1988 Albums ----------- This year has a very dominant sound, and it the combination of highly processed, crunchy drums and synth bass. This was also around the time that genres of New Jack Swing and Sophista-pop reached their peak of cultural influence. A lot of people would tell you this music hasn't aged well, but I still really enjoy the music of this era. Yes the production style can be a bit overbearing and mechanical, but it creates a distinctive sound that invokes a strong sense of nostalgia and joy for me. Not everything on this list falls into those two dominant buckets, and the roots of indie and alternative rock start to emerge in larger numbers. This was the year that my family got cable TV and I had access to MTV for the first time. This was still very much the era where they were playing 95% music videos and for the first time there was a music discovery path outside of my older siblings' music collections. The music of this era makes me think of the much simpler times of childhood .. image:: images/image_forthcoming.jpg :width: 900 :alt: My favorite albums from 19XX .. raw:: html - *Forever Your Girl* by **Paula Abdul** - This is very much the epitome of the manufactured pop record, but an amazing specimen of one. Virgin records found an artist with the right kind of image and dance moves for MTV and put together a collection of songs matched with the production sounds of the day. The result was a massive hit, that holds up surprisingly well nearly 40 years later. I'm glad that the larger music nerd culture is finally accepting this as one of the best albums of the New Jack Swing movement. [*Memory*: This album was everywhere in 1988-89. The video for "Opposites Attract" with its mix of live action and animated dancing was constantly on MTV, and the perfect way to get 8 year old me on board with the artist. I strongly associate the breakout hit "Cold Hearted" with trips to Jay Lanes Bowl with my siblings in the Winter of 88/89. By the time the fifth single "Cold Hearted" had arrived in the summer of '89 with its memorable video and choreography, **Abdul** had become my first pop idol.] - *Y Kant Tori Read* by **Tori Amos** - Without question, the focus will always be on how incongruous this feels with the rest of her catalog. It all starts with that wild album cover. The band wasn't really a performing entity, so I am going to credit this to its famous frontwoman. Under all the shiny layers of 80s synthpop, we can hear the first indications of the outstanding singer-songwriter to come. I love this kind of music, so I am totally down, even if the artist herself is a bit embarrassed and disappointed by how this turned out. Yes "Pirates" hasn't aged particularly well, but it manages to be endearingly silly in a very late 80s kind of way. Songs like "Cool on Your Island" actually end up being the most compelling reason to make the much repeated connection between Amos and **Kate Bush**. "On the Boundary" is actually a pretty awesome little **Tori Amos** song from what feels like an alternative universe. "Fire On the Side" is one of my favorite songs, and is one that even the artist continues to include in live sets up to our current day. [*Memory*: When I was in my freshman year in college, I became interested in this album after seeing a VH1 "before they were stars" that showed the super 80s video for "The Big Picture". My Toriphile friend Scott told me to go to revolution records and ask for the album "with Tori and sword on front". Sure enough they understood what I was after, and a few days later I was contacted by phone to pickup a freshly made bootleg copy. In the days right before Napster, this was how you had to track down this kind of thing.] - *Everything* by **The Bangles** - Their commercial peak was brief but hard hitting. This was a strong close to a four year block of hit singles from three solid records. There is more filler on this one that the two that came before, but it produced the monster hits "In Your Room" and especially "Eternal Flame". I really like the song "Be With You", but often forget it is a **Bangles** song since it is one of the few songs not sung by Susanna Hoffs. [*Memory*: For much of my life I wouldn't accept the monster hit "Eternal Flame" among their finest work. I disregarded the sugary ballad, and refused to engage with it. I now can hear it for the masterpiece of melody and emotion that it is. Also, I don't know that any other song can transport me back to my childhood in quite the same.] - *Don't Be Cruel* by **Bobby Brown** - For me, this will always be the ultimate statement of New Jack Swing. For an album filled with hit singles, it manages to still feel fresh and experimental today. I can't imagine how fresh and exciting this music must have felt in 1988. "My Prerogative" is the key moment when New Jack fully emerged from the shadows of the Minneapolis sound, and became the dominant force within R&B. The stellar ballad "Rock Wit'cha" showed the extreme range this guy has. Too bad he would never come close to this level again. [*Memory*: While technically not on the album, the theme to the movie "Ghostbusters 2", the track "On Our Own" was my favorite song at age 9, and the very first piece of music I ever owned. My sister bought me the cassingle of the song at the local Ames department store, and I would sing along with the track using the liner notes printed in the cardboard cassette sleeve. This song, which is contemporary to the subject album, has generally been distributed as a bonus track on reissues.] - *Starfish* by **The Church** - Because of the trademark song "Under the Milky Way", this has become by far their most famous release. I prefer both the dark jangle pop that came before, and the atmospheric indie rock that would come later. That said, this pretty if