Melody Maker EOY List 1987 vs NME EOY List 1987?

And, as ever, I wonder what Sounds top 30 was...

Sounds was kinda dodgy:

There is no ranking of albums, just an A-Z of the most important albums of the year.

* Aerosmith - Permanent Vacation
* American Music Club - Engine
* Anthrax - Among The Living
* Celtic Frost - Into The Pandemonium
* The Christians - The Christians
* Lloyd Cole And The Commotions - Mainstream
* Julian Cope - Saint Julian
* The Cure - Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
* The Cult - Electric
* Terence Trent D'Arby - Introducing The Hardline...
* Def Leppard - Hysteria
* Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me
* Dumptruck - For The Country
* Steve Earle & The Dukes - Exit O
* Echo And The Bunnymen - Echo And The Bunnymen
* Einsturzende Neubauten - Five On The Open Ended Richter Scale
* Faith No More - Introduce Yourself
* Gaye Bykers On Acid - Drill Your Own Hole
* The Gun Club - Mother Juno
* Head - A Snog On The Rocks
* Husker Du - Warehouse: Songs And Stories
* Michael Jackson - Bad
* The Jesus And Mary Chain - Darklands
* The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu - 1987 What The F***'s Going On?
* The Leather Nun - Steel Construction
* LL Cool J - Bigger And Deffer
* John Cougar Mellencamp - The Lonesome Jubilee
* Van Morrison - Poetic Champions Compose
* Pet Shop Boys - Actually
* The Pixies - Come On Pilgrim
* Pop Will Eat Itself - Box Frenzy
* Prince - Sign 'O' The Times
* The Proclaimers - This Is The Story
* Public Enemy - Yo! Bum Rush The Show
* REM - Document
* Robbie Robertson - Robbie Robertson
* The Screaming Blue Messiahs - Bikini Red
* The Sisters Of Mercy - Floodland
* The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We Come
* Sonic Youth - Sister
* Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel Of Love
* Stupids - Van Stupid
* 10,000 Maniacs - In My Tribe
* That Petrol Emotion - Babble
* The Triffids - Calenture
* U2 - The Joshua Tree
* Tom Waits - Franks Wild Years
* The Wedding Present - George Best
* Yello - One Second
* The Young Gods - The Young Gods

Always wanted to hear that Head album.

At least they mention Yello

Thanks for that, NickB. Lots of pros and cons in that list but focusing on the pros, Neubaten are on it and, of course, the infamous JAMMS album, which I think Sounds covered in depth if my memory serves me correctly (which it very rarely does).

Just noticed another reason for MM winning this - The Pixies are on it (and in Sounds, too).

I never ever read sounds.

Sounds was pretty hard to come by in the U.S., at least in the places I grew up. I think I only ever bought one copy of it.

Albums whose placings make me smile on the NME list:

18. Hot, cool & vicious - Salt 'n' pepper (ha)
20. Saturday night - Schoolly D
21. Hearsay - Alexander O' Neal
25. Rhythm killers - Sly & Robbie
26. Mother juno - The gun club
31. Kool and Deadly - Just Ice
33. In all Languages - Ornette Coleman
34. Time boom X be devil dead - Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry
40. Qareeb - Najma
45. Good music - Joan Jett
55. Trouble over here, trouble over there - Trouble Funk

Albums whose placings make me smile on the MM list:

1. The young gods - The young gods

Albums I really have no idea what they are (though I could probably guess, in a couple instances):

32. Paul Johnson - Paul Johnson
36. Up for a bit - The Pastels
37. Tacky souvenirs of pre-Revolutionary America - Culturcide
43. Wicked women, Wicked men & wicket keepers - Blyth Power
44. An Attitude Hits - Dan
47. Crooked Mile - Microdisney
50. The girl who runs the beat hotel - Biff bang pow!
51. Rooms of the Magnificent - Ed Keupper
56. Foxheads stalk this land - Close lobsters
26. Heaven's end - Loop
27. Calenture - The triffids
29. Oh! tears baby - Win

I dont see how MM list is more dull than NME

It just is.

