No Subject

[Neil Calton <nbc@vd.rl.ac.uk>]

Catching up on Lovehounds postings after fighting off a virulent flu strain
I came across this observation:
>Actually, IED might even be willing to agree that Skylarking
>is one of the best LPs "of the year." The obvious point to make
>is that this isn't saying much, since there were NO very good LPs made
>in 1986. 
 
I could not agree more. I had long discussions with my friends on this
subject and we all came to the conclusion that 1986 was fairly dire as
far as music was concerned (though there were some good movies around).
Each Xmas the music papers publish their top 40 albums of the year. Looking
through their lists we found no more than a handful which we had bought.
The top 5 in NME and Melody Maker were: 
     NME                              Melody Maker
Parade - Prince                   Licensed to Ill - Beastie Boys
Rapture - Anita Baker             Parade - Prince
Control - Janet Jackson           Blood and Chocolate - Elvis Costello
Evol - Sonic Youth                Throwing Muses - Throwing Muses
Word Up - Cameo                   King of America - The Costello Show

While the above albums may have their positive attributes and admirers, that 
they should represent the year's best (to my mind) indicates what a poor
year 1986 was in musical terms. Indeed, despite our lack of enthusiasm
for any of these records none of us could come up with many alternatives
and certainly nothing that would qualify as a great album. The only bright
spot is that it at least allows CD-owners to catch up on the back catalogue
releases or in my case to belatedly discover the genius of KB.

I'd like to thank IED for mailing me Part II of the Swales interview.
Did Part V ever get posted in LHs? If so I'm afraid I missed that to -
any chance of getting that too (please)?

Not having heard from Doug re videos I assume he's either found satisfaction
elsewhere (!), or that Email across the Atlantic is particularly unreliable
these days.