1001(+) Albums I Had to Hear Before I Die, Apparently (#151-#200)

#151: Pink Floyd - The Wall (1979)

January 2nd, 2026: I'm sounding like a broken record the further into this challenge we go, but I'll still say it anyway: how do you review an album like The Wall? in this case, it's not just because we're talking about one of the best-selling albums of all time, but also one of the most culturally significant albums of the past several decades; it was a big enough deal to get adapted into a film which, in the eyes of some, is even better than the album it's based on! my mom used to go to midnight screenings of it in college all the time, and she first showed it to me as a kid (although she stood in front of the TV and fast-forwarded through the more salacious bits). I'm not really going to get too far into the narrative or themes of either the album or film, since you can find plenty of coverage of both, and this is supposed to be a series of (relatively) short and snappy reviews anyway. so, how do I feel?

personally, I do think that a lot of the material here, especially on the second disc, is elevated quite a bit through the addition of visuals, and doesn't stand up as well without that component. it's usually the more interstitial tracks: "The Thin Ice", "Empty Spaces", "One of My Turns", "Another Brick in the Wall Part 3", "Nobody Home", "Bring the Boys Back Home", "Stop", et cetera. even if they do serve the function of keeping things moving along to the more consequential tracks (they often sound really cool), I often find myself wishing they were more fleshed-out from a compositional perspective. you can also hear Roger Waters really start to assert himself as the leader of Pink Floyd, which can often make the contributions from its other members feel more subservient than I would like (especially from keyboardist Richard Wright, who was actually fired during the album's sessions and retained as a mere session/touring musician). but, hey, at least Waters' egomania isn't nearly as bad here as it is on The Final Cut!

thankfully, the more consequential tracks still stand as some of Pink Floyd's best, and they're the thing that really keeps me locked in from one end to the other. both takes of "In the Flesh(?)", "Another Brick... Part 2", "Mother", "Hey You", "Comfortably Numb" and "Run Like Hell" really make it worth listening to The Wall in full at least a few times; I love a good David Gilmour solo as much as the next guy. but after that, I think you're better off watching the film. the animated parts in particular are so cool. just stay far away from Nostalgia Critic's The Wall and you're good to go. 7/10

#152: The Icarus Line - Penance Soirée (2004)

January 3rd, 2026: you're probably thinking the same thing I did: "who the hell are The Icarus Line?" well, despite their current status—inactive since 2017 following the death of a key member, and currently sitting at fewer than 1,500 monthly Spotify listeners—I was surprised to find that a lot of critics were very positive about this album when it first released. you can check Wikipedia if you don't believe me; 4.5/5 from Allmusic, 4/5 from Alternative Press, 7.8/10 from Pitchfork (huge numbers to get from them in 2004), and a perfect 10/10 from Drowned in Sound. so, to what do we attribute The Icarus Line's niche status in rock music: a band significant enough to be included in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (right next to Arcade Fire's Funeral in my copy, by the way) but one which has otherwise been forgotten by the vast majority of rock fans?

well, while I do think this band makes a great noise when they really get going—seriously, this album is really loud—I feel a bit like I've been hung out to dry by the songs themselves. they're serviceable, but most of them aren't terribly memorable. you've got the opener, which is memorable by virtue of being the first song you hear; there's the very punchy "Spike Island" and the 9-minute mammoth "Getting Bright at Night", which goes through a ton of interesting dynamic phases; but beyond that, a lot of the material here feels a bit redundant. there's some additional sonic experiments towards the back half of the record (the saxophone on "White Devil", all the electronics on "Meatmaker") but by that point it's too little, too late.

there were a lot of bands making this sort of bluesy, noisy garage rock at the time and delivering better songs alongside it; The White Stripes had released Elephant the previous year, and Death From Above 1979 would release their tremendous debut (You're a Woman, I'm a Machine) a few months after Penance Soirée. it's a little unfortunate; with stickier melodies and riffs alongside the (admittedly really interesting) barrages of noise The Icarus Line cook up, this could've been more than just a footnote. 6/10

#153: Soft Cell - Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret (1981)

