NME’s Top 500 Albums - what do you think?

[blackshadow]

Not bad as far as these mega lists go, most of my favourite albums are included and I'd own about half the albums on this list.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

 

[mianfei]

mianfei do you know what the tallies are for respective acts on that list ?

Bowie and the Beatles both clearly had a lot of albums included, Dylan too.
PJ Harvey, Beach Boys, Beastie Boys, the friggen National whoever they be, Elvis Costello, Beck ...

Major artists’ totals are:

1. Ten albums: David Bowie
2. Seven albums:
   • Bob Dylan
   • the Beatles
3. Five albums:
   • Bruce Springsteen
   • Elvis Costello and the Attractions
   • The Smiths
   • PJ Harvey
   • Radiohead
4. Four albums:
   • The Rolling Stones
   • The Who
   • Neil Young
   • Tom Waits
   • R.E.M.
   • Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
   • Nirvana
   • Beck
   • Blur
   • The White Stripes
   • The National
5. Three albums:
   • The Beach Boys
   • The Velvet Underground
   • Leonard Cohen
   • Stevie Wonder
   • Kraftwerk
   • The Clash
   • Michael Jackson
   • Prince
   • Dexy’s Midnight Runners
   • New Order
   • Sonic Youth
   • Beastie Boys
   • Public Enemy
   • The Pixies
   • Pavement
   • Manic Street Preachers
   • Spiritualized
   • Suede
   • Björk
   • The Verve
   • Pulp
   • Queens of the Stone Age
   • Super Furry Animals
   • Arcade Fire
   • Daft Punk
   • Jay Z
   • Kanye West
   • Kings of Leon

This will give a good idea - I wish I could go on but it is just too long and it stands easier to check if an artist is absent than to list all the artists with two or one albums on the list.

 

[djrossie16]

Either Or 149 but no XO in the list interesting

 

[Plugger35]

I don't mind the Smiths but they don't deserve to be no.1.

No Achtung Baby is a disgrace though, a far better U2 album than Joshua Tree.

Achtung Baby is a real turbulent game changing album with Bono and Edge at their very best.

No better example than this.



Tool's Aenima should be there but the fickle UK music press don't rate them.

OK Computer should be no.1 too, best album I've heard especially stoned with headphones.

 

[Black Flag]

would include.

i'm stranded (the saints)
real life (magazine)
damned damned damned (the damned)
rock for light (bad brains)
plastic surgery disasters (dead kennedys)

 

[Roobs321]

I don't mind the Smiths but they don't deserve to be no.1.

No Achtung Baby is a disgrace though, a far better U2 album than Joshua Tree.

Achtung Baby is a real turbulent game changing album with Bono and Edge at their very best.

No better example than this.



Tool's Aenima should be there but the fickle UK music press don't rate them.

OK Computer should be no.1 too, best album I've heard especially stoned with headphones.

Have to agree with a lot of this. Achtung Baby is my favourite U2 album by a long shot (with Acrobat the best track on the album). The list also mostly ignores metal/hard rock, of which Aenima is a fine example. And OK Computer is as good a default No.1 as any.

 

[Roobs321]

I do love how the list is all over the shop though, it just doesn't care.

Whilst the list features some curious artist discography choices, I loved the Bowie choices. Hunky Dory and Low are the only two I particularly care for. That alone entirely negates 10 albums on his making the list.

 

[Plugger35]

Have to agree with a lot of this. Achtung Baby is my favourite U2 album by a long shot (with Acrobat the best track on the album). The list also mostly ignores metal/hard rock, of which Aenima is a fine example. And OK Computer is as good a default No.1 as any.

It's surprising how often Achtung Baby gets overlooked in best album polls.

It's an amazing album both lyrically and musically.

Another great example.



The so called music experts at NME wouldn't know good music if they fell over it.

 

[Cruyff14]

Top 10 is a bit errr.

Born To Run at 85 is a little low. Rumours should be higher. No Elton John, Billy Joel or The Eagles.

 

[Papa G]

Surprised to see no Led Zeppelin till 107, especially in a British list. I'm a big fan of Nirvana, but for an example they have 2 albums in the top 35... Where Led zeps first is at 107. Nirvana have 4 total in the list whereas Black Sabbath have none?? They are one of the founders of an entire genre of music... That is a joke.

Zeppelin have always been criminally under rated in their native country. No Black Sabbath shows what a silly list this is. 5 Smiths albums, with 1 being rated as the best album of all time? Are you ******* joking????

 

[mianfei]

No Elton John, Billy Joel or The Eagles.

Once I recall asking someone about Blender’s old 50 Worst Artists list, and they guessed Billy Joel and the Eagles would be on it, and now-retired critic Mark Prindle said:

“I don't hate The Smiths or Morrissey either. Well, Morrissey's solo stuff is dull, but I don’t hate him. The Grateful Dead are pretty awful though. Still, the main artists that I hate are The Eagles, Billy Joel and Red Hot Chili Peppers. I'm sure there are plenty more, but those are the three that never fail to make me cringe with hate.”

It makes sense then that Billy Joel and the Eagles would never be on there, and the same with the Grateful Dead - a band that divides the critics like few others and has me asking questions about their absence.

Zeppelin have always been criminally under rated in their native country. No Black Sabbath shows what a silly list this is. 5 Smiths albums, with 1 being rated as the best album of all time? Are you ******* joking????

