The fucking NME

NME Editor Krissi Murison said this week about their current issue that contains the ‘best 50 albums of the first decade of the 21st century’: "This (list) is the definitive word on the greatest albums of the 00s - as voted for by everyone who helped make music brilliant this decade."

Can you believe the arrogance of this deluded journalist? She uses words like "definitive word" and "everyone who helped make music brilliant". Does she really believe ‘everyone’ is actually included? I just cannot express fully my disgust. The music press’s denial that any music of any quality is created that they do not know about, is unbelievably narrow-minded and short-sighted.
Now don’t get me wrong, it is not the chart that I find so distasteful, it is the way they feed it to us. We all know that these lists of best ofs and greatest of all times, are just horseshit, and no-one will ever be fully satisfied with the entire list (I for one cannot believe Tricky is not there, 3 truly original albums and not a sniff; Kate Bush’s wondrous return in 05 not mentioned; no Tokyo Police Club or Bombay Bicycle Club; no Art Brut, no Frank Black, no Aimee Mann, no Born Ruffians, no Red Light Company, nothing by Sigur Ros, no Modest Mouse; did I dream that Kings of Leon released 4 albums that didn’t make the list?; Antony and the Johnsons anyone? Gilbert O’Sullivan? And these are the bands you will know.. there are dozens more that are ‘very’ independent and you will never have heard of them)…
I’m sure you will all have a list longer than this with missing persons (why not comment below to vent that anger?). However, this is not my point. The problem I have is that ‘they’ think they are the dictators of good taste, that their ears are permanently tuned into what is great, that they are somehow contributing to this current cultural renaissance we now all enjoy (!). They haven’t got a clue, it is just business, it is just money, sometimes, somehow something good will see the light of day, but that is not by their judgement. They are so busy trying to create the scene, that they do not really know what is going on at all. They are like a freight train, full of their own self-important faulty produce, stuck on a predetermined course, unable to move from their tracks – great things are happening on either side but they cannot divert from their destination, so instead of stopping and listening, they plough on… and as they have the loudest voice (their steam whistle is heard for miles) everyone is forced to listen to them, but their voice is shrill and painful now. So you know what, I am putting my hands over my ears and going la la la la la la la la la.
From their list, I have left the ones I have enjoyed over the last decade below. By the way I am not saying that the other artists that made the list and I have deleted are not worthy (these things are of course very subjective), but I do object very strongly to being told that everyone who helped make music brilliant this decade, voted for this list: the BBC says that "Bands such as Radiohead (at number ten and fourteen) and Arctic Monkeys (at number four), plus record producers and label bosses were among those who cast their votes." Oh that’s right, ‘the business’ voting for themselves, holding each others’ willies as usual. Step out of the light ladies and gentlemen, you are standing in puddles of your own piss and you stink.
Remember that me and you helped make music brilliant this decade and always have done, the fact that most people will never hear what we do or say does not make it any less interesting or worthy. I have said it before and I repeat, stop buying into the false values perpetuated by the media and the music business! We will always be here and we will always write and play and sing. They will wither and die when we stop paying attention.

Edited top 50:
1. The Strokes - Is This It
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell
7. Arcade Fire - Funeral
13. The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
17. Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise
30. Elbow – 'Asleep In The Back'
31. Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
32. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
43. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot