1001 Albums Summary

1968. 1. Bookends Theme: Intro - heard before, very sweet and gentle. 2. Save the Life of My Child: Never heard this one. Weird to hear S&G with a more electriccy bassline. 3. America: Beloved 4. Overs: Bit hokey. 5. Voices of Old People: literally. 6. Old Friends: Familiar. Almost like an Old Disney soundtrack. Very sentimental. 7. Bookends Theme (Reprise): as before. Does not lead into next track well. 8. Fakin' It: Familiar. Good guitar riff and classic S&G harmonies. Weird middle section with creepy fairground music. Then the end sounds like it should go into Cecilia but it doesn't WHY. 9. Punky's Dilemma: Classic S&G whimsy. Fine. 10. Mrs Robinson: Classic S&G bop. 11. A Hazy Shade of Winter: Beloved 12. At the Zoo: again, delightfully whimsical and fun. Less flow between tracks as I thought. They love their 'real life sound effects'. I can see how its interesting from a point of view of being journalistic and of the era. Really love three tracks, the rest I'm not into.

2004 1. American Idiot: Classic Greenday banger. 2. Jesus of Surburbia: familia. Very nostalgic. 3. Holiday: this album is hit after hit. 4. Boulevard of Broken Dreams: hit. 5. Are We The Waiting: unfamiliar. Softer. I don’t mind it. 6. St Jimmy: unfamiliar. Nice lead in and fits well. 7: Give Me Novocaine: unfamiliar. Softer again. Don’t mind but a bit dull. Others do it better. 8: She’s a Rebel: right style, bit nothingy to me. Easy filler. 9: Extraordinary Girl: as above. 10: Letterbomb: hmmmm I need another listen. 11. Wake Me Up When September Ends: such a huge hit at the time. Practically had its own cult. Well written hit. 12: Homecomeing: need another listen. Gosh it’s long. Many songs in one. Not a fan of the inserts. 13: Whatsername: fine. I feel like the lyrics of this would have suited Dookie better. There a pull between different greenday eras/identities. Quite a front-loaded album, hits wise. Not at all bothered about the second half. Really of its time - it was THE sound. It’s weird listening now when all the problems that it speaks of are deeper/more entrenched and more polarising now than they were even then, and also feeling like all the radio and fame over the years waters down the meaning?

1968 Really struggled getting through this album. I find Jagger’s voice SO annoying and performative. Not sure if the style of music is my thing, but I’m struggling to listen past the voice to find out. Actually the further I listen, the more it sounds like some rich white guy and his band have heard blues music/annerican rock and roll and have been like “I could do that”. It even feels like an American accent at times. I can see it’s got loads of awards and was something really special at the time… but I don’t get it. Maybe I need to listen more but I don’t want to.

Love love love. Riff after riff, great solos, great rhythmic devices, fun storytelling and good basslines too. I love how murky and eerie it is (that opening! so much atmospheric!), and the way they leave space/silence in the music. Would love to have been around when this first came out and seen the reaction/excitement. Will definitely be listening again.

It’s nice. Calm and gently happy. I can’t see myself putting it on often, but enjoyed listening to it. Makes good background music in that it developed/changes quite slowly so feels quite meditative.

Yeah I mean, it’s fun, he’s got a great voice, it’s easy listening. I’m sure it was impactful at the time and superstition is a banger, but other parts of it felt a bit like sophisticated lift music.

Nostalgia for me.

It’s a mood. Very nostalgic and can hear the musicianship but not for me. Reminds me of music my uncle liked at a particular time in his life.

I appreciate this is probably blasphemous but I am struggling to differentiate this from Meatloaf.

Such a favourite. Really nostalgic of good times and still hits today.

I really struggled with this as parts of the album are musically brilliant - real stand out tracks - some parts are fine, but then you tune into the lyrics and the way he writes about women is horrendous. Just disgusting. Apparently there used to be another track that was removed in 2018 because it was racist and homophobic.