1001 Albums Summary

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.

I've had this on vinyl since the 90s because I'm sure I got it for $3 or less (love the 90s) and the album cover is super cool. This might be only the second time I've listened to it, and I'm reminded why. Once In a Lifetime is brilliant, the rest is...interesting.

I can see why this is a historic album, and definitely some great playing and songwriting, but somehow it falls a little bit flat for me in 2026.

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.

In case the world was waiting for my take on Purple Rain, it is, as has been well-documented and understood, one of the greatest albums of all time of any genre. Even the songs that are just okay are way better than okay, and the hits are all-time bangers.

This list has made me realize I'm not much of a Rolling Stones fan after all, but of all their albums, this one is my favorite. And Salt of the Earth may be my favorite RS song. There's a pretty cool video from 1989 of Axl Rose singing that song with them if that's your thing.

My biggest rock n roll show brag is seeing The Strokes in September 2001 in Newport, KY on a stage that was maybe six inches high. They did not blow me away but then I bought this album and listened to the shit out of it. Re-listening was a great time capsule. Unexpectedly, will be seeing them again this year as part of the Just Like Heaven festival. Not sure why this is so great but IT IS.

To quote Poison this was too much, too soon, or just a little too late. But I'm quoting Poison so maybe I'm not the audience for this.

My favorite country voice and one of my favorite all time singers. I would have picked Wrecking Ball for this list though.

The next time I play "never have I ever" and someone says "never have I ever listened to a full Cee-Lo Green album" I guess I'll have to drink. This was long. Very long. I did like the sincere romanticism of "let's make it a blockbuster night" and the outro "What Don't You Do?...Fuck around." I'm not sure who Cee-Lo's audience is but I don't think it's me.

This album really had an outsized influence on various people in my orbit at the time that it came out and for years afterwards. I was kind of vicariously into it as well but don't recall hearing this whole album all that much. Incredibly talented dude, and several of his songs are absolute classics. All in all though, my appetite for anxiety-inducing music is way lower in middle-age than it was in my late teens / early 20s.

Not as great as their follow-ups but whoa what an earth shaking debut.

I bought this album in sixth grade, a big album-buying year for me, which included Tiffany's self-titled album, Debbie Gibson's Out of the Blue, David Lee Roth's Skyscraper, Warrant's Dirty Filthy Rotten Stinking Rich, and many other hair metal and teenie-bopper pop albums. Honestly, they all were and still are bangers. I loved this as much or more than all of them, and high-five to 12 year old Jeremy for knowing what's up.

Was never a fan of this band when they hit the US in my college years, but now I kind of dig it. Seems like jock jams for the thinking person.

Jorma can really play. Some timeless classics on here and a lot of dated stuff that can stay unplayed.

A songwriter that has relatively few peers when it comes to sheer solid output, and his genius for an intricate melody is hard to match, but a lot of this feels a little boring and out of touch.

Endless

Big Ten Inch Record for the five star miss.

I wasn't expecting the strange extended plea for mommy, but otherwise some great bass-heavy deep cuts.

Few artists have been more disappointing in living up to my prior perception of what they sound like than this band. Boring AF. And I love guitar riffage, but maybe that's why - this is just not that good or clever as it is made out to be.

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.

If we're being serious here, and I hope we are, this is one of the best rock albums of the 90s, and certainly the best album of Radiohead's career, unless you like music that makes you all jittery, depressed and anxious, which I know a lot of people do. Second side slows down, but that first side is epic.

I'm a latecomer to Depeche Mode, this album was a lot more enjoyable than I expected.

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.

I really like Music for Airports, but this was a tougher task to get through. Enjoyed the Robert Fripp guitar slinging. Otherwise kind of just an odd journey, but feeling positive so I'll give it 3 stars.

While not totally unaware of their existence, CHIC is to date my most favorite 1001 journey discoveries.

When this album came out I was 31, newly separated, and completely adrift, and I had no idea until this year that this album existed. It would have been really great to be into at the time. Need a forensic accounting of how Passion Pit and MGMT were so present at the time and this was somehow invisible to me.

Side 1 is one of the greatest pop songs in a row of any album. Own this on vinyl and it will never be traded in.

Repetitive but delightful vibe

For a long time I've considered the Beastie Boys to be one of the most overrated bands ever. And I really didn't like Paul's Boutique at all, and Intergalactic was an instant radio station switch each time it can every 30 minutes in 1999-2000. Listening to this makes me reassess.

