1001 Albums Summary

Hurt is an incredible song. The rest is Johnny Cash butchering songs after songs. In my Life is the worst offender. He couldn't even make a good Marty Robbins song.

This could be good, I like James Brown's music. But the live aspect of the album makes it unbearable to listen to. Can people shut the fuck up and enjoy the music?

What if the Beatles had no energy, no creativity, no personality, no soul

This isn't usually my jam, but I have to admit that the poetry here is marvelous, and it's surprisingly musical, taking inspiration from soul, funk, RnB, etc. Refreshing.

Some good songs, but overall the singer is annoying, and the music is not very creative.

Good sound, some great tunes, but half of it is a bit half baked

Pretty good, although the fake Jamaican accent is distracting in a few songs. And there's only one really great song (Message in a bottle)

Very good album, but I prefer folk Dylan.

Very good, and the 2013 edition is even better

This is listenable, but I did not need to listen to this before I die. Can we all agree Dylan peaked in 1965?

Welp, that was weird. I understand the hate. I understand the love. I'm in-between. It's at least interesting, but yeah, it can be rough to listen to, and there are genuine stinkers here... but also moments of genius. I'll remember this album if I ever make an indie movie about teen love, depression and drugs.

I usually don't like rap, and this album is the epitome of why I don't. There's no denying that Biggie has talent, but he wastes it on gross, sexist, immature lyrics, the kind of which I would have written at 14 years old and be eternally embarrassed by. There ARE some genuinely good songs here and there, like Juicy, but even that one lacks self-awareness on a very deep level. Becoming rich and famous isn't the gotcha to his teachers he seems to think it is. Bro, you write songs about your penis, sit the fuck down, that's not success, that's being a cringelord.

This is the kind of music they make inmates listen to at Guantanamo.

Still better than T. Rex.

Some tracks are bangers, but most of them could be used as Chinese torture.

Synthpop is such an easy genre to enjoy. It's like eating candy. It's sweet and colorful, and it makes you want to dance and do cartwheels, and you know it has no nutritive value but it doesn't matter. So, anyway, that was pretty good.

I'm not a big fan of Santana's Latin fusion, but the guitar play is immaculate, and the album shows it off with a high focus on instrumental pieces, although they're a bit too bluesy for my liking. It works best, I think, as background music in a restaurant, unfortunately, but it's still pretty nice.

There's nothing revolutionary here, but it's pretty solid throughout. Racists make good music, what can I say.

Billie's life was one of excess, and it shows in this album, released only a year before her death. She was considered the greatest singer of her times, but here you can hear the damage of her smoking, drinking and drug abuse. It's a shame, because the music is still beautiful, and there's real deep emotion in her songs, and one can only imagine how much more powerful she could have been without her declining health. She's still considered one of the greatest singers of all times for a reason, she really has a way to soothe your soul, even if she doesn't come close to the likes of Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald or Doris Day. The songs are all kind of samey though. A perfect album to put as background music for a dinner, or even while studying but is it something I would listen to just for the sake of it? No.

Louis Prima deserves his title of King of Swing. This is the closest we can get to having Louis Armstrong on this list (probably the weirdest omission), having been heavily influenced by Armstrong. The album is full of charm, energy and wit.

Duke Ellington might be the god of jazz, but this live album doesn't do him justice. He tried his best to mix the recording with a studio one, to better reflect the scope of the music, but the result is a hot mess of poor quality audio with ersatz of a screaming public that was tapered down but is still audible throughout in a ghost-like fashion. The last song is the biggest victim of all of that. A shame, really, because this is otherwise a stellar performance, and for once with 50s albums, those are Ellington's own magnificent compositions.

Hendrix knows how to sing, with his vocal chords as much as with his guitar. Unfortunately, the audio recording/mixing is quite bad at times, and it becomes distracting when you're wearing headphones. Couldn't they just test the sound quality with their 1968 AirPods or something??? Smh

What a powerful album, filled with mesmerizing tracks, with rich introspective lyrics, sung by this haunting yet melodic voice. I didn't know Sinéad, but I will certainly listen to more of her music.

As salsa music, this is probably as good as it gets, but it's still salsa. Perfect for a dinner in Cuba and sipping a daiquiri, but not the kind of music I usually put in my ears.

