Thread by @consequence

What makes an album truly great? 🤔

It's a question we spent hours debating in hopes of creating this definitive ranking.

In honor of Consequence's 15th anniversary, we humbly present our new-and-improved 100 Greatest Albums of All Time: cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

@kendricklamar @fleetwoodmac @TheBeachBoys @thebeatles @DavidBowieReal @Nirvana @prince @KateBushMusic @TheClash 100. Jane’s Addiction – Nothing’s Shocking

Equal parts heavy and ethereal, it’s fitting that the album contains song titles like “Up the Beach” and “Ocean Size,” as the tracks play like waves crashing into the sea.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

99. Kamasi Washington – Heaven and Earth

Heaven & Earth evokes the grand scale of its title with an all-encompassing view of the past, present, and future of this world and beyond.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

98. Lucinda Williams – Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

Across 13 tracks, you learn a few things about the record’s central narrator, but there’s one lesson that stands out in particular: You don’t fuck with Lucinda Williams.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

97. Fugazi – Repeater

With Repeater, Fugazi not only raised their own bar, but blew the entire hardcore punk genre wide open.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

96. N.W.A – Straight Outta Compton

Although they owe Schoolly D and the Park Side Killas some credit for pioneering gangsta rap, N.W.A can proudly say that they brought this style of uber-catchy, ultra-violent hip-hop to the mainstream.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

95. System of a Down – Toxicity

Melodic, chaotic, and downright hypnotic, the album expanded the boundaries of heavy music.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

94. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

From start to finish, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot mesmerizes and beguiles, and somehow manages to sound like both falling in love and the end of the world. It’s untouchable.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

93. TLC – CrazySexyCool

It stands as a testament to confident womanhood, a statement sealed in the record books as the best-selling album by an American girl group ever and the first to reach Diamond status.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

92. The Replacements – Let It Be

Who would have thought four twenty-somethings from Minneapolis could produce something so timeless, so vital, and so vivid?

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91. The Who – Who’s Next?

With tracks like these, it’s easy to see why Who’s Next moved The Who from a great band of the ’60s to a rock superpower in the ’70s.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

90. Alanis Morissette – Jagged Little Pill

The very first seconds of Morissette’s breakout record feature a blend of electric guitar and harmonica, signaling right from the beginning that a new voice in alt-rock had something to say.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

89. Green Day – Dookie

Exploring everything from panic attacks to masturbation to bisexuality, the lyrics struck a chord with fans of all ages and positioned Green Day as the modern punk band for the masses.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

88. Alice Coltrane – Journey in Satchidananda

The pieces all fit together, yet much of its greatness lies in how they refuse to congeal, with Coltrane and her collaborators embracing generosity while maintaining autonomy.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

87. Slayer – Reign in Blood

A credit to Rick Rubin’s raw production, the album sounds brutally intense to this day, unmarred by time — a sacred artifact of extreme metal in its earliest form.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

86. Pearl Jam – Ten

It had all the angst and darkness that grunge was known for – both in its lyrics and its heavy sound – but with stadium-ready expansiveness and a vocalist destined for icon status.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

85. Tupac – All Eyez on Me

Though the 27-song, 133-minute ode to the gangsta lifestyle isn’t without its warts, Pac’s burning passion elevates the album to another level.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

84. Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Much like the Beatles’ famous double album, Mellon Collie contains virtually the entire spectrum of the human experience in its 28 tracks.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

83. Pretenders – Pretenders

Expressing triumph, rage, tenderness, fear, and more, Chrissie Hynde puts you inside her head, recalling painful memories and detailing incredible narratives as if she’s made an ad hoc audiobook.

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82. Peter Gabriel – So

Depending on your state of mind going into listening to it, So will either leave you charged or worn-out. Either way, it’s a good feeling.

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81. Adele – 21

The songs immortalized in 21 are so present, so urgent and human, because Adele Adkins cracked her heart open and shared everything with us.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

80. Erykah Badu – Baduizm

Baduizm makes the case that the journey to answers to life’s biggest questions is just as important as the answers themselves.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15 @fatbellybella

79. The Police – Synchronicity

Rather than just sticking to their playbook of reggae, jazz, and punk, Synchronicity finds the group creating their own path and telling everyone else to come along if they can.

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78. Billy Joel – The Stranger

There may not be a more divisive pop icon in music, but I challenge you to listen to “Vienna” or “She’s Always a Woman” and say Joel wasn’t at the height of his powers on The Stranger.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

77. JAY-Z – The Black Album

For most of the seven years between ‘96-’03, JAY-Z was one of the genre’s dominant figures. Even on his “last” album, that competitive hunger is still palpable.

