THE WORST NME COVER OF ALL TIME

Top 10:

10. Definitely Maybe
9. White Album
8. Doolittle
7. Stone Roses
6. Different Class
5. VU & Nico
4. Is This It?
3. Hunky Dory
2. Revolver
1. The Queen Is Dead.

Lots of 'alumni' of the paper submitted top 50s, plus every top 50 ever published, #1 gets 50 points, #2 49 etc etc.

I doubt very much that they'll have gerrymandered results, before anyone suggests that.

thanks nick, that's one grim list

I doubt very much that they'll have gerrymandered results, before anyone suggests that.

they fuckin' should have, out of embarrassment

20. OK Computer
19. Whatever People Say I Am etc etc
18. Loveless
17. It Takes A Nation Of Millions...
16. Closer
15. Let England Shake
14. Low
13. Funeral
12. Horses
11. Nevermind

30. Enter The Wu-Tang
29. Marquee Moon
28. Back to Black
27. Screamadelica
26. Pet Sounds
25. What's Going On
24. Exile On Main Street
23. Ziggy Stardust
22. Parklife
21. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

50. Dusty in Memphis
49. Sound of Silver
48. Hounds of Love
47. Strangeways, Here We Come
46. Debut (Bjork)
45. Parallel Lines
44. Holy Bible
43. Rubber Soul
42. Innervisions
41. Daydream Nation
40. Unknown Pleasures
39. London Calling
38. Never Mind The Bollocks
37. Forever Changes
36. Blood on the Tracks
35. In Utero
34. Abbey Road
33. Modern Life is Rubish
32. Paul's Boutique
31. Dog Man Star

Album Poll Connections!

14. Low
13. Funeral
12. Horses
11. Nevermind

John Mulvey's submitted list: http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/wild-mercury-sound/my-top-50-albums-of-all-time-subject-to-change

I like John a lot but that's a very, very Uncut list.

Still think this list was awesome: http://stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/top-101-200-favourite-albums-ever-the-stylus-magazine-list.htm

Music mag that champions guitar bands lists loads of guitar bands in its best albums ever list … shock!

Still don't understand why this surprises people. I dread to think how I'd be crucified if I listed my 50 favourite ever albums.

Unless you're a teenager (ie in NME's target market) these things are only really interesting in a kind of stock exchange way (the stock of Bowie, Morrissey and the Pixies is way up, Beatles more or less as they were, Radiohead way down).

Nirvana down as well apparently.

xposts

Yes, obviously, and that's fine and to be expected, etc, and I know that 'rock' writers are absolutely petrified of jazz, but there's still 500 albums listed here, and there's only (rough count) maybe 9 or 10 records I'd count as electronic / dance (Chemical Brothers, DJ Shadow, Avalanches, The Orb, Daft Punk [x2], Aphex Twin [x2], Prodigy [x2], Fever Ray, MIA; didn't cunt Primal Scream or Kraftwerk), the highest of which (and only one in the top 100) is Discovery (at 76), and there's only two jazz albums that I've spotted (Love Supreme and Kind of Blue). I've probably missed some by scanning through at my desk while I eat a sandwich.

I know these lists are an arsehole to put together, and I know why they get put together, I guess I'm just always a bit boggled at them. I probably spend too log on here and not reading the mainstream music press so I've forgotten how rock-centric it is.

Matt's totally right re: the stock exchange fascination; The Smiths and Bowie are way, way up at the moment.

Amusing typo in there next to Primal Scream.

Music mag that champions guitar bands lists loads of guitar bands in its best albums ever list … shock!

I get that but even if you accept the predictable indie guitar bias, this list is so parochial, so heavy on middling Britpop albums and the most tepid American stuff. It's the lack of evolution that surprises me, like Matt says, this is the same bunch of soft-scoop choices as ten years ago but just shuffled around a bit.

