was missing something, and learned that they used to regularly play in blackface because they thought it was 'edgy' or something. So I'm done here. Second album on the list that I haven't bothered finishing.

As with the previous Curtis Mayfield album on the list, the smooth sexy style isn't entirely my cup of tea. But this is clearly great, love the anger and the political message, and the style is growing on me.

Loved this. Nice to hear some jazz that isn't experimental and wilfully difficult.

The original 70s blues rock that this is imitating already felt derivative and dull to me, and I'm definitely not interested in a copy of the copy. As with Led Zeppelin etc, the macho posturing is ludicrous and there's a strong hint of toxic maculinity.

Very smooth and sexy.

Brilliant. The production is amazing, it's as though Leonard Cohen is whispering into your ear in a confined space. Probably a coffin. I have to confess this is another concept album I actually like. Reflections on a theme. I think you need to listen to the album on its entirety, no songs stood out especially for me.

Interesting. The hip hop and south Asian weekend work really well together.

Heard this loads of times. Listening again, I was stuck by how much angrier and more immediately accessible it is, compared with her wordy and introspective later albums.

I'd listened to this before but it was nice to pay more attention this time. I think I may be getting converted to the idea of concept albums, which is surprising. Quite an achievement to make something this wildly odd and geeky and creative, and make a commercial success out of it.

Nice! I've listened to Neil Young a bit but never too CSNY. I like the politics and the harmonies and the country flavour.

Interesting. I'm afraid I listened on my phone and didn't give it enough attention, busy morning. I was surprised by the odd spoken word stuff on it.

Nice. I love Mermaid Avenue and have never got round to listening to more Wilco. Nothing stood out hugely though, and sadly, double albums that come up in this project always feel like a bit of a chore.

Nice, fun to listen and groove along to. It's a shame but I think it's hard to get a sense of how exciting this music was in its time, because it's become so fundamental to a lot of other things we listen to.

This was a bit of a rollercoaster ride. At first I was extremely skeptical. A double album of seventies blues rocks did not appeal. It sometimes feels like there are more seventies blues rock albums by bearded men on this list than the total number of albums by women. Then I grudgingly had to admit that there was more interesting stuff going on with the production and musical styles than I'd expected. Then he started singing about loving teenage girls and calling women sluts.

I once owned all the Smiths albums but didn't listen much to any of them apart from 'The Queen is Dead'. Partly it was because they're tainted by the knowledge that Morrissey is a fascist prick. But this reminded me of the other reason - the killer tracks are really great, but for me the rest of this really is filler, nowhere near as good. And this album doesn't have many of their best songs on it.

Angular art rock is not really my thing, but this doesn't sound quite like anything else I've heard on this list, and that's good.

Never heard them before, and I genuinely couldn't figure out what I was hearing at first, in a good way. Really interesting blend of genres and influences, but the songs didn't grab me.

It was OK but I'm not sure why it's on the list. A bit like Sonic Youth but not as good.

I enjoyed this a lot, and I imagine it would be even more fun if I knew enough hip hop to spot all the bits that have been sampled. I did spot something I knew from Bentley Rhythm Ace.

I enjoyed this. It's was almost good enough for me to overlook the fact that it's partially to blame for the abomination that was Blur's comedy Cockney phase.

Lots of fun. Had me boogying in the kitchen.

I'm not sure this is really influential or significant enough to be on this list, but I enjoyed it because electronic music from this era makes me nostalgic. The one track I already knew was from the Spaced spundtrack.

70s blues rock by rich white men continues to be the thing I reliably dislike most on this list. Musically, I actually enjoyed this, though. It's much more about the groove than about macho posturing guitar solos etc. Lyrically, however, it contains some of the most eye-watering misogyny and racism I've heard in this project so far, which is really saying something. 'Brown Sugar'is absolutely not something anyone should have to hear EVER, let alone something everyone needs to hear before they die.

I enjoyed this but nothing stood out for me, the droney style isn't my thing. I liked the drums a lot though.

Not my cup of tea, but it's refreshing to hear some hard rock that isn't wildly misogynist and/or racist.

It was OK - the electric guitar and arrangements set it apart from other 60s folk rock a bit. But his voice is too nasal and mannered for me, and the lyrics... I enjoy twiddly hippy nonsense when it's got a sense of fun and whimsy, but this felt utterly po-faced. He actually sings 'Oh whither has my lady wandered?' and doesn't seem to be joking.

