All aboard the handbasket - next stop: Hell

As if a jittery world needed any further disquiet – what with a fat kid in North Korea threatening to throw his new toys around  – the BBC has this week delivered the somewhat grim news that Coldplay’s A Rush Of Blood To The Head is the all-time favourite album of listeners to the UK's Radio 2.

I have nothing against the album myself. I even own a copy. What depresses me, somewhat, is that it should be regarded as the album patrons of Radio 2 admire more than any other, along with Keane's Hopes & Fears (at 2), Duran Duran's Rio (3) and Dido's No Angel (5)..

I accept that Radio 2 has never been known for its edginess: in the era when Radio 1 was staffed by groovy youngsters like...er...Dave Lee Travis and Simon Bates, Radio 2 was the broadcasting equivalent of your grandad's slippers - DJs like ageing 1950s crooner Jimmy Young and dashing former Jukebox Jury panelist Pete Murray, easing you into the afternoon with the Norrie Paramour Orchestra and the Mike Sammes Singers.

But today, the station represents a sizeable chunk of the British listening public. In January it announced record audience figure of 15.1 million listeners, ranks swollen in recent years by importing presenters like Jo Whiley (who presented the Top 100) and Stuart Maconie, and including Nirvana and Green Day on its playlists.

Being 45 years old and from London's middle class suburbs, I'm probably smack-bang in the middle of Radio 2's desired demographic (if I still lived in the UK, of course). But it pains me to think that my peers would prefer James Blunt's Back To Bedlam, Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms, and ABBA's Arrival over albums lower down the chart like Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, or albums which don't even appear on the list, like London's Calling, New Boots and Panties, Never Mind The Bollocks and Exile On Main Street.

Is British mainstream music taste so unadventurous? It doesn't surprise me to see Coldplay topping this chart. Theirs is a brand of safe, predictable stadium rock, with clever little hooks to go 'woah-oh' to, a social conscience and enough aversion to shaving within the band to get the duster up of older folk who believe The Beatles lost it when they grew their hair.

A Rush Of Blood To The Head, released after 9/11 and influenced by the terror attacks and their aftermath, is actually quite a good album, don't get me wrong. Clocks, The Scientist and God Put A Smile Upon Your Face are perfectly decent songs. Live they are very competent (I last saw them in Arnhem on the day of the July 7 bombings in London, which provided an odd atmosphere to the show).

But, coming back to the central argument here, responsible for the best album? And should it come higher in the Top 10 (well, let's make it the Top 12 so I can include Led Zeppelin IV) than Dark Side Of The Moon and U2's The Joshua Tree and even Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band? And should Pepper have been chosen over Abbey Road or The White Album as the pick of The Beatles albums?

OK, so it's a matter of taste. But, then, the question is begged as to how Celine Dion and Shania Twain ended up on a list of the Top 100 albums released over the last 50 or 60 years. What was the application of taste there?

This chart is, obviously, a representative sample of listeners to one radio station, and was probably created to spark just such discourse as I've engaged in here ("The range of eras and genres exhibited by the chart is typical of the breadth of Radio 2 and its distinctive music policy," said Radio 2 head of music Jeff Smith), but I do worry for the musical health of a country that has lead the world - and continues to do so - in cutting edge music should be spending so much time listening to Adele's 21 or James Blunt's Back To Bedlam.

THAT RADIO 2 TOP 100 LISTENER'S ALBUMS CHART IN FULL

1. Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
2. Keane - Hopes & Fears
3. Duran Duran - Rio
4. Pink Floyd - The Dark Side Of The Moon
5. Dido - No Angel
6. The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
7. Pet Shop Boys - Actually
8. The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
9. U2 - The Joshua Tree
10. Queen - A Night At The Opera
11. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
12. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV
13. The Police - Synchronicity
14. Madonna - True Blue
15. James Blunt - Back To Bedlam
16. Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run
17. Adele - 21
18. Oasis - Definitely Maybe
19. Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
20. George Michael - Faith
21. Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms
22. Electric Light Orchestra - Out Of The Blue
23. Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell
24. Kate Bush - The Kick Inside
25. Kylie Minogue - Fever
26. Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde
27. Michael Jackson - Thriller
28. Paul Simon - Graceland
29. Billy Joel - An Innocent Man
30. Kinks - The Kinks
31. Guns N Roses - Appetite For Destruction
32. Pulp - Different Class
33. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
34. Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key of Life
35. Take That - Beautiful World
36. Blondie - Parallel Lines
37. ABBA - Arrival
38. Prince - Purple Rain
39. The Eagles - Hotel California
40. The Human League - Dare
41. Supertramp - Breakfast In America
42. R.E.M. - Automatic For The People
43. Wings - Band On The Run
44. Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
45. Joni Mitchell - Blue
46. Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet
47. Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
48. Robbie Williams - I've Been Expecting You
49. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
50. Neil Young - Harvest
51. Carole King - Tapestry
52. The Verve - Urban Hymns
53. Celine Dion - Falling Into You
54. The Who - Tommy
55. Donna Summer - Bad Girls
56. George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
57. Maroon 5 - Songs About Jane
58. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Exodus
59. Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
60. Gerry Rafferty - City To City
61. David Bowie - Let's Dance
62. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Déjà Vu
63. Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True
64. Roxy Music - Flesh and Blood
65. Steely Dan - Can't Buy A Thrill
66. Culture Club - Colour By Numbers
67. David Gray - White Ladder
68. Bryan Adams - Reckless
69. Neil Diamond - Beautiful Noise
70. Phil Collins - Face Value
71. Genesis - Invisible Touch
72. Barbra Streisand - Guilty
73. Frank Sinatra - Songs for Swingin' Lovers!
74. Simply Red - Stars
75. Van Morrison - Avalon Sunset
76. Rod Stewart - Atlantic Crossing
77. Sade - Diamond Life
78. Buddy Holly & The Crickets - The Chirping Crickets
79. Whitney Houston - Whitney Houston
80. Michael Bublé - Crazy Love
81. Shania Twain - Come On Over
82. Emeli Sandé - Our Version Of Events
83. Elvis Presley - Moody Blue
84. Bee Gees - Spirits Having Flown
85. Eric Clapton - Slowhand
86. The Pretenders - The Pretenders
87. Eurythmics - Be Yourself Tonight
88. The Carpenters - A Song For You
89. John Lennon - Double Fantasy
90. Don McLean - American Pie
91. Chic - C'est Chic
92. Aretha Franklin - Lady Soul
93. Daryl Hall & John Oates - Private Eyes
94. Earth, Wind & Fire - I Am
95. The Doobie Brothers - Minute by Minute
96. Lionel Richie - Can't Slow Down
97. Diana Ross - Diana
98. Paul McCartney - Pipes Of Peace
99. Dionne Warwick - Heartbreaker
100. Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer