Radio 2's 100 Best Albums

[Deano]

Jesus. No wonder I don't listen to Radio 2.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/vote/top-albums/

Plenty of good stuff in there (as well as some shockers), but the most recent thing I can see that I own is by Pulp - 20 years old.

[IanDG]

Between Mrs W and myself we have about 20 albums from the list

edit: 1 in 5 - possibly explains why I no longer tune into the station

[Deano]

I've loads more than that. But I doubt it'd be worth hanging around listening to Radio 2 for that Queen track when there was such a high possibility of Dido being played first.

[Mrs Pingu]

We can do better than that - a mere 11

(I think the bragging right should be who has the fewest on that list, there's some right shite on there!)

[Pingu]

What a tedious pile of wank.

[Deano]

I've loads more than that. But I doubt it'd be worth hanging around listening to Radio 2 for that Queen track when there was such a high possibility of Dido being played first.

Actually, I reckon it's twenty here as well:

4 Pink Floyd - The Dark Side Of The Moon
6 The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
7 Pet Shop Boys - Actually
8 The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
10 Queen - A Night At The Opera
12 Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV
18 Oasis - Definitely Maybe
23 Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell
24 Kate Bush - The Kick Inside
26 Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde
30 Kinks - The Kinks
32 Pulp - Different Class
33 The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
42 R.E.M. - Automatic For The People
49 Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
50 Neil Young - Harvest
51 Carole King - Tapestry
52 The Verve - Urban Hymns
54 The Who - Tommy
58 Bob Marley & The Wailers - Exodus

And of those, half of them predictably appear in every Best Album list ever devised.

For the rest, there's obviously some Mondeo Man generation voting, and some really weird album picks. I doubt even Pete Townshend thinks that Tommy was the Who's best album, and I'd be amazed if Radio 2 ever played anything except Pinball Wizard from it.

[Wascally Weasel]

Any 'great' album list that contains both the Rolling Stones and Michael Fucking Buble* is clearly designed as tedious comment troll fodder. From my quick skim they seemed to have also picked albums that would provoke fan contention.

Anyway, Warren Zevon, Tom Waits, Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy, Marilion & Johnny Cash were all missing so it was shit.


*That is his full name right?

[Deano]

I don't know who Michael Buble is - honestly. I've heard the name, but I've always assumed I'd be better off not knowing.

[Basil]

Deanbagger!
;-)

[mattc]

The whole point of these things (and Radio2 in general) is to show how cool you are by slagging them off.

[Biggsy]

It's a better list than I was expecting.  Maybe it means Radio 2 is not quite as bad as I think? 

I've got 13 of the albums (though I don't still like all of them).

[Deano]

Deanbagger!
;-)

[Jaded]

17, I think.

No Talking Heads?

[Peter]

I actually have none of them!  There's some good stuff there and I can hum lots of it but I never had the money at the right time.  I woulodn't have chosen Blonde on Blonde to represent Dylan's best album; it's very good but Blood On The Tracks is pretty-well perfect.  And any top 100 has ample space for ALL the Beatles albums.  No Hendrix, either but he did use to go on a bit!  Blue is a wonderful album.

No Ray Charles, no Dinah Washington, no Ry Cooder - the world is doomed.

These are just some of my opinions.  Look out for "Best Of Peter's Opinions" - coming soon.

[Deano]

I, for one, would love to hear best of Peter's Opinions.

Back when I was a spotty teenager, and these sort of lists were still new, they were genuinely an opportunity to educate yourself about music, and listen to music you hadn't really considered before. The only reason I bought Marvin Gaye's What's Goin' On and Nick Drake's Five Leaves Left is that they appeared in this sort of list.

Alright, they were in the 3-for-the-price-of-2 offers as well.

[Peter]

I think you're right about it being an opportunity to try stuff, Dean but I think my generation were luckier in that a greater variety of stuff was played on radio stations and you didn't have to keep swapping stations to hear it.  Now there are more stations than ever but they tend each to play mainly the kind of music that is their selling point.

The above may make it onto my "Best of" album but I'll probably re-mix it, add a few beats and a semi-colon or two - get down there with the yoof, innit?

