Popol Vuh beat The Fall in NME writers' best of 1979 list

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― Special Agent Dale Koopa (orion), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 15:00 (nineteen years ago)

Tusk not even in NME writers' best of 1979 list, thus list invalid.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 15:02 (nineteen years ago)

You sure about that?

(I know, you probably are...)

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 15:48 (nineteen years ago)

NME Albums 1979
From http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/nmeindex.html

1. Fear of music - Talking heads
2. Metal box - Public Image ltd.
3. Unknown Pleasures - Joy Division
4. Setting sons - The Jam
5. Entertainment - Gang of four
6. Armed Forces - Elvis Costello
7. Do it yourself - Ian Dury
8. London Calling - The Clash
9. Squeezing out the sparks - Graham Parker
10. The Specials - The Specials
11. Forces of victory - Lintin Kwesi Johnson
12. The B52's - The B52's
13. Bop till you drop - Ry Cooder
14. The Raincoats - The Raincoats
15. Tom Verlaine - Tom Verlaine
16. I am - Earth, Wind & Fire
17. The Undertones - The Undertones
18. 154 - Wire
19. Repeat when necessary - Dave Edmunds
20. Drums & Wires - XTC
21. New panic time - Pere Ubu
22. Cut - The Slits
23. Risque - Chic
24. Regatta de blank - Police
25. Humanity - The Royle Rasses
26. Same song - Israel Vibration
27. Katzenmusic - Michael Rother
28. Rust never sleeps - Neil Young
29. Brudder des schattens, sohne des.. - Popol Vuh
30. Dragnet - The Fall
31. Even serpents shine - The only ones
32. Eskimo - The Residents
33. Slow train coming - Bob Dylan
34. Blue valentine - Tom Waits
35. This heat - This heat
36. A train to Marineville - Swell maps
37. I’m the man - Joe Jackson
38. Soldier Talk - The red crayola
39. Reproduction - The Human League
40. Lodger - David Bowie

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 16:00 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/mmpage.html

Melody Maker 1979

1979 Melody Maker Albums

1. Fear of music - Talking Heads
2. Bop till you drop - Ry Cooder
3. Entertainment - Gang of four
4. Forces of victory - Linton Kwesi Johnson
5. Rust never sleeps - Neil Young
6. The Undertones - The Undertones
7. Off the wall - Michael Jackson
8. I am - Earth, wind & fire
9. Metal Box - PIL
10. London calling - The Clash
11. The original sin - Cowboys international
12. Squeezing out sparks - Graham Parker
13. We are family - Sister sledge
14. Armed forces - Elvis Costello
15. Tom Verlaine - Tom Verlaine
16. 154 - Wire
17. Drums and wires - XTC
18. Exposure - Robert Fripp
19. Rock on - Raydio
20. Bad girls - Donna Summer

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 16:03 (nineteen years ago)

Ah well let's be fair, that's an outstanding list!

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 16:29 (nineteen years ago)

Compare it to 2004

NME Recordings Of 2004

Albums

1. Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand
2. The Libertines – The Libertines
3. The Streets – A Grand Don’t Come For A Free
4. Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters
5. The Futureheads – The Futureheads
6. Danger Mouse – The Greay Album
7. Kanye West – The College Dropout
8. Razorlight – Razorlight
9. The Radio Dept – Lesser Matters
10. The Dears – No Cities Left
11. Interpol – Antics
12. Morrissey – You Are The Quarry
13. The Killers – Hot Fuss
14. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre Of Orpheus
15. Dizzie Rascal – Showtime
16. Beastie Boys – To Thr 5 Boroughs
17. TV On The Radio – Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babies
18. U2 – Ho To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
19. The Concretes – The Concretes
20. Kasabain – Kasabain
21. Keane – Hope And Fears
22. Gwen Stefani – Love Angel Music Baby
23. Ryan Adams – Love Is Hell (Pt 1 & 2)
24. Elliott Smith – From A Basement On The Hill
25. Kings Of Leon – Aha Shake Heartbreak
26. Secret Machines – Now Here Is Nowhere
27. Mylo – Destroy Rock ‘N’ Roll
28. The Ordinary Boys – Over The Counter Culture
29. Hope Of The States – The Lost Riots
30. Dios – Dios
31. Devendra Banheart – Rejoicing In The Hands
32. Kelis – Tasty
33. Brian Wilson – Smile
34. Amplifier – Amplifier
35. Graham Coxon – Happiness In Magazines
36. The Go! Team – Thunder, Lightening, Strike
37. The Zutons – Who Killed The Zutons
38. Goldie Lookin’ Chain – Greatest Hits
39. Eminem – Encore
40. The Bees – Free The Bees
41. Mos Def – The New Danger
42. Regina Spektor – Soviet Kitsch
43. The Music – Welcome To The North
44. Wilco – A Ghost Is Born
45. Green Day – American Idiot
46. Sufjan Stevens – Seven Swans
47. The Shins – Chutes Too Narrow
48. Joanna Newsom – The Milk-Eyed Mender
49. Selfish Cunt – No Wicked Heart Shall Prosper
50. 22-20’s – 22-20’s

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 19:07 (nineteen years ago)

I never even heard of the Royal Rasses until just now! Were they a joke reggae band or something? They're name is kind of funny!

Actually, this is a pretty obscure bunch if you ask me:
25. Humanity - The Royle Rasses
26. Same song - Israel Vibration
27. Katzenmusic - Michael Rother

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 2 November 2005 19:10 (nineteen years ago)

Also never heard of these artistes, so I guess I know 1979 way better than 2004:

8. Razorlight – Razorlight
9. The Radio Dept – Lesser Matters
19. The Concretes – The Concretes
27. Mylo – Destroy Rock ‘N’ Roll
28. The Ordinary Boys – Over The Counter Culture
29. Hope Of The States – The Lost Riots
30. Dios – Dios
34. Amplifier – Amplifier
35. Graham Coxon – Happiness In Magazines
49. Selfish Cunt – No Wicked Heart Shall Prosper
50. 22-20’s – 22-20’s

― xhxuk, Wednesday, 2 November 2005 19:16 (nineteen years ago)

oh wait i think that coxon fellow is in blur or something, right?

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 2 November 2005 19:17 (nineteen years ago)

You are correct

― van igloo (van smack), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 19:42 (nineteen years ago)

The Radio Dept. are great.

― cdwill, Wednesday, 2 November 2005 20:39 (nineteen years ago)

What a great year... much better than 1992...

― Edward III (edward iii), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 20:47 (nineteen years ago)

A lot more bands are called "The ____" now that's for sure.

― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 20:50 (nineteen years ago)

1979 was maybe the best year in pop evah.
How many great records are NOT on the list, and were classics...

Madness - One Step Beyond
Squeeze - Cool For Cats
The Roches - The Roches
Buzzcocks - Different Kind Of Tension
Devo - Duty Now For The Future
Stranglers - The Raven
Damned - Machine Gun Etiquette

...to name a few...

― zeus (zeus), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 21:06 (nineteen years ago)

Were those NME and MM lists published contemporarily or are those the 20/20 hindsight types? If they were published at the time, man, the prescience is pretty solid about what would continue to be favorites. And it makes 2004 look helaciously weak.

― js (honestengine), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 21:16 (nineteen years ago)

These were the official end of the year-lists of NME and MM.

― zeus (zeus), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 21:28 (nineteen years ago)

You can find all the albums of year lists from the 70s to present day. as well as lots of other magazine polls at www.rocklist.net

All you Select fans can reminisce.

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 22:20 (nineteen years ago)

Oh for a world where I'd never heard of Razorlight.
Chuck, if you're serious you are a lucky man.

― Matt #2 (Matt #2), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 23:04 (nineteen years ago)

chuck eddy, michael rother is not obscure.

― Special Agent Dale Koopa (orion), Thursday, 3 November 2005 01:12 (nineteen years ago)

incredibly high ranking for graham parker!!

― Ward Fowler (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 3 November 2005 10:18 (nineteen years ago)

That Rother album is fairly obscure.

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 3 November 2005 10:23 (nineteen years ago)

Not a lot of love for Bowie's Lodger at the time...

― jz, Thursday, 3 November 2005 10:29 (nineteen years ago)

>incredibly high ranking for graham parker!! <

Not really, when you consider he WON the Pazz & Jop poll that year.

>michael rother is not obscure.<

Yeah right. Among people who actually KNOW THE NAMES OF THE PEOPLE IN NEU he's not obscure, I guess. All ten of them. Hell, I've been listening to Kraut-rock for a quarter century (since I lived in Germany in the early '80s), and I never took note of his name til yesterday. (Then again, Neu have never been one of my favorite Kraut-rock bands. But, uh, honestly, Neu are still pretty obscure themselves when you get down to it. And they definitely were in 1979.)

