1001 Albums Summary

Ok well, its a good album. Listened to it many times. I prefer neon bible or whatever it was after this but rebellion and wake up still go extra hard. We can forget about their more recent stuff since butler turned out to be... himself

Iconic album from my youth, it set the stage for a lot of my habits. It has definitely aged more like milk than wine, but it still has the same visceral qualities that I once loved

Still an annoying singer but I can appreciate the love he puts into it

Did I think I would like a Billy Joel album to this extent? No. As someone who was born in the UK, Billy Joel was seen as American shlock. I still think Just The Way You Are is a dreadful song, but the rest of it is so good, you forget.

Little Wing has to be up there for one of the greatest songs ever created, and I will always argue how important it is. The fact they also have Castles Made of Sand and Up From the Skies on this album makes me give it top marks. Nothing to fault on this album at all.

As a Bowie fan of pretty much all of his work, especially including his maligned later stuff, ive never been massively attracted to Heroes as an album. Some of the tracks are just weak and not the best Eno collab in that Trilogy. A strong 4 slightly let down by too much cocaine

Is this good as Movin On Up? Does it ever live up to that track? No. Its a good representation of the music scene and how it evolved, its just not really that strong.

Perfection in an album to be honest. Is he one of my favourite motown artists? No, but this is one of his three albums that absolutely kills me every time I listen. Never bore of it.

Forgetting Boy George's somewhat offensive behaviour, as a little gay boy growing up, he was one of the only representations i had growing up. What a voice. It suffers due to its age and some of the sounds not being as cool or modern as they were at the time.

The Kinks will always be more enjoyable to me than the Stones and Beatles. I don't rate this as one of their best, but Arthur is still a banger. The textures of this album and the 'vibes' are unmatched

It feels weird to rate such an iconic album at less than a 5, especially when this was one of my dad's favourite albums. Some of the songs are brilliant, unbeatable, and then the sleazy blues arrive to beat you over the head and you realise that this isnt truly a great album, just a very good one.

What can Ginger Baker not do on drums in that period. Phenomenal. Fela Kuti has always been a musician I respected rather than liked. Maybe it was the relisten but it absolutely clicked this time.

I was firmly in my teenage years when this album came out, I would've been exactly the target audience, but I'd listened to Dookie and Nimrod before this, so my general reaction to this was "what is this punk opera shit about". For many years I avoided this album. Listened to it last year as my partner was due to go to their gigs. Still didn't hit. Sitting down with it again, it's still a frustrating album. There's some great tracks in this - Letterbomb, Extraordinary Girl, and with the exception of Jesus of Suburbia which is about 2 minutes too long, all of the singles still hold up. Does it make me take back all the crap I gave it 20 years ago? Nah, but it's not a bad album.

I'd never heard this. I'd heard Strawberry Letter 23 but not from Shuggie. What a shame, I feel like my life is already better for listening to this album. The drums are so modern sounding, the funk is unreal.

Is this album as good as Wiley, Ghetts, Kano, even Bizzle? To stand against the best of grime this album needs to offer something. To be so critically lauded for what is quite a mediocre album with 2 good singles simply because this was the first time anyone had seen grime in the mainstream was a mistake. Im more of a UKHH head so I struggle with an implicit bias against grime, but this album is not the one to bring to a fight.

An album and artist I'd never heard of - what a shame. I can see why this was seen as one of the first albums of Britpop. Unapologetically British, dark, sardonic, exactly how I want my music from the 90s. Singer seems like a bit of a twat though.

If I'm honest - I don't have much to say. Mr Soul is a great opener. The rest of the album just does not live up to this. Notoroiosuly not a massive fan of Young's voice but... passable. Fine. Stills' voice is good. Latter part of the album sinks. It's.... alright.

I've never had an issue with Dylan's voice, but I can appreciate when someone says they don't like it. Despite being a divisive nasal voice, you have to look past it to an extent, to the words, the melodies, the gorgeous backing band. Superior.

Im not a massive jazz fan and struggle to understand it sometimes. This is different. This is a masterpiece.

As someone who likes the Cure in passing, and has never delved apart from Disintegration, this was a good detour into understanding their other work. Still moody, still works.

I was really tempted to give this a 1, but this is probably a disservice. As someone who was a kid even past be here now and was at uni when they split, Oasis has always been the dominant band within yer normal brit taste. I hated it, I hated them, I hated how they had ripped past bands like Suede and Pulp and numerous Britpop bands, even Stone Roses, that they were never as good as, and we had to swallow it and nod along while the 100th person of the day shouts out Wonderwall. I did this project partly to reevaluate what I liked and disliked growing up and whether my tastes have matured. They obviously havent because this still sounds like shit. Catchy though

I'm sorry, I really did try and like this, but this album made me go slightly mad. I can appreciate the musicianship at certain times, but this gave me a headache.