1001 Albums Summary

This is an album you can fall between the notes on and get lost. It's a true psychedelic experience: overly long, constantly morphing, with pockets of glossy fluff alongside glimpses of resonant, timeless themes and deep creative innovation. There's no question that Electric Ladyland deserves its place in the pantheon of legendary 60's albums. It contains some all time classic anthems (Watchtower, Voodoo Child Slight Return), along with some hidden gems (Crosstown Traffic, Burning of the Midnight Lamp, 1983). It's also an album that could have benefitted from an editing pass on the track list. Songs like Little Miss Strange, Come On (Let the Good Times Roll), and Long Hot Summer Night, while not bad songs, divert away from the sound and motifs of the rest of the album; carefree dittys diluting a project that otherwise leans epic in scale. One thing that struck me on this listen (I've heard this album many many times, funny that it's my first pull on the 1001 albums) is how masterfully emotive Jimi's vocals are. Obviously his guitar prowess is unchallenged, but I think his vocals have long been taken for granted. They're undeniably raw, powerfully expressive, and could never be mistaken for anyone else. All said, this gets a 4 from me, it would be a 5 if not for the inconsistent tracks and meandering tendencies. It's really a 4.5, if we could do half steps.

This is a good album. It plays it straight down the middle and delivers a solid, consistently listenable experience. Petty has a distinctive voice and wrote some good songs, and while I don't think this is his best album, it has a couple classic tracks tucked away amongst the more standard album cuts. There's nothing groundbreaking here for the mid 1970's, but it's something you can safely put on for almost anyone without fear of offense, and get a taste of wholesome Americana rock. Probably best listened to while driving, smoking a Marlboro or two, and having a Bud. 3-3.5 for me.

Stone cold classic. By turns anthemic, twisty, gritty, and squonky, the tracks on this album combine to create a demanding experience that rewards close listening and suspension of disbelief. Probably my favorite Zappa album alongside Apostrophe', though I haven't heard anywhere close to all of them. It checks a lot of boxes for me, and was formative in my music listening history. It's a solid 4.5 from me.

Superb album that sees Kendrick coming into his own as an artist. Like any good hip hop album, it's so densely layered with meaning and sounds that one listen hardly does it justice. I listened through twice today, and the second play definitely crystalized some things, as well as revealed an interesting feature of the album's narrative timeline (it's essentially an endless loop). As many of his projects do, this album sees Kendrick treading a careful balance of gritty gangsta bravado, cerebral introspection, and heady storytelling wrapped up in flawless production that blends live instrumentation and samples. The beats hit hard. I missed this album when it first came out, but have been a fan of a number of his other projects and I'm glad I finally made the leap. 4.5/5.

My fifth album generated, and my first five star rating. One of those albums that's just an instant classic, with themes that reverberate loud and clear through the decades. Is his voice abrasive? Perhaps. Is the harmonica ear-piercing at times? Yeah, probably. Does this album contain some of the best American folk songs of all time? Absolutely. Undeniably prophetic songs that twist your ears and heart in unexpected ways, accomplished with super stripped down instrumentation, even for its time. Not even my favorite Dylan album, but still a 5/5 for sure.

This the first full Police album I've listened to, and I'd say it was about what I was expecting, given familiarity with their radio hits. The songs aren't bad, and the playing is good throughout, especially Stewart Copland's drumming, which has some interesting tempo changes and time signatures. For the most part, though, the album is a collection of glossy radio ballads with varying amounts of "world music" pastiche draped over top. I don't mean that as a bad thing necessarily, it's just not the most engaging listen to my ear. There are a couple twists I wan't expecting, including "Mother" which feels like a fever dreaming Tom Waits doing some kind of proto-punk. I don't know anything about the band's history, but that track feels like a different band entirely, and I'm interested if there are more pockets of it on other Police albums. Overall, it's a nice sounding record with ultimately forgettable songs. 3 from me.

I liked this album. I'm not familiar with a ton of punk beyond the Misfits and a couple more modern acts, so it's always good to expand my knowledge a bit. Nothing blew my socks off here, but I do enjoy when a punk band vocalist takes a kind of lounge singer approach. My thing with punk is that it tends to be more of an expression of raw feeling, sometimes lacking in interesting musical ideas. There are some engaging moments here, but for the most part I wasn't swept away. 3/5 from me.

