The blinkered viewpoint from the U.K.

[Greg Earle <smeagol!earle@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>]

Neil Calton <nbc@vd.rl.ac.uk> writes:
>>... this isn't saying much, since there were NO very good LPs made in 1986.
>I could not agree more.

I could not agree less.

>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.

That should tell you something about the NME and Melody Wanker, not 1986.

>The top 5 in NME and Melody Maker were:
[list deleted due to weak stomach]

So all that tells us is that the staff wankers like crap American funk/disco
with the brief foray into good taste (Sonic Yoof, Throwing Muses).

>While the above albums may have their positive attributes and admirers, that
>they should represent the year's best (to my mind) inidcates what a poor year
>1986 was in musical terms.

They don't represent the year's `best'.  They just represent the stupid views
of some wanker tossers on a music paper.  Their opinions don't mean shit to 
me (w/ respect to evaluating a year's musical quality) nor should they to you.
As far as I was concerned, 1986 was a good comeback compared to 1985, which
*was* a truly dire year.  The only person who should decide if a year is bad
is yourself, based on the records you heard/bought.  If you didn't hear enough
different music to find the good stuff, that's your loss.

>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.

Hrumpf.  Speak for yourself, I can categorically state right now that I
consider Big Black's `Atomizer', Butthole Surfers' `Rembrandt Pussyhorse', and
Test Department's `The Unacceptable Face Of Freedom' 3 of the greatest records
EVER, much less of 1986.  All three are `great albums' in my book (disclaimer:
my opinions only - your mileage may vary).  As for merely Very Good LPs, there
is `EVOL', Red Lorry Yellow Lorry's `Paint Your Wagon', Head Of David's `LP',
SPK's `Zamia Lehmanni', Gargoyle Sox' `Headless Horseman', Executive Slacks'
`Fire And Ice', Controlled Bleeding, Swans, etc. etc. etc. ...

Get the picture?

There are great albums released EVERY year.  It's just that some of them take
a little more perseverance to locate than others.  Or, then again, you could
just stick your head in the sand :

>The only bright spot is that it at least allows CD owners to catch up on the
>back catalogue ...

How To Spot Imminent Boring Old Fart Disease, lesson #1:
	When you buy a CD player, and start buying really old records that you
	wouldn't be caught dead buying in LP form, but you justify it because
	"Oh wow!  It's on CD!" (maaaaannn)

"... and he plays all the records that you especially hate
Deep Purple In Rock
Led Zeppelin II
Well even you hate those ..."  -  Marc Almond, Soft Cell, "It's A Mugs Game"

How To Spot Imminent Boring Old Fart Disease (Rock Band version), lesson #2:
	When a band releases an album of all cover songs

(Which segues nicely into)
Another listen to the Siouxsie covers LP confirms my fears - it Sux with a
capital X.  The Sparks and Kraftwerk tunes are half passable, but the rest
of it just draaagggs ...  also, this is 1987, and there's things like the
new Lustmord and new Coil about, this stuff jsut sounds pitifully outdated
in comparison.  The worst offense is that these songs have no `Siouxsieishness'
to them - because they aren't their songs, they also aren't their definitive
versions of them either - they haven't been made Their Own in the process,
and in doing so they've also lost that `Siouxsieish' character ... it's hard
to explain ... but that character is their strong point and when it's not there
it's just Janet Dallion sings the hits of Yesteryear ...  Sad.
Meanwhile, for some reason they keep saving their last flickers of creativity
for their B sides (?!?), so even though they have that sort of patented late
period Banshees sound, pick up the `Wheels On Fire' 12" just for the B sides
and avoid the LP at all costs.  Truly the End Of An Era ...