1001 Albums Summary

Falls just short in a lot of ways for me. Not catchy enough to be good '70s folk pop, not poetic enough to be good Blues or standard Folk, not leaning into influences enough to match up to Graceland. Highlights: "Run That Body Down", "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard"

Overstays its welcome - sounds very unique at first but ends up having very little variety in instrumentation, structure, vocals, lyrics, etc. Too goofy for me at times :'( Highlights: "Girls and Boys", "Badhead", "The Debt Collector", "To the End"

I fear most of these are not very interesting pop songs! Adele is just so much worse at being sad than emo singers and I do not really care about or identify with her relationships! Highlight: "Rolling in the Deep"

Warm and fun as expected! Nice to listen to all the way through. Highlights: "Coat of Many Colors", "My Blue Tears", "Here I Am"

Fun and some songs have interesting background instrumentation but it's always overlaid with boring synth. I guess I could see not liking this album if I was a parent in 1992. Highlights: "The Day The N-z Took Over", "Lil' Ghetto Boy", "A N-a Witta Gun"

Very nice dynamics (from song to song) and textures. I don't love his voice or lyrics but I get the allure. Every song pretty enjoyable Highlights: "I Remember Me", "Friday Night Fever"

Fun, bouncy, interesting even when the content is most grotesque Highlights: "What They Hittin' Foe?", "A Gangsta's Fairytale", "Rollin' Wit the Lench Mob", "The Mob"

This is like the laziest Metallica tribute band's first album of new content. No interesting songs really. Also "The Frayed Ends of Sanity" is based on the Winkies' chant from The Wizard of Oz??? Highlights: "Eye of the Beholder" kinda, "To Live Is to Die" because mostly instrumental

Very eclectic and off-kilter, mostly fun. I like the tone shift of the last few songs Highlights: "Heroes", "Moss Garden", "Neuköln"

Little did they know that he was going to get so much freakier... Highlights: "Girl from the North Country", "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall", "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right", "Oxford Town", "Corrina, Corrina"

Tries to be very smooth and sometimes succeeds, but other times alternates between goofy and dry. Highlights: "Smoke 'Em", "Methadonia"

Absurd flow and nice beats for an hour. Most songs are highlights Highlights: "Shame on a N-a", "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'", "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing ta F' Wit", "C.R.E.A.M.", "Method Man"

There are so many things happening all the time and none of them are interesting Highlights: "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1", "In the Morning of the Magicians"

When they breach out da acoustic I go :O, better than previous listens and nice to sit through Highlights: "Mother", "Goodbye Blue Sky", "Is There Anybody Out There?", "Comfortably Numb"

Keeps on driving in a fun way, some precisely vague production if you know what I'm saying Highlights: "Something Against You", "Gigantic", "River Euphrates", "Where Is My Mind?", "Vamos"

Neat album for its time but one of those ones that has really lost its individuality over the years. Highlights: "Isi", "Leb' wohl"

Every song felt like the bog standard vanilla 80s in a different way. "Money for Nothing" is Foreigner, "Why Worry" is Kenny Rogers, "One World" is Stevie Wonder. All imperfect comparisons but close enough to get across how bland most of the album was. Highlights: "Walk of Life"

Like every folk punk band since, they have some crazy bangers but many songs are just not super fun or interesting or nice. Highlights: "Blister In The Sun", "Please Do Not Go", "Gone Daddy Gone", "Good Feeling"

Listening to jazz always makes me feel like a knuckle-dragging thoughtless hopeless joyless ape. Too sleepy for this anyways. Highlights: "Blue in Green"

I have a feeling this album was very influential on an era/genre of music that I generally want to avoid.

