1001 Albums Summary

Absolute banger. I bounced so hard this morning, I spilt my Earl Grey.

Yes please, this is exactly the kind of chilled and sunny, quirky and funny, 90s indie pop that ensures my boat is comprehensively floated.

Cheer up Boy George, your album is a glorious slice of 80s pop and soul!

Fun fact: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is also 39 minutes long.

Yep, pretty good. It’s no 3 Feet High and Rising but it’s got some great samples, bass, and rhymes. I played it twice and enjoyed it even more the second time.

Oops, I spilt my Earl Grey again, dammit.

I’ve never been a fan of Radiohead’s moody navel-gazing sound, but this album was way more upbeat and enjoyable than I expected.

Blinking flip. I was shredding my air guitar, screaming into the void (aka my garden) and giving some full Este Haim bass face for pretty much the entire album. Honestly, it terrified the sparrows and my Earl Grey didn’t stand a chance.

Ah yes, that slightly psychedelic, slightly woozy, cookie-cutter Madchester sound from the mid-90s. I have fond memories of being completely underwhelmed by this the first time round.

I really liked the shouty bits.

Well this is the 50s Cuban rumba I didn’t know I needed. It occasionally threatens to dip into free jazz, but then sees sense and settles back into hot and sweaty hypnotic rhythms.

Way more accessible than I expected it to be, but I’m not sure I have the angst needed to really appreciate Radiohead’s more mournful sounds.

I had forgotten how unique Lloyd Cole’s voice was. Good in small doses, a whole album is something of a challenge.

Yep, good solid toe-tapping Indie rock. An extra star for the Terry Wogan line.

Well, it got so that every piss-ant prairie punk who thought he could shoot a gun would ride into town to try out the Waco Kid. I must have killed more men than Cecil B. DeMille. It got pretty gritty. I started to hear the word "draw" in my sleep. Then one day, I was just walking down the street when I heard a voice behind me say, "Reach for it, mister!" I spun around... and there I was, face to face with a six-year old kid. Well, I just threw my guns down and walked away. Little bastard shot me in the ass. So I limped to the nearest saloon, crawled inside a whiskey bottle... and I've been there ever since.

Superficially bright and breezy, subtly psychedelic, and occasionally sad and sombre, this is an absolutely spangly banger of mid 1960s west coast pop.

Well, it was a game of two halves, Brian. The lads were a bit all over the place in the first half, they had lots of great ideas but they didn’t all work, even though it was a non-stop and energetic performance. Anyway, the boss must have given them a right bollocking in the changing room because they came out focused and fighting in the second half and were properly back on form. At the end of the day Brian, I think they can be proud of their performance, especially from the three big lads up front, they put in a great shift and gave it 110%. Let’s see if they can repeat this form in the semis on a rainy night in Stoke.

The soporific virtues of Hollywood sadcore. If you like this sort of thing then this is exactly the sort of thing you’ll like.

Not entirely my thing, but there are a few nuggets I really like.

Yeah, pretty good. A few bangers in amongst the otherwise solid tracks. Not an album I’ll choose to listen to in full, but the hits are in my favourites playlist.

Wowsers, where did that come from? Ashamed to say I’d never heard of Songhoy Blues. This album is terrific, full of foot stompers and mellow tunes, and an instant addition to my library.

A pretty darn tasty techno filling sandwiched between two fairly indigestible and incredibly annoying tracks. Yum yum, yes please.

It’s… fine? To be honest, I didn’t really pay attention on the first play which perhaps says something about its impact? I forced myself to listen the second time round but it still resisted, wanting to be more background sound than a proper in-your-face in-your-ears album.