What Is The Greatest Indie Album Of All Time?
If there's one thing us nerds here at NME enjoy, it's debating a good-old fashioned list. We've put together our own best track/album run-downs in the past--but this time we thought we'd try something different and let our readers decide the outcome. A major catalyst for this was looking at Amazon's top 100 indie-rock records and just feeling so bored and uninspired. Theirs was such a joyless list. It came off like a bunch of indier-than-thou hipsters bragging about their uber-cool record collections.
The truth is, no one is that cool all the time. Even the edgiest, skinny-jean-wearing, Pitchfork-reading, Animal Collective-worshipping fan occasionally cuts loose to the Killers' "Mr. Brightside," right? And that's why we've put together a giant long list that includes big-hitting albums such as Oasis's Definitely Maybe and Coldplay's A Rush Of Blood To The Head--as well as hipster favorites like Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation and TV On The Radio's Dear Science.
Because as much as the indie snobs would like to pretend otherwise, people really do love those big-but-unhip albums, and it seems unfair to cut them from the list just because they're "mainstream." Although at the time of writing, neither Oasis nor Coldplay are in the lead. The number one record after 24 hours of voting is...Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation.
But since I always change what my favorite indie album is (so much good stuff), I'll just leave it at that.