1001 Albums Summary

Starting with a banger. Just waiting until I can lock in those 5-stars.

This album has a gravitational force. There is an Amy Winehouse shaped hole in the universe.

Beautifully flowing and complete piece of art. This album motivates me to try to shed my Playlist Listening and go out of my way to listen to full albums.

I hate this. It certainly isn't for me and I hope I never meet the person it is for. This challenged my commitment to the entire project.

Morrissey sure is the way he is but I still like listening to his songs despite it.

The latter half of the album feels like a 25 minute outro. The first half is absolutely brilliant.

I initially thought this could work its way into my regular rotation for work music, but the second half of the record gets pretty hectic. I got something out of this album but I don't see myself listening to again anytime soon.

This used to be one of my favorite albums. It is now once again one of my favorite albums.

I’ve always thought of ZZ Top as Diet AC/DC. They represent a type of rock that I just don’t get anything out of.

A second pass through really solidified this for me. The guitar riffs alone made this standout in a big way. I absolutely loved this album.

Luckily I had to listen to this on YouTube so I got to hear some Liberty Mutual commercials in between this cacophony.

What an incredible album. It rips from start to finish. It's a shame that their corners got sanded down after this because the roughness of their sound is what really catapults this one into the stratosphere.

Yep, that’s Bob Dylan alright. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Very dreamy. Too dreamy.

I didn’t hate this nearly as much as I thought I would. I actually really enjoyed a good portion of it, but there’s no chance I’ll ever voluntarily listen to this album in its entirety ever again because of the other portion.

I knew this album was good but damn. Easy 5 stars.

I would have been so into this in the 90’s, had I known it existed. Weighty and unpolished, just how I like it. The weirdness really hits when she goes for it. Probably as close as an album could get to 5 stars for me before it gets the honor.

Love Van but I can't picture myself listening to this over his studio albums.

I’m a fan of the Dire Straits but this album never really did anything for me. It’s pretty one-note.

2 very good songs and 16 miserable ones. This was a challenge.

This lasted forever and provided me with nothing.

This wasn't boring at least.

Fun listen but not many standout tracks outside of the hits.

Unremarkable but not unenjoyable.

I really enjoyed this. He felt like a reined in Morrissey. Definitely left me wanting more.

No tracks really stood out but Amy Winehouse could sing me an eviction notice and I'd give it at least 3 stars.

Enters and exits with a bang, barely lets up in between. Call it a 4.5 rounded up. Only imaginable nitpick would be to exercise even a little brevity.

Despite this feeling very much like a diluted version of earlier Green Day, it is a rock solid album and an enjoyable listen.

God damn

Love ABBA. There are a lot of bops on this one but overall it might be hard to listen to cover-to-cover, so it comes a little short of five stars for me.

Kept afloat by some good hooks but they’re so disconnected that I don’t give full marks even for that.

There are a few grating tracks but the hits are soooo good. On second listen, the filler was less filler-y and the highs were even higher. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Call it 3.5 rounded up

The Kinks rule. It's like if the Beatles had some stink on 'em. If I heard this album in a vacuum it might get 5-stars but it's hard to put out of my head just how good their future work ends up being.

The enjoyable tracks become less enjoyable around the 5:30 mark. This unfortunately is also the case with the songs that start out unenjoyable.

Melodies aren’t punk

Damn near perfect. Least annoying ten-plus minute song ever written.

Easy 5

Not always grating, which may be the best thing I can say about electronica.

I had no idea how much Nick Cave had reined it in over the years...

What started as being largely inoffensive slowly made me irrationally aggravated. I probably disliked it more than it deserved but I was thrilled when it was over.

This is the Kinks I know and love.

So many hits. Might deserve a 5 but I’m feeling stingy.

I do not care for Sonic Youth. Please let this be the last of their albums on this list.

I liked the vibes and it felt like a journey. Giving it a 4 on merit because I was definitely impressed, but I don’t see myself feeling the motivation to revisit this.

Somehow I don’t think I’ve ever listened through this in its entirety. It is a collection of phenomenal songs that somehow ends up being much better than the sum of its remarkable parts. Wonderful album.

Very boring but not annoying, other than the first track being 20 minutes long.

I don’t need this in my life right now.

AC/DC is the Best of Breed of a type of music I usually don’t go out of my way to listen to, but it feels criminal to give this album anything short of a 5.

This album was like a pizza cutter. All edge and no point.

An all time favorite. Total control over its vibes. Rocks sometimes, swoons when it wants to, could shred if it came down to it. A magical marriage.

Fun listen. Call it a 3.5 rounded down.

There are a lot of really good songs on this album, guys. I feel slightly guilty giving it fewer than five stars but I don’t want to be dishonest about my personal taste.

I hope listening to this turns out to have made me secretly better at karate or something.

This really pulled out of an early nosedive for me.

This is fun. I like this.

Easily the most iconic album from my youth. For some reason everyone I knew had more than one Dookie CD. There isn't a moment of filler here. Easiest 5 star to date.

This isn't anything

There are some really good tracks on here but it doesn’t really have the depth to merit its length.

The best case on record for the value of cultural appropriation.

This is pretty dope. Creeps into the Four Star Club.

Really establishes a vibe. Sounds like a slice out of time.

