The Smiths ‘The Queen Is Dead’ Named Greatest Album by NME
 

The Smiths’ 1986 LP came top of the list, above albums by The Beatles and David Bowie.

In his recent number one best-selling book Autobiography, Morrissey attacks the NME and accuses them of conspiring against him. Ironically the alternative music publication’s staff has named The Smiths’ 1986 album ‘The Queen Is Dead’ as the greatest in history.

‘The Queen Is Dead’ is The Smiths third studio album, recorded in 1985 and includes the songs ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’, ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side’ and ‘Frankly Mr. Shankly’. Produced by Johnny Marr and Morrissey, the album peaked at number 2 in the chart upon its release. One of the reasons of the choice claimed by NME, is that the record is just as relevant today as it was 27 years ago. The Smiths top higher than the The Beatles ‘Revolver’, David Bowie ‘Hunky Dory’, Pixies ‘Doolitle’ and Radiohead ‘Ok Computer’.

‘The Queen Is Dead’ appeared at No. 8 on NME’s previous list of the greatest albums, while The Stone Roses’ self-titled release was at No. 1. Among the fresh entries, there are Kanye West’s ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ and Amy Winehouse’s ‘Back to Black.’, there is also a big surprise by the number 4 by The Strokes ‘This is It’.


NME’s top 25 Greatest Albums of All Time

1. The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead
2. The Beatles – Revolver
3. David Bowie – Hunky Dory
4. The Strokes – Is This It
5. The Velvet Underground & Nico – The Velvet Underground
6. Pulp – Different Class
7. The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses
8. Pixies – Doolittle
9. The Beatles – The Beatles (White Album)
10. Oasis – Definitely Maybe
11. Nirvana – Nevermind
12. Patti Smith – Horses
13. Arcade Fire – Funeral
14. David Bowie – Low
15. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
16. Joy Division – Closer
17. Public Enemy – It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
18. My Bloody Valentine – Loveless
19. Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
20. Radiohead – OK Computer
21. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
22. Blur – Parklife
23. David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
24. The Rolling Stones – Exile on Main St
25. Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On


What do you think of this list? A bit risky The Smiths in the first place?


Regards,

I never know what to make of top xx lists by magazines like Rolling Stone and NME. They claim to focus only on including 'great' or 'important' or 'influential' albums, but what is great or important or infuential is still only a matter of opinion. In other words they're aiming at something that is impossible - objectivity.

Better to just list the albums you love and give up any pretension.

That just goes to show how much NME sucks

And these list should be taken as opinions, so it is always very pretentious when they call them '20 best albums ever' or whatever.

No matter what you say, The Queen is Dead was a great choice and one I agree with.

Yup yup.

The biggest boo boo is attempting to treat something subjective as if it were rooted in absolute objectivity. A lot of the times these lists attempt to feign eclecticism to maintain credibility too.

That being said I don't really have an issue with The Queen Is Dead, but I don't think that This Is It (or Arctic Monkeys) should be anywhere on that list.

It always cracks me up how these magazines put out these ridiculously rock-centric lists but then toss in a smattering of hip hop and R&B to not appear as myopic as they clearly are. They should have just been honest about it and made a best rock albums list.

They're wrong though

s/t >>>>>> Meat Is Murder >>>> The Queen is Dead

atleast you got the s/t being their best part right.

I love the Smiths more than u do u mad

pfft you can have em. Bunch o dinguses i say.

NAW


Also I just noticed "Is This It" is super high on this list. I approve.

Guys, guys, guys....

The Queen is Dead > Strangeways > Eponymous. Haven't heard Meat is Murder.

You're like 12 why would we value your opinion

Louder then Bombs>

No love for Hatful of Hollow? Ok then..

Most of Hatful of Hollow is included on Louder then bombs.

but but but but no This Charming Man, Still Ill, or Handsome Devil

Those are compilations, anyway. And Sansa, age is just a number *cries*

I prefer it that way. I wore those songs out honestly. You have better taste then Briks, i'll give you that. :wave:

That defines Marvin Gaye's legacy. Being the token black guy on the white band list. Got to love diversity.

On another note, this list is a hell of a lot better than most 'Best of' lists I've seen. No list is ever going to match any one persons personal liking 100% so there's no point in complaining about these things. At least it wasn't swamped with 5 albums a piece by the Beatles and Dylan

Whatdidyoujustsaywaswrongwithmytaste?

Its just The Smiths. Its all been done.

Oh. I'm relatively new to them, and haven't heard it all, so...

Was a minor joke is all. The Queen is Dead is a fine album.

Despite the mega love by many for Louder Than Bombs, all seriously justly deserved for being a double serving of Smiths greatness, I will have to say that it's all about the time and place for me so I will give a huge shout out to Hatful of Hallow. For me, that was the collection I got before Louder Than Bombs got the attention and the Smiths album I will value forever more than the others. Getting it on a School Trip as an import just shortly after it's release along with Japan's Gentlemen Take Polaroids, it seriously paved another way for my music listening. Despite the debut being great, Hatful was more intimate sounding through the radio session tracks and it's choice of singles sides, although I did not know where they came from at the time, were of a top caliber.

(There's a bit of a high horse ride for me being the first in my small dot, US community that caught "How Soon Is Now" before the local New Wave fan caught it...OK ride's finished, back to the reality.)

Their Top 25 List also included Public Enemy, which is kind of a reminder of their Late 80's support of Rap and House. Maybe he's got some company now along with Kayne West.

