Mini Reviews of Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums: 440-431
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! Hell, maybe the next edition of the "500 Greatest Albums" will be out before I finish this one. 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 440-431:
Rating: 9/10
You know, I've never been a big Country fan. But I am a simp for two things: a strong, smoky female vocalist and a slide guitar. This short but oh-so-sweet album had both in ample supply. In a wild coincidence, the day after I listened to Loretta Lynn for the very first time, she passed away-- seeing the outpouring of love she received on the internets after her passing reaffirmed just how much of an impact she made.
Rating: 7/10
For a live album, Sex Machine feels remarkably well-produced, even intimate. Still, I can't help but feel like while it's a set that would have been incredible to see live, that magic from the Godfather of Soul doesn't translate as much over an hour-length album that can be paused and resumed at will.
Rating: 8/10
I had never listened to Blur, but based on Rolling Stone's description of the tracklist ["“Girls & Boys” is a five-minute disco-rock barnburner about cross-dressing, bisexual libertines. . . They also sang about the joys of slacking (“Parklife”) but also how boring it is to conform (“End of the Century”), and they transformed a map of England into a metaphor for surviving rough patches (“This Is a Low”)]", I was already intrigued. The album didn't let me down; it was all over the place in the best way. Some of it worked, some didn't, but for the most part I was aboard for the wild psychedelic rock ride.
Rating: 8.5/10
This trippy, disco-rock album feels both quintessentially "British rock" and quintessentially 90s. Very much 'Rolling Stones meet The Verve.' Fortunately, I happen to like both British rock and well, at least some 90s music, so unsurprisingly, I really enjoyed this record.
Rating: 8.5/10
Rolling Stone described this album as Tupac "want[ing] it all: credibility and success, “murderous lyrics” and voice-of-a-generation gravitas." On what would be his final album before his tragic murder, this works to both his benefit and detriment. By no means is the 2+ hour runtime necessary and justified. And yet? There's so many brilliant songs and even sections of songs in there that to trim down the tracklist would be a very difficult feat.
Rating: 8.5/10
Pet Shop Boys' 2nd album is quintessential 80s in all the best (and a couple of the worst) ways. Lyrically and thematically, the duo injects a delicious amount of corny melodrama into everyday issues. Musically, the synth and bass-heavy funk/dance-pop doesn't quit, and makes for an extremely fun listen from start to finish.
Rating: 5/10
The magazine described this album as "full of pastoral beauty and wiseass melody," which is a lovely description, but I can't say that's what got from these tunes. 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.
Rating: 9/10
While I don't completely agree with Rolling Stone's take that "every track sounds like a different band’s greatest hit," I see where they're coming from. To me, some tracks work a lot better than others, but the energy is undeniable from start to finish, in a great album that essentially secured LCD Soundsystem as the millennials' Talking Heads.
Rating: 8/10
Apparently Confessions is one of the last 10-million-plus sellers ever made, and according to the magazine, "turned [Usher] into an unstoppable juggernaut." With a tracklist that includes literally all of the singer's best songs-- "Yeah!", "Confessions Part II", "Bad Girls", "Caught Up", "My Boo" --it's not hard to see why both those things are true.
Rating: 6/10
I very much enjoyed the various elements at play: traditional Mexican, blues and folk rock. I will say, however, while this was a fun listen from start to finish, I didn't find any one track particularly standout.
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