1001 Albums Summary

Grooy grandpa rock complete with a lot of flute playing. Starts of strong with 21st Century Schizoid Man, but hits some rough patches by the time you get to Moonchild

This music feels so closely associated with scenes of old timey people partying in Las Vegas in the midcentury that I almost can't see myself really listening to it except in that context.

A classic! I used to play a prank where I'd pay to play zombie back to back for hours at time at a bar on the jukebox.

Many of these songs were in reliable rotation on the "Butt Rock" stations of my younger years, so I can't hear this music without being transported back to the gas station I worked at when I was 16.

A legendary album! Gets 5 stars because I've been getting a lot of butt rock early on here, and by comparison this is one of the first true "essential listening" albums I've had show up in the RNG.

Is Elvis really good? I haven't really spent that much time listening to his music, but maybe that's my loss.

Initially had some positive feelings about this album. But then on "Faithful" Common tries to imagine if he would "still be runnin' game" on god, if god was a "her." Lonnie Lynn, a man who has won every award available to a musician on god's green earth, wants us to join him in imagining if he would: -Get jealous about other men worshiping his woman (god) -Whether he would be more into god for her mind or her "heavenly body" -If he would still want his ex when he is "wit' her" (fucking god)

A great album of mostly vibey blues music, bookended with two of the greatest Stones songs ever recorded. It would be hard for me to give an album that knocks things out of the park with Gimme Shelter so completely less than 4, but I kinda feel like I needed more than vibes in the middle to give this a full 5. It's a 4.5/5 for sure.

I hadn't realized that Neil Young's ban of Spotify had ended, but there is the link to On The Beach. Anyhow, Walk On has a nice feeling to it, great open to the album. I like Vampire Blues and Ambulance Blues a lot as well. Introspective lyrics all through it. It feels like you're taking a road trip through some moody vistas to nowhere in particular, but that these landscapes are also Young's varied emotional landscape. This is one of those albums that grows on you the more you listen to it, having a hard time deciding if this is a 3 or 4 star so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and go with 4.

I was split between giving a 2 or a 3. This album is extremely over the top rock as theatre stuff, and is not something I want to put on in most contexts, so it's hard for me to say it's better than a weak 2.5. I'd acknowledge it's unique and has had staying power. All apologies to Bates, who does a killer Metaloaf at Karaoke every time. I remember being fairly drawn to this album myself as a teen, probably partially due to the cool album art as much as the teen melodrama of the lyrics. As an adult reading up on this I keep on seeing mentions of how producer Todd Rundgren took Meatloaf for an over-the-top parody of Bruce Springsteen, despite the fact that Meatloaf actually performed this music quite sincerely. I guess the fun with Adam West was that his Batman was also completely sincere. Melodramatic teen feelings set to theatrical power ballads, like if Andrew Lloyd Weber or Wagner was a retro rocker act.

Ahh this is one of those albums where I have to go back and read through the lyrics of each track carefully to give it a proper rating, but I just don't have the time. I'm going with a 4 here because I'd view it more as a slice of history than something I want to return to frequently, but maybe that is miserly. This is the type of album I was hoping to have come up in this project. I didn't grow up listening to rap. But I am well aware of the long shadow cast by the likes of Public Enemy, even though I haven't ever really given their albums a deep listen. Musically this album is almost without modern comparison, extremely frenetic and avant garde. You can really hear the connection between Public Enemy and other Def Jam acts from the 80s like LL Cool J and Beastie Boys, but this stands apart. The samples and energy all add up to something that makes you feel like you are in a specific place and time. It's almost impossible to draw the line between this and popular hip hop from today, maybe like Run the Jewels would be closest?

Sounds a lot like the Buzzcocks! But they're doing something similar 20 years later, so I'd file this as "footnote of 90s britpop" and move on. Also, "Alright" is annoying. There, I said it.

I was aware of Pusherman and had a 3 ready and loaded for this under the assumption that it was the standout on an otherwise unremarkable film soundtrack, but there's a lot more bench strength here than I had expected and I'll probably be listening to this more in the future.

Feel good soul! Perfect soundtrack to serve as nostalgic, inoffensive filler for films that baby boomers watched on dates made from 1975-2000. The fact that the first paragraph of the wikipedia article includes the fact that it was included in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" is really telling — there isn't much more to say here.

