Onto the third installment of this series - the NME's list of the Greatest Albums of All Time, published on October 2 1993.
Here, it's interesting to look at what has Dropped Away from the present's vantage point, but also to compare to the previous Greatest Albums List from 1985 - to see what's Dropped Away and what's Risen Up.
First, though, an attempt to clarify the comparative approach at work here.... I suppose what I am attempting to imagine is what a NME-like publication of today, with a similar selectorate (mostly under thirty), would take to be the Canon of Rock & Pop: the major achievements that everyone should listen to.
Of course, there are publications that still do this surveying-recorded-history type of list - Pitchfork, Rolling Stone - but I'm going with a more Britcentric perspective. And I don't think there is an equivalent to NME anymore... everything's too specialized, fragmented, gone down its own narrower path.
Mind you, I'm not sure NME itself was "NME" by 1993, if you get me - i.e. the broad, we-cover-everything music paper I grew up reading. Indeed the first striking aspect of this list is the backtracking from the hugely improved inclusion of black music in the '85 list, which would probably have been the high point of the NME's critics's (if not the NME readership's) assimilation of anti-rockist values. There's still a decent amount of non-white artistry but it's discernibly decreased. And Marvin Gaye's What's Goin' On has slid from #1 to #4.
Okay, the full list in text form is here (and also at the bottom of the post)
I'll do Dropped Away first, and then Risen Up next.
DROPPED AWAY
5 The Stone Roses The Stone Roses 1989
I expect the generation that's now aging firmly into their fifties-and-older clings fast to their collective adoration of this record, but the one after, and the one after that, surely find its eminence to be mystifying. Classic "you had to be there, you had to be then" record.
9 Public Enemy It takes a nation of millions to hold us back 1988
Personally I prefer the first and third albums; never quite understood why this is the Accredited Classic. But that's beside the point; I don't think PE are really on the list of things people feel they need to hear. Also, some of their opinions ("Sophisticated Bitch", "Meet the G that Killed Me") would be given less allowance today.
19 De La Soul 3 Feet High and Rising 1989
To not drop away, it probably helps to have done a string of great and/or impactful records - it bolsters the artist's purchase on the pantheon, their chance of having a perch. Beyond De La Soul's self-cancelling, quick-withered career, I think this record also probably would sound a bit... rickety to modern ears. If it places at all, it would be much lower.
21 Primal Scream Screamadelica 1991
See the Stone Roses.
23 R.E.M. Automatic for the People 1992
This seems like "parochialism of the present" - going with the album released a year before this poll was taken, as opposed to, say, Murmur (to me, far and away this group's best chance at a pantheon perch). I've no real sense of whether R.E.M. are a group that people keep discovering generation after generation, as appears to happen with Joy Division, The Smiths, The Cure. But I suspect not.
24 Elvis Presley The Sun Sessions 1976
This inclusion, which I don't remember being in the previous two Greatest Lists, seems like your classic "obedience to the rockcritic superego" genuflection. Monumental music, obviously. But in the same way that no one would have a reproduction of the Mona Lisa on the living room wall, I find it hard to believe that any of the selectorate in '93 had this platter spinning on their turntables regularly. Today, even less so.
27 the Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy 1985
I suggested that pantheonic prestige for a classic album is bolstered by having done a bunch of other classics or very-good albums. This would be the opposite syndrome: where persistence, a mounting but steadily less startling discography, slowly chips away at the stature of the one classic album, which starts to seem like a fluke. J&MC's music from Automatic onwards - perhaps really from Darklands onwards - slowly blows their cool, blows it away. They come to seem like a fairly conventional and surprisingly cautious alternative rock band, chuntering on way beyond their moment. In '93, the memory-imprint of what they were in '85 was strong enough to ensure this high placing. Three decades later, it's faint, if not completely faded.
29 Jimi Hendrix Are you experienced? 1967
30 James Brown Live at The Apollo, october 24, 1962 1963
31 Patti Smith Horses 1975
32 Stevie Wonder Innervisions 1973
These were all in the '85 List (maybe it was a different Wonder album - same string of masterpieces though) and seemed to me Dropped Away.
