1001 Albums Summary

Always struggled a little bit with the Stones but SFTD is a AAA track! No Expectations is pretty lovely with Brian Jones slide. Dear Doctor very funny but.... Parachute Woman instantly forgettable Jigsaw Puzzle nah thanks, druggy shit. Street Fighting Man - best track since the first. Great piano and doesn't out stay its welcome. Prodigal So - just white boys pretending to be black dudes. Stray Cat Blues really like this one. Factory Girl - like a hippy Bert Jansch guitar line and a deep south vocal and violin. Should be horrible but surprisingly wasn't. Salt of the Earth closing anthem of a track that sounded like a different band altogether weirdly. Had Springsteen vibes that I liked. All in all - enjoyed it. No track outstayed its welcome. Thanks to it being vinyl I suppose. Not the classic Ive always been told it was but a solid 7/10.

An album of two halves, with the electronic based tracks far stronger. Opens with a series of engaging tunes, from the euro-pop affectations of Zero to the standout OMDish celtic overtures of Skeletons. But then disappears into a steam of forgettable filler.

So Hole - Live Through This Blistering companion to Nirvana's In Utero with Kurt's fingerprints all over it but with Courtney and Kristen's feminine swagger. And, whisper this, Patty Schemel is a puncher and balls out drummer than Dave Grohl. Not a single weak track, although the standouts for me are Violet, Doll Parts, She Walks on Me and Olympia. Perhaps the greatest set of postpartum songs recorded? Not sure how many other albums have that as a major theme though 😂 8.5/10

Kanye - A lesson in how to make 20 minutes of music stretch to 4 times that length with pointless dicking around nonsense. Occasionally I would find something I liked but then I would remember what a horrible example of a human being he is.

Haven't listen to Hunky Dory in a few years but launches like an old friend with a salvo of perfect tracks. What strikes me still is just how simple the instrumentation is. Piano, drums, bass. Occasional guitar and strings and even more occasional brass. So simple yet so clean and the brilliance of Bowies songwriting of this period shines through. Signposts for so many that followed, and the exact blueprint for Suede, the influence of this album is undeniable. And to believe he got even better still.... Fave Track - Life on Mars Least Fave - Looks (mainly cos I can't stand the band of the same name). 9.5/10

In Rock "Good Golly" indeed! Intro to Speed King hits like a freight train and clears your head of any preconceptions of what is to come (can't believe this was thought to be too much for US listeners and was cut). Having known this album for several decades it had totally passed me by how much jazz influences these compositions, as opposed to the blues derived roots of their contemporary rock peers. Blackmore and Lord constantly trading improvisation, in turn goading each other into more elaborate and explorative solo, while Paice drums with a intricate, unassuming elegance. No one ever beat Gillan at the rock vocal and Glover ties it all together solid and unshakeable. Rock, jazz, proto-glam, even funk at times. This is the finest collection of songs they put together. Most fave track - Flight of the Rat Least fave - Living Wreck. 9/10

Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters Liked the first two tracks. Not loved.....but definitely enjoyed. Second two, absolutely no chance. Just not my thing. I'm super sure that they guys playing this are musically brilliant but.....it's beyond me. I'm afraid. Fave Track - Chameleon. Least fave - Sly 4/10 plus 1 for a great cover = 5

Well.... Elliott Smith. Didn't find it objectionable but I didn't really find it engaging either. Kept hearing snippets of other american bands like Pavement, Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr, Ween, but nothing on the level of any of those. Fave Track - Rose Parade Least fave - 2.45am 5/10

Van Halen - Van Halen A tour de force of Eddie's unparalleled skills, thrills and tricks. Totall rewrote the book on hard rock and ushered in an era of big hair and spandex! Impossible not to like, but some dodgy lyrics and DLR's not quite great vocal style just takes the shine off for me. Best Track - Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love Worst Track - Feel Your Love Tonight 8/10

Fats Domino Impossible to listen to without a smile on my face. Knew some of the big hitters like Blueberry Hill and Blue Monday but it was the other tracks that laid clear that this is a crucial part of the blueprint for rock n roll and all that followed. Rolling 3 chord bangers with blistering solos and call and response vocals. What's not to love?! Fave Track - either Honey Chile or the surprise dischordant closure Trust in Me. I'll go the latter cos I listened to that three times and HC only two 😂 Worst track - none really but let's say Troubles of my Own 8/10

Suba Enjoyed this. I mean, not in an 'amazing will change my viewpoint on life' or anything. In fact I doubt I'll go out of my way to listen to it again, but I also wouldn't mind if I stumbled upon it one more time. Not really sure how to describe what I did or didn't like as it was way out my normal listening spectrum. But enjoy it I did, and I'm glad that a guy who met such a sad end in life is still being listened to. Fave Track - the Spanish guitar fizz of Pecados Da Madrugada. But could also have been Antropofagos or A Noite Sem Fim. Least fave - Voca Gosta 7/10

Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey Like an iron fist in a velvet glove, this album feels like it gives you no choice but to give in to it's relentless, encompassing rhythms. The metronomic guitar chops, machine gun precision of the drums, a bass that rolls like the sea. I love it, and as soon as it got to the end I went back to the beginning. Best Track - Slavery Days Worst Track - None of them but if we have to pick then Live Good. 9/10

Pere Ubu - Dub Housing My first Pere Ubu but not my last, I suspect. Started off with a riff that could have come from Keith Richards only for it to be assaulted by rogue synth sounds. And that is what this felt like. A deconstruction of rock that had come before and a rebuilding into a new chapter. Kind of like if this hadn't happened we coudnt have had the New York scene that gave us Blondie, Talking Heads, Television and others. Tracks all flowed and all had their way of pulling me in for a journey that wasn't wholly pleasant. Best Track - On the Surface but Blow Daddy O, Navvy and I Will Wait were close behind. Worst Track - Caligari's Mirror. I didn't need a deconstructed sea shanty in my life. 7.5/10

Banshees - JuJu Everything is there. Amazing playing, haunting & gymnastic vocals, but after an opening triple whammy of great songs it all falls away for me. Spellbound, Into the Light and Arabian Knights streets ahead of the rest of the album. I mean it's not bad, but just didn't pull me back in any way. Not hard to spot the legacy they leave in modern music, and important I am sure. You can hear them still in Chvrches, Nadine Shah, PJ Harvey and so on. But never gonna be one I will go back to I'm afraid. Best Track - Spellbound Worst Track - Halloween 6/10