Reviews by mitch058

I'm only really familiar with XTC thanks to my younger brother's copy of "Nonsuch", so I wasn't really sure what to expect of this earlier album. I guess I kind of got what I expected, since I didn't expect all that much, but what an odd and sort of throwback album for something released in 1986. I can kind of see why producer Todd Rundgren envisioned it as a concept album, but it doesn't really feel all that cohesive, and honestly seems a bit trite at times, kind of a precursor to something Barenaked Ladies would make later ("That's really super, supergirl" and "Earn enough for us" especially seem to channel this), or maybe a later version of prog rock from Yes or the like (tracks like "The meeting place" or "Ballet for a rainy day" or the somewhat charming "The man who sailed around his soul" follow this vibe). I suspect diehard XTC fans have a very different experience of this album, but I was mainly left feeling a bit confused and nonplussed for much of the album, although the latter half seems a bit more consistent and solid (I enjoyed "Another satellite", their big hit "Dear God" and the following track "Dying" (very Pulp/Kinks). And after reading the incredibly long Wikipedia entry for this album, and all the conflicts between Rundgren and Andy Partridge, I now have a pretty low opinion of Partridge--what an overbearing jerk (although Rundgren sounds like a challenging producer to work with too).

What a deceptively good album. I can definitely see why the session drummer was a bit flummoxed working with John Prine's take on country/folk singing (apparently thinking that playing with him was "'gonna be like milking a dag-blasted dog"), but I can see listening to this album several times to get the most from his lyrics (or perhaps some of his later work); in some ways he reminds me a lot of Townes van Zandt (I still can't believe nothing of his made it into this collection). The best tracks on this album are probably the saddest tunes--"Hello in there", "Sam Stone", "Paradise", "Far from me"--but all of them are surprisingly insightful and/or quirky, and I also really enjoyed the opening track "Illegal smile" (apparently mistaken for a dope song from early on) and the Dylanesque/Buffett-style "Good enough" as well as "Quiet man". It's also fun to read how well-covered some of his songs became (especially "Paradise" and the Thelma-and-Lousie-adjacent "Angel from Montgomery"). Thanks for a great and unexpected selection, 1001-Albums team (and Kris Kristofferson for hooking up Prine with Atlantic Records)!

It's always hard to know (for me, at least) how to rate an album in the context of this collection that's more or less designed to be background music. But even if this isn't really a must-hear album, I still enjoyed listening to it, especially once "Eple" came on and I realized that I now had a name to go with that catchy hypnotic track, and then later the same realization with "Poor Leno". Other highlights for me were the Portishead-inspired "Sparks" and the semi-funk "Royksopp's night out" . It's not really music made to stand out, I know, but Royksopp definitely found a solid groove to kick off the 21st century.

Well, hard to think of an even bigger classic than this, especially given how much space is given to the whole punk genealogy in this collection. I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that I've never listened to a full Ramones album before this, just whatever I heard on radios or friend's houses. I'm a bit shocked that there's only one Ramones album in this project, but this seems like a great selection, and I'm also impressed how...tuneful...they are/were (especially "I wanna be your boyfriend", but largely throughout), despite the cranked up bpm throughout (amazing that their live shows were so much faster than this album). I particularly enjoyed the opening trio of radio classic "Blitzkrieg bop", the hilariously relatable (but of course violent) "Beat on the brat" and "Judy is a punk"; the album turns a bit more monotonic punk-style after that, but still quite listenable for a non-punk-fan (and there's something about "53rd & 3rd" that's very catchy, and despite its much heavier subject matter made me think of Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Thirty dirty birds"). Very impressive too that they managed to crank this out in a week and well under $7K; what a bargain for an incredibly influential record.