uneven album still holds up well today. I especially like the track "Reptile" which feels like a survey of what these guys have always done best. [*Memory*: Like most people my age, my point of entry to this band was hearing "Under the Milky Way" on the "Donnie Darko" soundtrack in the early 2000s. That combined with an interest in the adjacent 80s goth acts, led me to a full exploration of their catalog starting with this noted release.] - *Turn Back the Clock* by **Johnny Hates Jazz** - I (and a lot of music nerds) see this as the definitive sophista-pop record. With the massive hit "Shattered Dreams" serving as the definitive track from the genre. The whole thing has such a warm and chill vibe that has perhaps allowed it to age more gracefully than the work of their contemporaries. That said, this is a very dated, if wonderful exploration of jazz influenced synth-pop. A lot of the "imagined 80s" revivalists of 2009-2011 indie owe a greater debt to "Turn Back the Clock" than they probably would be willing to admit. It vaguely anticipates the kind of thing **Twin Shadow** would make a career trading in. [*Memory*: I distinctly remember my sister buying a cassette of this around the time of release. I made fun of her for what I perceived to be very cheesy music. I wasn't wrong, but I also couldn't appreciate the brilliance that was contained within those syrupy pop songs.] - *Viva Hate* by **Morrissey** - A massively influential record that would lay the blueprint for a decade of anthemic Britpop to follow. The uptempo "Alsatian Cousin" establishes a precedent for the harder rocking solo career to come. That said, it was the timeless ballad "Suedehead" that would become his trademark song and the ultimate benchmark for a kind of British music that would once again conquer the world. [*Memory*: Morrissey was a staple of my life around 2003-04. Via the "Best Of" collection released around this time, I would become a massive fan of his solo work, simultaneously to exploring the music of his band **The Smiths**. I vividly remember progressively acquiring and consuming the albums in the years to follow, starting with this release.] - *Surfer Rosa* by **The Pixies** - A much rawer and simpler rock record than their all-time classic to follow, most of the same elements are here in a more larval form. I'll generally reach for *Doolittle* when I want to hear these guys, but sometimes when I want something noisier and less refined, I'll reach for this. [*Memory*: Like most people my age, I first got exposed to this band when "Where Is My Mind?" played over the memorable closing moments of the film "Fight Club". That would inspire me to track down an MP3 download of that track, but it would be quite a few years before I actually gave this wonderful record a full listen.] - *If I Should Fall From Grace With God* by **The Pogues** - On this album they turned up the dial on the traditional Irish music, to great benefit. The kind of spare Celtic punk of their early albums had gone as far as it could, and the traditional folk sounds bring a new, fuller sound to their work. Holiday classic "Fairytale of New York" and especially "Thousands are Sailing" tell compelling immigrant stories, and established Shane McGowan as one of the foremost folk poets of his era. [*Memory*: When someone says they like Celtic punk this is always my litmus test. I remember one of my friends being very into things like **Flogging Molly** and noted poseurs **Dropkick Murphys**, so I played this aggressively Celtic record for them, and they didn't get it. What a tourist!] - *From Langley Park to Memphis* by **Prefab Sprout** - One of the most interesting records from the 1980s from the group that seems to be the most critically accepted sophista-pop act not named **Sade**. From the opening track "The King of Rock and Roll" it is clear that this will be a structurally and texturally complex record. These guys have the reputation of being an underrated gem of the era, and it is very possible this subtle music just went over everyone's head at the time. "Cars and Girls" is a five-star, all-time classic, and one of the more unique 80s pop singles. There might be a bit of filler here, but this album is a lost classic. [*Memory*: In the summer of 2022 I got very into the sophista-pop movement of the 80s. I found a playlist that Spotify user had created that did a great job compiling the genre. This band, and specifically this album was a big early find exploring that list. Soon after I would acquire a mint vinyl copy in the punk/new wave section of The Bop Shop.] - *Lovesexy* by **Prince** - During **Prince**'s lifetime, he refused to distribute the individual tracks on this album as separate digital streams. This was a work designed to be consumed in whole, and I'm still not used to being able to skip between segments as we can do today. This was the first step towards his more experimental 90s work, but there is enough of his pop songcraft to keep me engaged. Perhaps where the quality started to dip a bit, but enough of that inventive brilliance to stand favorably among his best work. [*Memory*: As one of his less loved works, there was always a fairly mint copy of this in the bin at The Bop Shop during his lifetime. I was always a little embarrassed to buy it because of the fairly aggressively naked **Prince** on the cover. My ex would buy me a nice copy as a 35th birthday present shortly before his death (and massive increase in the pricing for his back catalog).] - *Operation Mindcrime* by **Queensryche** - [**1988 FAVORITE**] - In my opinion, this is the greatest concept album of all time. It tells a coherent, and interesting story, that can only be described as aggressively politically centrist. Very much a product of its time, this a snapshot of the Regan era America in the last days of the Cold War. The songs are strong from beginning to end, and the double guitar solos are interesting and virtuosic. This is thinking man's metal. Some of their older fans dismissed this as a bit too **Pink Floyd**, but I feel the orchestral bombast suits them well. [*Memory*: For some reason, sometime around 2002 this became the official soundtrack to cleaning the bathroom. I think it is perhaps that it is one album I always look forward to hearing, despite listening to it hundreds of times. Also, it is one of my favorite records to try to sing along to, even if it is a bit difficult for me to really pull off. Regardless, it is still what I listen to when I clean the bathroom, and when I listen to it in any context, I can almost smell the scrubbing bubbles.] - *Green* by **R.E.M.