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.

Great album. I can get most of the songs on it stuck in my head just by reading the track list. It’s a bit on the quiet side for my taste but definitely great.

A great album that leans heavily into the trad roots. Fairytale of New York is a classic but lots of great tracks and no skips. Shane was one of the great song writers of his time.

A good album. Not PE’s best but one of their most overtly political. A couple of classic tracks round it out.

This is way outside my comfort zone as well as my knowledge zone. When it started I thought it might be a little too quiet for me- maybe good background music for work - but then it grabbed my attention. It is really lovely and something I will go back to. Amazing find for me.

One of my favorite records of all time. Janis’ vocals are front and center throughout. It is a soulful album featuring a few of my favorite Janis tracks including Cry Baby and Bobby McGee.

This is a legendarily good record. However, it does not truly hit any of my sweet spots and it has a tendency to be overly religious.

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.

I don’t love or hate the Doors. I am struck by how relevant a lot of these tracks feel which is impressive for a debut album that came out almost 60 years ago. The End is what makes this album controversial IMO. I find it overly long, self indulgent, and a bit boring. At the same time, it did push the boundaries of what was acceptable to release on an album. 6/10

Haven’t finished it. May not bother. Back in the day, Lady Laplaya and I would have heated arguments about which was the best Chili Peppers album Mother’s Milk (her) or Blood Sugar Sex Magic (me). The argument went (her) “I think the best couple of songs are on Mother’s Milk” (me) “I like the nonstop energy of Blood Sugar.” As I said- very heated. One thing that was never in doubt was, whatever the best RHCP record was, it wasn’t this one. This may be their most successful record. It has some mainstream hits on it. But the whole thing is just that, mainstream and uninteresting. The squares liked it. It maintains one fairly consistent rhythm throughout with mi or changes in tempo. Anthony’s “rapping” is fairly cringe but again, the sort of thing that middle class white people would find to be the perfect balance of fake edgy and accessible. Pablum

By all rights I should hate this. Strangely I mostly don’t. I certainly wouldn’t choose to listen to it, and it has inspired a lot of music that I do hate but this was fine. I prefer the second half. I like Model, it has lyrics and everything! First few tracks tend towards the repetitive and the whole thing is just way to electronic for my tastes but it is definitely good. 6/10

This is a parody right? Juvenile lyrics, ridiculous similes, boring melodies, earnest singing, and piano? Definitely a parody. Or red hot flaming garbage. You decide.

It was interesting to revisit this album after all these years. I’m not sure I ever listened to it all the way through back in the day. I never owned it. Hits like Little Red Corvette. Delirious, and Let’s Pretend We’re Married hold up well but feel very of the moment. Some of the deeper tracks are really interesting D.M.S.R has a great 70’s funk feel and the couple of slow jams at the end are really good. Automatic has a Kraftwork feel and it’s good but not my style, but toward the end of the middle Prince breaks out with a really nice blues guitar riff which was great. The whole thing is a little too electronic for my taste- especially the drums- but this did not affect my enjoyment of it as much as I thought it would.

I can appreciate the musicality but not really my preferred genre of hip hop. Listened to about half of it. Lyrically there was a lot of Black consciousness and religiosity to start. I am generally good with the first and less enamored of the second. In this case, the combination along with the Kanye centered Kanyeness of it felt like a precursor to the dark web of conspiracy theories and antisemitism that he later descended into. Somewhere around The New Workout Plan it takes a hard turn toward body shaming and misogyny dressed up as self aggrandizing sexuality. Hard pass. So this gets a nah from me.

I’m not a Beatles super fan but I do believe that they are the greatest band of all time. My favorite era is’65/66 my favorite album is Rubber Soul but this is a close second. This record is 60 years old and we can all sing along to half the songs on it. This is an all time classic.

