Melody Maker Albums of the Year 1988

Certainly one record in this list placed approximately 27 places too low...

Loads of fantastic albums here, maybe my favourite year for music ever. Being 16 at the time might've had something to do with it, though.

I'm looking, and I can't say there's anything I'd want to spend more time with.

Oh ennui.

Someone please to tell me about: AR Kane, Skinny Puppy, Jane Siberry, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Shiva Burlesque, Green On Red and Live Skull.

(Yes I know this is the internet so I can look them up, but I'd like someone who was, say, 16-18 in 1988 to give me a wholly subjective perspective)

count me in among the corny post-pastoral fuxx

Yep, Reynolds slagged off Nation Of Millions. Reliable fellow, eh?

oh and mark my office etc.

Did he? Silly boy. I have never understood why people (esp. Simey) made such a song and dance about AR Kane.

... I'll be along to join Grouty outside your office shortly

dunno what to make of a r kane -- they never live up to what grimey et al say about them, but they'd be a 100x better without the vocals. the guy is on some embrace-level shit.

Oh I voted for AR Kane here! Fantastic album - the Police meet AMM (try segueing the end of "Spanish Quay" into the beginning of Inexhaustible Document: it works!

Also wanna know where "A Little Man And A House And The Whole World Window" is. WAKE UP MELODY MAKER

Did the Cardiacs make it into any critics' EOY polls ever?

Mildly surprised at non-appearance of Viva Hate.

Did the Cardiacs make it into any critics' EOY polls ever?

Probably the end-of-term mag at some minor public school somewhere

The Cardiacs
A Little Man And A House And The Whole World Window (Alphabet)
NME 1988

Tired of getting pushed around? Can’t stick the pace of the late eighties? Hanker after the days when Houses were for the Holy? Well take a look through the square window at the Cardiacs but no puns please ‘cos this isn’t funny.
Just when you thought Marillion had taken us to the very limit along comes this schizo-progressive anachronism wherein the Cardiacs have telescoped the entire dreggs of the early seventies into one album so geriatric, by comparison that the next Blue Oyster Cult will sound as fresh as ‘Viva Hate’.
It is the Floyd, it is Genesis, it is King Crimson, does is matter? ‘A Little Man…’ is the very worst bits of ‘Tommy’ stretched out to an eternity; it’s Emerson Lake and Palmer; it’s "Brain Salad Burglary" as the NME of it’s day might have said. By way of variation ‘In A City Lining’ knocks off one of those Neil Young/Mission cryogenic guitar solos and to bewilder us completely there is a nutty body-stomp midway through ‘Is This The Life’ which resides about as comfortable as Ian Paisley in the Vatican. Cardiacs are the sound of both feet in the grave.

Jack O’Neil

^^^ with reviewing like this who needs music

world-famous music critic "Jack O'Neil"

just to balance it up, NME's '88 album of year was Nation Of Millions, but runner-up was Irish Heartbeat by Van Morrison & the Chieftains.

Mary Margaret O'Brien = perfect adult contemporary/jazz/folk/postpunk fusion. Bonkers vocals on Bodies In Trouble is a youtube must. Gets my vote.

Nos. 24, 28, 20 and 1 are all pretty classic for me. Certainly not an embarrassing list overall. I've never *heard* of Shiva Burlesque. It'd've been cool to see the Rapeman album in there, off the top of my head, but maybe they weren't a music press type band, I dunno

God that sounds dodgy in my description. Look just get this album you won't ever regret it ever!

The music press had a thing against Rapeman for reasons unclear (irony alert).

Shiva Burlesque went on to become Grant Lee Buffalo.

Not a particularly good year.

Voted Scritti Politti, but only because Prefab Sprout or Crowded House weren't in the list.

!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z14wPTz6PdY

"Spirit of Eden" probably. "Daydream Nation" and "Surfer Rosa", only albums by their respective bands that I am likely to listen to these days. Oh, didn't see "Isn't Anything".

Wow. Featuring the ever-prolific Talk Talk, Mary Margaret O Hara and My Bloody Valentine. Keep those tunes a-coming.

It took me a second to get that but wooh boy, when I did!! : )

Quality not quantity.

the list: a-fkn-bundance galore. im-bogglin-possible to choose.

