NME‘s Top 500 Albums Of All Time
Doing a list of the best albums “of all time” is bound to be a disaster — EW tried it this past summer and not surprisingly the thing was a shitshow. But ranking the Top 500 Albums Of All Time is exactly the type of feature NME runs out there every few years, and they’ve done just that again in this week’s issue. It is, they promise, “the final, definitive, definitely last of its kind, never to be repeated” version of this list we will see from the British publication, which means we can expect them to deliver a list of the Top 1000 Albums Of All Time at some point in 2015 or so.
But enough fun-making; let’s get on to nitpicking a clearly arbitrary list primarily meant to inspire SMDH-ing and abject fury! No. 1 is a pretty solid choice IMO — The Queen Is Dead — and I guess you can’t go wrong with Revolver at 2 or Hunky Dory at 3, but after that, it’s a waking nightmare. Some notes:
- Nobody believes the Strokes made the 4th best album of all time or that Pulp’s Different Class is the 6th best.
- Miles Davis’s Kind Of Blue is probably too low at 79 but honestly it shouldn’t be on this utterly jazz-averse list in the first place (unless I’m missing anything, jazz represents exactly 1 percent of the Top 500 Albums Of All Time).
- In all the infinite alternate realities occurring at this moment, is there any besides this one that has Alt-J’s An Awesome Wave (349) and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s BRMC (350) ranked higher than the Velvet Underground’s White Light/White Heat (351)?
- When we’re throwing around terms like “All Time,” can we really say Expecting To Fly (290) — the flavorless 1996 debut from third-tier Britpop hacks the Bluetones — should be ranked 84 spots higher than Frank Sinatra’s In The Wee Small Hours (374)?
- And finally, I gotta know: What sort of office politicking was necessary to guarantee Belly’s Star a spot on the list — at 499, tastefully — between Lou Reed’s Berlin and OutKast’s Stankonia, no less?
We’ve got 20 – 1 for you to scope out below and you can see the full list right here. Then, I think we should talk about all this in the comments. Don’t you?
20. Radiohead – OK Computer
19. Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
18. My Bloody Valentine – Loveless
17. Public Enemy – It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
16. Joy Division – Closer
15. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
14. David Bowie – Low
13. Arcade Fire – Funeral
12. Patti Smith – Horses
11. Nirvana – Nevermind
10. Oasis – Definitely Maybe
09. The Beatles – The Beatles
08. Pixies – Doolittle
07. The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses
06. Pulp – Different Class
05. The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico
04. The Strokes – Is This It
03. David Bowie – Hunky Dory
02. The Beatles – Revolver
01. The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead
Well, CEREMONY’s Zoo isn’t on here, so I don’t even know why we’re even bothering to talk about this single-plied sheet of bottom wiper…
That’s not even the best Ceremony album
It’s not, but I was also being sarcastic.
C’mon. “Star” is great.
Ha. Just saw this comment. I said the same thing below. A great record!
Michael probably has no idea who Tanya Donelly is.
Both Star and King deserve a place on any Best Albums list.
Did the Belly fan club link to this page? I didn’t take issue with Throwing Muses’ Real Ramona at 479 or the Breeders’ Pod at 463. I have nothing but respect for Tanya Donnelly! But those Belly records are not all-time greats!
(IMO of course!)
2013 albums that made the cut:
497. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
478. The National – Trouble Will Find Me
449. Arctic Monkeys – AM
335. Queens Of The Stone Age – …Like Clockwork
Does this mean QOTSA is NME’s #1 album of the year?
You forgot the Arctic Monkeys’ latest album… which is worse than any of those albums IMO
Ah… good eye. Fixed.
They should have waited for Arcade Fire’s Reflektor. WTF. This list is nonsense anyway.
Trouble Will Find Me? The 3rd best The National album? Some of the shitty inclusions I can understand but this just seems random.
I’m completely fine with that. …Like Clockwork deserves AOTY.
Let England Shake over To Bring You My Love? Stories From The City? Fucking RID OF ME?
RID.
OF.
ME!?!!?!?!?!
GET RID OF THIS GARBAGE LIST.
