Reviews by mitch058

A classic Lou Reed album; I'm glad we got this one (and I had no idea it was released so long ago). I'd heard so many of these songs in other contexts (I'm guessing quite a number from "Trainspotting", I'm a bit embarrassed to admit), and I'm impressed that so many came from this album. And while it may say more about me than anything else, I doubt I'll ever get tired of listening to "Walk on the wild side" (although I definitely don't binge on it). "Vicious" is a great way to start the album, "Satellite of Love" an iconic classic, and I'm not sure why "Perfect day" works for me so well, but it does. And despite some remarkably campy songs interspersed throughout, I also enjoyed several of the songs I wasn't familiar with, particularly "Andy's chest" (apparently a different version of a Velvet Underground tune, and also apparently a tribute to Andy Warhol and his near death shooting), "Goodnight Ladies" (mainly because of the reference to TS Eliot's Wasteland), and parts of "Wagon Wheel". Interesting that a veritable constellation of luminaries assisted in the production and conception--David Bowie, Mick Ronson, Andy Warhol. And funny that the man on the back album photo packed a banana in his pants for the shot.

Phew! Although I do hope this is the only Kiss album we get in this collection, it would have been a shame if we didn't get some Kiss in this project. I was never a big fan of them growing up, but even then I recognized that they had clearly paved the way for all the hair metal bands that followed, and for that they earned my respect (and likely the groans and hatred of many others).

Listening to this album now, I also realize that part of my reluctance to embrace them was that they simply didn't rock as hard as I wanted them to--I often feel like they were *pretending* to be a hard rock/heavy metal band, but really they wanted to be either a stadium-rock band with makeup and platform boots (a hard-rockin' Boston), or maybe more of a Meatloaf-style act ("Great expectations" and "Do you love me?" great examples). Plus it doesn't help that they didn't have a lot of range either musically or lyrics-wise. But what outfits! Out of the songs on this album, "Detroit rock city" is of course a lasting classic, and "Flaming youth" was also a fun (and a little cringey) listen; the rest were pretty nondescript (sorry, "Beth"). But I'm still glad they were included, and it's kind of satisfying reading that the producer of this album put them through a musical boot camp, as apparently they needed the kick in the pants.

Hm, another musical tourism album (for me). I remember hearing water drums at some point as a teenager and loving how exotic they sounded, but I'll admit I never really delved into South Asian music much. So, I enjoyed hearing the water drums. :) Other than that, it's pretty hard to gauge what makes this album and artist particularly noteworthy, although Wikipedia helpfully tells me that he was one of the greatest Qawwali singers of all time; I'm not an aficionado of Sufi devotional music, but I'll take their word on it. And I learned from the project's 2005 book edition that this album was his biggest (Peter Gabriel owned) Real World label release, and after getting showcased at a 1983 WOMAD concert. And after reading a bit about the Sufi devotional music tradition, I realized why I was vaguely reminded of this incredible whirling dervish museum in Konya, Turkey (Mevlana Museum), as the museum had Sufi devotional music playing in ceiling speakers throughout the museum's exhibits, and while the museum's music selection sounded quite different than this album's music, the ecstatic purpose was similar.

I'm pretty sure I'd heard of the band before, but I doubt I ever heard anything by them (at least knowingly) prior to listening to this album. The album is OK, I suppose, but a bit hard to listen to it with an ear to what this might have been like in 1981 (instead of 2024), so I don't really know how ground-breaking or earth-shattering this might have been for fans and neophytes alike. I kind of enjoyed the spoken-word "Of lilies and remains", and "Dancing" was a bit more hard-edged than many of the others, but overall not much really spoke to me (although I didn't mind listening to it, and found the student-film-esque video for "Mask" more interesting than the song itself). Sadly, the Wikipedia entry was brief and completely unhelpful, and the book entry not much better. It's like everything conspired to keep Bauhaus from being intriguing or compelling....

Just the other day I was wondering why I hadn't gotten any Talking Heads yet, so thankfully that question is now answered. I don't know their discography very well, so it's hard to say whether this is one of their better albums or not, but it *definitely* sounds like the Talking Heads I'm familiar with, and I really enjoyed listening to it, despite the relative paucity of radio hits (although "Once in a lifetime" more than makes up for that lack--what a great song). My favorite previously-unheard songs are probably "The great curve" and "Houses in motion". (And though it wasn't one of my favorites, "Listening wind" makes me wonder if it was inspiration for the Peter Gabriel/Laurie Anderson 1984 collaboration "This is the picture (excellent birds)".) And although I'm sure my memory is quite garbled at this point, I feel like a surprising number of songs on this album was played in that great concert film "Stop Making Sense".

