1001 Albums Summary

I’ve enjoyed a lot of Elton John’s work over the years, mostly singles. Before this was recommended, never sat down to listen to an album in full. Brilliant, with some obvious classics on there but the piece as a whole doesn’t rely on the standouts, it holds its own weight superbly well. Never known an album which jumps from genre to genre (pop, almost prog rock and so on) but can still be as cohesive as this one.

Unbelievable- hard to imagine what this would have sounded like in 1969. Not a bum note in the whole thing - my type of record, keeps building and building and just when you think there will be a reprieve another sledgehammer hits you

Never been a fan of funk or disco and this didn’t change things. Not terrible though, didn’t hate it. One thing to be said is that the final two tracks are awesome, but didn’t do enough to allow me to stomach the rest.

This was an experience. I never got into Arcade Fire in the 00s as I associated them with a certain crowd - ironic as Rococo is a song about that very crowd. First pass on the album was underwhelming other than stand out tracks Ready to Start, Month of May and Half Light II. It wasn’t until I got to the final track that it resonated with me, the story of lost youth, nostalgia and longing for a past that no longer exists. Subsequent listens uncovered more and more about the album to the point it organically became a five star album by the end of the day

Superstition is on here which is obviously a 10/10 strong but other than that it doesn’t do it for me. Beautiful craftsmanship with the music and arrangement but no physicality or drive

Enjoyable and consistently interesting, with several strong songs and plenty of stylistic variety, but the lack of a coherent musical identity stops it feeling like a truly great album.

Good solid hard rock. Not better than some which came before it or after but good example. No stand out songs, just hard competence

Stunning. There are no truly stand out individual tracks in the way of Blue Monday or True Faith, but the whole album works perfectly as a journey from post-punk to the more electronic dance version of New Order.