Here is the full 250 list in an easier format to read and search: 1. Beyoncé - Lemonade 2. Radiohead - Kid A 3. Frank Ocean - Blonde 4. OutKast - Stankonia 5. Taylor Swift - Folklore 6. Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city 7. SZA - SOS 8. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy 9. Bad Bunny - Un Verano Sin Ti 10. The Strokes - Is This It 11. D’Angelo - Voodoo 12. Jay-Z - The Blueprint 13. Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do 14. The White Stripes, ‘Elephant’ 15. Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell! 16. Beyoncé - Beyoncé 17. Adele - 21 18. Missy Elliott - Under Construction 19. Bob Dylan - Love and Theft 20. Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster 21. Rihanna - Anti 22. Rosalía - El Mal Querer 23. Drake - Take Care 24. David Bowie - Black Star 25. Lorde - Melodrama 26. Amy Winehouse - Back to Black 27. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell 28. Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III 29. SZA - CTRL 30. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot 31. Billie Eilish - When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? 32. Madvillan - Madvillany 33. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly 34. Bad Bunny - YHLQMDLG 35. Charli XCX - Brat 36. Taylor Swift - Red 37. Beyoncé - Renaissance 38. Frank Ocean - Channel Orange 39. Olivia Rodrigo - Sour 40. Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour 41. Chappell Roan - The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess 42. The Killers - Hot Fuss 43. Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds in Country Music 44. Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP 45. Daddy Yankee - Barrio Fino 46. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver 47. Kanye West - The College Dropout 48. Miranda Lambert - Platinum 49. Mitski - Puberty 2 50. Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele 51. Robyn - Body Talk 52. Usher - Confessions 53. Paramore - Riot! 54. Jay-Z - The Black Album 55. Radiohead - In Rainbows 56. Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury 57. Arctic Monkeys - AM 58. J Dilla - Donuts 59. M.I.A. - Kala 60. Bruce Springsteen - The Rising 61. Ariana Grande - Thank U, Next 62. Lana Del Rey - Born To Die 63. Daft Punk - Discovery 64. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods 65. Björk - Vespertine 66. Kendrick Lamar - Damn 67. Harry Styles - Harry’s House 68. Green Day - American Idiot 69. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher 70. Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights 71. PJ Harvey - Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea 72. Taylor Swift - 1989 73. Nicki Minaj - Pink Friday 74. One Direction - Four 75. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells 76. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City 77. Adele - 25 78. Rosalia - Motomami 79. Jason Isbell - Southeastern 80. Britney Spears - Blackout 81. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago 82. Lady Gaga - Born This Way 83. Kanye West - 808s & Heartbreak 84. Cardi B - Invasion of Privacy 85. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold 86. FKA Twigs - Magdalene 87. Chance the Rapper - Acid Rap 88. Madonna - Music 89. Future - DS2 90. Arcade Fire - Funeral 91. Alicia Keys - Songs in A Minor 92. Tyler, the Creator - Call Me If You Get Lost 93. Gorillaz - Demon Days 94. Victoria Monét - Jaguar II 95. Noname - Telefone 96. J Balvin - Energía 97. Young Thug - So Much Fun 98. Sky Ferreira - Night Time, My Time 99. The Weeknd - House of Balloons 100. Burial - Untrue 101. Lil Wayne - Da Drought III 102. Lucy Dacus - Home Video 103. Chris Stapleton - Traveller 104. Brian Wilson - Smile 105. Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine 106. Tainy - Data 107. Deftones - White Pony 108. Mountain Goats - Tallahassee 109. Haim - Women In Music Pt. III 110. Lil Uzi Vert - Eternal Atake 111. Erykah Badu - Mama's Gun 112. Carly Rae Jepsen - Emotion 113. My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade 114. Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator) 115. Miguel Kaleidoscope Dream 116. Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas 117. Beck - Sea Change 118. Drake - If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late 119. Lorde - Pure Heroin 120. Burna Boy - African Giant 121. Eric Church - Chief 122. Maxwell - Blacksummer'snight 123. Spoon - Kill The Moonlight 124. Chief Keef - Finally Rich 125. Tego Calderon - El Abayarde 126. Beyonce - Cowboy Carter 127. Big Thief - U.F.O.F. 128. Solange - A Seat at the Table 129. Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds 130. Brandi Carlile - By the Way, I Forgive You 131. Disclosure - Settle 132. BTS - Map of the Soul: 7 133. Sufjan Stevens - llinois 134. Katy Perry - Teenage Dream 135. Fall Out Boy - From Under The Cork Tree 136. Migos - Culture 137. Pistol Annies - Interstate Gospel 138. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand 139. Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous 140. Juanes - Un Dia Normal 141. Mariah Carey - The Emancipation of Mimi 142. Asake - Mr. Money With The Vibe 143. Waxahatchee - St. Cloud 144. Playboi Carti - Die Lit 145. J. Cole - The Off Season 146. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion 147. Kanye West - Yeezus 148. Tame Impala - Currents 149. Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways 150. Destiny's Child - Survivor 151. Stephan Malkmus and the Jicks - Mirror Traffic 152. Rich Gang - Tha Tour Pt. 1 153. Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers 154. Natalia Lafourcade - Hasta La Raiz 155. Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever 156. Koffee - Gifted 157. D'Angelo - Black Messiah 158. Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit 159. System of A Down - Toxicity 160. Jlin - Black Origami 161. Drive By Truckers - Southern Rock Opera 162. U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind 163. Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls 164. Missy Elliot - Miss E... So Addictive 165. Brandy Clark - 12 Stories 166. Danny Brown - XXX 167. The Postal Service - Give Up 168. Tierra Whack - Whack World 169. Manu Chao - Próxima Estación: Esperanza 170. My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves 171. Mastodon - Leviathan 172. Common - Like Water for Chocolate 173. Four Tet - Rounds 174. Aaliyah - Aaliyah 175. Girl Talk - Night Ripper 176. Shakira - Laundry Service 177. Dizzee Rascal - Boy In Da Corner 178. Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear 179. Paul Simon - So Beautiful, So What 180. Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music 181. Boygenius - The Record 182. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium 183. Rapsody - Laia's Wisdom 184. Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse 185. Sophie 'Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides 186. Janelle Monae - Dirty Computer 187. Jamie XX - In Colour 188. Japandroids - Celebration Rock 189. Sean Paul - Dutty Rock 190. Alvvays - Alvvays 191. Karol G - Mañana Será Bonito 192. Converge - Jane Doe 193. Feist - Let It Die 194. Travis Scott - Astroworld 195. The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday 196. Taylor Swift - Speak Now 197. Popcaan - Where We Come From 198. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix 199. Cam’ron - Come Home With Me 200. The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic 201. Pusha T - Daytona 202. The Libertines - Up the Bracket 203. 50 Cent - Get Rich or Die Tryin 204. Jazmine Sullivan - Heaux Tales 205. The Shins - Oh, Inverted World 206. St. Vincent - St. Vincent 207. Maren Morris - Hero 208. Vince Staples - Suppertime '06' 209. Paul McCartney - Chaos and Creation in the Backyard 210. Joanna Newsom - Ys 211. The Streets - Original Pirate Material 212. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People 213. Jessie Ware - What's Your Pleasure? 214. Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R 215. Julieta Venegas - Si 216. Halsey - Manic 217. The Black Keys - Brothers 218. A$AP Rocky - Long Live A$AP 219. Mac Miller - Swimming 220. Pink - M!ssundaztood 221. The National - High Violet 222. Tems - For Broken Ears 223. The Coup - Party Music 224. R.E.M. - Revival 225. Avril Lavigne - Let Go 226. Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs 227. TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain 228. Wizkid - Made in Lagos 229. Hop Along - Painted Shut 230. Miley Cyrus - Bangerz 231. Swearin' - Swearin' 232. Khalid - American Teen 233. Mach-Hommy - Pray for Haiti 234. C. Tangana - El Madrileno 235. Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia 236. Turnstile - Glow On 237. Ashlee Simpson - Autobiography 238. Kurt Vile - Smoking Ring for My Halo 239. Doja Cat - Hot Pink 240. Tyla - Tyla 241. MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks 242. Jenni Rivera - La Gran Senora 243. Pierce the Veil - Collide with the Sky 244. 21 Savage and Metro Boomin - Savage Mode 245. The 1975 - The 1975 246. Saba - Care for Me 247. Tyler Childers - Purgatory 248. Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Denial 249. Marina - Electric Heart 250. N'Sync - No Strings Attached
Have Rolling Stone ever made a good list? The answer is no, Rolling Stone have never made a good list.
the original 500 ever list is kinda worthwhile (or was) as a guiding canon, but it was too rock focused. The overcorrection into poptimism in recent years is worse, though
The only Sufjan being Illinois at #133 is wild, Carrie & Lowell definitely should be on here somewhere. Also no Death Cab, Julien Baker (Sprained Ankle should have been on here somewhere IMHO), Caroline Polachek, Grimes, Angel Olsen, Sharon Van Etten, The Antlers, Mount Eerie, Mac DeMarco, Weyes Blood, Perfume Genius, Blood Orange, Fleet Foxes, Beach House, King Krule (just thinking off the top of my head of artists I could have seen placed on here)
A lot of worthy albums on that list but they are in such strange places. im also not used to lists like this having so many albums I’ve actually heard haha
Looking more closely, the ranking that might make me roll my eyes most (I mean, other than that number 1, but I'm coming to terms with the fact that I'll just never get the Beyonce worship) is Adele's 25 making it all the way to 77. A C+ album at best that is only notable because it followed up a cultural behemoth and sold a lot of copies in its first week.
Even though I love a lot of these artists the order of the ranking is insane, am I suppose to believe some of these albums are superior as albums to pimp a butterfly or in rainbows? This feels like what is the most popular albums in the last 25 years than the best of.
Actually some surprisingly good picks in here that I wouldn’t have expected. More to like 101-250 than the top 100, which is really bad.
Kid-A rules. Cool White Pony. Cool. American Idiot is too low. Riot! is too high, but also like...IDK if it should even be on the list since they have so many better albums haha.
beside the ???? ranking, including Extraordinary Machine but no Fetch the Bolt Cutters is a very odd to me
There is a humongous dearth of any kind of heavy music on that list. Toxicity and White Pony are low hanging fruit that, don't get me wrong, are great albums but they also strike me as the albums critics think they can allow on a list without losing any "credibility". I'm surprised Mastodon made it too, but that's it, apparently. Nothing else.
I'm torn between wanting that album to win AOTY at the Grammys so that people stop complaining about how much the Grammys hate Beyonce and wanting it to lose because there are like five better albums nominated. Tough choice.