Album Reviews

So good and also so bad

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well it's alright

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Perfectly nailed the skating-rink vibe…the glitter, the groove, the disco-ball magic.

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LL Cool J is a decent rapper, but my god the lyrics on this album are bad. They're all corny as fuck or grossly misogynistic. They also do him no favors and don't show off his actual rap skills. The rhymes are often weird and stilted, filled with awkward pauses. "Mama Said Knock You Out" is far and away the highlight, and "Illegal Search" is pretty good too, but the rest of the album is a mess. The production isn't outstanding or groundbreaking either. I don't know enough about LL Cool J to say whether or not a different album of his deserves to be on the list instead or if perhaps he's another singles artist who doesn't need an album on here. All I know is that he can be a really good rapper, but it is rarely shown on this album. But also, I implore folks to check out LL Cool J's version of "Mama Said Knock You Out" from MTV's Unplugged. Really interesting and groundbreaking. If they mad an album of the unplugged session, it should probably be on the list over this.

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The opening track is my favourite, Green River, it has great groove, gets stuck in your head, and isn’t overly complicated - feel there’s a lot to learn from that track. I hadn’t listened to much CCR, mainly due to the overplayed songs, but this album makes me think, maybe I should check out more.

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Again, fine. It was good enough for a headbop and I can understand how it might be liked by other folks, not my taste but I'll likely end up revisiting it at some points because the guitar work is just amazing. Love that. 7/10 so far.

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Oh to hear this live - I can just tell this music shines when you can feel it in person… Funky, groovy, and good - I don’t listen to enough funk/soul but boy do I like it! I see why this record has such an impact on culture, it’s got something special in it.

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Leather required.

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Live recording, first tracks set up the energy for the rest of the album.

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Didn’t listen yet.

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Prefer the mix on this album over Ziggy Stardust - I like the sharper sound. Minor gripe with "Andy Warhol" - I didn't mind the song but I really don't like when artists include random studio chatter etc., it just doesn't belong on an album from my perspective (maybe as a B-side or nowadays as part of an attached extras disk or something). Is it realistically something that your average listener wants to hear every time the song plays? That being said at least it's an amusing exchange - Wingardium Leviosaaaaaaah. Highlights: - "Life on Mars?", something about this song just feels really powerful. Not sure what it is exactly. Is good. - "Quicksand", like the instrumental choices, like the vocals. Just a very expressive song. - "Queen Bitch" I think I could quite happily listen to most of this album again. High 3/Low 4.

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Couldn't get through it

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I love this album and it got a lot of play during college. It was a breath of sarcastic air that cut through the sickly sweet synth pop crap of the time. Favorites are Kiss Off, Gone Daddy Gone, Promise and of course, the masterpiece that is Add It Up. ...and eight, eight, I forget what eight was for...

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Sure, maybe this is an acquired taste. Special thanks to the TV show Skins and the 2009 Facebook protest campaign to knock Joe McElderry off Christmas number 1, for helping me acquire it. And oh boy does it still slap today.

