Reviews by michaewaratealbums

Just what I needed today, an old friend.

Embarrassed to say I originally purchased this CD not because I loved the music but to try and cultivate an image. As a single young man I thought having a dash of Davis and Monk and Adderley would help me outcompete my peers who were all Sublime and Smashmouth.

The classics won me over, of course.

SETTING:
A sun-drenched terrace in Mustique. IMAN is lounging in a Missoni kaftan, flipping through a vintage Vogue with herself on the cover. DAVID enters, wearing a linen suit and holding a thick, hand-bound manuscript with the frantic energy of a man who has just discovered fire.

DAVID (Breathless)
Iman! My love! The stars have aligned. I’ve finished it. The definitive guide. The cultural roadmap for the next millennium!

IMAN (Without looking up)
Is it another concept album about a dystopian future where we all eat neon lightbulbs, David? Because the gardener is still cleaning up the glitter from the last one.

DAVID
Better. It’s literature! I’ve titled it: 701 Albums You Must Listen to Before You Die. It’s a service to humanity, really. A sonic intervention.

IMAN (finally takes the manuscript, sliding her sunglasses down her nose.)
Seven hundred and one? That’s… very specific.

(She begins flipping pages. Her brow furrows.)

David, page one is The Man Who Sold the World. Page two is… The Man Who Sold the World: The German Mix. Page three is Hunky Dory.

DAVID (Beaming)
It’s a strong start, isn't it? Hits them right in the zeitgeist.

IMAN (Flips faster)
David, I’m on page four hundred and twelve. It’s just the Labyrinth soundtrack but you’ve written "Masterpiece" in the margins in purple ink.

(She closes the book.)

These are all your albums, David. Every single one. Even the ones with the spiders.

DAVID (Hurt)
Not all of them. I left out the Tin Machine live bootlegs. I’m not a narcissist, Iman, I have standards. Besides, no one will know it’s me. I’ve used a sophisticated nom de plume.

IMAN
Let me guess. "Ziggy Stardust"?

DAVID
No!

(He leans in, whispering)

“Robert Dimery.”

IMAN (Sighs)
David, if you want people to believe this is a legitimate list of the greatest music ever made, you need… variety. Other artists. People who aren't you.

DAVID (paces the terrace, stroking his chin.)
Other… artists. Right. Yes. Diversity. Growth. A broader palette.

(He stops, struck by an idea.)

What if I change the title? 1001 Albums You Must Listen to Before You Die. It sounds more authoritative. More "encyclopedic."

IMAN
And the other three hundred albums? Who will they be by?

DAVID (A long, genuine silence. He looks out at the ocean, squinting, trying to recall the existence of other musicians.)

Iman, darling… are there three hundred other albums?

IMAN (goes back to her magazine.)
There’s at least two by Nile Rodgers, David. You worked with him.

DAVID (Snapping his fingers)
Brilliant! I’ll put Let’s Dance in twice. One for the music, one for the sheer chicness of the cover art. That leaves two hundred and ninety-eight.

(He grabs a pen, looking inspired.)

SCENE

Of course Heroes is great but the rest of this was pretty weak. When I hear a song like Moss Garden I feel like the artist is just making fun of me. "Check this out, I can plink and plonk on some random instrument with no effort and those proles will call it art!"

I'm struggling with this one a little bit.

On first listen I thought it was a little goofy. "We're Raising hell like a class when the school bell rings!" Ooh...

The music is a little campy and listening to it now feels sort of like an SNL sketch.

But then I think about all the groundwork this laid (hello, Paul's Boutique) and how I would have absolutely devoured it if I had encountered it at 12 or 13 years old.

Am I rating it for the "listenability" in today's context, or for the historical significance? If something was groundbreaking but is now primarily valued for nostalgia how does that factor in?

I'm going to have to sit with this for a bit.

Three stars due to blatant corporate sponsorship.

It was good without the singing / talking. Maybe there is a remaster that removes the vocals?

Upon seeing the album: Ooh, nice, a Peter Gabriel album I've never heard!
First track: Ok, nice, we can work with this.
Second track: Absolute classic.
Everything else: um

I can appreciate that this is the half of the solo career that made the amazing half possible. Security is one of my personal favorites, but this one didn't land for me.

The Cure is fantastic at creating a particular type of dreamy soundscape. This one had a few nostalgia bombs, and some great tracks.

Overall I think it would be perfect if you were in a particular mood but outside of The Forest and Play for Today is lacked a certain something for me.

I had Disintegration a few weeks ago, I fail to see how those two were different enough to justify two Cure albums on a list of 1001 when there are so many amazing artists out there.

I'm a man. I love women. I strongly believe that if they were in charge we'd be so much better off.

