The NME’s top 25 albums of all-time has a surprising No 1

It’s not the Beatles, the Stone Roses, David Bowie, Nirvana or The Rolling Stones…

The folks at the NME decided to pool all their collective wisdom and ask 82 past and present writers for the music magazine to select their top 500 albums of all time. Yeah, a tough task for anyone. The full list will be published in the magazine this week but the top 25, plus a few other details have been released. The main surprise concerns the album that claimed the top spot, The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths. While it is an undoubtedly great album, is it really the best ever? Funnily enough, even the guy that produced the album, Stephen Street, admitted that while he was delighted, he had his own doubts.

Very chuffed to hear that The Smiths The Queen is Dead has been voted top of the #nme list of 500 greatest LPS of all time #wrongthough ;) — Stephen Street (@StreetStephen) October 23, 2013

  Second on the list is Revolver by The Beatles, and the White Album also took ninth spot. David Bowie slips in at No 3 with Hunky Dory, and somewhat bizarrely The Strokes 2001 effort Is This It is fourth, the most recent effort in the top 10. The Velvet Underground, Pulp, The Stone Roses, Pixies, and Oasis round out the top 10. Nirvana’s Nevermind is 11^th. While the top spot has caused some controversy, the fact that Radiohead’s OK Computer was 20^th has raised some eyebrows. A fixture near the top, if not at the very top of these lists, Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys, is only at No 26 on the NME’s list while Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon comes in at 132, which will upset quite a lot of folks. Anyway, here’s the top 25, let the arguments commence… 1. The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead 2. The Beatles – Revolver 3. David Bowie – Hunky Dory 4. The Strokes – Is This It 5. The Velvet Underground & Nico – The Velvet Underground 6. Pulp – Different Class 7. The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses 8. Pixies – Doolittle 9. The Beatles – The Beatles (White Album) 10. Oasis – Definitely Maybe 11. Nirvana – Nevermind 12. Patti Smith – Horses 13. Arcade Fire – Funeral 14. David Bowie – Low 15. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake 16. Joy Division – Closer 17. Public Enemy – It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back 18. My Bloody Valentine – Loveless 19. Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not 20. Radiohead – OK Computer 21. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy 22. Blur – Parklife 23. David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars 24. The Rolling Stones – Exile on Main St 25. Marvin Gaye – What's Going On