1001 Albums Summary

I do love some R.E.M., but I have fonder memories of playing Green on repeat in my car. "It's the End of the World As We Know It" hits harder now than before. Mike Mills' harmonies are still essential. There were a couple of songs I no longer remembered. Still, the album as a whole is classic.

"Alright" is a great song, but I could not have come up with the band's name. I like the energy of the album, especially "Sitting Up Straight."

I didn't hear The Killers immediately when this came out — I heard a cover of "Mr. Brightside" first — but once I did discover them, I've enjoyed them. "Mr. Brightside" and "Somebody Told Me" are definitely classics of the era. As catchy as they can be, the lyrics are sometimes cringe. "I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier"?

I don't think I've ever listened to Tusk in its entirety before — I didn't remember it as a double album. Not that long ago, someone asked me what my favorite non-Rumours Fleetwood Mac song was, and I came up with "Tusk." (Their best song of all is obviously "The Chain.") After listening to that song today, I wonder if what I like so much about those two is that they don't sound a lot like the standard Fleetwood Mac stuff to me. Marching band? Come on! But that makes it great. No disrespect intended to their other songs — a good upbeat Christine McVie track is always welcome, and Stevie Nicks solo or with the group is her own special brand of mystic. Most of the songs on this are fine, but just fine.

The combination can be very strange — "Something" followed by "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" followed by "Oh! Darling"? I had forgotten how much I like "Golden Slumbers." That second side medley has always been interesting; the songs mostly shouldn't really fit together, but they do. Is that just something I've become used to?

I had never heard this before, although I had heard _of_ it. I like "Vampire Blues." Overall, though, it doesn't grab me enough to want to listen to it again right away. Maybe it just doesn't fit my mental state today. The album cover does exactly match the vibe of the music, though.

While this is not my usual thing, I did enjoy it for driving today, especially "Jesus Built My Hotrod" and "Scare Crow."

Absolutely classic. The opening notes of "Chain of Fools" set the stage for a great album. I didn't know it before, but "Ain't No Way" wails in a good way.

I probably haven't listened to this all the way through since the 1990s. I think my favorite song on it is still "Don't Look Back in Anger," and I remember wondering back then why it wasn't higher-charting than "Wonderwall" and "Champagne Supernova" in the U. S. I'm also really liking "She's Electric" today.

I've never heard the whole album before, just the singles on the radio (and they were certainly not new then). I own a couple of Jefferson Starship/Starship albums, and Grace Slick's voice is always a highlight. However, this album is just okay for me.

Less than 22 minutes! From "Look Back & Laugh": "What can we do, what can we do?"

I like it. It reminds me of 90s indie a bit. Since it's from 1988, I wonder if this influenced any of the sound I'm thinking of. If I listened to it multiple times, I think some of the songs might stick. It's too soon to say if I'll come back to it.

I first heard "Common People" in the Shatner version, and it rivals the original; they are both great in their own way. I like the album, but it doesn't seem like something I'm going to keep coming back to.

I haven't listened to this all the way through since maybe 1990. It's nice to hear it again. It's funny that I _loved_ "Bullet the Blue Sky" on Rattle and Hum, but had almost no memory of it from The Joshua Tree. I'm really drawn to "Trip Through Your Wires" today, and I'm sure I have not heard that in this century.

A classic from the early 80s. Lauper's voice is so, well, unusual that you know her within the first couple of notes of any vocal. Her boldness was remarkable at the time — she was a bit like Madonna but without needing to be overtly sexually provocative in order to get the listener's attention. I love this. Until "Time After Time" started, I had forgotten how much The Hooters contributed here.

The way this shows up on Amazon Music these days uses his current name, Sananda Maitreya, which was surprising — not that the artist name has updated, but that the title of the album and the cover image use the newer name. I had only heard the singles before this, although I was certainly aware of the album. Really enjoying "Rain." And "As Yet Untitled" is beautiful.

I don't think I had ever heard of the band or album. I like the drums. "Blast Off" is very space-age! There's some very silly mid-sixties stuff here, entertaining.

It's fine. It's funny to me that as a kid I heard that — outside of "School's Out" — Alice Cooper was a really dark and scary band. The topics are surely intense sometimes, but I guess what's seen as normal has extended over the years.

Classic. I've always loved "Train in Vain," even though for a long time I couldn't remember the name of the track! Some of the lyrics on this album still stick in my head, especially "London is drowning and I, I live by the river." That cover image is great, too.

