I could definitely tell these guys are from Ireland. The album had some of that traditional Irish sound to it. In fact it reminded me of the Pogues, who I listened to a few weeks ago, but this album was so much better, if for nothing else other than this guy can actually sing.
An amazing piano player, this album is hit after hit. The funny thing is only 2 of the songs are his, the rest are covers of other peoples songs, and the album would have been much better as a greatest hits album, as a live album the sound quality was pretty poor. Still fun to listen to though.
The second of only four albums, lyrically it was just average but with Eric Clapton on guitar that is where it really shined. Even at this early point in his career you can tell that he is going to be an amazing guitarist.
I was not expecting this album to be a electronic hip-hop album. From the name of the artist I was expecting more of a R&B album with African sound to it, but this was much different. Inspired by the likes of Kraftwerk, Afrika is a DJ and one of the originators of old school hip-hop sound. The single from the album, Planet Rock, have been sampled in a ton of hip-hop songs. Overall I thought the album was pretty interesting and really pretty good.
The last of their albums together it had some huge hits for them. Overall it was pretty good and, for the most part, about what I expected. As for the hits, I'm not sure that there are many songs more iconic that Bridge Over Troubled Water. Such a good song.
A disco, r&b, funk album it didn't really do it for me. Mostly because of the disco element. It's just not my style.
Released in 1985 the two hit songs from this album were HUGE and are deeply ingrained in 80's pop music. I never listened to the full album when it came out and listening to it now I know why the two hit songs were the songs released as singles. They are far and beyond the two best songs on the album. The rest of it was average at best.
This album wasn't available on Apple Music.
One David Bowie album has come up before this one, and in that review I mentioned that I really like his music but he is another example of me just being a fan of the hits. That changed at least, for this album.
These guys started the British punk movement and probably the most famous. The album was loud and obnoxious and the singer is terrible but it was still really good if you appreciate it for what it is, a loud, obnoxious album recorded to lash out against the government and the royalty. It still happens today. Just look at how many songs have been recorded protesting Trump since he was elected.
I don't really know what to think about this album. Born in New Orleans I definitely could hear the influence in his sound. I can't say that it was any good, but it was interesting enough to keep listening.
I bought this album when it first came out. I love the song "Hard to Handle". I haven't listened to the whole thing for a long time and had forgotten how good it is. As an album it has a couple week songs but the four singles are really, really good southern rock, and the song "She Talks to Angels" is one of my all-time favorites.
Listed as an experimental pop band, they formed in 2003, which was very surprising to me. Listening to the album I would have guess that it was from the 70's. I didn't care for it. Maybe it was too experimental for me
One of the original glam rock bands of the 70's this album was really good. Reading up on the band they had a pretty good career and some huge bands, including KISS, Def Leppard, Quiet Riot among others, have mentioned Slade as one of their musical influences. I really liked it. It is just some really good, play it loud rock. So give it a listen and crank it up!
Musically this album was awesome. It is the band's debut album and it is straight forward rock and roll. However, the singers voice is a little annoying. At times he sings super high and it is almost operatic. I do remember hearing the hit single when it came out and I thought it was o.k. I just never knew who the band was.
About the same as the first Fatboy Slim and the other electronic dance albums I have listened to
I'm sure I have mentioned this more than a few times, but one of my favorite bands is The Cure. The reason I mention this is because around 1978 the Banshees lost one of their guitarists. The Cure had been opening for the band on tour and their lead singer, Robert Smith, had become good friends with Siouxsie, and offered to fill in for them for the remainder of the tour. So, for a time, he was playing guitar for both bands.
When I started this journey there were bands than I had in my mind that I didn't like even though I had never really listened to them. Now, after listening to some of them I have changed my opinion. For example I now have an appreciation for Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, and with each Beatles album I have liked them more and more. However. However, I do not like The Doors. I thought I wouldn't like them and this album absolutely confirmed it. It was terrible, and in my opinion The Doors just might be the most over-rated band ever.
My favorite professor at pharmacy school, and one that I ended up having for a 6 week 3rd year rotation surprised me one day by telling me that their favorite band is Slipknot. It surprised me because I would not have guess in a million years that it was their favorite band. I guess it goes to show that personal taste knows no bounds.
The one and only Blood, Sweat & Tears album on the list and I have to say it was pretty good. The band is a Jazz/Rock ensemble from New York originally and has had, as far I can tell, over a hundred members since it's founding. This album was released in 1968 and actually won a Grammy for album of the year that year. It also spawned 2 hits songs that I believe most people will have heard before.
Some of the jazz albums I've listened to so far have been pretty good and others have been a mess. This one falls into the category of good. The music was tight and focused, less like a long drawn out jam session and more along the lines of preconceived songs. The songs were really well done and had some great piano and horns.
I had no idea that this album was on the list, and I am so happy it is. I was introduced to Sisters of Mercy by my friend Bruce way back in the 80's, and I LOVE this album. Bruce and I don't have extremely similar musical tastes but on this band we can agree. It is perfectly awesome 80's goth, and it fit perfectly with other bands that I was listening to at the time. The band only produced 3 albums, and to be honest, "First and Last and Always" is my favorite but all three albums are really good.
The last Steely Dan album, Aja, was not very good. This one was much better. The songs were shorter and more focus. It felt less like one long jam session. It still wasn't really my kind of music but definitely easier to listen to this one.
Sade had probably their biggest hit with Smooth Operator off this album. I hate the song when it came out and I hated it when I listened to it today. In fact I hate the whole album.
Cornershop is an Indie band from England. The album was a critical success when it came out but I found it to be kind of strange and a little bit all over the place. Most of the songs are short little instrumentals that are almost like segues between songs, but there are more segues than there are full length songs. The album was o.k. but nothing that I'd listen to a second time.
I really liked the first Ray Charles album I listened to. Unfortunately this one wasn't available on Apple music.
So one Brian Eno album has come up previously and it was an instrumental album that I didn't really care for. This album is more of the same. The songs are titled 1/1, 1/2, 2/1 and 2/2 I assume in reference to to when music was primarily released on vinyl or cassette and the songs would be song one side one (1/1) etc. The album was created by making sections of music that loop over themselves and repeat and he recorded it to be played as back ground music to diffuse the tense atmosphere in airport terminals, hence the name.
There is some interesting history to Marianne Faithful and her career. This album was her 7th album released and it came after she had had decent success and unfortunately got mixed up in Heroin and spent sometime living homeless on the streets of London. A departure from her earlier style of folk music this album was more rock or new wave. I didn't think it was an amazing album but it wasn't terrible either.
The second album by The Band on the list was pretty much more of the same. Some decent country rock but just not my genre.
In 1993 Nirvana had released their 3rd album and were considered one of the biggest bands in the world. What nobody knew at the time was that a few months later Kurt Cobain would commit suicide and the band would be finished. Reeling from his friends death Dave Grohl, then drummer for Nirvana, decided to grieve by creating music. He created a new band called the Foo Fighters and wrote, played all the instruments, and sang on all of the songs on what would be come the band's self-titled first release. Once the album was released it started to get a lot of attention but no one knew who the Foo Fighters were, and for that matter they weren't anyone. It was just Dave Grohl. Due to the popularity of the album a tour was planned and Dave recruited some musicians, who would become the band.
Back to Black is Amy Winehouse's second, and final, album. Tragically she died of alcohol poisoning in 2011 at the age of 27. Before her death she was definitely a rising star in the music world having won a Grammy for this album. I didn't expect to like the album all that much but it was better than I expected. You can hear that there is some 50's music style infused into the songs, making it pretty unique for a current album. Vocally she isn't the best singer I've ever heard but good enough that she could have had a long career if not for her substance abuse issues, which she was obviously aware of since she starts the album out with the song "Rehab" and ends it with "Addicted".
