It seems odd to think of the band's third album as still being proto-Queen, but this is still very much that. You can hear the transition from the more proggy leanings of their first two albums to the more ostentatious Glam Rock that's really the band's signature style. Even with that, it's a pretty cohesive record, though as is standard with Queen albums, the singles stand out much more than the album tracks, so while the three-song Tenement Funster/Flick of the Wrist/Lily of the Valley is a very solid trio and Brian May's guitar solo on "Brighton Rock" does indeed rock, none of them can hold a candle to "Killer Queen."
While I was familiar with Dusty's voice due to "Son of a Preacher Man" (which isn't on this album), this album is a great reminder of just how good a singer she was.
Unfortunately, since we're in the early 60s here, this is less a coherent album than it is a collection of songs. In this case the songs are just about all covers, and because I've heard other singers perform them, Dusty just sounds wrong, especially on songs originally performed by Black artists. The exception is "Wishin' and Hopin'," which I associate with Springfield much more than I do Dionne Warwick.
I'll start off by stating that I absolutely loathe country music, and when I see "sings American pop standards" my heart sinks. That said, even I can respect the red-headed stranger, even if I've never listened to an entire album through so let's start with his 22nd. The instrumentation is pretty sparse, highlighting Willie's vocals and guitar work.
The vibe overall I'd sum up as "pleasant," and the two stand-out songs are "Georgia On My Mind," and "Unchained Melody." Of course, listening to "Georgia..." I'd much rather hear the Ray Charles version, while I think Willie's "Unchained Melody" clears the Righteous Brothers version that I'm more familiar with.
I doubt I'd ever listen to this album again, but I didn't hate it.
These guys are something of a blind spot in British indie music for me, as they hit it big not long after I left Britain for the States. They are one of those bands who I knew intellectually were a big deal within the scene they were in but never got around to listening to.
Now that I have, I'd describe them as being the Sheffield Strokes. This is especially noticeable because Alex Turner's accent is very prominent throughout.The songs on the album are a bit samey, and occasionally veer into less-belligerent Oasis territory but the album's overall a fun listen even if I wouldn't seek it out.
This is my first exposure to The War On Drugs and they're pretty decent. Listening to the album, my first thoughts were "This is what people mine when they describe something as an "indie darling," followed closely by "I bet Pitchfork loved this." Sure enough, that site rates this as 8.8 and gave it "Best New Album" back in 2014.
It sounds a lot like a modern day version of Springsteen, especially on the track "Burning," but there's also (appropriately, given the title) a dreamlike quality to the instrumentation. The standout track for me was "Suffering," which seems to be the one track none of the other reviews mention. So it goes.
It's hard to overstate how omnipresent on the radio both Sting and The Police were on the radio growing up as an 80s kid in England. From this album, "Walking On The Moon" and "Message In A Bottle" were everywhere and they do still stand out today.
I had never noticed that Sting was doing a kind of pseudo-Island accent on "Message," but now that I notice it, I cringe every time, and it's enough to dock this album an entire point. You're Geordie, Gordon!
Away from Sting, the instrumentation is great, with Stewart Copeland's drumming being pretty propulsive by genre standards.
The chill out vibe here is just immaculate. The ambient vibe is mostly relaxing and just feeling the music wash over you. It's hardly Air's fault that they're French. This doesn't really feel like an album that's conducive to listening all the way through in the nature of this project, as it's much more of a downtempo background music kind of album.
"Sexy Boy" is the stand out track for sure, and some of the latter half of the album kind of blends together into an ambient wash, but I'd definitely relisten to this one in a "come down at the end of the day" kind of way.
While hip-hop has never been my genre of choice except for a few artists, I can recognize and respect the craft of it when it's done well, and The Fugees do it very well here.
Lauryn Hill's voice remains the highlight, both when singing the hook of their cover of Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly With His Song," (the undoubted highlight of the album, or getting into her flow on "The Beast" as she excoriates racist law enforcement.
Between Pras, Wyclef, and the guest contributors I'm not sure who produced which beats for which tracks, but they're all pretty propulsive, most noticeably on "Fu-Gee-La" and "Zealots."
This would be a four-star album, but I'm docking it a point because of the scourge of 1990s and 2009s rap/hip-hop albums - pointless skits. "The Beast" isn't improved by closing out with a borderline racist joke set in a Chinese restaurant.