For some of these albums, I wish I could go back in time to when they were first released and hear them as the brand new creations they once were.

I've heard _of_ Solomon Burke more than I've heard his music. He definitely has a great voice. The songs are fine, but that's all.

It's very interesting to hear Iggy's original version of "China Girl." I do like his voice, but I'm not particularly grabbed by much of this. Maybe the issue is that I've heard the derivative/influenced things, so it's not new anymore. "Tiny Girls" is unexpectedly jazzy, though.

It was surprisingly hard to stream this. Good album, though.

Remember when you couldn't understand half of Michael Stipe's lyrics? This is that. So reminiscent of my college years. After listening to this today, I can't get "Radio Free Europe" out of my head. That's definitely the first R.E.M. song I was ever aware of.

Seems pretty 90s, which make sense. I actually found myself paying attention to the song where a woman took lead vocals ("My Curse") on both play-throughs.

There are some absolutely classic songs here, and to me it has always sounded kind of timeless even though it is also very much a product of its time. The versions of "Oye Cómo Va" and "Black Magic Woman" have become, to me, the definitive ones even as they were covers of established artists.

I can't remember if it was this album or the next one that I had on cassette when it got caught in the tape player in my car. I did find a shop to open up the player and remove it, but what a pain! I did enjoy this band back then, though. It still kind of bops.

"Papa Was a Rolling Stone" is so good — amazing that a track this long made it on an album. Even the single version was close to seven minutes.

Evokes classic English country towns to me, in a good way.

I purchased both King of America (released earlier this same year) and Spike (the next studio album after this one) when they came out, but somehow missed this release entirely. To be fair, King of America was the first Elvis Costello album I ever bought, so I was not yet on the lookout. If I'd had to guess the order, I would have put this one before KoA, which is interesting. I did enjoy it, although I don't know if I would call it one of his most important releases.

I like it. "Night of the Swallow," "The Dreaming," "All the Love" — which I just realized start side 2, although not in quite that order — are all things I've now listened to more than once. Actually, the more I listen, the more I appreciate the entire album.

It's fine, but it doesn't really strike me as essential.

This was a huge album in the late '90s. I recall it being eagerly awaited by their fans. I like the singles, but I don't think I ever heard the whole thing through before. It's good, and it very much evokes a particular time for me. "Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage!"

"Fairytale of New York" is my all-time favorite secular Christmas song, and it has been since before I knew that the track just appears in the middle of a non-holiday album. Shane MacGowan was a treasure in his own way. The cover photo makes them look quite respectable.

When I listen to full Stones albums, I am often surprised again by the frequent appearance of unabashedly country tracks ("Dead Flowers" and "Wild Horses" here). I didn't care for "Wild Horses" when I was a kid, but now it just seems weirdly comforting. (I think "Dead Flowers" is the better song, though.) I really enjoy "Can You Hear Me Knockin'" and "Sister Morphine," too.

How is this 40 years old?! So juvenile — I was a contemporary of those guys, but at the time, they sounded younger to me, no doubt because of "Fight for Your Right," a high school song if ever there was one. I recall picking up the album in a record store and shaking my head at the cover art; I didn't buy it. I really liked some of their later work better ("Sabotage," for example), but this is a great kickoff to their recording career, and "Brass Monkey" is a highlight for me.

“These Hands” was unexpected. The Wikipedia article’s description of this as proto-hardcore seems on point for much of the album.

I remember how different Sigur Rós seemed from everything else I had been listening to when I first heard them. It is still pretty wonderful that a band from Iceland managed to get heard where I live. I have since heard Jónsi by himself and as a collaborator, and he is an interesting musician.

When I think of the sound of Radiohead, this is probably the album that comes to mind. I've always loved the song "No Surprises," and I still turn it up and sing along whenever it comes up on the radio.

The Doors — and Jim Morrison in particular — have always been one of the bands for which I just didn't get the hype. I don't hate them, I just don't see why they get so much love. I like "Roadhouse Blues," and it occurs to me on repeated listening that what grabs me is the _piano_, which of course is not Ray Manzarek's usual instrument.

