NME's 100 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003)
 

And this was chosen by the writers, not the public:

1. The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses
2. Pixies – Doolittle
3. The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
4. Television – Marquee Moon
5. The Beatles – Revolver
6. Love – Forever Changes
7. The Strokes – Is This It
8. The Smiths – The Queen In Dead
9. The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground
10. Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks…
11. My Bloody Valentine – Loveless
12. The Clash – London Calling
13. Oasis – Definitely Maybe
14. Joy Division – Closer
15. Nirvana – In Utero
16. Radiohead – Ok Computer
17. Spritualized – Ladies And Gentleman We Are Floating In Space
18. Blondie – Parallel Lines
19. Nirvana – Nevermind
20. The White Stripes – White Blood Cells
21. The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground
22. New Order – Technique
23. Primal Scream – Screamadellica
24. The Beatles – The Beatles [Aka The White Album]
25. The Smiths – Strangeways Here We Come
26. David Bowie – Low
27. Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On
28. The Verve – A Northern Soul
29. Public Enemy – It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
30. Massive Attack – Blue Lines
31. Pixies – Surfer Rosa
32. The Byrds – The Notorious Byrd Brothers
33. Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP
34. Patti Smith – Horses
35. Jeff Buckley – Grace
36. Kraftwerk – Trans-Europe Express
37. Oasis – [What’s The Story] Morning Glory
38. Scott Walker – Scott 4
39. Ramones – Ramones
40. Coldplay – A Rush Of Blood To The Head
41. Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
42. The Stooges – Fun House
43. David Bowie – Hunky Dory
44. Radiohead – The Bends
45. Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin IV
46. The Streets – Original Pirate Material
47. Bob Dylan – Blood On The Tracks
48. REM – Automatic For The People
49. Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation
50. Blur – Parklife
51. The Smiths – Hatful Of Hollow
52. The Rolling Stones – Exile On Mainstreet
53. Slint – Spiderland
54. The Smiths – The Smiths
55. Aphex Twin – Richard D James Album
56. Jay-Z – The Blueprint
57. Roxy Music – For Your Pleasure
58. The Rolling Stones – Stick Fingers
59. The Specials – The Specials
60. Big Star – Third/Sister Lovers
61. The Magnetic Fields – 69 Love Songs
62. Pulp – His ‘N Hers
63. Dusty Springfield – Dusty In Memphis
64. Nick Drake – Five Leaves Left
65. Duran Duran – Rio
66. The Flying Burrito Brothers – The Gilded Palace Of Sin
67. Underworld – Dubnobasswithmyheadman
68. Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Searching For The Young Soul Rebels
69. Andrew WK – I Get Wet
70. The Verve – Urban Hymns
71. Eminem – The Slim Shady LP
72. AC/DC – Back In Black
73. Michael Jackson – Off The Wall
74. The White Stripes – Elephant
75. Lou Reed – Transformer
76. Pulp – This Is Hardcore
77. The Coral – The Coral
78. Suede – Dog Man Star
79. The Clash – The Clash
80. Neil Young – After The Goldrush
81. The Jesus And Mary Chain – Psychocandy
82. Wu-Tang Clan – Enter The Wu-Tang
83. Van Morrison – Astral Weeks
84. De La Soul – 3 Feet High And Rising
85. The Rolling Stones – Let It Bleed
86. David Bowie – Heroes
87. The Slits – Cut
88. Primal Scream – Exterminator
89. Stevie Wonder – Innervisions
90. Leonard Cohen – Songs Of Love And Hate
91. Queens Of The Stoneage –Rated R
92. Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works 85-92
93. Joni Mitchell – Hejira
94. Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home
95. Pink Floyd – Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
96. The Vines – Highly Evolved
97. PJ Harvey – Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea
98. Madonna – Like A Prayer
99. The Congos – Heart Of The Congos
100. The Beach Boys – Surfs Up

And just to remind you, this was a poll of NME writers, not readers.

Andrew WK above The Jesus And Mary Chain? Oh, do fuck off.

Well, it's an NME poll. Many of those albums are great, and the obvious criticism is the non-canonical rock albums seem like tokenistic (especially the choices of things like the now-ridiculous Coral). But there's some great albums, and there's some incredibly important (for which read: massive-selling) records in there.

