Low on NME's 50 Darkest Albums of All Time

[Jason]

"Things We Lost in the Fire" at number 36.

01. Manic Street Preachers – The Holy Bible
02. Spiritualized – Let It Come Down
03. Nirvana – In Utero
04. The Smiths – Meat Is Murder
05. Nico – Desertshore
06. The Cure – Pornography
07. Nick Drake – Pink Moon
08. Antony And The Johnsons – I Am A Bird Now
09. Johnny Cash – The Man Comes Around
10. Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak
11. Portishead – Dummy
12. Morrissey – Vauxhall & I
13. Joni Mitchell – Blue
14. Scott Walker – The Drift
15. Wire – 154
16. Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral
17. David Bowie – Heroes
18. Dépêche Mode – Violator
19. Leonard Cohen – Songs Of Love And Hate
20. The Psychedelic Furs – Talk Talk Talk
21. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – Your Funeral…My Trial
22. Joy Division – Closer
23. Sunn O))) – Monoliths & Dimentions
24. Swans – White Light From The Month Of Infinity
25. The Fall - The Nations Saving Grace
26. Black Flag – My War
27. Slint – Spiderland
28. Arab Strap – Elephant Stone
29. Tricky – Pre-Millennium Tension
30. Marvin Gaye – Here, My Dear
31. Big Star – Third/Sister Lovers
32. Husker Du – Candy Apple Grey
33. Nina Nastasia – The Blackened Air
34. Lou Reed – Berlin
35. Radiohead – Ok Computer
36. Low – Things We Lost In The Fire
37. Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath
38. Neutral Milk Hotel – In An Aeroplane Over The Sea
39. Glasvegas – Glasvegas
40. Smog – The Doctor Came At Dawn
41. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – I See Darkness
42. Billie Holiday – Lady Sings The Blues
43. Public Image Limited – Metal Box
44. Suicide – Suicide
45. Editors – The Back Room
46. Interpol – Turn On The Bright Lights
47. Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska
48. Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
49. Pulp – This Is Hardcore
50. The Xx - Xx

--
Jason,
lament.us | sadreminders.com | tracier.com | backwardsguitar.com

[Jeff Hunter]

This list is absurd.  I don't even know where to start, so I won't bother.  Still, always good to see Low get good press.  Nevermind the fact that TWLINTF is less "dark" than at least half of Low's releases.

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the official LOW forum, "Chairkickers."
> To post to this group, send email to chairk...@googlegroups.com
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> chairkickers...@googlegroups.com
> For more options, visit this group at
> http://groups.google.com/group/chairkickers?hl=en?hl=en

[Susan Malmrose]

That list is completely stupid.

[rayna khaitan]

agreed. i was going to say the same thing. i think "things we lost..." is one of their happier albums. it's also my least favourite. hmm.... :)

[Cormac Phelan]

Also agreed....I was going to reply earlier today after glancing and seeing Coldplay's album....but after looking through the full list, it'd be like shooting fish in a barrel!

www.cormacphelan.com

[joshua*]

chtc is totally a "darker" album. 

Sent from my Commodore 64

[Derek Hanson]

My vote would be for "Shoot Out the Lights" by Richard & Linda Thompson.

 

Derek

[Jeff Hunter]

Rayna, TWLITF is actually my favorite album lol.  But that's cool.  Even if it is your least favorite Low album, for all I know you still love it.  I love my least favorite Low album and my least favorite album of a bunch of my favorite artists.

Yeah Coldplay especially jumped out at me too.  I was already sort of cringing and twitching while reading the list, at that point I just laughed.

I also thought of The Curtain Hit the Cast.  Ultimately it probably comes down to a matter of opinion as to what their darkest album is, but that's the first one that came to mind based on the overall sounds of most of the songs.  Certainly if more songs on Things We Lost in the Fire were like "Embrace" it could be considered an especially "dark" album, but the mood of that song, both lyrically and musically is not typical of that album.