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've spent most of my life confusing this band with Simple Minds despite Simple Minds plea for a better memory of them. It's pretty good, and I can see why I was not a fan when I was a kid and this was popular.

A lot of 1970s hard rock / metal on this list falls very flat for me, particularly deep cuts. This one gets hard and stays hard.

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.

This was quite the 77 minute journey. Where it took me is hard to say. Other than Beautiful, I can't really remember much of anything of what I just heard. But the opening track led me to believe the whole album would be about Fred Durst, which it doesn't seem like it was. But maybe that's fine?

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.

Its fine but yeah that a no from me dawg

Not too cool to say this album rules. Been reading Warren Zanes' bio of Tom Petty which is fantastic and very interesting to learn Stevie Nicks really wanted to leave Fleetwood Mac to join Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers because of her frustration at having only a few songs on albums that came out only every few years. She sort of compromised with them on her first solo album.

I bought this on vinyl in my early 20s (for probably $2) and don't think I ever listened to more than one side. I can see why. But middle-aged me gets it, man. Willie's voice and guitar playing are slight but pretty perfect.

Not my favorite LZ album or even of my top 5 but super solid nonetheless.

I owned this album when I was a much younger man after reading Greil Marcus' Mystery Train book. Didn't get it then, not sure if I get it now, but I appreciate it much more. Had no idea he wrote You Can Leave Your Hat On.

Another day, another 3 star review from me for the Rolling Stones. Paint it Black is obviously great. Sorry fellas.

I'm seeing this group in concert this summer and I'm starting to suspect I will be the only person there who never really got LCD Soundsystem. Maybe that will change but this 3 star review will last forever.

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.

The Kinks seem like they are for kind of depressed people, there I said it.

Never heard of this artist before this list. As EDM goes it did not annoy the sh#t out of me and that is saying a lot. D.A.N.C.E. is pretty great.

Stop wasting my time You know what I want You know what I need Or maybe you don't

Sorry haters this album slaps. Although admittedly it does not slap as hard as Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, War, Unforgettable Fire, or perhaps some other U2 albums. That's where being the greatest band in the world comes in. Definitely their last 5-star album, at least for now. Stuck in a Moment is pretty underrated.

I'm sure this was some wild wild stuff at the time. Bummer he had the bad luck to be cinematically immortalized by Gary Busey.

Did not hate it. It had some nice moments. Which is better than I can say about most EDM albums, but in the end it is an EDM album and very hard but not impossible for such an album to rise above a 3.

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.

I bought this recently on vinyl for $5 and that feels like it's a fair price. I like this weird British early to mid-80s white soul, and Karma Chameleon still slaps, but otherwise pleasant if not great.

I came of age in the tail end of JAMC's presence in alternative rock music in the US. Their biggest contribution to rock to me is that the Pixies did a cover of Head On, which I proceeded to cover in one of my first bands, even at a church youth group lock-in without really explaining that it, like many of the other songs we played, were in no way Christian rock songs. But c'mon man we're all having fun and no one's getting hurt. This album just runs together for me.

This album deserves its Diamond certification and all the accolades it can get. It still kicks ass and is a party-starter nearly 50 years later. EVH is the GOAT and the songs themselves are pretty great too.

Yes it does all run together, but I think that's you know kind of the point. Very relaxing and compelling entry in this genre.

I thought I was going to like this a lot more than I did. I think the Cars are pretty much a Greatest Hits band and not all of those hits are all that great, although none of them are unpleasant.

U2 is my favorite band so there is that. I don't think this is quite the every-song-is-a-masterpiece album in the same way as I think of The Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree, and Achtung Baby, but damn it's pretty good, and soars on the heights of Sunday Bloody Sunday, New Years Day, and 40 alone. Side note, I played 40 with no rehearsal on guitar with a band at a church lock in when I was maybe 15 or 16, and someone declared me the best guitar player in the world. Which was not even close to being true, but I wish I could still play guitar with that same attitude as I did then.

A more than perfect soul and disco album by one of the absolute geniuses of my lifetime. As good as Thriller or Bad to me.

Music for record store guys that have not had a romantic relationship for a good long while. Rock on fellas.

Wanted to like this more, and so much to admire, but really too too much and it became a chore.

A pretty perfect 80s pop album and very cool to hear the extended versions of all these songs.

I really want to give this 5 stars and maybe on a second listen I will. Compared to the other big Stevie Wonder albums of the 1970s, I actually wasn't familiar with any of these songs before today. I need to give it a better listen, but still great.

Yes, it's boring at times, but Mark Knopfler really stands alone in his singing and guitar stylings. Your mileage may vary, but mine is pretty good.