I was surprised to find something that's so well regarded critically that I've genuinely never heard before. Like most art rock / New Wave, I thought it was nice enough but it didn't connect with me emotionally, no songs stood out especially.

Interesting stuff that I'd never heard before. The style is not for me though - it felt too precise and controlled, over-produced and kind of tinny. It was a huge relief when some proper bass and drums kicked in on one of the later tracks.

Fun. Unfortunately I listened to it on a train ride, otherwise I would have been boogying around the kitchen.

Part of me wants to mark this down just to rebel against the dull middle-aged rock critic consensus of this list, because I know it's going to be one of the ones everyone rates highly. But I just love it and it was great to give it a proper listen again.

Really interesting. It made me think of 'they're selling hippy wigs in Woolworths' in 'Withnail and I', or the bit in 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' about the wave of sixties optimism breaking and receding. Not the kind of thing I'm likely to listen to again, but I'm glad to have heard it.

Loved this. Sly & the Family Stone are one of my favourite new-to-me discoveries if this project.

I like this much more than Blur or Oasis. Really distinctive sound.

Still not my cup of tea, but it's OK.

I like this. I'm not a huge fan of punk in general, but the Clash are definitely my favourite punk band.

First live album on this list for me! And bloody hell, it's quite something. Undeniable power and energy and speed. For me, it eventually became relentless and a little bit samey, but still. Bloody hell.

An old favourite. Listening to it with more attention, it's hard to believe that the limited and tasteful use of electric instruments was controversial (although that's partly a myth and the anger was more about Dylan shifting away from political songs). But I have to say that some of the lyrics don't quite manage the surreal poetry they're aiming for, and veer dangerously close to the Oasis school of writing down any old nonsense if it fits.

Great piece of work, and I enjoyed learning about why it's so significant.

Not my thing really, and I think I prefer the earlier poppier stuff, given the choice. But it's very distinctive. Listening to it in the context of this list really highlighted that this is unusual in being full-on pop music that isn't really rooted in rock n roll or R&B.

I expected to hate this - pretentious, noodly, soulless prog. But it had some nice moments when they stopped showing off and noodling about.

I'd never heard this one before. I'm afraid it marks the point where I finally give up trying to appreciate Radiohead's post-OK Computer albums. I couldn't honestly pick out anything to distinguish this from Kid A or Half to the Thief. Every song feels like the same tempo, the same mood, the same musical style. I enjoy a lot of dark and melancholy music, but I can't understand how anyone can listen to this funereal meandering for pleasure.

This REALLY feels like an example of recency bias, where some critic in 2010 or whenever just nominated their own favourite album from the previous year. I've never heard of the band or the album before, and I don't think it's had the impact or influence to merit a place on this list. It was nice enough, especially the harmony singing, but there was nothing especially memorable about it for me. They seem to have two modes - quiet indie like a less lively version of Badly Drawn Boy, and cacophonous noise. Neither of them particularly appeals.

I've always liked listening to rap in foreign languages, because when I can't understand the words, it's easy to focus on the rhythmic, percussive way the language is being used. This was great. It reminded me of De La Soul a bit - bouncy and clever.

Latest episode in my evolving relationship to concept albums. This is a fundamentally different kind of thing to most of the other albums on the list. I enjoyed the story it tells but I can't imagine listening to it more than a couple of times. It's beautiful and elegantly made. The cowboy stuff does all feel a little silly to me, though.

I loved the sound of this, except for the vocals, where I'm torn. I can absolutely see how the screechy, ugly feel is a deliberate artistic choice that gives this its unique identity. But it's a bit much for me. I think I could handle it better in a live performance than listening to it at leisure. Which is quite fitting for a punk record, I guess.

Not my thing particularly but I can see how influential it was. Knowing that Johnny Rotten is a bit of an arsehole doesn't help me enjoy it though.

I loved this. My favourite new discovery of this list at far. Just gorgeous.

Never listened properly to the White Stripes before, and I was surprised by how much I like it. The punky simple drums work so we'll with the bluesy guitar.

I enjoyed this a lot, especially the more political/social comment stuff on the first side. Not a great version of 'I Heard it Through the Grapevine' though.

I think I liked this, but I can never decide whether Nick Cave's obsession with Southern Gothic and his funereal delivery are cool, or very silly indeed.

Christ, I'm only 10% of the way through, and this list already has way too many hairy white men wailing about how much they like sex while accompanied by blues guitar solos. I honestly cannot understand why anyone thinks I need to listen to SO MUCH of this shite before I die, or what is supposed to make this particular album stand out from all of the others. It's not openly racist or as horribly misogynist as some of the others I've had to endure, which is something.