From memory the critical breakdown would have been thusly:

1 - everyone's 8th or 9th choice
2, 6, 14 - Stickboy
3, 5, 7, 10, 13, 15, 24, 29 - Reynoldstubbs
4, 9, 18, 22, 25, 27 - Jonesey
8, 11, 12, 16, 17, 20, 21 - Chris Roberts
19 - Stud Bros
23 - Caroline Sullivan
26 - Carol Clerk
28-30 - ?

(i.e. I don't recall anyone in MM being especially opinionated one way or the other about the last three)

Tender Prey

I've only heard five albums on this list, but then my 1988 was almost entirely 12" singles-based, and mostly guitar-free. At the time, my top albums of the year were:

1. Lovesexy - Prince
2. Tracey Chapman - Tracey Chapman
3. Introspective - PSBs
4. Short Sharp Shocked - Michelle Shocked
5. The Forest Is Crying - Trio Bulgarka
6. Look What I Got - Betty Carter
7. Akwaba Beach - Mory Kante
8. Green - REM
9. Naked - Talking Heads
10. Gypsy Kings - Gypsy Kings

...with The Pogues If I Fall From Grace With God, Hal Wilner's Disney tribute Stay Awake and Leonard Cohen's I'm Your Man as runners up.

Most glaring omission: It Takes A Nation Of Millions, but I was DJ-ing a mixed alternative lesbian/gay club night and had BANNED! Public Enemy after Professor Griff's homophobic comments in the press. My Roxanne Shante-loving separatist lesbian contingent wouldn't have stood for it, for starters - and bearing in mind the climate of the times (Clause 28 etc), I wasn't standing for it either.

20 years on, and my vote from this lot has of COURSE to be for Public Enemy.

CharlieNo4: that AR Kane album sounds like really woozy dub reggae with lots of JAMC-style feedback thrown in the mix. It sort of lollops along sleepily and every now and again it'll crash into a big bucket of noise. The Live Skull is good too: quite a dark sound but with lots of white light shining through all the holes ripped in it. It's not a million miles away from the AR Kane actually - the same sort of lolloping bass with guitars slicing through the muzz, but definitely 1000x more rocking. They always got compared with Sonic Youth at the time and that overshadowed them a bit.

Er, Nation Of Millions is there but at number (Clause!) 28 WAS THIS A PLOT WE SHOULD BE TOLD

Pogues were verboten at MM and Stickboy was quite keen on Tracy Chapman but I guess in MM terms she failed to have significant swoon/bliss component necessary for the times.

To be honest this year would be better evaluated by a singles EOY list, being the year of Acieed crossover and all that...

Fisherman's Blues!

I still have a soft spot for that album.

Yes. (leaves Ding's office) (with an xpost)

The Pogues If I Fall From Grace With God

Now we're talkin.

BACK IN THE OFFICE RIGHT NOW MM WERE RIGHT WORST GROUP EVER

Er, Nation Of Millions is there but at number (Clause!) 28 WAS THIS A PLOT WE SHOULD BE TOLD

Heh... I meant that they were omitted from my own list, not MM's.

My 1988: Ten City, Inner City, Todd Terry in all his guises, Neneh Cherry, Rob Base, Sterling Void, Yazz, S-Express, Eric B & Rakim, early sightings of De La Soul & Soul II Soul, Stetsasonic, Young MC, Phase II, Ofra Haza, Blaze, Nightwriters, Kym Mazelle, CeCe Rogers, Brat Pack, Joyce Sims, JVC Force, Roxanne Shante, Yello, Womack & Womack...

The year I first started reading MM regularly. It's probably not unconnected, then, that 1-3-5-6-14-16-20-21 would be somewhere in my own personal top 200 of all-time. 28 seems terribly important and ground-breaking and that, but I didn't understand that stuff at the time and I don't think I've played it more than half a dozen times.

I really, really, really, really loathe The Pogues. Sorry everyone. They're the fucking worst. Trad-Oirish fakey dullard bollocks from some public-school dropout with disgusting, avoidable health issues and a bullshit mythology.

i don't think anyone disagrees.

If that AR Kane album really sounds as NickB describes it then I've been missing out!

My mum likes The Pogues. ;_;

If that AR Kane album really sounds as NickB describes it then I've been missing out!

I don't think it does, but then that's just my opinion. I don't like The Pogues either but any band with Terry Woods in them can hardly be descibed as fake Oirish.

