Another Hot 100

The Guardian's site features a new selection of the 100 greatest British albums of all time. If there's a "news" angle here, it's that the group at #1 is not The Beatles. (There's no Pulp on that list, nor any Queen.) A description of the list is here.

Comments

[SR]

No Peter Gabriel, no Genesis, and the only Police entry comes in at #90 *below* not one but *two* Dexy's Midnight Runners' albums? Clearly there must be dangerous levels of mercury in the fish & chips...

[Rick Blaine]

I, for one, am glad the Beatles didn't capture the top spot. Not because I don't think they deserve it -- there are at least three Beatles albums that are plausible candidates -- but because we are all spared the prospect of having to endure more of Nick Gillespie's whining about the Beatles' continuing popularity.

[Lemuel]

What, no Monty Python Album?

And where are the likes of B. Britten or E. Elgar.
🙂

Never heard of about 9/10 of those albums.

[Argyles]

Interesting that the best Beatles album (Revolver) came in at #2, but the next best (Abbey Road) was #28 -- way behind two good but overrated LPs ("Sarge" and the "White Album").

[The Lonewacko Blog]

I hate to be culturally illiterate, but who are "The Stone Roses?" Don't I hear "Massive Attack" on car commercials? ("Unbelievable") "Dexys Midnight Runners?" Aren't they a) Irish, and b) the perpetrators of "Cum on Eileen?" "Thin Lizzy?"

Cor. Blimey.

[anonymous coward]

Sticky Fingers is the best Rolling Stones album? No it's not. It's not even in the top three.

[Adam]

What!!!??!??! The Who's "Who's Next" is absent. This is one of the top 5 albums of all time, no matter what the nationality of the performer. Other notable absentees:

Yes - Close to the Edge
Thin Lizzy - Live and Dangerous
ELP - ELP
Jethro Tull - Aqualung
Queen - A Night at the Opera
Genesis - A Trick of the Tail
The Police - Synchronicity

I could go on, but I find this list to be mystifying. The Stone Roses were a decent band in their day, but come on, does any of their stuff surpass the likes of The Who, Kinks, Zeppelin, David Bowie etc in their heyday?

[KentInDC]

Lonewacko,
The Stone Roses was a group out of Manchester in the eighties and early nineties. Do you remember the song "Love Spreads", their only US hit? You might not recognize the name, but it was popular in the early nineties and the chorus was something like "the Messiah is my sister, ain't no queen, man, she's my queen ... I had a dream, I've seen the light, don't put it out, she's alright, she's my sister." Ring a bell? I love their music, but they compared to U2 when it came to trying to sound profound using nonsense religious allusions (but at least you can make some sense out of some U2 lyrics). One of their hits was "I am the Ressurection", a catchy song that I won't be able to get out of my head the rest of the day. Talk about pretentious ... .

[iconoclast]

WHAT? Patrick, how can you say Radiohead is overrated. What a bunch of rubbish. In fact, I can't figure out why Kid A isn't on that list. It's downright unacceptable.

[hilly]

KentinDC: That song was from the Stone Roses' INCREDIBLY AWFUL second album "Second Coming," not the eponymous debut album listed. If there were a "Bottom 100" list, "Second Coming" would rank near dead last.

[joe]

The La's? Coldplay? Massive Attack in the top 10? PiL AHEAD of the Pistols?

WTF?

Nice to see Gang of Four on there. And My Bloody Valentine.

Joy Division rules.

sm, that post was gear.

[Lisa Simpson]

I like Pulp, but now they seem a little dated -- Cool Britannia and that. Sorted out for E's and whiz, indeed. Oh, and "let's all meet up in the year 2000", of course.

[KentInDC]

hilly,
I agree that Second Coming (Actually, it was their third album, Stone Roses was first and Turns Into Stone was second.) was a big disappointment compared to the earlier stuff, and I think most SR fans feel the same. I was just trying to jog Lonewackos memory. I still like several songs from Second Coming, though. In any event, I can think of quite a few albums I would consider worse, but I admit to having lousy taste in music.

[s.m. koppelman]

How about we all agree Jethro Tull's flute-rock tour-de-force Thick as a Brick should be on there as long as Genesis (especially 1976 Genesis) stays firmly locked out.

The problem with Peter Gabriel is that his enjoyable first couple of albums weren't important, and his subsequent important albums are about as enjoyable as root canals.