Listening to this album is like listening to a compilation of Hoochie Coochie Man inferior rip-offs. It gets stale pretty quick.

The bad thing with this album is that it sounds like 60s Brit Rock music. The good thing with this album is that it sounds like 60s Brit Rock music.

Apart from the annoying Clap, all the songs here are fun to listen to. However, they're a bit meandering and slow paced. I now understand what people mean when they talk about noodling.

The music is pretty good, Morrissey seems to know his way around instrumentation. But the guy also writes songs like a 14 year-old 4chan user, and it's all a bit cringe. So much so that it becomes funny at times, and a part of me believes it's all parodic, but I know it isn't, and the guy really believes that he's some kind of rebel martyr that nobody understands. Still pretty enjoyable music, unfortunately. I wish I could hate it. Shout out to that bit about Americans being "big fat pigs" with their "hamburgers". Truly poetic.

Finally some good fucking music. I've seen people spit on this because of how it departs from the bluesy roots of the band, but thank God, because the 125 bpm here is what makes this so enthralling. And yeah, the lyrics are, huh... questionable. But it's so over-the-top and childish, it's hard to take any of it seriously. And the music is so loud anyway, you can't even understand what's being said, so who gives a flying fuck really, I'm just GROOVING.

The album starts strong. The melodies are good, the sounds are pleasing, and it reminded me of video game music a lot, like Fez and Baba is You. But then you hit the Trans-Europa Express. And oh boy. At first it's quite nice. A bit repetitive, but the beat is good, and it doesn't really matter because there are other songs on the album, right? But it keeps going. The next track is just a continuation of the previous one, minus the lyrics and with industrial percussions added. And then it keeps going on, with the same repeated lyrics, and it goes on and on and on, the whole thing can't seem to shut the fuck up for almost 14 whole-ass minutes. It's not even bad. But even ice cream makes you puke if you eat too much. At the end I wanted to drill a hole in my brain.

If I had to name my favorite types of music in the world, 70s hard rock would be number one. So of course I love this shit. Deeply. Purply.

Pretty nice album. The songs here are all pleasant, but it never gets better than Heart of Gold. Old Man comes close though. The use of orchestras at times is welcome, it makes for powerful songs.

Instrumentation-wise, this is pretty nice. But then the singer opens his mouth. It's not that he's bad, it's that he sounds bored out of his mind. On half the tracks here, the guy moans more than he sings (Radio Cure is particularly egregious in that aspect). There's also the fact that there's this amateurish quality to some of the songs, à la anti-folk, but with none of the charm and wit of someone like Kimya Dawson. Despite all this, the music is mostly pleasing and an easy listen, and it makes an interesting use of radio noises without sounding irritating, which I'm sure is hard to do.

I'm a bit unfamiliar with Radiohead, but I should correct that mistake, because that album was lit. Not only is the music of high quality, but the lyrics also had a depth I wasn't expecting. It was a soothing, and often hypnotizing experience.

What a surprisingly fun album! I had never heard of trip-hop before, and I'm happy to discover a whole new genre I like. Everything here is great. The music is funky, the voices have diverse range, the lyrics are well written, and overall the album has a good variety of styles without ever sounding like a mess. I will absolutely revisit this album.

That was quite good, but a bit uneven, and sometimes even messy in its execution. I think one key aspect that keeps this record from achieving true greatness is how the creativity of the music is at odds with the very tame, pop songwriting and vocals.

The 90s and early-2000s were such a bore, musically, and this album cements that assertion. It's not bad, it's even good. But it does nothing unique, nothing special, nothing remarkable. Even the big hit Song 2, while iconic and recognizable, is such a tame song, the kind of which you put as background music for an establishment shot in a movie about entering college. Everything good this album does is done better by other bands, before and after them.

