1001 Albums 121-140
Some great albums here, plus some real dogs (in my opinion, obviously). The highlight in this set of albums is London Calling by The Clash, but then that's been a favourite of mine for many years.
I hadn't listened to Orange Juice's Rip it Up much at all over the years, and I kind of appreciated this. So that's the album I'm flagging up here. Devendra Banhart's Rejoicing in the Hands was also interesting. Both these are in my Qobuz favourites for further listening.
I was a bit disappointed by Stevie Wonder's Fulfillingness' First Finale. Aerosmith is a band I just don't like, though I noted the energy in Toys in the Attic!
| 140 | Head Hunters | Herbie Hancock | 3 |
3.56 |
| Hmm...I'm not quite sure how to rate this album. It has four lengthy jazz-funk instrumentals, each of which sort of noodles away without really being particularly engaging. | ||||
| 139 | Toys In The Attic | Aerosmith | 1 |
3.29 |
| Oh god, not another Aerosmith album. Despite the band's energetic enthusiasm, I found this a dull album that doesn't interest me. | ||||
| 138 | So | Peter Gabriel | 3 |
3.53 |
| I'm pretty familiar with big single from this album, Sledgehammer, but not the album as a whole - it's not something I'd have made an effort to listen to at the time. And I think the mid-80s production values don't serve this album well, at least from a 2020s perspective - it's a bit too polished for my taste. That said, I like Sledgehammer and Don't Give Up. Not an essential album in my view. | ||||
| 137 | Signing Off | UB40 | 4 |
2.95 |
| Released a year or so into Margaret Thatcher's lengthy stint as prime minister, this is a cracking debut album of left wing reggae songs. I wish there was more like this in the charts at the moment as a similarly right wing government folds messily. It's been a long time since I last played this record but it really takes me back. The songs are all strong both musically and lyrically. | ||||
| 136 | São Paulo Confessions | Suba | 3 |
2.85 |
| The album didn't get of to a good start for me, sounding a bit like a hotel lobby soft muzak. But it's good to have a non-Anglic record. The downside is that I don't really know what the songs are about. | ||||
| 135 | Paul Simon | Paul Simon | 2 |
3.53 |
| This is an album of folky singer-songwriter material. It's OK, but really pretty far from my taste. I don't really see that it's an exceptional or great album. | ||||
| 134 | Is This It | The Strokes | 4 |
3.85 |
| This is a fine debut album, like a modern garage band with occasional hints of The Velvet Underground. I'd say that on the downside, that the songs all seem fairly similar, with none that stand out to me. But that said, I played this three times and really enjoyed it. | ||||
| 133 | Melody A.M. | Röyksopp | 3 |
3.21 |
| Another album by a band I didn't know anything about, much less played - it completely passed me by at the time of release. Anyway, this is a nice enough album of downtempo electronica, but not particularly exciting. | ||||
| 132 | Rejoicing In The Hands | Devendra Banhart | 4 |
2.86 |
| Now, Devendra Banhart is someone I've mean to listen to for ages. I've played the album three times now, and I like it enough to add it to my Qobuz favourites. It took a couple of plays before I could figure out who his voice reminds me of - he reminds me of Marc Bolan's vocal style. All in all, this is a pleasant album of gentle sounding guitar folk. Not sure where the much vaunted 'Psych' descriptor comes in. This is an album I added to my Qobuz favourites. | ||||
| 131 | More Songs About Buildings And Food | Talking Heads | 4 |
3.4 |
| An excelllent album, maybe not essential. A bit less twitchy than their debut album, a solid record. | ||||
| 130 | Ten | Pearl Jam | 2 |
3.94 |
| This isn't an awful record, it just doesn't grab me particularly. Maybe it's just that it's not to my taste - I had listened to Pearl Jam back in the day but I never really liked grunge. The album just sort of exists. Was it influential? Not as far as I know. But I guess that since Pearl Jam hit the big time with this debut, and continued from there, it clearly hit a chord with the public. For me there's too much guitar histrionics. | ||||
| 129 | Goo | Sonic Youth | 4 |
3.25 |
| This is a great album - it was actually the first Sonic Youth album I bought. That may influence my opinion, but it is an album full of solid songs. | ||||
| 128 | Channel Orange | Frank Ocean | 1 |
3.34 |
| Bland, boring stuff. The vocals sound horrible. One of the worst albums in this list so far. I usually give these albums three plays but this one grated so much... | ||||
| 127 | Dookie | Green Day | 3 |
3.78 |
| Well, this is a lively pop-punk album. Enjoyable but not outstanding. | ||||
| 126 | Faith | George Michael | 3 |
3.24 |
| I never liked Wham!, and I never really listened to George Michael's solo work, other than the inescapable singles. On playing this album, I found it an excellently produced record - very slick soul-influenced pop music, but it really failed to grab my attention. I couldn't really see why it makes it into this list of albums that must be heard. So I get that it was popular and why it was popular, but it left me a bit disinterested. | ||||
| 125 | Rip It Up | Orange Juice | 4 |
2.9 |
| This was quite a refreshing change from recent albums from this list. I was a student in Edinburgh while Orange Juice and their Scottish pop contemporaries were active. My tastes at that time veered more toward the heavier experimental side of post-punk and while I was aware of Orange Juice, the band never made it to my record collection. The opening title track is a stone cold classic which deserved its chart placing. It's followed by Zeke Manyika's A Million Pleading Faces which makes for something of a stylistic change. Over the next couple of tracks I wondered if the album had run out of steam a bit, but Breakfast Time boosted my attention. (A young man singing about wishing he was young again is quite amusing to this 60-something listener!) Louise Louise is a nice track, followed by Hokoyo - I assume the lyrics are from Manyika again. The two Manyika tracks present a nice change of style in the album. All in all, this was a pleasant listen. I may add it to my Qobuz library. | ||||
| 124 | Foo Fighters | Foo Fighters | 4 |
3.55 |
| I was never a Nirvana fan - always felt they were a bit derivative and cliched to my old ears. As a consequence I never really listened to Foo Fighters. While this is essentially a solo Dave Grohl record, it comes across pretty well - I think the drums are really driving the songs forward. So after the first play, I'll be playing it a couple more times - but so far it's pretty good. May investigate other Foo Fighters albums. After a couple more plays, I prefer this to Nirvana. | ||||
| 123 | KIWANUKA | Michael Kiwanuka | 4 |
3.76 |
| My first impression of this album (which I've not listened to since its release) are of a nice smooth and well-delivered soul album. I'm not massively grabbed by this - it's a bit too easy listening for my taste. Kiwanuka's voice is great, but I wish there was a bit more passion there. | ||||
| 122 | London Calling | The Clash | 5 |
3.98 |
| After being one of the leading bands in the UK punk explosion, and after two great punk albums, this double album marked a significant change for The Clash as they moved beyond the confines of the punk format, yielding an excellent set of songs strongly influenced by other musical styles and by observation of disparate ethnic/social groups in London. The album is chock full of great tracks from the title track that opens the album onwards, through Guns of Brixton, and I don't think there's a dud track. This album was in my view the peak achievement of the band, the follow-up, Sandinista was just a bit too bloated as a triple album. The album's cover is excellent, with the perfectly framed shot of Paul Simonon smashing his bass guitar - the fuzziness adds to the energy, and the typographical homage to the first Presley LP. | ||||
| 121 | Fulfillingness' First Finale | Stevie Wonder | 3 |
3.56 |
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