First up: NME's Top 10 British Albums of All Time. I'll be the judge of that.
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.…
Article comments
76 - Dave Nalle
20 somethings who forget the 60s and 40 somethings who ignore the last two decades are in the same boat as far as not being .
But I listen to music from all eras, including music going back to well before I was born, and Blur, Oasis and Arctic Monkey just aren't characterized by the kind of excellence I would think they should have to qualify for the top 10. I'd be just as offended if The Smiths, The Clash and The Beatles were not in the top 10, but they are.
Dave
77 - Scott Butki
Can we get the link to the full 100 added to the top of this post so people won'thave to scroll through the comments to find it?
Thanks.
I'm going to invite some friends over to join this debate.
78 - Michael J. West
I agree, Dave, and I listen to the same variety of music.
That comment was far more directed at those who insist that the era in which they came of age is objectively superior to any era that followed.
All eras being therefore equal, I will say for the record that I like Oasis but don't think they're the greatest anything; ditto for Blur (although they edge out Oasis); and I haven't even heard Arctic Monkey yet.
Finally, I would suggest that there be at least a five-year moratorium on an album before it can be considered one of "the Greatest." You have to at least see whether its ideas have any impact before you can rank it, don't you?
79 - zingzing
dave--blur is worthy of attention. i dunno if they should make the top 10, but they have done some very interesting and excellent work.
80 - Dave Nalle
It does seem bizarre and ridiculous for an album literally just released to make the top of a greatest of all time list.
As for blur, they're ok, but not top 10 material - better than Arctic Monkey, but then what isn't?
Dave
81 - Christopher Rose
That list is laughable, superficial and stupid. I have lost all respect for the NME and its readership.
82 - Dave Nalle
Looking at their website I sort of wonder if NME has a financial relationship of some sort with Arctic Monkey. They sure are plugging them hard.
Dave
83 - Shark
West: "...That comment was far more directed at those who insist that the era in which they came of age is objectively superior to any era that followed."
I would never do that.
I hate most of the crap from the 60s and 70s.
I felt the same way then as I do now: if it's popular, it's probably from a Spawn of Satan -- and has a propensity to suck the life-force out through a listener's nose.
===
Just for the record, kids, HEREWITH:
SHARK'S TOP 10 British Albums:
1) Soft Machine vol. II
2) Soft Machine vol III
3) National Health - Of Queues and Cures
4) National Health - (self-titled)
5) Matching Mole - (self-titled)
6) Matching Mole - Little Red Record
7) Hatfield & the North - (self-titled)
8) Hatfield & the North - Rotter's Club
9) Rolling Stones - Beggar's Banquet
10) Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bullocks
Shark ~Currently listening to Mozart to celebrate the 250th birthday of that theomorphic bipedal god)
84 - gonzo marx
ummm..let's see now..
the Who
the Beatles
David Bowie
Motorhead
the Kinks
Sex Pistols
Elvis Costello and the Attractions
Led Zeppelin
Iron Maiden
the Rolling Stones
any of those folks, dead with their flesh rotting off , dropping to the ground and striking the keys of an out of tune accordian wrapped in tin foil is better than most of this so called "top ten" list
excepting of course, the two on my list that are in the post title's list
but i bet the folks that compiled this list would think an album was too big to fit into their walkman's anyway and probably shave by wetting their faces with milk and letting a kitten lick it off...
yeah..i know..i'm olde
but i am also a bass player with something of an ear as well as a sense of rock history and "vocabulary"
things which the creators of this "list" obviously have no clue about
Excelsior!
85 - Dave Nalle
OMG I just thought of yet another great album not on the list. Where the hell is Jethro Tull - either Aqualung or Minstrel in the Gallery. Insane that they're not on the list. But wait, neither is Steeleye Span, Led Zeppelin or the Dave Clark Five. Faugh!
Dave
86 - Dave Nalle
I think I figured out at least part of the mystery of this list. There are a number of groups who are fantastic and have more great songs than the groups on the NME list, but not concentrated on a single album. In fact few bands manage to concentrate more than 2 or 3 really great songs on a single disc. That said, there are still many who deserve to be on the top of this list more than the ones selected by NME.
So that means that I've put together my list. Of the ones on the NME list, only three deserve to be there - Revolver, London Calling and Never Mind the Bollocks. Instead of including them, I'm just doing my list of the 10 albums that ought to be in the top 10 but aren't - in no particular order.
Who's Next, The Who
Aqualung, Jethro Tull
Below the Salt, Steeleye Span
The Clash, The Clash
Next Year's Model, Elvis Costello
Cool for Cats, Squeeze
All Things Must Pass, George Harrison
Specials, The Specials
Boys Don't Cry, The Cure
Goodbye Yellowbrick Road, Elton John
Dave
87 - DJRadiohead
In fairness to NME: the diversity of opinion just on this thread demonstrates the preposterousness of trying to get a definitive list. I do like a number of the suggestions in here as much as anything on their list (but stop taking the piss out of Oasis).
