1001 Albums Summary

Tracks flow really well into one another. Production very crisp little reverb in your face classic plexi tone, everything cuts through really well balanced and warm sounding. Absolute classic of an album cover

An absolute classic, the guitar work is unforgettable and a nice raw production. A true piece of art

Chump has a hypnotic bass line really got me in a trance really showcases mike dirnts underrated bassplaying The transition into long view into the tom section is awesome then kicks you in the face Production overall super in your face compressed, the whole album in one sitting really fatigues the ears, but does the job. Listened on good headphones CD quality but i bet on a good HiFi blasting it'd kick your ass Welcome to paradise really has all band members playing to their full ability, the part where it drops out into the middle section with toms panned right then kicks into the full tom groove in stereo makes it sound huge, pretty underwhelming going into the track pulling teeth after such a banger. Nothing to say about basket case that hasn't been said before, absolute classic everyone has learnt on the guitar at least once, and really creative drumming from tre, never gets old. F.o.d the acoustic guitar is just recorded badly and it sounds great when the band kicks in but just too weak on the acoustic intro, I lost interest in this song All by myself is a funny humorous classic but by this point im pretty tired with fatigued ears from the compression on this album , good in small doses . 3/5 as a whole

Definitely can see how this influenced future rap albums with the adlib talking sections. Production is basic, but definitely a signature sound of the era and probably started with bands like this. Extremely repetitive from a musical perspective, but this kind of rap is all about the lyrics and rapper. Unfortunately for this reason it bores me listening to this album as a whole. I do enjoy some tracks from this though and would listen to them as part of a playlist but this is quite a tough listen as a whole entity/album. The intermission just got on my nerves, I don't wanna hear them bashing on about crap, bad quality recording as well on that keeps distorting, to be fair they probably did this on little equipment and not pro studio but still , not enjoyable. Good rappers but the instrumentals again are just dull and repetitive. Standout tracks for me are: 7th chamber (at a push.. At least they tried to put some musical interest in there with synths and saxophone, but its totally out of key and makes no sense). No other tracks were standout for me, I wouldn't relisten to this. I heard a lot of good things about wu tang over the years but I just don't get it.

From the first track that warm classic motown sound we've all grown to love wraps around you like a comforting weighted blanket, you can't help but be enveloped and sucked into the world of this album. Transitions like Save the Children into God is Love are seamless, I can imagine that this was groundbreaking stuff back in the day - it's as if the listening experience continues and it just keeps on going, really nice jamming to this. Every track has a richness of sound to it, each listen reveals something new - be it bongos panned quietly to the left, horn patterns at the right, a quiet piano, strings playing their own melody. Then into mercy mercy me, wow - this transition really makes you smile, from the brightness of god is love, including the bright bass tone and "harsher" quality of god is love - into mercy mercy me where the entire tonality drops down akin to a warm hug, dropping the bass into the background with a much warmer tone, letting the percussion with reverb take centre stage. Throughout, Marvin's vocal performances are next to none, it doesn't even seem like he did double tracking - his voice carries itself with little help required, the same can be said of Jamerson's bass riffs, the famous story of him even playing one of the songs drunk after being dragged from a bar to perform. Right on is a hypnotic jam, reminds me of a latin track with the percussion going on in the background, near the end of the track when it drops out for a few mins and the drums kick in crispier than fried chicken, how can you not smile?? A definite solid addition to my library I'll listen to again and again.

I never knew Bjork had a band in the late 80s is my first thought on this! Mixing really nice and wide, dreamy chorus bass similar to the smiths actually. Bjorks high vocals sit nicely just on top of everything. Definitely a young album listening to the lyrical content and song titles, for sure influenced by some new wavey bands with the reverberated guitar drums and chorus on the bass. Blue eyed pop got an interesting bass line with the deep slides at the start, cool jam but the lyrics really let it down in my opinion.. Deus is an annoying track, not a fan of that one The band are decent but the album as a whole is nothing groundbreaking to me except for the fact it introduced the world to Bjork. Now, if it were one of her albums in its place maybe I would understand but I don't brink this is an album you have to listen to before you die at all.