My rating is almost entirely based on the title track, which is one of the very best songs ever written.

More of a snoozer than I expected. Still enjoyable though.

Sometimes annoying but mostly enjoyable.

I don’t know jazz but I know this is very good.

This was a treat.

Uncle Robert really rolls up his sleeves for this one.

This is nothing, but also very annoying. Nothing has confused me this much as to why anyone would think I needed to hear it.

I was surprised by how little I got out of this.

This came storming out of the gates with the first two tracks. The rest of the album was still very good but I ended up being a little disappointed by the shift in tone.

I really liked this. Who would have guessed?

People know Tom Petty is great but the fact that he's not regularly included in the Greatest Ever conversation makes him criminally underrated in my opinion. This album handles its business. No notes.

I'll say it: whatever

I've always wanted to dislike Morrissey; and now I've finally gotten the chance!

This put me in a bad mood

This had a 2-star quality to it but I honestly got nothing out of it, wasn't impressed by any part of it, and couldn't wait for it to be over. That qualifies it for the 1-star board. Edit 1: These lyrics are so bad.

This is a very impressive album.

This was work. It might have earned a second star if it was in Swedish. I don't feel like I need to elaborate on that.

This is my favorite brand of hip hop and arguably the best representation of it. The only thing keeping it from a 5 is that wears a little thin by the end.

This is close to being something I'd like, but alas...

A good album that I would never choose to listen to on my own

Front-loaded but fantastic. The filler is still really good. It would have to work really hard to lose the points it gets for its first first five tracks.

This got challenging down the stretch.

Not my tempo.

Sure

A nice surprise. Never heard of them before.

Thoroughly unenjoyable.

This was very easy to listen to

4.5 for me. Would round up on a different day, maybe.

I don't want to hear it

A little rambling and raw, but an enjoyable listen that I’ll probably revisit

Too many songs. Also basically just one song.

I don't know jazz but I don't really need to.

I listened through this a few times trying to figure out exactly how I felt about it. It may be brilliant. I don’t have a total handle on it but my heart is calling this a 5.

I love this album, like, a lot. But I honestly don't think it quite has the depth of a 5-star album. This one hurts because I feel strongly about this one.

This is a fantastic album that stays out of the 5-star club only because of my personal taste.

This was more annoying than anything else.

This album does a lot of stuff. Most of it very well.

Easy 5

The opening track really primed me for a much worse experience. I was pleasantly surprised.

Good but not “Can Get Away With Crimes Against Children” good

Every song felt uniquely sabotaged. If it had a good hook, he overextended his range. If it had a good riff, it had an obnoxious hook. I didn't enjoy this.

That sure was a lot of piano.

Takeaway #1 from this project so far has been how much I hate Genesis.

This ruled, but I still think live albums take away more than they add.

The hits really stick out as very distinct amongst a pretty vibesy record. Solid though.

Little too weird. Not enough meat.

Noise. I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me the guitar part in this was made to purposefully induce headaches in a lab testing environment.

This was a nice listen. Not totally my cup of tea but definitely enjoyable.

I was kind of digging that at first but it didn't last.

I realize now that I didn’t know what Yes was about.

It's always strange when I'm forced to realize that I had never even considered who made a very famous song that I hear frequently. Now I know. This album was fine. Got a little grating towards the end.

Back-to-back Our Houses. Freaky.

One of the best.

Effectively relaxing

I would have been fine with dying before listening to this one.

This reminded me of the Phantom Tollbooth and not in a good way.

This I could have been split down the middle and been two of the best albums ever released. The only way to conceivably improve it would be to trim off the handful of less than perfect tracks.

Very solid. Maybe the most I’ve enjoyed Clapton.

Call it 2.5, if you want.

Holy smokes. 5 outta nowhere.

Jam bands cap at 2 stars

This is as good as modern rock has ever gotten.

It's easy to remember this album as being overrated, until you listen to it again.

This is probably at least a 4 star album, objectively, but that's not the world we live in.

Close to a 5 but not quite. Felt like a smoother edged Bob Dylan.

I liked this way more than Brutal Youth.

Ugh, Morrissey is so much better than I want him to be.

Inexplicably this is the first Bowie album on the list so far. If I could contort my mind to not compare Bowie to Bowie, this might be a 5. But there are albums of his I like so much more.

A great example of the Tom Sawyer 30-Year Bump phenomenon. It’s fine.

Close to a 4. I don’t really like the Coldplay sound, but it managed to pull me in. I’d give it another listen before locking in my rating if I wasn’t playing catch-up.

Every note is perfect. Easy 5.

Started off as palatable and poppy, then turned into Synth Genesis. I hated the latter half so much.

I didn’t feel too strongly about this but it is very much not my cup of tea.

An 18 minute first track really capped how well this was going to be received.

Joni Mitchell sings like someone making fun of musical theater nerds. Usually her song writing really hits for me, but not in this case.

Really?

Surprisingly inoffensive for what may be my least favorite genre of music

One of the best side-1's, in my opinion.

This is such a great listening experience. Such a great flow with enough variety to never fall off over 20 tracks.

I actually really like the "between-the-lines" rock from Elvis Costello. It's only downhill for him from here.

Wonderful. I haven't really enjoyed 2-volume albums on list so far but I loved this.