1001 Albums Summary

Enjoyed! Would listen again. Catchy. Last song was odd and seemed out of place on album.

Can appreciate it for its pioneering and groundbreaking place in rock history. But not something I’m going to listen to on the regular.

Liked it. A blast from the past. We used to call this band Depressed Mode in high school cause it’s what the goth kids listened to. Reminds me of the Cure.

I’ve never listened to an entire Elvis album before. It was about what I expected. Probably not something I’d listen to on the regular. Maybe I’ll change my mind as I immerse myself in more older albums. I appreciate Elvis for his place in music history. It’s interesting to hear music produced before rock and country had diverged so much. There is other music from the same year that I do like a lot that had progressed much further towards a more modern sound.

Couldn’t decide between a 3 or a 4. I went with 4. I think I’d like to listen to these guys some more. It took several listens before getting the tunes down. They weren’t super “catchy” but they were still enjoyable to listen to.

Unique. Innovative. Fun. Loved it!

I usually listen to to these albums at least a couple of times to give the music a chance to catch on.I only listened to this one once. He’s very talented but I just know it’s not my thing. I probably sound like uncultured swine but during the second song on the album I couldn’t help but think of that French chef from The Little Mermaid.

The vocals feel more like they blend with all of the other instruments rather than being out front if that makes sense. Really great stuff!

Classic 90’s band!

So damn good!

WTF?

Boooooooring!!!

This music would be a lot of fun in the right setting. I’d love to sit in a small jazz club and listen to stuff like this. For everyday listening, not so much my thing. I almost gave it 4/5 but it wasn’t quite there.

I had the impression that The Doors had a more psychedelic sound, and maybe they do in other albums. Did not expect this to be as bluesy as it was but loved it.

I liked this a lot more than I expected to. I thought it would be super screamy and over the top. But it was really good.

It was ok.

First Smith’s album on this website and my first Smith’s album I’ve ever listened too. Pretty good actually.

Fun listen but not enough to get over that 3 star jump.

I’m torn between a 3 and a 4. I’ll give Prince the benefit of the doubt and assume this album will catch on with a few more listens. Take my 4 stars Prince.

I’m not a huge hip hop fan but this was actually pretty good. There were a few keepers (songs I added to a playlist).

Another great Black Sabbath album. Almost as good as the last one. I really missed out on a lot of great music in my youth.

Never heard of these guys before. This was a surprise. I enjoyed it quite a lot and moved some songs to a playlist.

A fun listen but not enough to make it to 4 stars for me.

If someone put this on cold with no background info, I’m not sure I would be able to guess the year it was produced. I certainly wouldn’t have guessed 1977. So fun to be introduced to this band.

Did I enjoy this album? No. No, I did not.

The song Imagine is fantastic! The rest of the songs are pretty damn good too.

I never met an R.E.M. album I didn’t like. Solid 4 stars for this one.

Very talented. Just not my cup of tea. Actually tea is not cup of tea either. But, I digress.

Better than Kanye, who was the previous hip hop artist I reviewed.

I could get used to these guys. Will be relistening.

Not my genre of choice but good for what it is.

Previously unknown band to me. I will be checking out their other stuff.

This is the best album I’ve listened to yet on my 1001 albums journey. The homophobic slur on Money for Nothing was unfortunate on an otherwise perfect song. I understand the song is a third person narrative of a character who is meant to be unlikable, but still. The instrumentation on all the songs was incredible.

I fluctuated between 3 and 4. I’m going to go with 4.

Started out nice. Got a little screamy later.

I’ll be listening to this again. Enjoyed listening in both language versions.

I want to like prog rock more than I actually do. Like my first time drinking coffee, I had the sense that it was probably an acquired taste and that if I kept with it, it would be worth it. On my first listen, I would have given this a 3, but with subsequent listening sessions I think I can give it a 4.

Nope!

Nice. Mellow. Liked about 80% of the songs.

I like you too! I mean,I like you two! I mean, I like U2! Spelling matters.

There were parts I enjoyed quite a lot. Others, not so much. On the whole I could take it or leave it.