34 Frank Sinatra - Songs for Swingin' Lovers! 1956
This is a great record - a personal favorite from childhood, as one of the 20 or so LPs my parents owned. The first side especially, I know inside out, could probably sing all the way through. I'm a little puzzled by its out-of-the-blue appearance in this list - I wonder what revisionisms and rehabilitative processes it reflected (the easy-listening revival was still a few years off - not that this is exactly EZ, but it's smooth, it's sophisticated, it's got the swinging Nelson Riddle arrangements). At any rate, I can't imagine today's under-30s selectorate selecting it.
35 Otis Redding Otis Blue - Otis Redding Sings Soul 1965
A survivor from the previous List... my thoughts on soul already aired there.
37 Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet 1990
A great record - their best in fact. I wonder if it's on the radar of today's hip listeners. I doubt it.
39 Elvis Costello and the Attractions - Blood & Chocolate 1986
If any EC album clings to canonic status (my doubts about that expressed in the previous go-round), it wouldn't be this turgid effort, with its low count of memorable tunes.
42 New Order - Technique 1989
Classic single after classic single, but I'm not sure there is a classic album in New Order's discography. Power Corruption and Lies? I remember the high point ("Your Silent Face") but little else. Low Life? I have a stronger memory of the packaging than the contents. I have met people who rep for Movement, a barmy opinion. Brotherhood - nah! But this album Technique seems the most undistinguished of the lot of them - I can't imagine it's any fan's favorite.
Now if it was the Top 100 Singles being done today, I can see people still voting for "Blue Monday" or even "Everything Gone Green" or "Temptation" . They just don't seem like an albums band to me. There's no Queen Is Dead in their back catalogue. More to the point, there's no Closer or Unknown Pleasures.
45 The Orb - The Orb's Adventures beyond the Ultraworld 1991
Parochialism of the present again. The indie-dance, baggy, techno-that-rockpapers-can-get-with moment still lingering into '93. If this List had been drawn up a year later, probably Underworld's Dubnobasswithmyhead would be on it.
47 Iggy Pop - Lust for Life 1977
It's a great song.... is it a great album? I don't think this would be Iggy's inclusion on Today's List. I'd like to think it would be Fun House, or at least Raw Power.... and if we're talking solo, then The Idiot, surely?
49 Hüsker Dü Warehouse : songs and stories 1987
In the comments to the 1985 post, David Gunnip mentioned the twilight of the Dü. I sadly concur - and also think if they had a presence on a contemporary equivalent list, it would be Zen Arcade or New Day Rising. I wonder if this appearance is a knock-on of Sugar-love (never acquired the taste myself).
50 New Order - Low Life - 1985
See earlier comments on Technique.
51 Echo & the Bunnymen - Heaven Up Here 1981
They don't seem to be part of the contemporary conversation, as far as I can gauge. A shame. I would personally rate Crocodiles as the closer to perfect album.
52 Blondie - Parallel Lines 1978
I can picture people today still rating Blondie as a Great Singles Band, but the idea of listening to a whole album all the way through, even one as hit-packed as Parallel Lines, it doesn't compute for me - in terms of a contemporary consciousness, as opposed to a personal evaluative statement. (That said, I don't think I would ever feel the impulse to listen to a Blondie album all the way through, and I'm not sure I ever have. They seem like the New Wave ABBA - a Greatest Hits album, especially a Greatest Hits CD with the longer running time, is unbeatable... a family favorite for the car. But who really wants to plod through the original elpees looking for 'deep cuts'?).
I wonder if this sudden appearance was a knock-on of all those groups like the Primitives and Darling Buds, and more recently Garbage, bringing Blondie back as a reference point?
53 Gram Parsons - Grievous Angel 1974
GP was very hip right in the middle of the '80s, at the height of the trad Americana boom, the country-ish flavor that entered into alternative rock for a few years... He was a real reference point... I remember being quite enamored of that "and I thought about a calico bonnet / from Cheyenne to Tennessee" song. I cannot imagine he is anywhere on the map today, though.
54 Dusty Springfield - Dusty in Memphis 1969
Puzzled by this one, I must say. Did the Pet Shop Boys put her back on the map? (Question: where are the Pet Shops Boys on this list? Nowadays they are widely revered as the greatest pop writers of their day, or right up there. But in '93, they don't seem to be on the map).