I'm a big prog guy and enjoy soft machine but having this as an album you just listen to before you die? Nah. Starting with an 18 min live jam then the following 3 tracks are jams too is just a lot to take in. I do enjoy parts of it but it just feels like recorded jams than planned and thought out songs, plus not much thought put into this as a coherent piece of art. I mean on this list comparing it to Marvin Gaye's what's going on, which really thinks about song transitions is just incomparable. Can't rate this high in the context of this list, its just repetitive and the jams get dull. Maybe if you smoke a joint or have the album on in the background of a party you're throwing while drinking wine and eating your fancy canapés. Sorry prog fans but this is not an album you must hear before you die, I'd say most should avoid it.

Great hip hop track to start then tough guy comes out of nowhere, wow actual musicians who can do both! This is a rarity in this world , mixing so many things! Root down a true blend of funk, rap with the church organ going I'm sure they were the first to ever do things like this, amazing. Into sabotage I mean who doesn't know and love this track already! Eugene's Lament is really surprising, combining middle eastern sounds with varied instrumentation, you can really tell the Beastie Boys are passionate musicians and have so many influences. Ricky's Theme could easily be a Marvin Gaye backing track, it just lacks the production shine of motown but the instrumentation is there, in a much rawer and in-your-face form. Heart attack man is like hip hop hardcore which is interesting to listen to! It's really hard to tell which parts the boys are playing on their instruments, as they're all talented musicians, apart from the parts they've samples. True masters of blending the two arts

Smashing album, love it for what it is, a jazz classic but sadly I have to put this as a 3, thinking of the general music listening populus

Andalusia quite a simple track but one of the more enjoyable ones for me on the album. His vocal style pretty dull though. Production is well done, not a fan of the songs so much though! Macbeth is all over the place , I actively dislike that track, one for US army to use for their sonic interrogation techniques. Paris 1919 has nice orchestration but the lyrics are pure wackiness, speaking of whacky I think Mr. Cale smoked a bit of the old whacky baccy working on this one. The middle 8 string section is nice but a bit out of place, and chorus just more of the same, dull! Half past France is purely forgettable. Antarctica starts here, well honestly what the hell is that, great instrument recording and quality when it kicks it but it seems as though he did the vocal takes at home after his wife and kids had gone to sleep, and he didn't want to wake them up singing the vocal, listen again and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. As a good friend of mine said, Mr. Basten, this reminds of a cheap version of Paul McCartney, he probably listened to Paul's albums coming out around about this period and thought oh I'll have a bash at that. The lyrics are just odd, and pure Beatles imitation with some of the instrumentation but not executed with the same finesse. For me, forgettable, and has no place to be on a list of albums to hear before you die. Sadly, I will die having listened to it when I could've saved this time reading the ingredients on the back of a cereal box instead, at least I'd have given my eyes a bit of reading practice.

First listening notes, nice airy and natural production style, with breathing room. I like the imperfections in the first track, the vocal pops when he gets close to the mic and distorts a bit and the bass strings buzzing - pure rawness, which means good energy to me! I read that this album was mostly recorded live in the studio which makes sense now! Awesome! Flows nicely into Speakin' Out, a classic blues swingy-style song. Great guitar playing I find out its Nils Lofgren, a guitarist I'll definitely look into more now, and his band he had with Neil Young - Crazy Horse. Already this record is introducing me to even more music, a great sign. Come on baby let's go downtown - this is a pretty simple song but that classic blues rock formula that never fails and I personally really like the guitar work in stereo. As a song I don't rate it that much but I do enjoy the sounds in it! Mellow my mind my worst track so far, another simple blues jam with so-so vocals over it. Roll another number also making me kind of sleepy. I enjoyed the acapella parts on new mama. Lookout Joe great chord progression and guitar playing again, tasteful - although its eeriely similar to some of the other songs on this record heh. Tired Eyes is a great name for the penultimate track of the album, as this is exactly what I have at this point after listening heh. Tonight's the night pt 2 just seems like an alternate take of the first track. I'd say altogether some good tracks on here, but nothing special for me as a whole.