I also like the backstory of how the album came to be, a strange blend of reactions to Byrne's controlling nature, Fela Kuti influences, Haitian Voudou, the insights from hip-hop's growing ascendance, and Brian Eno's semi-reluctant return as producer, all apparently reviving the band's energy and a more collaborative spirit. (And, of course, reinforcing that Brian Eno is everywhere.) It kind of feels like this is more of a meta-album for this collection, given how conveniently and easily it meshes with so many other themes in the "1001 Albums" collection. A bummer, though, that the creative process for making this album strained the band members even more than they were already. Same as it ever was....

This collection has just a few other albums like this, where it feels like nearly every song has played on the radio and also withstood the test of time, and yet isn't a greatest hits or compilation album. And of course this particular album has the song I worshiped as a budding (and truly mediocre) guitarist--it still amazes me that "Stairway to heaven" ever got radio time given how long it is, but it's hard to imagine growing up *not* hearing this song frequently. I think the only songs I hadn't heard before were the somewhat painful/unmemorable "The battle of Evermore" (Sandy Denny didn't help this song at all, sadly) and "Four sticks" (which is a bit frustrating for being so much more muddy-sounding than the other tracks).

This album is what I associate with Led Zeppelin more than anything else, and while I'm not a huge Zeppelin fan, I can definitely see myself revisiting this album; I just wish the lyrics at times didn't make me think of Spinal Tap's "Stonehenge" so much.... To be perfectly honest, too, this could easily be the only Led Zeppelin album in this collection (instead of the other 4 albums also present), and it would hit all the highlights of what makes them worthy of inclusion. Although then we wouldn't have had all the classics from Zeppelin II, or "Immigrant song" for that matter, but that's a price I'd be willing to pay, especially if it meant not having to wade through Zeppelin III, not to mention getting some other album that didn't make the cut due to space constraints....

I actually got this album a long time ago, before being part of a listening group, and gave it 4 stars, so it's nice to get a good album again, even if I'm kicking myself for not leaving any notes to myself on that first listen. "The weight" seems to get the most attention on this album, and well-deserved, but what I liked the most about the album has how consistent and solid the band is on the entire album; I can definitely see how this album sounded incredibly fresh and different in the midst of acid/psychedelic rock. In addition to "The weight", I particularly enjoyed "Caledonia mission", "We can talk", and "Chest fever". And pretty wild that they had to convince Levon Helm to come off oil rigs to come to Woodstock to sing and play with them.

More Radiohead from this collection--not surprising, but it definitely feels like 6 albums by *any* band is about 3-4 too many (to me). Not a bad Radiohead album, but also not all *that* different from others in this collection, and I'm not a big fan of their sound, so it's hard to get too excited. Although I did enjoy the more Chemical-Brothers-style turn on some tracks in this album, and I particularly enjoyed the opening track with its very reasonable refrain ("Packt like sardines in a crushd tin box"), and "Pulk/Pull revolving doors".

I was kind of disappointed (unreasonably so, I suspect) that the videos on this album weren't nearly as interesting as "Paranoid Android" from "OK Computer", although I'll make an exception for "Knives out", which while not all that great a song has a video that is both unsettling and impossible to look away from. The video for "Pyramid song" is kind of entertaining in a weird early 3D/VR way, and I'm not sure what to say about the experimental animation video for "Push pulk/spinning plates", other than that I understand why MTV wouldn't touch the video with a 10-foot pole; it's not every day that you get to see some weird centrifuge-like contraption with twin babies getting horribly disfigured....

Overall, I'd say they made the right choice not lumping these songs in with the "Kid A" album, but I'm also not sure this particular album belongs in this collection.

I feel like I should know of the Vines already, and they sound so quasi-familiar I kind of wonder if I *have* heard them before and have just forgotten it? Ah yes, the latter, as "Get Free" got a *lot* of airplay back in the day; I just didn't realize it was them... Either way, it's a decent album, and I enjoyed listening to them, but also felt like they struggle to sound all that distinct from bands before them. There's a strong Nirvana vibe ("Nevermind" era) to a number of the songs, so much so that I kind of felt like this was a sort of Black Keys/White Stripes thing, except that this album is way too late for that kind of emulation/envy, I suppose. (And now that I read the Wikipedia entry, I see that I'm not the only one making this comparison.)

