NME Critics' 1988 Top 50 Albums Poll

yup, going PE.

Wonder Stuff.

Nah, PE really. Boring but true.

My Bloody Valentine. But only because Spacemen 3 were more a Melody Maker band.

(Though embarrassingly enough, at the time, I probably listened to the Sugarcubes album a LOT more.)

((Actually, no - the album on that list that I listened to *most* in 1988 was Barbed Wire Kisses, but that's not even the JAMC's best, let alone the year's.))

another nudge for PE.
some other good'uns in the list, but that really was my soundtrack for that year, and continues to be one i enjoy the most.

PE won the Melody Maker poll poll:
Melody Maker Albums of the Year 1988

I still find it amazing that MM were lukewarm at best about Nation Of Millions at the time.

It would be easy to post things like "Tracy Chapman????", but about 90% of these albums wouldn't even get a mention in the current day NME, let alone cited as top 50 of the year.

I think the last 1988 record I listened to in full was Souled American's 'Fe', which didn't make either list. Damn good though, and better than most of the other folksy shit on the NME list.

Van Morrison & the Chieftains - Irish Heartbeat

Have still never heard that. Sounds a bit grim to me.

It's actually a rather good record - their reading of "She Moved Through The Fair" is mesmerising - and definitely worth owning but it's a curious choice for 1988 runner-up.

This year was a bit of a last stand for Celtic music on these lists wasn't it?

This list doesn't actually strike me as particularly varied really, except by the standards of today's NME which isn't any standard at all. The top two really stands out as "what the hell?" but beyond that... not sure. Maybe its the presence of quite so many revered big indie beasts in the top 20.

Is that Todd Terry Project album worth hearing?

Voted Sonic Youth.

Todd Terry Project - To The Batmobile Let's Go

What's this like, anyone?

ha xp

Momus

...... just joking

i think this is pretty varied!

hip-hop, indie, michael nyman, prince, todd terry, pet shop boys, yello...

varied compared to what?

What's embarrassing about playing that Sugarcubes album a lot? It was a great album then and it still sounds really good. But fucking hell, some of my favourite albums of all time are on this list - there's about 10 that I still play a few times a year even now. I'm voting for Dinosaur Jr.

Batmobile is totally brilliant - it would have been in my top ten for the year though may sound dated to 2009 funky house ears (and of course the Royal House album was also Todd).

varied compared to what?

Yer average NME Critics' Top 50 Albums of the Year list?

it's varied, is what im saying.

Is it particularly varied put next to the equivalent list from ten years later? Not sure I really hold with that, Michael Nyman and Napalm Death notwithstanding. Admittedly the 1988 list is much better.

1998 was a special time.

I suppose the other interesting thing about the 88 list is that there is a HUGE amount of material in there that has become completely unshakeable nailed-on canon.

My impression is that the NME at the end of '88 were undecided whether to remain the indie boy's best friend or strike out in the Q direction (though Vox eventually resolved that dilemma). Some of this may have been down to the old/new school make-up of the staff and contributors at the time.

That 1998 list is also interesting - as my direct memories of the 1998-2000 period in music are shaky to say the least (for previously well documented reasons) it's a useful reminder of what was about with lots of odd things (Quasi, MDK) probably worth re-checking out.

That Quasi album is very good. Of the rest of that '98 list, Boards of Canada and Royal Trux are the other standouts for me, but generally the '88 list is much better.

Of the '88 choices, it's difficult not to vote PE, but were I to do so I think Bummed might be a good pick.

Is that Todd Terry Project album worth hearing?

Yes. Almost certainly the one I'll vote for, though there are several great albums on this list. The absence of any one over riding trend seems to allow several things to filter through which in other years may be ignored. TT is much more brittle than his later work, more sample based, skittery beats, less song based.

Lots of great albums on this list but, oddly, the only one I listened to again in the last year was the Michelle Shocked album.

The 1978 list is amazing in a pipe, slippers and Mojo sort of way.

I don't think I've ever seen a copy of Africa Stand Alone by Culture, let alone heard it. Is it worth tracking down?

that is a damn interesting list by any standards, imo. some crap on it, of course, but isn't that always the case? i never could stand that Morrison/Chieftains record but loved the Pogues at the time. still can't believe that anyone fell for that Iggy record, tho.

1987 list is even more varied I think.

still can't believe that anyone fell for that Iggy record, tho.

That was just a case of people willing him to succeed

Actually it feels a bit like a dress rehearsal for the 88 one. (xpost)

Ah, Voice Of Reason by the Sect, Steve Lamacq's 1987 Future Of Music.

It's a good list, though, the '87 one - I think the only ones I didn't pay hard earned cash for were the aforementioned Sect and boring old Squeeze.

Paul Johnson - Paul Johnson. Whazzis?

Very briefly the future of British Soul Music. Good voice and I did get that album at the time but the songs weren't much cop so it went on the MVE pile.

