1001 Albums Summary

Previously biased against Prince, but I would love to be proven wrong so we'll give it another shot. 1999 - Fine. Heard it countless times. Reminds me of an inside joke, so that's nice I guess. Little Red Corvette - More of a jam than expected. Could be enjoying myself a lot less. Delirious - That's Prince for sure. Standard minimal production - to be expected. Vaguely irritated by the extended instrumental outro that doesn't really change or do anything interesting, but not overly offended. Let's Pretend We're Married - Reminded of early Depeche Mode. The silly synth stabs at the end of phrases during the pre-chorus made me chuckle. Unhinged vibes won me over in the middle, though he's hitting me with another extended instrumental outro that just repeats the same riff we've been listening to the whole time. Four for four at this point with that. D.M.S.R. - John Lennon vocals? With Grace Jones instrumental. I can dig overall. Not blown away, but sure. Ending kind of scary. Automatic - Fun weird vocal effects in the middle, but I did check to see if we were near the end and we sure are not. Vibing considerably less to this one, but we'll see if he can't stick the landing.... in another two and a half minutes. Good lord, things are happening in this extended instrumental outro. Consider my expectations subverted. Oh just kidding that was the end. Well alright. Something in the Water (Does Not Compute) - Quite like the energy of this track so far. Great frenetic drum loop and strange sounding synth hit. Kind of giving Meredith Monk x Michael Jackson. Really dug that one. My favorite so far by far. Free - Not sure I'm in the mood for a doo-wop ballad after that last one, but we'll see what happens. Yeah, not about that one so much. Kind of fizzles out at the end too, which is definitely the point, but I feel sort of let down by it. Lady Cab Drive - Funky. Some ear-pleasing keyboard solos going on. Quite liking this half rap second verse with the lady moaning/distressed in the background. Don't feel like the entire song lives up to its own potential, but I don't half mind while it's on. All the Critics Love U in New York - Full on Grace Jones going on here. Really fucking with this instrumental on this. And the swirly hypnotic texture that happens in this second chorus line, that's awesome. Quite like this one. Wonder if Prince ever listened to Ms. Jones? ... International Lover - Got more of the falsetto Prince vocals going on with this one, which I'm enjoying more now than I usually do. Nice contrast. Jazzy business. An enjoyable closer. Still not blown away but nice. Can't fault this thing for being what it is. It sure is funky, but I'm just not wowed by the musicality or the composition of these songs. The band kills it, but it sort of feels like any decent band could have killed this material. All that said, I could definitely see myself reading back on all this and disappointedly shaking my head. It's definitely the kind of album that I bet I would grow to enjoy after continued listens. But will I continue to listen?

Led Zeppelin has always been one of those bands that I thought it was best I just didn't have an opinion on. But now I suppose I'm about to have one. Not typically my style of music, but now I'm emotionally prepared to give it a shot. Whole Lotta Love - Was expecting the blues rock. Was not expecting the psych elements and various wooshing. Happy to be surprised. Stellar opener. I'm excited to continue to be surprised. What Is and What Should Never Be - Pretty cool vocal effects on the opening of this one. Realizing at this point that I've been conflating Def Leppard with this band to absolutely the latter's detriment. This is pretty great. Giving rock and roll Beach Boys. The Lemon Song - The riff on this one fuckin rips. And then the tempo shifts and I couldn't be more all in. Hell yeah to this song. Thank You - Enjoying the variety on this album so far. Organ and vocal harmonies nice change of pace. Rough lyrics though on "happiness, sad, glad" business. They make it up with this incredible high timbred organ solo outro though, no hard feelings. Dips out and comes back in. So cool. Heartbreaker - Side two opening coming in suitably rocking. Not entirely moved by this track, but definitely not not enjoying myself. Ending is great. Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman) - Was expecting this one to go somewhere more than it did. Straight forward rocker without any of the cool compositional diversity that has colored the rest of the record. Ramble On - Folky going on here, I'm ready. Whoa to this weird sustained double guitar texture. Delicious vocal panning going on at the end of this one. Maybe my favorite so far. Everything I didn't know I wanted. Moby Dick - Fuck yeah dude Bring It On Home - Nice little cover to close out the record. Could have liked it to keep the subdued echoey sort of energy of the beginning through the whole thing, but bringing the whole band in for a grand finale works too. Okay they heard me for that ending. Splendid. Alright, alright, what a fool I was and continue to be. I'm fully taken aback by this record's creativity and artistic merit. Wayyyyy more interesting and forward thinking than I had previously assumed. Shame on me. Excited to dive deeper into their oeuvre.