Everything on this album was new to me, and I had to listen to it twice after seeing some low reviews to make sure I wasn't missing something. This is so good, experimental pop in peak form with definitely some stuff that falls on the wrong side of the fine line between clever and stupid, ie Student Demonstration Time. But otherwise really great stuff, standouts were Feel Flows and Disney Girls. Rounding down for Student Demonstration Time.

Never spent a lot of time with Janis Joplin, but this was pretty great. Her voice is obviously epic. And I dig these late 60s early 70s blues rock jams more than I typically do. If I saw this for $8 in a vinyl bin, I'd get it.

For some reason, I thought I had to be into Big Star when I was a blossoming wannabe teenage hipster (still a work in progress). And that reason was because of the song Alex Chilton by The Replacements. And because they would get mentioned on 120 Minutes and stuff. Listening to this very long album, I had the recurring thought that I must have owned this at one point in a used-cassette purchase or checked it out from the library because a lot of it sounded familiar. But there is a reason I didn't really recall listening to it and that reason is that much of it is boring, even if interesting songwriting and influential on all the 80s and 90s alternative popsters to come. Turns out I can travel far without a little Big Star.

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.

It's taken me a number of years into middle age to finally realize ZZ Top rocks, and this was surprisingly great. Need this for the vinyl collection so I can really middle-age out.

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.

The hits - Rio, the incomparable Hungry Like the Wolf (a Jeremy karaoke classic if there ever was one), and to a lesser extent Save a Prayer - definitely carry this album over the remaining deep cuts which are fine but probably not in need of a re-examination. First time hearing this album in full, this was just a little before my time, although Hungry Like the Wolf played throughout the 80s on MTV, and for good reason. Feeling charitable and nostalgic so will bounce this up to a 4.

I've had this vinyl since I was a teenager and listening to it again yesterday I realize it is beyond repair and need a new copy. This one is epic, and every album Springsteen put out through Tunnel of Love is a five-starrer. Saw Springsteen 4 weeks ago and almost brought tears to my eyes listening to Badlands and thinking back on how amazing that song was in concert.

I'd love to say I was more into this. It was very pleasant and a great historical lesson, but not a genre or artist I see myself going back to.

Motorhead sucks. They got one song, and then a bunch of minor variations on that song. Some of which are about statutory rape. That said, their live stuff is better.

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.

Thought it was great, if I need a go-to early 60s soul album this one would be up there.

Some totally serviceable background music for your turn-of-the-millenium lounge bar/ airline / salon.

This is a great album for everyone who listens to The Velvet Underground & Nico and thinks there is too much Velvet Underground.

This is a peculiar missing link between punk and I guess whatever the opposite of punk is. Obviously a lot more instruments. Didn't annoy me as much as a lot of punk is, but it also didn't give the punk energy. Can't say I would come back to any of this. Weird that this band is still around but good on anyone who can keep doing something for over 50 years.

Never a more appropriately named album for a band.

Strangely I don't remember ever listening to this album and yet almost all of the songs felt quite familiar. Unexpectedly great. I've sworn off sad guy music - a la Ryan Adams or Nick Drake - but I think what makes this great is that Beck is such a fun guy in his other music that this feels like a fully balanced human portrait, not just a depressive/suicidal dude. Musicianship and songwriting is A+ from start to finish even if it does blend together. May have to get this on vinyl.

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.

Very impressive but also very performance-y art to me, and my tolerance/appreciation for that kind has withered rather than flowered with age, and although some albums of that style (ie Nick Cave's Ghosteen) transcend that even today, this one did not. I may not be the audience for this.

I actually prefer A Very Special Christmas from the late 80s as a rock and roll Christmas album while realizing that one stands on the shoulders of this one.

At the time this came out, I was a freshman in college and definitely not listening to this kind of stuff. My musical tastes have grown much broader since then, but this still doesn't do it for me. Also they feel like the Quiet Riot of hip hop in that the two songs I know by them are both covers.

Biggest two things I learned from this album is that Paul Simon is actually a beast on guitar, and that gatorade was that culturally prominent in 1972. I thought it was an 80s thing. Also these songs are great.

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/

When I saw this band name and album title I assumed it was yet more 90s Britpop that didn't need to be remembered. Instead it was more late 60s psychedelic SF rock that didn't need to be remembered. There's some good entries in both of these genres but most of the ones on this list are not. Thank you 1001 for helping me focus in on what I really don't care for.

My tolerance and enjoyment of prog rock somehow grows with every decade. I look forward to going back to this.

