THE WORST NME COVER OF ALL TIME

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

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

haha i don't know him but the first and second halves of this sentence don't go together

Dan is a good guy. Eve is not a despicable racist but that is an eye-wateringly simplistic blog.

There's an aggressive defensiveness to a lot of her writing that I mostly put down to youth + not really having thought things through properly.

Eve is not a despicable racist but that is an eye-wateringly simplistic blog.

Agreed. I would delete it, and then deny its existence.

you don't have to be a racist to do racist things and that blog reeked of it. i will grant you that she is merely an idiot with the usual low-level white middle-class liberal prejudices and privilege rather than a fully paid-up BNP member, however

It's an awful, terrible blog.

Yeah belligerent naivete is nagl and I have no desire to restage the Lena Dunham privilege wars. All I can say is that's by far the stupidest thing she's written and I wouldn't judge on her that alone.

yay Dog Man Star!

oh my god, google autocorrect and eve barlow <3

That whole blog is astonishing.

Today a journalist left Twitter which is a shame because a) she was lovely and humble on Twitter, b) she tweeted about house music at approx 11pm which is usually the time I play bangers by Frankie Knuckles, SL2 and Capella (all I really listen to is a CD called The All Time Greatest Hits Of Dance 2) and it was nice to share that and 3) she was good at explaining Newsnight and Question Time – TV programmes that are so inaccessible to me they regularly convince me I have severe learning disabilities.

you mean the google autocomplete?

yeah, just tried it..

I think I'm doing OK in life as long as Google autocomplete doesn't include "racist" in the first 10 options.

Tried Morrissey, you have to add a space and an 'r' before..

And even then, you get "robert smith" higher up on the suglist.

creepy, my google autocomplete contains my workplace.