NME's list of the 500 best albums ever – and its writers' own votes – raises a question: is it more honest to ask for favourites instead?
What does "greatest" mean? And what's the difference between something you would claim to be the greatest in its field, and something that's actually your favourite? That's one of the questions raised by NME's list this week of the "500 greatest albums of all time" which was topped by the Smiths' The Queen is Dead. The magazine listed some of the top 10s of individual writers, and two lists in particular stood out.
In her top four spots, Laura Snapes listed four albums by the National (Boxer, Alligator, Trouble Will Find Me and High Violet), with another (Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers) at No 7. Similarly, Kevin EG Perry's top four were all by the Rolling Stones (Exile on Main Street, Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers). For what it's worth, I was rather heartened by these choices. Not because I think the National have made five of the seven greatest albums of all time – I don't – but because these seemed to me to be the choices of people who were honestly telling their readers what music had moved them the most, rather than offering a box-ticking exercise to display exquisite and wide-ranging taste.
Nevertheless, that doesn't fit with the notion of "greatest", does it? Doesn't "greatest" imply records of enormous cultural import, of supreme and unparalleled achievement, of revolutionary stature? And doesn't it imply that all records, of all genres, will be considered? There isn't a publication in the world with access to the voters – even including their readers – to draw up such a list. NME's is heavily skewed towards guitar music made by white men, which has caused some predictable moaning on messageboards. I don't have a problem with that: NME's musical core is guitar music made by white men, and its core readership is people who like that music. No one would expect The Source to be including the Strokes if it compiled a list of the 500 greatest albums ever, would they?
Lists get billed as "the greatest" because publications – the Guardian included – want to convey an air of authority (and also because, of course, we want these pieces to be objects of discussion). But isn't the most important thing about music the way it makes us feel, rather than some supposedly but in fact not-at-all objective assessment of its cultural worth? Given that all generalist greatest lists contain a certain number of albums that seem, by law, to have to appear (Pet Sounds, Astral Weeks, What's Going On and so on), I end up finding individual lists more interesting, because that's where the reader gets more sense of a publication's personality, and that of its writers.
I became preoccupied with the notion that "favourite" was a more honest idea when talking about music than "best" a couple of years ago, and sent a note round to the people who write about music for the Guardian, asking them to tell me their five favourite albums ever. Not, I told them, the five albums they think they world needs to hear, but the five they would want with them if they were told that was all the music they could ever listen to again. The results were startling. First, very few of the albums were duplicated (I'd thought we might be able to compile a list based on the suggestions: that was impossible). Second, although a fair few of the albums were canonical choices, the vast majority were not – no one's ever going to find the Good Will Hunting soundtrack in a list of even the 5,000 greatest albums of all time, I suspect. Third, the final list looked so much more like an actual record collection than any canonical list ever does. It also looked a lot more fun. And, fourth, at this distance I can pick out my own five favourites, and – I think – Dave Simpson's and Alex Macpherson's, but no one else's.
What do you think? What's more useful? Favourite or best?
Guardian writers' favourite albums ever (in no order, with no attribution)
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Beach Boys: Endless Summer
Arcade Fire: Funeral
Good Will Hunting: Original Soundtrack
Belle & Sebastian: If You're Feeling Sinister
Madonna: Madonna
The Hold Steady: Separation Sunday
The Modern Lovers: The Modern Lovers (two votes)
Ramones: Leave Home
AC/DC: Powerage
The Byrds: The Notorious Byrd Brothers
Joy Division: Closer (three votes)
Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures
The Stone Roses: The Stone Roses (two votes)
The Durutti Column: LC
David Bowie: Low
Nick Drake: Five Leaves Left
Red House Painters: II
Black Uhuru: Dub Factor
Michael Brook: Live at the Aquarium
Miles Davis: In a Silent Way
Buffalo Tom: Buffalo Tom
Slint: Spiderland
Ramones: End of the Century
Hüsker Dü: Zen Arcade (two votes)
Leatherface: Mush
Pulp: His'n'Hers
Van Morrison: Astral Weeks (three votes)
Roxy Music: Manifesto
Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say I Am...
The Clash: London Calling (two votes)
Cabaret: Original Broadway Cast Recording
Franz Ferdinand: Franz Ferdinand
EPMD: Strictly Business
John Mayer: Continuum
Nas: Illmatic (two votes)
REM: Lifes Rich Pageant (two votes)
Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band: The Wild, the Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle
Television: Marquee Moon
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The Velvet Underground & Nico: The Velvet Underground & Nico (three votes)
David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders From Mars
Throwing Muses: Throwing Muses
Lou Reed: Transformer
Radiohead: Kid A (three votes)
The Beatles: Abbey Road (two votes)
R Stevie Moore: Thoroughly Years
Pulp: Different Class
Blackstar: Mos Def and Talib Kweli are...
