1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

By Michael Jones

February 2006

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. General Editor: Robert Dimery. $49.95

1001 Albums. Books such as 1001 Albums can be dangerous in the hands of someone who sees too much of himself in a book or movie such as High Fidelity. Books such as this one lead to many hours of discussions and arguments with other sad cases, too many albums added to my lists of “albums I must buy” and too much time spent reading and re-reading the contents. A sad case am I.

Editor Robert Dimery has brought together some 90 writers to write about the 1001 chosen albums. These albums, in chronological order, range from one of the first “real” albums (Frank Sinatra’s In The Wee Small Hours) through to three albums from 2005 (the last two being Beck’s Guero and Get Behind Me Satan by The White Stripes).

There’s no way that this writer (or any other, I imagine) could possibly know all of the albums in this book. I can say, however, that of the albums I do know the writing is literate, interesting and informative.

The 25 year period of the 1980s and beyond dominate this book, with the 1980s starting at page 448 of the 960 pages. As I’m now in serious danger of becoming a boring old fart, it’s the 1960s, 1970 and 1980s that interest me the most, with fewer and fewer albums being of interest (or even being heard of!) as the page numbers increase. Readers of fewer than my decrepit 41 years will no doubt find more of interest in the later pages than I do.

The book is thick and heavy, with my sore wrists to show for that. The book is well laid out, with good typography and pictures of (nearly) all of the 1001 albums discussed. It’s also very well made, having stood up to a lot of abuse as I’ve read and re-read sections of it.

And that is the joy of books like 1001 Albums. After you’ve bought it, you keep picking it up again. And re-reading. And arguing with your musically literate friends over the contents. And buying more music. So add this to your list of “1001 books I must buy before I die”. You won’t regret it.

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