1001 Albums Summary

Didn't realize that the first few tracks are a real great set of hits --- "Howlin' For You" is still great. Learning that this is a divorce album adds some color to it. Still, the middle gets a little same-y and I don't love the underwater sound on some of it. Great closer though.

Unremarkable rock music. I love rock music. This is rock music for people who have never heard any other rock music and just want the dumb-as-nails fundamentals. This album doesn't bother me, but there's nothing on it that I like.

Blue Suede shoes is a ridiculous song but actually some of this rules. The guitar solo on "Just Because" rips. "I got a woman" is solid. Yes he didn't write any of the songs and he's repackaging Black art for a white audience, but you don't get a record that sounds like this one accident. Dude could sing.

Some really strong tracks, but also got a little same-y. Second to last song kind of sounds like Smooth Operator but worse. So, a nice sounding record, great voice, but the arrangements didn't grab me.

This must be a really great record if you a) really care about these songs or b) really care about Willie Nelson. For me, neither is true.

My seventh album of the project, and the first time I've gotten one by an artist I've simply never heard of. This was very cool! I do see myself getting back into this one and turning it over in greater depth. Really cool songs. The first tune kind of turned me off, but I'm glad that I stuck with it.

I actively dislike this. Satire with no poetry. The instrumentation is mechanical and the vocals are uninteresting. Too many vocal melodies sound the same. Bad record, desperately wanted it to be over by song nine. Village Green is *so* much better.

Fuck yeah. I've recently identified "rowdy" as one of my favorite qualities in music, and this is rowdy as hell. Still, my favorite song is "Visions of Johanna," which is delightfully un-rowdy. That's how good this album is.

Good record with some exciting, energizing moments. Really creative arrangements, sometimes really fun.

Helped me put a lot of stuff in context. I'm interested in listening to more of his heavy-hitting stuff.

I actually don't know if I've ever been through this front-to-back. The first song was super fun, and I supposed I never realized how many ludicrously popular songs were on this record. This is the album that gave us "I sneezed on the beat, and the beat got sicker," which is enough to give it a high score. But I found it fun at times, very sad at others, and overall a very full portrait of a very interesting person. Cool!

Competently played and written, but doesn’t do much for me that a legion of other indie records do.

I was excited for this record because I knew "Stan," and thought that it was a beautiful and sad song -- ahead of its time -- about parasocial relationships. So, I wondered what else would be on this record, and how Eminem would depict other parts of his changing circumstances. I was not impressed. The violent misogyny is disgusting. It doesn't escape my notice that the "Stan" is the only moment of real empathy on this record, and it's reserved for a man. But "Stan" shows us that Eminem *is* capable of emotionally textured writing; he can go into this gear when he wants to. He just doesn't want to. Other reviewers have made comments such as "Even though it's an offensive album, you can't deny its mastery." Actually, you can. Being an artist is not just about technical expertise. (I’d even argue that technical mastery is lacking here; if “suck my dick” is your best retort on multiple occasions, you’ve got some work to do.) Artistry is about saying something that other people need to hear, that they do not have a way to put into words themselves. Eminem knew that his work was inflammatory, that it would make the world a crueler place, that it would give young men a vocabulary and a license to embrace their worst impulses, and he did it anyway. His intention was to shock people, and part of being a good artist is to *check your intentions* and realize when they are wrong. On the Wikipedia page, it's noted that Johnny Cash defended the record, saying that "Folsom Prison Blues," "Jesse James" and a host of other songs are also violent. (I myself appreciate "Down By The River" and Nick Cave's Murder Ballads record.) Due respect, but the difference between these songs and The Marshall Mathers LP is the sense of morality. In "FSB," the man in prison admits that he did something wrong. "Jesse James" is a Robin Hood story, a legend. The Marshall Mathers LP is simply cruel. It was important to listen to this record as part of this tour of music history, but it is a despicable work.

An interesting, creative, dynamic album -- just not sure I'd listen to it again.

Fun, exuberant, little punk, little pop, cool record.

Awful. I can’t imagine being proud of something this boring.

Good songs but just not a complete work. I know I'm being unfair by comparing to later records, but for the high highs on this record, there are also generic songs that I've completely forgotten already.

Exuberant, yearning, masterful, idiosyncratic. One of the best. I can't believe this record was recorded in twenty-four hours. But when you're that good, and you've been carrying this kind of music in your heart for so long, you can bang out a masterpiece like this. Long live Otis.