My 1001 Albums Journey

Albums Rated

3.21

Average Rating

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1046 albums remaining

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1960s

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Pop

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Wordsmith

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5-Star Albums

1-Star Albums

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Albums

You Love More Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
All That You Can't Leave Behind U2	5	2.98	+2.02
A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector Various Artists	5	3.3	+1.7
Exile On Main Street The Rolling Stones	5	3.61	+1.39
The Stone Roses The Stone Roses	5	3.64	+1.36
Life Thru A Lens Robbie Williams	4	2.73	+1.27
Basket of Light Pentangle	4	2.76	+1.24
Green River Creedence Clearwater Revival	5	3.78	+1.22
Scott 4 Scott Walker	4	2.8	+1.2
The New Tango Astor Piazzolla	4	2.88	+1.12
Physical Graffiti Led Zeppelin	5	3.91	+1.09

You Love Less Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
Dire Straits Dire Straits	1	3.72	-2.72
Licensed To Ill Beastie Boys	1	3.55	-2.55
We Are Family Sister Sledge	1	3.48	-2.48
Ghosteen Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds	1	2.97	-1.97
Merriweather Post Pavilion Animal Collective	1	2.9	-1.9
Vincebus Eruptum Blue Cheer	1	2.8	-1.8
Let's Get Killed David Holmes	1	2.68	-1.68
Raising Hell Run-D.M.C.	2	3.51	-1.51
Penance Soiree The Icarus Line	1	2.5	-1.5
Either Or Elliott Smith	2	3.38	-1.38

5-Star Albums (7)

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A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector

Popular Reviews

Fleet Foxes

4/5

A hugely well received debut album which was the definitive statement in the burgeoning indie folk scene. A lot of 60s/70s fans would’ve been taken by the Crosby stills, Nash harmonies. Sounds fresh now.

1 likes

1-Star Albums (8)

All Ratings

Scott 4

Scott Walker

4/5

Highly influential pop star turned crooner, david Bowie looked up to him. A world away from his avant garde concept song cycles in his later career. A really distinctive voice

Liquid Swords

GZA

3/5

Clearly a great rap album, but I couldn’t fully identify a clear concept lyrically despite its comic art work and intro track.

Green River

Creedence Clearwater Revival

5/5

Their second of three 1969 albums, 29 minutes of economic rockabilly. It just feels right and this band could’ve been the next biggest band of them all. Fabulous music

(Pronounced 'Leh-'Nérd 'Skin-'Nérd)

Lynyrd Skynyrd

4/5

An album supposedly dwarfed by a historic rock anthem in ‘freebird’, it confounds expectations of a dumb southern rock record with some varied approaches to playing and writing. Impressive band

We Are Family

Sister Sledge

1/5

Essentially a Chic album with a different set of vocalists. Rare for a late 70s pop album to have four top notch hit singles on it. You can hear the sound Diana Ross would develop with Nile and Bernard the following year. One of the best disco albums of the era.

Dire Straits

1/5

Supa Dupa Fly

Missy Elliott

2/5

Slightly groovier than I expected and clearly influential - just a little bit too long

Parallel Lines

Blondie

4/5

Pop quality with a new wave touch. They’re still a better singles band.

Crosby, Stills & Nash

3/5

The start of the California sound - a true supergroup - they just weren’t that prolific. Harmony singing of great invention

Licensed To Ill

Beastie Boys

1/5

Never liked them, led zeppelin samples and a threat to VW cars…..

Shake Your Money Maker

The Black Crowes

3/5

I feel this perfectly adequate debut album is dwarfed by a sublime cover of Hard to handle - the bastard child of Zep and the stones

Lust For Life

Iggy Pop

4/5

Co written produced by David Bowie, during a remarkably productive Berlin period, and fracturing (future Tin Machine) rhythm section Tony and Hunt, this is a proto punk effort with 2 stonewall classics on it and a couple of tracks (tonight and Neigbourhood threat) that ended up on Bowie’s awful Tonight album 7 years later.

Vincebus Eruptum

Blue Cheer

1/5

The origins of the who’s cover of ‘Summertime Blues’ and some pretty average psych/ stoner rock. Not a classic…..

Raising Hell

Run-D.M.C.

2/5

A formative influence on the genre and it contains the first crossover with walk this way. Can live without it though……

Let's Get Killed

David Holmes

1/5

Not a fan AT ALL

The Suburbs

Arcade Fire

4/5

Excellent album, continuing their upward trajectory as David Bowie’s favourite band in later life.Grammy winning, tuneful, conceptual.

Ghosteen

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

1/5

Physical Graffiti

Led Zeppelin

5/5

One of the all time great rock albums - 8 tracks recorded in 74/5 that were too long for a single album and so we also have 7 extras from earlier albums. Just outstanding - a real journey into their world

Fleet Foxes

4/5

Porcupine

Echo And The Bunnymen

3/5

Produced by Ian Brodie with two significant hits on it, they were nip and tuck with U2 for the post punk alternative crown at the time. Not well reviewed at the time but it has aged well - sounds more of its time now

Merriweather Post Pavilion

Animal Collective

1/5

This is total bobbins - psychedelic nonsense!

Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite

Maxwell

3/5

Illmatic

Nas

3/5

Highly influential east coast rap album. Full of interesting jazz and funk samples. Not my area of comfort but it has clearly aged well.

Ill Communication

Beastie Boys

3/5

A really varied hip hop album with elements of punk, funk and rock. They were now a long way from nicking VW badges.

Exile On Main Street

The Rolling Stones

5/5

One of the greatest rock albums of all time, takes you on a genuine journey into the stones’ world - rock, blues, country, gospel, boogie. The last in the run of four classic albums and considering their situation, a miracle it turned out like it did

The Fat Of The Land

The Prodigy

4/5

Absolute banger from 1997, powerful, unsubtle, dance meets punk/metal crossover. Their biggest seller - Keith flint made a huge difference. Has Dance music ever been so mainstream since…..?

Black Sabbath

4/5

Much written about - birth of genre etc - but stands as a great rock album by a jazz drummer, guitarist with a hampered hand, a bass player who put horror fiction into lyrics and Aston’s village idiot turned most iconic star on vocals - what a combination. And they still put an acoustic number in there…..

The Clash

4/5

Along with the pistols and the damned, one of the key UK punk albums, compact and concise and just waiting for Topper Headon to give them a more stylistic options.

A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector

Various Artists

5/5

Some of the only notable Christmas 60s recordings and arguably the defining seasonal album collection. Perfection of its kind

Metallica

4/5

Brought them to a wider audience with Bob Rock’s slightly more ‘accessible’ production, with some hit singles in there. In some top audiophiles lists of best sounding albums.

All That You Can't Leave Behind

5/5

U2 had a fab 80s, a 50/50 90s and this album kicked off a hugely successful 2000s with a no.1 hit single (impressive for 20 years into their career). It should be called ‘Elevation’ rather than from a line in ‘walk on’. This album has aged well.

16 Lovers Lane

The Go-Betweens

3/5

Pretty sounding jangly indie pop from Australia. Sounds like the smiths accompanying the bastard child of Lou Reed and Bernard Sumner. Hardly a classic album but a very familiar sound to those of us of a certain generation. Prefab Sprout did it infinitely better…..

The Wildest!

Louis Prima

3/5

A mixture of jazz Melodys, gibberish improvising, changes of tempo and some R&B sounds with some Latin mixed in. ‘Jump,jive and wail’ and ‘Bueno sera’ are the standouts but it’s an entertaining period piece, 12 years before ‘king of the swingers’

The Age Of The Understatement

The Last Shadow Puppets

3/5

Entertaining fare from two northerners channeling their inner Scott Walker with some French chic in there as well. Certainly an indicator as to the Arctic Monkeys direction on their recent two albums

Basket of Light

Pentangle

4/5

This was a refreshing departure with the premier UK folk rock group along with Fairport Convention. The opening track was well known as the theme for TV show ‘take three girls’. The guitar playing of Bert Jancsh was hugely influential on the likes of Led Zeppelin and Danny Thompson’s double bass also played with John Martyn and Richard Thompson. A fine album from an important act of that time.

Life Thru A Lens

Robbie Williams

4/5

A member of Take That ‘doing Britpop’ ended up being a recipe for success, once Angels and let me entertain you prevailed after 3 misfiring singles. The real story really is Guy Chambers’ songwriting taking the best bits of pop/rock history with Robbie’s sometimes dodgy lyrics. Nice to hear it 28 years on - it’s aged better than I thought

The White Album

Beatles

5/5

Hard to write anything that hasn’t been written about this album. Occasionally I think a single album would’ve been better. Revolution 9 could’ve been replaced by Hey Jude! It’s John, Paul and George being more eclectic and grasping the rock revolution and more acoustic stuff than in ‘67. It’s a compendium of delights and some mad moments.

Deserter's Songs

Mercury Rev

4/5

This fourth mercury Rev album is hard to pin down - a lovely brittleness in the early songs, arrangements going away from rock cliche. Levon Helm and Garth Hudson (the band) appear on drums and sax remarkably. Uncut magazine used to love them. I enjoyed it far more than I would’ve done back in 1998!

The New Tango

Astor Piazzolla

4/5

Playing on another level by the specialists in their respective fields. Excellently recorded live album.

The Stone Roses

5/5

Listened to it recently after Mani died and, aside from the unnecessary backwards track, it stands up incredibly well. A huge changing point for post Smiths alternative UK music which ended up with Britpop.

Live!

Fela Kuti

3/5

The first example of one of the rock/pop fraternity fusing with Africa - great to hear Tony Allen as well. The birth of afrobrat (for western ears). Goes on a bit but fela kuti is very charismatic and this lays down foundations for WOMAD and such like.

Either Or

Elliott Smith

2/5

Another favourite of ‘uncut’ magazine. Americana singer songwriter that to my ears doesn’t really stand out from the rest.

Penance Soiree

The Icarus Line

1/5

This album is a horrendous cacophony, steering between punk, metal and post rock. I will not be searching out the rest of their catalogue…