Let me tell you a story. The year is 2011. I'm 19, and I'm just beginning my adult life. I've just started to rent this microscopic apartment across my college, and I'm finally free from the ire of a dysfunctional family, finally independant. It's hard, when you realize you have to buy your own toilet paper, and you make dumb decisions, like using your rent money to buy video games like a complete moron. But that's what being an adult is all about : fuck around and find out. And one thing I hadn't fucked around with enough in my teenage years was music. I was a nerd, I only listened to video game music, but I wanted to change that. I discovered the Beatles and Beethoven through happenstance (stole the CDs of my mother's ex), but now I wanted to actually choose what I would listen to. So I searched music from groups I had vaguely heard of, like the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, the Who, etc. That's when I stumbled upon Stairway to Heaven. I know, it's a cliché to love that song, everybody does. But I knew, after only a few notes, that this would rock my world. And it did. I still don't really understand the lyrics of that song, and I've never searched it up. It doesn't matter. The poetry hits me. The melancholic voice brings shivers to my spine. The instruments, the passionate way they're played, the eery sounds they make, they floor me every time. I'm not a music specialist, I can't tell you why this song is phenomenal, I can't analyze it, I know nothing about the theory. It doesn't matter. Stairway to Heaven creeps into my very soul. But of course, this isn't a review for Stairway to Heaven. After listening to that song, I took an interest for Led Zeppelin, and I downloaded all of their albums (not very legally, if you must ask), and I listened to everything. Of course I didn't love all of their songs. Some I found boring (the bluesy ones), some I enjoyed but didn't find special, but I also discovered plenty of songs that, while not as immaculate as Stairway, were very close. And by pure coincidence, 6 of my favorite Led Zep songs are on this album. Or maybe not coincidence : they knew what they were doing. You got everything here. The heavy, energizing Black Dog; the pure rock song aptly named Rock and Roll that's reminiscent of Chuck Berry and Little Richard; the beautifully epic Battle of Evermore with its heavy Tolkien references; the weird, funny, stoner story of Misty Mountain Hop; the powerful, soothing folk song Going to California; the mesmerizing, gut-wrenching When the Levee Breaks... And fuck it, even Four Sticks is pretty great. This album is truly fucking insane, and no other album on the planet is as density packed with amazing songs.

I've seen quite a few people compare this album to the music of the Beatles or the Beach Boys, and yeah, the influence is hard to miss, but that's still a bit reductive. I think one key aspect in which the Young Rascals differentiate themselves here is the jazz and soul influences reminiscent of the Motown label. It can be heard through the constant use of wind instruments for instance. There's still nothing revolutionary here, I guess, but this was still a very pleasant musical discovery.

"One" is a phenomenal piece of music; it has depth, it's meaningful, emotionally charged, and it completely justifies its length. The same cannot be said of the rest of the album. The songs do indeed sound samey, but that's not the real issue : it's the structure and composition of those songs, which are frankly lacking. The sound is good, I love the guitar play, I love the voice, I love the drums, I should love this album, but I don't because the songs go absolutely no-where, they just happen. It's loud just to be loud, there's no real emotion, it has no sense of purpose. There are quite a few songs that I love from Metallica, but they're sadly on other — I assume, better —, albums. I can't believe I'm saying this about a thrash metal album, but this was quite boring lol

I'm sure there's some universe out there where Red Hot Chili Peppers is actually fun to listen to, but in our reality, this album is bloated with the blandest margarine-tasting FM rock ever produced. Even the hits all sound the same. The song "Californication" is nice to listen to once in a while, but a whole album of "Californication" wannabes is too much. Some songs try to be different, like the ones incorporating rap elements, and some even manage to be fun and groovy, but the annoying whiny-ass voice ruins it all. The very last song, with its folk roots, is actually the nicest of the bunch. Can't even say this album is bad, it's just the epitome of mid.

The good news is that this is the last album from RHCP I'll ever be forced to listen to, since I got Californication fucking yesterday. The bad news is that this is mostly shit. Music made by edgelord wannabes who really wanted to tell the world the very topical message that the KKK's philosophy is bad. In 1991. How daring. This shit is so white the melanin of my tanned skin left me. At LEAST the album has energy, which Californication lacked, but I wish that energy was used on doing something more intelligent and bearable.

This might not reach the heights of the Clash, but it's pretty damn close. The music was great throughout. It was fun, clever, energetic, I have nothing negative to say about this one.

