1001 Albums Summary

2/5. A National Front Disco indeed. A couple of slower ones are decent but the big sound at the start just doesn’t work.

Stone cold classics to start with, but gradually tails off before a dismal ending.

Magnificent

At the height of their popularity Pulp shunned the radio-friendly stuff and created a much darker record that endures with some of their best songwriting

Big hair, big tunes, but too much filler.

All very beautifully arranged and played but the songs themselves are average.

Smooth as, lads.

Really immersive listen, playful but smooth

When it’s good it’s very good but lacks consistency and overdoes it at times.

Cracking sound and full of tunes, but points off for what is in effect a compilation, not an album, and notably dubbed, so not really live.

Lovely stuff that still sounds fresh today

Their first album full of original tunes is one where they start to come of age. It’s a delight to listen to.

Some great songs but someone needed to step in and add some direction, and an editor. Sprawling, meandering, over indulgent.

An epic sound- it could have been over indulgent but it genuinely does add something to their sound and gives a fresh take on old classics.

My gateway drug to the greatest of all. Sure it has flaws but they’re part of the whole, and the likes of Old Man and The Needle And The Damage Done are among his most essential cuts.

Lush sounds but lacks variety

Just magnificent. The Weight is among the greatest songs ever recorded, and then throw in the likes of Tears of Rage, Chest Fever and Long Black Veil and you’re on to a winner.

Overall, great fun but you need to be in the right mood for this sort of thing - not really my comfort zone. Reckon my Iron Maiden collection will start and finish with The Number of the Beast.

Now this is a proper live album. The atmosphere really comes across, Cash plays it perfectly and the back-to-back performances of San Quentin seal the deal.

An album of two halves, which is one of the few things to count against it. If they’d carried on in the groove of Side A it’s a solid 5/5, but seems weird they returned to the old playbook on Side B. Not that there was anything wrong with the old playbook - but it does end up feeling like they lost their nerve.

Four (California) stars from me, and very nearly five because there’s so much to love. Hits the sweet spot for the balance between reverence for the source material and the irreverence of so much of Guthrie’s writing. Joyful.

Some nice tunes - lots of funky bass and a big sound - but I ended up being more interested in a lot of the source material than the end product. Lyrically not my thing.

I was about to give this three but screw it - let’s go with what might be an unpopular opinion. Kind of remembered it as being Mr Brightside and 10 others but to be fair they know how to write a tune and stuck plenty on here. Nothing deep and meaningful of course, and significant points off for the “I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier” refrain, but if you’re out to write an art-rock/new wave influenced indie pop album you’d be hard pressed to do it better than this. Fair play.

A veritable mixed bag of a record. Some great stuff - mostly for me the heavier stuff on the second half like Mother’s Daughter and Hope You’re Feeling Better, but also some cheesy bits and a lot where it’s too smooth for its own good. Definitely stuff to revisit though

Another all-time Neil classic, packed full of great songs, delivered as live for a real raw punch.

Combining folk/country licks with punk ethos and a funky bass, there’s heaps packed into half an hour here, and I’m already on a third listen by midday. Hook me up for more.

Largely built around the three singles but to be fair, cracking singles they are. Very stylised but can’t deny it sounds fantastic, production levels through the roof. Maybe not one I’ll revisit too many times but it’s very well done.

Feeds on its own nervous energy, it’s angry but fun, teetering on the edge of control. Basically, a riot, in more ways than one.

Some sublime grooves and funky tunes, but also a fair few bits which are just too damn smooth and turn into mushy background music. Strawberry Letter an all-timer though.

My favourite Cure record. Big sprawling epics - dark, brooding, and addictive. Gets under the skin.

Not a Miles record I know so it took me a little while to get into it, and maybe one I need to revisit to appreciate more. First half felt a little too one paced but much more going on on the flip side.

