1001 Albums Summary

I appreciate the skill and talent on display here but jazz just isn’t for me. The songs all sound pretty much the same to my untrained ears.

Fantastic album on first listen. Amazing that this was a debut album. Really enjoyed it.

For some reason I just don't "get" Fiona Apple and this album didn't help, at all. The first song ends with shrieking and it didn't really get any better for me. There were a couple of decent songs but overall this was a tough listen for me.

Phil Spector is obviously a bad person, but this is obviously an incredible album. Just skip the last "song" which is basically just Spector speaking. Everything else is fantastic.

I think the only Alice Cooper song I heard before listening to this album was School's Out, which is the first track. I wasn't prepared for the rest of the album to veer into concept album/musical territory. Not my thing, but interesting album.

Impressive musicianship for sure, but a bit bland and too little variation for me. A 2.5 that becomes a 3 because we have to vote with whole numbers.

Cult of Personality is a great song. The rest didn’t do anything for me. Not a fan of that particular style of rock.

I agree with the folks who said this sounds like music you expect to be playing in a hotel. K.D. has a fantastic voice, no question about it, but this style does nothing for me. Hate to give out a one but I literally didn’t like any song on the album.

Was only familiar with Thirteen before listening to this one. Really enjoyed the whole album. Can definitely see how this influenced so many other pop/rock artists.

I feel torn on this album. I like David Gray a lot and this is almost certainly his best album. However, it definitely isn't an album I would say someone needs to hear before they die. It's pretty normal singer-songwriter pop music overall. For nostalgia reasons it is a 5/5 for me, but if I'm being honest it is more of a 3/5 in reality. It starts incredibly strong with "Please Forgive Me" and "Babylon" which are genuinely great pop songs, and it ends fairly strongly with "This Year's Love", "Sail Away", and a great (if perhaps a bit long) cover song, "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye", but if I take my nostalgia goggles off I have to admit that the middle of the album doesn't maintain the momentum of the beginning or rise to the same level as the final group of songs. So, 3/5 it is.

1/5 only because 0/5 isn't an option. That was an absolutely brutal listen. Just the most generic sounding dance music possible. Nothing stood out.

I consider Depeche Mode's next album "Violator" to be one of my all-time favorites, but this one doesn't quite reach the same heights for me. 3/5

Feels a bit like an album that might play nonstop at Hot Topic. Pop/punk without any bite.

Amazing voice, impressive skills from the players, still just don't like jazz.

So maybe it's not that I don't like jazz, it's that I don't like jazz vocals. Instrumental jazz isn't too bad. Really enjoyed this album.

Was only familiar with Relax before listening to this album, and never really cared for it. Surprisingly the album was better than I thought but kind of all over the place and definitely a few songs too long. Was anticipating a 1 or 2 for the album but it was more like a 3 for me.

I'm a bit torn on this album. On the one hand the lyrics seem like they were written by a middle school boy who is just trying to get attention by saying shocking or obscene things. On the other hand, I like the punk / early industrial sound a fair bit. Just based on the sound of the album I would give it a 4, but I have to lower it at least a little bit for the immature lyrics so it is a 3 for me.

If I never hear "Cool in the Pool" again I will be very happy. The rest of it was fine, but nothing really stood out in a positive way. I appreciate the inspiration this album seems to have had on future electronic music, so I'm bumping it up a bit to a 3.

Fantastic album. Shocked by how much I liked it. I didn't particularly enjoy the album "Mr. Tambourine Man" by The Byrds (gave it a 3) and so I went into this one expecting it to have a similar sound and feel. However, that is not the case. This was a much more musically interesting album and had a cohesive feel to it despite the songs touching on multiple genres. Will definitely revisit this one more often in the future. My first 5 that I was truly surprised by.

Wasn't sure what to expect going in. This genre is outside of my normal listening habits but I really enjoyed the album.

I absolutely cannot stand this type of rock. I'm sure many enjoy it but I'm not one of them. Couldn't wait for this album to end.

I love the Flight of the Conchords but had a hard time making it through this "comedy" album.

I went into this one fully expecting to give it a 1 or 2 after how much I disliked "Fetch the Boltcutters". However, this album was fantastic. I knew "Criminal" was a great song going in, but the rest of the album was suprisingly good.

I'm biased as I have loved The Clash for years, but this gets a 5 for sure. Great album, particularly for a debut, and clearly highly influential.

Radiohead is one of my favorite bands of all-time so this is an easy 5 for me. I love every song on here except Pulk / Pull Revolving Doors.

Please sir, may I have less organ?

Feels like a very straightforward and sort of basic album in modern times, but I guess it was somewhat influential in its era.

Another overloaded double album that would have been a great single album.

I have no idea why this album was included on this list. Also, it needed to be about 5 songs shorter.

Wilco is one of my all-time favorites and this is their masterpiece. Easiest 5 for me so far.

I like the more experimental 80's music. This style is not for me. Just boring, similar sounding soft rock/pop.

Absolutely incredible debut album. Lived up to the pre-release hype.

I absolutely hated every second of this. I'm not the intended demographic, and I get that, but man did I really not like this one. Basically it just comes off as if the girl referenced in Kanye West's "Gold Digger" wrote an entire album about her life. I don't want to hear this many details about anyone's sex life, regardless of whether it is a female or male artist. I have to imagine that this album will be near the top of my most hated list when/if I complete the full 1089 album journey.