I've always had a soft spot for Gary Numan's "Cars", mainly because it was the very first song I remember playing air guitar to with my older brother. (How ironic to read in the Wikipedia entry for this album that Gary Numan ditched guitars altogether when he went solo and disbanded the early Tubeway Army; but it was the concept of playing along, I suppose.) Given Numan's pretty distinctive vocals and the massive synth presence of "Cars", I'm not entirely surprised that the rest of the album stays pretty much in the same lane, but it doesn't make for the most varied album, sort of a pop-/song-oriented version of industrial in some ways, even down to the bonus-CD live recording (from 1979) of "On Broadway"). It *is* impressive, though, how well he channeled all the semi-dystopian futurism and scifi speculation in songs like "Metal", "M.E." and others, although the videos are a little disappointing (perhaps from the limitations of technology and/or his imagination, but how could "Cars" not even have a single vehicle in it???). Regardless, I'm happy that this album made it into the collection, and even if Numan was more of a one-trick pony than I'd like him to be, I'm really impressed at his longevity on the touring stage.

Hm. This feels like a completely random album and artist to include, and it's not really the kind of country music I'm particularly drawn to. It seems well-produced, and an interestingly dark set of bluesy country tunes, though. (And I like it that in reading about this album I encountered a term I'd never heard before, a "Nudie suit", and followed an interesting rabbit hole about the apparently famous Ukrainian-American fashion designer/western wear tailor Nudie Cohn.)

I like Leonard Cohen's songs and really admire his career, but there's something about the sad 80s "modern" orchestration on this album that really (really) mars nearly every song on this album for me, with the only possible exception of "Take this waltz" (and even that can't redeem the truly atrocious following track "Jazz police"). It just sounds so much more vacuous than it should, especially because a number of the songs on this album are really well-written and interesting--"First we take Manhattan", "Everybody knows", the title track, and the classic "Tower of song". I'm glad he felt like he'd gotten his voice and style back on track with this album, but this isn't really my idea of great Leonard Cohen, sadly.

This is actually a repeat album for me (I got it before starting over with a group), and while I'm not entirely sure why I ranked it five stars back then, it's definitely by far the best of the three Roxy Music albums in the collection. I've always enjoyed Bryan Ferry's distinctive voice, and Brian Eno (who is everywhere, always) does a great job with the keyboards (and restraining himself from killing Ferry), as does the rest of the band, especially guitarist Phil Manzanera. "In the strand" is a perfect way to start off the album, and most of the remainder hums along in its wake quite nicely, with possibly the exception of "Strictly confidential". I also really enjoyed the strangely experimental "In every dream home a heartache", apparently inspired by Ferry's university art professor Richard Hamilton, and in particular Hamilton's famous collage "Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?" Well done, Roxy Music.

This collection definitely doesn't need three Dexys Midnight Runner albums, but ironically, now that I've heard all three, I'd actually say their debut album is not only the best of the lot, but probably the only one needed in the collection (although I probably would have missed "Come on Eileen" if that were the case). The opening track "Burn it down" sets a nice pace and expectation, and for the most part the rest of the album delivers on this (not sure that the instrumental "The teams that meet in caffs" was all that necessary, though). I also enjoyed "Geno" and the closing track "There there my dear" (with a fun video, although it looks a bit like goose-stepping towards the end), and wanted to enjoy the cover of Chuck Wood's "Seven days too long" more than I did, but despite a few nice points it doesn't really improve much on the original. Overall, though, this album is definitely better than I feared after having already heard the other two. Probably not the most inspiring endorsement for three stars, I know.

I'd never heard of The Beau Brummels or anything by them (even their earlier hit "Laugh Laugh"), so it was a nice surprise to get a much better album than I first thought from the album cover and the fantasy vibes of the first few songs. I guess they pivoted even more to a sort of country rock sound in later albums, but you can definitely hear it here too, and they do it well, especially with their cover tunes "Nine pound hammer" and "Old Kentucky home" but also tracks like "The keeper of time" and "And I've seen her". I guess "Magic hollow" was considered their masterpiece from this album, but while it's definitely better than most 60s psychedelic tunes, I think I preferred the oddball "Painter of women" more (and to some degree "The wolf of velvet fortune"). Either way, I'm glad the project's editors dusted this one off for our enjoyment; it's definitely not something I would have ever stumbled across on my own, I'd bet.

