1001 Albums Summary

I know "Stairway to Heaven" is the song everyone points out as Led Zeppelin's masterpiece, but "When the Levee Breaks" is what really stands out on this album for me. "Rock and Roll" is really good, too. Great record start to finish, though.

Good record. Some fun guitar sounds there, and John Fogarty's voice is iconic. Ending on "Keep on Chooglin'" is a choice - a fifth of the record's 34-minute runtime is that song. Lots of good stuff in here for such a short album.

Listen, I've listened to this record a thousand times. I can review it without another listen. But I did anyway! It remains a banger. Not a single bad track (though certainly some are better than others). Are GNR doing anything particularly special or original in this? No, not really, but they're playing some heavy blues rock exceedingly well, and I'll probably give this another thousand listens before I die.

This is certainly not he first time I've listened to this record, but it's always a good listen. I don't keep this on regular rotation, but I probably should. There's a reason it's on every "greatest hip hop records" list. Lauryn Hill's voice and flow are phenomenal and the beats backing her up are great. It overstays its welcome just a bit, though. Cutting her cover of "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" to be a single b-side or something might have benefited this some, if nothing else.

Another record I've listened to a lot, though it's been awhile, so it was nice to revisit. It starts out absolutely banging on the intro to "Bone Machine" and gives you a pretty great idea of where it's going. There's a good reason Pixies have influenced dozens of other bands. And 13 songs, 34 minutes? Hard to beat a record that gets you in and out that quick

I have a hard time with this one. I can't pretend I'm versed enough in jazz to really know how to talk about it. It's lovely music, though, which is about all I can really say.

I wasn't sure what to expect here, as I'm not typically a country listener, but it's really good! Nanci's voice is great, and the backing music does exactly what I needed. Standout tracks for me were "Banks of the Pontchartrain" and "Fly By Night". I might have to come back to this in the future.

I don't want to say this is bad, exactly, but yikes it did nothing for me. It's the sort of thing I'd expect to be played at a reasonable volume in a mid-tier restaurant. Forgettable background music, is what I mean. I won't be coming back to it, that's for sure.

I was excited to see this come up. I've certainly listened to Muddy Waters, but mostly within playlists, not a full album. And I was right to be. It's a great album! Excellent blues riffs. Loved it.

I've probably listened to this at some point, but beyond "Sunshine of Your Love" nothing is familiar. And it's....not very good beyond that? A couple other decent songs, but nothing I really care to listen to again.

Yeah, it's ridiculously misogynistic, homophobic, and profane, but goddamn is it good. You can feel their anger and rage at the lives they've lived up to that point.

Well, "21st Century Schizoid Man" is good. The rest? Well, it hasn't changed my opinion of prog much.

I had no idea to expect from this, but I really enjoyed it! Just some great vibes throughout. Fun beats and samples, some nice turntable work here and there. Really good album. Minus side was it's apparently not streaming anywhere other than YouTube, but that worked well enough.

My earliest memory of this was going to try to buy it at release from Best Buy. Their weekly Sunday circular showed it out that week, so I had my parents drive me there with whatever little money I had scrounged up to buy it. Well, new release day was Tuesday or Wednesday at that point, so they didn't have it. Never ended up buying it, for whatever reason, and it would be years before I actually listened to it in full. It's a good album. Not great, and I don't think we'd be talking about it too much today if it was from someone other than The Drummer from Nirvana right after Kurt killed himself. Dave shows a lot of range as both a guitarist (musician as a whole, really), and a vocalist, neither of which I would have expected at the time. I won't pretend I was super tapped into music in middle school, though. Solid record, and worth a spin now and then, but nothing particularly ground breaking.

It's a great album, but not Dre's best. Yes, it's misogynistic and homophobic. No, the language is not something you'd want blasting in your office. Yeah, Snoop is carrying a lot of the actual rap load, but that ain't a bad thing.

Nice record. The jamming's fun, and very chill. Can't complain about this at all, though I doubt it's something I'll come back to very much.

Ah here's a CD I used to have blasting in my car for years after release. I haven't listened to it in awhile, and some of it still holds up, but not all. Good record overall with some bangers, but it kind of peters out towards the end. Apple Music only has the "complete recordings", but I stopped at the end of the original release since that's what I was bopping to in 1999.

Well, I liked what I was able to listen to. There's four tracks that aren't available anywhere I can find. Anyway, I can't say the rapping is particularly good - he's mostly just talking over a beat. But what he's talking about remains relevant today in most cases. Good record, but not great.

