As a rather large (in fandom, not girth) Radiohead lover myself I think it’s pretty interesting to see what a group of Radiohead fans come up with when they vote on the greatest albums of all time. Maybe I’ll find some albums that I haven’t heard yet that I need to check out?

What follows are the 20 greatest albums of all time according to a group of Radiohead fans who are members of a popular Radiohead forum. Each fan who took part in the polling made their own list of their favorite albums and then those lists were compiled to make a comprehensive greatest albums of all time list that actually has 1500 albums on it. (Yes, you read that correctly it’s a top 1500 albums of all time list.)

The Top 20

01 Radiohead – Kid A
02 Radiohead – OK Computer
03 My Blood Valentine – Loveless
04 The Beatles – Revolver
05 The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
06 The Velvet Underground & Nico – The Velvet Underground & Nico
07 Pixies – Doolittle
08 Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited
09 Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
10 The Beatles – The Beatles (AKA: The White Album)
11 Radiohead – Amnesiac
12 Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation
13 Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
14 David Bowie – Low
15 The Clash – London Calling
16 Talking Heads – Remain In Light
17 The Beatles – Abbey Road
18 Arcade Fire – Funeral
19 David Bowie – The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust…
20 The Zombies – Odyssey And Oracle

Click Here for the full list of 1500 at the forum on www.ateaseweb.com (and the huge thread full of comments that accompanies the list.)

If I can find similar comprehensive lists like this on other band’s forums it would be interesting to compare the results to these. I’ll be looking around.

My Opinion On This List

Well, I think Arcade Fire is massively overrated. So that’s the first thing that really jumps out at me. But definitely a lot of the albums on the top 20 wouldn’t be on my top 100 list (I’m not a huge fan of The Clash or Sonic Youth for instance.) And I actually don’t think I’ve ever listened to the Talking Heads’ Remain In Light, so I’ll have to get to that.

The White Album is my all time #1 so obviously I think it’s underrated here. I also think Sgt. Pepper has gone full circle and is now definitely underrated. It’s #32 on the list. It also looks like I rank In Rainbows higher than the average Radiohead fan, I’d put it ahead of Amnesiac for sure. For me it’s pretty much tied with Kid A & OK Computer. It’s #30 on this list.

Discovering New Albums

I plan on checking out every album on the top 100 that I haven’t heard before. I may even go down to the top 200 or 300 if my initial digging goes well. I think this is a great way to discover new music. (“New to me.”)

My Own Top 100 List

This list has inspired me to try and work on a list of my own favorite 100 albums of all time. It’s a bit of work to really come up with a whole list that’s really ranked in some sort of meaningful way. I don’t have that ready yet. But I will. And next year I’ll be able to submit it for this Radiohead forum’s poll (I’m a member there now) as they do this poll every year.