If it helps people don't think they're fake Oirish in Oirland

Did the Cardiacs make it into any critics' EOY polls ever?

The people standing next to me at The Forum last night were having an animated conversation about Cardiacs.

Mind you, it was at a Gong concert...

It was probably my ex-brother-in-law

The Pogues in precis:

hoidy hoidy hoidy hoi an a hoidy hoidy birmingham six hoidy hoi an a drunk un shite un whisky kilburn rent boy hoidy hoidy hoi

Actually, "Rum Sod" etc was the one.

I got "grace" but played it once. approx.

Although I did use "Fiesta" for the Dance Troup in Turkey, before it became ubiquitious in adland...

I'm gratified that no one is lamenting the exclusion of Rattle And Hum from this list.

(Introspective by the PSBs should have been in but they were also disliked at MM)

If I were Irish, the act mentioned on this thread I'd patriotically declare as upholding the adventurous, aesthetic spirit of the nation would be the one with Kevin Shields in it. Dingbod OTM.

Okay, I know we're just bashing the Pogues but, to clarify: is this Green Hazed Daze song I'm watching on youtube representational of the general sound etc of AR Kane, if so I like a lot.

primal scream? ; )

OK, had another look at the list OH Godddd....

I'd vote for "Life's too good".

I would be interested in crossing the road for getting a copy of "Fishermans Blues" OK? s'about it. ~Not heard it (partfrom thi singles).

If I were Irish, the act mentioned on this thread I'd patriotically declare as upholding the adventurous, aesthetic spirit of the nation would be the one with Kevin Shields in it.

That'll be the Kevin Shields who's lived in England for 20-odd years then?

and was born in NY etc etc yeah but they're IRISH, look at their NAMES

THEIR DRUMMER'S NAME i mean

...

Like Shane McGowan?

I wouldn't ever actually listen to the Pogues but their abrasive drinking songs fit with a whole lineage of pissed off hyper conservative music in Ireland. They're hardly Planxty though....

Always preferred Band of Holy Joy myself.

This is a pointless argument, MBV are Irish, The Pogues are shite, finito.

Nyah Fearties for me

Every time I see that name, I can't help but hear Vic Reeves announcing it! (Band of Holy Joy, I mean)

Nobody stays in Ireland, that's why its so romanticized, it's bloomsday so I don't mind mentioning that Joyce wrote Ulysses in Paris

right, but getting back to AR Kane...?

What did they do after AR Kane?

?

I probably didn't do a very good job of describing them BTW :o(

Did MARRS, got lots of money, bought themselves out of the 4AD contract, and went back to their high-paying day jobs probably.

And gave up music then?

Strange how Colourbox totally vanished after MARRS (predicted Dale verdict: "They were a weird lot, weren't they?").

I dunno, probably. They might be writing high-selling singles for Tracey Ullman in Japan, for all I know.

AR Kane did "i" the year after which was poppier but also brilliant (Primal Scream did an interesting cover version a couple of years later except they called it Screamadelica). Then they put out a crap third album on David Byrne's label in '94, since when nowt has been heard.

Joyce wrote Ulysses in Paris

don't think he did

But yes, to answer the question Green Hazed Daze is representative of what '69' sounds like, but there is generally more sonic fannydangle involved and definitely a heap more noise. (multiple x-posts)

Wasn't Finnegan's Wake written in Paris (and Ireland) (and everywhere else in Europe over a 20-year period)?

It certainly wasn't written in Ireland!

Mostly in Trieste and Zurich wunnit?

"Finnegan's Wake" was mostly written in Paris, I think

This is all very well, but is it worth reading?

Oh aye, it's a belter.

"Ulysses" was written in Trieste and Zurich

Someone type Finnegan's Wake into Babelfish for me please.

Dingbod, the honours. Into English, as custom demands.

It'll prolly come out like a review of the new Coldplay album

Still maintain that translating the Coldplay review into English was one of the funniest ILM posts this year.

"That poor writer's end was hastened by that same intrusive apostrophe."

