Best Album on OUR Favourite Albums of......1992

Melody Maker End Of Year Critic Lists - 1992

Albums

1. Automatic For The People - R.E.M.
2. Slanted And Enchanted - Pavement
3. Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury - Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
4. Red Heaven - Throwing Muses
5. Eleven:Eleven - Come
6. Dry - P.J. Harvey
7. Henry's Dream - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
8. Down Colourful Hill - Red House Painters
9. Ten - Pearl Jam
10. Uf Orb - The Orb
11. Lazer Guided Melodies - Spiritualized
12. Let Me Come Over - Buffalo Tom
13. Fontanelle - Babes In Toyland
14. Rockin' The Forest - Sebadoh
15. 3 Years, 5 Months, 2 Days... - Arrested Development
16. Copper Blue - Sugar
17. Praise - Inner City
18. Hollywood Town Hall - The Jayhawks
19. It's A Shame About Ray - The Lemonheads
20. Valhalla Avenue - Fatima Mansions
21. Accelerator - Future Sound Of London
22. Psalm 69:How To Succeed & Suck Eggs - Ministry
23. Dirty - Sonic Youth
24. Back In Denim - Denim
25. Congregation - Afghan Whigs
26. Barely Real - Codeine
27. Double Dare Ya - Bikini Kill
28. ...Well? - Swell
29. Hit To Death In The Future Head - The Flaming Lips
30. Nurse - Therapy?

Select End Of Year Lists

1992 albums

1. Stereo MC's - Connected
2. Morrissey - Your Arsenal
3. The Orb - Uf Orb
4. Rem - Automatic For The People
5. Sonic Youth - Dirty Geffin
6. The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy - Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury
7. Julian Cope - Jehovahkill
8. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - Henry's Dream
9. Sugar - Copper Blue
10. Consolidated - Play More Music Nettwerk
11. Spiritualized - Lazer Guided Melodies Dedicated
12. Pj Harvey - Dry Too Pure
13. Arrested Development - 3 Years... Cooltempo
14. Denim - Back In Denim Boy's Own
15. Beastie Boys - Check Your Head Capitol
16. Pavement- Slanted And Enchanted Big Cat
17. The Shaman - Boss Drum One Little Indian
18. Brian Eno - Nerve Net Opal
19. Boo Radleys - Everything's Alright Forever Creation
20. Flaming Lips - Hit To Death In The Future Head Wea
21. Future Sound Of London - Accelerator Jumpin' & Pumpin
22. Carter Usm - 1992: The Love Album Chrysalis
23. Cypress Hill - Cypress Hill Columbia
24. Inner City - Praise Ten
25. Ride - Going Blank Again Creation
26. Meat Beat Manifesto - Satyricon Play It Again Sam
27. Lemonheads - It's A Shame About Ray East/West
28. Therapy? - Nurse A&M
29. Eric B & Rakim - Don't Sweat The Technique Mca
30. The Jesus And Mary Chain - Honey's Dead Wea
31. Levitation - Need For Not Rough Trade
32. Momus - Voyager Creation
33. Epmd - Business Never Personal Columbia
34. Mudhoney - Piece Of Cake Wea
35. Del Tha Funkee Homosapien - I Wish My Brother George Was Here Island
36. Gang Starr - Daily Operation Cooltempo
37. Tom Waits - Bone Machine Island
38. Fatima Mansions - Valhalla Avenue Radioactive
39. Babes In Toyland - Fontanelle South Ern
40. Rollins Band - The End Of Silence Imago
41. The Cure - Wish Flction
42. Body Count - Body Count Wea
43. Silverfish - Organ Fan Creation
44. Spectrum - Soul Kiss (Glide Divine) Silvertone
45. Sugar Bullet - Unrefined Virgin
46. Superchunk - No Pocky For Kitty City Slang
47. Various - Volume 4 Volume
48. The Tyrrel Corporation - North East Of Eden Cooltempo
49. The House Of Love - Babe Rainbow Fontana
50. Various Guerilla - Dub House Disco

