Kevin's Watch

Last night, Channel 4 counted down it's 100 greatest albums. A panel of music industry experts selected 125 albums, and then the British public voted on which was the greatest album of all time. Here are the results:

1. RADIOHEAD - OK Computer
2. U2 - The Joshua Tree
3. NIRVANA - Nevermind
4. MICHAEL JACKSON - Thriller
5. PINK FLOYD - Dark Side of the Moon
6. OASIS - Definitely Maybe
7. THE BEATLES - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
8. MADONNA - Like a Prayer
9. GUNS N' ROSES - Appetite For Destruction
10. THE BEATLES - Revolver
11. R.E.M. - Automatic for the People
12. THE BEATLES - The White Album
13. QUEEN - A Night at the Opera
14. COLDPLAY - Parachutes
15. OASIS - (What's the Story) Morning Glory
16. ALANIS MORISSETTE - Jagged Little Pill
17. LED ZEPPELIN - Led Zeppelin IV
18. THE VERVE - Urban Hymns
19. JIMI HENDRIX - Are you Experienced
20. THE SMITHS - The Queen Is Dead
21. JOHN LENNON - Imagine
22. RADIOHEAD - The Bends
23. BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS - Exodus
24. THE STONE ROSES - The Stone Roses
25. SIMON AND GARFUNKEL - Bridge Over Troubled Water
26. BJORK - Debut
27. THE DOORS - The Doors
28. ABBA - Arrival
29. MICHAEL JACKSON - Off the Wall
30. DURAN DURAN - Rio
31. SEX PISTOLS - Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols
32. DAVID BOWIE - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
33. THE BEACH BOYS - Pet Sounds
34. JOY DIVISION - Closer
35. THE ROLLING STONES - Let It Bleed
36. BLUR - Parklife
37. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - Born to Run
38. BILLIE HOLIDAY - Lady Sings the Blues
39. THE WHITE STRIPES - Elephant
40. BLACK SABBATH - Paranoid
41. THE SPECIALS - Specials
42. THE ROLLING STONES - Exile on Main Street
43. FRANK SINATRA - Songs for Swingin' Lovers!
44. THE CLASH - London Calling
45. THE PRODIGY - The Fat of the Land
46. THE VELVET UNDERGROUND - The Velvet Underground and Nico
47. DIRE STRAITS - Brothers in Arms
48. PIXIES - Doolittle
49. ARETHA FRANKLIN - I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
50. THE LIBERTINES - The Libertines
51. HAPPY MONDAYS - Pills 'N' Thrills and Bellyaches
52. PATTI SMITH - Horses
53. THE WHO - Tommy
54. LOU REED - Transformer
55. BOB DYLAN - Blood on the Tracks
56. PRINCE - Sign 'o' the Times
57. DIDO - No Angel
58. AIR - Moon Safari
59. ELTON JOHN - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
60. THE JAM - All Mod Cons
61. JEFF BUCKLEY - Grace
62. FLEETWOOD MAC - Rumours
63. MOBY - Play
64. RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
65. THE POLICE - Synchronicity
66. JONI MITCHELL - Blue
67. CURTIS MAYFIELD - Superfly
68. ELVIS PRESLEY - The Sun Sessions
69. OUTKAST - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
70. PULP - Different Class
71. KRAFTWERK - Trans-Europe Express
72. MASSIVE ATTACK - Blue Lines
73. BECK - Odelay
74. STEVIE WONDER - Songs in the Key of Life
75. KATE BUSH - Hounds of Love
76. TALKING HEADS - Fear of Music
77. EMINEM - The Marshall Mathers LP
78. MARVIN GAYE - What's Going On
79. GEORGE MICHAEL - Faith
80. SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER - The Original Movie Soundtrack
81. PRIMAL SCREAM - Screamadelica
82. JOHN COLTRANE - A Love Supreme
83. LOVE - Forever Changes
84. PAUL SIMON - Graceland
85. NICK DRAKE - Five Leaves Left
86. MEAT LOAF - Bat Out of Hell
87. DUSTY SPRINGFIELD - Dusty in Memphis
88. DE LA SOUL - 3 Feet High and Rising
89. THE STROKES - Is this It
90. MADNESS - One Step Beyond...
91. ROBBIE WILLIAMS - I've Been Expecting You
92. NEIL YOUNG - After the Gold Rush
93. PUBLIC ENEMY - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
94. BLONDIE - Parallel Lines
95. THE EAGLES - Hotel California
96. JAMES BROWN - Sex Machine
97. THE STREETS - A Grand Don't Come for Free
98. DEXY'S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS - Searching for the Young Soul Rebels
99. ROD STEWART - Every Picture Tells a Story
100. THE HUMAN LEAGUE - Dare!

Channel4.com

Thanks, Murrin. You've put me off lists forever now.

I could have predicted Nevermind getting a high placing, but OK Computer and Like A Prayer were surprising.

