50 most influential albums of all time...

[Blue Velvet]

...according to The Observer, that is.

Unlike NME's list which was a monotonous and dreary roll-call of white boys with guitars, this actually contains a diverse mix from a number of genres... but no country and western I notice.

I've left in the descriptions for the albums that I personally own at the moment.

You can read the full list here (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1821230,00.html) with a description and reason for its inclusion for each album. Some might seem odd on first glance but I think they're all justified to some extent.

Anyway, here goes:



1. The Velvet Underground and Nico: The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967)
Though it sold poorly on its initial release, this has since become arguably the most influential rock album of all time. The first art-rock album, it merges dreamy, druggy balladry ('Sunday Morning') with raw and uncompromising sonic experimentation ('Venus in Furs'), and is famously clothed in that Andy Warhol-designed 'banana' sleeve. Lou Reed's lyrics depicted a Warholian New York demi-monde where hard drugs and sexual experimentation held sway. Shocking then, and still utterly transfixing. Without this, there'd be no ... Bowie, Roxy Music, Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Jesus and Mary Chain, among many others.

2. The Beatles: Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

3. Kraftwerk: Trans-Europe Express (1977)
Released at the height of punk, this sleek, urbane, synthesised, intellectual work shared little ground with its contemporaries. Not that it wanted to. Kraftwerk operated from within a bubble of equipment and ideas which owed more to science and philosophy than mere entertainment. Still, this paean to the beauty of mechanised movement and European civilisation was a moving and exquisite album in itself. And, through a sample on Afrika Bambaataa's seminal 'Planet Rock', the German eggheads joined the dots with black American electro, giving rise to entire new genres. Without this... no techno, no house, no Pet Shop Boys. The list is endless.

4. NWA: Straight Outta Compton (1989)

5. Robert Johnson: King of the Delta Blues Singers (1961)

6. Marvin Gaye: What's Going On (1971)
Gaye's career as tuxedo-clad heart-throb gave no hint he would cut a concept album dealing with civil rights, the Vietnam war and ghetto life. Equally startling was the music, softening and double-tracking Gaye's falsetto against a wash of bubbling percussion, swaying strings and chattering guitars. Motown boss Berry Gordy hated it but its disillusioned nobility caught the public mood. Led by the oft-covered 'Inner City Blues', it ushered in an era of socially aware soul. Without this ... no Innervisions (Stevie Wonder) or Superfly (Curtis Mayfield).

7. Patti Smith: Horses (1975)

8. Bob Dylan: Bringing it All Back Home (1965)

9. Elvis Presley: Elvis Presley (1956)

10. The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds (1966)
Of late, Pet Sounds has replaced Sgt Pepper's as the critics' choice of Greatest Album of All Time. Composed by the increasingly reclusive Brian Wilson while the rest of the group were touring, it might well have been a solo album. The beauty resides not just in its compositional genius and instrumental invention, but in the elaborate vocal harmonies that imbue these sad songs with an almost heartbreaking grandeur. Without this ... where to start? The Beatles acknowledged its influence; Dylan said of Brian Wilson, 'That ear! I mean, Jesus, he's got to will that to the Smithsonian.'

11. David Bowie: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (1972)
Bowie's revolutionary mix of hard rock and glam pop was given an otherwordly look and feel by his coquettish alter ego Ziggy. It's not so much that every act that followed dyed their hair orange in homage to the spidery spaceman; more that they learned the value of creating a 'bubble' of image and presentation that fans could fall in love with. Without this ... we'd be lost. No Sex Pistols, no Prince, no Madonna, no Duran Duran, no Boy George, no Kiss, no Bon Jovi, no 'Bohemian Rhapsody' ... I could go on.

12. Miles Davis: Kind of Blue (1959)
A rare example of revolutionary music that almost everyone liked from the moment they heard it. Its cool, spacey, open-textured approach marked a complete break with the prevalent 'hard bop' style. The effect, based on simple scales, called modes, was fresh, delicate, approachable but surprisingly expressive. Others picked up on it and 'modal jazz' has been part of the language ever since. The album also became the media's favourite source of mood music. Without this ... no ominous, brooding, atmospheric trumpet behind a million radio plays and TV documentaries.

