The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion

This is what I love about MOJO as a magazine - it deals with all kinds of music from all eras, going back really far. Many other magazines only pick really famous bands once you've gone back a distance, but here we get loads of now-obscure 60s bands to look into, and music across a huge range of genres. Really top stuff - the perfect guide for what it is, essentially. Any self-respecting music fan should get it - it'll be invaluable.


Absolutely essential   October 16, 2003
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This collection is indispensible, overkill and then some for list freaks and music junkies on both sides of the Atlantic. If you care about music enough to know the crucial stuff from the crucial bands by heart, this will instantly complete the necessary remainder of your soon-to-be vast musical knowledge.

Now, mind you, this book is not without its blunders. Too many of these records are out of print, or only available on vinyl, although the trend of reissuing many of these albums seems to be suspiciously coming about (perhaps that Gilmore Girls Episode did the trick...). Meanwhile, sections at the end about compilations, soundtracks, obscure reggae collections and a structureless easy listening essay only serve to make things more confusing--stick with the main section, as the book's introduction reccomends. Finally, a few guilty pleasures and obscurities, such as Toto IV and Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Jajouka, are included over such classics as Let it Bleed & Beggars Banquet, Rubber Soul & With The Beatles, Led Zeppelin I & II, This Year's Model & Armed Forces, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, In Utero, 69 Love Songs, and anything by Squeeze, Janis Joplin, Joe Jackson, the Pet Shop Boys, Post-Eno Roxy Music, non-liveatfolsomprison Johnny Cash, the Housemartins/Beautiful South, the Wu-Tang Clan, or non-Aja/Can't Buy A Thrill Steely Dan. But since you're a music fan who's willing to pick this up, chances are you've already heard all those, and thus your problems are all solved.

A note--there are 592 albums in the book's main body, not 600. If I'm wrong, somebody PLEASE post a correction on this page.


A great collection, BUT.......   September 7, 2003
 5 out of 13 found this review helpful

....1) "Sticky Fingers" over "Beggar's Banquet?"

2) No Linda Ronstadt AT ALL?? "Heart Like A Wheel" was chopped liver??

3) I seem to remember that, once upon a time, people rated Rod Stewart's "Every Picture Tells A Story" as one of the finest albums ever released. So it doesn't get mentioned here, but an album by Journey DOES???

4) Where the [expletive deleted} are Midnight Oil??

As well as other sins of omission and comission too lengthy to debate.

It's all subjective, you say? Maybe so, but some absences are inexcusable and some selections are VERY questionable indeed!

All that notwithstanding, it's still a great review collection....BUT.....


The Only Resource you will ever need...................   January 7, 2003
 18 out of 19 found this review helpful

If you are interested to hear the opinion of the best albums of all time, from the writers of the highly respected British music magazine 'MOJO', then look no further. Arranged in (rather sensibly) chronological order (I hate when writers try to categorize music!), this very informative guide is a must-have for the serious music fan. A page (sometimes more) is devoted to each album, and each description includes the writers opinion, the story behind each album, full track listing, UK and US single releases, chart placings and a list of other notable albums by the artist in question.

This is not a collection to be devoured in a single sitting, but rather is a 'coffee-table' resource to be read at leisure.

Extremely well-written and highly informative, if "The Greatest Albums of All Time" does not inspire you to run to the nearest record store then I will eat my "Pet Sounds' Box Set.

Enjoy!