January 4th, 2026: the cover doesn't lie: this album is not for the young'ins. Soft Cell's famous cover of Gloria Jones' "Tainted Love" went down smoothly enough to hit #1 in 17 countries, but how many of those people do you think heard "Sex Dwarf" or saw its music video, both of which caused a major outcry in the British tabloids? "Seedy Films" also doesn't leave much to the imagination. it makes me wonder if anyone actually found these songs titillating at the time, or if it was just the usual conservative moral panic cycle; maybe it's the cultural barrier (with Marc Almond's accent and all), but I find this album mostly goofy rather than erotic. the synth sounds (both the keyboards and the drums) are really tacky and dated, which doesn't help. like, what the hell is happening on "Secret Life"? no offense is meant whatsoever to the late Dave Ball, who put the genre-defining instrumentals for this album together on a really tight budget.

I'll keep "Frustration" (complete with its gloriously cheesy tenor sax from Dave Tofani), "Tainted Love" and the iconic new wave ballad "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye", but the rest is simply not my cuppa. 5/10

#154: Metallica - Master of Puppets (1986)

January 5th, 2026: I've landed back on yet another album which the world of music would look quite different without. Master of Puppets (along with Slayer's Reign in Blood, which came out later in 1986) finally took the sound of thrash metal to the mainstream. with cleaner production than Metallica's previous efforts, an ambitious, quasi-progressive compositional approach (did you know the band wanted Geddy Lee to produce at first?) and more refined lead vocals from James Hetfield, it's no wonder that this album became such a sensation.

of course, this is also their last album with Cliff Burton, after which things were never really the same. ...And Justice for All might have even better songs, but it's famously weighed down by its production issues. the "black album" launched them even further into stardom, but at the cost of most of their cred; the rest of it left with Load, Reload and especially St. Anger. for as hard as they tried afterwards to recapture their glory days, you and I both know it never panned out all the way; I think we can safely make the call that Metallica needed Cliff Burton. 9/10

#155: George Jones - The Grand Tour (1974)

January 6th, 2026: I talked about this back when I reviewed that Ray Price album (#32), but I have a negative predisposition towards country music that I've been trying to work through over the past few years. I've realized that I actually quite like a lot of the older stuff the genre has to offer, as well as some more contemporary acts from its underground or midstream. the formulaic (and increasingly right-wing) country mainstream over the past 25 years had been my main exposure to country music as a whole, so I developed a pretty dim view of it which I have been glad to steadily correct over the years with albums like this.

there's a certain mixture here which is pretty standard for country music (at least I think so), but there's something about it that's just so moving! George Jones' incredible voice; these deeply sad songs about a lonely man at the top; the simple acoustic guitar strumming, the string arrangements, the plaintive picked basslines, the Jordanaires on backing vocals; and especially that damn pedal steel.

the titular "Grand Tour" is a tour of the house where Jones and his beloved used to live, but she left him, and you really feel for him as he goes through the place and describes all the things she left behind, or even just the places she would sit or lay down. it's a real heartbreaker, and they just keep coming as you go further down this tracklist.

the worst is when you think it's gonna be a happy song, but then it becomes a sad song instead. a few examples: "Darlin'" starts like a "put your arms around me" type of love song, but it quickly turns out to be a "please don't go" type of love song; "Borrowed Angel" is about a beautiful woman, but Jones is only having a one-night stand with her, so his romantic needs are left unattended; and "She Told Me So" is about getting cucked! (that last one might not be too sad depending on who you are, actually.)

