This is the 8th post in this series. Click here to start from the beginning: Inhailer's Top 500 Albums of All-Time: (#500--476)
Every Friday, Inhailer is counting down our totally objective, completely undisputed, most-correct list of the Top 500 albums of all time. We're doing so in bite-size chunks of 25 albums (nobody has the energy in their thumbs to scroll through 500 albums in one sitting). Last week we continued our countdown with the likes of The Runaways, Odetta, and D'Angelo. This week we continue with Nos. 325-301. The ask was simple: excluding compilation albums, what are the 500 best albums of all-time, ranked? Here's the eighth list in the countdown:
325. Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Moanin' (1959)
Lee Morgan, Benny Golson, and Art Blakey make magic together with a hard bop classic straight from the Van Gelder Studio.
324. Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska (1982)
Mostly recorded in a single day on Springsteen's four-track recorder, Springsteen proved that sometimes you don't over-think inspiration.
323. Women - Public Strain (2010)
The short-lived Calgary band made an album like a car wreck: so visceral you can't turn it off.
322. Guns 'N Roses - Appetite For Destruction (1987)
The best-selling debut album of all-time is not only a hair-metal standard, but it stands up as a high point in American hard rock.
321. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm (2005)
This heavily-rhythmic indie rock turned down major label offers to produce tight-knit hits like "Helicopter" and "Banquet."
320. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Willy and the Poor Boys (1969)
Astonishingly, Fogerty pumped out the last of three albums in a single year without filler. See "Effigy" for the greatest rock anthem you've never heard.
319. The The - Soul Mining (1983)
Matt Johnson's vivid and deeply intimate lyrics came from dreams he was having in the New York and London club scene.
318. Hawkwind - Space Ritual (1973)
Recorded as a massive double live album, this "music of the spheres" was deemed too demented to be Pink Floyd.
317. The Church - Starfish (1986)
Five albums in, the Aussies smoothed out their sound and plopped a bagpipe-esque synth into their breakthrough international hit. It worked, though.
316. The Pixies - Surfer Rosa (1988)
Seemingly everything went into this album to make it non-commercial, including voyeurism, bodily mutilation, and the "teachers into field hockey players."
315. The Band - The Band (1968)
If there ever was an 'American Pie,' The Band's 'Brown' album is the pie cooling on the windowsill... during a back porch sing-a-long, of course.
314. The Flying Burrito Brothers - Gilded Palace of Sin (1969)
The Burritos made a top tier country rock album so far ahead of its time that the term hadn't even been coined yet.
313. The Waterboys - This is the Sea (1985)
The massive "Big Music" album is a 40-minute plus catharsis of brass-layered emotion and poetic gusto.
312. Old 97's - Too Far to Care (1997)
Bandleader Rhett Miller was at odd with the whole major label thing: "I did the math. I could live for a month in my East Dallas garage apartment for the amount of money Elektra was paying per night at the Paramount Hotel."
311. Mos Def - Black on Both Sides (1999)
Afrocentric, politically savvy lyricism meets silver-tongued rapping about Brooklyn, booty, and brutality.
310. Cat Stevens - Teaser and the Firecat (1971)
After the moon falls from the sky, Teaser and his kitty (I'll let you guess the cat's name) try to vault the moon back in place to the shimmering of a storybook soundtrack.
309. Wire - Pink Flag (1977)
A concoction of over twenty bursts of sardonic punk crooning, Colin Newman and Graham Lewis' introduction to the music world continues its influence on the British aesthetic.
308. Gorillaz - Gorillaz (2001)
The band's debut record was such a hit that the Guinness Book of World Records declared them the world's "Most Successful Virtual Band."
307. The Hollies - Butterfly (1967)
Graham Nash led the band through the making of perhaps the most underrated pop albums of the 'Summer of Love' era.
306. Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals (2007)
The woozy, neo-psychedelia album is a worthwhile spiritual dive into world music rituals, complete with handclaps, chants, and hand drums.
305. Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill (1986)
The album brought Rick Rubin onto the scene, Slayer fans to hip hop, the trio to instant fame, and Columbia Records a whole lotta dough.
304. Sweet - Desolation Boulevard (1974)
This unheralded cornerstone of glam rock set the stage (and the pyrotechnics) for the glam metal success stories of Queen and Suzi Quatro.
303. Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure (1973)
Brian Eno strikes again as the standout player on Roxy's vexing and sinister second album.
302. Green Day - Dookie (1994)
Billie Joe Armstrong & Co. single-handedly brought the genre of pop punk to the mainstream as the band's original fanbase labeled them sell-outs.
301. Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993)
Hardcore NYC hip-hoppers stir an hour-long melting pot of rapping styles, themes, and forms. Fun fact: the album title is a portmanteau of martial arts movie titles.
Want to listen to our choice cuts from this list? Follow our countdown playlist on Spotify!
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