best end of year picks 1988 - melody maker journos POLL

aw shit, mods move to ilm, plz

ok

I wont be voting for carol. Stubbs has young gods so that might swing it. Simon has sp3 tho..

we're voting on their hair, right?

Roberts, but only for picking the Muses.

Hard to believe there was a time when you could pick up a music magazine and read about both Poison and My Bloody Valentine in the same issue.

Sooo much groupthink then!

Yeah, Chris's, Simon's and David's are all fairly interchangeable. Carol's sticks out massively.

Chris Roberts looks cute like Seth Green in that photo.

Chris Roberts just edged it over Reynolds for Spacemen3 and Throwing Muses.

Carol Clerk. How the fuck did only one critic pick "Sweet Child O'Mine"?

Stubbs for picking Vanessa Paradis.

Just for teh hell'o'it (for having Scritti Politti amonst his picks, in other words) cameraman Sheehan gets my vote.

Stubbs' list is the best. Carol Clerk's list says "I am the best person on this panel to go drinking with". How anyone could put that RHCP 'party on your pussy' song in even their top million songs of the year is beyond me

Roberts edges it for best choice of MBV song.

david stubbs = best looking, obvs.

Reynolds for being the only one to mention Sonic Youth and Pixies in their peak year. Looks like fun times were had at MM in that era, though they hadn't clicked with Public Enemy yet.

yeah i thought 'it takes a nation...' came out that year.

1988 was the year we finally LOST our "selves" we got WASTED on NOISE and SAILED TO THE MOON

...or something

Wow, Carol Clerk seriously had rocks in her ears, eh? Hopefully she looks back on this and is embarrassed. I guess I'll go with Stubbs, but it's pretty much a tossup between him & Sheehan. Though I read the papers back then, I can't say I gave a whole lot of thought to the writers themselves.

I think I bought every record on Simon Reynolds list. It's kind of scary.

Stubbs is the only one with a decent haircut.

xxpost Fastnbulbous

Reynolds Stubbs et al had massively bigged up "Bum Rush" in 87 and had turned sour on PE after "Nation of Millions"!

The fucking eejits.

Stubbs' centrefold piece in that MM Xmas issue on 1988 being The Best Year Ever For Rock was a bit of a touchstone piece of writing for me in the year or so following.

Hadn't baths and showers and soap and shampoo been invented by 1988?

Also: lol all about eve lol

I like the one with the comedy back-combing OH WAIT

The "cool" hairstyles of today will look just as silly in 20 years.

I like comedy back-combing, it doesn't make it not funny.

I think Wingco (when he was still hirsute and characteristically dapper)'s list just gets it over Simon's though I'se still got everything on both their lists. I'll have to dig out that Loop EP again; as memory serves, their take on the Pop Group was pretty apocalyptic.

"I'VE" ffs.

Interesting the amount of industrial stuff on most of the lists. I suppose that stuff was a precursor to acid house for music crits at that time?

In Monitor terms it was more tied in with the Return of Rock, arsequake and all that. Sort of the electronic branch.

So a reaction against New Pop, new romanticism etc.?

The acceptable face of Goth more like.

More a reaction against punk, i.e. constipated tightening up of guitars, afraid to spread out, Year Zero not allowed to like anything before 1976 &c.

Gotcha, thanks!

Is Tom Sheehan deliberately going for a Billy Joel look or is that just a coincidence?

More like Doctor Fox, amirite?

So a reaction against New Pop, new romanticism etc.?

― Neil S, Friday, 12 September 2008 12:04 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The acceptable face of Goth more like.

― Our Friend The Atom (Masonic Boom), Friday, 12 September 2008 12:05 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

More a reaction against punk, i.e. constipated tightening up of guitars, afraid to spread out, Year Zero not allowed to like anything before 1976 &c.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 12 September 2008 12:06 So a reaction against New Pop, new romanticism etc.?

― Neil S, Friday, 12 September 2008 12:04 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The acceptable face of Goth more like.

― Our Friend The Atom (Masonic Boom), Friday, 12 September 2008 12:05 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

More a reaction against punk, i.e. constipated tightening up of guitars, afraid to spread out, Year Zero not allowed to like anything before 1976 &c.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 12 September 2008 12:06

reaction to all of that, imo. the whole post-punk fallout. punk was "regressive rock" new pop's "entryism" was old hat by '88...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

stubbs for still having hair at that point.

Not a good vintage.

Voted Tom Sheenan for having a Scritti Politti single in there.

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