I can't really muster the ability to care, ultimately. Nice to see Dusty in there though.

"Thou shalt not read NME"

It's troubling to think countless young, impressionable and downright stupid
NME readers are being told The Coral rank in as one the of the greatest recorded musical accomplishments in all history. Be quiet, be quiet...

And no Sgt Pepper's anywhere to be seen. Oh those NME scribes can be such 'rebels' when they want to be, can't they?

By contrast - the Wire's 100 most important records...

• Anton Webern - Complete Works Conducted By Pierre Boulez
• Various - On The Halls
• Bessie Smith - The World's Greatest Blues Singer / Any Woman's Blues / Empty Red Blues / The Empress / Nobody's Blues But Mine
• Blind Willie Johnson - Praise God I'm Satisfied
• Charley Patton - Founder Of The Delta Blues
• Dinwiddie Colored Quartet - Early Negro Vocal Quartets Volume One
• Igor Stravinsky - The Firebird / Petrushka / The Rite Of Spring
• Jelly Roll Morton - Centennial: His Complete Victor Recordings
• Louis Armstrong - Hot Five And Hot Seven
• Various - Really! The Country Blues
• Billie Holiday With The Teddy Wilson Orchestra - The Complete
• Coleman Hawkins - Body And Soul
• Count Basie - The Original American Decca Recordings
• Duke Ellington - The Blanton-Webster Years
• Dziga Vertov - Enthusiasm: Symphony Of The Donbas
• Muggsy Spanier - The Great 16
• Robert Johnson - The Complete Recordings
• Charlie Parker - The Savoy Sessions
• Lennie Tristano - Intuition
• Thelonious Monk - Genius Of Modern Music Volumes One And Two
• Woody Herman - Four Brothers
• Art Tatum - The Tatum Solo Masterpieces
• Elvis Presley - That's All Right (Mama) / Blue Moon Of Kentucky
• Frank Sinatra - Songs For Swinging Lovers
• Julie London - Julie Is Her Name
• Olivier Messiaen - Turangalia Symphony
• Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Collosus
• Various - Folk Music Of The Mediterranean
• Bill Evans - The Village Vanguard Sessions / Move From The Vanguard
• Bo Diddley - Go Bo Diddley
• Chuck Berry - Sweet Little Sixteen
• Gil Evans - Out Of The Cool
• Karlheinz Stockhausen - Gesang Der Junglinge / Kontakt
• Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue
• Oliver Nelson - Blues And The Abstract Truth
• Ornette Coleman - Change Of The Century
• The Five Royales - Dedicated To The One I Love
• Bela Bartok - Bartok At The Piano 1920-45
• Albert Ayler Trio - Spiritual Unity
• Booker T And The MGs - Green Onions
• Charles Mingus - The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady
• Ezz Reco And The Launchers - King Of Kings
• Lamonte Young - Sunday Morning Blues
• The Kingsmen - Louie Louie
• Alegre All-Stars - They Don't Make 'Em Like Us Anymore
• Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
• Eric Dolphy - Out To Lunch
• James Brown - Papa's Got A Brand New Bag
• The Kinks - See My Friend
• Various - A Collection Of 16 Tamla Motown Hits
• Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention - We're Only In It For The Money
• John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
• Morton Subotnick - Silver Apples Of The Moon
• The Beatles - Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• Captain Beefheart And The Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica
• Jimi Hendrix - Axis Bold As Love
• Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
• Scott Walker - Scott 3
• Sly And The Family Stone - Dance To The Music
• The Melodians - Pre-meditation
• The Meters - Look A Py Py
• The Velvet Underground - White Light / White Heat
• Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV
• Soft Machine - Third
• The Stooges - Funhouse
• Various Whales - Songs Of The Humpback Whale
• Bob Marley - Catch A Fire
• Joni Mitchell - Ladies Of The Canyon
• Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On
• Philip Glass - Music In Twelve Parts
• Ravi Shankar And Ali Akbar Khan - In Concert 1972
• Steely Dan - Can't Buy A Thrill
• Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
• Various - Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era 1965-68
• Brian Eno - Another Green World
• Can - Soon Over Babaluma
• Fela Ransome Kuti And The Africa 70 - Kalakuta Show
• Grupo Folklorio Y Experimental Nuevayorquino - Concepts In Unity
• Patti Smith - Horses
• Evan Parker - Monoceros
• Hans Jurgen Syberberg - Hitler, A Film From Germany
• Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express
• Pere Ubu - Dub Housing
• Public Image Ltd - Metal Box
• The Clash - The Clash
• Alban Berg - Lulu
• Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five - The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel
• The Fall - Slates, Slags Etc
• The Pop Group - Y
• Christian Marclay - Record Without A Cover
• Husker Du - Zen Arcade
• King Sunny Ade - Juju Music
• Madonna - Into The Groove
• Michael Jackson - Thriller
• Minor Threat - Minor Threat
• Various - The Indestructible Beat Of Soweto
• Ami Koita - Tata Sira
• Cecil Taylor - In Berlin '88
• Mr Fingers - Washing Machine
• Public Enemy - Bring The Noise

