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Mini Reviews of Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums: 320-311

  • Daniel Woodiwiss
  • 2 days ago
  • 5 min read

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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:


Here are my thoughts on numbers 330-321:


Rating: 6/10

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If you've been following along, you probably know by now that I'm not a big punk guy, so this isn't one I'm likely to return to. That said, it was energetic, short and more varied vocally than a lot of punk records tend to be, so it was far from the most unpleasant listen.




Rating: 9/10

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The cool thing about good indie/alternative rock is that it sounds like it could be from just about any decade since the 50s. You could have told me this 1989 album that I had never heard before was from the indie golden era of the late 2000s/early 2010s and I would have absolutely believed you. A great listen, start to finish.




Rating: 8/10

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I'm somewhat sorry to say that my first real knowledge of Janet Jackson as an artist was #Nipplegate, so I have no real concept of how huge and admired she really was in her day. This was her second album in these rankings, (the last was recently, at #339) and both of them now have been, as I said last time, a "fun, pleasant, funky listen."



Rating: 7/10

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I call this genre of music "dance with your lover by the fire while stockings hang and snow falls outside"-core (I'm working on a pithier name for it). But yeah, this album title is fitting; it's a slinky, suave, smooth listen, if not particularly one for all moods.



Rating: 8/10

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For my own sanity, I concluded that Rolling Stone was specifically thinking about The Who's original 1967 release, and not the uber-deluxe 2009 re-release that spans 5 and a half hours. At a much-tighter 38 minutes, The Who Sell Out is a wonderful little work of satire and brilliant concept album all in one. It might seem harsh to say that musically it plays a little bit like songs that didn't make the cut for the Beatles' White Album, but to offset that, I will counter that it also plays like a spiritual forefather to MGMT's entire existence.



Rating: 8/10

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If Bad Bunny's fusion of reggaeton, bachata and pop catapulted him to global fame in the last decade, ROSALÍA's fusion of flamenco and pop has done the same for her. El Mal Querer was her mainstream breakout, and it's not hard to see why: Rosalía proves equally adept on flamenco, reggaeton and even trap beats, alternating gorgeous vocals with rapid-fire rapping.




Rating: 6.5/10

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Aaliyah is a name I have heard pretty much forever, but her tragic passing was early enough in my life that I just have never gotten to know her music, so this was my first extended listen to her work. It's a smooth listen, even at 75 minutes, but I can't say it sounds all too different from or a level above most of the 90s R&B I'm familiar with.



Rating: 7/10

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Not necessarily my stylistic/genre go-to, but a great 90s/early aughts indie rock sound- emotive vocals, and heartfelt and stirring lyrics. I imagine if I had grown up listening to this record, it might be one that was near and dear to me.




Rating: 9.5/10

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Fun fact: this was one of the very first album reviews on this very blog! It had, admittedly, been too long since I had returned to this album in full, though, so I was grateful for the excuse to do so. This record's so freakin' good, man. As deliciously new and top-to-bottom good as it sounded in 2016, and (sadly) every bit as timely, if not more so, in its righteous fury. 



Rating: 8/10

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I mean, it's a Neil Young album. It's classic Neil Young. Doesn't have any of his heavy hitters but it's just top to bottom good, because of course it is.


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