Such a beautiful record. This one is in regular rotation at our house

I didn’t hate this. Listened to it on a rainy bike ride home from work which felt appropriate. I like the drummer. Guitar work reminds me a bit of early Sabbath. It’s tight and doesn’t wander about the place like Metallica does. Lead vocals are not my thing but I kind of get it? The other singer is pretty good. Reminds me just a little of Bob Mould who I really like. Dead Memories is probably my favorite vocal track. Got about halfway through. It’s a long ass record. Didn’t finish. Won’t go back to it.

This is a great record. Booty is an all time great song. It’s a little slow for me in places but that’s a me problem. 25 years old and still an amazing listen. 8.5/10

Symphonic synth pop? I like this album a lot more than I thought I would. The hit tracks are big and boisterous and poppy. A lot of the deeper tracks are super interesting. Her voice is obviously amazing. Jig of Life is a truly a traditional jig and it is lovely. 7.5/10

I have always been a bit ambivalent about ZZ Top and this record encapsulates that experience. I really like the heavy blues inspired guitar work, but the vocals and pop hooks are more Robert Palmer ecsque. I kind of want them to pick a field and plow it. Some good tracks though!

I can do without the extended collectors edition. Overall a good record. We Will Not Be Lovers is a great song. Fisherman’s Blues is a very good song. The incorporation of trad music is interesting. When Will We Be Married is a hornpipe which is fun. Still, as trad playing goes it is only moderately good.

I have mixed feelings about the Stooges. I really like some of their stuff while some of it leaves me flat. Not sure if I have ever listened to any of their albums straight through. This one is fine. I was surprised by how much it sounds like the Doors minus gratuitous use of synthesizer.

This is terrible. What are we even doing here? Imagine Slip Knot except with less interesting guitar playing and no second vocalist who can do something other than scream (I think the other thing is called “singing”). Also Slip Knot was successful at creating driving energy that your body can connect to. It’s the kind of energy that makes you want to jump in the pit and hit someone. This tries to do that and fails. The third track Ratamahatta is decidedly less terrible than tracks 1,2, &4 (that’s as far as I got) but a single 2 star track does not make a 2 star record. I award this no points and we are all slightly dumber for having listened to it.

If I were to find myself locked in a bunker and there was only one CD in it for me to listen to forever, I wouldn’t be mad if it was this one. There are so many absolutely classic Marley tracks on this record and Stir It Up is an all time great. No skips

I live and respect Debbie Harry. Her embrace of and support for hip hop culture in particular is legendary. I have also come to appreciate her more as I have gotten older. I didn’t purchase Blondie albums back in the day, so my knowledge of their catalogue is somewhat limited. I really enjoyed this record. Hanging On the Telephone, One Way or Another, and Heart of Glass are all hits. Sunday Girl and I’m Gonna Love You Too were surprise sleepers for me.

Legendary. If there was a Mount Rushmore of jazz singers, Sarah Vaughn would have to be on it. This live recording starts with an announcement that it is being recorded and that Sarah Vaughn will be using lyric sheets. But then on Willow Weep for Me she sings that she has just messed up the song but is still singing because the audience expects her to. And on How High The Moon she sings about the fact that she doesn’t know the song but is going to try to sing it the way Ella sings it - so meta - so charming- so unbelievably good. 11/10

I was unfamiliar with Finley Quaye. I really enjoyed this. I especially like the bass playing. Very good record that will be added to my summertime reggae playlist.

I had not heard of Ms.Dynamite before but she sounds very much of that time period. I enjoyed it and listened to it twice. Not groundbreaking or exceptional but very good.

There is an old corny expression that a high school friend of mine liked to quote “the blues and country had a child and named it rock and roll.” This is the sound the Stones were going for. I like this record quite a bit. Brown Sugar has always felt lyrically problematic, but it’s a great song. Wild Horses is a great song, Bitch is a great song and really hits that particular Stones vibe. Dead Flowers is very country and very good.

The algorithm really wants me to like Lust for Life but I just don’t. However, I do like a lot of the other things on this record. Some Weird Sin and The Passenger are both really good. The album feels a little better than the sum of its parts.

