By Lauren Greenslet
Every once in a while, the iconic Rolling Stone magazine releases their top picks of some form of music. It could be singles or albums, whatever they feel is worth sharing. They recently published their new October issue and with it came their updated “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list, with Bruce Springsteen as the face on the cover. To say there was good competition on the list would be an understatement. The writers included albums such as Blond by Frank Ocean and Entertainment! by Gang of Four. It was diverse as it could get. Within this array of music wonders and masterpieces, all-time favorites, and forever iconic moments in the music industry, was my critiques on what should’ve been ranked differently. Although it was well thought out and put together, there are some different alignments that could’ve been sorted out, in my opinion.
We start off with the queen of girl grunge herself, Alanis Morisette’s Jagged Little Pill. This album deserved, at the very least, somewhere in the 20’s or 30's. The beauty of it, ranked at a whopping 69, is that it identified grown girl rage in a way that was ahead of its time. Morisette managed to grab women from different walks of life and identify with them in some of the rawest forms of music. Her voice is very diverse; she has a delicate tone, yet she has a sharp tongue which is showcased in tracks such as “Forgiven” and “You Oughta Know,” among others of course. She aced the build of the inner, most sensitive emotions that transitioned into confrontation and self-advocacy. By releasing Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morisette helped build the next generation of empowered women who weren’t gonna take anyone’s BS. The real glory of the album? The fact it’s still doing that for millions of women and girls today.
By far the best Jimi Hendrix album and my favorite poster on my wall is Axis: Bold as Love. It is most definitely one of the best albums of all time. But it also most definitely deserved a higher spot than 92. Axis: Bold as Love is what you listen to when you start the deep-dive journey into Hendrix’s discography. It takes you from high to low, A to Z, all within a matter of 39 minutes, 13 tracks total. It came out in 1967, in which Hendrix’s experimentation with the guitar had audiences and listeners awestruck. Although the lifetime of Jimi Hendrix was cut short, he was the sculptor of something bigger than he could have imagined. He helped pave the way for future guitarists to go all out on stage and in the recording studio, with their lyrics, their composition, etc. Having this album, one that reflects every unique musical trait of Hendrix, at the 92 spot is plain disrespect.
As mentioned previously, Alanis Morisette was the pioneer of girl rage in connection to the grunge era. Here we have one of the newest additions to that category. When I saw Billie Eilish’s When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? at number 397, my heart sank. I’m not an Eilish fan per-say but her music is so uniquely produced and resonates with so much of my generation and empowers them. Why wouldn’t she be higher on the list? I found this issue with other albums such as Melodrama from Lorde, Ctrl by SZA, and even Fine Line by Harry Styles, one of Rolling Stone’s favorite artists. Every single one of them in the 350-500 range. The placement of Eilish’s work is disappointing considering the amount of flack she’s received from the public and the industry for her art over the years. Of course, this industry has aspects of sexism, but the way in which Eilish has been attacked seemed as though it was ignoring the creative genius and power moves she was making and solely focusing on her being protective of herself in the media. By “protective” I mean doing all that she could to avoid body shaming and intrusive interviews or comments about her personal life in general, especially at the age of 17. It wasn’t just one group of people attacking her but all sorts coming from all over the place. Billie Eilish’s When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? was a series of songs that helped the advancement of our current pop and chill music and it deserved better. She should get at least a place in the 100-150s.
Okay, so what did Rolling Stone get right? The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, for starters. At number 10 on the list, this is a “chef’s kiss” type of album. The storylines of every song, the song placement on the album, the overall flow of every piece is what won me over on this one. An album so real to the extent of this one is rare and the fact that it was placed so high was the correct move to make. Others included License To Ill by The Beastie Boys, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust by David Bowie, What’s The Story (Morning Glory)? by Oasis, and Ten by Pearl Jam. In the end, Rolling Stone has a pretty substantial list of artists of all kinds. They included as many genres as it seemed possible and allowed room for more new age musicians to make their mark, not just the rock artists from the seventies. Although there is a good list of re-ranks I would recommend, the end product of their voting grouped together an iconic list of artists that we now will come to know as part of the “Best 500 Albums of All Time.”