But to their credit, they *do* have their own take on the Nirvana style of music--and even a little variety outside Nirvana, like with the Beatles' inspired "Homesick" or "Factory"--and hey, they're Aussies, so that counts for something, right? I'll also say that while the videos didn't add much to the music experience, they're a bit revealing about the lead singer's neurodivergency and somewhat alarming posture and behavior. A little digging on Wikipedia reveals that sadly, while he's later acknowledged that he's on the spectrum (and apparently cut back on fast food and cannabis to help control it), his behavior was too violent for the original co-founder to stay in the band (and he also later assaulted his parents and destroyed equipment on sets). Given all that, I'm not at all surprised that the band was dropped silently from the "1001 Albums" book a few years after they debuted; a bit sad, considering the gushing review in the 2005 edition, but mental health issues aside I suspect their longevity was doomed from the start, as they appeared on the facing page from the truly-cringeworthy Justin Timberlake album "Justified"....

What a curious--and almost bipolar--album. I don't think I've ever heard a "Small Faces" album before (and really not much of them at all), and while this is likely *not* a very representative album by them, it's a fascinating mix of styles and songs, at times reminding me of the Kinks in that regard ("Rene" and "Lazy Sunday" in particular made me think of them). I enjoyed the title track, "Afterglow" and "Song of a baker". I'm not sure I can say the same for the Happiness Stan suite on the B-side, but I'd give them an A for effort, taking what sounds like an incredibly offhand comment by a stoned-out band member and making it into an entire side of a vinyl disc....

Also, a helpful hint to anyone who hasn't yet listened to the album: the stereo version of this album is a *far* better way to appreciate the songs; I quickly realized this when it seemed really flat and muddy with the first couple of mono songs. And the Wikipedia entry really helps fill in some of the blanks, especially about the Happiness Stan suite's intention (which I'm not convinced succeeds, at least for me).

I know I've heard *of* Hanoi Rocks, but I'm not sure I've ever heard them, or at least anything from this album. A fine album overall, I'd say, but not particularly distinctive or memorable, except perhaps that they're Finnish instead of British or American? There is a somewhat appealing whiplash-effect, though, to the various flavors of glam- and hard- and faux-punk-rock tracks (at various times shades of The Clash or Motley Crue or even Kiss). And no noodling overlong tracks on this album!

Compounding the mystery of why this was included: the Wikipedia article is truly atrocious and uninformative; and the "1001 Albums" entry seems to fixate on how outrageous they looked and performed on stage, with not much to say about the music itself. Apparently you had to be there...

As I listened to this album, I realized that while I'd heard a number of their songs, I'd clearly never listened to the album start to finish. What a strange debut! They definitely refined and matured their style and sound over the years since, but I'm really impressed at how distinctive and wide-ranging they were on this album. I'm also impressed how few duds there are; the back-to-back tracks "The new style" and "She's crafty" aren't all that impressive, to me at least, but everything else has a great mix of bombastic energy. And pretty cool that they got Slayer's lead guitarist to play on "Fight for your right" and "No sleep till Brooklyn" (and apparently appear in the videos too). I think my favorite of the previously-unheard songs is "Hold it now, hit it" (and the video too).

A fine selection of Neil Young. A few radio classics, many others new to me, but only a few that really appealed to me--"My my, hey hey" (both versions) and "Powderfinger". I do like the concept of the album's title, and how it inspired him to stay fresh and performing on the road. I also liked how many of the tracks were recorded live, as this seems like his strongest mode. Although his style has never really appealed to me, I can imagine it was fun to hear these played on tour. (And I laughed when it came to the chorus of "Ride my llama", as he pronounced "llama" (lamb-a) a lot like the way an Australian acquaintance of mine pronounced "tacos" (take-ohs). An odd song, in any case.) Pretty cool, too, to hear the second side of this album as an inspiration for grunge (or at least for Pearl Jam, and ignoring the sad connection to Kurt Cobain).

An interesting choice of albums to represent Beck, but certainly not the one I'd have probably chosen for him ("Odelay" would be the most obvious, although I also really enjoyed his much later "Morning phase"). I always enjoy listening to Beck, and this album has the distinction of being surprisingly cohesive, style- and soundwise, and also being pretty somber. There are a few really nice tracks--"Golden age", "Lost cause" (with a hypnotic video), and "It's all in your mind" (in part because it predates his melancholy turn)--but I'll admit it's hard to distinguish most of them from each other, and I doubt I'd listen to this album again. Even the review/summary of the album in the 2005 "1001 Albums" book seems to be at best lukewarm to Beck's "left turn" to emo-ballads...

