"Achtung Baby" has been acclaimed by writers and music critics as one of the greatest albums of all time; according to Acclaimed Music, it is the 82nd-highest-ranked record on critics' lists. In 1997, "The Guardian" collated worldwide data from a range of renowned critics, artists, and radio DJs, who placed the record at number 71 on a list of the "100 Best Albums Ever". The record was ranked 36th in Colin Larkin's 2000 book "All Time Top 1000 Albums". In 2003, the National Association of Recording Merchandisers ranked it at number 45 on its "Definitive 200" list, while "USA Today" featured it on their list of the top 40 albums of all time. "Rolling Stone" placed the record at number 62 on its 2003 list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Subsequent updates to the list re-ranked the album; the 2012 version ranked it 63rd, calling it "a prescient mix of sleek rock and pulsing Euro grooves" while saying "the emotional turmoil made U2 sound more human than ever"; the 2020 version of the list ranked it 124th. In 2006, the album appeared on a number of all-time lists, including "Hot Press"s "100 Greatest Albums Ever" at number 21, "Time"s list of "The All-Time 100 Albums", and the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". VH1 ranked it 65th on the "100 Greatest Albums of Rock & Roll" episode of its series "The Greatest". "Entertainment Weekly"s 2013 list of the "All-Time Greatest" albums ranked the record 23rd, saying that instead of "coast forever on the cinematic storytelling they mastered on the excellently righteous "The Joshua Tree"", the group "ripped up the rule book" with "Achtung Baby". The record topped "Spin"s list of the 125 most influential albums from 1985 to 2010; writer Charles Aaron said: "Unlike Radiohead with "OK Computer" and "Kid A", U2 took their post-industrial, trad-rock disillusionment not as a symbol of overall cultural malaise, but as a challenge to buck up and transcend... Struggling to simultaneously embrace and blow up the world, they were never more inspirational."