** - A superb transitionary album from their southern jangly/punky roots, and the folky alternative rock to come. Songs like "Orange Crush" would have fit in perfectly on any of the last three records, but we also saw the first bits of mandolin tinged folk on tracks like "You Are The Everything". I think sometimes this gets unfairly labeled as a minor work, simply because of what came before and what would come after. [*Memory*: This was my point of entry for what would become a lifetime favorite band. I remember a friend of mine at school had become very interested in this band after the release of the song "Stand". He was a cool skater kid, and I tended to pay attention to what he was listening to. It felt like a big change-up from the **Def Leppard** songs that he had recently introduced me to, but I immediately connected with it as well when I finally saw the video on MTV. I remember a few weeks later he decided the song wasn't cool because "the had hired a bunch of nerds to play it". My interest in the track would intensify when my brother bought a two pack from BMG Music club that included this album and the retrospective collection *Eponymous*. Those two records (especially the comp) would be fundamental to my developing music tastes.] - *Stronger than Pride* by **Sade** - Perhaps the weakest of the early releases, it feels a bit rushed. Perhaps there was pressure for a new release after the first two classic records. This one lacks the standout hits of the releases around it, but it is a light and enjoyable listen from beginning to end. "Paradise" is perhaps their finest contribution to the sophista-pop songbook. [*Memory*: I was always interested in this band, but things never really clicked until I heard the deep track "Paradise" on a curated Spotify playlist that surveyed the sophista-pop genre.] - *Confessions of a Pop Group* by **The Style Council** - This album has the reputation of when they went too far. The critics and public were tolerant of **Paul Weller**'s early forays into jazzy soulful sounds, but there was apparently a limit. I avoided this for years based on reputation alone, and it wasn't until my exploration of sophista-pop in 2022 that I appreciated how great this is. A quiet, exquisitely produced record, I don't care what the reviews say, this is exceptional. The "Confessions" suite that closes the album is their very finest moment and the ultimate realization of their combination of sophisticated rock music combined with socially conscious themes. [*Memory*: It was seeing their documentary in 2021 that finally allowed me to appreciate this fantastic record and that launched me into a study of sophista-pop music that would last the next two years.] - *Spirit of Eden* by **Talk Talk** - The albums leading up to this had clear artistic progression, but nothing like the leap we see here. The spare, jazz influenced, impressionistic work on display here is unlike anything that had come before, from anyone. The opening track "The Rainbow" makes a profound statement with its atmospheric, slow churn. A record that was a colossal failure at release, is now seen as a profound influence on a range of later art music, including the gentler side of the post-rock genre that would be huge part of 90s and 2000s indie. It can be hard to separate this from the follow-up *Laughing Stock*, but this one is distinctive for its instrumentation which follows on a bit more directly from their more conventional rock beginnings. Stunningly beautiful and one of a kind. [*Memory*: I sought out a CD copy of this early in my exploration of post rock around 2006. It would also be one of the very first vinyl records I purchased when I returned to that format in 2008. I bought used copy on the Amazon marketplace (I didn't realize how risky that was yet) and it was an immaculate near mint copy. It carried the distinctive punch out in the corner than identifies it as a record that was returned to the label unsold. It is a treasured part of my collection, and a fairly valuable and rare disk.] - *Lincoln* by **They Might Be Giants** - We only got two albums in the highly whimsical, duo with a drum machine era of these guys. This is the stronger of those two early efforts, and in my opinion their very finest work. Slightly less jokey this time around, the focus is very much on strong melodies and tight pop songwriting. It is the little gems like "Where Your Eyes Don't Go" and "They'll Need a Crane" that show the true genius of the Johns. A landmark achievement in lowfi pop that doesn't get enough credit for its influence on indie pop in general. [*Memory*: This was another of the albums that I acquired very early in my vinyl collecting days. I remember finding a near mint copy at Amoeba Records in San Francisco in 2009. It was one of their fancy used records, that I needed to call a sales agent to slice open the sealed sleeve. I paid the princely sum (At the time) of 20 dollars for a used record. It is worth at least three times that now.]