We're Stevie respecters around here. I've only ever listened to Songs in the Key of Life before, so I'm excited to get another record under my belt here. Expecting more of what I know he can do. Smile Please - The growls and the diddy-bongs are quite charming. Lovely little tune. Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away - Jesus. Perfectly decent gospel number. Too Shy To Say - Beautiful tune on this one. Quite like the arrangment of just the piano and slide guitar. Gorgeous. Boogie On Reggae Woman - Not sure I fully vibe with this one. Funky for sure, but not a lot of movement and it ended when something actually ear-catching was finally going on. Creepin' - Really interesting mood with this one. Major key and relatively happy sounding, but this slithery organ line and the slightly uncomfortable chord progressions really stay true to the title. You Haven't Done Nothin' - Yes to this one. Just a full on Stevie rocker. It Ain't No Use - Another one that I feel stays in its own pocket for a bit too long. Groovy baseline, but I want more things to happen with this material. They Won't Go When I Go - Heard this one before, and of course the George Michael version. Absolutely stunning. Bird of Beauty - Definitely still riding the high of the last song. Love the elevator samba going on around here. Totally about it. Please Don't Go - Decent enough track to close it out. Not much to say on this one, but it's pleasant enough while it's on. Certainly a pretty good album. High highs and the worst it gets is middling. Feel like I would say that I like Songs in the Key of Life more, but I'll for sure turn to this if I want a more bite-size Stevie. Because holy shit, They Won't Go When I Go. Will definitely be seeing this on my shelf soon.

Ah hell yeah, Bruce. Such a great album. Happy to get something I'm quite familiar with after three days of doing this, because I was started to feel inadequate as a self-styled well rounded music lover smh Thunder Road - Love this song. Just such a wonderful and evocative sound. The saxophone-led outro is just everything I love in a rock song. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out - Hell yeah, getting some piano blues up in here. Love this song. Night - Coming out swinging with the saxophones immediately on this one. And then Bruce doubling down on the Bruce vocals. Perfection. Backstreets - The composition of this song is top notch. Verse melody is so tense and delicious until the chorus erupts in the resolution. And if that wasn't good enough, you have the last two minutes. Born to Run - Absolutely classic and highly influential. This sound is the sound of some of my favorite songs. Love love love this one. She's the One - His songwriting ability is so strong. I'm in bafflement of these little pop motifs that he builds rock songs around seemingly effortlessly. This one always reminds me of something Billy Joel would write but better. Meeting Across the River - Splendid little ballad. Perfect way to calm us down from the last couple of bangers and prime us for Jungleland. Jungleland - Feels like there's not much I can say on this song in a text format like this. This is the one. The kind of song that you have to turn on again as soon as it ends and I for sure did this time. Future me, I know you know what I mean, but if you've somehow forgotten, just listen to this one again. Feels like I haven't said much of substance on this record in comparison to others, but what really can I say? There's not really anything experimental going on here, unless you count a complete genius mastery of genre and form as experimental. So so so so good. One of the greats for sure.

