1001 Albums Summary

Is there any album more 80s than this album? If it weren't for the guitars giving it a postpunk edge I might hate it, but every aspect of it, vocals, bass, drumming and synths, it's all undeniably great, even it's it's not my taste.

Compelling and engaging for the first 5 or 6 songs, with "The Hanging Garden" as a high mark, but others like "Siamese Twins," "One Hundred Years," and "The Figurehead" are excellent too. I love the sound and mood of it. I didn't discover The Cure until ~1986 via the Head on the Door and Standing on a Beach, but this gothrock sound was a big part of my teenage soundtrack. Still, by the end of this it feels soo same-same, and I'm bored/exhausted. 3.5 Compare it to the Head on the Door, Kiss Me, and Disintegration: yeah, this is dull and narrow.

For me, the biggest hits like "Born in the U.S.A." "Glory Days," and "Dancing in the Dark" are marred by 80s synths and glossy production, but then there are others, like "Downbound Train" and "I'm On Fire" where the production is fantastic. "Downbound Train" in particular is interesting because I've been recently listening to the Nebraska-era versions, and this one is much superior to those. I just wish they woulda used pedal steel or something instead of synths. Overall, the songs come through and they're consistently as good as the singles. 4.5 rounding up.

I'm still not sure I'd put this in my Top 5 R.E.M albums list (maybe 5, but maybe 6), but it's still great. 5/5 Highs: "Drive" and "Everybody Hurts" and "Nightswimming" -- all featuring very non-schmaltzy string arrangements by John Paul Jones. Really, it's amazing that "Everybody Hurts" doesn't descend into pure schmaltz, but there's a light touch there, and the undeniable sincerity in the production and Michael Stipe's vocals that saves it. Lows: "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight," "Ignoreland." Never really liked 'em, still don't. New appreciation: "Man on the Moon." BITD this is the song I disliked the most, that I thought was repetitive and silly. On this listen I loved the sound of it. The chirpy reverberating percussion.

I'll take stock again when the Smiths' other albums come up, but IIRC the history of my fandom, this might have been my least favorite of their albums. Still, I was a fan and considered them all classics at the time. For now, there's a lot of material that still feels classic to me, but others that feel plodding and slow or that are marred by production choices. I like it best when there's chiming, jangling guitars and Morrissey is witty or mournful (not mopey) or both. 4.5, but rounding down because I think I should reserve 5's for others. Highs: "Cemetry Gates," "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side," "Frankly Mr Shankly," "Vicar in a Tutu" "There is a Light that Never Goes Out" --- lots of pretty great songs here. Lows: "Never Had No One Ever" just seems slow. Mopey/stalker-y mode here, and the music is murky, repetitive lyrically and musically. Worst whistle solo or all time. A definite low point. "Bigmouth Strikes Again" and "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" are good songs with production choices that bug me: the pitchshifted backing vocals on Bigmouth, the fadeout/fadein at the beginning of Some Girls... why? New appreciation: "Cemetry Gates." If this was my favorite BITD I've forgotten, but when I hear it now it feels like top-rank Smiths, Morrissey and Marr & Co. at their best.

The openers here are amazing. "Regular John" is still one of their best. Deep heavy krautrock groove that's both driving and relaxed, crooning vocals floating over the top. "Avon" nearly as good. "If Only" changes the pace with a shuffling verse riff, and brings back the punchy fuzzed-up guitars for the chorus. But it's a little hit-and-miss after that, feeling like early demos. Live versions scattered across B-side of singles over the next several years are often better developed (even "regular John," the top track here, has an improved version on the "Go with the Flow" CD5). The later reissue with added tracks increases this impression. Great debut album, but not the best QOTSA representative for this list. 3.5 rounding up to 4. Highs: Mentioned 'em. Lows: From the original tracklist, maybe "You Would Know" but definitely "I was a Teenage Hand Model". From the added tracks, "Spiders and Vinegaroons." New appreciation: Until this listen, I never really got familiar with the added track "The Bronze." It was ok. Maybe?