All I know of Hole is her association with Kurt and the fallouts with Dave Grohl etc. Celebrity Skin is an instantly recognisable track everyone's heard from the radio play back then, a well made pop song, it can't be denied! Notes for me: Second track well written pop too, I'd probably have more of an affinity to it if I had listened to it back in my teenage days, but this is first listen. Third track feels like Billy Corgans touch, I'd not be surprised if he's lent a hand on this one Hit so hard my favourite so far Malibu also decent with the guitar parts and cool engineering Thinking this is probably a good band I didn't give enough attention to because of all the negativity around them back then, but its a decent listen so far. Malibu into reasons to be beautiful great transition. Thoughts been put into this album as a work of art as an entire album, how tracks flow into each other Promised me has a lot of dynamic range, saves you from just walls of guitars blasting your ears off every track Use once and destroy feels middle of the road, little boring musically, funnily enough this is a track Corgan has not had his hand in, maybe the title of the track are actually instructions for what you should do with it? Northern star immediately reminds me of an REM track, like a bad cover with hints of tonight tonight by the pumpkins with its tom rolls. Overall enjoyable listen, nothing smashing it out of the park for me as a whole but thanks to the hell they had songwriting its hard to deny this has some bangers on it. I would have given it a 3 but I would bump up it to a 4 because of its influence its had, and 3/4 of the players on this record are women its influenced a lot of young girls to give this a go, but I'll stick with a 3

Art of peer pressure favourite one so far, but in feel like for a rap album I'll have to have lyric sheet with me along with the music as that's the main focus . Never ever listened to an album of this style from this era, its interesting to keep broadening your musical horizons! Money trees catchy but lyrics I can't identify with at all, I'm a world apart from all of this so it just sounds kind of parodied to me to be honest. Poetic justice liquid shite, crap beat and lyrics shallow and just about sex and asses, again, how can you not laugh at this stuff heh, pure parody. He's got some other famous rappers on this album, maybe that's why it was marked as influential? True, some of the lyrics might be about him growing up in gang culture etc but personally I don't value rap music too much unless they put effort into the song writing, e.g Beastie boys. Not just random samples on loops. I mean look at the credits on the album, so many producers - too many cooks spoil the broth? I won't rate it a 1 as there are some genuinely catchy songs on this, some people probably love it but I don't. I can tolerate one or two tracks isolated but as an album as a whole? Not a chance in hell.

Recording quality for 1963 is superb, and for it to be a singular continuous composition, wow. I can really see that Snarky Puppy have swallowed the entire discography of Mr. Mingus (their track named Lingus an obvious nod), and I can really hear some compositional techniques used here that Snarky use too. The Spanish guitar really hit me out of nowhere after the beautiful descending piano and flutes goes back into the main motif, that blew me away! Its a musical piece which really uses every single part of the 11 piece orchestra, screaming emotion throughout. Loved it, even though it is a difficult listen at times, but for music to evoke joy, disbelief, happiness and discomfort all in one composition, that's something special. Once you listen you have to give up control as it floats you down the river.

First disc so far great rock n roll with motifs spanning the songs, making the tracks make sense as you go through the album Side one of the record amazing songwriting and performances, the tracks flow into one another, I really can't believe I never heard this before! When disc two kicks in I instantly get reminded of them crooked vultures, they definitely took influence from this spread out arrangement style with rattly instruments playing out of the box vocals. The lyrics are really cheeky and amusing with clever rhyming play, like poetry along with the great music. I really love double albums which are ying yang styled, one soft one hard, and the mixture of great poetry, songwriting and beautiful performances and sounding record. Outstanding, for me. Added to my classics list. Probably helped I listened to this on a great sound system while the sunset happened leaving a pink fading cloudy sky. Oops, I tried doing a bit of a nick cave there didn't I..

Well, this one is a definite classic I've enjoyed a lot of over the years but I've never done a deep dive on it as a whole album. Just listened to a few tracks such as Human Behaviour or Violently Happy from this release. I mean, her style and voice are like nothing else. There was a Sugarcubes release earlier I reviewed and wow, you really forget how much better she is suited to be left to her own devices and experiment as a solo artist. Some of the samples and sounds are a bit dated today, but the essence of the songs and work that went into sonic exploration for this record is evident.. imagine this being your first release! It reminds me a little of the album Felt Mountain by Goldfrapp but then you see that this was released 7 years before that! Flows effortlessly from electronic into jazzy pop, all while playing with samplers, recording unorthodox instruments and arranging the songs in irregular ways which keep you hanging. The live from the milk bar toilets track is a pretty funny idea, imitating the sound of the live performance, then as the listener leaves the bar it sounds like you're at the side of the road or a windy atmosphere while being serenaded by a harp; who would think that those two ideas would ever flow into each other or work, not me, but it does! One day is my least favourite track, so aeroplane is a breath of relief once that one is over. I'd say listening today I'd rate the album a 4, but putting it into context, of the electronic music capabilities at the time, and the fact that this record launched Björk into the the world; it's a 5 for me. (Even though Post, her second album is better in my opinion!) This really got me back into rediscovering her discog (and all the albums released since my last dive) - so thanks to the project for that!

