1001 Albums Summary

This album is fine. Maybe I just don't have an ear for it, but most songs on this sound the same to me. That said, I can imagine why this was so important to people, but unfortunately I think my taste in punk is perhaps too modern. Hate & War was the standout tack for me.

Really great. I know nothing about Salsa but found this very enjoyable. Bass lines were so good I looked up who played on it. RIP Sal Cuevas.

Pretty great album. I was very excited to see Sledgehammer, which slaps, on this, but I think it is pretty clearly the best song.

This album is way too long and half the songs sound the same. The music is otherwise fine, but nothing stands out as great to me. Cut five tracks at random from this and its probably a 3.

This album has some real highs, but it simply does not have 69 songs worth of good material. Love is Like Jazz is trash, but that was the only song I actively disliked, so in the end I think this is surprisingly close to fulfilling the promise of its length (not quite there though).

Unimpeachable, 10/10.

This isn't a good album, but the interesting bits are really good. Shame there's at least an album of very boring and not very well put together material here.

This album is fine, nothing remarkable either way. I am perhaps poisoned by the passage of time, but it sounds like a bar band doing a pretty good job singing songs I'm not familiar with. Not sure why its on the list.

I did not enjoy a single song on here, and every song felt miserable. This is only a 2 and not a 1 because I get the impression that that's the point. For what reason? No clue.

Unusual 4 with no saved songs for me. Really good album with excellent vocals and production, but none of the songs really grabbed me.

A good enough album that is very 80s. Unclear why its on the list.

This is the first time I've listened to this full record, not because I didn't know about it, but because the people that I knew liked it in when I was younger were angry people who were cruel to me. I have obviously interacted with conversations online about it and I understand now that the anger, vitriol, and vulgarity expressed in the record is not a sincere statement of belief or intention. In other contexts, I even enjoy such transgressive elements. Maybe its just been too long or maybe I can never truly understand this record from outside myself, but I still can't get past the lyrics. Despite its intense and impressive introspection and musicality, this album will probably just never hit me right. I know he aims to provoke, and it I guess it landed. I feel like I "get it" now more than ever, and I still don't enjoy listening to it. If I do have a more serious critique to level beyond how it makes me feel, its that while the album is intentionally revolting, in both senses of the word, against popular culture, it misfires in many cases by expressing what were, or are, simply majority opinions in coarse language. While calling someone the f slur was gauche in polite society, a majority of Americans in 2000 thought that being gay was immoral. Eminem's misogyny on the record is uncomfortably violent for most, but it doesn't mean the sentiments behind it weren't broadly approved of. Too often on this record he sloppily picks easy targets, despite proving that he is capable of more on other tracks. Whether or not he meant what he said, the violent, bigoted, and hateful language present was extremely popular, and not just among people who understood that it was intentionally provocative.