1990: Was it really that bad of a year for music?

Wrong Way Up is great. It didn't make a broad impact at the time but it remains in my collection, unlike so many of the other titles listed ITT.

I recall the New Zealand music scene starting to gain wider notice in North America in 1990. Maybe not as influential as the Pacific Northwest was about to become but definitely longer lasting for me. SPIN did a story around that time and a friend brought me back a copy of the Tuatara comp that she picked up while on a trip to NZ that summer. There are several significant NZ releases from 1990 already noted but I'd also suggest the Plagal Grind EP and TKOP's A Beard of Bees, which is still an absolutely magical listen.

My mistake, Beard of Bees was actually 1984 release. It was the Xpressway cassette that dropped in 1990. Fantastic album, even if it doesn't strengthen this particular argument.

One massive NZ album from 1990:

The Dead C. - Trapdoor Fucking Exit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LWN9d9X-6o

To answer the question, maybe?

Maybe I'll use this thread to document the completely random trail I've found myself on over the last couple of days. Namely, listening (without prejudice) to a long string of pop albums from 1990 that I've never heard before. Thus far:

Oleta Adams - Circle of One
Al B. Sure! - Private Times...and the Whole 9!
Laura Branigan - s/t
Bernadette Cooper - Drama According to Bernadette Cooper
Deee-Lite - World Clique
Digital Underground - Sex Packets
Dino - Swingin'

The best of the lot has been the Bernadette 'Klymaxx' Cooper album, a sharp and fun Prince-not-Prince jam in the same league as another long-standing 1990 favorite, A'me Lorain's Starring in...Standing in a Monkey Sea. The Branigan album was surprisingly solid if a bit sonically anachronistic. The Deee-Lite album was, aside from the obvious outlier, kind of a disappointing snooze tbh. Oleta is good value but I guess not much of a pop album per se. The rest...eh.

I guess I'm continuing with this experiment for the time being, to the extent that anyone cares.

Wow -- I was listening to Circle of One again yesterday! I enjoy Adams' voice and piano playing and her modest little tunes. I'll admit, though, that I listened again because at a friend's service two weeks ago one of his other buddies played Adams' cover of "Everything Must Change," which devastated me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDlYyjDOzko

I love World Clique, full stop. I regard it as a collection of exemplary house pop.

Sex Packets was fine, with some definite fun highlights, but it's pretty uneven. Seems like an early victim of 'must fill every available minute of time on this new CD format!' bloat.

We might've been listening to Circle of One at the same time! I'm definitely going to listen to more Oleta Adams now, for sure. I've always really liked her cover of 'Get Here' and was pleasantly surprised by her stylistic breadth and, yeah, her voice.

Rather generous of Roland Orzabal to produce it without turning it into TFF.

Here was this week in 1990 on American Top 40. Conclusion: 1990 was awesome fuiud.

