1001 Albums Summary

Excellent jazz album which I’ve heard many times before. Excellent on a peaceful morning walk, or a coffee in the garden or elsewhere.

Not my genre. Some aspects of it did interest me but as a whole I found it a bit too indulgent for R&B soul. I could handle it in smaller doses with less of what I consider to be the cliche of that genre. The best song is By The Time I Get To Phoenix however ditch the first 5 minutes - single edits were good but not technically the album.

Like meeting an old friend for a beer. An album I thoroughly enjoyed when it came out - and revisiting it now after (maybe, at least) 10 years is familiar and fun. It feels as though each song on this compact album could have been a hit until you get to the big hits and you realise they go that 5% harder. Brilliant album that captures a vibe perfectly.

This is a great album, and the production is excellent. For me, the 2nd half tops the first - although I do enjoy songs such as Dont Stop Til You Get Enough, I find the falsetto vocals tiring after a while, whereas the songs from Off the Wall on are generally in lower register, slower tempo, and more "my jam". Not an album I'd listened to before, but full of bangers which feel very familiar - due to radio play or having been samples heavily. You can also feel the ripples of influence today throughout - Daft Punk, Vulfpek, etc all heavily inspired by this sound.

Really enjoyable album. Not knowing what I was in for made for an interesting listen - transitioning from folk to … glam? Grunge? Was a ride. Bookending the album with a grunge version of the first was excellent.

You got to love Talking Heads. I'd never listened to this album before so most of these songs were new to me. I really enjoy the dancable dissonance of their song, and Byrne's unorthodox singing. I do still think for most, if you put this on in the car they'd think you were mad. But maybe we should all be a bit more mad.

I am sad to say I did not enjoy this. The production quality is low, which from a band as big as The White Stripes at this point in their career was clearly a choice, but I don’t think this works as a cohesive album. To its credit it often reminded me of a 2000s Hunky Dory, but without much of its charm. The singles I know, and enjoy, but beyond those there wasn’t much to love about this album.

This album is quite lovely really. The clean production leaves loads of room for all the little guitar, bass, sax licks that really elevate this album. I hear shades of John Mayer, Norah Jones etc in this - wouldn’t be surprised if this was a production blueprint for their earlier works. Excellent.