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.

Some real bright spots in here, but its over an hour long and mostly very repetitive. The beats are almost universally excellent, but the songs are constructed in a way that makes me get tired of each of them by the end.

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.

Historically not a huge fan of Dylan, but I really enjoyed this.

My prior exposure to The Smiths is effectively just hearing about Morrissey being an asshole, but I quite enjoyed this. Energetic and enjoyably layered arrangements, and to my surprise and in contrast to most other reviews I've seen, I quite like his voice. A small window into why people tolerate him at all today.

Not the first Bob Marley album I've gotten on here, but definitely my favorite so far. I didn't dislike any of them, but this is the first that's clicked for me. Maybe its the bass.

Some really excellent music that is too lo fi for its own good. Worth a listen, lots of good ideas, though mostly unfinished.

Drive is fine, the rest is pretty bad. Did they run out of albums?

Lots of interesting choices here to create noisy sounds. Perhaps I'm a philistine, but I don't find the sounds interesting enough on their own to be good and I don't think it really comes together.

I think it's important to be able to talk about your feelings, especially negative ones. I don't think it's always wise to do so in an extremely public piece of art. This album stinks. There is a glimmer of something compelling in the second to last track, but even that song is bad overall.

Very easy to listen to, tight harmonies, good straightforward melodies. Nothing blowing me away here but pretty easy to place this on a progression from 50s rock to what would follow in the 60s.

Paint It Black is genuinely great. Stereo mixing is very of its time, a little hard to listen to. Under my thumb kind of sucks and is gross and the rest of the album is pretty bad. Pretty shocked how much the rest of this album is just completely dwarfed by Paint It Black. I might not like the Rolling Stones, 0/2 so far.

Why the hell does he sound like that? Songs are great, singer not so much. It sounds like he's doing a rude caricature of a British accent.

I like their later hits that I've heard, but they're trying a bit too hard to do a Stevie Wonder impression here. It's a decent impression, so the music is fine, but there's very little original here.

I've had two Smiths albums so far and liked both. I am very from an expert, but it feels like whatever instinct led to those being interesting to listen to and not just pure bummers is fully missing. Morrisey's music, and evidently the man himself, are dull and depressed here.

I'm trying to piece together my opinions on grunge as I go through this, because it has had some of my most and least favorite records on the list. Nirvana, shocking no one, is good it turns out. Heavier and darker than Nevermind, this album still manages to never feel muddy or dull, which other albums have fallen afoul of for me. The guitar melodies are stellar, and Kurt's vocals never once annoyed me, which is untrue of most other grunge artists.

The best moments on this are incredible, driving, and energetic, but it gets just a little too spacey for my taste. A high high 4, but not quite enough for a 5.

It's fine, if a little boring to me. I'm far from a historian of the genre, but it seems like it was probably ahead of its time. With the benefit of decades, I'm not sure I'd choose to listen to it again over other albums, but its still cool to hear this transitionary sound.

A promising, if thin, debut for Tom Petty. Breakdown and American Girl are obvious standouts among what isn't really enough material for a truly good album.

At first blush, I assumed I would be bored by this album. Its a bit quieter and softer than I typically prefer, but it really sounds incredible. Absolutely surprised by how much this gripped me. Easy to see how someone might pass this by, it really does not go out of its way to impress you, but its so well put together. I feel like some "essential" albums can feel like a chore; this goes down so smooth.

Smooth, pleasant, groovy, pretty boring. It's fine.

RIP Dolly, a truly unique and admirable person. I was not so familiar with her music, so this is exactly what I wanted to listen to today.

Totally unremarkable, not one song worth recognizing. Mercifully short.

This really seems like something I should like, but it doesn't come together for me. First track is good, but its also the best and promises something not really delivered by the rest of the album.

My initial reaction on first listen was pretty negative, but I gave it a second shot because I liked the back half. Glad I did, quite enjoyable.

Trite, boring, reasonably well produced, but totally uninteresting. I'm from Jersey, but maybe I'm just too young to understand The Boss's deep and meaningful reflections on 9/11. 2000s Country rock slop. Nonsensical to me to place this on a pedestal with his actual classics. He looooves to repeat corny inspirational sounding lyrics like a million times for a chorus. Worth listening to only for context on how stupid culture got at that time; guess you just had to be there. And its too long.

Truly a tremendous voice, but the music is not really for me. An undeniable show of talent buoying some pretty, boring music overall. Send My Love is a banger though.