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In Which I Listen Through Rolling Stone's 500 Best Albums of all Time

Alex

Alex

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I've taken to going on long walks at night and, as this is incredibly boring to do after a fashion, listen to music while I do it. At first I would just listen to song playlists on Spotify, but after immediately running out of mobile data, I decided to download full albums ahead of time to save that. And, having limited knowledge about the wide world of music, decided Rolling Stone's 500 Best Albums of All Time would be as good a reference as any.

And, partially inspired by BEAT, I want to talk about this project!

Now bear in mind, I'm no scholar when it comes to music, and the semiotics will escape me. So if I say something that makes me seem ignorant, good news: I am!

#500 is Funeral by Arcade Fire. I liked this album, I had heard "Wake Up" previously, but there are a lot of other good songs on this. There's a great blend of various instruments, and the lyrics are pretty deep and deal with some heavy themes like death and change.

Check it out if you haven't heard it!
 
While not the same album I immediately thought of the website for The Wilderness Downtown and how cool it was to see the guy from the video running through your neighborhood.

Looks like it's still up but not quite everything works. Interestingly it says a lot of regions don't have Maps data, which made sense when it came out but doesn't now. I wonder if they cached the maps back then and never updated? Hmm.
 
I am a huge fan of Funeral, but nothing that Arcade Fire did after that came even close to touching it IMO.

Good luck on your project, you've got a lot of listening ahead of you! I did the Top 500 Songs almost 20 years ago and even that took a while to get through.
 
Arcade Fire’s music has really meant a lot to me. Learning that Win Butler is a sexual abuser was almost as painful for me as learning about Neil Gaiman.
 
MCBanjoMike said:
I am a huge fan of Funeral, but nothing that Arcade Fire did after that came even close to touching it IMO.

Good luck on your project, you've got a lot of listening ahead of you! I did the Top 500 Songs almost 20 years ago and even that took a while to get through.
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Yeah I do, haha. The weather may not always agree with my endeavor but I'll do what I can.

#499 is Ask Rufus by Rufus and Chaka Khan. This was a funky album that was definitely a departure from the kind of music I usually listen to, which is a welcome change of pace from the Spotify algorithm of stuff that sounds like what you already like.

It was enjoyable! Their song "Everlasting Love" is worth listening to.

If you like Japanese City Pop, you'll probably enjoy it.
 
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You're telling me!

#498 was the self-titled debut album from Suicide. This is one of those ones that's apparently very influential, but it is decidedly not a fun listening experience. Very minimialistic instrumentation paired with spare and simplistic lyrics. It's really impressive that they were able to produce this kind of sound in 1977!

The song Frankie Teardrop stands out as being one of the few times I've experienced a jump scare in song format. Listening to it while taking a long walk outside at 11 PM was not a fun experience and definitely put me in a weird headspace the rest of the evening.
 
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#497 was The Indestructible Beat of Soweto which is a compilation album of various South African artists. I don't have a lot to say about this one, except that it sounds really cool and well produced, and I think it's worth listening to at least once.

One thing I appreciate about this undertaking is that it's forcing me to listen to music well outside of my usual comfort zone. I would probably never would have listened to this otherwise, and it was a good time!

 
Alex said:
One thing I appreciate about this undertaking is that it's forcing me to listen to music well outside of my usual comfort zone.
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Similarly, I go to the library every three weeks, get a few albums, copy them onto my computer then play them while working out at the gym. I usually delete after but it's really more about just trying different things. Once I worked out to a royal wedding!
 
oh that sounds fun! I'm leery of letting spotify choose things for me just on the basis that it's trying to push AI generated music.

#496 was Shakira's Dónde Están los Ladrones? and this kicks so much ass, you guys. I only was familiar with her as a pop singer but this album rocks. It's remained in my rotation afterwards, because even if I don't understand the words, the emotions still carry through.

 
#495: Boyz II Men, ‘II’

This is just some nice, wholesome music to listen to. I don't have a lot to say about it, to be honest. I don't really have a lot of experience listening to R&B, and it's not really a genre I would actively seek out, but I enjoyed this.
 
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A bit of a lightning round to get myself caught up to real time:
#494 The Ronettes: ‘Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes’
This rules. I love the oldies style girl groups, and this is one of the best.

 
#493 Marvin Gaye, ‘Here, My Dear’
Looking ahead, I'll have more to say about Marvin Gaye later. This is pretty good stuff though.

#492 Bonnie Raitt, ‘Nick of Time’
This is one I probably wouldn't have sought out if not for this project, and it's pretty good! A nice mix of bluesy country and rock and roll.