This is great, but Morrissey is such a terrible person these days, openly fascist, that I rarely think to listen to it. So this project was a good excuse to give it one more chance.

Nice enough. I enjoyed the boogie/blues feel of it.

It's like Green Day but not as clever, funny, catchy or well produced. The famous tracks are a lot better and really stand out from the rest.

It's good but not really my thing. I can't imagine listening to this except for sexy times, and that would feel like a cliche at this point.

It's bewildering how each song switches to a new style and genre. I like the folk song and the last track of the album, the rest do very little for me, and it feels inconsistent and weird.

I I can tell it's an impressive debut album but it's not my thing. Like most of the New Wave I've listened to, it feels tinny and artificial to me.

Buying a sandwich from a supermarket while being a vegetarian can be deeply frustrating. There are usually 15 different variations of chicken sandwich, and one or two bland vegetarian options. That's how this list feels sometimes, only instead of chicken sandwiches I'm being offered endless minor variations on 'white men performing bluesy rock', and everything else gets squeezed out. I'm no more interested in consuming all of this than I am in the chicken sandwiches. It's very hard for me to see what distinguishes this from the ZZ Top I heard last week, or the Black Crowes before that, or all the many many other similar things on here. And all of them are occupying space that could have been given to much more interesting albums by women or artists in different traditions and genres.

I was skeptical at first but found myself rather liking this. I often enjoy lo-fi alt-country, but I admit I'm not sure what makes this special enough to be on the list - I'd never even heard of the band before.

I always feel as though, as a 90s indie kid and John Peel fan, I should like post-punk more than I do, but I just can't warm to it. I think it's the production values, all echoey vocals and scratchy guitars. I'm glad I've given this a proper listen, as I've always meant to get to know the band, but nothing on it grabbed me hugely.

I loved this. Apparently my reservations about concept albums don't apply if they involve kungfu fighting giant robots.

One surprise with this list has been how most psychedelic stuff hasn't really grabbed me. But I loved this. The mixture of soft folk and harder blues works really well, and the vision and creativity on tracks like White Rabbit are brilliant.

Putting a double live album on this list is cruel and unusual. It took me all bloody day to listen to this thing. I'm not a fan of Metallica but I thought this would be interesting. Unfortunately, the orchestral arrangements didn't work for me. Music this brutal and fast demands something spiky and modernist, or like a horror movie soundtrack. What we get is more like a generic action movie soundtrack, it just doesn't fit for me. Listening properly to Metallica for the first time, I felt the same way about James Hetfield's vocals. You have this heavy Satanic music, then this ordinary-sounding American guy starts yelling about puppets and werewolves, occasionally lapsing into something like Vic Reeves' club style. For me, this kind of music demands a vocalist like Lemmy, or the guttural shrieking that death metal singers do.

Embarrassingly, I was yesterday years old when I realised that Supertramp are not an American soul/funk band, as I had always believed before for some reason. I rather wish they had been though. I already knew that I don't like prog when it's pretentious and complex. Now I know that I also don't like it when it has a cheesy pop sensibility. Nothing on here grabbed me at all, although I did realise that I'd actually heard 'Dreamer' before without knowing it was by them.

Oh lovely, yet more country/blues/rock made by hariy white men in the seventies, or CBRMBHWMITS as I shall know it henceforth. This actually isn't too bad, I might have enjoyed it more if this list wasn't so stacked with this kind of music. Except for the one song that verges on being pro-Confederate, of course.

I enjoyed this. Nice to hear something that's very rooted in rock n roll but doing something fresh with it, after all the very conventional stuff I've heard recently. Of the directions rock was taking oin the early seventies, I definitely prefer glam to prog. It's still not really my thing though. I'm glad punk came along not long after.

I thought this was completely new to me, but I'd heard one track before, on a mixtape from a friend who's much more of an indie hipster than me. I really liked it. I thought at first that it was just quirky indie folk and I liked the funny lyrics, but the second half is wildly varied, with gay disco electronica and Kraftwerk pastiches and a moving epic rock track at the end. I'll definitely be listening again.

I've never heard anything quite like this. Some Lemonheads albums maybe had a slightly similar feel. Most of these tiny songs have more creativity and energy in them than 75% of the stuff on this list. It's quite something.