I can't say this album is objectively great. Very enjoyable mix of punk tinged pop and you can feel the empowered vibes. We Got the Beat is an all time classic but the rest of the album (which I first heard at maybe 8 years old) was very listenable but no real standouts.

I mistakenly believed that Susanna Hoffs was part of this lineup. I always found her impossibly mesmerizing so was a little disappointed that I got my 80s girl band wires crossed.

3.9

I thought I was going to love this one from the first sonic blast. If I encountered it at sixteen I surely would have. I remember all the skater kids at my high school wearing minor threat t-shirts but I never ventured far enough off the path to spend my allowance on one of their tapes.

Very good and punchy, a punk aesthetic that is right up my alley. I don't think I can go quite to 4 stars only because there wasn't any particular part of the album that stood out for me - it had some variation from the speed punk in parts but nothing that I'll be playing back in my head later (at least after this listen).

!RemindMe to listen again in a few weeks.

3.8

I saw Alice in Chains (this band, not my paternal grandmother bound) on April 16, 1993.

Layne sat cross legged on the front of the stage wearing a stocking cap and sunglasses, and didn't move a muscle. Just sat in a heap and sang (quite well, considering).

After maybe 5 songs he stood up, dropped the mic, and walked off the stage.

House lights came on, and the PA announced "show's over, folks" and we were ushered out.

High school me was so disappointed.

Despite getting ripped off, I still quite enjoy the album. The despair can be a little overwhelming, but I hadn't listened all the way through in decades (still holding a grudge, I suppose). I'm glad it popped up today and gave me a welcome shot of nostalgia.

Ok. Religious conflicts and dad issues. This is a pop album by Madonna. There may be a reason you never hear deep cuts from Madonna.

As usual, I didn't hate this as much as a lot of you did, but it did seem pretty pretentious and challenging in a desperate attempt to be artsy.

There were a few nice parts but pretty hard to listen to overall.

Continually boggles my mind that so many people heard this and reached for the 5.

Me gusta.

I always had a thing for badass rock women like Joan Jett and Hynde. This one has a nice sprinkle of growly punk and catchy songs.

This could not have been any smoother. Really enjoyable, I don't think I can quite make it to 5 stars simply because I don't think that any part of it would jump out to me on another listen. Said differently, I don't think I would know for sure that I was listening to *this* samba album, or one of many other similar ones.

I played on Spotify, and at the end it played suggested similar songs and I liked all of the ones that came after (by different artists) just as much, so this may have been the first but I don't have the experience or the vocabulary to specifically say that this particular album is *great*.

I think Raymond is in the room.

Groovy and upbeat, good for background music but maybe not a main course.

The dipthongy quality is a bit too much for me. I heard Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk a while ago and it was ok, but a whole album of that I couldn't take.

Like a lot of albums on here no question about the talent displayed, but the rating has to reflect my personal preferences.

This came out when I was 18, and I just wasn't ready for it. I wanted something that I could thrash around to or that had a killer beat. This felt like middle aged music. I think I owned the CD at the time but never really listened to it.

Then it popped up on my list today over 30 years later, and I realized something.

I'm still not ready.

These songs are soulful and beautifully crafted. There are few voices as recognizable as Stipe's. I really enjoyed it, but I kept waiting for the uptempo part that I could really sink my teeth into. After listening to Document and Green countless times, this felt like a little too much of a downshift for me.

I completely understand that as the band matures their sound will too, I'm just going to stick with the energy of their earlier work for another decade and check back in then.

3.7

I'd never listened to the whole album, quite enjoyed it. Watermelon Man was great, I've enjoyed that one for years.

Overall very good, the third song felt a little frantic, would have made Brenda unbearably nervous.

Songs like these are great to lose your virginity to because you can really settle in and take your time. The Ramones or the Dead Kennedys are the worst, it is just rushed and over before you know it.

I thought I might be in trouble when all Wikipedia had to say about this was "it is on the 1001 albums list."

How so many people thought this was a 5 (the best possible rating) is really puzzling.

I really appreciate the labeling of the Cocaine Songs and Love Songs - I don't know how many times I've been mortified by getting them mixed up.

Me: "THIS COCAINE SONG IS GREAT, RIGHT?"
Girl in the Club: "WHAT?"
"I SAID THIS COCAINE SONG IS GREAT!"
"NO, YOU'RE WAY WAY OFF!"
"WHAT?!"
"THIS IS A LOVE SONG, MAN!"

I thought it was kinda groovy and definitely listenable but not one that will probably be added to heavy rotation. To be honest my favorite part was that the baseline in Superfly became the intro to Egg Man.

3.2 stars.

Rumours begs the question: with unlimited access to cocaine, adulterous sex, and the greatest sound engineers and equipment available, who among us would not be able to produce one of the greatest albums of all time on our eleventh try?