Been meaning to check this album out for a hot minute since I see so much praise for it everywhere. The only thing I've knowingly heard of Neil Young is Sufjan Stevens' cover of There's A World, which I of course love so I'm not expecting to be let down around here. Out on the Weekend - Not at all how I imagined his voice was going to sound. Vaguely western Ben Gibbard sounding. Pretty solid song though. I appreciate the slow build up throughout. Ready for more of a pay off in the next track maybe? Harvest - Certainly not a pay off to the build up in the last song, but that's okay. I'm realizing that it's maybe not that sort of album. Hearing quite a lot of small indie artists that I cherish in this song specifically. Interesting that this album has become so acclaimed when it's not really a sound that has remained extremely popular within the culture. Low key, but I'm digging. A Man Needs a Maid - Wow, all of a sudden we've got huge instrumentation. I'm experiencing a bit of positive confusion about the sudden shift in drama with the LSO here. Huge change in mood and structure from the previous two, but why? Heart of Gold - Got a bit of a blues rocker going on with this one. Again, a massive change from the first two songs and the third. All four have been solid tunes so far for sure, but I'm getting whiplash between styles. Still having trouble divorcing myself from the thought that this album is not going to be just a collection of songs, but it may in fact be. Not sure how I feel about it. Are You Ready for the Country? - Okay, another blues rock track. We're sounding like Dylan. I'm getting more grounded in what I'm supposed to expect here. Groovy number. I like the funny slidey guitar throughout. Old Man - Like this one quite a lot. Straight forward and a great tune. Nothing mind blowing going on, but there doesn't need to be with the bones as good as this. There's A World - Well, okay, the LSO is back. I mean, the song is great, the lyrics are lovely, and the orchestration is phenomenal. Really makes the lyrics seem incredibly majestic. It's just so different from everything else on the record. Feel like I'm being an asshole and should be able to turn off my desire for cohesion, but it's so widely distractingly different. The last second of the track with the stage sound is pretty interesting though. I fear that Sufjan did not set my expectations up properly here... Alabama - Not a huge fan of this one. Sort of plodding, lethargic rock instrumental that is so rich and full that I'm just sitting here with indigestion and ready to be done with. The sarcastic shady lyrics are quite amusing though. The Needle and the Damage Done - Cute little acoustic number. The lyrics are poignant and the swung chords accompany them well. The live version reveal is done well and the hard cut to the next track really works with the thematic content. It just makes me think again though, that there obviously is some sort of ALBUM statement going on here. But what and how??? Words (Between the Lines of Age) - Shreddin guitar solo going on at the end there. I'll be honest and say this is what I thought the whole album was going to sound more or less. Having heard it, I'm glad it doesn't all sound this way, but that's not necessarily a dig on this one. I'm so confused by this album. Obviously there is some quality song-writing going on, but I can't tell if the disparate musical styles herein are due to some attempt at cohesive eclecticism or just at a total inability to be cohesive. I am sort of leaning to believe the former right now. A perusal of the Wikipedia page doesn't really give me an indication of what the artistic intent is meant to be here, so it's really hard for me to accept this as a body of work that is helmed by an artist looking to create a body of work. There is genius in the lyrics for sure. I had to pivot to paying more attention to them when I realized that perhaps there was more merit in them than in the composition. But there are some moments in the production that make one think there is meant to be more attention paid there. Hard to wrap my mind around this one, and I'm sort of boggled at the reputation this album has. Strange strange strange.

Bowie has been a sore spot for me. Always felt like I should like his work, but whenever I try it's just not it. Except for 1.Outside which I love. I've heard Heroes before and not felt much for it, so most of my exposure to it is in the Philip Glass symphony. Have a lot of respect for Bowie and Brian Eno as artists, so here we go trying it again. Beauty and the Beast - Like the funk elements going on here. The song structure is quite interesting here. The only thing to anchor you is the title line. Production is so oppressive that it's hard to get a grip on anything else. Feels a lot shorter than it is with so much going on. Joe the Lion - The same overwhelming sonic pallette persists here. I get sort of over this one by the end with the repeated "Joe the Lion"s over and over, but the fuzzy noodly guitar solo keeps me going. "Heroes" - Classic song, of course. The sustained, siren-like tone that evolves into denser and denser clusters is just genius. Brian Eno, yknow. Sons of the Silent Age - Enjoy how this one devolves throughout into pure Beatles-ey psych business after the first chorus. Also quite like the lower-key instrumental on this one. Blackout - Rockin. The liquidy aspect of the vocal lines on this one are interesting as they meld into the actual melody with the background vocals. Fun fadeout going as well. V-2 Schneider - Quite the sonic build up here. Throw some saxophones on anything and you know I'm going to like it. Not too dissimilar from how it plays out in the Glass symphony (aside from the Glassisms of course) except that it's about half as long. Feels like I want it to keep going for another three minutes. Sense of Doubt - Hell yeah. Love the soundscape on this one. I suppose it probably goes right in from V-2 Scheider so maybe I'll hold my tongue about the abrupt ending on the last track. Unfortunately, there's an ugly couple second gap on streaming as it loads the next song. Moss Garden - Fuck yes, Brian Eno. These last three have really caught my attention this listen-through. And you've got the airplane noises coming in at the end. Fuckin baller. Neukoln - Again, definitely familiar with this material but in an entirely different sonic context. And this one is not even that much shorter than the Glass version. I am just enraptured by this second half so far. The Secret Life of Arabia - Back to rock and roll now. I don't know, I want so much more from this one. Feels like we ought to be transformed by the end of that beautiful droney section of the record. The instrumentation is definitely less manic than it was at the start, but I'm not sure what I'm meant to be taking away by the end. And then it just ends. We're grooving and then plopped down with nothing. I had to listen to it a second time just to make sure something wasn't wrong. Definitely did enjoy my listening experience more than I have on previous attempts. Perhaps it's that I haven't listened to this original material since I've gotten more familiar with the Glass symphony, so I'm more used to the thematic content. There are for sure some things about which I feel confused. Sitting with it more, the closing track is an immense let down. But the whole B side before the final song is stunning. Brian Eno, yknow. Will definitely have to be returning.