These guys sound like the 90s but also UNIQUE and GOOD??? Definitely an uphill battle against my biases. I like this more than Melon Collie on first listen. Highlights: "Cherub Rock", "Today", "Soma", "Silverfuck"

If they had just started playing this in airports in 1978 we would be living in a utopia by now

Great performances and rhythms, but things start to drag on at points. Highlight: "Zombie"

Very easy listening and hits some cool motifs

Interesting underlying rhythms and great flow through the album Highlights: "Kowalski", "Motorhead"

Falls into a great groove sometimes, but the melody and content are not really there for me. Highlights: "Ice Cold Ice", "Too Much Spice", "No Reservations"

I can't imagine going this hard and looking like musicians did in '66 Highlights: "Lost Woman", "Rack My Mind", "Hot House of Omagararshid"

Arcade Fire are known for their ability to make a good song. Unfortunately they sometimes choose to ignore this ability and make a bad song instead. Highlights: "The Suburbs", "Empty Room", "Suburban War", "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)"

More very influential music that is maybe just not very interesting to listen to now. Keith Moon goes off though.

Welcome back Elvis! I don't think this guy is supposed to be listened to in album format. Highlights: "Fever", "Dirty, Dirty Feeling"

Keeps the pace going and shakes it up pretty regularly. Had to stop adding highlights, most of the album could make the list. Highlights: "Wonder Wonder", "Survival", "Plenty Nonsense"

Got some big hits here. Mic quality, backing vocals, and lyrics give the effect of a crooked holy man singing to his congregation. Highlights: "Papa Won't Leave You, Henry", "Straight to You", "Jack the Ripper"

Opens with their all-time hard rock song but mainly excels in the softer moments. Highlights: "Immigrant Song", "Tangerine", "That's the Way"

This guy loves Dre more than anything in the whole world. Perhaps the most hideous album cover of all time. Highlights: "Murder Was the Case", "Gz and Hustlas"

Crazy, strange bangers broken up by some joyless ugly songs. I can't come up with a sufficiently convoluted analogy for the impression this album gives me Highlights: "Hussel", "Mango Pickle Down River", "The Turn", "Xr2", "Paper Planes"

Very funky and fun, I like the diverse samples but "Stop This Crazy Thing" sounds like a Big Bad Voodoo Daddy song which is a cardinal sin Highlights: "People Hold On", "Smoke Dis One", "Not Paid Enough"

I did not know Brits were allowed to go off! Unfortunately a bit repetitive for much of the album. Highlights: "Ace of Spades", "Overkill"

Groovy and occasionally even funky. The songs that I know from other artists were unpleasant. Highlights: "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight", "You Walk Your Way"

American New Wave is so fun and vibrant and punky, why were the Brits incapable of this? Highlights: "Our Lips are Sealed", "How Much More", "We Got the Beat", "Can't Stop the World"

All the instrumentals and most of the lyrics are just so garish. In between the occasional stylistic ice pick to the brain it is pretty boring. Highlights: "Cherish", "Keep It Together"

Fun and quirky, etc. Highlights: "Paper", "Memories Can't Wait"

Nothing way too gripping but very listenable, I can see why these albums sold so easily. Highlights: "Eruption", "Little Dreamer", "Ice Cream Man"

Prince solidifies his reputation as the horniest human in all of history, just ahead of Genghis Khan. Some fun and funky instrumentals that run long, but only a couple overstay their welcome. Highlights: "Delirious"

Very dark and moody but fun and with catchy melodies also! Highlights: "Rio", "Lonely in Your Nightmare", "Hold Back the Rain"

Pretty repetitive but nice melodies, generally what you get out of 60s soul-pop. Highlights: "You Don't Own Me", "Once Upon a Time", "Summer is Over"

More varied instrumentation and vibes than any other grunge album I've heard. These boys were bangin em out proficiently. Highlights: "Even Flow", "Black", "Oceans"

Some nice variety and occasional plucking but not altogether that different from a few better albums I've heard from the same era. Highlights: "Come in the Morning", "Ain't No Use"

Done heard it many times!

