1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die Paperback – 4 Oct. 2018

Very well presented good quality print

This extensive album review book is great. It offers a chronologically-listed review of albums from the 1950s (starting with Frank Sinatra - In The Wee Small Hours (1955) and ending with Microshift by Hookworms(!) from 2018.)The book is fairly heavy (960 pages) and colourful with images of all albums reviewed along with track listing of most of the reviews. The range covers very familiar Beatles, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd to less known Can, Cocteau Twins, Erykah Badu, so a wide range of musical genres are covered.With a foreword, introduction and list of contributors (reviewers) this is a very detailed book which for the cost of less than 20 quid i'd recommend as value for money.

Good but dated and everyone has their own opinion!

Please note: This review comes from a middle-age male who likes POP music and has an interest in chart history. I like all types of music, from soul/motown/stax through to drum and bass!The book is north of 950 pages with an index for artist and index for albums, making it easy to navigate. The book is presented in chronological order and segregated into decades. The book can be read from cover to cover, or simply handpick a few albums like I am, to read the page and further investigate online.With streaming services, youtube, google, etc, it is easy to follow up with these albums as they are mostly mainstream. The album pages contain detailed notes including the year of the album release, publishing label, tracklist, and credits where available.I have decided to choose pages at random to work through, making a note of my progress using a spreadsheet.Wish me luck!

Running to some 960 pages and boasting two indexes – one for artists, the other for albums – 1001 … can be read (as I did) cover to cover in which case it offers a interesting jaunt through the music world over the past half century divided conveniently into decades starting with the 1950s. Alternatively, just dip in as and when required. Many of the entries contain detailed notes including year of album release, publishing label, track list and credits plus an overview of the work and its significance.

A friend and I saw this in a bookshop and flipped it open with the intention of having a dig at the contents: most rock books don't do any more than show the ignorance and narrowness of the compilers. In the event, we turned over every page right to the end. Sure not every entry will please everyone, but the main point is that virtually every great album we could think of -- and our taste is pretty eclectic, from Beefheart to Beethoven, via Arcade Fire and Ray Charles -- is here, including many that we thought "only we knew about". For any one looking to build or expand their collection this book is just fantastic.

This is the updated version for this year. Great addition to any Alexa speaker. A must for music fans. Lists are done by decades.

I am very pleased I bought this book. The reviews are not too long, fairly idiosyncratic and you may disagree with them. You may also be surprised by some omissions and inclusions from the decades.