13. Frank Sinatra: Songs for Swingin' Lovers (1956)

14. Joni Mitchell: Blue (1971)
Though Carole King's Tapestry was the biggest-selling album of the era, it is Joni Mitchell's Blue that remains the most influential of all the early Seventies outings by confessional singer-songwriters. Joni laid bare her heart in a series of intimate songs about love, betrayal and emotional insecurity. It could have been hell (think James Taylor) but for the penetrating brilliance of the songwriting. Raw, spare and sophisticated, it remains the template for a certain kind of baroque female angst. Without this ... no Tori Amos or Fiona Apple - and Elvis Costello and Prince have cited her as a prime influence.

15. Brian Eno: Discreet Music (1975)
Brian Eno, it is said, invented ambient music when he was stuck in a hospital bed unable to reach a radio that was playing too quietly, giving him the eureka moment that set the course not only for his post-Roxy Music career as an 'atmosphere'-enhancing producer, but for the future of electronic music. Without this ... we wouldn't have David Bowie's Low or Heroes, the echoey guitars of U2'S The Edge, and no William Orbit, Orb, Juana Molina. To name but a few.

16. Aretha Franklin: I Never Loved a Man the Way I love You (1967)

17. The Stooges: Raw Power (1973)

18. The Clash: London Calling (1979)

19. Mary J Blige: What's the 411? (1992)

20. The Byrds: Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968)

21. The Spice Girls: Spice (1996)

22. Kate Bush: The Hounds of Love (1985)
On Side One our Kate strikes a deal with God, throws her shoes in a lake and poses as a little boy riding a rain machine. Turn over, and she's drowning, exorcising demons and dancing an Irish jig. All this to a soundscape that employs the shiniest synthesised studio toys the Eighties had to offer in the service of one women's unique yet utterly English musical genius. Listen again to the delirious cacophany of 'Running Up That Hill', and it sounds like God struck that deal. Without this ... Tori Amos would have spawned no earthquakes, Alison Goldfrapp would lack her juiciest cherries and romance would have withered on the vine.

23. Augustus Pablo: King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown (1976)

24. Youssou N'Dour: Immigres (1984)

25. James Brown: Live at the Apollo (1963)

[Blue Velvet]

26. Stevie Wonder: Songs in the Key of Life (1976)
This influenced virtually every modern soul and R&B singer, brimming with timeless classics like 'Isn't She Lovely', 'As' and 'Sir Duke'. The 21-tracker encompassed a vast range of life's issues - emotional, social, spiritual and environmental - all performed with bravado and a lightness of touch. No other R&B artist has sung about the quandaries of human existence with quite the same grace. Without this ... no Alicia Keys, no John Legend - contemporary R&B would be empty and lifeless.

27. Jimi Hendrix: Are You Experienced (1967)
Looking and playing like a brother from another planet, Hendrix delivered the most dramatic debut in pop history. Marrying blues and psychedelia, dexterity and feedback trickery, it redefined the guitar's sonic possibilities, while beyond the fretboard pyrotechnics burnt a fierce artistic vision - 'Third Stone From the Sun' made Jimi rock's first (and still best travelled) cosmonaut. Without this ... countless guitarists and cock-rockers might not have been (Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lenny Kravitz, even Miles Davis owes him), but most of all, without Experienced, there'd be no Jimi experience.

28. Prince and the Revolution: Purple Rain (1984)
Prince had been plugging away with limited success for several years when the man in tiny pants reinvented himself as a purple-clad movie star. Like Michael Jackson, he felt that the way to gain crossover appeal was to run the musical gamut: in this case, from the minimalist funk of his earlier albums to the volume-at-11 rock of Jimi Hendrix. The title track is a monumental, fist-clenching rock ballad that, perversely, whetted our appetites for far worse examples by Christina Aguilera among others. Without this ... no Janet Jackson, no Peaches, and certainly no Beck.

29. Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
Sounds like it was pretty tough to be in Pink Floyd in the early 1970s. You had all the money you could spend (ker-ching!) but you thought that was vulgar. You didn't get on with your bandmates because they all had superiority complexes. You couldn't enter the recording booth without having an existential crisis. Piper At The Gates of Dawn, their debut with the late Syd Barrett, turned out to be influential in a more positive sense (David Bowie, Blur). Without this ... there'd be no Thom Yorke solo mumblings, and much less prog rock (if only ...).

