My 1001 Albums Journey

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3.77

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1012 albums remaining

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1970

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Albums

You Love More Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
Shadowland k.d. lang	5	2.87	+2.13
Want One Rufus Wainwright	5	2.91	+2.09
AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted Ice Cube	5	2.92	+2.08
Shaka Zulu Ladysmith Black Mambazo	5	3.08	+1.92
...The Dandy Warhols Come Down The Dandy Warhols	5	3.13	+1.87
Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor Lupe Fiasco	5	3.13	+1.87
Teen Dream Beach House	5	3.27	+1.73
Raw Power The Stooges	5	3.31	+1.69
Siembra Willie Colón & Rubén Blades	5	3.32	+1.68
From Elvis In Memphis Elvis Presley	5	3.34	+1.66

You Love Less Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
Disraeli Gears Cream	1	3.47	-2.47
Urban Hymns The Verve	1	3.36	-2.36
The College Dropout Kanye West	1	3.31	-2.31
Don't Come Home A Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind) Loretta Lynn	1	2.97	-1.97
Infected The The	1	2.93	-1.93
(What's The Story) Morning Glory Oasis	2	3.85	-1.85
Maverick A Strike Finley Quaye	1	2.74	-1.74
Hotel California Eagles	2	3.59	-1.59
Crime Of The Century Supertramp	2	3.4	-1.4
Court And Spark Joni Mitchell	2	3.35	-1.35

5-Star Albums (27)

View Album Wall

It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back

1-Star Albums (6)

Don't Come Home A Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)

All Ratings

Adele

3/5

It was not without its charms.

A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector

Various Artists

4/5

The soundtrack to every Scorsese movie.

Live!

Fela Kuti

5/5

Whoa, that was awesome. Drum solo on the last song kinda went on and on.

Coat Of Many Colors

Dolly Parton

4/5

Love Dolly but the music's just not my taste. 4 stars because Dolly rules.

Music for the Masses

Depeche Mode

4/5

When I was in college I fucking hated Depeche Mode. I was dumb then.

At San Quentin

Johnny Cash

4/5

...The Dandy Warhols Come Down

The Dandy Warhols

5/5

Holy shit, this album rules. I'm 25 again - how did I miss this when it came out?

Rumours

Fleetwood Mac

5/5

In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.

Let It Bleed

The Rolling Stones

5/5

Amnesiac

Radiohead

4/5

Definitely in the "I appreciate this, but don't love it" category of Radiohead albums.

Axis: Bold As Love

Jimi Hendrix

4/5

Partly unimpeachably incredible, partly weirdly overcome with ennui. Overall, excellent.

White Denim

3/5

I think I'm getting old. This sounded exactly like a combination of Dirty Projectors and Real Estate (so much so that, when the album ended, it switched to a Real Estate song and I didn't notice), but I'm sure people my age in 1967 probably said the Kinks sounded exactly like a combination of the Beatles and Rolling Stones. Anyway, I'm giving it 3 stars, but it's very possible it's way better than that.

C'est Chic

CHIC

4/5

Anything involving Nile Rodgers gets a minimum 4 stars.

It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back

Public Enemy

5/5

I had to give it 5 stars or Danny will beat me up.

Golden Hour

Kacey Musgraves

4/5

Wow, I liked this way more than I thought I would. Really, this is the kind of experience that justifies this entire exercise -- there is a 0% chance I would have listened to this album otherwise, and I really liked it (this is the 4th or 5th time this has happened now, out of like 15 albums total).

Junkyard

The Birthday Party

3/5

The sensation of being slapped in the face by a freezing cold industrial hose converted to music. I kinda liked it.

Skylarking

XTC

4/5

I feel the same way about this XTC album as I feel about every XTC song I've ever heard - ANTSA(XTC).

The College Dropout

Kanye West

1/5

Incredible album - just great stuff. I guess Richard Wagner made some pretty good music too -- here, have this 1, Nazi.

Hotel California

Eagles

2/5

Hotel California (the song) is great - 5/5, no notes. Hotel California (the album) is ass - almost incredibly bad other than Hotel California (the song). Dirk Diggler-Chest Rockwell songwriting level awful; just hideous. 2 stars, up from 1 attributable solely to (1) Hotel California (the song), and (2) the fact that I'm generally inclined to take it easy and, today in particular have a peaceful easy feeling.

Private Dancer

Tina Turner

2/5

One man enter, one man with a slight headache leave.

Marquee Moon

Television

5/5

All time classic that makes me want to take up smoking again.

The Undertones

4/5

Really liked this - kinda like the Sex Pistols but if you replaced 50% of the anger with anxiety.

You Want It Darker

Leonard Cohen

2/5

Probably a personal failing on my part that I just can't seem to manage to like anything by Leonard Cohen. Weird because I love Tom Waits and like Nick Cave. Oh well.

