Reviews by james_mir

I didn't know much about T. Rex before this 1001 challenge, and the first album I got here disappointed me since they have a nice name and didn't reach my expectations. Now, this is different: A fantastic release with almost every song in the right place, excellent songs, and lyrics...I was fully into the album during the listening...I expected moe of this T. Rex in the list.

I liked 2112 very much, and I was expecting something similar here, but I found just a good album and nothing else. Good listening session, but forgatable

This album is so refreshing and a great piece of music. It's hip-hop, but also, it's something more that it's impossible to explain.

Grateful Dead is another of the bands that I was "afraid" of listening to because I don't feel I'm able to understand. However, after this album, I realized again that this fear is not justified, mainly because their geniality or unique qualities are too much intrinsic to the songs. A plain listening session gives us the experience of a standard 70/80s rock band and that it's already good enough (better than many other albums on the 1001 list).

Maybe this is not the best GD album. Perhaps I'm still unable to comprehend everything, but I know I'm listening to good music and something meaningful. This is enough for me.

After listening to some Bowie albums following this list and also by myself, I consider myself much more aware of his many musical styles and phases. This one is not the best for me, but it is still Bowie, a 5-star artist even on his worst days, so it deserves a high rate, for sure.

Where was I in 2005 that I didn't know about this album or this band? For today, I think this is a little bit exaggerated on the sad environment, but it looks perfect for the 15 years old me.

Before starting this 1001 challenge, I completely misunderstood progressive rock and experimentalism in popular music. So I learned a lot listening to it on some occasions and reading Wikipedia from time to time.

It's not my favorite style, and I felt sad when I received some progressive album (apparently, the book's author loves this kind of music). Still, after almost 500 albums, I must confess that I was missing some experimentalism in my daily album. Thanks to "King Crimson" for allowing me to listen to some experimentalism today. I guess that after the subsequent 200 albums, I'll become a fan of progressive rock.

This album is that kind of stuff you know that is classical and important for music history, even being a little bit repetitive.

I'm not an Elton John fan, but his talent is impossible to do not to remark on.

This is a lovely record, even not being so recognizable to me. I liked it, and I'll probably go back to listen to it again, but it's not remarkable.

Ok, 1001 is a lot of albums...it's necessary to have some things like it, I understand.

Wikipedia says it's really important, and I'll never get why.

These guys should write a manual like "How to do 90s hip-hop sound even more 90s". I felt transported to another time listening to this album, and I liked it much more than when I lived in the 90s.

The mixture of sound and percussion instruments/beats is unique (at the same time, that was extensively used around hip-hop for the next 10 years after this release), and the lyrics and voices are unforgettable.

It looks like a very influential album I should listen to more times in the following years. Hip-Hop albums are always too many dependents on the context, but they shine when some are also so influential and time-transporting like this one.

It's bizarre to see it as a punk/post-punk album with so many electronic components and long songs, but it's not so bad.

I liked it more than I expected, but it's not as classical and mind changer as I thought a first glance (Jethro Tull is mythical, right? It should transform my life)

I'll never look for this kind of music, but the 1001 list teaches me how (and maybe why) I like Nick Cave. It's not my kind of song, but it's always impressive how much I enjoy their albums.

It starts well, but at the end, it's just a standard pop-rock song from the '80s. Nothing else.

In the same way, as many other hip-hop albums, it's too dependent on its context, but it's not a bad album. Of course, more than 1 hour of 50's gangsta stuff could be annoying for some people, but "In da Club" is an anthem of 2000's rap, and his influence is undeniable, even being dated.

I had never heard about "Japan" (the band, not the country, of course, 🤣 (I'm so funny)), and when it started, I thought it was some 70/80's standard pop easy to listen to and forgettable.

However, from song to song, I noted some lovely rock influences and even some very interesting jazzy mixed with the pop style. It's not perfect and deserves three stars, but I'll rate it with four just because of the surprise.

The White Stripes is one of my favorite bands that I forget to listen to for months...However, I am surprisingly amazed by some songs when I return to them. I know that sometimes their rawness is not so well digested by our ears, but I can't dislike them.

This was very interesting. I never saw myself enjoying a "bass album," but Thundercat and his hip-hop inspiration considerably make me appreciate these songs.

It looks like a very influential album, but it sounds standard for 2022 ears. It probably deserves more than 3 stars, but it's hard to find reasons to rate it without the historical background. Maybe almost all hip-hop albums suffer from this problem since they are always too contextualized, but some of them (like this one) are hard to stay relevant after more than 10 years after their release.