I come back to this album like once a year and always find myself humming something from it for a week after. It’s probably my favorite live album there’s just such a nice quality and I love that all of the in-between chatter is kept in, it feels intimate and makes for a wonderful cover-to-cover listen. Not a single skip here for me.
Honestly the run of Meat Puppets covers in this are the highlight, the actual Nirvana songs are cherries on top. If you listen to nothing else, check out Plateau, Oh Me, and Lake of Fire on this thing.
Yeah idk I guess it was alright. Whatever.
I found out that I owe the IRS 9k in taxes so really the last thing I wanted to hear along with that is a The Who album.
I like this a lot. I think the songs get better as it goes. In some of the first tracks it’s a little repetitive (Shameika, Under the Table, Relay). Later in the album, the songs get much stronger, more creative (Heavy Balloon, Cosmonauts, On I Go). I think Fetch the Bolt Cutters is very good, but it is worth asking if it’s too recent to fully contextualize historically.
There are a few tracks that somewhat resemble actual songs but most of this is just half baked ideas of musical expression over repetitive guitar notes and barely competent drumming. Just the kind of weird shit Pitchfork gives a 9+ review to but this is not for me
Doing some background wiki reading listening to this. Surprised to see the band were so scathing towards their own record. There's definitely something missing that makes this fall slightly short of greatness. That's not to say this isn't of brilliantly crafted tunes though.
Cool vibes. It's not really my style, but I don't hate it. I do think it's well produced, and it has a dreamy quality to it that I can see appealing to a lot of people. The songs felt repetitive and long to me though, and at the end of the day it's just not really for me.
What an absolutely beautiful album. It blends in meaningful and poetic lyrics with melancholy tunes in a seamless and artistic way. It definitely requires a certain introspective mood to listen to, and is best listened to alone (even better if surrounded by nature, maybe on a park bench or under a beautiful tree?). My own exposure with this album may have me biased though as it was not a first listen…. The lyrics to the song “the dangling conversation” in particular was on the cork board in my room in uni and listening to it brought back some good memories. All in all, listening to this album feels like submersing into yourself and having a good look around and appreciating the melancholy as well as the silver linings. Will listen again.
The prog rocker that gets all the credit. It may not actually be the first, or the best, or any of the other nods it gets and ultimately gets dinged for. But it’s a good album. Hooky, hard and inventive. The middle suite gets a little too spacey before it’s reeled back in. But no matter what anyone says, this one goes hard.
Not gonna lie, on the first verse of the first track I was ready to give up on this record and couldn't wait to get my ears to the border ASAP. I lack the historical context or cultural knowledge to recognize who Richard and Linda Thompson are. I had never heard of the record and was not prepared to have a dour-rain soaked folksy morning. But somewhere along the way of my forced listen, my rejection softened as I got comfortable with the vocals and instrumentation. And, I became interested in the stories being told. Without investing that interest in the album's narratives I think it's much harder to appreciate. Ultimately I won't reach for it when I want these vibes as I have many more contemporary expressions of these feelings that I have a personal connection to. But there's more here than that initial look had given. Maybe I just needed to wipe the steam off the mirror to see it more clearly.
Yeah alright. I never really thought they were excellent. At the time there wasn’t a lot of good guitar music so I got a little into them but they never really stood out for me.
Not up there with Different Class, and also not in Fiver territory with His n Hers (which I do hope comes up). But still bloody good, can’t get enough of Jarvis.
Technically my favourite Pulp song is on the deluxe edition of this as well.
Simpsons: No
I could hear the influence it had, but would have liked it more as a teenager. However, I was only 11. If it wasn’t on the regular or country station, I never heard it.
Lana Del Rey is trying. I appreciate the effort, even as it sometimes tests my patience in a focused listen, but maybe she intends to resist such a mode? Let Me Love You Like a Woman and other tracks occasionally drift up from the generally gauzy feeling to elevate the album. Del Rey doesn't want you to know how hard she's trying as she mines fragility... she tries to embody a delicate sensation of soft, airy protection. She wants to be the veil between raw vulnerability and healing. I feel an intention in her music to envelop the listener, to wrap around us — and yet it often operates as hazy background instead. It's these contradictions that make the record greater than the sum of its parts while it also leaves me ambivalent.