Jones breaks character a little bit for "Our Private Life", probably as some levity to cap off the previous ten sad-sack cuts, with a comedic number about musicians that act out and get negative things written about them in the papers, an archetype which he fit uncannily well at the time. I'd also be remiss not to mention my favorite song here, "Pass Me By (If You're Only Passing Through)", which is a total earworm and contains my favorite Jones performance on the album!

all told, this is a great slice of Nashville that you can easily fit into a lunch break. 8/10

#156: Leftfield - Leftism (1995)

January 7th, 2026: say it with me, folks: while I can see how this was game-changing for the time, it leaves me a bit cold. (naming your forward-thinking house project Leftfield also strikes me as just a bit on the nose, but I'm not gonna dock points for that.)

this is the album that the term "progressive house" was coined to describe, and "progressive" doesn't quite mean the same thing in house as it does in rock or soul or what have you. Leftfield's left-field qualities don't manifest as a proclivity for odd time signatures or non-functional harmony; instead, they come from the group's lengthy, minimalist approach to songwriting, informed largely by dub and reggae music. alongside the use of plenty of guest singers from the reggae world (a common trait for British electronic albums of this era), we've also got Toni Halliday and John Lydon, inclusions which undoubtedly drew the rock audience into the fold.

I can appreciate all of this, but at the end of the day, I just find most of these songs overly long, with some particularly dated percussion and synthesizer sounds at times. plus, at 70 minutes, you can tell they really wanted to fill that CD out. maybe I'd warm up to this a bit if I could hear it in a club or a concert hall, where they probably meant for me to hear this. 6/10

#157: Faust - Faust IV (1973)

January 8th, 2026: the German take on prog rock became known in the English-language music press, somewhat derisively, as krautrock. Faust said, "you want krautrock? we'll give it to ya," and released a song literally called "Krautrock". it's kind of a power move! I'm a pretty big fan of the albums Can was releasing around the same time as this, but this was my first proper full-album Faust experience.

as compared to their colleagues in the British Isles or on the American continent, German bands like Faust placed a lot more emphasis on timbre and avant-garde sound experiments; it certainly sets them apart, but their albums can often feel a bit piecemeal as a result. apart from the stunning 12-minute drone piece "Krautrock" I mentioned before, you've got shorter, pop-adjacent pieces like "The Sad Skinhead" or "It's a Bit of a Pain" and longer, improvisational works like "Jennifer" and "Giggy Smile". I enjoy quite a few of these songs, but they don't often feel like they have very much to do with one another. I can definitely appreciate the fact that the band runs through such a wide gamut of sounds, though!

I could easily see this smorgasbord approach to structuring an album panning out better, so I'll have to go digging through the rest of Faust's albums to see if they can nail it! this was the final album they released in their original incarnation before literally disappearing for several years, so I guess it'd be best to go backwards. 8/10

#158: Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream (1993)

January 9th, 2026: an album that exemplifies a lot of what made 90s alt-rock so captivating. volume and distortion pushed to the brink, but always with an ear for a solid tune underneath it all. "Cherub Rock" and "Today" and "Hummer" and "Soma" and "Geek U.S.A." and so many other tracks on Siamese Dream follow that simple combination to such a brilliant extreme. the record's famously strained sessions resulted in a thing of real beauty! "Disarm" and "Luna" feature some incredible string arrangements that really heighten the drama of both songs. there's also the extremely slow-burning "Silverfuck", and do I really need to say much about "Mayonaise"?

a dynamic, touching, lush slice of dreamy, crunchy rock n roll heaven. 9/10

#159: The Electric Prunes - The Electric Prunes (1967)

January 10th, 2026: with a name fit for one of those "Worst Band Names of All Time!" listicles and a roster of extremely kooky songs (mostly written by Annette Tucker and Nancy Mantz), the Electric Prunes and their self-titled album are certainly an interesting glimpse into a certain time and place!

psychedelia was all the rage in the sixties, and the Prunes were definitely attempting to strike that iron while it was hot. the band's most successful single, "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)", is a dramatic, multi-phase song in which the narrator laments the beautiful woman in his dreams whom he will never meet. the soft-loud dynamic contrast from the verse to the chorus is accompanied by a sudden increase in tempo, and there's a few fun harmonic moments (check out the two parallel minor chords half a step apart when the band first kicks into that faster tempo). it's a fun, spooky garage rock jam that's become one of the better-remembered curiosities of the psych boom.