Just as I was finishing the album and thinking how much I enjoyed it, but also didn't think they probably justified having two albums in this collection, I discovered that I'd already listened to their debut album several hundred albums ago, and enjoyed that album a lot as well. It's not often that you get a band that puts together a solid track list, powers through them all (with a few fun videos thrown in), and you end up with only a few duds among the lot. My favorites were probably "More songs about chocolate and girls", "Hypnotised", "Wednesday week" and the ending pairing "Girls that don't talk" and "What's with Terry". And a great cover photo of the bassist and drummer setting down in the Bowery to seafood on their US tour. Well done (again), Undertones!

A fun Kinks album, and definitely worth inclusion in the collection (although I'm still not sure they warrant four albums total, but perhaps my final one ("Face to Face") is as good as the others?). Several strong tracks anchor the lineup, from the opening pair "David Watts" and "Death of a clown" to the grand finale (and best of the album) "Waterloo sunset", with other good songs in between, including "Harry rag" and "Afternoon tea". It's also interesting to see/hear the progression from earlier albums' rock orientation to their next album's "village green" theme/project (and apparently the song "Village green" was even recorded during this album's sessions). Something else, indeed.

A bit of a shame that this album came so close to the Minutemen album--I think I would have enjoyed this more without having just heard a longer and more dynamic and rougher (in a good way) version just a few albums ago. Ed Crawford does an admirable job filling in D. Boon's sizeable shoes, and I liked it that they clearly had branched out by this album away from just ersatz Minuteman stylings, although the hooky jazz/rhythm aspects are still there, thankfully, but this time in a much more folk/indie oriented cast. Some of the more quirky tracks midway through kind of reminded me of a great Portland band from around the same time, Slack, which of course made me wish Slack could have taken fIREHOSE's place, but I know that's not fair to this album or band. A largely entertaining album overall, though, and nice to see/hear that Mike Watt found his groove after D. Boon's death, and kudos to Ed Crawford for orchestrating this comeback and getting to play with his idols for several years, plus a great ending track to the album ("The softest hammer", very Jane's Addiction-esque).

I guess it would be a shame not to have the Bee Gees in this collection, so this one serves nicely as their placeholder. (I'm pretty sure, however, they *don't* warrant two albums, so I doubt I'll be as receptive to "Odessa", whenever it pops up, although who knows?) I'm not sure I understand all the weird historical and geographical references in the album and song titles, but overall it seems like a pretty harmless set of early 70s easy listening saccharine sweetness, at times reminding me a bit of Elton John or Billy Joel (but with worse lyrics), and the title track has quite a bit of David Bowie in it, oddly. I was mainly happy that there weren't too many truly horrendous tracks, although country-style "Remembering", bizarre "When do I" and the dirge "Dearest" are pretty painful, while "Lion in winter" stands out a bit for being more interesting than the rest.

I'm glad we get two different Yeah Yeah Yeahs albums in this collection, and while this one didn't work for me as well as their earlier "Fever to Tell", it's nice to get a somewhat different sound from the trio. The album starts of really strongly with the pair of singles "Zero" and "Heads will roll" (both with fun videos to accompany them), but gets a little bogged down after that with a bit too much synth-sound for my tastes, although "Dull life" picks up the tempo nicely and helps steer the rest of the album in a better overall direction. It's also interesting how involved TV on the Radio was with this album, between producer David Sitek, as well as vocals from Tunde Adebimpe on "Dragon queen". It makes me want to revisit the only Yeah Yeah Yeahs album I actually own but surprisingly have no real memory of listening to ("Show Your Bones").