Make no apologies for Stone Roses lyrics, kids. Prior to mid-1965 the Beatles weren't exactly Shakespeare, you know, and they were none the worse for it. This is rock'n'roll we're talking about here.

[Mike Joyce]

As far as Joy Division goes, I'm willing to bet the authors were teenagers in their short-lived heyday. If you're 16 then they're great. Radiohead is much more of a "like the right things band"

[wellfellow]

"Yes" is #51???, "King Crimson", "Jethro Tull", "Emerson, Lake, and Palmer" are all absent????!!!!!

[matt]

Oh OK, Now I see why Queen wasn't included, they had to put Dexy's Midnight Runners on there twice....

[Will]

If there's a "news" angle here, it's that the group at #1 is not The Beatles.

That's not a "news" angle - it's a reason not to bother with the list.

[iconoclast]

Pulp rocks. Common people's a great song. I didn't think anyone else in America listened to them.

[KentInDC]

I certainly won't argue with the Stone Roses in the top spot - that is one of my favorite groups. I never understood why they never caught on in the US. I think their only US hit was "Love Spreads", which came out after the peak of their popularity in the UK. I can't believe that Joy Division has two albums in the top 30.

[Douglas Fletcher]

Band on the Run is #89???

And no Fleetwood Mac? They were 3/5 British through most of their time, after all.

[dan]

Hey, I'll eat this kind of bait for breakfast...

Plenty of minor quibbles, but there are some indefensible oversights:

The Who -- The Who Sell Out
X-Ray Spex -- Germ Free Adolescents
Eno -- Another Green World
Beat -- Just Can't Stop It

[Fred Gillette]

OK, that's great that The Plastic Ono Band came in at 45. But no Traffic? Are they nuts? Dream Gerard is the best tune of all time. Well, maybe the stoniest.

[Joanne McNeil]

The lists makes sense if you consider the methodology. They asked local musicians and critics. Most british artists are, ummm, "Brit Pop," so it's no surprise Stone Roses are number one. Look at the individual lists. Electroclash artists are going to say PIL and Human League, rappers vote for Dizzee Rascal. That's what happens with lists that are not specific to a genre. But what is remarkable are the new guard influences that did get up there: The Fall, Talk Talk, New Order, Robert Wyatt etc.

Fifty years from now, when they inevitably make another lsit like this, people may be more shocked that Joy Division or Roxy Music isn't number one, rather than the Beatles.

[Gunnar Hegel]

Those of you interested should check out the Muse LP "Showbiz." It could have taken #96 in lieu The Human League, for chrissakes.

[s.m. koppelman]

I don't have a problem with the Stone Roses' debut at #1. That's one heck of a record and Blur, Radiohead, Oasis, post-Separations Pulp, and all the current-generation Britpop are hard to imagine without it. The Soup Dragons and the Happy Mondays' Pills, Thrills, et al probably wouldn't have been enough.

There are, after all, three Beatles records in the top ten, including the great-sounding-but-too-bad-about-those-songs Sgt. Pepper. Isn't that freaking enough? Yeah, yeah, they got it all started, but I don't see anyone complaining when Bill Haley and His Comets don't top similar American lists. Thankfully.

The fact that Joy Division's two elpees greatly outrank the only (and vastly more tuneful and vastly less dated) New Order entry is indicitave of musicians' Hipsterism Impulse at work. Tricky's two-great-songs-before-it-puts-you-to-sleep debut is the same thing in brainy hiphopist circles. It's like saying Kind of Blue is The Best Post-Bop Jazz Record Ever, heaven forbid, when it's really just shorthand for demonstrating that You Like the Right Things.

Ask a bunch of musicians what records are best and they'll tell you which ones they prized when they were fifteen years old, as much for the cachet as the music.

[KentInDC]

s.m. koppelman,
I can't believe it! I agee with you on a post. I can listen to New Order all day (and have done so), but Joy Division? I'm sorry, can't deal with it. Have you seen "24 Hour Party People"? I liked the movie, but then I like most of the "Madchester" groups.

[hilly]

I thank the lord God above for the fact that the Stone Roses occupy the top spot, even it's for a crappy list that everyone will forget about in three days.

Good to see MBV in there as well, though they should be higher with "Loveless" and also make a showing with "Isn't Anything."

Pulp's "Common People" is one of the few songs that makes me want to start a class war. It's amusing that Franz Ferdinand sounds a lot like them, what with the fact that FF is hot in the East Coast right now.