I almost bounced completely off this album based on the first couple of tracks, but I'm glad I stuck with it, because I ended up enjoying a lot of it. One of the only things that turns me off certain music is scream-y, unmusical vocals, and while this album has a fair amount of that, it's also got a lot of interesting stuff going on. Many of the tracks are on the long side, which allows them to open up into some really cool, hard, angular grooves that I was rocking out to. Still not going to be one of my all timers, but overall I ended up liking it more than I thought I would. I can see why people love it. 3/5 from me.

Hard to write objectively about this album, because it's been part of the soundtrack to my life for the past 20 years. From the moment it kicks off, you know it's not a "regular" album. The choice to open the album with a 10 minute instrumental freak out (after letting the listener know that they knocked the Earth up) has got to be one of the wildest choices in modern music history. It's a shapeshifter, moving from the aforementioned primal freak out, to the eminently catchy, soulful "Can You Get To That" and "Hit It And Quit It", to the loose and groovy "You and Your Folks...", to "Super Stupid" which is a hard driving, Hendrix-worthy jam, and then closing out with two more incredibly idiosyncratic, psychedelic-laced anthems in "Back in Our Minds" and "Wars of Armageddon." It's a weird, provocative, subversive, and ultimately listenable album, if you give it space to breathe. It's a 5 from me, thanks for all the memories George and crew.

Classic. Raw, powerful, soulful. Janis was a force of nature and this album is a testament to her ability to rip your heart out with her voice, but also keep a playful edge. 4.5/5 for me.

This album surprised me. I am a huge Talking Heads fan, but had never made it around to listening to TTC beyond Genius of Love. I was prepared for a peak 80's cheese fest, and yes it kind of is, but it's also kind of a great hang. The songs flow into each other like a DJ set, and while some of the synth sounds do come off like the band just fucking around with settings and experimenting, there is a musical playfulness throughout the tracks that lends cohesion to the wackiness. Overall, this isn't an album that I would be dying to revisit often, but I might start throwing it on at parties. Gonna be a 3/5 for me, influential for sure and more legit than I anticipated.

Classic grunge all the way through. It's hard to deny the sheer power of the sound, from the vocals, to the screaming guitars to the drums. Not my favorite album from that era, but definitely solid. Doesn't have enough songs that really stand out from one another, but nonetheless a great album. 3/5 from me.

One of Bowie's unsung masterpieces. Subtle and lush, with lots of downtempo instrumental sections. Not a hit to be found, but a really cohesive project that has earned a cult status in his discography. 4/5 from me.

Funk central. Fully immersive party simulation. Some tracks suffer from outdated synth sounds, and having been played to death over the past decades. Still iconic and groundbreaking piece of afrofuturist sound. Kind of weird listening to it walking around the USA in January 2026. 3.5/5 from me.

I have somehow, perhaps consciously, perhaps not, avoided listening to The Smiths my entire life. Not one song, to my knowledge, has vibrated my eardrums across my many years of music exploration. I think I read about how much of a prick Morrissey is at one point and just kind of avoided them. Well, that ended today. I enjoyed the album, probably more than I was expecting to. I can see the influence they had on many of the artists I enjoy, like Belle and Sebastian, The Decemberists, and others. Twee, wordy indie rock with a splash of edge. It's not my favorite genre, but I can dig it for sure. I definitely found the instrumentals more compelling than the lyrics, which tend towards high school poetry notebook territory (Girlfriend in a coma? Unhappy birthday?). The songs themselves are really satisfying and there are plenty of interesting, unexpected passages that experiment with the sound and form. I expect there are more Smiths albums to be had on this list, so I will see how this stacks up. It's gonna be a 4/5 from me

Immaculate vibes. Brazilian music is just the coolest in the world, and Jorge may be the coolest motherfucker on Earth. The stylistic blending mixed with the depth and warmth of the recording itself, it makes any room just feel like a jungle hangout. And any record that heavily features the cuica is a winner in my book. 4/5 from me

This was a rough one for me. There are elements I enjoyed- moments of lush atmospherics, unusual drum patterns, but the vocals and majority of the songwriting just didn't do it for me. "Club Country" got some legitimate laughs out of me just with the sheer audacious shittiness of the vocals and lyrics. The whole experience read like a group poorly ripping off Bowie. Again, there were some interesting moments, but not enough to save it from being my first 2/5.