It’s wonderful. Full of energy, belting tunes, razor sharp performance - belting. But I’m still knocking points off for live albums that aren’t reimaginings of the songs cos it’s cheating if it’s basically a greatest hits set

Cheese rock. Hyper-produced, hyper-processed to be so perfect it’s devoid of any soul. There was a brief moment where memories of childhood car journeys being brought back by the singles (dad had the greatest hits compilation that everyone has) might have earned it a second star for sentimental reasons, but any lingering goodwill was destroyed by Earlybird.

All-killer, no filler. You get used to albums from this era being three singles and a bunch of leftovers but this is outstanding throughout. Perfect pairing of the Muscle Shoals sound and the Queen of Soul. Wonderful stuff.

A bit twee at times but there is something lovely about hearing an excellent songwriter reclaiming what for so long she’d allowed others to define. I remember introducing my dad to this record in the early 00s and as he’d grown up on the 60s “originals” he struggled to get his head around the fact King had written all these tunes and this wasn’t just as covers collection.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Still the finest of the Modfather’s solo albums, this kicks off with my favourite Weller tune and keeps the top class songwriting coming. If we’re nit-picking (and I am, because I can’t give a five every time) it could do without the noodly instrumentals that push it towards being too long, but there’s not much to complain about here.

A bit sickly smooth at times. But the grooves are undeniable.

Add it to the list of fine records that now come with some troublesome baggage but damn if it isn’t still a fine listen. Tune after tune delivered with a distinctive, rich signature sound, it still sounds fresh 20 years on.

All very nice but this lacks any real depth and feels like it just drifts along. Highlights like Bananeira are few and far between.

Slightly more suited to a Monday morning where you need a kick up the backside than a chilled Sunday, but bloody hell this is exhausting. Kudos I guess for its pioneering status but it’s a one-trick pony for me.

Yes please. Dunno how you define Beck as an artist yet this is surely the definitive Beck record. Full of tunes, full of creative ideas, there’s something else every time you stick it on. Belting.

Are we allowed to say it’s kind of average? A couple of cracking singles, sure, and the craft that has gone into the production is obvious but too many of these songs weren’t worth that level of attention. Most of it distinctly forgettable.

Can one great tune sustain an album? No, it cannot.

Peak Bruce. Magnificent

The best of the solo stuff, partly down to the two cracking bands he assembled for it. Brings back memories of a great week in which we saw him play with the all boy band in Bridlington and the all girl band in Hammersmith a few days later.

When they say it’s Abba’s “more mature” album but what they mean is it’s the one without any tunes

Some timeless stuff on here for sure. One or two that haven’t aged so well but it packs a hell of a lot in to 34 minutes.

Some very groovy grooves, most obviously on the title track, but perhaps drifts a little on the second side. Not his best record, but not bad either.

New one on me. Not always an easy listen but once you get into it you can hear why it became so influential.

I was actually quite looking forward to this as an album I’d been meaning to check out. In my head it was going to be Ray doing a sort of country-got-soul thing with the potential to be mint. In reality it’s him ruining a bunch of Hank Williams and other tunes with schmaltzy big band nonsense, and only a couple of decent take aways.

About two-thirds of this deserves to be on a five-star record - the first two are majestic and Gypsy Woman does indeed cast a spell. But he loses me in Room 109 before wresting it back and the closer isn’t up to the standards of the rest either. So four it is.

Two gold-plated classics in Somebody To Love and White Rabbit, but the supporting cast is patchy and Grace Slick is an underused weapon.

Some beautiful music here, particularly the middle part of the album - Autopsy and A Sailor’s Life, ideal for lounging around on a Sunday morning (rather than listening to on a run as I did). Doesn’t get the fifth star cos I’m not up for the the random French Cajun version of Dylan, it just doesn’t fit, and Million Dollar Bash is a bit meh too.

Super smooth funk with some fabulous tunes, most obviously Them Changes, sustained by a lovely sense of mischievousness. Perhaps inevitably with 23 tracks, not everything hits, but it’s an album to make you smile.

Wonderful stuff - Dusty sounds totally at home in the land of southern soul.

Striking in tone and emotional in content, but too one-paced.

Clearly know their way around a pop hook but the sickly sweet “sophisti-pop” sound is a turn off.

