1001 Albums Summary

some great songs, but also lots of filler

probably important at its time, but feels incredibly schmalzy/kitsch and outdated now

better than i had remembered ... stripped-down, bluesy, raw. singer actually sounds good (in contrast to the other guy that came later)

Immaculate pop music

Influential, but too raw and unpolished for my taste .... rather listen to Madness

flawless

some okay-ish songs, but everything gets ruined by the neverending noodling and jamming. also he can't sing for shit.

solid album, but hip hop from that era feels more outdated than from any other era. case in point: all the tracks with eminem. cringeworthy.

uu roduchelig und keine wirklichen hits

very charming, definitely more raw & unpolished than later albums ... but also a bit all over the place with many "skip" songs

Great voice and great talent, but all the songs are lacking in direction and focus.

Weird, but fascinating

Really wanted to like this, but the songs are just "ok"

Beautiful album

Really solid, raw Rock'N'Roll

If it weren't for the bluesy and the 50s sounding Rock'n'Roll songs, this would have gotten 4 stars. I really like the "southern" vibe with the heavy grooves, but also the Rockabilly-tinged faster songs.

Not unlistenable, but pretty boring and forgettable.

I respect the hell outta David Byrnes, but this is some unlistenable shit

Fascinating, but nothing I would want to listen to again in the near future ... or ever again.

Did not understand the hype back then and don't understand it now.

Pretty, pretty good

Crap

Not my type of music, but this is a near perfect album: a barrage of hit after hit, guitar playing is on point without excessive noodling.

Not even my favorite Stevie Womder album, but that's why it only gets 5 stars.

Not his best work

A solid 3-stars alternative rock album. There were better bands during that time, but I am giving it 4 stars because I had ignored it back then (bias towards Courtney Love) and was very surprised (in a good way) when I heard it for the first time today.

I get the impression thar 1001 albums does not choose a band's best albums but has a preference towards early/imfluential albums. So instead of TNT or standards, we get Millions Now Living ...

Nice surprise. Catchy, banging song with incredibly juicy and crunchy sounding guitars.

Forgettable and annoying at the same time

Some ok somgs, but incredibly shallow and cringe. If I remember correctly, the whiny and over-dramatic vocals were not as much in the foreground on other albums as on this one which makes it an especially unpleasant listening experience.

I appreciate the music, but the songs could have been catchier.

I prefer the later material ... just cannot get into this bluesy stuff

Great potential and incredible voice, but the songs don't hold up.

Surprisingly enjoyable. Meandering, melancholic ... would serve as great background music in a Japanese bar or something

Probably my least favorite Smiths album ... but that's why it only gets 5 stars.

Is there any other genre that has aged as poorly as Acid Jazz? Maybe Trip Hop. Unbearable.

Wonderfully eccentric and eclectic, but always full of dancefloor energy. Moody, vibey while effortlessly moving between garage and 2 step, gospel harmonies and classical movements, dry synth sounds and acoustic instrumentation, sparse/stripped-down beats and lush arrangements. Sounds fresh and relevant though being almost a quarter of a century old.

Anyone complaining about today's pop music will have to explain to me how people in the 60s voluntarily listened to 45 minutes of annoying guitar wanking. Edit: and now also saxophone wanking, for fuck's sake.

Really like how funky the songs are. Really enjoyed the moments when all the instrumentation comes together ... drums + (electric) piano + horn section is such a powerful combo. Could do without the endless amounts of screeching sax soloing, but somehow that seems to be an Afrobeat staple.

I like Monk's playing and his solo albums, but in a band conext that kind if 50s Jazz is super annoying. Cheesy melodies + endless soloing from instruments that NOBODY wants to hear a solo from ... like bass or drums.

I'm sorry I complained about 50s Jazz yesterday. I'rather listen to hours of saxophone solos than having to sit through this pretentious crap.

I was ready to give this 1 star cause it's Blues ... but as it turns out, it just cannot be hated. It's basicay the same song played 10 times, but the song is pretty good

Bettter than expected, with some songs being actually enjoyable. The theatralics ruin it for me, though.

Relistening to this album, I am very much relieved that the knowledge of Morrissey's later trajectory hasn't ruined it the slightest bit. Quite the opposite, it is a shockingly great album, sounding carefree and tongue-in-cheek even in its most insidious moments (Bengali On Platform). Production is great, with lush arrangements that never lose clarity and punch (the splash cymbal deserves its own Grammy). Any hint of too much musical theatrics is immediately countered by Morrissey's trademark scathing humor. Lastly, the cadence of Alsatian Cousin (slow burning intro jam) and Little Man, What Now? (pensive interlude) into Everyday Is Like Sunday (climactic banger) might be the best album opening of all times.