Many bangers but at least as much filler via interludes and experiments that I am not necessarily down with. Surprised to enjoy Speakerboxxx more. "Spread" is one of the greatest beats I've ever heard but man oh man do I not enjoy that song. Highlights: "GhettoMusick", "Flip Flop Rock", "Last Call", "Hey Ya!", "Take Off Your Cool"

Very neat midpoint between early and classic rock. Feels like a drunken ramble at points and highly tailored at others. Highlights: "32-20", "Evil Hearted Ada", "Louie Louie"

The 90s popular rock scene was just atrocious. Most formulaic, bland genre until 2010s country. All songs are basically the same so no highlights for this album.

I'm not a huge fan of either classic hip hop or '80s rock so perhaps not the group for me. Highlights: "It's Tricky", "Is It Live"

Lots of varied instruments and fun, fast-paced blues stuff but drags on without much change from song to song. Highlights: "Rocks Off", "Sweet Virginia", "Let It Loose"

This album is bonkers good. Unmatched hit after hit. Writing this during the first seconds of the album because we been knew. Highlights: "Movin' Out", "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant", "Only the Good Die Young"

This recording would be among country's best even without the marketing or setting. Those aspects send it to the stratosphere of music history without detracting in any way from listenability. Highlights: "Folsom Prison Blues", "25 Minutes to Go", "Give My Love to Rose", "Greystone Chapel"

I appreciate that some people enjoy this album but I am just not there. The instrumental work is shoved to the background so we can listen to fairly unpleasant melodies. Guitar is nice when they use it though Highlights: "Sir Rockaby", "Freedom Rock", "Olé Mulholland"

I'm sure I miss a lot because I'm a knuckle-dragging moron but still a very dense, listenable jazz album. Highlight: "Pursuance"

Another day, another simulated sex interlude. Highlights: "Gimme the Loot", "Juicy", "Everyday Struggle"

Pleasant and unobstructive swingy classic pop songs as expected! No smarmy remarks this time. Highlights: "You Make Me Feel So Young", "Pennies from Heaven", "I've Got You Under My Skin"

Great playing but not ideal for casual or background music for me. Unfortunately that's the lens I'm listening to all of these albums through. Highlights: "Stormy Monday", "You Don't Love Me", "Whipping Post"

Some early 70s psychedelic is so much more intense than the hard rock of the time and it seems like it took so long to wrap back around to that intensity. Not a fan of the fart sounds though. Highlights: "Can You Get to That", "Super Stupid", "Wars of Armageddon"

I want to be the tillerman so bad. He has a whole pot of tea and a bowl of honey or something and some milk, sun beating down on his back, friend casting lightning spells. He has it all. And just for a moment, two minutes through Into White, I was the tillerman. Highlights: "Wild World", "Into White", "Father and Son"

Broadly eclectic sound but not a whole ton of variety within or between songs. All very neat noises though. Highlights: "★", "Lazarus", "Girl Loves Me"

Easy listen with a nice groove and a few standout melodies. Highlights: "Care of Cell 44", "Brief Candles", "Time of the Season"

Really groovy, roughly three decades ahead of its time. Much easier listen than the other Velvet Underground I've heard. Wish "The Murder Mystery" was like half as long Highlights: "Candy Says", "Jesus", "After Hours"

All blends together (in a good way) and hits a really fun mood. Highlights: "Mentira", "Luna y sol", "Malegría"

This turned out like every other Arcade Fire album for me, where a couple songs hit hard and the rest feels like filler. I'm not very convinced of the gloomy sound. Highlights: "Keep the Car Running", "Black Wave / Bad Vibrations", "(Antichrist Television Blues)"

My least favorite of the trilogy but still a legendary inflection point and many good songs. Highlights: "She Belongs to Me", "Outlaw Blues", "Gates of Eden"

Chill and very mildly funky, fine ambience but not for me. Highlight: "Four Cornered Room"

Warm vocals and chill guitar but most songs are extremely similar in sound and content. Highlights: "The Stranger Song", "So Long, Marianne", "Stories of the Street"

Some songs blended together but by and large an enjoyable album with lots of fun experimentation within each tune. Highlights: "Hey Joe", "May This Be Love", "The Wind Cries Mary"

