My 1001 Albums Journey

Albums Rated

3.11

Average Rating

Complete

1005 albums remaining

Rating Distribution

Rating Timeline

Taste Profile

1970

Favorite Decade

Folk

Favorite Genre

other

Top Origin

Wordsmith

Rater Style ?

5-Star Albums

1-Star Albums

Breakdown

By Genre

Top Styles

By Decade

By Origin

Albums

You Love More Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
Django Django Django Django	5	3.2	+1.8
Live At The Star Club, Hamburg Jerry Lee Lewis	5	3.26	+1.74
Nebraska Bruce Springsteen	5	3.32	+1.68
The Köln Concert Keith Jarrett	5	3.39	+1.61
Blood On The Tracks Bob Dylan	5	3.66	+1.34
Guitar Town Steve Earle	4	2.79	+1.21
The Contino Sessions Death In Vegas	4	2.9	+1.1

You Love Less Than Most

Album	You	Global	Diff
New York Dolls New York Dolls	1	3.12	-2.12
Run-D.M.C. Run-D.M.C.	1	3.12	-2.12
The Sun Rises In The East Jeru The Damaja	1	2.91	-1.91
Da Capo Love	1	2.81	-1.81
Group Sex Circle Jerks	1	2.75	-1.75
To Pimp A Butterfly Kendrick Lamar	2	3.63	-1.63
A Love Supreme John Coltrane	2	3.63	-1.63
Calenture The Triffids	1	2.55	-1.55
xx The xx	2	3.35	-1.35
Figure 8 Elliott Smith	2	3.33	-1.33

5-Star Albums (6)

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1-Star Albums (6)

All Ratings

Out Of The Blue

Electric Light Orchestra

3/5

Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music

Ray Charles

3/5

Nebraska

Bruce Springsteen

5/5

To Pimp A Butterfly

Kendrick Lamar

2/5

Gorillaz

3/5

The Score

Fugees

4/5

Le Tigre

3/5

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

Lauryn Hill

3/5

Pretenders

3/5

Definitely Maybe

Oasis

4/5

Van Halen

3/5

Live At The Star Club, Hamburg

Jerry Lee Lewis

5/5

Heartbreaker

Ryan Adams

2/5

Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs

Derek & The Dominos

4/5

Cheap Thrills

Big Brother & The Holding Company

3/5

Maggot Brain

Funkadelic

4/5

Group Sex

Circle Jerks

1/5

The only good thing about it was that it was short. To me punk needs to be intense, clever, or have a fun singalong attitude. This had none of those.

Django Django

5/5

A great discovery. Equal parts fun, weird, clever, and groovy. Particularly Skies over Cairo and Hail Bop.

The Atomic Mr Basie

Count Basie & His Orchestra

3/5

Harvest

Neil Young

4/5

Melodrama

Lorde

3/5

American Gothic

David Ackles

3/5

Uneven. The title track was off putting, but the following ballads made up for it (Love’s Enough and One Night Stand). Like a strange cross of Randy Newman and Charles Aznavour. Not bad.

Lady Soul

Aretha Franklin

5/5

Even the songs I didn’t know were great. She’s a force of nature.

Jazz Samba

Stan Getz

3/5

Rust Never Sleeps

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

3/5

Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

Arctic Monkeys

3/5

Younger Than Yesterday

The Byrds

4/5

A nice surprise. Good variety between classic folk pop, weird space, and eastern tuning psych leaning stuff. At least 3 great songs with maybe 1 clunker along the way.

Blood, Sweat & Tears

3/5

The Sun Rises In The East

Jeru The Damaja

1/5

I think it’s not good. His voice is fine, but the lyrics are not clever or interesting and the production is weak. Sorry East Coast, this isn’t it.

Blunderbuss

Jack White

3/5

Remain In Light

Talking Heads

3/5

I’m a little surprised I didn’t like this more than I did. But still good energy and fun. I think the outtakes were some of the best tracks.

Lam Toro

Baaba Maal

3/5

The Seldom Seen Kid

Elbow

4/5

What a great album. Melancholy, weird, poppy. A nice mix, glad to be introduced to these guys.

