NME Top 500 Albums of All Time - Published October 2013

[Joe Mac]

So following on from @dropsonde i found this NME issue from when they used to have a physical magazine and didn’t rate every album ever released at 4/5!

Let’s see what the outcome is and hopefully it will have a better gender a balance than the last one, although sadly I’m not convinced that it will!

 

[Joe Mac]

As it’s 500 I’m going to publish them in bigger increments to speed it up, but it likely will still take a lot longer!

 

[Joe Mac]

Here is page 1 that counts down 500-413

 

[Matt M]

Good to see some soul and jazz on there! I think this will be a great variety. I may need to put these in a playlist too

 

[CrazyDiamond84]

This is a list I am more familiar with. I've used it for music discovery reference years back as it gives a more British perspective compared to ones like the Rolling Stone top 500 list.

 

[CrazyDiamond84]

Good to see a lot of hip hop on here which was lacking on the Magnet list

 

[Matt M]

OK, the playlist is HERE with the currently listed. Hopefully I got everything, may have cheated a little to put them all here.

 

[Skeletonframes]

I Never Loved a Man... and Born in the USA ranked lower than Merriweather Post Pavilion? Oh this list about to be all sorts of fuuuuuuuucked. Haha. Two albums that should be in the top 100 and they 'eeked' their way in. I'm bucklin' in for this ride.

 

[Waitressboy]

Homogenic in 486th place. Wtf.
I mean, I know these lists are subjective and everything, but come on, The Writing's On The Wall I'd higher than Homogenic.

 

[Joe Mac]

So here is the second incriment!

 

[wokeupnew]

Without looking it up, I’m going to guess the top 5 is some variation of the following

The Beatles - Sgt Pepper or Revolver
The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street
The Clash - London Calling

 

[Poly-Rythmo]

Without looking it up, I’m going to guess the top 5 is some variation of the following

The Beatles - Sgt Pepper or Revolver
The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street
The Clash - London Calling

You might want to brace yourself to be shocked. From my memory it has some amazing hot takes including one (I think it was number two) so gobsmacking I found it hard to recover...

 

[Joe Mac]

Without looking it up, I’m going to guess the top 5 is some variation of the following

The Beatles - Sgt Pepper or Revolver
The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street
The Clash - London Calling

You might want to brace yourself to be shocked. From my memory it has some amazing hot takes including one (I think it was number two) so gobsmacking I found it hard to recover...

Yeah, I think you need to be acquainted with classic era NME to really get the top end of the list. It was one where I went through it nodding my head and then was a bit “they went there?” for elements of the top 20, even if it was very NME lol.

 

[ByersVinyl]

*

Yeah, I think you need to be acquainted with classic era NME to really get the top end of the list. It was one where I went through it nodding my head and then was a bit “they went there?” for elements of the top 20, even if it was very NME lol.

Given last posts and what i know of NME. Id Defo (In no particular order) throw in Nirvana, The Smiths Possibly Stone Roses or Joy Division. Throw in some Bowie and a Beatles but not Sgt Peppers (Abbey Rd ??)
But im jumping into a top 10 convo when were still at 400....

 

[ByersVinyl]

Im glad Stormcock was included have a lot of time for that Album.
Also think ScottWalker 4 deserves a place but a litle higher.
i have The Verves Northern Soul, not listened to it in a long time, but i did like it.
Some albums are ruined by a return 20 yrs later.
What albums dont hold up is an interesting convo....
My quick answer would be The Sundays “Static and silence” which had its place for me for a few months back inth day. Sorely underwhelming 20 yrs later....

 

[Skeletonframes]

It's NME, so I'm going to assume that an Arctic Monkeys album is somewhere in the top 5.

 

[Joe Mac]

So far the one that I, personally, would have placed higher is Pink Flag by Wire, that’s a great album!

 

[Joe Mac]

Also, another note, it wasn’t just compiled by journalists working for the NME in 2013, they invited historic journalists dating back to the 60s. NMEs golden age was really Punk/Post Punk and indie/elements of Hip-Hop from the 80s. They did have renaissances with Britpop and then the whole Strokes into the Libs and onwards scenes of the early 00. There is, for me, one glaring sore thumb in the top 10, we will see if you all agree when we get up there.

 

[wokeupnew]

You might want to brace yourself to be shocked. From my memory it has some amazing hot takes including one (I think it was number two) so gobsmacking I found it hard to recover...

Yeah, I think you need to be acquainted with classic era NME to really get the top end of the list. It was one where I went through it nodding my head and then was a bit “they went there?” for elements of the top 20, even if it was very NME lol.

Honestly that's great! I am so sick of publications lauding over the same handful of albums as the best ever. There's some really good albums that deserve more recognition.

 

[Poly-Rythmo]

Honestly that's great! I am so sick of publications lauding over the same handful of albums as the best ever. There's some really good albums that deserve more recognition.

Oh, I don't have a problem with the same old classics not getting top billing ; I just remember some pretty random albums getting in, even inside the top 10. And as it's the NME, it was pretty white and indie too