1001 Albums Summary

How about those Beatles huh folks? Pretty good band if you ask me, hopefully they keep making bangers like this one for a long time to come. George and Ringo cooked soooo hard. That long section in the second half makes me grin and also roll my eyes at the same time which I think is the only correct way to react to the Beatles. Whole album jangly af, one of our jangliest. Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: "Octopus's Garden" (duh)

This one was in heavy rotation for me in college to the point that when I hear the opening to Whole Lotta Love my blood pressure spikes and my body is convinced I have a paper to write by 11:59 tonight. Unrepentantly horny and plaintive. I never fully got into Zeppelin but I respect this album, super innovative and what I always remember being most struck by was the relative sparsity, no contemporary popular music would have this much space in it. Suuuuuuper buzzy, one of our buzziest. Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Thank You”

Dolly <3 This starts off SO strong, the first four tracks and especially “Coat of Many Colors” and “Traveling Man” back to back are all bangers. Starts to fall off a little after that, sorry I’m a cynical a-hole but closing out on “Here I Am” and “A Better Place to Live” had me sighing and rolling my eyes. Dolly is a better more sincere person than me, I’m sorry queen. Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “The Way I See You”

This was the first one where I haven’t heard of the artist much less the album and I REALLY dug it? This might just get added to the regular rotation idk. I’m really enjoying how clearly you can hear the blues and rockabilly influence in this early 70s stuff. Very cool effects too with some of the loops and backwards audio. Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Monolith”

Me and boygenius 🤝 loving Leonard Cohen What the hell ever is this guy talking about, no one knows but it don’t matter because he says it all so beautifully and evocatively. I wish I could have a mind that sees the world in images the way Leonard Cohen did, I wonder what it was like in his brain. How can you listen to Master Song and not just smile and shake your head. Forever on the Mount Rushmore of Canadian songwriter poets, right next to Carly Rae Jepsen. Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “So Long, Marianne”

Is this a safe space for me to say that I was a little meh on this album? (It’s not.) Okay I love Talking Heads, I love David Byrne, I love Brian Eno, of course I love Once in a Lifetime, but fundamentally it’s not music that I have a great time just sitting and listening to. Obviously very daring and innovative and funky and fusion-y and you can bop to it on the dance floor until you collapse. But also sometimes it just gets to be densely repetitive and Byrne is warbling his way through lyrics that don’t mean a darn thing to me and I get tired. Call me a simpleton if you have to. Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Once in a Lifetime” (any excuse to play it tbh)

Not sure why I didn’t expect to really like this, I’ve never been a metal person, idk my older brother was a big Black Sabbath guy growing up so I heard a lot of it and it did Not hit for me at the time, I was the softest tenderest little daisy and startled easily. But yeah from the very first bells of the opening track I was totally on board, maybe I was just in the right mood. That eponymous opener shreds, Ozzy’s voice is so immediately iconic and arresting, the guitar licks grab you by the guts, the tempo changes get the whole circulatory system churning. It’s great stuff. Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Wicked World”