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.

Talking Heads are a band I enjoy more cinematically than musically, and definitely more from a greatest hits level than an album level. And this one doesn't contain much in the way of greatest hits. They are very cool, much cooler than I will ever be, but this one is fine by me but doesn't get the juices flowing.

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.

One of my favorite finds on this list, bring on the salsa disco.

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.

My prior 3 connections to Dead Kennedys were 1) playing Holiday in Cambodia on Guitar Hero 3 and realizing it was really hard to play even on a video game; 2) hearing the Disposable Heros of Hypophrisy (remember them?) play a cover of California Uber Alles in 1992 but directed towards Pete Wilson I want to say; and 3) seeing Jello Biafra in a bar in Columbus Ohio where celebrity sightings were very rare. Well here we are finally listening to a DK album. It kind of sucked.

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.

Amazing stuff and yeah I hear the strong Tori Amos roots there too. Gets a little unpalatable towards the end but otherwise brilliant, 1/2 is 5 stars.

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.

This list has made me realize I affirmatively don't like a lot of things I was previously indifferent to - hello RHCP deep cuts and any number of 90s Britpop albums - but the biggest surprise is how much I like the dudes in Chic. This is not the 5 star run that I've been giving the Chic albums but pretty darn close. Sorry if I've ever disrespected you disco.

Now I've finally heard Big Black after hearing about them for decades and reading Our Band Could be Your Life about 10 years back. Not what I expected and pleasantly surprised by the riffage and the general sonic texture, even if not totally my thing. Like to think I would have been into them at the time.

Pleasant but does not seem in the running for the best of its genre to make it to the 1001 list.

One might think I would hate this kind of thing, which makes me feel like the world doesn't really know me at all. Also did you know only the drummer in the Beach Boys actually surfed? I just got back from Hawaii where I bought a souvenir toy truck with a surfboard on top and this is how I justified it.

California Dreaming is maybe the best song about California ever written. The rest generally sounds pleasant enough for my very not rock n roll parents to have enjoyed when they felt like wilding out.

Like a true basic B this and A Love Supreme are my two favorite jazz albums

Just finished the Tom Petty book by Warren Zanes which is one of the top 2 rock biographies I've ever read. Tom Petty rules. Solid debut but much much much more brilliance to come. RIP.

This makes me think of that Andy Samberg - Snoop Dogg Corona commercial from a couple years ago where Andy raps and then... Andy: Was that good? Snoop: No. Andy: Oh. Snoop: It was incredible... Andy: Oh? Snoop: ...ly bad.

Buffalo Stance is of course an all-timer, as hypnotic today as it was back then. Otherwise not an all-timer and very much an interesting product of its time. Don't need to revisit anything but Buffalo Stance but that song alone brings this up to a 4-star.

I'm always kind of impressed by the White Stripes but it also sounds like an off-broadway rock opera about a band called the White Stripes, in some sense impersonal and affected. I do like We Are Going to Be Friends and all for midwest bands who stay firmly midwest.

I feel like most people understand the message of the song Let's Get It On but totally ignore the follow-up message of Keep Gettin' It On. Which is a shame.

The moral of the story of the 1001+ album journey is that Britpop has dependably and steadily diminishing returns from an already middling peak.

Lenny Kravitz seems like a supremely great guy. He's got a great voice, is a solid guitar player, has a distinctive sound, and isn't afraid to do his own thing. Unfortunately, I find his own thing to be by and large very very boring.

AI struck early with this band. Guessing more than one person in this band has a trust fund.

Basically a perfect album down to every detail. I owned this on CD when I was much younger and that young man did not fully appreciate it, and I'm not sure that I do now.

Pleasant surprise at how solid of a debut this is from a band that I've never paid much attention to. Can see myself revisiting this.

Totally fine Euro-pop. I have no further statement at this time. Except for the fact that Royskopp and The Knife are two different musical acts, which is one thing I learned from this list.

I want to know why none of the guitar magazines I devoured in the first half of the 1990s did not mention Funkadelic. Or, if they did, why I did not pay attention. The title track is one of the greatest guitar solos I've ever had, and from a dude barely old enough to order a beer at that.

Didn't understand a word, but a very solidly pleasant album, and for it being 21 tracks, I was actually a little disappointed when it ended.

Green Day was inescapable in late high school, and yet I was never much of a fan nor had I listened to a whole album before this list. This is pretty great although not as great as American Idiot.

A couple undeniable classics on this album, but I'm glad this type of thing has gone out of style.

