For the most part, this book is made up of really obvious, canonical selections (Pet Sounds, Psychocandy, Daydream Nation, Stone Roses, Forever Changes, London Calling, Remain in Light, Nevermind, etc, etc), not all of which I necessarily agree with, but I certainly can't dispute their widely-accepted status as classics - I reckon that a solid 70-odd of the 100 discs listed fall into that category. So, while it's fun to read about them, the limitations of space imposed by this pocket-sized book ensure that the text doesn't have much new to tell me.
Still, that same limitation of space seems to have inspired the compiler to restrict his selections to one album per artist, and there are some interesting ones there - in some cases, it's just a matter of picking one out of several recognised classics (Ziggy Stardust for Bowie, Revolver for the Beatles, Murmur for R.E.M. ...), but others selected from notable artists' back catalogues are pretty eccentric, most notably from my perspective the inclusion of the Cure's Mixed Up (which I admittedly haven't listened to, but I can't begin to fathom how it could've been selected over all of the proper Cure albums - there's no way that a record whose apparent high point is a Paul Oakenfold remix can be better than Disintegration, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, Pornography or any number of others) and the substitution of The Velvet Underground for the banana album. Also interested to see Hatful of Hollow get up for the Smiths - that's one a bit out of the box.
Also, the book claims that "Just" is 'a harrowing story of home invasion and rape on the fifteenth floor' - not a meaning I've ever gotten out of the song! And I was amused by the number of album descriptions in which the Velvet Underground were checked (conservatively, half a dozen, I'd say) - I guess that the number of ways in which a rock song can be described really is quite limited.
So, in other words, a bit of fluff, but an enjoyable one.
