1001 Albums Summary

Re-appreciation for this album as I age. Overlooked by I, II, IV and PG this holds a special place as it got my youngest into Zeppelin (he couldn’t grasp Plants voice in Immigrant Song and wanted more). Gallows Pole to Bron-Y-Aur Stomp would make most careers, it’s just an especially lovely selection of songs here.

Again, will he offer me his hunger? I thought this album would be a lot and I wasn’t nearly prepared for what I would encounter. The only restraint shown was that it somehow held itself to 9 songs and 61 minutes. The lyricism is silly, orchestration over the top but Meatloaf is the right voice for “this” and make songs like Dashboard fun.

I dismissed Pet Shop Boys as an 80s band with little to say. Listening to an entire album, I was especially taken by the direct and sincere songs about isolation, boredom, money, and loneliness. The beats also exceeded expectations having more in common with New Order than the one hit wonders I had incorrectly lumped them with.

I had never listened to a disco album straight through so this was a fun experience. I was surprised that I knew several of the songs, besides 'We are Family', and the songs I didn't know, I knew samples from. The production values are flawless, the lyrics and singing constantly upbeat, a nice album for a dreary winter day.

Groundbreaking, influential and catchy as hell.

Intoxicating, invigorating, unknown yet I have heard its influence many places. The call and response lyrics are a surprise, and once you read the background, you understand how truly remarkable they are. My first 5 star review.

I don't particularly care for jazz but since I am not an asshole, this is great music. I also know enough to know that I cannot possibly add anything to the discourse about this album other than to say it is great music.

I only knew his spoken word songs and was excited to learn that he could really sing. This album was smooth! H2Ogate Blues, The Bottle and Your Daddy Loves You were real standouts.

So much energy, so raw, an experiment that only Johnny Cash could pull off. A true classic.

Having heard a lot of bootlegs, I didn’t hear any standout's outside of St Stephen. Solid, not remarkable.

Rock folklore implores this came from the most primitive regions of Michigan. 56 years later, it’s as primal, raw, chaotic and visceral as ever. TV Eye is one of the all time great, and dangerous, songs put to record. I really can’t believe this came out in 1970. It’s so far out of left field for the time. No wonder it failed. No wonder it influenced so many. Only nitpick is that it’s only 36 minutes. I would gladly spend hours here.

I didn't realize this was 1973. I grew up with Legs and thought them a weird 80s band and had to retroactively discover them. I appreciated listening to this album in full. How have I never appreciated "Muddy Water turned to wine..."? 1 star just for that line. Super tight album which I actually wish they would have let a few songs run a bit longer but love how you can't catch your breath before another song hits you. A couple of misses but "Jesus Just Left Chicago" and the immortal "Waitin for the Bus" and "La Grange" make this easily 4 stars.

I hadn’t heard this in forever and somehow missed/forgot that Gangster Paradise was a direct rip off from here (in addition to myriad other classics).

It was perfectly pleasant if somewhat unremarkable.

She is amazing. Her voice, how she conveys meaning in these songs...it's stunning. The band is great. The song choice varied and interesting (which you get when you cover 59 songs!). The sound quality was superb. Doing one of these a day, I admit to not being able to pay attention to all 59, but as I was able to listen attentively, I was well rewarded.

Put this on and proud that my 7 year old could name the album in the first 3 notes. 40 years on a fairly flawless album, even if my mouth breathing brethren still can’t understand the lyrics to the title track.

I had never heard of this band even though I am of this age. Only being able to get through 3 songs, I understand why. A rap/Oasis mashup is a song you can record…..1 star for a cool album cover.

Is there a more intense 30 seconds in rock than those 30 seconds in "Born to Run" when he gives us that second countdown? It gets me everytime. I am ready to run with Bruce and Wendy. And how I wish I could hit that "Oh". He doesn't have a great voice, how does he hit that damn "Oh" like that? Anyway, great breakout album. So much passion, thoughtful sequencing, commercial but true to his art, an American masterpiece.