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BuT iT's CuLtUrAL aPpRoPriATiOn!!!!!111 Does anyone fucking think on here? Does anyone know what they're talking about? Does anyone know anything about music? There's a certain type of idiot on here (and in life) that hears something like Graceland and sprints, whistle in mouth, to declare Paul Simon guilty of "cultural appropriation." These are the people who were hall monitors in high school and continue to look for infractions anywhere and everywhere in life. According to these assholes, Paul Simon didn't collaborate with musicians in South Africa, he only extracted their music and their culture. And they constantly ignore (or don't want to bother to look) that the music that's on this album shined a light on artists like Barney Rachabane, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Hugh Masekela and Clifton Chenier. They don't want to take a minute to understand that this album brought these artists some notoriety and that these artists were appreciative. They don't want to admit, by these artists accounts, that the album was a joy to make. And these assholes just never want to acknowledge the most obvious point, that music has always been a conversation across cultures. Genres exist because cultures collide...rock music exists because of Black Americans. Elvis didn't appear out of thin air fully formed, he was drawing from Black gospel, blues and R&B. The Beatles were borrowing Chuck Berry riffs, girl group harmonies, basslines from Motown, American R&B, Indian sitars and the list goes on and on. Jazz is a mix of african rhythms, european brass band instruments, carribean influences and blues scales. Country is a blend of scottish and irish ballads, Black blues structures, mexican influences on Western swing and African banjo classics. Hip Hip was built on sampling funk, disco, rock and whatever else they could find. But the "cultural appropriation" assholes never worry about nuance. As long as they can plant their flag on some moral hill, they'll ignore everything else. They'll ignore the musicians that wanted to work with Paul Simon, the breaking of a cultural boycott in an effort to collaborate on music and the positive feedback from everyone involved. These "cultural appropriation" assholes have one argument, and it's this: Paul Simon shouldn't have made one of the best and most innovative albums of the 80s because it violates my sensitivities. In doing so, these "cultural appropriation" assholes flatten the South African musicians into props for a moral lecture. And in thinking they're somehow protecting them, it reduces them to passive objects rather than creative artists who wanted to collaborate with Simon and brought the world some fucking awesome music. The "cultural appropriation" assholes just ignore that music isn't pure and it's not supposed to be. Humans borrow from each other and cultures mix and to ignore it is to willfully ignore the way culture actually works. They want rigid boundaries when it suits them and they want rigid boundaries in art when art doesn't obey boundaries. So fuck the cultural appropriation warriors, this album absolutely slaps. If you want to downgrade it for farty bass lines and lyrics you don't like, that's fine. But if you want to get on your high horse and write a review about "cultural appropriation" while ignoring all the music you've 5 starred on this site and think you're some sort of a fucking genius you might want to sit this one out.

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I guess I just don't get it. I don't know why we have so many Nick Cave albums on here. Is he interesting? At times. Murder Ballads was ambitious and intriguing, a worthy inclusion. That said, he is very far from great. Want proof? He is revered by a good amount of critics (mainly English), as evidenced by having 5 albums on this list. And yet, here in the States, he has had one album that has sold more than 100k copies. One. That's incredibly hard to accomplish. Is he a complicated artist that is just misunderstood in the US? Perhaps. Or maybe, just maybe, he's a relatively uninspiring/bad signer, who is a lackluster song writer. Some examples, just from this album: "We'd buy the Sunday newspapers and never read a single word." "I don't believe in an interventionist God but I know, darling, that you do." "In a colonial hotel, we fucked up the sun and then we fucked it down again." He's incredibly trite throughout this record. Him trying sing layers about a "twinkling cunt"? Huh? Worse yet, this collection of songs are very basic with zero real musicality to them. The only bonus is that I've now burned through more than half of his albums on this countdown. Only two more to get rid of. While he hasn't supplanted Amy Winehouse as my least favorite artist on this countdown, I realize now I would rather listen to her than him. At least Amy had an excellent voice and talent, even if she totally wasted both. This dude is predominantly just a waste of time.

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Fucking transphobic moron. The fuck is that cover. Stupid cunt.

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Rolling Stone put this at 43 in their top 500 albums of all time. GTFOH. This album isn't even in the top 10 for 1991 let alone top 50 all time. Or maybe this is brilliant and I'm just salty today.

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Fuck this rapist midget and every scumbag who enabled him.

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I remember when this album came out. A bunch of white people were playing this in an effort to...I dunno, make themselves feel more culturally astute or some shit. It was weird. I'm not saying this is bad music because it's not. It's actually quite good. Whoever's playing these instruments knows what they're doing, their voices are pleasant. And I know the most liked review for this album is some butthurt idiot whining about how if the fact that you can't understand what they're saying bothers you, than you're a racist or some shit. I'm not bothered by this, but fuck him. Like I said, it's quite good, but I fail to understand what makes it significantly better than what I hear when I go to my favorite taco joint, though. I'm sure people could educate me, but I really don't care. Glad I listened to it, probably wouldn't listen to it again...or at least until I get some ground beef, a packet of Taco Bell seasoning, mexican cheese in a bag, grocery store tortillas and make my kid some tacos one night.

