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

Songs in the Key of Life

491. Harry Styles, 'Fine Line' (2019)

this is disgusting, ban rolling stone imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMOlkkwR2gw

xxxp yes for sure. it has been in a couple of The Quietus's 'top albums of all time/ baker's dozen' lists already.

Can't work out if If You're Reading This.. instead of Nothing Was The Same is a surprise or not but i raised en eyebrow.

xxp

Sheffield is a comically huge stan

more like kind of blew

Kind of relieved in a life-is-more-understandable-this-way way that Galaxie 500 did not make that Rolling Stone list. But appalled that Abbey Road is the top ranked Beatles album

— Damon K (@dada_drummer) September 22, 2020

More like A Love Stupreme

Guessing Songs in the Key of Life will take it. It's my vote, as well.

would be cool to see different reggae artists on occasion

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

hard for me to say this consideration matters when an even more egregious example (legend) is also in the top 50

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.

Yes, of course.
Here’s the biggest pop hit of 1966:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kj9qv6rmG8

And here’s Cecil Taylor’s “Steps” from that same year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXbNDJeAR1k

Legend's inclusion is a waste. By this point, if you like the guy, you've bought Natty Dread or whatever -- you don't return to the comp unless you're a non-critic.

Regardless of how they reconfigure or update these lists, they always have a 'top 50 albums of someone who's heard a total of 100 albums ever, all of which appeared on previous top 50 album lists' kind of feel to them.

^O.L. OTM again

hard for me to say this consideration matters when an even more egregious example (legend) is also in the top 50

Totally agree. And African Herbsman is my favorite Marley album. Where's Funky Kingston and Two Sevens Clash on that list anyway? Wish they had a search function.

Guessing _Songs in the Key of Life_ will take it. It's my vote, as well.

look lads once you've determined the best ever album of its genre any arguments are just showboating

also this is slipping into anecdotal territory and more likely due to my age than anything else, but i've never met someone whose only jazz record was kind of blue. i've met plenty of ppl who's only reggae record was legend but that's part of the modern american college experience

I see that despite several nods to post-'90s "country" albums, the electors opted to snub the core, the heart music: George Jones' I Am What I Am

the marley record should've been catch a fire, not only perfect but important too

Legend is less egregious insofar as it’s a collection of *songs*, which is a guiding principle throughout.

full list in text

There were def many eyerolls throughout Pitchfork's updated 80s lists but their reggae albums and singles picks were all surprisingly excellent recommendations imo. Would be cool if RS had any desire to run with that lead.

honestly find it kind of stunning that the highest U2 album is achtung baby at 124

The right Bjork album placed highest, but not the right Badu.

the shapes here are familiar but more native to contemporary skies

xpost Thanks, mookie!
Funky Kingston at #344? Criminal!

No metal, no justice.

Voted Ramones.

Beyond Pavement (3), Liz Phair (1), and YLT (1), is there any other "Nineties indie rock"? Asking for a friend

Bit daft that Lemonade is so high when even top Bey stans Pitchfork seemed to have changed their minds recently; the self-titled album was at number 3 in their end of decade list, Lemonade at 41.

xp (I'm not a YLT scholar, but I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One feels like an odd choice, no?)

Consensus, baby (I'm a Painful stan).

Ah - it's Electr-O-Pura for me

There’s def a lot of 90s in this list, but a very different 90s than the one RS sold us at the time.

Which, good.

I Can Hear the Heart... was YLT's highest-ranking album in Pazz & Jop (#5 in 1997).

American Idiot is actually one of the worst albums of all time.

yikes full list is more parochial than I imagined

It must suck to be Brazilian and to know no one there has ever made an album as good as John Mayer's Continuum

Rob OTM.

Africa Brasil made my list, and I should've stuck Expresso 2222 in.

Here are the 2010s albums in the top 500 (could be an interesting poll on its own):

491. Harry Styles, 'Fine Line' (2019)
484. Lady Gaga, 'Born This Way' (2011)
480. Miranda Lambert, 'Weight of These Wings' (2016)
472. SZA, 'Ctrl' (2017)
460. Lorde, 'Melodrama' (2017)
459. Kid Cudi, 'Man on the Moon: The End of the Day' (2019)
458. Jason Isbell, 'Southeastern' (2013)
447. Bad Bunny, 'X 100pre' (2018)
442. The Weeknd, 'Beauty Behind the Madness' (2015)
419. Eric Church, 'Chief' (2011)
397. Billie Eilish, 'When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?' (2019)
395. D’Angelo and the Vanguard, 'Black Messiah' (2014)
393. Taylor Swift, '1989' (2014)
382. Tame Impala, 'Currents' (2015)
367. Drake, 'If You're Reading This It's Too Late' (2015)
346. Arctic Monkeys, 'AM' (2013)
328. Vampire Weekend, 'Modern Vampires of the City' (2013)
321. Lana Del Rey, 'Norman Fucking Rockwell!’ (2019)
315. Rosalía, 'El Mal Querer' (2018)
312. Solange, 'A Seat at the Table' (2016)
295. Daft Punk, 'Random Access Memories' (2013)
270. Kacey Musgraves, 'Golden Hour' (2018)
269. Kanye West, 'Yeezus' (2013)
230. Rihanna, 'Anti' (2016)
213. Fiona Apple, 'The Idler Wheel' (2013)
196. Robyn, 'Body Talk' (2010)
175. Kendrick Lamar, 'DAMN.' (2017)
148. Frank Ocean, 'Channel Orange' (2012)
137. Adele, '21' (2011)
115. Kendrick Lamar, 'good kid, m.A.A.d city' (2012)
99. Taylor Swift, 'Red' (2012)
95. Drake, 'Take Care' (2011)
81. Beyoncé, 'Beyoncé' (2013)
79. Frank Ocean, 'Blonde' (2016)
32. Beyoncé, 'Lemonade' (2016)
19. Kendrick Lamar, 'To Pimp a Butterfly' (2015)
17. Kanye West, 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' (2010)

― jaymc, Tuesday, 22 September 2020 15:21 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is like all my ILM pet hates in one place, fuck

like, the fact that they have all this and NOT the ATCQ comeback album on there is completely damning

xp
Yeah, to be somewhat fair, there's not an obvious Kind of Blue/Legend/Indestructible Beat* type token pick for Brazil for the less interested (not meaning you Alfred, obvs) to include

* This is one of those odd canon artifacts though; surely no one really listens to this comp as a thing in itself anymore?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/64/Tropic%C3%A1lia_LP.JPG

oh that's a very good point, but ime it's not actually all that beloved? I had written but deleted a bit about Os Mutantes at one point being the obvs candidate

I'm surprised Transa isn't more tokenized, it's even in English!

oh hey! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Rolling_Stone_Brasil_100_Greatest_Brazilian_Music_Records

abbey road ffs

literally the last beatles album i would reach for on any given day

is there any SST on the list?

is this Groundhog Day? How many more of these are there?

stopped reading thread after first pet sounds diss

voted kendrick

lots of people who like Kind of Blue — maybe even own it — unfortunately don't listen to much else when it comes to jazz

which has exactly zero to do with whether its a great record