The 1001 albums listing continues its anglophone trajectory. But for me, some outstanding albums here. The main highlight for me was the definitely non-anglophone debut album by Einstuerzende Neubauten.
Kollaps by Einstuerzende Neubauten exemplifies the changes in accessibility to music over the last few decades. Back when this album was released (1981) I'd read about records in the New Musical Express, and maybe hear these records on John Peel's radio show. But in Edinburgh, where I lived at the time, you'd be hard-pressed to see these in the racks in a record shop - and there were loads of record shops in those days.
Fortunately, the Virgin Megastore was pretty efficient at ordering records for customers, and that's how I obtained my copy of this.
I loved this album, and still do. I'm not surprised by the reviews at the 1001 albums website, as it's quite challenging record to listen to. But as I note, it was quite influential and was part of a wide approach to new ways of making music, influencing even mainstream pop bands as sampling became more prevalent.
There were two Ray Charles albums in this set of albums, and I was rather suprised that I didn't care for them - they seemed rather middle of the road to me.
I was surprised by the selection of the Rolling Stones' first album. It seems to me to be largely a pastiche of American R&B (as originally defined) - and not a patch on their sequence of truly great late 60s and early 70s albums.
| 240
Sep 05 2024 |
Cypress Hill | Cypress Hill | 1 |
3.16 |
| There's too much hip hop/rap in this list. This more of the same. | ||||
| 239
Sep 04 2024 |
Second Toughest In The Infants | Underworld | 4 |
2.83 |
| Ah yes...mid-1990s, the album nearly fills a CD. It's a bit long. But that said, this is quite a varied collection of songs, varying from pretty techno-focussed stuff to softer, more introspective tracks. I prefer the more techo tracks, but in general I liked the album. May add to my collection. | ||||
| 238
Sep 03 2024 |
Rage Against The Machine | Rage Against The Machine | 4 |
4.01 |
| Generally not a metal fan, but the energy here along with the rap style vocals and political statements make this a massively energetic and exhilarating album. | ||||
| 237
Sep 02 2024 |
Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music | Ray Charles | 2 |
3.47 |
| Well, I love Ray Charles' voice, but I find the arrangements with all the strings and backing vocals rather too much and a bit same-y. Ultra-smooth. | ||||
| 236
Sep 01 2024 |
Legalize It | Peter Tosh | 3 |
3.07 |
| This seems like a nice solid reggae album, pleasant to listen to but not to my general taste. I didn't care for the title track, but the rest was fine. | ||||
| 235
Aug 31 2024 |
Funeral | Arcade Fire | 3 |
3.6 |
| I'd heard of Arcade Fire, but never listened to an album of theirs before Well, this is a *nice* album. It's not outstanding in my view, rather inoffensive, and well put together. Average. | ||||
| 234
Aug 30 2024 |
Antichrist Superstar | Marilyn Manson | 2 |
2.5 |
| The advent of the CD induced many artists to produce albums of excessive length: this is one such. While it starts with a refreshing sonic blast, the sad truth is that this album is over-long and lacking in variety. It's the kind of shock-rock-pop that teenagers play to antagonise their parents. Shallow and boring. | ||||
| 233
Aug 29 2024 |
Urban Hymns | The Verve | 4 |
3.36 |
| The whole Britpop malarkey mostly passed me by, but I did buy this album on release. The standout tracks are really the various singles - particularly Bittersweet Symphony and The Drugs Don't Work. I think that the album is overlong with some of the tracks dragging a little. But that being said, this is a sterling album. | ||||
| 232
Aug 28 2024 |
Wild Wood | Paul Weller | 3 |
3.11 |
| Paul Weller's musical career really hasn't been stuck in a rut - from The Jam's rise as a mod band on the back of the punk explosion through The Style Council's mannered pop to his long solo career. On first listen, I wasn't particularly engaged by this album, which seemed to veer between soul-inflected songs to more AOR type material. By my second listen I rather liked some of it a bit more. After three plays I think this may be a grower. But I'll still give this an average score I think. Inoffensive and a bit 'grown-up'. The album is over 30 years old (how time flies)! | ||||
