50 Best Albums of All Time According to Rolling Stone's BRAND NEW, 100% Revamped Top 500

If we stick to the top 10, I don't care for nos. 2-4 at all. So far, the RYM list best matches my own preferences by a significant margin.

I'm guessing Sheffield threatened to quit if they didn't put a Harry Styles record in the top 500.

I did my best to diversify the proceedings.

My pick Gaye was In Our Lifetime fwiw

I've reached the peak age where those controlling the canon are in line with my own tastes, and it's probably only downhill from here

*new list is released in twenty years' time*

"What the--?"

"Well after the combination of the virus that took out the algorithms and the actual virus that took out the programmers of the algorithms the only song anyone could remember was "Old Town Road.""

No Chuck Berry or James Brown in the Top 50. But Kanye's at #17.

This is Rolling Stone. Just be honest and make a list of pop and rock, and don't pretend you also listen to jazz because you have Kind of Blue or Time Out in your collection. Kind of Blue is great, but it wouldn't even make my Top 30 of greatest jazz albums. Bitches Brew had a much bigger impact on rock and funk, anyway.

Fuck this actual list, but to be fair, RS currently has Hank Shteamer on staff and he might be the most jazz-knowledgeable editor they've ever had. He knows his shit, for real. I agree that RS-the-institution is not a jazz-friendly zone by any measurement, but he's done a lot to change that since he's been there. I mean, they interviewed Anthony Braxton last year!

jazzbotm

also pet sounds is fine but enough already

I Want You > In Our Lifetime > What's Going On > Here My Dear > Let's Get It On

I rolled my eyes at seeing What's Going On in the top ten, let alone first place, groaned when I saw Ziggy Stardust as highest-ranking Bowie (what, is this STILL 1987?); but the shock was Lauryn Hill. The euphoria waned quickly after 1999, deservedly.

I rolled my eyes at seeing What's Going On in the top ten

???? why

also pet sounds is fine but enough already

The distressingly cloying melody lobby has yet to be dismantled.

Kind of Blue is great, but it wouldn't even make my Top 30 of greatest jazz albums

see this kind of holier-than-thou taste calculus is my least favorite part of digesting lists like these. kind of blue, a perfect record, wouldn't make your top 30 greatest jazz albums? damn u r an original

Brad otm. I wouldn't omit Beethoven's 9th from a top 30 classical compositions of all time list just for the hepcat cred.

Oooooooh, Sgt. Pepper took a drubbing!

my biggest o_O is amy winehouse slotting in ahead of all the albums she ripped off was inspired by

it’s rolling stone, that the beatles don’t even appear until no. 5 is genuinely incredibly to me

incredible*

???? why

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson),

Not my favorite Gaye by any stretch, and it's made every one of their lists.

I don't know why but there's something about this 'aging boomer Googles info on acclaimed albums from the last three decades of popular music and hastily inserts new entries he probably hasn't actually listened to in their entirety/at all' list that's more depressing than the original.

There is no rational reason for that Kanye album scoring above every single Kendrick album. Even at its release, half of it was a mess.

(shouts to nephew in the other room) 'Hey Skyler, do the kids still like that Eminem album?'

It's a sign of RS's p4k-ification.

xp

groaned when I saw Ziggy Stardust as highest-ranking Bowie (what, is this STILL 1987?); but the shock was Lauryn Hill. The euphoria waned quickly after 1999, deservedly.

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, September 22, 2020 11:44 AM (three minutes ago)

Yeah, Miseducation as the best hip-hop album of all time is p bizarre. I like Ziggy and think it's slid into being underrated at this point (at least on ILM), but it is weird to see the artifacts of canons past still clinging on, especially, for me, Legend.

Also Graceland but nothing from the entire continent of Africa (or Brazil, or etc.) is ew gross, though I didn't bother looking at the full list

see this kind of holier-than-thou taste calculus is my least favorite part of digesting lists like these. kind of blue, a perfect record, wouldn't make your top 30 greatest jazz albums? damn u r an original

I'm holier than thou because I happen to love and listen to a lot of jazz? Does the same apply for anyone who loves and listens to a lot of rock/pop, and perhaps doesn't think Sgt. Pepper is one of the top 30 albums? Kind of Blue is maybe fifth or sixth on my list of favorite Miles Davis albums. He released many brilliant albums including Jack Johnson, Bitches Brew, In a Silent Way, Sketches of Spain, Porgy and Bess, Miles Ahead, Cookin', Relaxin; and many more. KoB became a big hit partly because it was so easy to listen to, and it sounded cool in the background. Some of his other major works are more challenging and rewarding, I think.

It's a sign of RS's p4k-ification.

xp

― sock solipsist (pomenitul), Tuesday, September 22, 2020 11:59 AM (one minute ago)

eh, isn't it more that the fundamentally rockist trope of the singular, often troubled artist-genius is crucial to what RS is? see also Lauryn Hill for that matter

porquenolosdos.gif

voted Songs In The Key Of Life today cuz I have really been feeling that one lately

In case anyone wasn’t clear, my “confession” above was meant to be taken as evidence that this list is probably bad. But so we’re all the previous versions I’m sure.

this is the best bad version yet imo

Also Graceland but nothing from the entire continent of Africa (or Brazil, or etc.) is ew gross, though I didn't bother looking at the full list

― rob, Tuesday, September 22, 2020 12:00 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

The Indestructible Beat Of Soweto is #497. Apparently, some clerical or technical error swapped its and Graceland's rankings.

