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.

I was prepared for this to be an awful experience based on some reviews here and only having the cartoonish images of Slipknot as my knowledge of the band. I'm not going to go out of my way to find more Slipknot, but it was not at all awful. And kind of pretty rad at times, specifically on the front half of the album. Silly and juvenile for sure but those drums and some of that riffage is undeniable.

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 list is doing some work to convince me how much I don't appreciate David Bowie while still allowing me to retain a lot of my lack of appreciation. Life on Mars and Changes are great, the rest pretty forgettable to me.

Of all the depressing, tuneless, bleeps-and-bloops Radiohead albums on this list, this might be the bleepiest if not the bloopiest.

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 wish I was a person who listened to London Calling or the Clash in general and got what all the critical fuss is about. I remember being in high school and seeing in an old Rolling Stone at the library (on microfiche I believe because that's how I rolled back then) named this the best album of the 1980s, and then I checked out the cassette from that same library, and I didn't understand why. I appreciate it somewhat more but still don't understand.

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.

As much as I'm bewildered by the number of Byrds albums on this list, I'm actually enjoying each one of them. Also was today year's old when I realized Feel a Whole Let Better is a Byrds song and not a Tom Petty song (its on Full Moon Fever one of the all time great albums that sure as shit better be on this list).

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.

Haunted by Shane MacGowan is an all time great song to me. So I don't totally dislike him and his whole thing. And Fairytale of New York here is really great and I've not spent enough Christmases savoring it. Otherwise it's hard to know when one song ends and another starts and 20 minutes of it all is plenty.

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.

Hmm, I know Joni Mitchell is revered, and I do like some of her other albums, but I like the ones that have like lots of interesting instrumentation on them. When it is just guitar, then I realize it's about the lyrics and unfortunately I don't currently have the bandwidth for that, at least not delivered this way. River is great.

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.

Was not familiar with her, obviously a great talent. And I think that's the only live album I've heard where it ends with the artist singing a song they don't know. Very pleasant but not something I'd incorporate into my life.

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.

I'm really tempted to give this 1 star because I really do not like Joy Division and am upset about having to sit through a whole second album here. And the problem is I keep getting annoyed by it and stop listening and then forget where I was in the album, and because it all sounds alike, I keep having to go back. But the drums and bass continue to impress you so you all get an extra star. Sorry critics and hipsters this is where we diverge.

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.

Was never a huge fan of NIN. Can't say that listening to this changed that. So much rage! And much of the time I have no idea why exactly he's so pissed. But the originality and musicianship is undeniable. And Hurt really is one of the all time classic songs. I could make a mix of maybe ten NIN tracks and that would be an amazing playlist and would not really care about anything else they (he) ever did. But rounding up for going out on a high note.

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.

My heart says two stars but my brain says three. I like David Bowie. I like Brian Eno. But this was a challenge. Still I can recognize some brilliance here.

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.

I think Dusty in Memphis is an all time top album. This is pleasant and her voice is fantastic but the earlier standards don't do a ton for me.

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

Man the Rodster is really where classic AM and FM radio meet. I think about that because the first time I ever heard Maggie May was on whatever (super) oldies station my grandmother listened to next to music like Mel Torme. I checked this album out of the library in high school. Didn't really do it for me. It does a little more for me now. I respect the game but this is 3.5 stars for me and rounding down because Rod will survive.

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

I need to come back to this and maybe push this 4 up to a 5.

Not the best Pixies album, not the worst, but I'm always done for the show that the Pixies bring.

Surprised to see a 1999 XTC album on this list and even more surprised when I heard that it wasn't that great. But it wasn't that bad either. I was able to do my work without it distracting me so something to be said about that. What this album was all about I have no idea.

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 realize I am violating some oath here, but let's face it this band is not very good and there's way too much of it. But they seem like they're having fun and that is what it is all about.

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.

Not sure if I ever listened to a whole Queen album before? Pretty silly at times, but Boheman Rhapsody cannot be denied. I remember hearing that in the late 80s and early 90s pre-Waynes World on QFM and always being confused and not that into it. Waynes World of course changed everything. As did the Freddie Mercury tribute concert. (for the US at least) Anyway, great stuff mostly.

I remember getting this CD in my last Columbia House 12 CDs for a penny haul. Looking back, not sure why, maybe just cuz I had the hots for her. I don't remember listening to it much at all, but this is pretty great, even if something I'd not make a regular listen.

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 was great. I had her first album kind of early on before she became the global phenom we know her as now and I loved it and not sure why I didn't keep up. He Won't Go is a modern day Yacht Rock classic. And Someone Like You reminds me I am human which is nice.