A bit boring really (usually with B/fish, the more banal the source material, the more interesting its translation turns out) but here's the first bit:

riverrun, last Eve and Adam' the s, from the swerve of the support to the curving of the bay, them door from a vicus of commodius of recirculation of new to the castle and the environ of Howth. Sir Tristram, violer d' amores, fr' over the short sea, it has made rearrived the passencore from Armorica of the north from this side l' itsmo scraggy of the minor dell' Europe to wielderfight its war of the penisolate ones: neither it has had topsawyer' the cliffs of s through the Oconee flow have exaggerated the themselse to Laurens County' gorgios of s while theirs have gone doublin mumper continuously: neither avoice from the mishe bellowsed in flames of the mishe to the thuartpeatrick of the tauftauf: not still, however the venissoon after, it has had kidscad buttended sweet a old Isaac: not still, however all' the s just in vanessy, it was sesthers of the sosie wroth with the nathandjoe of twone. A peck is decomposed of pa' the malto of s it has had Jhem or Shen fermented from arclight and dall' extremity rory to the regginbrow had to be ringsome seen on the aquaface. The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk) dell' once that the oldparr of the wallstrait retaled soon according to and more late in the life down through all the minstrelsy Christian. The great fall of the offwall has demanded to such breviums information the pftjschute of Finnegan, solid man erse, than the humptyhillhead of humself prumptly it transmits well unquiring all' the west in the search of its tumptytumtoes: and theirs upturnpikepointandplace are to the blow outside in the park in which oranges they are placed in order to rust on the green from when the devlinsfirst it loved livvy.

It works if you imagine Kristin Hersh singing it.

It's certainly the best description of the Fall I've ever read.

ahem-hem, re: a.r. kane dudes's post-1994 thereabouts-whereabouts: rudi tambala's released a coupla things as sufi; ayuli's made coupla as alex!; there was one song - don't recall by which - on a wire tapper comp. a few years ago.
the snippets of their stuff i've heard here&there been sometimes pretty good.

Coincidentally, everything you'll ever need to know bout AR Kane is here.

I thought it was Paris Trieste and Zurich but the internet would only tell me Paris.

I voted for MEGADETH (though it's not even that good of an album).

yeah, i checked the book itself and it says "Trieste-Zurich-Paris, 1914-1921"

Who knew that books were more reliable than teh internets

he threw in some fresh lines at the last minute, in paris, iirc.

Yeah, well it's the only line I kinda remembered.

Yeah, I think I might love this band because they are sure ticking a lot of boxes for me right now.

i think he threw in LOADS in paris, as it goes, but the thing was mapped out earlier -- was meant to be published in, like, 1918 or something, but it was banned in britain etc.

by this band I mean AR Kane btw

mike t-diva's list >>>>>>>>>>>> melody maker's.

I'm surprised to see Shiva Burlesque on this list. I used to have that record and remember it had a beautiful sleeve but I can't remember what it sounded like. I think I enjoyed it somewhat, though.

A.R. Kane have frustrated me in the past because I've heard some really good stuff by them and then other things I didn't find interesting at all.

I used to have that Mary Margaret O'Hara record, too. It didn't leave much of an impression.

Overranked: Sugarcubes, REM, Prince

Underranked: Talk Talk, Sonic Youth, Public Enemy

Voted for: 69 - AR Kane

i might listen to 69, y'all better have a good excuse for not voting HOLLIS

Certainly one record in this list placed approximately 27 places too low...

-- Dingbod Kesterson, Monday, 16 June 2008 21:22 (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

yeah i agree the go betweens should be at #3

88 was the year i started getting into indie. as a result i can't even be bothered voting for any of it.

y'all better have a good excuse for not voting HOLLIS

It's at #28.

bimble and electricsound my office plz

I never heard that Shiva Burlesque record, but do remember that there was a minor flurry of interest in MM over some of the other stuff that came out on the same label (Nate Starkman). There was a certain mystique to it, I think all the bands had interesting names (Drowning Pool, Red Temple Spirits, err White Glove Test) and cool artwork (was Bruce Licher or involved with it?), but I never really followed up on it...

Some warped part of me was tempted to vote for the Skinny Puppy rekkid, I certainly spent enough money of imported CD singles of theirs back in the day, and everything I recorded for about a year after I heard them was unlistenable synthesiser-through-fuzzbox noise.

Sometimes the obvious choice is the right choice though, I voted for "It takes a nation of millions..." I still listen to it quite often and it still rocks. "she watch channel zero" was the number that got me into it, I just about wore the cassette tape I had out on that track.

