Loved it, will return once this 1001+ journey is finally done in 2029 or so.
I was an improbable fan of Lou Reed during my early teenage years, after seeing the video of Dirty Blvd on MTV in 1989, which surprisingly was in heavy rotation for a while then. I had that album, which is still one of my favorite albums, and then U2 played Satellite of Love on the Zoo TV tour and everything U2 did then was gospel to me. And his albums were in extensive supply at the Westerville Public Library. I've never actually heard this whole album before although familiar with a majority of the songs. Some weird wild stuff on here, but what the hell I'll round up for sentimental reasons.
I'm not sure if I've ever listened to this whole album start to finish, as everything culturally relevant passed by my parents without fail, and by the time I came of listening/purchasing age it was on to Bad, which I did own and love. In much the same way as that my particular time of birth caused me to prefer Sammy over Dave, I've always preferred Bad to Thriller and still don't know how to quit that, but c'mon this is the shit. Cosmically so.
Sorry but if you're not giving this 5 stars you and I will never truly meet eye-to-eye. Good memories of mowing the lawn and cleaning out the garage with this cassette (courtesy of Columbia House) on the walkman.
Not super familiar with him, aside from a few greatest hits, and gotta say this was disappointing. Not really sure who this is for. There no Steely Dan that is for sure.
This to me brought the end to REM's list of absolutely killer albums, starting with Document and going through Green and Out of Time. Of the 4, this is probably my least favorite but still 5 stars. Still remembering buy this the day it came out in the longform cardboard CD box shortly after I first got a CD player.
Repetitive but delightful vibe
I get the derision, but give me some mid-80s boomer classics any day. It gets repetitive but not in a way that I mind.
I'm always torn between whether I should like Supertramp more or less than I do. Some weird ass songs on here but also some smooth 70s AM Gold which is my stock in trade. It's no Breakfast of Champions but it is 3.5 rounded down.
I realize there's a reason Elton John's Greatest Hits has sold a billion copies. Hold Me Close Young Tony Danza deserves all of its streams, as does Indian Sunset.
I remember coming out to LA in Feb 2008 and seeing the poster for this album everywhere and feeling like a dummy because I'd never heard of this group and wasn't clear which Olsen twin that was on the cover. I pretty much forgot about them until now. And you know what? IT'S PRETTY GOOD.
So the real Morrison Hotel is just one block from where I live on S. Hope Street in downtown LA. I had no idea of that until the vagrants who live in that abandoned building started a fire that nearly brought the whole thing down the day after Christmas 2024. There is next to no information about that building on google which is kind of fascinating. Much more fascinating than this album which sounds more or less improvised.
Also had this album in my house growing up, a rare piece of legit classic rock. Didn't listen to it as much as Sgt Peppers which makes sense now because it's like weird at times. Kinda loopy but hard to give this anything less than five stars.
My favorite Beatles album, which is a popular opinion. One of the few non-CCM albums in my house growing up. I also saw the movie starring the Bee Gees and I really liked it, which is an unpopular opinion.
This album is kind of a time capsule for me because it is one of the last if not the last iTunes album I bought before someone finally explained what Spotify was to me and I stopped buying digital musical files altogether (it always seemed weird to do that). This was one of my favorite albums of that year yet I've barely listened to it since then. I like it now more than ever.
Now I know more about Traffic thanks to this list. There was an 80s sitcom - maybe Dear John starring Judd Hirsch? - in which a character said he was late because "I was stuck in Traffic longer than Steve Winwood." Sadly that's the first thing that always comes to mind when Traffic comes up.
This was a major album for me in college - although nobody else I was around was into it, so it was a bit of a lonely pursuit. And yet, when I looked at all the song titles, the only song I could remember was Misunderstood. But then I listened and it all came back. I'm glad I don't sit around listening to sad guy alt-country music anymore, but this was a great trip down memory lane and rounding up for sentimentality. Saw them at Newport Music Hall in 1999 and one of the best shows I had seen up to that time.
I used to think I was a big Police fan but then I realized I was just a fan of the Greatest Hits CD which is as stacked as any greatest hits album can be. I've come to find the non-hits are pretty wacky, which I'm also good with although not ones I'd replay.
This is a great album for everyone who listens to The Velvet Underground & Nico and thinks there is too much Velvet Underground.
Never a more appropriately named album for a band.
This band and singer make a better life story than an album it seems. In reading about them the singer sounds like he was not a big fan of this album. It is interesting to read about a fascinating LA band given that I live in LA and have never heard of this group, but honestly the LA punk stuff circa 1980 has never done anything for me. I'd rather watch a documentary about this band than hear another album. Godspeed Gun Club.
