Rated 4/10
September 17, 2023
HL: “Sister Midnight”, “China Girl”, “Tiny Girls”
Well. I have a new least favourite Iggy Pop album. Also a least favourite Bowie. If Station to Station had icy moments, then The Idiot is freezer burnt.
I applaud its unconventional nature though the blend of “krautrock” and Stooges stomping didn’t do a lot for me today. On the fence about “Mass Production”, kind of equal parts hypnotic and nauseating
Rated 6/10
2nd one from The Jesus and Mary Chain
Not too long ago I realized that I'm more fond of the Pixies & Dinosaur Jr. albums I heard from this website than when I first heard them.
Now... Psychocandy joins the list of noisy 80's alt records I'm not 100% sure about. My first impression is that I enjoyed this more than Darklands, despite the abrasiveness. Occasionally the distortion was a bit upsetting, not unlike what initially turned me off of Lightning Bolt and Big Black.
It could also be that I'm warming to the overall sound of J&MC, not that this is leagues better than their other one. I heard the sunny 60s pop through the haze loud and clear, and I appreciated it.
HL: "Just Like Honey", "The Living End", “The Hardest Walk”, "You Trip Me Up"
3.5 for now
September 14, 2023
PS: I read that the drummer went on to form Primal Scream, which means that guy's on this list at least 3 times
Rated 8/10
September 13, 2023: difficulty in finding this album, listened to Motomami by Rosalia & Blond by Frank Ocean today
September 16, 2023 (whole thing is on YouTube for free? well then)
Enjoying this very much. Sure some of the songs feel unfinished, but I wasn't prepared for the intensity & exuberance of the performances. Especially since I was expecting a snoozy country-fried record.
Among the better examples of 60s psychedelia in my eyes
4* at least
HL: "8:05", "Come in the Morning", "Omaha", "Sitting by the Window", "Lazy Me"
Rated 8/10
I feel like a big ol hypocrite writing this. Yesterday I lamented that the trappings of 2000s of mainstream rock held back a Bruce Springsteen album.
The difference with Kings of Leon’s Only By the Night is that, uh, they’re a 2000s band so they get away with it? But also this is the best I’ve ever heard them, right down to the assorted bells (“17”), background choirs, *compression* & millennial whoops (“Use Somebody”).
I wouldn’t say the rough edges of Youth & Young Manhood needed to be sanded over, but it works. It just works here.
HL: “Sex on Fire”, “Revelry”, “Closer”, “Notion”
September 12, 2023
Rated 6/10
Interesting to get this album on 9/11
Although they're perfectly serviceable albums, I regretfully have to group this with U2's "All That You Can't Leave Behind" as indulgence on the 1001 albums' part. Both of them solid entries within their artists' body of work, but their most essential work is arguably here already (Born to Run, Achtung Baby, etc.).
Furthermore, this and ATYCLB were smoothed over by the conventions of early 2000s rock production, which doesn't ruin the experience for me but does erode a bit of personality that I know exists in both bands. If you have the E Street Band why not use em to their full potential?
I guess this has the historical document card going for it, RIP to all the victims
3.5
I vote we scrap this from the next edition and put back Muse's "Black Holes and Revelations"
HL: "Nothing Man", "Empty Sky", "Worlds Apart", title track
September 11, 2023
Rated 8/10
HL: title track, “Pusherman”, “No Thing on Me”, “Little Child…”
I have to start watching these movies, having already heard their soundtracks (along with Shaft)
Happy to hear this classic in its entirety, but my favourite Mayfield album might still be There's No Place Like America Today (1975), which is more sonically diverse and intimate.
Meanwhile my favourite song of his is “Don’t Worry” (1970)
September 10, 2023
HL: "Worried Mind", "I Can't Stop Loving You", "Bye Bye Love", "You Don't Know Me"
I will have to meditate on why the lush, almost cloying arrangements tickle my eardrums in all the right ways.
Of course Ray Charles could sing the label on a shampoo bottle and make it sound heavenly
September 9, 2023
Will compliment this today with Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music Volume 2
Rated 8/10
HL: title track, "Wrote a Song...", "Lodi", "Bad Moon Rising", "Night Time..."
If there's one bad thing I can say about CCR, it's that the songs on the albums (7 in 4 years, that's insane >:o) are sometimes interchangeable. Would any of these songs sound out of place on Willie & the Poor Boys, or Cosmo's Factory? Probably not
Then again, the songs are so consistently enjoyable that I don't care that much.
A big ole chicken pot pie of a record
September 8, 2023
Rated 4/10
HL: "Land of Treason", "Richie Dagger's Crime", "The Other Newest One"
book has this album listed at 24 minutes long. I wish it were 24 minutes long
September 7, 2023
Rated 10/10
HL: "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!", "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!", "Prairie Fire That Wanders About", "Casimir Pulaski Day", "Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!"