I listened to this so much back in the day that I kind of overdosed and rarely revisit it now, so this was like catching up with an old friend. It is just brilliant, with genuinely moving reflective songs alongside some of their catchiest pop songs.

I'd somehow never heard of this, and I'm surprised how much I liked it. Together with Blondie, it's definitely the best of the New Wave / post-punk stuff I've heard on this list. 'Skid marks on my heart' made me smirk though.

This grew on me as I went on, and I quite enjoyed it. The soul influences lift it above other similar stuff a bit, but I'm still not entirely sure why it belongs on this list.

I've loved this for a long time. But this project helped me to see what's so special about it. The creativity genuinely does stand out from other records of the era I've heard, and listening closely helped me to appreciate how good the production is.

I quite enjoyed this. The storytelling was fun and some of the tracks are good, but I was surprised by how clumsy and ugly a lot of the rhymes and rhythms are. I guess that's deliberate at least to some extent, but it doesn't work for me. Kae Tempest does similar things a lot better, reflecting real lives and patterns of speech while being poetic and musical.

I want grabbed by anything on this. I guess it's an important and influential album, but I've enjoyed their later stuff more.

Interesting. I liked the energy and attitude of this more than most of the New Wave and post punk things I've heard on this list. But as with most avant-garde experimental stuff, I found it easy to admire but hard to enjoy.

When Green Day first appeared, they were a bit too poppy and commercial for snobby 19-year-old me. It's been strange to see them become elder statesmen of rock. These days, I like their politics and I can see that they make an impressive noise for a simple three-piece punk band. I enjoyed this, but only the singles really stood out for me.

I didn't like this as much as I expected to. Gentle acoustic music is kind of my thing, but I do like it to have a little bit of passion, energy or a catchy tune. This just felt like wallpaper.

I was aware of Frank Zappa before this project but hadn't really listened to his music. I've been surprised by how dark and cynical it is. I quite liked this, the mixture of styles and ideas is impressive.

This was more laid back than most of the funk I've heard. It was interesting but I prefer something more upbeat, I think.

I think I'd have enjoyed these songs if they were on a sixties soul album, but like apparently everything in the early eighties, the production and arrangements do nothing for me. Tinny, artificial and cheesy. Most of the songs felt as though they could have been the soundtrack to an embarrassing sex scene in an eighties action movie.

Good to hear this, as I've listened to other Pixies albums but not this one. They're a bit heavy for my taste - I like the melodic tracks better than the screamy ones. But it really is a unique sound and the good tracks are great.

This was interesting. It reminded me a bit of Susanna and the Magical Orchestra, but it's not like anything else I've heard on here. It gets an extra star to compensate for the sexism that's got to be a factor in so many people giving it a 1.

Nice enough but not for me. The New Wave influence, with chilly production and mannered vocal delivery, doesn't appeal to me.

Uninteresting, I've never heard of Dion and I'm not sure why it's on the list. There opening songs treat paedophilia and stalking as romantic.

Grunge was generally a bit heavy and bleak for my tastes, but I did listen to the punkier stuff like Nirvana and Mudhoney a bit. The more metal-influenced stuff like this and Soundgarden never interested me, and having listened to this, it still doesn't. I'm sure it's fine, but not being interested in the genre, all the songs sounded very similar to me.

A bit smooth for my tastes, but clearly does what it does well. It's nice to hear something from the early eighties where the production sounds warm and human, rather than chilly and mechanical. Also nice to have learned the term 'sophistipop'.

Metal's not my thing, but there are metal albums I'd enjoy more than this one. For me , thrash metal songs need to be short and ferocious, not six-minute epics that recount the plot of a comic the guy read. Every song on this album is over five minutes long! And as with Metallica, the vocals don't match up to the music. It demands Satanic death metal growling.

A masterpiece. It's not just that it's to my taste or that I have wonderful memories attached to it, it's also genuinely groundbreaking and unique, and there's not a bad track on there. And it's lightning in a bottle, I've never been grabbed by anything else Primal Scream have done.

This is definitely not my thing, but I was surprised to find that I liked it more than the other metal that's come up so far. Unlike Metallica or Anthrax, the vocal style felt well matched to the extremeness of the music.

Why did I only get round to listening to this in full today? Just brilliant.

I was only vaguely aware of the Minutemen before, but I really enjoyed this. A huge range of styles but genuinely punk in its ethos and feel.

