It's not going to please everyone
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Part of the appeal of books like this is flicking through them to make sure your own great taste is represented isn't it? 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die won't disappoint on several levels. Many of the records covered by other "best of" or "must own" series are here - but there are some surprises.
What's good about this book (and indeed other titles in the same series) - is the quality of the writing that goes with the various entries. Just enough to whet the appetite and provide some detail, but not too much to become pretentious and boring. Any book that lists albums from bands derided for their popularity (such as Abba) can't be all bad, so it's a surprise to find a couple of their albums listed, proving that music worth listening to can also be popular and big-selling.
Although classical music is covered in another book in the series, it's a shame that one or two essential recordings from the classical repetoire didn't make it here, as it would somehow make the appeal even wider. But I guess you can't have everything. Previous reviewers have pointed out the huge amount of albums making it into the lists here from the sixties - which is a fair point, but I must confess that flicking through the entries for more recent times found me scratching my head as I simply haven't heard of most of the artists mentioned.
Inevitably, everyone will look through such a book and yell indignantly at the glaring omissions - and that's got to be part of the appeal. Owning this book, along with the 1001 Books and Films titles in the same series will surely see anyone out in terms of discovering great new entertainment before the Grim Reaper comes calling.....
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Enjoyable Read,Bar The Odd Inaccuracy
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For those who regard music as life,the saying,"there are only two types of music...good music and bad music" has always been true.Im a life long music fan who has always sought great tunes from all categories of music.Seeing this book in the music section of a city bookstore,i was suitably impressed with its format and layout to purchase a copy.Unlike Martin C. Strong's,"Essential Rock Discography",this book reviews individual albums rather than reviewing bands in their entirety.The plus side of this is that more attention is paid to key works.Artwork and really nice photos are also included.The minus side is that for those who dont know a band's other works,it leaves you to buy another book such as Strongs book mentioned above.Put it this way,you need to buy the two for a complete picture and I would highly recommend you do so.
What I didnt like about this book were the inaccuracies I came accross every so often.For example,in reviewing Megadeth's classic album,"Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?",former bassist David Ellefson is credited with the bass intro for the title track of the album.That is false.Dave Mustaine wrote all parts of that song.Ellefson just happened to be the bass player at that time.Also,in reviewing Megadeth's brilliant,"Rust In Peace",their previous studio album,"So Far,So Good,So What" is described as,"Woeful".That is absolutely false.Strong's book rates this album as correctly worthy of a 7 out of 10 rating.
All in all,a worthy addition to anyones music library.Just have Martin C. Strongs book beside it to cross reference it.
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A must for a hardcore music fan!
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** Please be aware, this book is for music fans with a wide range of music tastes **
This was a fantastic book for me as i'm very open minded with my music tastes. This features all main album which deserve to be in the book (if you like them or not), such as, "Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols", even if you don't like the album you have to give its credit for the influence this has given to many artists which around today. You also have odd albums which are still amazing such as "The Penguin Cafe Orchestra". You also have electronic albums which i think have changed the way electronic music is made "Prodigy - Fat Of The Land", "Leftfield - Leftism" these albums maynot be classics to some people, but if you have a wide range of music tastes then you will like most of the albums in this book. I was also glad to see Miles Davis (jazz artist) in the book too. I could go on for ages. The book layout is well put out, with a picture of the album cover, the tracks on the album and which ones were released as singles, it even has the playing time of the album!
If you are a hardcore music fan, this is a must have book.
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Excellent Guide to Further Exploration.
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First of all I must say that I have found this book to be useful, informative, maddening, haphazard, brazenly populist, wilfully obscure, engrossing and just plain wrong about lots of things. So why five stars for a work of such gross imperfection? Because ultimately it does what a work like this should do; acts as an excellent aid to exploration and discovery of new (to me) music. Also it is an entertaining and informative read.
I discovered the book by chance as the title caught my eye in a bookshop because I already owned the 1001... film book. I was a little dubious at the expansion of the 'franchise' but when I realised I'd been reading it for over half an hour and still couldn't put it down I figured I'd best make the purchase.
The book has justified its purchase easily as I have been led to discover many albums that I'm sure would have remained unknown to me. It is particularly useful in that it explores a wide range of genres over a large time frame .I have bought many albums as a direct result of their inclusion in the book but more importantly, a great many more as a result of those initial purchases, that aren't in the book(but are just as good or better).
It is important to note that this book covers albums NOT artists and does not include compilation albums. It is an approach I approve of but one that weighs heavily against some important artists(Motown/disco acts for example and indeed artists in popular music prior to the mid-sixties). It also means that on those rare occasions where an artist is better appreciated by way of a "Best of/Greatest Hits" album you may find yourself being pointed towards a release of merely average quality, in order to include an important artist(a perhaps understandable compromise by the editor).
Another thing to be aware of is that this is the work of many(90) different reviewers and thus avoids the failings of the solo-author(too narrow a range, plays favourites, not enough time for one person to listen to/research everything properly etc) only to substitute them for others. At least a couple of times I have read reviews of albums by the same artist which offer slightly conflicting opinions because they are written by different reviewers so there is a lack of that clarity/unity of purpose that can be provided by a single vision.
Finally I feel that the book has received a lot of criticism, some justified, some entirely unfair and misdirected. My own biggest complaints are, over representation of some artists,the usual under representation of female acts(but they've done better than in most such guides),the tendency to not pick the best albums by an artist a lot(but not all) of the time and a tendency to include some albums purely because they were big sellers in a particular genre or in a particular year (particularly in the 80s and 90s).
If there is one thing a book like this confirms, it is that it is not possible to like everything. If you think that nearly every album in this book is someone's favourite(or top ten at least) it doesn't mean that you will appreciate them. Some genres just don't take. On the other hand I have found myself delving deeply into areas that I had only dabbled with before or exploring new areas that I'd been wary of thanks to this book.
In summary I think this book will appeal most to the enthusiastic and inquisitive music fan who can treat this as a useful tool rather than as a 'definitive list of the most important albums' and it would be a very fortunate person indeed who could find nothing of use in this.
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OK,But...
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Where's Warren Zevon? You cant find new music in this,good pearls you've never heard,its mostly albums and bands everyone have heard...are the birds really that good for example? i think that they should have listen to more than just english and american music...Sure,jacques brel is in there,but it's the only french-singing artist. there's no music from all the other countries,it's just main streem music most of the time. As i said before,wheres warren zevon on this list? He sure diserves to be in this book more than justin timberlake & britney spears.
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