NME critics' Top 60 albums of 1986

A very strong list but for me it has to be Janet.

"Raising Hell" and "The Queen Is Dead" are both top 30 albums of all time for me... gotta go with Rev and the boys, though.

born sandy devotional is my favourite by far, but there's some stiff competition in there

Voted Pet Shop Boys. But also "Parade" is a much stronger album than the singles off it.

(Like, for instance, it contains "Sometimes It Snows In April", which is one of his best ever songs)

kind of wanna go schoolly-d on this; have never heard whole just-ice lp tho.

The Just-Ice album was reissued on CD a couple of years back; fantastic stuff, some of Curtis Mantronik's best production work.

It's gonna be funny when this thread has near 100 posts of intelligent and thoughtful discourse, and then "The Queen Is Dead" wins by 30 votes.

showing our age perhaps, but damn what a list.
tempted to drop a vote on Flaunt It! just so it gets some love.
however, with Test Dept., The The, That Petrol Emotion, Woodentops, etc etc
its a really tuff call.

I'd play Quirk Out, Stump.

So, that one.

Good to know that the Stump works are due for imminent CD reissue (one 3CD set).

The Unacceptable Face Of Freedom is like David Peace's GB84 set to music...thundering percussion, bagpipes and "seven IRA bullets entered my head..." Still sounds scary today.

Atomizer, easy.

and that scary fold out sleeve of Face of Freedom just made it even more weird and wonderful

I've never ever seen it on CD but in some ways I think the cover design itself kind of demands that it be on vinyl.

I think it was Quantick who voted Sigue Sigue into the list but it's a fine album despite the early days of C4-style "gaps" between tracks where they put their own promos because they couldn't sell the advertising space.

Haven't played it in years, but it still has to be Anita Baker's Rapture, for personal and romantic reasons. I've still got a tape of her London live show from 1986, as broadcast on Radio One, which was equally fantastic.

Slightly too smooth for my liking - I preferred The Songstress - but it's a shame how her career hasn't really moved on from here; as I've said before, she's the great voice This Mortal Coil never used.

It's gonna be funny when this thread has near 100 posts of intelligent and thoughtful discourse, and then "The Queen Is Dead" wins by 30 votes.

It will not. Not when "Parade", "Raising Hell", "Please", "Control" and "Evol" are in there. All of them obvious ILM favourites.

xpost: Yes, if I could be at all objective about it, then The Songstress is the better album. Giving You The Best That I Got was one of the first albums I bought on CD, and hence was played more than it deserved... a crashing disppointment.

Schoolly School, man.

Went for "Force", the last great ACR album. Surprised to see it in the list. Tough competition from Kraftwerk, Husker Du and the Go-Betweens, and if side two of "Blood and chocolate" was better I would have voted for that.

Yes, "Force" is excellent

Agreed, and it needs an urgent and key CD reissue; I hope Soul Jazz get round to it sooner rather than later.

Other highlights: Oben Im Eck with Billy MacKenzie meeting Berg and Webern cut-ups on "Whippets" and Avant Pop where Lester's "Saving All My Love For You" totally pwns Whitney.

I was actually a bit surprised to see "Electric Cafe" in the list at all. That particular album hasn't really ever become part of the canon like most of their earlier work. And 1986 was a bit too early for non-synthpop fans to view Kraftwerk as an important part of musical history like they are now.

I'll give the Go-Betweens a vote.

To me the biggest surprise is two (!) Swans albums on the list. Brit critics clearly liked them a lot more than critics in their home country did.

Album on the list I'm most curious about: Stump.

Album on the list I'm maddest at myself for getting rid of my copy: Just-Ice.

Album on the list that I was probably right to get rid of my copy, though I kind of which I'd kept their earlier debut box set, Beating The Retreat: Test Dept.

Album I most urgently need to revisit: Shinehead.

The difference in stylistic choices between this and what might be in an NME top fifty this year are, frankly, frightening.

Although I guess Vampire Weekend could be seen as analogous to Paul Simon.

Oh, don't start THAT debate again.

In 1986, indie sucked. So no wonder 1986 NME included other stuff than indie. Indie didn't get good until it got bigger production bugdets and catchier choruses around 1994-95.

(By which time it wasn't really indie anymore - instead it was great melodic traditional guitar pop)

There's quite a lot of indie in that chart!

You like that, don't you. xpost

Almost too much indie then. Indie dominates today's NME charts a lot more though. Because indie is better and more streamlined today than it was in 1986. 1986 was about way too much reverb, a generally muddy sound. And if there were good tunes, you could hardly hear them because they vocals were mixed way too low. It wasn't only the hip-hop and dance-dominated mainstream charts of the 90s that sorely needed Britpop. Indie did too. Britpop was what made indie good.

xp I've never heard Shinehead's Rough & Rugged; don't think I ever even saw a copy, so it must not have been distributed very well in the States. But his followup Unity, which I'm pretty sure repeated at least a couple songs (maybe or maybe not re-recorded) from the debut, still sounds great.