Why yes…
“Nobody believes… Pulp’s Different Class is the 6th best.” Maybe it’s a British thing, but Different Class is pretty much worshiped as a flawless masterpiece by a lot of people I know (including my best friend, my mum, my old music teacher, and my old boss)
Ok, I lol’ed at 402 – Mystery Jets, ‘Twenty One’
How many of them are bland yet think they’re sexy and caustically brilliant?
Dude, what part of ‘my mum’ makes you think i want to talk about the extent to which those people think they’re sexy?
To be clear: I worship Different Class as a flawless masterpiece. But it’s not the 6th best album of all time; not even sure it’s the best of the peak-Britpop era.
“Is This It” is also my favourite album of all time, but maybe that’s a generational thing.
Yeezus isn’t number one. This list is invalid.
I hate these things. I hate that someone feels the need to do it, and that other publications have to report on it like it’s news, and most of all I hate myself for actually clicking through and reading it, even though I know it’s going to ruin my day. The staff that made this list must be in great shape though, from all those hoops they jumped through to make sure people who haven’t listened to anything older than 15 years will be moderately pleased.
Can someone please explain to me why British people like Arctic Monkeys so much? It forever baffles me
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Honestly, because their excellent lyrics and social commentary are better understood.
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?!
I stopped looking at #495 when I saw The Killers “Hot Fuss” rated higher than Stankonia.
Stick to what you’re good at NME…calling almost anything not from your country “rubbish”.
The only utility this list serves is to give me the chance to jot down a few of the ones I haven’t heard yet.
Waaaaaait. So no Bob Dylan in the top 20?
And, very suprising for an English magazine, no Rolling Stones.
Both are inexcusable.
Pink Floyd also, no Pink Floyd really?
I’ve gotta say that, while these lists are almost per se meaningless, I always appreciate the fact that groups put them out there. I was a teenager when Rolling Stone put out their first version of their 500 greatest albums of all time, and it made me excited to find all the random stuff on there that I’d not heard. As a result, I discovered the joy of Richard and Linda Thompson, dove head first into 50s rockabilly, gained my first appreciation for jazz and realized that Rolling Stone was very conservative in their musical choices. Of course this stuff isn’t consensus and represents a bunch of pale nerds cloistered in their flats listening obsessively to brit pop, but if it inspires some goofy kid to go listen to Frank Sinatra and Dexy’s Midnight Runners, good on them.
Same story for me. I bought that at Barnes and Noble when I was 11 and within weeks my music listening habits were revolutionized by the additions of Pet Sounds, Blonde on Blonde, and Transformer to my music collection.
Albums I bought in the month after that issue came out:
Exile on Main St.
Blonde on Blonde
Pet Sounds
Astral Weeks
Kind of Blue
The Basement Tapes
Considering that each of those probably have a space in my personal top 25 (the first 3 are probably in my top 5), I have a warm place in my heart for that issue.
Also – there is a clear difference between 1. Personal favourites (for me that would be Ryan Adams “Love is Hell” Beatles “Abbey Road” and Joni Mitchell “Blue”) and 2. Albums of cultural significance.
There are a whole bunch of famous paints considered “the great masterworks” but I’m sure most people’s famous paintings are not things like “Sunflowers” or “Mona Lisa”.
Likewise, although “Revolver” “Nevermind” etc. are clearly awesome, and culturally significant – that doesn’t mean to say they are the “Greatest Albums of all Time”. Perhaps some of the most SIGNIFICANT. But greatness is a personal thing.
I mean, I’m partial to Mansun “Six” anyday…but you won’t see that on any list.
Do you honestly believe “Revolver” isn’t one of the greatest albums of all time? That album is more perfect than any album I’ve ever heard… And I’m a Stones fan!
Sgt. Pepper I feel is the most “culturally significant” Beatles album because of what it did for the landscape of the concept album.
I can acknowledge “Sgt. Pepper”‘s profound influence while still not having it even close to touching my top 5 Beatles albums.
