UK music publication NME has released an excerpt of their poll of the Top 100 British Albums of All Time. The full list will appear in NME's January 28 issue. Apparently my invitation to participate in the poll got lost in the mail (some folks call it post, I call it mail). It is clearly an atrocious oversight on their part. How could they conduct a poll of British music without inviting me? I am not British but I still like to put the "u" in flavour and favourite and colour! That has to be close enough.
Somehow, I got left out of the poll. Shenanigans! I am declaring shenanigans! The UK was well represented in my Top 10 of 2005. I remembered to include the UK in my list yet the UK seems to have forgotten all the fuck about me. That rots.
So here is their Top 10:
1. The Stone Roses The Stone Roses
2. The Smiths The Queen Is Dead
3. Oasis Definitely Maybe
4. Sex Pistols Never Mind The Bollocks
5. Arctic Monkeys Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
6. Blur Modern Life Is Rubbish
7. Pulp Different Class
8. The Clash London Calling
9. The Beatles Revolver
10. The Libertines Up The Bracket
Skimming this list, I see I own a grand total of three of these albums: Oasis' Definitely Maybe, The Beatles' Revolver, and The Libertines' Up The Bracket. The Libertines album is one I added to my collection just this year. I wonder if that is why they skipped me. That would be a bullshit reason. It is not like those are the only three British albums I fucking own.
Besides, I give myself two asterisks. I own 'Best Of' compilations by Blur and The Stone Roses so I have heard cuts from The Stone Roses and Modern Life is Rubbish (which is one of my favourite album titles ever).
It is interesting to see the Arctic Monkeys in the Top 10. Their debut album is being released just this year. The Beatles and Sex Pistols are among the most important and influential artists in rock history. The Clash might not have the same degree of influence or importance as The Beatles or Sex Pistols but they are not far behind. Oasis, Blur, Pulp… these bands were cornerstones of the '90s Britpop movement. They might not be kings of the British charts today but they dominated the airwaves during their time. The Arctic Monkeys are new money. They might be great. They have not had to stand the test of time. That seems an important consideration when one is making an "All-Time" list. Will Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not hold such a prominent place five to seven years from now? There is a good chance they will. We just will not know for five or seven more years.
![Revolver [UK]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510D51P8YKL._SL120_.jpg)
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Michael J. West
Wait. Wait. You don't own The Stone Roses? Wha--heh--whe--how???
Also, Kid A is a better album than OK Computer. Or maybe it's just me...
2 - Scott Butki
Who the hell are the artic monkeys? Radiohead's OK Computer belongs in the top 10.
Interesting that Oasis ranked higher than the Beatles considering Oasis wouldn't be where or what they are without the fab four.
3 - DJRadiohead
I know... The Stone Roses is going to the top of my "Must Buy" list (especially now that I have declared I will write about it.
I love me some Kid A and put it just slightly behind OKC.
4 - DJRadiohead
Nice Oasis/Beatles blast, Scott. Although Oasis did rip off more than the Beatles (TRex, Bowie, The Jam, etc).
I agree on Radiohead.
5 - Scott Butki
Well, the nicest thing I can say about Oasis is they at least have good taste on who they rip off.
6 - Mat Brewster
I guess these lists rank the new folks to sell copy or something. It seems terribly flippant to put a brand new bank, with what 1 album to their name in the top ten. And to put Revolver at 9 is blasphemy.
totally interested in reading the rest of the series. Have to admit I own less than half of the albums on this list.
7 - DJRadiohead
I thought the list did a bit of a disservice to albums made more than 20 minutes ago, too. It's not that it has to be all Pink Floyd, Stones, and Beatles either. Definitely Maybe broke some of those records. It stands the test of time. If a list is going to be all time (rather than, say, a shorter frame of time) Arctic and some of these other guys don't seem to deserve being this highly rated.
That said... I plan to be the judge and evaluate them all. I haven't told The Wife to Whom I Am Married we have to buy seven CDs for a research project yet. Wish me luck.