1 2 BLACK VELVET –•– Alannah Myles – 12 (1)
2 4 LOVE WILL LEAD YOU BACK –•– Taylor Dayne – 9 (2)
3 1 ESCAPADE –•– Janet Jackson – 10 (1)
4 3 ROAM –•– The B-52’s – 14 (3)
5 8 I WISH IT WOULD RAIN DOWN –•– Phil Collins – 8 (5)
6 14 I’LL BE YOUR EVERYTHING –•– Tommy Page – 6 (6)
7 12 ALL AROUND THE WORLD –•– Lisa Stansfield – 8 (7)
8 6 I GO TO EXTREMES –•– Billy Joel – 11 (6)
9 15 KEEP IT TOGETHER –•– Madonna – 8 (9)
10 17 GET UP! (BEFORE THE NIGHT IS OVER) –•– Technotronic – 9 (10)
11 10 C’MON AND GET MY LOVE –•– D-Mob – 15 (10)
12 24 DON’T WANNA FALL IN LOVE –•– Jane Child – 7 (12)
13 16 NO MYTH –•– Michael Penn – 12 (13)
14 7 NO MORE LIES –•– Michel’le – 19 (7)
15 21 HERE AND NOW –•– Luther Vandross – 14 (15)
16 22 ALL MY LIFE –•– Linda Ronstadt & Aaron Neville – 7 (16)
17 23 FOREVER –•– KISS – 8 (17)
18 9 JUST A FRIEND –•– Biz Markie – 10 (9)
19 19 SACRIFICE –•– Elton John – 11 (19)
20 5 PRICE OF LOVE –•– Bad English – 14 (5)
21 11 DANGEROUS –•– Roxette – 15 (2)
22 18 OPPOSITES ATTRACT –•– Paula Abdul & The Wild Pair – 15 (1)
23 26 WHOLE WIDE WORLD –•– A’me Lorain – 10 (23)
24 31 I WANNA BE RICH –•– Calloway – 7 (24)
25 13 TOO LATE TO SAY GOODBYE –•– Richard Marx – 10 (12)
26 33 WITHOUT YOU –•– Motley Crue – 5 (26)
27 20 SOMETIMES SHE CRIES –•– Warrant – 12 (20)
28 36 HOW CAN WE BE LOVERS –•– Michael Bolton – 4 (28)
29 25 HERE WE ARE –•– Gloria Estefan – 15 (6)
30 32 LOVE ME FOR LIFE –•– Stevie B – 8 (30)
31 37 HEARTBEAT –•– Seduction – 5 (31)
32 39 WHIP APPEAL –•– Babyface – 5 (32)
33 63 NOTHING COMPARES 2 U –•– Sinead O’Connor – 2 (33)
34 28 THE DEEPER THE LOVE –•– Whitesnake – 10 (28)
35 27 WE CAN’T GO WRONG –•– Cover Girls – 16 (8)
36 42 HEART OF STONE –•– Cher – 7 (36)
37 40 YOU’RE THE ONLY WOMAN –•– The Brat Pack – 8 (37)
38 29 ANYTHING I WANT –•– Kevin Paige – 10 (29)
39 44 IF U WERE MINE –•– The U-Krew – 9 (39)
40 43 THE HEART OF THE MATTER –•– Don Henley – 6 (40)

Man, that top twenty. No "meh," just good-to-great vs The Hague.

Looking through that American Top 40 list, I guess a lot of the attendant albums must be from '89 because they would otherwise be in the playlist I'm jamming. I've got Tommy Page and Michel'le on the way, at any rate!

Just started Was (Not Was) - Are You Okay?. Will report back.

Equivalent UK chart for same week. There’s some horrors in it but feels like something special especially the run between 11 and 18.

1 12 THE POWER SNAP!
2 2 LOVE SHACK THE B-52S
3 6 STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER CANDY FLIP
4 3 BLUE SAVANNAH ERASURE
5 1 DUB BE GOOD TO ME BEATS INTERNATIONAL FEATURING LINDY LAYTON
6 7 LILY WAS HERE DAVID A STEWART FEATURING CANDY DULFER
7 5 I'LL BE LOVING YOU (FOREVER) NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
8 17 BIRDHOUSE IN YOUR SOUL THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS
9 4 THAT SOUNDS GOOD TO MEJIVE BUNNY AND THE MASTERMIXERS
10 8 HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO LIVE WITHOUT YOU MICHAEL BOLTON
11 10 INFINITY (1990'S TIME FOR THE GURU) GURU JOSH
12 14 DON'T YOU LOVE ME 49ERs
13 11 MOMENTS IN SOUL JT AND THE BIG FAMILY
14 15 THIS IS HOW IT FEELS INSPIRAL CARPETS
15 19 EVERYTHING STARTS WITH AN 'E' {1990} E-ZEE POSSEE
16 16 LOADED PRIMAL SCREAM
17 28 CHIME ORBITAL
18 34 MAMMA GAVE BIRTH TO THE SOUL CHILDREN QUEEN LATIFAH AND DE LA SOUL
19 9 THE BRITS 1990 VARIOUS ARTISTS
20 13 NOTHING COMPARES 2 U SINEAD O'CONNOR
21 36 ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE JAM TRONIK
22 New DON'T MISS THE PARTYLINE BIZZ NIZZ
23 33 ALL I WANNA DO IS MAKE LOVE TO YOU HEART
24 New GHETTO HEAVEN FAMILY STAND
25 21 HANDFUL OF PROMISES BIG FUN
26 32 READ MY LIPS (ENOUGH IS ENOUGH) JIMMY SOMERVILLE
27 New BETTER WORLD REBEL MC
28 New PICTURES OF YOU THE CURE
29 18 NATURAL THING INNOCENCE
30 New KINGSTON TOWN UB40
31 New ESCAPADE JANET JACKSON
32 20 ENJOY THE SILENC DEPECHE MODE
33 48 BLACK VELVET ALANNAH MYLES
34 Re SHE BANGS THE DRUMS THE STONE ROSES
35 New WHAT U WAITIN' 4 THE JUNGLE BROTHERS
36 New I REMEMBER YOU SKID ROW
37 22 I DON'T KNOW ANYBODY ELSE BLACK BOX
38 29 HERE WE ARE GLORIA ESTEFAN
39 40 YOUR LOVE TAKES ME HIGHER {1990} THE BELOVED
40 38 TOO LATE TO SAY GOODBYE RICHARD MARX