Other albums that make me smile on that Sounds list:

* Celtic Frost - Into The Pandemonium
* Def Leppard - Hysteria
* Einsturzende Neubauten - Five On The Open Ended Richter Scale
* Michael Jackson - Bad
* The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu - 1987 What The F***'s Going On?
* The Leather Nun - Steel Construction
* John Cougar Mellencamp - The Lonesome Jubilee
* The Screaming Blue Messiahs - Bikini Red
* Yello - One Second

Also curious about these now, neither of which I think I ever heard of before, but which sound highly entertaining judging from their names:

* Head - A Snog On The Rocks
* Stupids - Van Stupid

MM also deserves to be penalized for leaving out the Pet Shop Boys. (Was Tennant a former Sounds guy, or what?)

Simon Reynolds was pretty big at MM by '87 right? I'm kind of surprised Mirage didn't make this list...I think SR liked the album, and I know that he was a huge Meat Puppets aficionado anyways...

I've been pretty obsessed with the MM EOYs from about 86 to 90 lately (and totally indifferent to NME which is why I'm not voting)...did we poll all of those?

cant remember

feel free to poll them

Simon Reynolds was pretty big at MM by '87 right?

Guess that would explain Young Gods topping the list.

here's 88

just put up 89

Yeah, that Head album was something that entirely passed me by at the time as well. I don't even remember reading about that one. There's a review on Allmusic for it that says it had a dude from Pop Group/Rip Rig & Panic, and describes it as "an electrified West-Country translation of the Pogues, shot through with the bluesy eccentricity of Captain Beefheart". I wonder if it's any good.

I just looked up the Sect as well, apparently some punk band that to these ears sound exactly like the kind of emo punk stuff kids would like nowadays!

it had a dude from Pop Group/Rip Rig & Panic, and describes it as "an electrified West-Country translation of the Pogues, shot through with the bluesy eccentricity of Captain Beefheart".

Ha ha, that sounds really cool! Seems like the kind of thing Bogshed/Membranes/Nightingales fans would like. (Weird to see none of those sort of bands on any of these lists; maybe they were all done by '87?)

hah one for that thread that was started last week really, but I could neer bring myself to listen to a band called Bogshed.

LOLOLOL

Paul Johnson is another name here that doesn't ring any bells for me. Found this song on You Tube. Probably more Chuck's thing than mine. Discogs says he "has also worked with Bryan Ferry, Stevie Wonder, Bros, Mica Paris, Juliet Roberts, Loose Ends, Al Green, Tom Robinson, Cliff Richard, George Michael, Soul II Soul, Glen Goldsmith, Steven Dante, Bluey Maunick of Incognito and many others." Goodness!

Albums on the NME list (top 30) that are not on the MM list

4. Sister - Sonic youth
6. The Joshua tree - U2
7. Criminal mind - Scott La rock
8. Paid in full - Eric B & Rakim
9. The people who grinned themselves.. - The housemartins
10. Actually - The pet shop boys
14. George best - The wedding present
16. Licensed to ill - Beastie boys
18. Hot, cool & vicious - Salt 'n' pepper
19. Children of god - Swans
20. Saturday night - Schoolly D
21. Hearsay - Alexander O' Neal
23. Soro - Salif Keita
24. Babble - That petrol emotion
25. Rhythm killers - Sly & Robbie
26. Mother juno - The gun club
27. Voice of reason - The sect
28. Mainstream - Lloyd Cole & the commotions

Albums on the Melody Maker list that are not on the NME list

1. The young gods - The young gods
4. The fat skier - Throwing muses
7. Substance - New order
8. Kiss me, kiss me, Kiss me - The cure
11. mind the perpetual intercourse - Skinny puppy
14. Pleased to meet me - The replacements
15. Floodland - Sisters of mercy
18. Poetic champions compose - Van Morrison
19. Come on pilgrim - The pixies
20. Secrets of the beehive - David Sylvian
22. The world of echo - Arther Russell
24. You're living all over me - Dinosaur
25. Happy come home - Victoria Williams
26. Heaven's end - Loop
27. Calenture - The triffids
28. Squirrel and g-man... - Happy Mondays
29. Oh! tears baby - Win
30. At my window - Townes Van Zandt

I would say the NME list has the edge.

I would contest the point...

(Licensed to Ill was MM's #1 pick for '86)

No Perfect Prescription!!?!

fuck em both says I

Surprised by this:
Albums I really have no idea what they are (though I could probably guess, in a couple instances):
27. Calenture - The triffids
But would love to hear Xhuck’s guesses at all of those!

