So good - he's very unique in the folk world where he can be unsentimental (no like flowers and sunshine bullshit) and also mostly concrete (no bob dylan mysticism bullshit). Every verse is like a nice contained story with some logic between lines it's not just a bunch of stuff that sounds good. Do I always know what he's talking about? No basically never. But by like the 10th time I listen to a song I'm like "ooooh he's saying he's sad". Stranger song and one of us cannot be wrong are just so good. He's really at his best when he's incredibly bitter and we get a taste of that but not quite enough - the 60s could tolerate only so much hate he could really only soar post-Manson.
The music is obviously not why youre here for but it's pretty good? Like fits the vibe of the lyrics. No drums but he gets so much rhythm and energy from the guitar. The recording quality is pretty rough - feels like they recorded the parts one at a time onto the same tape or something? Like very copy of a copy of a VHS tape feeling. Awesome that it ends with him randomly moaning in a way that sounds like he's in the next room.
It's a great Dust Brothers album and an ok Beastie Boys album. Their vocals are mixed so low you can barely tell anything they're saying - it's pretty fun when you can though? I think the Beastie Boys are fundamentally very silly and this album is very cool which kinda means you lose some silliness. Like you could actually put a lot of these tracks on as background in a bar or something and it wouldn't be that distracting, but there are a lot of other artists better suited to be played in the background at a bar. Shake your rump is truly great though super energetic and chaotic and disjointed I wish the whole album was more like that. Production is really great throughout though 5 stars for them.
Wanted to be a hater but unfortunately it’s very good. Great energy - so much work being done by the percussion and organ but Santana is also good at guitar I guess. Vocals were ok - I think they would blend really well with a Rob Thomas type.
Why is it that the Eagles suck? It all sounds good and the songs are pretty solid. Like if they weren’t the Eagles and they were just a country band I might like them. And yet.
Take it Easy is so so good. Earlybird’s birdsong opening is so grating I almost quit the album. The rest did not penetrate my memory.
Another Neil Young album where he's a sloppy rocker but never changes the way the guitar sounds or exactly hits the right notes. Maybe I just don't like live albums. I like Neil Young I promise! They should just cut all the songs that aren't My My Hey Hey and I would love it.
On first listen I thought this was a really witty band and all the jokes went over my head and then I realized they were Australian not British and suddenly they didn't seem so smart anymore. What does that say about me?
Super fun and catchy - he's got such a good voice and their harmonies are really simple but really good. It feels very much like it's ripping off Squeeze and Elvis Costello but I don't mind it. The production is super dated of course but kinda fun. I get the feeling that this was seen as disposable trash when it came out, but it's pretty fun trash.
I think it's beautiful that Boy George looks exactly like Emily Blunt.
Other than that I hated the album. This is one of the worst times for pop music they're using synths that are supposed to stand in for real instruments but they're still early so it's kinda uncanny valley, and everything is so reverbed out I hate it. No effort put into the lyrics either the chorus of "It's a Miracle" is "It's a Miracle / It's a Miracle / It's a Miracle / It's a Miracle / It's a Miracle / It's a Miracle / And dreams are made of emotion".
Some fun polyrhythms though and Karma Chameleon is so so good - 2 stars for the Chameleon.
I love the aesthetic and particularly the name Handsome Dick Manitoba. Can def see how The Ramones + Beastie Boys got their whole thing from these guys. They also sound a lot like the New York Dolls - may have ripped them off a little bit. It's a little less interesting than the Ramones though and a little less funny than the Beastie Boys and less energetic than the New York Dolls, so idk if I need to listen to it again. Thank you Handsome Dick Manitoba for being so handsome though.
I can't believe there's a Verve album on this list that doesn't even have bittersweet symphony. It was ok - kinda like The Bends backing with Oasis vocals? But not as interesting as radiohead or as catchy as oasis. Got a little bit of the fun string arrangements in History so I'm glad they stuck with that.
Classic - probably the best Nirvana album. Fun high energy songs like serve the servants and then Beatles-y strings on all apologies. Feels like the dark exciting image Nirvana always had even though Nevermind sounds kinda soft and silly today. Def an improvement on the really sludgy Pearl Jam grunge too - it’s pretty structured and focused mostly.
What if Talking Heads was no fun and their singer sounded like he had a ponytail?
That said - I love it. When they stop being so cold and abstract and have some fun electric guitar it’s pretty great.
I wish I wasn’t rooting against the dirty projectors on principle for being annoying.
The singles are so so good - like some of the best pure pop music. And the album tracks are such lazy filler bullshit I think he improvised the lyrics or something.
Cry Me A River is so weirdly complex and operatic for a boy band song and it’s so good it’s like prog rock. And Seniorita is great - very funny that the album starts with The Neptunes talking for like a minute and then Justin asking “should I start now?” it’s really just their album. And of course Timbaland is there doing whatever he does and it’s also great.