30. The Wailers: Catch a Fire (1973)
Alongside The Harder They Come (movie and soundtrack), Catch a Fire changed the perception of reggae from eccentric, lightweight pop to a music of mystery and power. Dressed in a snappy Zippo lighter sleeve, and launched with rock razzmatazz, it delivered a polished, guitar-sweetened version of what Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer had made when white audiences weren't listening. By turns militant, mystic and sexy, it helped make Bob Marley the first Third World superstar. Without this ... no Aswad or Steel Pulse, no native American or Maori or African reggae bands.

31. The Stone Roses: The Stone Roses (1989)
Until the late Eighties, Manchester was thought to be a forbidding, dour place where the ghost of Ian Curtis still clanked about. The Stone Roses' concatenation of sweet West Coast psychedelia and the lairy, loved-up rave culture was as unforeseeable as it was seismic. Ecstasy pulled the sniffy rock kids away from their Smiths records and into clubland; the result was an album whose woozy words and funky drumming sounded as guileless as it did hedonistic. Without this ... well, a bit of the Roses remains in the DNA of every British guitar band since.

32. Otis Redding: Otis Blue (1965)

33. Herbie Hancock: Head Hunters (1973)

34. Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath (1970)

35. The Ramones: The Ramones (1976)

36. The Who: My Generation (1965)

37. Massive Attack: Blue Lines (1991)
Obliterators of rap's boundaries, Massive Attack pioneered the cinematic trip hop movement. After graduating from one of Britain's premier sound systems, the Bristol-based Wild Bunch, Andrew 'Mushroom' Vowles and Grant 'Daddy G' Marshall joined forces with graffiti artist 3D. Massive Attack's debut LP spawned the unforgettable 'Unfinished Sympathy' and remains a modern classic. Without this ... no Roots Manuva, no Dizzee. In fact, there would be no British urban music scene to speak of.

38. Radiohead: The Bends (1995)
In parallel with Jeff Buckley, Radiohead's Thom Yorke popularised the angst-laden falsetto, a thoughtful opposite to the chest-beating lad-rock personified by Oasis's Liam Gallagher. Sounding girly to a backdrop of churning guitars became a much-copied idea, however, one which eventually coalesced into an entire decade of sound. Without this ... Coldplay would not exist, nor Keane, nor James Blunt.

39. Michael Jackson: Thriller (1982)
Pure, startling genius from beginning to end, Michael Jackson and producer Quincy Jones seemed hellbent on creating the biggest, most universally appealing pop album ever made. Jones introduced elements of rock into soul and vice versa in such a way that it's now no surprise to hear a pop record that mashes up more marginal genres into a form that will have universal relevance. Without this ... no megastars such as Justin Timberlake or Madonna, no wide-appeal uber-producers such as Timbaland or Pharrell Williams.

40. Run DMC: Run DMC (1984)

41. Chic: Chic (1977)

42. The Smiths: The Smiths (1984)

43. Primal Scream: Screamadelica (1991)

44. Talking Heads: Fear of Music (1979)
There's something refreshingly jolly about the modern-life paranoia expressed by chief Talking Head David Byrne on this album that moany old Radiohead could learn from. Opening track 'I Zimbra' splices funk with afrobeat, paving the way for Byrne and Eno's mould-breaking My Life in the Bush of Ghosts album a few years later.
Without this ... Paul Simon's Graceland might never have been made.

45. Fairport Convention: Liege and Lief (1969)

46. The Human League: Dare (1981)

47. Nirvana: Nevermind (1991)
You might argue Nirvana's landmark album changed nothing whatsoever. All their best seditious instincts came to nothing, after all. And yet Nevermind still rocks mightily, capturing a moment when the vituperative US underground imposed its agenda on the staid mainstream. Without this ... no Seattle scene, no Britpop, no Pete Doherty.

48. The Strokes: Is This It? (2001)
Five good-looking young men hauled the jangling sound of Television and the Velvet Underground into the new millennium, reinvigorating rock's obsession with having a good time. Without this ... a fine brood of heirs would not have been spawned: among them, Franz Ferdinand and the Libertines.