8 - Mark Saleski
i own three:
Revolver
Never Mind The Bollocks
London Calling
no Oasis (yuck)
no Smiths (double plus yuck)
i'm surprised at the lack of OK Computer. gees, they used to blather on about that record like it was super-mega-ultra revolutionary.
...when in reality it was just low-rent King Crimson.
9 - DJRadiohead
I will admit to not looking forward to The Smiths, but who knows? I don't really know much of that particular album.
Oasis - OK, I get that I am the only Oasis fan in America. I can live with that. I fucking love them.
As for Radiohead being low-rent anything... Mr. Saleski, I could not beg to differ any more. I love Radiohead, especially the stretch from The Bends through Kid A. That was some inventive, innovative, interesting, quality material. I still blather on about OK Computer for it is worthy.
10 - Mark Saleski
i actually enjoy OK Computer. it's just that i read (and heard) all of this stuff about how it was just going to turn my brain to mush with its brilliance....and i honestly didn't hear anything there that hadn't already been done by Crimson.
11 - DJRadiohead
I actually think KID A was the more adventurous record. That's just me. OK Computer was, to me, a masterful exercise of art and commerce. Experimental but still rooted in rock and song-based music.
12 - Scott Butki
I own 6 of the 10.
13 - Mark Saleski
i like both Kid A and Amnesiac better. but honestly, there's a little "apples/oranges" there. those two records are very different from OK Computer.
i also like the last record. heck, i think i even reviewed it on bc.
14 - DJRadiohead
Amnesiac didn't have the legs with me that Kid A did. I like both. I just liked Kid A better. I think it's because I knew what to expect with Amnesiac. Kid A seemed so much more unexpected. I almost wish they had released that as a double album rather than splitting it into two.
15 - andy
why is ther no pink floyd albums in the top 10 i wounder and thay kick all the bands asses on the top 10 atom heart mother is a gr8 album and is so under ratide but oasis suck balls man why should ther shit be higher than the beatles god damn mother fuckers people in the music bizz dont know shit look at half the shit out today and it sucks wish i was in the 70's and fuck all you emo fucks
16 - Scott Butki
Wow. That post had the highest cussword-per-typo-runon sentence ratio I've seen since I last read graffiti in a toilet.
17 - DJRadiohead
Scott, don't let The Duke hear you say that or he'll come in here a-cussin' and a typin' like a fiend. =)
18 - Scott Butki
"whispers: 'sorry' and sneaks away."
19 - Scott Butki
(That was me being quiet as I escape stage left)
20 - DJRadiohead
Very cute, Scott. But I fear The Duke knows what we are up to anyhow so you might as well stick around for the fireworks, firearms, and fun. Heh.
21 - Spookiedookie
No Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin in the top 10?
Worst list ever.
22 - Justme!
I'm a brit I own
1. The Stone Roses The Stone Roses
3. Oasis Definitely Maybe
6. Blur Modern Life Is Rubbish
7. Pulp Different Class
8. The Clash London Calling
9. The Beatles Revolver
10. The Libertines Up The Bracket
anyway I think they put the artics in there 'cuz they sold 200 000 copies of their new album in about a day. Still they don't deserve to be there, one hit wounders if you ask me... and they still arnt very good.!
23 - hegemaniac
most of these posts are about radiohead!!! case in point. I don't give a crap about whether you like kid a or ok computer better. but they both deserve to be in the top 10.
I listen to a crapload of music and if had a choice of going to a deserted island with a solar powered music player and told to pick my top 10, radiohead would be very well represented. The meaning of classic is "timeless". ok computer ages well (so does kid a).
by the way, bollocks to you people who have not invested time in the smiths. The queen is dead is pure genius after repeated listens, full stop.
so in summary:
NME is populist shite.
24 - Justme!
Yeah the smiths music it all about real life issuses of the day. woooo i prefer his new stuff, first in the gand to die etc etc
25 - Michael J. West
The thing about this poll is that it reads like a reader's poll, not a writer's.
I would have expected readers to come up with more new stuff than old--their memory is more selectively short-term. Critics, on the other hand, we expect to be more educated (albeit more full of shite) and appreciative of a fuller spectrum.
Which begs the question, who the Hell ARE these NME writers?