Well this is horrible. Musically great and clearly influential - I spotted bits that were sampled by Portishead. But this is not about, as Wikipedia describes it, an 'illicit romance'. It's about a middle-aged man grooming and raping a child. It can get in the fucking bin.

Nice enough, but a bit smooth for my tastes, nothing stood out for me.

I owned this and loved it when it came out but haven't listened to it for ages, so this was a nice reminder. It's great - witty and warmer and less ridiculously gothic than his earlier stuff. I'm realising I always like it when indie/alternative artists work with gospel choirs.

I actually listen to quite a lot of alt country and americana, but I still have a prejudice against 'normal' country music, and unfortunately this sounds like that. Jaunty steel guitar, sentimental lyrics. I'm sure it's fine but it's not for me. This is also one of the things that highlights the bias of this list - there's rather a lot of country music but, so far, almost no traditional music from other posts of the world.

I think I'm a bit prejudiced against Crowded House because they were on the radio constantly at my first Saturday job. It's nice but feels a bit bland for me.

I'm torn. This is great, but I don't understand why this list needs two live albums recorded in prisons by Johnny Cash. There are so many brilliant artists - particularly women - who don't even get one album on the list, that this is just wrong.

I'm afraid I may have rated this a bit lower than it deserves, but I've had three country albums in quick succession and I'm sick of it now. This is where this list reflects its US origins - looking from anywhere else in the world, it makes so sense at all that so many country albums get to be on here but nothing from many other places' traditional music.

Never heard this before, but I used to own 'Urban Hymns'. My attitude to the Verve was summed up nicely in a review I read once of Spiritualized's 'Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space' that said 'This is what the Verve think they sound like.' This made me feel the same. A band trying to achieve something soaring and beautiful, but they're only able to make competent and fairly conventional indie rock. The second half, where they're beginning to make the kind of indie anthems they'll perfect on 'Urban Hymns', is better than the shoegazey first half.

I knew Prince's reputation but was somehow still surprised by how filthy this is. 😂 Unfortunately I had it on in the background, I think I need to come back and listen to it properly some time. Not my usual kind of thing but I think it's good

I really liked this, although I prefer the dreamy soundscapes to the bits where he's singing. I'm not 100% convinced it's a timeless classic that belongs on this list - it may be one of those cases where a critic picked their favourite indie album from the previous couple of years - but it's my kind of thing and I enjoyed it.

Not my thing. Dull, verging on dreary at times. Electronic music for people who don't want anything too weird. At least the chilly early-eighties production suits the style of the songs here. The version on YouTube Music is an extended edition with bonus tracks that are only of interest to obsessive fans, so it outstayed its welcome, which didn't help.

Beautiful, and so good to hear something properly different after last week's run of uninteresting country music.

I'd hearda few tracks before but never the full album, and it's great. The most recent thing I've heard on the list so far. Genuinely doesn't sound like anything other than itself.

I was just thinking that it's about time I had some electronic music on here, so this was welcome. Not entirely my cup of tea though. I like the bits with heavy techno beats, but the repetitive vocals and samples get on my nerves a bit.

If I have to listen to yet more country music, I'm glad it's this. I like the lazy stoned feeling of it. I knew it through its influence on the Lemonheads, and always meant to listen to some more.

I listened to this a bit on release. It's OK but only 'Basket Case' really stands out.

Well, that was dreary and uninteresting, and apparently the man is a piece of shit.

I've heard this before but not for some time. An amazing piece of work. The closest thing on this list so far was Guided By Voices, but the subs on this all feel more polished and crafted than they did.

At first I thought this was just fine and unremarkable, but by the second half the bluesy groove of it grew on me a bit.

I knew most of the songs, often from cover versions, but I'd never listened to the album so this was good. It really is astonishing in the context of the other things being released at the time. Completely unique.

Oh joy, more Country/Blues/Rock Made by Hairy White Men in the Seventies. Not my thing. Like Led Zeppelin, it suffers for me from being the kind of music that I imagine Jeremy Clarkson would like. Macho, showy, dull. I did like the bluesy keyboards and harmonica though, and at least not all of the songs were about fast cars and being a sex pest.

An amazing voice, and I love the mix of soul, bless and rock.

This was another one of those gaps in my knowledge - a major band I'd never really listened to. It's OK, more interestingly experimental than the prog I've heard from the same period. Don't like his voice though, and it's still a bit pretentious for my tastes.

I enjoyed this. You can hear the energy and simplicity of sixties rock and roll, mixed with the looseness and attitude of punk.