I think all the bands had interesting names (Drowning Pool, Red Temple Spirits, err White Glove Test)

I have a Red Temple Spirits album! er "dancing to restore an eclipsed moon" (or something like that) I really like it, though I'd be quite hesitant to actually recommend it to anyone or anything like that. It's goth-psych that sounds like it was played by cro-magnon men, with intense, androgynous vocals that are somewhat "challenging". I pull it off the shelf a couple of times a year and heavy-rotate it for a week or so and always enjoy it loads. I've never met anybody else who can actually stand to listen to them.

That makes it sound both hideous and awesome.

Not saying they're the best, but the only records on this list that I've listened to again in the last 5 years are probably Talk Talk, Thin White Rope, Throwing Muses and the Go-Betweens.

House of Love too actually, and I still get disappointed by it - they could have cobbled together something really solid with some of the tracks off the German album - Destroy the Heart, Nothing To Me etc. As it is, it starts off like a rocket and then sort of dies by track two.

Yeah, never liked HOL. I did get that first album proper. Played once.

I used to really love HoL, had all of their records and everything. It's kind of hard to see what I actually saw in them now, they were a bit nowt-nor-summat in retrospect. Fontana version of "Shine On" still has it for me, I don't actually have anything else by them at present.

Oh god Scritti or PE can't decide

Oh and the only non-Birthday Party Nick Cave album I can wholeheartedly get behind.

8. All About Eve - All About Eve = loling my knackers off

Never understood how all about ever made it, either at the time or in retrospect. I knew people who absolutely loved them! There was NOTHING THERE!

Melody Maker = Goth fanzine, is why

Still, they were good on Top of the Pops that one time

I ought to vote Butthole Surfers really if people are gonna be all gothtarded about this

Also if Bug was a single it might be in with a shout

Maybe it's just cacky nostalgia but 1988 indie makes 2008 indie look like dogshite

(xpost)I suppose?! I never understood the goth thing with them, I mean they weren't actually tr00 gothick, really, were they? If I'd been a goth, I'd have hated them for selling out and not using enough flanger on the guitars or something.

Maybe it's just cacky nostalgia but 1988 indie makes 2008 indie look like dogshite

I don't think it it cacky nostalgia. indie '08 does seem to stay within v v narrow boundaries.

I guess AAE were the proto-Evanescence or something really. Yeah they wasn't Gothick, but they were definitely Celine Dion for your goth girlfriend.

Seriously there's like at least 15 albums here that are deathless.

I think it's cool that All About Eve covered a Mellow Candle song FUCKING HIPPIES!

I never understood the goth thing with them

I think that singing on that Mission record semented the goth affiliation.

Thin White Rope are another of the many bands on this list that deserve to win way more than the inevitably My Bloody Valentine bollocksy landslide.

Oops, sement? x-post

They covered a Trees song as well, didn't they? "Garden of Jayne Trelawney", I think. I kind of want to like them, just to be contrary, but the couple of tracks I just played on Youtube, the only memorable thing is the duff lyrics. Julianne Regan's britpop band (yes, I KNOW) "Mice" had a decent single that I still play, but the album was weak.

She would've had a decent voice to do folk-rock, but the rest of AAE were MOR hacks of the most cackhanded kind.

Obviously I'm hoping the mode lurker vote is for the ILM-acclaimed critically-lauded utterly-unprecedented "most daring album ever", but maybe that's too much to ask for.

(xpost) yeah, all these tracks sound like folksy test card music with someone doing vocal warm-up exercises over them! NO TUNES. NO GROOVE EITHER.

Oh yeah, Trees! See, I want to like them in hindsight too, but it's like trying to get stiff with a porn mag you've found in a pond.

They remind me of, ergh, what's that crappy sub-fleetwood mac neoprog band that classic rock used to prop all the time...er...

mostly autumn! Terrible.

Also the twatting Wonder Stuff placed above Nation of Millions, 1988 indie already proudly marching towards the apartheid years.

Another thing that used to amaze me! All the props that band got! They were total shit! "Miles Hunt, the great songwriter of our time" How come I can't remember a single one of their tunes then? And I can remember a couple of Skinny Puppy's "tunes" (cough) quite well?

I thought I just remembered a Wonder Stuff tune but it was a Kingmaker one.