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76. The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead

Don’t we all dream of a love so all-encompassing that we’d rather be hit by a bus instead of continuing to live without them? Maybe.

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75. Janelle Monáe – Dirty Computer

Something so perfectly realized, so revealing in its depth, so wholly enjoyable has to be one of the best albums of all time. Otherwise, what are we doing here?

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74. Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited

The language, both musically and lyrically, of Highway 61 Revisited is poetic, sarcastic, and ironic — tongues that have always spoken to some essential part in the human makeup.

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73. Parliament – The Mothership Connection

It knits together concept and sound into a 38-minute throwdown that became a definitive statement for the genre and a template that was subsequently sourced by jazz, hip-hop, and EDM artists.

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72. My Bloody Valentine – Loveless

My Bloody Valentine’s magnum opus seamlessly blends their mysteriously abrasive instrumentals with some of the most gorgeous, unforgettable melodies of indie rock’s history.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

71. U2 – The Joshua Tree

It's been canonized over and over as U2's love letter to America and blah, blah, blah; but the true essence of its power lies in a supernova of love — the whole spectrum from agape to eros.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

70. Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation

When Sonic Youth's sound became fully realized on Daydream Nation, their lofty goals yielded lofty results.

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69. Beastie Boys – Paul’s Boutique

It’s one of the first hip-hop albums where “lush” is not only an apt description, but probably the best one. It’s one of the best examples in any genre of reinvention and a high bar for sophomore albums.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

68. Frank Ocean – Channel Orange

At the center of Channel Orange is Frank Ocean’s incredibly poignant songwriting that can capture a complete narrative of emotions in the smallest refrains.

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67. Radiohead – In Rainbows

It’s true that virtually no other artist could have profitably self-released a record in 2007, but no other artist could have made In Rainbows.

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66. Madonna – Like a Prayer

Madonna opened up her journals and her heart for a surprisingly confessional and, of course, provocative set of songs that called for a reevaluation of her merit on artistic terms.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

65. Leonard Cohen – Songs of Leonard Cohen

Infinitely imitated and infinitely respected, Songs of Leonard Cohen sounds like an apocalypse when we listen to it today.

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64. The Cure – Disintegration

If only we could all churn out a masterpiece like Disintegration whenever we’re faced with the horrors of mortality.

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63. Tom Waits – Rain Dogs

There are many essential records in Tom Waits’ long and storied career, but Rain Dogs is the most essential of them all.

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62. Madvillain – Madvillainy

Few projects carry such an intensely defined vision, let alone capitalize on it so well. Maybe that’s why there was never a proper sequel; something in the universe knew to leave what’s perfect as perfect.

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61. The Rolling Stones – Exile on Main St.

These legendary sessions defined the adage “sex, drugs, and rock and roll” before it became cliché.

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60. Amy Winehouse – Back to Black

Winehouse’s particular brilliance makes Back to Black one for the ages. Her contralto vocals are effortlessly expressive, sophisticated in their rhythms and the nuances they find in the dangerous joys.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

59. Nas – Illmatic

Illmatic is a 40-minute journey through Queensbridge filled with nihilism and hope, told by someone with the skill of a wartime journalist.

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58. Nina Simone – I Put a Spell on You

On I Put a Spell on You, Simone never loses sight of her mission to dismantle Jim Crow America and simply shifts tactics to demonstrate pure, undeniable Black Excellence.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

57. The Band – Music from Big Pink

Behind the tumble and prophecy of Big Pink’s elaborate orchestration was a heart so wonderfully simple in times that were not.

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56. David Bowie – Hunky Dory

Hunky Dory is not a concept album, but the concepts within would eventually solidify and manifest in the character of Bowie’s spaceman and perhaps even in his personal philosophies.

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55. Sly and the Family Stone – There’s a Riot Going On

The best album of Sly and his band’s career came in on a cloudy, groovy haze of sex, drugs, and, yeah, rock and roll, and few albums are as honest and heartbreaking and funky as this.

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54. Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures

What makes this all so compelling is that this album is less a collection of music and more of a snapshot of thoughts and feelings. Everyone tears at their own soul here.

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53. Dr. Dre – 2001

In a sense, 2001 has outlived even its own legacy, not only surviving but becoming an integral part of the rapid-fire Internet gauntlet.