New York Dolls

1/5

American Idiot

Green Day

4/5

Brilliant Corners

Thelonious Monk

3/5

Sign 'O' The Times

Prince

3/5

As a songwriter, Prince is maddeningly inconsistent. I wanted to like this album, but there are just a lot of clunkers in here. The high points like I Could Never and The Cross are great nonetheless.

NEU! 75

Neu!

4/5

Airy, fun, odd, made me smile. What more do you want?

Actually

Pet Shop Boys

2/5

What a cynical and empty album. Ok for the nostalgia listen I suppose but that’s it.

Figure 8

Elliott Smith

2/5

It wasn’t actively bad, but I have already forgotten about it. 100% vanilla.

Pornography

The Cure

3/5

Run-D.M.C.

1/5

Maybe this was groundbreaking at the time but no extra credit for that. It doesn’t stand up. Corny and uninteresting.

Queens of the Stone Age

Queens Of The Stone Age

4/5

Superunknown

Soundgarden

3/5

Black Sabbath

4/5

Was expecting abrasive proto-metal but was surprised to hear more like classic rock tuned a little darker. Very good. Also, I’m a sucker for sick bass lines what can I say?

Songs In The Key Of Life

Stevie Wonder

4/5

21 songs… I feel I’m on a one man crusade against double albums. If this was trimmed to the 9 or 10 best it would be perfect. Very high highs.

The Contino Sessions

Death In Vegas

4/5

A standout album. Really interesting mix of songs that were enjoyable all the way through. With one exception - Aisha was a poor attempt at being edgy or something. A track to skip next time. Otherwise awesome.

Vol. 4

Black Sabbath

3/5

Tapestry

Carole King

4/5

Clear, simple, powerful. Is there a better songwriter in the world? Great voice too. Great album.

Garbage

3/5

Led Zeppelin III

Led Zeppelin

4/5

Creative, innovative, and displayed a wide variety of styles (almost to the point of losing coherence). Best stuff for me was Gallows, Loving You, and Roy Harper.

There's A Riot Goin' On

Sly & The Family Stone

2/5

Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black

Public Enemy

3/5

For early rap, it’s better than most. That’s not really a high bar to clear, but still. Clever and energetic.

Guitar Town

Steve Earle

4/5

The album has enough twang and introspection to separate it from straightforward Americana - all for the better. Enough variation to keep you interested in the next track. (I really could have done without Little Rock n Roller though…) A gem of an album otherwise.

Guero

Beck

3/5

Started off strong with the first 2 tracks. Guero in particular was energetic and fun. But the rest of the album kind of wandered around and felt more sterile.

Tres Hombres

ZZ Top

3/5

Good jams. Fun.

Da Capo

Love

1/5

Ok, I like psych and experimental stuff as much as as the next guy. But I did not like this. The voice was amateur and cringy, parts seemed random without any plan or coherence.

Five Leaves Left

Nick Drake

3/5

Let’s start with the good news. The instrumentation is great. A good use of different instruments throughout, and well played. Didn’t think I’d like bongos and cello in the same song, but here we are. But Nick’s voice is not my style. Lacks range and seems to run flat a little? The late 60s are a crowded field, and this album doesn’t break through.

Calenture

The Triffids

1/5

I was rooting for these fellas, they seemed nice. All album long I thought: the next song is going to be good. But alas… no.

Iron Maiden

3/5

The Genius Of Ray Charles

Ray Charles

3/5

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme

Simon & Garfunkel

4/5

Great stuff here. The hits are hits for a reason - great melodies well thought out. A nice surprise was A Simple Desultory Philippic. That’s the most fun song I’ve heard in a long time. It loses a star for the 2 songs that felt like filler. Which is odd for a 28 min album.

It's A Shame About Ray

The Lemonheads

2/5

It’s not a good sign when the best song in the album (by far) is a cover. Although Mrs. Robinson was pretty peppy and fun - enough to pull this out of 1 star territory. Otherwise it was pretty bland. For mid 90s pseudo indy sound, let’s just do Alanis or Barenaked Ladies. Even Counting Crows in a pinch.