Another band I had heard of but wasn't really familiar with. As with most art/glam/pop rock from this era, it does nothing for me. It feels as though it has no reason for existing other than to show off fancy arrangements or production techniques. It's apparently intended to be witty or satirical in places, but didn't raise a smile from me.

It's great because it's Bowie. Less of the groundbreaking energy that his glam stuff had, but his range and enthusiasm for new approaches was amazing.

Outside of the hits, this is pretty saccharine and cliched. I want to have an open mind about stuff like this which is outside my normal interests, but it seems Britney Spears didn't have much creative input or control of her work at this stage, and I think that comes across. The hits are very strong though.

I was aware of some of the songs because they were heavily played on 6 Music when they came out, bit this is my first proper listen. Turns out I like it a lot. The two voices working together are great, and I like the mix of electronicavand rock.

'Stomp Clap Hey' stuff like this and Mumford & Sons irritates me. It's really close to styles of music I love, but it just feels smug, like privileged middle-class people cosplaying as proper folk artists. None of the songs on this grabbed me in any way or seemed to have any interesting energy.

I'd listened to Suede's first album a bit, but never to this one. I liked it more than I thought I would. I enjoy the music more than the singing, but Brett Anderson's OK on the songs where he doesn't sound like a bad Bowie impersonator.

I used to own their greatest hits so I already knew a lot of the best stuff on this. I love it but it does start to feel a bit formulaic and samey to me after a while - better in small doses than an entire album.

I'd heard Maps but didn't know the band, and the rest was all new to me. I really like it. Punky indie, little bit like the Pixies but very much its own thing.

Wow, he makes long albums. This sounded good and I liked the range of styles and influences. But I find I have to listen very closely to rap to get the best out of it, and unfortunately I mainly had this on in the background. I'll come back to it, I think.

I enjoyed this more than an the earlier prog I've heard. While it often felt as though they were more interested in showing off than actually having anything worthwhile to communicate, there are lots of moments with more sensitivity and feeling. The musicianship is impressive too.

Loved this. I only really knew his sixties stuff, and it's great to hear how he moved with the times and kept on making great songs.

I do like their earlier stuff. I enjoy the tracks where they're being a bit more hippie and original, but with a lot of the other tracks I can't help getting that it's a bunch of wealthy white men cosplaying as poor Black bluesmen.

Love this, pure punk energy. I'm surprised not to hear more of the hits I recognise though.

I thought I'd love this, but the age of the recording meant it was very trebly and harsh to listen to. I think a modern recording would feel warmer and more enjoyable. I did like the stuff towards the end that started to feel a bit Buena Vista Social Club.

I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to. The singles especially are a lot of fun. Warmer and more human production than a lot of early eighties stuff.

This is not my thing, it's hard to listen knowing now that Jackson was at least deeply creepy, and the Paul McCartney duet made me cringe so hard I nearly imploded. But you can see why it was so successful. The music is a perfect fit for that shiny, precise early eighties production.

I always feel I should like Elvis Costello more than I do, but the music is a bit too AOR for me, and the lyrics a bit too intellectual. It doesn't engage me emotionally.

Second album for me on this list by the Doors. It is weird how they have the famous songs, which are all psychedelic and poetic, and then the rest is just Bluesy Rock Made by Hairy White Men in the Seventies. As BRMBHWMITS goes, it's not bad, but as usual, I don't feel listening to the amount of it that appears on this list is really enriching my life very much.

Loved this, my favourite kind of hip hop and one of my favourite new discoveries from the project.

Nice. A lot of the jazz I've heard on this list has been willfully difficult and experimental, so it's good to hear something smooth like this.

I'd never heard of the band before. Not my cup of tea. I can see the points of similarity with later indie rock, but this is still a bit hard-rock for my tastes. The production quality is not great, and there were no stand out songs for me.

Loved this. It doesn't sound much like anything else I've heard, except perhaps Imogen Heap.

Not my kind of thing but the hits are undeniably good. As with the other album of theirs I heard on here, it's striking how it doesn't draw on the same influences as most of the other stuff on the list. It was actually a bit weird when one of the songs had a blues structure. Outside of the hits though, nothing grabbed me, and some of the songs were a bit silly.

Loved this. It's impressive how they have so much energy and humour without ever becoming just novelty songs. Shocking that a two-tone band couldn't see that the casual racism of 'New Delhi' and having someone in brownface on the cover was a problem though.

Really interesting, but it does feel a bit incoherent and unfocused.