Some lovely dirge on here, and you can hear why it was so influential. First time for me on this, and I wouldn’t bet against repeat listening yielding that fifth star.

Peak White Stripes. Not listened to it in a while but it takes me right back there.

Not his best work (feels like it lacks cohesion at times) and yet it still gets four stars because most bands would kill to make a subpar Nick Cave record.

Masterful

Absolutely love Creedence but can never decide which of their first five records is the best because they all feel like great albums without quite being superb. That said, the triple whammy of Wrote A Song For Everyone, Bad Moon Rising and Lodi at the centre point of this is next level.

It’s too long, in truth, but damn if it isn’t filled with quality tunes throughout

It’s just good clean fun

One of the all-timers.

Already the signs were all there - feels like a bad really taking off. The energy and inventiveness even when doing covers is next level.

The time isn’t always right for the darker side of the Bunnymen but when it is, it hits the spot nicely

First side is lovely, ‘Pitche Mi’ is the highlight for me, but it tails off on the flip side

While there are a handful of wonderful interpretations there’s also loads of cornball American big bad schmaltz that I have little time for. Real mixed bag.

His best record for me, the one where he graduated from fulfilling his youthful ambition of making records that sounded like Bill Withers* to fully realising an identity of his own. *though some of this still does, and why not

A riotous ride, roughly how I imagine the inside of an empty whisky bottle might sound.

Yes, you have to turn it off before the last track but it’s still the sound of Christmas

Sounds tired and largely uninspired after Funeral, going back to the same playbook and coming up with a cheap knockoff

Plenty of fun to be had here but it’s hard to ignore the fact the best of it is the bit that sounds like the Talking Heads, so then you just want to stick on the Talking Heads

One of the foundational records for me, beautiful vocals, wonderful grooves. Beautiful.

The three best tunes they ever put on record, but not much else has aged particularly well.

Some wonderful songwriting here - and I’ll always have a sentimental spot for it as it was one of only two albums* I had with me when travelling around the states by train with a portable minidisc player way back when. *Elbow’s Asleep In The Back was the other.

Some lush sounds and a number of great tunes - was nudging towards a four but unquestionably drags on a little too long.

A handful of lovely moments but way too much aimless noodling, a record which doesn’t seem to have worked out for itself what the point is yet. Might have made a nice EP.

Don’t really get the fuss on this one versus so many other of his live performances, and points off as usual for a live album anyway

A wonderful balance between pop hooks and angst.

Some fine musicianship wasted on painful levels of proggy pretension.

Perhaps lacks the coherence of their very best but still has all the power and verve.

May not have the stand-out singles of its predecessor but it’s a better album. Belting rhythms and snarling vocals.

Permission denied. A poor parody, Spinal Tap without the jokes.

The low-key version of the Velvets opens with some stunners. Maybe drifts a little in the second half but still loads to love here.

Far more than just its title track, belting southern soul and sweet grooves.

More of a slow burn compared to their first two but Souvenir, She’s Leaving and Maid of Orleans are superb. Nearly got a four.

Comfortably the best of the latter-day U2, maybe their most creative and varied album.

Not the best White Stripes record though I like the fact they tried to do something a bit different. Some of it lands, but not enough.

Mixed bag, this one. Some of their best tunes mixed with some noise and some seemingly half-finished ideas.

Maybe my favourite Dylan, seems like there’s something different you can take from it every time.

Groove-tastic

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Big fan of Merle - a proper country musician in touch with what it’s all about and none of that kitsch but this one is less engaging than Swinging Doors and on ‘Life in prison’ he’s ripping off his own licks. Even so, it’s worth a thousand of the pop-in-a-cowboy-hat records they claim is country these days.

Is it too long? Not if you don’t want it to stop.

More layers than an onion, but missing that fifth star because some of the stylistic shifts still jar.

Their best work was still ahead of them but this remains a brilliant, brash introduction to the glorious nonsense that is the Super Furries. Always puts a smile on your face.

There’s some interesting sounds and arrangements here but it just doesn’t come across as a convincing record at all, and just makes you think of actually great albums you could be listening to instead.