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The Good: The Stones!!! The Bad: Early Stones… The Ugly: band-name album… Dear Mr. Dimery, Reading the rules you yourself imposed while creating this list, any album that is a greatest hits, or compilation album of any kind, is not eligible for this list. Based on this criteria, the soundtrack to the Oscar winning movie Saturday Night Fever is not found on this list. Thus we are not exposed to listening to The Bee Gees opus majestus, which managed to do what few, if any, other artist managed to do, which is to have 3 songs simultaneously in the charts. Listening to this album, a couple of things came to mind, primarily the fact that Mick’s voice was irritating as hell, secondly, where are the original songs? Why isn’t there a Chuck Berry album on the damn list? Or any of the other greats who influenced The Stones to even make music? It is a massive disappointment that I’ve had to waste 30 minutes listening to this, when I’d rather have been listening to silence… 1* out of massive spite

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-like a button down shirt had a bad dream and wrote an album about it. -this band had themselves figured out from day 1. A fully formed, unique style in a debut album. -file under "so square it's funky." A truly punk rock approach to r&b. -no skips. -really sounds like NYC in the late 70s, but also so influential you can hear a glimpse of what 80s new wave will be. Many people copied this sound, but no one did it as well. -say what you will about Byrne, but the guy has no inhibitions on his voice. -it would be hard to name a better rhythm section in rock music in the 70s.

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A+ album title. It was so frustrating trying to get into the Damned in the US in the early/mid 80s as it seemed really hard to find their records. They were always super expensive imports so the only one I could get was an ep with New Rose, Neat Neat Neat and their other early, Nick Lowe produced bangers. Not that I'm complaining, but it was that and that (awesome) Captain Sensible disco song "Wot?" and from just those things it was hard to get a sense of what The Damned was really about. Machine Gun Etiquette hung out there like a tantalizing, impossibly expensive import mystery. So I'm glad to finally catch up. The first couple of songs could almost be Black Flag or Minor Threat. It's like a key missing link between British punk and American hardcore. I'm curious if this album was as directly influential on the first generation hardcore bands as it sounds. I don't love the productions. Too much reverb, especially on the drums, is washing things out. This album would be more intense with less reverb. Still, I liked it a lot and it will likely be a launching point for me to finally get into the damned Damned!

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3.3 As ever, Rolling Stones continue to elude me. It's simultaneously an ok but very disappointing album, given it's acclaim. After one of the best album openers of all time (even the tone of those first notes, wow), it descends into some terrible country infused rock (it's no surprise that the Beatles worst output was when they tried to go all yank with Let It Be). After 5 or so pretty shit tunes, Monkey Man starts off with an excellent first 2 minutes, and then descends into a nonsense final 2 minutes of screaming about being a monkey. And finally closes with the incredible Can't get what you want. Such a confusing album. How can you make Gimme Shelter and not realise you need to build your album around this?! Baffling. I always think one year soon the Rolling Stones will click. But after trying for about 19 consecutive years I'm still waiting...

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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.

Sorry Boomers/Gen X, I was like 20 when this came out so it's one of the best things to ever happen to me. Sorry it's not King Crimson or whatever.

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.

The only enjoyment I got from this was reading the review about the brothers in Dresden and their lovely and talented tattooed friend.

Rap isn't my preferred genre of music. But I'm a shitty mathematician so I enjoyed this.

Music for incels to wank furiously by

Rage In Favor Of The Machine.

i ain’t listening to all that i’m happy for u tho or sorry that happened

5: The moustache that appear on Art if you put your thumb on Pauls face on the album cover. 5: The songs.

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!