Reviews by abitfishy

This one was quite outside of my current comfort zone. It had the crooning of Frank Sinatra, and it had these musical sounds (in which I had trouble pinpointing what was making them) that sounded weird, maybe you'd only ever hear it else in maybe classical incidental music. My favourite aspect of this - more-or-less - uninspiring album is the clapping sounds. They sound like literal static noise, like you'd probably hear if a TV channel cuts out or 80s noise rock.

I didn't really enjoy this one, it had very little for me to latch on to and enjoy. From what I've experienced I wouldn't recommend this if people were looking for a live album to listen to, nor do I think it's a must-hear.

This album is a bit weird. Musically, album cover and all. It's like psychedelic folk pop with some medieval-like (?) moments happening. I think the bookmarks of the album were solid, the in between songs weren't the best and were forgetful.

I personally don't think this is a must-hear. This one I believe can be just forgotten to time.

Highlight Song/s: "Are You Happy?" and "Old Kentucky Home"

This is from what I know is one of the biggest industrial albums of the 90s. It has shocking lyrics, a misanthropic outlook on life, buzzing guitars, diverse vocals, rigid/stiff drum beats and music that is fully understandable by outcasts. I have heard it all about how Manson being blamed to Kingdom Come for his songs, and that tale about him removing one of his ribs, but I'd never heard any of his stuff up until now ("The Beautiful People" being the exception.)

I really liked Cycle 1 the most, with the other Cycles falling behind a bit.

I believe this fits pretty well with the definition of being an album one should hear before dying, I think it's unique enough. It captures that rise of Industrial music in the 90s really well, which I believe should be documented in a list, such as this one.
My personal thoughts are definitely not either exceptionally good or bad, but I think a 3.5 star rating best suits this album, and overall wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting.

Highlight Song/s: "The Beautiful People" and "Tourniquet"

Never heard too much of these guys' work before, so really fresh perspective on this all. I loved the manic state this album lives in, constantly shifting moods; never fully settling down before going haywire. The riffing and accompanying instrumentation fully aligns it self with this chaos. I fully see why people praise Serj as a singer, he is very talented. I think for me the album had a very strong baseline, though this lead to very few 'stand-out' songs for me.

I think this album is a strong case for a re-visit to try and understand it further, but overall I believe it has a strong foundation and is very well-thought.

Highlight Song/s: "Suite-Pee" and "P.L.U.C.K."

Really liked this album! A side is completely killer and stacked as all hell! This of course has some of Bruce's most iconic songs like the title track and "Dancing in the Dark." The album is very anthemic, every song kind of sounds like, the song-to-end-all-songs. Bruce's lyrics give off real great imagery for the mind to play with (most notable in "Darlington County.") The few songs on here that don't have a upbeat tempo I feel like would fit very well on his previous album "Nebraska" (it makes sense a lot of the songs were written in the same sessions.)

I highly recommend this one. Other Bruce Springsteen albums (like Darkness on the Edge of Town) apart from Nebraska haven't really striked a chord with me, so hopefully this is that one album that helps you understand an artist and the rest of their difficult-to-get-into (for me) albums.

Highlight Song/s: "Born in the U.S.A.", "Cover Me", "Darlington County", "Working on the Highway", "I'm Goin' Down" and "Dancing in the Dark"

Political post-punk is always an interesting concept, it does well at that. The instrumentation is overall quite nice, just post-punk things. The first side wasn't too bad but the second side was hugely lacking.

I think overall it was fine but I don't want much to do with it after this listening.

Highlight Song/s: "Infected" and "Angels of Deception"

It's very calming to the point it feels quite meditative. There are nice soundscapes that are on here, though I feel the songs are always lacking just something to spice it up more. I'm not sure what exactly causes this feeling, but it's not the most compelling even though it has a nice sound to it all. I find that it doesn't justify the runtime enough.

I don't think it's a must-hear.

