Britain, for all its weaknesses, really pulls its weight musically. No nation bar America has had as big a footprint. When picking the best albums from UK artists, you’re basically picking from a large chunk of the entire popular music canon. So no small task, then.
That said, the job becomes marginally easier – and more interesting – when focused on the musical genres and traditions that Britain played an oversized role in, or even invented wholesale: the transition from blues to classic rock; 60s pop experimentation; glam rock; post-punk; garage, grime, dubstep and the other dance-flavoured sounds of the 90s and 00s. The more you comb through musical history, the more you’ll find UK bands and UK artists at key cultural hinge points. The best albums from UK artists are a testament to that influence, and (more importantly) sound banging too. There’s no shame in being patriotic about these masterpieces.
Greatest Hits by Queen (1981)
Forgive us for kicking things off with a compilation, but Greatest Hits, the first of Queen’s three best-of albums, is Britain’s best-selling album of all time, with more than 7.5 million copies sold. For good reason: the songs here are some of the biggest in the classic rock canon. “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Another One Bites the Dust”, “We Will Rock You”, and so on and so on. Some of these are unambiguous stadium anthems, while others – “Fat Bottomed Girls”, “Don’t Stop Me Now”, “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” – have a vital, campy theatricality that, as well as being the band’s signature, is a rich, glorious tradition in British rock.
Original Pirate Material by The Streets (2002)