I may have listened to this in the past, but I honestly can't remember. It's perfectly competent, if not particularly memorable soft indie rock. I didn't hate it and if it came up in a queue I wouldn't skip it, but I don't think I'd seek any of this out again.

I hold a fairly strong opinion that any double album would be improved by trimming down a few songs to single. This doesn't totally disabuse me of the notion, but it makes a strong case for that extra run time. It's big, ambitious, and is a constant surprise in audio form. I think it might still be better if it was shorter, but I enjoyed those 80 minutes.

I had high hopes from the first few seconds of this, then the rest of the record happened. I don't know how a 30-minute album can be repetitive, and yet, they managed to do it.

I've listened to a little New Order but never a full album that I can recall. It's really good! It evoked hanging out in an arcade in the '80s, though I'm a bit too young for that. Really enjoyed it the full way through

This came out in 1996? Really? I'd believe 1976. It's fine, I guess. Not my thing, maybe? I didn't hate it, but I won't come back to it.

I can't pretend I'm any sort of REM fan. They've always been around and perfectly fine, but not a band I've cared to really explore any more than even I've heard on the radio and whatever. This didn't really change my opinion but it's enjoyable enough.

This was really fun! Very approachable and enjoyable jazz album. The Latin sounds added a lot that you don't often get in a lot of jazz records. Really nice listen. I'll come back to this one.

There's a time and place I probably would have loved this, but those are not now. It's good, and there's some very enjoyable songs in here, but a lot of it just comes off as "sad bastard music". Or maybe it's just something I can ignore.

This was definitely not the first time I've given this a listen, and I really love it. I also don't think it's Fugazi's best album, but there's still plenty to love here. Just some good good post-hardcore that I'll keep coming back to.

It's fun! ABBA's a band that's been in and around for basically my entire life, though I've not really spent a ton of time listening to them. They're really good. The beats and backing tracks are really groovy and the singing harmonizes with it nicely.

I gotta say, when I saw this was an English singer-songwriter folk album, I wasn't too excited to listen to it, but it turned out to be really enjoyable! Nicely recorded, good guitar playing, and generally just very good. I'm going to be coming back to this one a lot, I think.

This is certainly not my first time listening to this album, though it's not my most listened-to Black Sabbath album, nor my favorite. It is, of course, very very good. "Supernaut" is a highlight, and there's a ton of guitar mastery present from top to bottom. Not a single bad track here.

I've never really been a Motörhead fan, though I appreciate them well enough. I'm also not a huge fan of live albums. I don't trust just how "live" they are and, really, I'd prefer to actually see a band live than listen to a recorded concert. Minor qualm, but it is one. Anyway, this is fast, energetic metal-ass metal record. Those guitars are just chugging and driving the whole thing forward. Lemmy's voice is Lemmy's voice, doing everything he needs it to it. It's a blast.

Brilliant! The progenitor of rock? Yeah, it's there. The beats, the chord changes, the singing, you can all see where it was going with this record. It's so good! Just fun to listen through the whole thing. I listened to the Deluxe Edition which includes a second disc of outtakes and hearing him talk to the producer is fun, too.

I've heard of the Beta Band from John Cusack vehicle "High Fidelity" and have listened to them a bit because of it. They've never really interested me enough to continue. Some of it's good enough but nothing that really catches me. I'm sure this will repeat in my head again in the future.

We've all heard "Fast Car" at this point, especially after a white male country singer won an award covering it. Tracy's original is better. The rest of the album? Also great! I'm not usually into singer/songwriter kind of stuff, but it's really great and she just has a ton to say. Beautiful singing, the backing tracks work well with, and I just can't say anything bad about this.

Here's an album that brings me back to childhood. My parents had this in the van's CD changer pretty frequently, so I heard it a lot. Do I like it because of nostalgia or because it's actually good? Hard to say, but it's a nice listen.

That Robert Crumb album art tho! Anyway, I've never been much a fan of Janis Joplin's voice, but when it works, it works. And here? It works! Mostly! I enjoyed it well enough, but probably won't come back to this any time soon.

I can't lie. I wasn't too happy with having to listen to the Beatles' second album. Their later stuff is much more appealing to me. But it was still good! I still much prefer their later stuff when they were doing more original music versus half of this being covers that were often not as good as the originals, but they were getting their footing still. You can see why they were as popular as they were and where they were going just a few years later.

