Within a week I hope to upload the next episode of my podcast. (Edit: Now available HERE.) Half of it is about three specific top 100 albums lists that were published by New Music Express magazine throughout the later decades of the twentieth century.
I chart the fortunes of certain albums as they rose or fell in NME’s estimation, and I explain how these changes in critique were due to magnetic polar shifts, sunspots, and very specific astrological events.
Here are the top 10s from the three lists—in reverse chronological order—along with some selected lower rankings:
1993 New Musical Express Writers Top 100 Albums.
Published 2nd October 1993
1. Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys (Capitol, 1966)
2. Revolver - The Beatles (Parlophone, 1966)
3. Never Mind The Bollocks - The Sex Pistols (Virgin, 1977)
4. What's Going On - Marvin Gaye ( Tamla Motown, 1971)
5. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses (Silvertone, 1989)
6. The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground ( Verve, 1967)
7. London Calling - The Clash (Cbs, 1979)
8. The Beatles - The Beatles (Apple, 1968)
9. It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back - Public Enemy (Def Jam, 1988)
10. The Queen Is Dead - The Smiths (Rough Trade, 1986)
11. Exile On Main Street - The Rolling Stones (Rolling Stones,1972)
12. Nevermind - Nirvana (Geffen, 1991)
13. The Clash - The Clash (Cbs, 1977)
14. Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan (Columbia, 1965)
15. Astral Weeks - Van Morrison (Warners, 1968)
17. Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan (Columbia, 1966)
20. Closer - Joy Division (Factory, 1980)
26. Marquee Moon - Television (Elektra 1977)
33. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Band - The Beatles ( Parlophone, 1967)
43. Unknown Pleasures - Joy Division (Factory 1979)
1985 NME Writers All Time 100 Albums
First Published On 30th November 1985
1. What’s Going On - Marvin Gaye (1971)
2. Astral Weeks - Van Morrison (1968)
3. Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan (1965)
4. The Clash - The Clash (1977)
5. Marquee Moon - Television (1977)
6. Swordfishtrombones - Tom Waits (1983)
7. The Band - The Band (1969)
8. Blond On Blond - Bob Dylan (1966)
9. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band - John Lennon (1970)
10. Unknown Pleasures - Joy Division (1979)
11. Revolver - The Beatles (1966)
13. Never Mind The Bollocks... - The Sex Pistols (1977)
16. The Velvet Underground And Nico - The Velvet Underground (1967)
20. Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys (1966)
1974 NME Writers All Time Top 100
Published sometime in 1974
1. Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles
2. Blond On Blond - Bob Dylan
3. Pet Sounds - Beach Boys
4. Revolver - The Beatles
5. Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan
6. Electric Ladyland - Jimi Hendrix
7. Are You Experienced? - Jimi Hendeix
8. Abby Road - The Beatles
9. Sticky Fingers - The Rolling Stones
10. Music From Big Pink - The Band
13. The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground
39. The Beatles - The Beatles
63. Morrison, Van - Astral Weeks
76. Lennon, John - Plastic Ono Band
92. Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
In the episode I will also give my own personal top 10 album list, which is to be understood as the definitive list, and which is proprietary information not to be published here or anywhere else online.
The second half of the episode will be another hour-long mostly coherent babble about politics and theory or whatever, and at one point I quote (paraphrase) the following from pages 1247 and 1248 of Carroll Quigley’s book Tragedy and Hope:
The chief problem of American political life for a long time has ben how to make the two Congressional parties more national and international. The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can “throw the rascals out” at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.