someone with soul...

Some of the album choices are a little boring (i.e. conservative), but they're all beyond reproach anyway. I'm glad to see two Stevie Wonder albums. He's definitely one of the greatest.

Classic chart.

Great chart

Better than rolling stone 500. I have to ask, in all sincerity, why the top 2?

I don't agree 100%, but it's definitely a good list.

nice picks

good list...

Thanks Homme! New music is always a bit harder to define as "great" to me. Certain recent albums become watersheds (Nevermind as an example on this list, The Marshall Mathers LP as an example that is not) but generally it takes a little time to become a classic. That influence has to spread out, and permeate through the ranks. If you where in 1972, and making a greatest list you would have never seen the Velvet Undergrounds name mentioned, yet decades later, it sits on quite a few. That album in hindsight was a great one, at the time however it wasn't viewed that way (outside of the more chic listeners at least). So, in time, many 1990 and 2000 albums would rank on a list like this (The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Ok Computer, Elephant, Stankonia, or American Idiot as examples). Placing younger albums here is a little more difficult however, since they face albums that have been road tested for 20-50 years. In a way it is like predicting future Rock'N'Roll Hall of Fame inductees. In 1984 Run DMC and Metallica would not have been seen as serious contenders, but 25 years later they are the most likely to get in out of this class.Go figure! (Well no one in 1984 would have been seen technically as future inductees the museum had not opened yet!

Joanna,
I have been called that most of my life so it is always a compliment. Those are indeed gems, and when I went to place them I was shocked they hadn't already been placed on another list. Too often these lists are 40 rock acts...which disregards the advances made by the outside genres. It was a tough call at the bottom, I couldn't decide between Parton's Coat or Willie Nelson's "Redheaded Stranger". Both phenomenal recordings. I love your list by the way, it showcases those recordings which are of historic significance because they went against the status quo (something few of these on my list did, they just have that huge influential factor).

Great picks, but I do miss new music.