Feels outdated in such a stark way that I am asking myself if it was even still relevant at the time of its release. Formulaic songs with the same 3 blues chords and progressions. One bonus point for the raw and unpolished production and the fact that the songs (and the whole album) are actually quite short.

I always thought Nick Drake was an emo artist from the 80s/90s who killes himself with a knife, but I guess I was mixing things up. Pleasantly surprised by the songs, although they sometimes have that 60s "kitsch folk" vibe where you could picture him singing about fairytales amd stuff. Plus a bit boring.

Wikipedia writes: "Wild Gift showcases the band's unique punk rock style, which infuses roots rock, country, blues, R&B, and rockabilly." Which translates to: It's a huge pile of crap. On top of that, it also sounds like crap. For an album desperately trying to be "punk", the complete lack of punch and abrasiveness is DISGUSTING. Seriously, the drums sound like someone is beating on cardboard ... with chopsticks.

Imagine having written The Cutter and realizing that no song you write from that point on will ever be half as good as that one. Consequently, Echo & The Bunnymen went on to male an utterly mediocre album. 3 stars nonetheless cause The Cutter is on it.

Bittersweet Symphony seems to have been a really happy accident ... if you listen to the rest of this album full of whiny low-energy music that is endlessly dragging on without going anwhere. The singer looks kinda cool on the album cover though.

Self-important and pompous yet cringeworthyly amateurish sounding circus shit. Having to suffer through him whinily declaiming his ill-fitting lyrics makes me newly appreciate how well-crafted chart pop music actually is. Edit: And it speaks to his narcissism to have his voice mixed so loud when he can't sing for shit.

These songs have no business hitting that hard. I was expecting some unbearable self-indulgent prog fest, but even the length and the guitar noodling is not bothering me.

I really wanted to like this, but it just isn't thaz good. A lot of filler, and even the few songs that are famous (like Theme From Shaft) are more lilke soundbytes than songs.

Not entirely uninteresting. I like the meandering, vibey character of the music. The vocals are not my cup of tea, thoigh I have to admit that they are fitting perfectly. It reminds me of a shoegazey version of The Smiths, Strangeways era ... and Morrissey's vocals are not for everyone either. Edit: By the 5th song I have warmed up to the vocals and gotta say, it's a pretty great album.

Solid album, but for this style of Hip Hop: too late to be lefendary.

Some interesting music that could have greatly benefitted from a better singer. A lot of it sounds really outdated though. Vocals are super annoying of course, and what I can understand of the lyrics is incredibly cringe. Edit: I really wanted to give a 1-star review, but I just couldn't: It's remarkable how many of the songs I remembered even 30 years later without ever having had any interest in Bjork. The cultural impact (puke-emoji / pile-of-shit-emoji) can't be denied.

3 stars for a really charming album, and one extra star for the sheer brilliance of Without You and that coconut song.

I just knew The War On Drugs by name and had always assumed it would be sort of lo-fi singer/songwritery indie. Did absolutely not expect it to be straightforward rock. I am hearing some Petty and lots of Springsteen ... very pleasantly surprised!

Meandering, aimless and ultimately random sounding. You can tell this is a solo effort: With a band, you are forced to get to the point instead of indulging your own idiosyncracies. On a positive note, I like the sound and vibe of those 70s drum machines.

Almost an achievement to be that annoying and that forgetful at the same time.

The harmonica can be a cool instrument if you use it sparsely to create a mood or if you can actually play it (think Stevie Wonder) ... but not if you just randomly blow into it at max volume. Some potential on this album that could have been developed into songs, but it all sounds like a band jamming on an idea in the practice room with some guy reciting ill-fitting poetry to it. And when the lyrics are finished, cue a fade-out. The mix sounds awful and unbalanced too.

Deliberately didn't listen to them when they were hyped, for contrarian reasons. Feels very satisfying to be completely vindicated about my ignorance. There are loads of great noisy, dissonant, arty albums out there, but this is not one of them.

This must be the dumbest "concept" album of all times. Very few soundtrack albums, and even less scores, can stand on their own. You listen to an OST cause it is inextricably linked with the memories of a movie scene and your own memories when you watched it. This one has nothing to draw from, and it doesn't help that the music is a completely random mess that can't decide what time period or mood it is trying to reference/recreate.