― xhuxk, Thursday, 3 November 2005 13:58 (nineteen years ago)

I don't really think of the Royal Rasses or Israel Vibration as obscure, but I suppose both are acts who came through fairly late in the roots reggae day and didn't really survive the move into dancehall (I don't know what happened to either, actually).

"Love The Way It Should Be" ("Humanity" if you prefer) and "The Same Song" were both pretty major reggae hits in the UK around that time, and the former must have nearly made the charts because I remember it quite a lot of overstock bins in high street shops... I seem to recall the version released in the UK as "Humanity" wasn't as good a mix as the Jamaican "LTWISB" but I might be making that up.

― Tim (Tim), Thursday, 3 November 2005 14:13 (nineteen years ago)

Well, obviously the key here is that some stuff that is obscure to Americans isn't obscure to Brits, and vice versa. (Honestly, that's why I always *liked* looking at those old NME and Melody Maker lists in the '80s, especially when they used to break the lists down by genre, so there would be separate reggae or African or noise or country lists etc. There were always records on them that I'd never heard of since they'd been completely ignored in the States, assuming they exist here at all. From the looks of that 2004 list, though -- somebody correct me if I'm wrong -- the obscurities ignored in th U.S. nowadays appear to be piddly Brit-pop nonentities that maybe Americans *should* be ignoring, whereas in the past there were lots of records from other genres that Americans were *stupid* to ingore.)

― xhuxk, Thursday, 3 November 2005 14:47 (nineteen years ago)

Yes. The NME is a very different organ now, of course, which might be a shame, or might be just one of those things. Perhaps both.

There's lots of stuff I've never heard on last year's NME list but I'm afraid to say if I haven't heard it I generally assume it's fairly unremarkable indie sludge of whatever sub-type. I'm likely missing out on something good. I don't mind so much. Back then if something was high in the NME list and I hadn't heard it, I imagined it to be exotic and amazing. Mind, I was 10.

I am shocked and delighted that "Squeezing Out Sparks" won the P&J.

― Tim (Tim), Thursday, 3 November 2005 14:56 (nineteen years ago)

This surely only proves that if a couple of journalists (or maybe even one) decide to make Popol Vuh and Michael Rother (say), their number 1 and 2 (say) of the year then, in a small sampling like this (how many journalists did the NME have in 1979? 12? 15? 20?), they're likely to be highly placed. Well done Andy Gill say I! And I also know for a fact that a fair amount of cheating and manipulation of results went on in the compilation of these polls!

― Oh No, It's Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 3 November 2005 16:52 (nineteen years ago)

I love that these made the melody maker list:

11. The original sin - Cowboys international
18. Exposure - Robert Fripp
19. Rock on - Raydio

That Fripp album is so new wave! ("You burn me up I'm a cigarette," ha!) Also that's the Raydio album where Ray Parker Jr tells us we can change a dollar bill but we can change the way he feels. How true!!

― xhuxk, Thursday, 3 November 2005 16:58 (nineteen years ago)

The lesson of 2004 seems to be: self-title your album for instant poll success. Unless you are Amplifier or Dios.

― dan11, Thursday, 3 November 2005 17:48 (nineteen years ago)

we CAN'T change the way Ray feels I mean

― xhuxk, Thursday, 3 November 2005 17:53 (nineteen years ago)

19. The Concretes – The Concretes

This is, or should be, non-obscure to people in the US; their song "Say Something New" is used in all the Target commercials.

― monkeybutler, Thursday, 3 November 2005 18:00 (nineteen years ago)

32. Eskimo - The Residents

Andy Gill again

― Oh No, It's Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 4 November 2005 12:36 (nineteen years ago)

I don't know that I've ever actually watched (much less listened to) a Target commercial, so don't assume so much about Americans, okay? (I mean, if I heard the song, it was by accident, and it clearly went in one ear and out the other, so not only did I not know who it was, I didn't *wonder* who it was. So "non-obscure" is stretching things.)

― xhuxk, Friday, 4 November 2005 14:05 (nineteen years ago)

Israel Vibration?

Well, a couple years ago, I was trying to track down a song that went "I'm a xxx xx xx x and xxx xx x do you love me?" and NO-ONE HERE knew what it was. It's "Jah love me" by Israel Vibration. Therefore, obscure. Ish.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 4 November 2005 14:32 (nineteen years ago)

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