1,001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

[ZeppelinDT]

I've had the original pressing of this book for a while, and recently just picked up the 2011 revised version.  Pretty interesting list... some obvious ones, some surprises... some I've never even heard of.  Going in I assumed I would have heard the bulk of them, but to date I've only heard 182 in their entirety.

Just wondering what people think of this list and how many you've actually heard.

Somebody was nice enough to compile a list on RYM that includes all 1,001 albums in chronological order:

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/icehockeyhair00/1001_albums_you_must_hear_before_you_die__2011_edition_/

[Fluffy Lothario]

I have an older edition of this book, from about 2005 or so.

If you enjoy a good range of mainstream music, it's ridiculously useful. If not, it's garbage. And like any list, it's only good as a rough guide to exploring. If I want to get into this genre or artist or era, which albums could I check out?

I've heard 159 (edit: full albums) from this list. Parts or songs from many others, of course.

[skydivingninja]

I've heard 82 of these albums, I think.  Recognized a majority of them.  Should probably listen to more. 

In b4 "THERE'S NO DT IT MUST BE GARBAGE!"  Its a pretty good walkthrough of popular music from the 50s to today.  Though I question the decision to include SOAD's debut but not Toxicity, as well as the exclusion of Tool or Kanye (he seems to be a big deal in the rap world, though I don't know much about that ) but other than that I didn't see many glaring exclusions. 

[MasterShakezula]

Listened to some, heard of most of them.  Real cool list, covering a real wide range of pop music.  Could see some people get upset about its contents if they're not a fan of mainstream or at least semi-popular music, but really, it'd be a bit silly expecting a popular mainstream publication to not be mainly about popular mainstream music. 

Again, great list.  Real nice seeing 00s stuff like Portishead, LCD, Animal Collective on there. 

[Sigz]

as well as the exclusion of Tool or Kanye (he seems to be a big deal in the rap world, though I don't know much about that )

They included Kanye.

Idk, some of the choices were pretty weird - is Arcade Fire really that revolutionary to wear they need 2 albums listed?

[senecadawg2]

Yeah, just glancing through very quickly, there are definitely a couple of choices that stick out like a sore thumb IMO.

[black_biff_stadler]

I remember this book making me feel both ripped off and that my time had been wasted even though I looked at it for free while needing to kill two hours at Barnes and Noble.

[jsem]

I've heard 73 of those albums. Meh.

[Pols Voice]

There are a lot of good albums there, but the inclusion of Joanna Newsom renders the list invalid.

[wolfking]

I've heard 75 of those albums all the way through, yet I knew 95% of the artists.  Meh.

And, Slipknot - All Hope is Gone is on this list.....oookkaayyyy.

[black_biff_stadler]

Seriously. The shortcomings of subjectivity are all over that book. A FAR MORE accurate title would've been A Transcript of Some Dude's iPod.

[skydivingninja]

as well as the exclusion of Tool or Kanye (he seems to be a big deal in the rap world, though I don't know much about that )

They included Kanye.

Idk, some of the choices were pretty weird - is Arcade Fire really that revolutionary to wear they need 2 albums listed?

Missed that.  My bad.

I do think Funeral should be included due to its popularity.  Its also one of the biggest reasons that indie rock has become so mainstream in this decade, but I'm not really sure how significant the Suburbs is other than proving that the Grammys can still surprise people.   Now that I think about it, I think Neon Bible was in the last version, and even though its my favorite AF album I don't think that was significant enough for inclusion either.  The suburbs could easily be replaced with a Decemberists, MMJ, or Bright Eyes album (some of the most popular "indie" acts today).  Or Tool.

I was also perplexed by the presence of Peter Gabriel 1.  Its a great album, sure, but not usually included in those sorts of lists and certainly not as significant as So or III, where his style really came into its own.  But really some of those things are pretty minor and the author's just trying to keep his list as current as possible. 

Seriously. The shortcomings of subjectivity are all over that book. A FAR MORE accurate title would've been A Transcript of Some Dude's iPod.

I think the book is supposed to be more of a "here are 1001 albums that have been very popular or influential in the history of popular music and are worth a listen" rather than "the objectively greatest albums of all time as decided by a lot of people that Rolling Stone knows."  Just looking at the list is sort of a journey through history.  You've got the early R&B stuff, some jazz greats, folk, the british invasion, prog rock, hard rock, punk, new wave, 80s indie bands, NWOBHM, Thrash, Grunge, alternative rock, hip hop, rap, 00's indie rock...its a pretty good timeline (100's of metal subgenres excluded but you can't win them all ). 

We've seen so many of these lists that subjectivity is a given.  No need to point it out angrily anymore.  I'm sure people would say the same thing if any of us wrote the book with our Theater Dreams and Porcupine Forests. 

[Fluffy Lothario]

Though I question the decision to include SOAD's debut but not Toxicity, as well as the exclusion of Tool

I noticed those exact two things too when I first bought the book.

I was also perplexed by the presence of Peter Gabriel 1.  Its a great album, sure, but not usually included in those sorts of lists and certainly not as significant as So or III, where his style really came into its own.  But really some of those things are pretty minor and the author's just trying to keep his list as current as possible. 

This is the most glaring weakness with the book and the list. There are quite a few bands which have decent to outright huge portions of their discography on the list. There are some where it really seems they went, "damn, this band has seven albums, and they're all great. Which ones are really deserving of... ah, fuck it, let's just include them all except that one." I mean, does the list need quite so many albums by The Byrds? Creedence Clearwater Revival? Springsteen? The Kinks? Echo and the Bunnymen? Peter Gabriel? R.E.M.? Sonic Youth? Hell, even Led Zeppelin, the Stones and the Beatles feel a bit over-represented on there to me.

