1001 Albums Summary

Arguably the album that invented Britpop. A near perfect record, shame about Ian Brown

A much better record than I gave it credit on first glance. Other than the obvious killer hits, I loved "The Song is Over" and "Getting In Tune", but then again I'm a sucker for meta-commentary. Does still lack a bit of bite, a problem I find in a lot of pre-punk 70s. Has about 3 moments where you understand why people view it as a transcendent genre defining album, but then has several more where it sounds like The Stones, which is where I lose interest The Borat song is funny

This record started slow as fuck for me, at which point I was worried I'd have to write a pissy little "sorry for not getting it" style review. Thankfully, at the three track run of 'Crack Rock', 'Pyramids', and 'Lost', everything fell into place, and the album stayed strong from there. Getting John Mayer on to do a 30 second interlude is funny

Good but not great. All the songs sound the same and are broadly about the same subject matter, but, to Bruce's credit, it is a formula that works, not least because he is maybe THE authoritative voice on working class American life in that era. Dancing in the Dark is a perfect song

Not half as bad as I expected. Obviously overly saccharine at points, but generally a pleasant listen and wittier than I'd ever given Billy Joel credit for

A wonderfully odd little record, the result of what happens when you shove every trope of 80s alternative and see what comes out. Sounds most like The B52s on hallucinogenics or The Cocteau Twins on a comedown. I kind of love it

Idk man, it's okay. A clearly good execution of what it's trying to achieve, but the whole wall of noise thing that's prevalent in most grunge has never massively been my thing, and the (memed to death) Eddie Vedder vocals do take away from the storytelling potential within the lyrics because he is genuinely very difficult to understand. Porch is a good song

I'm honestly the worst person to ask about jazz, this might be the first jazz record I've ever listened to all the way through. That being said, this was a very pleasant listen. Quite loungey without ever getting too pedestrian, and a very easy thing to let wash over you. There were rare moments where it felt like the bassist and pianist weren't in complete lockstep about the type of jazz they were wanting to play, but then again, what the fuck do I know about this sort of thing?

Q: What do you get if you strip The Wedding Present of all their charm and wit A: Husker Du

A very listenable, if unremarkable, example of 80s post-punk. This is a record I imagine I'd love if I was getting into the genre for the first time, but as it is, it's only decent rather than special. Sometimes let down by the production

Pretty good. Some interesting themes and songwriting, occasionally let down by fairly cookie cutter wall of noise 90s instrumentation. Her voice is really amazing but the odd enunciation sometimes takes away from the weight of the storytelling

A useful reminder of why punk needed to happen. Competently written songs but it's so dated and self-satisfied that any enjoyment that could be taken from that is killed. Petty yelps tunelessly over boring yachty 12 bar blues about how great (his own) rock 'n' roll is and all the girls he's fucking as if he's taking some sort of self-determined victory lap. Gets an extra star for not overstaying it's welcome too long and American Girl.

This album is absolutely fantastic, which is annoying because it vindicates the most annoying group of people in the world, Oasis fans