I still know what you mean, and it's ALWAYS with the same album, as if Marvin's history is not with any other great albums beyond that and a Greatest Hits.

The cream of this list reads like the token albums you have to hear according to a few people, and while many of them are classics, it's one of those lists that's narrow not by choice anymore, but by room. There has been so much time and too many eras, trends, genres, classic albums of all kinds for a serious one-stop listing of the greats, and I have a feeling that the OP was only 25 out of longer list (I think Psychocandy was somewhere in the 150's, if I'm thinking of the right list). There's the token Holy Trinity of Britpop, the token must mention Post-Punk legends (Joy Division, check; One Bowie from the Late 70's, double check), the has to be there mention of the two class Beatles albums that are not Sgt. Pepper, MBV (of course!), The Stones' Exile, VU and Nico (Check, Double Check, Triple Check!), and so on. It's as if they compiled their favorite Documentaries or histories they read about hundreds of times and just listed the albums and then mentioned What's Going On for good measure. Maybe for modern listeners, these are good pointers to what happened before, but still it's more for the Rock/Indie crowd than other kinds of music listeners. There are those like me who took their tastes to other places not explored by the major publications that will never get touched by these lists - It's nice see a lot a mentions of some reasonably good albums, but there's a world out there to be explored, and there always will be.

Still FAR better than Rolling Stone's lists, though.

Really, in my opinion the Top 25 list is pretty good, many albums I can cozy up to, but not the all time list. Music History should not be comfortable.

The Queen Is Dead at #1? Seems right for now, though. It's iconic for it's time and a very sharp British album in my opinion. Possibly the best original (non-compilation) Smiths album, although it's a tough choice between that and their S/T.

These lists always make me wonder if music actually exists outside of the US and UK.

Shite list, based purely on fucking I saw you coming shite, written by people trying to be 'intelligent'. The sort of cunt who 'needs a Costa', wants to live in London, drinks at a wine bar and owns a fucking prius. Skinny jeans wearing wankers.

But they do this to get people pissed off and talking about their wank magazine. Been done a million times.

Top 20 being made up almost entirely of white cunts with guitars :o:.

No Black Sabbath :o:.

A Kanye West album in the top 20 albums of all time ffs. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is not even one of the 20 best hip hop albums of all time.

Come at me.

http://oi50.tinypic.com/1znu6pi.jpg

Such a Smipster.

:love:

Definitely Maybe better than Parklife?


http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view1/154...t-attack-o.gif

I'm not very surprised by any of the NME selections, including the Smiths. If you're an avid reader of NME the top 25 albums are precisely the sort of glam rock, Brit rock and indie rock that NME has passionately advocated for the past four decades. I am surprised that none of the Roxy Music albums made the list. Roxy really revolutionized British rock and spawned legions of imitators and followers.

The selections Marvin Gaye, Kanye West and Public Enemy were mild surprises for me. But not really... It seems that every alternative rock critic includes a few token hip-hip and/or soul artists on his favorite lists.

I'm also surprised that NME didn't select Kala by M.I.A. who is the most notable rapper to ever come from the U.K.

Only always.

;)

Even in this kind of trivial context, I agree with this in a way. Still, I also agree Different Class >>> the albums by Blur and Oasis.

Different Class >> Parklife >> Defiantly Maybe.

The Queen Is Dead at No. 1? Yawn. The Smiths at No. 1? More yawn.

I just caught a full 500 list...The Jam only having Sound Effects in the lower 400's? (All Mod Cons at #219...are you sure they did not mix the numbers?) !!! Lou Reed's Berlin way down the list - #498?

Just goes to show, too many era, too many great albums, and all the other yadda yadda I can whip up in a post leads to a messed up list. They mean nothing although if you're in, they at least provide some kind of marketing tool, the ONLY good these lists would ever do now.

BTW, on the line of Soul artists a couple of posts before, after the 25, Stevie Wonder was next with the influential Innervisions at...#42.

Some notes...

Hatful was #100.
Bowie's Station to Station was #53
Lou's Transformer was #72
Iggy and The Stooges' Raw Power was only #80
Blur's Modern Life Is Rubbish was #33
James Brown's classic Live At the Apollo was only #125?!!!
Hendrix's Are You Experienced #144
J&MC's Psychocandy at #157
Zeppelin 3 at #173...I'm still looking for a mention of 4 or Physical Graffiti. Let alone more Metal or Classic Heavy Rock...no Sabbath I think.
Iggy's Lust For Life at #217...kind of surprising as the title track help define England's Late 90's via Trainspotting.
Bowie's Heroes way down at #329?!!!...VERY surprising as it has the killer title song.
Plus...mentions of the first 2 MC5 albums but not the slam dunk classic High Time?!!! (as far as what I read so far) True, I can understand Kick Out the Jam's influence, but as much as I love Back in The USA, High Time is of far more importance in my opinion.
Charles Mingus' Mingus Ah Um at #303

Hardly any mentions of Chess or 50's legends, either. I'm done with this topic for now!

As there's a mention of Roxy, I will mention something. On the Full 500 list - For Your Pleasure at #88.

From what I've seen a lot of old school, snooty alt rock types seem to have only contempt for metal in general, as if they didn't probably start out listening to ****ty punk rock no better than Exodus or Cannibal Corpse when they were kids.

I did, bye

**** metal

I love me some punk too, but anybody who digs Black Flag has no business feeling superior to anyone who likes Slayer.