Stone Roses? Hahaha. I'm done.

NME's list is terrible. The Vines?! For fuck's sake. Obviously, there's good shit like Slint and Joy Division but they probably felt like they had to put those on there.

Lot's of jazz, a few token 'world' records (good ones, mind you), a handful of dubious pop ones (Into the groove over Immaculate collection? Thriller over Bad?), a fair few wrong choices (Tago Mago is the Can choice; whichever Fall album, it's not that one; Glass' Einstein...; anyone but Bartok playing Bartok please).

There's a chilling inevitability about these things.

It'd be difficult for me to say anything about The Wire's list, seeing as how I've at best heard of only maybe a quarter of the records they list. If anything though, it seems as safe as any other list - given that magazine's general view of what is and what isn't important. A mention (albeit at no 100) for Public Enemy, but no Dr Dre just about sums them up in my opinion.

Re the wire's

Public enemy did not release an album called Bring The Noise
that is a song off their second album, It takes A Nation Of MIllions To Hold Us Back

FUCK THE NME.

did gillespie write this list?


this list looks like a record crate at my house but they, as usual, came nowhere near nailing the list. i mean, i know it's opinion and subjective and all but there are better records than the fucking stone roses.

In fairness, this is a copied list from a copied list, it's likely the typist got bored. OR it was released as that in this country, or it's referring to a PE release called 'bring the noise'.

I don't think they were necessarily specifying albums. 'Louie Louie' by The Kingsmen being another example. Which, noticing no mention at all on their list of Elvis Presley's 'That's All Right', does make me wonder what exactly they meant by 'important'.

EDIT: My bad, I just noticed it on the list.

Apparantly not.

the list is called greatest ALBUMS of all time.

fucking twats. i'm going to go into NME HQ with a gun and open fire.

The wire's list has some questionable entries but at least it isn't all predictable. Also, it succeeds merely by this inclusion:

Captain Beefheart And The Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica

...which even Rolling fucking Stone had on their list as well. How could NME leave out such a masterpiece that even John Peel called a work of genius?

everyone puts Trout Mask Replica on their lists even though it is oddly boring pseudo-wack blues-like substance

Which, ironically, sounds rather like a typical Cap't Beefheart lyric. "Fast and bulbous, pseudo-wack also"

Boring? Hahaha. Please. It is a complete deconstruction of rock, melding blues, jazz, poetry, prog, classical. Filled with some of the greatest works ever written by man. An important record in every respect and I'm willing to bet that entire genres can be traced back to that record as a starting point. To hear that when it first came out would've been a major shock to ANYONE's synapses, and the fact that it still holds up 40 years later is quite telling.

A landmark album and easily one of the most important albums of all time. And it's not even my favorite Beefheart album!

GO BE A FUCKING CRITIC PLEASE.

Everyone's a critic. The minute you listen to a record and have an opinion about it, you're being critical.

I'm not a critic by your definition, though, I'm just informed. Rob called an amazing album boring... I find that silly!

So.. uh.. I'M STICKING OUT MY TONGUE AT YOU.

We should try and organise some kind of proper poll for SY board members. Christ there's enough of us that we could surely come up with say a top ten 'greatest' albums or something. Have every provide their top five, have points from say 8 for number 1, then graduate it down to 1 point for number 5. Set a deadline, add em all up and then bingo. The Official SY Gossip Ten Greatest Albums of All-Time.

