1001 Albums Summary

I first became aware of this album from its cameo appearance in Donald Fagen's "New Frontier" video. I listened to it while walking around town (surrounded by Christmas shoppers) looking for a FedEx dropbox to ship my saliva for DNA analysis. It was a little tough going as I'd heard this album dozens of times before while working at a coffee shop from 1996-1999. My favorite part is still Joe Morello's drumming on Take Five. It's a classic but I never need to hear it again.

I'm not the biggest Joni fan but I dug this. I can see how she followed it up with The Hissing of Summer Lawns, which I like more. While this album is so mid-'70s California it hurts the main image I had in my head was of a 30-year-old woman dancing around her apartment in a flannel shirt and pajama pants. I'd give it five stars but I found the last track, a version of Twisted, to be annoying and unnecessary. Had to end the album somehow, I guess.

I was pretty bummed to see this one come up today. I knew it was coming but still, it sucked seeing it. I didn't like it when it came out and I dislike it even more now. This is "punk" for 11 year old boys (Blink-182 is for toddlers) who are just starting to touch themselves. All of the songs still sound the same, Mike Dirnt doing that annoying "duey-unngg" thing with his bass at random parts and Billie Joe doing that fake-ass Fat Mike nasal whining schtick through every tune. The only track I can stand is "Longview" but that's it. They are all fine musicians (particularly Tre Cool) but the start/stop/drum fill/start again/woohoo we're really rocking now shit gets so repetitive that I honestly think this would be more impressive without any dynamics at all. The lyrics are so banal and predictable that "All I wanted was just one Pepsi" sounds like deep philosophical analysis (which it kinda is). Dookie is like the Violent Femmes' first album in that it captures what it's like to a teenager but with no intelligence or wit. Unfortunately it's the dumb teen who hawks loogies at old people from the bus, thinks The Offspring's Smash deals with some heavy shit and that Fugazi are poseurs who sound funny. This is the audio equivalent of Hot Topic. This is the album that gave us fake punk, fake ska, and let nu metal in the door. Sorry, Billie, but you ARE fucking Justin Bieber.

I was happy to see this today. Been meaning to give it a full listen. I used to kind of scoff at Supertramp when I was a kid. Sometimes when me and my friends would drop acid I'd randomly ask "What's up with Supertramp?" to make them all laugh. But these days I think Breakfast In America is a masterpiece and this one is up there. Their songs are cinematic but not in an overblown way, the music just evokes images that illustrate the themes of the lyrics. I think "School" is good example of this. I've heard "Bloody Well Right" so many times that it's actually wrapped around from being "that song again" to a fresh listen.

Fantastic. Jarvis Cocker is a national treasure from another nation.

I'm actually surprised to see it in here as it's not the best Talking Heads album (well, not that surprised). It would be any other band's best record, but for Talking Heads it's just the beginning.