Old Lunch, I think you need to listen to World Clique again. And again. And again. Keep listening to it. You must. Do not stop. Just play it again. Now. And forever. Our clique is the world. The world is our clique.

xp top 10 starts strong, ends very badly

Forgot about that weird Brits 1990 megamix single

I'd managed to completely forget about Jive Bunny

I still own a cassette of the Jive Bunny LP, I remember being disappointed that it didn't include their abysmal Christmas single.

"Here We Are" is among my favorite guilty pleasures from that era.

Ain't nothin' guilty about the pleasure of an Estefan ballad.

Seems like an early victim of 'must fill every available minute of time on this new CD format!' bloat.

The CD has half a bonus track over the LP; the cassette has four.

Orbital Top 20 singles artist. Oh yeah.

Again, for me - something I find common in this period - is the “indie” stuff stinks the chart up more than anything else (not a big Madchester/baggy person so there is that); the chart looks more interesting without it

Goddamn, I had thought 'This is Ponderous' (1991)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gYIbMwswKM

was some sort of unfortunate outlier from this era, but there are tracks exactly like it on the Was (Not Was) and Will to Power albums from '90. WTF was happening.

From a purely anecdotal standpoint, listening to albums from this particular year feels incredibly schizophrenic to me inasmuch as, between the summer of '90 and the fall of '91 (when singles from some of these albums were still charting), I lived in four different cities (we moved at the end of my seventh grade year, then again in the middle of eighth grade, and then again just before my freshman year). So I have an array of geographical associations with these songs, and then also the thing where a song hits big in one part of the country long before another catches up, etc. The fact that 'U Can't Touch This' and 'Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Move)' were released in the same year seems to strain all temporal credulity.

Defining the Poppy Bush Interzone.

Yes, I always forget but, upon remembering, greatly appreciate your coinage of the PBI. It is an extremely resonant era of pop for me.

Phenomenal year.

The slate from yesterday and this morning...

Was (Not Was) - Are You Okay?
Vanessa Williams - The Right Stuff
Will to Power - Journey Home
Wilson Phillips - s/t

...has been fine I guess, fair-to-middlin', not many album tracks exceeding the better singles that I already knew, occasionally real bad (about half of that WNW album...sheesh), mostly making me wonder how inclined I am to continue with this project.

But hey whattayaknow, listening to Salt-N-Pepa's Black's Magic rn and it's real effing good. Which may be news to precisely no one but me.

was some sort of unfortunate outlier from this era, but there are tracks exactly like it on the Was (Not Was) and Will to Power albums from '90. WTF was happening.

Bands just felt really compelled to do an updated 90s take on Eric Burdon and War's "Spill The Wine".

These songs are a much different animal (no pun intended). It makes me wonder if Joe Frank just started to blow up around then.

I heard punk broke, not sure if anybody fixed it.

A corporation did

I'm sorry to have to report that it died