I thought this might be a bit of a lopsided album experience on the basis that my copy of the album is actually named after this song; and, yes, I can confirm that "I Had Too Much to Dream" is easily the best song here. there's some other serviceable songs—the three tracks following the opener are an enjoyable enough run—but when the deeper cuts aren't uninteresting, they're dated in a way that's totally bizarre. (there's a kind of ironic, shitpost-esque vibe to some of this psych stuff 1001 Albums... has thrown at me.) "The King Is in the Counting House" features lead singer James Lowe (RIP) putting on an English accent over a Baroque arrangement, complete with a harpsichord; "Sold to the Highest Bidder" is some sort of weird auction house narrative; and "The Toonerville Trolley" is a song called "The Toonerville Trolley".

so, while I ultimately didn't enjoy this album the whole way through very much, I think it's still worth a glance just for how much of a historical relic it is. the band chose their name as a joke and stuck with it because people would remember it, and they were very right about that. 5/10

#160: Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin (1969)

January 11th, 2026: did these guys cheat, lie and steal their way to the top? more than a little bit. it's well-known by now that a lot of songs in the Led Zeppelin discography were, um, heavily inspired by pre-existing material. most notably for this debut album of theirs, "Dazed and Confused" is pretty much directly stolen from Jake Holmes, and Holmes has never, ever been properly credited on any issue of this album as the song's author. (the closest LZ has come has been saying the song was "inspired by" Holmes. what a joke.) plus, the guitar arrangement of "Black Mountain Side" (adapted from the folk song "Blackwaterside") was stolen from Bert Jansch, who has also never been credited.

long story short: there's definitely examples of plagiarism throughout LZ's discography that are worth criticizing, but the extent of, and intent behind, many of the misattributions in the songwriter credits on their records are often blown out of proportion by people seeking to discredit them. plus, there's no denying that these were four guys who could play the absolute shit out of their respective instruments. on that basis, this is a tremendous debut album which, despite being released just a few months after the band was formed, often feels like the work of a group fully realized.

Jimmy Page not only directs a lot of the action here as the band's guitarist, but also as its producer. this is one of the first rock albums where the engineering and mix really starts to feel like something that a rock band making a record nowadays would still seek to emulate. rock albums throughout the 60s often have a much lighter, boxed-in sound; by comparison, this album sounds raw, all-encompassing, and it often borders on the metallic. for as much as we've heard some of these songs a bajillion times, the degree to which LZ were pushing the envelope with the sonics here definitely needs to be appreciated. even the acoustic guitars sound kinda heavy! and for all the plagiarism allegations plaguing the material, the true originals really shine here, especially the shorter rockers. I start to tune out just a little bit on some of the slower, longer jams like "You Shook Me" (co-written by J.B. Lenoir, another artist Led Zeppelin forgot to credit until much later). 8/10

#161: Bruce Springsteen - Nebraksa (1982)

January 12th, 2026: much has been made about Springsteen's pessimistic outlook on the world across these songs—it was around the time of Nebraska's release in the 80s that Springsteen first started seeing a professional about his depression after years of denial—as well as the boldness of his decision to make this sparse, solo acoustic album his followup to The River, a lavish E Street Band-assisted double-LP that was also his first #1 in the US. it's also notable as one of the first major DIY recordings; these songs were all recorded on a four-track and were intended to be demos for a full-band album that wasn't released until last year's Nebraska '82 reissue.

it's interesting, actually, to listen to this in such close proximity to the release of Electric Nebraska and the Deliver Me From Nowhere biopic, which is focused primarily on the making of this album. I dunno, it just seems interesting to focus on the Nebraska era compared to, say, a more polished and explosive record like Born to Run. I think it just goes to show how quietly influential Nebraska has been on rock music, especially in the underground, over the past few decades; and when the songs are this high-caliber, it's no wonder why the haunting mood of this album has persisted in the minds of Springsteen fans to this day! sometimes all you need is a guitar, a harmonica and the truth.

Springsteen's typical working-class narratives are in abundance here, but the stories themselves are decidedly darker than usual. it starts pretty much right away; the opening title track is about Charles Starkweather, an Actual Serial Killer who murdered 10 people in Nebraska and Wyoming while on the run from the law with his underage girlfriend. it's immediately followed by "Atlantic City", a song about a man who turns to working for the mob in the titular Jersey city, in a last-ditch effort to make ends meet after years of honest work fail to relieve his debts. there's plenty of grizzly narratives to follow—some less fictional than others—but some of the most interesting tracks are the ones where Springsteen gets autobiographical ("Mansion on the Hill", "Used Cars" and "My Father's House"), opening up about his own lower-class economic background and the envy he felt at those who were more well-off than his family growing up.

it's also interesting to listen to this album against the current backdrop of ICE raids and foreign occupations and extrajudicial killings and other heinous actions that have marked being American in 2026, and in just a couple weeks too. many of these songs are about blue-collar workers who try their whole lives to amount to something, but never do. it's one of the most recurring themes in the Springsteen discography, and it's one which gets more and more relevant with time.

while Nebraska will certainly make you reflect on the dark side of American life, Springsteen is courteous enough to offer a bit of levity, however morbid, on the closing track. "at the end of every hard-earned day," even at the lowest points in their lives, "people find some reason to believe." I hope I can continue to believe in something. 9/10

#162: Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998)

January 13th, 2026: rapper-singer Lauryn Hill comes in strong on her debut album as a solo artist, conceived of in the wake of her trio, the Fugees, going on hiatus. "Lost Ones" is a hard-knocking, barred-up introduction which boldly declares Hill's desire to prove she can go it on her own, and it has some particularly strong words for, let's face it, fellow Fugee Wyclef Jean.

I mention "Lost Ones" out the gates not just because it's the first proper song on Miseducation, but also since it's my favorite by a pretty comfortable distance. yeah, unfortunately I'm just a little bit cool on this one compared to most, and there's a few reasons for that.

now, this album famously swept the Grammys, and I think it did so for pretty good reason. Hill is at the top of her game here as a vocalist, waging a war on both melodic and rapped fronts that's really impressive. the music is extremely well-produced, a more radio-friendly approach to the neo-soul sound that was shifting the ground beneath the feet of Black American music in the 90s. and that's sort of my main personal gripe; from a production standpoint, this feels a little too inside-the-lines to me compared to something like D'Angelo's Brown Sugar or Erykah Badu's Baduizm. I think it's good that we have a take on this sound like the one Miseducation presents—balance in all things and whatnot—but as a musician, when I listen to neo-soul records like this I really like to hear other musicians digging in. songs like "Superstar", "When It Hurts So Bad" or "Every Ghetto, Every City" feel like they're just a little too polite for me on the instrumental front.

there's also Robert Glasper's allegations that Hill failed to properly credit the musicians who performed on this album as writers for many of its songs; Hill is credited as sole songwriter on many of these tracks, and that just doesn't feel right to me. this isn't me doubting her abilities as a musician, mind you; she more than proves with this album that she could sing and rap with the best of them, male or female. I'm just saying that we all saw her play guitar on her horrific MTV Unplugged show.

and finally, there's the fact that, to this day, this is Lauryn Hill's only solo album. while the strength of her performances here and on The Score speak for themselves, I feel like this surely has to be disqualifying as far as including her in any kind of "GOAT conversation," right? even Jay Electronica, who was famous for years for failing to release any albums at all, has four of them out now! and if half of his albums can be trash (which they are), surely Hill could lower her standards just a little and follow this up with something, anything more substantial than that MTV Unplugged show, which is still her most recent solo material to this day. I feel like in order to be in the running for Greatest of All Time, you have to be fucking up the game for more than two albums, right? I know she's done quite a bit as a featured artist since then, but it's clear that her erratic behavior, in both her personal and professional life, has really kneecapped her ability to truly capture the public like she did in '98. she doesn't seem to respect her fans very much!

so, yes, while Miseducation has lots of great moments (the D'Angelo duet "Nothing Even Matters" and the cover of Frankie Valli's "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" are my other big highlights), I feel like it's lost a bit of its luster with me over the years. if anything, I find myself going back to The Score more! I have to respect what Hill accomplished here, and just how important this album is in the history of Black American music (especially how many fellow women it inspired!), but it doesn't leave quite the same impact on me as it used to. 7/10

#163: Jack White - Blunderbuss (2012)

January 14th, 2026: this was Jack White's first statement on record as a solo artist following the dissolution of The White Stripes. it reviewed quite well when it came out, and I think it's partially because people were clamoring for new music from White at the time. it had been five years, give or take, since both the release of the final White Stripes album, Icky Thump, and the announcement of their hiatus that followed. the year before White released Blunderbuss, they officially broke up. so, what does Jack White's music sound like when he strikes out on his own?

well, it still sounds quite a lot like the Stripes—no surprises there. White's proclivity for catchy, raw blues rock is very much intact, and he's writing songs in a vein that will be eminently familiar to anyone with a even passing knowledge of White Stripes hits. the major differences come down to the arrangements and the production, both of which are much more intricate and lavish. there's more musicians in the mix playing a wider variety of instruments. Meg White's drumming is often a punchline, but her absence here was actually quite noticeable for me. like, sure, you might say that the drums on Blunderbuss (mostly played by Carla Azar of Autolux) are "better" or more "technically proficient" compared to Meg White's, but they're certainly not nearly as memorable or iconic.

if you've already listened to the multiple White Stripes records to be found in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, I don't see how Blunderbuss necessarily lives up to the book's title. it's well-written, well-played, well-recorded, the works! I'm just not enough of a Jack White fan to get more than that out of the listening experience. 6/10

#164: Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children (1998)

January 15th, 2026: 90s electronic acts like Boards of Canada, who created a type of electronic dance music ("EDM") that's more for the mind than the body, were tagged by the music press as "intelligent" dance musicians ("IDM"), a label which all of them seem to hate a lot. the reason is obvious and has been discussed at length: the implication that all other dance music is stupid.

listening to Boards of Canada's debut album, though, there is definitely some sort of intelligence on display that sets it apart from many other electronic records of its kind. however, it's much more of an emotional intelligence, rather than the kind of intelligence which values knowledge purely for its own sake.

that title, Music Has the Right to Children, gestures at the feelings this music communicates without stating them outright. this music is well-known to evoke feelings of childhood nostalgia in many listeners, owing to its hazy combination of spoken word samples from 70s American television programs, shape-shifting analog synths, hard-knocking drum loops and recordings of the natural world. when all of these elements come together on cuts like "Turquoise Hexagon Sun" or "Rue the Whirl", the results are captivating in all of their subtleties. 9/10

#165: Bob Marley & The Wailers - Catch a Fire (1973)

January 16th, 2026: my second Wailers album for this challenge following Exodus (album #113), and arguably the one that put the international spotlight on reggae music as a whole. this came out on the Jamaican-then-British label Island, which also sported a tremendous roster of rock and folk acts at this time in the early 70s, resulting in some pretty major crossover appeal.

this album is dripping with pocket: Aston "Family Man" Barrett's tremendous basslines, Peter Tosh's syncopated guitar strokes, Carlton Barrett and Bunny Wailer cutting it up on their various drums and percussion instruments. there's part of me that finds reggae almost too chill, too laid-back; but I have to admit, it's fun listening to the rhythm section here dance on the razor's edge! these are some really delicate grooves played with so much care. plus, you have Bob Marley tying the whole thing together as a singer and truth-teller, and he's kind of undeniable. not to mention the vocal harmonies! 8/10

#166: Death in Vegas - The Contino Sessions (1999)

January 17th, 2026: despite standouts like the opening "Dirge" (essentially one long crescendo) and the Iggy Pop-led "Aisha" (apparently a top 10 hit in the UK), the blend of psychedelic rock, trip hop and big beat presented by Death in Vegas here largely runs together into an incoherent blob. at least it's a nice-sounding blob, with a combination of acoustic, electric and electronic instrumentation that's very 1999. 4/10

#167: Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II (1976)

January 18th, 2026: everybody has to mention Nirvana covering three of these songs for MTV Unplugged in New York, sometimes with the implication that nobody would care about this album, or the Meat Puppets, were it not for Nirvana cementing them as parts of rock history. however, even just one listen to Meat Puppets II makes you realize that, well, this had to have been good enough to make it to the ears of Kurt Cobain to begin with!