Highlight Song/s: "Harry Flower" and "Water Babies"

This was a lot more mellow than I was expecting. Some really solid melodic moments happen. I was waiting expecting for some songs to really pop off but they never really happened, which is fine, but it lead me to be anticipating something rather than be fully ingrained into the music. It had a nice overall off-kilter vibe to it.

I just don't think this was a 'must-hear' but other than that I liked it.

Highlight Song/s: "Wild at Heart" and "Dark but Just a Game"

This album was fantastic! I added this back on my personal album waiting list back in August 2025 (now October 2026) leaving it there to rot, but I was really missing out on not listening to this.

It has real infectious grooves provided by John Taylor, only ever heard great things heard about his bass playing and it fully lived up to the hype. The vocals and the reverb that is used, so haunting yet so majestic at the same time. The keyboards bring out a great brightness to the album not letting it fall deep into the darkness that new wave's cousin of post-punk tends to have.

Overall I think how the band plays together is phenomenal, they all have their right place on the album. I don't feel anyone was left behind at all.

"The Chauffeur" is absolutely amazing song, it's such a nice palette cleanser and is among my favourite songs (I knew of this song before the album listening) of all time, it suits the album so well and is a superb closer. So beautiful and haunting!

I wholeheartedly believe this should be on here, with some other recent 80s albums I've gotten that I feel fit the time period (Too-Ry-Ay and Tom Tom Club), I believe fits well alongside those albums of nailing the early 80s feel very well.

Highlight Song/s: "Rio", "My Own Way" and "The Chauffeur"

Nice little sweet new wave gem I've never heard about before. The vibe of this album is immaculate, it's just an album that you HAVE to love, because it's so quirky and vulnerable. The lead singer/bassist and the drummer were (at the time) members of Talking Heads, so I suppose was a just quick side project from them. I had previously a bit "Genius of Love" from used as a sample in Grandmaster Flash's "It's Nasty." It threw me off initially, and still it sounded a bit weird as the song went on as I'm so used to how Grandmaster Flash uses it.

I think this definitely deserves to be on the list. It really nails the new wave/funk rock mixture of a sound.

Highlight Song/s: "Genius of Love" and "On, on, on, on..."

This didn't really do it for me. The instrumentation was fine and vocals as well, there also sweet melodic parts but overall it didn't stick at all. I think I totally could without hearing this again, just I find it a bit mind-numbing is all.

Highlight Song/s: "TC and Honeybear", "Marz" and "Jesus"

Want One is apparently the first part of the 'Want' albums, I had listen to the second part (because of the list) about a couple months ago, and I though that one was sweet, those thoughts continue with this album. The arrangements are pretty lovely. The vocals loudly scream Thom Yorke (particularly loud in "Go or Go Ahead") to me. From what I remember Want Two was a bit more better than this, but it wasn't the most rememorable, so I'm having a little trouble remembering every detail but I remember it being more melodic and catchy. Want One had overall higher moments but also had deeper lows compared to Want Two.

Unsure if it's worthy to be a must hear, if it's a choice between Want One or Want Two, I think Want Two is more deserving.

Highlight Song/s: "I Don't Know What It Is", "Go or Go Ahead" and "Harvester of Hearts"

Really sick sounding music. Only aware of some of these guys from a few songs of At The Drive In, other than that it's mostly a new experience. One aspect about this I really like is the hot-cold structured songs, where one moment it's slow and at a drop of a hat it jumps up and starts blitzing around. The vocals are a bit hit or miss, it might possibly be a thing I grow to like rather than fully sold on straight away. It has a great atmosphere, especially on those interlude tracks. The guitar playing sounds very fresh to my ears, it doesn't sound typical at all. It combines dissonance and melody pretty well together.

I liked this one, might have to check their other stuff. This is definitely a must hear.