Nice very gentle songs and occasional hard prog rock but a lot of the earlier album falls into an unpleasant pop rock or even pop punk sound. Heavily backloaded. Highlights: "Take a Bow", "Assassin", "City of Delusion", "Hoodoo", "Glorious"

Maybe the most impressively front-loaded album of all time. The whole thing is emotional and varied enough to be interesting, but the first three songs are by far the best. Highlights: "Where the Streets Have No Name", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", "With or Without You"

Immaculate top to bottom. The funnest funs, the somberest sombers, the chillest chills. Good job Paul. Highlights: "Graceland", "I Know What I Know", "Gumboots"

Maybe disco is a completely sterile and inoffensive genre but gosh darnit sometimes it's okay to not listen to offensive music. Highlights: "Chic Cheer", "Le Freak"

It was chill but live jam albums are tiring. No highlights

Unique production sound but nothing that moving in any direction. Has a few high peaks and no deep valleys so we celebrate this. Highlights: "Time to Pretend, "Kids", "4th Dimensional Transition", "Future Reflections"

He throw some nice pop into the experimental ambient album Highlights: "Sound and Vision", "A New Career in a New Town"

Sometimes the strings on this really irk me and sometimes they are nice! Why must there be nuance in the world? Highlights: "Son of a Preacher Man", "The Windmills of Your Mind", "I Can't Make it Alone"

Some nice noises and whatnot but shoegaze makes me sleepy Highlights: "lose my breath", "Sueisfine", "I Can See It"

This is some nice independent rock music I tell you what Highlights: "Silence Kid", "Cut Your Hair", "Fillmore Jive"

Vocals and lyrics are nothing too special but beats and instrumentals are very interesting and/or fun! Highlights: "Sure Shot", "Keep It Together", "Sabrosa", "Bodhisattva Vow"

Consistently beautiful and tender and so on. I worry I'll lose interest on a relisten but the songs feel varied enough that this may not be the case. Another album where I had to stop adding highlights, which was a pleasant surprise from one I had never heard of. Highlights: "Don't Know Why", "Feelin’ The Same Way", "Lonestar"

As with many experimental albums, there are a couple good songs and a few more interesting moments between kinda garish strange songs Highlights: "Suspended In Gaffa", "Night of the Swallow", "Get Out of My House"

Grating loops, serviceable lyrics, caught up in the early 00's club movement. Makes for an obnoxious album. Highlights: "The Art of Noise", "When We Were Friends"

This is how psychedelic all psych rock should be. I want to be a little uncomfortable Highlights: "A Minha Menina", "Trem Fantasma", "Tempo No Tempo"

Great flow and consistent style without becoming repetitive. Gently moody in a very pleasant way. Highlights: "One of These Things First", "Hazey Jane I", "Northern Sky"

Maybe a bit long-winded but not boring or obnoxious Highlights: "Wah-Wah", "I Live For You", "Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)"

Subdued but occasionally lush compositions! Enjoyable Highlights: "England", "Bitter Branches", "Hanging in the Wire"

Nice harmonies and a few fun lyrics but feels stagnant after the first couple songs. Highlights: "Got a Feelin'", "Somebody Groovy", "You Baby"

Tight and nice flow, strong heavy songs and beautiful gentle songs. Nice album, good album Highlights: "Everything In Its Right Place", "The National Anthem", "Motion Picture Soundtrack"

Pretty standard '10s alt rock I think, I was surprised to enjoy the more upbeat songs on this one. Highlights: "Blunderbuss", "Hip (Eponymous) Poor Boy", "Take Me With You When You Go"

Pretty adventurous but consistent. The wild instrumentals fit very cleanly. Highlights: "Seven Nation Army", "There's No Home For You Here", "You've Got Her In Your Pocket"

I enjoy the diverse influences and they seem pretty well constructed but the album made me thirst for a melody Highlights: "Burnished", "River to Consider", "Keys"

