1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

• Publisher:   Universe
• Number Of Pages:   960
• Publication Date:   2006-02-07
• ISBN-10 / ASIN:   0789313715
• ISBN-13 / EAN:   9780789313713

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a highly readable list of the best, the most important, and the most influential pop albums from 1955 through 2003. Carefully selected by a team of international critics, each album is a groundbreaking work seminal to the understanding and appreciation of music from the 1950s to the present. Included with each entry are production details and credits as well as reproductions of original album cover art. Perhaps most important of all, each album featured comes with an authoritative description of its importance and influence. Among the critics involved in selecting the list are some of the best known music reviewers and commentators, including Theunis Bates (music writer for Time and urban editor at worldpop.com), Jon Harrington (staff writer at MTV), Seth Jacobson (writer for Dazed & Confused), as well as many others.

If your hobby is music, buy the book, you will find something even if there is some bad choices. Who needs to listen to Britney Spears or Justin Timberlake before you die. I agreed with another reviewer, listen to Suzi Quatro or the Runaways before you die and listen to a lot of psychedelic music too, it will blow your mind and then you will die happy.
I rate the book 3 stars because there is so many artists that should be mention in the book instead of others and they are not.

Yep, she's on this list...as well as many other mediocre/horrible musicians. That's beside the point though. This is honestly a waste of money. Save you self some bucks, time, and shame by checking this list out on google.

distortion in music can be great, just ask my bloody valentine...but distortion in history...well, that's a different story... if you take this book seriously..you end up with the following conclusions: *1990-2004 were the "golden years" of rock music
**the beatles killed jazz
***black people didn't make music in the 60's since the book is broken down by decades...i did some quick number crunching and discovered that almost 25% of the book is from the '90s...
include the last 16 years...and it's over a third.....[there's 23 listings from 2004 alone....] by comparison the 50s and 60's combined produce 17% of the picks...every other list of this type i've ever seen flips those numbers around... the problem with their "recent music" picks is that every catagory is overstuffed [brit rock, indie rock, rap] and that problem is compounded by the fact that the editors give multiple listings to lots of artists who you really only "need" to hear one to "get" them... some recent "duplicates" include:
a tribe called quest
the beta band
beck
blur
chemical brothers
coldplay
divine comedy
doves
emeinem
missy elliot
fatboy slim
hole [one is one too many]
ice cube
kinks of leon
manic street preachers
oasis
outkast
pavement
primal scream
pulp
radiohead [i luv them, but FIVE pics?]
spiritualized
suede
verve
rufus wainwright ["want two" is not nearly as good as "want one."]
white stripes
==================
the award for the most rediculous artist with multiple listings: dexy's midnight runners..[3!!!]
====================
if you check the book's listings, you'll notice that of the 34 albums before "with the beatles," 17 of them are jazz..of the 966 picks that come after, 14 are jazz....any jazz fan will notice what's wrong with that...
=================
again checking the listings.... from the entire 60's they pick 11 soul albums...from the 90's rap and r&b combined get you 37....the way they distort black music is a crime against history...
======================
some black artists who don't get a pick: louis armstrong
bo diddley
willie dixon
howling wolf
robert johnson
scott joplin
louis jordan
leadbelly
charlie parker
wilson pickett
sam and dave
bessie smith
the supremes
dionne warwick
jackie wilson
=======================
the winner for the single album that has the LEAST business being in this book is "cafe blue" by the style council....the reviewer describes it as a "hit and miss affair." a "hit and miss affair?" life's too short... and ultimatly that's the problem with this book...there's no "baseline" as to what SHOULD make the cut....i see one star albums rubbing shoulders with five star albums...there's no rhyme or reason to the picks...allow me to explain a few missing albums by people in the book: after bathing at baxters
anthem of the sun
bob marley live!
combat rock
dear mr fantasy
the 5000 spirits or the layers of the onion
help
magical mystery tour
ommadawn
some girls
shoot out the lights
sunflower
us
========================
odd combinations/omissions: culture club but no culture
dr. dre, dr. john and dr. octagon but no dr. buzzard...[dr. strangely strange is probably out of the question....no humble pie, so there's no "i don't need no doctor"]
george jones and norah jones but no rickie lee jones or grace jones
b.b. king but no albert king or the king
"like a prayer" but no "like a virgin"
malcome mclaren but no sarah mclaghlan
mott the hoople but no motley crew
orbital but no orb
silver jews but no silver apples
super furry animals and supergrass but no superchunk
lucinda williams and robbie williams but no victoria williams, tony williams or hank williams [!!!]
coldcut but no beats international
alice cooper but no king diamond
"we are family" but no "diana" [both produced by chic]
weather report but no mahavishnu orchestra
korn, lincin park, limp bizkit and slipknot but no tool... one cream cd and three by creedence
one pearl jam cd and two by mudhoney
two cds by the eagles but no jackson brown
two cds by george michael and one by otis redding
two temps and no tops
three cds by the pixies and three by prince [a*hem]
four stevies and no smokeys
five cds by tom waits but no warren zevon
seven cds by neil young but no young marble giants ================
odd picks: "and justice for all" over "ride the lightning"
"pictures at an exhibition" over "brain salad surgery"
"led zepplin III" over "houses of the holy"
"pretzel logic" over "aja"
"the sensual world" over "the kick inside"
"selling england by the pound" over "foxtrot."
===========================
because the editors chose not to include collections, you end up with: "the visitors" over "gold"
"another music from a different kitchen" over "singles going steady"
"pornography" over "standing of the beach"
"the rise and fall" over "complete"
"if you can believe your eyes and ears" over "fairwell to the first golden era"
"groovin'" over "rascal's greatest hits"
====================
some missing artists from just the end of the alphabet: this mortal coil
tindersticks
tomorrow
toots and the maytals
trans-global underground
trembling blue stars
trio
uncle tupulo
ultravox
vangelis
vaselines
x-ecutioners
waitresses
weezer
wendy and lisa
yellow magic orchestra
camille yarbourgh
stomu yamash'ta
yaz
tom ze
=================== if you combine morrisey and the smiths the following artists have seven picks....the beatles, bowie, neil young, dylan and mozza......doesn't one of those names seem JUST a bit out of place?
================ ultimately, what we've got here is a book that says you "must" hear five [count 'em] five sonic youth cds but skips chuck berry...yes, you read that right....no chuck berry...pretty much the whole beepin' book WOULDN'T EXIST without him....kind of an obvious flaw...

