1001 Albums Summary

Pretty great. Dying was a good career move.

Not as good as Wish. Songs of a Lost World from ‘24 absolutely slapped.

Lots of room to breathe in the tracks. Some challenging time signatures early on but mostly a fairly great, straightforward jazz record. Feels like a good gateway album for the genre. Will revisit.

Utterly brilliant. Witty, often surreal lyrics that feel like they’re occasionally going to break out of folk’n’roll into full-blown hip-hop. Does the history of the album and the ‘Judas’ moment make it more compelling? Probably, but ultimately it’s just glorious songwriting.

Didn’t love it on the first listen. The Brian Eno of it all shone through on second listen, particularly in the second half, but still didn’t resonate as a full, coherent record. One to revisit.

Solid storytelling pop. Only the Good Die Young earned it the fourth star.

Beautiful arrangements and instrumentation. Last 3 songs make for a stunning close. Requires quite specific surroundings to really appreciate it.

Not as grungy as I remember and more guitar shred. Kitchen mosh-worthy.

It’s difficult to get over how annoying the personalities are, which is interesting, and what actually is a Wonderwall? But, the guitar shreds and many of the best tracks were not the singles/classics, which may just be over saturation rearing its head.

Pretty boring. Might revisit as only gave it one listen through, but didn’t really grab me.

Was very ready for a bit of psych but this didn’t hit as much as the first few tracks suggested it would. Picks up again after a baggy middle.

Very listenable, but it says a lot that I didn’t notice when it started playing other bands when the album finished. Background indie.

Utter bliss.

Superb vocals, lyrics and vibe, just a little samey at times.

Not a Stevie I knew but perfect kitchen boogy music.

Glorious. Never listened to a Janis album in full and it was superb. Her voice is incredible. A fun, witty album to throw on any time of day.

Some absolute classics, but the ballads are so boring that it throws the rhythm of the whole thing.

Yes, yes, yes. ‘One’ still hits like a landmine and the whole album is like jet fuel for the day.

Delightful. Folk revival flavours, witty and strange, good psych tracks. Will listen again.

The singles are good, particularly Scar Tissue and Otherside, but the rest is so annoying. It sounds like a band trying to sound like they’re jamming. I confess this may be PTSD from seeing them at Earl’s Court 15 years ago which was just such an awful, self-indulgent gig.

Stonking good thrash again. The remaster album is too clean, though. But the bass comes out better than on Justice, which may also be about being pre- and post-Cliff Barton.

Enjoyable but faded to background music pretty quickly. Would throw on again and give more time to.

Dull but listenable. Folky / country KOL all the way.

I haven’t listened to this properly for a long time and it was great to revisit. Fun psych pop that was as good to sit and listen to as boogy in the kitchen or put on when driving. It’s a bit overstuffed at times, and the style has been refined since, but I loved it.

A very welcome surprise to see this album on here. Loved it, despite the traumatic memories of being given this for Christmas when I asked for Colour and the Shape. The healing is complete.

Managed to listen to the whole thing without registering it. Really wanted to talk about the rain in one song. That’s all I recall.

A joy to listen to as an album and to get such a classic song in context.

Radiohead are a bizarre blind spot for me and finally having a reason to sit with a full album was well worth it.

The first 3 songs nearly made this a hard pass but then it picked up. Still can’t forgive that chipmunk voice song, though.

Dullness of the century.

I’m a Bruce purist when it comes to Iron Maiden, but this has some good tracks on. Hope we get more.

Loved this. Reminded me of a lot of Mike Patton stuff.

I used to listen to the 2003 Greatest Hits a lot but never tried out their albums. This was great, a kind of pop grunge indie. I Remember California sounded like a Tool song at times, so extra marks there.

Very listenable if unremarkable blues.

Beautiful and haunting. One of my favourite albums of all time. Timeless.

Loved this more and more on each listen. Another blind spot for me but great and weird and addictive. Also Geese’s music now makes more sense listening to this.

Stonkingly good. Like Metallica but less cheesy and with bigger boots.

Love love love. Fun, vibrant. Will happily let this soundtrack bits of the day.

High expectations but this didn’t hit. It’s a shame, his voice is amazing. But not the one.

The funk is strong. Still annoying. I blame Anthony Kiedis.

Went in super excited. Good, but man those songs drag on. Kashmir still hits.

Gorgeous.

A purely historical exercise. Nice to put some songs in context, and the ska bits are fun, but won’t be chucking this on again.

Stunning. Having only recently gotten into hip hop this is a big puzzle piece to fit in and it’s just brilliant. Addictive.

Crikey that was dull.

Some of this slapped. Some of it was the same song and lost me along the way. Fun though.

Still prefer Pink Moon and Bryter Lyter, but gods I love Nick Drake.

Nope. I’ve encountered quite a few references to The Fall lately so interest piqued but this was rubbish.

Joyous rock and roll. Lemmy sounds brilliant and the guitar line in The Hammer kills it. Glad this exists. A rogue one for kitchen dancing but maybe it’ll get thrown on in the future.

Another blind spot with a band so many others I like reference all the time. Reminded me of everything through Pixies to Refused and could hear a bit of the elements bands like Sunny Day Real Estate clearly vibed off.

I put my review of this in The Residents one so here is the Residents one: I don’t feel well after that.

Will happily throw this on again. A few tracks felt like they were missing proper hooks, but great most of the way through.

Not a band I’ve given much time or thought to but some good grooves and cool vocal performances. Space Truckin’ is a jam.

Mark Kermode is a massive Creedence Clearwater Revival fan, so now I get the references. This was fun, and didn’t get the bad kind of weird like that Clapton one. Made a good tidal radio playlist too.

Really drives home the Stones’ bluesyness, but kind of dull.

All the right Costello ingredients, just didn’t quite hit on first listen but will revisit. Spanish version muchos intriguing.

Pretty cool. You can hear a lot of subsequent musicians in this, from Newton Faulkner to Ahnohni in the vocal style.

Love love love. Currently favourite album so far I reckon. Sheer joy.

I have no real point of comparison, but actually really enjoyed this. Beautiful vocals and super fun. Plus the “songs like this” included The Bloop Bleep song which is a jam.

I love this album. It’s strange and theatrical and hypnotic.

Just a bit dull. The comedy skits felt very dated. I guess I never knew who sang Ready or Not, though, so that was nice.

A bit backgroundy.

Some jams, but the mix and record scratch got too irritating too often.

I listened to this all the way through but only just getting round to rating it and can’t remember it at all.

Some ear-catching guitar work but also pretty plodding. I can’t decide if Land Ho! is hokey or hearty.

This went harder and faster than I expected from DP. Way better than smoke on the water. Might listen again.

It’s very, very silly. But damn if it isn’t listenable.

Decent pop rock. That noodly guitar on Best Friends Girl is great.

I really wanted to love this but the vocal performance just didn’t grab me. Theatrical in the wrong way. Possibly also the mix on the vocals.

Some of the jams are good but a bit of a dull back to back listen.

Paint it Black and then…a pretty okay blues record. Eh.

Trying to listen to this on its own merits rather than it be U2, I enjoyed quite a bit. Back half of the album limps on a bit. And now understand what tom from blink was trying to do with angels and airwaves.

Really wanted to connect to this but something was missing. Great tracks but didn’t hook like I expected.