The instrumentals aren't bad, but damn the vocals are hard to listen to. The male sounds like a disabled robot voice and the woman sounds like discount Cyndi Lauper.
It's amazing to listen the origins of hip-hop. If you listen this record expecting contemporary or modern sounds you'll not get it, but if you want to really understand the root of the genre this is your album
Repetitive for sure, good singing and lots of trumpets. Not really my taste. Favourite song I've Got You Under My Skin it has a great instrumental bit.
Album #79
John Martyn: One World
This album has the misfortune of breaking my 10 album 4-star minimum streak. I've never heard of Joh Martyn so I wasn't sure what to expect, and after listening to this album I still feel like I've never heard of John Martyn. This album left no real impression on me, some decent instrumentals, but I wasn't huge on his voice. Maybe it just seems extra mediocre because it followed non-stop peak, but either way not an album I'm interested in returning to.
Best Songs: Couldn't Love You More, Dancing, Small Hours
Worst Song: Big Muff
Score out of 10: 5
I haven't explored blues much as a genre, but from what I've heard listening to this album and Gary Moore, I'm pretty partial to it and need to explore it more. Key To The Highway is insanely good.
I don’t know why I was negatively predisposed towards Robbie Williams. I think the only place I’d even heard of him was Ted Lasso, in which he came off as an asshole. This album was solid. Listened to it twice through. New fan!
Off The Wall >>>>> Thriller
What an amazing album. All killer and no filler.
Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough might be the best album opener I’ve heard so far.
Best it’s not just the incredible disco songs that are great. The more somber songs like She’s Out of My Life and I Can’t Help It are amazing too.
I’ll be back to this one for years to come
There are countless incurable diseases, and the only thing that hurts me so much is the unrepeatability of childhood.
I haven't listened to this record in ages yet I remembered every song and lyric. It transported me back to a time and place where everything felt a little bit easier than now, with the weight of a teenager on my shoulders, worries I thought were the most unbearable in the world, like the first heartbreak, an unanounced exam at school, your crush believing you don't exist, your friends hyping you up to do some stuff you regret later. Looking back, they feel almost comical and surreal when compared to now once I'm navigating adulthood and parenthood.
Drinking beer, shooting pool, playing darts, discussing football, science, aliens, Mortal Kombat: Conquest the TV series from 1998, the golden generation of France that won the World Cup, whether Daniel Defoe's book 'Robinson Crusoe' is the best book ever, whether popsicles and ice creams are cousins, computers, Grand Theft Auto and Age of Empires, 'Black Knight' with Martin Lawrence, my new DVD and surround system, and naturally, Bon Jovi's hits.
Of course, I no longer listen to Bon Jovi nor have I thought of their music. Of course, my favourite band in the world is The National and I rate 'I Love You Honeybear' by Father John Misty. Of course, I come around as the archetypal music snob that sits in the corner and criticises every person at a party. Of course my friends are married with kids and we rarely see each other. Of course I can no longer recognise my hometown or locate the places we used to roam. Of course I can only travel to my childhood and formative years through music. Of course I'm a nostalgic man. Of course I'm clinging on to memories.
Memories are films about ghosts.
This album is excellent. If I could change one thing I would take the vocals down a bit and boost the bass. Andy Rourke's bass lines are killer and they're the standout part of this album for me. Johnny Marr is great as always, I really enjoy his playing.
I started this project in August of '23 and I've spent a considerable amount of time here since. I've been consumed by music as far back as I can remember and I truly look forward to a new album daily.
Thank you Alex for creating the generator and all of the work you've put into it. This experience has been a high point in the last few years.
A few years prior to this being released I was living in Long Beach. When I saw the video for Who Am I? I recognized the record store he was on top of. This is obviously a classic of the genre and Snoop is probably the best at the rap game for my money.
I'm gonna tell my grandkids to always remember, if you smoke ounces every day, drop the N word 154 times, the F word 62 times and the B word 58 times all while grabbing your dick and your gun, you too can one day be an honorary coach of the US Winter Olympic team. God Bless America.
i’m convinced this guy doesn’t like quality vocals when it comes to music. just continuous off brand orgasms to titillate his auditory thirst. i’m quenched from whatever foul tasting beverage i’m being served. QUENCHED!
