Joni Mitchell, Drake, Alanis Morissette Among Apple Music's 100 Best Albums List
The much-talked about editorial list, compiled by the Apple Music team as well as a group of outside experts, lists four Canadian records as the best of all time.
Joni Mitchell
Four Canadian records are amongst the greatest releases of all time, according to Apple Music.
The editorial list, which the platform has been unfolding gradually, highlights the 100 Best Albums, as chosen by the Apple Music team as well as a group of songwriters, producers and industry members.
Joni Mitchell's Blue came in as the highest ranking Canadian album, at No. 16, followed by Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill at No. 31, Drake's Take Care at No. 47, and Neil Young's After The Gold Rush at No. 81.
These four records are already part of the accepted canon of all-timers: all are included in the top 100 of Rolling Stone's 500 Best Albums, most recently updated in 2023. On that list, all of the albums are somewhat lower, except for Blue, which claims the No. 3 spot. Rolling Stone also included a fifth Canadian record, Neil Young's Harvest, in its top 100.
The Apple Music list bears strong similarities to other "all-time" endeavours, but with a more contemporary bent, featuring recent releases like Travis Scott's Astroworld and Billie Eilish's When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go? that are less canonized, as well as less obvious rock choices like Arctic Monkeys' AM and Massive Attack's Blue Lines.
Lauryn Hill's 90s landmark The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill takes the No. 1 placement, a spot usually reserved for '60s and '70s like Marvin Gaye's What's Goin' On.
In other words, like any good list, it's designed to satisfy, surprise and dismay — and, perhaps most of all, to give music nerds a lot to talk about. Listeners have been reacting to the list — and its snubs — online.
Check out the full list here.