Yeah demonrail sure, I'll get right on that.

and it carries the stank of the biggest turdmesiter to ever strap on a guitar and have a child named Dweezil.

everything you stated above has been stated by every single ardent fan of PROG BULLSHIT from Fripp fanatics to crimson nuts to YES idiots to all them fucking shit ass bands. fuck that shit.

this is a genius idea. GENIUS

you may be informed but what you write sounds like it came straight out of any mainstream "music" magazine.

don't get your panties in a twist. just making an observation.

Get off the fence rob, please. If you don't like it just say so.;)

Well I'm not a Yes nut or a crimson nut or whatever you said, I just find the album in question completely inspiring and have for a good 6 years. I'm sorry it's not your thing... but even albums I don't necessarily enjoy, I can at least tell the culturual significance of. I'm not the biggest fan of Marquee Moon -- despite some of the amazing guitar interplay, I find some of it a bit boring... however, I'm not going to say "duh it's not an important record cuz it's BORIN'." Of course it's an important record, and it doesn't bother me in the least when people say so.

I just listened to two tracks off it again, just to refresh my memory of this bloated hippie-stank fucking wank-a-thon, straight from the bowels of everything that sucked shit about music in 1968, tweedle-lee-dee stop start ZAPPA-esque LSD fried idiocy

it's trendy to call things boring nowadays.

Also, Cantankerous, if you can find a mainstream "music" magazine with tastes or observations like mine, please PLEASE let me know so I can apply for a job there... Because, yeah, I gurantee that 90% of the shit I talk about you won't find in any magazine.

Don't get your boyshorts in a twist, just an observation.

and it IS an important record, no doubt.

I was not refering to you liking YES but that what you said about trout mask has been said endless times to be by fanatic YES fans, or King Crimson fans

Rob, there's nothing hippy or wanky about it. They spent a year writing those avant blues masterpieces. Listen to "veteran's day poppy" or "steal softly through snow". Beautiful compositions.

i didn't say you had the same taste, i'm saying you write like them, fucktard.

I just listened to hair pie bake 2

don;t get it. don;t like it.

Demonrail, I have a good idea regarding your idea.

Have everyone list their top 10 records...

And give them a point value. For example, my # 1 album would get 10 points, my # 2 album would get 9 points, my # 3 album would get 8 points, etc.

Then, have someone keep track of what albums get the most points.

Since there'll probably be a TON of records listed, may just take the top 30 or so and we'll narrow it down to a top 10.

I don't understand how my writing can "sound" like it came from a mainstream music magazine when I'm writing nothing that would actually come from a mainstream music magazine. Again, it goes back to my original point, I'm INFORMED about shit, that's the only thing I have in common with a mainstream music writer -- I know what I'm talking about. No fucking biggy.

Also, Rob, Hair Pie Bake 2 is the worst song on the album and doesn't sound a thing like any of the other songs. There's that song and a couple of the acapella songs on there that I'm sure you wouldn't like but I think it's fairly easy to "get" the two songs I mentioned.. or "Ella Guru".

there's nothing to "get"

i don't know why people waste their time trying to "get" things (and before anyone else takes it upon themselves to misinterperet what i'm saying, i'm NOT saying that you ARE wasting your time trying to "get" anything)

i like trout mask replica okay but it would definitely get boring after repeated listenings

i'm going to go make a sandwich because i would find it more entertaining to watch butter burn in a frying pan than read this whiny spew.

Could I ask that you make more comments about criticism rather than comments about records? Because this is actually quite a well-reasoned and cogent post. Not that your comments about records aren't appreciated, they're just a bit... earnest, for my taste (and my taste is, as we've established, that of a cunt).

I was nattering about Trout Mask Replica the other night, as it happens. It's one of those records, like the White album and the like, that are pretty much indispensible to the rock lexicon, like them or not. Part of the problem with the album is that, by being what it is, it ends up eluding criticism 'they're playing like they can't play' or 'it's just spazzy blues' have the same effect if they're said positively or negatively. 'It's over-rated' can be applied to any album with enough cultural currency - be it Trout Mask Replica or Slippery when Wet. For my part, I enjoy the album, and that took me a fucking long time. And, unlike a lot of the pantheon of 'all-time greats', its influence (or its explicit influence) has been minimal. No-one's made a record that's quite like it, or those that have made some unimportant guff.

It does go on for about a million years too long though.