Not much to say ... a perfect album.

Come on man. There's SO much great music out there, and this is already the second Zappa album I had to endure? That kind of "humor" (and also the music) has aged so poorly that it is almost painful to listen to.

If you can get past the initial quirk factor, there are actually some interesting sketches, but they could have greatly benefitted from some editing and arranging ... and developing them into actual good songs, which never happens. Oh, they left a barking dog in the song that the mic picked up accidently ... WHAAA, SO ARTSY AND EXPERIMENTAL. The kick drum sounds really nice, though. Great amount of low end "oomph", but sharp and punchy at the same time, the tail being short enough not too muddy up everything else.

Garbage.

A little disappointing ... the vocal harmonies are really nice, but the songs fall a bit flat. You can really feel the potential, but at least on this album, it's not there yet.

Hauntingly beautiful.

The afropop vibe is really cool, but 1. it sometimes has an uncanny "made for tourists" exotism feel 2. it is too steeped in 50s kitsch jazz for me to enjoy it 3. it too often drifts into happy children song territory which is the most aggravating kind of music.

Nick Cave seems to be a really nice dude, but the music is just insufferable. Boring blues rock with the theatrical / circus shit meter cranked up to the max ... aka the worst of all possible worlds. This is the first time I stopped an album of the day prematurely. How anyone can willingly suffer to 1 hour and 20 minutes of this is beyond me.

A completely forgettable album. I had this running in the background, and not a single song grabbed my attention. The songs are all well-crafted and produced, but lack any quality that would make them catchy or interesting.

Not as bad as expected. The songs could be fine, but the whiny vocals with each syllable drawn out for 10 seconds with maximum melodrama ruins it for me.

Only 50 albums in or so, but I feel at this point I already know every crappy "alternative" rock album from the 90s

He seems to be a nice guy and has been vegan for a long time, but I really wish he would make better music.

This one sounds exactly how I would expect a Brazilian Bossa album to sound. Unforrunately, it doesn't add anything new to the genre, and there are no real hit ... so I'd rather listen to the classics.

In the mid 90s, Death and Thrash metal had gotten increasingly popular with a lot of bands entering the mainstream with a crossover sound. This wasn't simply a matter of selling out though: Sometimes, pushing the narrow confines of the Death/Thrash/Grind genres could be a liberation and help bands to realize their full potential to create true masterpieces (think: Carcass - Heartwork). With Sepultura, it is even more complicated. Along the way from Arise over Beneath The Remains and Chaos AD to Roots, the became a better band, wrote better songs and produced better sounding albums. At the same time, the songs got groovier and somewhat simpler and crossed over into cringe territory with the inclusion of more and more tribal elements. It is a matter of discussion when they were at their peak, but on Roots they were definitely past their peak. The album sounds incredible: thick, juicy and precise at the same time. Some of the slower grooves are mesmerizing, but all in all, this is not a good album.

Still not loving Police. ... (One extra star for the flawless and crispy drumming, though.)

Sign O The Times is an absolute banger. The rest: not so much. A mess different genres that never gets to the point. And the album is way too long. Drums sound fantastic though ... at the time of release, the LM-1 was already a thing of the past and nobody aside from Prince was still using it. This has really become a staple sound of his, and the lo-fi yet full-bodoes crunchiness sounds lovingly retro.

I had never heard of this band until today, and I'll happily ignore it again for the rest of my life.

Simon & Garfunkel always walk a fine line between beauty and kitsch: the album's opener is an example of masterfully sensitive songwriting, slowly building into a sublime, angelic finale ... only to be ruined by the horrendous and cringeworthy "El Condor Pasa". The rest of the album follows a similar pattern ... all in all though, it is a rather pleasant listen.

Thick, succulent, dense rock music. Heavier than I remembered. Great riffing, but the songs are way too long. This would have easily been a 4 star album if they had only shown a bit of restraint from the self-indulgent noodling.

I mever knew there was a totally different version of Street Life than the one that was popular, and most of alll, I was totally unaware how epic it is. More Jazz-Funk than Disco, with lush arrangement and tasteful soloing thhroughout (Joe Sample's Rhodes sounds phenomenal). With all the harmonic variation and a lot of II-Vs thrown in, you get the feeling that the song comstantly takes you to a new place, when it's just a one-chord groove played over more than 10 minutes. Unfortunately, the rest of the album is pretty forgettable Smooth Jazz / Jazz Funk ... like so much Jazz Funk of those times.

Interesting, but I'll probably never listen to it again.

