1001 Albums Summary

My initial impression of the album was betrayed by my difficulty listening to song lyrics. Reading the lyrics opened up a whole other world to me, one where I saw the album's melancholy, its witty, often dark humor, and a still-poignant criticism of the British society, in its full colors. I can say I'm still not done with this album, and it's exactly what defines a 10/10 for me: something that's not just incredibly well-crafted, but also has lots of layers to it, the layers that entice coming back to the record all over again and make it ever better the more you peel them off.

This album screams 80s: a record where synths and guitars blare in unison to accommodate the zany, rebellious attitude of a persona that dares people to witness and accept her as a pop icon of the century. The dare more than paid off with this one, as this record is worth all its significance just for the now-iconic "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", but it's hardly a one-song record, and there is quite a solid bit of wit and craftsmanship involved in bringing it all together. "She's So Unusual" screams progressiveness in an era that some people these days try to insist was an era of long-lost conservative values, and it is a welcome reminder that things were never as simple as that. The biggest song from this album, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", is itself a great example of that, as Lauper effectively took a song about a wayward womanizer, rewrote it to be a female empowerment party anthem, and wore it with great pride. Aside from the album's biggest hit, there is a surprisingly high amount of song covers on this album, but none of them feel derivative of the artists Lauper covers. "Money Changes Everything", "When You Were Mine", and "All Through the Night" were great picks on her side, and all fit fell into her image crafted throughout the album. She truly makes these songs her own. The all-original songs are just as high in quality, with great highlights being a beautiful melancholic love ballad "Time After Time", as well as super raunchy "She Bop", which celebrates female sexuality in a humorous manner, paired with instrumentation that sounds nigh-pornographic, adding a lot to the self-awareness on display.

I don't know how to feel about instrumental jazz and how to approach it. I appreciate the craftsmanship at least, and the significance is definitely notable enough for inclusion.

Reminds me a lot of Ramones. A slobber knocker of an album right from the get go, with the lyricism that is rather primitive but pointed, making the societal rage against the failing systems accessible to the masses.

I still do not exactly understand how to approach jazz, but this is a very interesting album. Clearly a boundary-pushing jazz record, its hardcore punk influences are clearly visible and deeply striking. This record revels in rebeliousness, and I deeply appreciate it.

Quite an okay album. An interesting preview into things they'd be doing way better after this album, but doesn't feel very remarkable to me.

I appreciate that I got to listen to this, but it doesn't resonate too much with me and a lot of people claim it's one of the signs that the book isn't that good at showcasing African music, mostly sticking to what they claim waters things down for Western perspectives. I've certainly heard more exciting albums in my life, even coming from Africa.

The significance of this album to the mainstream music scene is understandable, but most of their output fails to grip me. Still pretty good overall, I'd say.

American boomer rock. Hard to say anything else about it.

I called it butt rock as a joke before even listening, but it turns out it is butt rock indeed. It is my kind of butt rock, so I enjoy it.

Yeah, this album is influential. It very much is influential. They did all of this way before many of my favorites did it today. The influence of this album transcends the people influenced directly by The Beatles. I'm impressed.

I am somewhat puzzled by this album's near-universal acclaim at times, as it's by no means perfect; its low spots are quite good, but they are still low spots that bring down consistency. Nonetheless, it has some absolute classics in Heroes and The Secret Life of Arabia, and the two out of three ambient tracks this has were quite impressive.