First off, this album kicks major ass. If I had a time machine I would go back to the late 60's in San Francisco. For me, the psychedelic rock scene of that period produced some of the greatest music of all time and you could go see some killer live music every day of the week.
Secondly, a bit of a rant. This album starts with a 25 minute version of a Bo Diddley song, but the entirety of this book is devoid of a Bo fucking Diddley album. The most egregious omissions of this book is it's lack of real blues music. By my estimation there are only 5 actual blues records on the list. No Howlin' Wolf, no Buddy Guy, no Big Mama Thornton, no Butterfield Blues Band, no Fred McDowell, no Mississippi John Hurt, no Magic Sam, no Freddie King, No Albert King, no Otis Spann, no James Cotton, and on and on and on. I don't have many soap boxes but this is one of them.
But anyway, highly enjoyable listen for me. The recordings of these gigs at the Fillmore West in '68 had the Grateful Dead on the bill also, it must have been jam band heaven.
Being a middle age guy and standing in the kitchen and having coffee this morning with my wife of 20 years while Sex on Fire is playing is the height of irony. I was barely competent in the sack when I was in my prime, now the only thing on fire is my lower back pain. I'd be laughing right now if it wasn't so damn depressing.
Like my last Kings of Leon album, it's much better later in the day. This cats vocals pre coffee are a no go for me, but it's all good this evening. Jared Followill is a badass bass player. Very tasty bass lines and the highlight of this album in my opinion.
When to listen: Bopping around and feeling like a girl's girl. I've had their version of I Heard it Through the Grapevine in my Spotify saves for a long time. What a treat to hear the whole album. The sound is an unusual mix of lots of influences and the lead singer's voice is definitely unique, but that's what I loved about it!
The Good: (spoiler alert) THE LAST LC album I have to listen to on this list!!!
The Bad: The fact that I had to listen to THREE of his albums…
The Ugly: Mr Dimery’s face all smashed in by my fist—this is my imagination, I don’t condone violence… though at times this journey just pulls the worse out of you…
If you own a dusty coffee shop, where 2-3 regulars show up only on rainy Wednesday afternoons, well then this is your album!
We all know that LC is a poet… yet, as many have said before me, and I will gladly repeat, he has NO BUSINESS performing his own songs.
The only positive thing about this album is that it is now done and I will never have to listen to LC again, unless it is accidentally thrust onto me in a movie or some empty dusty coffee shop on a rainy Wednesday afternoon...
1*
John composed and recorded this masterpiece in one take when he was 38 years old. I'm nearly 34, sitting on the toilet, and typing a review to his album that nobody will read. Really humbles a guy. 5/5
Well what a whole lot of nothing this is. It's like an auditory boiled rice and tofu sandwich. Music you'd hear while you're waiting to have your root canal done. Fuck this shit, I'm putting the new Neurosis album on again
Coincidently, i just listened to this album yesterday, and i was more than happy to listen again today. Rush is a Mt Rushmore band for me. Like every other band nerd on their high school drum line I idolized Neil Peart and listed to more Rush than I likely should have. I wore out side one of my 2112 cassette learning Overture and Temples of Syrinx, and I will still rock out hard to Temples on my steering wheel. Worth the sore hands and the multiple close calls running off the road.
Rush is just three Canadian guys, each an amazing player. They created new music for nearly 40 years, and toured even longer. They never dialed it in, they didn't milk a decades old catalogue, they created to the end.
Side one is a dystopian story about the beauty and power of music told in 7 movements. Neil was an avid reader and had been into Ayn Rand for a bit, he was also the author of all the Rush lyrics so that explains side one, aka the first song on the album. Side two is includes some Rush classics, passage to bangkok, something for nothing, tears....why name favorites....side two is as amazing as side one. No bad songs on this album, a classic.
Rush is not a band for everyone, and that's more than fine. I'm a fan boy.
Duck Rock? Uh, ok..? the British (UK) slant on this list is on full display here, it seems, after reading the reviews before going in. I've never heard of it or him (even in passing) and I consider myself pretty knowledgeable in music. I've been a good sport, so far, but I hold little hope. I do vaguely recognize "Buffalo Gals", but it's been eons since I've heard it.