When I was young, I was lucky enough to see Paige and Plant. We had terrible tickets, and it wasn’t Zeppelin in full, but I wasn’t around to attend Zeppelin concerts. It felt like being amongst gods and the one thing I remember most clearly is one of those gods, Robert Plant, saying Kashmir was the best song they ever made. That song resides on this album so while this isn’t one of the core 4, and its honestly a bit bloated, it still has highs few bands can imagine.

I liked the choice of songs (I didn’t realize ‘House of the Rising Sun’ was a folk standard), her voice is very nice and the sound quality was solid. I do not understand why every song featured her reaching for notes that made me turn down my volume. It felt like she could only interpret each song one way.

I forgot how varied there sound was/not the typical Britpop of the time (and I was not of the Britpop movement). The short song lengths let you pack a lot in but maybe a few too many in? It could have done with a bit more editing.

I came to The The later so it was interesting to hear this much earlier work. There is a lot going on lyrically and sonically, both feel of the moment and ahead of their time (in good and at times unsuccessful ways). Somewhat related, I have had limited exposure to British music of the early-mid 80's, outside of the enduring pop standards, and as a time capsule, people were very pissed off!

Not sure you even need another song besides Mannish Boy to make this a 5 but Muddy threw in 9 more for good measure.

I can’t understand how or why this would be deemed essential. Perhaps for the “Parade” song that is so bonkers and out of place that I will likely play it for people for years to come?

At one point I got this as one of my 10 CDs for a penny from Columbia House. I listened to Paranoid, Iron Man, maybe a little War Pigs. I also know how important and influential this album is to rock and to metal. What I didn't realize is that this is a great album from start to finish.

It was fine. Not to be old man yells at cloud but it sounded like Lauryn Hill but not as good? If these are the best 1000 albums….

I know this is supposed to be tailor made for me, everyone is shocked I don’t love him but I just don’t. It’s fine. Maybe at the time but it’s not for me.

I knew of them but had never listened to an album front to back. I rather liked it.

Every Boston song I heard on classic rock radio growing up appears to be on this album, so it has that going for it.

It’s The Who and they are live. If you like The Who, this is them, in live form.

I knew how important they are, and I have heard some of the songs, but I had never heard the album from front to back. That is shame on me and one of the reasons I started this project. I hear all the bands I love(d) as a kid in here but I also hear a great, better than great, album. Will definitely make this part of my long term rotation.

Rock anthem for the ages, check. Defining blues/garage rock masterpiece of its decade, check. Two people playing the shit out of their instruments without computer enhancements, check and check. This album made them superstars and thank god for that.

I love David Bowie. I dislike aging rockstars. I should have known that David Bowie is not like other aging rockstars. This was experimental and haunting with interesting soundscapes. A few too many bad words for my liking but overall glad i was brought to this album.

I liked this album a lot when I was a kid. Before this album I thought they were a made up band for a Run-DMC video. They becamse MTV darlings and I watched their videos many, many times. I am not a kid anymore...

Shame on me for never hearing this album before. A truly remarkable work. So much depth and creativity. Amazing!

That was a lot.

I am sure this is important to a movement I wish never existed.

I forgot how long this album was. It would have been better served as 1 disc as opposed to 2. Some great songs but bloated and overdone much like Billy Corrgan.

I thought they had broken up years before this album. Not sure how this is essential. Not sure how XTC is essential. I was around for somewhat of their heyday and they weren't essential then, let alone well beyond it.

I do not understand how this album got 4 and 5 star reviews from other listeners. They must be wrong. It's not me right, right?!?

I can’t believe artists I respect would be a part of this trainwreck.

Song #2 still slaps but this sounds more 90s than I remembered. Good trip down memory lane but not an essential album.

The B sides of the most influential rock album of the 21st century might actually be the more impactful album. While I remember wondering if they would pick up guitars again, answer not really, it did portend a softer landing than the left turn of Kid A. The music itself is varied and interesting. Knives Out doesn’t fit yet would be an all timer for any other band. Pyramid Song, Packt, Life in a Glass House…it’s Radiohead at their height.