[Exit Stage Left]

Wasn't there a campaign to keep 6 Music as a ghetto for musos and their critically acclaimed, yet unpopular tunes? The criteria for this vote were desigend to give a fairly bland choice.

Our shortlist was made up of albums whose tracks are played by Radio 2 most regularly, and we only allowed one album per artist. We chose studio albums only - no soundtracks, live shows or compilations.

Over 100,000 people voted, and on 1st April 2013, we counted down the results of your votes all day before Jo Whiley announced the winner in a special Easter show.

[essexian]

What a tedious pile of wank.

Indeed.....although we do have 32 of the albums on the list...... the vast majority from before 1992!

[clarion]

We've got five (I think) of those albums, but we do have compilations of eight of the artists.

[caerau]

Albums I have got from that list

Pink Floyd - The Dark Side Of The Moon
Queen - A Night At The Opera
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV
Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms (Well had, not my proudest purchase ever)
Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell (In principle, it's on an old tape - if it still plays it would be a miracle)
Guns N Roses - Appetite For Destruction
Pulp - Different Class
Prince - Purple Rain
R.E.M. - Automatic For The People
Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet
The Verve - Urban Hymns

I've got album by plenty of others on that list (but not Buble  or Coldplay, or Celine Dion or Barbara Streisand...) just not those particular ones.

The only problem(s) I have with Radio 2 is that it's too much like listening to my mother's radio station - she never turned radio 2 off back in the day - and the fact that they seem to insist on wheeling out Vicars to preach to you on half the shows. 

[Deano]

Wasn't there a campaign to keep 6 Music as a ghetto for musos and their critically acclaimed, yet unpopular tunes? The criteria for this vote were desigend to give a fairly bland choice.

Our shortlist was made up of albums whose tracks are played by Radio 2 most regularly, and we only allowed one album per artist. We chose studio albums only - no soundtracks, live shows or compilations.

Over 100,000 people voted, and on 1st April 2013, we counted down the results of your votes all day before Jo Whiley announced the winner in a special Easter show.

There wasa campaign to keep 6Music on air. That may not have been their official slogan

[Woofage]

On a more positive note: I don't see Cliff Richard on that list.

A quick scan reveals that between us we have 17 of those albums.

[mattc]

On a more positive note: I don't see Cliff Richard on that list.

A quick scan reveals that between us we have 17 of those albums.

That's a lot of Cliff albums, Woofage. Brave of you to own upto that 

[Woofage]

On a more positive note: I don't see Cliff Richard on that list.

A quick scan reveals that between us we have 17 of those albums.

That's a lot of Cliff albums, Woofage. Brave of you to own upto that 

 


 


 

[tiermat]

A couple of interesting things occured to me:

1) we have >50% of the albums listed*

2) As previously mentioned by someone else, what a load of crap.  There is no way on this earth that is a list of the best albums.  Best easy listening/driving/muzak maybe, but no way anything else.

* For those interested, they are:

Pink Floyd - The Dark Side Of The Moon
Dido - No Angel
The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Queen - A Night At The Opera
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV
The Police - Synchronicity
James Blunt - Back To Bedlam
Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run
Adele - 21
Oasis - Definitely Maybe
Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
George Michael - Faith
Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms
Electric Light Orchestra - Out Of The Blue
Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell
Kylie Minogue - Fever
Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Paul Simon - Graceland
Billy Joel - An Innocent Man
Kinks - The Kinks
Guns N Roses - Appetite For Destruction
Pulp - Different Class
Take That - Beautiful World
Blondie - Parallel Lines
Prince - Purple Rain
The Eagles - Hotel California
R.E.M. - Automatic For The People
Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet
Robbie Williams - I've Been Expecting You
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
Neil Young - Harvest
Carole King - Tapestry
The Verve - Urban Hymns
Maroon 5 - Songs About Jane
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Exodus
David Bowie - Let's Dance
Roxy Music - Flesh and Blood
Simply Red - Stars
Van Morrison - Avalon Sunset
Sade - Diamond Life
Shania Twain - Come On Over
Emeli Sandé - Our Version Of Events
Elvis Presley - Moody Blue
Eric Clapton - Slowhand
Eurythmics - Be Yourself Tonight
John Lennon - Double Fantasy
Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer