1001 Albums Summary

An exceptional debut album. Sultans of Swing is a classic, but I'm partial to Water of Love and Down to the Waterline, but every track is great.

Not an artist I was previously familiar with. Nice jazz groove. I'm a novice jazz listener, but I liked this.

Not previously familiar with this artist, but I liked it. It seemed familiar. Dark, brooding lyrics.

Loved this album. As I get older, I long for nostalgia, and this reminds me of listening to music at my grandparents house on their giant console HiFi set.

Not my favorite Stones album, but close. Brown Sugar, Wild Horses and Bitch are classics, but the rest all bring something to the table as well. A very polished album.

No matter how much Black Keys I listen to, it just doesn't resonate with me.

An album from my childhood. Even after all these years, More Than a Feeling and Foreplay/Long Time still make me smile.

I've listened to this album so many times, and it's still great. I know everyone else is tired of Stairway to Heaven, but it's such a spectacular song and was a big part of my childhood (it was played at every school dance). But my favorite from the album is their rendition of Memphis Minnie's "When the Levee Breaks." The composition of the song, from the drums to the bass and guitar and Plant's singing make this a true gem. Play it LOUD for best effect.

This album came out when I was in junior high and it's a banger. Back in Black and Hells Bells get all of the credit, but my favorite is Shoot to Thrill. This is about the hardest rock I listen to, and I love it.

I have never had enough drugs that could make me enjoy this, and that includes general anesthesia.

Imagine you’re working for an international spy organization, and you have captured a terrorist who knows the codes to disarm the nuclear weapons hidden in major cities throughout the globe. The clear answer to this trolley problem is that you’ll ignore the Geneva Convention and do whatever it takes to extract the information from the terrorist to save humanity. Rather than waterboarding, which will ruin this perfectly good carpet, you play Throbbing Gristle on repeat until they crack. I was ready to confess to crimes that I never committed just to make it stop. In short, this album is a human rights violation.

I know this band was (is?) really popular, but to be honest listening to this album filled me with the desire to go out and yell at kids to get off my lawn and, a) There were no kids out front and b) I don’t have a lawn. I’m old and listened to punk if I needed angsty music, not this. It's just not my jam.

I'm not typically a hip hop listener, but I feel like this album was really well done and I can appreciate it. It's not likely to turn me into a giant hip hop fan, but I'm happy to have heard it.

From the wiki: "After two commercially unsuccessful albums, Third documents the band's deterioration as well as the declining mental state of singer Alex Chilton. It has since gone on to become a cult album, and was placed at number 449 on Rolling Stone's 2012 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time"." My own mental state declined after listening to this album. It made me want to overdose on heroin behind a dumpster. I guess I’m not in this “cult.”

Meh. Some of the tracks were terrible, the rest were the type that I wouldn't drop everything to turn off if it came on the radio, but honestly nothing here I ever care if I hear again, and a few that were awful.

As an old white dude in rural America, this just isn’t for me, and that’s ok.

Pretty decent album. You can definitely hear the Beach Boys sounds in there, but also some funky stuff. Even more interesting was to read the Wiki on Dennis Wilson's tragic life. It's a shame he only ever made one album.

Hard to believe I'm in my late 50's and never listened to this one all the way through. For me, Cheap Trick was always one of those bands that had a few great songs, but the rest was just ok. Unfortunately, this album proves rather than disproves that theory for me. The live versions of Surrender and I Want You to Want Me are classics, but the rest just seems repetitive and boring. I wanted to like this album way more than I did. I'm being generous with 3/5, probably more like 2/5 but I'm nostalgic for Surrender.

Before today, I had never listened to a salsa album all the way through, but this was pretty great. As I struggle today with the DST time change, I pictured myself sipping a mojito in a cool latin club with music like this being played live. Exposure to new stuff like this is why I started listening to these 1001 albums. Fun.

The rhyming impresses me, but I'm just not a fan of rap music. I don't hate it, it's just not my jam. Great storytelling, though.

Yeah, rap still isn't for me. This one has slang that I don't understand, so the lyrics are often lost on me.

While not awful, I found this album just meh. It was fine. A nice break from the rap I've been fed by this 1001 albums list, but nothing I care if I ever hear again.

Brilliant album. I'll never get tired of listening to REM. Such a pivotal band in my formative years. It's The End of the World As We Know It, and I feel happy to have listened to this today.

I really want to like Prince more than I actually do. For pop music, it’s pretty great, but I’m just not that into pop music. I know this is sacrilege to so many, and I appreciate Prince for what he was, but it’s just not my jam. Maybe if I were a dancer I would like it more?

If I were to write for a sketch comedy show, and the skit was on a couple on the worst date imaginable, this is the band that would play on a stage in the background to punch home how terrible everything is. In short, I hated it.

I need more of this in my life. Fabulous album.

I love this album. One of my favorite bands, and I’ve heard this album a thousand times, but it never gets old.

This album got such heavy airtime during my senior year of high school, but it never really resonated with me. A bit to pop for my tastes. I like Head Over Heels and think Everybody Wants to Rule The World is ok, but Shout is banal and the rest just seems like filler.

I've heard that Lamar's stuff is legendary, important, poetic, etc. But as an old white man in rural America, it just doesn't resonate with me. I'd rather read a book about the plight of black Americans than listen to this. I hope it reaches its intended audience, and judging from its popularity, it does.

There are 1001 albums in this list and as far as I know they're assigned to me randomly, but what are the odds of getting Kendrick Lamar two days in a row? Still not my jam. Like, at all.