Only things I know about Soft Cell are Tainted Love and stories about Marc Almond and his love of depravity and nightclubbing heh. My dad probably has this one in his collection at home as Soft Cell are from Leeds and he was involved in that scene. I mean, Tainted Love is a certified banger and classic.. but when you get to the song Youth, the music isn't too bad but his vocals, kinda chalkboard-y at times and cringey. Sex Dwarf is a synth banger, love it for the title and bopping music in its own crazy way, and I mean the lyrics are just fun. Trent Reznor covered this one apparently in the 80s, which means points up for me. Marc Almonds voice is pretty iconic, even though it's out of tune and atonal at times but also alluring, you can't help but enjoy it even though you know you probably shouldn't.. some classic synth work on this one too, I bet this was fun to make in the studio playing with all those toys, in that way, I envy them. These boys also influenced so much pop music that succeeded it, for that you have to give them credit. Is it an album I'll listen to again and again? No. Are there some tracks I'll add to my playlists, yep - some good ones on here! Probably a 2/5 for me but I/d bump it to a 3 just because they're our boys from Leeds, they influenced so many great English and international bands. But I just can't bring myself to give it a 3.. sorry!

So many classics on this. One record with hit after hit, they really lucked out with the great songwriters in the band in this formation. Everyone you know knows at least one or two songs off this album, and they are great songs which sound awesome too! Great musicians, great songs and awesome sound.

Is this it? Exactly. I can't tell one song from another. Classic early 00s boring indie stuff. I love their later songs like juicebox and Reptilia but this album just isn't it for me, a bland production that doesn't capture you and id say the same of the songwriting, except for last nite which is a banger. If you play this album alongside any of their later works its as if the while mix has Vaseline smeared over it, making the dreary songs sound even worse. Not for me. I even had a relisten as I see this so highly reviewed but I just don't get it at all. But that's wonderful because it shows how subjective music is! One mans art is one mans toilet paper.

Straight away I'm familiar with these guys a little and the late great Duane Allman amazing slide guitar player. Surprised to see this is a live album, sounding great as a live mix for 1971! And the band firing off at all cylinders showing their tightness and musicianship right away. Let's see how it develops. Second track amazing back and forth from the harmonica and guitar players. I think many people might find this dated but this kind of era of live band jamming all about the sound and musicianship right up my street They were in their 20s when this was recorded too, now that is impressive! In memory of Elizabeth reed fantastic guitar playing on that track! Whipping post too that classic guitar harmony, I think other famous guitar solos have used that lick in homage to Duane allman, who died not too long after the recording of the album sadly!

Only thing I know of Lorde is her song Royals which used to play on the radio constantly back in 2013/14 when I worked in a factory so it did my head in.. But I'm entering this with no bias and open ears! Got to track four and all a bit samey so far, nothing standing out and making me pay attention, perhaps the lyrics are those songs saviours? The music writing and production is very minimal and low effort in my opinion. This doesn't seem like art for arts sake but rather a product for radio play. This would fit nicely in the background at any supermarket. I was hoping for something with some dynamics, tempo changes , key changes, textural changes, instruments but no. Every song follows the same minimal electronic style. For me a great album should have variation in some of the above ways and more. Not for me at all.

Wow what an experience this is, you can absolutely tell he was experimenting with psychedelic drugs for this record. I know knew of him by his pop hits until this. Some tracks are true self indulgence and exploration into sound textures which can be a bit much, but the second half of the record a true star gets a lot more musical and the transitions between songs are excellent. Really difficult to place I think it's a 4 but I'll have to give it a 3. A day is nowhere enough time go understand this.