Solid power pop album with plenty of hits. Loses a bit of steam towards the middle, but finds back to old form in the second half. Oh, and I accidentally found out what They Might Be Giants must have listened to when they wrote "They'll need a crane" ... spoiler: It's "Hand In Hand".

I would have given it 4 stars if I hadn't known that they went on to record some WAY better albums. On this one, they have already found their unique sound (with the dominant organ and the wonderfully distorted bass taking over the role of a lead instrument), but the concise songwriting and the abundance of hits of their later years are sorely lacking.

It's not bad by any means, but I just don't vibe with that storytelling / circus-y kind of music.

Airtight method to be featured in the 1001 albums: be a crappy irrelevant Brit Pop band. I have always hated that band, but I have to admit, it's actually not that bad. The music is a lot faster and louder than I remembered, and it has a youthful irreverence that's quite charming ... more Punk / Power Pop than Brit Pop. if it only weren't for the annoying voice of the singer ...

I don't totally vibe with his way of singing, but the music is very pleasant to listen to, cannot hate.

I appreciate the effort and what they are trying to do, but it's just a mess. However, I thought I would hate it much more ... the Curtis Mayfield cover is actually quite interesting. As for the rest, well ...

Pretty much exactly the kind of music I would NEVER listen to.

3 hits and some long, drawn-out jams. The jams are not that exciting, but the hits at the start of the album slap so hard that it launches the whole album into banger territory.

I appreciate that 1.001 albums is branching out from their usual "white UK guys playing guitar in the 90s" approach, but of course they had to choose Ali Farka Touré's most mainstream album. It's not a bad album by any means, but it feels like it is overly catering to Western ears, and imho it pales in comparison to the raw and sublime spirituality of The River.

This is the kind of Hip Hop that white record collector / record store people who hate Hip Hop will tell you they like. Turns out it is not as bad as I had thought based on those experiences.

Not only is the music outdated and annoying, but it oozes a kind of "novelty / dad humour" quality that was very prevalent in 50s music and that I absolutely detest. This is the mindset that later generated kitsch / Schlager music: music deliberately produced for uncool, old normies and successfully purged from any transgressive elements the aesthetic form (e. g. Rock'n'Roll) might have had.

Maximal amount of self-importance paired with minimal amount of musical quality.

I completely missed out on this due to being part of a subculture at the opposite musical spectrrum back then ... but this gives me the rare opportunity to discover gems like this 30 years after the fact. Slaps incredibly hard even by today's standards .... raw, minimalistic, sparse, punchy, dry, abstract, dark, moody, organic, brooding, meditative. The importance of the album is crystal clear right from the opening bars of "Railing" which is no plain intro but more of a "State Of The Union" meta-reflection on the movement and the genre. The cheekiness of the raps and the lyric matter immediately reminded me of Diamond D's "Stunts Blunts and Hip Hop" which is very comparable in its meta-reflective character. I'd argue that both tracks subconsciously reference the greatest meta song of all times, Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke" ... with slight differences in emphasis: Stevie Wonder and Diamond D put the most stress on heritage and music's universalism, while Railing's main theme is innovation, being quite bold and self-confident that way - deservedly so!

This would have been way better if they had just trusted themselves amd their songs instead of trying to be all modern and experimental with all that studio trickery that just sounds forced and lame from today's perspective.

Flawless.

These guys make Vanilla Ice sound like a legit artist by comparison.

Mildly pleasant to listen to, but a bit boring overall. I have a hunch that the genre has more possibilities, but Eno's capabilities might be the limiting factor here.

Still not getting Radiohead.

Thos is far brom being the best West Coast album, and imo it isn't even the best N.W.A album, but it is an undeniable classic anyway.

Not my cup of tea.

I had braced for the worst, but could actually listen to it without casualties.

Moments of sparkling greatness like the opening track, but buried under just too many songs that sound like filler, meandering about and going nowhere. I understand that the album is supposed to be about New York, but too much of the lyrical matter sounds like the romanticizations of a newcomer from the suburbs.

I like both folk and country, but it doesn't really work on this album. Most songs are lame, and the vocal harmonies don't seem to fit too well. The singer's thin voice doesn't help either. Notable exception: Sugar Magnolia.

Mildly pleasant to listen to, but pretty forgettable.

Pretty good. A lot of Soul and R&B thrown in which makes it much more listenable than other Brit Pop/Rock.

