The 50(ish) Greatest Albums Of All Time…
The 50(ish) Greatest Albums of All Time…
Weekly reviews of ‘the classics’ I’ve never bothered to listen to.
Hello. Happy New Year!
Ok, so, for 2021 we’re going to do something different. Lord knows we don’t need a repeat of 2020. The new plan is to review a ‘classic’ album every week. Some of them I have heard before (some of them many, many times), but most I have never clapped ears on.
I am hoping that I will actually be able to do things in 2021 and so this structure will keep me accountable when I don’t have time to dawdle and will force me to write weekly. Also, the possibility of me leaving the house means that this will hopefully read as a blog of my life over the next year, with some banging tunes thrown in for good measure.
A bit of housekeeping — I am going to choose the album at random each week. The idea being that will stop me from cherry-picking my favourite records early on and avoiding Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath until I have to listen to it in the weekend between Christmas and NYE, 2021. I’m guessing it isn’t that festive…
The provisional list (in alphabetical order) is below, I will link to each record as I review it. If your favourite record isn’t on there… well, tough! Or, let me know — I am open to suggestions. (Reasonable suggestions mind you, I’ll not be reviewing All Rise by Blue).
Thing is, 52 is actually quite a small number when you are trying to cover all music ever created. Therefore, there are a few notable absences — Carole King, Stormzy, Pixies, The Streets, etc, etc. have all released incredible genre-defining albums that I just couldn’t squeeze in.
Also, to try and get as broader spectrum as possible, I have only chosen one record per artist. I know that this list doesn’t include Kid A, Blonde on Blonde or Definitely Maybe. I know, you don’t need to tell me.
I also don’t care if your favourite Bowie record is some obscure EP he only released in Taiwan. I have tried to choose each artist’s ‘seminal’ album — a rule I have imposed so strictly that the word ‘seminal’ has no meaning to me anymore. I’m not even sure it is still a word.
Anyway, if we keep going beyond next year or I manage to review two in a week, I will reconsider.
And that is pretty much it — the first review will be published in the next week and we’ll see how we get on from there!
I hope you can join me on my journey of musical discovery, perhaps we’ll learn a little about ourselves along the way…
The List
(Once the record gets reviewed, I’ll add a hyperlink to it below…)
- A Tribe Called Quest — Low End Theory
- Arctic Monkeys — Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
- Beach Boys — Pet Sounds
- Beatles — Revolver
- Beyoncé — Lemonade
- Black Sabbath — Black Sabbath
- Blur — Parklife
- Bob Dylan — Highway 61 Revisited
- Bob Marley — Exodus
- Bruce Springsteen — Born in the USA
- Chemical Brothers — Dig Your Own Hole
- Chic — C’est Chic
- The Clash — London’s Calling
- David Bowie — Hunky Dory
- Elbow — The Seldom Seen Kid
- Eminem — The Marshall Mathers LP
- Fleetwood Mac — Rumours
- Jimi Hendrix — Are You Experienced?
- Joni Mitchell — Blue
- Joy Division — Unknown Pleasures
- Kanye West — My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
- Kate Bush — Hounds of Love
- Kendrick Lamar — To Pimp a Butterfly
- Led Zeppelin — Led Zeppelin IV
- Lou Reed — Transformer
- Love — Forever Changes
- Madonna — Like a Prayer
- Marvin Gaye — What’s Going On
- Mary J Blige — What’s the 411?
- Metallica — Master of Puppets
- Michael Kiwanuka — Love and Hate
- Michael Jackson — Thriller
- Miles Davis — Kind of Blue
- Nirvana — Nevermind
- N.W.A. — Straight Outta Compton
- Oasis — (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?
- Paul Simon — Graceland
- Pink Floyd — Dark Side of the Moon
- Prince — Purple Rain
- Public Enemy — Fear of a Black Planet
- Queen — A Night at The Opera
- Radiohead — OK Computer
- Rage Against the Machine — Rage Against the Machine
- Rolling Stones — Exile on Main Street
- Sex Pistols — Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols
- Smashing Pumpkins — Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
- The Smiths — The Queen Is Dead
- Stevie Wonder — Fulfillingness’ First Finale
- Talking Heads — Remain in Light
- Taylor Swift — 1989
- Van Morrison — Astral Weeks
- Velvet Underground & Nico — Velvet Underground & Nico
