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Mini Reviews of Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums: 260-251

  • 5 days ago
  • 5 min read


Back in September of 2020, Rolling Stone did something rather audacious and released out to the world a ranking of, in their estimation, the Top 500 albums ever made. By any musician, any band, anywhere.


It's a mammoth undertaking, of course, and one that is never going to be without controversy, dispute, and backlash. But Rolling Stone has to have known that by now, as this is actually their third go-round with this; the original "Greatest 500" was released to much furor in 2003, and then an updated list came in 2012. What sets this ranking apart is it's not just Rolling Stone contributors; this time, they sought input from some of the biggest artists and producers on the scene, to essentially make this ranking more of an aggregation of what are generally considered the greatest albums, than just a compilation ranking by the staff of one entertainment outlet, I suppose.


Anyways! I was always aware of this list, but at the outset of 2022, being ever the musichead, ever the listophile, I made a plan to complete what some might argue is just as audacious an undertaking: I want to listen to all 500, regardless of my familiarity (or lack thereof) with a particular album, regardless of my feelings towards its artist. I'm going to listen to all 500, in order. And I'm going to share my thoughts on them, but because there are literally hundreds of albums to get through, I pledge to keep said thoughts to a sentence or two.


I recognize this is going to take me ages. It's a marathon, not a sprint! In fact, as I imagined might be the case, there's already been a revision to the"500 Greatest Albums" before I even finished this edition. But regardless of whether you will take this epic journey with me, I hope you will check in on me from time-to-time, to gauge how I feel about what Rolling Stone deemed the 491st-best album of all time.


In case you need the link to reference the source material:



And in case you missed my previous entries, here were my rundowns on:


Now, here are my thoughts on 260-251:


Rating: 5.5/10













Another entry in the ever-growing tier of "'atonal punk' music that's not really for me, but is fun and energetic, at least."




Rating: 7/10












I blame this one on user experience; there are contexts in which this album could bang, but a dreary, sleep-deprived Tuesday morning was not one of them. Anyway, I didn't dislike it at all! It just felt a little bit like standing at the end of a wind tunnel. But man, Janis could sing, and this album (released posthumously less than a year after her untimely death) is an interesting contrast in that it's such a rocking, good-time groove and yet a tragic reminder of a life taken far too young.




Rating: 9/10













I've actually listened to shockingly little Joni Mitchell in my day, but I adore Weyes Blood, and I was pretty floored by how clearly she resembles Joni in both vocal and lyrical style. So it probably goes without saying that I really loved this record. Not many individual songs stand out in particular, but just a terrific, smooth and vivid listen from start to finish.



Rating: 8/10













When I saw the runtime for this album was less than half an hour, I thought that was remarkably short; having listened to it, I think it's the perfect length. Any longer and Dolly's saccharine vocals and the honky-tonk sound might have just started to grate at (or at least bore) me. Instead, this just feels like a short, sweet gift of an old-school country listen.



Rating: 8.5/10













Shout out to my mom, who I will always associate with Tracy and this album in particular, given her love of artist and record both. I (and I imagine I'm not alone in this) can't claim to know much else by Tracy, but this is great stuff. Profoundly impactful lyricism, but such smooth vocals, best epitomized by "Fast Car," one of the greatest songs of all time.



Rating: 9.5/10













I'm pretty shocked to see this one so low in the series. The breakout album for one of the most famous and esteemed songwriters of all time? Multiple generational protest anthems?? A virtual greatest hits collection for 'Early Dylan'??? The basis for the recent acclaimed film A Complete Unknown?!?! Hard to see this as anything other than one of the greatest folk albums ever.




Rating: 7/10













Listening to this album, I couldn't help but feel like Tim Heidecker's character in one of my favorite I Think You Should Leave sketches: "he's off the map!" I liked this, which is saying something, given how previous 'experimental jazz' entries in this series have yielded some of my lowest scores of all. As generally fun and funky as it was to listen to, I imagine it would translate much more in a live setting.



Rating: 6.5/10













Not bad, but a little confused why this ranks so high on this list (in contrast to how I felt about Pink Floyd's previous entry). Perhaps this was musically groundbreaking for its time, and it doesn't hit the same all these years later, but it mostly just sounds like a group tried acid for the first time. Which isn't to say it's unpleasant, but rather, just trippy for the sake of being trippy.

 



Rating: 6/10












I understand Devo to be pioneers in their genre of New Wave, and I do often like New Wave music a lot. But this leaned heavily on the "yell/talk-singing" facets of the genre, and less on the "funky electro-synths" aspects. High energy and fun, at least! Just not my favorite sound.



Rating: 8/10












Even though I only knew a couple songs off this album, they were two of his best, so, not hard to enjoy this. This felt like classic Elton: largely simple piano ballad pop, but catchy listening, and often funny! I laughed out loud multiple times at "I Think I'm Going To Kill Myself."



One more note at the end of this: reminder to check out my "Rolling Stone 500" playlist, now updated to include the entire first half of the ranking! I've added 1-2 tracks per album on Rolling Stone's list, in the same descending order I'm listening to the albums. I intend to keep adding as I go along, so follow along here: https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/rolling-stone-top-500-albums/pl.u-d2b00d2tddlb41


(It's an Apple Music link, sorry to the Spotify users. That said, if you refuse to switch to the superior service, there are platforms where you can easily convert this link to your streamer of choice.)

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