FKA Twigs is an female singer from England. Her stage name comes from a nickname that she received when starting out of Twigs. When another band named The Twigs complained about the use of it she added the FKA which is said to stand for Formerly Know As. Her music style I'd say has a lot of electronic elements to it with some R&B and Hip-Hop thrown in. I thought that the album was pretty good, and she can definitely sing. It reminded me of the band Chvrches, which I like a lot and in my opinion is better.
For a punk band Magazine is pretty good. The songs were a bit longer than your typical punk album and listening to it I get the impression that while they are listed as a punk band they were bordering New Wave/Alt-Rock style. Even with the the weakest part of the album being the singing I still enjoyed it.
My third Bob Dylan album and four more to go, and I'm still not a fan, but the guy has written some good lyrics.
Formed in 1966, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was fairly new on the scene when it recorded this album in 1971. Because the band didn't look like the typical country band of the time, the idea behind the album was to try and do collaborations with some of the country and blue-grass stars of the 40's. 50's and 60's. Stars that the band members had grown up watching and listening to. The resulting album was recorded in only 2 or 3 takes on most of the songs resulting in a very raw sound. Overall it was pretty good. I don't like country but like I have said before if I have to listen to it I'd rather it be traditional old school country.
Sigur Ros is a rock band from Iceland, so I expected that the album was going to be in Icelandic, which, apparently most of the album was. I was surprised to learn however that some of the songs, and all of the songs on future albums are in a gibberish language that the band created called Vonlenska, or Hopelandic in English. The language consists of syllables strung together to go with the music. No meaning to anything, kind of like scat singing in jazz. To me, not knowing Icelandic, I didn't know any better and it didn't sound out of place. However, in my opinion, the music on the album was the best part. It is pretty cool that the lead singer plays his guitar with a bow.
This is the third of five total Tom Waits albums that I will listen to. I remember the last one, Bone machine, because it was just so weird. Well this was much more "normal" but not any better. His voice just ruins it for me every time.
An indie rock band from Ohio, Guided by Voices have released 25 albums during a 30 year career. on top of that a lot of their albums have 15+ songs. This one has 28 in just over 48 minutes. I thought the album was pretty good actually. The songs were pretty catchy, although nothing on the album that I'd say is phenomenal or would really, in my mind, place it on the list of 1001.
Another electronic album with no lyrics and long songs that all sound alike. I'm starting to sound like a broken record when reviewing these albums.
This was a HUGE improvement from the first album of theirs that I listened to, and oddly enough came out three years before the other. I looked back on the review and I didn't even get through part of the album before I shut it off. Well, this was much more enjoyable. The singer still isn't very good but the music improved immensely. It was rock but with very traditional Irish themes and instruments. The lyrics were great, and just a lot of fun to listen to. Well worth the time. 
This is the last Joni Mitchell album to listen to, and I can't say that I'm sad about that. While Joni's music is not terrible it just isn't my style. This album was pretty much more of the same from the other albums and I don't really feel like there is any thing new that I can say about it. I can say that while there was at least one song on each of the other albums that I recognized I hadn't heard any of these songs before.
I really like System of a Down, SOAD. They are one of my favorite Metal bands. What I like about them is that they aren't one of your conventional Metal bands. Their music features a lot of keyboards which really changes the sound of it and their lyrics are very much political and take on the issues going on in the U.S. at the time. Another great, and very unique, feature of their music is lead singer Serj Tankian almost a operatic style voice, which the band uses to play off of the other singer Daron Malakian. Having the two singers just makes the songs so interesting and enjoyable to listen to. This is a great album, and unfortunately the only one on the list.
Wilco's second album, I didn't like it as much as Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I feel like the band was still trying to figure out who they are what type of music they want to create. As a result the album sounds disjointed and all over the place. By the time they recorded "Yankee" it seems like they had got themselves figured out.
Hugh is a South African born trumpeter who has recorded a number of jazz albums. It was typical in the sense that there were no lyrics and the songs averaged 6+ minutes each. Compared to other jazz albums I've listened to it was about the same. Enjoyable to listen to one time but that's enough for me.