1001 Albums Summary

Pretty cool! One day I will understand Jazz as much as I enjoy it (and I enjoy it a lot), but it really just overcame me. We're still not on Miles Davis' level.

It's interesting for a band as iconic as Queen to have their sophomore album be a cult classic and not initially recieved well. I think it's because their later work and even their earlier singles from Queen I are way bigger than this. Depite that, it's a very fun record that shows that whatever you think Queen is, it's a little heavier and more prog and more weird than you remember/imagine.

This album is brief and beautiful. The skill and talent to craft a complete artistic statement across years, recording locations, and life's ebbs and flows is the gift of the artist. They teach us that it's possible for a dream to survive.

A beautiful collection of songs. An incredible second album from one of our more iconic singer-songwriters. Would love to own this on vinyl.

Nice enough album. Really liked the tracks "Long Time Gone", "Helplessly Hoping", and "Guinnivere". Needs more Neil Young.

Listened to the mono version. I liked this a lot. My Generation as a song doesn't do half as much for me as "The Kids are Alright". Some really nice non-singles here. Doesn't hit as hard as some of their later albums or their live set. Listen to Live at Leeds!!!

Really pretty record. Bowie stripped of theatrics but not losing any sense of purpose or presence.

When this album game up for this challenge, I was pretty excited but also nervous. Kings of Leon is a band I got into just after their breakout hit single, but I only loved their early albums, including this debut album. I was wondering how well it would stack up in my memory and the fact is that there are a lot of favorites on here that still hit, but definitely hit less-so. It's definitely a matter of my taste evolving but I was obsessed with garage rock as a teen and those days are past me now. Still, it was nice to revisit this band's debut--before they got into fuckin' NFT albums or whatever the shit else they're doing now.

Beautifully recorded album, so crisp and moving. Love it.

Absolutely love this record. One of my favorites. Was really nice to revisit. RIP Robbie Robertson!

Quite good! I love the song common people but the rest of the album packs a punch as well.

Great album. Not my favorite Pixies record, but I really love it. Thank you to Heather for showing me this band in High School and making me 100x cooler (in my own head).

Pretty good. Eddie's guitar playing is legendary but the songwriting is not the best. Very sleezy at times. Highlights are Running With the Devil, Eruption, You Really Got Me, Ain't Talkin' About Love, and Atomic Punk.

Phenomenally stupid and cringe album. Really pretentious musical theatre vibes coming off this lead singer.

An absolutely beautiful work of art. Solange's voice commands attention but never takes attention away from some of the incredible production beneath her. The inclusion of so many interludes adds a sense of clarity to the album's themes and message and makes the album stand out in the world of pop.

I've only heard the Jimi Hendrix & Traffic jam thing on YouTube. This was some very white folk/blues rock.

A lovely opportunity to revisit a (sonically and physically) beautiful album. The first three tracks are all time favorite songs that make me smile. The rest of the album is a surprisingly varied affair; a short, acoustic ballad in "Elizabeth My Dear", to the psychedelic remix/mashup pre-empt "Don't Stop", and the finale, an 8-minute beautiful sendoff in "I Am the Resurrection". They didn't make another album after this for five years and it's easy to see why; not much can be really said that hasn't been said perfectly here. Early singles like Sally Cinammon also hold a dear place in my heart. Check out this pillar of late 80's, early 90's Britpop.

A wonderfully recorded record. Kinda curious what a mono mix would sound like. Really loved the tracks "Monday, Monday", "Straight Shooter", "California Dreamin'", and "Somebody Groovy"

A nearly perfect album. What a ride, emotionally. Absolutely love the songs "Nebraska", "My Father's House", "Johnny 99", and "Used Cars".

What a gem of an album. Love the title track.

Certified punk classic.

Love this live album. Duane, man

Really neat! Favorite tracks were "Release the Pressure", "Melt", "Original", "Inspection", and "Open Up"!

A legendary album. Truly special. Very mean of this website to put this after Leftism by Leftfield. We're still trying to uncover the magic of this record, imo.

This was good! I remember slinging some Doors songs on my CD player and MP3 player as a teen--thinking that I was hot shit for liking a previous generation's music (I also liked contemporary music. I had range!) This is probably the first time I've ever listened to this particular album all the way through. Really like the stripped-back sound but you can hear that the 1960's are capital "O" Over on this record. Surprising amount of anger in Jim Morrison's vocals. Can definitely feel the influence on Josh Homme and Ian Curtis on this record.

I hate this man and this album just makes me miss the smiths.

I'm a shameful Prince noob but this album still blew my tits off. Leave it to Prince to write a song that does such interesting things with gender like "If I Was Your Girlfriend" and also a straight-up Christian Rock song "Cross" and include them on the same album and it works, somehow???

An absolutely perfect album to explore in full. What a great complete work of art. Bohemian Rhapsody might be my favorite song ever. It's so good.

My only slight against this album is that I do not appreciate the lack of coherent song endings. I truly hate the fade out and I recognize that it's a product of the time, I'd like to see an Otis Redding performance from the time to get some quality ending cresendos.