The Köln Concert

Keith Jarrett

5/5

What a great and unexpected surprise inclusion on this list; I had never heard of this, but it was amazing.

I’m a Lonesome Fugitive

Merle Haggard

4/5

Man, I really liked this and did not expect to - catchy, sad-dad music. Another experience that really justifies participating in this.

Teen Dream

Beach House

5/5

I love Beach House - just beautiful music. This isn't my favorite album of theirs (that would be Depression Cherry), but it's still awesome.

Blue

Joni Mitchell

5/5

A stone cold classic - not much else to say, really.

Wish You Were Here

Pink Floyd

5/5

One of my all time favorites. Really listening to it this time ... the lyrics of the title song in particular are just unreal -- "can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail"; devastating.

Crime Of The Century

Supertramp

2/5

Bloody Well Right is fun. Everything else is awful - goopy, overly-dramatic, 70's Air Supply crap.

Rejoicing In The Hands

Devendra Banhart

2/5

I get why people would like it, but not my thing.

Superunknown

Soundgarden

5/5

5 is not enough stars. This might actually be the best 90's grunge album -- Obviously Nevermind is incredible, but this is so underplayed by comparison ... Weird coincidence how nearly all my favorite albums happened to come out when I was in my 20's.

Sunshine Superman

Donovan

3/5

First of all, Season of the Witch rocks - comes close to redeeming the whole album. Second, that sound ... that goddamn sound in Sunshine Superman is the most annoying sound in the history of popular music. Checking online, it sounds like it might be Jimmy Page doing ... something with his guitar -- Wikipedia refers to it as "employing an innovative use of the volume control on his guitar for the repeating figure". I guess that's one way to describe it - another would be "interminable" or "for the love of God make it stop". Anyway, the rest of the album is inoffensive Hippie stuff, kinda meh. 3 stars for Season of the Witch.

Pearl

Janis Joplin

5/5

This was wonderful. Janis Joplin has always kind of existed in the background for me -- a sad, tragic heroine of the hippie era whose music was ubiquitous but never really worth listening to; she was part of someone else's generational experience, certainly not mine. Actually listening to her now ... not only is she incredible, but her backing band is awesome. I was expecting to be bored and I was ... not that.

Illmatic

Nas

4/5

I wish I was cool enough to love this. As it is, I'm only cool enough to like it.

Hunting High And Low

a-ha

4/5

Take on Me is one of the best songs of the 80's. The Sun Always Shines on TV is the good kind of indulgent, navel-gazing sappiness. Everything else could be in the soundtrack of any John Hughes movie. Warning: May cause feathering of hair.

Don't Come Home A Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)

Loretta Lynn

1/5

Dollar Store ripoff of Patsy Cline singing cutesy songs about spousal abuse and alcoholism. Hard pass.

Countdown To Ecstasy

Steely Dan

3/5

Hey, it's Steely Dan! Actually thought I would like this way more than I did -- other than My Old School, it's just kinda ... eh?

Siembra

Willie Colón & Rubén Blades

5/5

Another album I would never have heard of, let alone listened to, and absolutely loved.

Urban Hymns

The Verve

1/5

Hot Shots II

The Beta Band

3/5

Without its charms it was not.

Iron Maiden

3/5

This was ... good? Did not expect that - do I now have to change my lifestyle, drink different beer, get new friends, etc.?

Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus

Spirit

3/5

This was much better than I expected - I expected edgeless, soft hippy-dippy mush, and it really wasn't. Not something I'll likely seek out again, but was definitely worth a listen.

Brothers

The Black Keys

3/5

Not bad, not really good, just kinda there.

Electric Ladyland

Jimi Hendrix

5/5

Yeah, this is the best Hendrix album. A complete mess of a masterpiece.

The Joshua Tree

4/5

Complicated relationship with this one. Came out my freshman year of college, and I immediately dismissed it as U2’s sellout album. I grew to like it more and more over the years, and really listening to it again now … I’m right back to where I was in 1987. This was the album where the best band became the biggest band.

The Infotainment Scan

The Fall

3/5

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

4/5

I'm aligned with the consensus on this one - 1 very good song (Breakdown), one all-time classic and the rest fine but forgettable. The line between 3 and 4 stars for me is whether you think American Girl is just a masterpiece vs. a generational anthem. I'm going generational anthem.

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

The Smashing Pumpkins

5/5

My favorite band from my 20's even though I only really love their first album (Gish) and half-like their second (Siamese Dream). I've probably heard 30% of this one before now ... really liked it. I sort of have to give it 5 stars but get why people would not.

For Your Pleasure

Roxy Music

4/5

Feels a lot more recent than 1973 - really liked it. In Every Dream House is one of a kind.

Feast of Wire

Calexico

4/5

Had never heard of these guys, liked them a lot. Busy day so I had them on in the background a bit.

Freak Out!

