Popular '92

The NME Critics’ Poll for 1992 seems to feature a disproportionate amount of long-forgotten indie to me. The Joyriders? Moonshake?

1. The Drowners – Suede
2. Sheela Na Gig – PJ Harvey
3. Motorcycle Emptiness – Manic Street Preachers
4. Creep – Radiohead
5. Drive – REM
6. Jump Around – House Of Pain
7. Television – The Drug Of The Nation – Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
8. My Loving – En Vogue
9. Pretend We’re Dead – L7
10. Metal Mickey – Suede
11. Babes – Pulp
12. Straight To You – Nick Cave
13. Avenue – St Etienne
14. Changes – Sugar
15. Armchair Anarchist – Kingmaker
16. Connected – Stereo MC’s
17. Free Range – The Fall
18. Little Baby Nothing – Manic Street Preachers
19. Didgeridoo – Aphex Twin
20. Old Red Eyes Is Back – The Beautiful South
21. Revenge – The Jesus & Mary Chain
22. Deeply Dippy – Right Said Fred
23. Would I Lie To You? – Charles & Eddie
24. Goin’ Out West – Tom Waits
25. It’s A Shame About Ray – The Lemonheads
26. It’s Not What You Know – New Fast Automatic Daffodils
27. King Of Gasoline – The Joyriders
28. Second-Hand Clothes – Moonshake
29. Steamroller – The Family Cat
30. Brenda’s Got A Baby – 2-Pac
31. Dixie-Narco Ep – Primal Scream
32. Middle Of The Road – Denim
33. Remedy – The Black Crowes
34. Geek Love – Bang Bang Machine
35. I’m On My Way – Betty Boo
36. Rich & Strange – Cud
37. Hold It Down – Senseless Things
38. People Everyday – Arrested Development
39. Mid-Life Crisis – Faith No More
40. Little Bird – Moose
41. The Impossible Dream – Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine
42. Summer Babe – Pavement
43. Theme From M*A*S*H – Manic Street Preachers
44. Medication – Spiritulized
45. Join Our Club – St Etienne
46. Gradually Learning – The Rockingbirds
47. Everybody Loves Me But You – Juliana Hatfield
48. This Is Not A Song – The Frank & Walters
49. Slow Dog – Belly
50. I Love Your Smile – Shanice

BUMPER year! Also is this in the Blog 92 series on purpose?

Four from me: Shakespear’s Sister, Shamen, Charles & Eddie and Jimmy Nail.

Australia’s number ones of 1992 had little overlap with the UK’s – some of which you should be very happy about indeed:

Michael Jackson, “Black or White”, 3 weeks (after 5 in 1991)
Salt-n-Pepa, “Let’s Talk About Sex”, 4 weeks
Euphoria, “Love You Right”, 2 weeks
Julian Lennon, “Saltwater”, 4 weeks
The Twelfth Man featuring MCG Hammer, “Marvellous!”, 2 weeks
Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Under the Bridge”, 4 weeks
Mr. Big, “To Be with You”, 3 weeks
Euphoria, “One in a Million”, 1 week
Girlfriend, “Take It from Me”, 2 weeks
Kris Kross, “Jump”, 3 weeks
Vanessa Williams, “Save the Best for Last”, 1 week
Richard Marx, “Hazard”, 3 weeks
José Carreras and Sarah Brightman, “Amigos Para Siempre”, 6 weeks
Bobby Brown, “Humpin’ Around”, 1 week
Billy Ray Cyrus, “Achy Breaky Heart”, 7 weeks. Highest seller of the year.
Boyz II Men, “End of the Road”, 4 weeks
Whitney Houston, “I Will Always Love You”, 2 weeks (plus 8 in 1993)

Voted for Shakespear’s Sister, Shamen, Charles & Eddie, Snap, and the quirky awesomeness of Jimmy Nail. Felt awful not voting for Erasure, one of my fave bands ever, but it really isn’t one of their best releases.

For me it’s another year where the rave ruled all, my fave track of ’92 is ‘Out of Space’ by The Prodigy. I didn’t discover it until 2004, but when it did it introduced me to a whole era of music I still love today – from there I discovered Opus III, SL2, etc, totally kicking ass over the mundane dross in the then-current pop charts.

Praga Khan’s ‘Injected With A Poison’, Felix’s ‘Don’t You Want Me’ and KLF’s ‘America: What Time Is Love’ also all stand out for me!

A SEVEN for me, though to be honest most of them were 6/10 jobs.

Some great stuff in those magazine polls – Jump Around, Metal Mickey, Babies, Avenue, Didgeridoo, Middle Of The Road, Scum, Weekender, Jump, Papua New Guinea, Television (The Drug Of The Nation), The Blue Room… and elsewhere a great year for rap (Dr Dre, Snoop, Ice Cube) and rave (The Prodigy and many others we talked about on another thread)

Only four for me. A combination of getting old, moving to the States/being disengaged from charts, and a lot of them being rubbish.

Peel list here:

1. Bang Bang Machine Geek Love
2. PJ Harvey Shee-La-Na-Gig
3. Ministry Jesus Built My Hotrod
4. Wedding Present Come Play With Me
5. The Fall The Legend Of Xanadu
6. The Fall Free Range
7. Sonic Youth Youth Against Fascism
8. Pavement Trigger Cut
9. Babes In Toyland Bruise Violet
10. Pavement Here
11. Future Sound Of London Papua New Guinea
12. The Fall Ed’s Babe
13. The Jesus And Mary Chain Reverence
14. Wedding Present Flying Saucer
15. Suede The Drowners
16. Sugar Changes
17. Sonic Youth Sugar Kane
18. Wedding Present Silver Shorts
19. Wedding Present Love Slave
20. The Orb Blue Room
21. Sugar A Good Idea
22. Babes In Toyland Handsome & Gretel
23. Sonic Youth 100%
24. Wedding Present Blue Eyes
25. Dr Devious Cyber Dream
26. Sonic Youth Theresa’s Sound World
27. Pond Young Splendor
28. Drop Nineteens Wynnona
29. Datblygu Popeth
30. Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy The Language Of Violence
31. Frank & Walters Happy Bus Man
32. Arcwelder Favour
33. Therapy? Teethgrinder
34. The Fall Kimble
35. Pavement In The Mouth A Desert
36. Love Cup Tearing Water
37. Pavement Summer Babe
38. Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy Television The Drug Of A Nation
39. Boo Radleys Lazarus
40. Ride Leave Them All Behind
41. Wedding Present Sticky
42. Pavement Circa 1762
43. Drag Racing Underground On The Road Again
44. KLF & Extreme Noise Terror 3AM Eternal
45. Buffalo Tom Tailights Fade
46. Wedding Present Falling
47. Pavement Conduit For Sale
48. Sugar Helpless
49. Verve All In The Mind
50. The Fall The Birmingham School Of Business School

With swelling national pride over having a record about big butts atop the charts for FIVE weeks I present the US #1s:

“Black or White” – Michael Jackson
“All 4 Love” – Color Me Badd
“Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” – George Michael and Elton John
“I’m Too Sexy” – Right Said Fred
“To Be with You” – Mr. Big
“Save the Best for Last” – Vanessa Williams
“Jump” – Kris Kross
“I’ll Be There” – Mariah Carey
“Baby Got Back” – Sir Mix-a-Lot
“This Used to Be My Playground” – Madonna
“End of the Road” – Boyz II Men
“How Do You Talk to an Angel” – The Heights
“I Will Always Love You” – Whitney Houston

My first ever “None of Them”* – very ironic considering the vast amounts of 1992 hardcore I have – nb the amount of music I really love released this year probably rivals any other year…I even found Number 1’s to tick in the overall musically dire years of 1985 and 1986.

*The nearest was Jimmy Nail but I’m quite a strict judge and ‘AND’ isn’t really a 6.

Not a great year, was it? When records as weary and wearying as the Mary Chain’s Reverence and REM’s Drive score so highly in various charts, you have to worry. Obviously, as in any year, there are some blinders: the Rockingbirds’ Gradually Learning, Pete Rock & CL Smooth’s TROY, Jump & Jump Around, My Lovin’, Arrested Development’s Tennessee…

@20, Mark M.. Reverence and Drive seemed pretty great to me at the time and I still play ’em today, but, hey, pace Lex, The Drowners b/w My Insatiable One & To the Birds is (on balance) the best single I’ve ever actually bought, so I’m in agreement with the UK critics lists on that front too.

When I look at the lists, however, I’m struck by no Alice In Chains, Dirt, no NIN, Broken and no Tori Amos, Little Earthquakes. These were transformative records where I was (and they remain in pretty high rotation).

hi dere. I am shocked at how well Shakespeare’s Sister (or SS – DYS?) are doing. They are enemies of pop, the ultimate rockist bollocks of someone leaving a much loved pop act to start making music for grown ups and suddenly reap critical kudos.