I grew up in the era where guitar acts shared the revolving front-cover of NME with electronic artists and rappers and so on, so I always find it somehow sad that it's just accepted that the magazine "champions guitar bands" over all other music nowadays, even though it was probably true back when I read it (and was certainly mostly true when I wrote for it).

I much prefer lists that challenge canons rather than reinforce them, tbh.

OTM.

I think that's the thing for me; when I read NME every week cover-to-cover it felt like it was forcibly squeezing my mind wider to let in techno and dance and hip hop and experimental music and all sorts of other stuff, but maybe this is me rose-tinting things from a great distance (best part of 20 years). Same went for Select and Vox, too.

I bought these mags to have my ears and my mind opened, not to have my prejudices massaged. And I always felt like Melody Maker - with ET, Kulkarni, Sharon O'Connell, Cathi Unsworth, Chris Roberts, Simon Price, Taylor, Caitlin et al - did a much better job of this than NME back then.

OTM

I can't really complain about this list though, as I was invited to contribute my own Top 50 to it, but I really hate making those lists, and I'll be fucked if I'd do it without being paid to do so.

http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/nme-staff-pick-their-top-10-greatest-albums-of-all-time?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=top10albums&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=500method

Would rather more lists with five The National albums in them than the welter of lists with The Beatles in them, and I don't care about The National.

Yeah, I thought that was kind of sweet and super honest.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL at those lists

just fucking terrible, like even more canon-craven and dull than you'd even expect, these are YOUNG writers? beyond fucking parody

These are albums that millions of people like but the lack of imagination is beyond parody, especially that Eve Barlow one.

Conformity is the new rock'n'roll

I honestly can't imagine loving The National that much (or hating them really) and I dunno if it's the connotation-free name or the singer's voice or some quality of the music itself but I have difficulty ascribing any distinctive sonic characteristics to them at all.

every time i'm reminded that eve barlow continues to hold a senior editorial position at a national publication despite that despicable racist blog she wrote a while ago it's just...kind of lol but mostly sad

They don't really have any distinctive sonic characteristics at all, and I say that quite liking them: it's kind of the point that they don't have a USP, they're just A. Good. Rock. Band.

I'm totally National-agnostic, but Laura choosing 5 National albums seems so much more honest and genuine and exciting and funny and provocative than everyone lining up to say how good the Beatles were.

on the one hand that's correct but on the other: the nationalolololololoLOLOLOLOLOLLLLLLLL

also for fun: number of women in those lists, number of non-white artists in those lists, GO!

though it's not like the nme hasn't been a proud bastion of musical conservatism for as long as i've been aware of it so whatevzzzz

Dude, with all due respect and I love you and you know that, I'd be the same way if your list included five Paris Hilton albums (I know I know) - I'd think it was rad because it was honest and it might you know start a conversation about something BIGGER and Laura would probably reply paris hiltlololololololololol, and that's the way it should be. The IPC Sub-Editors Who Dictate Our Youth telling everyone that The Beatles and The Stones were as good as it got so why even bother is not the way it should be.

Te guy with four Stones albums in a row makes me want to set my head on fire.

even the conservative choices are conservative album choices.

no i just meant in that the national are p much as conservative as it gets musically so even though by the lamentable standards of this exercise it's certainly a radical and honest move it...isn't actually all that different to beatles/stones worship in terms of broadening anything

xps

it's kind of the point that they don't have a USP, they're just A. Good. Rock. Band.

That doesn't explain loving them so much you think they made the four best albums ever though, although I don't doubt that love is sincere.

I couldn't even begin comprehending trying to explain why anyone would love them that much.

i dont like his list but will stick up for dann stubbs being a really solid , top guy, even though he promised me work and then never delivered

he did get me a date that went really badly tho

would you let him drive the train to cork?

despicable racist blog

???

dan stubbs is lovely

Eve's despicable racist blog was sort-of defending Lena Dunham for not having any non-white characters in Girls.

cosign, Dan is nice.

cringe that she hasn't even taken it down yet http://eve-barlow.tumblr.com/post/33109972052/wtf-is-woc-weapons-of-colour