Lots of fun and some nice guitar parts/melodies but gets formulaic at times. Highlights: "Family Entertainment", "Get Over You", "(She's a) Runaround"

Yeah this was a pretty flat and forgettable album for me. The occasional enjoyable melody is dragged down by Jagger's slur. No big moments or highlights

Very baller and moody and skillful yes yes yes Highlights: "Building Steam with a Grain of Salt", "Changeling", "Midnight in a Perfect World"

Songs occasionally drag on but show a lot of variety and have lots of fun qualities. Experimental AND fun? D: Highlights: "Walking On The Moon", "On Any Other Day", "Does Everyone Stare"

The more early metal I listen to, the more I think it was maybe just trash for a decade or two. Like I'm grateful for the influence and all, but this is not a very interesting album and sounds like it was written by a group of middle school boys who had too many Monsters.

I'm no music historian or whatever but surely Eagles were the progenitors of several decades of pop rock. That's fine and their harmonies are fun, but they've never been my thing. Highlights: "Take it Easy"

One of the most unique albums so far, fun vibes Highlights: "Human Being", "Broke", "Alleged"

I may be a loony but this feels like a more consistent and consistently interesting album than Are You Experienced. Many bangers Highlights: "Wait Until Tomorrow", "If 6 Was 9", "One Rainy Wish"

Much more loungey than expected, very nice vocals. Highlights: "Sleep to Dream", "Slow Like Honey", "Carrion"

Some major hits, but I feel like nobody was supposed to hear all the non-singles on this album. "Liberian Girl" is kinda an insane song Highlights: "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror", "Smooth Criminal"

Some nice proficient indie rock, I wanted more melody out of it but that's a personal problem. Highlights: "Yeah We Know", "Let It Ride"

One bossa nova song is baller and powerful. Eight to ten is a bit dry. Truly the disco of jazz if you know what I'm saying Highlights: "The Girl from Ipanema", "Para Machuchar Meu Coracao", "O Grande Amor"

A weird inflection point in punk/ska/alt rock that was kinda the worst of all worlds to me. Wanders into some neat hooks though Highlights: "Something to Believe In", "Come Out and Play", "Self Esteem"

This is a sensitive emotional boy album but I am just sensitive and emotional in a different way. Highlights: "Shiver", "Sparks", "Yellow"

Very powerful voice, though I miss a lot in translation with music this lyrical. Highlights: "Amsterdam", "Les Toros Avec Final"

Great vocals by both members and a lot of unexpectedly fun compositions. As per usual, I like when they get a little strange with it Highlights: "Love is Surrender", "Mr. Guder", "Another Song"

Pretty white bread boring production and nothing that really caught me until the last couple songs Highlights: "We Do What We Can", "I Shall Believe"

They keep it pretty adventurous and out there, causing the songs that reign it in from the uber-grungy to stand out the most to me. Highlights: "Heart-Shaped Box", "Very Ape", "All Apologies"

Very atmospheric, one of those albums that rides the border of consistency and repetition though. Gotta be in the right mood

Easy to harp on the omnipresent violence but this is also a wildly smooth, comfortable album. It also seems to have a more mature view of that violence than most from its era. He is THE predator Highlights: "When Will They Shoot?", "It Was a Good Day"

Fun and fast and punky, very enjoyable. Very clear-headed for the era and genre Highlights: "Secret 77", "Let Me Help", "She's Calling You"

A lot more fun than other prog rock I've heard, takes itself less seriously. Also easy instrumentals to get behind Highlights: "Roundabout", "Five Per Cent for Nothing", "Heart of the Sunrise"

Kanye is capable of creating some of the most stylistically repulsive music of all time, I truly feel like this album has not aged well whatsoever. "Monster", "Hell of a Life", and "Blame Game" are fantastic examples of gaudy production and disappointing lyricism. That being said, the album has high potential for hype aura moments if that's your thing. Highlights: "Dark Fantasy", "Runaway"