I am still looking forward to revisiting the three (I spent most of today listening to Up the Bracket) and to spending time with the other seven.
88 - gonzo marx
Oasis?
i'd rather listen to monkey's farting in a Dr. Pepper can
nuff said?
Excelsior!
89 - [MR]Chip
Long thread, so lots to say:
1. People who don't appreciate bands like The Smiths or Pulp, are probably the kind of people who don't listen to (or value) the lyrics.
2. The 'Best of' the Stone Roses IS that first album. No compilation can beat that.
3. That guy complaining about a punk band not being able to play very well is funny. (what was punk about, again?)
4. To all those people complaining about bands being influenced by others - it's exactly because they're standing on the shoulders of giants that they can see further. Actually, I think that's a problem with influential bands. When your ideas have been taken further by others, your own efforts seem less interesting in comparison.
90 - Tim Hall
The first thing to remember is that the NME doesn't represent a broad selection of music, even though it pretends to. The great tragedy is that the NME has had far too much influence over what new music gets exposure; they have the same malign influence over UK music as corporate commercial radio has in the US.
The other thing to remember is that Britain's baby boom was a decade later than America's, and came of age during the punk era in the late 70s. Just like America's boomers they've mistaken stupid generational prejudices for eternal truths.
This explains the lack of late 60s/early 70s artists in the list; they represented everything that was completely out of fashion way back in 1977. Later generations of NME hacks seemed to absorb these prejuduces by osmosis. For example, anything connected with 70s prog-rock is dismissed with derision; which is why you'll never see Pink Floyd or Led Zepellin on any NME list.
Saying that, the list is stupid even by NME standards; the ridiculously over-hyped Arctic Monkeys only released their album a week ago!
91 - DJRadiohead
Tim, interesting input on British sensibilities and the NME.
I think the main outcry in this thread has been Arctic Monkeys or rather that seems the most egregious example of what might be wrong with this list.
92 - Tim Hall
Apart from the overhyped Arctic Monkeys, the obvious thing wrong with the list is the total absense (save for the one token Beatles album) of anything that isn't either Punk or Indie. Their list is so one-dimensional I can't understand why anybody should expect to take the NME any more seriously than something like Kerrang.
93 - hegemaniac
grrrrr, NME piss me off! I've just read the full list. No credibility, none! It's like a fucking critics/populist porridge, which tastes like shit.
They now join the Rolling Stone who sold out a long time ago. Imagine giving Britney Spears 3 1/2 stars and The Bends 3 1/2 stars!!! Irrelevance beckons...
94 - Scott Butki
Arctic Monkeys so don't belong in the top 10.
95 - Rodney Welch
Did X-Ray Spex Germ-Free Adolescents make the Top 100? Bought it today. Great record. Yesterday I bought the CD of Who's Next, which was on sale. And yes, that one is more or less unquestionable. But these Brit lists are always so weird, for the same reason Brits are weird: their tastes are soooo, what's the word, un-American.
96 - Christopher Rose
For which the entire world is grateful, Rodney...
97 - Tim Hall
But these Brit lists are always so weird, for the same reason Brits are weird: their tastes are soooo, what's the word, un-American.
Remember, this isn't a list compiled by a representative cross-section of the record-buying public. It's the work of a self-appointed clique with very narrow tastes, and should be seen as that.
Britain will never have a decent music scene until the last commercial radio DJ is strangled with the last copy of the NME.
98 - Irish Cloud
My Bloody Valentine = Irish
99 - zingzing
oh my. irish cloud is right. but, did he know that kevin shields was born (and lived for several years) in the good old usa! fuck yeah! born on american soil, mother fuckers!
100 - 303dreams
Bah, wheres the JOY DIVISION, NEW ORDER, SEX PISTOLS, PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED (well not sure if pil/lydon is british)... hell the stones for that matter... bowie.... they are all more then deserving to be in the top 10.. HELL.. closer by joy division is one of the most incredale albums ever recorded in my oppionion
101 - Markus
Oasis is the greatest band since Queen... Their debut album is one of the greatest and the follow-up the greatest.. Dont pick on Oasis: THEY ROCK!!!
102 - Steve
Had to laugh at your comment Rodney, I am reminded of how 'weird' country music sounds to my ears (being a Canadian who grew up mostly in the UK), country music just sounds soooo American!!!
