Updated Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums - Music

RockyRaccoon
Is it solipsistic in here or is it just me?

Gender: Male
Age: 33
Location: Maryland

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In case anyone missed it, Rolling Stone put out an updated list of their 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time.

It's far from perfect but I have to say, it's significantly better than the old list, which was basically a joke

What do you all think?
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Hayden

Location: CDMX

Only scrolled through the bottom 100 so far, but oh jeez this is embarrassing.

EDIT: What a weird list... almost feels randomized. Lauryn Hill's jump is... something.

911Turbo

Gender: Male
Location: Toronto

Thankyou for posting this article/list.
Absolutely fantastic.
Don't agree with many album positions, but it has given me an opportunity to listen to new stuff.
Should create a lot of controversy.

AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

[list]

RockyRaccoon wrote:

In case anyone missed it, Rolling Stone put out an updated list of their 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time.

It's far from perfect but I have to say, it's significantly better than the old list, which was basically a joke

What do you all think?

Thought for sure OK Computer was going to be #1 once I saw The Beatles being dropped left and right. But I think I scrolled too fast and didnt actually realize it was already selected lower than The Beatles core. Ill take another look... Anyway, Whats Going On was a surprise in this day and age (though wouldnt have been 20 years ago when it was a top 5 staple).

More interesting and, for the most part, far less predictable than the older versions. But more like a novelty list. I doubt these will hold or influence other critics lists much if at all. Looks too much like a list without any consistent aim or criteria (except to ensure recent decades, hip hop and art pop/poptimism are as well represented as anything else). Not a surprise when probably tons of people voted on it.

Kinda strange to me (as a qualitative criterion) when all music mag lists suddenly align to try to be in step/catch up with current popularity trends instead of sticking to their guns and making those trends bend to them (or not caring either way). But then I remember that these are for clicks and $ so its not actually surprising.

But then again, were these all just based equally on voter count or did RS weigh their own votes most heavily to ensure that happened or...? (Thinking aloud, there is probably an explanation on the page)

All in all, the fact that many choices (or at least their positions) surprised me was a welcome plus. Some were just hilarious though imo (Beyonce being among Bob Dylan etc... Swift's Red in the top 100 all time...)
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CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

It's certainly better than before. Welp, it's time to update this: https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=6072

RockyRaccoon
Is it solipsistic in here or is it just me?

Gender: Male
Age: 33
Location: Maryland

Moderator

Hayden wrote:

EDIT: What a weird list... almost feels randomized. Lauryn Hill's jump is... something.

I know. I like the list better than what it was, but the order is.....weird. Lauryn Hill in the top 10 is absolutely wild to me, though I haven't heard the album in forever so maybe I need to give it a serious re-listen.

Lemonade and Amy Winehouse in the top-40 is certainly interesting

And having Funeral at 500 feels awfully low
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Hayden

Location: CDMX

RockyRaccoon wrote:

Hayden wrote:

EDIT: What a weird list... almost feels randomized. Lauryn Hill's jump is... something.

I know. I like the list better than what it was, but the order is.....weird. Lauryn Hill in the top 10 is absolutely wild to me, though I haven't heard the album in forever so maybe I need to give it a serious re-listen.

Lemonade and Amy Winehouse in the top-40 is certainly interesting

And having Funeral at 500 feels awfully low

Funeral right out the gate did feel a little weird. Figured they'd slip it in the top 100.

Opinions opinions, etc... etc..., but Black Saint And The Sinner Lady missing is... well, inexcusable for a top 500. No Ys is disappointing, but expected. No Nick Cave is ridiculous.

Having a soul album at #1's pretty bold, but I dig it. I think it makes a much bigger statement than Sgt Peppers. Blue at #3 is possibly my favourite surprise here, that's a great call. TPAB and MBDTF feel about right, but I wish they were switched. Wish Exodus was the Marley record in the top 50 instead of a comp. Nina's there, but barely.

No Sufjan Stevens is sad. No Fishmans is a little sad too. No King Crimson is weird, but RS doesn't like them. Bad Bunny should not be here. Nor should the Weeknd's weakest album. And... *rubs eye*... Eric Church? Miranda Lambert? But no Townes Van Zandt... Embarassed

Apart from some bonkers calls, I think the top 200-ish is decent. No idea what's happening in the bottom half though. Absolute mess. I'll agree that it's still better than the two previous editions, but it's still very weird looking.

And what's up with Red? P4k seems to love it too.

Here's who actually made the list—
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/musi...t-1062225/

Who collectively don't seem to know who Thelonious Monk is.

Spyglass
Resident Metalhead

Gender: Male
Location: The red dot on the map

That Taylor Swift album should've been Red by King Crimson. But this chart is still an improvement.
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NewsFromHome

Spyglass wrote:

That Taylor Swift album should've been Red by King Crimson. But this chart is still an improvement.

One of those weird, we didn't really give this much beyond an above average review of the time but now we're sliding it into the top 100 moments. Was surprised it wasn't 1989 as magazines are want to do that support T-Swift these days.

AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

The biggest omission, by far, is the near complete ignorance of so many of the most creative albums of Jazz history, or at least relegating several of them to much lower status than they deserve. On one hand I dig the fact that black artists were given way more due than usual -- roughly 1/2 of the top 100 (even if it seems a bit contrived, maybe even conspicuous, maybe even partially politically motivated and/or due to current trends/media cycle etc?). Still most of the albums are at least very good so regardless of motivations or not, those are some great hip hop albums and so on. However, it would be nice if they realized that Jazz was THE music vanguard of the 50s and 60s until 65/66 when Rock began equaling it; Jazz with the far superior technical/compositional skills and then the advent of free/avant garde jazz. And that these were extremely fruitful and totally revolutionary artistic pursuits (the original "OGs", the original "Punk"...) that were by far the most courageous representation of black artists being taken more seriously and intellectually (like classical composers), musical representations of liberation, the civil rights movement, independance, and so on. Although Im a fan of Kanye and Lamar and Notorious BIG and so on, I think at least 3/4 of the higher ranked black artists should belong to the likes of Mingus, Coltrane, Miles, Monk, Coleman, Taylor, Sun Ra, etc, and to rank (especially Drake, Beyonce...wut?), and even many others not as outlandish, above so many jazz masterpieces, looks seems pretty ignorant imo. But maybe not so much to the current trend of pop-timism and hip hop dominating music? I just think thats a mere trend influencing the selections and shouldnt completely dominate the qualitative thinking of a whole list.
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