1001 Albums - 361-380
I'm running behind on this - I've listened to 412 albums of this list.
In this set of 20 albums, there are four albums I rated 5, by Pavement, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie and The Rolling Stones. Three of these were already in my collection, and I added the other.
I think the top pick of this tranche of albums for me must be Bowie's Heroes. Coming towards the end of what I think of as his early 70s golden period, and one of the "Berlin" albums, it's full of great songs and one of his influential LPs.
Among the others, I was slightly disappointed by the B-52s debut album, which I think had some filler.
The Stones' Sticky Fingers is a real classic despite the dodgy lyrics of the opening track.
| 380
Jan 24 2025 |
Slanted And Enchanted | Pavement | 5 |
3.03 |
| I knew of Pavement, but I'd never listened to them. Love the sort of ramshackle sound, which does remind me of early The Fall music (though I don't concur with Mark E. Smith's claim they are a rip-off). This is great stuff and I think I'll add it to my library. | ||||
| 379
Jan 23 2025 |
A Rush Of Blood To The Head | Coldplay | 2 |
3.45 |
| Coldplay are massively popular. I suspect this is because their music is rather bland. I played this album twice and it just passed me by as I zoned out. It didn't attract my attention at all. But that said, it seems to have attracted a whole load of accolades, as has the band itself. | ||||
| 378
Jan 22 2025 |
Headquarters | The Monkees | 2 |
2.88 |
| As a manufatured pop brand (rather than band), Some of the Monkees' singles were really rather good. I don't really know the ins and outs of who actually played on their records, but with this album they were flexing their creative muscles. The problem is that this just isn't a great album. from the opening Beatles pastiche, the songs are just dull. | ||||
| 377
Jan 21 2025 |
Power In Numbers | Jurassic 5 | 1 |
3.49 |
| This is a truly dreadful and boring album. | ||||
| 376
Jan 20 2025 |
Call of the Valley | Shivkumar Sharma | 3 |
2.95 |
| Like others, I couldn't find this album on my streaming platform, but did on Youtube. It's good to see an album that's not Western-Anglophone. This album is a nice enough thing to listen too, but really it didn't grab my attention, so it's unlikely I'll play it again. | ||||
| 375
Jan 19 2025 |
Destroy Rock & Roll | Mylo | 1 |
2.91 |
| From his Wikipedia bio, Mylo seems like an interesting chap. But I found this album dreary dull stuff. Not something I'd be keen to play in the future. | ||||
| 374
Jan 18 2025 |
Songs Of Leonard Cohen | Leonard Cohen | 5 |
3.37 |
| Back in the mid-70s when I was a student and just embarking on a life of listening to records, Leonard Cohen was always touted as this depressing figure. But really his music is so much more than that. Not so much to my taste, but this is a cracking debut album. | ||||
| 373
Jan 17 2025 |
Maverick A Strike | Finley Quaye | 3 |
2.78 |
| This album (and Finley Quaye) was unknown to me until now. It's a pleasant enough mix of reggae funk and soul that comes across as bit of pastiche. | ||||
| 372
Jan 16 2025 |
A Date With The Everly Brothers | The Everly Brothers | 2 |
2.97 |
| I think this record has dated rather a lot - it is likely to have been pretty influential. The Everly brothers seem to have been up there with the movers and shakers of the late 50s music world. It's an album that in its lyrical content brings out the broader sophistication of rock and pop music after the mid-60s. Not an album I'm likely to play in the future. | ||||
| 371
Jan 15 2025 |
Live At The Regal | B.B. King | 4 |
3.69 |
| I like blues, though I'm not a massive B. B. King fan. That said this is a good live album, and unlike some other reviewers I think the audible responses of the audience add to the atmosphere of the recording. And King's guitar really sings. | ||||
| 370
Jan 14 2025 |
Crosby, Stills & Nash | Crosby, Stills & Nash | 2 |
3.49 |
| Well I found this a pretty dull album that sort of washed by me. | ||||
| 369
Jan 13 2025 |
Yank Crime | Drive Like Jehu | 4 |
2.68 |
| I had never heard of Drive Like Jehu before it popped up on this list, so I was keen to play it. Wikipedia describes it as "post-hardcore", whatever that is. I played through the album a few times, and I thought it quite fun to listen to. Probably something that fill well into the scene at the time. | ||||
| 368
Jan 12 2025 |
Off The Wall | Michael Jackson | 3 |
3.77 |
| This is the first massive solo album from Michael Jackson. I didn't particularly care for it too much - a bit too pop for me, but there's no denying it was hugely influential. However, I far prefer Thriller to this album. | ||||
| 367
Jan 11 2025 |
Heroes | David Bowie | 5 |
3.61 |
| A, what can I say, one of the great Bowie albums, which along with the other 'Berlin' albums was very influential. Perhaps not the best of his albums, but a 5 star album nonetheless. Tracks here range from ambient to quite heavy. | ||||
| 366
Jan 10 2025 |
Sticky Fingers | The Rolling Stones | 5 |
3.88 |
| A Stones album from their great days. The opener is one of the greatest rock songs of all time, but it's a shame about the lyrics (to modern ears). A good set of Stones songs with a bit of a country blues tinge. | ||||
| 365
Jan 09 2025 |
Grievous Angel | Gram Parsons | 1 |
2.86 |
| Ugh. I dislike Country music, and this album is no exception. I think Gram Parsons was influential in bringing a country sound to many bands he worked with, but I doubt this album was. | ||||
| 364
Jan 08 2025 |
Fever Ray | Fever Ray | 4 |
2.99 |
| This is a great electronic album, with rather quirky vocal stylings. The album was new to me, but I like the following two albums, so I was up for this. | ||||
| 363
Jan 07 2025 |
The Bends | Radiohead | 4 |
3.99 |
| Well, I have something of a love-hate thing with Thom Yorke's vocals, particularly on OK Computer, but I really rather enjoyed this album, which I'll add to my streaming favourites. Probably not as important as OK Computer but pretty enjoyable. | ||||
| 362
Jan 06 2025 |
B-52's | The B-52's | 4 |
3.27 |
| Well, Rock Lobster was a great single, and I can see from Wikipedia that there were several singles drawn from this album. The whole retro-glam-punk schtick is pretty appealing, as it was for Scottish band The Rezillos, and it's a fun album to play. I don't think they really had enough material and the last track is filler. But the other songs are great, often with pretty idiotic lyrics. | ||||
| 361
Jan 05 2025 |
Joan Baez | Joan Baez | 1 |
2.95 |
| This may be a matter of taste, but I've never really likes Baez' voice. I think this may be the first time I've listened to one of her albums all the way through, and I didn't find it very enjoyable. I find her voice and singing style dominated the songs and made everything rather harsh. I could only play this once, and it seemed a bit interminable. I get that Baez was a big figure in the folk resurgence and was important as a social activist, but in that context I'm not sure a debut album of covers of traditional songs is so significant. | ||||
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