57 The Jam - All Mod Cons 1978
I suppose mod had become a bit of a reference point again, and Weller was stirring into solo life, after the dwindling away of the Style Council, the unreleased house-influenced album. Britpop would firm up his stature considerably. But I don't think there was any Jam staining the '85 List, so puzzled that it's popped up here.
59 Mothers of Invention We're only in it for the money 1968
Surprised that this clings on in the affections of Britrockcrits circa '93.
69 Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey 1975
Great record... I think this is its first appearance in an NME List .... perhaps it's a question of timing... dub didn't really exist enough yet in '74 to make an impression on that List.... by '85 it would have seemed passé... indeed with Jamaican music now deep into the dancehall era, reggae as a whole had faded as a critical interest or influence on new emerging bands .... but by '93, dub and roots are much more present in the music culture as an inspiration and a revered ancestral source. There's also been a lot of reggae reissuing going on by this point. Not that this inclusion is indicated as the dub version, Garvey's Ghost.... but as I recall, Island's CD reissue included both versions, so I suspect the dub factor is part of the album's elevation.
70 Tom Waits Rain Dogs 1985
Waits plummeting hugely since Swordfishtrombones's appearance at a ludicrous #6 in 1985.... and now Rain Dogs, the follow-up, has displaced that album. Clearly the hardcore fan's choice. Today - I should think nobody gives a monkey's either way.
71 PJ Harvey - Dry - 1993
She does strike me as someone that younger generations don't know much about.... if she was to be on a List, I think it would be either Rid of Me or the one after that or maybe England's Shaking. But what do I know? (And in fact Dry would the one I would pull out, if I was ever to feel the impulse, which I never do. Unlike, say, Liz Phair's Exile).
73 Spiritualized - Lazer Guided Melodies 1992
I listened to this again not so long ago, for the first time since the time.... it's a rather lovely listen, still.... but I cannot imagine it figuring much in the contemporary consciousness.
76 The Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane 1988
I guess this placing is down to survivors on the NME staff from the period when they had the 'Tweens on the front cover and thought they were the saviors of literate pop. I would not have picked this attempted pop-crossover album if I was to vote for any of theirs... Before Hollywood or Liberty Belle maybe. Decidedly Dropped Away
79 Jam - Sound Affects 1980
See comments on All Mod Cons
81 The KLF - The White Room 1991
This episode in Brit popcrit - this escapade in Brit pop - seems lost in its little pocket of time.
82 Birthday Party - Junkyard 1982
I am going to save my thoughts on BP until I do my Purely Personal Wholly Subjective Dropped Away List... I should think if any trace of this outfit would make it to a contemporary canon, it would be one of Cave and the Bad Seeds later albums. "Later' meaning '90s or even from the last decade or so.
84 Dexys Midnight Runners Searching for the Young Soul Rebels 1980
This episode in Brit popcrit - this escapade in Brit pop - seems lost in its little pocket of time.
86 The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy & the Lash 1985
When Shane shuffled off, I was staggered by the flood of testimonials about the greatness of his songwriting and his singing - they came from fellow musicians and songwriters, but also from literati, people who wield words for a living. Such that I gritted my teeth and actually listened to some of the songs cited as poetic marvels - read through the lyrics too - just to see if my original opinion would survive.
Anyway, thinking back, I don't believe any of the tributes came from an admirer under the age of 50.
87 The Clash - Give 'Em Enough Rope 1978
Where Strummer & Jones & the Other Two stand in the scheme of things came up for discussion in the comments of the previous outing... As I combed through this '93 list, the debut and London Calling passed on through, but the line must be drawn at this stodgy effort. Is this some sort of knock-on effect from the New Wave of New Wave, Manic Street Preachers et al, bringing them back as a reference point?
88 Elvis Costello - King of America 1986
This was the point in the real-time timeline when I started to feel exhausted by EC... it's an album I never warmed to (even less so than the other LP he released in '86, Blood and Chocolate) and remember little about it, beyond a general "T-Bone Burnett ick" aura to proceedings. The album cover doesn't help. Critics, at the time and probably for quite a while after, thought EC was at a new peak of his powers on these two albums. For reasons explored in the previous go-round, I don't think he is on today's map - and if he was, it would not be for this album.
