1001 Albums Summary

I'm pretty sure I've listened to this in its entirety at some point before, but I couldn't tell you when. It's interesting how little audible difference there are between the covers and the originals on this one. I know which are which simply by exposure, but if I didn't know already, I probably would not be able to tell from how they are produced and performed. That's a real professional there. The cover of 'Shake' is a low point. Arrangement sounds thin and ramshackle. I do prefer the Devo cover of Satisfaction. Though it is interesting to hear Steve Cropper do the Satisfaction riff with his obviously superior technique. This album is sitting at an interesting point in history, right? It's right at the transition point where the album is just starting to come into its own as the medium of music, but the single still reigns supreme. Obviously, 'Respect' is the album's centerpiece, but 'Old Man Trouble' is the standout to me. Perhaps that's just because it sounds like the prequel to the Dock of the Bay I know is in the future, but Redding sells weariness better than almost anyone I know. 'Respect' is a bit of a strange one to listen to now. It's not unusual for a song to be eclipsed by a superior cover, but it is rare for a song to be eclipsed by a cover that completely inverts its meaning, as happened here. The original is still a great song, of course, but it's lacking something crucial that we now know it can have.

I mean, it's a timeless classic. Arguably the best baroque pop album of all time. Its only real flaw is that 'Odyssey' is spelled wrong.

I didn't feel very strongly about this. It was very monotone, very uniform, and all the interesting harmonic moves were drowned out by the uniform dynamics. Not a fan.

Bit of a perplexing one. I kept expecting it to click into a higher gear, and it just never did. I liked everything on here, but it seemed like it was missing something. Reviews call it 'restrained' - I think it might have been a little too restrained. Not my favourite Mayfield album, by a fair margin.