1001 Albums Summary

Rock solid through 9 songs, then weakens. Not just a singles album but an incredible work of embodied sincerity, top tier production, and vocal performance that innovates through today. We need an artists like Alanis today. What we have are self-aware, meta, and irony layered confessionals that arent

An album that is still underappreciated for its complexity and sophistication. Of particular interest is the drum machine tinkering in which Prince tuned drums low enough to make them harmonic. Trent Rezno4 ane David Bowie have both acknowledged the influence and brilliance of the album.

The highs on the album are exceptionally high, with Perfect Day being the peak. It is the most painful, ironic, poisoned song mistaken for a loving ode ever put to tape. It also highlights the best of Ronson and Bowie's contributions. After all, more than Reed, this is a super group album in which the arranging of the trio matters more than the compositions themselves. Imagine Vicious without that Ronson guitar scratch, imagine PD without the strings, imagine Walk on the Wild Side without the double bass and chorus. When the trio clicks they create a mesmerizing and insightful landscape of theatrics that would go on to influence music forever. Im convinced that we can witness a Dylan-Reed-Dylan pipeline. Listen to Hangin Round and then Tangled Up In Blue. The person-to-person episodic structure that Dylan takes in Tangled was likely inspired by Reeds Street life stories just the same way that Reeds storytelling was given permission by earlier Dylan. Compare the two songs structurally and you will see what I mean. Dylan admitted to loving Reed in '87 and buying all his albums. The last 4 tracks are the weakest, despite the ironic humor of Im So Free which shows Reeds inherent conservative disposition- He may have participated in the counter-culture but he was never blinded by it. The back portion of the album also show the weakness of the trios tendency towards theatricality. Make Up didnt need the tuba. It would have been a standout track with Reeds voice alone and the tuba takes the already campy, boundary phasing writing of Reed and makes it grotesquery. Like having two voices sing; one tonally aware and the other deaf. Wagon Wheel never gets past being a mean spirited joke about beating a girl up. And New York Telephone Conversation may as well be a bad Broadway interlude. But overall the album is a must listen and the tracks that work will change and sharpen your perception. The ones that dont will still make you smirk.

Conceptually strong but the execution is lacking.

Im no longer the 13 yo kid who swallowed the politics of RATM wholesale. I am the 40 yo who hears Tom Morello's playing, Tim Commerford's bass runs, Wilk's funky drumming, and Zach's phenom phrasing and thinks "Holy shit, the politics actually distract from how astonishing, heavy, innovative and wildly compelling the music still is." Aside from that, even as an older, cynical, politically displaced elder, the anti-state impact of the politick remains.

Potentially the most underrated album of all time

Dion has written some of the greatest singles in Rock history. He hasnt crafted timeless albums. Here is no different. This is one of those albums where you go "Oh, that dude is absolutely the most talented industry songwriter in this crowded room" without following it up with "Man his album changed my life".

The poppiest of pop albums posing as metal. I used to think this was the hardest shit in existence, now I realize how much of a corporate construct this is. Production is polished and clean. Sure everything is drop tuned, but it is really clean sounding. Life is Peachy is their best album, followed by the debut. The urgency in sound and lyrics is there. The difference is in Ross Robinsons legendary production Freak on a Leash is the standout track while the rest are largely forgettable, except for All In the Family, which is so gauche it is grotesquely engaging. Tracks like B.B.K. display the weakness of the album: you have two innovative standout guitarists who have their mix turned low and buried in right headphone while a synthie noise is brought to front in left speaker. You have a jazz level drummer who went off on Peachy forced to contain himself while being minimized. You have lyrics that seem unmotivated and pop cultivated. The experience is a massive step backwards even as sales surged forwards

Solid air is the standout lyrical track as it conceptually captures Nick Drakes state of mine and difference among us. Clever, but Martyn never progresses. Musically, the most interesting track is "Id Rather Be the Devil", but I think it and all the tracks are held back by Martyns seemingly performative vocalizations. The jazz infusion gets an affectation that, for reasons I cant quite figure out, turn me off. The album catches a groovy dude...yes I said that....in a troubled time. And its interesting, but interesting isnt insightful and ive apparently read too much Bloom to enjoy anything but the sublime at this point. The album never crosses over from "unforgettable".

