top of page
  • Facebook Social Icon

Mini Reviews of Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums: 280-271

  • 2 hours 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 280-271:


Rating: 8/10













I was never a big 50 listener, but have always enjoyed his voice and I've gotta admit, I miss this era of hip-hop. And yeah, just about every single 50 Cent song you would have heard even if you were a casual like me is on this album, so no question I was vibing with it.




Rating: 6.5/10













I understand the significance of this being Nirvana's last performance before Kurt Cobain's tragic suicide, and it is cool (albeit a little haunting) to hear him interacting with the MTV audience so casually. No question this was a great setlist for Nirvana fans, too. That said, on the merits of the album itself? It's a perfectly fine, stripped-down live album, unremarkable save for its context.




Rating: 7/10













An album that's more of a groove album than most of the (admittedly not large amount of) Zeppelin I'm familiar with. Good stuff! Not many individual standouts, but at 40 minutes, a nice, consistent listen.



Rating: 9/10













Alicia's kind of like that highly-touted recruit that sure enough, turns in an electric freshman season for your favorite college team, and the hype machine reaches astronomical levels... and then they end up having a perfectly fine career, but never exactly turn out to be the generational talent you thought you had. That's actually me praising with faint damnation, because when you listen to this record, her debut, you understand why she failed to ever reach these heights again. A standout even in an era that was full of R&B/Pop brilliance.



Rating: 8/10













I'm not the biggest Radiohead-head, but have finally started to check out more of their stuff, some 25 years after their prime. I'm used to the more experimental, scaled-back songs that (I assume) have been their M.O. in the 21st century at least, so I was a little thrown by how much straightforward-- and even heavy -- alt-rock this early album of theirs featured, but I dig it! No weak tracks, and some real highlights in "High and Dry" and "Black Star," among others.



Rating: 9/10













I may have only heard a couple of these tracks before, but I felt like I'd heard them all before. And I don't mean that in a bad way. This was such a vintage, classic sound that had me movin' from start to finish.




Rating: 6/10













This was so not what I expected based off of my (admittedly limited) familiarity with The Byrds' music. An extremely Country-forward album, rife with Christian lyricism and imagery. This would be a pleasant listen in the background of a Cracker Barrel, but not one I anticipate I'll be interested in returning to, save maybe for the delightfully trippy "Pretty Polly."



Rating: 6.5/10













I gotta admit, when I saw "a 1979 album from 'The Gang of Four'," I was fully expecting an old-school hip-hop crew or a disco boogie groove. This was very much not that, but rather some good old fashioned British punk rock. I grew weary of the punk vocals over the course of the album, truthfully, but didn't hate it; you can hear The Clash resemblance, as well as the influence on later 2000s groups like Franz Ferdinand and Foals.

 



Rating: 5/10













The 60s/70s rock theme continues with this, the sophomore record from The Velvet Underground. I'm hit or miss with experimental rock, and sure enough, I thought some tracks on this were really cool, others I couldn't wait for them to be over. In fairness, I bet this would hit so hard if you were on drugs, but alas, I am not.



Rating: 8/10













I only actually was familiar with a couple tracks on this album, but it all felt so familiar to me.  It's no surprise that Ms. Mary J is so revered in R&B circles, because you can tell how much the genre was influenced by her in this record. One of those that while I may not return to it for individual tracks as much, it's just a smooth, consistent listen from start to finish.


Comments

RECENT POSTS
bottom of page