The Temptations of Cloud Nine aren't at all the Temptations I was familiar with ("My Girl"). Nothing wrong with "My Girl" pop, but this psychedelic soul phase is much more in my wheelhouse. Kicking off with the title track and its distortion and wah-pedal guitars, congas, definitely more funky than "My Girl." Side two gets more like the conventional Motown version of the Temptations. String arrangements, horns, clean guitars, bouncing baselines. Top notch Motown stuff, but not surprising like the psych-funk first side. Highs: "Cloud Nine" and "Runaway Child, Running Wild." The latter is hypnotically groovy, with a 9 and a half minute runtime. Lows: really didn't care for this psychedelic version of "I Heard it through the Grapevine." Just seemed murky in comparison with Gladys Knight or Marvin Gaye's classic cuts, and it doesn't develop the improvisational groove that CCR did later. New Appreciation: Haven't heard any of these track before, but the whole psychedelic soul phase of The Temptations is definitely something I want to explore further. Dig it.

This kind of garage punk is right up my alley. It's loud, punchy, noisy, punctuated by feedback, rockin' blah blah blah. But why listen to this instead of Mudhoney, or Ty Segall, or Obits/Hot Snakes, or one of several incarnations of The Oh Sees that does this just as loudly, just as noisily, but with *real abandon*? It's good, really well done stuff, but I couldn't pick out any of the songs as distinctive. It feels like punk energy as a product. Maybe because it's a compilation? Anyhow, no real high points, no low points. I'd be willing to give another album a go and hope it's got more going on than this, but I couldn't convince myself that another listen would give me more. 2.5 rounding down.

Whoa. I'm not a big jazz head. I think Mingus Ah Um is great, but I don't really know much Mingus beyond that. THIS blew my mind. Take Porgy and Bess with Gil Evans's big band and then imagine that 1970 Miles Davis arrived from the future and said "I'm the captain now, m'fer!" I'd watch this ballet, I want to see someone make this movie. Just for the incredible sounds made by the TUBA alone! this is worth 5/5.

Starting this 1001 albums thing, I was specifically looking forward to Stevie Wonder's so-called "classic period," none of which I'm really familiar with beyond some of the most popular singles. So here's the first one. There's no filler here, and every track feels like a whole different idea. It sounds fantastic and there's a lot to the sound that feel new to me, even though I can see how it was imitated by people for the next 15 years. I can't avoid saying embarrassingly obvious stuff like "Holy shit, Stevie Wonder can sing!" My high points: Side two. All of it, but maybe especially "You Haven't Done Nothin'" and "Please Don't Go." 4.5. but choosing to round down and will see if I second guess that.

Ok, so I don't think there's any way I'm not going to end up with a 5/5, so I'll try a track by track. 1. "... And the Gods Made Love": Freaky intro. If I'm in the car, this gets a skip. 2. "Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)": ok, warming up still. 3/5 3. "Crosstown Traffic": could be somebody else's best song in their catalogue. 4/5 4. "Voodoo Chile": head melted, sorry. 555/5 5. "Little Miss Strange": Noel Redding's song, with vocals that sound like the Kinks. Somewhat out of place on the album, usually I'd skip it, but listening patiently it's pretty good. 4/5 6. "Long Hot Summer Night": all right 3/5 7. "Come On (Let the Good Times Roll)": yeah it's a good time 5/5 8. "Gypsy Eyes": 4/5 9. "Burning of the Midnight Lamp" indulgent and hippie-ish with its muddy flanging effects on guitars and vocals as well(?) all with angelic choir. 2/5 10. "Rainy Day, Dream Away" lots of noodling here, HEY MAN, makes me think this is the basis for the 60-year old cliches of The Stoner Dude. But still, it's pretty great, I have to admit. 4/5. 11. "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)" another over-the-top 13 minute psych epic that would be parodied relentlessly except Jimi makes it this awesome. 55/5 12. "Moon, Turn the Tides....Gently Gently Away" 13. "Still Raining, Still Dreaming" 4.5/5 14. "House Burning Down" Another one that I don't love the production and mixing getting in the way of the song and the performance. 3/5 15. "All Along the Watchtower" GOAT 16. "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" GOATer Along the way, there's a few tracks where you feel like they don't belong (and even thought "Is this really a 5/5?!") but by the end there's definitely no point arguing. Maybe tomorrow I'll play through an abbreviated tracklist and see how I feel. But still, clearly 5/5. No, 4.5, but rounding up.