"I don't think you're ready for this jelly." I wish that “Independent Women Part 1,” which is generally a banger, weren’t entirely about Charlie’s Angels. When I hear that song, I don’t think Destiny’s Child, I think Charlie’s Angels. I wish they had done with that song what Survivor did with “Eye of the Tiger.” When I hear that sample at the beginning of “Survivor,” what I think of is the band that made it, not the Rocky movie that featured it.

I love the way this album starts. I suspect it helps to be in the right mood to hear it. Dark, moody, intense. I think I'll be coming back to it in the future.

I really like the sound of "He's the Greatest Dancer," and I could not have said it was Sister Sledge. Of course, the title track is classic disco.

I find that I cannot listen too closely to Elliott Smith today. His story just makes me sad.

I really enjoy this. I hear lots of different things happening in every song. I had heard of The Mars Volta (and At the Drive-In) and had even listened to a little before, but not paying quite as much attention as I did this time.

I like "Santa Cruz" a lot; I don't recall ever hearing that before. I am finding this to be a good soundtrack to do focused work to. I'm sure that's not how he intended it!

Nice to see something relatively recent. "Call the Police" is appealing right now — "we all know this is nothing, this is nowhere." It seems more recently that they reformed; it's hard to believe it's been close to ten years. Time goes fast.

Entertaining. I had forgotten that The Who had covered "Summertime Blues." It's a strong live album. It would have been cool to see this band in its prime, but there was still a lot of good work to come.

The album certainly rocks.

This album is unbelievably eclectic. That these musicians could produce something as all-over-the-place as the White Album and get it listened to at all in the first place is indicative of their enormous influence in the industry at the time. It's clear that there are many things here that have influenced myriad artists since. So many of these have been covered in beautiful ways. For example, Alison Krauss has an incredible take on "I Will." But how are that and "Blackbird" on the same release as "Revolution 9," "Rocky Raccoon," and "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey"?

I had a hard time paying attention to it at first, but I eventually got into the groove around halfway through with . "Ballet Dance" is interesting, and I am drawn to “Change My Life” and “Share the Fall.”

My first thought was that it reminded me of early Beck. I really like the vibe. It's not profound in any way — "Cold Beverage" just seems like a good song for a summer afternoon.

Nice to get some jazz on this list. The mask he's wearing on the cover seems like a precursor to later electronic musicians and DJs, but the sidemen are so classically 70s in their clothing! I think listening to this benefits from a darkened room and maybe a view of the night sky.

"Self Esteem" and especially "Come Out and Play" strike me as classics of this pop punk genre. It's hard not to get a neck workout nodding along to the rhythm. There's a place or two in here where Dexter Holland's vocals remind me a bit of Kurt Cobain, and I don't recall ever noticing that before.

I've never been drawn to this band, although "Epic" is, unironically, pretty epic. The album is fine. It does combine a lot of different styles into something of its own. It's probably significant that one of the songs I like best, though, is "War Pigs," which is a Sabbath cover.

I've never been a fan of The Doors, although "Riders on the Storm" has always been the one song of theirs I generally liked. I'm trying to listen to this without those prejudices, and also to decide what it is that pushes me away. I think it's Jim Morrison's voice that doesn't fit for me. I like the blues, and the idea of Los Angeles as a woman to sing about is appealing in the title track. I very much dislike the whole "Mr. Mojo Risin'" thing that Morrison does to make it all about him.

I picture all the screaming girls at their early U. S. shows when I hear this era of the Beatles. It's interesting to me that half of these are covers — including some of the best tracks. I had wondered how they came to cover "Till There Was You" from The Music Man, and when looking it up discovered that they're really covering Peggy Lee's earlier release.

"(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" has been one of my favorite songs for many years. I had an economics professor who quoted "I used to be disgusted / But now I try to be amused" at the top of an exam paper. Words to live by. I think he sounds a lot like the other Elvis on "Mystery Dance," which is a connection I don't think I would have made had I not heard a podcast episode about Presley yesterday.

Classic. Just so good.

I had forgotten that this is the album with “Wrap It Up”! I love the muted trumpet on "The Walk."

This is a really strong example of a specific style. I didn't read that it was from 1957 before I started listening, but I was not at all surprised — it feels on the forefront of what I think of as Latin nightclub music from that era. Really enjoyable.

I know I've never listened to this through before. It strikes me as very atmospheric. I have not been enraptured by The Cure in the past — not long ago, I had a conversation about how I had a hard time distinguishing between three bands of this era that have really strong followings. It's fine, but it doesn't make me want to delve deeper.