Some corrections I'd make (other than throwing the whole list out):

Switch Automatic For The People for Monster
Switch Doolittle for Surfer Rosa

Throw out Radiohead & replace it with Dire Straits' 'Love Over Gold'... Throw out Michael Jackson & replace him with anyone with actual talent... & it might be a halfway decent list.

ok computer is very good ....... but best album ever? in a word no

Husker Du : Zen Arcade
Minutemen : Double Nickles On the Dime
Throwing Muses : the Real Ramona
Camper Van Beethoven : Key Lime Pie
Cracker : Kerosene Hat
Pink Floyd : Wish You Were Here
Uncle Tupelo : No Depression
Dumptruck : For the Country
Neil Young : Harvest
Lemonheads : It's A Shame About Ray

off the top of my head

Wow, what a bad list. The Beatles at #7? Led Zeppelin at #17? The Sex Pistols at #31? The Stones at #35?

WTF?

I'm not sure that it's the best album ever, but OK Computer's a fine album nonetheless. It's interesting to note that the albums they've made since do not appear on this list.

It's difficult to appreciate the esteem Radiohead are held in by the British music press unless you live over here. Apart from Muse (who've not sacrificed melody for pretentiousness and self indulgence the way Radiohead have) Britain has produced very little in the way of seriously high quality rock music since OK Computer.

All this list proves is that a lot of the British public are unaware of their rich musical heritage.

Cail wrote:Wow, what a bad list. The Beatles at #7? Led Zeppelin at #17? The Sex Pistols at #31? The Stones at #35?

WTF?

You mean The Beatles should be at #1, right? I agree with you, then.

Q) "Name the greatest band the world's seen ?"

A) The Beatles.

You'll find no argument from me on that one. They turned songwriting, arranging and production upside down, no doubt about it.

However, did they ever record the greatest album of all time ? I'd say Revolver has to be a contender, but there's some stiff competition.

Lord Foul wrote:

Cail wrote:Wow, what a bad list. The Beatles at #7? Led Zeppelin at #17? The Sex Pistols at #31? The Stones at #35?

WTF?

You mean The Beatles should be at #1, right? I agree with you, then.

Well, I don't think so, but I wouldn't be unhappy if they were....The Beatles, after all.

But ranking Coldplay above Led Zeppelin? Sacrilige!

Led Zeppelin should have been 1!

the best album ever?

maybe Dark Side of the Moon

But ranking Coldplay above Led Zeppelin? Sacrilige!

Well deserved! Parachutes is a brilliant album.

I won't argue too hard with OK Computer as the No. 1 choice of the British public. Most of my favorite artists are UK-based, anyway.

Radiohead's Kid A album touches me more personally, though, and that makes all the difference in the world. I'm not prepared to say Kid A is the "greatest album ever" but neither do I think it's inferior to OK Computer.

Nice to see U2 ranked way up there. However, my pick for greatest U2 album would be Achtung Baby. I do admire The Joshua Tree, but I only had ears for Sting's Nothing Like The Sun that year (1987).

I accept Nevermind as an influential album (for better or for worse), but as a piece of music I think it's overrated. Achtung Baby came out the same year, after all, and I think it walks all over Nevermind, musically speaking. Nirvana may have gotten all the attention by being louder than everyone else, but U2 were the true innovators. And I'm still of the opinion that In Utero was Nirvana's best album, by far.

Thriller is another very overrated album--BUT it does have what I feel are two of the greatest pop songs ever written by anybody: Billie Jean and Beat It. It's fashionable nowadays to dump on "whacko" Jackson, but when it comes down to the music and away from the politics, I'll remember him as the author of these two amazing songs.

Dark Side of the Moon: I think the songs on the second half (Side Two, heh) are not as inspired as the utterly brilliant first half, but I still admire this album. A lot. But my favorite Pink Floyd album is their last, The Division Bell. I can hear Floyd fans screaming already: any Floyd album without Roger Waters is no Floyd album of mine! Nevertheless.

Sgt. Pepper: I'm sorry, but I just don't see the greatness that many people see in this album. I think it's a weak Beatles effort, filled with some of the lamest songs they've ever written. (For a truly hypnotic and musically superior psychedelic trip I'll put on Pink Floyd's The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, thanks.) Revolver would be my choice for best Beatles album, and for best album ever.

And, hey, it's good to see Madonna is appreciated. The male-dominated rock fanbase, as well as the male-dominated field of rock journalism, tends to look down on what it views as insubstantial dance-pop, especially as practiced by pop "starlets" like Madonna. But to me, her music is great, regardless of whose conventions it defies. My pick for Madonna's greatest album would be True Blue.

Nathan wrote:

But ranking Coldplay above Led Zeppelin? Sacrilige!

Well deserved! Parachutes is a brilliant album.

Pah! Child! Coldplay will be long forgotten in 10 years, Zeppelin will still be Zeppelin.

That list is complete and utter garbage.

anyone else sick of these '100 greatest' shows on channel 4?

Yes, end the 100 Greatest series!

Just reading the tv guide next sunday 8.00pm: The 100 greatest '100 greatset' shows.