1001 Albums Summary

I hate this. Every song has the same melody, the shrieks are awkward and I genuinely can’t tell the difference between several of these songs. This album gets high praise for little Richard’s being a rock pioneer, and that’s cool, but it doesn’t make the music sound good.

Quintessential soul. Obviously “You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman” is an all time classic. Chain of Fools felt like the perfect opener and it set the tone for the remainder of the LP. Aretha’s voice is unmatched and the energy she puts into this is remarkable. Really easy listening while also staying interesting. I had to listen to “Here’s Little Richard” before this so anything following that album will sound this good, but Lady Soul is a timeless work by one of the best to ever do it.

I can’t lie, I’m not the target audience here. That doesn’t mean I can’t acknowledge that for its time it was groundbreaking, and I can really appreciate the sampling and the flows are nice at points. Really like “The Beast” as it just hit hard and had a solid consistent theme despite the several artists featured. Lauryn Hill is a genius and elevates most of the songs here simply by her presence. Killing Me Softly is beautiful and I wish Lauryn Hill would sing more, this song has aged best from the rest of the album. With that being said, some of the bars here don’t land like I wish they could. Slang is a revolving door and lyrics like “my crew is so fly” and using the term MC feels prehistoric. I don’t know which one Wyclef is, but the Jamaican guy can be obnoxious and the more plain rapper can get stale. The overall thematic is “cops bad” which I find low hanging fruit. Maybe I just don’t understand what’s going on here but it’s also hard to sympathize with people who are massively successful singers singing about struggle. Not for me but I fully understand the skill and wordplay here is next level.