Live albums shouldn't be on the list, in my opinion. They just aren't the same as an actual album. Also, live albums with extensive studio overdubs are not really live albums. So, with those issues this goes from a 3 to a 2 for me.

Polarizing band for sure, but I love them, particularly this album and Yoshimi.

Easily twice as long as it needed to be. Also, just boring to me overall.

Absolutely shocked by how much I liked this album. This is not my genre at all but I really enjoyed this. I had never listened to Iron Maiden before but this was much more melodic than I expected based on my impressions of them.

Would be a surprising 4 for me if the songs were shorter and a few cut from the album. Drops to a 3 for those reasons. I hope I never hear Shanti / Ashtangi again as long as I live. Truly terrible song.

There are two ways to approach reviewing these albums. Some seem to score albums based on their historical impact or influence on future artists, while others score the albums based on their personal feelings about it. I fall into the second category, but I do try and listen objectively and not let my preconceived notions affect my score too much. That being said, this is basically what I expected it to be. Obviously this was a hugely influential album, but that doesn't make it a good one. It's trite lyrically (there are 3 songs with "heart" in the title for goodness sake) and musically. It's just a very difficult listen for me. I make it through all of it but didn't enjoy it at any point. Britney has a great voice, but I really can't stand the way she sings most of the album. At times she sings in a way that I can only describe as someone trying to hiccup seductively. It's incredibly annoying and occurs frequently. This is a 1.

Expected to hate it but somehow it kind of won me over. It's almost as cheesy as it can possibly be but despite my expectations I enjoyed it.

Norah has a great voice and Come Away With Me and Don't Know Why are great songs, but overall this is a 3 for me. The album would definitely benefit from being a few songs shorter and outside of the two hit singles the rest of the songs on the album sound incredibly similar. As many others have mentioned this album feels tailor made to be played on repeat in a coffee shop.

Paint it Black and Under My Thumb (despite its lyrics) are fantastic songs musically. The rest of the album was disappointing. I’ve never understood how this band was compared to The Beatles.

I simply have never understood David Bowie's status as a rock legend and this album didn't help my perception of him. The backstory to the album is very interesting, but musically and especially lyrically the album did not impress me. I know there are a bunch of Bowie albums on the list so perhaps one of the others will help me understand how he came to be considered among the all-time greats, but for now I remain as confused about it all as ever.

I do not like Rod Stewart, at all, but I didn't hate this album like I expected to. It wasn't great, but I liked it better than I expected. However, at no point in the album did it ever feel like it should have made a 1001 album list. It's inclusion feels very unnecessary.

Fantastic album. Never been a fan of Hole, but this album won me over anyway. Billy Corgan's influence/song-writing is definitely noticeable on several tracks.

Love Blur but wouldn’t consider this their best. Still enjoy it, and a very influential album of its era.

Freedom is a great pop song. The rest of this album is forgettable at best. Too many cheesy songs that don’t hold up.

I have never understood how The Doors are considered such rock legends and this didn't help. Pretentious, overly long nonsense from a bunch of strung out people who seem like they wouldn't be fun to be around. Lyrically it is just beat poet crap for people who want to think they are smarter than everyone else in the room so they pretend the lyrics are deep. I'm sure I have more albums from this overrated band in my future and I'm dreading each one of them.

The rare double album that doesn't overstay its welcome or need songs removed from it to be truly great.

Hated this so much. Nothing redeeming about it lyrically or musically. Just absolute crap.

Whatever genre we call this I don't care for it and don't want to listen to any more albums from it. It's just 80's cheese in all the worst ways. The Wikipedia article for the album refers to it as "sophisti-pop" which sounds just about pretentious enough to represent this album. Truly disliked every song on the album. Now, with that said, I'd listen to this album again over listening to some of the other albums I gave a 1 like "Next" by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, "Heaux Tales" by Jazmine Sullivan, or "En-Tact" by the Shamen but that's only because I couldn't give those albums a 0.

This was a very surprising 4 for me. Expected an album of Red, Red Wine but instead it was more akin to a Clash album but with politically charged reggae instead of punk. Really enjoyed it.

I know this is a wildly unpopular opinion of this album (and honestly all of Prince's work) but I just don't get it AT ALL. I gave it a fair shot but I truly disliked this entire album. It was too cheesy and annoying to me for me to understand why it is held in such high regard. Reading the glowing reviews most others are leaving for this album makes me feel like I'm the confused person in The Emperor's New Clothes story. Again, not saying I'm right and everyone else is wrong, but man do I not get why Prince is put up on a pedestal, and this album didn't do anything to help me understand it. It feels like if anyone else had released this album it would have been panned and been a flop but maybe I'm wrong.

It feels like the guy who wrote this book automatically assumed any double album was important and worthy of inclusion in the book. I promise there are maybe five double albums in the history of recorded music that you need to hear before you die. The rest should have been cut down to be single albums. This boring mess is not one of the five you need to listen to, either.

Three songs in - “This isn’t nearly as bad as all the reviews say. It’s not good but it is at least different from most of the albums on the list and worth giving a 3. Eight songs in - “Ok, I see why most people don’t like this but I think all the 1s it has been given are a bit harsh. It’s worth at least a 2.” Nine songs in with so many (thankfully short) songs left: “Yep, this is 1. It can’t end soon enough.”