Spin Albums Of The Year 1992

1. Pavement - Slanted And Enchanted
2. Arrested Development - 3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of...
3. Sonic Youth - Dirty
4. Beastie Boys - Check Your Head
5. Ministry - Psalm 69: The Way To Succeed And The Way To Suck Eggs
6. Sugar - Copper Blue
7. Neneh Cherry - Homebrew
8. Unrest - Imperial
9. Basehead - Play With Toys
10. Ween - The Pod
11. Mudhoney - Piece Of Cake
12. Urge Overkill - Stull EP
13. Tom Waits - Bone Machine
14. Lyle Lovett - Joshua Judges Ruth
15. Morrissey - Your Arsenal
16. En Vogue - Funky Divas
17. Babes In Toyland - Fontanelle
18. PJ Harvey - Dry
19. Prince - Symbol
20. Megadeth - Countdown To Extinction

Rolling Stone 1992 Critics

Albums

1. R.E.M. - Automatic For The People
2. Arrested Development - 3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of...
3. Los Lobos - Kiko
4. Sonic Youth - Dirty
5. PJ Harvey - Dry

also VV poll:

1. Arrested Development: 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of . . . (Chrysalis)
2. Pavement: Slanted and Enchanted (Matador)
3. R.E.M.: Automatic for the People (Warner Bros.)
4. PJ Harvey: Dry (Indigo)
5. Beastie Boys: Check Your Head (Capitol)
6. Los Lobos: Kiko (Slash/Warner Bros.)
7. Sugar: Copper Blue (Rykodisc)
8. Sonic Youth: Dirty (DGC)
9. Tom Waits: Bone Machine (Island)
10. Basehead: Play With Toys (Imago)
11. Lucinda Williams: Sweet Old World (Chameleon)
12. K.D. Lang: Ingénue (Sire/Warner Bros.)
13. Neneh Cherry: Homebrew (Virgin)
14. Prince and the New Power Generation: Prince XV (Paisley Park/Warner Bros.)
15. The Jayhawks: Hollywood Town Hall (Def American)
16. Lou Reed: Magic and Loss (Sire/Warner Bros.)
17. Bruce Springsteen: Lucky Town (Columbia)
18. Neil Young: Harvest Moon (Reprise)
19. The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy: Hypocrisy Is the Greatest Luxury (4th & B'way)
20. Soul Asylum: Grave Dancers Union (Columbia)
21. En Vogue: Funky Divas (EastWest) 187
22. Madonna: Erotica (Maverick/Reprise)
23. Chris Bell: I Am the Cosmos (Rykodisc)
24. Lyle Lovett: Joshua Judges Ruth (Curb/MCA)
25. Television: Television (Capitol)
26. Faith No More: Angel Dust (Slash/Warner Bros.)
27. Leonard Cohen: The Future (Columbia)
28. Freedy Johnston: Can You Fly (Bar/None)
29. Morrissey: "Your Arsenal" (Sire)
30. Mary J. Blige: What's the 411? (MCA/Uptown)
31. Body Count: Body Count (Sire/Warner Bros.)
32. L7: Bricks Are Heavy (Slash) 138 (16)
33. Lindsey Buckingham: Out of the Cradle (Warner Bros.)
34. Pearl Jam: 10 (Epic Associated)
35. Unrest: Imperial ffrr (TeenBeat)
36. Tori Amos: Little Earthquakes (Atco)
37. The Black Crowes: The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion (Def American)
38. The Roches: A Dove (MCA)
39. John Trudell: AKA Graffiti Man (Rykodisc)
40. Ice Cube: The Predator (Priority)

I liked a lot of these, but going by memory, Bone Machine stood out for me. Tom Waits would always top one of these polls as far as I'm concerned.

Count me as another write-in vote for the Pharcyde.

as a track A Deeper Love by C&C Music Factory is still phenomenal

Possibly my favourite year after 1989, though strikingly one-note in that it's all white men with guitars for me, even the rap. For a Top 10, I'd go:

1. Lemonheads / 2. New Fast Automatic Daffodils - Body Exit Mind / 3. The House of Pain - s/t 4. Sonic Youth / 5. The Jesus & Mary Chain / 6. Pavement / 7. Tragically Hip - Fully Completely / 8. Buffalo Tom - Let Me Come Over / 9. Beastie Boys / 10. Drop Nineteens

with Smeared by Sloan, Sugar, REM, The Disposable Heroes and Bettie Serveert close behind.

