Every Rolling Stones album ranked from worst to best: Six decades of recordings from ‘the greatest rock’n’roll band in the world’
Loudersound has published a ranking of every Rolling Stones studio album, from their sixties rhythm'n'blues beginnings in London to 2026's newly released Foreign Tongues. The list celebrates a catalogue of 25 UK studio albums recorded over six decades, tracing how the band built their reputation as "the greatest rock'n'roll band in the world" by fusing American blues, soul, funk and country influences rather than following the more orchestral pop path taken by contemporaries such as the Beatles.
The feature highlights landmark records including Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main St. as career-defining high points, alongside later albums such as Some Girls and Black and Blue, which saw the band absorb disco, reggae and punk influences. At the bottom of the ranking sits Emotional Rescue, criticised for its belated and ill-judged embrace of disco, with the track "Dance (Pt. 1)" also singled out as a low point despite being Ronnie Wood's only songwriting credit alongside Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
- Loudersound ranks all 25 Rolling Stones studio albums, worst to best
- Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main St. rank among the best
- Emotional Rescue is named the weakest album, for its late disco pivot
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Rock critics and fans have long debated where the Rolling Stones' individual records rank, but the band's overall body of work is rarely disputed: since forming in London in 1962, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and their bandmates have released 25 UK studio albums, making them one of the longest-running acts in popular music. Unlike some of their peers, who moved towards more elaborate, orchestral pop, the Stones built their sound around American blues, soul, funk and country music, a foundation that shaped much of their later work.
Certain albums from the late 1960s and early 1970s, including Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main St., are widely regarded as the band's creative peak and are frequently cited in wider discussions of rock history. Later records saw the group experiment with other styles popular at the time, such as disco, reggae and punk, with mixed results and reception.
Music publications regularly revisit and rank a band's back catalogue like this, offering a way for both long-time fans and newer listeners to explore or reassess a lengthy discography, particularly when it is prompted by a new release, as is the case here with the band's 2026 album, Foreign Tongues.