Very 80’s.

Meh

Yes, you’re very, very good at playing the guitar. We’re all very impressed.

I was ready to give this 3 stars on my first listen. Had the review written in my head and everything. Decided to listen a few more times and on the 3rd or 4th time my brain lit up. I love the mix of hard rock and blues. 4 stars.

I enjoyed most of the tracks. A couple were kind of boring but kept myself occupied by looking for Waldo in the cover art (3rd row from the back, 17 over btw).

These dance/hip-hop/techno-y albums sure have a hard time breaking the 3 star glass ceiling for me.

It’s gonna be a no for me Dogg.

It’s hard for me to fully appreciate these albums from other cultures. I’m sure the locals love it though.

This is my 2nd Kraftwerk album since I started 6 weeks ago. I can appreciate this bands place in music history as pioneers, but I think just one of their albums would have sufficed.

That was some trippy jazz.

The sound was muffled but I guess that’s what they were going for. They’re like a garage band but I’m not in the garage. I’m listening from the other side of the house through the walls.

Dude sounds like he’s trying to be a white version of Michael Jackson. But so was Michael Jackson after 1987.

Enjoyed this one even more than the last U2 album I reviewed.

I’ve never listened to a David Bowie album before. This album was more piano heavy than I would have expected. More like Elton John perhaps. But I really enjoyed it a lot.

Enjoyed the jazz infused with pop. Great combination of styles.

I liked the blend of synthetic and natural instrumentation. Was nice to listen to while relaxing.

First hit album I was introduced to as a kid. Happy to give this 5/5.

I wish I could give this 0 stars.

Rap and hip hop are not my cup of tea at all so a 3 star rating from me is actually a compliment.

I associate country with the more modern twangy stuff. This was different. Vocals not so twangy. Almost more Elvis-y in parts. Still, not my thing. Like, not at all.

Another quality Smith’s album. The song Meat is Murder is a pretty heavy handed message but whatever.

I listened to a weird-ass album with jazz, lasers, and vocals reminiscent of Gregorian chants. And I liked it!!!

Classic stuff!

I’m mostly familiar with their 80’s hits like Love Shack. A bit surprised they actually started in the 70’s but fun stuff.

5 stars, obviously.

Nice!

I remember how shocked I was the first time I saw Kiss without their makeup. It was my family. And yet, three stars is the most I can muster.

None of these songs really grabbed my attention.

Completely unknown band to me previously. Odd name for a European band. Fun and enjoyable. Will be checking out more of their catalog at some point.

As Country goes, this was rather tolerable.

In a very rock-centric, not to mention male centric, list of albums, it was nice to hear something different. I saved the song Four Women to a playlist.

So freaking corny!

This album is greater than the sum of its parts. No individual track is screaming at me to be included in a playlist. But as a whole, this is great album. And I’m not even a Country fan. But I like Johnny Cash’s unpolished persona and enjoyed hearing his banter with the inmates in this live recording. After hearing a ridiculously corny Country album yesterday from the same time period, this was refreshing.

I would like to thank the music gods for selecting this album for me today.

This was fun. Like being a fly on the wall during a jam session. But because it was very improvisational, there weren’t any memorable tunes that I took away. I honestly couldn’t hum a single line from this album after having heard it.

This album was the musical equivalent of a good IPA: refreshing, earthy, and full of flavor, with lots of bright hoppy notes.

This was a little bit country and a little bit rock-n-roll. Like Donnie and Marie I guess. I don’t typically like straight country, but fuse it with rock and I apparently like it quite a bit.

Eh!

Another Steely Dan album fails to bypass the 3 star threshold.

I don’t get why Elvis is so huge! (His stardom I mean, not his actual size at his time of death). He’s alright.

A beloved classic.

I’m pretty sure this is what they used to torture prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

New band to me! Pretty good. For a long time I was stuck in this 1980’s music rut. It’s been fun finding my way out.

A bit too hard for me.

Funky!

