"7/10 - as usual"

This was a quote taken from a review in the Guardian of a Teenage Fanclub single some years ago. And a fair point it was too - Teenage Fanclub have a fantastic ability to consistently churn out very good, yet rarely outstanding, records. As such you will rarely see them in any 'best albums of all-time' lists (unless someone's undertaken a 'Best Albums Of All-Time That Sound Rather Like Big Star' poll).

But generally speaking, many albums regarded as 'classic' are hugely flawed and probably don't deserve much more than a 7/10 rating if you break them down and rate them on a track-by-track basis. Take Appetite For Destruction - much of side two (for younger viewers this means the second half of the album) is filler. All the genuinely good - in fact great - songs make their appearances early on (I was never a fan of 'Sweet Child O' Mine').

Likewise the debut album from the other Roses of that era - the Stone Roses. Reissued this week (or rather re-re-re-reissued as their former label, Silvertone, continue to draw as much as they can from this particular well), the Mancs can claim three bona fide classics in 'I Wanna Be Adored', 'I Am The Resurrection' and 'Made Of Stone'. One backwards song and a direct take on 'Scarborough Fair' surely prevent the album from being considered a 10/10, while the remaining tracks all score somewhere in the mid-range. Overall, it's probably another 7/10 - but try telling that to anyone who went to Spike Island and in 2003 the NME declared it the best album of all-time.

There is an ongoing internet poll over on Best Ever Albums. The ever-so predictable top 10 is currently as follows:

1. Radiohead - OK Computer
2. Beatles - Revolver
3. Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
4. Beatles - Sgt Pepper
5. Beatles - Abbey Road
6. Clash - London Calling
7. Beatles - White Album
8. Led Zeppelin - 4
9. Nirvana - Nevermind
10. Velvet Underground - Velvet Underground & Nico

Now, I have over the years bought every single one of those albums, although many of them were on vinyl - or in some cases even cassette - and have since been sold on or lost and I currently possess only 5 (numbers 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10).

Out of the top 10 I'd probably pick out Dark Side Of The Moon and Nevermind as being the most solid and near-flawless - although I haven't heard the former for the best part of 20 years and am in no rush to play the latter anytime soon either. The album I'm most likely to play out of the 10 is the one bringing up the rear - Velvet Underground & Nico.

Realistically though I'm far more likely to pick out The Umajets, Jason Falkner, Teenage Fanclub or their predecessors, Big Star. Solid 7/10 artists all the way. But would they make into my personal top 10? Unlikely.

For the record The Stone Roses is at number 22 and Appetite For Destruction is at 41. Teenage Fanclub's Grand Prix is at 1,586 and their breakthrough album, Bandwagonesque, is down at 1,881.