I don't think I've ever seen a copy of Africa Stand Alone by Culture, let alone heard it

Nope, not heard that, love Culture though. Wonder what the last reggae album to make the NME end-of-years was?

God, seeing those two lists side by side (1988, 1998) makes me feel so bloody old. I kept thinking "That didn't come out 20 years ago, that came out, like... yesterday... oh wait. I'm old."

I'm not embarrassed by the Sugarcubes, so much as, well, embarrassed that I was late for the MBV party and didn't really get into them until about '90.

On checking the last reggae album listed appears to have been Rastafari Teach I Everything by Sizzla - #47 back in 2001.

Slightly surprised it was as recent as that, but I'd given up buying the thing long before.

> V/A - Stay Awake

What was this?

It was the Hal Willner Disney tribute album with Ken Nordine, Ringo Starr, Sun Ra, Sinead O'Connor, Garth Hudson and others.

Part of the reason why I posted that 1998 list is that it feels like the last hurrah of the NME making any pretense of being an open-eared publication. It went downhill from then on and by 2002 they were making closed-mindedness into a virtue.

I always loved those mid/late '80s NME lists -- Yello, Ut, Band of Susans, wacky! (Though I get the idea the previous couple of years were even better and more varied -- this one seems to lean a bit more toward shambling wimpitude.) Actually also think Randy Travis's 8 x 10 is both a way more adventurous and interesting choice and a better album than some of the missing albums Marcello mentions in his intro. (And I've never been much of a Travis fan, either, but it's his best record. I finally bought a vinyl copy for 50 cents last month!)

Anyway, after all that, I'm going to vote for Introspective, my favorite Pet Shop Boys album. (A boring choice, but also an honest one.)

It's my fave PSB too

I'd be very interested to hear a defence of the Randy Travis album for sure. At the time (from my perspective) it was Wogan playing "Forever And Ever Amen" on Radio 2 forever and ever and I wasn't tempted to investigate further.

Yes, an odd list which captures some of my own generational confusion at the time. On the one hand, I was DJ-ing every week and was immersed in house & hip-hop (but didn't bother much with single-artist albums). On the other, we'd just bought a CD player and I was going all middle-class suburban dinner-party. (It didn't last long.)

Bought or taped at the time: Nation Of Millions, Green, Pogues, Lovesexy, Introspective, Sugarcubes, Tender Prey, Talking Heads, Tracy Chapman, Rob Base & E-Z Rock, Eric B & Rakim, Jungle Brothers, Stay Awake, Michelle Shocked.

Caught up with at a later date: MBV, Waterboys, Leonard Cohen, Shadowland.

Favourites then: 1) Lovesexy, 2) Tracy Chapman, 3) Michelle Shocked, 4) Introspective, 5) Green.

Favourites now: 1) Leonard Cohen, 2) Nation of Millions, 3) Lovesexy. Haven't played any of the others in years.

Favourites from then that aren't on the NME list:
The Forest Is Crying - Trio Bulgarka
Akwaba Beach - Mory Kante
Look What I Got - Betty Carter (Wonder how this holds up now?)
Gypsy Kings - Gypsy Kings ("Bamboleo" was proper Balearic, I'll have you know.)

> Akwaba Beach - Mory Kante

Is that the one w/ Yeke Yeke on it? Think I might enjoy that now.

The very same.

When "Yeke Yeke" was remixed and became a hit in '88, one Radio 1 DJ compared the song to Russ Abbot.

Ah, the "Afro Acid Mix by Dave Dorrell from MARRS". Always used it as an instant first-hour floor-filler. See also Inner City's "Big Fun".

Voted for "Bummed". I own/have owned an awful lot of these albums, and could've voted for half of them.

Nation of Millions & Daydream Nation = two albums I pay a lot of lip service to but never actually want to listen to.

Didn't vote Nation of Millions cos I prefer the one after it, I suppose. Wouldn't vote Daydream Nation cos it's over-rated as fuck compared to the 2 before it.

The connection between the titles of those two records has never really occurred to me before.

Can't believe 16 Lovers Lane is not represented. Went with Pixies.

I went with Dinosaur Jr as it seemed under-represented on the MM poll

I almost went with Wonder Stuff as it was the very first CD I ever bought!!!!! BUT then there's the Parkerilla.

PE vs SY, though Lovesexy is perversely my favourite Prince.

Went with Ut, though very close to PE. I do actually love that Momus album as well.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Pogues! Their best album.

I remember that Parachute Men album being quite good and I keep thinking about it at odd times and meaning to dig it up and forgetting.

#1 Lovesexy
#2 Nation of Millions
#3 Daydream Nation
#4 Isn't Anything
#5 Introspective

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

i never really liked that public enemy album...it's all abt surfer rosa for me...

disregard that last comment

Was the UK more or less oblivious to Nothing's Shocking in 1988...? Just surprised to see no mention at all

was it in the MM poll?