I can't believe that there's *still* one more Sonic Youth album to go after this one! I'm not a big fan of them, but I would think that even diehards might question whether everybody else really couldn't die without gorging on five SY albums. Nonetheless, it was nice to get a somewhat less discordant album from them with "EVOL", and even the hint at times of actual songs (but only a hint, of course, and really only on the first side). Interesting too to get so many SST albums around the same time, with Minutemen coming just a few albums before this one, and then having Minutemen's Mike Watt guest playing on a few tracks on this album too. I'm not sure I could say that any of the tracks really spoke to me, but I liked reading that on the vinyl release "Expressway to Yr. Skull" had a locked groove at the end, so it played to infinity and beyond. (Weird too that the cassette/CD/streaming version of that song is titled "Madonna, Sean and Me".)

Well, that was more disappointing than I expected, sadly. I'd heard of the Lemonheads before, and certainly heard their title track single on the radio back in the day, but never knew that was theirs, probably because it wasn't all that catchy or compelling (although reading that the title was taken from an Australian newspaper headline about a teenager who'd moved to Sydney and was homeless and was considering prostituting himself to make money certainly makes the song's backstory a bit more interesting). But none of the tracks really do much beyond sounding like they really wanted to be on the "Singles" soundtrack, but somehow couldn't quite make the cut. At times it felt like they have a kind of a tepid take on the mellower side of Husker Du/Bob Mould or even The Meat Puppets, but even that sounds a lot more interesting than the reality. I always *did* like their version of "Mrs. Robinson", though, so there's that going for them (even though I never realized it was *their* cover), and that's really the only reason they get three stars from me.

I know I'd definitely heard of Minutemen even back in high school, and knew they were a punk band, but clearly never heard them, as I expected this album to have a lot more hardcore punk, and never guessed large parts of it would sound a lot like a jazz/funk jam session, just in really tiny bits (and very punk in that sense). Waaay too long in many ways, and I definitely prefer D. Boon's songwriting to Mike Watt's, but pretty entertaining from start to finish for what it is, and I like how the first three sides are named after each member of the trio, plus "Chaff" for the 4th-side dregs. I also like their willingness to cover a strange range of tunes (especially CCR's "Don't look now" and Van Halen's "Ain't talkin' 'bout love", but also Steely Dan's "Dr. Wu"), and while the truly atrocious recording quality of the live covers makes it hard to say they're *great* cover versions, they're certainly quite different from the originals. Regardless, a great sampler of a pretty unique-sounding band, and I love it that the album title is a big middle-finger to the lameness of Sammy Hagar and his ilk.

This is definitely the sort of album that makes me particularly appreciative of committing to three-plus years of random music selections. I don't think I'd ever heard anything from this album (maybe "Fix up, look sharp"? but probably that's just because it borrows from Billy Quier's "The big beat", I suppose), and certainly never heard of "grime" as a music genre, nor any of the esoteric rabbit holes I followed from the Wikipedia entry for the album (Jamaican sound-systems, Windrush Generation in London, etc.). It's probably not an album I'd listen to frequently, I'll admit, but I'm really impressed that this is a debut album, and largely a one-person production, and that it managed to win the Mercury Prize despite falling *very* far from any mainstream music tradition. This felt so much like the soundtrack to some dystopian cyberpunk vision of the near future.

The third and last White Stripes in this collection (for me, at least). I'm really not sure why this album (and all of the White Stripes albums, in fact) didn't last all that long in the "1001 Albums" editions, as there's nothing particularly different between this and much of Jack White's later (solo) work, and I enjoyed the album more than I expected. My favorites were probably the truly experimental "The nurse" (apparently about a woman Jack White obsessed over for over a decade), his singles "My doorbell" (with a creepy video with this sort of twisted Willa Wonka vibe) and "The denial twist" (with a fantastic Michel Gondry mirror-house video), plus "Take, take, take" (although I'm not sure I really understand all the Rita Hayworth references even after reading about them in the Wikipedia entry). Perhaps not the Whites' best effort ("Elephant" still makes that mark in this collection), but still a strong serving of their distinct and strangely appealing sound.