A classic Pixies album that doesn't quite reach the same heights of frenzy nor depths of insanity that Doolittle, or to a lesser extent Surfer Rosa does. It's a little more "safe" in it's compositions and performances, and with a few notable exceptions the songs don't distinguish themselves very effectively. That said, there's a lot to love about this album. Velouria, Dig For Fire, Down The Well, and Hang Wire are all great tracks that sit amongst the pantheon of the Pixies output for me. Nothing is really "bad" per se, and perhaps in a vacuum, without knowledge of their previous work, I'd be judging this differently. It's a challenge for me because the entirety of Doolittle is burned into my soul, and was well established as one of my favorite albums of all time before I ever heard Bossanova. Hopefully Doolittle is on this list as well, as that's an easy 5 from me. This, however is going to sit at a 4

This one hits really close to home for me, as someone who's parents played this album constantly when it came out. I don't think I really appreciated it at the time, but it was certainly foundational when I was developing my musical tastes at age 10-11. I don't think I'm really able to put into words why this album will be a 5 from me, other than the feeling is conveys is just so organic, airy, and smooth while also being emotive and a just a little rough around the edges. It's music that makes you feel at ease, like there is nothing in the world you need to be doing than sitting, listening, socializing, and soaking in a sunny day. 5/5

Amazing pull for February 2026 in America. I listened to most of this album walking around downtown, and it was a perfect urban walking experience. No one can blend gritty political lyrics with slinky, sexy, ice cold funk like Curtis Mayfield. Previously I was only really familiar with his album Roots, which is phenomenal, and this one got close to the highs of that album, but didn't quite take it over the top for me. I think it's missing one big anthem and it would be an all-timer. All love for Curtis, this is gonna be a 3.5/5 from me.

Milque, meet toast. I had this album on CD in 9th grade. Somehow it made it into the collection along with Linkin Park and the Beastie Boys. The songs aren't really bad per se, they're just so, so boring. Like, they took the elements that would make a song stand out and turned them down, so that any glimpse of a unique idea is buried beneath a glacier of bland coffeehouse drivel. There's not a single moment I can point to on the album, where I could picture anyone, not just me, saying "wow, that was cool." It's a 2.5/5 from me. Not aggressively bad, but determinedly mediocre.

This is an artist at the peak of her confidence, creating a totally singular project with world class collaborators. The music is crisp, languid, and twisty. Thoroughly contemporary, and in 1976 surely sounded like a version of the future. You could write a whole book about the lyrics, but suffice to say that they're poetic vulnerability, slices of a life on the road, cryptic missives from the mind of a Canadian drifter. I'll admit that I haven't given Joni a ton of time before, despite my wife being a super fan. This project grabbed me more than I was expecting, and I'm going to dole out a 4.5/ from me. Harmonics, texture, and contemplation.

Elvis Costello is another musical blind spot for me. Like The Smiths, I kind of wrote off a lot of 80s music for whatever reason, so I'm glad to be getting a chance to dig in. I feel like this is a weird intro album to his music, being his 9th, and the last one with The Attractions. Overall I'd say I wasn't blown away. It feels like music that was a refreshing alternative to a lot of the synthy, glammy pop that was happening at the time, but for me it just wasn't super compelling. His voice was pretty grating, the lyrics were a bit contrived, and the songs were pretty straight ahead rock and roll, with a few edgy twists. It didn't do much for me, but it did have a few interesting moments. I'll throw it a 3/5.

I mean what can you say about an album like this? Marvin was a beacon of soul, an avatar of rhythm. The grooves are so deep on here you run the risk of falling out between the notes. It's a wonderful album, but not totally consistent, at least to my ear. There are a couple tracks that kind of drag it down, and for it it'll get a 4/5 from me.

As iconic as this band is, they've always been a greatest hits act for me, and this album, while fun, didn't really change that. Queen have a couple really great tricks up their sleeve. Tight, expressive, and at times baroque arrangements; Brian May's incredible guitar work, Freddie's timeless voice and personality. Occasionally those things combine to make magic, and they did many times throughout their career. This album shows off those parts of Queen, though a bit unevenly. Killer Queen is definitely the standout, the rest of the tracks kind of get lost in a generic 70s rock pastiche. It's definitely a solid album, but not one I'll revisit any time soon. 3/5 from me.

This is one of those albums that's just part of my DNA. When I was getting into jazz this was one of my gateways, and it's been one I revisit fairly regularly. This was a great listen today, and reminded me how much I love this set of songs. Take Five is obviously an all time classic, but Blue Rondo is up there for me as well, what a perfect tune for the kind of optimistic daydreaming I used to do. An age gone. It's gonna be a 5/5 from me. It's an album of relatively simple melodies with lots of time feel playing beneath the surface. Shapes emerging and rearranging, collapsing and reforming under a gorgeous mid century album cover.