Upon my third Deep Purple album listen on this list, I finally had to google whether Spinal Tap was directly based on them. The results were mixed, but I still believe. So much stupidity on this album AND YET I gave into the very stupid 20 minute version of Space Trucking and now I might be stupid too. Hello Cleveland!

An interesting history lesson and very much the thing I like to learn about from this list. Love the voice and cultural stew of it all, but not something I would revisit.

This is an absurd amount of noodling, and most times I find that really annoying. This was not one of those times. Wish I'd been invited to this party.

I wasn’t so into Hole at the time this came out but was way into Celebrity Skin and went back to this. One of the greatest rock albums of the 90s and this band does not get the respect they deserve although they’re here so maybe they do.

Bob Dylan doesn't go electric quite yet. Important and snoozy.

I guess there weren't a lot of options other than the pride of Lancaster, California if you were into this kind of thing in 1968. My slight fascination with Frank Zappa as a person rather than a recording artist continues after listening to this. But godspeed to anyone who like really really digs this.

Fantastic album with the same spirit as Wrecking Ball, which is my favorite of hers. I actually saw her on this tour at the Columbus Zoo of all places, maybe the most NPR thing I've ever done. Also a big fan of Buddy Miller (and his wife Julie Miller), her right hand man in this era.

This list is beginning to make me think John Lennon - while very talented - might be the most overrated musician of all time? There, I said it.

This is great, need to check out more of these guys' stuff.

Thin Lizzy rules. I'm not really a deep cut guy with them, but I love the mix of heavy, melodic 70s guitar rock with soulful singing and lyrics. Maybe a little longer than I needed it to be, but if it was any shorter I might have missed Huey Lewis (!) on harmonica.

This list had me realize that if an album wins the Mercury Prize, it's probably going to be pretentious and not that good.

Well, wow, thank you 1001, that was amazing. I was only vaguely familiar with some of the Joni Mitchell albums with Jaco Pastorius that came after this, but this is fantastic and it feels like one listen did not do it justice. I'm increasingly a sucker for this kind of 70s jazz-rock (or I guess jazz-folk here?) but it is rare to have a singer and songwriter like Joni Mitchell heading it all. Glad to have this blind spot in my musical understanding removed.

Wow that's got to be some kind of record for number of vocal notes in one album. And after 55 minutes of it, I can't recall a single melody. Never too annoying, but not sure what type of life situation I would be in where I would want to go through this 55-minute journey again. 2.4 stars.

So I just realized that, in the two other lists I've done, I rated Pornography 4 stars the first time I listened to it in Sept 2025, and 2 stars the second time I listened to it in January 2026. The first time was just after listening to In Rainbows which I just don't like (sorry), and I said this kicks ass. The second time was after hearing Maggot Brain which I gave 5 stars. I'm ashamed and fascinated. But perhaps a lesson in framing? Also I was much less happy in September than I was in January so chew on that. In any case I'm not listening to this for a third time in a year and I shall split the difference.

On the one hand, I feel like I've arrived too late to the Santana party, on the other, it seems like the party never ends and everyone is invited.

Extremely impressed by the sprawl and musicianship of this album even if it is probably not something I'd return to much.

I love that a record as scrappy and fun as this was the second best selling album of 1982. But a good deal of it belongs firmly in 1982.

I find a lot of hip hop to be irritating and/or boring. This was great, particularly musically.

Brilliant and timeless, grateful 5 star vibes all the way down.

Pure metal majesty and I'm so sorry for all of us that another whiny Radiohead album has to come right after this.

All of these songs sound the same. And they sound the same as basically every other Radiohead song I've heard released this century. Sell paranoia someplace else, we're all stocked up here.

Rise by PiL is an amazing, classic song. Solid music, great lyrics, fascinating instrumentation including early guitar work by Steve Vai, and the trademark Johnny Rotten snarl. Rise is not on this album. Basically every song on this sucks, using the term song loosely. And it's super long. Rounding down for length.

I usually rate albums on how they hit me now rather than their historical impact, but I'm going to add a star here for the latter. This is mostly songs I've never heard before, but very very impressive for the time. By my count I think there has been four Byrds album I've seen on this list, which seems like maybe two too many, but I'd keep this.

If this is Billy Joel's best shot, then I think it's confirmed I'm never going to be much of a Billy Joel fan. As I've said before, he's super-talented but also Springsteen for dorks.

Monster album that I listen to a couple times a year into eternity. Time is among the greatest of all rock tracks. Big fan of Us and Them too but the whole package is where its at. An album as good as it has been popular.