Long before I started this list, Blue was my favorite album. I find it funny it came to me at a point where I checked in late in the day, on the most mundane day, mostly working out, cleaning. Just had valentine's day weekend, very in love. One would think, my day shouldn't involve this masterpiece, I have never in my life been further away from it. Yet, here it is, so I'll tell you exactly why it resonates with me, always and every day.
I think that every track on there should be there, I don't want anything to be removed from it, because it touches on the very human experience in the most unique way. 6 of its song have at some point in my life been my favorite, because as I grow and experience different things, it aligns in a different way with my experiences. I'm confident at some point the other 4 will be in contention to be my favorite as well, but it is definitely that good.
It has everything I love in an album, a point of view, a sonic palette that is rich and bold, plenty of ambition for such an intimate project. Her voice and her writing are so fucking unique and precise, it blows my mind every single time. A lot more complex that one might think, I also love that it rewards both replaying it as you experience life and careful listening. I'll take it any day over everything else because it uses music in the same way I do, almost in a therapeutic way, but also not in a exclusively devastating or trauma healing way.
All I want, is my most recent favorite cause it really helped with a tough time I had. To me, it is a perfect song, very much delicate in the push and pull that love can offer when it is not fully right. To me the song is about a relationship that is beginning, that shows promise but ultimately falls short. While you may want to do mundane things with them because you see them in your life for a long time, sometimes trouble like anger and jealousy lies beneath and you have to face the fact that it is not where you actually are. While you want the best for them, it is not what you bring to each other. It is better to be free than in a company that is destructive. That is a life lesson everyone should know, and you just have to listen, cause Joni said it with the most beautiful guitars in 1971.
My old man, while I don't relate to it personally, I found fascinating in context. After the mundanity of All I want, where she lists all the very normal things she wants to do with her man, comes a gorgeous love song in the form of the fantasy of domesticity. All she wants, is her old man. The longing for something true and real, that she feels in her bones. I think the mention of a mariage licence as something somewhat adjunct is visionary in 1971. The love she wants knows no bounds, and simply given by an extraordinary individual to her. Not a super man, but a "singer in the parc" and that, I found profound and beautiful especially next to a gorgeous piano.
Little green is a song that took time and context to be understood by me. While I love it now, I used to not fully get what she meant by it, much like critics reviewing her work when it came out. When you understand the song as a love song for the baby she had to give up while being a struggling artist, it’s a devastating emotional blow. Now, every time I hear it I get emotional, because it is so well written, clever and so deeply personal it is incredible. It is tender, hopeful, and very sweet, while still having sadness and regret laced trough it. I also think it shows incredible strength, she just says she hopes for the best, and that it is the best decision for a « child with a child pretending ». I think this song is probably the most uniquely hers here, it very much so feels like a way to process a trauma and to leave something behind for her « little green ».
Carey was my favorite as a teenager, and I couldn’t tell you why, except that it is funny and sweet, and the melody is gorgeous, especially the harmonies in the second part of the song (the ooo’s). I also think when you name a song after a person, a clever writer will give a description of said person, and here the details are so vivid it makes the whole song incarnate. I think most of us have encountered a Carey in our life time, a person you don’t know very well that is interesting and makes you stay longer than you should. Hence why, when people call Blue a break up album, or about love or whatever, I say it’s a reductive point of view, because Carey is here, it is brilliant, and I have never seen anyone make a song about these type of encounter before.
Blue, the title track is also very interesting, and not just because I like James Taylor. It is obviously about him and their relationship, but you can also totally ignore that and it is still a very gorgeous balade.It has a timing so very specific and odd, and her singing as so many peaks and valleys, no one can and would want to sing it quite like that, so high, so precise, and with such weight on every word. It is a very hard song to cover, cause it is very much her voice singing words from her soul. The vibrato, the long notes, the diction and phrasing, the sprawling piano, here everything goes together to give a gorgeous love song to someone who obviously isn’t ready or able to receive it. It feels confessionnal, cause we get to hear the ancestor of the voice note, a message that is for one person. I am glad it is included here, cause it is too beautiful to keep private, but I do get the feeling that it feels voyeuristic and that explains why I couldn’t pick it as a favorite of mine.
