50/1001 Dinosaur Jr-You’re Living All Over Me. At first I thought what was the fuss about. It was just noisy chaos, but song two interesting things started to happen and I could kid of dig it. The random cure cover at the end was cool too. #1001albums.

49/1001 Foo Fighters-Foo Fighters. A good album, but later ones would be better in terms of songs and production. You can hear him pulling away from the sound of Nirvana, experimenting and reinventing, and on its best songs it’s superb. #1001albums

48/500 Ryan Adam’s-Heartbreaker. A good album this. The songs are well crafted, and the pacing builds towards a finish where there I felt a real connection. It all seems like very honest music. #1001albums.

47/500 Cheap Trick-Live at Budokan. I’m not a huge fan of this. Cheap Trick have always been fun, but this sounds flat & the vocals too far behind the guitar. I also didn’t feel the live performance added anything, the excitement and energy of being in the room were not something I felt. #1001albums

Adele-25. Adele is a very talented singer, a decent songwriter and performer, but her albums always seem a little flat. Similar pace, similar feel, similar subject, not just on an album by album basis but across her entire body of work. I remain unexcited. #1001albums

45/1001 Ry Cooder-The Buena Vista Social Club. This is a subtle one. The film is amazing in the first place and it’s great on record too, but without being flashy or having that massive hit of something to grab you… it creeps up and gets into your hips. #1001albums

44/1001 Nightmares on Wax-Smokers Delight. It’s a great load of background music that is groovy enough but never seems to go anywhere or say anything. Inoffensive & mostly bland, like trip hop with the best bits taken out. I didn’t dislike it. It didn’t affect me enough to have a strong reaction.

43/1001 Herbie Hancock-Headhunters. Groovy as anything can be. Elements of funk and jazz, where the grit has been kept and it doesn’t descend into musical navel gazing. I love it. #1001albums

42/1001 Elvis Presley-Elvis Presley. Elvis, for all his ground breaking reputation, has nothing on the likes of Little Richard or Fats Domino. This is lacking in edges & is mainly country playing on rock and roll songs. His voice is good, it it would be framed much better further into his career.

41/1001 Christine and the Queens-Chris. A perfect modern pop album. You can be fun, painfully cool, danceable, deep, and intensely personal all at the same time. I love this record. Go listen. #1001albums.

40/1001 David Bowie-Hunky Dory. Genuinely a superb album. It’s just surreal enough and artful enough to counteract the pure pop. Always something new to discover but it feels like home. Never boring. #1001albums

39/1001 Garbage-Garbage. A very produced and heavily crafted pop album dressed up in rockers trousers. I don’t mean that as a bad thing, I really quite enjoyed it… there’s a lot to be said for things like this. It’s quite powerful in its way. #1001albums

38/1001 Deerhunter-Halcyon Digest. An odd one this. It started out sounding like an industrial take on some Final Fantasy level music and then faded into a background that wasn’t unpleasant, but that my brain found easy to ignore. #1001albums

37/1001 Liz Phair-Exile in Guyville. I’m not sure I’m the intended market for this, but is brilliant. Confrontational, powerful, and personal I can’t think of a record like it. #1001albums

36/1001 Drive-By Truckers-Southern Rock Opera. An unhealthy obsession with Lynyrd Skynyrd & the way southerners are seen. Some interesting perspectives on former governors. But the production which is mostly flat, undynamic & dense made it a hard listen. It wasn’t bad but hard for me to penetrate.

35/1001 Meatloaf-Bat Out of Hell. Pompous songs that sound like they belong in a musical, with too much exposition and not a single unanswered question. It’s Steinman to blame, Meat’s voice is fine but the songs and the overly dense arrangements are sickly. #1001albums

Linkin Park-Hybrid Theory. Not one for me this. Comes across like a blend between rap for white people who are scared by hip hop and the least heavy of all the metals pretending that it’s uranium performed by people who have a chip on their shoulder about something their mum said. #1001albums

33/1001 Neil Young-After the Goldrush. A superb album. The second from Neil in this list and they couldn’t be more diverse… this highlights the gentler side of his music, less crazy feedback and more laid back, until you realise the songs have teeth. Full of depth and emotion. Love it. #1001albums

32/1001 Jeff Buckley-Grace. Superb. Magical and deeply emotional I like it more with every listen #1001albums

31/1001 Tim Buckley-Hello and Goodbye. I don’t know about this. I swung between thinking it was oddly brilliant and then just annoying. I just dont know, and I think it will take a few more listens to really decide. #1001albums

Check out Coming Home. It was always one of my favourite songs in the Blues is Truth live set, and I think it's captured best on the album that's just come out. Tell me what you think of it! open.spotify.com/track/0fY2x1...

Coming Home

Blues Is Truth · Today's Specials · Song · 2026

open.spotify.com

30/1001 Culture Club-Colour by Numbers. It’s wonderfully peppy pop music, full of happiness in its groove & with some instantly recognisable tunes. Later it gets lost, an out of place live track with some it was ok then (but not now) lyrics & what sounds like the theme song for a bbc drama from 87.

29/500 John Lee Hooker-The Healer. Full of groove boogie and loads of fun. It was a rightful renaissance for JLH and set the bring in the celebrity guests template for blues albums. It’s brilliant simple hard driving boogie that owes a as much to his past as his future.

28/10001 Deep Purple-Machine Head. It’s good, not Sabbath good, but it’s good. It’s all a little too worked out for my taste. I like things on the edge of chaos when it comes to harder rock music, and it’s just a little too clean. #1001albums

You can listen now… also on Spotify, Tidal, Amazon Music and all good places. Blues is Truth, Today’s Specials, the album that only took 16 years to release!

27/1001 XTC-Apple Venus vol 1. Not the XTC I thought I knew. No power pop, Nigel has been replaced by the Green Man and the lyrics are mostly quite whimsical and aimed at Morris dancers. Musically it is interesting if unexciting, but I remain confused. I did enjoy the protest song.

26/1001 Here’s Little Richard. The music is so far ahead of his contemporaries. Still exciting, it has edges & energy & all the things that make rock & roll special. It hasn’t faded with time. Perhaps because he was the real deal. No country singer doing black music they could sell to white kids.

25/1001 The Pogues-If I Should Fall From Grace With God. Unexpectedly awesome. I knew they were capable of greatness. I love Fairytale of New York. But had unfairly linked the Dubliners collab in with my dad’s liking for terrible Irish folk & had never heard an a whole album. A decision I regret.

24/1001 The Crusaders-Street Life. Brilliant, intelligent, not showing off, and full of funk, groove and soul. It’s even the perfect length for an album. And opens with something that hits just the right spot. Brilliant. #1001albums

23/1001 Tom Waits-Bone Machine. It’s dark and twisted and I regret all the decisions that lead to me not hearing it in the 90s when it came out. This is expression and because it’s sometimes uncomfortable it’s not for everyone. #1001albums