They’re not bad, IMO. A catchy and more than a little disposable. Also this highlights the fact that no-one in North America could possibly peg the Libertines as overrated since they’ve had almost exactly zero exposure here.
And since the UK made Amy Winehouse a star, who are they to be the arbiters of taste to the rest of us? 
Maybe this list is just another attempt to flog album sales. Albums are going the way of the dodos, and rightfully so, with online availability of single tracks for 99 cents a pop. Almost no albums are designed with related songs to tell some kind of “larger” musical story anyway – the whole is almost never larger than the sum of its parts.
I agree. Albums have gone the way of the dinosaurs. But…
Albums were often a snapshot of the artist in a certain point in their career. An ant in amber. That’s no longer the case, of course, but those who disdain the conceit of "albums "might not understand the distinction.
It’s impossible to come up with such a list objectively when you are steeped in the hype that is the very issue you are acting against. Some like hype, some react against hype.
The only way to arrive at an objective list would be to give the top 100 (or whatever) albums of all time to a bunch of people who had lived under a rock for the last 50 years and ask them which they liked best, then compare their “hype free” list to the standard “Top 100” lists. The albums that rated low on the former list and high on the latter would be objectively over-rated.
I agree. The Rolling Stones’ Goat’s Head Soup has to be one of the most self-indulgent, women-hating (I know there’s a word for it, I just can’t find in my Funk 'n Wagnals), “we-play-you’ll-pay” albums that ever hit the airwaves. After all, they were the “Stones”…they knew that no matter what they played, their stoner fans would pay & pay & pay.
Phil (no love here)
You probably don’t care what I don’t like. And I certainly don’t care what you don’t like.
We could do this with food, too, going ad infinitum: “Most overrated foods in the word…ever!”
I nominate pizza. It’s just cheese and sauce. On some dough. I don’t know what the big deal is.
There are some damn good albums on that list, including Nevermind.
I would have put Dark Side of the Moon in first place - for a long time it was the bestselling album EVAR and the songs are really pretty pedestrian.
Misogynistic
I have been hearing about this album for years, but didn’t know anything from it except the singles, “Paranoid Android” and “Karma Police.” Still, trusting some of the people who praised it to me, I went out and bought it this past winter. I tried it a couple times, it didn’t impact me too much, and it got stashed away.
This summer, however, I was bored and started playing it. Now I love it–I’m not a huge music fan, so finding an album that I’ll listen to regularly and really enjoy is a rarity. This album does it for me, though.
So, needless to say, I don’t understand how this album is on the list and there’s nothing, nothing from the Rolling Stones. That’s pretty damn ridiculous.
I completely agree with the list.
I dunno, I kinda like it ;). Not a stinker in the bunch, and I distinctly remember the first time I heard Black Dog. It knocked my ass right out of the park. Overplayed? Certainly, Black Dog, Rock & Roll, Stairway to Heaven are all overplayed, but When the Levee Breaks is the real stunner of the record, not to mention Battle of Evermore. That’s five bona fide classic rock songs on one album.
I agree with the Sex Pistols - influential, I suppose, but a terrible record. That’s my #1.
Joe
I’m just not seeing why that Coldplay album is on the list, much less in the second slot. Has it ever been particularly highly rated?
Seconded. I actually like Floyd, but that is one of their worst albums.
Wish you were here is far superior.
Thirding objecting to putting “The Queen is Dead” on that list. That is an outstanding album. “Bigmouth Strikes Again” and “There is a Light that Never Goes Out” are two great songs, and there are other good ones on there.
“Overrated” does not equal “bad.” I can see how people might think that Sgt. Pepper is overrated (it’s a bit overhyped, but any musician working at the time agreed that it was a monumental achievement and changed how they thought about music), but it’s still a fine album. The styles have dated a bit, but the songs are as good as ever.
OTOH, nearly all of the Doors albums are overrated (except for “Other Voices,” which is badly underrated). Some good stuff, but Morrison is no better a poet than dozens of other rock lyricists. It was his showmanship that made him a star.
The Clash London Calling.
I loved the Clash, but I remember distinctly my 16 year old brain going WTF? Where’s the guitar? This could’ve been a single album!
I recognize how it was a major growth spurt for them, but in the end, I think it isn’t worthy of any “greatest of all time” honors.
The problem with the continual production of best and worse “lists” is people start getting confused.
I read this list. And then while trying form a joke about it, I realised something which nobody has pointed out.
This is BBC 6 Radio’s most overrated albums in the world
(And the word “Ever” doesn’t appear in there).
This is not representative of the tastes or the World, or the UK, or BBC TV watchers, or BBC Radio listeners. This is representative of the small group of listeners who listen to the BBC digital only radio station 6 music.
I was until recently a BBC 6 Music listener (Planet Rock has me now). Its a station of indie, dance and revisionist 70-80’s music (some punk some reggae, very little mainstream), possibly like US College radio stations. Its listeners are largely over 30’s and its the like of station which will have played Arctic Monkeys, TV on the Radio, Peter Bjorn and John a good year before anyone else did.
With an eye to that, I’d say the appearance of Radiohead, Libertines, Smiths and Sex Pistols in there is controversial. The rest I’d expect…
What is it with lists that make them be taken as an absolute judgement on the taste of huge sections of the population?
If Hello magazine, or UK’s Classic FM published a list with the same subject, would you take that as some absolute measure?
Oh yes, and now for the original reply…
I couldn’t decide on whether the most overrated album in the world was The Best Rock Album in the World… Ever, or Vol 1 or Vol 2 of the same set of albums. Or The Best Metal Album in the World… Ever.
Me neither. I don’t know whether that’s because I’m patetically un-hip or just un-British, but they can’t be that overhyped, can they?
Maybe so, but to my ears, all its songs sound enough alike, and enough like U2’s previous work, that I don’t see what the big deal is, so I’ll agree with the “overhyped” label there.
Now, now. I really enjoy some of his lesser-hyped albums, like Jump! But if you want to call Song Cycle overrated or unlistenable, I’ll go along with you.
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
I’ve tried. Oh, how I’ve tried, but it just ain’t happening. “Teenage Riot” is good, but the rest of it is just noise. Daydream Nation was #1 on Pitchfork Media’s Top 100 albums of the '80s.