A big part of me wants to rate this as a 2 but it's got its moments. And a lot of stinkers! If nothing else this is strong proof that The Eagles Are Not Yacht Rock.
I love Brian Eno (mostly for the U2 sound), and I hate airports. So this was perfect. I know it sounds like a lot of stuff that's available on calming apps or NPR after 10 pm in smaller markets now, but I do actually appreciate the trailblazing aspect of this, which I don't always do when it comes to historically important but not currently interesting albums on this list. Ambient on Brian Eno!
Big Floyd fan here, this is right up there behind Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall. The world needs more songs like Welcome to the Machine and Have a Cigar.
This was great. I like the disco vibe and I think I like what sounds like the Jingle Bells dog barking in tune to most of the songs. I couldn't help but notice that Taj Mahal sounded like it was ripping off Do Ya Think I'm Sexy by Rod Stewart. Turns out it was Rod who stole it from Jorge true story, and Jorge actually sued and won. https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/z09kax/til_that_rod_stewart_confessed_in_his_2012/
Van Halen is the quintessential American rock band and 1984 is the quintessential Van Halen album. Five Thousand One Hundred and Fifty stars out of 5.
There's an absolutely stellar 5-star 12-track album in the midst of this 2 hour monstrosity. I recall spending probably a day's wages of student work money on this the day it came out in the Fall of 95 and not sure I ever listened to all it the way through since then. There's some stinkers but the highs - 1979, Tonight Tonight. and Bullet With Butterfly Wings - are so g-damn high that I'm giving this five stars in spite of the very excessive filler.
Despite being 16 when this came out, I've never listened to this whole album til today and there was some songs I'd never even heard before. I dug it more than I thought I would and I can see why there's a certain camp who thinks this is better than Nevermind.
Sup dudes, J-dawg here. I'll be doing things like giving Motorhead 1 stars and the Carpenters 4 stars, so buckle the f up.
I've long associated CS&N with a kind of boring 1960s folk music full of hippie platitudes, a la Teach Your Children and Our House. So I was really pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this. I was sort of primed by the super-underappreciated 2020 show Devs which incorporated Guinevere a lot into the soundtrack, and at the time I realized I had myself underappreciated this band. Incredible songwriting, harmonies and musicianship. My bad CS&N. Rounding up from 4.5 stars.
its mystery is only exceeded by its power
I remember being really underwhelmed by the amount of obscure covers and lack of, uhm, Nirvana songs when this aired on MTV. But somehow I owned this CD as did my other three freshman roommates. I don't know man. It's definitely got its moments and I appreciate the early 90s time capsule moments of the banter between songs. But this is not really that great.
I've never listened to the National too much but somehow I got free tickets to see them at the Hollywood Bowl and later at the Greek between 2011 and 2013 because I think they appeal to lonely people who are optimistic that by the time the show rolls around they'll have someone to go with, but for better or worse that's just me on a day's notice without chipping in for the ticket. Bloodbuzz Ohio is pretty great as I am from Ohio and the melancholy of it all does pretty much emulate what it's like to be from Ohio and rarely go back.
The Gypsies had no homes, and the Doors had no bass. Don't let that scare you, let that free you. Rounding up because The End and particularly its placement in Apocalypse Now is pretty cool.
Solo Ozzy was a fairly relevant part of my life growing up, particularly as Randy Rhoads and Zakk Wylde loomed large over the guitar magazines that I devoured, and I'm a latecomer to Sabbath. But they rule, and this is probably their best album. Also fun fact that the Breeders based their music video for Safari on the video for Paranoid. Or maybe it was a different Black Sabbath video.
Who Dey! Who Dey! Who Dey think gonna beat the Cincinnati funk?
I've always understood why the White Stripes are popular but I've never understood why they are THAT popular. I understand a little bit better now. I appreciate the midwestern spirit of it all, but I also am happy to have gotten out of the midwest and that particular spirit. 3.5 stars.
After listening to this album I am no longer afraid to get old.
Love me some big-ass indie guitar overload, but I also like melodies and stuff, so while there is a lot of promise here, sorry I just don't hear a hit.
Whenever I think about James Brown, which is fortunately not terribly often, I spend a few minutes googling trying to understand the story of what happened to his body after he died, but I always come back with more questions than answers. I also think about Rocky IV which is more pleasant.
I really love some XX songs but I realize now there's a lot of filler here. VCR to me for some reason is a classic. I was thinking it would be 5 stars based on what I've liked of them in the past but turns its not.