However, I do agree with many of you folks comments regarding NME, they do have a very narrow view of music from what I've read and heard, I think you can see however, that each generation of music critics think the music of their adolescence was better than todays or those that have gone before, unless it totally apes the artists from their own era. Just shows how subjective music really is, and how much we like a song depends on what we associate with it vis a vis our own lives.
I don't put much stock in these lists by any critics, British or otherwise. I like what I like and I don't care what any critic has to say about it really. It's all subjective anyway.
103 - steve boswell
nobody mentioned the bends, or pablo honey
104 - Leo
Hi, nice discussion. I´m from Brazil and i´ve been listening the british music since 12 years old, in the early 90s. Except for libertines and arctic monkeys jokes, the list seems almost ok to me. At least no babyshamblers.
But no Sgt Peppers, no Stones, Who, Kinks, etc. Only Revolver from de 60s? Pink Floyd, Elton John, David Bowie, Queen, Joy Division, Radiohead. I think Verve would have some down space in some lists. Stone Roses probably insn´t the best of all-time, but they surely build the structure for the 90s britpop. Easyly a top 5. Its tuff to do a list like this. Probably it would be better to do a Top 5 list by decade, I don´t know.
Anyway, I liked the site, already bookmarked. If you have time, download some record from "Los Hermanos", a band from Brazil, great stuff.
105 - Jefferson
It's funny seeing these King Crimson fans claiming Radiohead ripped off their band.
Also can someone fill me in on how The Stone Roses have influenced Radiohead because I don't see it?? The two bands sound nothing like each other and Radiohead are far more original on top of that.
106 - Michael J. West
Also can someone fill me in on how The Stone Roses have influenced Radiohead because I don't see it??
Then you've never listened to The Bends.
107 - DJRadiohead
The Radiohead/Stone Roses connection is probably a bit less obvious than that of Radiohead and King Crimson, but I agree with Michael.
108 - Steve
Oasis is the best band of all time.. So what if the Beatles influenced them? Just cos something influences another, doesnt mean it cant be better...
109 - Rich_UK
i have read this whole page and no 1 really mentions the libertines. Ok the came out after the strokes and slightly changed there sound but the lyrics Doherty/baret wrote are some of the best i have heard. Up The Bracket is a cd that is always playing in my stereo. Also ther second album (self titled) is another excelent british album. I also agree that arctic monkeys are over hyped NME lift them up only to drop them for the next flavor of the month.
110 - Martin
I am not a Brit but I love and respect bands from the islands. I own some Pulp albums, Oasis, Libertines, Radiohead, and Pet Shop Boys. From my country I would recommend Exctasy of Saint Theresa (Czechs).
111 - Adhi
I think oasis is the best band, one of the coolest ever! Started when i heard the single 'stand by me' then i was looking for another songs. It's true, they're just some a kind music genius persons!
112 - Christopher Rose
The NME used to be a great music paper but those days are long gone. The top three groups in their list are three of the biggest crimes against rock ever perpetrated. For shame!
113 - lee
most of u r fall of shit oasis r great they didnt rip of the beatles if u heard them only 1 song really sounds like the beatles i know they r noway as good as them n 1 of u said if it wasnt for the beatles their would b no oasis well if it wasnt for the beatles their wouldnt b any good bands oasis rock n should b in the top 10 n far better than most bands thats come from america
114 - none
get rid of the arctic monkeys
115 - michael
im so fucking sick of this "oasis rip off beatles shit" get a fucking clue, come with some examples instead will you! jesus fucking christ.. bealtes are great, but music moves on, dont u get it?? and yeahh... oasis slay beatles nowadays.. get over it.. seriously, feel free to flame me.. no band ever had such an impact on me as oasis.. they make no bad songs, and dont come and tell me they ripped their 200-300 songs off from beatles, cunts
116 - Christopher Rose
Michael, if you need examples, that just says you don't know anything about music. Mind you, your opinion of Oasis says that anyway as they are the first band in history whose tribute bands are more interesting than they are!
The best thing about Oasis is Liam's voice, who does have a pretty impressive sneer and the worst is Noel's cliched guitar playing and trite lyrics, which he ripped off from not only The Beatles but also all the bands he roadied for. If only he'd stayed doing that!
I don't think he ripped off any songs from The Cunts though.
117 - Pico
"I don't think he ripped off any songs from The Cunts though."
*rimshot*
118 - 14 Year Old Mod
I'd just like to say, I love The Jam, and I have been listening to Mr Wellers work for some 11 months now and the fact that he isn't on the top 10 is a shock. Has anyone heard of The Mod Revival ? And I don't want to argue with anyone that's just my point ! Weller is King !
P.S I also love The Cure, where are they !
119 - Callum
There has to be some Joy Division on here, whether its Unknown Pleasures or Closer I definitly think they deserve to be in the top 10 instead of an album that has just been released.