Pointlessly polling this NME singles list from 1993

(Full of typos, blame the list I C&P'ed it from)

Oh, I voted St Etienne!

ultramarine

Stutter!

(also remember quite liking that Senser single when I last heard it)

Credit To The Nation (lol) and Senser (lololol) there are a surprising number of great records in here

Call It What You Want and Eject/The Key remain great

surprised by inclusion of M People

done lying down? who the fuck were they?

HUGGY BEAR

Cherub Rock > Today but how did the latter not go top 40?!

narrowed it down to one of these tho

Cannonball - The Breeders
Call It What You Want - Credit To The Nation
Open Up - Leftfield/Lydon
Killing In The Name Of - Rage Against The Machine
Human Behaviour - Bjork
Go west - Pet Shop Boys
Smokeeblch II - Sabres of Paradise
What's My Name - Snoop Doggy Dogg
It Was A Good Day - Ice Cube
Tease Me - Chaka Demus & Pliers
One Goodbye In Ten - Shara Nelson

Re: Done Lying Down...

One of those "british grunge" groups, where they get an american female lead singer to front an otherwise brit band.

All got chucked out by Britpop.

Done Lying Down were a, I dunno, post-hardcore sort of band. Pretty good list! Would probly be narrowing it down to about 10 as well

xp

BIVOUAC!

wow there's a surprising number of great tracks in here.

Cannonball - The Breeders
Human Behaviour - Bjork
Go west - Pet Shop Boys
Regret - New Order
Down That Road - Shara Nelson
Venus As A Boy - Bjork
Ain't No Love, Aint No Use - Sub Sub
What's My Name - Snoop Doggy Dogg
It Was A Good Day - Ice Cube
Hip-Hop Hooray - Naughty by Nature
Deep - East 17
You’re In A Bad Way - St Etienne
One Goodbye In Ten - Shara Nelson
Moving on Up - M People
One Night in Heaven - M People

^^all A+ would jam right now. my vote is between 'human behaviour', 'ain't no love' and 'what's my name?'

Man, I hate "Go West"

Jeez, I used to treat these end-of-year lists like they were the bible or something. It's always funny to see the forgotten critics' pets, but there are a lot of pretty good records there. I also love that M-People show up in all critics' lists until about 1995 or so.

i'll never understand why m people are the ones people mock 15 years on compared to, idk, paul weller/rage against the machine/radiohead/manic street preachers - they're obv better than any of that useless rabble

The token pop entry in these lists is only ever there to make some vacuous ideological point - 'Deep' was the real thing that showed up how manufactured Take That were, iirc. They could've picked 'No Limit', but no.

... no, no no, no no, no no, no no

mark e. smiths fave single of that year!

Well it's between that and Shaggy for me

M-People are awful and they were always awful - it's not them themselves who are funny, it's that they were considered some kind of credible, healthy development of pop towards authenticity and away from manufactured stuff.

i hate her foghorn voice

Yes, it's really her voice that is the problem, they are certainly no worse than the Manic Street Preachers

'De Niro' = meh, never saw the fuss. a better token prog/tech-house track for the time would be 'Positive Education', '20Hz' or indeed stuff like 'Star Dancer' - amazing year for that kind of stuff as much as anything else

The production on 'No Limit' is fabulous, on sound alone it would blow away every one of these 50. I doubt 'Call It What You Want' sounds so good today.

on sound alone it would blow away every one of these 50

eh, no better than 'Open Up', 'Smokebelch' etc. - just more in your face/on the surface

i'll never understand why m people are the ones people mock 15 years on

I think you missed the point, the ones people mock 15 years on are Senser and Credit To The Nation. NME will probably be similarly embarassed about The Klaxons in 15 years.

Anyway, narrowed it down to:

Open Up - Leftfield/Lydon
Regret - New Order
Venus As A Boy - Bjork
Ain't No Love, Aint No Use - Sub Sub
Smokeeblch II - Sabres of Paradise
Today - Smashing Pumpkins
It Was A Good Day - Ice Cube
You’re In A Bad Way - St Etienne

Leaning towards New Order. Once upon a time I would have voted for Smokebelch without thinking twice but since that NatWest ad I can't help but associate it with mortgages. Which is probably not what the founders of Warp Records intended.

totally Electric Mainline EP, which I had a love affair with last semester.