Like Charlie Busted?

Drive, an odd first single, was apparently written with David Essex’s Rock On in mind. I can’t say that Drive or Reverence are REM or J&MC’s best singles but there’s plenty more to love, and experimentation to admire, in those lists.

Single, not song. “You Are The Everything” is my favourite REM song I’m pretty sure.

Coldplay?

REM-wise I remember being quite surprised that a lot of people hated ‘Shiny Happy People’ (indie snobbery maybe?) because I loved it.

#30 and 31. Yes! ‘You Are The Everything’ is not my favorite REM song (that is ‘Perfect Circle’, probably), but it is their (Stipe’s?) greatest lyric, I think. They often aim for that everyday epiphany, but on YATE they achieve it more idiosyncratically, and more vividly, than anywhere else. “And you’re drifting off to sleep, with your teeth in your mouth” is pretty close to perfection: one of those phrases that just embeds itself in your consciousness.

#8 And amen to that, too. ‘Out of Space’ is probably my favourite of the year, tied with ‘Avenue’. (Just ahead of ‘One’ and ‘Baby Got Back’.)

But check all those critics’ lists: it is not on any of them. I don’t really remember the early critical reaction to the Prodigy, but were they a case of Stooges-scale “getting it wrong”, in the sense of initial disdain having to be reversed in the face of manifest brilliance?

Wikipedia describes ‘Experience’ as “critically acclaimed”, but I am not sure I believe it. Of the reviews I have found online, Christgau called it “irritating”, and Q gave it three stars, in a classic case of not wanting to be fusty about this new-fangled “rave” business.

“Out Of Space” was the highlight of every student disco I went to in my first year at University (a lot of them DJed by FT’s own Pete Baran, to be fair). I think that single was what primed the music press to pay more attention when “No Good (Start The Dance)”, “Poison” etc rolled round.

I think Select was pretty keen on Experience though so it wasn’t total press dismissiveness. But IIRC that review was quite combatitively contrarian – as if the idea that rave was brilliant pop was something which had to be sold hard to a wary public, rather than an obvious ‘fact on the ground’.

Roobarb And Custard was Shaft, who turned out to be respected ambient bods in disguise I think: Global Communication, wasn’t it?

Tom Middleton wasn’t in Shaft, it was Mark Pritchard (the other one from Global Communication, more recently Harmonic 313 and Africa HiTech on Warp) and someone called Adrian Hughes.

Even at the age of 14 I though the music press suddenly jumping on the Prodigy’s dick in ’97 was gross. Like, just as their music became heavy-handed and terrible (though I do love “Breathe”) people finally caught up just because of the stupid “Firestarter” video? UGHHH.

NME Readers Poll Best Single of 1992

1 The Drowners – Suede
2 Motorcycle Emptiness – Manic Street Preachers
3 Metal Mickey – Suede
4 The Only Living Boy In New Cross – Carter USM
5 Drive – REM
6 Changes – Sugar
7 Lithium – Nirvana
8 Ebeneezer Goode – The Shamen
9 Armchair Anarchist – Kingmaker
10 The Blue Room – The Orb
= Leave Them All Behind – Ride
= Goodbye – The Sundays

#43, Depeche Mode come periliously close to fitting that template I’d say.

Plinky-plonky keyboard-pop with rather twee and overly cute lyrics > odd hint of something more > pseudo-political pop with naive but oh-so-well-intentioned lyrics (and the odd S&M reference) > BLACK CELEBRATION AND ALL THAT FOLLOWED SHEER WONDERFULNESS

(Correction: SHAKE THE DISEASE was the first fully-formed hint of just how very very very brilliant they could be)

1992 wasn’t really such a great year for music, was it?

Re 47: No, you’re not looking at the same list as most of the other people responding to the list
insofar as you were at a different point in your life, with different needs. You were at the point where music often matters most – my equivalent would have been 1986-7. In 1992 I finished university and climbed on to the very lowest rungs of professional writing about music, something that almost put me off recorded sound for good…

Novelty to Srs? Blimey endless:

Jeff Beck, Kraftwerk, Mike Batt, etc..

How about Novelty to “attempted to be srs”, Babylon Zoo for example?