This was a great surprise. I had vaguely heard of Django Django before but had never given them a listen. I love any music that takes chances on blending styles and influences, and this album certainly does that. There's a dreaminess that runs throughout the project, interwoven with jangly surf rock, dancy drum and bass beats, middle eastern melodies, and quiet indie ballads. It makes sense that one of the band members is related to someone in the Beta Band, you can definitely hear similarities, particularly in the vocals. This was a fun listen for me, and I'll give it a 4.5/5

This is some good old straight ahead, slice of life American pop rock. It sounds great, the lyrics are engaging and erudite without being pretentious, and the songs are catchy. This kind of stuff isn't typically my cup of tea, but I'll admit I enjoyed the listen. I think Aimee's lyrics and song structure elevate it above a more generic sound. And I love any project that features an organ. 3.5/5 for me. Solid, not transcendent.

Interesting that this album is called "All Directions" because it really feels like it's being pulled in a bunch of directions, but not necessarily in a good way. There's a lot going on here, but just at a surface level, it seems like the band was trying to evolve from their early, more by-the-book vocal group sound, and infuse a funkier, more experimental element into their arrangements. And they succeed in a limited way. Papa Was A Rolling Stone is obviously a classic and for good reason, that bass line is undeniable, the beat is stone cold, and the lyrics tell a sad but compelling tale. It's also a long track, over three minutes before the vocals even kick in, which I love. They're taking chances. "Funky Music..." and "Run Charlie Run" coming in before give the first side of this album a distinct vibe, a loose and funky direction that almost completely falls away on side two. The back half of the album, though not bad by any means, falls into some schmaltzy snoozers that really aren't my taste. After getting a taste of what they could do on the first side, I found the second half disappointing and undercooked, with some bright spots here and there. It's a 3.5/5 from me.

I can practically feel the sweat flying off this man as he walks into the mic. What a wild ride. Obviously Little Richard was a trailblazer, King of Rock and Roll, unimpeachable performer, and all around dynamo. The sound is frantic, raw, and makes you want to move. This was a fun listen. My only critique is that many of the songs follow essentially the same pattern, and by the end his wailing was wearing a bit thin. It's gonna be a 4.5/5 from me, as a nod to the progenitor of the genre, I wish I could experience the energy in a 1950s dancehall.

IT'S BIG BEAT BRUV! I love this shit. Such a pure expression of funky 90s electronic exploration, created by one of the all time greats. I'll always love Fatboy and the Chemical Brothers, and this album is no exception. Not a lot of time to write reviews this week, I'm at a 4/5 from me.

This album is at the bottom of Portishead's discography, and I was kind of surprised to see it on this list, to be honest. There are some interesting ideas here, and they're exploring some different sonic territory, but it doesn't quite reach the highs of Dummy. It'll be a 3/5 from me.

It's a swingin' good time! I'll always be a huge Sinatra fan, and this has so many classic tunes one after another. Hard to imagine a world where I don't give this a 5, so I'll go ahead and do it.

It's a good album. I'm not a huge VM fan in general, but you can't deny his songwriting chops on a project like this. The back half lags compared to the first. 3.5/5 from me.

In a display of the cosmic connective power of music, I had actually just re-listened to this album last week, after getting the Temptations album "All Directions" from the generator that contains the sample on "Zealots." That small kismet aside, this is one of the best albums of all time. Certainly in the top five hip hop albums ever made. The production is sparse without being cold, the beats are futuristic while still retaining a lo-fi boom bap attitude. The lyrics are incredibly dense and referential, like all great hip hop projects you could peel the layers back on the lyrics for hundreds of listens and still catch new wordplay. Lauryn Hill is a generational talent, paired with Wyclef who is the coolest motherfucker in the world, and also a musical genius, and Pras who has some great verses and energy throughout this project. One thing I picked up on this time is how politically radical this album is, up there with RATM in terms of messaging and speaking truth to power. Much respect to the Fugees, I wish they had had more of an output but sometimes things burn so brightly they can't be kept alight for long. East 5/5 from me.

This is my shit. I love mid nineties British eclectic-electronic stuff, and this really scratched the itch. I had only heard the Fatboy Slim remix of Brimful, and though the original is slower and less dancy, I enjoyed the laid back nature of it all. It's a real groove you can hang out it. Feels very Mr. Scruff/ Ninja Tuna adjacent in the best way. I'm gonna go 4/5.

Bit of a rough go for me on this one, even as a big jazz enjoyer. Such a weird hodgepodge of an album, couldn't really find the through line of the project. Who was listening to this in 1984? Some OK instrumental tracks, but the rest delved deep into cheeseball territory. 2.5/5 from me.