There's a surprising amount of people who choose "Liz Phair no good/Exile in Guyville overrated" as their hill to die on, and I'm happy to leave them there. Maybe I'll find out that it's generational. But I know that if someone says this album is boring, they have no idea how different and exciting it was when it came out. Barely a band, but it's not folk. It's not punk, but also feels DIY. At the time, it felt like totally different sound, a totally new voice. This was a year before Elliot Smith. I haven't listened to it in probably 15 years or more, but it still sounds pretty fresh to me. It was definitely a good listen. I don't find a whole lot of sameness, there's surprises over and over. It's juvenile and mature. Highs: Help Me Mary, F&R, Divorce Song, Stratford-on-Guy. New Appreciation: If I remember correctly, "Dance of the Seven Veils" was the low point for me in the past. Weird chord progressions, a little disjointed melodically and lyrically. And Girls! Girls! Girls! didn't used to feel substantial. But I enjoyed them on today's listens. 5/5

There's some good stuff here. The run of "Public Image," "Low Life," and "Attack" is definitely top notch. I'd include "Annalisa" in that list, but it's too long by half, doesn't use its 6 minute runtime to go anywhere or even stay engaging. It's ok. Same with "Theme." Good elements, and I can see how it was a particularly influential track for American postpunk/noise stuff of the 80s and 90s that I like much better, but... plods noisily. "Fodderstompf"? Ok, point made, Mr. Rotten. There's classic 5/5 stuff here, but it's a 3/5 album.

1st song, 80 tv movie soundtrack for an unconvincing action sequence. 2nd song began with an "oh no, these vocals no" but in the end is wasn't too bad. 3rd song, murky synth-driven instrumentation in the back with reverb-and-echo-drenched vocals way in front of the mix and it a weirdly cloying noise. 4th song, thought it would be a more guitar-driven tune with crisp production and then the cabaret vocals draped over top of it all with no rhythmic connection to the music. Again no. 5th song. Sensing a pattern: mechanical and inflexible rhythms punctuated with weird fills. It's all about the vocals and they're the weirdest yet. 6th song has an interesting bass line, finally... some guitars, and then it's drenched with synths and Broadway/Bowie/opera vocals so you can't hear the interesting parts. better than the previous song though. 7th song starts with solo guitar and it's pretty ok, and then drum machines and then... again, as described before. 8th song, Party Fears Two, is a probably the best one here. The vocal and instrumental find a balance, baroque as it is. 9th song, maybe I'm getting used to this. Mix is pretty good. Still definitely not my thing, but I can see its appeal. 10th song, an instrumental bookend. Like the first, very very 80s, but this one has aged better than the opening track. So, for the first half I thought I was definitely going to award my first 1-star review. Couldn't find anything to appreciate. Second half got better or I just got acclimated to the distilled histrionic 80s-ness of it. But by the end, I think my little bit of appreciation was probably Stockholm Syndrome making me sympathize with my captors. So, therefore, and in conclusion, 1.5, rounding down.

Hadn't ever listened to this, and was looking forward to it. Started strong, great beats with a lot of musical variety. But even though some of the strongest tracks ("Respect", for me) are near the end, the repetition of lyrical themes got tiring. And damn, enough with these skit interludes which are also pretty repetitive. It's an album I'd enjoy more if I gave it less attention, if it were background, because the grooves and the beats and the musical production here is great, but listening close there's just a lot of dated detail here that ruins it for me, so it's a disappointed 7/10, rounding down.

Every track could be my favorite on a different day. No misses at all. It's a cool experience to listen to this in this project, where the albums I've been served have been disproportionately early 80s postpunk, including a few I wasn't already familiar with. There's moments here where I recognize its connection to the time, to early music from the Cure for example, in the drums and bass sounds. It still is a unique, trailblazing thing, this postpunk of the American South, but I hadn't heard it like that before. Anyhow, this is for me a landmark album.

