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 | | 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die by Robert Dimery (Editor), Michael Lydon (Preface) ISBN-10: 9780789313713 ISBN-10: 0-7893-1371-5 ISBN-13: 9780789313713 ISBN-13: 978-0-7893-1371-3 Hardcover 2006-02-07 Universe Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description 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. | ||
Reviews | ||
While I love this book, everytime I notice one of my favorite albums isn't here... 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. | ||
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die I've been working my way through this book, listening to every album. The notion that people who do so would treat it as the be-all, end-all is ridiculous and insulting. It is an interesting list of important and influential albums. Not everything in this book is a masterpiece. Many of them don't come close. But they are important. The moment I decided I liked the approach this book takes is when I read the entry on the Electric Prunes, a thoroughly mediocre album which the book noted was highly influential on West-coast groups like The Stooges due to its frequent appearance in bargain bins. There's no indication that the album is exceptional, simply that it is an important document in the progression of modern music. Not a perfect list, by any means, but it's a good way to introduce yourself to music you wouldn't have listened to otherwise. | ||
Great gift for the music lover This isn't for all age groups, but was a perfect gift for the "hard to buy for" guy over 50. | ||
MOVE OUT OF THE 1960s, PLEASE. Fun reading, covering the decades from the 1950s into the 21st century, but I have some serious disagreements with many of the LPs listed here. The editors and authors are obviously baby-boomers who never got past the Summer of Love mentality. There are WAY TOO MANY releases from the late 60s that are fawned over. The Electric Prunes! Come On! And NOTHING by Ravi Shankar is a "must hear". Ravi's best release was the sperm that created Norah Jones. However, I do have to make this sobering observation: I have listened to more of the 1950s releases than I have the 1990s releases. | ||
Profoundly misguided - authors lack understanding of Western Music History This guide is useless. Do not read it. The period it covers is highly over-rated. While some music from the last half of the 20th c. was important, most of this period can be disregarded. In 200 years no one will recognize Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan. The last half of the 20th c. was a mostly unredeemably coarse age for music. Mick Collins | ||