Saturday, October 22, 2011

Year Of The Roses....


All the stuff in the news over the last few about The Stone Roses cast my mind back to '89 with the release of their eponymous debut release and to what a great year it was for music.

I was having a look at the NME's Top 50 albums of the year last night and thinking back to the sounds that shaped my early days working in record stores. Notwithstanding Madchester's finest you also had the Daisy Age sounds of De La Soul, Lou Reed's best album for years, the masterpiece that is Doolittle and the heady mix of classic pop songs and guitar laden, dance tracks that constitute Technique. There is an element here of rose tinted glasses but there's no denying the amount of quality albums in '89.

1989 also saw the release of the most under rated JAMC album. Automatic was a touch rougher and more aggressive-sounding than Darklands and the mountains of screeching feedback from Psychocandy had been largely subdued but this isn't necessarily a bad thing, making the album as a whole more accessible than its predecessors. For me the album's not quite as strong as their first two albums, although it does contain some classic Mary Chain tracks such as Head On and Coast To Coast, but still deserves it's place as one of the best albums from a very strong year for album releases.

I didn't try and get tickets the other day for The Stones Roses and haven't really came to a decision as to whether I will if they announce any dates in Scotland. I was fortunate enough to see them at Glasgow Green and although it was certainly not the best gig I have been to the memory of the occasion is still highly vivid and I may prefer to keep it that way.

JAMC - Coast To Coast

1 comment:

  1. Sorry Scott, at the t.ime I thought Automatic was awful and have listened to it again today, the vinyl was perfect, which speaks volumes, and have not changed my view.
    1989 was the year that I really started buying more 12" singles than 7" and albums combined i think.

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