Not that it's my favourite track or anything, but it took until "Out of Egypt" for me to really embrace this album. Since at a certain point, the length (of the album & the individual songs) was weighing on me a bit. I tried getting into Sufjan Stevens a few years ago (with this + Carrie & Lowell) with mixed results, but I think I'm ready to call this a mastapeece.
Love the orchestral arrangements. Love the odd, quirky song structures. I've been spoiled with mid 2000s gems recently.
September 6, 2023
Rated 10/10
1st Radiohead, after 520 albums. There goes my dream of making it to 1001 without one (jokes)
Unlike the other Radiohead entries in the book, I'm not familiar with any of these songs save the opener. My first impression is that it's especially devoid of warmth even for them. That's not really a complaint though; even at their most desolate and icy there's beauty to be found, whether it's in the post-punk screech of "There There", the eerie analogs in "Myxomatosis" or the piano/handclaps of "We Suck Young Blood" that evoke gospel & horror in equal measure.
It's also overlong and messy, but for once that doesn't kill the buzz for me.
Note to self: I wonder if I overrate albums that coincidentally match the vibe of the day? Anyway, apropos album for an afternoon darkened by wildfire smoke
HL: "2 + 2 = 5", "Sit Down Stand Up", "Go To Sleep", "Where I End and You Begin", "The Gloaming", "A Wolf at the Door"
September 5, 2023
Rated 8/10
3rd Jack White record this year for me, after the two 2022 releases; 4th if you include White Blood Cells from this generator. I've been hesitant so far to join the bandwagon of acclaim that he receives, but this is the most consistently great record I've heard from him so far (I'll get around to Elephant & Consolers of the Lonely at some point).
I guess the only problem I really have with it is in the context of the 1001 book. Due to the limited 21st century albums, this pretty straightforward rock-and-roll album from an artist already on the list a couple of times isn't the most compelling choice, at least on the surface.
I could say the same of Black Keys' Brothers, but that record also slaps. So how can I complain about Blunderbuss when it's just so pleasant to listen to
HL: "Hypocritical Kiss", "Sixteen Saltines", "Freedom at 21", "Love Interruption", "Hip (Eponymous) Poor Boy"
September 4, 2023
Rated 8/10
Uplifting. Energetic. Cheeky. Enjoyed it quite a bit
Also, can't ignore the fact that it has some GREAT trombone.
HL: "Just a Gigolo / I Ain't Got Nobody", "(Nothing's Too Good) For My Baby", "Body and Soul", "Basin Street Blues / When It's Sleepy Time Down South"
September 3, 2023
Rated 6/10
ay first Elvis!
:)
3 stars
September 1 2023
Rated 8/10
"I'm a Cadillac" sucked some of the energy from the 2nd half, and Bowie's influence is heavily felt, if not his direct creative input (like in "All the Young Dudes"). I kinda enjoyed the heck out of this, nonetheless.
It's a comfort food album. A big gourmet potato salad
HL: "All the Way in Memphis", "I Wish I Was Your Mother", "Honaloochie Boogie", "Ballad of Mott the Hoople"
Rated 10/10
Part of the toxic relationship I have with this website is that the more I know about the albums that are left, I put off listening to ones I’m sure I’ll enjoy. I’ll hear them eventually, since they’re on the list!
(That didn’t stop me from binging “Dirty Old Town” & “Sally MacLennane” this year, even singing the latter at karaoke one time)
But yeah, Rum Sodomy & the Lash. Came not a moment too soon. Never a dull moment. Even the bonus tracks are fire
HL: "Sally MacLennane", "Dirty Old Town", "A Pair of Brown Eyes", "I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day", "Wild Cats of Kilkenny", "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda", "A Rainy Night in Soho" [bonus]
August 30, 2023 (much later)
Rated 8/10
August 31, 2023
HL: "Spinning Wheel", "...Happy", "Sometimes in Winter", "God Bless the Child"
Rated 6/10
Not the biggest fan of Newman’s bleak satire mixed with jolly melodies (though I can’t deny his craft as a songwriter), but once in awhile he decides to write one of the most beautiful songs ever written. With Good Old Boys, it was “Marie”, with this it’s “Old Man” and with Monsters, Inc. it’s “If I Didn’t Have You”
August 30, 2023 (before work)
Rated 6/10
hl: "I'm That Type of Nigga", "Soul Flower", "Passin' Me By", "Otha Fish"
As far as West Coast rap goes, well I prefer this to Straight Outta Compton
3.5
August 29, 2023
Rated 8/10
August 27, 2023
Big Beatles fan here, incredibly uninformed when it comes to their solo stuff though, to the point I’m hearing some songs for perhaps the 1st time.
Biggest surprise is “Soldier”, a dirge-y, bluesy jam in the middle that I liked more than expected.
Less surprising is that Phil Spector didn’t know when to leave something the hell alone, as evidenced in my favourite solo Beatles project, All Things Must Pass. Even so, his schmaltz doesn’t make “Jealous Guy” (formerly “Child of Nature”) any less great for me
HL: “Jealous Guy”, title track, “I Don’t Want To Be A Soldier…”, “Oh My Love”, “