The accessible face of Beefheart. Not going to lie - I struggle with so much else - but here I can get on board.

Stone-cold classic, the starting point for so much. Gold standard stuff.

Feels like about half a good album, half aimless wandering.

Claustrophobic production and monotonous rhythms leave the impression at least half this album is essentially the same tune on repeat.

A rollicking set, full of energy and atmosphere. But the now customary marks off for a live album that’s not a re-imagining.

Feels like a bit of a mixed bag - the darker broody stuff rewards repeat listening while ‘Promised You A Miracle’ and ‘Glittering Prize’ point the way to the band they became but it doesn’t completely hold together, and some of it feels muddy.

Lovely stuff on the whole, but always feels like an album that points to where they were going rather than arriving straight away.

Overall a decent record, more depth than maybe I’d been expecting beyond the singles, but blimey if it doesn’t let itself down. Like the opener, why the heck is it five minutes long when all that happens from two minutes onwards is she repeats the chorus?

Some absolutely sublime songwriting on here, plus the Bowie and Ronson refresh of Reed’s sound. Doesn’t quite all land, but spectacular when it does.

Veers between fun little ditties and borderline unlistenable dirges that feel like really hard work.

Belting tunes with those irresistible Nile grooves.

It’s not even my favourite Blur album, but it’s one of the foundation records of its period, still a reference point now.

Imagine the record this would have been if it carried on as it starts…Some gorgeous playing, some beautifully tunes but also a lot of half-finished ideas that feel like demos and outtakes. Not entirely against that as a rule but it still makes you think it could have been so much better.

Enjoyed the pairing of soothing tunes with the anger of divorce but - stop me if you’ve heard this one before - it’s too long and drifts.

Always liked Mr President but there’s nothing else here to match it and a lot of it sounds badly dated.

Just a beautiful raw record that opened up a whole other side of him as an artist.

Indie perfection. Sounds so assured in packing 15 big punches into 38 minutes, it’s rare I get to the end and don’t just play it again.

A beautiful record, dark with emotional songwriting. Some majestic playing too, though there’s the odd element of the sound that grates, so four, not five from me

Soaring tunes, more great guitars from The Edge, and gospel/Southern influences creating some infectious grooves, it is all-in-all a great record.

Plenty of fun to be had with some good old-fashioned guitar pop, with shades of glam and bubblegum and all the trimmings. Does run out of steam though with the last few tracks outstaying their welcome.

Some nice atmospherics and it’s all very moody, but a lot of it doesn’t really go anywhere.

Fascinating record in many ways given a fairly radical change in sound that was maybe designed to latch on to the success of the Missing remix. It largely succeeds but is less engaging than Amplified Heart before it

Accept no (more expensive) imitations. Landmark stuff.

Overall a belting album, even if a lot of the lyrics are, well, odd.

Magical

Their best record since Dookie, bursting with purpose…and sadly relevant again. The longer medleys don’t necessarily work so well but the overall impact remains.

Subtle shifting tones and building themes, it just keeps giving.

A title that translates as “White Reggae” is a red flag, and although there are a handful of decent tunes, it lacks the vitality of the debut.

Enjoyed revisiting this a lot because it’s not the Talking Heads I usually go for. It’s not quite the finished product but all the pieces are there.

I’m sure there was a time when it was obligatory to have a copy of this kicking around. Entry level Cuban jazz but not dumbed down, it was great prep for when we went over there what is now a frighteningly long time ago.

It’s all about the one single, right? And what a single. But there’s more going on besides - with Bootsy magic dust sprinkled here and there.

There is some wit, there are some tunes, but there’s also a world of misogyny, violence and cheap reach-for-the-shock-factor lyrics to undermine the whole thing and make you want to turn it off.

Didn’t know this one before I started and needed a few goes to get my head around it (and am still probably some way off completing the task). Beautiful rhythms and movements, it’s hard to fathom it’s a spontaneous performance.

Lush sounding pop music with engaging tales of bedsit romance.

A beautiful concept and some lush sounds, but far from an easy listen.

Landmark stuff. Couple of weaker songs in the first half, but ‘The Model’ is exquisite.

Beauty in simplicty

Always feel like I should like the Faces more than I do given a love of the Small Faces and their general bluesy looseness seemingly ticking a lot of boxes for me. This is as close as I get, a handful of cracking tunes, a decent cover, but also too much plodding.

One of those corny, watered down attempts to “reach new audiences” but end up really unengaging. The cover of Imagine is painful.

Snarling attitude, tight tunes and plenty to enjoy

There’s part of me wants to give it four on account of being far too long, but the sheer scope of it is the point. Banger after banger, there’s so much wonderful music.

Righteous grooves

The algorithm is spoiling me this week.

Lacks the killer tunes of some of their others, but an average Talking Heads record is nevertheless a great record

Some lush production and lovely tunes, but also rambles about being stuck in airport security and what he had for breakfast.

It’s a muddy, claustrophobic sound but some bangers lurk beneath.

A fun (for us) and necessary (for him) blowout that still stands up.

Sixteen-year-old me would be giving this 6/5 and the 44-year-old version still has a finger hovering over a fifth, but I guess we've grown up, if only a little, since then. I still bloody love it, with One To Another an absolute all-timer for me and so much else on here besides despite the sad circumstances of its recording. Too big for its own boots, the sound almost splits at the seams at times - maybe it would have benefitted from tighter production, maybe it's just right the way it is given its flaws are some of my favourite things about it.

Proper no-frills punk, definitely more than one chord wonders

It might be slightly odd that one track is more than half the album, but it's a sprawling epic so go on then. The flip side can feel patchy by comparison but by no means an afterthought.

Belting record that has a sound of its own. Takes me back to a time and place. Front-loaded with the best stuff.

Outside my comfort zone here - enjoyed some of the darker broody moments and interplay but then they lost me with noodly bits and overly repetitive themes.

Back in the day I bought the first two White Denim records and enjoyed them plenty but not enough to prevent me being distracted by some other shiny object and going no further. So it should have come as no surprise when I found out yesterday that it was their third record that was considered their crowning glory, worthy of a spot on the list. Serious chops, fully-rounded sound, and tight tunes. I wonder what else they’ve done…

The last instalment of the Stones’ golden trio, love the loose feel of this one, and the country tinge is right up my street (cheers Gram). In keeping with the circumstances in which it was recorded, it feels like you’ve popped over for a beer and caught them mid-jam, accidentally bashing out all-timers.

First things first, I'm going with the usual policy of trying to separate art from artist, even if that gets increasingly difficult in certain cases... Starts off with a couple of absolute crackers, no doubt, and there's some solid stuff besides, but too many Stevie Wonder retreads and stuff so sickly sweet you can feel it rotting your insides.

This came dangerously close to a three as it’s an album better than its singles suggest, but even then the best of it feels like Sabbath-lite, and the worst of it, the terrible ‘United’, is simply unacceptable.

A big record in alternative US music no doubt, but it’s only a rough draft of the band Dinosaur Jr turned out to be, and it’s low-fi approach struggles to capture the wall of sound they produced. Enjoyable, but feels like it could have been more.

How to turn intra-band love turmoils into pop gold. A few corny moments - and might start with its weakest song - but there's enough sweet stuff here to carry the day.

In many ways my favourite Radiohead albums - as brilliant as the albums that followed were, it was all very deliberate in the way boundaries were pushed. This by contrast is just the sound of five guys with their guitars, their drums and their genius.

Rough, abrasive, contrary, yet addictive too.

Some absolute tunes on here but it doesn’t half go on and seems torn as to which direction it wants to travel in.

Some of their best stuff is on here, though none of it in the second half

An infectious blend of bubblegum pop, surf and (proper) rock n roll nicely skewed through a post-punk lens.

Big hair, big sound, but not much that holds any longer than the hairspray holding it together.

⭐ ⭐ All the ambition is there, but it’s a deeply flawed end product. Handful of standouts - Pinball, We’re Not Gonna Take It etc, and I love the opening bars of Sparks even if it goes on too long - but there’s far too much mediocre-to-crap stuff thrown in to try to carry the rather dubious (in more ways than one) “plot”, and you just want to skip to the odd decent tune.

