Greatest Albums of All Time List

The Indestructible Beat of Soweto is a compilation album released in 1985 on the Earthworks label, featuring musicians from South Africa, including Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Mahlathini. The album was placed in the top 10 in the annual Pazz & Jop poll in the magazine The Village Voice. AllMusic calls it "an essential sampler of modern African styling, a revelation and a joy." Leading critic Robert Christgau gave it an A+ rating, and called it the most important record of the 1980s. It was ranked number 388 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.

20 All-Time Greatest Hits! features 20 songs from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, 16 of which had previously topped the US R&B charts. The album itself reached #99 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart when it was first released in 1991, and has been ranked #414 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

All Time Greatest Hits is a 2002 greatest hits album by country music legend Loretta Lynn. In 2003, the album was ranked number 485 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. This straightforward hits collection contains all 16 of Loretta Lynn's number one country hits according to Billboard, five of them duets with Conway Twitty, plus three number two hits and three number three hits, all released originally between 1964 and 1979.

Growing out of the American underground of the late '80s, Liz Phair fused lo-fi indie rock production techniques with the sensibility and structure of classic singer/songwriters. Exile in Guyville, her gold-selling debut album, was enthusiastically praised upon its 1993 release, and spawned a rash of imitators during the following years, particularly American female singer/songwriters. For her part, Phair wasn't able to fully break into the mainstream, even with the support of the press and MTV. Whip-Smart, her second album, was heavily promoted upon its 1994 release, yet despite its relatively strong chart positions, it was viewed as a disappointment, and Phair's momentum declined steadily during the mid-'90s, as she took several years to record her third album. Collection includes: Exile in Guyville (1993); Whip-Smart (1994); Liz Phair (2003).

Aja — Steely Dan's landmark sixth studio album reissue. Hybrid Stereo SACD release from Analogue Productions. Mastered by Bernie Grundman from an analog, non-Dolby EQ'd quarter-inch 15 ips tape copy. Plays in all CD and SACD players. If you were an audiophile in the late 1970s, you owned Aja. Rolling Stone, which ranks 1977's Aja at No. 63 on its latest 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, says "this was Walter Becker and Donald Fagen's no-holds barred stab at becoming a huge mainstream jazz-pop success. "And sure enough, thanks to sweet, slippery tracks like 'Deacon Blues,' and 'Peg,' this collegiate band with a name plucked from a William Burroughs novel and a songbook full of smart, cynical lyrics became bona fide superstars, shooting to the Top Five and selling platinum. And yes, Aja even won a Grammy for Best Engineeed Album."

Hatful of Hollow is a compilation album by English rock band the Smiths, released on 12 November 1984 by Rough Trade Records. The album features BBC Radio 1 studio recordings and two contemporary singles with their B-sides. Hatful of Hollow reached number seven on the UK Albums Chart, and stayed on the chart for 46 weeks. In 2000, Q magazine placed the album at number 44 on its list of the "100 Greatest British Albums Ever". The Smiths were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. Consisting of vocalist Morrissey, guitarist Johnny Marr, bassist Andy Rourke, and drummer Mike Joyce, critics consider the band one of the most important to emerge from the British independent music scene of the 1980s. Internal tensions led to their break up in 1987 and subsequent offers to reunite have been refused. In 2012, all four Smiths' studio albums (and a compilation) appeared on Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", while "William, It Was Really Nothing" and "How Soon Is Now?" were included in the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list.

Aja — Steely Dan's landmark sixth studio album reissue. Hybrid Stereo SACD release from Analogue Productions. Mastered by Bernie Grundman from an analog, non-Dolby EQ'd quarter-inch 15 ips tape copy. Plays in all CD and SACD players. If you were an audiophile in the late 1970s, you owned Aja. Rolling Stone, which ranks 1977's Aja at No. 63 on its latest 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, says "this was Walter Becker and Donald Fagen's no-holds barred stab at becoming a huge mainstream jazz-pop success. "And sure enough, thanks to sweet, slippery tracks like 'Deacon Blues,' and 'Peg,' this collegiate band with a name plucked from a William Burroughs novel and a songbook full of smart, cynical lyrics became bona fide superstars, shooting to the Top Five and selling platinum. And yes, Aja even won a Grammy for Best Engineeed Album."