500 Greatest Albums of All Time

[Vandle]

According to Rolling Stone.

The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

To remake our greatest albums list, we tabulated Top 50 Albums lists from more than 300 artists, producers, critics, music-industry figures.

www.rollingstone.com

Decided to listen to all of these, in reverse order during 2024. Aiming for two per day. I walk to work and back, 40 mins each way plus an hour at the gym and usually have an hour or so to myself each evening either on my bike at home or in the sauna. Going to listen to the full album, in order. No track skipping.

Monday was great, the superb funeral by arcade fire while lying on the beach then Rufus and Chaka Khan when I got home as the sun when down drinking Aperol Spritzers. Yesterday wasn’t too bad, very different to my usual music but thats the whole point in doing it. Today however is only 8 hours old and already dreading having to listen to Shakira and then Boyz II Men. First month or two is going to be a bit of a slog.

Anyone done this before? Did you make it all the way?

 

[Vandle]

I just can't imagine forcing myself to listen to that much music I won't like.

Maybe you’d like it if you tried it?

I split the majority of my music listening between random 90s hip hop and liquid drum and bass (mostly bad) mixes on mixcloud and my suggested and daily playlists on Spotify. My discover weekly has variety but not much - Spotifys algorithm gives you music it thinks you will tolerate and therefore won’t skip, rather than something new or different you may actually like. I feel I am hearing the same thing over and over again. My CDs and LPs have been boxed up long ago and in fact some aren’t even in this country.

Anyway, gym session and one and a half albums more done. Shakira was actually ok, last track on the album was great and listened to it twice! Boyz 2 men decidedly average although most of their baselines and beats are ripped from hip hop tracks (in turn themselves stollen) so is bearable.

 

[Vandle]

Ah yeah fair point, I’m not sitting down to listen to them though. I’m just listening while I do something I’d normally do anyway so it doesn’t feel like a waste of time.
That’s what I’m telling myself at least!

 

[Vandle]

Going well with this up until now. Been pleasantly surprised and some of it although boys 2 men was a struggle. Up to 489. Back to mono, anthology of Phil Spectors work and influence. 4 CD compilation clocking in at 3 hours.
I don’t have an issue with such a subjective list but a best of box set I feel shouldn’t be in there. Reminds me of Alan Partridge when asked w he thought the best Beatles album was and he replied the best of the Beatles

 

[Vandle]

How is OP getting on? Gone crazy listening to music you don't like yet @Vandle ?

Going well sir. Ahead of schedule, pretty easy at the moment as I’m off work until 15th and it’s turned into a nice summer so lounging outside with my Sonos move. I’m trying not to waste time as such listening to them so just putting one on when I’d be listening to music anyway like drinking in the sun, driving, walking or at the gym. If that makes sense. I want to actually listen to them though so not having them on as generic background music while mooching about the house either. My Spotify daily mixes are for that. Had a two hour return drive to my fave scuba spot yesterday so listened to a couple then.

From what I’ve heard so far I’ll not be revisiting any of them other than arcade fire but Ive always liked them. I thought that Phil Spector anthology would be a slog but was pleasantly surprised, all 60s stuff, reminded me of being a kid and my parents listening to it on Saviles Sunday radio show while my mother cooked a roast and my dad drank bottles of brown ale. Happy memories. The songs are very short and sharp. Was no girl power back then so they are all about getting married (or being too young too) and finding a man. Suppose that was life goals for most women in those days and quite rightly wouldn’t wash today.

I’ve set up a sort of best of Spotify playlist and only put 4 songs in it so far. My daily / suggested playlists in there are starting to morph slightly which is quite interesting. I read a book called spotify takedown last year while on holiday, recommended if you are interested in how they and their software works. Digressing a bit…

Got Lady Gaga next at 484. Im not a fan but never really heard much from her but expect it will be tolerable. I know they have a big following and still touring, my next door neighbour actually went to see them week before Christmas but Damaged by Black Flag was the worst for me, very difficult to get through. I’ve got a great sound system in my car and my head was hurting. Only 36 minutes long though.

 

[Vandle]

Broke through the first 50 earlier this week. Mixed bag. A couple of good ones, some surprising ones that I didn't think I like. Most of them tolerable some of them absolute rubbish in particular the Spanish language pop stuff. There are no Tool albums but that dafty that sang Gasoleeena gets in. Lady Gaga Born this way gets special mention given how relatively new it is and how popular she is. Its crap. Utter crap. Its not trying to be different, new or fresh. I bet it was written in an afternoon, arranged and produced in a day just waiting for her to come and do the very average vocals over the top of it.
Loved some of the classic soul, Motown and the old blues stuff like Muddy Waters and Howlin Wolf. I listen to a lot of 90's hip hop and you can hear it in that. Other than the few albums I own on the list so far the standouts that I haven't heard before were Jefferson Airplane, Roberta Flack, Sparks and Isely Brothers. Biggest surprise so far was Harry Styles. Never heard anything from him other than that Watermelon song but actually thought his album was ok. Wouldn't listen to it again though.
Its only getting better from here . I had aimed for two per day but ahead of that. At two per day now I'll be done by end of August.