Quite obviously yes.

xp to brad

lol at putting a greatest hits album in yr top 50

― mookieproof, Tuesday, September 22, 2020 10:23 AM (forty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

'legend' is a lolworthy inclusion, indeed, but the original top 50 had chuck berry's the great twenty-eight and compilations from muddy waters and robert johnson

at the very least it's made me think harder than previous iterations of the list. literally any no. 1 is better than sgt. pepper's; they picked the right one imo, as what's going on is, among other things, the deeper psychedelic experience

It's the zeitgeistiest and least rockist one so far, which is bound to please the ILM hivemind.

xp
ok lol that is impressively insulting

I am devastated my efforts at guaranteeing a top ten placement for Hearsay were a splendid failure.

imo kind of blue is both easy to listen to and profoundly rewarding, it sounds new every time i've played it even though i also have it memorized; every musician is so totally in tune with each other and the performances are so beautifully captured that it makes you imagine the room they're playing together in, except it doesn't look like a room in one's imagination, just this otherworldly atmosphere of smoke and dark that each soloist wavers in and out of. it can be background music sure! but if you study it there's so much going on. it also captures an evolutionary instep in both miles' music and jazz music in general that there aren't a lot of other examples of!

it's so special that a list without it is more suspect than a list that includes it

Old guard doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on in that the Beatles still have 10% of the top 50 locked down.

Why no Floyd tho. Why.

I don't know why but there's something about this 'aging boomer Googles info on acclaimed albums from the last three decades of popular music and hastily inserts new entries he probably hasn't actually listened to in their entirety/at all' list that's more depressing than the original.

^Old Lunch OTM

I don't think my dad has ever willingly listened to rap, but there is a "son, have you heard of [artist]? they were on NPR" quality to some picks. He raved about Winehouse after seeing the documentary

i'm guessing that has more to do with the demographics of the current rs staff + whichever freelancers they reached out to than any sort of calculation xp

i for one completely forgot i submitted a list for this, wonder what was on it

Murmur rose from #197 to #165; AFT leapfrogged it, rising from #249 to #96; and Document fell off altogether. Not sure if this is a net gain or loss for "America's Best Rock and Roll Band."

Certainly an improvement over the last one!

The Good:
- Abbey Road supplanting Sgt Peppers, and 3 Beatles albums falling out of the top 10
- Prince and Stevie in the top 10, Aretha and Public Enemy in the top 20
- General integration of rap
- General demotion of Classic Rock canon
- Demotion of: U2 (previously 26), The Who (28), and The Eagles (37)

The Bad:
- Complete (?) absence of country and electronic
- Two Radiohead albums in the top 50 (and I'm a fan)
- Lauryn Hill at 10 ALL TIME is a headscratcher; if I had a prediction, Lemonade will eventually be viewed in a similar light for some reason (and I'm a fan)
- No: Coltrane, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Led Zeppelin, CCR, Ray Charles

nm i found my ballot, it's basically this: my favorite albums of all time: a poll

lol same

ooh I hadn't clocked no Zeppelin, that is weird!

Or Sabbath, although that's less surprising seeing as there wasn't any in their previous top 50 either.

that list of 2010s albums jaymc posted on 9/22 bugs me.

not the albums themselves; there are lots of good ones on there

but am i crazy for wishing RS could at least squeeze a couple of smaller artists in there?

smallest artists on that list are, who, Rosalia and Isbell? both of whom are pretty big!

are we to believe that out of the 40ish best albums of the 2010s, not a single one was made by an artist who plays venues with capacities under 1,000?

i realize this is a niche thing, i just hate that, idk, like The Beths (just as an example) basically have no shot at being on this list.

No “Light Up Gold,” no credibility.

literally all I'd have wished for in an updated RS list is for Pet Sounds to drop 20 places, but here we are

Haha, this was the thread that sparked the Xenakis listening project.

I voted for Kind of Blue in the end, btw.

but am i crazy for wishing RS could at least squeeze a couple of smaller artists in there?

RS didn't game the results, 500 some odd people voted

I fell in love with songs in the key of life around the same age as my uncle did, i remember my grandmother telling me how she knew the album by heart because he played it all the freakin time when he was around 14

xpost alright, fine ... ppl like popular artists, turns out

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Don’t forget to vote in this historical poll that will determine the fate of ILM’s Tacit Canon for the next twenty years.

Screw the canon revisionists - I'm voting Sgt Peppers.

Could have been my choice on another day

I surprised myself and went with VU & Nico.

Couldn’t choose between VU, Ramones, or T Heads, so went for Miles.

I voted for the VU too. Exile would be second for me...bold picks!

Pretty sure I voted for Nation of Millions, obviously, but as the years go by I think the first Ramones LP might be overtaking it

NYC bias makes me wonder about whether other people more or less unconsciously voted based on geographical proximity.

I voted for Nation of Millions. I was 16 when it came out and I can't even describe how hard it hit me. I listened to that record basically every day that summer, and through most of my junior year of high school. Saw them live that year, too, with Stetsasonic, EPMD and Big Daddy Kane opening. What a time to be alive, as old people say.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I prefer the original order tbh.

I can't object to any of the albums with 0 votes.

I object to 2 of the 3 that won.

Great three-way tie!

Putting To Pimp a Butterfly over The Chronic, Low End Theory, Enter the Wu-Tang and Illmatic is such a hilarious decision

1. Marvin Gaye, 'What's Going On' 0

Take that, Rolling Stone.

Butterfly not even my favorite Kendrick album lol

ilm list is an improvement. 5 votes for Ramones as GOAT was the biggest surprise.

the write-in vote for Bathtub Shitter was surprising