1001 Albums Summary

First sight, three great tracks, with the high play numbers. Gotta be at least a 3, without having heard a note yet. Played it, enjoyed much of the rest, pleasantly taken by ‘Train leaves….’ and ‘Tryin’. Even the less good tracks have some good musicianship. Up to a 4. Look at the reviews to see what other folk think. The best comment is surely from the guy that said ‘I love The Big Lebowski, but it sure turned a lot of sheep into willingly stupid people without an opinion of their own.’ Still a 4.

About as good as jazz gets, which you'd hope for from a line-up like this.

Too bland and overproduced for me. With most of the songs, I was waiting for something to happen, some sort of progression, but it never did.

Never having knowingly heard any Smiths music before, it was better than I expected, given all the noise that surrounds them. Only listened to it once, suspect it would grow on me further with repeated listening. Would do that more easily if I could make out more than 75% of Morrissey’s vocals. As another reviewer summarised it, "what more can you wish for: Marr's guitar, Morrissey's lyrics and then ruin it by letting Morrissey sing?"

Never listened to a full album of hers before. The lyrics come across as anecdotal, almost inconsequential. It's like the backing track is already laid down and she's fitting the words of her diary to it. Enjoyed it more than I expected to.

Not unpleasant, but not desperately memorable either.

Dull. Not just because it's long, but because it's really, really dull. Just occasionally a track threatens to break out into a good rock tune, but then it reverts to monotonous, or at best pedestrian. As I type this, I'm listening to Kingpin, which absolutely exemplifies my point. It's not a surprise that by far the most played track is one that harks back to the country genesis of many of the performers.

Interesting album featuring some stand-out jazz musicians. At times the piano feels discordant with the rest of the band, which must have been radical in 1957. But overall quite listenable, if a bit difficult in patches.

Gosh, two jazz keyboardists in two days! Generally enjoyed this. Vein Melter probably favourite track.

Not knowingly heard anything by them before. Was pleasantly impressed. If the vocals had been less punk-y, was almost a 5.

Have tried to assess these albums without being influenced by the personality of the artists, but can't sustain it in this case. 2 becomes 1.

Just noise. Didn't do it for me.

For an album allegedly seminal of its era, this was a disappointment. Presumably its era has not endured.

Thoroughly enjoyed this, even though only knowing two of the tracks previously. A later album than those featuring her classic singles, with the vocals more subdued, snuggling up to the orchestral arrangements. But still that great, clear voice. Stand-out track - Windmills of your Mind.

Interesting rather than great album for me. Upbeat tracks better than the slower ones. Lyrics interesting and probably bear deeper scrutiny, but this enterprise is about albums, not John Cooper Clarke set to music. The 'Did I enjoy it?' test says 2, but bump it up because of the overall professionalism.

Rather a curate's egg of an album. The better parts are definitely when the dude isn't singing. Or talking.

Quite enjoyed much of it, but put off by the more pretentious elements. Wouldn't seek it out again.

Every generation needs to find music that differentiates it from (and usually offends) the previous generation. Boomers did it with Rock of all sorts (...and Roll, Hard, Prog and Metal), Gen X with Punk. Millennials? Probably Hip-hop, before settling on Rap. I thought this might be good Punk, but at the end of the day it's just shouty rebellion, wanting to offend and break down the old without having any credible new substitutes.

Another genre classic that will polarise listeners. While liking the music, lyrics are too bland and gloomy, and overall style/themes come across as aimed at a younger audience.

Not the best Bowie album, and hopefully there's better to come. Jean Genie a classic, and much enjoyed Drive-In Saturday and Lady Grinning Soul. But Aladdin Sane is dragged down by the discordant piano interlude after a good start, and the cover of an average Rolling Stones track is worse than the original.

Definitely not to my taste. Repetitive and dull. Clearly music that needs the right ambiance, and the right substance support.

Album started well, peaked with Oliver's Army, but somewhere in the middle I realised I'd heard four or five tracks in a row and didn't really distinguish them from each other. Picked up a bit at the end.

Pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this.

No-brainer.

Difficult to dissociate the album from the performer, but I enjoyed it more than I was expecting. I suspect repeated listening would improve it, hence a 3.

Adequate but dull.

Enjoyable music with multiple influences. Just somehow never quite makes the breakthrough into 'greatness'.

This, if my memory's right, is a parody of the bootleg cassettes that were in vogue at the time, where audience members recorded gigs and then produced and sold copies out of the back of a van. Hence the bland album cover. The lack of real production values that go with live albums is supposedly compensated by the dynamism and the intimacy of the live performance. This doesn't work for me here. There are some great Who songs here (Substitute, Magic Bus, My Generation, Can't Explain), but the recording doesn't do them justice.

Apart from suffering the variability that comes with almost any double album, there's little to criticise here.

This was adequate without being outstanding. The range of styles, the quality of the vocals and the length of the album (yet another double, with the usual difficult-to-sustain quality issues) didn't thrill me. A couple of good tracks. Meh.

Not a great fan of country music, although there are some stand-out songs in the genre (not least the album Trio, which Dolly Parton made with Emmy-Lou Harris and Linda Ronstadt). Also difficult to dissociate reviewing this album against the recent storm of praiseworthy analyses of her life outside music. The lyrics stand out ahead of the music (like most country music), and are generally entertaining. Would have been a 3, but giving 4 because of who she was.

Adequate, punk but not too punky. Contemplated adding a track or two to a standard playlist, but not quite.

Average album lifted by the two hit songs.

Forgotten just how good this album is. One to add to Spotify library.

While this is a dated musical style, and not an album I would choose to revisit, the arrangements and the performances are clearly of high quality.