Weirdly for someone who regularly gets mistaken for Lennon by drunk men, I have never actually listened to all of one of his albums before. It's OK. I've been over exposed to the famous tracks to the point where it's hard to listen to them properly. The mixture of slightly mawkish sincerity with angry arseholeness is weird.

This project has crystallised my opinion of prog folk and baroque folk or whatever this is called. As with other prog, I think it's more interested in being showily clever than in having good tunes or being enjoyable to listen to. I somehow find it more irritating with the folky stuff, perhaps because it's so close to music styles that I love, and it frustrates me. The music on this was often beautiful but also meandering and over complex. But I found her voice grated on me.

Another band I'd heard of but never listened to, so it's good to be able to place them. Nice enough, but a bit smooth for my tastes, nothing grabbed or excited me.

I have a soft spot for this as I used to listen to my dad's old ISB records. I mustn't have listened to this one as much as the others though, I'm not so familiar with it. It seems more mystical and less whimsical and silly than the others. I suspect I'd find it a harder listen if I came across it for the first time now.

Well, it's probably my favourite album ever. A masterpiece. What struck me on this listen was the quality of the production. It just sounds really rich and full.

I continue to find the number of country albums on this list bewildering, especially now I know that the editors are UK-based. I also find the obsession with cosplaying the Old West in these cowboy ballads bizarre and laughable, and a bit distasteful because of how strongly it connects with America's exceptionalism and self-mythologisation.

I love this, ever since I stumbled across them playing 'There Goes the Fear'at Glastonbury on telly. They incorporate influences from dance music, Northern soul and other genres into indie rock really well. The whole album has never grabbed me as much as the famous tracks do though, sadly.

I was prepared to hate this, as yet more Country/Blues/Rock Made By Hairy White Men In The Seventies. But it had a bit more to it. A wistfulness, nice Beatlesy harmonies, themes of working class life rather than just being about sleeping with underage girls. I can see the similarities with Bruce Springsteen, and I enjoyed learning the term 'heartland rock'.

Loved this. I knew 'Blister in the Sun' bit nothing else about the band, and was surprised to learn how old it is. Fur me, it has a similar punk energy to early Billy Bragg. Where he defied convention by being a solo singer with an electric guitar rather than an acoustic one, they do it by playing raucous punk on acoustic instruments.

Prog meets experimental jazz. Not my thing. Less showily self indulgent than most prog though, and with some nice atmospheric moments.

Fine,I guess. Unremarkable Britpop with notes of Suede and My Life Story. The music is good but the vocal delivery is annoying. I can't see why it merits a place on this list. I was following indie music fairly closely when it came out, and I don't recall it being regarded as especially important or influential even then.

Never heard this before. I liked it - it's odd and funny, and clearly has influences from the other hip hop I've enjoyed like De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest. Probably need to listen again to really appreciate it.

Knew and loved this already but I haven't listened to B&S for ages. Listening again in the context of this list, I really noticed how distinctive their sound is - both the music and the gentle but databases and surreal lyrics.

Surprised by how much I liked this. I'd never heard of it but knew a few of the songs from cover versions, so it was good to hear the originals. Nice wistful folk rock, and he has a beautiful voice.

I hadn't listened to this for a while, and coming back to it fresh really brought home what a masterpiece it is. This time round, it struck me how much every single sound on it has been carefully considered and produced. And every song is great in some way, but I wouldn't usually choose to listen to them outside the context of the album. It's one coherent work of art.

I probably won't ever listen to this again, bit I genuinely enjoyed it. Never heard anything quite like it, it must have been mind-blowing to listen to on release. I was struck by how some of the chanting and rhythms have a ritualistic quality. I enjoyed the music more than the vocals though, they crossed the line into just being ugly noise a bit too often for my tastes.

I had resigned myself to being irritated by all Radiohead's post-OK Computer albums, but I actually found things to enjoy on this listen. It has moments of beauty that are less funereal and meandering. It might have helped that I was coming into it having listened to Einsturzende Neubaten yesterday. I can see how this merits a place on this list, as a major creative shift in Radiohead's work. I don't feel we needed Amnesiac and Hail to the Thief as well, they really did feel like more of the same but less interesting.

I knew 'Constant Craving' but hadn't heard the rest. It's nice but not really my thing - the other songs all felt a bit similar to me, thematically at least.