California is much like Carey not a song about love, but about home. Joni as a Canadian calls California her home, recaling the classic trope that home is not just the place where you come from, but really the place where your people are. Nothing novel in this idea, but it is said so succinctly that I found it beautiful, especially since there is tension in the song « Will you take me as am I ? » As home and the people changed too much that they no longer recognize her ? The other thing I resonate with is the idea that war and trouble on a world level make you want to curl up and return to a place where you feel confortable and safe. Saying that now would probably be a cliché, but not at that time. It is quite simple sonically, and makes for a fun break full of joyfulness. California is necessary because it brings is a very welcomed breath in an otherwise often quite sad album. Of course the different rythm going on at once, expemplify an understanding of music that is a lot deeper than just spilling out your guts in a microphone. I have always loved California, and at a time when I couldn’t understand what she meant, I loved that track so much because of its melodi. Today, as a Parisian, the place I call home is the precise place she wants to leave behind which I often think about. (Why don’t you like us ? I am not settled in my ways, or am I ?)
This flight tonight, to this day is in my opinion the weakest track on there. I like it, I found it fun and some of the details I look forward to while listening to it, like the Goodbye baby goodbye break. I am sure I will connect to it someday. I understand the message, and I don’t mind the track which is in no way a skip. It is a pretty song, just not a favorite. I also think it is not helped by its placement in the album, it comes after the fun of California and I mostly look forward to River when I hear it. It is sandwiched between the fun and the saddest song, and while I get the palette cleanser feeling, it is also never gonna be as strong as those two.
River of the 4 piano ballad, is by far my favorite. I love it so much, it explains why none of the other three ballad have ever been my favorite on the record. While I do like them, and I found them clever and interesting, I think river hits emotional strides in a whole different way. I cannot begin to explain how beautiful this song is to me, it is incredible in so many aspects. First thematically, a sad Christmas song for the lonely at Christmas ? Yes please. I can hear jingle bell, I can hear the despair, I can hear the translucent quality of the album in its peak here. Secondly I think the writing is incredible. It feels cohesive, and like a full story, but told in such a subtle manor, that no one knows what this song is actually about. Partly a recollection of a time where she couldn’t skate as a child because she had polio, a break up song, may be a reference to the daughter she had to give up, but none of that is really the point. I personally think it is about all of the above, to me the song is about loss in every way. Loss of experiences, time, meaning, people, it’s about how she can sit down and reminisce on times where she felt hurt and lonely, and the idea to bring it forward in a song talking about Christmas and sampling Jingle Bells is absolute pure genius. Christmas is a time where you should be with family, happy in theory, but here she feels lonely and out of place and wishes to experience a different thing. That to me is visionary, cause there is nothing sadder than a lonely Christmas, and I am probably not alone in feeling that way, because the suicide rate goes way up every year at that time. I think the piano is amazing, and her vocals are legendary here. I may be a competent singer at times but I can not sing this and no one should in my opinion. It cuts deep and is truly to me a statement of brillance.
A case of you, is the hit of this record, if there could only be one, and I understand perfectly well why. I think it shows everything Joni can do in 4 minutes, and it is grandiose in this aspect. I also do not subscribe to the idea that it is a sad song, it can be if you look for that, but it is so much more complex than straight up sad. It is literary about the feeling of being intoxicated by someone, while using the metaphor of drinking wine. To me the person she describes is both exactly what she wants, and a little poisonous. Something that takes her completely over, than runs through her blood, but also something that is temporary, that she can recover from. It is succinct, but it completely describe the feeling of infatuation. The interesting part, is that it is not through the perspective of heartbreak which is why this song is to me brilliant. She already as a song about heartbreak on the record, in this one she isn’t devastated, she is just self aware and recognises that while the relationship had benefits, (making her step outside of her box mainly, with the devil line and them being « holy wine ») it has its drawback (« be prepared to bleed »). Beside the gorgeous simplicity that shots right through the heart, one thing I found fascinating is the number of men coming forward to say that the song is about them. I can only dream to write something so beautiful and important that Leonard Cohen says he is the muse of it. I found it incredibly complimentary of her work that he wants to be the inspiration for it and have his part of the credit I’m sure. Well, you ain’t getting any from me, this masterpiece is quintessentially Joni’s.