Their 3 hits are on here. They are bangers. There are also a bunch of other songs on here. If this was an EP….

I love his voice, and some gems in here, but a bit all over the place and overly long.

This played like a parody of 60’s psychedelic albums. Surely no one intentionally made or rhymed “I believe in magic, why? Because it is so quick”. With that, I realized I could be tortured no longer.

Shame on me for not knowing Solomon Burke. This was a great album and will be exploring more.

Started strong then started to get a bit redundant. I don’t blame the music as much as my taste.

This was a bit of a revelation. Last song was wild but the first 9 were concise and well ahead of their time.

This album broke up Cream and they still wouldn’t let Clapton in. Perfect album. It’s a shame we can only give it a 5.

The first couple of songs were interesting but then it got weird. He really likes singing about times when men could shoot other men. By the end I was openly hostile towards the album.

This album kept going interesting places. I am appreciative it is on the list.

Its covers, its acoustic versions of their existing songs, it’s somehow one of the most important cultural touchstones of the 90s, of alt rock, of rock in general. I didn’t forget how perfect it was, I just enjoyed listening to it again.

I won’t ding it for the heavy accent but I will for the lack of rhythm, the unimaginative beats and the lame lyrics. This album had one song I didn’t detest.

I probably know the least about this Smiths album and despite Morrisey being Morrisey it’s still a great record.

Lose a point for a Confederate general on the cover even if he was the only decent human in the leadership ranks. Interesting concept, music was well executed. Perhaps a few too many songs for me to get through but I appreciate what they were doing.

This is when The Kinks, at least as I know The Kinks, became The Kinks, and it is an absolutely lovely album. Vivid, varied, lyrically interesting, an album that encapsulates who they are.

I feel the list is trolling with these English rap albums. There is nothing interesting or unique on this album. The only thing that stood out is how many times they could use "fam" in one skit.

I cannot imagine what it was like to hear this album at the time. It doesn't sound that radical but is it like anything we have heard before? I can't think of anything if so. Add that this is a debut album and it is absolutely bonkers how great this is. Mark Knopfler is a Rock God.

This album was bonkers. A 13 minute track about the Pleasuredome? Should I read more into it? Dare I read more into it? Relax is an absolute banger. I can't believe that got airplay. What an accomplishment in itself. I was a child when it was big so I had no clue, now.... The covers come out of nowhere. The "Born to Run" cover was well done. The "San Jose" cover in the midst of songs that abound about pleasure is tonally off but somehow fitting. I don't think this will be in my rotation but yes, I am glad I heard it before I died.

I didn't know much about her, outside the tragedy and the hits, and was pleasantly surprised by the album. I understand why she was so beloved.

I think I am really starting to like Black Sabbath. I had only heard Paranoid before, which is great, and assumed the rest was repetitive/too hard for my taste. I need to reassess that take. This album ROCKS!

I am not a monster so yes, Close to You is lovely, but an hour of this is too much.

The concert flows well. A few odd arrangement choices but by the end I felt I had been on a journey that I enjoyed.

No need to ever listen to this tripe again.

I haven’t listened to an entire rap album that was made post 2000. I don’t think I would attempt it with another artist just to give grounding of my disdain for this “new” generation of rap. My only complaint with this album was that it wasn’t longer. Songs were great, lyrics incredible, track numbering impeccable. Easy 5.

I understand where he is going here, and liked the sonic landscape overall, but I gotta have more David Bowie on a David Bowie album.

I happened to be walking through Times Square as I listened to this album. It is a world away from the time Waits sings about but man does this album make you feel every lyric. It’s so vibrant, so sad, it wasn’t the way to walk to work but it was a work of art.

My only deduction is for myself, how have I not heard this before? I am buying the album tomorrow.

First song is superb. The rest not so much.

I like this Talking Heads so much better than the watered down Fela Kuti rip off version they become later on. These songs have urgency and vibrancy that is all their own. The album artwork is also some of the greatest of all time.