I hadn't listened to this for a few years, and it's even better than I remembered. Perhaps because I'm older myself now. Just a masterpiece. The choice of songs, the arrangements, the intense personal honesty. The cover versions all make their originals seem silly and childish. He gives a power to songs that would otherwise feel schmaltzy and sentimental. He even gives weight and meaning to the silly cowboy stories that irritate me so much in most country music.

I've never quite got on with Donovan. It doesn't feel to me as though he has a strong voice of his own, and the psychedelic imagery just feels twee and silly and a bit po-faced.

I enjoyed this. Another band that I'd meant to give a listen and never got round to. I liked that you can hear the Beatles and Byrds and the Velvet Underground in there, and also the influence it will have on things like REM and Teenage Fanclub. Nothing grabbed me hugely this time but I'll probably give it another listen. I suspect I'd enjoy other power pop stuff too.

Nice. Less raw punk energy than the White Stripes but an impressive range of styles.

Lovely. Interesting lyrics, beautiful arrangements. Just the right amount of odd for me.

I'd listened to some of their later stuff but not this before. It's great. Somehow gothic and upbeat at the same time. You can hear their influences very strongly but they're definitely doing something new with them.

Nice. I'd heard the title track before but not the rest.

I enjoyed it but I don't know enough about jazz to say much more.

Another post punk artist I'd never heard of. Interestingly odd, like an intense David Bowie tribute, but not my cup of tea really.

I'm not sure why I don't like the Jam more. They're fine but don't excite me. This was good, it had a couple of the Jan tracks I already know and like on it but nothing else stood out hugely.

I was surprised by how much I loved this. Is never noticed before how much The Who emphasise bass and drums and harmony singing rather than lead guitar. It feels influenced by R&B rather than blues, and has fantastic energy.

Pavement are one of those bands I feel I should like but I'm not quite enough of an indie hipster. This was nice - kind of a more accessible version of Sonic Youth.

I'd heard one track from this on those 'Pure Moods' compilations in the nineties. The rest is much better than I expected. A fusion of world music influences with heavy dub beats. Very much my kind of thing these days.

I'd listened to a bit of their stuff before, when I was reading 'Phonogram'. It's OK. I think it might be the lack of a bassist, but their sound is just very harsh and shiny, and I don't find it pleasant to listen to. I think it's a me thing though.

This was an ordeal. A double live album of proggy Country/Blues/Rock Made by Hairy White Men in the Seventies. I actually enjoyed the first half though, which felt like hippies making loose creative blues. Then the second half shifted into endless 20-minute prog/jazz wankfests.

I liked this more than a lot of the early eighties art rock (or whatever genre this is) that I've heard on here, but it still didn't excite me. I feel as though these bands are working towards something that will come together with the Smiths and the Wedding Present and stuff like that a few years later. This is just too smooth and jaunty still.

It's Country/Blues/Rock Made by Hairy White Men in the Seventies, but it's better than a lot of the stuff of that type on this list. Bad Moon Rising is a great song.

I can see that this is good, and it's the kind of music I'd normally like a lot. But I've always felt that there's something smug and self-satisfied about their lyrics and vocal delivery. I don't think I'd get on with someone who likes to imagine their lover 'waiting silently' for them at home.

Nice enough but it all felt a bit samey and nothing stood out. The monotonous post-punk style singing doesn't do anything for me.

Knew this and liked it already. It was good to listen a bit more carefully this time.

Always a breath of fresh air to have something that's less white-male-rock-critic. I enjoyed the fusion of styles on some tracks, but it was a bit poppy for my tastes overall.

It didn't grab me as much as the other stuff of theirs that's been on the list, but it was cool. Shades of Pixies in some of the tracks, I thought.

Great pop music, not really my thing. I was surprised that most of the tracks are 5 minutes long or more. For me, it felt like the poppier tracks outstayed their welcome a bit and could have been shorter. But clearly a lot of people disagree with me!

It's kind of odd that I've never listened to any Bauhaus. I liked it more than I expected to. It's more experimental and less theatrically gothic than I was imagining.

It's Country/Blues/Rock Made by Hairy White Men in the Seventies, but it's good. I like Neil Young's melancholy wistfulness. Not his strongest material though. Some of it felt like pretty conventional country music to me.

This easy listening style is really not my thing, but it's nice enough I guess. I really didn't like the first track but it got better as it went on.

Good to listen properly to another band I've only been vaguely aware of. I rather liked it. The singles I already knew are great, and the rest holds up too. A bit on the poppy, bombastic side for my tastes, but I enjoyed it.