MM also deserves to be penalized for leaving out the Pet Shop Boys. (Was Tennant a former Sounds guy, or what?)

Absolutely not, Sounds always had a more male/meathead/aggro noise aspect to it, and Tennant was in the shiny clean, conceptual world of Smash Hits. Garry Bushell was probably home at Sounds during Tennant’s journo days, no? That says a lot.

I was always told I'd love sounds, but i hate bushell and I hate OI. so im not so sure.

I only ever bought Sounds once. I'm pretty sure it was the very last issue.

The NME list is more representitive of *my* 1987.

Late 80s, Sounds were really strong on US indie and post punk along with yer standard Anglo-indie. John Robb, Keith Cameron and Ralph Traitor (AKA Jeremy Gluck from the Barracudas IIRC) were the major cheerleaders there and I used to buy it every week pretty much for the info I got out of their articles. Also big on Grebo and metal and the whole grottier end of UK rock, which I wasn't really into so much.

I think if not for Sounds, I would never have known who Expando Brain were, so I have them to thank for that alone.

Okay, another thing here that I don't remember from back in the day is this album on the NME list by someone or some band named Dan called "An Attitude Hits". I looked it up and apparently it's on the same label as Thatcher on Acid, who I read about back in the day but never heard. I've heard a few tracks by Thatcher on Acid on myspace now and I love it. Also seeking out the Dan album. There's not much more I love in this world than picking over the scraps of what I missed from this era because I studied the British indie press pretty extensively back then and bought what records I could get and did the very best I could as an avid British-press-reading American at the time. Nice to know there are some things I missed that are easily available now! :)

Check out the label's roster here. I seem to recall buying a Blyth Power record at some point but it didn't appeal to me. Don't have any special recollection of the other records on that label, except that I think We Are Going To Eat You was a big deal for awhile, according to one of my penpals at the time or whatever. That's the way it was in the old days, I'd get folks from the UK to send me cassettes overseas of stuff.

This is years before my time but Dan I understand as being sort of from that same quasi-hippy semi-anarcho punk scene as the Subhumans (UK), Culture Shock, maybe Oi Polloi or someone like that - wouldn't have expected them to be on a music paper EOY list but like I say, not my era

I think if not for Sounds, I would never have known who Expando Brain were, so I have them to thank for that alone.

― Enemy Insects (NickB), Wednesday, April 22, 2009 2:25 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Sounds had a hand in releasing http://www.discogs.com/release/748151 which I guess is a pretty good snapshot of a time when hardcore was sort of burned out and US punk was quite non-restrictive. I really like the DJ Lebowitz and Stikky songs on this

Any list from 1987 that includes David Sylvian's Secrets Of The Beehive gets my vote.

Couldn't find any Expando Brain on slsk, though, strangely.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Yeah, I was pretty surprised to see the Dan album on that list too. Mencap's OTM about where they're coming from. Didn't have that particular album, but I got the one after it (Mother With Child And Bunny) which was fairly decent female-fronted grotbag hippy punk stuff, with a mixture of thee olde shouty buzzsaw post-hardcore punk rock and some strummy acoustic songs too. If it helps to give it a bit more context, that one came out on on Workers Playtime records who put out a lot of the Snuff records, and Anhrefn too IIRC.

http://uk82.150m.com/pics/dan.jpg

Yeah Dan were part of that late 80s post-anarcho scene along with Thatcher On Acid and that kind of thing.

* Stupids - Van Stupid
The Stupids were a great US-style HC thrash band (who just reformed).

Think they're touring with the Hard Ons too, just like in the days of yore.

BTW Expando Brain were a Boston band who sounded like this: http://www.myspace.com/expandobrain

Kind of like the Feelies having a funny turn or something. Steve Smith went on to be in Salem 66 who were a bit hit and miss, but the entire Expando Brain discography (okay, just one album and one 7" that I know of) was 100% genius the whole way through. Maybe they were a bit like a noisier and much more ramshackle Big Dipper?

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

Terrible innit when you dont even notice results of your own poll years ago

All these 2000s polls have ruined my brain. I forgot that NME used to be into good music.