30 years on and still sounds great. Each song is a banger. Great bass, Morello’s guitar, De La Rocha’s effortless movement between rap and screaming. That you served this in “No Kings Day” was the chef’s kiss.

More interesting than I would have known if not asked to listen because of this list. The end became a little repetitive for me, and the last song felt like an eternity. Shocked looking back it was only 5:47.

Side 1 is off the charts. Side 2 felt a bit less than with some songs that felt very much of the time. Super strong closing with one of my all time favorite Dire Straits songs, the eponymous "Brothers in Arms"

I thought she was a pop singer. This is why I signed up for this. Experimental, wild, wonderful sonic landscape that I thoroughly enjoyed. What this was doing in 1982 I cannot fathom.

I still find Kate Bush a revelation but I didn’t find this as daring as “The Dreaming”.

That I didn’t realize it had moved to a different album while listening on Spotify…

Very enjoyable listen.

I only have listened to The Greatest Hits and outside of "Buffalo Soldier" those are a pretty lighthearted affair. I grew up in Florida and God knows most of those songs, along with Buffet's greatest hits, were on repeat to the sunburned tourists getting drunk on their rum punch and pina coladas. That is all to say that the lyricism, in particular, is a revelation in this album. Slave Driver, Concrete Jungle...those are far from the tourists ears. Sonically incredibly sophisticated. Great album!

Can a band transform into who we knew they would become in "real time" on an album? If so, this feels like the example of it. I liked the first half of the album but unless I heard Freddie's voice, I would have never known this was a Queen album. It was much more in The Who or a Zeppelin category. The switch, as it were, seems to flip and the band that is so ingrained in my imagination comes alive in the second half. Fascinating album. Exactly why I started this project.

I saw a movie where he was a monkey and if a monkey was singing this I would think it absolutely something worth hearing before I die. I am pretty sure that was AI though so I rate this as pop drivel.

I liked Madonna well enough in the 80s/early 90s but paid zero attention to this album. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I didn’t hate this. That is until the last track. “American Pie” isn’t a great song but whatever she did to it should be criminal. I am taking this rating down 2 stars for that song. I feel worse about humanity after hearing it.

I knew who he was but didn’t know the music. This is another that made me happy I am doing this list. This album was ambitious, challenging, often strange, and occasionally brilliant. The album was steeped in melancholy (unclear where the “Happy” came in) and experimentation, where folk, jazz, and something more elusive blurred into one hypnotic whole.

A Forest makes this a classic. Solid album start to finish. Ahead of it's time. A leap from the first album and outside of Disintegration their best effort.

It has the hits but outside of those I didn't latch on to anything. I had my wife listening, who is a R&B aficionado, and she gave the thumbs down so I will round to 3 for 3 incredibly memorable songs. Revised, apparently it had 4 top 5 singles but I only remember 3 so I stay with my ranking.

A concept album that hits an emotional high point that is totally earned with one of the great songs of the 21st century. An engrossing sonic landscape that leaves you wanting more (I listened 2x more). Am easy 5.

I don’t know how to describe it but I liked it!

I am not sure I have ever had someone be so kind as to invite me into their record before. I sure did appreciate it. A nice straightforward old timey country album (which is the only country I can take). Not sure essential but enjoyabe nonetheless.

I knew nothing of Janelle Monae or her music. The cover art was interesting and thought I noticed the Metropolis theme and was surprised I was correct. While the movie is a technical and stylistic wonder, the story is utter rubbish. Fritz Lang, the esteemed director, said it was rubbish and it was written by his wife (who became a Nazi while Fritz escaped to the West). That is all to say, low expectations if you are basing your music on the worst part of a landmark film yet I am happy to say I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the album. It was varied, moved with an almost urgency and quite different from most things I have heard (except Outkast because there was a lot of Outkast on this album)....Overall, a good experience.

This is awesome and I hate myself for not knowing them until this moment. Thank you. Earnestly, thank you.

