1001 Albums Summary

Proggier songwriting than I expected. Generally I like the more straightforward blues / grunge tracks (particularly Eternal Life and Dream Brother, and Forget Her has very nice instrumentation). I find the vocal flourishes a little overwrought.

Vibraphone 👌

I love this shit.

Too cute for moi. I like Hazy Shade of Winter.

Lotta bangers on this one (shoutout Myxomatosis) but it has one song I can’t stand: We Suck Young Blood.

Chill and sexy. I like the aux percussion and the organ and the electric piano. I wish there was just a tad more variety in tempo, key and time signature tho—some tracks were not especially memorable.

Not super consistent, but certain songs were surprisingly good and interesting. I like the honky tonk shit.

A lot of these songs sound frantic and a little undercooked. I probably won’t listen again. BUT, it’s cool to hang out at the headwaters of a river that ran into all of my favorite music.

Very fun piece of rock and roll history. Founding members of British rock groups like the Rolling Stones, Cream and Fleetwood Mac went to concerts just like this one, apparently. It would have been a very fun show to attend.

I assume every album on this list is here for a reason, so maybe I need to hear from an Iggy Pop fan about this record. I thought it was bad. Some of the songwriting I thought was good, but it turns out that was mostly David Bowie. Iggy, apparently, wrote the lyrics and sang them like a spooky ghost at the end of a tunnel. Also what the hell is going on with Mass Production? That’s legitimately the most annoying song I’ve heard in years.

The best songs reminded me of boring Michael Jackson songs.

The best songs here are dumb fun: accessible pop melodies with a touch of funk. My favorite is Scar Tissue. The worst songs are just dumb: the nadir is Get On Top, which sounds like a bad RATM b-side. Lots of forgettable shit in between those extremes.

Goofy flower-child fluff for the most part. Seven and Seven Is was my favorite track. Revelations had some good ideas but I was turned off by the interminable saxophone solo.

Usually pleasant, occasionally a bit boring. I will again invoke the vibraphone as an S-tier instrument. I want a break from extended psychedelic jam sessions after the last two days.

I heard a little David Byrne in there but I didn’t much like the songwriting or production. They used a tinny megaphone-style filter over a lot of the vocals which I found kind of annoying.

I liked what I could hear over the concrete mixer

Is this jazz? It doesn’t swing. It doesn’t have chord changes. There are solos but they are remarkably restrained. There is an electric guitar. Apparently all of these things were vexing to the old guard of jazz, with its various orthodoxies. Well, if it isn’t jazz, what is it? It’s ambient and meandering. In the groove that emerges on the second track, you can hear funk struggling to be born. The bassline predicts Birdland by the Weather Report. I really like this record and find it fascinating. I hadn’t heard it before, but it will enter the rotation.

This record often sounds cinematic, especially in the overtures, which is appropriate for the level of ambition on display here. The best song is Tightrope, which is not just a perfect pop single; it unspools into an extended vamp reminiscent of Wanna Be Starting Something. It’s among the best songs Big Boi ever raps over, and that guy has a Super Bowl ring on every finger. Other enjoyments are everywhere: a spaghetti western detour (Sir Greenspan), a Sufjan Stevens number that immediately gets highjacked by Prince and driven to space (Mushrooms & Roses). Bowie is all over this thing (she would go on to record an amazing cover of Heroes). Despite subverting nearly every expectation she sets up, it remains fun and accessible. If this record has a serious misstep, it’s Make the Bus, which in typical Of Montreal fashion is twee and frantic and too much. I just can’t with that guy. Anyway, love it. 5/5.

I’m not super into reggae. I guess the conventions of the genre are very strict, so it’s not a unique observation that it all sounds the same. This was fun and pleasant enough. The highlight was Til the Well Runs Dry, because it broke the reggae format during the verses.

I found a lot to like as a former horn player, but jeez, we are getting a lot of... stylized vocal performances recently. It's hard to get past this one.

You know, I didn't like this a lot, but I found it interesting. As a guitarist there is a lot to like here (the riff from Styrofoam is the highlight). It's abrasive and sloppy, and the songs where the vocalist screams a melody (rather than just shouting tunelessly) are enjoyable.

Duke has always been my favorite big-band leader and composer. It strikes the right balance: fun without being sweet, intellectual without being overly cerebral. He really is a towering figure of American art. And there are some jaw-dropping instrumental performances here.