Rolling Stone magazine has listed its top 10 albums of all time (Image: Getty)
Imagine trying to pick your favourite album of all time. For some, it might be very easy and come straight to mind; for others, they may have to think it over and could change depending on their mood.
Rolling Stone, the music magazine and website, has pulled together a list of the top 500 albums of all time. With collaboration from a number of respected musicians, the definitive list has a lot of the usual suspects on it. Everyone from The Beatles to Beyonce feature, but who took the top spot and do you agree with the choices?
READ MORE I have a music degree and these are the 5 albums I listen to all the time
Bob Dylan’s album Blood on the Tracks has been included in the list (Image: Getty)
Here are the top 10 albums of all time, according to Rolling Stone:
10. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill – Lauryn Hill (1998)
Remarking on some of the heartbreaking moments in this Lauryn Hill album, Rolling Stone commended her on “taking control” of the recording process. They added: “Each song was driven by a clarity of vision and personal honesty that felt revelatory.”
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9. Blood On The Tracks – Bob Dylan (1975)
Bob Dylan apparently wrote all the songs for Blood On The Tracks over a two-month period in 1974. Rolling Stone said the recording process of this album, using a mix of local and perhaps more accomplished musicians help to “frame the gritty anguish in Dylan’s vocals, as he rages through some of his most passionate, confessional songs”.
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Fleetwood Mac also made the top 10 (Image: Getty)
8. Purple Rain – Prince and the Revolution (1984)
Rolling Stone said Prince’s Purple Rain album is a “testament to Prince’s dream of creating a utopian Top 40, a place where funk, psychedelia, heavy-metal shredding, huge ballads, and daring experimentalism could coexist”.
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7. Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (1977)
Rolling Stone comments on how the private turmoil and break-ups of Fleetwood Mac’s two couples became a “gleaming, melodic public art”. The added: “The Mac’s catchy exposés, produced with California-sunshine polish, touched a nerve: Rumours became the sixth-best-selling album of all time.”
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6. Nevermind – Nirvana (1991)
Nirvana’s second album made the band an overnight success, and Nevermind is considered a must-have in any music collection. Rolling Stone said Kurt Cobain’s “slashing riffs, corrosive singing, and deviously oblique writing — rammed home by the Zeppelin-via-Pixies might of bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl — put warrior purity back in rock & roll”.
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The iconic album cover on the Sunset Strip (Image: Getty)
5. Abbey Road – The Beatles (1969)
Rolling Stone said of Abbey Road’s inclusion in the top 10: “There was no thematic link, other than the Beatles’ unique genius.” They also say there is a feeling of the members of the band coming together as friends, when they were often divided and this ” may be one reason Abbey Road has become the most beloved Beatles album of all time”.
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4. Songs in the Key of Life – Stevie Wonder (1976)
Rolling Stone called the mastery of Stevie Wonder’s album “astonishing” and said this is only compounded by his ” impassioned political art” alongside autobiographical choices.
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3. Blue – Joni Mitchell (1971)
“From its smoky, introspective cover to its wholly unguarded approach to songwriting, Blue is the first time any major rock or pop artist had opened up so fully, producing what might be the ultimate breakup album and setting a still-unmatched standard for confessional poetry in pop music.”
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Marvin Gaye takes The Rolling Stone top spot as the best album of all time (Image: Getty)
2. Pet Sounds – The Beach Boys (1966)
Rolling Stone said the late Brian Wilson made Pet Sounds “without the rest of the band, using them only to flesh out the vocal arrangements”. And in this he is said to have wanted to create a spiritual feeling, one that still sounds otherworldly to this day.
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1. What’s Going On – Marvin Gaye (1971)
At number one is Marvin Gaye’s masterpiece said to be “soul music’s first concept album, and one of the most important and influential LPs ever made”. Rolling Stone added: “After What’s Going On, black musicians at Motown and elsewhere felt a new freedom to push the musical and political boundaries of their art.”
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View all 500 of Rolling Stone’s top albums of all time here.