As usual with these things, a lot of my favorites are always there along with a lot of the usual suspects that I never really liked that much. More of my favorites always seem to fall somewhere in the middle of the list rather than near the top. I'm not sure why that is.
There's actually a reason (not a good one, but a reason) for the bizarre make-up of this list - it's based on a series of 500-best-of-the-decade lists the magazine had done over the previous year and a half, from the Sixties through "the 2010s to now." To compile the all-time top 500, they simply mix-and-matched all of the other lists, adhering as closely to the original rankings as possible and aiming for a balance between the decades. Hence, for example, Rough and Rowdy Ways being ranked so high, because it was #3 on the 2010-now list.
It does feel like a weird list in terms of where some albums are featured but that explanation makes sense which, if true, sort of invalidates the final list.
I love lists, as I'm sure many here do, and there are some interesting entries here. I'd use it more as a reference piece to explore albums that I'm unfamiliar with (and for that it's very useful, especially the lower ranked albums) rather than a discussion about the merits of whether it's a true representation of the greatest albums of all time.
215. Laura Nyro - New York Tendaberry (1969)
335. Mary Margaret O'Hara - Miss America (1988)
I agree very much with those genuine masterpieces, and was surprised to see The Milk-Eyed Mender — astounding, especially the second half. I overlooked on first read The Feelies’ Crazy Rhythms, which deserves to be higher.
I was also surprised to see very low down Low’s Things We Lost in the Fire and Massive Attack’s Protection. Both are my favourite albums by those particular artists, but seem to get relatively little attention. The same, in a different way, is the high position of Nick Drake’s Five Leaves Left — maybe people will come to think as I do that it is much better than Pink Moon??
It’s always very hard to be satisfied with lists, but at the same time they are great for debate and discussion.
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Patman360
