What is Breaking Ranks
Breaking Ranks is about music lists, mainly Rolling Stone’s music lists, and what I think of them. In 2020, in the depth of the pandemic, I took on a project of reviewing all 500 of Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” (2020 version). It was an excellent distraction from the state of the world at the time, and two friends were the recipients of my efforts. I finally finished in January 2024, progressively taking my time with each review to prolong the enjoyable experience.
In 2025, Rolling Stone released their list of “250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far.” It’s another fascinating list, and another opportunity for me to indulge in my fascination with lists and rankings. I’ll begin my reviews again, and post them here, along with posts from my “archive” of the Top 500 project. Along the way, I may also tackle other lists, not always albums, not always music.
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As for me, here are my top 5 all time favourite albums:
Kid A
A Ghost Is Born
Blood On the Tracks
Abbey Road
Norman F’n Rockwell
Only 4 of those are on the lists I am reviewing, which is okay by me. I’ll find a spot for the other one. Plus, you’ll find album reviews about my top 10 favourite artists in the navigation bar.
Please share with others if you think they’ll enjoy it!