HUGGY BEAR

― thomp, Tuesday, July 28, 2009 10:03 PM (1 hour ago)

It's Go West, for sure. That's Pet Shop Boys at the height of their powers!

They nicked the "Come on come on" bit from "Pretend we're dead" L7!

went for I Hang Suspended

the ones people mock 15 years on are Senser and Credit To The Nation

really, who tho?

Yeah, what level of saddo would do such a thing in 2009?

no Levellers in this list i notice

Lenny Valentino

Lots of great songs there, but I'm gonna vote for "Moving on Up", as it still sounds awesome today. Who cares what the critics thought about M People 16 years ago, that song is still an absolute dancefloor classic.

Oh dear, I just noticed "Sugar Daddy" by Secret Knowledge was on the list too. I should've voted for that one, as it is a brilliantly freaky tune that seems to be totally forgotten today.

Haha yeah point taken about Senser.

This is astonisingly difficult, at the time would've probably picked Spiritualized, PSB or Huggy Bear, which was the last vinyl single I bought 'new'. Now, I don't know, tempted by St Et, Ice Cube, Auteurs, Tindersticks and several others but it's likely to be between Huggy Bear, Sub Sub and Chaka Demus & Pliers which was the sound of that summer and was first picked up by Dave Lee Travis of all people.

HEEEEEEY
HOOOOOOO
HEEEEEEY
HOOOOOOO

Senser are still touring you know

i'll never understand why m people are the ones people mock 15 years on compared to, idk, paul weller/rage against the machine/radiohead/manic street preachers - they're obv better than any of that useless rabble

Yep. I voted "One Night in Heaven."

thing is as glitzy smooth handbag there's M People but this was the year of superior K-Klass 'Let Me Show You', the Sub Sub, that club mix of Aftershock 'Slave To The Vibe', Robyn S...argh so much better pop dance stuff GREAT YEAR

I'm gonna vote for "Moving on Up", as it still sounds awesome today.
Yep. I voted "One Night in Heaven."

classic ILX, even the pro M-People vote can't reach consensus

Yeah M People won the Mercury Music Prize that year and had that whole Manchester background etc. They were TOTALLY the indie-friendly pop dance option at the time.

classic ILX, even the pro M-People vote can't reach consensus

oh noes

I don't think I've heard Open Up in about seven or eight years but I remember it sounding huge and apocalyptic at the time - I'm a bit reluctant to listen to it again in case it's dated really badly. Still feels like a high-water mark for rock vocalists collaborating with dance acts though.

"Open Up" is a gigantic pile of shit.

Stop sitting on the fence, Dan, what do you think of "Open Up"?

Smashing Pumpkins

Not quite complete, but better than I expected. http://open.spotify.com/user/unterwasser/playlist/0kBucOfDFcW2rQn9dMisrP

damn what's the third thing i never understand Dan's hatred for after Leftism and Domino Dancing...

lol who knows

Voted Matty Credit RIP little guy

'release the pressure' still bangs

it shows what a good year it was at least that this list which was so blatantly cobbled together in half an hour in the pub can include enough good stuff for that not to matter so much despite all the even better stuff missing

Human Behaviour, though tempted by Oh Carolina.

melody maker singles list 1993

Cannonball - The Breeders
Creep - Radiohead
Razzamatazz - Pulp
City sickness - Tindersticks
Venus as a boy - Bjork
Call it what you want - Credit to the Nation
Her jazz - Huggy Bear
Fuzzy - Grant Lee Buffalo
Regret - New Order
MMM... Skyscraper, I love you - Underworld
Swim - Madder Rose
Open up - Leftfield & Lydon
Everybody Hurts - R.E.M.
Beautiful Son - Hole
Smokebelch - Sabres of Paradise
Stutter - Elastica
Rez - Underworld
Gentlemen - Afghan Whigs
Animal Nitrate - Suede
For Tomorrow - Blur

HUGGY BEAR

― thomp, Tuesday, July 28, 2009 10:03 PM (1 hour ago)