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52. The Strokes – Is This It

In just under an hour, Is This It managed to make New York City music cool again and saved rock and roll at one of the most crucial points since the advent of disco.

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51. Johnny Cash – Live at Folsom Prison

Cash's human touch, coupled with the way he openly carried his own troubles and shortcomings on his sleeve, creates a camaraderie that the listener can’t help but notice.

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50. Iggy & The Stooges – Raw Power

Without Raw Power, there is no Clash, no Ramones, no Sex Pistols.

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49. Guns N’ Roses – Appetite for Destruction

Whether it’s at a sports arena; at some teenager’s house party in Oshkosh, Wisconsin; or at a hipster dive bar in Brooklyn… people still can’t get enough of this album.

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48. A Tribe Called Quest – The Low End Theory

There are no contradictions, no leaps in logic, and, best of all, it’s not preachy or boring.

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47. Van Morrison – Astral Weeks

Morrison may have been high-strung at the time, but you would never know it listening to such a dazzling and relaxed album.

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46. Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral

The Downward Spiral spearheaded a wave of industrial pop, nu-metal, mid-’90s alternative, and the like, all alongside a leviathan called grunge rock.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

45. Lady Gaga – The Fame Monster

Beyond the headline-making moments, though, is a great album that has persisted in relevance in the years since, and an album that laid a certain groundwork for many women in pop to follow.

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44. Miles Davis – Kind of Blue

What’s magical about revisiting Kind of Blue today is that it still hums with life, each moment playing as organic and vibrant as the day it was recorded over 60 years ago.

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43. Bob Dylan – Blood on the Tracks

It’s the album modern listeners reach for most readily, because it doesn’t sound like a souvenir from a failed counterculture or obscure outsider Americana — but it does sound like Dylan.

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42. AC/DC – Back in Black

A testament to Back in Black’s lasting legacy, this record's songs remain ubiquitous across algorithm playlists, dive bar jukeboxes, and FM rock stations.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

41. JAY-Z – Reasonable Doubt

If the plan actually was to put out the record and walk away on top, it was a resounding success. Nearly two decades later, JAY-Z himself ranked it as his best album.

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40. Pixies – Doolittle

Doolittle moves almost imperceptibly. It jigs, jumps, and jives… and by now, everyone knows why.

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39. Taylor Swift – 1989

While her discography to date at that time had pulled plenty of pop touches into her modern country sound, 1989 officially left the cowboy boots behind and began a glittery new adventure.

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38. Paul Simon – Graceland

Influenced by the many different musical styles of South Africa, such as isicathamiya and mbaqanga, Simon took these local sounds and successfully matched them to his trademark songwriting.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

37. Outkast – Stankonia

It’s overtly political without becoming preachy, and feels simultaneously grounded in Atlanta and untethered to our solar system. In other words, it’s a Southern hip-hop record with interstellar ambition.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

36. Fiona Apple – The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do

If you’ve ever found yourself wanting to feel everything, too, then here's an efficient catalyst.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

35. Neil Young – After the Goldrush

While Young has had a long and storied career filled with multiple near-perfect albums, this one stands above the rest as his absolute masterpiece.

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34. Wu-Tang Clan – Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Wu-Tang created an empire, and this was the first and most essential brick within it.

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33. Rage Against the Machine – Rage Against the Machine

As our society continues to lament the same exact topics the band stood for dismantling, there’s still no other album that is as successful at validating our own rage.

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32. The Beatles – The Beatles

You can’t lose a single moment without making the rest collapse. The confounding moments, the ones that only work in context, lift the album from pop to art.

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31. Metallica – Master of Puppets

Balancing aggression with thoughtfulness, Master of Puppets stands as a landmark achievement that would elevate thrash — and heavy metal as a whole — to a higher artistic plane.

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30. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Behind, within, and around that mostly-red, often-pixelated album cover is a sonic universe that is astonishing in its coherence despite its textural and tonal volatility.

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29. Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon

Dark Side documents the fragility of the human mind in the modern world — tormented by societal contrivances and the futility of running against time.

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28. Missy Elliott – Supa Dupa Fly

Missy not only created a template that most of today’s rappers follow, but she allowed an entire genre to see the light during its darkest hour.

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27. Michael Jackson – Thriller

There’s an uncomplicated reason Michael Jackson remains a pop icon to many: The music is simply unassailable.

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26. The Ramones – Ramones

The Ramones were the first true punk band, and their 1976 self-titled debut was the first true punk album.

Very few albums are credited with starting a musical revolution, but this is definitely one of them.

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25. Public Enemy – It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

Music, as we know it, has its origins at least partially rooted in a revolutionary soil. And Public Enemy’s sophomore LP is one of music’s all-time political game changers.

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24. Black Sabbath – Paranoid

Subduing the blues influences that were prevalent on their debut, the band turned its focus toward atmosphere and riffs — the sound of heavy metal to come.

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23. The Rolling Stones – Let It Bleed

Let it Bleed is The Rolling Stones in peak form, laying substantial groundwork as the World’s Greatest Rock Band — regardless of whoever actually made that claim.

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22. Stevie Wonder – Songs in the Key of Life

What’s so great about @StevieWonder’s 18th studio album? How about… everything.

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21. Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin IV

The poetic, often Tolkien-influenced lyrics combined with a musical orgy of metal, progressive rock, and even country was a winning formula to stand the test of time.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

20. Kate Bush – Hounds of Love

From the opening, haunting chord of “Running Up That Hill” to the last hopeful string pluck of “Morning Fog,” Hounds of Love is a musical tapestry and a visionary album.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

19. Talking Heads – Remain in Light

The facts: It holds one of the greatest songs of all time (“Once in a Lifetime”), it expanded the band’s sound dramatically, and it saved them in the end.

cos.lv/aBfp50KGPQT #Consequence15

18. Beyoncé – Lemonade

The surprise-released album is at once deeply personal and sweepingly political, told explicitly through the perspective of a Black woman, the most disrespected, most unprotected, most neglected person in America.

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17. Patti Smith – Horses

The album celebrates life even as it condemns it, marveling at society’s hypocrisies. “Because the Night” made Smith famous, but Horses made her a legend.

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16. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band – Born to Run

It tells stories that painted everyday people with broad strokes and high stakes, giving the record a sense of epic narrative that had never been heard in American rock and roll.

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15. David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust

The album, with all its funk, glam, rock, pop, and soul, was unlike anything anyone had heard at that point, and it has never been replicated since.

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14. The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

The world’s most popular band took on aliases, recorded their eighth studio album, and the rest is pop history.

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13. The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico

The Velvet Underground are the archetypes of alternative rock, their debut so groundbreaking that during their existence it only sold a few hundred copies.

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12. Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde

Per Dylan, Blonde on Blonde was the closest he ever came to achieving the sounds he heard in his head. And then he was gone.

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11. Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

With a perfect blend of hip-hop, R&B, gospel, and soul, Hill brings this album to life, working from a vocal range that (arguably) still goes unmatched today.

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10. Nirvana – Nevermind

With Nevermind, Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, and Dave Grohl offered a complete reset to the idea of a rock band in the 20th century.

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09. Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On

Your tour guide on this journey is one of the greatest vocal instruments ever to grace this good Earth.

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08. Radiohead – OK Computer

OK Computer was Radiohead’s first moment of true transcendence, a foundational, defining step for a band now heralded as one of the most influential acts from both the 1990s and 2000s.

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07. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly

The greatness of To Pimp a Butterfly comes down to a single statement: The Pulitzer Prize committee was one album too late when it awarded the Music prize to DAMN.

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06. The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds

Anywhere you hear art rock, chamber pop, psychedelia, or concept albums, you hear Pet Sounds. Imagine what it was like hearing it before any of those things had names?

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05. Joni Mitchell – Blue

Blue tends to argue that life is inherently lonely, but armed with little more than just her pristine voice, an acoustic guitar, and a piano, Mitchell assures us that we’re never the only lonely ones.

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04. The Clash – London Calling

There’s no arguing that The Clash were one of the most important bands of all time, with London Calling being their magnum opus.

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03. The Beatles – Abbey Road

The album, recorded in the iconic West London studio that it takes its name from, was met with mixed reception upon release. But as time passed, it became lauded as the band’s best effort.

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02. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours

Laden with all the angst of a band in upheaval, Rumours is proof that harmony can be born in chaos.

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01. Prince & The Revolution – Purple Rain

What makes Purple Rain so gobsmackingly great is that every wailing guitar and taboo-shattering lyric sounds just as daring today as it did in 1984.

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.@AlexYoung launched Consequence a decade-and-a-half ago with the goal of bridging the worlds of the underground and the mainstream.

Our publisher reflects on lessons learned along the way — and shares a vision for the future of the brand: cos.lv/AMTb50KHZ9B #Consequence15