Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not (Introduction & Essays)

Last Updated on January 4, 2026 by Christian Adams

Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not* is an essay series documenting an ill-fated attempt to hear every record listed in the somewhat popular coffee table book, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, edited by Robert Dimery.

The original Albums You Must Hear…Or Not essay series only covered albums released between 1956–1992. The essay series comes with its own key and multiple standards of exception, including but not limited to: The BS&T Clause, the Human League Dilemma, Double LP Syndrome, and exclusive definitions and explications of terms like “shitball” and “solipsism.”

*Also known as 1001 Albums Released Between 1956-1992 You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not

The essays were published in 2015 and updated sporadically until 2025, when I began the slow process of updating all entries and picking up where I left off.

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What is 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die?

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a popular coffee table reference book edited by Robert Dimery. The albums were selected and reviewed by a committee of music critics.

The 2010 edition, on which the essay series was initially based, features 1,047 albums. In the meantime, several “clone” versions of the list have popped up online.

Although most of the book’s recommendations are rock and pop albums from the Western world, Dimery’s 1001 AYMHBYD features selections from world music, jazz, R&B, blues, folk, hip-hop, country, and electronic music. The rock and pop albums include such subgenres as punk rock, heavy metal, alternative rock, progressive rock, easy listening, and 1950s-style rock and roll, i.e., rockabilly.

Classical and modern art music is excluded.

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Introduction to the …Or Not Series

According to my 40-plus years of listening experience, you do not need to listen to at least a third of the records on this list for any reason. Seriously, all my blustering solipsism aside, your life will still be complete if you haven’t heard Metallica’s …And Justice for All (1988). And nobody needs to hear a single note of Goldfrapp’s Felt Mountain (2001). Now we’re at 1,045 and counting…

Over the years, I’ve grown exceedingly skeptical and often dismissive of almost any article, book, or list that promotes something the reader “must do.” You don’t have to do anything. Suppose you’re interested in the development of rock music as an artistic, historical, and/or social movement. In that case, there are 10,000 albums you need to be familiar with before you can join the conversation.

Genre Inclusive

In step with the spirit of the book, nearly every genre of modern popular music is discussed, including Afrobeat, avant-garde, noise rock, psychedelic rock, jazz fusion, extreme metal, adult contemporary, post-punk, queercore, country rock, and many, many more. Additionally, the essays often touch on tangentially related issues that surround the culture of popular music, such as the influence of computer technology on artistic development.

Reaction to Critical Choices

At least half of the records listed in the book are essential listening for anyone who enjoys music. However, taken as a whole, the selections represent what contemporary critics consider outstanding records from the abovementioned genres at pivotal times in their emergence and popularity. In some cases, the record “You Must Hear Before You Die” may not be the artist’s best album, hence, the one you really should, as opposed to must hear.

Suggested Alternatives

Most importantly, I attempted to establish whether the casual music listener really needed to hear these albums, and in some cases, suggested an alternative record that didn’t make the list.

For example, 1001 AYMHBYD includes Adam and the Ants, Kings of the Wild Frontier (1980; #457), ostensibly for a few reasons. First, it’s a killer record, no matter what you think of the fruity pirate costumes and racially insensitive face paint. Every song is a champion.

Second, it represents an important moment in the evolution of punk and new wave as those genres morphed into what we now call post-punk and alternative. Thus, Kings deserves to be on this list because of its impact on rock music at a certain point in time. 1001 AYMHBYD got this one right, sort of.

The problem? Kings is NOT Adam and the Ants’ best record.

That honor would belong to their first record, Dirk Wears White Sox (1979), which came before Malcolm MacLaren and the silly suits. Moreover, I would argue that their third album, Prince Charming, was as good as anything else that came out in 1981, and for my money, it is a fascinating listening experience worthy of inclusion on the list. But I didn’t make the list or edit the book. If I did, I guarantee things would be different.

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Editorial Criteria for the …Or Not Series

One day, I printed out the 1001 list and took an honest survey, crossing off the records I had heard, and circling the ones I’d never even heard of. My “listened-to” rate hovered just around 60% (633 out of 1,047), which I’m guessing would be on the high end of the layman’s scale.

Anyway, for a record to be crossed off the list, I had to make a conscious (or otherwise) effort to listen to the complete album; thus, partial listens were discounted. For instance, I have heard music from the following 1001 artists, but never sat through an entire album’s worth of jams:

Kanye West, Tortoise, The KLF, Dagmar Krause, The La’s, Adverts, The Julie Ruin, Doves, Bees, Liars, Boards of Canada, Libertines, The Icarus Line, Calexico, Stereo MCs, Coldcut, The Triffids, Hanoi Rocks, Go Betweens, Young Gods, The Sabres of Paradise, Rocket from the Crypt, Barry Adamson, The Divine Comedy, Middle Class Heroes, Leftfield, Goldie, Super Furry Animals, and Fatboy Slim

After sampling work by the above 32 artists, I can safely say that I did not need to hear any of it, especially The Sabres of Paradise, Kanye West, Doves, and Leftfield, except for the purpose and context of writing this piece. And I was really on the fence about Hanoi Rocks, but honestly, the reason they never made it big is because they didn’t really have any memorable jams. Sorry.