Miles Hunt was yr OG racist indie cockwad, eh?

I don't recall the racist bit, what I mainly remember was the weird passive-aggressive thing he had about running their single videos down and suchlike. The album title was laughable - "8-legged 'groove' machine" - "Groove" lololololoool they were surely the unfunkiest, most rythmically plodding band EVER

Well I was stretching racist to include seething condemnation of any music remotely connected with black influences ever so yes.

i.e. 'Who Wants To Be The Disco King?'?

This is the dude who also "ironically" called for the execution of Rick Astley for making records that people actually liked.

Aside from the Mission thing, a lot of the AAE goth tag came from the first single on 4AD when Julianne still worked for ZigZag, and was a total Xymox pastiche.

Also, dressing up like Goths.

Didn't they have some dood that looked like Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen on guitar?

If I hadn't smothered my inner 7-year old with a pillow, I'd have married up the Butthole Surfers' tracks with the top ten.

Cocteau Twins would get this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Butthole_Hairway_6.jpg

Pixies would get this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Butthole_Hairway_1.jpg

Bollocks, didn't work, but Gibby Haines was sooo OTM.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7f/Butthole_Hairway_1.jpg

Hooray!

Aside from the Mission thing, a lot of the AAE goth tag came from the first single on 4AD when Julianne still worked for ZigZag, and was a total Xymox pastiche.

AAE were never signed to 4AD - isn't the story that Ivo rejected Regan's demo but put her in touch with Manuella of Xmal? I owned that first album. I think I bought it the same day as Blue Bell Knoll. Oh dear.

(A couple of years ago I was on a train behind a couple of 40-something geezers - they were raving about some recent AAE acoustic show and how it was a crying shame they didn't have a recording contract anymore when "the charts is full of all this monkey music"). :/

Maybe they meant the arctic monkeys, eh. (ok maybe i'm being over-charitable here)

xpost woah

The Waterboys always reminded me of a deer taking a dump, yes

it's gotta be miss america. shit, that's twenty years ago. i remember the day i bought that album like yesterday.

Hmm, I was convinced D For Desire came out on 4AD. Maybe the Vaughan Oliver sleeve fooled me.

GUESS WHAT I VOTED FOR.

Isn't Anything and Surfer Rosa and ITANOMTHUB bringing up the rear.

^^^voice of reason

I prefer the other AR Kane album.

Would I like AR Kane?

I only managed to listen to Daydream Nation once, and didn't like it much, which is odd, as I like the one with 100% on and love the last three.

Um, quite possibly, yes.

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/on_second_thought/ar-kane-i.htm

groovy

No, Voice Of Reason was by The Sect, and NME voted it their 27th best album of 1987. I think Steve Lamacq was to blame.

For all the love people give to Daydream Nation it's not a patch on Evol or Sister.

Argh “a near perfect pop song” 0/10 See Me

It's not my all-time favourite from the list, but since I am apparently the first person on this thread to mention the Muses' "House Tornado", maybe I'll vote for that. I assume my other possible choices are going to do quite nicely for themselves anyway.

Perhaps 'Surfer Rosa'. But nowadays I like '16 Lovers Lane' better, so it gets my vote.

I, um, mentioned the number of the position 'House Tornado' came in at, does that count? It's probly my favourite Muses album. I was listening to a metal(ish) album this morning and one track had a bassline that sounds totally like something off this record! It cheered me

I forgot about that, DJ Mencap. Apologies (and to Michael Jones too). There is not even numerical love for Bug, but I can't say I dig it out very often, so, me neither.

Also if Bug was a single it might be in with a shout

-- Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 18 June 2008 11:19 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Things I have learnt today: 1. I can't read; 2. ctrl-F doesn't work very well when 70+ messages are being hidden.

'S a fair summary, though.

I couldn't really get behind Bug here cos I don't think it was as great a record as You're Living All Over Me. Not that it was a disappointment, but I would always reach for YLAOM first.

AR Kane as I know there's enough support for PE here. And I'm the only person here (guessing) who is missing Voice of the Beehive here (though the NME liked 'em a lot more)...

Caroline Sullivan was quite keen on them IIRC but they didn't fit the MM agenda of blissed out/fascination over meaning &c.

Unlike All About Eve.

Bummed is a bit of a glaring omission here isn't it?