Rolls through like cool water Highlights: "What's Happening Brother", "Right On", "Inner City Blues"

I have heard a lot of Beach Boys and a lot about how eloquent their music is but this is the first album where that's connected for me. Highlights: "Take a Load Off Your Feet", "Feel Flows", "Surf's Up"

Much more listenable and interesting than other Stones that I've heard, but I was still pretty happy to reach the end of the album. Highlights: "Sympathy for the Devil", "Prodigal Son", "Salt of the Earth"

They always make me feel basic because their hits are just so good :'( Highlights: "New Feeling", "First Week/Last Week...Carefree", "Psycho Killer"

Live soul seems like it would go crazy. Instead I gotta listen to indie rockers talk about their awful relationships Highlights: "Feel It (Don't Fight It)", "Cupid", "Bring It On Home to Me"

Very clear progression toward their later albums but they definitely weren't churning out bangers at this point. Highlights: "Tell Me Why", "You Can't Do That"

She was hitting that yes she was Highlights: "Respect", "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", "Dr. Feelgood (Love Is Serious Business)", "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man"

Groovy, some fun reggae influences late in the album and clearer guitar than most trip hop. I do see why this is rarely brought up alongside other trip hop though, may not be quite as memorable Highlights: "Ponderosa", "Aftermath"

Nothing too crazy or groundbreaking but generally fun glam rock songs. Always expect these guys to be more metal than they were Highlights: "Detroit Rock City", "Shout it Out Loud", "Do You Love Me"

Fun instrumentals but did not blow my mind or anything Highlights: "Green Onions", "I Got a Woman", "One Who Really Loves You"

I listen to this regularly but always up for going through again. The best of his 65-66 streak in my opinion. "Visions of Johanna" is one of the most specific emotional conveyances I've heard. Highlights: "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35", "Visions of Johanna", "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again"

Very cool very neat, keeps things moving and interesting.

Lots of beautiful songs but this seems weird to release as a Billy Bragg + Wilco album, their halves felt completely different in style to me. Highlights: "Birds and Ships", "Ingrid Bergman", "Hesitating Beauty"

Great fun and emotion and so unique! Glad to finally listen all the way through this Highlights: "When You Were Mine", "Time After Time", "All Through the Night"

As always with Arcade Fire, objectively good music with a good number of filler songs but I will probably never actually listen casually. This is their best album for sure though. Highlights: "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)", "Wake Up", "Haiti"

This was a whole lot of '90s and I'm okay without any more Highlights: "Supervixen", "Queer", "Not My Idea"

Fine and fun rock of the era, beats Stones but not necessarily my vibe Highlights: "Miss Judy's Farm", "Stay With Me", "Debris"

This is a very fun album, varies a lot, and feels pretty technically arranged! Wahoo! Highlights: "Your New Cuckoo", "Lovefool", "Losers"

These boys were ripping in fun and emotional and skillful ways Highlights: "Tuesday's Gone", "Gimme Three Steps", "Simple Man"

One of the lucky artists whose voice just got better as life went on. His low growl sets up the sparse instrumentals and chorals for success. Highlights: "You Want it Darker", "It Seemed the Better Way", "Steer Your Way"

Unique sound and fun melodies, but pretty frontloaded and starts losing its luster by the end of the album. Highlights: "More Than a Feeling", "Peace of Mind", "Foreplay / Long Time"

Very theatrical and a bit out there, I'm glad this is included for some more variety but probably won't be revisiting it. Highlights: "(I Read About) Tank Battles", "Failure in Loving", "Ballad Of (Bourgeois) Welfare"

Producers really mastered the most synthetic possible sound for '80s pop. "Monkey" is a very funny song. I think he might be horny Highlights: "Faith", "One More Try", "Kissing a Fool"

Powerful and aggressive but hard for me to find the line where I think an album falls too much into a narrow genre Highlights: "Caught, Can We Get a Witness?", "Show 'Em Whatcha Got", "Party for Your Right to Fight"