when I reviewed Dinosaur Jr.'s Bug (album #133), I remarked briefly on how SST was one of the premier labels for forward-thinking rock bands in the 80s. the Meat Puppets were certainly one of those, so their presence on SST's roster at the time is no shock to me! this album showcases their fierce combination of uptempo punk and vigorous country rock ("Split Myself in Two", "Lost", "Climbing") interspersed with slower cuts that border on psychedelic ("Plateau", "Oh, Me", "I'm a Mindless Idiot"). it's all tied together with some extremely anxious vocals from Curt Kirkwood, who often feels like he's singing just outside of his comfortable range. one of my favorite tracks here, "Magic Toy Missing", is a brilliant 80-second instrumental showcase of Kirkwood's instrumental synergy on guitar, with his brother—bassist Cris Kirkwood—and drummer Derrick Bostrom.

interesting couplet to read in 2026, from "Plateau": "well the many hands began to scan around for the next plateau / some said it was Greenland and some said Mexico." 9/10

#168: Count Basie Orchestra & Neal Hefti - [The Atomic Mr.] Basie (1958)

January 19th, 2026: finally, 154 albums later, we're back in the world of medium-to-large ensemble jazz. this is the first big band album I've been assigned for this challenge, and it's also a truly pivotal one! in 1958, the roster of musicians in the Count Basie Orchestra was a who's who of past, present and future names in big band jazz. alongside longtime Basie sidemen including (but not limited to) lead alto saxophonist Marshall Royal, guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeter Snooky Young and drummer Sonny Payne, you also have future big band heavyweights like Thad Jones and burgeoning small-group leaders like Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. long story short, and pardon the pun: this band is explosive, even if it doesn't quite match up to Basie's 30s lineups in terms of star power. the solos from Davis are especially memorable!

this "Atomic" band is captured here performing a set of original compositions by Neal Hefti, who would go on to become most well-known as the composer of the famous "na-na-na-na" theme tune for the 1966 Batman TV series. despite his greatest successes being in the world of Hollywood, Hefti's legacy in the big band world as one of its finest composers and arrangers is well-known among aficionados, and the 11 charts he penned for Basie here did a lot to establish his reputation at this earlier stage of his career. the bulk of them are based on a 12-bar blues form, and it's really intriguing to see just how many different ways he was able to approach that simple formula. the melodies of the tunes themselves are memorable, but Hefti also goes above and beyond to make sure that the shout choruses, the backgrounds behind soloists, the drum setups, and every other little detail is perfectly placed and accounted for.

big band jazz is so often about the little moments that make up the bigger compositions, and there's more than enough of those on The Atomic Mr. Basie to go around. the extreme staccato horn phrasing on "The Kid from Red Bank"; the return of the melody on "After Supper" when Hefti doubles the melody up an octave in the alto saxophones; the call-and-response between all three horn subsections (trumpets, trombones and saxes) on "Teddy the Toad" and "Whirly-Bird"; the sloooooow bends in the melody of "Midnite Blue"; the incredible shout chorus of "Splanky" where the whole horn section leans way, way back. the sheer level of depth in these compositions, and in the performances Basie's band gives them, is truly staggering. 10/10

#169: Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart - Rising Above Bedlam (1991)

January 20th, 2026: Jah Wobble (which is the stage name of a white guy, if you can believe that) is best known as the original bassist of Public Image Ltd., performing on their first two albums and heavily informing their stylistic trajectory. PIL combined John Lydon's punk proclivities with a heavy dose of Wobble's own interest in dub reggae and other international musical styles.