At the time almost all of these were also among my favourites, but I would have ranked Buffalo Tom over the others back then - it will have been my most played album along with Ten by Pearl Jam. (To add to/resolve the release year controversy: it was definitely released world-wide in 1991 - see Discogs, and also because I actually remember Oor magazine reviewing it in the same issue as Nevermind (so late September 1991, probably). It may have been re-released early 1992, which is definitely when I bought it (February), and of course it will feel to many people as a 1992 album since it only really took off after the impact PJ had at the 1992 summer festivals.) I don't think I've played it in 20 years and doubt I'll feel the urge soon, but the memories are sweet.

It's a shame about Ray is possibly my favourite album of the 90s, and with my #2 not on the list this is not a hard choice.

Just throwing it out there: what about 2 polls for '93? Yay or Nay?

I prefer one poll, personally. I'd rather not pretend that it's possible to cover enough ground or that the bitching isn't part of the fun.

agree

i cant cut my list of 50 any further!

If it will magically give me the option to vote for Toni Braxton’s debut or Tevin Campbell’s I’m Ready, by all means do it, otherwise don’t bother.

...he said sternly.

Oor Neechy is a big Toni Braxton fan iirc

hah she certainly wrote some really sad songs

if you want hip hop pop and rnb then you better hope mike does a poll because I think you all know they're not my forte

looking over those contemporaneous lists, Arrested Development was a mass delusion the likes of which were unseen until Tune-yards. I bought it! And dropped it back off a few months later.

even moreso than Big & Rich?

Soul Asylum forgotten too

Oooohhh I could go for some Sloan and Bettie Serveert

I'd say prob my biggest sadface omission is probably Dadamah's This is Not a Dream, which always sounds to me like Roy Montgomery trying to do his own, more goth-drenched, version of The Clean

(but that's prob a little libellous tbh; Roy himself said the model was Red Krayola, which I can kinda hear also)

Tune-Yards is still good

hadn't heard the Dadamah - This is Not a Dream album before. it sounds great

Some really, really good records on that list. Voted for Spiritualized, just ahead of Aphex, Godflesh, the Young Gods and REM.

A pity Valhalla Avenue didn't make the list. It's maybe the best Irish album ever made.

looking over those contemporaneous lists, Arrested Development was a mass delusion the likes of which were unseen until Tune-yards. I bought it! And dropped it back off a few months later.

I bought it too. And you're right, it was painfully earnest. Kulkarni in Melody Maker called it rap for white people.

I did like the way they wilfully sabotaged their own career on the next album by giving it a completely incomprehensible title and having no tunes on it.

Darkthrone won out in the end.

I have enjoyed this series of polls. Honourable mentions for Aphex and Prodigy but Pharcyde all the way for me in this one.

Oops I see that’s only on the bubbling under list so voted Prodigy

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Cows

Voted for FNM in the absence of the seminal 'Totally Krossed Out' by Kriss Kross

their music may have lived on in all of our hearts but thankfully their penchant for wearing baggy jeans backwards never caught on

honestly haven’t heard much of this list

pavement

last chance to make sure albums you like dont get zero votes

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

come on

it wasn't in my list

Had no trouble voting, but “Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock” should have been an option too.

no compilations allowed iirc

I love Automatic so yay

Surprised that Godflesh didn't get a single vote. That's an incredible album.

Because I was transitioning fully into rave music at the time, I don't think I ever actually heard the entirety of that Godflesh album.

Damn just now realizing Kiko and The Lavender Moon was snubbed

You can't snub an album you've never heard of!

Because I was transitioning fully into rave music at the time, I don't think I ever actually heard the entirety of that Godflesh album.

It's amazingly single-minded in its whole sound. I love records that just zero in murderously on one thing and execute it to perfection.

Amen to the other Kyuss voter. I feel I should have chucked a vote to Trouble though.

I really like that whole period of Def America: Masters of Reality, Danzig, Jayhawks, Trouble, Black Crowes, Slayer, Red Devils, Flipper, Raging Slab. Can probably pass over Andrew Dice Clay.