I really like the first two Coldplay albums. This was nice to revisit. Say what you want about the band, but they did not shy away from crafting longer songs when they suited it. Honestly an all-shoegaze cover album of this would whip ass. Original idea, DNS.

Not my favorite CCR record (Willy & The Poor Boys) but it's not their worst (Mardi Gras). "Lookin' Out My Backdoor" and "Who'll Stop the Rain" are lifelong faves. New discoveries include the very beautiful Jam/Country Rock opener Jam "Ramble Tamble", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", and "Long As I Can See The Light"

Stone cold classic. Really love this album. RIP Chris Cornell.

I remember listening to this album on my way to school in January 2016 after learning of Bowie's passing. So many memories came back from that time. Ten years later I've still got so much more Bowie to go through. A truly out-of-this-world talent.

A phenomenal album. So happy to revisit this after a long time away. Every song is beautifully mixed and performed.

Having only previously heard the album "Head" I would say I kinda expected this to be corny but it was really nice! Really liked "I Can't Get Her Off My Mind".

I've taken a couple of cracks at a few Meat Puppets songs and unfortunately I favor the Nirvana covers (feat. the Kirkwood brothers). The album as a whole isn't a bad time, and there's no duds but it definitely doesn't wow me. Sad to say.

Pretty good, honestly. Not anything super captivating, but I can appreciate what the lads were up to with this one.

Shout-out to my friend Anne for posting about this album before it appeared in my queue for the 1001 albums list. Really nice little record. Unfortunately the first two songs are the strongest and most interesting, compositionally. The rest of the album isn't terrible but there's some really weird lyrics on here. Like, maybe the song "Water with the Wine" is not about sexual assault--it certainly doesn't sound like one, but the lyrics paint a different picture. Anyway, the album is good.

A fantastic album. Gorillaz at their most raw and experimental, arguably. Back before the blueprint was written on this kind of collaborative album around a ficticious entity. Love that Damon Albarn just wanted to do something within hip-hop and funk and electronic music and gave himself a platform to do so with his favorite musicians. Legend shit.

Not deeply offensive but the nothing really stuck out to me. The closer was cute and intimate but ultimately feels like a limp ending to Rock's First OperaTM.

A certified classic, to be sure. I think listening to this album as a whole feels like it exposes some of Yes' weaknesses; that they could create mountainous peaks of compositions like Roundabout or Heart of the Sunrise, but also relied heavily on interstitials that aside from being short, are also not entirely compelling? It kinda is hard to dispute the idea that Yes blow the load pretty early with Roundabout and only have the stamina to produce another banger after a 20 minute or so rest through some okay tracks. Yeah. That's it. Also, I have to say I still prefer the live version of "Heart of the Sunrise" to the studio version.

Relistening to this on a hot summer day is absolutely the vibe. I remember discovering this album in 2015/2016, as I was starting my undergraduate. It was so transformative of what contemporary folk could sound like to me. Joanna Newsom is an icon to me just for this album.

This was fine. Amy Winehouse is a blind spot for me and unfortunately I don't have the will to dig into her discography anytime soon.

It's a good album and I have no faults for it but every time I think about Joni Mitchell I think of the fact that she loved doing blackface and it just takes me out of the whole thing. When there's a wikipedia article about how much you love blackface as a white person, maybe you fucked up somewhere. "Joni Mitchell dresses up as me. Part I" by Gustav Parker Hibbett Dark felt fedora and sunglasses. Little blackhaired mustache, afro wig skin the hue of walnut wood painted over face, neck, hands, gold chains, earrings, jewel toned blazer. I am the sort of man an artist wears to sing in, dawn to shed herself, puffed up, pimping, perfectly impermanent. "I am beautiful," she says. The wisp of something negro in the twilight timber of her mezzo piano riff of blackbird wings. noble sorrow turned arpeggio, my brass bravado grand enough to make her trouble soulful jewelry leave her feeling freer, deeper, natural. She loves that I'm the friend she's never had to worry for. The man who drives and jukes so centrifugal that my noose is dew drop slipping from a crocus stem. Who grooves so fast the cops can't catch my saxophone. Seductive, tragic, lovely. Joni says she loves my self-possession. How it feels to possess me.

What a classic. So happy to revisit this one. I wrote in my review for "Sings My Generation" that this album represents The Who at their peak creativity and performmance power for me personally and that was all but confirmed on this relisten. Really loved it.

Blues rock fibre just rips straight through me, leaving no lasting impression positive or negative. Stephen Stills had the gaul to put his name on the cover twice but not enough discernment to create a record with truly captivating songs. Boring!

Kind of a surprise in terms of where this album went but ultimately not my jam. It's like, a throwback to a particular moment in British music history that I feel like was better done by other bands. Anachronistic. Can see how they resonated with the Oasis crowd.

Certified Canadian classic

Love you, Jimi. Really underrated in terms of delivering a consistent and beautifully written and performed album.