1000 Greatest Albums of all Time

 676 Portishead - Third (2008) Studio Album - Experimental Rock About the Act: Portishead are a band from Bristol who were one of the first proponents of  trip hop. There first album came out in 1994, and they have released two others since. About the Album: This was their third (and most recent) album that was released after a haitus of 11 years. My History with this Album: I have a copy of this album but have rarely listened to it. Review: I have enjoyed Portishead's other two albums in the past, and around the time they were "current". If I remember rightly, this album was somewhat controversial at the time amongst Portishead fans, because it didn't sound like the old ones. That may be why I've not listened to it much. It's not an easy listen. It's harsh and uncompromising. Not in a heavy metal kind of way, but in an industrial electronica kind of way. Interestingly, there are a couple of tracks that are not like that, but are acoustic (for example ukul...

 677 Jefferson Airplane - Crown of Creation (1968) Studio Album - Psychedelic Rock About the Act: In 1985 the band Starship released the single "We Built This City". 31 years later, GQ magazine declared it to be "the most detested song in human history". This was, of course, before Baby Shark appeared. Starship, had quite a high turnover of members, but they formed in 1984, kind of from the ashes of the band Jefferson Starship. They have had four studio albums, and significantly retained the main singer from Jefferson Starship, Grace Slick, for the first two of those albums. It was she who sang "We Built This City".  She was also the main singer for the previous band, Jefferson Starship. Winding backwards, Jefferson Starship were formed in 1974, and existed for 11 year, releasing 7 studio albums in that time. Confusingly, they reformed in 1992, and so there are currently two bands, one called "Starship" and one called "Jefferson Starship...

 678 Richard and Linda Thompson - Shoot Out the Lights (1982) Studio Album - Folk Rock About the Act: Richard Thompson is a folk rock singer/songwriter from London. Linda Peters (or Pettifer) is another English folk rock singer. Richard played with Fairport Convention in the late 60s. Shortly after leaving in 1971 he married Linda and they started being Richard and Linda Thompson. They released 6 studio albums together. They both went on to do more albums as themselves after they split up. About the Album: This was their sixth album as a duo, and was considerably aided in its creation by Gerry Rafferty. My History with this Album: None Review: Imagine a musical triangle. Oh, hang on, I don't mean the one that goes "ding", imagine a metaphoric and theoretical triangle in the realm of musical genres. At one corner you have Blues Rock, in particular the kind produced by Eric Clapton. At another corner is Folk Rock, kind of Fairport Convention and so on. At the third corner y...

 679 Shack - HMS Fable (1999) Studio Album - Britpop About the Act: Shack, a Britpop band from Liverpool have a slightly unusual history. A couple of the members started their musical life in a band called The Pale Fountains, but in 1987 they "emerged" as Shack. Apart from these two, the Head brothers, there has been some turnover in members. Their first album didn't do very well, and their second was beset with disaster. The studio that it was recorded in burned down, and the only remaining copy was a mastered DAT tape, which was in the possession of the producer, who left it in his hire car while we was in LA. By the time it had been found, the publishers had gone bust, so four years after it had been recorded it was released by a German Indie label. By now the band had effectively given up and the Head brothers had formed Michael Head and the Strands. But that fated album (Waterpistol) was released and got critical acclaim. So the Heads re-formed Shack. They have had t...

 680 The Beach Boys - Surfin' USA (1963) Studio Album - Surf Pop About the Act: So, I was really tempted to pull out some cliché about living under a rock if you hadn't heard of the Beach Boys, you probably have, but given that I have just done a quick research on them and found out lots of stuff I didn't know, I'll attempt to give you a really potted overview. They were formed in California in 1961, by brothers Carl, Brian and Dennis Wilson, cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine. They pioneered, and are most famous for their surf sound in the early 60s, happy, shiny songs about surfing with complex vocal harmonies, in a style related to doo-wop. Then The Beatles happened, and the so-called British Invasion. At this point the popularity of surf music waned, and although it's simplistic, the Beach Boys attempted to keep pace with the increasing complexity and maturity of pop that was emerging. Out of all of the American bands, they probably did the best job of this....

 681 X - Wild Gift (1981) Studio album - Punk About the Act: X are a band from LA, formed in 1977. They have not been commercially successful but are regarded as influential in several genres, the main one being Punk. They have had 8 studio albums. About the Album: This was their second album, and the most Punk, apparently. My History with this Album: None Review: I am not knowledgeable enough to understand the influence this album had, so let's just do a description and an opinion then. After all, that's what I'm really after. This is a short album of short songs. Some sound like Punk in that they are fast, somewhat chaotic, with deliberately out-of-tune singing (there is a guy and a gal singing). They sound like punk singers. These songs tend to be abrupt and short, and I quite like them. Some of the songs have a rockabilly edge to them, which is mostly in the guitar sound and riffs used. Again, quite likeable. Some of the songs are more "rock" in that they are ...

 682 Graham Parker - Squeezing Out Sparks (1979) Studio Album - New Wave About the Act: Graham Parker is a rock/New Wave singer-songwriter and Frontman from Hackney, London. Before he had a professional music career he had various jobs including picking tomatoes, emptying money from pinball machines, breeding animals for research and working in a rubber glove factory.  Since becoming a musician in 1976 he has had 23 albums, some of which are credited to "Graham Parker and the Rumour" - they being his backing band. About the Album: This was his fourth album, and a switch to New Wave from a previous pub group sound. My History with this Album: None Review: One of the problems I have with doing these reviews (and don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about this undertaking, it's my own fault, and if I have to dig a bit sometimes, that's not a bad thing) is that it is pretty easy to listen to most of these albums, but for some of them I struggle a bit to have mu...

 683 The Avalanches - Since I Left You (2000) Studio Album - Sampledelia About the Act: The Avalanches are Australian. They are probably better described as a "music project" than a band. They create music using lots of samples, although live, they use vocalists and some musicians. Their first album, Since I Left You took them by surprise by being successful. About the Album: This was their first album and is entirely composed of samples from a large collection of vinyl records. There are an estimated 900 different samples used (one of the members claims that it is more like 3500). It was created by the two main members at the time. My History with this Album: None. Review: So you know about samples, presumably, the use of snippets of other people's music to enhance your own, or to create the sounds of instruments. Hip-hop is rife with this practice and actually so is modern pop. Some music creation artists do this quite a lot, people like Fat Boy Slim, The Chemical Broth...

 684 Queens Of The Stone Age - …Like Clockwork (2013) Studio Album - Hard Rock About the Act: Queens of the Stone Age (QOTSA) are an American Hard Rock band from California and from 1996 to now. They were founded by their vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme who has been their only constant member, and have gone through quite a few changes in members. They came about as part of the Palm Desert Music Scene, which was particularly know for collaboration. They have had 7 studio albums so far. About the Album: This was their sixth studio album and came out of a dark place for main man Josh Holme, after some medical issues and other issues. There was some to-ing and fro-ing with members and their drummer quit 1/3 of the way through. Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters stepped in. Other guests include Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails) and the unlikely inclusion of Elton John. My History with this Album: None. Review: Reading the history of this album is fascinating, and kind of expl...

 685 Ramones - Pleasant Dreams (1981) Studio Album - Pop Punk About the Act: The Ramones were an American punk band that existed from 1974 to 1996. They were one of the most influential punk bands in the New York punk scene in the late 70s. They have been recognised in many lists as being of the most significant rock bands, well, ever.   Unlike other punk bands who's style often included colourful dyed hair, the Ramones adopted long hair and leather jackets as a kind of uniform. Also, all members of the band adopted stage names with the surname "Ramone" even though they were not related. The "classic" line-up was Dee Dee Ramone, Joey Ramone, Tommy Ramone and Johnny Ramone, all of whom are now dead.   Their music was categorised by fast beats, raw, simple rock and short, abrupt songs. Later, they diversified into more poppy music. About the Album: This was their sixth album. The band wanted Steve Lillywhite, a producer of punk bands to produce the album, but the ...

 686 Neneh Cherry - Raw Like Sushi (1989) Studio Album - Pop-Hop < About the Act: Neneh Cherry is Swedish! I thought she was from NY. Nope, Swedeland. And she moved to London where she lived in a squat with members of The Slits when she was 15. She is known for being a singer/songwriter and rapper. Her most famous track was Buffalo Stance (1989). She as released 5 solo albums but also has done a lot of collaboration. About the Album: This was her first album and it sold really well. My History with this Album: None Review: Buffalo Stance, Manchild, those are the two tracks I knew by Neneh Cherry. They are the first two tracks on this album. I really quite like Buffalo Stance, and maybe my favourite part is when she does a London accent. I liked Manchild less at the time, but actually quite enjoyed it the three times I heard it for this review. Maybe it does better with better sound reproduction, or maybe I have mellowed towards it. It has some really random chord changes. T...