So this one's a tough review for me. It's all "likeable," and some of the tracks are obvious classics. I like the sound when there's some guitar licks roughening it up, but it's usually so slick that I lose attention. I had a could listens while I was doing other things, and went back looking for songs I thought I heard and couldn't find them With the exception of a few that are already in my musical-historical-cultural consciousness, nothing made impression. Except for "Turn that Heartbeat Over Again" song. That song just sucks. Highs: the singles everyone over 30 knows: "Reelin' in the Years" and probably "Do It Again." Lows: Turn that heartbeat and Brooklyn and the rest that I can't remember. This is one that as I'm listening and writing these notes, I dislike it more. It's so close to music I like, but the FM radio somebody-else-put-this-on-for-your-pleasure feeling of it is too much. 2.5 but rounding down.

Another revisiting of a very familiar album, one that I was always ambivalent about, that I hated the singles and loved the leftovers. Kicks off with the perfect lyrics "Teenage angst has paid off well, Now I'm bored and old." But otherwise I still think "Serve the Servants" is a relatively poor opener. Love the screeching "Scentless Apprentice" and then have contradictory feelings about "Heart-Shaped Box." "Rape Me" always struck me as the foursquare Nirvana song, like a reworked "Team Spirit" with a angrier message. It's not until "Francis Farmer..." that the knives come out, plinking notes and barbs of feedback. "Dumb" is nice. "Pennyroyal Tea" is nice. "All Apologies" is nice. The nice songs used to push me out of the album. For me, "Milk It" was always the album standout, lurching, squalling, broken down, weird, and loud. Not the loudest Nirvana song, but maybe the weirdest, and I love it as much now as I ever did. Long story short, where I used to find flaw in In Utero for not hanging together well, I'm fine with that now. I have more room for both "All Apologies" and "tourette's." I even took this opportunity to compare the three mixes of "All Apologies," Scott Litt's album version, Albini's original mix, and Albini's 2013 mix, and I think the Scott Litt version is the best representation of the song. Overall, In Utero stands taller for me now than it ever did, probably higher in my estimation than Nevermind. I'll revisit that estimation when that one comes up. Easy 5/5.

Feel like The Generator is front-loading my favorites and musical milestones for me. In my book, "Roman Candle," the 2nd eponymous album, and "Either/Or" are a towering trio. The first two being some of the darkest folk music ever recorded, with Either/Or being a slight return to a few of the rock elements of Heatmiser. That rock production, more Beatlesque than punk, would return in his last two albums, which I like much less than the early albums. Back then the production of XO felt like a radical shift to me, away from the intimate lo-fi recordings and into full technicolor production, but I now hear Either/Or more like a transition album. Drums and bass feature in most of the songs, layered electric guitars are featured regularly, and there's organ and other instruments in the mix too. "Cupid's Trick" rocks out, Heatmiser style, for a bit. Commentary aside, the songs are great, he's a generational talent as a songwriter. This might not be the album where Elliott Smith broke new ground and changed the direction of music, but it's still a monument. 5/5 Belongs on the list, but the first two albums might be more significant.

Another familiar one from my youth. After the Smiths were over, this was good B-/C+ Smiths substitute, as I remember, and I played it plenty. But this was the last Morrissey album I listened to. The best songs here ("Every Day is Like Sunday," "Suedehead,") would've fit on Smiths albums. The worst suffer from, first, very 80s production with terrible percussion and, second, Morrissey getting repetitive. There's some keepers here, but overall it's merely good. I learned from listening that the current tracklist swaps a couple pretty good tracks out in favor of a pretty crap one. If Morrissey himself thought he needed to fix this album, what is it doing on this list? 2.5 rounding up, somewhat generously (or nostalgically?), and no, this doesn't need to be on a Must Hear list.