Interestingly, I’m not sure I think Revolver is a top 2 Beatles album (much less the #2 album of all time). Yes, it is great, but there are some odds and ends on there that knock it down a rung. Personally, I thought Magical Mystery Tour was the best work the Beatles ever made and I’d probably follow that up with Abbey Road. Ah, I suppose this is what makes these lists fun, the debate is fantastic.
With all due respect, I don’t know how one can call “Magical Mystery Tour” their best, when its a collection of singles and not technically an official album. Still fantastic, but not really fair to be in the discussion.
Abbey Road though… I can 100% get behind being the best. I just feel “Revolver” is the best because I feel all 4 Beatles are peaking musically/ talent wise at the exact same time.
uuugh. Magical Mystery Tour was a release in it’s own right – not a collection of singles. It was a double EP soundtrack to the film of the same name. Although it has subsequently been released augmented with a load of singles packaged in.
I’m a big fan of Magical Mystery Tour but it’s still Revolver for me too.
Also, I think Please Please me was the most “culturally relevant” album they ever made since it changed the game in the mainstream. That album completely moved the cultural needle. It wasn’t ground-breaking, but it caused a cultural explosion.
Pulp’s Different Class could very well be the 6th best album IMO. One of my favorite Brit pop albums at least. Anyway, I found this article’s take on it very interesting
http://thequietus.com/articles/13683-nme-greatest-albums-list-johnny-sharp-cigarettes
“The Dark Side of the Moon” isn’t on the top 3 albums. Or the top 5. Or 10. Or 20.
This list is wrong and clearly has been made by a deaf (or deft) person.
Also… “Revolver” better than “Abbey Road”?? Don’t think so.
I think you could make a valid argument for every single Beatles record, so that never bothers me.
Joshua Tree at 424! bloody hell! and no Achtung Baby!
I guess they couldn’t stick to the Cool list.
Did I see The Bluetones in there?
THE BLUETONES??
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!
Do they still expect us to take them seriously? NME, c’mon.
Gotta be fair in one thing. I used to discover lots and lots of stuff in the NME thanks to certain writers. I owe them GYBE, Boards Of Canada, Stereolab, Labradford, Super Furry Animals and a host of others. But at the same time, if I was to follow it slavishly, I would think all prog was crap, along with Einsturzende Neubauten, The Young Gods, The Cramps, Pram, all metal heavier than Motorhead, etc.
And besides, I still think The Libertines were a bad joke.
Yikes, sorry Blur.
Any “Best of” list is bound to rile up some strong feelings from music listeners. And while this list is far from perfect, Doolittle’s inclusion in the top 10 makes any negatives I feel towards this list (The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys being too high (I’d also say Funeral is a little too high)) a little weaker.
I’d have to put Dark Side of the Moon, Led Zeppelin I (or IV), and Abbey Road in the top 5. Lonesome Crowded West would have to be there, too.
The Strokes over VU??? I have nothing agaisnt the Strokes, but would they really be making music if the Velvet hadn’t been around.
That doesn’t mean the music isn’t allowed to be better just because VU was an influence. Television isn’t ranked above the Strokes either.
But anyway, it’s a list. Lists are silly.
I know we all love to shit on these lists, but I’m very cool with “Hunky Dory” being #3
But who am I kidding? ARCTIC MONKEYS OVER OK COMPUTER?!?!
Yeah I was so down with Hunky Dory in the top 5. I definitely respect lists willing to break away from the “all Beatles and Bob” top 10s.
“There’s clearly no music based news to report anymore…let’s run that 500 best albums issue”
Sincerely I don’t get the point about Belly’s Star. It is a brilliant record. I mean, why not. I would take out an awful lot of records from the list but not this one. I might have missed the irony perhaps.
If you’re talking about cultural significance, you need to look at the albums which have spawned entirely new kinds of music in their wake:
The Beatles- Sgt. Pepper’s
Black Sabbath- self-titled
The Velvet Underground- & Nico
Run DMC- Raising Hell
Kraftwerk- Trans-Europe Express
Bob Dylan- The Freewheelin’
The Queen is Dead is a great album but it didn’t lay the foundation for punk or metal or hip-hop.
or anything much. it’s never the greatest album of all time.
