The Official Needles and Grooves 1001 Album Generator Project

Lee Newman

Frothy
Joined
May 15, 2019
Messages
21,679
Age
51
Location
Durham
Today’s album: Pixies - Bossanova


Hello, welcome.

I'm gonna claim the first few posts after this for the album list.

The site above is the group project for the site. After all the place holder posts, I will announce the first album.

I will maintain a list of the albums along with their aggregate scores.

What is a 1001 Album Generator Project?

The above site will generate a random album from the book 1001 Albums to Hear Before You Die every weekday.

Your goal is to listen to the album, discuss below, rate and score the album.

It's an intense listening club! Hopefully we all discover some new favorites and have lively discussions about the album.

If you have an individual project, feel free to discuss it over here:

Hey, no pressure. Join in when you feel like talking about an album. You don't need to keep up the breakneck pace. We want this to be fun.

FOR THOSE JUST JOINING US, WE ARE ON LIST 7!!!
 
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List 6

249. 1/1/24 Fugees - The Score
250. 1/2/24 Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris - Trio
251. 1/3/24 Hugh Masekela - Home is Where the Music Is
252. 1/4/24 Sonic Youth - Goo
253. 1/5/24 Muddy Waters - Hard Again
254. 1/8/24 Taylor Swift - 1989
255. 1/9/24 Sparks - Kimono My House
256. 1/10/24 King Crimson - Lark's Tongues in Aspic
257. 1/11/24 The Beta Band - Hot Shots II
258. 1/12/24 Eminem - The Slim Shady LP
259. 1/15/24 Pixies - Surfer Rosa
260. 1/16/24 Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey
261. 1/17/24 Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information
263. 1/18/24 Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
264. 1/19/24 Billy Joel - The Stranger
265. 1/22/24 The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
266. 1/23/24 The Specials - The Specials
267. 1/24/24 Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle
268. 1/25/24 The Flying Burrito Brothers - The Gilded Palace of Sin
269. 1/26/24 Thin Lizzy - Live and Dangerous
270. 1/29/24 Elvis Presley - Elvis Presley
271. 1/30/24 Minor Threat - Out of Threat
272. 1/31/24 Fatboy Slim - Better Living Through Chemistry
273. 2/1/4 Jimmy Smith - Back at the Chicken Shack
274. 2/2/24 Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle
275. 2/5/24 Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left
276. 2/6/24 The Dictators - Go Girl Crazy
277. 2/7/24 Blondie - Parallel Lines
278. 2/8/24 Neneh Cherry - Raw Like Sushi
279. 2/9/24 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It’s Blitz!
280. 2/12/24 Black Sabbath - Paranoid
281. 2/13/24 Rufus Wainwright - Want One
282. 2/14/24 The Good, the Bad, & the Queen - The Good, the Bad, & the Queen
283. 2/15/24 Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
284. 2/16/24 Blur - Blur
285. 2/19/24 The Who - Who’s Next
287. 2/20/24 The Vines - Highly Evolved
288. 2/21/24 Jurassic 5 - Power in Numbers
289. 2/22/24 Can - Tago Mago
290. 2/23/24 Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home
295. 2/26/24 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Deja Vu
296. 2/27/24 Quicksilver Messenger Service - Happy Trails
297. 2/28/24 Eagles - Eagles
298. 2/29/24 Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica
299. 3/1/24 Deep Purple - Made in Japan
300. 3/4/24 Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet
301. 3/5/24 Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
302. 3/6/24 Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
303. 3/7/24 Bauhaus - Mask
304. 3/8/24 Deep Purple - Machine Head
305. 3/11/24 The Kinks - Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire
306. 3/12/24 Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
307. 3/13/24 The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight
 
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List 7

308. 3/14/24 Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger
309. 3/15/24 Lynyrd Skynyrd - Pronounced ‘Leh-‘Nerd ‘Skin-‘Nerd
310. 3/18/24 Elliott Smith - Either/Or
311. 3/19/24 Elvis Costello - My Aim is True
312. 3/20/24 Queen - Sheer Heart Attack
313. 3/21/24 Amy Winehouse - Frank
314. 3/22/24 The Offspring - Smash
315. 3/25/24 Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
316. 3/26/24 Oasis - (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?
317. 3/27/24 Public Image Ltd. - Metal Box
318. 3/28/24 Booker T. & the MGs - Green Onions
319. 3/29/24 Duke Ellington - Ellington at Newport
320. 4/1/24 Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell
321. 4/2/24 Dexys Midnight Runners - Searching for the Young Soul Rebels
322. 4/3/24 Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Music from the Penguin Cafe
323. 4/4/24 U2 - The Joshua Tree
324. 4/5/24 Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms
325. 4/8/24 The Clash - The Clash
326. 4/9/24 Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
327. 4/10/24 Morrissey - Vauxhall and I
328. 4/11/24 Big Black - Atomizer
329. 4/12/24 Prince - 1999
330. 4/15/24 The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We Come
331. 4/16/24 Saint Etienne - Foxbase Alpha
332. 4/17/24 Fun Lovin’ Criminals - Come Find Yourself
333. 4/18/24 Pixies - Bossanova
 