89 Billy Bragg - Talking with the Taxman about Poetry 1986
Mid-80s esteem / relevance, already fading, destined to fade more. As with Dylan, I like his songs so much more covered by others (but really in his case, it's song singular: Kirsty MacColl's 's version of "A New England")
91 Madonna - Like a Prayer 1989
Early in her career, one of Madonna's songwriting partners lived in our old NYC apartment - so she was around there a bunch, pre-fame, hatching atrocities. We found this out long, long after we started living there, otherwise we might have had to conduct some kind of ritual spirit-cleansing before moving our stuff in there.
I have no sense of what kind of figure Madonna is in terms of younger-leaning pop awareness. I should think any standing or affection is based around singles rather than albums.
92 The Sundays - Reading, writing & arithmetic 1989
Nah.
95 The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace 1985
The Fall might make a Today's List, but not for this album.
99 The Who - Who's Next - 1971
This is where the ascendance of Queen finds its inverted mirror-image descendance - a group whose huff 'n 'puff bluster and epic-ness is perhaps insufficiently queered to thrive in today's climate. And yet they invented the rock opera - you can't get much gayer than that. Klaus Nomi has more of a hold on today's hip taste.
100 Happy Mondays - Bummed 1988
At the risk of upsetting Stylo... I don't think Happy Mondays have much currency today. Bummed's their best, though, Curiously, in terms of discovery by subsequent generations, they suffer from being both an utter anomaly and utterly bound to a historical moment, a drugGeist that is difficult to reconstruct.
So by my count that's 44 of the 100 that have Dropped Away or Hugely Slipped Down - the biggest proportion so far, almost half the total.
RISEN UP
A couple of striking developments in terms of artists from the rock past whose reputations have soared since '85
1 Beach Boys Pet sounds 1966
46 Beach Boys Surf's up 1971
Beach Boys have dramatically risen and indeed pip The Beatles to the #1 spot. (The Beatles's rep has also recovered since '85). Pet Sounds placed in the 1985 List but only at #20, so that's quite a massive leap. This seems to be a side-effect of them being namedropped by indie rockers and joining the Creation pantheon (Screamadelica etc).
It's also a restoration - Pet Sounds was the #3 album in the NME 1974 List.
The effects of New Wave and postpunk fading a bit? The settling towards a perma-canon, a Mojo / Uncut sense of history?
60 Neil Young Harvest 1972
66 Neil Young After the Goldrush 1970
63 Neil Young Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere 1969
94 Neil Young Tonight's the night 1975
Four albums from Neil.... although it's notable that the first two belong to his soppier, singer-songwriter-ish side, as opposed to the harder-rocking-stuff on Rust Never Sleeps style side. This new stature reflects his evident influence on Dinosaur Jr and Teenage Fan Club.... the touring alongside his admirers Sonic Youth... perhaps the idea of him as a grunge ancestor... a haggard uncle to Pearl Jam et al... a symbol of integrity and perseverance.
In '85, Neil Young didn't feature at all in the list!
Then again, this would have been at the height of his muddled 'Eighties, shit album after confused / confusing shit album ... and when he also dis-endeared himself by making some pro-Reagan remarks.
There's an element of restoration here too, although Young didn't feature that high on the 1974 List - indeed his two appearances are much lower than Crosby, Stills & Nash's two appearances.
