GNMD Poll: Top Ten Albums of 1988

[Serjeant Grumbles]

1 9 8 8

Obviously make sure to hit up RYM yourself and search your favourite genres.

The deadline is 4th of December 2020.

The rules:
- submit at least 5 releases.
- first place in your rankings gets 10 points, 2nd gets 9, etcetc, 10th gets 1.
- feel free to post more than 10, but only the top 10 will get points.
- feel free to post less than 10, the same scoring will apply.
- feel free not to rank your picks, in which case all ten picks will get 5.5 points.

GNMD = General Non-Metal Discussion, so NO UNAMBIGUOUSLY METAL ALBUMS are to be included in anybody's list.

 

[Slammed]

1. John Farnham – Age Of Reason
2. Choirboys – Big Bad Noise
3. AC/DC – Blow Up Your Video
4. Steve Earle – Copperhead Road
5. The Jeff Healey Band - See the Light
6. Mike + The Mechanics - Living Years
7. The Georgia Satellites - Open All Night
8. George Thorogood & The Destroyers - Born to Be Bad
9. Hard-Ons – Dickcheese
10. David Lee Roth – Skyscraper

 

[HamburgerBoy]

1. Emerson String Quartet - 6 String Quartets
2. Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
3. Momus - Tender Pervert
4. NoMeansNo - Small Parts Isolated and Destroyed
5. Cocteau Twins - Blue Bell Knoll
6. Cardiacs - A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window
7. Cheer-Accident - Sever Roots, Tree Dies
8. They Might Be Giants - Lincoln
9. 美尾洋乃 [Hirono Mio] - フルーツ・オブ・ザ・ムーン (Fruits of the Moon)
10. Rapeman - Two Nuns and a Pack Mule
Alter Natives - Group Therapy
Guns n' Roses - G N' R Lies
Red Temple Spirits - Dancing to Restore an Eclipsed Moon
Sandra - Into a Secret Land
Harold Budd - The White Arcades
Djam Karet - The Ritual Continues
Skin Yard - Hallowed Ground
Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking
NoMeansNo - The Day Everything Became Nothing
ヤプーズ [Yapoos] - 大天使のように (Dai tenshi no yō ni)
Die Kreuzen - Century Days
Pauline Oliveros - The Roots of the Moment
Rudimentary Peni - Cacophony
山下達郎 [Tatsuro Yamashita] - 僕の中の少年 (Boku no Naka no Shounen)
ゲルニカ [Guernica] - 新世紀への運河 (Shinseiki e no Unga)

Legendary year for metal, still very good outside of it. If I was more familiar with the Pet Shop Boys' Introspective and Foetus' Thaw they might make the top 10. Scrolling through RYM's top few hundred there seems to be a lot of stuff in the general new wave/post-punk vicinity that I'm not familiar with at all.

 

[challenge_everything]

1. John Farnham – Age Of Reason

Hi Dad!

 

[zabu of nΩd]

1. Cocteau Twins - Blue Bell Knoll
2. Takashi Tateishi - Mega Man 2 soundtrack
3. Dead Can Dance - The Serpent's Egg
4. Skinny Puppy - VIVIsectVI
5. Siouxsie and the Banshees - Peepshow
6. Fields of the Nephilim - The Nephilim
7. Enya - Watermark
8. Hawkwind - The Xenon Codex
9. Pixies - Surfer Rosa
10. N.W.A - Straight Outta Compton

 

[CiG]

@HamburgerBoy I think we've talked about this before, but you should check out the Fugazi EP from this year. Good stuff.

Spoiler

 

[Sophii]

1.) King's X - Out of the Silent Planet
2.) Pixies - Surfer Rosa
3.) Koji Kondo - Super Mario Bros. 3
4.) Ruins - Ruins III
5.) N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton
6.) Skin - Shame, Humility, Revenge
7.) Enya - Watermark
8.) Armia - Armia
9.) Butthole Surfers - Hairway to Steven

 

[Einherjar86]

Cool year, some weird ones on the list for me--but good stuff.

1. The Pogues, If I Should Fall from Grace with God
2. Enya, Watermark
3. Dead Can Dance, Serpent's Egg
4. N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton
5. Tracy Chapman, s/t
6. Leonard Cohen, I'm Your Man (if only for "First We Take Manhattan")
7. R.E.M., Green
8. Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
9. Steve Earle, Copperhead Road (lot of good tunes on this, actually)
10. King's X, Out of the Silent Planet (damn, forgot about these guys!)