I found a new favorite song on this album. You Are The Everything. If I knew how to play the guitar, I’d definitely want to learn this song. Maybe I’ll learn someday. If this song doesn’t capture you the first time through, listen a couple more times. A lot of other great songs on the album as well.

Breaking Bad: The Musical

Great 70’s rock!

Nice post-2000’s music. Good to discover stuff I didn’t initially pay much attention to.

This album was brought to you by Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The second half anyway. Which I didn’t love. But the first half was solid enough to earn the album 4 stars as a whole.

Let’s not.

I thought this was going to be so weird, but I really enjoyed it!

I’m not a country music fan by any stretch, but Dolly is one of the artists in the genre that I have actually enjoyed quite a lot. Three stars for the album. For Dolly Parton the person, the activist, the humanitarian, she gets all the stars in the sky. What an amazing human being! Rest In Peace Dolly!

For hip-hop, 3 stars is a damn good review for me.

Lot’s of bangers on this album, especially that last one.

The vocals on this album are more than just singing. They’re an instrument. Blended together with the other instruments they create a really cool ethereal atmosphere.

I remember in the 80’s, the kids we called “stoners” would wear these denim jackets with the logos of their favorite bands drawn on them with black marker. Iron Maiden, Slayer, Metallica, Judas Priest etc. I lumped all these bands together and assumed they were all thrash metal trash. I was a super judgy kid, I know. As I’ve actually listened to some of these bands over the years, I’ve realized that there’s actually more of a spectrum of sound across these bands than I had expected. Today, I discovered that Iron Maiden is actually quite digestible. I genuinely enjoyed most of this album.

One of my dad’s favorite bands. I’ve never listened to this one before. Glad I did!

Such angry young men!

The songs themselves were good, but the performances, particularly the singing, and the recording were pretty amateur.

Some nice songs. Overall, not exactly my vibe.

I really only cared for 3 of the tracks on this album.

Tom, may I offer you a throat lozenge?

I was oscillating between giving this a 3 or a 4. The fart noises at the end of the album was the deciding factor.

I didn’t think a live album was a great way to be introduced to this band. I would prefer to become familiar with the original songs before hearing long drawn out versions of them. I made a playlist based off this album where I switched out all the live tracks for their corresponding studio tracks. I liked that set much better. Had that been the album I got I would have given it 4 stars.

I’m not a rap man. Take your 2 stars and be grateful.

Joni Mitchell is very talented and her music unique and interesting. The melodies and vocals have a very free-flowing, almost improvisational quality to them, not unlike rap in a way. I’ve listened to her Blue album before. This one had a much jazzier element to it. As such, there was a lot going on in the background to keep your ears busy. I know Joni is revered so I feel a little bad only giving her a 3, but none of the songs had a strong hook for me or a memorable chorus that kept me thinking about them later on, although I think that’s just her style and actually what she is going for to an extent. I don’t really see myself putting these songs in rotation which is kind of requisite to get a 4 or 5. Listening to this music is like going on a beautiful hike, with lots of cool scenery but no big waterfalls or grand vistas along the way. I enjoyed it, yes, but I’m not necessarily going to make it a point to come back and do this exact trail again.

So good. The only thing I knew about this guy is that he left the music industry when he joined a new religion. I assumed his music must have been pretty wild if he didn’t think it was compatible with religion, but his music is surprisingly mellow and sooo good. More music like this please!

I didn’t really get this.

Pretty standard 80’s hard rock. I didn’t notice anything remarkable. Born to be Wild didn’t need to be rebooted.

Sounded like a parody of grunge.

Not bad.

Not bad. Not particularly good either.

Sounded like a soundtrack for a stage hypnotist.

Purple Rain was amazing. Some other great songs too.

Nice!

Fun!

Classic 80’s sound. Quite a few keepers on this album.

Ravi Shankar is not my thing I’m afraid.

No thanks!

Just a middle album for me.

This is why I joined this project. To find albums like this that I somehow missed over the years. I thought Led Zeppelin was really hard rock. But dude, it has Tolkien references. This album is a great gift for the nerd in your life as well as for the stoner in your life. Added every song, save one, to a playlist.

