NME Countdown Top 50 Albums of the Decade

The idea of thinking back through a whole ten years of largely average music, trying our best to think of how albums made us feel at the time and not now, is a harrowing one at best and, thankfully, professional fanzine and conscious bandwagon-jumper the NME have counted down their Ultimate Greatest Top 50 Albums of the Noughties...Ever! Take a look below and see what you think.  Sadly, from a piss-taking point of view, they've largely hit the nail on the head, if not from a musical standpoint, then certainly one upon which indie music was reinvigorated after years of Coldplay / Keane / Stereophonics / Travis dirge through such iconic releases as The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys and The Libertines.

The NME Top 50 Albums of the 00's
1. The Strokes - Is This It
2. The Libertines - Up The Bracket
3. Primal Scream - xtrmntr
4. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell
6. PJ Harvey - Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea
7. Arcade Fire - Funeral
8. Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
9. The Streets - Original Pirate Material
10. Radiohead - In Rainbows
11. At The Drive In - Relationship Of Command
12. LCD Soundsystem - The Sound Of Silver
13. The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
14. Radiohead - Kid A
15. Queens Of The Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf
16. The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free
17. Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise
18. The White Stripes - Elephant
19. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
20. Blur - Think Tank
21. The Coral - The Coral
22. Jay-Z - The Blueprint
23. Klaxons - Myths Of The Near Future
24. The Libertines - The Libertines
25. Rapture - Echoes
26. Dizzee Rascal - Boy in Da Corner
27. Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
28. Johnny Cash - Man Comes Around
29. Super Furry Animals - Rings Around The World
30. Elbow - Asleep In The Back
31. Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
32. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
33. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
34. Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump
35. Babyshambles - Down In Albion
36. Spirtualized - Let it Come Down
37. The Knife - Silent Shout
38. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
39. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
40. Ryan Adams - Gold
41. Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
42. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
43. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
44. Outkast - Loveboxxx/The Love Below
45. Avalanches - Since I Left You
46. Delgados - The Great Eastern
47. Brendan Benson - Lapalco
48. Walkmen - Bows and Arrows
49. Muse - Absolution
50. MIA - Arular

A Special Night For Swells Announced

Celebrated NME journalist (and, really, how often do we get to put those words together these days?) Steven Wells AKA Seething Wells AKA Swells was taken from this world too soon by cancer earlier this year. Quite rightly, a flock of his peers are putting on a special night to celebrate his life at the Albany in Deptford, London on December 4th.

THE NIGHT WE KEPT FOR SEETHING WELLS
Steven 'Swells' Wells, who died of cancer on 24 June this year, was a roaring, radical, iconoclastic motormouth, a verbal timebomb permanently primed and aching to explode.

As a journalist for the likes of the NME and, after his move to the States, The Philadelphia Weekly, he systematically demolished everything middl England held dear and then dynamited the rubble, while simultaneously immolating whiny indie bands, pompous rock stars and Morissey. Before that, in the early to mid 80s, as the ranting poet Seething Wells, he did the same thing, only even louder because he was on stage - headlining one of the earliest Apples & Snakes gigs in November 1982. Tonight some old mates and collaborators celebrate his loud, defiant, wonderful life. Book early!

Featuring

Melodic punk trailblazers The Newtown Neurotics
Speccy troubadour John Hegley
Innovative journo / broadcaster David Quantick
Gothic poetry-pioneer Joolz Denby
New Model Army frontman Justin Sullivan
Livewire anarcho-poet Nick Toczek
Nightingales singer Robert Lloyd
Southern Death Cult / Fun-Da-Mentals Aki Nawaz
Vintage Bradford ranter Little Brother
Music-vidoe innovator Nick Small

With compere Attila the Stockbroker (who shared an EP, a book and countless memorable gigs from Swells)

THERE WILL BE A COLLECTION FOR CANCER RESEARCH AFTER THE SHOW

Tickets cost £8, £5 to concessions and free to selected under 26 year olds. For more information check the website