 

[Oblivious Maximus]

1. Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Session
2. Cocteau Twins - Blue Bell Knoll
3. Primitives - Lovely
4. Die Kreuzen - Century Days
5. Dwight Yoakam - Buenas Noches From a Lonely Room
6. My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything
7. Dinosaur Jr. - Bug
8. Bad Religion - Suffer
9. Transvision Vamp - Pop Art
10. Nomeansno - Small Parts Isolated and Destroyed

 

[CiG]

1. Fugazi - Fugazi
2. Dag Nasty - Field Day
3. Psychic TV - Allegory and Self
4. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Tender Prey
5. Dead Moon - In the Graveyard
6. GG Allin - Freaks, Faggots, Drunks & Junkies
7. Nico - The Peel Sessions
8. Dog Faced Hermans - Humans Fly
9. Current 93 - Earth Covers Earth
10. Angry Samoans - STP Not LSD
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Spoiler

11. N.W.A - Straight Outta Compton
12. Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman
13. Heresy - Face Up to It!
14. Demented Are Go! - Kicked Out of Hell
15. Th' Inbred - Kissin' Cousins
16. Victims Family - Things I Hate to Admit
17. Bad Religion - Suffer
18. Pussy Galore - Sugarshit Sharp
19. Annette Peacock - Abstract-Contact
20. Dinosaur Jr - Bug

Tracy Chapman's album would be top 5 for me if side B was as good as side A but its relative weakness lets the whole album down. What a shame.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

@HamburgerBoy I think we've talked about this before, but you should check out the Fugazi EP from this year. Good stuff.

Spoiler

I've listened to it and like it a lot, just overlooked it. Since people are including King's X as well I'll probably add both to my list.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

1. Dead Can Dance- Serpent's Egg
2. Tracy Chapman- Tracy Chapman
3. Cocteau Twins- Bull Bell Knoll
4. Nick Cave and the Bad Seed- Tender Prey
5. The Fields of Nephilim- The Nephilim
6. Pixies- Surfer Rosa
7. REM- Green
8. NWA- Straight Outta Compton
9. Enya- Watermark
10. Ali Farka Torure- Ali Farka Torure

Might revise before this closes. A few things I haven't heard in years.

 

[Bloopy]

1. Headless Chickens - Stunt Clown
2. Sticky Filth - Weep Woman Weep
3. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - Up Your Alley
4. The Wreckery - Laying Down Law
5. Leonard Cohen - I'm Your Man
6. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Tender Prey
7. Ultramagnetic MC's - Critical Beatdown
8. Chubb Rock - Chubb Rock Featuring Hitman Howie Tee
9. Derek B - Bullet From a Gun
10. The Warners - Hit & Run

HM:
Casualty - Challenge
SNFU - Better Than a Stick in the Eye
N.W.A - Straight Outta Compton

I forgot Sticky Filth's other classic album when we did 1990 as my mp3s of it are part of a compilation, would've topped my list there as it's one of my favourite albums ever. Weep Woman Weep is pretty damn good too though.

 

[Baroque]

Let me know when we get to one of these polls for the 1700s

 

[challenge_everything]

7. Nico - The Peel Sessions

Wouldn't this be described as a compilation - since it was culled from a 1971 session?

 

[CiG]

Wouldn't this be described as a compilation - since it was culled from a 1971 session?

I wouldn't consider it a compilation, more like an archival release. It may have been recorded in 1971 but it wasn't physically released until 1988 (like a live record etc).

 

[challenge_everything]

Struggling to find 10 albums I like this year.

1. Dead Can Dance - The Serpent's Egg
2. The Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace With God
3. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Tender Prey
4. Bad Religion - Suffer
5. Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
6. Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking
7. Michael Nyman - Drowning by Numbers (soundtrack)
8. NoMeansNo - Small Parts Isolated and Destroyed
9. Cowboy Junkies - Trinity Sessions

Nothing comes close to DCD for me. Their best album from an already stellar catalogue. Seeing Lisa Gerrard sing The Host of Seraphim live is one of the closest things I've had to a religious experience.

 

[Burkhard]

Not much of interest to me from this year (as far as non-metal is concerned), but at least a great album from Dead Can Dance (I should consider replacing my tape-recording by a proper CD) and finally revisiting "Vol. 2" by Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares was also a very enjoyable experience.

1. Dead Can Dance - The Serpent's Egg
2. Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares - Vol. 2
3. The Trio Bulgarka - The Forest Is Crying
4. Ofra Haza - Shaday
5. Tanita Tikaram - Ancient Heart

 

[CiG]

This is going to be a Dead Can Dance blowout.

 

[Slayed Necros]

1. Dwight Yoakam - Buenas Noches From a Lonely Room
2. Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
3. Fields of the Nephilim - The Nephilim
4. All About Eve - All About Eve
5. Siouxsie and the Banshees - Peepshow
6. The Mission - Children
7. Steve Earle - Copperhead Road
8. Guy Clark - Old Friends
9. Cocteau Twins - Blue Bell Knoll
10. Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Sessions