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

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.

In honesty, I recognize that it's less the result of the 'aging boomer' scenario I painted upthread than it is watching the younger set's notion of today's acclaimed music start to calcify in a bland, boomer-esque fashion. Like if I, who've been largely out of the new music loop for a decade+, recognize all of the newer entries they've plugged in, then they're playing it pretty effing safe.

if we were voting for the album that does not belong here it's amy winehouse obviously

like i get it, she's dead and had a cool aesthetic or whatever

xxp I didn't take your 'aging boomer' scenario literally - you were OTM that it has that 'feel' (don't 2nd-guess yrself!!)

Are there big Tapestry stans on ilm? I'm not sure I've ever heard the whole thing, but it seems unfashionable to me in a less explicable way than, say, Legend

Jazz fell out of the mainstream precisely because the scene started to value challenging and rewarding over pleasant to listen to. Most humans prefer the latter.

Never mind, there are two Dylan albums in the top 20. I hate this list.

In general there seems to have been a conscious effort to represent women - which is good! - that closely follows the NPR rankings from a year or two ago:

https://www.npr.org/2017/07/20/538307314/turning-the-tables-150-greatest-albums-made-by-women-page-15

not enough Janet Jackson fans in the world, I guess

Tapestry falls nicely enough in line with the yacht rock revivalism juice.

Nice to see 'Anti'.

Anywhere this full list can be read without scrolling that wretched website?

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

If you truly listen to a lot of classical music, then I can't argue with this (although the 9th wouldn't be in my personal Top 30). My point is that lots of people who like Kind of Blue — maybe even own it — unfortunately don't listen to much else when it comes to jazz. It's like me saying A Lament for Epirus is one of the Top 30 Greek folk albums, when in fact it may be the only one I own.

I just went through the whole 500 and there are four metal bands represented: three Black Sabbath albums, two Metallica albums, and one each by Motörhead, and Van Halen. I mean, Slayer's Reign In Blood isn't more worthy of note than a King Sunny Ade compilation? (N.B.: I love King Sunny Ade.)

Anti's legacy feels pretty destined to continue expanding

Anywhere this full list can be read without scrolling that wretched website?

it's not Vice

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