I won't lie - Zappa is a guy I can struggle with when he starts to get too avant garde-y, but this is the sweet spot for me - some belting tunes but with enough going on around them to make it stand out from the crowd. The drugs definitely kick in on side b. 

It’s nothing sophisticated - it’s just belting good fun.

Bleak, visceral, crackling with a forbidding energy, both firmly of its time and timeless.

Big, meaty, melodic - it’s not Husker Du but it will certainly do.

Bits of it are fine, I guess, but Video Games aside*, I never really got the hype. *obviously not on this record

Another headphone album, all about the intricate details and rich sound.

Rewriting the rules on what is possible. Again.

The best bits are a poor man’s Prince, the worst bits a skint yuppie’s hangover.

A number of absolute belters packed into the middle section, though it lacks the spark of the albums that came before and after.

Maybe it’s not the same without Bon Scott, but even so, it’s still just good, unclean fun.

One of those albums that, first time I heard it, challenged my preconceptions of the types of music I like.

Shall we have a bash at Philly soul then? Yeah, why not, even if it’s just passing through. Handful of absolute belters here, but not a full album worth.

It starts off well enough (a Curtis Mayfield cover being a cheat code) but hunks of it are dismal - a mish-mash of genres and influences that ultimately does none of them justice.

Not my favourite Nirvana album anymore but it’ll always be my first. Revolutionary and timeless

The voice is starting to fade but the magic is still there.

Shimmering synths and lovely subtle sounds, but the quality of the songs tails off from a strong start.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ The drugs do work kids. Let the Thin White Duke show you how.

Intense, brooding and occasionally euphoric, representing a period of change for the band and Manchester music as well. It’s not a perfect album, but it’s a great one and sentimental reasons earn it that fifth star.

Pop hits throughout, the start of a truly tremendous run.

The blues never sounded so much fun

Some beautiful sounds on here, and each track taken in isolation has plenty to offer. But as an album there’s not enough variety to keep you going for an hour.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Putting out a record largely themed around mortality two days before you die is a heck of an artistic statement but the record itself is patchy, and the sound doesn’t do it justice.

Kind of keystone stuff for me as one of the founding documents of country rock, less an album and more an instruction manual for a new genre. That said, it’s way too big for its own good, and turns into a jack of all trades while mastering few.

Prime post-Smog Bill. Rich and moody, simple songs enhanced by measured arrangements.

Shoegaze royalty

Grunge royalty today. Got some absolute anthems on here but falls short of the fifth star on account of being a bit plodding places, lacking the spark of some of its contemporaries.

Mind bending, occasionally thrilling, but ultimately too damn big. Doesn’t really make the case for the idea of releasing two solo albums together as one under a band label.

Lovely, lovely jingle-jangle, whose influence was huge. Doesn’t necessarily grab you first time but you keep returning.

The sound of a band straining for something that isn’t there. Is there much more of this prog-rock to get through?

Raucous but also really tight, this on grew on me a lot. One to revisit for sure.

Some cracking tunes and endlessly inventive soundscape, you know any song off it the moment you hear it.

my bloody valentine’s weird and wonderful world of noise. Perhaps not as fully realised as loveless but still a great bold statement of a record

Monumental. It’s both an old, old friend, and a record that sounds as fresh as a daisy.

Decent tunes, nice grooves, it’s all just good fun as long as you don’t take it too seriously.

A joyful and fun record for sure, but ultimately a toned down version of the highs of Odelay.

Lovefool is a scorcher and the arrangements are lovely, just enough to lift it above the crowd

Hook me up to sunny days listening to Forever Changes.

These are the good times

Nice to hear the tunes emerge from the noise, though it’s a clear step back from the bold vision of Psychocandy

Rock and roll energy, raw spirit, all the feels. Essential

Some nice jingle-jangle but hardly reinventing the wheel.