The Mothers Of Invention

4/5

Frank Zappa seems more like a fictional character than an actual person who once actually existed at this point. Nice to listen to this to remember what the fuss was about.

After The Gold Rush

Neil Young

5/5

Want One

Rufus Wainwright

5/5

Another guy I'd never heard of (I like some of his dad's stuff), and really loved. Very easy listening, but I'm of that age, I guess.

AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted

Ice Cube

5/5

My great grandmother who came over in 1912 fleeing the Tsar gave me two bits of information before she died when I was 8: (1) always be a good boy and try hard in school, and (2) AmeriKKa's Most Wanted fuckin' rips.

Disraeli Gears

Cream

1/5

Woof, this sucked. The stuff that may have once been good (or at least tolerable) is absurdly overplayed and the rest is nearly unlistenable - leaden, plodding, tedious crap.

Infected

The The

1/5

It would be hard to find a more generic example of forgettable 80's music if you tried. No idea what this album is doing on this list -- The The has much better stuff.

Live At The Witch Trials

The Fall

4/5

Ok, I liked this way more than I thought I would, having heard other stuff by The Fall and just not really having gotten it. This was much more straightforward punk (I guess technically "post-punk" but I have no idea what that means) than the other albums, and I wonder now whether if I'd heard this first I would have liked those better. Probably.

Duck Rock

Malcolm McLaren

2/5

I didn't like this much, so it's not getting a good review. Interesting that this predates Graceland, though.

At Newport 1960

Muddy Waters

4/5

Admired it more than loved it.

Shadowland

k.d. lang

5/5

k.d. lang led the league in People I'd Heard of a Ton But Had Never Actually Heard until now. This was awesome - Patsy Cline brought to the modern era.

From Elvis In Memphis

Elvis Presley

5/5

Suspicious Minds might be the best song of all time, and everything else is ... I mean it's Elvis.

Raw Power

The Stooges

5/5

Needs to be heard loud.

Maverick A Strike

Finley Quaye

1/5

I think it's kind of awesome that, in addition to all-time classic albums, indisputably important albums and just really interesting albums, every so often we get an album that they guy who did this list just happened to really like at some point. No snark - it's actually fun to get one of these.

The White Room

The KLF

4/5

Cool album - felt like being in a dance club in the 1990's ... or rather what I assume being in a dance club in the 1990's would have felt like.

Let's Stay Together

Al Green

5/5

Figure 8

Elliott Smith

4/5

Love me some Elliott Smith, but (limited "but") (a) I've never listened to a full album of his at one time and it's a bit much, and (b) not sure this is his best album. Easy Way Out is an all-time though - some of the meanest lyrics this side of Dylan at his nastiest.

Court And Spark

Joni Mitchell

2/5

Ugh, after loving "Blue", I really expected to at least really like this one. Instead, it's headache-inducing mushy goop - "Help Me" in particular is nails on blackboard. The second star is for Blue again.

Gold

Ryan Adams

3/5

Liked this a bit more than I was expecting to. I'm not sure it's an album I had to listen to before I died (especially 90 minutes worth of it), but it was fine, bordering on good-ish. I (embarrassingly) have a soft spot for the New York song - probably (definitely) something to do with when it was released.

Head Hunters

Herbie Hancock

5/5

This was really awesome and fun. I suspect I will never listen to it again, but it was a great, unique listening experience.

Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor

Lupe Fiasco

5/5

That absolutely ruled. Had never heard of this guy (these guys?), this album or any song on it before - complete blank heading in, and was not optimistic based on the last few of these along these lines. Absolutely blown away.

Will The Circle Be Unbroken

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

4/5

I started listening to this when It came out in 1972 and just finished.

Parklife

Blur

5/5

Love, love, love this album.

1999

Prince

4/5

Really liked it, but didn't love it. The obvious hits are incredible and fun to hear again despite having heard them roughly 1,000 times. The others are fun - much more 80's-ish than I was expecting, though I'm not sure why I wouldn't have been expecting that.

Talking Heads 77

Talking Heads

5/5

So I would probably give a 7-second recording of Talking Heads walking into a studio and accidentally knocking over a mic stand 5 stars, but this really merits it. Lots of lists about the best first track or best first two or three tracks of an album -- you never really see any about the last song or two. Not sure you're ever going to find two better than Psycho Killer and Pulled Up.

Shaka Zulu

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

5/5

Beautiful stuff - perfect for a Sunday morning, which is when I got this one.

(What's The Story) Morning Glory

Oasis

2/5

I've tried. I've tried to like Oasis. I DO really like one Oasis song (Don't Look Back in Anger). It seems like I should like Oasis. People who like Oasis like the same music I like. People who don't like Oasis don't like the music I don't like. I don't like Oasis.

The Queen Is Dead

The Smiths

4/5

Odd parallel to The Joshua Tree with this one - hated it in college, grew to like it more and more over the years and now ... sorta see what I was thinking in college. It's great but really, really whiny.