The Rub

Here’s the rub: Hanoi Rocks is arguably an important stepping stone between 70s glam rock (Sweet, New York Dolls) and 80s hair metal (Poison, Guns N’ Roses). Plus, they’re from Finland. And the drummer (Razzle) was killed in the 1984 Vince Neil drunk driving incident. However, all of this simply does not add up to sitting through Back to Mystery City (1983) from start to finish. If you had to sit through an entire album, The Best of Hanoi Rocks (1985) collection would be more than enough of a challenge.

So we’re down to 1,013 albums we must hear before we croak, and I feel a bit lighter already. How about you? Let us proceed.

Frankly, a thousand is still a lot of records. At today’s prices, that’s a minimum $10,000 investment. That’s also a lot of time. And so, this is where someone like me comes in handy. I’m here to help.

Now, the point isn’t to randomly assassinate a bunch of albums. The idea is to cover as much ground as possible while taking in the major sights. At the same time, I want to gently suggest a substitution whenever possible, as demonstrated by the Human League Dilemma.

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The Human League Dilemma

As I went through the list, I came across a bunch of records that I’d heard more than just the “big hit.” For example, The Human League, Dare (1982; AYMHBYD #492, and one of a handful of synth-pop records to make a significant impact on the Billboard charts before the Eurythmics).

Dare’s appeal and success can be boiled down to its enduring MTV-era smash hit, “Don’t You Want Me (Baby)”, which I begrudgingly admit is kind of a cool song. With the exception of a minor hit in “Love Action (I Believe in Love)”, the rest of Dare was vaguely familiar to me, i.e., I never owned the record, but I knew people who did.

OK, so I’m sitting there thinking, “Yup, this book says I must hear Human League’s third studio album on A&M Records…in its entirety.”

YouTube, do your thing! Not even 30 seconds into the first cut, “The Things That Dreams Are Made Of”, I’ve realized that I’ve made a terrible mistake. And I still haven’t heard Dare in its entirety, and I hope I never do.

Look, you should be familiar with synthpop as a genre, which theoretically could start and end with Gary Numan’s Pleasure Principle (1979; #435). Or Tubeway Army’s first record, or maybe even the first three Ultravox records, which weren’t always very synthy or poppy, but still really good.

Go ahead and enjoy “Don’t You Want Me (Baby)” whenever the house DJ gives it a spin. Shake your ass like a fool. That’s fine. Just don’t waste your time slogging through Dare or a thousand other horrible synthpop records, e.g., by artists such as ABC, Spandau Ballet, Orchestra Maneuvers in the Dark, Soft Cell, etc. Life is far too short.

Princples, Alone

Of course, there are even more albums on the list that I would wipe out on principle alone, rather than artistic merit or what-have-you. Records in hindsight that didn’t really do me any good. I probably didn’t need to hear Culture Club, Colour By Numbers, or Duran Duran’s Rio (1983), and I honestly don’t believe anybody else had to hear ‘em, either. However, these albums serve as a point of reference, a beacon of warning: Do not go any further in that particular direction or risk Kajagoogoo. Kajagoogoo, very bad. You don’t want Kajagoogoo; it’s terminal.

All right, phew. Now we’re down to a mere 1,012.

Must-Hear Albums: By the Numbers

Meanwhile, there were approximately 100 albums and/or artists that I was entirely unfamiliar with, as in, I had never even heard or seen their names, such as Baaba Maal, Miriam Makeba, Koffi Olomide, Nitin Sawhney, Fever Ray, Wild Beasts, Mylo, Abdullah Ibrahim, and Machito. You should probably go ahead and give them a spin, out of curiosity if nothing else, but we’ll get to them eventually.

To demonstrate how the rest of this multi-part essay will unfold, let’s take a random year from 1001 AYMHBYD, 1974, one of my favorite years in music, and run it through the BSM-5000 bullshit detector.

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The …Or Not Albums Rating Key

Key:

• Strikethrough indicates what you probably think it does
• Green indicates highly recommended listening
• Underlined indicates questionable but ultimately acceptable record
• Red indicates generally hazardous material
• Blue bold italic indicates ABSOLUTELY MUST HEAR BEFORE YOU DIE

Note: Suggested alternatives are from the same year as the contested entry unless otherwise indicated.

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Sample From Albums You Must Hear From 1974…Or Not

10cc – Sheet Music (1974)

10cc is terribly underrated and sadly codified by the soft-rock stylings of their biggest hit “I’m Not in Love”, which is not on Sheet Music, a delightfully adventurous work of pop genius, and one of the records that makes 1974 such a unique year in music.

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Bad Company – Bad Company (1974)

Bad Company had a couple of solid jams. They were a good-to-very good band that stayed within the narrow confines of underachieving hard rock. Some people say Paul Rodgers is one of the all-time great rock vocalists. But an entire album of Bad Company? Nope. You shouldn’t even sit through a Greatest Hits collection.

Having made several long-distance road trips with exactly three cassettes in the car and a tape deck that didn’t have auto-reverse, I can think of a bunch of circumstances where Bad Company might be one of the only albums you have on hand, and thus, you’d almost be forced to listen to it all the way through. Otherwise, just tune into the local classic rock radio station and wait for “Can’t Get Enough” to come on, and keep stuffing that Carl’s Jr. double cheeseburger into your face.

Suggested alternative(s):

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