I guess it’s well done? I found it boring and a little pretentious.

I don’t hate this but it’s not my thing. Very singer songwriter vibe. Rich smooth overproduced sound with self consciously clever lyrics. I want to give this 2.5 but I will round up.

This started out sounding like Bruce Springsteen with all the soul and interesting bits removed but it quickly evolved into heart on your sleeve horseshit. This what a pretentious singer/songwriter imagines a 14 year old girl imagines her overly sensitive crush writes in his diary? 🤮 The only thing counting in its favor was that it was mercifully short.

I like Green Day a lot. High energy, happy, angry head banging sound. Remind me of the Dead Kennedys gone mainstream.

Pleasant enough. I found it unremarkable.

I’m not overly familiar with Paul McCartney’s work before Wings but this is a solid effort 😂 Seriously, I enjoyed it and unsurprisingly the bass line is spot on but overall it left me a little flat. McCartney is an all time great but this album is only good not great IMO

I was fully prepared to hate this record as electronic music is not my jam. But this was pretty good. The beats were interesting and the vocals were strong.

This is obviously great - just to get that out of the way. Big band is not my favorite jazz genre but Basie is widely considered one of the best to ever do it. I really enjoyed Whirly-Bird. That one will go into the rotation.

I like the Smiths but have never dug deep into their catalog. I am less familiar with this record and enjoyed giving it a full listen. I was struck by how much the instrumentation sounds like Johnny Cash - simple but good. Wildly different vocal approaches give this an amazingly different sound. I think that’s cool. It’s very poetic - a hallmark of the Smiths - which I dig.

I did not finish this. It feels formulaic and derivative. A decent singer and a good guitar player making late 70’s guitar hero rock. Self indulgent guitar riffs and boring rhythm section is boring to me. They sound like an above average cover band. I will give it 6/10 for the above average part of that.

I was never a big Hole fan. Celebrity Skin was a hit and it’s fine. It’s basic grunge. This was my first time listening to the whole album. It’s fine. It vacillates between standard grunge tracks and more mainstream rock/pop offerings. I found myself thinking “this sounds a little like (band I like better.) there was a track or two that sounded a bit like the Bangles a couple that sounded like Concrete Blonde. 6.5/10

Legendary! What can I say? It’s Mikes Davis and it is absolutely amazing. I don’t love Darn That Dream just because I don’t love that style of vocal jazz but that’s a quibble. 9.5/10

I had never actually listened to this record before and I like it a lot. Amazing that it came out in 1970. The members of Black Sabbath grew up in post war Birmingham- a very industrial city. Tony Iommi lost the tips of two of his fingers in an industrial accident which affected his guitar playing sound. The music they made was dark, angry, and industrial sounding in a way that hadn’t been done before. The bass playing by Geezer Butler on the other hand sounds a lot like Jack Bruce in Cream. The back and forth between Iommi and Butler gives Sabbath a unique sound. Super important album even if a lot of what it inspired turned out to be shite. A lot of fun to listen to.

Great album. Snoops blend of funk and rap creates a unique sound. His delivery and his beats are super smooth. This record takes you straight to the club. Minus one for the sexism.

I love this album. I challenge anyone to listen to it and not feel happy. It’s funky happy nerdy joy. Also, Chris and Tina are apparently super nice people.

Lovely

I love this record! It’s loud and fast and sounds chaotic but isn’t. It feels like what you might get if Bob Mould was a jazz composer.

Who doesn’t love Dolly? I find the title track to be a bit on the nose and sentimental- Dolly can be that way). Traveling Man, Here I Am, She Never Met A Man (She Didn’t Like) are really good. Dolly is a treasure and truly one of the great American songwriters.

I love this record! The opening with Sure Shot is gold. Sabotage takes me right back to loading moving trucks at Dan’s Van in Somerville. It may be a couple songs too long but almost all the tracks are bangers.

I wanted to like this more than I did. The vocals are excellent and it is lyrically interesting, but the music just didn’t do it for me