What the actual f*ck is this? Is this what cocaine does? I've never had the privilege. This clinches it -- I officially know what the soundtrack to cocaine sounds like. What a hyperactive mess. I chuckled at the absurdity of it. It's definitely something, but it's not anything I care for. "Jive My Baby" and "Duck For The Oyster" actually had me rolling around laughing they were so absurd. Not sure that was the intent. (1.5/5) because I laughed (unintentionally), but rounding down because there is nothing redeeming here. It actually felt more like an assault.
If Tofu teamed up with White Bread and formed a band.
Inoffensive but bland. Obviously plays well with some, but just seems dull.
Just when they get your hopes up and seem about to do something interesting - like in Shiver, which starts with a noisy bang - it doesn't last and slips back into blandness.
And the falsetto whining doesn't help.
Even Yellow - the big hit and their claim to immortality - is a pretty generic bit of anthemic rock that seems to aspire to U2 or Radiohead territory but falls short.
Just boring
Not gonna lie, after the initial "what the fuck are we doing here," I actually found this one quite fun and refreshing. In fact, I'd have given a much higher rating if it had been fully instrumental, as the singing threw off some of the groove for me (not speaking the language or having a cultural connection can do that, unfortunately). The fusion of jazz, disco, and traditional Indian music must have caught me in the right mood, as it struck a chord I didn't expect to like as much as I did. Still, while I liked it better than a number of other albums we've had on this list, it isn't something I'm likely to revisit (with the exception of Baby Let's Dance Together, which is legitimately going into my rotation) so it hits the ceiling at a 3/5.
Music is pure magic. I remember hearing Mountain Song on KNAC when it was new and not liking it. Sometime in early '89 I was hanging with friends, drinking and smoking, and this CD got thrown on. Well I was gobsmacked, Ocean Size, Jane Says and Summertime Rolls floored me, with the latter probably having my favorite lyric of all time, 'if you want a friend feed any animal.' I must have internalized that at some point in my life, considering I have 4 dogs and 6 cats that are either hand me downs from people who weren't responsible for their shit or cast-offs that just showed up at my abode and promptly received food and water, and a name if they stuck around. Throw in the occasional opossum, raccoon, skunk, deer and hummingbird that also show up to eat and I consider myself fantastically lucky that I'm able to help another living being breathe a little easier. Fuck money, that is my definition of being wealthy.
But anyway, this one's in the top 25 of the entire list for me. It's too bad Jane's imploded, another what could've been band. If you like this, check out Deconstruction, it's Eric Avery and Dave Navarro's project right after JA. The vocals are pretty deadpan and just ok, but if you can get past that, the music, songs and lyrics are pure brilliance.
Another huge thanks to Alex for creating this site, it's been an exquisite Sunday morning listen on the patio. Sunshine, coffee and singing birds are good for the soul.
No talking, man, all action.
Well, this album kicks ass. Easily the best Buckley album on the list. It's got certified badass Chuck Rainey and groove machine Ed Greene on it, these cats are a couple of all timers locking it down.
Now for the elephant in the room, the lyrics are just weird. It sounds to me like Warner Bros. were pushing Tim in a direction to bring up sales. This dudes other albums aren't like this at all lyrically. This comes across like a guy locked in the isolation booth with a few grams of cocaine ad-libbing songs about fucking.
If you can get past that, the music on this is funky and way above average, these musicians and backup singers are pros and know how to jam. Spin it a few times and ignore the lyrics and you'll hear what I'm saying.
Bjork is a pop music genius and a true artist. She has a strong vision and works well with her carefully chosen collaborators who can fit to her creative process. Her approach to melody and expression is immediately identifiable; surprising and yet still catchy.
On Medulla,she extends into some pretty esoteric space. You couldn't accuse her of phoning it in -- she is fully committed to the concept. But it often seems overly cerebral and occasionally untethered -- Ancestors is a particular example of where this comes off the rails. And it drags on.
I can admire the thought and craft, but out stays its welcome.