Took a deep breath when I was served my first helping of techno from the list. It's not my thing. The initial mobius time loop thing wasn't an auspicious start, but the rest was really fine, innocuous. I might really enjoy listening to this on a moving walkway in an international airport, in no great hurry and with no real thoughts in my head. Was it the best electronica I've ever heard? Yes, so far. Did it give me a new appreciation for the genre? No. Did it bother me? No. Would I call this an essential listen? No. It's a solid 2+/3-. Rounded down.

Classic. And it's the band and the arrangements that make it. With the exception of Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat, which is a fairly tame arrangement that pales vs. the 1966 live version, these are benchmark versions. Nobody's cover improves on them. 100% must be on any must listen list, probably on a 100 album must listen list.

There's some classics here. "Another World, Another Planet" for example is one I'd include on a list of 1001 Must-Hear Songs, even though other tracks on this album are arguably more distinctive. The rest of the album is a bit uneven, sometimes weird in a dated way, but still overall really good. Does it belong on the albums list? On the fence. There's a lot of room on a list of 1001... Rounding up to 4/5.

This is the perfect example of catching up with albums you have no excuse not to have in your collection. I knew Changes and Queen Bitch, and Life on Mars seems familiar. Changes I always kind of hated because it showed up in a Classic Rock context and feels annoying in that context (and honestly, that context was just uncool for me back then). In the album context, it's just classic. Highlights, basically all of it, but "Oh You Pretty Things" "Life on Mars," and "Queen Bitch" especially, and I really enjoyed coming back and reassessing "Changes."

Big fan of Funeral here. Neither Neon Bible nor The Suburbs really grabbed me as having music as powerful as Funeral. So I'm revisiting my assessment here. Overall, yeah, probably selling Neon Bible short. "Black Mirror" kicks it off like a Funeral track with rough edges sanded off, good but not great. But with "Neon Bible" it starts to grab me like something fresh. The pipe organ in "Intervention" is drama that feels earned. It's a knockout track, at least as good as Funeral's standards. Other tracks that I feel like, finally, I'm getting it now are "(Antichrist Television Blues)" "Windowsill" and "No Cars Go". The orchestral tendencies don't always work for me. The big ol' ensemble works best for me when it's wild and raucous, and sometimes it feels designed and tamed. Still, that was a really good listen, and bumped up my estimation of the album. I'll say 4.5, but rounding down. The album's themes feel very 2026 in a surprising way. Definitely a timely, topical set of songs, maybe to include on 101 albums to listen to now, probably also deserving in the list of 1001 before you die.

First track, I thought "hey I'm going to enjoy this more than that last electronic album that came up." Slowly gets worse until three tracks later some "baddassss" voice is repeating "The Weekend Starts HERE" over and over, and I realize, no, this is just not. at. all. for me. Next track, "Everybody Needs a 303" descends even lower. I swore to myself I'd listen to every album served up all the way through, and this is my first real challenge. When I started this 1001 albums thing, doubted that there would be any album I hated, but I was absolutely wrong about that.

Another one I doubted I'd like, assuming it would be dated 80s electronic-ish pop, but it was ... nice. Usually didn't feel dated, (even a song like These Early Days, with electronic drums that do recall the 80s, or the synths in I Always Was Your Girl, feel more like a throwback 80s touch from 21st century music) and it has more in common with Sade than 80s brit pop. Jazz elements, nice songrwriting, I think her unadorned vocals are ... nice. Never annoying, but not really sure it was ever more than a background for me. 3.5/5

Ok, put "Cult of Personality" on a 1001 Songs list, it's genuinely one of the great songs of the 80s, but ugh, the rest of the album... nope. "Cult of Personality" was a sound no one else could imitate, but then the rest of the album, with occasional exceptions felt like imitations. It often feels like 80s hair metal, but a bit funkier, a bit cheesier, without the sex & drugs swagger (definitely a plus), and with a better vocalist and a much more interesting guitarist (also a plus!). Yes the songs are less formulaic, too, but they sometimes get awkward without a formula. Does it belong on the list...? The one song really was a big deal and was part of the recovery of rock without the hair metal pose, but... probably overall, nah, but I give it 3/5 mostly on the basis of its high points. "Glamour Boys" was just an awful single to follow up "CoP" and that kinda sums up the album.