 
#491 is Harry Styles, ‘Harry’s House’

I don't think I was expecting something as good as this from a former boy band star. One of the very fun things about this project is when you get to something more modern, and you can hear the influence from the older styles of music.


#490 Linda Ronstadt, ‘Heart Like a Wheel’
This is yet another one that I wouldn't have sought out otherwise, but I enjoyed it a lot. I have a lot of appreciation for old school country music, and love female vocalists in general, so here's her cover of a Hank Williams song that's featured on this album.


 
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#489 is Phil Spector and Various Artists, ‘Back to Mono (1958-1969)’

This is a three+ hour box set of various songs produced by Phil Spector over the years, and I'll be honest, I skipped this one. I like these kinds of songs well enough, mind, but that's just more time than I feel like spending here.

Also Phil Spector died in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder, which is kind of fucked up. I sure hope there's no other problematic artists on this list!
 
Alex said:
#492 Bonnie Raitt, ‘Nick of Time’
This is one I probably wouldn't have sought out if not for this project, and it's pretty good! A nice mix of bluesy country and rock and roll.
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Oh man my mom loves Bonnie Raitt. I heard so much of her stuff growing up but haven't listened to it for years.
 
It's funny, while listening to Bonnie Raitt I wondered if there was a musical style considered "mom rock" as a counterpart to "dad rock" that she would fall under.
 
#488 is the self-titled album from The Stooges. This took a couple of listens for me to really find enjoyment in it, but you can definitely hear the seeds of punk rock being planted here, in addition to the psychedelic rock influence from The Doors. It's really cool stuff.

 
Here, My Dear has a really interesting backstory as Marvin Gaye albums go, in case you didn't read up on it. He was going through a very acrimonious divorce from Anna Gordy Gaye, the sister of the head of Motown, and ended up having to give away half of the royalties of his next album as alimony. So what you hear on the record is both an epic kiss-off as well as Gaye working through his very complicated feelings.
 
zonetrope said:
Here, My Dear has a really interesting backstory as Marvin Gaye albums go, in case you didn't read up on it. He was going through a very acrimonious divorce from Anna Gordy Gaye, the sister of the head of Motown, and ended up having to give away half of the royalties of his next album as alimony. So what you hear on the record is both an epic kiss-off as well as Gaye working through his very complicated feelings.
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It's interesting to read the lyrics and compare them to the overall vibe of the song. I'm looking forward to listening to more Marvin Gaye in a bit, and then again in a long bit.

#487
Black Flag, ‘Damaged’

This rules. They play really fast and loud and the singing is very shouty. One of the interesting things about this list is the juxtaposition of songs with really well-done production values, and then something like this which comes off a lot more gritty and raw.

#486
#486 John Mayer, ‘Continuum’
This was good too! I was expecting to be bored but I started to really get into this the further I listened.

What's interesting about comparing these two is that lyrically, the songs are actually expressing very similar themes, just with differing levels of subtlety.
 
#485 is Richard and Linda Thompson, ‘I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight’

I literally never heard of them, but this rules! It's English folk rock from the 1970s, and his guitar skills and her vocals are a great complement. I would definitely recommend listening to the title track from this album.
 
#484 is Lady Gaga's Born this Way

This rules. A lot of powerful club anthems and some surprising genre shifts.
 
#483 is Muddy Waters, ‘The Anthology’

Now I am just going to say one thing, and that's that I don't like that they've included these kinds of box sets and anthologies in this list. That's not what I think about when I think of albums, I think of small, curated songs that were recorded and selected to be released together. Not two hours of songs spanning decades' worth of material.

That gripe aside, when I really listened to this, like dialed in and really paid attention, I felt it. His masterful guitar playing, his singing, it's very good. It's easy to see why he has the legendary status that he does.
 
Yeah it is! I'm surprised none of her other work made the list, but it is what it is.

#482 was Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde by The Pharcyde, an early 90s rap album that was a very boisterous and fun collection of songs. It was kind of dumb fun to listen to it, and they sound like they had a really good time recording it. Good production values, too!
 
Born This Way is terrific, and definitely the Lady Gaga to feature on a list like this. My personal favorite is probably Chromatica from 2020. It's just a really tight, focused album of 3-minute bangers in a whole bunch of different flavors of house music, and I love it. Her most recent album is really good too.
 
Number 481 is If You're Feeling Sinister by Belle and Sebastian. This was an indie rock record that sounded like something Nick Drake might have recorded if he was active today. It was pretty good! A lot of it didn't really register with me, but I still enjoyed it.
 
Huh. For a B&S record I would have thought Boy With The Arab Strap or Tigermilk would be on the list. Maybe they show up later.
 
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