An argument could be made for a lesser score on the basis of Pras and the fact that the Fugees never fully commit to a posture- are they criminals? Criminal-adjacent hoteps? Rastas? Are they chillin' or schemin'? Additionally, their is enough fat on the album that, had they anticipated the aftermath, they likely would have tightened it up a touch. That said, you are gonna be hard pressed to find an album that hits its vibe more cleanly, bobs your head more, and makes you wish that Lauryn hadn't been so integral as to quit the industry, because she shines here in ways that are hard to comprehend and have never been emulated and, like Ruth being backed by Mantle, Wyclef shows why his solo career soared as he comes on with cleverness and persona, The Beast aside. We all know the standout tracks, but the lesser ones still bump and the whole album is coherent enough to almost feel like there were discussions of a concept album that were forgotten by the fifth blunt. Still, this is Lauryn Hills show. We are here for her, but while we wait Wycleff hits some bangers over the fence line himself. And maybe, just maybe, as I age its his rendition of No Woman, No Cry that stands out the most to me. Where she gives the album heft, he gives it an emotional buoyancy that makes it perpetually hopeful. Singing about murder? Wyclef makes it hopeful. Singing about heartbreak? Wyclef makes it hopeful. Singing about political corruption? Wyclef makes it hopeful. That is a genuine gift that was taken for granted because Lauryn Hill is the definition of gift enbodied, and as such overshadows everything. Absolutely a classic.

I could write an essay on the "problematic" (hate that fucking word) nature of the Gorillaz and how they were basically Damon Albarns way of making fun of the very population consuming it but I have shit to do so ill just say that this is the best elevator muzac ive ever heard and leave it at that.

Arguably the most remarkable feat of sound engineering in popular music history. Don't let familiarity rob you of experiencing this album as anything less than the masterpiece it is.

Will undoubtedly be on of the most complete, compelling, comprehensively tremendous albums I will hear on this journey. Radiohead, from Ok Computer onward, have been so far ahead of everyone else, they make conversation about them near impossible since they are not only in a different league than all other artists, but are not even playing the same sport. They make studio albums. That is what they do. They create sonic fields that overwhelm with beauty while thematically capturing the alienation we all feel, but Thom Yorke expresses intensely and endlessly. What the greatest artist, some of whom Radiohead obsessed over- like R.E.M. and the Pixies, do is make the pain of existing beautiful. In doing so, they actually achieve nothing short of making life worth living. The first 5 tracks capture a neurotic interiority that still retains the beauty of living through the sonic field that surrounds them. Track 6 Faust Arp is frustrating in its basicness until you hear track 7 and realize the album has shifted thematically with Reckoner being the most beautiful, celebration of life through death in popular music history. Reckoner is the moment Thom Yorke matured and we all witnessed it. Play that song today, play it at my funeral, then play it again. Im sure God has it spinning when your soul crosses over.

I'm not a fan of John Martyn's singing. It sounds far more like he's oozing than singing. Take that for what you will. That said, here his oozing works over layered tracks of jazz and funk infused singer-songwriter stylings that are musically interesting and occasionally compelling, but what stands out as exceptional are the lyrics they support. Martyn was an intensely gifted lyricist who seems to have not fully developed but would discover ways to express a theme, idea, stage of life or feeling in a single phrase that would cause intense identification with the listener. Given my own experience with his inconsistency as a songwriter, I can understand his frustration with listeners like me on "Dealer".

Given the nature of the project- 1001 albums YOU MUST HEAR BEFORE YOUR VERY DEMISE, I was certain I would not be using the "1" rating at all. After all, what kind of psycho would use that little time we have forcing us to hear shitty albums...well, I guess whatever Brit obsessed writer of the book that inspired this website. Hope to God this is the worst album I hear from here.

I'm overlooking serious problems I have with the 2009 master on Qobuz and judging the work itself. It is an album very close to falling apart in its looseness. Which is what makes it great. It sounds like someone brilliant wrote a solid song, shared it with the band, and were recorded on their 4th run through of it. Yet somehow it not only works, but is landmark in Rock and Roll history.

Interesting production with limited flow sets and lyrics on the weaker side. Judging from this album alone, Little Simz gets more accolades than she deserves.

"Lay Down Your Soul To The Gods Rock N' Roll!"

Elvis wasn't a fucking racist. That is a bullshit urban legend that was further popularized by Public Enemy. As for the album itself.. Flava Flav is the most interesting thing here as the proto-ODB. Chuck D shines on "Welcome To The Terror Dome", but overall his flow is repetitive, lyrics are just ok and political topics are predictable without offering any real insight. The music here is a real step down from "It Takes A Nation of Millions". If im gonna listen to Rap from 1988, I will be more tempted to throw on "Long Live the Kane" or "The Great Adventures of Slick Rick" but overall, I think it was a few years away from being a genre to obsess over.