This seems a bit sacrilegious but I found this album pretty uninspiring. If you would have told me this was Beatles B sides...Baby I'm Amazed comes through at the end to save this from utter mediocrity but otherwise, give me the whole Beatles or even Wings...

If you speak ill of this album, you are a monster. An iconic album by one of the greatest song writers, a Mt Rushmore of song writers, in rock history.

This album kicks so much ass. Precursor to so many albums that also kicked so much ass. Guitars are ripping, drums are drumming, singer is a screaming. True story, I listened to this at work and by the end, my button down dress shirt had turned into a flannel. Totally kick ass!

Sounds a bit of it’s time so deducting a point for that. Glory box is one of the best songs of the 90s and unlike almost anything else (of the time or on this record). Loved this record at the time and still do.

Nothing really of note here. The first time I turned my head was a song that sounded like a Hendrix ripoff but is it a proper 60’s British band without ripping off a Black musician?

I forgot how many hits she had. I really underestimate her as an artist and this album exemplifies that.

Twenty-six years on, Kid A hasn’t aged so much as settled into permanence. Its place in rock history feels fixed now, but at the time it was a rupture. Coming off OK Computer, the album that turned them from a great band into something close to transcendent, Radiohead did the least expected thing. They dismantled their own sound. Guitars receded, structures dissolved, and in their place came texture, rhythm, and unease. It wasn’t reinvention for its own sake. It was an insistence on survival through change. There’s a tendency now to act as if this shift was inevitable, or already in the air. It wasn’t. The influence of artists like Aphex Twin is clear, but that world was still peripheral to most rock listeners. What Kid A did was bring that language into the center without diluting it, and in doing so, expand what a mainstream rock album could be. And the songs endure. “Everything in Its Right Place” remains a thesis statement. “The National Anthem” still feels like controlled collapse. “Idioteque” sounds as urgent now as it did then, maybe more. There are moments in music where an artist breaks from their past so completely that it resets the terms. Bob Dylan plugging in at Newport Folk Festival 1965. Elvis Presley on The Ed Sullivan Show. Kid A belongs in that lineage. It didn’t just announce the 21st century. It helped define how it would sound.

Brilliant!

He was a punchline/maybe alive/on a UFO when I was growing up and I never “got” Elvis. This album doesn’t make me get him still. One of the best songs on here is super cringe. A very uneven album for me.

The start to this album is among the best I have heard. I didn’t know “Run, Charlie, Run” and it was both fantastic music and fantastically uncomfortable. Then 11 minutes of funk heaven with “Papa was a Rolling Stone”. The album then goes in all directions (see what I did there?) and doesn’t flow with this opening at all. Fine music but not where my head space was at. Great closing with “Do Your Thing.” Tough one to rate as it doesn’t make sense as an album. The parts are so good though, that I will go higher than I might otherwise.

I can’t understand a word these rappers say. It might as well have all been in French… This was well done. I will always prefer American rap by miles, one of my true American-centric biases, but the production and beats were solid.

It was interesting, and something I would have never heard without this list, but it seemed to drag on (I had to look to see if we had moved to a different artist or new record). Fine in general but definitely far from great.

This is in the top echelon of albums to hear before you die. It influences 70/80% of this list? More? I only wish I was one of the 30,000 that started a band….

Even the album art is perfect.

True story, I was in my backyard listening to this and a squirrel took up a knife against a chipmunk. It made sense in the moment.

I like the Artic Monkeys but I am not sure I am a like a whole album Artic Monkeys fan. They are a bit redundant at some point. It's fine if we are judging by 2000s rock standards.

This isn't my favorite Zeppelin album, and I am a victim of too much Stairway to Heaven as a teenager, but it's still a perfect album. Genre hoping, acoustic prowess, hard as shit rock and roll, and Tolkien, glorious Tolkien references abound. Ending with When the Levee Breaks is so badass.

It started with flashbacks of the smooth jazz my mother subjected me to as a child. It somehow got worse. Incredibly repetitive and worse, it was boring. I kept thinking something might happen in a song but the only thing that happened was my increased indifference. 128 days in and easily the worst album yet.