I had no idea what to expect from this. I've probably seen the album cover, but I don't think I've ever listened to it or even looked too much into it, expecting it to be a hair metal record I wouldn't be too interested in. It's not that! At all! It's glam rock way more reminiscent of David Bowie or Queen which I enjoyed quite a lot! Good singing, great guitars, just a fun record.

This starts with "Sympathy for the Devil". Come on. How can you open a record like that? OH IT GETS BETTER? Sure, open with "Sympathy" then. Yeah, it's a great album. Nice, bluesy rock, with a lot to say. The Stones were rocking at this point in their career.

Ah, the late 90s, when rock was dead and electronica was the new hotness. It's a fun album and definitely puts you in a specific time. Do I need to listen to it again? Not really.

We've all heard the title track. It opens the record and it's a totally fine soft rock song. It mostly just goes down from there. There's nothing else on this that's particularly interesting.

I dunno, it was fine, I guess. Very little stood out to me as particularly enjoyable or interesting until the last track, "You're My Girl", hit. That one was really good.

Somehow this is a band that's completely eluded me. I know of them and I'm sure I've heard some of their songs here and there, but I don't recall them specifically. Anyway, this was a pleasant surprise. Enjoyable indie sound throughout, and a generally good record.

I've listened to this dozens of times at this point. "Wonderwall" is a meme, but it's a good song. Nothing bad to say about this album, but it's so big, I can't really think of anything original to say other than that I unironically like it.

15 songs, 39 minutes and not a stinker among them! This is where the Beatles were really turning a corner to stuff I'm more fond of. (Not to knock their older stuff, but as they became more experimental, I liked it.) "Norwegian Wood" has long been one of my favorites, but what the hell is "Run For Your Life"!?

This is an interesting one. I can't say I loved all of it, but there's some good, experimental stuff in there. You can tell that this was very influential to a lot of later musicians who I adore, even if it's not entirely something I want to listen to on its own.

What a fun record! I've never listened to this before and really not much Elvis Costello, so it was a good listen. Some good riffs throughout, nice grooves, just generally enjoyable.

I love when this gives me a surprise. I would have never listened to this on my own, and I loved it! It's not long, and more than a quarter of its runtime is a single track, but it offers beautiful sitar covers of some familiar tracks, plus what (at least to my ears) is original music. Gorgeous tones throughout, and just a lovely album.

By 1969, the Stones had developed more of their own voice. Still them, but not quite the straight blues rock band they had been earlier. It's some great music, as should be expected.

I've listened to a bit of Talking Heads, but not this album. I didn't recognize any of the songs, but enjoyed it. Some good energy and musicianship throughout

Ah, 1996. "Loser" was still all over the radio and Odelay was Beck's follow-up album. Suddenly "Where It's At" is all over the radio. I don't think I listened to this record in full until a few years later, but I've certainly done so now and then. It's a big mish-mash of a tons of different styles of music. Everything from 70s rock to hip-hop is in there, and it's all really good. A real masterpiece of an album.

Oh this was a good one. Loved every minute! You can tell how influential she was as well as who was influencing her.

Folky, bluesy, country-y guitar music. It was okay, but not really my thing, I think.

I don't have anything original to say about this. It rocks

I'm sure I've listened to this at some point. Gorillaz is one of my favorite bands, but it's been a long time, for sure. It's not their best album, but it's still good. There's a lot of different music styles ranging from what could have been Blur b-sides to hip hop to electronic, since Albarn was still trying to figure out what Gorillaz actually sounds like. Good record.

I'm a quite a fan of Petty with or without the Heartbreakers, but this one is far from his best.

Honestly I hate that I liked this as much as I did

This could have come out at any point from the 60s to present. It's perfectly fine but I don't think I'd have missed anything not listening to it.

I remember liking this more in the past. Am I biased because I've listened to this a bunch, or it just not as great as I remember?

Repetitive as hell

If this was only one disc, it would be a 2/5. I turned it off a few songs into the second disc. I'm sure there's a decent record here if you cut out 55 songs, but I'm not gonna find out.

I liked Bayou Country a touch more, but this is still a great record. John Fogerty's voice is iconic

Ah here's a CD I used to have blasting in my car for years after release. I haven't listened to it in awhile, and some of it still holds up, but not all. Good record overall with some bangers, but it kind of peters out towards the end. There's some high highs (the radio hits, mostly), and some low lows.