― more posts that will never be released (electricsound), Tuesday, July 28, 2009 1:19 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

surprised mazzy star's 'fade into you' didnt make any of those lists

never actually heard any Huggy Bear :/

wasnt there a 'notorious' performance on The Word?

suspect i'm the only person who has listened to the Compulsion EP in 2009.

not sure i'm voting for them amongst this lot though.

would totally vote "MMMMM Sckscraper"

(One of) their thing(s) when they were breaking was not to play The Man's game by whoring themselves out for publicity. It was pretty funny how offended the music press got when it turned out they actually meant it.

Huggy Bear obviously.

Tindersticks vs Huggy Bear. Really too different to be able to choose. Argh.

"Oh Carolina."

I normally ignore people who moan about covers being inferior to the original and I like Shaggy plenty but "Oh Carolina" is way inferior to the original.

Okay I prolly don't mean the original I mean the Count Ossie verzh.

Re: Done Lying Down...

One of those "british grunge" groups, where they get an american female lead singer to front an otherwise brit band.

Well, kind of, except the singer was male, and calling them grunge is a bit of a stretch. They were more like NWONW stuff like S*M*A*S*H or These Animal Men. I have a single by them that's not bad, but never heard any albums.

ultramarine
― Michael B, Tuesday, 28 July 2009 11:56 (6 hours ago)

this^^^^
can't believe only two people have mentioned this one

Voting Dodgy because they get way too little love around here (and "Water Under The Bridge" is a great song although their debut album was patchier than the two that followed)

Regret. Although there's some great stuff in that list. Ah, 1993: the year I left England.

1993 was a savage year all round you gotta admit

am struggling to work out how I'm the only person to mention let alone pick the Boo Radleys

dave fanning used to play the full versh of 'lazarus' back then. thats was THE JAM.

am struggling to work out how I'm the only person to mention let alone pick the Boo Radleys

Was never such a fan of IHS -- especially compared to Lazarus and Barney And Me.

Voting Dodgy

lol I had this pegged as Geir by the time I hit "Dodgy"

lol was just about to say I was about to SB the Dodgy booster until I realised it was Geir.

Kerrang writer James Sherry was in Done Lying Down iirc. Wouldn't say they were much like SMASH/TAM but maybe more like Compulsion? I had a single of theirs called Dissent, pretty good it was.

Anyway this is a tough call but I think New Order edge it over Tindersticks and the Auteurs.

I like 'Regret' a lot more as time passes, I was majorly disappointed with it at the time (not that I ever admitted it to myself). I actually really like a lot of the records here, but being the NME the list suffers for its blandness, if you know what I mean - nothing to really polarise opinion, it's like the canon of its day.

Swithering between 'Animal Nitrate' and 'Human Behaviour' I think.

oh man for tomorrow

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

huggy wuz robbed.

Wow, this is the first time that my vote has actually counted for something - my last minute impulse vote for Cannonball clearly put it over the top. Yay.

What a ridiculously good year. Glad I went for Smokebelch II. No votes would have been too sad. Equally glad someone else had One Dove covered.

Cannot believe this stuff is all from the same year, partly because there's so much I could vote for, but also because lots of these things seem like pretty early memories of realising that current pop was awesome, some were the first doors opening into less chart-friendly territory for me, and then there's some ("Go West"?) which I would totally put down as way later, when I was getting kind of jaded about knowing my way round music already (well, so I thought). I guess 1993 was a pretty important year for me musically.

I missed this poll and am sad that "Feed the Tree" got no votes even though I probably wouldn't have voted for it against such strong competition, but it was one of those doors opening.

It's also added extra weird for me, because this was the only year of my life I ever actually worked at a record shop, so lots of these things have extra added resonance as promos or things that I got to play in the shop.

Also, this was the year that I moved to NYC permanently, so it's strange which songs I think of as "upstate" and which ones are definitely "NYC" for me.