For a band from Northern California, CCR definitely infused a good amount of swamp feeling in this album with “Born on the Bayou.” If the only thing that came out of this was “Proud Mary” for Tina Turner to cover, that would have been enough to justify the record’s existence. Happily, there is more than that to like.

Today I think "High and Dry" is my favorite Radiohead song, although I know that's subject to change. Hard to believe this has been out for more than 30 years; it doesn't seem dated to me like some music from that same period — maybe because it's "music of Radiohead" rather than "music of the 1990s."

I feel sure I've never listened to a full Basie release in its original form before — I have heard many recordings, but they've all been on compilations or playlists. It's interesting to hear tracks all recorded on a couple of consecutive days in the mid-50s. The band is very good; there's a restraint in some of this that seems to indicate a power that's being controlled very tightly.

I haven't listened to this in several years. The tracks are pretty calming, and I wondered the first time I heard it whether it would be surreal to listen on headphones while actually walking through an airport. I've never tried it, but I can sort of picture it. The Wikipedia article mentions that a journalist made a connection to Erik Satie, and I can totally hear that in "1/1".

I do like some Steely Dan. This album cover is too bizarre for me; I'll take the weary attitude of Fagen's "The Nightfly" over this image every time. It's amusing to me that the Wikipedia article suggests that the band members also were't fans of the cover art. I really enjoy the music, although I only really know the hits from this one.

This guy and his band totally wailed — "Jump, Jive, an' Wail" is an exceptionally apt theme here. So good.

When they released this as pay-what-you-want, I downloaded it. I no longer recall if I paid them anything initially — but then I bought the physical CD. So I liked it enough for that. I don't care for it as much as some of their other releases, but I respect what they tried to do with the business model there. I think my favorite song here might be "All I Need."

I had forgotten "The New Pollution," which I really like.

The cover art is clearly set in the daytime, but I feel like this music is better in the dark somehow, where it can envelop me. I like Bennie Maupin's bass clarinet quite a bit, especially in the title song.

"Where Is My Mind?" is obviously classic, but the songs that won't leave my head today are "Gigantic" and "Broken Face." Hard to believe this is from 1988, I guess because I didn't hear much about Pixies until at least three or four years after that when Nirvana cited them as an influence.

I hadn't realized how many of the CSNY songs I know are on the same album. I like the trio without Neil Young, but they rock when they're with him. Woodstock, for instance, has an energy that I don't find in any of the CSN songs. I like that I can tell the four voices apart, but that they still blend well.

"Layla" by itself justifies the existence of this album, but I think it would also be a strong release if that song weren't a part of it. "Bell Bottom Blues" is a great track.

Some of this has aged exceptionally well — it could have been put out at any time in a 25-year period, maybe. And some of it is so distinctly from the 1972-74 period that it's spectacularly dated. That doesn't mean those tracks are _bad_, just that when I hear them I know precisely when they must have come out. Those tracks are the same jangly piano pop that Billy Joel was doing simultaneously. I'm really liking "Grey Seal" today.

When this title came up as my album of the day, I had forgotten that Fever Ray was the name used by Karin from The Knife. I find this to be very immersive. I want to lie down with headphones and my eyes closed. Unfortunately, I don't have time for that right now — and if I tried, I'm tired enough that I'd probably just fall asleep! Some of it reminds me a bit of Bjork.

It seems strange to me that I've never heard this album before. I have heard Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians, Katrina and the Waves, and Thompson Twins — probably in exactly the opposite order — which are the bands that members of The Soft Boys went on to be involved in after they broke up. But I never connected any of those groups before.

I bought this on CD during the "rediscovery" of the album and artist around 1999-2000 with that VW ad. Drake's voice and the sparseness of the recording fit well together. The just-a-vibe song, "Know," is really appealing right now. I don't care for the album art at all, though.

I would have dated this a year or two earlier. I really like the percussive sounds of the songs. “Points of Authority” is a highlight for me.

This is the 81st album that the site has served up to me, and it is only the second one where I have no memory of ever having heard of the band or the album. While the other one (The Monks, "Black Monk Time") was released when I was an infant, this came out in the US when I was a senior in high school — prime time for me to have experienced it. Looking at the Wikipedia article, I wonder if that's because their US tour was canceled so they didn't get the radio attention that might have accompanied one. The vocals in "Party Fears Two" really caught my attention.

