1000 Greatest Albums of all Time

 585 Heart - Dreamboat Annie (1975) Studio Album - Art Rock About the Act: Formed in 1967, Heart have been an American Rock band almost continuously, except for a couple of short breaks. They have had quite an impressive turnover of members, and several different names to start with, but sisters Nancy and Ann Wilson have been the mostly constants since the mid 70s. Despite all this turmoil they have had widespread world-wide success, and 16 studio albums. About the Album: This was their first album and sold really well. My History with this Album: None Review: I can't believe this is a debut album, it's too assured and mature.  So there is a mixture of styles here. If, like me, your knowledge of Heart is the song Barracuda, you might expect this to be a rock album. Well there are rock songs and elements, but the style is broader than that. There's acoustic folky-rock, there's twangy country-rock, and there's rock, and one track that's quite Prog and reminds me o...

 586 Parliament - Mothership Connection (1975) Studio Album - Funk About the Act: Parliament were were not strictly a band in the classic sense, nor were they a "collective", they were a sub-section of the Parliament-Funkadelic collective run effectively by George Clinton. Live performances seemed to involve an indefinite number of musicians, vocalists and hangers-on wandering around stage, and somehow the sounds were funk. The list of people involved is quite long, including some luminaries of Funk like Bootsy Collins, Fred Wesley, and Maceo Parker. A good number of albums were released under this name. Oh, they were American, they started around 1968, and have popped up for various periods since. About the Album: This was the fourth album under the Parliament name, and is a kind of funky sci-fi concept album. My History with this Album: I think it was about 10 years ago that I made a conscious decision to investigate Funk in more depth, and this was one of the albums I got ...

 587 Depeche Mode - Violator (1990) Studio Album - Synth-pop About the Act: Depeche Mode came from Basildon. That's somewhere in the south of England, one of those dull towns that everybody's heard of, but nobody knows anything about. They formed in 1980 and became popular quite quickly. At the start they had Vince Clark who later was in Yazoo, The Assembly and Erasure. They are still going, 42 years later. They have had a whopping 54 songs on the UK singles chart, 17 top ten albums, and have sold more than 100,000,000 records worldwide. That's a lot of records.  About the Album: This was their seventh album. My History with this Album: None Review: I think it must be from the age of about sixteen that I have been mixing up Depeche Mode and New Order. How silly of me. I have reviewed a coupl of New Order albums and when I saw this was coming up was wondering if it would be like the others. I even listened most of the way through the album thinking "this is better tha...

 588 Janet Jackson - Rhythm Nation 1814 (1989) Studio Album - Pop/R&B About the Act: Janet Jackson is the youngest sibling in the famous Jackson family (Michael Jackson is one of them). She has gained a reputation for blending poppy dancy stuff with social conscience stuff, and has sold many millions of records worldwide. She caused a stir when a stunt she had planned with Justin Timberlake in the Superbowl Half Time Show went wrong. Instead of ripping off part of her costume and revealing a bra underneath, the bra part was ripped off also.  About the Album: This was her fourth album, and possibly her most socially conscious one, with songs about racial equality and attitudes, poverty, crime, drug abuse and illiteracy. It is almost a concept album, certainly a themed one. It sold very well indeed, and is considered by many to be her artistic pinnacle. My History with this Album: In a fairly unusual move for me, I bought a vinyl copy of this album when it was current. I mus...

 589 Metallica - ..and Justice for All (1988) Studio Album - Progressive Thrash Metal  About the Act: Metallica were formed in 1981, became one of the "big four" bands of thrash metal, and are probably the best known (and likely the best selling) band of modern metal ("modern" meaning from about 1990 onwards, when the sound changed dramatically). They have had a fairly stable line-up, and are fronted by James Hetfield. Thus far they have released 10 studio albums, as I write this their 11th is on the way. They are famous for spearheading a campaign against the peer-to-peer sharing service Napster in 2000. About the Album: This was their fourth album. It has been noted that the musical structures are complex, leaning towards Prog. It has also been noted that the production is particularly "dry and sterile", and that the bass is inaudible. The producer says he was instructed to take the bass down so you can just hear it, and then take it down a bit more. My ...

 590 The Sundays - Reading- Writing And Arithmetic (1990) Studio Album - Pop Rock About the Act: The Sundays were a band from Bristol, UK, who existed for 1988-1997, and created three albums in that time. Their best known songs were Here's Where The Story Ends and Summertime. About the Album: This was their first album. My History with this Album: None Review: I didn't really know anything about this band. When the album started, I was thinking "her voice, it reminds me of somebody". I unscrewed the top of my head and scratched my brain. In the gap between track 1 and track 2, and in the intro to track 2 I was thinking of a line, sung by the voice I was reminded of. It went "It's a little souvenir, of a terrible year..". And then the words for the second track started and I realised it was that very song, Here's Where The Story Ends. I don't know if the intro led me to it, or if I genuinely found that Harriet's singing reminded me of herself....