Mini Reviews of Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums: 410-401
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 410-401:
Rating: 5/10
Can you call it an album if it's 25 minutes? This definitely had some delightful sections, but mostly felt like unresolved fragments from Brian Wilson's musical mind going 80 miles a minute.
Rating: 6/10
Not a bad sound, and a nice soundtrack to a sunny workday. But pretty standard fare as it pertains to blues rock, and no individual songs that stick with me.
Rating: 7/10
This style of rock music isn't always my jam, but MAN it is cathartic and high-energy. That said, over the course of this whole album, the songs decrease in quality from the titular opener.
Rating: 9.5/10
(No Spotify link for this one, unfortunately, as Neil admirably pulled his discography over Joe Rogan's COVID misinformation being platformed on the app.) What an album this is. In terms of both the objective-- musicianship, songwriting -- and the subjective-- 'I just really liked listening to it!' -- it's very likely my #1 of the Rolling Stone list to date.
Rating: 7/10
A THREE-HOUR album is wild. But I made it through all 3 hours, and my take is that it's sort of a longer, even more experimental, poor man's version of The Beatles' White Album. Definitely overstuffed, with plenty of weight that could be trimmed... but in all honesty, just about everything sounds good and is a welcome play, and given the length and scope of such an album, that is no small feat.
Rating: 8/10
I've said it before, but I think it's cheating to include compilation and greatest hits albums. That said, if you're going to make a compilation album, 60s-70s psychedelic rock is a pretty great genre to work from.
Rating: 8/10
Call me corny, accuse me of being easily swayed by listening to this album immediately after Valentine's Day...fine. That doesn't change the fact that this album sounds like the early days of falling in love with someone.
Rating: 8.5/10
Wu-Tang Clan was a good while before my time, so I missed the golden era of the rap collective and the acclaimed solo projects of their various members after the fact, but this makes me want to go listen to more. A full-circle concept bookends a tracklist consistently filled with bangers.
Rating: 7.5/10
In the same 10 in which we get a 3-hour album, we also get a second 25-minute one! I already mentioned with the Beach Boys' entry that it feels wrong to classify a 25-minute listening experience as an album, and that runs ever truer with this one: it consists of two tracks, and even Spotify classifies it as a single. Regardless of its nomenclature, it's great; addicting, groovy jazz with a sociopolitical undertone, which is the sweet spot for the king of Afrobeats.
Rating: 6/10
I've always been more casually aware of Blondie than known any of their stuff. On this, my first listen to any of their albums, I will say I'm not particularly blown away. This was an enjoyable rock album, but pretty standard fare, especially in comparison to some of the mind-blowing stuff we've heard in these first 100 albums.
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