FAKE GEIR

I almost posted that, but thought better of it, this "1986 was about way too much reverb, a generally muddy sound" was the last straw

King Of America.

Trying to work out exactly how modern British indie, like Fuck Buttons, Foals and Does It Offend You, Yeah?, fit into Geir's masterplan.

lack of reverb?

(I'm asking, I don't know)

I voted for Billy Bragg.

In spite of the lack of reverb?

that Billy Bragg album is loaded with reverb, the guitars sound like they're inside an airport hangar (although I may an idiot and not know what reverb is supposed to mean here)

Got to be:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b351/MrClivver/Housemartins01.jpg

That's 2 votes for them, then.

what a great year. swans, sonic youth, big black, test dept. holger hiller, buttholes, schoolly d, troublefunk, nick cave, shinehead and mantronix all blew my mind that year. i think i'll give schoolly d the vote as that album possibly changed the course of my life.

So, am I the only one who admits voting for The Queen Is Dead?

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/watteau/i/faux-pas.jpg

Mantronix!

No GREEN, no credibility. Best debut of the 80s.

Que?

Re. Mantronix: pity Music Madness isn't in there, but it came out right at the end of the year and therefore too late for the poll (ditto Licensed To Ill, though the latter does appear in the '87 list, and I would also have put in the first Beat Happening album).

Mantronix is probably a close second for me, after Schoolly (and I always liked Mantronix's debut more than their also great followup, maybe just because I heard it first). Next four, in some order or other:

Raising Hell - Run-DMC
Atomizer - Big Black
Radio - LL Cool J
Please - Pet Shop Boys

I voted for Schooly D. When I bought the record, I was a little bit scared of it (like when I bought Black Flag "Damaged"!) paid import price for it too. When I listened to it, I was like "what the holy fuck is this" - I remember the kick drum being so deep it sounded like it was coming from under the ground. I'd never heard anything so deep and heavy before. Real strong & happy memories mixed up with it all.

Lots of good records in this top 60.

The rest of my top four:

Raising Hell
Please
Graceland
The Queen is Dead

(What if ...!? Uh, what if "Geir Hongro" is actually another of mark s's alter-ego-inter-alia inventions - like "Hopey Glass" was back in the day? ;)

Fuck Geir.

I suspect the Smiths lurkers will have the last laugh with this poll but I'm gratified to see so much Schoolly-D love (if "love" is the appropriate term). That really was one timebomb of a record.

Kinda sad nobody has mentioned voting for LL's best album (but maybe there's a backlash I didn't know about.)

Hardly. "Rock The Bells" is the beginning of time.

I've never thought Radio was so great – its spareness is probably its most dated element. I'm a Mama Said Knock You Out fan, and short of that, his greatest hits.

Spare or sparse? Either way it's as spare or sparse as Sun Studios and still kicks some glitterballing derriere.

Though Bigger And Deffer is yum yum gimme the future.

I probably like Bigger and Deffer better than Radio. I guess he's in Schoolly's shadow cos that album was so prescient. Also what Pash said about the drum sound.

I don't really know most of these. A bit disappointed that the Crowded House debut didn't make it. I guess I'd probably have to vote for EVOL.

Schoolly, Mantronix, and Run-DMC are all pretty sparse/spare too, to my ears (though DMC were probably more so on their debut, which I prefer.)

yea the schooly-d drum sound is still fkn huge -- who else did that?

In '86, probably only Tackhead.

I'm voting for "Boat to Bolivia" - I still listen to that more than any of the others on this list, although there are very many great records on here.

I voted for LL, but my comment failed to post...(some nonsense about how the two "rap ballads" on the LP seemed to make anything seem possible)...

seeing Martin Stephenson and the Daintees during my first university exam week didn't exactly help me out.
i failed the year, and so have never been able to listen to the album since.
cracking gig though.

Parade, Rapture, Control: would be a great album title (Swans maybe ....?)

^^^sounds more like something Nitzer Ebb or Front 242 would concoct...

I was convinced The Colour of Spring was released in 86, but since it is not on the list, it must have been 87 then. Or 85??

Compare and contrast with my own list, as compiled in December 1986. I've been carrying this round with me for the past 21+ years, so maybe it's time to put it to use...

http://troubled-diva.com/alb86.jpg

http://troubled-diva.com/alb86t.jpg

Lot of good choices. I went with Song X.

Went for Evol, of those I've heard. A few other all-time favourites in here too though, namely LL Cool J, The Smiths, REM, Schoolly D, Prince.

number 12 would have got my vote mike.
damn that album kicked me around the head.
that was my life changing album of the year.

