#471: Surrealistic Pillow [Jefferson Airplane, 1967]

What makes an album fall 325 ranks on the Rolling Stone Greatest Albums of All Time list between 2003-2020? Because Surrealistic Pillow is a great album. It has sing-along pop hits like Somebody to Love, rock radio classics like Today and deep cut instrumentals like Embryonic Journey. For one, the voting body of the Rolling Stones list changed from a small group of insular rock critics to a large, diverse group of musicians and critics, so the lists cannot be directly compared. And the reality is that hundreds of great albums have been released in the past 56 years, and Jefferson Airplane couldn't keep up when the Rolling Stone voters became less monolithic. Everyone loves the two great Grace Slick-sung singles, even though White Rabbit has become a tired drug cliche, but if I had discovered the singing and writing ability of the Slick family myself, I would've used them on more than only a couple of songs. Beyond that, the album is good-not-great, so perhaps its current placing is justified. 3.5/5.