Agreed. Love the Smiths, buts its an awful choice for #1.
think “The Queen is Dead” gets overrated on albums lists because it seems wrong to snub such a great band and I guess that’s their masterpiece if you’re inclined to agree that any Smiths album is a masterpiece. It is the best album by one of the best bands, but that doesn’t mean its one of the best albums ever. IMO Smiths singles > Smiths albums.
Am I the only one who’s blown away that no Radiohead albums are in the top 10, and that OK Computer just made the top 10. I mean, I wouldn’t agree with them being any higher, BUT THIS IS NME WE’RE TALKING ABOUT! Are they really claiming that Radiohead has never made a better album than Definitely Maybe or Is This It?
Nice to see Public Enemy at 17, but this top 20 is a perfect example of what they were so pissed off about in the first place. Prince barely cracks the top 100? And I guess Sly Stone is just a figment of my imagination? He could easily have 2 or 3 albums on a list of 500, instead of…zilch. What?!?
To be fair, I pretty sure that no-one who ever has, or ever will, exist takes NME seriously.
I sure hope Kylie made it.
HOW IS REVOLVER HIGHER THAN RUBBER SOUL?! WTF
Although I’m pleased MGMT, Frank Ocean and Grimes made it on there.
It’s higher because they thought it was the better album, and in a are case of the NME getting something right, it just so happens that almost everyone who has ever made a list of greatest albums or greatest Beatles albums concurs that Revolver is better.
Rubber Soul is my favourite Beatles album too, but Revolver is always gonna be higher on a ‘greatest of all time’ list. Even the NME’s.
The thing I hate most about these stupid rock magazine lists is how they always include a few totally misplaced albums from genres they don’t actually know shit about. When I read a list from Decibel, I feel good about it because it’s obvious they’re only writing about the music that they actually give a fuck about.
These NME/Rolling Stone/whatever lists always place some bullshit token Rap/R&B/Electronic/Metal/Jazz albums in some lower place so they seem broad-minded but always at a lower position than their bullshit rock gods. Any Magazine that can count to 500 albums without getting to Soul Food, or Ridin’ Dirty, or any Scarface album has no right to talk about Rap at all. Any Magazine that counts to 400 without getting to Otis Blue should probably leave R&B alone.
The Rolling Stone list does at least a decent job of integrating genres well in the top 20-50 — there’s a wider diversity of genres even if some of the albums are the token “great” albums (What’s Going On, Kind of Blue…) but the attempt to do that here falls completely flat. Instead of kind of flat, like it normally does.
Why even bother ranking Kind of Blue here? I don’t even like it, but …. ugh.
I love lists like this. I mean, I can understand doing a top 10, or 20, or even 50. But 500? Like they sit around going “Ya know, I think the new National album is really good, but c’mon, it’s clealry not one of the top 477 albums of all time.” This is basically a “Top 50, plus 450 other records that are pretty good and in no particular order, but we’re gonna put numbers next to them anyway”.
That said, Ocean Rain at #277 is a disgrace.
Or rather #276.
Can we talk about the idea that any Arctic Monkeys album is better than EVERY Radiohead album?
Horrendous list. Far, far, far worse than Rolling Stone’s… and that’s saying a lot.
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No, it isn’t.
I firmly believe that Kid A will be remembered as the greatest works of art of the 21st century in that it not only lashed out against what people expected of Radiohead as a band, but furthermore transposed that insecurity onto an even more universal sense of millennial ennui, and was at once personal yet vehemently political, even presaging the most pressing concerns of modern times: government surveillance, global warming, the disassociation of the individual, etc.
Their debut is solid, but see above. I’m also a diehard Radiohead fan as you might guess.
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Actually, you’re right. I generally do consider Kid A the best record of the last 20 years. But I recently saw the Arctics live so that colored my view from the afternoon.
The Arctic Monkeys are so overrated in general that sometimes I wonder if they are paying music writers to praise them.
Kind of how I feel about Radiohead. I just don’t understand how they can be so damned good for some people and then completely unlistenable to me.
