Strokes Top NME's Decade List: Vote in Rolling Stone's Poll Now

British music mag NME has revealed its pick for the best album of the 2000s: the Strokes' 2001 debut Is This It. The record, which received a perfect 10/10 rating from NME when it was released (and four stars from RS) edged out a trio of great — albeit more popular in the U.K. — albums, followed by the Libertines' Up the Bracket, Primal Scream's XTRMNTR and the Arctic Monkeys' Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Fever to Tell placed fifth on the Top 100 list, which was determined by "a panel of musicians, producers, writers and record label bosses."

The NME list is not without its share of curious picks — the Shins' Wincing the Night Away at Number 13, one spot ahead of Radiohead's Kid A, stands out — but we're sure there will be plenty to quibble with on the dozens of the Best of the 2000s lists that will be unveiled in these final weeks of the decade. Radiohead, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the White Stripes, the Libertines, the Streets and Arcade Fire managed to place two albums in NME's Top 50, while OutKast, M.I.A. and the Shins scored two LPs within the Top 100 list. Mike Skinner's the Streets also scored both of the NME's highest-ranked hip-hop albums as Original Pirate Material was voted Number Nine and A Grand Don't Come for Free was named 16th best of the 2000s. Jay-Z's The Blueprint was the highest-ranked American hip-hop album at 22.

Rolling Stone will name the 2000s' best albums, songs and artists in the Greatest Music of the Decade issue that hits stands December 9th. We've also opened up voting to our Greatest Music of the Decade Readers' Poll, where you can also pick your favorites in those three categories. The poll closes on November 30th, so make sure you get your picks in soon!

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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