49. De La Soul: 3 Feet High and Rising (1989)
Ten years after hip hop's arrival, its original joie de vivre had been subsumed by macho braggadocio. Three Feet High made hip hop playful again, with light rhythms, unusual sound samples and its talk of the D.A.I.S.Y. age ('Da Inner Sound Y'all') earning the trio a 'hippy' label. Without this ... thoughtful hip hop acts like the Jungle Brothers and PM Dawn wouldn't have arrived.

50. LFO: Frequencies (1991)

[iBlue]

Wow, I am impressed and surprised by that list. There's a few in there that make you wonder (ahem: Spice Girls FFS?!) but most make sense.

It reminds me I have some CDs to get now. :)

[Jaffa Cake]

Nice list – there are some real gems in there, although...

There's a few in there that make you wonder (ahem: Spice Girls FFS?!)That's one that really caught my eye, too. But the list is of the 50 most 'influential' albums, not the 50 'best'. If you take a look at the charts over the past ten years they've been full of Spice-a-likes, so you can't deny they've been hugely influential.

[Kernow]

This is much more like it. It's interesting that it is the 50 most influential albums, and not the 50 best albums.

Which reminds me - I've been meaning to get some Robert Johnson for a while. Time to see if he really did sell his soul...

[Blue Velvet]

I'm slightly surprised that Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden or Laughing Stock isn't in there, but since there's been virtually nothing similar since then to compare them with then maybe I'll let them off...


...all in my most humblest of opinions, of course. :D

[PlaceofDis]

No Led Zeppelin? hmmmm

sometimes lists like this make me wonder.

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Some very interesting albums on there. It would be fairly meaningless to start discussing the individual order, though Spice Girls at 21?!? Ok, it totally defends a place at the list, but 21...?!? Sorry, just had to (;)), other than that I'm actually quite comfortable with the list...

[Applespider]

I read this earlier this morning and it was the Spice Girls that jumped out at me. Looking at the things that they say it influenced, I couldn't really see myself thinking that any of them had enriched society.

Interesting to see which ones are owned... but would you put them in the same order?

[Blue Velvet]

Interesting to see which ones are owned... but would you put them in the same order?

I don't think so and it depends on what mood I'm in at the time... must say the Velvet Underground doesn't get played that often. There's also a couple in there that are in my Amazon wish-list at the mo: James Brown and Chic.

... and I love Dare by the Human League but that's just for nostalgic reasons. If I saw it in a bin for £3-4, I'd probably grab it.

[iGav]

If you take a look at the charts over the past ten years they've been full of Spice-a-likes, so you can't deny they've been hugely influential.

I'd have said Bananarama were more influential than the Spice Girls personally, and there lies the problems with a list based on the idea of 'most influential'... how does one define 'most influential'??? the Spice Girls wouldn't have exisisted without Bananarama for example.

Personally, I'd question the inclusion of the following, whilst some are undoubtedly great albums, I'd question them being considered amongst the most influential, nevermind the top 50 most influential.

3,
4,
14,
15,
16,
18.
19.
21.
38,
42,
46,
47,
48,

[ham_man]

Which reminds me - I've been meaning to get some Robert Johnson for a while. Time to see if he really did sell his soul...
I would suggest getting Robert Johnson - The Complete Recordings...has every single track he ever recorded. Well worth the $24 I paid to get the complete collection of the man many consider to be the best (or most influential) bluesman of all time...

[xsedrinam]

I would suggest getting Robert Johnson - The Complete Recordings...has every single track he ever recorded. Well worth the $24 I paid to get the complete collection of the man many consider to be the best (or most influential) bluesman of all time...
My son would love you, ham_man for mentioning Robert Leroy Johnson, the grandfather of it all.

[calculus]

Just by chance I am listening to the Velvet Underground at this very moment. I have loved them for over thirty years now which is a very frightening thought.

[calculus]

but no country and western I notice.


I'd count the Byrds Seetheart of the Rodeo as a country album - agreat one at that.

[Loge]

I was surprised that there was no inclusion of Bitches Brew, but maybe they didn't want to include more than one Miles Davis album, and it is certainly right to have Kind of Blue.