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Let me put it this way. I can’t even believe that anyone outside of England knows who they are. They are really average. You say so many asinine things on here without even realizing it, and your taste is so off-kilter that it would be pointless to engage in any kind of musical discussion with you, and no, not just because of your love of the Arctic Monkeys. There are a lot of people here who generally do not take your musical opinions seriously. To Jimmy James, I’ll just say: You don’t belong here.
I’ve never heard of that band.
just listened to Reflektor. ok, there’s one band.
These lists are always made to stir up sh*t. Overall there are the usual suspects and certain picks that only bandwagon music lovers pick. But I have to also chime in and say “Star” is a great underrated album that really holds up especially in comparison to say “Stankonia”, which was great for the time but sounds very dated now. And yes “Let England Shake” is very far from being PJ’s best album.
Honestly, the Stankonia choice pisses me off because they picked the two OutKast albums that are closest to being shitty (that one and Speakerboxx/Love Below) over ATLiens or Aquemini.
The obsession that some rock critics have with Love Below is the worst. I mean they called Andre adventurous for making an album of sub-par Prince imitations instead of making the actually innovative rap music he did earlier, and now he’s off trying to be an actor or shaving his face for commercials.
Whoa whoa whoa. Stankonia is not anywhere close to being shitty.
But you’re right, ATLiens and Aquemini are better. But did you really expect fuckin’ NME to put albums like that in their top 500? Gotta save space for classic albums like Glasvegas.
nowhere close to shitty, but ever so slightly closer than the first three (and I’m not counting Idlewild in that all, mainly cause I watched the movie once and then decided not to bother with the soundtrack at all)
I must say I am astonished at the defense of Star. I’m not gonna bash the album, but to say it’s better than all but five jazz albums in history is dubious. (Not even gonna get into NME’s treatment of metal.) But let’s limit the conversation to albums that are at least in genres and eras similar to Belly: Star is not better than Liz Phair’s Exile In Guyville, not better than everything by Red House Painters/Sun Kil Moon, not better than everything by Slowdive. It’s not better than Ride’s Nowhere. Not better than Yo La Tengo’s Painful, Smashing Pumpkins’ Gish, Guided By Voices’ Bee Thousand. It’s not better than EVERY SINGLE REPLACEMENTS RECORD. I don’t hate Belly or anything but it’s pleasant pop at best and it’s hilarious to see their name right there lodged between two of the most critically lauded records in history.
I know you said you didn’t want to get into it, but as someone who doesn’t really listen to metal, I’m curious what metal albums you would have put in this list?
Havn’t looked at the list yet but if Siamse Dream isn’t in the top 50, there will be blood :P
I think they meant the best 500 albums by white people.
They would be wrong anyways.
Did anyone really expect anything measured, reasonable, or sane from NME?
Their entire reputation is hailing flash in the pan Britpop bands, then chewing up and spitting them out!
Honest question: what is the best “best albums of all time” list? Can such a thing actually exist?
I don’t think the RS list is all that bad, but it could have used a lot more albums from the past 20 years.
And if you are gonna include jazz in a list, make an honest effort. Maybe replace Kind of Blue with Mingus Ah Um or some crazy Pharaoh Sanders album once in a while.
A list like this, from a weekly publication with NME’s reputation, I expect a mixture of historical albums (Beatles et al), brit “indie” classics that their readership worships (Smiths, Stone Roses, Blur), token choices in genres like hiphop and jazz, albums they went gaga over from bands still going (Strokes, BRMC, Killers), and hyped albums from recent years (Alt-J). I do NOT expect The Bluetones. Noone remembers them. It’s as if a Stereogum Top 500 included Deep Blue Something.
Kind of Blue doesn’t need to be replaced. It’s a great album. These lists do need to either consult with people that actually know about genres like Jazz, The Blues, Fun, etc, or just not include them. Including a few token choices just creates the impression that they’re genres that are important, yet barely relevant.
At least Rolling Stone made a conscious effort to look at music as a whole. This list has a lot of good stuff, but to me it all feels written by and for a certain audience.
You’re right, this list is missing Fun.’s albums. I’d put them at 376 and 484, respectively.