Wobble's solo venture Invaders of the Heart started putting out LPs about a decade after he left PIL. while the Invaders share his propensity for a truly global kind of music, the center of their work is less in punk rock, and more in the realm of electronic music, which had really taken off in that intervening decade. the ten tracks here present a wide array of stylistic influences, but the sounds of downtempo and dub are always at the center. it's a pretty consistently chill vibe for 51 minutes, which I think might be to its detriment somewhat. no one track really stands out over any other, and the overall result is kind of bland. Sinéad O'Connor shows up for the first track though, which is cool! and I enjoy Wobble's basslines. 5/10

#170: Justin Timberlake - Justified (2002)

January 20th, 2026: Justin Timberlake released The 20/20 Experience when I was in my junior year of high school, a time in my life when I thought very highly of my ill-informed opinions about music. one of those opinions was that pop music was below me, and not worth consideration compared to the progressive metal and jazz albums I held in such high esteem.

see, when you're a teenage straight cis boy raised on Internet forums like I was, you're predisposed to hate on shit, mainly as a poorly-defined defense mechanism. once I started realizing I wasn't straight, cis, or male, the house of cards started to collapse. it was around this time that 20/20 was there to tell me how much of a stick I had up my ass regarding my beliefs on pop music. even if I'm not huge on every chart-topping artist that's come and gone in my lifetime, I like to think that I have enough room in my cold, dead heart to enjoy it here and there.

I say all this because I've been hearing some of the singles on Justified, Timberlake's debut as a solo artist following *NSYNC going on hiatus, for nearly my entire life. this album came out when I was 5 years old, and I'm pretty sure "Cry Me a River" was one of the first then-new pop songs I remember hearing on the radio. I think, somewhere deep down, I knew I liked this stuff all along. maybe my teenage self just didn't want to be perceived a certain way for liking it. but, at a certain point, you have to stop caring what other people think so much!

plus, there are some undeniably amazing songs here, pop or no. the bulk of the material on here was produced by legendary hit-making duo The Neptunes, including several songs that were originally offered to Michael Jackson. if MJ was offered "Like I Love You" (featuring Clipse!) or "Rock Your Body", he's insane for having turned them down. along with the aforementioned "Cry Me a River", one of four songs on the album produced by Timbaland, you're looking at three of the finest pop singles of their era! catchy melodies, great lead and backing vocals from Timberlake, and some fantastic session musician performances all abound. those drum pockets!

can I also just say I appreciate the use of distinct bridge sections on a lot of the tracks here? Neptunes-produced records like "Take It From Here" or "Let's Take a Ride" must be why Tyler, The Creator's always going on about bridges, those special moments in songs that only happen once.

unfortunately, not every song is a major hitter, and the B-side definitely shows that. after "Rock Your Body", the bag becomes much more mixed. however, I'd like to give special mention to the closing ballad "Never Again", a Brian McKnight production with some electrifying, dramatic chord changes that deserves a reevaluation. 6/10

#171: Holger Czukay - Movies (1979)

#172: John Coltrane - A Love Supreme (1965)

#173: Randy Newman - Sail Away (1972)

#174: The Auteurs - New Wave (1993)

#175: T. Rex - Electric Warrior (1971)

#176: The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy (1985)

#177: Barry Adamson - Moss Side Story (1989)

#178: Stephen Stills / Manassas - Manassas (1972)

#179: Supergrass - I Should Coco (1995)

#180: PJ Harvey - Rid of Me (1993)

#181: The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East (1971)

#182: The Doors - L.A. Woman (1971)

#183: Mercury Rev - Deserter's Songs (1998)

#184: Elton John - Madman Across the Water (1971)

#185: Hugh Masekela - Home Is Where the Music Is (1972)

#186: Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (1963)

#187: The 13th Floor Elevators - The Psychedelic Sounds of The 13th Floor Elevators (1966)

#188: Bert Jansch - Bert Jansch (1965)

#189: Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bayou Country (1969)

#190: The Band - Music From Big Pink (1968)

#191: Run-D.M.C. - Run-D.M.C. (1984)

#192: Elis Regina - Vento de maio / May Wind (1997)

#193: Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (1967)

#194: Fever Ray - Fever Ray (2009)

#195: Orchestral Manœuvres in the Dark - Architecture & Morality (1981)

#196: Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures (1979)

#197: The Hives - Your New Favourite Band (2001)

#198: Go-Go's - Beauty and the Beat (1981)

#199: Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads (1996)

#200: Nas - Illmatic (1994)