1001 Album Complaints - Podcast Rankings and reviews

I just discovered this podcast a couple months ago and am absolutely hooked, to the point I went back to the first episode and am working my way through every single one, together with album listens. It’s been a super enjoyable ride…I’m now about 80 episodes in and looking forward to getting caught up to the present. I’m especially glad for my new and deep appreciation of the twin patron saints of the podcast, Eric Clapton and Neneh Cherry. I do wish the guys would recruit some more pod guests who grew up consuming different types of music than they did, especially hip-hop - although to be fair they do point out their own blind spots. Amazing work guys and thanks for making multiple road trips fly by lately.

I love the format of this show and the way it has a randomly selected albums each week. Even when I don't like the music very much, the show does a fantastic job providing a bit of history and context to better understand the musicians who made the music.

Even though the hosts can sometimes get a bit snarky, they are generally respectful and are great examples of criticism that seeks to understand rather than tear down just for laughs.

My own kids have gotten into this podcast and enjoy listening to the random album of the week and then hearing the breakdown on the podcast.

Having delved into the 1001 albums list through the years (I’ve probably heard each album at least twice and a lot of the albums I’ve listened to many, many more times), it was great to find a podcast that takes a deep dive into each album. The randomness of each episode is also fun. I have no musical talent myself but I sure love listening to music and I love hearing these guys chat about more technical aspects. Keep up the great work for the next 17 or so years it’s going to take to go through them all.

There are a number of “dudes listen to 1001 albums” podcasts out there. What makes this one distinctive is that these particular dudes are all experienced musicians. They have expertise they can bring to bear.

This has its downside. As long time musicians they have an overly narrow perspective on what good music is supposed to do, and they have a hard time dealing with anything wherein conventional musical craftsmanship is not the focus (cough cough Gang of Four cough cough cough).

But I’ll give them credit for trying—they do listen closely, even when they flat don’t get what the album of the week is trying to do.

And they’re funny and they bounce off each other well, so there’s that.