This is not the best P-Funk has put out. Even the album art seems slightly lazy. George Clinton may have reached the point of diminishing on using drugs for musical inspiration for this one. Just a side note, "Mike Judge Presents: Tales From the Tour Bus" season 2 covers P-Funk and the main acts associated with it and is well worth a watch.

I haven't done enough of a deep dive into 2Pac, so I feel bad giving this a score at all. I am not really into this album, but I understand that this remains Important Music for many people. There's clearly good writing here, I think the music has age badly.

There's a part of me that wants to like this, but I don't. This album provides a lot of ammunition to anyone who wants to criticize prog rock. This would feel more fun to see live.

Only 3.5 songs and then a bunch of noodling, but still good. Was stuck between a 3 or 4, but decided to lean generous, I think this is about the best prog we're going to listen to. Looked at the other reviews and these ones from less generous ratings made me laugh: "Nerd wizard rock that I do not want." "Guess again fuckface!! All you're getting is an album full of scrapped Super Mario 64 music." "Goblin Slop" "You know those girls who really dig Yes? Yeah, me neither."

If Nevermind doesn't get a 5, Gen X is not getting any 5s, and an entire realm of music that follows doesn't get any 5s.

I kind of think of this album as background music for like a coffee shop in a book store so the first time I put it on I absorbed maybe 15% of it at best. Trying to listen more intently now... Run, Baby, Run is ok. Leaving Las Vegas sucks, and Strong Enough sucks and has a toxic message. Everyone has heard "All I wanna do" to the point that I don't even know if it qualifies as music. Ok, got it, this album was created by scientists to make people more likely to complete their Abercrombie & Fitch purchases. I decided this is where I am going to put my first 1. For a moment I paused and thought “is this internalized misogyny? The first female artist our group has reviewed gets a 1? Is it actively actually all that bad when compared with other comparable female artists of this era?” But then after this album finished the algorithm put on a track from Alanis Morissette. I think I’d give Jagged Little Pill a 3-4 minimum, maybe even a 5. Tuesday Night Music Club gets a 1 because it isn’t essential listening. You can die without having listened to it.

This album is so fun! Really creative use of sampling, quick goofy bits in between tracks, really makes it feel like the hip hop of this era had no rules it had to operate within. Must have been the best to live in New York in 1991. I like the flowers in the album art, like this album truly does bloom and spread so many seeds. The only thing that I'm torn on giving this a full 5 is that the humour skews a little too juvenile, like De La Orgee is the sort of thing a 13 year old would think is hilarious. Correction: I have gone back and edited this to give it a 5. If Nevermind deserves a 5, so does 3 Feet High and Rising. I think I gotta listen to more De La Soul. Glad I listened to this album before I died.

This album came out the year after I had graduated high school and I don’t have the same nostalgic connection to it as some of us. I think of Green Day as being the dad to a whole bunch of goofy punk pop bands that followed them, and then with this album the dad is angrily trying to assert that the family is SERIOUS about politics just like Grandma and Grandpa were

Ok trying to piece together what is going on with the UFO on the album cover. 1) It's actually a giant guitar? 2) There is a dome with a city (Boston?) inside it 3) It's escaping in the nick of time as the planet blows up. So in my meta-narrative, the album artwork is encouraging the baby boomers to continue destroying the planet/relationships with their loved ones while using rock and roll and nostalgic escapism to remain personally insulated from the effects of their actions. I think this is sort of borne out in the lyrics of a lot of the songs. There's also some stuff about wanting to be a famous rock band or get laid. Anyhow I thought about where this lands in the 1-3 range and although I don't like it I guess this is like the best example of what people mean when they talk about "arena rock." Although IMHO if that's what you are into at least have the decency to be into KISS, a band that understands they are making carnival distraction music and accordingly wears clown makeup. So it gets a 2, like in my ideal world if this is playing in the background at a bar that has a lot of pinball machines I'm not going to be too upset about it.

I had a review from before the group started up so I'll copy and paste it: "This music feels so closely associated with scenes of old timey people partying in Las Vegas in the mid 20th century that I almost can't see myself really listening to it except in that context like as background music in a film." This is fine but I think there will be better music from Ray Charles. I gave it a 3 then so I'll keep that.