Well this was a real unexpected delight. The Brits are right on this one. Only thing keeping it from a 5 was a lack of general catchiness to the songs, but that also seems like a "me" problem.
Never mind when Beck is on, but I never reach for it
I long for a time when the most controversial part of society was a new Eminem record, aka 2000. This is not an album I'd turn on for a road trip or a workout - neither of which I do much of but just talking hypothetically here - but it is compelling from start to finish, even when it's nauseating.
The rare album by a black - or even pop (ie not hair metal or REM/U2) - artist that I owned and loved when I was in sixth grade. Unpopular opinion, this is better than Thriller. Man in the Mirror is an all timer, and I have a soft spot for Dirty Diana.
REM is a top five band for me since I was in 6th grade (Stand in the place where you are y'all) and they even topped my Spotify Wrapped last year. This is not my favorite album of theirs and not even a top 5 album of theirs for me but pretty much each album they put out between this and Automatic for the People is a 5-starrer.
As much as my mid-2000s disdain of Coldplay has dissipated, this is distinctly not a distinguished album. No disrespect.
I always forget that I like Kate Bush from the few songs I know and that it would be great to hear more of her music. This was pretty much perfect. I vaguely recall seeing This Woman's Work on MTV back in the day? But great stuff to return to.
On a sunday last summer, I had the opportunity to see either King Crimson (or whatever group of people were calling themselves that) for $5 and separately Hanson for $12, both in downtown LA. I couldn't decide and ended up going to neither. In retrospect I should have done Hanson.
My high school band played both Bombtrack (poorly once then never again) and Killing in the Name Of (smashingly and repeatedly), and yet those are the only songs that are all that familiar from this album, and maybe the only ones you need. I do love me some Tom Morello, he played with Springsteen last night and laid down one of the deadliest guitar solos I've ever seen live on Ghost of Tom Joad.
Feels empowering to rate a Beatles album at less than a 5 and less than a 4 at that.
The Power of Forgetting This Album Existed
I see this came out in 2000 - trying to decide whether in retrospect that was the right time to make a claim like "welcome to the afterfuture" or maybe that was a bit premature. He failed to predict 9/11, Trump, Covid, smartphones, social media, the rise-and-fall of DVDs by mail, or the popularity of high-end athleisure wear unless I missed it. The music itself was pretty good. The lyrics are like yeah totally cool if you're into that kind of thing.
Hendrix was unavoidable for me as a subscriber of multiple guitar magazines in the early 90s - which I must say those magazines were huge in developing my guitar playing. I had a dubbed cassette of Are You Experienced from the public library which I listened to a ton, and which also sort of doubles as a Jimi Greatest Hits album. Never listened to this, but it's great even if it doesn't have the hits of the first album.
The Cure is a top 20 artist for me and this is Exhibit A (2024's Songs of a Lost World might be Exhibit B and should eventually make its way onto this list). Plainsong-Pictures of You are up there with the greatest 1-2 punches in rock album history.
I have a very limited knowledge of jazz, but I like it, which is why I naturally will give this album 5 stars. Like a basic B, this and Kind of Blue are my go-to's in the jazz world.
Schmaltzy, a little weird, and it overstays its welcome, but that also all describes me at times, and by that I mean my best times.
This didn't move me as much as some of the early Genesis classics on here or his first album (or So which I have a hunch will show up here), and not something I'd probably go back to, but for as much as Peter Gabriel shows up here, my respect for his music grows. Biko and Games Without Frontiers (which I recall showing up in a pretty epic The Americans montage) are classics. The rest is mostly pretty interesting.
A pretty damn impressive slab of 60s rock. Rock operas are not so much my thing but, of all them, this one is way up there.
I know there always comes that time in the party when the whole who's better Beatles v. Incubus conversation/argument comes up, and I'm still sticking with the Beatles. And yes I have heard Battlestar Scaratchlica but my mind is still made up.
A great talent but somehow this gives me anxiety that I don't wish to examine further.
500 stars is not enough for this album. Animal-Love Bites-Pour Some Sugar on Me-Armageddon It may be the greatest consecutive four track streak of any album ever. And then if you can hang with some less-than-epic tracks after that you got Hysteria, one of all the all time great songs, waiting for you on the back end of Side 2. Where is my hot tub time machine?
From a midwest-born middle-aged white guy's perspective (take that for what it's worth), hip-hop has never been better or more meaningful than this.
