We introduced a few weeks ago MTV’s hunt to find “The Greatest Album Ever“. It raised a fair few questions, and a lot of angry responses from you guys as you listed your favourite bands who weren’t included.

Rather unsurprisingly, Michael Jackson topped the poll, having announced his sensational run of London shows between the announcement of the show and the results. Almost one in three of all votes went to the crazy American. In a shock move, Craig David was number 2 in the poll, and has been deemed more popular than Radiohead and Nirvana, receiving more votes than the Oxford based quintet and Seattle grungers combined. Surely that’s got to be some kind of mistake?

Over forty thousand votes were cast, which gives a pretty good perspective of what people think. Many in the comments of the previous post asked about some pretty seminal albums, however it should be noted that these are the best albums since 1981 – when MTV began, so many classics (Pink Floyd, Smiths, Who etc) aren’t eligible for the list. However, as Thom so rightly commented…. no Libertines? Crazy, no?

Speaking of wacko Jacko’s win, Trevor Nelson commented

I don’t think there’ll ever be another album like it ever in the history of music. There will never be a marriage of producer and artist and song writing and pop sensibility – it just won’t happen again. And also, due to the way people buy records now, there’ll never be an album that sells as many copies – and that’s the thing that will keep it at number one.

Interestingly, Zane Lowe didn’t agree with Craig David’s high ranking, commenting

The guy was hugely successful and there’s no denying that album is a great listen from start to finish as a pop record. It probably stands up as the greatest British urban pop record of the last twenty years. Still no one’s really topped it – apart from Winehouse. Should it be number two in The Greatest Album of all time? No, in my opinion, but I’m not going to begrudge anyone’s success, and if his fans voted for it then what’s encouraging for me is that they still consider that record to be an important part of their lives and that’s what music is.

After the jump: the complete list of albums
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It seems every awards season we have another “Greatest album” survey, most of them from one random source who have basically surveyed their friends to see what they like best that day.

However, when MTV do a survey you know it’s going to be the right choice. They’ve just launched their hunt to find the “Greatest Album Ever“, after they crowned Duran Duran’s Rio as having the “Greatest Video Ever” last year.

In conjunction with music industry experts, MTV’s flagship music channels VH1, MTV Two and MTV Base have each collated their top ten greatest albums since 1981, the year MTV launched. The debates to select the albums were chaired by channel presenters Edith Bowman (VH1), Zane Lowe (MTV Two) and Trevor Nelson (MTV Base).

Suggs (of Madness fame) was one of the key contributors to the shows, talking about Amy Winehouse’s decline and then subsequent rejuvenation:

It’s great to see her looking marvellous again. There was quite a gap between her first and second album and I used to see her around Camden a lot, and when you see someone regularly its harder to notice their demise. I’m so glad she looks well again. It was fate putting her together with Mark Ronson for Back to Black, and was so good for her putting her voice right in the middle of it.

Meanwhile, as only MTV can, Pete Burns gave us an, erm, “intriguing” insight into his friendship with Morrissey, who failed to make the top 10 for any of his solo albums, but whose Smith’s classic “The Queen is Dead” appeared in both VH1 and MTV 2’s top 10’s:

I knew him personally back in the day, he gave me a copy of this album. I loved it from track one. He has a very unique sense of irony and humour. As a person he’s very difficult and awkward to get on with. He stopped talking to me over a fur coat, and still to this day he holds a grudge about it!

Personally, I’d love to see REM get the award. All the others are great, but people seem to underestimate the consistency of REM. Plus, Michael Stipe is a legend in my eyes. Either that or Human League, but I can’t see them beating the big boys – can you?

Voting for the top album is now open over on MTV’s website. Each channel’s review of the top 10 albums can be seen this weekend, with Trevor Nelson presenting the MTV Base run down Saturday 28 February at 9pm, followed by Edith Bowman presenting VH1 and Zane Lowe MTV Two both on Sunday 1 March at 9pm. The final winner will be announced on Sunday 12th April.

After the jump, check out the top 10 albums chosen by each channel.
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R.E.M.’s UK live return is imminent finally, with the US threesome playing four massive UK stadium dates throughout August. Their new album, Accelerate comes out in about April, and they’ll then be touring the US and Europe extensively before coming over to the UK, following on from their massive 2005 Hyde Park show.

I’ll be going to at least one of the tour dates, though which one I don’t know – seeing them live shows that REM still have it.

Tickets for the four dates are on sale on Friday (29th February) at 9am as usual.

Saturday 24th August – Manchester, Lancashire County Cricket Club
Sunday 25th August – Cardiff, Millennium Stadium
Tuesday 27th August – Southampton, Rosebowl
Friday 30th August – London, Twickenham Stadium

Now, we all know that I go on and on and on about one of my favourite bands, Delays. They’ve already announced a new tour starting this Thursday in Wolverhampton, and now they’ve announced the release dates for their lead single and album release. “Everything’s The Rush” will be released on Monday 28th April around the UK, with lead single “Hooray” being out a week before on Monday 21st April. The album will be their first for Fiction records, and will hopefully be their breakthrough effort. There’s a preview of Hooray on their myspace page now, and their blog entry announcing their album dates is here.

Meanwhile, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. has a new album, “Searching For The Hows And Whys” out on 10th March. I knew that 21 year old Sam Duckworth had a new album out in the early half of this year, but not this soon, so this makes me very happy. The tracks are sounding good – get a free download of Find The Time here. The video is here for those of you that are a bit more visually inclined.

Finally, there’s been a lot of hype about R.E.M.’s return around the blogoshphere this week, with Accelerate being announced as arriving on 31st March here in the UK. First single “Supernatural Superserious” sounds pretty good – a return to their rocky roots, and a definite positive step forward from their rather weak “Around The Sun”.

Expect to hear a lot more about each of these three albums over the  coming weeks here on There Goes The Fear.

Photo of R.E.M. is taken from their official website.