This is a great book for a music buff. Lots of great pictures. We love it.

I see that Britney Spears made the cut...I mean, really? Other than a few ridiculous choices like that one, the selection here is amazing and the writing about each album is entertaining and very readable. There is world music included throughout, and although I haven't listened to any of those albums I think it is awesome that they were included. THE BEST part about this book is that there are full page pictures corresponding with different albums (My favorites being the ones for Nirvana with Kurt flying in the air, Paul Simonon of The Clash looking intense and spiked out, Hendrix...standing with his band mates and a pair of beautiful women). Another great thing is a frequent analysis of key tracks to listen to, you can tell TONS of thought went into this book, no doubt about that. I've learned about many bands I never knew anything about before from this book, most notably it introduced me to Neil Young's early albums and The La's fantastic album. That being said, this book is EXTREMELY frustrating for all the amazing albums that are omitted, where is Social Distortion's White Light White Heat White Trash? ANY of The Raspberries (Probably THE most underrated band of the 70s)? Young Marble Giants? Like The Knacks first album! Say what you will...Still there are so many GREAT albums here, they even have the Manic Street Preachers! (On a side note if you gathered a room of 100 Americans I bet that maybe 1 would have heard their album "The Holy Bible", one of the most unrelentingly disturbing and dark rock albums ever.) In short, I love this book. I just wish that Britney Spears could have been left off the list in favor of so many other amazing albums.

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