I wasn't looking forward to listening to this because I loathe country music. I can recognize that Haggard is very good at what he's doing, but what he's doing does absolutely nothing for me. On the plus side, the songs are mercifully short. I generally like storytelling in lyrics, and this is something that Haggard is doing in just about every song. I did enjoy the mismatch between the bright music and dark lyrics on "Life In Prison" where he's singing about hoping to die to cheery instrumentation.
Even with all that, I did start singing along with "Someone Told My Story," so some of it is catchy.
This is inarguably a classic album and seems to have been more or less canonized as such, but I'd never listened to the whole thing at once before.
Folk/Folk-rock isn't really my genre but there are certainly exceptions and this album is definitely one. It's extremely well done. The title track remains a lush, supportive track and Art Garfunkel's voice is perfect for it.
I do greatly prefer "Cecilia," "The Boxer," and "The Only Living Boy In New York" though, and I think it's because they're slightly more uptempo. Lyrically, Paul Simon does a great job of communicating the feelings of loneliness, poor communication, and mocking Bob Dylan very well...
As I've mentioned when it's come up before, I really can't stand country music. I mention that not to brag or anything, but do be upfront about my biases.
I listened to this all the way through and tried to appreciate, but I couldn't get there. I HATED this album. It just did absolutely nothing for me. I can recognize that Loretta Lynn does have a very good voice for what she does, but what she does leaves me cold.
Literally the only thing I was able to appreciate about this album was that it was over in just 28 minutes.
Another one of those bands that are in the "vaguely heard of, not sure I could name one of their songs" group.
This album is what I think of as "typical indie sadboi." The instrumentation and vocals are absolutely soaked in reverb, to the point that it felt like more of a texture than a vocal. This did make it a little difficult to understand the lyrics, but the general tone of sadness, ennui, and bleakness came through.
The songs do seem to be all build up to a climax that never quite arrives, but none of them outstay their welcome.
The standout tracks for me were "Sorrow," "Bloodbuzz Ohio," and "England."
I quite liked the album, and it definitely feels like it might grow on me with further listens.
I was familiar with precisely one Leonard Cohen song before listening to this album, and it isn't even on here.
What is on here are 8 tracks of depressing story songs with sparse instrumentation and Cohen's unique rasp of a voice. It shouldn't work for me, but for some reason it absolutely does.
"Last Year's Man," and "Joan of Arc" are the highlights for me, but every song works as an ode to mankind's despair.
I do enjoy some Prog Rock when I'm in the right mood for it, but I've never been a big Rush listener outside of hearing "Tom Sawyer" and "YYZ" out in the wild. Neither of which are on this album.
What is on this album is a 20+ minute suite telling a typical dystopian story in 7 movements (only in prog...) which I enjoyed a lot, especially the driving guitar throughout.
Other than that highlight, I liked every track on the album, and can recognize the skills that Lifeson, Lee, and especially Peart have with their instruments, and lyrically it seems quite rich, but Geddy Lee's singing voice does make it difficult for me to discern what the lyrics are...
Genuinely don't know what to think about this one. Not sure it belongs on a list of 1001 essential albums.
It doesn't really sound like anything else I've ever listened to and has a pleasingly spacey vibe.
Some of the tracks, such as the nearly 12-minute opener "Krautrock" have a fantastic and propulsive muscularity about them that get me hype, but others, such as "Just A Second (Starts Like That)" were physically painful to listen to. That isn't hyperbole, something about the resonance frequencies caused a weird stabbing sensation in my eardrums.
I can't quite figure out what to make of this, its tracks are very much either love it or hate it for me, with nothing in between, so it oddly averages out to mid. - 3
I remember liking some Marilyn Manson singles when I was 15, but never wanted to listen to an entire album of it, because it would feel exhausting.
This is one of the incredibly rare times where current me agrees with 15-year-old me. Listening to an entire album was a sonic pummeling that I could do without. And the highlight is by far the lead off single "The Beautiful People," which is so much better than every other track on here combined.
Overall the music doesn't feel very dynamic, but it's still pretty decent industrial rock (presumably the influence of album co-producer Trent Reznor) but the vocals are the weak link.
I'm also mostly trying to separate the art from the artist while I'm listening and reviewing these albums, but I'm still docking it a point because Manson himself is an abusive POS.
I know that this is their most commercial album, and the one where a lot of their earliest fans regarded the group as "selling out," but to my mind this is R.E.M.'s best album. That's no small feat when you consider the strength of the rest of their discography.
The singles remain the standouts with "Man On The Moon," "Nightswimming," and especially "Everybody Hurts" being all time classics. That said, none of the rest of the tracks can be regarded as filler. Something about the juxtaposition of melancholy lyrics and upbeat music (or the inverse in the case of "Drive") just works for R.E.M.