Indeed.

for LJagger re: a.r.kane

A.R. Kane - Green Hazed Daze - on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRz5YHPGDH4

AR Kane had their own label for a bit, didn't they? H.ark! Records. Butterfly Child, Papa Sprain and one other band I can't recall released a couple of EPs each in late '91/early '92. And there was a collaboration with Alison out of them Cranes for the Rough Trade Singles Club - In Rain?

I saw Papa Sprain play a 20min set of feedback supporting Pale Saints and Boo Radleys in Liverpool in '92. I think it may have been a nod to their mentors, whose own live shows were something similar, I believe.

I saw that tour in Hull. Thought Papa Sprain was complete shite at the time. Maybe I'd've got it now.

I was certainly in a minority in thinking it was ace.

This sounds pretty good!

I loved the queasiness of 69. i never did much for me - it seemed a little meeker and cleaner. It was one of the first CDs I ever bought and I often wondered if that had something to do with it (but let's not get into the supposed sterility of early CD).

i would like ar kane a lot better as an instrumental band, though the singing on 69 isn't as much of a stumbling block for me as "i". i've been listening to 69 and isn't anything back to back a lot in the last few days in the run up to the round house thing and they complement each other, ar kane really were much more of an obvious influence on the rank and file 'gazers than mbv weren't they, pale saints, early lush etc.

Amusing how low Daydream Nation is, considering how many UK bands started copying them and Dinosaur Jr. within the next few years.

I think this album holds up pretty well too:
Eleventh Dream Day - Prairie School Freakout

Also missing Camper Van Beethoven, Naked Raygun, Slayer, Ambitious Lovers, Souled American, Woodentops, Napalm Death, Kreator, Feelies, Mano Negra, For Against, and there were certainly plenty of other great hip hop albums in addition to PE:

N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton
EPMD - Strictly Business
The Jungle Brothers - Straight Out The Jungle
Boogie Down Productions - By All Means Necessary
Ultramagnetic MCs - Critical Beatdown

Overall the list is a disgrace ;)

Would add the first Galaxie 500 to the list of absentees as well, not that we're short of indie here.

Ljagger: two a.r.kane 1988 tracks on myspace

http://www.myspace.com/arkane69

Baby Milk Snatcher
Sperm Whale Trip Over

I really, really, really, really loathe The Pogues. Sorry everyone. They're the fucking worst. Trad-Oirish fakey dullard bollocks from some public-school dropout with disgusting, avoidable health issues and a bullshit mythology.
What "mythology" are you talking about?

Hard-drinking fast-living Irish scallywags who sing the country's soul through the medium of folk

*vomits*

Oh.

I agree with the puzzlement expressed here regarding All About Eve. I quite liked them at the time, bought their first couple of 12"es...but I tried to play this stuff again more recently and was utterly baffled as to what was so wonderful about it. It was a nice Vaughan Oliver sleeve, though, on D for Desire.

Also it's kinda nice to see Wonder Stuff get a bit of a kicking...I loved "Never Loved Elvis" at the time, but yeah that first album was kinda annoying and they totally had no groove! I've never felt much of an urge to pull their stuff out, really. Can't remember a thing about whatever the album was after NLE.

I think I'll give A.R. Kane another try when I get home.

I still have a soft spot for House of Love, but I'll always maintain their first album is their weakest. Nick Cave's Tender Prey is a mighty force of nature. So is House Tornado, but I'll probably vote for Cocteaus.

Daydream Nation is one of my least fave SY albums. I really should give Live Skull a go one of these days. Back then I ignored bands like them, but considering I've come around to Sonic Youth a lot since then, maybe I would feel differently now.

It may be the boring, indie-canon choice - but Daydream Nation in a walk. Surfer Rosa in second. After that, there's not much I feel strongly about.

I do remember some of those other Nate Starkman label bands. I too had that Red Temple Spirits cassette! Don't remember liking it much. I liked Drowning Pool a lot, though especially when they lost their awful singer and put out the gorgeous, instrumental Aphonia album which I still play today. Then they got yet another awful singer and became the Mumbles!

Hmmm, at the time the answer would have been Bug or House Tornado.

In the 90's it would have been Surfer Rosa (dated a girl who liked the Pixies) or Isn't Anything.

Now it's Spirit of Eden.