[Pavel]

Shock omissions from the list include Pulp, Queen and the Cure.

Obviously these people are brain damaged. That's as far as I read.

Oh and "24 Hour Party People" is an excellent movie.

[Jeff Clothier]

They lost me when they included Fairport Convention and ignored Jethro Tull. Kinks should have appeared much higher, but they got in twice so I almost forgive. I would have switched the positions of Van Morrison's "Moondance" and "Astral Weeks," the second of which I find ponderous and unmoving compared to the simplicity and exuberance of "Moondance," otherwise, I agree with most of their choices.

[Patrick]

OMG, no time to analyze this at work, but since I grew up on so much of this stuff I have to comment... I too think the Stone Roses album is fine at #1. I would have said "Brotherhood" (or "Lowlife") instead of "Power, Corruption and Lies" because the latter has a couple clunkers. "Parklife" should instead be "Modern Life is Rubbish" for the same reason. I am happy to see "Revolver" top "Sgt. Peppers". But my main beef is the inclusion of anything by the incomprehensibly overrated Radiohead and Coldplay.

[Kevin Carson]

*Piper at the Gates of Dawn* was at least as good as *Dark Side of the Moon*. It was the one album Pink Floyd did when Sid Barrett was not only with them, but still more or less in his right mind.

I'd also like to see *The Final Cut.* It was Roger Waters at his best, especially considering it was the last thing he did before Floyd became a shitty Dave Gilmour solo act.

[Countertop]

Douglas,

I agree, its shocking that Fleetwood Mac, and many of the other great British Blues bands (Cream!?!?, Clapton?!?!?), are absent.

Of course, the Fleetwood Mac that deserves a place in the poll isn't the 3/5th British California Pop band that conquered America and destroyed pop radio in the late 70s - it was the full on blues explosion led by Peter Green which laid the ground work for Led Zepplin and all the other heavy blues artists of the time.

[Dylan]

What about Elvis Costello's "This Year's Model"? It's a lot better than "My Aim Is True".

[James]

Dylan is correct. "This Year's Model" is better than "My Aim Is True," and "Imperial Bedroom" is better than both. It's a little overproduced, but so is every album ever made by The Who and Pink Floyd. I once read this delightful faint praise of the latter: "brilliant in an excessive, adolescent sort of way." That about sums it up.

[kevrob]

I like Thin Lizzy, but they were Irish, too. So is Van the Man.

And if this is the best British list, where the hell are Battlefield Band, Old Blind Dogs, Dick Gaughan, The Corries or Shooglenifty?

I also dig that Welshman, Dave Edmunds.

Kevin

(Anglo-Saxons out of Britain!)

[John Kluge]

No Cream. No Sychronicity. No Police record past #90. No Who's next and No Queen. AND NO CURE!!!Those ommissions alone make the list rediculous. As far as the Stone Roses go, they were a good band, but I find it difficult to believe that 10 or 20 years from now their music will mean as much to as many people as bands like the Beatles, The Police and The Cure. That alone ought to prevent their being number one even if you think the record is worthy. As an aside, even when the get the artist right, they seem to pick the wrong record. Moondance is a much better Van Morrison record than Astral Weeks and What's the Story Morning Glory is a much better Oasis record than Definitely Maybe, just to name two mistakes.

[KentInDC]

Kevin,
Although Van Morrison sometimes refers to himself as Irish, he is from Ulster and therefore a native of the UK.

[kevrob]

"Being from Ulster makes you British" will be a surprise to the residents of Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan.

Those born in the "6 counties" are also Irish Republic citizens, should they claim that privilege.

Kevin

[KentInDC]

Kevin,
You got me there. OK, Van was born in the UK because he was born in one of the "six counties." How about that? I doubt he will argue that his albums don't belong on the list, but he might argue that he should have had more albums on the list and that they should have been higher. About two thirds of the residents of the six counties have no desire to claim the "privilege" of Irish citizenship, but to each their own.

[Ronald Reagan Jr.]

The Smiths "The Queen Is Dead" is hands down the greatest British album of all time. There really is no need to even argue about it.

Harrassed royalty, Crossedressing Vicars, Cemetery walkathons... what else do you need in an album?

What else is there to sing about?

[Nancy Reagan]

Oh, and add The Jam's "Sound Affects" to the list.