NME's Greatest Lyricists Ever

Such is the brilliance of democracy, NME are currently running a Greatest Lyricists poll, where readers rate songwriters for their lyrical work and. The page lists the constantly-changing top twenty as decided by readers.

Typical suspects appear throughout. Of course your Cohens, Cashs, Bowies and Morrisons to bolster the classic cred of such a list. You have Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, Radiohead's Thom Yorke, R.E.M.'s Michael Stripe and Blur's Damon Albarn to give things a predictably NME-esque alternative feel. Then there's a few oddball choices that you can't really fault per se. Peter Doherty, Jarvis Cocker and Morrissey fall into this category. The 2000's get a dubious showing with The Killers' Brandon Flowers right now sitting in an inconsequential 20th.

Then we get to the top five. Dylan and Lennon make deserving appearances. The company they share up the top on the other hand... right now Bob Dylan sits at #5 edged out by Arctic Monkeys' Alex "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor" Turner. John Lennon is relegated to #3 with Matt Bellamy of Muse and My Chemical Romance's Gerard Way ranked the greatest lyricists ever.

Granted, there's no such thing as a right answer for a poll like this. But what we have here is unquestionably the wrong answer. No big deal really, just pretend that the sorts of people that voted Gerard Way at #1 aren't registered to vote in elections. Read on if you'd like to see the full list as I saw it.

1. Gerard Way - My Chemical Romance Current Rating: 8.11
2. Matt Bellamy - Muse Current Rating: 7.97
3. John Lennon Current Rating: 7.63
4. Alex Turner - Arctic Monkeys Current Rating: 7.46
5. Bob Dylan Current Rating: 7.29
6. Morrissey - The Smiths Current Rating: 6.97
7. Ian Curtis - Joy Division Current Rating: 6.85
8. Pete Doherty - The Libertines Current Rating: 6.58
9. David Bowie Current Rating: 6.51
10. Johnny Cash Current Rating: 6.45
11. Kurt Cobain - Nirvana Current Rating: 6.28
12. Thom Yorke - Radiohead Current Rating: 6.20
13. Damon Albarn - Blur Current Rating: 6.11
14. Joe Strummer - The Clash Current Rating: 6.03
15. Leonard Cohen Current Rating: 5.79
16. Jarvis Cocker - Pulp Current Rating: 5.77
17. Nicky Wire - Manic Street Preachers Current Rating: 5.74
18. Jim Morrison - The Doors Current Rating: 5.74
19. Michael Stipe- R.E.M. Current Rating: 5.74
20. Brandon Flowers - The Killers Current Rating: 5.65