I've said this in other threads, but that Live Skull album is near the top of my list of "albums that you wish you liked cause the band has a cool name and it has a cool cover, and theoretically it ought to be great." My picks for '88 in that vein would be Rat at Rat R's "Stainless Steel" EP and "Gutterlight" by Dustdevils.

'In Gut's House' by Ut and the first Band of Susans go together with that lot too, both great records.

Love that BoS album!

Other "Bug" from '88 worth mentioning is the Das Damen song from the very fine Marshmellow Conspiracy EP. That's another '88 vintage thing I still play occasionally.

I was thinking "how can Spacemen 3 not be on the list" but I see there was only a live album that year.

Yes, Band Of Susans - Hope Against Hope; what an album, what a title track!

The UK didn't get Straight Outta Compton until '89 but otherwise I totally agree with fastnbulbous' hip hop list except I would also add Follow The Leader by Eric B & Rakim.

And really To The Batmobile Let's Go by the Todd Terry Project should be VERY high up there somewhere (and the Royal House album).

And Spillane by John Zorn and Virgin Beauty by Ornette and...

There was a Royal House album? I just didn't get "Party People" at all when it came out, in much the same way that I didn't get "Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel" - it was a couple of jumps ahead of me, but I had an underlying hunch that there was something worth perservering with. Then "Can You Feel It" - which was virtually a remix of "Party People" anyway - came out and just exploded. It was my biggest floor filler for two or three weeks, just after "Big Fun" and just before "Voodoo Ray". And then there was Swan Lake, Black Riot, Todd Terry Project... ah, Todd-mania, happy days...

Yep - the Royal House album was entitled Can You Party? Standout track: "A Better Way" with vocals by the splendidly-named Ian Star.

Wow, Hope Against Hope. There's an album I hadn't heard in nearly 20 years. I think I still have it on tape, which includes Love Agenda from the following year, and might even be better. Time is right for a reissue. Wired For Sound 1986-93 was issued in '95.

No Critical Beatdown
No Blood Fire Death
No Bananarama's greatest hits
No I Am Kurious Oranj
No I'm Your Man
No Reek of Putrefaction
No South of Heaven
No Great Adventures of Slick Rick
No Don't Be Cruel
No Lead Me On
No Straight Outta Compton
No ...And Justice For All, for the fucking love of Christ

this list wasn't even there in '88

MC covers Compton a couple of posts up

indeed, it made #21 the following year

Never thought I'd see a poll where my two favorite albums are by Public Fucking Enemy and Sonic Fucking Youth, but hey, there's a first time for everything (and they're both pretty good albums, obviously.)

I'm surprised Melody Maker panned It Takes a Nation of Millions... when it first came out. Is the review available online anywhere? I'd love to read it.

ISTR Reynolds opining that "Millions" was too self-referential and too concerned with PE's treatment at the hands of the media and that it was a distinct disappointment after "Bum Rush". I thought he was wrong then and I think he was even wronger now.

also there was insufficient bliss/ocean input unlike e.g. Strafe Fur Rebellion and Legendary Pink Dots.

At the end of 1988 I would have said Green. By 1991 I'd gone back and discovered Isn't Anything, Surfer Rosa, and Daydream Nation. I'm struggling to choose between those ones now.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I have 13 of those and they're all great - or they were the last time i played them in about 1989.
Honourable mentions - pixies ,mbv yawn, amc, thin white spunk, muses, kane

Seeing as it's missing Rudimentary Peni and Napalm Death, it's gotta be Jane Siberry . Sounded like nothing else to me when I first heard it

Don't believe the Hype

No-one into Revolting Cocks? I'm sort of surprised by that.

Have still never heard any Jane Siberry. Anyone care to tell me about that record?

I couldn't decide whether to vote for RevCo or Skinny Puppy, and forgot to vote for either.

ugh someone voted the wonderstuff

Wow Marcello voted for AR Kane? I must adjust my assesment of him.

Sorry that sounds rude. I didnt have a bad assesment to begin with. But anyway.

I've had bad and good assessments of Marcello. I wouldn't be quick to pass judgement with that dude. To this day I have no idea how I stand about him. ILX might be a little more entertaining with his presence, though. He was noticeably silent on that Phil Spector thread. I somehow he'll return to ILX for awhile, if at all.

DOUBT