1001 Albums Summary

Along with the (even better) Killers, this introduced the ol' Springsteen sound to 2000s indie kids. As soon as "Intervention" starts, you realise what was missing in pop music all along was a good church organ.

"That thin mercurial sound". So rock'n'roll and so delightfully listenable at the same time - one of the high points in any record collection. Should be listened with a break after "Just Like a Woman", as originally intended.

I only know "How can you mend...?" but it's the Bee Gees so I can give it 4 stars just on faith. Will definitely be checking this one out in the future.

The anti-80s. A unique, mysterious southern sound that never gets old.

Everything old is new again. Some stellar songs in here.

Save for the last two songs, everything is still golden. Anyway some works are beyond personal taste.

"Plainsong" alone is worth the album. They never quite achieved this again - the lenghty gothic doomscapes intersped with killer singles.

The only band to have one foot on electropop and the other on rock'n'roll. No other band from this era is as musically rich. "Love Vigilantes" has to be taken without prejudice. "Perfect Kiss" is the electro equivalent of prog.

One of the most overrated records of all time. "Dreams" is an OK song, the rest goes from mid to just dreadful ("Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow", "Oh Daddy")

At the time this was called dancing music for thinking people. Fela Kuti meets Top of the Pops - an exciting moment in 20th century popular music.

I appreciate the bravado and the vision but I can only listen to isolated tracks from this. It's overall too dark and oppressive.

Better than I remembered - good musicianship (including contributions by Garth Hudson and Levon Helm from The Band), songs that echo but do not copy, and lovely sequencing save for the useless hidden track at the end (typical 90s hubris.) Mercury Rev has other fine albums like "All is Dream", "Secret Migration" and the recent "Born Horses."

Even better than I remembered - so beautifully executed and yet so lighthearted and unpretentious. The part where Viv Stanshall announces the instruments one by one is such a celebration of music. It is truly an outrage that this is the only Oldfield album on this list - do yourself a favour and check out at least "Ommadawn" and "Hergest Ridge."

Though a bit dry musically compared to Bruce's first 3 albums, it is this starkness that manages to provide a consistency of vision (as if the record were the aftermath of a James Dean movie) and, through anthems like "Badlands" and "Promised Land", a cornerstone of American culture. Worth listening for the arrangement of "Racing in the Street" alone. Check out double-album "The Promise" for all the quality songs he had to leave out in order for the album to become what it is.

Some brilliant stuff ("Spellbound", "Into the light", "Halloween") and some other tracks like "Voodoo Dolly" which become a bit hard to listen to.

At least 6 tracks are absolutely brilliant... "Drive-In Saturday", "Lady Grinning Soul", the title track... they don't make them like this any more.

Never gets old. "Warszawa" still haunts me after all these years

The most popular album by the Killers is also the slightest one. Brandon's songwriting really comes into its own later on "Sam's Town", and he has continued to grow to this day, as witnessed in the spectacular "Pressure Machine."

From the death of Elvis to the death of his son to the death and return of everyone - Cave cracks the code of rock writing to create an ever-moving paean to a world that once was able to believe in Magic. (Remember when you listen that this is two separate records and experiences - tracks 1 to 8 are part one while the longer tracks and "Fireflies" make up part two. Sometimes I wonder if part II was really necessary at all.)

What a strange album. I've listened to it attentively several times over the years, always enjoyed it, but then find it very hard to remember how it goes - it's full of so many twists and turns. So, unlike so many other records I've memorised, this one always retains an aura of surprise and weirdness. Or maybe it's a rationalization and the songs are actually not memorable enough? Anyway deserves the stars for the sheer inventiveness and for being the album that unleashed ENO to an unsuspecting world! Do not listen without looking at the inner band portraits.

Whenever you think nothing new can be expressed in song form, go back to this one.

Listen to the fiddle in "Rag Mama", the horns in "Unfaithful Servant", the whole of "Dixie"... the past is never dead and it was foolish of us to think otherwise. One of the all-time best... an album that can reset your ears.