It's a cliche that every good double album would make a great single album. So what's the case when faced with a triple album? I'm sure it would be stronger as a double or even a single album. In this case, though you'd be missing out on a lot.
There's enough variety among the 69 (nice) tracks here that it doesn't feel like 3 hours listening to one artist, which an become dour with some indie acts. Something that I was worried would be the case after the first couple of tracks with Stephin Merritt's somewhat sardonic vocal tone.
Thankfully there's a lot of variety here, different co-vocalists chip in to vary the mood considerably. There's also a few synth-forward tracks that remind me of either Depeche Mode or the Pet Shop Boys sonically, and those are the ones I enjoyed most. Also, while the concept is 69 Love Songs, it looks at love from a lot of different angles, from the yearning of "Come Back from San Francisco," to the horniness of "Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits," to infidelity in "Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long," means it doesn't descend into glurge.
I'm definitely not a country music fan, but I'm trying to give country albums a chance when they pop up in the list.
Prior to listening to this, the only Waylon Jennings song I was familiar with was the Dukes of Hazard theme song.
So, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this. A bit of research tells me that this is regarded as one of the first "Outlaw Country" albums, and the sparser, rock and roll influenced instrumentation apparently makes country music tolerable to me.
Standout tracks were "Honky Tonk Heroes" and"Black Rose." The last song, "We Had It All", didn't really fit the vibe of the album and was a limp piece of syrupy crap that knocked an entire star off of the rating. It was apparently forced upon Jennings by his label, so it isn't his fault.
It's perfectly pleasant Celtic-inflected folk rock, and I already knew I liked Mike Scott's voice from the "Whole Of The Moon" single (which isn't on this album).
But perfectly pleasant doesn't strike me as anywhere near essential listening for a list of 1001 albums to hear before you die.
Twenty years later this remains the best The Killers album. It's also half an all time great album and half filler, with the second half weaker than the first.
But what a first half! You have "All The Things That I Have Done," "Somebody Told Me," and the absolute cultural juggernaut that is "Mr. Brightside" in there. I wouldn't listen to all twelve tracks again necessarily, though I wouldn't complain if I did, but you could distill the best 5 or 6 tracks here into an absolutely killer EP (no pun intended.)
No one does it like Björk. I mean that in the most literal sense, she's a genre unto herself and not only does she not really sound like anyone else, but each album sounds different also.
Vespertine's sound is an icy one achieved by minimal instrumentation and electronica-inspired production. In contrast to that icy sound, Björk's lyrics on this one appear to be about the power and eroticism of a new relationship, though it can be hard to tell through some of the more oblique poetry and her often whispery delivery. I think this is one I'd have to sit with and relisten to fully form an opinion on, but I like the overall sound a fair bit.
Very much "We have The Rolling Stones at home." It's competent blues-inflected rock, but if I only kind of like it when the Stones do it, why would I want the Stones-lite version.
It's inoffensive, but there's nothing interesting to say about it. I have no idea why this Asylum Films version of Sticky Fingers is on the 1001 Albums list, it's just so inessential. Just listen to the actual Sticky Fingers instead.
An enjoyable indie-rock album with a bluesy tinge. I liked this, especially the track "Next Girl."
It's not an album I'd ever seek out to actively relisten to, but I'd happily hear it again if it was playing somewhere or if I was on a long drive.
I'm more familiar with later Goldfrapp work, which is a bit livelier than this album. This was very downtempo trip-hop, almost more of an ambient soundscape than anything else. I'm usually a lyrics-first kind of listening, but Alison's voice really is just another texture of the music here and what she's actually singing doesn't really matter.
This sounds like a lost James Bond soundtrack from the era when David Arnold was scoring them.
I enjoyed this, but definitely prefer my trip-hop by Massive Attack or Portishead.
I see Moby Grape described as potentially one of the biggest bands of the 1960s if it wasn't for poor decisions and dealing with the legal fallout of Matthew Katz's management approach. While this is a textbook example of a band squandering their rights our of ignorance (and is probably why I had to go digging through YouTube to find this album in its entirety to listen to), I'm not sure that's right.
Actually listening to the music and it's a bit underwhelming. There's definitely influence from the British Invasion bands, as well as a heavy dose of the psychedelic rock of other Bay Area bands such as The Grateful Dead, there's nothing that stands out as essential listening. That said, there's some pleasant harmonies, and having all five members singing lead vocals at various points is pleasant. Also, their triple guitar approach has some muscularity to it, particularly on "Omaha." Otherwise Moby Grape are more entertaining to read about than they are to listen to.