It is impossible not to agree about the magazine’s inability to even grasp the significance of metal and industrial. It’s not that difficult if you study closely the lyrics to see how different they were and are from the 1960s, and bands like AC/DC and Motörhead are as old as punk.

There is the fact that there was in Europe no powerful commercial radio network to block punk from being marketed to the public (as there was in the US and Australia) but even so metal and industrial still gained popularity in Europe during the Bush Senior Era.

 

[Cruyff14]

Rubbish!

 

[Cursed Cat]

The National are definitely worth checking out.

best place to start ?

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

Really liked The Strokes Is This It but No 4 overall??? Oasis above Nevermind... you've got to be joking.

 

[Cursed Cat]

Major artists’ totals are:

1. Ten albums: David Bowie
2. Seven albums:
   • Bob Dylan
   • the Beatles
3. Five albums:
   • Bruce Springsteen
   • Elvis Costello and the Attractions
   • The Smiths
   • PJ Harvey
   • Radiohead
4. Four albums:
   • The Rolling Stones
   • The Who
   • Neil Young
   • Tom Waits
   • R.E.M.
   • Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
   • Nirvana
   • Beck
   • Blur
   • The White Stripes
   • The National
5. Three albums:
   • The Beach Boys
   • The Velvet Underground
   • Leonard Cohen
   • Stevie Wonder
   • Kraftwerk
   • The Clash
   • Michael Jackson
   • Prince
   • Dexy’s Midnight Runners
   • New Order
   • Sonic Youth
   • Beastie Boys
   • Public Enemy
   • The Pixies
   • Pavement
   • Manic Street Preachers
   • Spiritualized
   • Suede
   • Björk
   • The Verve
   • Pulp
   • Queens of the Stone Age
   • Super Furry Animals
   • Arcade Fire
   • Daft Punk
   • Jay Z
   • Kanye West
   • Kings of Leon

This will give a good idea - I wish I could go on but it is just too long and it stands easier to check if an artist is absent than to list all the artists with two or one albums on the list.

cheers mianfei - wow, 10 Bowie albums seems ridiculously excessive, I reckon I could make room for maybe 5, tops (Hunky Dory, Low, Aladdin Sane, Ziggy Stardust, maybe Lodger or Young Americans)
3 of Dexy's Midnight Runners also seems too much.

Anyone know much about Spiritualized ? Is it one of the guys from Spacemen 3 ? Cuz I have two of the Spacemen 3 albums and they are great ..

 

[mianfei]

would include.

i'm stranded (the saints)
real life (magazine)
damned damned damned (the damned)
rock for light (bad brains)
plastic surgery disasters (dead kennedys)

To include those would be one hundred percent consistent with the worldview of NME - that is, that punk was world-changing. The Dead Kennedys, for example, were an American band who never dented the Top 200 on Billboard but had Top 40 singles and albums in Europe where there was no stiflingly restrictive commercial radio.

Anyone know much about Spiritualized ? Is it one of the guys from Spacemen 3 ? Cuz I have two of the Spacemen 3 albums and they are great ..

that's right, Spiritualized was formed by Jason Pierce from Spacemen 3, and have always been much better-known than Pierce's earlier band. Although I claim no familiarity with his work, from what I have read the most-acclaimed Spiritualized albums are very like Spacemen 3. A much older band whom you might want to try if you like Spacemen 3 is The Red Krayola led by Mayo Thompson.

 

[smasha]

No Rush or Jethro Tull or Frank Zappa or Little Feat or The Tubes!

No Oils !!

No Oils!!

WTF is this s**t?!

 

[Cursed Cat]

that's right, Spiritualized was formed by Jason Pierce from Spacemen 3, and have always been much better-known than Pierce's earlier band. Although I claim no familiarity with his work, from what I have read the most-acclaimed Spiritualized albums are very like Spacemen 3. A much older band whom you might want to try if you like Spacemen 3 is The Red Krayola led by Mayo Thompson.

cheers mianfei - might have to investigate Spiritualized then, as I really like those two Spacemen3 albums .. might look up more of this Red Krayola business too

 

[mianfei]

No Rush or Jethro Tull or Frank Zappa or Little Feat or The Tubes!

There actually is Frank Zappa:

359. We’re only in it for the Money; The Mothers of Invention

However, it is not surprising Rush and Jethro Tull were absent: they were the bands New Musical Express began by railing against as so-called “dinosaur groups” during the punk era of the late 1970s.

 

[SHAKESPEARE]

Illmatic at 74? bitch please.

 

[PVF]

I'll start off by saying that I'm no music expert but........

The Rolling Stones Top 500 Albums>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>This one.

No Black Sabbath? Really?

Also I really don't understand why the Black Album is usually rated better than Master of Puppets....well I do because it's more ear friendly for people but MOP shits all over it. I could make a case that Kill Em' All and Ride the Lightning are better than the Black Album.

 

[The_Big_Ship]

15. Let England Shake (2011); PJ Harvey

Wow..

 

[Gus Poyet]

Shithouse list. NME used to be good. But that was a long time ago.

 

[Gibbsy]

10 Bowie albums hahahahaha

 

[mianfei]

(Expletive) list. NME used to be good. But that was a long time ago.

It’s always annoying when people say a list is bad without suggestions as to improve it. I have written a bit (both of my own favourites and those of some critics) that were not included - I really feel it should be rewritten to be more consistent but would greatly appreciate others doing the same.