1990 – my year in music
What could be more ridiculous than trying to rank the thousands of singles and albums you’ve bought and heard over a lifetime? Here we go …
I ranked these albums and singles in December 2024 as I didn’t do it at the time.
| Top albums of 1990 | ||
| 1 | They Might Be Giants | Flood |
| 2 | Charlatans | Some Friendly |
| 3 | Carter USM | 101 Damnations |
| 4 | Darling Buds | Crawdaddy |
| 5 | Jellyfish | Bellybutton |
| 6 | Fish | Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors |
| 7 | Pop Will Eat Itself | Cure For Sanity |
| 8 | Inspiral Carpets | Life |
| 9 | Heart Throbs | Cleopatra Grip |
| 10 | Dread Zeppelin | Un-Led-Ed |
| 11 | Pet Shop Boys | Behaviour |
| 12 | Beautiful South | Choke |
| 13 | Blake Babies | Sunburn |
| 14 | Lush | Gala |
| 15 | Trashcan Sinatras | Cake |
| 16 | Power Of Dreams | Immigrants, Emigrants & Me |
| 17 | An Emotional Fish | An Emotional Fish |
| 18 | Ride | Nowhere |
| 19 | New Fast Automatic Daffodils | Pigeonhole |
| 20 | Railway Children | Native Place |
| 21 | XTC | Rag & Bone Buffet: Rare Cuts & Leftovers |
| 22 | Divine Comedy | Fanfare For The Comic Muse |
The albums I played to death:
| These aren’t necessarily the same as my favourite albums now, but the ones I remember buying on release and playing over and over and over again. | ||
| 02/01/90 | They Might Be Giants | Flood |
| 15/01/90 | Carter USM | 101 Damnations |
| 29/01/90 | Fish | Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors |
| 23/04/90 | Inspiral Carpets | Life |
| 01/05/90 | Various Artists | Alvin Lives (In Leeds) Anti Poll Tax Trax |
| 24/07/90 | Dread Zeppelin | Un-Led-Ed |
| 27/07/90 | Jellyfish | Bellybutton |
| 08/10/90 | Charlatans | Some Friendly |
| 22/10/90 | Pet Shop Boys | Behaviour |
| Top tracks of 1990 | ||
| 1 | They Might Be Giants | Birdhouse In Your Soul |
| 2 | Carter USM | Rubbish |
| 3 | Blue Aeroplanes | ... And Stones (Lovers All Around Mix) |
| 4 | Charlatans | Then |
| 5 | Happy Mondays | Kinky Afro |
| 6 | Heart Throbs | Dreamtime |
| 7 | They Might Be Giants | Dead |
| 8 | Lush | De-Luxe |
| 9 | Wonder Stuff | Circlesquare |
| 10 | Trashcan Sinatras | Obscurity Knocks |
| 11 | Carter USM | Rent |
| 12 | Happy Mondays | Step On |
| 13 | They Might Be Giants | Hearing Aid |
| 14 | Wedding Present | Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) |
| 15 | Ned's Atomic Dustbin | Grey Cell Green |
| 16 | Carter USM | Sheriff Fatman |
| 17 | Popguns | Waiting For The Winter |
| 18 | Pop Will Eat Itself | Touched By The Hand Of Cicciolina |
| 19 | Stone Roses | One Love |
| 20 | Thousand Yard Stare | Wonderment |
| 21 | House Of Love | Shine On |
| 22 | Public Enemy | Fight The Power |
| 23 | Heart Throbs | She's In A Trance |
| 24 | They Might Be Giants | Istanbul (Not Constantinople) |
| 25 | Charlatans | The Only One I Know |
| 26 | Kate Bush | Ken |
| 27 | Blur | I Know |
| 28 | Soho | Hippychick |
| 29 | Carter USM | Twenty Four Minutes From Tulse Hill |
| 30 | Terry Blair and Anouchka | Ultra Modern Nursery Rhyme |
| 31 | They Might Be Giants | Particle Man |
| 32 | Soup Dragons feat Junior Reid | I'm Free |
| 33 | Cure | Never Enough |
| 34 | Englandneworder | World In Motion |
| 35 | Inspiral Carpets | This Is How It Feels |
| 36 | They Might Be Giants | We Want A Rock |
| 37 | Carter USM | Midnight on The Murder Mile |
| 38 | Happy Mondays | Hallelujah |
| 39 | Pop Will Eat Itself | Dance Of The Mad Bastards |
| 40 | Fishmonkeyman | If I've Told You Once |
| 41 | Railway Children | Every Beat Of The Heart |
| 42 | Beautiful South | My Book |
| 43 | Billy Bragg | Accident Waiting to Happen (Red Star Version) |
| 44 | Carter USM | Re-Educating Rita |
| 45 | Jellyfish | The King Is Half-Undressed |
| 46 | Inspiral Carpets | Directing Traffik |
| 47 | An Emotional Fish | Celebrate |
| 48 | Farm | Groovy Train |
| 49 | Cud | Bohemian Rhapsody |
| 50 | Darling Buds | It Makes No Difference |
| 51 | Darling Buds | Tiny Machine |
| 52 | Pop Will Eat Itself | X Y & Zee |
| 53 | Jellyfish | Bedspring Kiss |
| 54 | Darling Buds | Crystal Clear |
| 55 | Darling Buds | Fall |
| 56 | Jellyfish | Now She Knows She's Wrong |