[Pols Voice]

And at least include Days of Future Passed by the Moody Blues. Like it or not, it was a pretty unique album at the time. For some reason that band is constantly getting snubbed.

[rogerdil]

I guess "My Favorite Albums" wasn't pretentious enough.

[Ryzee]

Pretty cool list for what it is, I had fun going through it.  Having it in chronological order like that really made it obvious that the quality of mainstream/popular music really took a dive from like 1997-2001 (imo).

Also, it was weird/cool enough to me that they included multiple Sepultura albums, and Arise I totally get, but I wonder why they chose Roots over Chaos A.D.?

Oh, and another also- I'm probably just blinded by nostalgia goggles because that's the era I was a teenager in, but man there was some great music coming out in the early to mid 90's!  The hip-hop of that era especially.

[Ravenheart]

These kinds of lists always elicit an amusing reaction from the people here.

[skydivingninja]

Fluffy-I think those Beatles albums are pretty representative of the most important Beatles albums, and the other bands you mentioned weren't really THAT overrepresented.  Peter Gabriel had three albums on there out of 1,001.  Not that much.  In Springsteen's case, those four albums are considered to be his best and/or most beloved.  The Stones and Zeppelin actually seemed underrepresented compared to other lists like this  .  The others I'm not as well versed in and I don't remember the exact number. 

[Ruba]

I have read one which had a major error.

Sepultura's Roots. Very sucky, although Ratamahatta, Endangered Species and a couple of others are alright.

Also Arise (which was on the list) < Schizophrenia, Beneath the Remains and Chaos A.D.

[Fluffy Lothario]

Fluffy-I think those Beatles albums are pretty representative of the most important Beatles albums, and the other bands you mentioned weren't really THAT overrepresented.  Peter Gabriel had three albums on there out of 1,001.  Not that much.  In Springsteen's case, those four albums are considered to be his best and/or most beloved.  The Stones and Zeppelin actually seemed underrepresented compared to other lists like this  .  The others I'm not as well versed in and I don't remember the exact number. 

That's the thing, I suppose any big fan of most of those bands could present an argument as to why each of those albums does deserve a place. When I'm flicking through the book sometimes though, it seems a bit ridiculous that about 20-25 artists account for 200 odd of the 1000 best albums ever made.

And Roots is an amazing album.

[Sketchy]

About 61.

[skydivingninja]

I have read one which had a major error.

Sepultura's Roots. Very sucky, although Ratamahatta, Endangered Species and a couple of others are alright.

Also Arise (which was on the list) < Schizophrenia, Beneath the Remains and Chaos A.D.

Well, Roots basically brought groovy metal to the mainstream, didn't it?  I think that's why its on the list regardless of personal opinions.  Keep in mind I'm basing this on my viewing of Metal: A Headbanger's Journey and the TV series they did. 

[Gadough]

And, Slipknot - All Hope is Gone is on this list.....oookkaayyyy.

Should have been Vol. 3. Agreed.

[black_biff_stadler]

I have read one which had a major error.

Sepultura's Roots. Very sucky, although Ratamahatta, Endangered Species and a couple of others are alright.

Also Arise (which was on the list) < Schizophrenia, Beneath the Remains and Chaos A.D.

Well, Roots basically brought groovy metal to the mainstream, didn't it?  I think that's why its on the list regardless of personal opinions.  Keep in mind I'm basing this on my viewing of Metal: A Headbanger's Journey and the TV series they did.

No. Not even remotely close either and I'm not shit-talking you but rather the sources you cited. Pantera made a decent dent with Cowboys From Hell a full 6 years earlier in 1990 as well as their followup, Vulgar Display of Power in '92. If that ain't mainstream enough, then Korn made a very nice effort in '95 once their s/t 1994 release picked up momentum. Furthermore, there's nothing that can be said about Roots bringing groove metal to the fore that can't be said about any of Pantera's three albums from CFH through Far Beyond Driven which came out in '94. Roots was well-received in the metal underground but was far from being the first underground groove metal release that such a thing could be said for.

[Fluffy Lothario]

Sepultura had played groove metal on Chaos A.D. too.

Roots is just a hugely interesting album in metal. When it came out, nu-metal still didn't really exist. You had Korn's first two albums, Deftones' debut, and then influences like RATM and Faith No More. And then there was Roots. After Korn's debut, it's probably the main foundation of the genre. But then you listen to it and there's groove metal and death metal and thrash elements, and the band pushed the tribal side of their sound far further than they ever had, so to me, it transcended the genre just as much as it informed it.

There was a period when it was quite a revered album. It was already almost five years old in my first year at high school and I remember seeing this album everywhere. But I think as nu-metal became more connected with rap lyrics, it fell by the wayside. Of course, nowadays, it's largely forgotten, because people want to forget nu-metal.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

I should make a list like this and call it "960-ish Albums for Me to Avoid and a Handful I Have Heard Before".

[lonestar]

After the first two pages, I had 44, then I got bored and said fuck it. I think once I got past 1993, my count would drop to nil.

[Ruba]

Slipknot - All Hope is Gone is on this list.....oookkaayyyy.

 .

No matter you'll say, Roots is mediocre. Sep used to be the most creative thrash metal band around, and even Chaos A.D. served some nice thrashy groove metal (and awesome acoustic piece, Kaiowas). Then make album with bad riffs, bad Phil Anselmo-esque vocals and bad sounds overall. But I'll give credit to Igor Cavalera, he does great job, as always.