Britain’s most well-known music publication, NME have unveiled the top 25 from their definitive list of “The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time.” Not the first of such lists to be released by a major music magazine, nor even the first by NME, theirs sees the odd choice of The Smiths‘ classic The Queen Is Dead at the top spot.
Editors compiled the rather long-winded list based on the votes of past and present NME journalists and critics, as well as on previously published end-of-year “Top 50” lists. In 2006, the magazine released a list of the “Greatest British Albums of All Time” with The Stone Roses‘ self-titled debut placed at #1.
“There’s a perverse national pride to be gleaned from the knowledge that Britain was just as broken in 1986 as it is in 2013,” read the blurb that accompanied the top spot. “No album is made in a vacuum, but The Queen Is Dead is one of the select few that seems to transcend its influences and synthesise them into something singular and new.”
Though of course the same could be said of Iggy Pop‘s groundbreaking 1977 album The Idiot, which the magazine placed at 467. Right at the bottom of the list was OutKast‘s modern classic, Stankonia at 500.
The top 25 included other controversial and not-so-controversial picks, with Kanye West‘s relatively recent My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy nestled alongside such undisputed classics such as The Beatles’ Revolver and The Velvet Underground & Nico‘s The Velvet Underground. The highest ranked album by an Australian artist was AC/DC‘s Back in Black at a piddling #197.
The selections, which have already drawn wails of “THAT IS NOT THE BEST PJ HARVEY ALBUM! WTF?! OUTRAGE!” and “Bunch of tin-eared idiots!” from Music Feeds staff, will be unveiled in full in the latest issue of NME, dated 26th October. In the meantime, you can check out the top 25 albums below.
NME’s Top 25 Albums Of All Time
(Via SMH)
NME Top 25 Albums
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Whatsgoing
25. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On? -
Exile on Main Street Front
24. The Rolling Stones - Exile On Main St -
Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars
23. David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars -
Blur Parklife
22. Blur - Parklife -
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Deluxe Kanye West 28132129
21. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy -
OKComputercover
20. Radiohead - OK Computer -
Arctic Monkey
19. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not -
MBV Loveless
18. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless -
PublicEnemy ItTakesANationOfMillionsToHoldUsBack Frontal
17. Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back -
Joy Division Closer
16. Joy Division - Closer -
Pj Harvey Let England Shake
15. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake -
439440495a8126359a21
14. David Bowie - Low -
Arcadefire1
13. Arcade Fire - Funeral -
Patti Smith Horses
12. Patti Smith - Horses -
Nirvana Nevermind 20 Year Anniversary
11. Nirvana - Nevermind -
Album Definitely Maybe
10. Oasis - Definitely Maybe -
TheBeatlesWhiteAlbumCD2beatleswhitealbum
9. The Beatles - The Beatles (White Album) -
Doolittlepixiesbysnailler D306lwg
8. Pixies - Doolittle -
Stoneroses
7. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses -
Different Class
6. Pulp - Different Class -
Velvet Underground Nico
5. The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground -
Thestrokes Isthisita
4. The Strokes - Is This It -
David Bowie Hunky Dory
3. David Bowie - Hunky Dory -
Beatles Revolver
2. The Beatles - Revolver -
Ts The Queen is Dead
1. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