Is the algorithm front-loading us with early NYC hip hop, or does it just make up a huge amount of what we're going to listen to? Compared to De La Soul/Public Enemy I am both more aware of Run-DMC's full body of work, and less into it. Not to detract from the historic nature of this album (basically the first hit rap album, paving the way for diss tracks), but I think this is a 2, it's just too dated. If you're talking about the Wright Flyer flown at Kitty Hawk as a great plane, you mean that it was the first plane -- not that it was good at flying. Even Run-DMC were sounding more interesting than this a few years later. Rock Box is decent, though.

I don't think I hadn't heard the Zutons before, but I see their big thing is that they wrote "Valerie," which is more famous as the Mark Ronson/Amy Winehouse cover (and also is not on this album). So thanks for giving some of our friends a Karaoke go-to songs, Zutons. Zutons are sort of a retro sounding act, but not in a bad way. Is this what British people meant when they talked about "Landfill Indie"? I like this album ok, but I don't think I am going to come back to it much. Edit: Originally gave this a 3. But I have edited this to a 2. 3 is too generous for an album that I thought was fine, but made no real impact on music overall and I don't plan on coming back to.

I hadn't heard of these guys before. The first Australian punk band! Great thing about punk rock is you can look up "First punk band in {country}" and get a fun little history lesson. Anyhow not sure if there is anything earth shattering this album, but it's good early punk though — you can listen to this and still enjoy yourself. 3 seems about right, here.

It's too bad about Morrissey being a famed asshole about immigration, but this album is both very good, and has had a huge impact. 4 feels like where this belongs. The Smiths are clearly singular musically, and the writing is very clever and humorous underneath the sad boy melodrama.

Fight the Power is one of those "forever songs," but this is honestly a step down from It Takes a Nation of Millions. There's a lot of great tracks on this album, but also a lot of filler, and musically I think it feel less potent. A 3.5 but I am rounding up to a 4. It Takes a Nation might have deserved a 5 rounded up from 4.5.

I mean Justin is going to have a meltdown if I don't give this a 5. Anyhow, this album has Thunder Road, Jungleland, and of course Born to Run on it. Tenth Avenue Freezeout and Backstreets are good too, and I have a fondness for the doomed gut-punch of Meeting Across the River. This album was so good, everyone started calling Springsteen the saviour of rock and roll and Todd Rundgren was forced to produce Bat Out of Hell as a parody.

I think it was an Achewood line (maybe Teodor) — a person was trying to describe Steely Dan and said "Imagine if the greatest band in the world fucking sucked." It's a fun conceit I've enjoyed applying to other concepts*, the main point being there's this extremely technically accomplished group artfully making layered music but the end result is Yacht Rock. Anyhow I might give this a few more listens, but honestly I think 3 is where this belongs -- A good album that I wouldn't describe as being all that trail blazing and if not boring can at least sort of fade into the background. *My favourite: Imagine if the greatest comedian in the world fucking sucked — you'd get Tig Notaro

I went into this thinking it was going to be way better than it ended up being! Still not bad, every song is like getting drenched in perfume and sent hurdling into a romance. I guess I thought that there would be more variation?

I don't know, man, ask me to give a 5 star rating to the concept that fried eggs are a breakfast food item. Technically this seems pretty good, even if generally I'd be more in the mood for Huevos Rancheros over just like normal sunny side up eggs with white buttered toast.

It is wild that an album can have Right Here/Right Now, Rockafeller Skank, and Praise You, but also so much complete dreck. The following tracks stink so much they're bringing the score down to a 2: In Heaven Build It Up, Tear It Down Kalifornia Acid 8000

"Don't boss him, don't cross him, he's wild in his sorrow." It really seems relevant to keep in mind that murdering someone for attempted horse theft was considered ok back in the wild west? Anyhow, this does seem like a great album within its genre and from this time period. A 3.5 for sure, makes me want to hang out at a camp fire.

What is this doing in this list? I feel like a lot of also-rans from England end up in this list. Not essential. I guess fine for glam rock/proto hair metal, but I don't care about listening to this again.

