1001 Albums Summary

Aretha can do no wrong and this album is full of bops. A couple of forgettable tracks in there, but I guess that's why they weren't singles.

I fear Janis Joplin's voice has been permanently ruined for me by Jenna Maroney's impression of her in 30 Rock, but there's some really good material on this album. Most of the musical breaks show a lot of impressive musicianship and there's a lot of obvious blues influence that comes out in a pleasing way. I think Turtle Blues and Oh, Sweet Mary ended up being my favorite tracks. Last note is I don't really understand why they apparently artificially added in the crowd noises in most of the tracks to make it sound like a live album despite most of it being done in a studio. I feel like I'd rather just have a normal studio album.

Gonna be that guy: I thought this was just okay! I believed I was pretty familiar with Neil Young but apparently I didn't realize how high pitched his voice was, and to be honest I just never really got that into it. There's some good song-writing and lyricism but nothing that particularly wowed me.

I think the hype around this band and the people I knew growing up who hyped them up had soured my taste to the point that I just didn't allow myself to like them. Obviously I had heard some of their songs and knew the general vibe but had never listened to a full album. Hate to admit it, but I reallllly enjoyed this album. Immigrant Song gets the energy going right out of the gate, but Since I've Been Loving You really stole the show for me. The vocalist's voice irked me at times, but that was mostly made up for by everything else going on. I may have to listen to Led Zeppelins 1 and 2 next.

Not sure what to say about this one except that it's basically all bangers. I feel like I know Elvis's hits but haven't done a lot of deep listening to get a real feel for his work. His singing comes across as really soulful in this album and there's energy throughout that's just infectious. It's also wild to me that this was a live album when there's basically no audience audio, which is a start contrast to the dubbed-in audience noise from the Janis Joplin album.