The New Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums List • Page 14

honestly the only song on let it bleed that doesn't fully work for me, even though I still kind of love how dumb it is, is you got the silver.

 

think i might start a Medium going through weekly and discussing every album on the list once i get back home from vacation. thought it would be a solid podcast idea but the amount of time for editing would be more than i’m really willing to do right now. and writing is fun.

 

The New RS 500: #500 Arcade Fire — Funeral

here's the first one. not gonna bump this thread every week but they'll all be on this Medium page if you want to check them out

 

https://consequence.net/2022/09/best-albums-all-time-list/

Didn't know where else to put this, but here's another list for people to argue about!

 

Solid list, it's awesome to see Dirty Computer on there. That album is overlooked too often

 

Better than the rolling stone list

 

Where's weezer

 

I love that everyone makes sure to put a requisite Nina album on their list these days but Jesus Sings the Blues and High Priestess of Soul are RIGHT there, people.

But Purple Rain is #1 so not too much complaining from me.

 

Good list overall, but it's a little pander-y. A really good list gives you things you didn't already have off the top of your head. The RS list got me to listen to Born Under a Bad Sign and Shoot Out the Lights and such. This one already caters to the consensus of modern sensibilities a bit hard.

 

That was also the Nina album on the NPR female albums list a few years ago. But I agree with you: having heard those other two, it’s a bit mystifying to me as to why that’s the one that gets votes. Sings the Blues especially is on the GOAT short list.

I feel like there’s been a lot of talk in recent years about busting and reshaping the canon, but lists like this really only reaffirm it — or, at most, shuffle the deck. That’s not a bad thing, necessarily: these are great albums. But it’s clear that the shared reference points are still informed by the canon that was set years ago.

 

The Alice Coltrane album leaps out on that front, too. Not at all a slight on its quality. I haven't even heard it all front-to-back, but it was pretty overlooked for a long time, and now is one of, what, 3 jazz albums on the list. Even ahead of, say, A Love Supreme.

 

I'll be interested to see how lists like this continue to shift as there is more and more of a changing of the guard to a younger generation of contributors. I think that's already happened to a significant degree, which is why I was kind of surprised to see how much overlap there was here with, say, the Rolling Stone list. But there's definite evidence that younger listeners value the classics a little differently than their predecessors, and that they're willing to push some newer albums up the list as well.

 

Definitely true. I also wonder how much influence there is of people only having bothered to listen to certain pre-‘90s albums and usually from that same acclaimed/approved handful. So they keep showing up because it’s what they’ve heard

 

Yeah, that’s a good point. There’s a list of essentials and a lot of people don’t go beyond it.

 

I’m just dying for some wild cards. Squeezing Out Sparks, For the Roses, I Want You, A Wizard a True Star, Ask Rufus. I’m not even asking for deep cuts! Haha

 

*surreptitiously taking notes as Chris name-drops albums I haven’t heard*

 

HAH. I could see you falling hard for Joni. And I’ll eat my hat if Rundgren wasn’t an influence on Butch

 

Squeezing Out Sparks rules

 

I have been meaning to do a Joni deep dive for awhile now.

 

I have yet to hear Hejeira, so I may be underselling by a record, but her run from Blue to The Hissing of Summer Lawns is absolutely staggering

 

Think I’ll start diving in tomorrow!

 

Let me know what you think. In particular the unofficial suite of “People’s Parties”/“Same Situation” on Court and Spark I think you’ll be as wowed by as I am

 

I will report back!

 

Court and Spark whips ass! I'm particularly blown away by "Raised on Robbery." I had not heard Joni Mitchell rock like that.

 

HELL yes. That B side is such an interesting flipside to the staggering opening between that and the very fun/funny “Twisted” cover