Blood On The Tracks

Bob Dylan

5/5

Just great. I guess I’ve made peace with his voice. After you do that, the songs shine. Similar themes but with variation of style, all well done. Tangled and Simple Twist of Fate are a knockout 1-2 to start an album. Jack of Hearts gets a little long but I’m nitpicking.

Aja

Steely Dan

3/5

Music From Big Pink

The Band

3/5

As I’ve said before, the late 60’s is a crowded field, so you have to stand out. The Band does not. They are more like A Band. However, The Weight is good enough to push them to 3 stars by itself. Chest Fever was interesting too, but that’s about it.

Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby

Girls Against Boys

2/5

Two Dancers

Wild Beasts

2/5

The first minute was promising, but then the vocals came in. Everything just felt a little off. Would’ve been a good instrumental album though.

Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite

Maxwell

3/5

Well that’s about as smooth as it gets. Not bad

Californication

Red Hot Chili Peppers

3/5

It’s not so much music as a vibe. To be fair, it’s a pretty fun vibe though.

The xx

2/5

Yes I’d like to order a scoop of vanilla ice cream on a slice of white bread with a marshmallow on top.

Orbital 2

Orbital

2/5

I don’t think I can be an effective judge of electronica. No idea if this is supposed to be good. At no point did I have the urge to dance. Head bop, sure. But not dance.

Real Life

Magazine

3/5

The opener was a bit of an identity crisis: punk, psych, space, prog. But I guess a scatterbrained approach is a feature not a bug for punk. Uneven, but with some fun stuff. Definitively Gaze and The Light Pours out on Me are my highlights.

Dub Housing

Pere Ubu

3/5

Against all common sense, I sort of liked it. Grating, out of tune (or maybe microtonal), and with vocals that make Dylan sound like Pavarotti, it was still fun and made me smile. Each track made me eager to find out what fresh hell they would send me to next. That’s something. Call it a palate cleanser between meticulously crafted Brit Pop albums.

A Love Supreme

John Coltrane

2/5

Well, I guess I’m in the group of people who don’t “get it.” I wish I liked this. Maybe sax squeak doesn’t hit the same as guitar amp feedback for me?

Blonde On Blonde

Bob Dylan

4/5

Loose and fun. Not his best for me, but still very good.

The Yes Album

Yes

4/5

Prog is an acquired taste, I admit. But this album is lush, inventive, fun, and very well executed. An easy 4. Usually when I think of prog, Rush comes to mind first but this album might change that.

I See You

The xx

3/5

Pablum is the word that comes to mind for the vast majority of this album. Ground down to the simplest easiest to digest basic pop music. However, the final track Test Me absolutely saved it. That was quite good.

The Köln Concert

Keith Jarrett

5/5

Grand, sweeping, but also dissonant and innovative. It’s wild to think this was improvised. The encore is the cherry on top.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

3/5

Arrival

ABBA

3/5

These cornballs are alright. It’s not technically very impressive or innovative, but they did find a unique sound that is pleasant enough.

Siamese Dream

The Smashing Pumpkins

4/5

Loud, varied, unique voice. A great album for its time and it stands up pretty well.

Butterfly

Mariah Carey

2/5

You see, I’m not opposed to the theoretical concept of Mariah. In fact early 1990 Mariah is pretty good. She was a kid who sounded like a fully grown adult. Ironically, on an album called Butterfly, we have an exercise in regression where she’s a fully grown adult trying to sound like a kid with this wispy voice and toddler like cooing. As a listener we’re begging for her to belt one out Vision of Love style, just like we all know she can. Instead Mariah retreats to her safe space, which is dozens of glissandos for no apparent reason whatsoever. The lyrics are bad too, a grab bag of rhyming platitudes. Except for one flash of truth telling midway through the album: “Still I feel like that child as I look at the moon. Maybe I grew up a little too soon.” A great voice wasted for 56 minutes.

Abbey Road

Beatles

4/5

Once you see the cover, the expectations go through the roof. I was surprised at how varied and experimental the album was. Like any exploration there were a few dead ends. Of the songs new to me I liked that Octopus one and the medley of short ones at the end was good too. A very well done album, but not a masterpiece.