A couple of other notable first-time appearances in the List
61 Scott Walker - Scott 1967
74 Nick Drake- Five leaves left 1969
THE NME 1993 LIST IN FULL
1 Beach boys Pet sounds 1966
2 Beatles Revolver 1966
3 Sex pistols Never mind the bollocks, here's the Sex pistols 1977
4 Marvin Gaye What's going on 1971
5 Stone roses The Stone roses 1989
6 Velvet underground Velvet underground + Nico 1967
7 Clash London calling 1979
8 Beatles The Beatles (= the white album) 1968
9 Byrds Younger than yesterday 1967
9 Public enemy It takes a nation of millions to hold us back 1988
10 Smiths The queen is dead 1986
11 Rolling stones Exile on Main street 1972
12 Nirvana Nevermind 1991
13 Clash The Clash 1977
14 Bob Dylan Highway 61 revisited 1965
15 Van Morrison Astral weeks 1968
16 Prince Sign o the times 1987
17 Bob Dylan Blonde on blonde 1966
18 Love Forever changes 1967
19 De la soul 3 feet high and rising 1989
20 Joy division Closer 1980
21 Primal scream Screamadelica 1991
22 Rolling stones Let it bleed 1969
23 R.E.M. Automatic for the people 1992
24 Elvis Presley The Sun sessions 1976
25 Doors The Doors 1967
26 Television Marquee moon 1977
27 Jesus and Mary chain Psychocandy 1985
28 Joni Mitchell Blue 1971
29 Jimi Hendrix Are you experienced? 1967
30 James Brown Live at The Apollo, october 24, 1962 1963
31 Patti Smith Horses 1975
32 Stevie Wonder Innervisions 1973
33 Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely hearts club band 1967
34 Frank Sinatra Songs for swingin' lovers! 1956
35 Otis Redding Otis blue - Otis Redding sings soul 1965
36 John Coltrane A love supreme 1964
37 Public enemy Fear of a black planet 1990
38 David Bowie Hunky dory 1971
39 Elvis Costello and the Attractions Blood & chocolate 1986
40 David Bowie The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the spiders from Mars 1972
41 Smiths Hatful of hollow 1984
42 New order Technique 1989
43 Joy division Unknown pleasures 1979
44 Pixies Surfer Rosa 1988
45 Orb The Orb's adventures beyond the Ultraworld 1991
46 Beach boys Surf's up 1971
47 Iggy Pop Lust for life 1977
48 Bob Dylan Bringing it all back home 1965
49 Hüsker dü Warehouse : songs and stories 1987
50 New order Low-life 1985
51 Echo & the Bunnymen Heaven up here 1981
52 Blondie Parallel lines 1978
53 Gram Parsons Grievous angel 1974
54 Dusty Springfield Dusty in Memphis 1969
55 Lou Reed Transformer 1972
56 Led zeppelin Led zeppelin 4 1971
57 Jam All mod cons 1978
58 Velvet underground Velvet underground 1969
59 Mothers of invention We're only in it for the money 1968
60 Neil Young Harvest 1972
61 Scott Walker Scott 1967
62 Stooges The Stooges 1969
63 Neil Young Everybody knows this is nowhere 1969
64 Beatles Rubber soul 1965
65 Aretha Franklin Greatest hits 1971
66 Neil Young After the goldrush 1970
67 David Bowie Low 1977
68 Talking heads Remain in light 1980
69 Burning spear Marcus Garvey 1975
70 Tom Waits Rain dogs 1985
71 PJ Harvey Dry 1992
72 Smiths The Smiths 1984
73 Spiritualized Lazer guided melodies 1992
74 Nick Drake Five leaves left 1969
75 Captain Beefheart and the Magic band Clear spot 1972
76 Go-betweens 16 lovers lane 1988
77 Wire Pink flag 1977
78 Bob Marley and the Wailers Natty dread 1974
79 Jam Sound affects 1980
80 Sonic youth Sister 1987
81 KLF The white room 1991
82 Birthday party Junkyard 1982
83 Kate Bush The kick inside 1978
84 Dexy's midnight runners Searching for the young soul rebels 1980
85 Bob Dylan Blood on the tracks 1975
86 Pogues Rum, sodomy & the lash 1985
87 Clash Give 'em enough rope 1978
88 Elvis Costello King of America 1986
89 Billy Bragg Talking with the taxman about poetry 1986
90 Big star The third album/Sister lovers 1978
91 Madonna Like a prayer 1989
92 Sundays Reading, writing & arithmetic 1989
93 Michael Jackson Off the wall 1979
94 Neil Young Tonight's the night 1975
95 Fall This nation's saving grace 1985
96 Public Image Ltd Metal box 1979
97 Massive attack Blue lines 1991
99 Who Who's next 1971
100 Happy mondays Bummed 1988