I hope there is a Mixmag or Muzik end-of-year list too cz Positive Education + Acperience + Rez + Skyscraper + Open Up (OK, I too am scared it's aged badly, but I heard it over a festival soundsystem a couple of years ago and it sounded IMMENSE booming out over the field through the last throes of twilight) + Smokebelch II + probably a whole lot of stuff I'm not remembering right now = zomg

(I would look but there isn't one on rocklists and I have declared it lunchtime)

Muzik didn't start until '95 and they haven't got Mixmag lists before then either so er here's Select's top 50

Suede - Animal Nitrate
Leftfield Lydon - Open Up
Aphex Twin - On
Blur - For Tomorrow
Bjork - Venus As A Boy
Pulp - Lipgloss
Sabres Of Paradise - Smokebelch 2
St Etienne - Who Do You Think You Are?
Pj Harvey Soft - Queenie
Pet Shop Boys - Go West
M-People - One Night In Heaven
Polygon Window - Quoth
New Order - Regret
Rage Atm - Bullet In The Head
Faith No More & Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. - Another Body Murdered
Pet Shop Boys - Can You Forgive Her?
Elastica - Stutter
Manic Street Preachers - La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh)
Lemonheads - Into Your Arms
Billie Ray Martin And Spooky - Persuasion
Boo Radleys - I Hang Suspended
Therapy? - Screamager
Apache Indian - Boom Shak A Lak
Kingmaker - Ten Years Asleep
Sub Sub - Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use)
Sven Vath - L'esperanza Eyeq
Faith No More - Easy
Credit To The Nation - Call It What You Want
New Order - World (The Price Of Love)
Paul Weller - Sunflower !
One Dove - Breakdown
James -Sometimes
Nirvana - Heart.Shaped Box
Secret Knowledge - Sugar Daddy
The Wonder Stuff - On The Ropes Ep
Teenage Fanclub - Radio
Cypress Hill - When The Shit Goes Down
Voodoo Queens - Supermodel Superficial
Belly - Feed The Tree
The Fall - Why Are People Grudgeful?
2 Unlimited - No Limit
Back To The Planet - Teenage Turtles
Collapsed Lung - Thundersley Invacar
Depeche Mode - Walking In My Shoes
Dinosaur Jr - Start Choppin'
Echobelly - Bellyache
Fluke - Electric Guitar
Frank Black - Hang On To Your Ego
Disco Evangelists - De Niro
Fun'da'mental - Countryman

glad i wasnt the only one who voted for Leftfield

Good to see Aphex, Faith No More and Depeche on there. Surprised by absence of Underworld, Hardfloor and Slam, especially knowing how rave-friendly the editor was. But Teenage Turtles? Good grief.

proof that Select had more lushes than NME at the time

Teenage Turtles is arguably the worst protest song ever written, blaming the ills of modern society on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - "an influence bad". Unfortunately nobody's posted their lyrics online so I can't link to them in all their dreadful glory. I blame the crusties, an influence bad.

i only know/like these -

Venus As A Boy - Bjork 5
It Was A Good Day - Ice Cube 5
Hip-Hop Hooray - Naughty by Nature 3
Human Behaviour - Bjork 3
Go west - Pet Shop Boys 3
One Goodbye In Ten - Shara Nelson 1
Everybody Hurts - R.E.M. 1
Animal Nitrate - Suede 1
In The Days of Ford Cortina EP - Cornershop 0
Creep - Radiohead 0
Down That Road - Shara Nelson 0
What's My Name - Snoop Doggy Dogg 0
Tease Me - Chaka Demus & Pliers 0

John Peel's Festive 50 has like the entirety of the Infotainment Scan on, which is also the object of some fond nostalgia for me as my first Fall album, but does clutter the list up a bit. Otherwise, most of the contents are on the Select and MM lists, but hey, coupla Stereolab tracks. Also weird that "Enough is Enough" is #1 and doesn't make any of the other lists despite presence of CttN, Senser.

Ah, "Quoth"! "Gravitational Arch of 10" was 93 too. Probably not on any UK end-of-year lists, though I remember Select being nice about it at the time or I'd never have tracked it down, but just another one for my own personal technoish 93 nostalgia mix.

Me too! Don't think I've heard it since, ooh, 1994 though.

that Select list is pretty fantastic, what a great year this was to be a teenager