1001 Albums Summary

No thank you. Like a ‘90s version of The Doors. Perfectly competent musicians making self-serious songs that I have zero interest in listening to. The quality and affect in Vedder’s vocals that turns some people off are particularly pronounced on this album. It makes sense that most of these songs are reworked from Mother Love Bone songs - they sound like they are in tension with themselves and feel like a collision of genres that is forced rather than intentional. If someone else put this record on, I wouldn’t go so far as to ask them to turn it off. I can’t see myself ever intentionally choosing to listen to any song on this album again.

2 bangers followed by a clunker in the first half; 2 bangers and a background track for the second half. A couple must skip tracks, but more all-timers. Cohesive themes and great lyrics (mostly) throughout. Holds up 30+ years later. Don’t sleep on this one. Adding (back) to regular rotation.

Maybe it’s me, but I find the pseudo intellectual and egoistic myth making of Jim Morrison too nauseating to stomach. The music is okay, but the vocals and lyrics consistently leave me reaching for the skip button. I’m pretty sure Joe Rogan and Jim Morrison would be BFFs - if only he just had a shitty band instead of a highly influential broadcast…

Solid album all the way through. A couple of all-timers. No skips.

Coupla tracks are cringeworthy, but there are easily 8 or 9 tracks that hold up still. The musical production and performance quality are great. The rap style and content will thankfully get better in follow up records, but the seed is planted and growing even here.

I’m sure I’ve heard this before, but never really listened to it. It’s darker and deeper than it may seem. It draws from so many styles and specific artists for inspiration, yet still feels like its own thing. It somehow feels exactly of the early aughts and unstuck in time. This is going into the rotation (and it sparked nostalgia for other bands I was listening to in this genre at the time that I’ll go back to too).