Hmmm, this was not as good as I was thinking it would be. Nothing against ska just seems overly rudimentary and uhm not especially good. If you had told me this was your friend's local ska band from the early 80s mentally that would have checked out for me. Maybe you had to be there. But based on the lyrics I'm glad I was not there. Rounding down, sorry blokes.

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'm not sure if anyone has ever made this comment before, but these songs all kind of sound the same. They sound fine, and maybe if I was paying attention to the lyrics, I'd be having a lot of melancholy thoughts about all my celebrity ex-boyfriends. There were a couple fine songs on here, particularly the last one. But Taylor without the hooks just ain't doing it for me.

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.

I've mostly made peace with the fact that I have to listen to a lot of Morrissey if I'm going to get through this project. Never exactly hate it but it doesn't do too much for me either. This was totes fine.

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.

I don't love this nearly as much as I love Dark Side or Wish You Were Here, but this is way up there on the list of all time great albums. Comfortably Numb is a top 5 song ever for me. And Hey You is another huge standout. This album could probably end with Run Like Hell as it really peters out after that but I don't make the rules.

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

I thought this was pretty great. I get their is some darkness but it's all trip hop and good vocals so hard to be all too dark. I would come back to this.

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.

Tough crowd here! As far as the "hits" go I'm onboard with all of them. A Simple Desultory Philippic is (I'm hoping) the worst song Paul Simon has ever written. 4 stars for side 1, 2 stars for side 2.

The one thing we can all agree on. Johnny Cash we need you more than ever.

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.

Headache was a recovered memory from my hey day of watching 120 Minutes, and that's a great song. The rest was just too much Frank. But not enough for Frank as I see he put out 13 more solo albums out over the next 15 years or so. Whoa man. Not the same without Kim Deal. Speaking of which I'm going to see the Breeders next week which seems like it will be a lot more fun than seeing a Frank Black concert.

This is an interesting mix of 70's singer-songwriter, AM gold, and a little soul. Glad to know a little more about Joan. Her name sounds like she should be a kindergarten teacher but glad she shared this music with us.

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.

Now I know a lot more about T. Rex than I previously did, and TBH that's pretty cool. Didn't hate it, and I can respect anyone who's way into T. Rex, but don't think this is going to be my new obsession.

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.

Not sure I've ever listened to this album. Of course it's great. Curtis has a voice like no other. A little bit more repetitive (literally so) than I was expecting but I think that was the format and it was all great. Take me to the vinyl bin!

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.

I kind of get it, but it also feels like you had to be there. But hey all for bands from Ann Arbor doing well to distract them from their sh*t football team. Rounding 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!

I'm actually set to see Ice Cube open for Guns N Roses in three weeks, 36 years after this album came out, if I don't resell the tickets for a gazillion dollars. I hope his outlook on women has matured by now.

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?

This was totally great music to listen to while I work - interesting jazz throughout but not trying to be crazy for no damn reason. I would add this to my growing list of jazz albums for guys that are into but not that into jazz. And a good deal more upbeat and joyous than a lot of the other jazz currently on that list.

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.

The Kinks have some pretty great songs, but there are just too damn many of them. I guess this was about the banality of middle class life in England in the late 60s. Mission accomplished I guess?

Like a good 90s white kid I vaguely remember this. I imagine this was in many a dorm room at my college in the mid-90s. Pretty good stuff, and I liked the whimsy of it all, and I was surprised at how many tracks sounded familiar. But yeah still not my thing.

PJ Harvey is so talented, and this was a very solid album. And yet I can never seem to get myself to care too much outside of a few iconic 120 Minutes tracks I remember from the 90s.

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.

I've been trying to catch up on the albums on this list and had been avoiding this one like the plague. But here it still sits. Although within a few seconds I was like wait I think I already listened to this for my prior list. Which I had. This is a really wonderful moment. But I'm not giving it any more stars. 5 star band, 1 star lead singer. Which equals 2 stars.

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.

The music here seemed fine and interesting at times but whatever copy I got of this had a seemingly annoyed woman talking quickly in monotone over almost the entire album.

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.

This kind of just went on in the background for me, although it was totally fine and I appreciated all of it. I think. Seems like a remarkable achievement but someone other than me should probably give the remarks.

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've been avoiding this album since I joined this group, and now that I've finally listened to my avoidance was justified. Clearly these guys are great musicians but whatever they are trying to sell here (smarminess?), sorry I'm just not buying.

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.

I know this dude is great. But man this is a lot to get through.

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.

