U2's 'Achtung Baby' has been crowned the most influential album of the past 25 years in a magazine poll.

The Irish band's 1991 album beat Prince's 'Sign O' The Times' at two and The Smiths 'The Queen Is Dead' at three to the Spin Magazine title.

Spin listed the staff-voted top 125 albums of the past 25 years to celebrate the magazine's quarter of a century in the business.

Completing the top five are Nirvana's 'Nevermind' and Radiohead's 'OK Computer' at four and five respectively.

Defending the unlikely number one, Spin Magazine editor Charles Aaron said: "Unlike Radiohead with 'OK Computer' and 'Kid A,' U2 took their post-industrial, trad-rock disillusionment not as a symbol of overall cultural malaise, but as a challenge to buck up and transcend.

"Struggling to simultaneously embrace and blow up the world, they were never more inspirational."

The top 10 is as follows:

1. U2 - 'Achtung Baby'
2. Prince - 'Sign O' The Times'
3. The Smiths – 'The Queen Is Dead'
4. Nirvana – 'Nevermind'
5. Radiohead – 'OK Computer'
6. Public Enemy - ' It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back'
7. Guns N' Roses – 'Appetite For Destruction'
8. PJ Harvey – 'Rid Of Me'
9. Pavement – 'Slanted and Enchanted'
10. Nine Inch Nails – 'The Downward Spiral'

(by Scott Colothan)