Saturday, April 25, 2009

Music Meme: 1988

I'm at MicroCon all day tomorrow, so I'm posting this tonight.

Continuing my list of favorite albums from every year I've been alive.

1988

The Church: Starfish



If I'd been compiling this list in 1988, I would've picked Rattle and Hum. I went away to college in the fall of this year and my music allowance suddenly went down to almost zero, but I remember - still riding the high from Joshua Tree - walking six miles or so from campus to the movie theater to see Rattle and Hum on opening night. And I loved the movie, but mostly because it let me re-live seeing the band live the previous year.

I bought the album, but none of the songs grabbed me the way The Joshua Tree did. I thought they were pretty cool, but Rattle and Hum was never a "real" U2 album for me. I still don't even have it on CD. But, in 1988 U2 was more religion than entertainment for me and I would've faithfully told you that it was my favorite album from that year.

It certainly wouldn't have been a-ha's Stay on These Roads. With the exception of the title track and the theme from The Living Daylights, I was pretty disappointed in that album. I appreciate it a lot more now, but back then I figured that a-ha was almost done. Little did I know they'd keep putting out albums, but I wouldn't learn about them until 2003 or so.

The 1988 album I still listen to most is easily Starfish. New Wave was pretty much dead and "alternative" music (though I hate that name) was the next best thing. Especially if you put bagpipes in your song. It was like Big Country all over again! (Okay, I know now that they aren't really bagpipes, but I didn't know that then.)

The Church - Under the Milky Way



Runners up:
a-ha: Stay on These Roads
Enya: Watermark
Robert Plant: Now and Zen
She's Having a Baby Soundtrack
U2: Rattle and Hum

Singles:

Paula Abdul: "Straight Up"
DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince: "Parents Just Don't Understand"
Information Society: "What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy)"
Living Colour: "Cult of Personality"
Pet Shop Boys: "Always on My Mind"
The Primitives: "Crash"
Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians: "Balloon Man"
Roxette: "The Look"
Siouxsie and the Banshees: "Peek-a-Boo"
The Timelords: "Doctorin the Tardis"

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for reminding me of some of these songs.
Haven't heard crash for ages.
Gonna listen now.

and a-ha are still great.
Got a brand new single out for the Norwegian radio as we speak.

Michael May said...

Yes! I'd heard they had a new album coming out this year. Very exciting!

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