25 classic NYC artists that didn't make NME's top NYC albums of all time

May 31, 2018

ramones — *this album did not make NME’s list*

Earlier this year, BBC 6 posted a list of 12 essential NYC albums including some inarguable classics but also strangely excluding The Velvet Underground. Today, fellow UK music source NME posted “The greatest New York albums of all time,” also picking 12. They did include The Velvet Underground, but also left off stuff like the Ramones, Sonic Youth, Television and Talking Heads. Here’s NME’s list:

1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever To Tell
2. Wu-Tang Clan – Enter the 36 Chambers
3. The Strokes – Is This It
4. Sunflower Bean – Twentytwo In Blue
5. QTY – QTY
6. Richard Hell & the Voidoids – Blank Generation
7. Jay-Z – Reasonable Doubt
8. Blondie – Parallel Lines
9. The Velvet Underground – White Light/White Heat
10. Patti Smith – Horses
11. Nas – Illmatic
12. Beastie Boys – Licensed To Ill

Like BBC 6, some inarguable classics, but… kinda weird to include newer bands like Sunflower Bean and QTY and rank them higher than Blondie and Patti Smith, especially considering all the groundbreaking NYC artists that didn’t make this list at all. Off the top of our heads, here’s 24 NYC artists (and one various artists LP) we think would’ve been more deserving of a slot on this list, and there are of course many, many others too:

Ramones
Sonic Youth
The Notorious B.I.G.
Television
Public Enemy
Talking Heads
Simon & Garfunkel
Bob Dylan
A Tribe Called Quest
Mobb Deep
Le Tigre
New York Dolls
Black Star
Gorilla Biscuits
Agnostic Front
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Living Colour
Type O Negative
Digable Planets
Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers
Boogie Down Productions
The No New York LP
Anthrax
Eric B & Rakim
William Basinski