Nick Cave's voice is darkly beautiful, and the vibe of this album is just right. I love the violin on "West Country Girl."

I have always thought of the title of this album as a man’s name. It was not until this morning that I realized it could be read as the adjective. The songs meet that description. Looking now at the Wikipedia page, I can see maybe both are correct.

It's strange to me to think that reggae has not always existed in some separate Jamaican universe.

I've heard of the movie Superfly but have never seen it — I was too young when it came out. However, even if I had never heard of it, the themes of drug dealers and the prevalence of (especially) cocaine come on really strong in the lyrics of this album. The songs are good, even though there's a lot of despair communicated.

This is album #86 for me in the list, and the third one I had never heard of before, although I am certainly aware of Can. Is that a french horn at the beginning?

When I was in school, I thought of Led Zeppelin as being the epitome of "hard rock." This was in the early 80s; there was a group of boys who professed to be deeply affected by John Bonham's death in our sophomore year. As I got older and actually spent some time listening to a broader array of artists, I came to think of this band as being primarily blues-based instead. They were much more nuanced than I had been led to believe as a 15-year-old. Great album, excellent band.

I’m not sure I have ever heard more than the beginning of the first track; even just that one is far more varied than I thought it would be.

This is not my favorite Zeppelin album, but today I am most drawn to "Your Time Is Gonna Come." The whole thing is fine.

I have always loved the "Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego" chanting from "Shadrach." So funny, and it makes me think of the BBs hanging out in the fiery furnace. "Get on the mic, Mike!" Someone put together a nine-hour playlist consisting of the songs from this album, each immediately followed by songs that it sampled. The one I found is on Amazon Music, although I wouldn't be surprised to find something similar on other platforms.

I would not have guessed they were Irish. At least one of the songs gives me strong Wilco vibes. I'm enjoying it a lot. I'm sorry I missed out on them when they first came out. I'm amused by the album cover. At first I thought, "oh, some of the band members are women." Then I looked them up on Wikipedia, and... nope. There are five men in the band. All of the other full band photos in the CD booklet (at Discogs) show only five men. (Because apparently I'm keeping track now, this is the fourth of the 91 I've been served that I was not at all familiar with.)

I think you can hear the influence of this in lots of bands that followed.

I bought this when it first came out, having loved their first one. I didn’t listen to it as frequently. I remembered “Four Season in One Day” pretty well, though. Maybe I should have spent more time with it then.

I had to get to this one on YouTube, since Neil Young's albums aren't on Amazon Music Unlimited, my usual streaming service. I was surprised how many songs that I know separately from the album live in my brain already. I enjoyed hearing them all together.

I had not really listened to any Deep Purple earlier than Machine Head, their subsequent album — that’s the one with “Smoke on the Water.” As a little kid, the riff of that song WAS hard rock to me, and it was years before I learned what band played it or even the title of the song. This album does bring the crunch.

I had not listened to this all the way through before. My image of Ice Cube these days is as an actor in the Friday and Barbershop movies. That’s funny, because when I first heard of him in NWA days, he seemed like the hardest of the hard to me — not a comedy kind of guy. It’s interesting hearing him again when he was still all-gangsta.

Is it weird that "Indians" reminds me of '70s Kansas (the band, not the state)?

I was recently trying to describe what Otis Redding sounds like when he's _not_ singing "Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay" to a young adult. I should just have recommended this album. Much of this consists of covers, and Otis sings the hell out of them.

I was surprised to read that this was “live in studio” as opposed to a concert performance. The energy level is still very high.

I don't remember "Spoonman" from the '90s, but I very much like it now.

My brother introduced me to the music of Liz Phair back in the 90s. Her voice, both literally and figuratively, reminds me of that time. I've listened to Whitechocolatespaceegg more than this one over the years.

The title song seems to stand alone for me, separate from all the other songs by this band and its constituent members as solo artists. I'm not sure why that is — maybe the narrative is so different? There are other songs on this album that I've always really liked; this morning, I especially enjoyed the wordplay in "Life in the Fast Lane": "She held him up and he held her for ransom," "There were lines on the mirror, lines on her face," "They didn't see the stop sign, took a turn for the worse."

I'm sure I've never listened to this all the way through. It does seem like a prototype for a style that emerged. "Wake Up" might have been written yesterday — 40+ years on, it's still just a dream.