#430, pt 2: Un Verano Sin Ti

Revisiting Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2023)

Bad Bunny, 2022

Look, I get that Bad Bunny is a pretty big deal, and all of his albums in his relatively short career have, so far, been dingers. And this album has so far been the pinnacle: #76 on Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums of all time, and #9 on Rolling Stone’s “250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century.” It was the first Spanish-language album nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys, and one of the top streamed albums of all time. He hosted Saturday Night Live. And there are fantastic tracks on here, such as “Otro Atardecer” and “El Apagón.” The lead track, “Moscow Mule,” is a decent pop single. People like it!

With all the accolades, it was inevitable that RS would want to include it on the 2023 refresh of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list:

Editor’s note, December 2023: In the three years since Rolling Stone rolled out the all-new, fully revamped version of our 500 Greatest Albums list, artists like Beyonce, Bad Bunny, and Taylor Swift have all released undeniable classics. So we’ve updated the list, adding those albums while making a few other tweaks.

It makes sense - it will certainly hold up 10 years from now, or 20 years from now, and so there’s little harm in adding it so soon. My contention is that is replaced My Aim is True by Elvis Costello, which is no longer on the list at all. As with Screamadelica, it just seems ridiculous that My Aim is True is no longer in the top 500 but Al Green’s Greatest Hits is (sorry Al - you have great albums! There’s no need to include your Greatest Hits album).

I’ll get into the extensive merits of Un Verano Sin Ti more when I get to it on the 21st century list, and I am sure that I will like it, too. I just don’t agree with the way it made to the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”