The Boss might be the daddest of Dad Rock, but that doesn't make him bad. I've never listened to a Springsteen album all the way through before, but I've always enjoyed his songs whenever I've heard them. This, his twelfth album, doesn't have anything nearly as anthemic as his singles from his peak 1975-1985 era.
It's also his post 9/11 album, and though it wasn't written with that in mind "My City of Ruins" kind of became emblematic of that event. Of the album's major singles I definitely prefer "The Rising" to the slightly cheesy "Waitin' On A Sunny Day."
That said, I think my favorite track on here is "Empty Sky," which expresses yearning incredibly well.
It may not be the best Prince album (for a start, like just about every double album, it could be cut down to an absolutely killer single album, but Sign ☮︎ The Times is still The Purple One operating at a level that's close to his peak, and that's reflected by the high points of this album. "U Got The Look," and "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man" especially are tracks that remind you just why the mid 1980s was Prince's imperial era.
This album mostly just washed over me. Fantastic guitar work throughout as one might expect from Carlos Santana. For an album that was a conscious effort to move away from the more cover-heavy sound of the first album, it's perhaps ironic that the stand out tracks are the covers of "Oye Como Va" and "Black Magic Woman." Which also makes the first half of the album much stronger than the second half, with "Hope You're Feeling Better" and "El Nicoya" becoming kind of a limp finale.
Roughly half the album is in Spanish,.which I neither speak nor understand, but that doesn't really matter as the vocals are the least important thing here, regardless of language. Which is probably why the instrumentals work so well.
I vaguely remember hearing their singles in the 90s and thinking that Super Furry Animals were Britpop also-rans.
Listening to an entire album basically confirmed that for me. Though they do sound that they were more influenced by 70s music compared to the 60s music of the bigger Britpop acts.
The album more or less washed over me, without any tracks standing out. It's definitely not an album that feels important enough to make the 1001 list.
Note: I listened to the US edition of this album because that's what was on YouTube Music, though I think the recommendation was for the US edition, which has a pretty different track listing.
I know that the Stones are a big deal, and this album is important because it's the first of their albums without any cover songs on it.
It's a shame that I didn't like it anywhere near as much as I wanted to. The only song that I'd definitely listen to again is "Paint It Black." A lot of the other songs have very strong instrumentation and would sound great if it wasn't for the horrifying levels of misogyny in the lyrics, even by Rolling Stones standards. And there's no world in which the Stones work as a jam band, so my attitude towards the 11-minute album closer, "Goin' Home," was "Just end already!"
Nevermind is an album that hit at the perfect time and is an outsized cultural juggernaut. I can't really be objective about this one. I enjoy pretty much all the tracks on here, even if they have been overplayed, especially "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
This is an album that inarguably belongs in a list of 1001 albums you must hear before you die.
I'm going to guess that this is probably not going to be one of the more highly regarded albums in this project, and I was certainly skeptical going in.
I like some metal, even some of the more extreme subgenres like death metal and black metal, but I've never really listened to grindcore (and, yes I'm aware the boundaries of the various subgenres are somewhat fluid). I was generally aware of Napalm Death's existence but hadn't really listened to them before this.
The biggest surprise for me was how cohesive this was as an album, which is surprising when you consider that the first and second halves were recorded with almost entirely different lineups, with the drummer being the only performer on all 28 songs. Said drumming is muscular and drives the pleasantly chunky guitars fantastically.
The vocals were you pretty standard metal indecipherable cookie monster growls for both lead singers, but this isn't a genre where lyrics or vocals are particularly important. I did look up the lyrics for some of the songs out of curiosity, and it's nice to see a band of this kind not going for the shock value of gore or satanism or extremist ideologies in what they put out.
While I sort of knew Sepultura as thrash-adjacent, I hadn't had the opportunity to really listen to them before now.
Having listened to this album, they're really good, the propulsive energy of thrash metal with melodic overtones. This would be a fantastic workout soundtrack.
Standout for me was Altered State, just due to the drum work.
I've always enjoyed The Cure, and this album is no exception. It's not quite as good as Disintegration when it comes to their Discography, but Pornography does capture Robert Smith and company at their gloomiest, with "A Strange Day" in particular lamenting the end of the world.
I approached this album with mild curiosity because it's so far out of my genre experience. I found that it was pleasant enough, there was just nothing for me to really grab on to.
I respect that what Basie and his band are doing is very good in their particular milieu, but it just doesn't have context for me.