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1/19/23 Pick:
View attachment 164610
Artic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

Allmusic Review:
5 stars


My initial reaction is "meh." I got rid of my VMP version because it wasn't bad but not something that needed space on my shelf. Will post thoughts after a listen.
 
Yup, after another listen, I'm firmly in the "it's fine" camp. Not gonna turn the station if it comes on, but not gonna seek it out.

I honestly, don't understand what all the fuss is about.

It's pop punk with a hipster modern edge. What's the term, oh yeah, Indie Sleaze....
 
It sounds like the band that opened for the band you wanted to see through the bathroom door of the tiny cramp club. Like I expect to hear a din from the audience...

I haven't read the book, it's on my to-read list, but it is the soundtrack to an imagined "Meet Me in The Bathroom" fictional movie inspired by the book.
 
It sounds like the band that opened for the band you wanted to see through the bathroom door of the tiny cramp club. Like I expect to hear a din from the audience...

I haven't read the book, it's on my to-read list, but it is the soundtrack to an imagined "Meet Me in The Bathroom" fictional movie inspired by the book.
Not much time on Arctic Monkeys in Meet Me In The Bathroom as it’s primary focus is on the New York City/Brooklyn music scene. I am sure they are mentioned because they touch on a lot of the big Indie bands of the 00s.

I really like this album. In fact It’s the only Arctic Monkeys album that I truly enjoy.
 
My initial reaction is "meh." I got rid of my VMP version because it wasn't bad but not something that needed space on my shelf. Will post thoughts after a listen.

I think for me anyway it’s very much a time and place album. They’re not very much younger that me, from not very far away from where I’m from and they sang in a local accent about the kind of things that I’d have been experiencing in my late teens early 20s. It kind of felt thrilling and their early gigs had a great energy. Alex Turner has always had a knack for a turn of phrase too.

It always felt kind of authentic too in that they seemed to isolate themselves from, and reject, the hype that was built around them and always sung in their own accents using local vernacular and colloquialisms.

Musically they’re not reinventing the wheel and have been pretty open that early on they just wanted to be a Yorkshire Strokes but then musically I don’t always need someone to reinvent the wheel. It felt fresh to me then, and still stands up for me now, because they’re from the north of England and they don’t affect a “mid Atlantic” singing accent.

I think I signed up for VMP because of this album. The first one I got was Beach House, but I think that maybe I signed up for this because, and knowing, that this was next?
 
Musically they’re not reinventing the wheel and have been pretty open that early on they just wanted to be a Yorkshire Strokes but then musically I don’t always need someone to reinvest the wheel.
It’s kinda funny The Strokes wanted to make GBV’s albums but ended up sounding quite a bit different. Arctic Monkeys were trying to make a Strokes record and ended up doing their own thing and they were all the better for it.
 
It’s kinda funny The Strokes wanted to make GBV’s albums but ended up sounding quite a bit different. Arctic Monkeys were trying to make a Strokes record and ended up doing their own thing and they were all the better for it.

I think bands are always better when their inspirations inspire them to create rather than being held as biblical tomes.

Also when you write Fake Tales of San Francisco very early doors you can’t very well just be a facsimile of a New York band!
 
I think bands are always better when their inspirations inspire them to create rather than being held as biblical tomes.

Also when you write Fake Tales of San Francisco very early doors you can’t very well just be a facsimile of a New York band!
I mean, I don't need a band to reinvent the wheel either. I can objectively prove that given the amount of soul music i listen to. That being said, I do think Artic Monkey's last two albums are more interesting than this one. Outside of those three, I haven't really spent any time on them.

The Strokes don't do much for me either, so it may just be that brand of music.

