The New Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums List • Page 21

It’s hard to say what would be considered for my list. There’s a handful I’ve never heard, a very large amount I’ve heard just a few times but respect, and a decent amount I would choose a completely different album for the artist. However I do generally agree with at least half to 70% of this list being good picks. I might go through and list my wtf are they doing here list because yeah there are even some I’m not huge on I understand being on here too

 

Yep that about covers it. I’d add Beyoncé self titled too but I don’t really like Beyoncé that much lol

 

AM is such an odd choice when their debut was the biggest debut in UK history and is a million times better

 

The uproar for 1989 (TV) is so overblown on social media that Adele is getting away scot-free! A much more egregious placement/addition.

 

Solange, SZA, bad bunny, Kacey musgraves, Billie eilish are all so much worse lol wtf are any of them doing here

 

Obviously she as an artist (and the album itself) have the Joplin factor but it was a genuinely influential album. It set the template for how a whole swath of British women were going to sing for like a decade plus. Even Adele was called a Winehouse knock-off on 19.

 

This is nonsense. 21 is basically Thriller. A bunch of singles that conquered the world and then other stuff of varying quality. Elevated in the general public’s esteem (where 21 is still rated highly) by breaking sales records and winning every award in the world. It’s rated too high but it’s not even one of the 2 or 3 weirdest choices in its general area of the list

 

I don’t think anything after 2010 should even be eligible since we just had end of decade lists for that decade not that long ago and it’s not old enough of a decade to recontextualize in the larger music canon yet. 2010 and before should’ve been the rule. Artists like Taylor and Adele and Lana will absolutely belong on a list like this years down the road but their inclusion here just looks so goofy stacked up to the rest of the history of recorded music

 

Too high by about 500 spots!

 

and 25 is better

 

Hybrid Theory getting no love from any publication. Makes me sad.

 

Hybrid theory makes more sense than SOS

 

However RATM gave the one and only nod to modern metal which I can live with even if it’s an extremely old album it’s the reason hybrid theory exists. Tbh it’s too low by about 50-60 spots

 

I mean, sure, but I don't think any of that justifies a top 10 all-time ranking. And it absolutely wouldn't be there if she was still alive. Not to be callous or anything, but I just hate hate hate the way that lists like this fetishize dying young. I have no real qualms about that album being somewhere on this list, but it outranking albums with much further reach (Pet Sounds, Rumours, Born to Run) is just not warranted.

There way no way 21 wasn't making this list, based on what they clearly were going for/valuing. I'm genuinely surprised at how high it is, though.

 

I don’t think the Amy winehouse album should be on the list and 1000000% agree it’s because she died young and lists like these eat that shit up

 

Personally I would’ve put all the best albums at the top of the list and all the worst at the bottom and left off ones that don’t belong but that’s just how I personally would’ve handled the situation here

 

Nevermind also always gets the "tragic death" bump, but that album was earthshaking in a way that Back to Black wasn't, so I at least understand the top 10 all-time ranking.

 

Nevermind would still belong on the top even if Kurt was still alive. Personally I would rank In Utero in any top 10 list and nevermind is further down but I get the cultural impact argument if that’s a driver of the lists choices

 

Re: recency bias on this list, I also feel like it's a little early to be elevating some of these to all-time status, but I was going back and forth with Andrew from Billboard about that on Twitter and he made some good points about how it's actually kind of refreshing for a list that's "not being actively biased *against* new releases as many such lists are." I liked his note here, in particular.

 

I just think it looks goofy whether or not it holds up as a list over time and it begs for comparisons to be drawn that make no sense like how 21 and 1989 are ranked higher than revolver and a nation of millions and low end theory and so on and then choices are made like SZA and Billie eilish that are going to look goofy no matter what and are clearly just completely leaning into recency bias. you wanna shake it up put bon iver bon iver on the list, put merriwether post pavilion on the list, at least be interesting about it and not boring. I disagree that the inclusion of modern albums on its own makes this interesting when the choices are so boring or straight up nonsensical

 

I would argue the ~canon building~ phase we are in right now understands the patterns upon release/closely after that lead an album to that GOAT territory. It might be an overcorrection from being stuck in the 60s for most of the 00s and 10s, but Billie is at least one of the artists who ticked the boxes of “this will mean something in 10 years” in the moment after that record

 

you’ll never convince me that extremely mediocre billie eilish album will ever belong on a list like this

 

Billie and Lorde, as lukewarm as I am on those two albums, make a lot of sense on this list. I feel like those albums, along with Punisher, basically shaped how an entire generation of female artists write and sing songs. I can gripe with the placements (Billie at 30 still seems insane) but they feel like bedrocks for a new chapter of music.

I’ll also go to bat for that Kacey pick. I wish it wasn’t the only country album on this list, but having witnessed firsthand how that album was a gateway to country for literally dozens of people I know personally and online, and knowing how far that genre has come in the past five years alone in courting fans who didn’t grow up with it, I think Golden Hour makes sense as one of the newer albums on the list. It feels like the album that reframed how an entire generation of listeners view and hear country music. (It also happens to be fucking magical.)

 

I’m not huge on that Billie album either, but the way it became the narrative makes it hard to ignore as a conversation piece in circles like these album ranking ones

Golden Hour definitely deserves that billing, though I don’t remember it being as canon-worthy as it is now when the album first came around.

 

Yeah I can’t get behind any of that haha