Actually, fun possible Stereogum project…crowdsource a Stereogum top 500 albums of all time list. I wonder what we’d come up with…
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For someone who is on this site a lot, you seem to know remarkably little about its readers.
it would be more or less like the NME top 20 list, but instead of pulp, oasis, and arctic monkeys – we’d have animal collective, neutral milk hotel, and kanye west.
No Hüsker Dü or Dinosaur Jr. and only one Fugazi album?
If one kid can discover Spiderland, then this list is all worth it.
There’s a lot of great stuff here (how could there not be when you’ve got 500 shots at it?), but the obligatory inclusion of the usual NME indie-crap (I can accept Arctic Monkeys and Metronomy, even if they’re way too highly placed but The Cribs, Klaxons, Mystery Jets, Glasvegas? Urrrgh!) and the seemingly random order (Crooked Rain nearly 200 places below Brighten The Corners and Homogenic in the bottom 100 are the least of this list’s problems) render it completely worthless.
I’ve worked my way through 500-201 on their website, and reading on here that there’s no Husker Du, Dinosaur Jr, GBV or Replacements records (and nothing besides 13 Songs from Fugazi, nowhere near their best release even) makes me very sad indeed. If I don’t see a Minutemen or Built To Spill record in the top 200, I may actually cry.
Just seen the rest of the list. The tissues are out :-(
Everyone else is covering most of the bases that need to be covered about the flaws with this list. But here’s my beef with a list of 500 greatest albums in general:
You seriously can’t find the space in 500 albums to fit one, just one piece of international music that isn’t Bob Marley? Do they know there are other great reggae musicians? Or dub? Or dancehall?
Not even an obligatory mention of Tinariwen’s Aman Iman? Nothing from Sublime Frequencies? No calypso? No Afrobeat? Not even Fela Kuti’s Expensive Shit or Zombie? No baile? No k-pop? No Ravi Shankar? No Indian music at all? No Japanese noise rock like Boredoms? At least with that it’s a Western construct.
No, they’ll lavish praise on albums that crib from foreign genres (Graceland being the most obvious example) while giving no credit at all to the idea that a huge world of incredible music exists outside of the constraints of Western popular music.
Also they put Drukqs on there. I’m a huge Aphex Twin but Drukqs is far and away his most uninspired release.
Amen to that. Honestly I really hate these lists because it’s always the sort of White, British or American rock-centered perspective to music, but they feel the need to call it a definitive GREATEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIME EVER, as if there’s no such thing as subjective taste and they’ve listened to all the music produced by anyone and ranked them all in order. I mean, they barely even put in music outside of the whole New York/LA axis if we’re talking about the U.S. How about Chicago House and Detroit Techno (things which blew up like crazy in Britain in their time)? or Houston rap? or The Meters? or more than one Al Green album? In the same way as you were saying, they’ll praise British House dudes who were inspired by Chicago, without acknowledging Chicago at all.
I agree with you, but different genres of music put different emphasis on “the album” as a delivery medium – and that could account for some (but certainly not all) of the imbalance. K Pop, for example, which is more single centric, might host a pretty poor representation of “great albums.” And a lot of great Afrobeat acts never recorded full LPs. When international music does become available to Western listeners, it’s often in the form of compilations (the kind that Sublime Frequencies puts out).
That this list features mostly Western popular music albums, might simply mean that the album is mainly a Western popular music concept. Although, it’s probably just a little bit of that – mixed with the sheer laziness/bias/ignorance of the NME editors.
Well put.
But think about it from an NME writers perspective: if you start including acts from places like Africa, Asia, or South America, where like 80% of the world’s population lives, how would you ever find room for albums from every sad-sack Brit-Pop warbler and wannabe-soul-diva to play Top of the Pops in the past four decades?
Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
Well I’m glad people are sticking to their guns on The Strokes’ Is This It.
lol Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black is rated six spots higher than Abbey fucking Road
This list should read 1. Big Tymer$ – I Got That Work, then 2-500. Not Big Tymer$,
Okay so I can see why you might be shocked by Belly’s inclusion but let’s be frank–it’s not like Star is listed in the top 20–where I might also add, we don’t see anything from Kate Bush, Cocteua Twins or Jesus and Mary Chain. It’s # 499 meaning it just made the cut. Perhaps you’re just annoyed that it’s sandwiched between Lou Reed and Outkast, both of whom you feel should be ranked higher up on the list? Either way, for me personally, I still hear traces of Star on many a record I experience today. That doesn’t mean Belly invented the sound but I don’t think it can be argued how unique that album’s mix of fairytale folklore, mixed with a country/rock vibe is. Also, at least it has a legacy of some sort (it’s 20 years old and has garnered a number of comments defending it’s merits). I find it odd–though I get it–that a list of the best records of all time (implying a time-tested endurance) includes records released this year (umm Daftpunk and the National) and that gets a pass. Me, I am more shocked that Let England Shake is as high as it is, whereas PJ’s far superior Rid of Me is at 450. Regardless they did survey a number of critics etc in creating the ranking they did, so who knows. Not that it matters anyway–but it nice to see some pleasant, unexpected surprises like Star and This Mortal Coil, outside of the usual suspects.
Three Kings of Leon albums are better than Bjork’s Homogenic? No. Try again, NME.
http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/28400000/ariel-the-little-mermaid-28471981-250-250.gif
They do have Debut at # 46, so it’s not like they’re really ignoring her. But Debut as her best represents a strange view of her catalog. It’s a fun album, but I usually consider Post, Homogenic, and Vespertine to be her big three, and Post isn’t even on this list.
Ranking Vespertine over Homogenic is common enough for Bjork fans, even if its not orthodox. Ranking Debut as her best isn’t just strange, its completely bizarre, and I really don’t know anyone, even other Bjork diehards, who would consider it a Top 50 contender on a list like this, It’s not an especially ambitious album, and the songwriting is good but still weaker than anything she did up until Volta/Biophilia.
Like you said, it just doesn’t show any understanding of her progression as an artist. It’s like putting “The Bends” over “OK Computer” and “Kid A” — maybe not *indefensible* as a matter of personal preference, but neglects what made the artist special to their fans and significant to the evolution of popular music as a whole. And yeah, if you’re going to argue for “pop Bjork” over “avant garde Bjork,” “Post” is the obvious choice, since the songs have more depth and also it has her biggest hits.
Dark Side of the Moon or bust!
Radiohead is not in the top ten, and Arctic Monkeys get a better place. This shit is just trolling.
I know this is an NME list so its smiths, blur, etc. worship is expected, and I hope that is why no one has said anything in this extensive list of complaints, but if even so it bothers the shit out of me that stereogum’s readership doesn’t think its ridiculously that a smith album is the best album of all time. Really? better than any Beatles album, REALLY? I know it’s cliche and unoriginal to think The Beatles is one of the best bands with many of the best albums, but Beatles aside, The Smiths album shouldn’t be near the top ten even from a Smiths worshiping publication, in an actual list it shouldn’t be near the top 100. Don’t Ge me started on Pulp being top ten. I know this like complaining about MTV’s VMA nominations, but how can any semi-serious music publication actually think this is a top ten. It might be cool to put together a different than the other million simular lists out there, but there is a very good reason noone else would think about putting The Smiths, Pulp, and Stone Roses in the Top ten albums of all time.
Fuck this shit
http://replygif.net/i/257.gif
Multiple people have expressed this exact complaint already.
I don’t believe you…they most have posted after me and changed their time stamps…I was the first one to ever like The Beatles
http://31.media.tumblr.com/9eae39b843ec833dabf8929ae6097f0f/tumblr_ms2k3m5vLU1szi9vxo1_500.gif
but seriously I thought I control+F-ed beatles but i must of used a typo or something
Well, you’re still right :P
True as far as Pulp, Smiths, and Arctic Monkeys, but I don’t care where the magazine is published or who they worship, Stone Roses belongs in the top 10 on all lists.
The Smiths should always have an album in the top 100. Not the top album but somewhere in the top 100. The Beatles always dominate these kind of lists. You should maybe just check out other similar lists and you’ll feel better.