| 57 | Depeche Mode | Enjoy The Silence |
| 58 | Darling Buds | Do You Have To Break My Heart? |
| 59 | They Might Be Giants | Your Racist Friend |
| 60 | Fish | Big Wedge |
| 61 | Jellyfish | I Wanna Stay Home |
| 62 | Pet Shop Boys | This Must Be The Place I Waited Years To Leave |
| 63 | Darling Buds | Honeysuckle |
| 64 | Pet Shop Boys | Being Boring |
| 65 | Carter USM | Alternative Alf Garnett |
| 67 | Darling Buds | You Won't Make Me Die |
| 68 | New Fast Automatic Daffodils | Big |
| 69 | Pet Shop Boys | So Hard |
| 70 | EMF | I Believe |
| 71 | Jellyfish | Baby's Coming Back |
| 72 | Pixies | Velouria |
| 73 | Lush | Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep |
| 74 | Pet Shop Boys | How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously? |
| 75 | Inspiral Carpets | She Comes In The Fall |
| 76 | Charlatans | You're Not Very Well |
| 77 | Saint Etienne | Kiss And Make Up |
| 78 | Charlatans | Polar Bear |
| 79 | Mega City Four | Who Cares? |
| 80 | Charlatans | Sproston Green |
| 81 | Five Thirty | My Sweet Lord |
| 82 | New Fast Automatic Daffodils | Fishes Eyes |
| 83 | Genius Freak | Whose Body Is It Anyway |
| 84 | Beautiful South | A Little Time |
| 85 | Ride | Polar Bear |
| My favourite cover versions of 1990 | ||
| 1 | Carter USM | Rent |
| 2 | Happy Mondays | Step On |
| 3 | Wedding Present | Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) |
| 4 | They Might Be Giants | Istanbul (Not Constantinople) |
| 5 | Cud | Bohemian Rhapsody |
| 6 | Lush | Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep |
| 7 | Five Thirty | My Sweet Lord |
Monday 31 December 1990, 193 views
Next post: 1991 – my year in music Blog index
- Josef Lada – A Fight In A Tavern (1943)
- ChatGPT not quite as indie as me
- Tjernobyl Dödar – Titta Bort
- The bands I’ve seen the most
- Got any grapes?
- Love Is All – The Beatles song that never was
- Dagelijkse Misère – new self-titled album
- As far as melon scratchers go, this is a honey doodle
- Like Father, Like Son
- Awst – Afallon
- Swearing in Welsh
- It’s the little details that count
- The Popes Of Chillitown – Crashmat
- Blur – Modern Life Is Rubbish
- Ceefax – bringing rugger news to Orcney in 1972
- Frogpond – Talk To Me
- Catch – Bingo
- Is this a piece of your brain?
- Worker & Parasite – The Silent Majority
- Wunderhorse – Girl Behind The Glass
- dEUS – Must Have Been New
- Rogue Jones – Triongl Dyfed
- Parrot steals reporter’s earphone live on air
- Whatever happened to …?
- Vero – Heather
- Best of Twitter – September
- Thousand Yard Stare – Espirit du Corps
- Adwaith – Eto (live at Maes B)
- Jesus Jones: master criminals
- Snow Coats – Anyway
- Salad – Plank
- Sink – Drainpipe Jane
- Looks legit
- Iskaa and the Red Cars – Desire
- The cost of electric living
- Okay, this made me laugh
- Beabadoobee – Here’s Where The Story Ends
- The Tudors, Football Manager and 25% for moving a chair
- Three wishes
- Is this burning an eternal flame?
- New Gorillaz, New Beck
- On the scoresheet at last
- The Otford Solar System
- Steve Davis’s Spitting Image Puppet
- The Machiguenga Experiment
- 2015 – my year in music
- 2014 – my year in music
- 2013 – my year in music
- The amazing paper drop …
- 2012 – my year in music
- Barcelona v Getafe
- Greensted church
- 2011 – my year in music
- My day out at Nene Park
- 2010 – my year in music
- XFM’s “greatest” 100 songs ever
- 2009 – my year in music
- The most played songs of the noughties …
- 2008 – my year in music
- RIP Nick Sanderson
- 2007 – my year in music
- 2006 – my year in music
- Sultans of Ping FC – 2006 interview
- 2005 – my year in music
- The Others – 2005 interview
- 2004 – my year in music
- 2003 – my year in music
- 2002 – my year in music
- 2001 – my year in music
- 2000 – my year in music
- 1999 – my year in music
- Abdoujaparov – 1999 interview
- 1998 – my year in music
- 1997 – my year in music
- 1996 – my year in music
- Frank and Walters – 1996 interview
- 1995 – my year in music
- 1994 – my year in music
- 1993 – my year in music
- 1992 – my year in music
- 1991 – my year in music
- 1990 – my year in music
Leave a Reply