A five-star album that just isn't my thing.

The 1 star album that makes all other 1 star albums look like Dark Side of the Moon. England must have been a creepy place in the late 70s.

So it was totally news to me that there was a prior album to Back to Black. I know a lot of rock stars died young, especially at 27, but something about Amy (maybe the recentness?) just makes the whole thing kind of sad, even when it's otherwise a very solid album.

The Beatles sure got better as they went along. This early 60s pop-rock generally doesn't do it for me.

I feel like a poseur liking this album so much but that's not a reason not to like it.

Well this was definitely a whole vibe in the early 90s and on through the decade. I honestly never found it all that compelling which is such a shameful thing to say. I did like Arrested Development a lot more for whatever that is worth, but their influence seems to have very much faded. Some fun tracks and whenever El Segundo comes up (I live in LA) I do make the dad joke that I think I left my wallet there, which lands about 15 percent of the time. So rounding up for that.

I have nothing helpful to say about this except that her voice is unmatched and I liked it.

Not going to pretend like I'm some old school rock critic who goes nutz over this but I gotta give this man his due that he can bash a piano like that with such indecency for 1964. Not adding Jerry Lee Lewis to the playlist but glad to spend this time with him.

I don't usually keep track of what the best album of a certain year was, but I'm going to say this was the best album of 2010. Right time, right place. Glad there are still a few bands out there like this.

I don't know who needs to hear this, but it's okay to appreciate The Band's greatest hits and not really want to listen to their entire albums. Also it's important to remember that Nirvanna The Band from Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie didn't just rip their name off from Nirvana, they also ripped these guys off too.

When I saw this come up I was like oh man I don't want to listen to this again but now I see I previously gave it 4 stars. Sometimes a language barrier is a good thing it seems.

The warning that I received, you may take with however many grains of salt you wish, that the brown acid that is circulating around us, is specifically not too good. It's suggested that you do stay away from that; of course, it's your own trip, so, be my guest. But, please be advised that there is a warning on that one. That said, I did enjoy the Van Halen cover at the end.

Now I know a little bit more about Killing Joke. I sense their later stuff might be better. Kinda sounded like a not very good band to me which is never inspiring.

Well this is no less than a classic. Some weird Pixies nonsense on here at times but all in all this is the promise of the premise of the Pixies.

My knowledge of Kanye West is actually pretty limited, although I do recall owning his first two albums on CD and being kind of into them. This was pretty great as an entertaining and artistic achievement, but not the kind of thing I would ever put on for any purpose. Wonder what ever happened to this guy, has he done anything since this album?

Well this was unexpected. Kind of sounds like Neil Diamond's younger, more serious and literate brother. Which is not a bad thing. I didn't really take time to focus in on the lyrics and not sure I will ever make that time. Perhaps that is to detriment. I did like Waiting for the Moving Van to Come.

Never been much of a deadhead, but unlike my colleague the warm embrace of middle age has indeed prepared me well for this. Not sure I'll be going deep into the discography but this hits the spot and I can see going back to it again and again. But maybe I was just prepped for this by Tesla's cover of Truckin on Five Man Acoustical Jam, an underrated classic.

This album is a great example of how much cultural evolution in popular music has slowed down since maybe the mid-80s. Some pop star could put this exact album out today and it would be a #1 smash and album of the year.

I like me some Nevermind, some Ten, and all that, but this is the greatest 90s rock album of the 90s hands down (redundancy intended). Saw them play Cherub Rock and Today from this two weeks ago for America 250 for $17.76 and it was all the 16 year old feels.

I owned this CD at one point and while I never need to hear it again, it's somehow burned in my brain, and I think there is something to be said for that.

Well I'll take this any day over yet another brit pop fascsimile from the 90s. Starts out very strong. I was 21 when this came out but I do recall those songs being omnipresent on MTV. Fades toward the end and definitely overlong as many of the CDs of the 90s were. They had a sound and it was a good one. Just didn't need so much of it.

This seems like a great album to put on at the point in a party where there are still like 5 people hanging around but you really want them to leave so you can go to bed.

This took me back. Well just the first song. It unlocked the memory of the hair metal "supergroup" (using that term lightly) Contraband, which had members of Ratt, Vixen, LA Guns, and Scorpions, and they put out a cover of All The Way From Memphis on their one and only album that came out in May 1991 just in time for hair metal to disappear. That song got what I'm assuming is a very disproportionate amount of radio play in Columbus Ohio. And honestly it's great as is the original version. Anyway the rest sounded very generic although I'm sure it was cool at the time.

