The 1001 Album Generator Project Thread

Should we do a group project

  • Total voters
    22
  • Poll closed .
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I couldn't really get into this one too much. It probably doesn't help that the streaming service I use only had a truncated version so I had to seek out the full thing on YouTube, but I also just feel like Jerry Lee Lewis isn't the first guy I'm reaching for when I'm in the mood to hear this type of music. While I can respect that, for 1964, this performance was considered wild and outrageous, when divorced from that historical context, it's not a very engaging listen from front to back. I appreciate the energy he's bringing here and his ability to wail on those keys like there's no tomorrow, though it's not enough to elevate it beyond a low 3 for me.
 
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It's not very often an album comes with its own write-up. And right on the front cover, no less!
"... I have had a dream to try to combine Western and Indian music into a new form, a music which has no particular name but is melodious and touching, and which combines the most modern electronic devices with the old traditional instrument, the Sitar"
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And I'd say that dream was realized because that's a pretty spot-on description of the music contained within. As someone who has always thought sitars sounded cool, this was quite an enjoyable listen. The covers of (then)-contemporary pop songs like Jumpin' Jack Flash and Light My Fire feel a bit cheesy and forced, but the original compositions are where this shines, especially Mamata and Metamorphosis.
 
gaporter said:
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It's not very often an album comes with its own write-up. And right on the front cover, no less!

And I'd say that dream was realized because that's a pretty spot-on description of the music contained within. As someone who has always thought sitars sounded cool, this was quite an enjoyable listen. The covers of (then)-contemporary pop songs like Jumpin' Jack Flash and Light My Fire feel a bit cheesy and forced, but the original compositions are where this shines, especially Mamata and Metamorphosis.
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This is my favorite discovery of this project so far. Incredible album!
 
44/1001
Blur - Modern Life is Rubbish
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Fun album. Catchy songs with elegance, even if Britpop still isn't for me. Modern Life is Rubbish overstays its welcome for a few tracks.

Personal highlights: "Sunday, Sunday," "Chemical World," "Oily Water"
Rating: 3/5 [Good]
 
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Well this is a band I didn't expect to get while doing this.

Going into this I knew Knights of Cydonia from Guitar Hero and Supermassive Black Hole from the Twilight baseball scene (yes, I'm a product of the 2000s; how could you tell?) and a few of the other singles just through osmosis. The albums starts off with an insanely strong run containing most of those singles, and while things start to become a little less memorable once you get to some of the deep cuts in the latter half, it's a fairly decent ride all the way through. I'd always heard Muse derided as Radiohead wannabes, though I don't think that insult really applies to this particular album. While Matt Bellamy does sound uncannily like Thom Yorke at certain points, the actual music is much more over-the-top and glammy than anything Radiohead has ever put out. It's a neat record, nothing mind-blowing but certainly preferable to a lot of the other mainstream rock music that was coming out around this time.
 
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I know James Murphy is considered something of an indie legend, and I myself can remember listening to This Is Happening quite a bit back in the day, but man... this bored me to tears. I honestly had a pretty hard time getting all the way through this one and I don't really care to return to it at all. Most of it just sounded like a mediocre imitation of Talking Heads to my ears. 2 out of 5.
 
gaporter said:
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I know James Murphy is considered something of an indie legend, and I myself can remember listening to This Is Happening quite a bit back in the day, but man... this bored me to tears. I honestly had a pretty hard time getting all the way through this one and I don't really care to return to it at all. Most of it just sounded like a mediocre imitation of Talking Heads to my ears. 2 out of 5.
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I like LCD Soundsystem quite a bit and I’m not quite sure what this is doing on such a list. It’s fine but it’s also a bit them by numbers, one for the fans only really. Sounds of Silver is really the only one theirs that needs to be on this list.
 
Joe Mac said:
I like LCD Soundsystem quite a bit and I’m not quite sure what this is doing on such a list. It’s fine but it’s also a bit them by numbers, one for the fans only really. Sounds of Silver is really the only one theirs that needs to be on this list.
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Maybe this is just me but it seems strange to me that I'm getting an album from 2017 at all. When was the 1001 Albums list originally made? Or is it something that's being updated regularly? If that's the case, is the generator pulling from every incarnation of the list or just the most recent one?
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gaporter said:
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Well this is a band I didn't expect to get while doing this.

Going into this I knew Knights of Cydonia from Guitar Hero and Supermassive Black Hole from the Twilight baseball scene (yes, I'm a product of the 2000s; how could you tell?) and a few of the other singles just through osmosis. The albums starts off with an insanely strong run containing most of those singles, and while things start to become a little less memorable once you get to some of the deep cuts in the latter half, it's a fairly decent ride all the way through. I'd always heard Muse derided as Radiohead wannabes, though I don't think that insult really applies to this particular album. While Matt Bellamy does sound uncannily like Thom Yorke at certain points, the actual music is much more over-the-top and glammy than anything Radiohead has ever put out. It's a neat record, nothing mind-blowing but certainly preferable to a lot of the other mainstream rock music that was coming out around this time.
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This is what I pulled today.
 
avecigrec said:
Day 48

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Dammit.
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Yeah, this is a thing. It's ubiquitous and it certainly did a lot to make electronic music a little more mainstream. I think the biggest positive for the album is that it introduced Vera Hall to a much larger audience - however the majority of that audience probably still has no idea who Vera Hall is!

The music is fine enough that I can't write off the entire album simply because Moby can be an insufferable twat, but I can't see myself giving this anything higher than a 3.
 
Day 49 - ...and the shits keep coming!

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I didn't particularly love Arcade Fire before the controversy and have even less of a reason to bother trying now. That said, this was the album of theirs I found myself most interested in. I've lived, worked, and travelled with many Arcade Fire fans through the years, so I've heard their music quite a bit for a band I could never get into. I never actively disliked them either at least. But something about the morning-after vibes of this one always felt more enjoyable for me than largely indifference toward the others. 3/5
 
Muse - Black Holes and Revelations

this was actually the first Muse I ever listened to. I know that they were touring it when I saw U2 when they opened, but I didn't get to see Muse that night because Raleigh decided having the fair, a hockey game, and a U2 stadium show (the hockey venue is right next to the stadium and the fairgrounds are a block away) was a great idea for traffic and even though i left 2 hours early to drive 15 minutes down the road, i missed the first song of u2. I vividly remember balling up my fist when the parking attendant asked me for 20 dollars to park. Then I had a true animaniacs good idea bad idea moment when I decided to park next to a tree to know where i parked, not realizing (probably because I was blind from anger) that I had fucking basically parked in the woods. this was the show with the ufo launch and my daughter decided that the ufo launching time was when she needed to go to the bathroom. plus who designed those puny football stadium seats and did they ever have to sit in them for two hours during a rock show?

despite all of that, I still like this album. I know they get shit on almost as much as coldplay and post this album, deserve it more, but this is pop fun that took all that u2 inspiration funeled it through the thom yorke filter added a little coldplay piano and amped up the edm craze fun.

Supermassive Black Hole with its Depeche Mode lite intro is a particular highlight. Also Knights of Cydonia is not discernably audibly different from the Doctor Who theme to me.

Also, like @gaporter i'm a little mystified as to why this made the cut.

3 stars
 
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