I listen to a lot of current Hip Hop, but if we are being honest, Hip Hop had its most innovative and stromg period from around 1985 to 1995, with tons of legendary albums being released each year. However, 1001 albums seems to focus entirely on early 2000s Hip Hop which can be considered as Hip Hop's Dark Ages. While this is a pretty good album, there are literally hundreds that are way better and more relevant.

I have an extensive The Cure playlist, but nome of the songs is from this album.

As much as it pains me to admit it: This is not only a classic, but undeniably a great album: lots of songs that are instantly recognizable, perfect production and arrangement.

Never thought I'd like the Stones, but this is actually a good album. I appreciate the bluesy feel, although it is a bit too bluesy for my taste. They could have benefitted from a better singer, but all in all it's quite enjoyable.

I am not opposed to the type of Glam Rock they are playing, but their predecessors and role models were much better.

Already the band's second album on this list, which adds up to two too many.

Some nice moments of lo fi charme, but all in all too inaccessible.

Singer/Songwriter Folk and Soul go really well together, and the occasional horn section does womders to elevate the tracks. The singer doesn't have the most pleasant voice though, especially when he is dialing up the intensity.

Some welcome change from the usual "white guys noodling on the guitar" rotation ... unfortunately, "black guys noodling on the guitar" isn't that big an improvement.

Super annoying.

Every time that I think I discovered a Primce album I actually like, he decides 2 bangers is enough and proceeds to fill the rest of the album with horrendeous 10-minute experimental jams.

Instrumental Hip Hop = one of history's worst mistakes.

My initial adverse gut reaction to the 90s Trip Hop / Big Beat influences was nullified and slowly turned into fascination the longer I kept listening amd gave the album a proper chance to reveal its charme. It's a weirdly addictive album!

So smooth.

This is hard to judge. It was immensely popular among my friends back in the day, and I can kind of see why. In its good moments, it has a lot of groove and vibe ... ultimately though, it sounds very 90s and outdated.

Oh, a mediocre Brit Pop album ... it's not like we already had 900 of those on here.

I was prepared to hate on this cause I detest those ironic rediscoveries / embraces of a genre ... but I have to admit these guys are doing their thing bery well and with love. The songs rock, the guitars sound tastefully crunchy ... but the singer's falsetto is just zoo over the top.

No real songs but mostly just a guitar riff dragged on for an excruciatingly long time with monotonous low-energy "vocals" on top of it.

I like proper house, and I like proper Techno. What I don't like is this inoffensive, middle-of-the-road electronica coffeeshop background music.

One of those albums on the tail end of the Golden Era that broke into the mainstream. It's a great album, but there are better (and more influential / groundbreaking / legendary) albums from that era.

Might be a tiny bit less legendary than Thriller, but an imcredible banger of an album nometheless.

It's an alrigjt album that I somehow knew would appear on this list ... exactly the kind of Hip Hop that appeals to white rock listeners.

The singer is trying so hard to be annoying, but he cannot even top the boring music.

I was inspired by this to listen to Del's solo album again, and it still sounds great after all these years. Thick and crunchy Lench Mob beats, has that unmistakeable SP1200 vibe written all over it. Unfortunately, the album of the day wasn't this album but Gorillaz which is a huhe pile of crap.

Organ blues noodling = hard pass.

Utter cheeze.

I don't vibe with their music 100 %, but I have to respect that the totally nailed that swampy bluesy vibe.

Like: the laid-back vibe, her voice, the ethereal vocal harmonies, the accordion. Just read on her Wikipedia that she is also an animal rights activist, so that's one extra point for being an activist and NOT making the most terrible music (looking at you, Moby).

Self-imdulgent cock rock. The singer's voice is truly unbearable, and all of the songs could have been edited down to half their length. It really is that bad. Edit: And now they're even doing a drum solo ... it's a shame that I cannot give less than 1 star.

Weirdly charming, but a bit too "weirdly" for my taste. Still, I enjoyed it far more than I would have thought.

Oh boy, ANOTHER crappy Zappa album?? I just can't ...

Too much rock.

A rather enjoyable album, and in this case I like the storytelling nature of the lyrics (which I usually hate). However, the songs are overly simple and get repetitive over the course of an album. After the album, Spotify played a Glen Campbell song which was immediately leagues above in terms of quality. Edit: next up Willie Nelson, also a completely different league ... I'm recognizing a pattern here.

I wanted to hate on this cause it's another one of those Hip Hop albums that are universally adored by white Rock critics but less relevant among real Hip Hop fans ... but it legitimately is a really great album.

A pleasant, but overall uneventful listen with nothing grabbing my attention.