1001 Albums Summary

Just a perfect album. Simon’s writing feels effortless, there’s this undertone of Zydeco without the insufferable nature of actual Zydeco, and the bass is just all over the goddamn place in the best way. The only problem this album has is that some of the saddest lyrics are undercut by a bass line just going nuts.

It’s absolutely nuts that this is the SIXTH album from the Beatles when they’d just really broken out THREE years prior. You get that that’s nuts, right? That’s like if Taylor Swift went from Speak Now to Folklore in just THREE YEARS. I also love that right out the gate Paul McCartney gets his soul voice going. I swear he’s like having two singers inside of one guy. This album gets them out of the “yeah yeah yeah” phase and into the more trippy experimental Yellow Submarine type shit, and these dudes were firing on all cylinders. John’s got his wacky lyrics and they’re not even all about girls this time, Paul’s takin the bass and his voice for a goddamn walk, George brought a sitar along and tuned it wrong to play it oh so right, and Ringo’s there too I guess!

Being American, a lot of early Brit-pop is really never made its way to the states, with some obvious exceptions. A severe downside to this is that Song 2 was really the only Blur song I was ever exposed to, and while that song rips, it’s not exactly a testament to musicianship. Parklife, on the other hand, is a cover to cover ripper that showcases some amazing songwriting and skilled musicianship. Given my previous knowledge of the band, I was surprised any album of them would be on the list, but now that I’ve listened to Parklife, I get it.

Eh.

Pretty solid pop rock album with some sick ass bass tone. Love it.

I mean, this is just an objectively incredible jazz album, and I’m never going to be able to write anything that hasn’t already been said about it. I will say that naming it “Birth of the Cool” and it being one of the best jazz albums of all time is truly the musical equivalent of Babe Ruth calling his shot.

This band just ain’t for me, but even I know this isn’t their best record.

This band sounds like if you told AI what post punk sounded like and it shat this out. Gotta say though, pretty impressive to have a band with two vocalists where neither can sing. That’s bold.