Obviously can’t give JT 5 stars so I’m giving him 3 which is a 5 star album for JT.
It's so interesting how Neil Young can make such beautiful music and also just awful unlistenable noise. I am not really sure if he knows which one he's doing at a given time.
Probably the worst Neil Young album I've ever listened to but it's sweet that he likes his friend and there are like 2 very good songs.
I own this on vinyl and have never listened to it so that’s a pretty good review right there.
It’s definitely very good - super catchy and great lyrics. But it’s a little caught between the super pretentious Simon and Garfunkel era and the cynical Graceland era and kinda winds up feeling like weak tea. Like wow these lyrics are so descriptive and the production is so catchy but also you’re not trying to say anything and it kinda feels like it should be on in the background at a Starbucks.
I think I hate her voice and that ruined the album for me. I do love the late 90s British dance vibe but I usually like it because it’s energetic and original and this was so dreary and felt like it was ripping off the original stuff. Really made me want to listen to like Portishead or Sade because this was ripping off both and I have never in my life wanted to listen to portishead and Sade combined into an album that’s neither fun nor beautiful. Kinda cool how minimal it was tho it did kinda have a unique feeling I just hated that feeling.
I believe this album was my profile pic on MySpace in 8th grade. I don’t particularly care for it today? I guess it’s a step between like long bloated suites and the pop songs they started doing on The Wall. But it’s kinda caught in the middle. I mostly enjoyed crazy diamond this time around though it’s so much shorter and more structured than I’d remembered. Also really responding to the guitar solos I feel like in the past I basically thought of Pink Floyd as like clock sounds and wooshes but they’re also a rock band. Excited for all their other better albums.
Really good - I thought these guys were like annoying indie pop for some reason but they’re very minimal and intense. I don’t know if I will listen to it very often because almost none of the songs were catchy but Staring at the Sun is great.
Pretty fun punk album? Singer was great. Whole band is VERY sex pistols like they're stealing so much directly from them. But adding sax was really good and new. Very cool to have a punk band who's specifically anti-hygiene. Prob would not listen again though.
Eternally trying to figure out whether I like the rolling stones at all. Mick Jagger's voice - amazing. Like 10 songs from the first 20 years of their career - amazing. Every single album - lazy bullshit. Can't blame them too much for this one since it's 1964 and albums were just covers, but how can this be a top 1001 album. Insane that the first song starts with a bunch of American geography like you don't even know where that is.
Such an interesting mix of high effort and low effort - just the most incredible harmonies that sound like no one else, but then they’ll like play the wrong bass note for a full bar and just be like eh it’s fine. Also half the time the backing was practically inaudible - I think they just don’t care about instruments they’re an a capella group. The Dylan covers were much much better than the originals but even in the Dylan covers they seemed to figure out a great chorus and then just kinda meander through the verse. Mr Tambourine Man good of course - love that tambourine.
Crazy that Iggy Pop can do the stooges and also do this. He has such a powerful scuzziness which shines through no matter the genre. He's a little classed up here though - they even put him in a shirt for the album cover. Must have been a nightmare getting him to keep it on long enough to get the picture.
So good and SO late 70s Bowie/Visconti - very funny that Bowie selflessly decided to be behind the scenes and let Iggy Pop have these songs and then like 2 years later recorded better version of them himself.
Obviously I want to say that the Grateful Dead sucks and this is unlistenable. I hate their aesthetic. I hate their vibe. I hate their voices. I hate the way most of the instruments sound.
But sadly my cold cold heart has warmed just enough to appreciate "the groove" they got into eventually in Dark Star and I have to admit I liked it. Time to give away my worldly possessions and get into tie-dye it's all over for me.
I never really got the Syd Barrett thing - I don’t like piper at the gates of dawn I think it’s criminally British and has too many songs about gnomes. Less interesting musically than later Pink Floyd just kinda outsider arty - people just like the story I think.
This is kinda fun though? Some really interesting totally off rhythm songs that somehow hold together and a couple songs that are actually good by the standard of “song” - Dark Globe is great. Is the album great? No!
Timeless classic - opens with a dramatic montage about her feud with Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst.
I hate it? Her voice is very good I know, but I hate it. Nothing is lazy or ugly exactly all the backing instrumentation is pretty good, but it does nothing for me. I think it’s the pop-R&B thing that’s off-putting to me and I don’t think I can get over it. Just a little too sappy and all the edges are sanded down.
Let this not be taken as a rebuke against girl power. I am a staunch lifelong supporter of girl power. Though I am not a girl myself, I consider myself an ally. And therefore I do support the messages held within the songs and I also support that the lady from Four Non-Blondes wrote most of them.
But overall the album really brings me back to being in the backseat of a car in 4th grade wishing I had the power to change the radio station. Now I am 32 wishing I had the power to stop listening to this album. Thank you 1001albumsgenerator for letting me relive the horrors of childhood.