Highlight Song/s: "Inertiatic ESP", "Eriatarka" and "Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt"

This has a superb chill-out-like vibe to it all. The album was a lot more jazzy than I expected when I was just 1 song in. I guess this is mostly notable and probably put on here because it has Paul Weller (former frontman of the Jam) on it and was one of his post-Jam bands. I found the first side was honestly real good, though the second side fell of a mini-cliff unfortunately. I however enjoyed it all when adding everything together.

I think it ultimately just barely gets a 4 star. I'm undecided though if it warrants a place on the 1001 list.

Highlight Song/s: "Me Ship Came In!", "The Paris Match", "Dropping Bombs on the White House"

A smashing live album! I'm quite new to Motorhead this is my first album of theirs. I fully understand why Motorhead saw themselves as rock and roll and closer to punk than the heavy metal guys. I mean this is literally just rock and roll with a shit ton of distortion and an angry bass that is spouting chords at the listener whilst all at a tempo like your running like hell away from something nefarious. Just reading about these guys, they lived the rock and roll experience truest than most bands that refer to themselves as such.

Wasn't expecting to like it so much, I think this really is a must-hear album wholeheartedly.

Highlight Song/s: "Ace of Spades", "Stay Clean", "No Class", "Bomber" and "Motorhead"

Not a huge fan of this psychedelic-country fusion stuff. A lot of just sounds a bit underwhelming and isn't really note-worthy in my opinion. It has a nice vibe to be fair, but overall this didn't really hold interest me whatsoever.

Highlight Song/s: "$1000 Wedding"

I wasn't the happiest when I saw the runtime (I feel like I've been getting a lot of long albums recently), though it do by fast with very little tuning out of it happening. I think this has some nice songs here and there but I don't think drum and bass is a genre that I feel too great about at the moment. Though I can fully understand the appeal of this sub-genre of drum and bass, and I suppose that there's something a bit nice about aggressive drums with floating, calm, atmospheric elements.

I don't think this is an album that I would return to.

Highlight Song/s: "State of Mind" and "Adrift"

This one was a sweet listen to. Paul McCartney's first album is very DIY and lo-fi-orientated in a way that it seems like a huge predecessor and stepping stone to indie music. Recorded mostly at McCartney's home with a few touch ups done at a professional studio in the later stage, he also recorded all instruments himself with the only other person, his wife Linda, doing additional harmony vocals.

Even though I feel it's not inherently amazing whatsoever, partly because not all of it's experiments are delivered in the best way. It just has this amazing charm to it and has very vulnerable feel to it all, like he's showing a side of him that's been hiding away out of the sun to others. Him getting torn apart for this in the early 70s for this was horrible, this album doesn't warrant that amount of hostility. I guess reviewers couldn't keep their personal opinions separate from the album, one of the good perks of reviewers and music magazine losing credibility and their power to sway listeners.

I think this is a must-hear for all music enjoyers, though maybe less so than his other stuff like Beatles or Band on the Run or Ram.

Highlight Song/s: "Junk" and "Man We Was Lonely"

The audio level mixes were all over the place on this one. One song it's really quiet, on another it's piercingly loud. It wasn't the song dynamics just it was mixed terribly, and it's not in a charming way whatsoever like some albums lo-fi elements can be. The album also was a bit too repetitive for my liking. I'd personally say I can like drone music (like Flood by Boris) but definitely albums more like this I don't.

I simply just didn't have a good time with this album, I don't think I'd return to this one.

Highlight Song/s: "Honey"

I find the mellowness/calmness mixed with the folk acoustic instrumentation on this album really soothing and relaxing. The production I think is one of the albums strongest suits, the atmosphere is simply amazing. A lot of the themes on the album I can't relate - which is fine - as some of the hooks and melodies make up for it. I think ultimately I'm just not the right sort of target so these songs don't really strike a chord with me, even though the production and mellowness does. So, even though the 60 minutes felt fast, I didn't feel really fulfilled.

I'm ambivalent towards this one; it being on the list and by itself.

Highlight Song/s: "Ivy" and "Long Story Short"