This was kind of a really big album in 1999. And despite that, somehow he played the Newport Music Hall in Columbus which is a small venue on this tour and I got free tickets from the record store I worked at and the concert was on the walk home to my place (good times). Got there for the last 30 minutes which was primarily him standing motionless on a bench while techno music that nobody on stage seemed to be playing got louder and louder and louder and louder. Seems like a good guy but WTF was all that. If this is on the list but there's no Huey Lewis then something went wrong in the timeline.

When rock and roll giants walked the earth. So many of these songs are foundational to me from hearing them on QFM 96.3 (20 years after the album came out) constantly to being the first songs I learned on guitar. And for all the jokes, Stairway still is one of the most epic songs ever. 5 stars for Stairway alone.

When I listened to this previously, I thought it was really quite inventive and great, while being weirder than anything I need in my life in that particular avenue of weird, and also that I didn't need to ever listen to it again. I made good on that by not listening to it again.

This album (or at least a song or two) was a big deal on pop radio and I think MTV when I was about 10 years old and it was far and away the most boring, turn the dial thing to come on. Now I'm middle aged and it's totally fine but still can't explain that to my inner 10 year old.

Cornershop well before Cornershop to be reductive and perhaps obvious. I'm glad this exists and didn't mind it, but probably not more than a history lesson for me.

Early Yes is increasingly a win for me and where I am now. And it's weird that more time has elapsed between when Buffalo 66 came out and now than between when this album came out and Buffalo 66 came out, but that's my problem, not yours. Or maybe it's both our problems and in that case we have camradarie.

Maybe I was just having a rough morning but, while I enjoyed this, I didn't like it nearly as much as the fairly similar Hissing of Summer Lawns. I dunno man music is funny that way. Maybe I'll come back to it someday.

I don't know whether I'm dumber or smarter for having listened to this. Apocalypse Dudes is a great title for an album and Rock Against Ass is an even better song title. The shredding was on point. But in the end pretty stupid. Pretty gloriously stupid, but I'm going to need a better front man for it to go over 3 stars.

If yacht rock is the defining genre of my mid to late 40s, Wilco's early style of alt-country was the genre of my early to mid 20s, although this was the album where they really kind of moved on from that, and I kind of moved on from them. I remember seeing them on this tour in Ohio as one of my last acts as an Ohio resident and it was pretty great, but mostly for songs not on this album. It's great but also pretty boring at times. Kamera, Jesus etc, and Heavy Metal Drummer are standouts. In Wilco fashion, it really peters out there at the end. Thanks for the memories Wilco.

I assume these guys are cool because they are from Ohio. But man this bit the big one.

I was given this cd for my birthday in 2007. 2007 kind of sucked but this was a great album.

I think I understand why this is great and all, and the opening track is iconic, but it's hard to listen to this whole album and not feel like you're listening to the soundtrack of a very early generation poker phone app.

This was MTV in its hey day, bringing righteous and musically innovative acts on vivid display to the suburban kids like me who would have never heard this on the radio. Doesn't hold up as well as other Public Enemy albums for me, but still great.

I used to love music like this. Now it bums the shit out of me. Voices, guitar, and lyrics are beautiful. But dude. This last song is longer than some of my relationships.

I gave Graceland five stars, and other Simon albums four stars. I was actually pretty curious to hear what the album before Graceland sounded like, possibly an undiscovered gem? Nope. Cars are Cars is the worst Simon song I've ever heard, and glad to see Rolling Stone backs me up - https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/22-terrible-songs-by-great-artists-20368/paul-simon-cars-are-cars-1983-35314/

In the days before Metallica finally put out a video for One in like 1989, a kid like me couldn't hear Metallica as they were not on the radio or MTV and of course no youtube, spotify, etc. So I only knew them from the reputation of the dirtbags who wore Metallica shirts on the daily, and I assumed it was not my thing. This is definitely my thing. The greatest metal album ever and the title track is the greatest metal song ever. All of Side 1 is glorious. The dirtbags were right.

Hadn't heard this band before this list, although was aware of them being popular with a certain kind of slacker grad school world that I never shared all that much taste with, and yeah y'all can keep 'em.

Owned this album when it came out and I remember it the same as I hear it now - some amazing songs and a lot of slow, unmemorable dirges. Fight Test, Yoshimi, and Do You Realize are classics, but overall not as great as The Soft Bulletin.

The most descriptive band name ever.

Not quite what I expected and not as good as I hoped. Clapton has done a lot over his career and I'm okay with him, although he was never a guitar god to me like Page, EVH, Hendrix, etc. This was totally fine but not something I'd go back to.