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Mini Reviews of Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums: 330-321

  • Daniel Woodiwiss
  • 2 days ago
  • 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:


Here are my thoughts on numbers 330-321:


Rating: 8/10













To me, Afrobeats is the 'Thai food' of the music world: I rarely seek it out on my own, and thus don't consider it among my favorite cuisines/genres; yet, every time I have it/listen to it, I'm like "Oh yeah, this is damn good." It has never let me down or left me wanting more, it always hits the exact spot I want it to hit. That, unsurprisingly, remained the case with my first-ever full-album listen to Burna Boy, the modern-day Afromusic king. A multilingual vibe from start to finish.




Rating: 8/10













This sort of instrumental trip-hop, admittedly, isn't a genre I tend to seek out, but maybe I should start doing more of that, because each album of its kind that I've come across in this series, I've really liked. This was very reminiscent of J Dilla's Donuts  (#386)  with a dash of Massive Attack's Mezzanine (#383).




Rating: 9/10













This was a welcome sight! My #1 album of 2013, and it holds up: at the end of 2019, this album nearly topped our decade power ranking retrospective. Here's what contributor Michael Rondello had to say about it at that time: "Vampire Weekend cemented their legacy as one of the greatest indie rock bands with their third record in 2013. Modern Vampires is the band’s best album, and the last with multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij, before he left the band in 2016. The album was a departure from the world music influences that came through on their eponymously titled first record and created a wider audience for the band. Both “Unbelievers” and “Diane Young” became indie rock hits and the record won Best Alternative Album at the 2014 Grammy Awards and was eventually certified gold by the RIAA. Modern Vampires is the band at its best, from Ezra Koenig’s polished vocals to Rostam’s production and synths. They perfected the indie pop rock sound on this record, making it as mainstream as indie music could be."



Rating: 8.5/10













I was a little surprised to learn this is widely considered one of the greatest live albums ever recorded, simply because there's nothing all too abnormal about the performance itself, nor Roger Daltrey's stage presence, and in fact, the audience sounds pretty muted. But I understand The Who were considered one of the world's best live acts at the time, and there's no doubt they sound absolutely phenomenal on the amazingly crisp (for its time) recording. High-energy rock and roll, from start to finish; no wonder the University of Leeds crowd were mesmerized.



Rating: 8/10













This album kind of matched exactly how I have long felt about Prince: as a musician and a performer, just about second to none. As a lyricist, nothing too special and as a vocalist, not my cup of tea. It makes it hard to know what to rate this work, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a great time, screeching falsetto and all.



Rating: 6.5/10












I'm not going to change my tune on anthologies or greatest hits albums, it's automatically gonna get docked at least half a point in my rating system. As a listening experience... it was fine. For the most part it sounded like something that would be playing in the background in a Cracker Barrel; and if you think that's an insult, you clearly don't know my love for Cracker Barrel. 




Rating: 9/10













As one of Coldplay's strongest soldiers-- I was a firm holdout until their last couple albums --I was so happy to see that Rolling Stone didn't cave to the present day vogue sentiment to shit on the British pop rock outfit. This is widely considered the lads' best (my 2nd favorite in their discography, personally), and for good reason: moody, atmospheric, experimental...it holds up as a great to this day. "Politik" is one of the great 21st-century album openers, and in fact, that whole opening 5-track stretch is ridiculous.



Rating: 6.5/10














Though I was raised on some Clash classics, I would not self-identify as a Clash diehard, and thus came into this acclaimed album prepared to listen to it for the first time ever. Sandinista! played something like the Brit hard rockers' White Album: long, very experimental, with plentiful forays into new genres, some timeless highlights, but a good bit overstuffed. At nearly 2.5 hours, it's an impressive body of work but its acclaim probably stems more from the audacity of its effort than the actual replay value of the whole record.




Rating: 8/10













Close to the midway point of this album, I was ready to write it off as a totally missable listen: the first half is fine, don't get me wrong, but song after song just sounds like ol' Elvis wailing over a bluesy guitar; standard, and even tired stuff. But this album is the rare one that totally picks up in the second half: everything from the King's terrific cover of Glen Campbell's beautiful "Gentle On My Mind" through the end shows a whole other level from the world-famous crooner.  



Rating: 9/10













I'm a big Lana fan, and remember the overwhelming acclaim that met this 2019 release, and also remember after even 2 or 3 listens, I liked it but didn't love it. Then, sometime during the pandemic, something clicked for me, and more and more songs from it started entering my daily rotation. Some 6 years on, and many listens later, I am finally ready to join the masses declaring this a modern-day classic.


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