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

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

xxp Damaged is at #487

theres something so dispiriting about these lists that I can't bring myself to vote for anything even though I love many of these albums and have even listened to one or two of them in the last month

answer to self:

minutemen at 267
huskers and black flag in the 400s

top 50 box score:

jazz 1
metal 0

it's wild that spirit of eden or laughingstock have not penetrated this cohort enough to make a top 500 list after 30 years!

two solo female artists in the top 10. writeups of both use their first sentence to note that they are, in fact, female.

Still an improvement over having no solo female artists in the top 25 (or so)

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

Does Getz/Gilberto count?

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

― rob, Tuesday, September 22, 2020 9:25 AM

It's not actually true: Led Zeppelin IV (#58); Led Zeppelin (#101); Led Zeppelin II (#123); Physical Graffiti (#144); Houses of the Holy (#278).

Fucking Abbey Road

Flashing back to “Here Comes the Sun” being their top track (by a lot) on Spotify.

the Womack & Womack version, of course

I will stan all day long for the Beatles from Rubber Soul through the white album, and even the early pop, but, except for the three big hits, I don't get what people see in Abbey Road tbch.

...it's their best album? if you ignore the first few tracks

yes aside from having three of the best songs by the band The Beatles, not much to recommend it

xp we were talking only about the top 50 re Led Zeppelin

It and Revolver are the only two I’d say I listen to with any regularity.

That leaves "Here Comes the Sun", basically.
3xp
Yeah, three great songs IS low for a Beatles album imo and "Here Comes the Sun" is the only one I'd put among their best.

Getz/Gilberto probably a little too jazzy for RS, but elsewhere yeah that would be a perfect token pick to signal awareness of Brazil

xxxp oh, sorry

(they only had one album in the top 50 last time – the debut)

Haha, Close to the Edge did make the top 500 this time!

Also Journey to Satchidananda - nice

Hate this list

Yeah, three great songs IS low for a Beatles album imo and "Here Comes the Sun" is the only one I'd put among their best.

*good songs

2pac’s highest ranking is all eyez at 436. Maybe one day he’ll make an album as good as Rosalia or drake’s “if you’re reading this it’s too late”

Fucking MIA - Arular is over the entire 2pac discography. Go to hell

Someone make the case that Amy Winehouse's Back to Black is a better or more important album than anything made by Led Zeppelin, Johnny Cash, or John Coltrane.

To their credit I’m amazed they haven’t canonized Tyler, the creator. I’m not a fan, but it feels like such a bullseye for their taste in rap it almost feels like negligence that he didn’t make it

Laid the groundwork for Adele
xp

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

And by stunning I hope you meant 'deeply refreshing'

Re Indestructible Beat of Soweto:

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

It's not actually that good, at least not when compared with, like, 90% of African music. It was a political pick in the '80s and it's just grandfathered in now. At this point it should have been replaced by, I don't know, the first volume of the Nigeria Special series.

Anyway, amusing/bemusing to see Kanye in the canon right at the moment when he's spending his time Not Running For President.

The Diary of Alicia Keys at 277 ... never listened to this. Is it actually any good?

No.