Wednesday, February 01, 2006

I should know better than to even think about reading NME lists

Found this on "She had a Thirst for Knowledge" - newly added blog to the sidebar. The NME has done one of its usual lists of the 100 best albums (scroll to 2006 list) and it inspires more confusion than anything else: I mean, I know the majesterial "The Queen is Dead" is in at 2, but "Strangways Here We Come" at 19? Huh?! Oasis STILL making the list? "Never Mind the Bollocks" at 4? More like "never mind this bollocks"...

I just about forgive them for at least having Pulp in at 7...

19 comments:

Kerron said...

No Crowded House, Beautiful South or Barenaked Ladies! Call that a list???

Surely Gordon by Barenaked Ladies should be somewhere?

At least there is plenty of Smiths and Pulp. (Nice to be reminded of His 'N' Hers btw - very underrated album.)

:-)

Anonymous said...

I'd agree with "Never Mind the Bollocks" being up there at number 4. Great album. But just about everything else about the list is pants. "Sgt Pepper" in the middle of nowhere, behind "Revolver" et al? Arctic Monkeys on there at all? The Cure's "Head on the Door" as their top album with "Disintegration" nowhere to be seen? Pah. 'Tis the work of ignoramuses.

Or maybe Lewis Carroll invented an NME-shaped looking glass and we're looking through it to another world right now. A world where The Stone Roses was the best band ever, rather than a bunch of whining drones who really needed a sprinkle of Prozac on their meals.

Anonymous said...

Heh. Those were my thoughts exactly.
Thanks for the link!

Anna Lowman (annawaits) said...

Kerron - you're missing the House Martins! Heehee.

Rob - C'mon, Revolver is a thousand times better than Sgt. Pepper! Song for song there's just no comparison :) And while the Stone Roses aren't the best band ever, they were anything but dull and droney - Sally Cinnamon is a beauty.

Reidski said...

Not many problems with that list, I have to say. Although, in saying that, all lists are shit. But, come one, the likes of Oasis, The Verve, The Strokes (even though I quite like the latter)? You bunch of philistines - you're not actually saying you have a problem with the likes of Television, the Beach Boys and the Pistols are you? They are classics.

And anyone who puts Madonna anywhere near a best album list should be taken out and shot like a dying dog in the street!

Rant over, I'm off to do cook the dinner!

Anonymous said...

"Revolver is a thousand times better than Sgt. Pepper! Song for song there's just no comparison :) And while the Stone Roses aren't the best band ever, they were anything but dull and droney - Sally Cinnamon is a beauty."

Interesting and well put. However, I believe that if you think about that statement long and hard, you'll find after a certain amount of soul-searching that you are wrong and I am right. Sorry. A hard fact to face, but true.

Admin said...

Oh come on. Gang of Four's Entertainment! only at number 64. I'm sure they do it to wind me up.

No. 81 - "Antonym And The Johnsons "
One of those deliberate mistakes slipped in so that Julian can spot when some other site just copies and pastes his lists? I hope so.

I'll reserve judgement on the Arctic Monkeys as I only bought it today and have not listened yet, but I can't help thinking that the Stone Roses is vastly over-rated.

She Had A Thirst For Knowledge is a fantastic name for a website though.

Anonymous said...

How the hell did the Arctic Monkeys get on there at all? It was only released a week ago! Hardly time to decide it's the fifth greatest album ever.

Lisa Rullsenberg said...

Kerron: you are damn right about the album His 'n' Hers - perfect summer music, in much the way that Different Class is autumnal and This is hardcore is winter. Funnily, I always think of the very very early (as in first) Pulp album It as being spring, so its almost as if the band worked their way through the seasons... except that doesn't really work because the intervening albums between It and His 'n' Hers are very autumn / wintery in feel, and We Love Life (the final album) is definitely late summer....

Rob Buckley (given the profusity of Robs that visit here I need to somehow move beyond the formality of using your full name: following my pattern so far - EineKleineRob and HolyHosesRob - perhaps MediumRob? Or does that threaten your masculinity...?! I digress!): I'm sorry but maybe the Pistols album didn't connect with me but I do think it over-rated (ducks from the flying objects from Reidski). I was always more of an Ian Dury gal myself... And even though I rather like Artic Monkeys, its insane to have them so high. then again, look at Lord of the Rings films in the high lists of greatest films.... (ducks again: theres bound to be someone throwing at me for that...)