Yeah, we loved Major Malfunction. A friend taped it for us, but there was no track listing and I never saw any artwork, so it was just this great slab of noise. We used to play it loud in the car.

side one of my tape : Major Malfun(c)tion (check the original artwork!), a few Fats Comet tracks to fill the space.
side two of my tape : Tackhead Tape Time, plus a few Woodentop/On-U sound remixes to fill the tape (i think - been a long long time)

my soundtrack to discovering Leeds in 86.

Mine's on the other side of the Revolting Cocks' Big Sexy Land!

probably not really the 125 best albums of 1986

Youtubed a few of these and...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-PmQ3dFQvs

: /

I'm voting for The Smiths.

But am I the only person who thinks it's amazing that Norman Cook was in The Housemartins (and Beats International; and The Mighty Dub Katz; and...) before he was Fatboy Slim? Even when "The Rockafeller Skank" hit, no one seemed to think it was a big deal.

think it was more amazing that he was ever in the Housemartins.
i'm sure i read that he was quite well known in the Brighton area as a hip hop DJ prior to his stint for the Hull band.

it's funny, i like a lot of those records ( i even like that van morrison album a bunch), but the ONLY one that i still play on a regular basis - if once a year is regular enough - is the that petrol emotion album! i don't even play that throwing muses album once a year and its one of my favorite albums ever.(then again, when you've heard something a thousand times...) i just need to hear that first side of manic pop thrill every once in a while. so good. of course, i only own about 7 or 8 of those albums anymore, so i wouldn't be able to play album by pil even if i wanted to. and i would probably want to hear it at least every five years.

Just dug out my Stump cassette: Quirk Out & Mud on a Colon as extra tracks...

is the that petrol emotion album!

for once i am glad to have this on vinyl.
i have the original pressing - found for £1 in a local charity shop in mint condition. (and i rarely get lucky in the charity shops round here)
according to Steve Mack there were two variations of the cover.
something re the text on the second pressing not being the same colour as the first pressing.

I went for Rembrandt Pussyhorse since I was just giving it props in another thread.

it's funny, i like a lot of those records ( i even like that van morrison album a bunch), but the ONLY one that i still play on a regular basis - if once a year is regular enough - is the that petrol emotion album!

Is that the one with "Big Decision"? I love that song.

Just dug out my Stump cassette: Quirk Out & Mud on a Colon as extra tracks...

-- Mark G, Monday, 31 March 2008 22:12

Was Stump meant to be doing it for the lols? Sounds like Alexei Sayle fronting DNA.

Is that the one with "Big Decision"? I love that song.

nope that was the next album, babble - a much harder album to love.

"Is that the one with "Big Decision"? I love that song."

no, that came after. i liked the guitars on big decision, but always found the "rap" part unfortunate. i bought the second album, babble, but never listened to it much. the first album is in a league of its own. it's a guitar lover's dream. definitely the coolest post undertones album. sorry feargal lovers!

babble x-post

the best that petrol emotion thing after the first album is the live cover of mother sky that showed up on some single.

poor Feargal Sharkey. Does he have his own thread?

we'll have to agree to diagree scott.
i liked Chemicrazy and Fireproof way more than their debut.
then again i even like Anodyne album that Steve made when he went back to the US after TPE fell apart.
cant say though that i listened to the RARE album too often
- even during the halcyon days of Trip Hop that always felt wrong (bar the odd track or two)

and why on earth they dropped the Chemicrazy track as a b-side as opposed to adding it to the album proper i'll never understand.
its brilliant.

I am surprised "So" isn't in this poll at all. I seem to recall it was generally loved by critics at the time.

Just dug out my Stump cassette: Quirk Out & Mud on a Colon as extra tracks...

-- Mark G, Monday, 31 March 2008 22:12

Was Stump meant to be doing it for the lols? Sounds like Alexei Sayle fronting DNA.

-- Bodrick III, Monday, 31 March 2008 21:19 (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

They had their serious stuff too, (check "Your father's life" on Quirk Out for example)

I was convinced The Colour of Spring was released in 86, but since it is not on the list, it must have been 87 then. Or 85??

No, it did come out in '86 but the NME didn't like it.

The big dafties

Geir xpost

I think that may have been due to personal politics as I'm sure there was some feud between Gabriel and the NME at the time.

The real glaring omission though is 'Brotherhood' by New Order.

...and Talk Talk of course.

That "Colour of Spring" review is pretty rank! A reminder of the bad side to NME at the time - they could be awfully fond of telling you that it was not OK to like something.

Gabriel wouldn't talk to the NME or send them review copies of his albums after Morley interviewed him in 1980, kept in all the "um"s and "er"s to make him look a twat and referred to "ugly yellow teeth" etc. The golden age of music journalism, folks.