I strongly defend her artistic right to do whatever the hell she wants. But I personally can't keep up with this
I'll admit, I came into this album with some preconceived notions of Elvis Costello and thought I knew what I was getting into, but from the first track I was thrown for a loop. Not so great at first, but by "Tokyo Storm Warning" I'd acquired enough of a taste to settle in. That's when I started to hear so many of the 90s bands that must have been directly influenced by his 33 studio albums. Toad the Wet Sprocket, The Wallflowers, Spoon, Weezer, Wilco, whoever the hell did the Friends theme... Hell, Soul Asylum directly incorporated the skeleton of "Blue Chair" into "Runaway Train," and their singer probably owes him royalties for his stellar impression. There are even hints of Sublime in here, which I'd never have expected to hear.
Like most albums, some of it worked better than others, but even when it wasn't great, it was interesting, and I definitely preferred his voice in the calm stuff to the almost punky screaming he'd tear into every so often. But all respect to The Attractions, who pretty well lived up to their names.
All in all, it was better than I expected, and while I'm more likely to check out some of his other material than I was before, I'm more inclined to reach for some of those influenced artists I mentioned earlier and show my appreciation that way. It's a solid 3.5/5 that I'll round up in thanks for the legacy.
This album gets 5 stars for Moving in Stereo being the song playing during the Phoebe Cates swimming pool scene. As the kids say, IYKYK.
This is one of the best debut albums of all time. 6 of the 9 songs are straight up classics.
It's practically impossible to evaluate the title track of this album on its own terms. "Imagine" has been re-performed and re-contextualized endlessly and it's either the "greatest song ever written" (if you're a Boomer) or absolutely cringe naive nonsense if you're younger than 35. For what it's worth, and for better or worse, it's an elegy for the New Left -- by 1971, the 60s were "over" but the US and the UK were still embroiled in Cold War imperial adventures and Nixon was building his political kingship off hippie bashing. The Summer of Love ideals the Beatles represented were no longer popular, but the social/political problems these ideals were meant to address were alive and well (and, more importantly, the backlash against these ideals was gaining strength). Throughout the 1968 protests across Europe, one of the most popular slogans was "Die Phantasie an die Macht," or "All Power to the Imagination!" Lennon (who previously shrugged off the '68 rebellions) was now free to make political claims in his own name so he rushed to plant his flag with the New Left by paling around with the Panthers and throwing money at a bunch of radical underground publications. But it was probably too little too late, so "Imagine" fails to project "what could be" because it's so hung up in "what could have been." This nostalgia (for a time only a few years prior!) is partly why the Boomers are obsessed with its message -- it makes them feel like "we almost had a revolution" (which may or may not actually be true, depending on what they mean). And like so many New Left icons, its message was completely diluted and appropriated by libertarians and gets dragged back into the limelight every few years by the ruling class as an anti-activist "can't we all just get along" sleeping pill (exhibit A is Gal Gadot). To Lennon's credit, "He'S rIcH aNd He'S tElLiNg Us To ImAgInE nO pOsSeSsIoNs!" is an incredibly shallow critique. Yeah dawg, that's why the song is called "Imagine" and not "I'm a perfect role model and you should live exactly like me." In fact, that's the absolute *strength* of this album -- Lennon is brimming with both ego and humility, hypocrisy and sincerity, condemnation and self-effacement, imperfections and redemption. The 2 songs immediately following "Imagine" directly address Lennon's grossest qualities: his history of violence against women, and his nasty tendency to mock people with disabilities. The former is something he's had to account for endlessly (especially after his death), the latter is something he's rarely criticized for but he nevertheless felt the need to apologize for. Elsewhere on the album, he continues to poke holes in the soft utopianism of "Imagine" by addressing his own feelings of hopelessness, uncertainty, depression, anger, pettiness, mania, neediness, etc. He would probably be the first person to acknowledge the worrisome self-righteousness of "Imagine" because the rest of the album is one long apologia for that ego trip. It's almost a shame how strong of a shadow this song casts -- there are so many other killer tracks here: "Jealous Guy," "Gimme Some Truth," and "How" are among the best he ever wrote, and there's no filler anywhere else on the album. If he left off track 1 and gave it a new name it would be, undoubtedly, celebrated (even by younger generations) as one of the best albums of the 1970s. Nevertheless, despite, or because of, its flaws, I think it is.
Hard pass. Tried the first four tracks and this is officially the first album in this sequence I abandoned. I saw someone write that it sounds like a soundtrack. I agree, and not in a good way. Nope. (1/5). Just nope.
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".
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.
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??!!?
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.