I finished number 446 today, so 55 down. My 'Best of the 500" playlist only has 19 songs in it. My Spotify suggested playlists are going a bit mental though. The daily mixes are all over the place. Discover weekly hasn't yet changed but that's super weird anyway due to what I normally listen to.

I still don't think they should have best ofs or compilations on the list. Really enjoyed the greatest hits of Al Green at 456. Yet there is another album of his at 427. Doesn't really make sense. I read that they have redone this list several times. Too many white men near the top didn't go down well. It's been revisited and a bit more diversity sprinkled in over the years.

Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Vandle]

As Whitney Houston belts out How Will I Know, which has been listened to on Spotify an incredible 310 million times (and is to be fair, a great pop song), her 1985 album Whitney Houston (not to be confused with her 1987 album Whitney ) is heading towards its highly anticipated (by me) close and thus marks the official half way point. Whitney is actually number 249 but I have missed two. One Nation Under a Groove by Funkadellic, which I think I will actually like but can't find on Spotify and Down Every Road by tedious American Country singer Merle Haggard at 284 which is his anthology covering 1962 to 1994, containing 100 songs clocking in at 4 and a quarter hours. Really? Is that necessary? (would make the Best of the Beatles / Alan Partridge joke here but already cracked that on page one)

Had to go back and do some Neil Young (who isn't a doctor) as missed due to him removing his material from Spotify after that naughty Joe Rogan (who also isn't a doctor) said young people probably don't need a covid vaccine some years ago. Anyway, glad they have kissed and made up although the passing of time and drama queen like behaviour hasn't made his music any good but I do like My My, Hey Hey.

Other than some of the real old stuff I mention in posts above there hasn't been any great discoveries. I am pretty musically eclectic anyway. I did stumble across the Jackass theme tune (wite the feem toon sing the feem toon) which was a pleasant surprise (Corona by Minutemen FYI) and I am firmly onto the much more popular stuff now than some of the obscure stuff in the first 100. Mention to Dr John who I had never heard of, some early Tina Turner stuff, forgetting how good ABBA actually were (Waterloo no 1 the day I was born) and CCR's take on Heard it on the Grapevine has shot straight to number one in my favourite cover versions of all time list. The amount of soul music on there has helped curate some awesome Spotify daily mixes and suggested playlists for me too. My Chemical Romance was a band that I never gave much thought to (or any of that style American style rock), but Black Parade is brilliant though. Truly brilliant and probably one of my faves from the list as a complete package which is probably my biggest surprise so far.

My "Best Of" playlist continues to grow and now has 109 songs in it, although not put one in there for 6 days (Fast Car, Tracy Chapman) and is almost 8 hours long with a strict limit of 2 songs per album max. Except The Stone Roses get a pass. They have three in there just because.

Current listening rate is 12.3 per week, leaves me needing to listen to 7.9 per week to finish by NYE. At current rate I'll be done on 25th September.

 

[Vandle]

Has it made you have more appreciation for genres you otherwise had no interest in?

I couldn't do it, personally. I like a wide range of music and can get down with most things but if I came across something I didn't like I know I'd just skip it

Soul for sure. Plus the way Spotify's algorithm works its filling my suggested mixes with all kinds of interesting stuff. Then you hear the odd snippet you've heard RZA sample at some point over the 1,000 records he produced. Black Parade as I've mentioned I thought was great, perfectly crafted start to finish and one of the best albums I think I have heard as a total package start to finish with no sort of disjoints. In a similar way to 10,000 days if you get what I mean.

 

[Vandle]

I post on the Hoffman music forums and we went through the Rolling Stone 500 a couple of years ago, one album per day. Then did the then-current RYM 500 as a comparison.

Although it has plenty of excellent material, the Rolling Stone list is very heavily biased towards certain 'vogue' artists. The RYM list, based on user ratings rather than a select group of people, is much more varied and has some real hidden gems - particularly from Japanese artists.



YouTube it!

Funkadelic (and Parliament) have so much great material. The title song on Maggot Brain is one of my favourite tracks, phenomenal playing by Eddie Hazel.



Was that Gris-Gris? That was new to me at the time too, and I enjoyed it.

Along a similar vein, try Exuma's 1970 debut album (this was on the RYM list). You may enjoy it.

Indeed it was Gris-Gris. Enjoyed it.

The RS list has been re-written many times so it's not as white male biased as it used to be. Little bit of forced diversity.

 

[Vandle]

The top 100 has a bunch of rap albums but no Eminem? Bit silly to be honest

I think most would class Eminem as a pop star rather than a serious Hip Hop artist. I certainly would.

Thanks for all the encouraging comments. Nobody is ever going to produce a list of the 5 best albums ever that most people agree with, let alone 500. I use Spotify for vast majority of my music these days and when at home (through my phone and sonos), gym or walking (phone) or driving (phone again through car play) I haven't spent much time on the Spotify PC app until now. I do most of my work from my home office so work my way through the albums mostly then. With the desktop app you can see the listening figures for the songs and artists and some of them are quite staggering. I have Tori Amos on now, never been a fan. Its quite good actually but I will never listen to it again. I think I could only name one song shes done, and its not even on this album. She has over a billion monthly listeners and three of the songs on this album have almost 20 million individual plays each. The least most listened to has 1.8m!
What you or I think is rubbish, some people clearly love.