Yeah I think I'm done trying to make me being into the Rolling Stones happen. Angie is great and Salt of the Earth and maybe a handful of others, including You Can't Always Get What You Want from this album, but man songs like Midnight Rambler and Monkey Man (or whatever it was called) just annoy the crap out of me. Sorry I may just be having a bad reaction because I saw an Emo concert last night and now I'm totally into Emo.
No shade against big band music but you could have played a dozen such albums like this and I would be hard-pressed to guess which one made it to the 1001 list. I do like the jocular attitude towards nuclear war on the cover which was a bit of a surprise.
I'm a late in life Steely Dan bandwagonner but there is no better time but the present. Can't say I'm in as deep as many others are, but this album to me is their perfect sound and the one for the ages. Definitely a desert island pick.
This was a Jeremy junior high Walkman cassette classic, although I think I hit fast forwarded to the hits a lot. Great trip down memory lane listening to this all the way through for the first time since then. I'm glad Cult of Personality is still present in the culture as it should be, notably as CM Punk's entrance music in a very MAGA WWE. Vernon Reid is an all-time top-tier shredder and that's a fact. But a little too silly at times and a few songs that sound like jam session ideas for this to be a 5.
I seem to recall in Bono's book him saying that this was The Edge's favorite album at the time they started the band, yet I don't think that's why he's called the Edge. I've heard this before in the last couple years, and yet it all sounds new and strange. Not the worst music for getting through your day.
I don't usually think of myself as an Elvis fan but when he was on, he was on, and so is that backing band. 50,000,000 fans can't be wrong.
It's hard for a Bob Marley album to be anything below a 4 for me, but also hard for it to be anything above a 4.
Whenever a 12-year old slowly plops out the riff to Smoke on the Water on a $100 Squier, a rock and roll angel gets its wings.
This album is a total time capsule of early 90s 120 Minutes and me being a total loser with acne in high school - still have the acne somehow but I feel confident I'm not a loser now, and so it's great to enjoy some stellar early 90s alternative rock without that level of insecurity.
An absolute thrash classic and easily a top 5 all time metal album. Several of the several dozen wicked guitar solos from Hangar 18 started swirling in my brain as soon as I saw this come up. Dave Mustaine is for sure insufferable in many ways but he was born to embody this band and bring together some of the best shredders and shredding in history. The Onion wasn't writing satire on this one.
Jesus by the Velvet Underground is way up there in the canon of songs written about Jesus by people of any faith background, and nice that this album was presented here over Easter weekend. The Velvet Underground may be for many people a pretentious affectation, but for me it's MY pretentious affectation from my youth and I'm glad it still holds up. All those ladies from the mid-1990s who didn't see things the way I did probably and/or surely missed out. Doug Yule forever.
I don't pretend to begin to understand how to appreciate Kendrick Lamar, nor is he a go-to artist for me, but a compelling listen from beginning to end and gotta support the biggest LA artist we got going these days.
It ain't no sin to recognize the originality and fun of the Beastie Boys while entertaining the thought that this album might just be kind of annoying.
Hoo boy, if I ever think I should have come of age in the late 60s, I can return to this album and feel assured of my 80s/90s upbringing.
Riders on the Storm is a great song, and perhaps the greatest version of The Doors there is. But unfortunately this album filled with a lot of the lame white guy hipster 1960s blues jams that are at best grating.
Just because it's schmaltz doesn't mean it's not five stars. Generationally I'm firmly in the Bat Out of Hell II I would do anything for love but I won't do that era, but I know this shit rocks. Having seen Max Weinberg and Roy Bittan - core members of this ensemble - still kicking ass well into their 70s live last week at the Forum in LA certainly didn't hurt in priming me for this.
This album got a lot of play in the large house I lived at in college, while I wondered why no one wanted to sit around listening to Achtung Baby or Darkness On the Edge of Town. So while I have that alienation from it, I can recognize it as being pretty great now, and especially Jack-Ass which is naturally the most U2 or Springsteen song on it. But a little Beck goes a long way with me.
Interesting historical recordings here, although not exactly my thing. Warning if you decide you're an Afrika Bambaataa fan now, you may want to avoid reading his wikipedia page.
I only really knew this band as a historical influence on a lot of other bands apparently, and that the guitar player played on Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend album, which was some impeccable guitar playing. Girlfriend was significantly better than this, but cool ya know. I also see the Strokes comparison with the guitars. But decent vocals go a long way with me. Sure I guess?
If you want to feel truly, deeply humbled, think about the fact that Stevie Wonder put this out when he was 23, it was his sixteenth album by that point, and his best two albums were still yet to come. You're welcome.