Yet another fine album by David Bowie (but not entirely distinctive, to me). I feel like there's a few artists and bands--and David Bowie is one of them--that really strain the guidelines of this project, as it often feels like we get more albums by some artists than feels fair, largely because we won't ever get a greatest hits album even when it could open us up to more albums by other artists. Greatest hits, of course, aren't really in the spirit of this project, but I feel like we could have enjoyed "Changes", "Oh! You pretty things", "Life on Mars", and "Quicksand" from this album, and called it a day (OK, maybe "Andy Warhol" too). Nothing wrong with the rest of them, but this isn't really a concept album, and it feels like David Bowie's still settling into finding his (ever-adapting) voice on the rest of the songs. (And yes, I recognize that I'm likely way off with this impression, given how highly ranked the album is by so many people and publications.)

Ah, nu-metal...I think we're *all* glad that wasn't a long-lived phenomenon. I'm a little surprised that we got this album from Limp Bizkit instead of their debut, since there isn't really all that much to this overly long and fairly repetitive collection of rants, and it doesn't have the freshness of being a debut album. But it's also not a horrible album, and certainly its sales record attests to their (always a bit baffling) commercial success. And while this could have been half as long and been much stronger for it, there are several solid rockin' tunes ("My generation", "Rollin'" (both versions), "Take a look around", "Boiler"), and the videos are pretty entertaining too.

I'm not at all surprised, though, that the album didn't survive in later editions of the "1001 Albums" book, nor that it was generally panned by review critics. I'm not sure "Kerrang!" awards for worst album and band of the year is entirely warranted, but Fred Durst probably *did* deserve the "Arse of the Year" award....

This is certainly a lot more interesting and lively than the other Elvis album I've heard in this collection ("From Elvis in Memphis"), so that's a nice plus. I'm not an Elvis (Presley) fan, though, so it's still hard to get excited about this album. It *is* interesting, though, to hear the contrast between the leftover Sun songs and the RCA Victor-commissioned songs, making for quite a strange mix of country and rock-n-roll.

I know it's not really fair to who Elvis was, or to any of the singers across the years who weren't also songwriters, but I wish we could hear at least one song written by him, even if it's atrocious. It's kind of a bummer to only hear him covering somebody's else material, and really, his versions of songs like "Tutti frutti", "Blue suede shoes", "Money honey" and "I got a woman" are all so pale compared to the originals (pun intended).

I'll admit I never really got into (or even really listened to) the whole Wu-Tang phenomenon, so this is all new territory to me. I can see why this got a lot of critical acclaim, and the whole mafioso theme makes for good cohesion on the album, but I didn't really connect to the songs or the album, unfortunately, and it felt like a bit much to slog through.

I can see why this was considered influential, as it sounds like a lot of other music that presumably came after it; sadly, I feel like whatever freshness and uniqueness this album had is largely lost to me, listening to this album so long after it came out. But kudos to RZA for an impressive job producing this and many other Wu-Tang solo albums, and also kudos to the extensively-documented Wikipedia article on the album for giving me every chance to learn so much more about the album and the players.

What a great album, in every sense. I think I like "Wish you were here" just a teensy bit more than this one, but that takes nothing away from this masterpiece. It's impossible for me to untangle the songs from memories of reading books while listening to the album, or of watching Laser Floyd to various tunes from this album (although I was always disappointed that the laser show part never seemed all that magical), but regardless I love it that the album is so seamless, and yet there are also several truly great songs on their own. "Time" is probably my favorite, but "Us and Them", "Money" and "Brain Damage" are also up there too, plus all the non-lyric tracks.

I think what sets this album apart, more than any other I've heard before or since, is how unique it sounds. I'm sure it's been classified this way and that, genre-wise, but to me it's a complete experience that doesn't really sound enough like anything else to be easily categorized.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Wikipedia entry is enormous and comprehensive, but also worth reading (at least to me). I particularly enjoyed reading about how they got Clare Torry's wordless singing on "The great gig in the sky", as well as where all of those quirky and candid fragments came from (flashcard interviews, although kind of the opposite of Brian Eno's famous flashcards, as it turns out). And I love it that Alan Parsons was involved in the recording, and I love it even more that the album's very large proceeds helped Pink Floyd fund "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".

I'm not as familiar with the Eagles' discography as I probably should be, but I'd be surprised if this wasn't their best album, possibly by a long shot (and what a shame it had to compete with "Rumours" for album of the year). Their radio hits are *still* fun to listen to all these many years later, and while the title track is immortal (and spawned more than a few great covers), "Life in the fast lane" and "Victim of love" are also solid songs in their own right. Overall, I've never gravitated towards the Eagles, I'll admit, but I didn't mind listening to this at all, even the less-memorable stuff. Not exactly the highest praise, I know, but hey, they get 4 stars from me on the strength of the title track and "Life in the fast lane" alone. :)