1001 Albums Summary

It's Marvin Gaye, meaning that it is pretty much perfect. The only album of its kind that I can think of that really surpasses it is... also by Marvin Gaye (What's Going On, of course). These are the records it is hard to even really comment on because you just exist inside of it completely while it's on.

I have always been very vocal about my love of Led Zeppelin, and equally as vocal about the fact I think everything after Zeppelin IV sucks. When this came up as my next album I realized that I hadn't actually listened to it all the way through since I was in high school. I definitely think I have a better appreciation for it now, there are some songs on it I genuinely love (In My Time of Dying, Houses of Holy) and aren't overplayed like so many on these later records are (looking at you Trampled Under Foot and Kashmir. At the end of the day though, as a bass player it's difficult to dislike anything that features John Paul Jones.

The National are just one of those bands I know are not for me. They are one of my partner’s favorite bands, so I have heard a lot of them, but none of it is memorable to me. My partner’s favorite song by them, Bloodbuzz Ohio, is on this record, and I can see why. It was definitely the standout song on the album. It’s not that the rest of the album was bad, but I don’t think I could distinguish one song from the next. Like with all of the things I hear by The National, it just felt pretty blank

When I started seriously record collecting this was the first record I spent real money on, and began my collection of first-pressings. That's to say, I have heard this album many, many times lol. I did take this chance to pull out the vinyl and listen to it properly, and god it just sounds so good on the original vinyl. I don't listen to Pink Floyd often, in fact I'm pretty sure the last time I listened to this album all the way through was in 2024 when the total solar eclipse was visible in Detroit. I was working downtown at the time and I ended up leaving my building (against my manager's wishes lol) and watching the eclipse in its totality from the sidewalk with a bunch of strangers. I had been listening to this album leading up to that moment, and let Eclipse play out loud while I passed my eclipse glasses around to all the people passing by who didn't have them. The city was silent for a moment when the temperature dropped and it got dark enough for the streetlights to turn on. This re-listen definitely brought me back to that moment. The other thing I must mention of course, is Great Gig in the Sky. The song that made me want to be a vocalist, and pushed me towards the style of music I ended up being trained in. Everyone who knows this album should know Clare Torry's name. She was only 25 when she was paid 30£ to sing about death without using words, and she never really got the recognition for how iconic those vocals became.