Morley was such an asshole. I always hated that fucker.

Then again, in 1980 he called Trevor Horn "the dustbinman of pop" and look where that led.

Morley was great, is it his fault Peter Gabriel had yellow teeth?

It's certainly his fault that he's demeaned himself in recent years by allowing Bono to give him a brown tongue.

Well, we all grow old and foolish

It always struck me that Morley's ideal writing assignment would have been to review his reflection in the mirror. I can't remember a more self-obsessed writer. Reading his pieces used to drive me bloody spare.

I loved his review of Kirk Brandon's ears though.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

No GREEN, no credibility. Best debut of the 80s.

lol I played in that band for a split second in 2001

Also, am kind of amazed at the Anita Baker placement. Was she really that critically praised in 1986, or was it just a British thing? Or an NME thing?

Husker Du by far, with one of their worst albums - recorded in a biscuit tin

cant decide between Husker Du and Sonic Youth.

Wow, could easily vote for about 20 of these. Went with Throwing Muses. On t-diva's list it would probably be Le mystère....

lol 4adkid

The real glaring omission though is 'Brotherhood' by New Order.

or October File maybe

I voted for Evol in its absence; bought the SY record on the Spin review and within two years they were not only my favorite band but my favorite paradigm. . . .

am kind of amazed at the Anita Baker placement. Was she really that critically praised in 1986, or was it just a British thing?

The 1986 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll
Albums
23. Anita Baker: Rapture (Elektra) 225 (23)

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

haha the casting vote!

Never really thought Candy Apple Grey was all that, to be honest.

Yanks pwn Brits

X Post - usually is the case unfortunately. Us Limeys are often too bothered about how we look than the sound. See the appalling NME and our second wave of punk compared to the Yanks. Then there was this train that pullud through after hardcore.What did we have? Apart from The Mary Chain, MBV, and the Wolfhounds - say?

Embarrassing

Us Brits do 'electronica' -or whatever the fuck people want to call it - with more panache. Just my opinion, mind.

What's he going on about, anyone?

Sorry Dingbod - I didn't mention the boring, daffodil wearing nazi that is Morrisey?

Whatever did happen to top Leeds Pete Best of Goth Pop Wayne Hussey anyway?

hopefully he stopped making music

After James Whale frogmarched him out of the studio it was in a way all over.

Yikes, did I never actually vote for Anita Baker? Not that it would have made much difference.

I might need to revisit Candy Apple Grey. I remember it as... OK, nothing more.

Surely one of their lesser albums?

EVOL and especially Atomizer would have been eminently far worthier winners.

Dale on POTP next week: "and available to buy in the shops this week, it was Big Black and Atomizer. Do you remember Jordan, Minnesota? A little unusual, but we all loved it..."

Candy Apple Grey contains Grant Hart's best moment ' Don't want to know if you are lonely' ,two Mould wrist slitting depressives in 'Too Far Down' and 'Hardly Getting Over it' and then a couple of Mould belters in 'Dead Set on destruction', Eiffel Tower High (or was that Hart?) and my fave closer ' All this I've done for you' (aaaaaaaah)

Horribly produced though. Terrible.

I daresay after their previous three albums they thought that all rock music was produced that way, a bit like the Queen and the smell of paint

I almost agree with Dingbod re Atomizer.
Big Black scared the shit out of me when I saw them.They were something new to me.

I swear Durango was staring me out too - but perhaps it was the size of the lenses in his Jo 90s?

Candy Apple Grey was the 1st album I heard by them.

Candy Apple Grey contains Grant Hart's best moment ' Don't want to know if you are lonely' ,two Mould wrist slitting depressives in 'Too Far Down' and 'Hardly Getting Over it' and then a couple of Mould belters in 'Dead Set on destruction', Eiffel Tower High (or was that Hart?) and my fave closer ' All this I've done for you' (aaaaaaaah)

"Dead Set" was Hart (possibly his finest moment), "Eiffel Tower High" Mould. I remember initially cringing at their self-production (starting with Flip Your Wig), but soon realized that their reasoning was probably something along the lines of, "What, we can't have the same production values as a hair metal band just because we're 'underground'?!"

gosh, i wasn't alone re Flaunt It!

What happened to the Nick cave fans?

Well someone voted for him - probably a Grauniad lurker.

so whats the next year for the poll?

aww it only goes back to 1974 http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/nmeindex.html

Yeah, they didn't bother doing them before then.

But where is Sheet Music 10cc band in that '74 list? Eh? Eh?

I think this would make a good poll http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/607080.html

done individually of course so as not to clog ILM up with more polls.

or maybe not

I errorred earlier - just to correct myself and bore the rest of the world(and me to a slightly lesser extent) the second so called 'Mould Belter' was 'I Don't Know For Sure' - Greg Norton's bassline underpins it beautifully