This one has sent me down a rabbit hole the last few days as I can’t remember the last time I listened to the whole thing. Sprawling widescreen emotion, as accessible as Jason Pierce ever got, it’s close to a five but maybe slightly outstays its welcome.

Sure, they wrote themselves some nice stadium-filling anthems (albeit Starlight is basically Coldplay with a big old bass) but there’s not much under the hood.

Aside from Eight Miles High being among my favourite ways to spend three and a half minutes in music, Mr Spaceman, 5D and What’s Happening?!?? are crackers. A little bit uneven but plenty to love.

Nothing wrong with mixing things up but on too many of the mid-song style changes you can hear the gears grinding, undermining some very nice tunes.

A fine slice of chamber pop - though without the standout tunes of Casanova.

A mesmerising collage of sounds that gives up something new every time

No denying the two big tunes on this one, but aside from those Vini Reilly’s guitar offers up plenty to enjoy - if not consistently. Not that Morrissey relies on having a top guitarist alongside him or anything.

Fair play, I suppose on pushing the boundaries and creating a new sub-genre, though ultimately speed metal is one I can broadly live without

Some standout moments but it’s an album where they sounded like they were between identities

Whole heap of bangers on here

One star each for a couple of great tracks but too much overblown midding stuff around them

Lacks the drive and purpose of the albums that came before it, that loss of focus reflected in stylistic experiments that don’t all come off.

Rollicking stomps and envelope-pushing sounds. Doesn’t quite all land but with all the seeds being sown, plenty of it flowers

Another one where it’s taken me a few days to find the right context for it, but once there the melodies and rhythms make it very worthwhile.

Rollicking good fun, a much-needed return to basics after too much rock-opera nonsense.

Playful roots hit the spot in the sunshine

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ A flawed epic, with a world full of ambition and some of their best moments, but it can’t paper over all of the cracks of a splintering band.

A deliberately uneven record that has a handful of captivating moments but doesn’t do enough to reward the effort it demands.

An odd record - contains their signature tune yet more than half of it doesn’t sound like them at all. A hodge-podge rush job to capitalise on singles but still with some good stuff amid the half-assed covers. But too half-assed to truly deserve a place here.

Context is key, right? As the diary of a break-up of the biggest band on the planet, it's a fascinating listen. But it veers between great tunes and half-finished cast-offs. A cathartic necessity perhaps, an intriguing moment in time, but only half a great album.

Aggressive, edgy dance music that’s not actually all that danceable, full of clever tricks but ultimately the end product isn’t necessarily a record you want to listen to.

Some of the very best of the American Recordings stuff is on here, but as with most of the others in the series it’s a bit scattergun and some of it is pretty poor. They could easily have cut it and made it much better in the process.

A skint man’s Green Day, without the songs or the subtlety, all just a bit shouty.

The talent is obvious but an uneven choice of tunes - trying to find a few that might sell no doubt - prevents this one from soaring.

Tight, melodic tunes that never outstay a welcome, indecipherable lyrics that somehow still feel full of meaning and power, a record that doesn’t get old.

Glam rock you can believe in.

A rebirth for Dylan but a far from perfect one, with a little too much rambling (the he-said, she-said of Highlands, come on) and a muddy sound. That said, there’s more than a handful of songs worthy of giving his career a second wind.

Enjoyed this one more than I expected to after the opening bars, though it’s not a sound that’s aged all that well.

No denying the beauty of the interplay between piano and bass, though stopping short of a fifth star because there were times when it just doesn’t grab me. I might even have ended up being one of those folks you can hear talking all the way through (I jest of course, I’d never stoop to such a low).

The dawn of metal - dark, malevolent blues cranked up to 11. Just the beginning.

Accessible ambient, a wonderful calming world.

Definitely not always of the good clean variety, but it’s great fun all the same.

A big comedown from Thriller. While there are a handful of decent singles worthy of the predecssor, there’s also too many sub-par efforts.

Punk for nerds, with some excellent songwriting lurking under the feedback

Before all the embellishments, just good old-fashioned bar room blues, with some cracking tracks.

Catchy post-punk with razor sharp lyrics

Impressive lyrical gymnastics but lacks the tunes to match.

