1001 Albums Summary

Some gold- Band on the Run, Let me roll it, and to a lesser extent Bluebird and Jet. Some stinkers on here as well though- album really tails off with those last 4 tracks. McCartneys thing of stitching bits together is great when the parts are good, but in stuff like Picassos last words, it’s simply a succession of bad bits. Also the ‘callbacks’ to other tracks on the album feel really shoehorned in. Think the strength of the aforementioned bangers do, on balance, make it a good album though.

personal taste of course but prefer Elliot smith stuff without the band, feel like it distracts from the rawness/vulnerability of the songs. Also the drum sound is objectively bad (snare sound is gross, especially in tracks like Alameda). That aside I enjoyed plenty of stuff on here- I preferred the second half from “No Name no 5” onwards. Favourite track probably the closer “Say Yes”. Some of the Melodies across the album are lovely- and he’s got a great thing of throwing in a certain chord or a lyric that really pulls you into the song

The production is great- sounds so crisp and big and 80's. Really liked 'Baby be Mine' and 'PYT', they feel closer to that disco/funk sound (but more synthy) that I like in some of the earlier MJ stuff. As for the hits- 'Billie Jean' and 'Wanna be Startin' Somethin' are cool, but I'm not really into 'Thriller' itself. I imagine this will happen quite a bit during the whole listening project- but it's really hard to be objective about some tracks when they are so ubiquitous and you've heard them so many times. Actively think 'Beat It' is just not very good, the guitar is annoying (dunno if theres any Van Halen to come on this project- but not looking forward to it if so) and I don't like the vocal melody at all. Would have given this album 3 stars but unfortunately will have to deduct 2 stars due to the guys overzealous approach to kids

An Easy 5 stars! Lloyd and Verlaine two guitar all-timers and they were doing it in the same band- wild stuff. Too many great songs to mention, not much you can say that hasn’t already been said about marquee moon (the song)- it’s a masterpiece! One of my favourite albums and always will be

This is probably an objectively good album but it’s just not for me unfortunately. There’s a lot of ‘ballads’ and it just doesn’t do it for me! I prefer some of the jauntier, almost Caberet style tunes- and there’s some interesting lyrics throughout,

Brilliant album! Experimental with lots of left turns, odd stuff happening, cool instrumentation- but without veering into becoming inaccessible. Favourite track is the opener “Penguin Cafe Single”- what a tune!