| 231
Aug 27 2024 |
Illinois | Sufjan Stevens | 2 |
3.5 |
| Not to my taste, this album really overstayed its welcome. I thiught the songs dull. | ||||
| 230
Aug 26 2024 |
A Short Album About Love | The Divine Comedy | 1 |
2.78 |
| If any album convinces me that overblown production, an excessive swelling string section and over the top vocals don't convey much in the way of emotion, it's this album. It comes across like a pastiche of the kind of performance characteristic of 1960s/1970s light entertainment TV shows. I'm not familiar with The Divine Comedy - maybe this is a deliberate pastiche? | ||||
| 229
Aug 25 2024 |
Throwing Muses | Throwing Muses | 4 |
2.95 |
| Turns out this album is considered to be untitled, and it seems to be only available as the first 10 tracks of the compilation "In A Doghouse". This is a great post-punk/alt-pop album in a similar vein to the Pixies and The Breeders. | ||||
| 228
Aug 24 2024 |
Melodrama | Lorde | 2 |
3.33 |
| Overly busy production and average songs. The singing really grates. Maybe this is a taste thing, but it's not a great album. | ||||
| 227
Aug 23 2024 |
The Fat Of The Land | The Prodigy | 4 |
3.39 |
| Not keen on the sampled lyrics of the opener "Smack My Bitch Up", but other than this it's a great album. Favourite track is "Firestarter". | ||||
| 226
Aug 22 2024 |
Younger Than Yesterday | The Byrds | 3 |
3.13 |
| The original album was pretty short at 29 minutes - something of a blessing since this is pretty dull. At least the country/folk aspects aren't too strong for this record. | ||||
| 225
Aug 21 2024 |
The Rolling Stones | The Rolling Stones | 3 |
3.26 |
| This seems to me to be a reasonable album mostly stocked with cover versions. The Stones-penned songs are a bit derivative. At the time of release, this might have been seen as an exciting album, particularly with their live performances, but really it's not a patch on their late-60s output. | ||||
| 224
Aug 20 2024 |
The Slim Shady LP | Eminem | 1 |
3.32 |
| Brat-rap. | ||||
| 223
Aug 19 2024 |
Giant Steps | The Boo Radleys | 3 |
2.91 |
| I wasn't a massive shoegaze fan back in the day, so I'm pleased to listen to this album, which displays a bit of diversity in style. As so many albums of that time, this one kind of overstays its welcome at well over an hour. But still, a solid piece of work. | ||||
| 222
Aug 18 2024 |
Kollaps | Einstürzende Neubauten | 5 |
1.85 |
| I bought this album back in the pre-internet days when finding this kind of music was a bit of a challenge. Ordered it via a record store in Edinburgh. This album started my love of Einstuerzende Neubauten's music, and I've followed their albums since then. This album is a massive rush of heavy percussive music made with heavy duty metallic objects, some are 'found' objects, some constructed. The album sleeve has a photo with the band and their kit laid out - reminiscent of the back sleeve photo of Pink Floyd on their Ummagumma album. I'm not sure this would be the best pick of Einstuerzende Neubauten's catalogues - later albums become increasingly contemplative, but by golly it's an album this list needed to have. I notice that recent CD versions of this album include the cassette-only release Stahldubversions. In style this would be classed as 'industrial punk' I guess, and Einstuerzende Neubauten was one of a number of bands of this style. They did have an influence on subsequent bands, particularly as Fairlight samplers enabled the incorporation of 'found sound' into pop music. I'm thinking of Depeche Mode's 'Construction Time Again' for example. | ||||
| 221
Aug 17 2024 |
The Genius Of Ray Charles | Ray Charles | 2 |
3.63 |
| So Ray Charles' first album was released in 1957, and this was his 7th....released in 1959. That's some work rate. I'd had minimal exposure to Ray Charles, and I was expecting great things from this album. But I really didn't care for the big band arrangements and the old classic songs. I really didn't see this as a particularly great album. | ||||