Women Who Rock: The 50 Greatest Albums of All Time
50. Alanis Morissette: Jagged Little Pill
Quote:
The jagged little Canadian with the jagged little voice manages to make sensuality and rage act like kissing cousins. So give her a hug. She's not angry at you. And her record is hook-y as hell.
Essential moment: From "You Oughta Know": "Will she go down on you in a theater?"
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49. The Breeders: Last Splash
48. Bonnie Raitt: Give It Up
47. Lucinda Williams: Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
46. Salt N Peppa: Hot, Cool and Vicious
45. Taylor Swift: Speak Now
Quote:
She might get played on the country station, but she's one of the few genuine rock stars we've got these days, with a flawless ear for what makes a song click.
Essential moment: "Long Live," the best Bon Jovi song Bon Jovi never wrote.
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44. Siouxsie and the Banshees: Once Upon A Time
43. Lauryn Hill: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Quote:
The former Fugee puts her heart, mind and soul into telling you everything she knows about love and life, and unites hip-hop, R&B and reggae under a single groove.
Essential moment: "Doo Wop (That Thing)," where her warmth and strength are not a combo but one quality.
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42. Linda Ronstadt: Heart Like a Wheel
41. Cyndi Lauper: She's So Unusual
40. Yoko Ono: Walking on Thin Ice
39. Fiona Apple: Extraordinary Machine
Quote:
This complex song cycle wasn't easy to make – it took three years of sweat and turmoil. But since when would Fiona Apple do anything the easy way?
Essential moment: "O Sailor," a showcase for her mournfully sultry vocals.
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38. Bjork: Post
Quote:
Bjork's artistic stature grew by yards in the course of this strange, affecting work, by turns harshly industrial, meditative and neon jubilant.
Essential moment: The soul-feeding beat on "Headphones."
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37. Beyonce: 4
Quote:
Ever since she broke out of Destiny's Child, Beyonce has been the world's favorite pop princess, whether she's in a feisty mood or making nice.
Essential moment: "Countdown," which swerves from abstract beats to killing-me-softly soul.
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36. X-Ray Spex: Germ Free Adolescents
35. The Ronnettes: The Best of the Ronnettes
34. Go-Go's: Beauty and the Beat
33. Irma Thomas: Soul Queen of New Orleans
32. Dolly Parton: Best of Dolly Parton
31. PJ Harvey: Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea
30. Alicia Keys: As I Am
Quote:
A classically trained piano girl from Hell's Kitchen, Keys was one R&B prodigy who knew how to put a song together, and her magnificently smoky voice proved she was the real deal.
Essential moment: "No One," a lullaby that builds into the essence of modern soul.
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29. M.I.A.: Kala
Quote:
Maya Arulpragasam took hip-hop places it had never been before, from Third World battlegrounds to the Pineapple Express trailer. The Sri Lanka-born provocateur sounds festive and enraged at the same time.
Essential moment: "Paper Planes," a Clash-sampling rap chant that somehow stormed the Top 10.
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28. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It's Blitz!
27. Dionne Warwick: Presenting...
26. Janet Jackson: Rhythm Nation 1814
25. Heart: Little Queen
24. Hole: Live Through This
23. Donna Summers: Bad Girls
22. Liz Phair: Exile in Guyville
21. Carole King: Tapestry
20. Etta James: At Last
19. Joan Jett: Bad Reputation
18. Madonna: Like A Prayer
Quote:
Such a nice quiet Catholic girl, at least for the first 30 seconds. Then she starts getting out of hand. Madonna’s best album has her brightest pop along with her most cathartic confessions.
Essential moment: The title song, when she gets down on her knees to feel the power in the midnight hour.
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17. Sleater-Kinney: The Hot Rock
16. Labelle: Nightbirds
15. Patsy Cline: The Patsy Cline Collection
14. The Pretenders: The Pretenders
13. Mary J Blige: My Life
12. Janis Joplin: Pearl
11. Lady Gaga: Born This Way
Quote:
It’s already hard to remember a world where we didn’t have Gaga, although we’re pretty sure it was a lot more boring.
Essential moment: "Edge of Glory," where a born glam-rocker earns her meat-dress bloodstains.
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10. Bikini Kill: The Singles
9. The Supremes: Anthology
8. Blondie: Parallel Lines
7. Missy Elliott: Under Construction
6. Adele: 21
Quote:
The British belter had a timeless source of inspiration – as she put it, "a rubbish relationship." But she turned her fiercely wounded heart and soul-on-fire voice into the hugest pop success of our time, doing for rubbish relationships what Thriller did for zombies.
Essential moment: The window-rattler chorus of "Rolling In The Deep."
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5. Patti Smith: Horses
4. Fleetwood Mac: Rumours
3. Dusty Springfield: Dusty in Memphis
2. Joni Mitchell: Blue
Quote:
An acoustic tour de force with a swinging cast of beautiful losers, cafe romantics, sugar daddies, drunkards, liars and Rolling Stone-reading jet-setters in Spain. The one-liners cut sharp enough for a Preston Sturges film.
Essential moment: "Carey," a jaded love ditty.
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1. Aretha Franklin: I Never Loved A Man The Way I Loved You
Quote:
The greatest rock, pop or soul singer ever steps to the mike and clears her throat. Franklin was shocking in 1967, and still is: Nobody has ever sung with more intensity, more swagger, more soul.
Essential moment: "Respect," which never stops kicking your ass.
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Read more:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/li...#ixzz1yYVFKGoo
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