100 Best Albums Channel 4

[MC HP]

OK Computer? How was this number 1? Not a bad album, but most of the top 20 was better. Dark Side of the Moon, Revolver and Nevermind were well better. Any thoughts?

[willow74]

Ok Computer is a very successful very clever album so yes deserved a high spot but i would have put a beatles album on top.

Its only channel 4 who voted so i guess age group wise perhaps 20-35 so radiohead a preferred choice to Pink Floyd. 

[OBonio]

Agreed. Was this a revolutionary album? I don't think so. Very very good (I prefer the Bends personally), but nowhere near DSoM (or Wish You Were Here, Animals or Meddle for that matter). Several much more deserved entries should have filled that spot. But not Nevermind. Of all the overrated spoilt brat music I've ever heard... but that's another topic ;o).

[Gevs1966]

There was a poll about two years ago in which loads and loads on people in the music industry voted on the best album of all time based on technicality etc etc and not just popularity. The people who voted then included music critics, producers, artists, record company moguls etc They put OK Computer at number one.

 

People in this country are generally sheep and are very open to suggestion so in seeing the results from these people who "know" what they are talking about would pick the same album without even realising it.

[kags]

Usually with these polls people seem to vote for very contemporary stuff - I think there were several Robbie Williams songs in the poll for song of the decade - so I was pleasantly surprised at the top 20. I can't see The Verve, Alanis Morisette or Coldplay still being in the list in 5 years time, but the others seem pretty fair. Some big omissions from the list overall though - The Wall & Achtung Baby to name a couple. I think the reasons given above for OK Computer being at number 1 sound resonable. It's not a favourite of mine but I can see its merits. I just wouldn't ever chose to play the whole album at once, unlike for instance Blood on the Tracks - a travesty of justice at number 55! I hope the public do a better job on 5th May!

[kags]

Tha t should have read "song of the milennium"

[stevie21]

I didn't watch the program but I'd have to say, Nirvana's "Nevermind" is a stunning album.
I always hate to see Sgt Pepper featuring highly in any Best Album polls. It's not even in my top 3 Beatles albums! Maybe I'm blind to its obvious merits (Lovely Rita, meter maid) or there's the sheep theory that Gevs speaks of.

I'd vote for completely different albums if the criteria was either what I considered to be groundbreaking or revolutionary albums that I happen to like or just my favourite albums. I'm not convinced that The Libertines are groundbreaking but theirs are definitely among my favourite albums ever.

[LesleyTK]

agreed, would like to have seen The Queen is Dead and Doolittle higher, but each to their own I suppose.  Dare I say it, I find Readiohead a bit overrated!!  shoot me I know!

[Philtaz]

Must admit I was shocked at the choice of No. 1.

For me, the notable absentee's were:

U2, The Unforgettable Fire

The Smiths, Hatful Of Hollow

Manic Street Preachers, Holy Bible and This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours

Simply Red, Stars

Stereophonics, Just Enough Education To Perform

to name but a few.

[johntheplamf]

It all depends on what album you listened to at a particularly impressionable age, which means for me, The Stone Roses will always be the best album of all time.

Anyway, who are we to be told what is the best album of all time, Two words, Personal Taste.

[Dudley]

I totally agree. It is personal taste and if you choose one album today, it might well be a different one in a couple of weeks when your mood changes. Some of mine over the years have been White Mansions, Invisible Touch, Unforgettable Fire, Physical Graffiti, Different Class, Beatles For Sale and Brothers In Arms but then, I am old.

[jenstar]

It's always interesting to see how these polls change over time.It's not so long ago that Pet Sounds was topping every poll going, but I think it was only in the 30s this time. Also a lot of albums from the 1990s have fallen from grace quite spectacularly - Screamadelica and Blue Lines are very low in the poll, and there's no room for "Giant Steps", "dubnobasswithmyheadman", "Maxinquaye", or even New Order's "Technique" (yes, I know that's 1989, not 90s, and it's their third best album from my point of view, but the one that always used to appear in this sort of poll).

[donegal]

the beatles or u2

[stevie21]

Even today, Pet Sounds would definitely be in my top 5 albums. I absolutely love that album and have done since the first moment I heard it.

I think that if I rated a recent album 9/10 and and oldie the same, I'd place the oldie higher in the poll as it had already passed the test of time.
I'm beginning to sound old! I'm glad I mentioned The Libertines earlier. haha

[FP]

Mrs FP is keeping happily quiet on this one.

[whiskers]

How can anyone say that Nevermind is over rated.

Anyone who knows anything about music will agree that Nirvana did a hell of alot for the music industry.

[rbbrg]

Abbey Road

[sammy b]

quality and influential album, it works as a whole not just individual songs, possibly a reason.. but brilliant i dunno where some people have been!? fair play though, there are some probably more viable candidates.

incubus and van morrison are missing forgotten or what? astral weeks !?

and yeah definately agreed where was simply red stars

[hobart]

LesleyTK - The Queen Is Dead has some truly fantastic tracks on it, but on the other hand, any album with Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others on it could not possibly be the best album of all time!

Personally, I would probably have gone for Zen Arcade by Husker Du, the true fathers of US grunge.

[matiancai74]

this was number one because more than any album in the last 14 years since U2s Achtung Baby, it managed to perfectly capture the zeitgeist of our information age and the angst of our post-capitalist lost generation. It is an album of unbelievably deep contrasts and messages that can only truly be appreciated by repeated listenings. I didn't like it for a long time. It is not easy on the ear like The Bends, but it is in itself a perfectly melancholic and beautiful body of work that takes the listener to some very beautiful but also sometimes uncomfortable and painful places. It inspires thought and emotion, like the best art.