Nah!

I liked this more than any of The Smith’s albums that I’ve heard so far. He’s definitely not subtle about his political views. I enjoyed his song about America. It sounded as though it were written specifically for the Trump Era with that line about “you big fat pig” but it predated his presidency.

I like The Beatles. I don’t LOVE The Beatles. I’m sure that’s blasphemous to those who think The Beatles are bigger than Jesus. Some albums have the problem of all the songs sounding the same. This album definitely didn’t have that problem. On the other hand, there was almost too much variety. This could have and probably should have been reduced to a single record in my opinion and some of the songs (like the ones written in a Vaudeville style) scrapped.

Fun stuff

I just can’t with rap.

I appreciated the introduction to Elliott Smith. I like the simple sound of just a man and his guitar, nothing too crazy.

Pure jazz.

Too much rap on this list.

Kate Bush doesn’t exactly perform catchy songs. You do have to spend a bit more time with the songs for them to get their hooks into you but it’s worth pushing through. Beautiful, ethereal music.

Was unfamiliar with this group previously, but enjoyed it quite a bit.

Pearl Jam has a bit of a harder edge than most rock I enjoy, but this one is a solid 4.

Something I’m realizing from this 1001 Albums project is that I enjoy 1970’s classic rock much more than I realized.

Take your 2 stars and don’t let me catch you around here again.

I don’t usually go over 3 stars with these albums from other cultures, but this one was so much fun. I imagined myself sipping a cocktail in a Cuban club somewhere. It transported me for sure.

I really hate rap.

Good to get a sample of music from other countries so I don’t feel like such an uncultured swine.

This was an album that really changed the direction of music in the 90’s to a much different sound profile. Nice blast from the past.

My second Led Zeppelin album on this project. I rated their 4th album higher, but this one was very good as well. The best songs did seem to be on the first half, but the ones at the end didn’t disappoint either.

As Metal goes, this was quite tolerable. Even enjoyable mostly. It does have a harder edge than I typically prefer in my rock music, but I found myself really engaging with some of the guitar work in a few of those longer songs. The second half of the album seemed like the better half to me which was surprising as a lot of artists front load their albums with the best stuff.

Ugh!

I had never heard of this artist before. This album was a surprise for me. Very enjoyable. Also, hard to pigeonhole these songs into any particular genre. So many different musical elements going on. I’m definitely going to explore the rest of this guy’s catalogue at some point.

I remember Aerosmith being big in the 80’s and 90’s. I had no idea they went back this far. My first impression of this album for very positive. I liked the guitar work quite a bit on many of the songs. But, as I listened again I couldn’t really find any songs that stood out or hooked me.

A blast from the past! This one made me nostalgic.

I’m really loving this late 60’s/early 70’s southern rock vibe. I learned that CCR made 3 albums total in ‘69. That’s ann insane pace of production. And the quality didn’t suffer in lieu of the quantity.

I was introduced to Jack White earlier this year when the album generator assigned me The White Stripes. This album did not disappoint either. Quite a range of musical styles here, especially on the later half. A couple of the songs, for example, sounded like they could have come from a Beatles album.

I enjoyed this. But probably not well enough to revisit it honestly.

Some of the sounds used in the first couple of tracks sounded more like static than music, not pleasing to the ear at all. It got better by the end.

This was great for the right setting and mood but not my everyday thing.

A bit of a downer actually.

This was an interesting listen. My first impression was that the singer sounded kinda 90’s and grungy, but then as I listened to the instrumentation it was reminiscent of really great 70’s classic rock. Kind of a bridge of the two eras.

I liked this about as much as I like Elvis. I gave him 3 stars too. Son of a Preacher Man was pretty good.

The album generator gave me this song for a 2nd time for some reason, so I decided to listen to Thriller by Michael Jackson instead, which interestingly received the same number of stars as Violator initially had.

This whole album made me think of the Weird Al lyric. “We’re so loud and incoherent. Boy, this oughta bug your parents”.