Rolling Stone's Top 500 - Part One
Albums 1-20, or, one day of being excited and then quickly realizing this was a bigger undertaking than I thought it'd be.
Rolling Stone magazine recently updated their list of The Greatest 500 Albums of All Time, and I, thinking I have free time, liking an obsessive project, and telling myself it would be “significant” and “character-building” decided to listen to them all and put down very brief impressions as I go.
You can see the RS list with their commentary here. I’m not reading it currently. Maybe when I’m done, I’ll go back and look to see what I totally missed context wise. You can learn about how they assembled the list here- I hope someday they release the individual responses because that seems much more interesting.
If you’d like a more easy to browse, search, and sort version, here’s mine. I put it together to make this endeavor possible without having to constantly battle annoying ads and slow loading pages… But’s also handy for doing things like sorting to see how many albums by Linda Ronstadt’s backing band (aka The Eagles) ranked above her only appearance on the list. The infuriating answer is two. Or, you can group to see how many listed albums came out in your birth year. (16, for me - a couple of them very good.)
Anyway, here’s part one of Wonderwall… a song I’m pretty sure I’ll get to at some point in this process.
Day 1 - 9/30/20
What’s Going On - Marvin Gaye (1)
A few moments of being surprised this was number one based on votes. Could see it being #1 by a panel of critics, but it rising to the top of the pile based on a large group of ballots vs. an editorial decision feels like a pleasant surprise.
Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys (2)
Stalled out here for a while because ‘I Guess I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times” has never resonated more.
Blue - Joni Mitchell (3)
Listened to “Case of You” on loop for like 40 minutes, but also, yeah, of course the rest of the album is good.
Songs in the Key of Life - Stevie Wonder (4)
Pastime Paradise, this is a long album that went by too quickly.
Abbey Road - The Beatles (5)
If every day of this project could end with The Beatles…
Day 2 - 10/1/20
Nevermind - Nirvana (6)
Open the windows, wear flannel, wave at the neighbors. Had to take a break to do an errand when there was only one song left and stepping back into “Endless, Nameless” without the build up of the rest of the album was… a little more intense than my lack of caffeine could handle.
Rumours - Fleetwood Mac (7)
Has anyone anywhere ever listened to Rumours and not thought it was great? A serious question.
Purple Rain - Prince (8)
There are a lot of albums that I haven’t listened to that I’m not surprised about having not listened to. This one, I was surprised to realize was a gap.
Day 3 - 10/5/20
(spent Friday on new releases, and took the weekend off).
Blood on the Tracks - Bob Dylan (9)
Divorce-focused Dylan seems right for a Monday morning.
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill - Lauryn Hill (10)
Everything is really everything and the Lauryn Hill version of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” remains EVERYTHING.
Revolver - The Beatles (11)
Two for three on ending the day with the Beatles, but I’m now looking forward to win I can end a day with Help! because I’m realizing that is officially my favorite Beatles album even if that makes me lame.
Day 4 - 10/7/20
(skipped a day because… felt like it.)
Thriller - Michael Jackson (12)
The back and forth between Jackson and McCartney on “The Girl is Mine” sent me into a laughter fit and just.. wow.
I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You - Aretha Franklin (13)
Had to go back listen to the closing “A Change is Gonna Come” again because I didn’t realize that I hadn’t turned off autoplay on the app I was using and didn’t get to linger in the ‘just over’ moment because of an abrupt transition into hard rock. Thanks, Tidal. WHO IS AUTOPLAY EVEN FOR??
Exile on Main Street - The Rolling Stones (14)
Made things feel like a Friday.
Day 5 - 10/12/20
(skipped… a lot of days)
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back - Public Enemy (15)
Not an album that should be paused in the middle for two hours of meetings and then restarted. Gotta play that thing all the way through to give it what it deserves. So, only one I did.
Day 6 - 10/13/20
London Calling - The Clash (16)
Three times through, because yep, turns out I still love this album.
Day 7 - 10/14/20
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Kanye West (17)
Listened to this driving and for the first ten minutes or so, it felt a weird nostalgic nice to be listening to it but by the end I was just …. tired. And I assume that’s how the people who put up with me at a barely remembered party years ago when I messed up my algorithms for a long time by playing “Runaway” on loop when it felt like toasting myself and I wanted to pretend that wasn’t something deeply wrong. Tired.
Day 8 - 10/15/20
Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan (18)
Heeeeey, more Bobby. This bit of “Tombstone Blues” hit differently than usual (as in… a little more like a gut punch):
Now, I wish you could write you a melody so plain
That could hold you, dear lady, from going insane
That could ease you and cool you and cease the pain
Of your useless and pointless knowledge.
A little harsh, Bob, to those of us ladies who are accumulating a lot of useless and pointless knowledge and have yet to find the exact melody to ease us / cool us / cease the pain.
Day 9 - 10/19/20
(decided to stop making excuses for skipping days)
To Pimp A Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar (19)
Still such. an. album. Looking forward to sitting with DAMN. again in approx. a year when I finally work my way down to it at 175 on this list.
Kid A - Radiohead (20)
Turns out it is WAY easier to appreciate this album now that I’ve been out of high school for over a decade and am way less concerned about if the boys I had crushes on who loved Radiohead liked me back.
20 down, 480 to go. Unless I pull a Sufjan Stevens and call this my Michigan. In which case, you can expect one more post like this (my Illinois) before I admit this was just some ill-conceived gimmick. Time will tell.