[KingYaba]

Uh, why is Led Zeppelin not on that list? Black Sabbath should be in the top 10.
It makes me sad that no one ever includes my favorite bands in there. Iced Earth is of epic proportion. Over 20 years and going strong :cool:

[usclaneyj]

I'd have said Bananarama were more influential than the Spice Girls personally, and there lies the problems with a list based on the idea of 'most influential'... how does one define 'most influential'??? the Spice Girls wouldn't have exisisted without Bananarama for example.

Personally, I'd question the inclusion of the following, whilst some are undoubtedly great albums, I'd question them being considered amongst the most influential, nevermind the top 50 most influential.

3,
4,
14,
15,
16,
18.
19.
21.
38,
42,
46,
47,
48,


wow, some of your questionables are some of my without a doubt most influential albums ever!

Straight Outta Compton definitely belongs in the list, as does The Bends and Nevermind. I'd say London Calling deserves its place as well! I think that was a pretty well rounded list. The only ones I really have any gripes with are 19, 21, & 48.

[spicyapple]

Spice Girls - but no Zappa? Observer, cancel my subscription!

[HD303]

WOW - Nirvana at 47. I think for once I can take one of these "best Of" type articles seriously.

[Burp the worm]

I can agree on most,but spice girls? anyway what happened to U2? Motorhead? Small faces? Tom Jones?

[®îçhå®?]

It is probably just me but i have never heard of the Velvet Underground & Nico.

[ilikeninjas90]

instead of the bends

they shouldve replaced it with OK Computer, much more influential album to me and almost everyone I know who enjoys radiohead

both great albums nonetheless

but I know people who never listened to music before OK computer start to listen to music as a whole after that album

[iGav]

and Nevermind.

Ask yourself... should Nevermind be on the list above Surfer Rosa??? ;)

The list is nothing more than a mainstream wankfest of some 40 something Islingtonian's entire record collection, nothing more.

In short...

Brian Eno: Discreet Music

Without this ... we wouldn't have David Bowie's Low or Heroes, the echoey guitars of U2'S The Edge, and no William Orbit, Orb, Juana Molina. To name but a few.

Bollocks did he invent ambient music. (And I love Eno)

Radiohead: The Bends

Without this ... Coldplay would not exist, nor Keane, nor James Blunt.

Bollocks... without R.E.M. Radiohead wouldn't exist. (And I like Radiohead)

Nirvana: Nevermind

Without this ... no Seattle scene

Bollocks... and see Surfer Rosa above. (And I love Nirvana)

The Strokes: Is This It?

Without this ... a fine brood of heirs would not have been spawned: among them, Franz Ferdinand and the Libertines.

Without Debbie Harry's backing band... The Strokes wouldn't have existed. (And I don't mind the Strokes)

In other words the list's a load of twaddle.

[EGT]

In other words the list's a load of twaddle.

Have to say, I agree with iGav.

[iGary]

What no Moving Pictures? :D

[ilikeninjas90]

I love Brian Eno

Massive Attack too

[Fiveos22]

I read this earlier this morning and it was the Spice Girls that jumped out at me. Looking at the things that they say it influenced, I couldn't really see myself thinking that any of them had enriched society.



Look at the music scene they precipitated.

Influence isn't a value judgement, however from my POV Spice Girls opened pandora's box of bad taste.

[Killyp]

I love Brian Eno

Massive Attack too


Blue Lines is certainly one of the most influential Dub/Reggae albums ever.

I would have said Kind Of Blue, for it's recording techniques,

Adam F - any of his stuff really

Rumours - Fleetwood Mac, it invented that whole kind of light headbanging stuff

What's Going On - Marvin Gaye, successfully managed to combine Jazz and Soul into a popular genre...

[Demoman]

Paul Butterfield Blues Band - East-West

Future historians may very well recognize this as finest collections of musicians ever to play together:

Paul Butterfield
Sam Lay
Jerome Arnold
Michael Bloomfield
Mark Naftalin
Elvin Bishop

They had a tremendous influence with virtually every blues/rock band and continue to do so. They also introduced the dual lead guitar style with Bishop and the incredible Bloomfield.

[Killyp]

I've been meaning to get some PBBB (doesn't work well as an acronym does it?) albums for a while....

[d wade]

nirvana is not ranked high enough