The 1001 Album Generator Project Thread

Should we do a group project

  • Total voters
    22
  • Poll closed .
Private Dancer


this is probably not an album i would pull out and listen to on my own but its reputation as one of the best pop records of the 80s (if not of all time) is definitely earned. it's about as solid a front-to-back pop record can be, and obviously the context of this being tina's big comeback record adds another layer to its greatness. tina's vocals aren't quite as sweet as they used to be, but whatever limitations she didn't have earlier in her career are absolutely not a factor here as she sings powerfully over a broad range and with purpose, there's just a bit more coarseness and growl now, and somehow it fits perfectly into the shiny and slickly produced songs on here. and while it's a pop r&b record first and foremost, you get some genre blends here- i don't think i'd ever heard steel claw before and that song is a stew of new wave, indie rock (seriously, the beginning sounds like early r.e.m. filtered through 80s pop sheen), and metal. the record highlight to me is better be good to me, which just builds, ebbs, builds, ebbs, and builds over four minutes before crescendoing with tina asserting vocal dominance before the song fades out.
 
Day 40

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Another familiar band name whose music I'm entirely unfamiliar with. I had high hopes for it, especially with a couple of my favourite Trad. songs appearing herein. But when all was said and done I wasn't wowed or inspired. Mostly I just wished I hadn't ended the Jason Isbell marathon I'd begun the day with. It was listenable enough, just not something I think I'd listen to much. 2.5/5, rounded up to 3.
 
avecigrec said:
Day 40

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Another familiar band name whose music I'm entirely unfamiliar with. I had high hopes for it, especially with a couple of my favourite Trad. songs appearing herein. But when all was said and done I wasn't wowed or inspired. Mostly I just wished I hadn't ended the Jason Isbell marathon I'd begun the day with. It was listenable enough, just not something I think I'd listen to much. 2.5/5, rounded up to 3.
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That’s a cool cover though.
 
57c083b2c4926ea393f32fc6926eb2d7b36a6e6b


I mean, I don't really have to say it, do I? This, for my money, is his masterpiece. It's not his most accessible. It's not his most popular. It is his most heartfelt. It's not one to put on every night. It's raw. It's imperfect. It's magnificent. It is probably the most human piece of art ever made. If you partake, it is worthy of a contemplative night in a dimly lit listening room with a couple of fingers of real good whiskey. 5 stars.
 
Lee Newman said:
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I mean, I don't really have to say it, do I? This, for my money, is his masterpiece. It's not his most accessible. It's not his most popular. It is his most heartfelt. It's not one to put on every night. It's raw. It's imperfect. It's magnificent. It is probably the most human piece of art ever made. If you partake, it is worthy of a contemplative night in a dimly lit listening room with a couple of fingers of real good whiskey. 5 stars.
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This is the kind of album where every song is a highlight, tonight Lookout Joe hit me the hardest.

The woman you were with was about the same
She took your money and left town.
Lookout joe, you're comin' home.
Old times were good times,
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cba285a1e308247122f9b96c8fd1b11923cd53d2


christ this hurts to listen to, might be one of the more egregiously loud albums i've heard. the last minute of hiding all away is playing as i type this and it's like i'm punishing my ears. it's a shame because there is some absolutely great stuff on here that i'd never listened to before. the potential power from songs like there she goes my beautiful world that could have been felt if there was actual dynamic range is completely neutered because it's all just so fucking loud. obviously the second half is the quiter part of the record and so was more digestible for me despite still being all loud. i do tend to like cave's less abrasive/noisy output (hallelujah is my favorite song of his; i also listen to warren ellis' dirty three far more than i do nick cave), and i quite enjoyed songs like easy money, spell and o children. i wish this album wasn't a victim(?) of the loudness war because i definitely would revisit this as a whole, but at 80+ minutes of all loud all the time my ears just can't handle it.
 
Day 41

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This just isn't for me. Took three attempts to get through this in its entirety. Post-punk seems to be a genre that continues to vex me - it seems like one I'd enjoy a lot more, but I only seem to like a fraction of the stuff I ever check out. I'll keep trying though. I recognize that Mark E. Smith and The Fall have been incredibly influential, but it does not spark joy for me. 1 Marie Kondo out of 5.
 
Lee Newman said:
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It’s been a really long time since I listened to this in full.
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Unlike Rid of Me in the other thread which has inward pointing tortured lyrics and some of the oddest production choices I've ever experienced making for a particularly awful listening experience due to my current mood, this is the exact amount of anger and political disgust I need. I've had a long weird history with this album. It's got a sort of punk vibe to it that spoke to me as a 15 year old upon its arrival and it pretty much stayed in the car through my first year of college. White kids in suburbia felt an empathy that was not based in reality, there was no way I had any understanding of what these kids were talking about. As I grew older, the violence, misogyny and homophobia made me stay away from it. Forward to a few years ago when I really started to come to terms with hip hop and metal's seedier side and this album stood out from the others because while it is not a socially minded album, it is for sure a political album. Cube's writing succinctly gives us the point of view of a young black man in LA at this time. Besides E, the flows are amazing. The beats are impeccable, the funk that Dre would bring is starting to show, but it is also a homage to the Bomb Squad's assault of noise. Gangsta rap is certainly problematic for a variety of reasons and many of them are on display here, but this is a definitive album in the genre and a powerful statement of what it meant to be on the streets which echoes today through keeping it real or a hundred.

5 stars
 
I also feel like it would be important to really talk about the homophobia and misogyny of late eighties/early nineties rap and metal in the larger context of the current social climate. We don't hear a lot of clamor over cancelling NWA (although if they hit today, we probably would). It's important to think about it as a historical document to a certain extent. It would seem that the majority of this crew at least stop sharing that type of nonsense in public, if not actually growing out of it. However, this is what it was like at the time. While we may all wince at some of the subject matter and use of derogatory terms, it was also more commonplace at the time. Some of us (I can certainly admit my part here) may have even said some of this hateful stupid shit out loud at times. If we choose to silence this kind of thing, instead of having a discourse about it, we are doomed to remain divided as a people - fuck a country - as a species, we are fucked if we refuse to learn from each other and become more diverse. In much the same way NWA diversified popular music, being out in the open diversified their own thought. That ability to discuss and grow is what will make us stronger and get us through all the shit in the world today, but we are too busy pointing fingers to actually do anything of value.
 
Lee Newman said:
A couple of us have already listened to Aerosmith, so…
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there are a lot of problematic artists, yes. we all know it's a difficult thing to navigate. the nice thing about this one is i knew nothing before and i can choose to continue to know nothing and not give them my time/attention. i only wish i read about that before i listened to the record. whether any of you choose to listen or not is up to you.
 
gaporter said:
Today's album:
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It's been a few days, but I have been listening. Just lazy in posting as always 😅

Let It Be is a solid record. Obviously very influential; I wouldn't be surprised to learn that nearly every rock band that got big in the 90s heard this album at one point or another (the vocals especially give me a Kurt Cobain vibe at certain points). The 80s were a bit of a dire time for rock music (at least in the mainstream) so I'm sure that it's reputation as one of the best rock albums of the decade is well-deserved. However, I have difficulty making the leap of calling it one of the best rock albums of all time.

A bit of research suggests that this album saw the band maturing their sound from the heavier and faster punk energy of their prior work. And honestly maybe I should check those records out because for me the strongest moments here are when the band cranks it up a notch, such as the back-to-back punch of We're Comin' Out and Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out. That's not to say the slower songs don't work at all; Androgynous is a beautiful song with a timeless message and Answering Machine is a great closer. However, despite being only 33 minutes long, my focus starts to meander in the second half as the pace slows down and the songs become a bit less memorable. I'd still give it a 4 though, as the stuff I like here I really, really like.
 
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