1001 Albums Summary

The album that really started punk, and it’s quite clear why - to me it sounds like this wonderful transition point between the Beatles and Nirvana in the “make it simple and make it tuneful” school of pop-punk. While many punk albums have sophisticated, political, and lyrically brilliant themes (The Clash, Manic Street Preachers as good examples), Ramones is the archetype of the other school of punk - vaguely anarchist, absurd and funny by turns, and with an intense focus on energy and the music itself. Coming as it did in the 70s, it’s a wonderful contrast to the dense and long-winded albums that surrounded it - a periodic stomach punch that rock music so often needs to find its way. You can’t help but dance to this album, which sounds live and frantic in its recording. The spirit of joyous, playful, and frenetic punk is so well captured that you can quite easily ignore that the sound can be repetitive and some songs aren’t really all that interesting to listen to on repeat. But when it hits, man does it hit - Blitzkrieg Bop is a statement piece, but Havana Affair and Don’t Wanna Go Down To The Basement also stood out for me. I have to give it 4 and 1/2 stars for a slight drag in the middle.

A classic country-western album I had not heard before, but was very pleasantly surprised by. You can definitely hear the forming tones that will give birth to Johnny Cash and maybe even a hint of Elvis style crooning in this record, which doubles as a kind of set of short stories about life and love and danger in the Old Wild West. Beautiful as well as to notice the chaotic blending of styles going into American country music, a much maligned genre today. In this record, one hears the strains of Spanish guitar, gospel music, delta blues, and of course the steel string cowboy wails of the West, meshed together in a beautiful set of vignettes that include themes like finding water in the desert, breaking a wild horse, and sacrificing yourself to a stampede - not common themes of music today, and wonderful to explore. Despite the beautiful tones and voice, there is darkness and longing here as well - I leave content with an excellent album.

Steely Dan is not a band I’ve listened to much before, and so it was a treat to listening to this very prog rock album, which features literary references, a plethora of instrumentations, and long, meandering tracks. It grew on me more while listening, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was highly polished lounge music. The lyricism is very good, and the innovative harmonies and vocals are interesting and well done, but I didn’t fall in love with any tracks besides “Deacon Blues”. 3 stars for me.

Influential electro-rock album, but didn’t hit the sweet spot for me. I am again guilty of not having the best audio set-up, but still, this album felt very meandering and random to me. I’m a David Bowie fan, but this one just felt quite random and disjointed, and I couldn’t settle into its mood. Not my cup of tea