I think of bands of this sort of rock ilk of this millennium, early Kings of Leon are the only ones that I really dig and they have a decidedly southern take on the whole thing. So I can see how your location argument plays into it. (Although, there seem to be plenty of people not of that place and time that dig it, too.)

I don't hate it and I don't hate on them as unoriginal. There is a certain sheen to their music that I would call unique even at this early stage.
 
I'm gonna see what Allmusic pulls up as similar to this record. See if there is a rosetta stone as it were.

Hey @AnthonyI, does the book have RIYL/further listening recommendations?
 
Um... okay... Allmusic says to listen to (a whole bunch of stuff I don't know)...
Neko Case - wtf?
Death Cab - I don't like them either, but WTF?
LCD Soundsytem - WTF?
Murder By Death - WTF?
The National - WTF?

Clearly their algorithm is bonkers?!!!

So, team, what besides The Strokes is like these guys that I should check out?
 
Not much time on Arctic Monkeys in Meet Me In The Bathroom as it’s primary focus is on the New York City/Brooklyn music scene. I am sure they are mentioned because they touch on a lot of the big Indie bands of the 00s.

I really like this album. In fact It’s the only Arctic Monkeys album that I truly enjoy.
I mean I knew that they weren't in the book because I knew the premise of the book. Like, they sound like a band that I am hearing while I take a piss before the Strokes take the stage....
 
Um... okay... Allmusic says to listen to (a whole bunch of stuff I don't know)...
Neko Case - wtf?
Death Cab - I don't like them either, but WTF?
LCD Soundsytem - WTF?
Murder By Death - WTF?
The National - WTF?

Clearly their algorithm is bonkers?!!!

So, team, what besides The Strokes is like these guys that I should check out?

The Libertines and The Coral would be the two that sort of came before the them and started off the whole British new indie scene maybe 3 or 4 years earlier.

But kinda around that time in Britain there were a whole host of sort of punkish/new wave inspired artists emerging but none of them sounded alike. You could kinda say the two previous and Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party and the like were their peers early days. Also the Little Flames who broke up before their first album came out but were very close with the Monkeys with Miles Kane become good friends and an occasional collaborator with Alex.

They also had, because of their immediate huge success over here, a sort of stream of lesser bands and imitators have degeees of exposure in their wake but there’s no point mentioning those because they’re not worth checking out.
 
I mean I knew that they weren't in the book because I knew the premise of the book. Like, they sound like a band that I am hearing while I take a piss before the Strokes take the stage....

Which is kinda funny because live the Monkeys have yet to disappoint me but the variability of the strokes on stage is massive. I’ve seen them rip it up. I’ve also seen them come across as so bored on stage that I’ve fancied a little snooze myself.
 
The Libertines and The Coral would be the two that sort of came before the them and started off the whole British new indie scene maybe 3 or 4 years earlier.

But kinda around that time in Britain there were a whole host of sort of punkish/new wave inspired artists emerging but none of them sounded alike. You could kinda say the two previous and Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party and the like were their peers early days. Also the Little Flames who broke up before their first album came out but were very close with the Monkeys with Miles Kane become good friends and an occasional collaborator with Alex.

They also had, because of their immediate huge success over here, a sort of stream of lesser bands and imitators have degeees of exposure in their wake but there’s no point mentioning those because they’re not worth checking out.
I will probably make a point to check some of this out after I get tired of David Crosby.

I mean, I would like to get what the fuss is all about, anyhow.

I just don't see anything that remarkable. But then some people say the same about Punch Brothers and as much as I love them, I'm not gonna fight over anyone's opinion there.

I have found from time to time that context can help.
 
I mean, I don't need a band to reinvent the wheel either. I can objectively prove that given the amount of soul music i listen to. That being said, I do think Artic Monkey's last two albums are more interesting than this one. Outside of those three, I haven't really spent any time on them.

The Strokes don't do much for me either, so it may just be that brand of music.

I think of bands of this sort of rock ilk of this millennium, early Kings of Leon are the only ones that I really dig and they have a decidedly southern take on the whole thing. So I can see how your location argument plays into it. (Although, there seem to be plenty of people not of that place and time that dig it, too.)

I don't hate it and I don't hate on them as unoriginal. There is a certain sheen to their music that I would call unique even at this early stage.

Yeah the first two Kings of Leon albums both had really great and interesting moments. I don’t think either ever fully convinced me as a whole but there were some brilliant songs. The Bucket is an all time favourite in some ways.

Then they decided to try and be U2, and failed, badly.
 
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