 687 Danger Mouse - The Grey Album (2014) Remix Album - Hip Hop About the Act: Danger Mouse is a remixer and producer from White Plains, New York About the Album: This album was his first album, and is a mashup between The White Album by the Beatles and The Black Album by Jay-Z. It was not intended to become an album, just a project to see if he could do it. It became a bootleg. My History with this Album: None Review: So the idea is an appealing one. Create a mashup of The White Album and The Black Album and call it The Grey Album. Fine, clever thinking. How does it come out? This is the first album in this list where I have felt the need to listen to a different album to prepare for listening to it - as I had no knowledge of The Black Album. Well it's helped by the fact that Jay-Z released a vocals-only version of The Black Album to allow remixing. The White album, of course, did no such thing.  The end result is the vocals (mostly rapping) from the Black Album with differen...

 688 Jefferson Airplane - Bark (1971) Studio Album - Hippie Rock About the Act: In 1985 the band Starship released the single "We Built This City". 31 years later, GQ magazine declared it to be "the most detested song in human history". This was, of course, before Baby Shark appeared. Starship, had quite a high turnover of members, but they formed in 1984, kind of from the ashes of the band Jefferson Starship. They have had four studio albums, and significantly retained the main singer from Jefferson Starship, Grace Slick, for the first two of those albums. It was she who sang "We Built This City".  She was also the main singer for the previous band, Jefferson Starship. Winding backwards, Jefferson Starship were formed in 1974, and existed for 11 year, releasing 7 studio albums in that time. Confusingly, they reformed in 1992, and so there are currently two bands, one called "Starship" and one called "Jefferson Starship". Well actually,...

 689 Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic (1974) Studio album - Art Rock About the Act: Steely Dan are a rock band from Annandale-on-Hudson, New York State. They were formed in 1971, and Donald Fagan and Walter Becker were the two stable members. They broke up in 1981 but reformed in 1993, with just the two of them listed as members. Becker died in 2017 but Fagan continues under the Steely Dan name. About the Album: This was their third album, and the last while they were still a touring band. My History with this Album: None. Review: Sorry, Wikipedia, I know you are the source of all knowledge, usually, but you list this album as "Jazz Rock, pop rock". I'm labelling it as "Art Rock". I guess Wikipedia is somewhat right but I'm going to stick by my diagnosis. It's pop rock, sure, but there are quite a few influences at play here, including Jazz, yes, and the words have a tendency towards the obscure and enigmatic, and the music and production have a tendency towar...

 690 Blue Oyster Cult - Agents of Fortune (1976) Studio Album - Hard Rock About the Act: Blue Oyster Cult are an American Rock Band from Stony Brook, New York, who were formed in the 60s, big in the 70s and still going, though with some different members and a distinct slowdown of album production over the last 35 years or so. They have sold 25 million records worldwide. About the Album: This was their fourth album, their only one to feature all 5 members doing lead vocals, their only one to have no songwriting input from member Eric Bloom. My History with this Album: None Review: So the problem with describing this album is that it is massively diverse. Sometimes it sounds like Black Sabbath, sometimes like Procol Harum, sometimes like The Rolling Stones, sometimes like... well let's just say it sounds like each track has been recorded by a different band. So, apparently this is because the band members wrote them individually rather than collectively, and this rings true with the...

 691 Tom Waits - The Heart of Saturday Night (1974) Studio Album - Vocal Jazz About the Act: Tom Waits is an American Blues/Jazz/Experimental singer/songwriter/musician.  He started out as Jazz and morphed  into more blues/folk with some decided "experimental" elements. He has created a kind of hobo/beat poet persona. He has been incredibly successful worldwide. He has also worked as an actor. Since his first album in 1973, he has had 16 more. About the Album: This was his second album. My History with this Album: None Review: Some notable critics didn't like this album, saying it was too maudlin or sentimental. Arguably the most influential music critic ever is Robert Christgau (no, not me, shockingly), and he called it "the spindrift dirge of the honky-tonk beatnik night", which frankly I don't understand, but it does not sound positive. Well, I am not a notable critic (these reviews rarely get more than 5 reads. the highest number was 17), but I liked it....