This is the 12th 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 Bill Withers, Allen Touissant, and Buffalo Tom. This week we continue with Nos. 225-201. The ask was simple: excluding compilation albums, what are the 500 best albums of all-time, ranked? Here's the twelfth list in the countdown:
225. The Primitives - Pure (1989)
Vibrant lead singer Tracy Tracy spits in your face and makes you like it.
224. Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend (1991)
Maybe it should be titled Ex-Wife. Sweet composed the album just weeks after filing for divorce.
223. Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde (1966)
Acclaimed at the time due to its revolutionary eclecticism and double-album length, it sounds outdated and abrasive to today's ears.
222. Pixies - Doolittle (1989)
Their sophomore release was thematically centered around Biblical torture and making pain cool.
221. Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby - Terence Trent D'Arby (1987)
He wasn't Michael Jackson, he wasn't Prince. He was a magician with an endless ribbon of funk, pop, and soul up his sleeve.
220. Michael Penn - March (1989)
Penn is largely remembered for the leadoff track "No Myth." What follows the hit is a ruminative look at relationships, aging, and regret.
219. Fleetwood Mac - Tusk (1979)
Not even trying to follow up the ridiculous commercial success of Rumours, Fleetwood embraced emerging pop trend of post-punk to create an album one wouldn't immediately recognize as Fleetwood Mac.
218. The Cure - Three Imaginary Boys (1979)
Robert Smith's debut project is a demented merry-go-round pulled down in glorious centrifugal force.
217. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife (2006)
Colin Meloy tells his own version of the Japanese folktale, the story of a man who finds a crane on his doorstep, only to see it transformed into a woman.
216. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank (1965)
Frank's brilliance was recognized by Paul Simon, who produced his one and only album, before Frank's schizophrenia caused him to end his career prematurely.
215. Beach House - Bloom (2012)
This woozy and psychedelic dream pop work is Beach House's most exploratory, spaced out work.
214. John Martyn - Solid Air (1973)
Martyn teamed up with Fairport Convention and other key members in the British folk revival scene, describing his work as "a simple message, but you'll have to work that one out for yourself."
213. The Beatles - Rubber Soul (1965)
One of their strongest songwriting works track-for-track, The Beatles pivoted from standard skiffle pop toward folk rock, jangle pop, and psychedelia.
212. Miles Davis - 'Round About Midnight (1957)
Drawing on compositions by Cole Porter, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker, Davis' first album for Columbia showcases his most nimble and eloquent trumpeting.
211. Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley (1958)
Agruably the quintessential rhythm and blues record, Diddley dropped his most iconic work, including "Who Do You Love," "I'm A Man," and "Pretty Thing."
210. Wilson Pickett - The Exciting Wilson Pickett (1966)
Pickett and session genius Steve Cropper perfected the R&B soul formula with this record, making it sound anything but formulaic.
209. John Mayer - Continuum (2006)
This album stripped away the sap of early '00s pop rock, slipping into blue-eyed soul and earning Mayer his 'slow burner' reputation.
208. Grateful Dead - Live/Dead (1969)
The Dead saw studio albums as a mere cost of doing business. Their Dark Star shined brightest at The Fillmore West and The Avalon, the best document of their endless live improvisation.
207. Chic - Chic (1979)
Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards pretended to be wealthy French models turned singers to widen their funk and disco appeal.
206. Catherine Wheel - Ferment (1992)
With a sea of effects pedals for their guitars, the debut by British alternative rockers is cryptic, but hopeful.
205. Etta James - At Last! (1960)
Her supreme vocal elegance is persuasive and emotionally fluent across timeless classics like "A Sunday Kind Of Love," "Stormy Weather," and of course "At Last."
204. Neil Young - Harvest (1972)
Guests James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, and the boys of CSNY add delicate touches to the best-selling album of 1972.
203. Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (1998)
The liner notes show contributions of zanzithophones, singing saws, and uilleann pipes, but it's Mangums tender vocal delivery and zany vision that captures the disillusion of the '90s.
202. Bad Brains - Bad Brains (1982)
This hardcore act was banned from performing at almost every club in their hometown (Washington D.C.), so they had to move to NYC to deliver their hard and fast debut.
201. The Who - Tommy (1969)
Tommy Walker outlasts his psychosomatic trauma to become the best pinball player in the land, empowering him to lead an underground cult whose followers can't drink or smoke, but only play pinball.
Want to listen to our choice cuts from this list? Follow our countdown playlist on Spotify!
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