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Mini Reviews of Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums: 270-261

  • May 26
  • 6 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 270-261:


Rating: 10/10













It feels boring to give out my first 10/10 of this series (nearly halfway in) to an album I've already heard many, many times. And for that reason, as well as for the fact that one feasibly could, I suppose, name a song or two that could be chopped off the tracklist, I almost didn't do it. But if this isn't a 10/10 album, I've set an impossibly high bar for others to reach. My top album of 2018, and one of my favorite Album of the Year Grammy winners in my lifetime, and for good reason: it's just a gorgeous, ethereal offering from one of modern Country's most interesting and refreshing voices. Not one skip for me in these 48 beautiful minutes.




Rating: 8/10












Remarkably, it's somehow even less cool to recognize Kanye's brilliance in the year 2026 than it was when this Rolling Stone list was last edited. But regardless of how you feel about the man, from the very first chords of Yeezus, it's clear why so many people have spent the better part of the last 20 years praising him as a genius: this album isn't for everyone, but like it or not, it was unlike anything mainstream hip-hop had heard, and really couldn't have been done by anyone else.




Rating: 7.5/10













I'm not sure I can think of a funnier tonal shift than Kanye to Randy Newman. I know Randy solely through Disney/Pixar movies, and this album was not that, but still felt awfully similar in vibes. And I mean that as a compliment! Nice, old-school smooth listening; his songwriting and voice are both so unmistakable.



Rating: 6/10













An 80-minute punk rock album felt a little daunting to embark on, but this was a more pleasant listen than punk typically is for me. The songs all kinda blended together after a certain point, but this felt spiritually more early-alternative 90s than the more grating, heavy 80s punk.



Rating: 9.5/10












So great is The Beatles' legacy, that a soundtrack for one of their silly films can land among the greatest albums of all time! So often when their greatness is discussed, the conversation focuses on the latter half of their body of work, and while I understand it, I appreciate the love shown here to some "early Beatles." If this record loses steam a little bit with the non-soundtrack songs, that's only because the movie tracklist is ridiculously good (and includes perhaps the greatest 'early Beatles' track of all, in "I Need You"). If this only ended with "Yesterday" rather than "Dizzy Miss Lizzy," I'd be tempted to give it a 10/10.



Rating: 5.5/10













I had never heard of this band before this series, but this is their second entry in it, and I went back to remind myself if I felt the same about their previous album in this list. Here's what I said in 2022: "I'll admit my own bias here, but I can only do the early 90s punk sound so much, and nothing on Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain felt groundbreaking." Some nearly 4 years later, I felt similarly about this one: it's just felt aggressively 90s in its whiny talk-singing style, and though there was a good bit to like musically at times, it definitely began to grate over the course of the hour runtime.




Rating: 10/10













Two 10/10s in one crop! And this one wins the honor of my first "new" 10/10! I mean yeah, this is outrageously good. I of course knew the title track but this was my first-ever listen through the rest of the album, and I'm honestly baffled it's this low on the list. Two parts of an emotional, anthemic prog rock novella sandwiching three other brilliant tracks, one of which is one of the most famous rock songs of its era, and an album that sports one of the most iconic covers of all time, to boot. What's not to love? 



Rating: 8.5/10













So great is The Beatles' legacy, that a soundtrack for one of their silly films can land among the greatest albums of all time! So often when their greatness is discussed, the conversation focuses.. okay, okay, I'll stop copy-pasting, but it is funny that the Beatles' two famous 'soundtrack' albums are this close together in an all-time ranking. Hard Day's Night is the superior movie to Help by some margin, but I think Help pips it for quality as an album. The soundtrack songs are again terrific, but the fall-off in quality from those to the bonus tracks feels a little steeper on Hard Day's Night.

 



Rating: 9/10












Another great discovery! I had heard lead single "Age of Consent," but otherwise knew nothing about New Order and this album. But what a terrific 45 minutes of funky, pulsating New Wave tunes. Dare I say, you can hear the influence on Unforgettable Fire-era U2 (perhaps my favorite album of theirs) in this?



Rating: 7/10












From what I knew about Beastie Boys, I went into this one expecting a pretty big comedown from the last several albums that preceded this listen. But I surprised myself by enjoying this immensely! Sure, not my favorite genre or era, but terrific production, and a good energy to this.



One more note at the end of this: in between my last piece and this one, I decided to do what I love most, and make a playlist! With the rare exception (uber-long song length, availability on streaming), I've added 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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