I looked at MIA's Wikipedia and it's too bad she seems to be an anti-vax/5g conspiracy kook these days. Anyhow, wild that this album is almost 20 years old now! I saw MIA at the pacific coliseum on tour for this album when it was new*, and remember at that time feeling like it was a fantastic performance, so I have an impartial review. But I think that this still sounds good, and in terms of impact Kala was huge at the time it came out. *Old man aside: I got a free concert ticket for MIA on tour for this album in 2007 or 2008 from the Georgia Straight -- back then they used to do a ton of free concerts draws where all you had to do was enter your email, and seemingly few people knew this because I went to many free concerts this way. So this felt really nostalgic for a truly bygone era where a print newspaper passed out concert tickets like they were trick or treat candy

This album starts off so strong that I was thinking that a 5 was a given. NY State of Mind is kind of chilling in a way that stays with you. It's wild that Nas was a teen when he wrote these songs/20 when it was released. The World is Yours also amazing and musically does it sort of predict the rise of an entire genre in Lo Fi Hip Hop to Study/Relax to? There's a cartoon who's been cramming for her grad school for 16 years that needs to thank Nas.

I wasn't a teen when this was released so it just can't mean the same thing to me as it did to Gen Z. But I can see that this was a big album for a lot of younger people and they are SALTY about the olds not liking it, just a sample: "Sorry Boomers/Gen X, I was like 20 when this came out so it's one of the best things to ever happen to me. Sorry it's not King Crimson or whatever."

Petty had a ton of great singles but spread out through an entire career. American Girl is the only truly standout song here IMHO, it’s a 3.5 but I don’t think it is really a 4.

Of two minds: 1 -- If you aren’t paying the prince of pop his due for his magnum opus what game are you playing here? 2 -- The Girl is Mine and The Lady in My Life are both bad in a very regrettable way. I think if you just cut those songs I'd give this a 5. I guess Nick had it right by sticking to the Greatest Hits album, in this case.

I don't think I have heard any of this before, but I like it! Reminds me a lot of the Jesus and Mary Chain? Anyhow album this gets a 4 for my particular tastes and for being a nice surprise. In complete honesty I think that it doesn't make it on the UFO-shaped space ship leaving the exploding planet save for the fact that it is from the UK where 1001 heavily skews towards in terms of pure **importance** since I don't think I'd ever heard of it before and I can see that it probably wouldn't have a lot of broad appeal.

It's the emoji for what a rock star looks like! 👨‍🎤 "Ziggy Stardust Goes to America" yeah that is a good summary, it has an "alternate, dropped tracks from Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust" vibe to it. Which is good, but obviously still marks as it as being on a downward trajectory from a high. Hunky Dory (at least a 4-4.5) and Rise and Fall (easy 5) before it are better. Anyhow I think that Jean Genie was the only hit from this album. Lady Grinning Soul is my favourite song from this album, but I also like Cracked Actor, and Time. Maybe 4 is a little high but I am a fan so I can keep my thumb on the scale.

Ask me to give a rating to Wanderer above the Sea of Fog while you're at it, why don't you. Ok, so this is art and probably deserves an unreserved 5, but I'm more of an obvious person and probably prefer Bridge Over Troubled Water. There's a lot of clever noodling, the lyrics are smart and earnest, but it seems a little dated and some of the songs make me cringe like The 59th Street Bridge Song, which I think is why I am giving this a 4.

It's ok! Crazy that they put an album by The Verve that doesn't have Bittersweet Symphony on here, but I guess UK pop music reviewers just love pretending footnote albums by one hit wonders are important. Sounds a lot like the Oasis, or a bunch of other britpop bands from this era. The 2 reflects the fact that you don't need to listen to this before you die and I also won't listen to this again, but that I am not mad about this fact and if anyone wanted to fight me about this album being good, ackshully, I would not engage.

Sobbing at Needle of Death so I guess it gets a 4 based on eliciting an unreserved dramatic emotional response

I think 3.5 is fair for "good but far from best album from a generally very good British Invasion band." Victoria is fantastic, Shangri-la and Australia are good, but it's not Village Green Preservation Society and also nothing surprises or delights me, here..

A 5, because I am just intentionally putting my thumb on the scale. This is way cooler than the 400 or so also-ran britpop and grandpa rock bands populating this list. Anyhow TBH this is probably more 4-ish but the sorta-low 3.0 score it's getting globally is based on rolling stones-core losers.