I listened to this album a lot at the time. I liked it. I liked it on the re-listen. It troubled me that I had completely forgotten it since 2009. Like this band didn't exist in my headspace until this popped up again. So it is lovely, completely forgettable music. I am not sure what that means except it means nothing.

Perfectly pleasant, if bland, until Sailor’s Life, which took an unexpected left turn. I don’t see myself coming back to this, and won’t remember a song besides Sailors Life, so I am going to be a bit critical with my rating.

I only knew the hits and this album is a banger but it is so 80s. Minus 1 for that.

I listened to this cold and was annoyed at another mid 90s Brit pop album. Then it got better, took some turns, and holy shit this was 1980? Clearly an influential album (for better and worse). A good album all the same.

The lyricism was immature, the songs didn’t stand out from each other and researching after, it makes sense that this is a first album. Her voice is nice but I can think of myriad singers who have done this genre better (including her on Back to Black).

It's fine if overly crass.

The originals are better than I remember. My Generation is such an interesting song. The covers though...it's so bad. Did Daltrey actually try to sound Black on "I'm a Man"? Whatever he did, it was sacrilegious.

What a treat! Genre hoping with ease and I never knew what was coming next but I was excited when it did. Next listen will be with a translation to see if the lyrics match the sound. Great find.

Another gem on this list. I had never heard of this band and loved everything about it. It was timeless and when my partner walked in the room, she couldn't place when it was made which I think speaks volumes. That the lead singer was the Greek Chorus in "There's Something about Mary" let me re-engage with long lost friends about music and movies. Win and win.

My biggest issue is that there isn’t more BB King. 34 minutes is criminally short.

Perfectly pleasant

I know it’s importance so I listened as impartially as I could. As best I can muster, it wasn’t as awful as I would have thought. I can see the genesis of all things I hate, and all parodies I snicker at, comes from. I will give a point because it is an album I should have heard before death. Thankful I knew not to play it backward and hasten the event.

I knew parts of this album, and Hallelujah I had heard a hundred times (I still contend it is up there with "Born in the USA" for most misunderstood song of all time) but as a whole what a revelation. An absolute angel. Songs like Corpus Christi Carol are absolutely divine.

Maybe I expect too much from Bowie but I found this album quite unremarkable. There is sooo much good Bowie and this wasn't it.

Strong start, got a bit repetitive in the middle then the strong save with "Groove is in the Heart." I got fatigued with that song in the 90's but listening years later, there was a reason it was on all the time. Perfectly acceptable album.

Nope. Not going to do it to myself.

Someone didn’t give this a perfect score?

The guy who thinks he is really clever but is really just a douche asshole, but in album form.

Sorry, I cannot believe that there aren't 1001 albums better than the 6th album by the Black Keys. I am willing to test this hypothesis and will give this a better rank upon finishing (should I be proven wrong). This is album 150.

I appreciate this list for keying me in to the fact that reggae is not Jimmy Buffet. Really, truly the list is worth the price of admission just for that. This albums lyrics are pointed and strong and I appreciate the delivery. Musically, I still have trouble with, to my untrained ear, how limited the range of reggae sounds to me. I think the same of punk but they are posers and reggae is more about righteous anger.

I will never understand the love for this album. The self seriousness is laughable and the sound is repetitive and barely discernible from other metal bands.

Easy 5. Only qualm is putting poor Baby Driver is between The Boxer and Only Living Boy in New York, otherwise flawless.

I thought maybe they deserved 1 album on this list. This wasn't that album.

Curiously missing from my Cure knowledge. I didn't note any breakouts but it was The Cure and it was lovely and melancholic and atmospheric all the same.

Interesting that this album had none of the songs that I knew yet I enjoyed it all the same. Energy comes through in every song, and if you didn't like a song, it was over in under 3 minutes. It sent me on a pleasant afternoon of T. Rex listening.

Perfectly average. -1 for the absurdity of the Wikipedia entry.