The New Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums List • Page 7

Everything around that album when it came out was just super exciting and unique. I can't think of another album since that just stole the spotlight of a year so thoroughly. I think just how impactful it was in the moment is still fresh in the memories of everyone voting for these types of things. It had a weight and importance that very few albums have at their moment of release.

 

That was 100% Tha Carter III for me. The loosies, the “leak”, the guest spots etc. Just perfect, and then the album lived up to the hype

 

Still working through the list. I’d argue that Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs is better than Funeral and should be higher than 500.

 

I honestly don't recall the press around the album at that time. I just remember buying it. Listening to it for about a week.....and then outside of All of the Lights and Power...thinking it was god awful. Nothing resonated.

 

This Consequence of Sound headline though

Rolling Stone updated its Top 500 Albums of All Time list so it's no longer just white dudes

 

Similarly, I’d love to be able to see what albums people voted for that didn’t make the list. Feels like that would be a great place to make some discoveries as well

 

I wish Van's COVID EP had been released prior to the ballots. I'd assume it'd crack the top 50

 

Huh, that's genuinely surprising to me. The sense I got back then was that just about everyone loved that album.

I really just wish they'd release the ballots. It would be fascinating to see, like, what Taylor Swift voted for.

 

So I'm actually kind of annoyed at the complete lack of albums from "the scene" other than Green Day and MCR's The Black Parade.

I feel like Enema of the State or something should have cracked the top 500, but I'm biased

 

Of all the cuts on this list, and there are a ton that bum me out, the one that makes me saddest is Shoot Out the Lights.

 

Yeah being able to see the ballots feels more fun to me than seeing the actual list

 

Aw shit, that is sad. I feel like that one is a super underrated classic at this point, and that a lot of younger people probably aren’t super familiar with it.

It’s sort of like how I just want to see the vote breakdowns for Oscar Best Picture ballots. The mechanics of how lists or winners or consensus favorites are made/arrived at are usually more interesting to me than the final result.

 

The weird part is I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight survived.

 

Huh, that is weird.

 

I've always thought the fact that neither of the big Fairport Convention albums made it was a big oversight, and then they go and have LESS Thompson. Haha

It's like having no Allen Toussaint, and then dropping Professor Longhair and albums from The Meters and Dr. John. YOU'RE GOING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION!

 

Oh I really love that Chic is on the list now, but it should have been C'est Chic.

 

Murmur at 165, too.

 

I missed that, thanks. Though Lifes Rich Pageant is still sadly missing

 

I would also argue for Out of Time, Monster, and Document but, you know

 

A whole lot of R.E.M. should be on there. If you’re going to only have two, though, those two probably make the most sense. If I had a ballot, Automatic would definitely have been a high vote for me.

 

Yeah can't argue with choosing Murmur and AFTP. Personally I'd have Lifes Rich Pageant, Document and New Adventures as well. Just realised that means I'd place Reckoning sixth on my REM album list. Unbelievably good band.
That said I don't think they have a perfect A+ album. Murmur particularly irks me in that it opens with the inferior version of Radio Free Europe and closes with the worst three songs on the whole record (in my humble opinion).
Automatic on the other hand has the best three-song closing run of any album I've ever heard. Just has a few lulls in the middle.

 

And Twisted Fantasy is definitely the right choice for Kanye. I love many of his other albums. College Dropout is the most fun, Late Registration has the biggest hits and lushest production, Graduation is the one closest to my heart since it soundtracked a lot of house parties when I finished high school. 808s hugely influential. Yeezus holds up for the most part. Pablo is half great.
But MBDTF is the one. It just is. The best hip hop album ever, I've said it.

 

Wow.

 

Yeah, and I have heard every single other hip hop album haha
EDIT: Illmatic is my number 2

 

I actually like the Murmur version of "Radio Free Europe" more. And Automatic is pretty close to perfect for me.

R.E.M. album rankings would be tough for me, though. They all have something I love about them, but Automatic I think is the only one I consider an all-time favorite.