A rare occurrence happened on Thursday: Rolling Stone gave a five star rating to U2's new album, Songs of Innocence. The fairly conservative publication (in terms of music) gives out the perfect score only sparingly, and generally only to well-established performers. The last record featuring new music recorded for the purpose of a new album that got the five-star treatment was John Fogerty's Wrote A Song For Everyone, which was released May 28, 2013. And that only had two entirely new tracks.
Rolling Stone, essentially, is afraid of giving any album full of new material a good review just in case everyone disagrees with them and they look stupid later. Eye-rolling conspiracy theorists are already pointing to the friendship between Bono and RS company boss Jann Wenner as the reason behind this rare occasion but we're not trying to point fingers. All we know is that if you look back at the last year of five-star reviews, you'll see a lot of old names. Check out the full list below.
Led Zeppelin III (Reissue) (review published 06/03/2014)
Led Zeppelin made a splash earlier this year when it rereleased all three of its original albums, including landing a few in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200. All three records are considered classics by rock 'n' roll fans but Rolling Stone demonstrated its tough standards by only giving the third chapter a perfect score, which is interesting considering that most critics hail Led Zeppelin II as the band's consummate album while III celebrates the folkier side of the band's discography. The magazine must have preferred the unreleased tracks from these sessions—such as "Jennings Farm Blues"—more than its predecessors.
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: 40th Anniversary Box Set (review published 03/25/2014)
Everyone knows that Elton John is one of Rolling Stone's favorite performers and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road has long been held up as the case exemplar when looking at his discography. It's not surprise that the critics at Stone enjoyed the extra tracks from the performer's show at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1973 but this album also features a number of covers from other performers playing tunes from Yellow Brick Road. It's a great idea but surely Rolling Stone didn't feel Ed Sheeran playing "Candle In The Wind" and Miguel's rendition of "Bennie and The Jets" merited a perfect score. Rhetorical question: Apparently they did.
White Light/White Heat: 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition (review published 12/09/2013)
Some might say that the rerelease of Velvet Underground's classic White Light/White Heat got special consideration because of the October 2013 death of key member Lou Reed but we're one to take sides with Rolling Stone here. Although The Velvet Underground & Nico often scores more raves, we're bigger fans of the band's second album, especially when it comes with a bonus disc of live performances at The Gymnasium in New York City. The extra disc featuring the album in mono is less the necessary but this anniversary collection is well deserving of the five-star review it received.
Tommy: Super Deluxe Set (review published 11/12/2013)
Another huge rerelease from another band that was huge in the Rolling Stone heyday. Tommy was the peak of The Who's conceptual attempts and such a big album had plenty of bonus features to pack into a three-disc set that comes with a Blu-Ray as well. Another live set is included, largely comprised of tracks from the band's show at Capital Theatre in Ottawa. Finding live recordings of the Tommy tour had been tough and many believed an urban legend that the band had destroyed all of its live tapes from the tour in favor of its release Live at Leeds.
Live at The Academy of Music 1971 (review published 09/23/2013)
Rolling Stone gets some credit for this one, as this live collection from The Band's glory years was actually a completely new release, not a reissue. The four-disc, one DVD set featured previously unpublished performances of classics such as "Up On Cripple Creek" and "The Weight." A total of 56 audio tracks included in the deluxe edition make this well worth the price of admission for The Band fans.