Anna Lowman (annawaits) said...

"you'll find after a certain amount of soul-searching that you are wrong and I am right."

Haha. Yes, I'm sorry.
:)

And Lisa, I'm with you on LOTR...

"It was only released a week ago! Hardly time to decide it's the fifth greatest album ever."

EXACTLY!

Reidski said...

On more sober reflection and with a more temperate use of language, of course, it would be a horrible little world if we all had the same cultural tastes. But, on the issue of the Sex Pistols, like many other bands on that list (such as the Rolling Stones, for instance, who I've never really taken to all that much) certainly did have an impact on music and an impact on a generation of people in the western world. That is regardless of whether an individual likes it or not. Therefore, it has a rightful place in an all-time greatest albums list.
The Arctic Monkeys, on the other hand ... sounds like a good CD, but a week after it is released is not the time to consider it in the same way.

As for my comments on Madonna, I am, of course, wrong - I don't want to get in trouble with my fantastic new friend!

Lisa Rullsenberg said...

Reidski: you're right about the broader significance of the Pistols, regardless of my personal taste. Single-handed? Preeminent example? Whatever...

Hee hee though about your tell-off. that'll larn ya...

Reidski said...

In my opinion, the songs are as mind-blowingly brilliant today as they were when I first heard them!

As I say in previous comment, all lists are stupid, anyway - let's argue about something else!

Anonymous said...

The entire list is bunk, an empty hype produced solely for the inclusion of the Arctic Monkeys at No.5. Every other LP on this list in whatever position it was arbitarily placed should be disregarded - this was a Monkeys commercial, nothing more.

...and sorry y'all, but Pulp took 15 years to 'make it' 'cos they sucked. They continued to suck as they cashed in on the Brit Pop dollar, then they sucked while Javis complained about sleeping with super models & taking drugs & falling over outside The Good Mixer & making bundles of cash, then they made 'This Is Hardcore,' a concept LP about how sleeping with supermodels on drugs in the toilets of The Good Mixer really sucks, then they split. Still, Jarvis seems to be doing all right now as a talking-head-for-hire on 'Top 100 All Time Top 100' shows, and good look to him.

...I'm sorry, hip cats & kittens, Pulp bring out the worst in me. But I dug The Smiths the most, so we can all agree on that.

...and Anna Waits is right. The Stone Roses were capable of Byrdsian delight. And The Second Coming is ace.

timesnewroman said...

That list is just plain stupid. Why on earth have Happy Mondays, or the Verve or the LAs when the simply just don't cut it.Arctic Monkeys are far to new to tell whether they do actually stand the test of time. Sgt Pepper's a classic example having been up there in NME lists in the seventies but it's plainly not up to Revolver, Rubber Soul or the White Album. As for Nick Drake, if he wan't dead he wouldn't be in the list. His songs are dire, he could play guitar but its extremely dated boring pap. Where's Nirvana, Rage Agaibst the Machine and for GODS SAKE WHY ISNT SURREALSTIC PILLOW NOT at the top! Where's Marvin, Marley, Mayfield, Misty in Roots???Any black music in there or just white guys pretending to be and why a comedy album that once you've heard "cunt" several times it's really 14 year old schoolboy stuff as is the whole bloody lst to be honest. I used to like list but not this one. Apologies for the lengthy rant in your good blog!

Lisa Rullsenberg said...

Rant away Jim!

You're very welcome, even though Reidski thinks lists are always bad and contentious (which they are: hence a lazy way to boost up comment rates in a blog! although not as good for stirring comments as talking about toilet brushes - apparantly...)

Reidski said...

Just to make it 20 comments, then, yes lisa, lists are really really stupid.

And I would once again like to make it crystal clear that Madonna should definitely be on everyone's greatest albums ever list - well, I don't want to get into trouble the next time I meet my fabby fantastic new friend, do I?

P.S. As I write, I'm listening to Steve Earle - surely there's a place on a great album list for one of the great renegades?

Reidski said...

Oh, and I can't count - that only made it 18 comments, but this makes it 19. So come on folks, let's get lisa over the 20 mark! We can beat that toilet brush amount I'm sure!

timesnewroman said...

Hendrix, I missed out Hendrix. That's 20 comments now.