This is NOT a shot at Marvin Gaye's album, but for me......any list, I don't care who it's from....Rolling Stone or some tiny little blog from a small town in Idaho, any list that doesn't have Pet Sounds number 1 is fraudulent from the very start. Pet Sounds is the most visionary, complex, vulnerable album every thought up and recorded. Period. The end.
It's also important to remind myself that Rolling Stone uses lists like this to get clicks. So changing it and having it be somewhat controversial helps them out. Now, that said. I'm not suggesting that Marvin Gaye being #1 over the Beach Boys is "controversial", just saying I think it's wrong.
It is cool to see Prince & Bob Dylan ranking in the top 50 of this updated version.
Rolling Stone has unveiled an updated edition of its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time," which the magazine last published in 2012. The new tally, which was compiled by considering lists of 50 top albums chosen by more than 300 artists, producers, critics and music-industry figures, includes 154 albums that were not on the 2012 edition.
At #1 isMarvin Gaye's classic 1971 concept albumWhat's Going On, which features such topical tunes as the classic title track, "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" and "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)," songs that reflected on the Vietnam War, the environment and the racial divide.
The highest-ranking rock album on the tally isThe Beach Boys' pop-rock masterpiecePet Sounds, which landed in second place.
Other albums in the tally's top 20 includeJoni Mitchell'sBlueat #3,The Beatles'Abbey Roadat #5,Nirvana'sNevermindat #6,Fleetwood Mac'sRumoursat #7,Bob Dylan'sBlood on the Tracksat #9, The Beatles'Revolverat #11,The Rolling Stones'Exile on Main Streetat #14,The Clash'sLondon Callingat #16,and Dylan'sHighway 61 Revisitedat #18.