I guess it's somewhat impressive that they tried to include more obscure artists like Swans and Low for instance.  But if they're going to do that and try to prove that they are including underground music known almost primarily FOR being dark, you would think they would have at least SOMETHING by Nurse With Wound, Coil, or SOMEONE like that.

Let it Come Down by Spiritualized?  Really?!  I LOVE that album and anyone else who is familiar with it knows that "dark" is not at all one of the first adjectives that comes to mind when thinking of that album.  Turn on the Bright Lights by Interpol.  Really?

I don't think it's a bad idea for a list to try to compile, so kudos to NME for at least that.

I'm not SURE that any of his albums definitely should have made this list, but I was surprised not to see a Neil Young album on this.  Tonight's The Night, maybe?  Then again, I think the primary reason that album is seen as such a dark album is because everyone knows the back stories behind it.

I was pleased to see some artists on there, and I think the albums chosen by them were certainly sufficient.  However, if I were compiling this list, based on my very subjective opinions, the replacements I would have made would have been:

Soundtracks for the Blind instead of White Light From the Mouth of Infinity by Swans

Disintegration for Pornography by The Cure

Let Love in for Your Funeral... My Trial by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Station to Station for Heroes by David Bowie

---

Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:10:01 -0600
Subject: Re: [chairkickers] Low on NME's 50 Darkest Albums of All Time
From: bornbyt...@gmail.com
To: chairk...@googlegroups.com

[Randal T. Rioux]

If NME was printed on 2-ply, or perhaps quilted, it might be worth a
subscription.

*sigh*

On 1/26/2011 1:06 PM, Jason wrote:
> "Things We Lost in the Fire" at number 36.
>

> 01. Manic Street Preachers � The Holy Bible
> 02. Spiritualized � Let It Come Down
> 03. Nirvana � In Utero
> 04. The Smiths � Meat Is Murder
> 05. Nico � Desertshore
> 06. The Cure � Pornography
> 07. Nick Drake � Pink Moon
> 08. Antony And The Johnsons � I Am A Bird Now
> 09. Johnny Cash � The Man Comes Around
> 10. Kanye West � 808s & Heartbreak
> 11. Portishead � Dummy
> 12. Morrissey � Vauxhall & I
> 13. Joni Mitchell � Blue
> 14. Scott Walker � The Drift
> 15. Wire � 154
> 16. Nine Inch Nails � The Downward Spiral
> 17. David Bowie � Heroes
> 18. D�p�che Mode � Violator
> 19. Leonard Cohen � Songs Of Love And Hate
> 20. The Psychedelic Furs � Talk Talk Talk
> 21. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds � Your Funeral�My Trial
> 22. Joy Division � Closer
> 23. Sunn O))) � Monoliths & Dimentions
> 24. Swans � White Light From The Month Of Infinity

> 25. The Fall - The Nations Saving Grace

> 26. Black Flag � My War
> 27. Slint � Spiderland
> 28. Arab Strap � Elephant Stone
> 29. Tricky � Pre-Millennium Tension
> 30. Marvin Gaye � Here, My Dear
> 31. Big Star � Third/Sister Lovers
> 32. Husker Du � Candy Apple Grey
> 33. Nina Nastasia � The Blackened Air
> 34. Lou Reed � Berlin
> 35. Radiohead � Ok Computer
> 36. Low � Things We Lost In The Fire
> 37. Black Sabbath � Black Sabbath
> 38. Neutral Milk Hotel � In An Aeroplane Over The Sea
> 39. Glasvegas � Glasvegas
> 40. Smog � The Doctor Came At Dawn
> 41. Bonnie �Prince� Billy � I See Darkness
> 42. Billie Holiday � Lady Sings The Blues
> 43. Public Image Limited � Metal Box
> 44. Suicide � Suicide
> 45. Editors � The Back Room
> 46. Interpol � Turn On The Bright Lights
> 47. Bruce Springsteen � Nebraska

> 48. Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head

> 49. Pulp � This Is Hardcore