The album closer, The last time I saw Richard, is incredibly important for the album as a whole, to understand her aim with this precise collection of songs. It is very complex and does reward careful listening to understand what she actually means. It revels in tension between optimism and cynicism around love, using a protagonist and lessons she gleans from conversation with him. Richard is a reformed romantic on the surface, he is cynical about love after heartbreak calling love lies, and saying that all of the romantics meet the same fate, being cynical and heart broken. To Joni, he is only pretending to be cynical, because he chooses songs on the jukebox « about love so sweet ». In reality, he marries a figure skater, (which I understand as someone beautiful by societies standard, and a show person, meaning not someone he picks for their intellect and values, but for what they represent societally. He makes a convenient home with her, but in doing so, he is left drinking alone (with no romantic by his side). He settles, stops believing that love and heartbreak might be worth it, and now watches TV. Joni refuses the same fate, she doesn’t want to settle, she wants love and romanticism and wants big wings to fly, she wants to feel something rather than just let life settle her. That is not novel as an idea, and though it is said beautifully this is not where the genius is. It comes after, at the end of the song, when Joni herself is in the dark café, meaning suffering heartbreak, she first feels anger and loneliness, (« I don’t want anybody at my table, I’ve got nothing to talk to anybody about »). I think there is the idea that she is done with love, much like Richard once was before he settles. But unlike him, she is second guessing herself and holding on hope. She hopes it’s just a dark cocoon, « only a phase, these dark café days » and it is quite a dark chord indeed. She is not sure she will recover, but she is waiting for brighter days.
I think that that final note is truly a sign of absolute brilliance. She closes her album about different kind of pains and hopes on saying « I’m broken but hopeful it’s a phase » and I think this final song is absolutely paramount to understand the whole album. Blue the album, ebbs and flows between optimism and heartbreak, pain and excitement, in such a masterful way. But it ends on a very signifiant note : all of it is temporary. To me that is truly a message to remember, you should live life, its heartbreak and challenges, the joyfulness and the loneliness and never become a cynic like Richard. It is said in a very unique and delicate way, and I am never tired of listening to her giving her testimony about what life is about. And even on a mundane day, I need to remember to be open to feel things.
I had a friend who was a huge Costello fan. He loaned me My Aim is True and I just couldn't get into it, mostly his vocal affectations, part Buddy Holly, part AM radio DJ (we're bopping along there groovy guys and groovy gals) and part used car salesman commercial. After listening to this I think it's the gateway album to Elvis. This is the CD my bro should've laid on me. The 1st 4 tracks are straight bangers and side 2 doesn't let up.
Now a bit of a rant, there is abso-fucking-lutely no way this dude should have 6 albums on the list. 6??? He has more albums than Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, The Beach Boys, Metallica, Black Sabbath, The Who and Queen. And, as many albums as the Rolling Stones? Get the fuck outta here. Elvis C. is really good but no one is putting him anywhere near the level of those bands in any discussion. Ever. Alright, I'm off my soapbox.
Anyway, this album absolutely deserves to be on the list, 13 killer tracks. Bruce Thomas on bass is a highlight, his playing on Pump It Up is badass.
This immediately evokes a mall in the late 2000's or early 2010's. "Auto tune crooning"... R&B for people who don't know good music. Technically, well produced but essentially boring. The same themes, lyrics, samples, and music you hear EVERYWHERE. How did this album make the list? This was a slog to get through. What exactly makes this special or stand out from the sea of R&B that sounds exactly like this?? Background music for a dying mall... 1/5, one point for the talented producers who can effortlessly spit this crap out.
This album was even more "meh" than I expected it to be, and I expected it to be pretty darn "meh." Van Morrison's whiny brand of mildly upbeat folk gets really old really fast, with not enough variation across the album to keep it interesting. Even the titular track offered little reprieve as we've all heard it enough times to dismiss it. Sure, I was happy to let it blend into the background and create a mood that I didn't hate, but I was left unimpressed.
This is another new to me artist and album. I have to say when I saw Hip Hop, 16 tracks, 72 minutes long and the Intro started, I cringed and thought what a fuckaroo way to start a Monday. Then Real started and I did a complete 180. Dig the up-tempo beats, dig the flow, dig all the reverb on the music and vocals. Really dig Jill Scott, that woman has a set of pipes and her song is probably the best track on the album. Hurt Me Soul and Kick, Push are also standout.
Quick aside, it's nice to see The Emperor's Soundtrack using music from UFO. They should have at least 2 albums on this list. Michael Schenker is one of the greatest hard rock/heavy metal guitarists ever and his only inclusion on this list being a sample on a Hip Hop album is kinda suckish.
But anyway, this is probably the best post 2000's Hip Hop album I've gotten so far. Lupe has way above average lyrical content. Dig it.
I can’t believe the top review for this record (as of Dec 2023) is from someone trying to use their PhD in Mathematics as justification for not liking hip-hop.
Weak.
Oh fuck yeah, now we're talking. Wait no, I swear I'm not being pretentious.
This is the lowest rated album on this site because I guess mostly people aren't very fond of German people smashing metal plates together - who would have guessed.
But halle-fucking-lujah, this is something this list needs more of. Albums that make you go "well, that was an experience and now I'm a changed man". Nobody is lying on their deathbed wishing they heard more crappy 80s post-punk or late 60s psychedelic rock. THIS is what we all deserve to be listening to as we embrace eternal oblivion.
I'm giving this a high rating not only because I genuinely really love it, but also to help Kid Rock move to his rightful place as the actual worst album on this list.
Together we can make a difference. Save the turtles.
Brings back vivid memories of when me and my mate Ray went on a trip to Dresden. We met this rotund goth in a bar, head to toe with tattoos and piercings, real filth and after a while took her into the disabled bogs for a spit roast. We were both pumping away in her with Napalm Death on in the background and her wailing "MEIN GOTT" at the top of her lungs. I remember spaffing all over her back just as Siege of Power kicked in. As i shoot over her, she takes Ray's cock out of her gob and says "do you want fries with that?" in a faux American accent. Anyway, we go outside and there's this gammy little geezer in a wheelchair sitting there furious, giving me daggers, because he's had to wait so long, so I lean into him and I go "I hope you have as much fun in there as we just did you little cunt".
Shit like this on the list is both refreshing and infuriating.
Refreshing because it is good, fun, interesting, and also not something I would regularly be exposed to! It's why I started this project and keeps me coming back.
It's infuriating because the fact that it is included here means that Robert Dimery, the original author of the 1001 albums list is aware that music like this exists. He's clearly aware that there is an entire world of music out there. SO WHY HAVE I LISTENED TO 200 80s BRITISH NEW WAVE ALBUMS AND 200 SCOTTISH ROCK ALBUMS FROM THE 90S??!!?
Back when I was in college, there was this dude who would come into the bar I worked at on a Friday night and play fucking 10 Neil Young songs in a row. He would also hit on girls by doing magic tricks. I remember how angry I got every time he made me listen to an hour of Neil Young because I was just trying to have a good time, and he fucking made me listen to this sad, soppy fuck who writes nothing but songs that sound indistinguishable from each other and never seemed to enjoy a happy moment in his entire like. Fuck that guy, and fuck Neil Young.
2/5
Back when I was in college I used to go to a bar and listen to Neil tunes and do magic tricks for women. There was a bartender there, he was the best. I loved that guy. Some of the best years of my life.
I really don't get rap, and I am completely aware of why. I'm a STEM guy, specifically a Ph.D. student in mathematics. Although my verbal intelligence is quite high, it's still about a standard deviation below my quantitative intelligence. Therefore, it should not be too surprising that I prefer melodies to lyricism, and that a genre based on the latter doesn't wow me. I know I'm pretty far out of step with public opinion on this one, but that can easily be attributed to the fact that hipsters with humanities degrees (i.e. extremely verbal-dominant people) are considered the ultimate arbiters of taste for some reason. (Side note: this also explains why prog rock is seen as being for losers.) Best song: Be (Intro), which had a decent instrumental part at the beginning. Everything else just sort of ran together.
I am definitely not the target demographic for this album, but I still thought it was very good. There's a lot of skill and artistry put into these tracks, so much so that it is almost invisible. 4 stars for me, plus an extra star just to spite the mathematics PHD guy.
Most 60's groups had three choices: copy the beatles, copy the beach boys, or sexually abuse minors. These guys changed the game and did all three- Four stars!