It's hard to believe this was produced in 1978 with how much it sounds like an encapsulation of the sound of the 80s. This is not the best listen of my life, but I feel like this album achieves everything Devo went out of their way to do. It's weird, funny, colorful, never boring. I knew them from "Whip It", but I have to admit that that song feels incredibly safe and commercial compared to what's on this album.

I had a friend in high school who was a fan of Frank Zappa. He made me listen once and it probably was too weird for my smooth teen brain, because I spent the rest of my adolescence mocking that friend for liking Zappa. Boy, was I a stupid asshole. This is honestly pretty good. I love purely instrumental music. But I also like my music a bit more melodic. The artistry is in full display here, but the deconstruction can be borderline cacophonic, especially in the last two songs.

Madonna didn't steal her title of Queen of Pop. While I prefer Cyndi Lauper in that aspect, Madonna's songs are always a bop. This album is also pretty diverse in terms of musical styles and influences. Everybody knows "Like a Prayer" and "Express Yourself", they're quintessential pop songs, but there's also "Love Song" with Prince and its funk elements, or "Till Death do us Part", a brave song for a pop album (who would have thunk that you could make such a banger out of domestic violence???). "Promise to Try", "Oh Father" and "Spanish Eyes" are also very beautiful, powerful songs that are more soul than pop. But I have to say my favorite of the bunch has to be "Dear Jessie". I just love the child-like wonder of the lyrics and instrumentation, it feels like being transported into a dream where everything is easier. Love it. Might not be the most "Madonna" song out there, it's a bit jarring coming from the woman who sang "Material Girl" and "Like a Virgin", but it's still fantastic. All around, this album is great. Of course it's still pop, it's not going to shatter anybody's world, but for what it tries to achieve, it's pretty much perfect.

Everybody knows the Bee Gees through the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. They've made one of the most popular song ever composed, so much so that "Stayin' Alive" is the number one song used by first responders to do CPR. So I was pretty excited to hear some of their other works. Was I surprised when I discovered that they haven't always been making disco. It's a mess though. There's no real unity, despite the album being advertised as a concept album. What's the concept? Heterogeneity? The first song is pretty unique, but then it devolves into your usual run-of-the-mill britpop, then there are those folk/country songs, and then those symphonies at the end. It stops sounding diverse and starts sounding random. But ultimately, there's enough charm here to make this album enjoyable, and the last side, with its fully orchestral tracks, is fantastic.

I have a master's degree in literature, so surely I should like this? I don't. Boy was that painful. The lyrics are dumb and often sexist, and they're written with the most bland and boring rhymes known to man, sung with the energy of a house plant. Some songs have soul elements, and they're almost good, but there's too much dogshit on this album for it to matter. I did the math.

So apparently this guy is a piece of shit. Unfortunately for my moral high-ground, he also makes genuinely good music. It's like Bob Dylan if Bob Dylan didn't have the voice of a duck being strangled.

My first contact with Dolly was through the Netflix movie Dumpling in 2018, where her music was prominently featured. I remember doing a bit of research back then and thinking "wow, she's a gem". Basically, the people who made the film really wanted to use her songs, but didn't have the budget to get the rights, so they just asked, and Dolly's reaction was like "Sure! Oh and do you want me to make you an original song for free while we're at it??" Later, I came across her foundation Imagination Library, which provides free books to kids, thanks to partnerships with various bookstores. A registered child receives a book each month until they're 5. That's 60 books for free. No need to disclose your revenue. That's insane. And all that just because Dolly was legitimately concerned about literacy among kids. She died yesterday. Our very dark times are now even darker, having lost one of the few light source it still had. As for her music, it's great. I'm not a big country fan, but her songs are always joyful, and she has a beautiful voice. Of course, she's not the only singer on this collaborative album, but the other two are also great. Rest in peace Dolly.

I had never heard of this group before, but somehow I knew at least two songs, particularly the first one, which has been featured most recently in the Minecraft movie trailer. Anyway, this album was pretty good.

Musically, country can be quite boring, but this album isn't, thanks to stellar songwriting, and a great voice.

The only reason this is somewhat bearable is, paradoxically, the total lack of talent. Because there is not even a glimpse of good music in there, you can't be too annoyed by the wasted potential, and you never ponder what could have been. It's like going to an exposition dedicated to paintings made of poop; it's shit, but what did you expect?