Bliss n Eso: Flying Colours
Nas: Illmatic
Blackalicious: Blazing Arrow
Zubz: Headphone Music in a Parallel World
Yes: Close to the Edge
The Rolling Stones: Black and Blue
Lindstrøm: Where You Go I Go Too
Leonard Cohen: Live in London
Ramones: Ramones
The Beatles: Please Please Me
Prince: Purple Rain
The Libertines: Up the Bracket
Hole: Live Through This
Blur: The Best of Blur
Lambchop: Nixon
The Strokes: Is This It (two votes)
The Sea and Cake: Everybody
Cee-Lo Green: … Is The Soul Machine
Yo La Tengo: And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
Cannibal Ox: The Cold Vein
Microphones: The Glow, Part 2
Dizzee Rascal: Boy In Da Corner
Burial: Untrue
The-Dream: Love King
Chic: Risque
The Radio Dept: Pet Grief
Drake: Thank Me Later
Flaming Lips: At War With the Mystics
The Carpenters: 1969-73
Cornershop: When I Was Born For The Seventh Time
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci: How I Long To Feel That Summer In My Heart
Tom Waits: Raindogs
Midlake: The Trials Of Van Occupanther
Aaliyah: Aaliyah
Tori Amos: From The Choirgirl Hotel
Michael Mayer: Fabric 13
Trina: Diamond Princess
Joni Mitchell: The Hissing Of Summer Lawns (two votes)
New Order: Technique
Super Furry Animals: Rings Around The World
Sigur Rós: ( )
The Stone Roses: The Stone Roses
Mercury Rev: Deserter's Songs
The Magnetic Fields: 69 Love Songs (three votes)
Eels: Electroshock Blues
Regina Spektor: Soviet Kitsch
Tom Waits: Blood Money
The Orb: Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld
Public Enemy: It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
Kate Bush: Hounds Of Love
David Bowie: Hunky Dory
Various Artists: Classic Balearic Mastercuts Vol 1
Michael Head and the Strands: The Magical World of the Strands
Stevie Wonder: Innervisions
Talking Heads: The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads
The Wailers: Soul Revolutionaries
The La's: The La's
Colleen: The Golden Morning Breaks
New Order: Power, Corruption and Lies
Kraftwerk: Radioactivity
David Bowie: Hunky Dory
Constantines: Shine A Light
Kinks: Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround
Pavement: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Deep Purple: Machine Head
Britney Spears: Blackout
Michael Jackson: Bad
Björk: Homogenic
Sly and the Family Stone: There's a Riot Goin' On
Luna: Penthouse
DJ DB, History of Our World Pt. 1: Breakbeat & Jungle Ultramix
Triple R: Friends
Marshall Crenshaw: Field Day
The Reigning Sound: Too Much Guitar
Hot Snakes: Automatic Midnight
Fugazi: Repeater
Pavement: Slanted and Enchanted (two votes)
Van Morrison: His Band and the Street Choir
The Clash: The Story of the Clash
Ellen Allien: Berlinette
D'Angelo: Voodoo
Dusty Springfield: Dusty In Memphis
Isaac Hayes: Hot Buttered Soul
Rod Stewart: Every Picture Tells a Story
Van Morrison: St Dominic's Preview
Carole King: Tapestry
The Replacements: Let it Be
The Rolling Stones: Goats Head Soup
Neil Young: Tonight's the Night
Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run
The Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers
Sandy Bull: Inventions
The Groundhogs: Split
Calexico: Feast Of Wire
Felt: Let The Snakes Crinkle Their Heads To Death
Cat Power: Moon Pix
Songs:Ohia: Axxess & Ace
Herman Düne: Not On Top
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band: Safe as Milk
The Beatles: The White Album
Scott Walker: Scott 4
Love: Forever Changes
Karen Dalton: It's So Hard to Know Who's Going to Love You the Best
Primal Scream: Screamadelica
Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks
Public Enemy: Fear of a Black Planet
Fairport Convention: Liege and Lief
Bruce Springsteen: Darkness on the Edge of Town
David Bowie: Aladdin Sane
Thomas Dolby: The Flat Earth
Momus: The Poison Boyfriend
The Beatles: Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club BAnd
The Chameleons: Strange Times
The Human League: Dare
The The: Soul Mining
The Hidden Cameras - Smell Of Our Own
Marvin Gaye: What's Going On
The Streets: Original Pirate Material
Spiritualized: Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
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Michael Hann
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