1001 Albums Summary

Not as good as my nostalgia would suggest. Some decent tracks. Generally good head banging energy but guitar riffs are self indulgent.

One of the greatest albums of all time. I wore this record out in my youth. Listening to it now it more than holds up. From the first shucka shucka opening percussion it explodes with a mix of joy, sorrow and wistfulness. Janis’ voice is extraordinary moving from sweet high notes to gravely punctuation seemingly effortlessly. The album just manages to pass the “no skips” rule. Oh Sweet Mary doesn’t really need to be there. It feels like a 1960’s “everyone is important” moment where they allow the rest of the band to take center stage while Janis sings backup. It’s fine but every other track is great. The Spotify version has bonus tracks. They are not included in this review because they were not on the album. They are nice to listen to but would bring the overall quality of the album down if included.

We wore this record out when it dropped. Frank Sinatra once said that Amy was the one (then) current artist “singing jazz the right way.” Tremendous album I only wish there was more.

I don’t love Bruce but I appreciate him. I find this album to be a bit boring. The story telling is good and Prive It All Night is Bruce at his best. I can take or leave the rest of the album 6.5/10

Possibly the worst thing I have ever forced myself to listen to. It’s like a bunch of music school students said “I have an idea. What if we took the trippy instrumental part of a Pink Floyd song and made it the whole song?” And someone else said “we could make it the whole album!” And then someone asked “what about lyrics?” And the answer came back “we can repeat these 4 words over and over “for effect”” and they all said “genius!” And then they did this. Ugh. Just no.

I wasn’t familiar with her and a little outside my wheelhouse but a beautiful record with great historical significance. Her voice is absolutely incredible.

Not my genre of expertise. I found it to be an enjoyable enough listen but it left me a little flat. Nice groove but I prefer hip hop with more grit and edge. To me this feels like the smooth jazz of hip hop. The lyrics are generally positive which is great but they felt a bit pedantic. The artist should show rather than tell and this feels more like just telling. For me it was fine but I wouldn’t necessarily listen to it again.

Very good. Not Pet Sounds good but very good. Bluesy in good ways. Like everything the Beach Boys did, it is tight and well produced. Bonus points for great cover art.

This is a hard one. I want to give it a 3.5. I Am less familiar with this record than I am with Stiff their second album. I like a lot of the tracks and it hands well with “Keys” but it gets a bit wifty in parts. The musicianship is there but overall too meandering for my taste.

Am I supposed to review this? It’s Emmylou Harrison. I started listening and immediately thought “right it’s Emmylou Harris she is incredible.” I finished it and started it again. 10 out of 10. No notes.

Not my cuppa. It’s pretty but I couldn’t engage with it. It slipped into the background.