Tender and personal, the “difficult” follow up to Dark Side is one of their best.

The Bunnymen never quite made the perfect album but this might be as close as they got with, for me, their best set of songs.

Another cornerstone for the nerds. Sometimes you can feel it owes little too much to its source material, but there’s humour and light and a whole lot of fun.

Powerful and bruised, the sad last will and testament of a tragic artist. Trades the raw energy of Big Brother for the polish Full Tilt Boogie Band, who to be fair do less to get in the way. Including ‘Buried Alive In The Blues’ as an instrumental because she died the day before she was due to record the vocal is a sad reflection on a lost talent.

Sensationalist, but not sensational, overcooked glam with some fairly horrific lyrics and few redeeming features other than its relative brevity.

Probably the Doors’ most cohesive album that gets off to a belting start, just a shame it sounds as though they were losing interest by the last couple of tracks

If I was 10 years younger I’d probably be giving this 5/5 - a teenage me would have been all over it as folk round our way went wild for it back in the day - “Red Lights…” was everyone’s night out in Sheffield. Smart lyrics and infectious tunes mean it stands up a lot better 20 years on than a lot of its contemporaries but there was better to come.

Silky

Don’t tend to associate the Pet Shop Boys with being bland, but too much of this is.

An eclectic sprawling mixtape of an album that shows off their mad range.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Can only imagine how exciting those opening bars might have sounded back in the day as Dylan ripped up the script, they still sound thrilling today. A perfectly realised revolution

The legend of Crazy Horse is born.

A moving meditation on grief. At times it can feel a little too one-paced across its 68-minute span, but no denying the beauty of so much of it.

A rich tapestry of soul, funk and jazz. Goes on a bit but never drags.

The Dylanesque Sultans of Swing holds its own but this is pretty pedestrian stuff.

I was kind of underwhelmed by this one for a long time after it came out, but the whole Hamlet thing made me revisit it and I’m grateful it did. Not their most consistent record but there’s some corkers on here.

Hits you like a frying pan to the face, full of vital energy - Abattoir Blues might get a five on its own terms but, while there’s still plenty of strong stuff on The Lyre of Orpheus, the more sedate pace after the urgency of what came before means it feels as though it tails off.

Uneven selection that shows impressive range but lacks cohesion.

Country Bruce can be a wonderful thing. Contains some of his best songwriting, though it kind of drifts to a conclusion.

Damn, what a band they were. On a given day you might convince me any of their first three records* was their best. This one perfectly combines the towering psych rock of their debut with the songcraft that made them. *who here remembers there was a fourth?

Blends jazz, rock and prog but in such a way as to suck out the feeling. There’s the odd decent tune but what there is gets undermined by extended navel-gazing. It might have scraped a second star if it didn’t drone on for 78 over-indulgent minutes.

Dark, spare tunes make this maybe the Cure’s least immediate record, but it rewards repeated listens and A Forest is a banger.

A remarkable record given the circumstances of its creation but a difficult listen that seems to delight in sounding like nails down a chalkboard at times. But the influence of tracks like Little Red Riding Hood on Radiohead is obvious.

Context is key and I must declare this was a staple of my childhood, dad being a big fan. It’s a ludicrous record in so many ways - I remember poring over the wild list of instruments they used to make it. Corny and overblown, another one that is too long for its own good, but damn good fun all the same.

Fight the power!

A couple of crackers on here as they honed their sophistipop sound.

Bjork’s in love! Lush orchestration and rich textures, if only it had a little more variety.

As previously discussed, bossa nova a bit on the sickly sweet end of the scale for me, and despite a promising start this has fewer of the grooves that won me over on Getz/Gilberto

Exquisite songwriting

A ‘live’ album that’s not actually a live album, it feels like a bit of a gimmick which undercuts the strength of some nice stuff.

A couple of decent singles and a variety of ideas elevate it above the status of indie landfill, but this is a hardly a classic of the genre. The idea they were ever compared to Nirvana is embarrassing.

Deceptively simple, brilliantly effective. Still a thrill.