This is some of the cringiest songwriting I've ever witnessed. I'm sorry, but if you're a white American guy and you call yourself a martyr, I can't really take you seriously, can I? It's not terrible music, but it is edgelord music. Childish, inoffensive faux-dark edgelord music, the kind of which Shadow the Hedgehog could only dream of making. I don't have enough misplaced anger and teen angst to really enjoy this.

I know the Smashing Pumpkins for one song, "1979", which I like, but I'm also not a big grunge fan, including Nirvana. To me, it all sounds very "teenagery", immature, garage-rock-sounding, like a lot of 90s music. Probably the point, but still. However, the music here doesn't annoy me like other bands do. There's a weird bland of hard-hitting distorted grunge erupting with energy, and softer ballads that are at times beautiful, and other times schmaltzy. This would all be fine if the album had the decency to shut the fuck up after an hour. Instead, it's this bloated, over-long double (triple??) LP. And look, there are incredibly good double albums out there. London Calling and Songs in the Key of Life come to mind. But this is not it. There are some great songs, but they're drowning in an ocean of fine songs. Overall, this was boring, not gonna lie.

Well, it didn't start on a strong note. The titular song is incredibly dumb and outdated. I'm all for legalization by the way. I'm unfamiliar with Jamaica's history with cannabis, but in the US, criminalization of weed has been used to imprison black people on a massive scale. And if that first song was about that, instead of trying to convince you that weed is somehow a remedy for the flu, tuberculosis and asthma (????????), it would probably be fine. I eat like a pig, but you won't find me telling people that eating a whole box of Oreos is good for your stomach. "Don't criticize it", really? Like, "Legalize it" is a political statement, but then the song is devoid of any political arguments. In that aspect, "Watcha Gonna Do", which is about the injustice of incarceration, is infinitely better. At least two songs are also pretty misogynistic, which is a bummer. Despite all this, I enjoyed this album, at the very least on the purely musical level. It does exactly what reggae is supposed to : it soothes, calms the mind. I completely understand the appeal.

Banger after banger after banger, especially the instrumental tracks. Not that the singing is bad, but the best parts of the album are the sounds, and the singing gets in the way at times. Although "Enjoy the Silence" is also phenomenal.

It's not bad, but it sounds like David Bowie ordered on Temu. The unmelodic one-note singing is particularly annoying. Drink your coffee before recording bro!!!

I've been wanting to delve into R.E.M.'s music for a while now. Everything I've heard from them to this day has been great, and this album confirms it. There are a few songs here that I knew and already loved ("Everybody Hurts", "Man of the Moon"...) Beautiful voice, sorrowful music, stellar songwriting, what more do you need?

I know ELO for only one song, "Mr Blue Sky", which gained new popularity thanks to Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2. I've been wanting to discover their music since then. Sides 1 and 2 are pretty great. They're fun, joyful, often beautiful and eclectic. But the album really reaches its heights with side 3 and the Concerto for a Rainy Day, which is kind of its own concept album within the album. Side 4 then hits you with the hypnotic sci-fi sounding "Whale". Great shit throughout.

Well, this is awkward. I'm supposed to hate live albums AND blues album. But this is actually good?? First of, the audience shuts its collective mouth. You hear them between songs, of course, and there are a few whistles here and there, but that's it, and it never detracts from the music. And the recording is of high quality, there's barely any echo. You easily forget it's live. As for the blues, well, it's blues-rock, so it MOVES. Apart from the slow-ass third track, which bored me, the rest is very energetic. And the improv aspect means you never know where the song is going, but it also doesn't feel meandering, it's going somewhere. And boy, is it a journey, especially starting with the fourth track, "You don't love me". What a spectacular demonstration of sheer talent. "Hot 'Lanta" is also pretty phenomenal. All around, this was surprisingly fun. Some of the best guitar play I've ever heard. I can't imagine how incredible seeing those guys live must have been.

ABBA gets a bad wrap in some high-brow music circle. They're treated as this demonic entity whose only accomplishment is to have paved the way for punk, as a protest against pop and commercial music. But listen, nobody is saying ABBA is Beethoven or something. It's just insanely fun to listen to. And sometimes, that's enough.