Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

Original Source →

500.

OutKast - Aquemini
September 29, 1998
Critic Score
91
10 reviews

Sporting plenty of live chops (check the Felastyle horns of "Spottie Ottie Dopalicious") and soulful harmonies, Aquemini's fresh, original feel defies rap's coastal clichés.

499.

B.B. King - Live in Cook County Jail
January 1, 1971
Critic Score
100
2 reviews

497.

The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
July 3, 2001
Critic Score
85
9 reviews
At a time when lots of folks would argue that rock is dead, a White Stripes ditty like the raging "I'm Finding It Harder to Be a Gentleman" actually sounds quite undead, like a love zombie or some other unstoppable monster.

496.

Boz Scaggs - Boz Scaggs
January 1, 1969
Critic Score
90
2 reviews

495.

Bonnie Raitt - Give It Up
September 1, 1972
Critic Score
83
4 reviews

494.

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
October 2, 2007
Critic Score
75
23 reviews
Lips producer Dave Fridmann helmed MGMT's debut disc, fluffing their glitchy daydream rock into an intergalactic odyssey.

493.

Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
April 23, 2002
Critic Score
91
16 reviews

In Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Tweedy, bassist John Stirratt, keyboard-guitar player Leroy Bach and drummer Glenn Kotche actually bring you the enchanting sound of things falling apart — and gingerly, doggedly coming together again. This is an honest, vivid chaos, and it tells a good story.

492.

Eurythmics - Touch
November 26, 1983
Critic Score
85
2 reviews

491.

Albert King - Born Under a Bad Sign
August 1, 1967
Critic Score
100
2 reviews

490.

ZZ Top - Tres Hombres
July 26, 1973
Critic Score
80
4 reviews

489.

Kiss - Destroyer
March 15, 1976
Critic Score
83
3 reviews

487.

Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual
October 14, 1983
Critic Score
77
3 reviews

486.

Earth, Wind & Fire - That's the Way of the World
March 15, 1975
Critic Score
90
1 review

485.

Pearl Jam - Vitalogy
November 22, 1994
Critic Score
85
5 reviews

But Vitalogy isn't Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music, nor does it seem like a tossed-off interlude like Zooropa. It's more a portrait of an artist in crisis, a man who hasn't yet decided what direction to take next.

484.

Mott The Hoople - All the Young Dudes
September 8, 1972
Critic Score
85
2 reviews

483.

Gang of Four - Entertainment!
September 25, 1979
Critic Score
93
3 reviews

482.

Steve Earle - Guitar Town
March 5, 1986
Critic Score
85
2 reviews

481.

D'Angelo - Voodoo
January 25, 2000
Critic Score
92
11 reviews

The problem is, Voodoo sounds so loose and unfinished, it floats right off into the clouds.

480.

Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...
August 1, 1995
Critic Score
89
5 reviews
Each distinct voice blends into a fluid, subterranean groove. A legend in the making, Wu-Tang continue to run things in the 9-5.

479.

Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
July 12, 1971
Critic Score
94
5 reviews

478.

Loretta Lynn - All Time Greatest Hits
May 23, 2002
Critic Score
90
1 review

477.

Merle Haggard - Down Every Road 1962-1994
April 1, 1996
Critic Score
100
2 reviews

476.

The Notorious B.I.G. - Life After Death
March 25, 1997
Critic Score
72
8 reviews

Biggie was somebody while he was still alive, and the ambitious Life After Death – a worthy and more mature, if less uniformly spectacular, successor to his 1994 debut, Ready to Die – demonstrates why.

474.

Manu Chao - Próxima Estación: Esperanza
June 5, 2001
Critic Score
69
8 reviews

473.

The Smiths - The Smiths
February 20, 1984
Critic Score
89
5 reviews

Given Morrissey’s rather somber poetic stance, The Smiths is surprisingly warm and entertaining.

470.

LL Cool J - Radio
November 18, 1985
Critic Score
90
2 reviews

469.

Fugees - The Score
February 13, 1996
Critic Score
86
9 reviews

The Fugees’ roots in reggae give them a solid base in song and a basic philosophy that’s richer than the money-or-nothing ethic that dulls much of rap these days. Without being sanctimonious, The Score paints the ghetto as a mythical landscape, one that can inspire pride as well as sorrow.

466.

Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head
August 27, 2002
Critic Score
79
18 reviews
Coldplay might be out of step with rock orthodoxy, but their sheer conviction has made them a global sensation.

465.

The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
September 7, 1999
Critic Score
91
15 reviews
Merritt's compositions have a tossed-off, barely produced quality and are held together by sturdily constructed melodies that hark back to Eighties synth poppers like Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark.

464.

Def Leppard - Hysteria
August 3, 1987
Critic Score
93
3 reviews

462.

R.E.M. - Document
September 1, 1987
Critic Score
90
4 reviews

461.

Public Image Ltd. - Metal Box
November 23, 1979
Critic Score
93
3 reviews

460.

Hole - Live Through This
April 12, 1994
Critic Score
84
8 reviews
Hole’s 1991 debut album, the gloriously assaultive Pretty on the Inside, remains a classic of sex-mad self-laceration, hypershred guitars and full-moon bawling, in particular the spectacular goring of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides, Now” (a k a “Clouds”) at the end of the record.

457.

My Morning Jacket - Z
October 4, 2005
Critic Score
84
21 reviews
There is an emphasis on keyboards, in pulse and architecture, that adds buoyancy and color to James' writing and flatters his keening, stratospheric tenor.

456.

December 15, 1978
Critic Score
84
5 reviews
Forced to give up the royalties to his ex-wife in their divorce settlement, Gaye's album brutally chronicles the breakdown of the marriage—no hits, but plenty of bruises.

454.

Alice Cooper - Love It to Death
March 9, 1971
Critic Score
85
2 reviews

453.

EPMD - Strictly Business
August 30, 1988
Critic Score
100
3 reviews

451.

Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
October 27, 2006
Critic Score
82
23 reviews
The tunes don't always hold up. But the best ones are impossible to dislike.
Original Source: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-20120531
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