1989: January to May

We are now getting close to the end of the eighties. Although 1989 still belongs to that decade, some early signs of the nineties can already be detected. This is the year when both Dream Theater and Nine Inch Nails released their debut albums. And, in an equally important move, Faith No More released their first one with Mike Patton on vocals - the group's third album overall.

Let's begin with something considerably easier on the ear. On 18 January, the Scottish rock group Simple Minds released their best work ever, a new single called Belfast Child. I had noticed them already a few years back, when their song played during the end credits of The Breakfast Club (1985), but there is no way I could have anticipated this achievement. An absolutely great pop / rock song, complemented by an excellent music video, as you can see above.

If Belfast Child sounds familiar, it is probably because its music has been lifted from an Irish folk song called She Moved Through the Fair. Here, it is used most likely to a greater effect than ever before. The lyrics have been rewritten as a thinly veiled commentary on the uneasy situation in Northern Ireland. The video was played in heavy rotation on the satellite channels I was able to see in my bachelor's apartment in Helsinki. I didn't have MTV then but Sky Channel was a reasonably good substitute, even if not quite MTV's equal.

Usually the early part of any year has been relatively quiet, but this time we have two notable new releases already in January. On the 30th, New Order released their new album Technique which contains several songs that I liked. I actually rechecked the album prior to writing this and still found four of the songs very enjoyable, my number one favorite being Dream Attack embedded above. It closes the album in a memorable fashion.

Other songs on Technique that I would also recommend you to check out are All the Way, Mr. Disco and Vanishing Point. All of these are very techno oriented tracks, as the album title perhaps implies. New Order would never again achieve the greatness of True Faith that we discussed earlier, or release another album with as many good songs on it as Low-Life or this one. But we are not quite done with them yet and will discuss them again a little later.

We will skip February and move straight to 3 March, which was when Madonna released her fourth album Like a Prayer. Now, I am not really a Madonna fan, but I can't help admiring how perfectly accomplished some of her best songs are. I already raved about Live to Tell (1986) earlier and will do the same thing again for a certain song on her forthcoming next album. Oh Father, embedded above, is this album's masterpiece and easily one of the best pop songs of the year.

I don't care much for the rest of Like a Prayer, although Dear Jessie is a likable song about a parent's love for her child. But Oh Father is a stunning masterpiece with its absolutely beautiful composition, string arrangements, moving lyrics, outstanding production and even the memorable mini movie of a music video that was directed by none other than a young David Fincher. When it came to directing music videos, 1989 was a real breakthrough for the future Hollywood hotshot - already in the next blog entry we will come to another classic of his, out a little later this same year.

Next, let's put some prog into ProgActive for a welcome change. I have no idea exactly when during 1989 the fifth album by the British neo progressive rock group IQ came out, so we might as well get briefly into it now. The album was called Are You Sitting Comfortably? and it is well worth mentioning here even though it is a bit uneven and not the group's best. Someone has combined two of my favorite tracks into a single YouTube video; Nostalgia and Falling Apart at the Seams have been embedded above.

Yes, I'm afraid that even though the two IQ songs here are quite good, they regretfully pale in comparison with everything else on offer in this particular blog entry. This is still not progressive rock's heyday, and the most talented musicians are doing other things. But this is not all; there will also be a new Marillion album out later this same year, with a new singer even, and it is going to be better than IQ's effort. Next up, even the painted goth rockers The Cure are going to beat prog rockers.

In the television series South Park, Disintegration by The Cure was named the best album ever. I wouldn't go that far in my praise - I don't even like most of it - but there is this one song that I always thought was pure genius. I guess it is also the best known song on the album: Lullaby, embedded above, needs no introduction. The official video is brilliantly creepy. Disintegration came out on 1 May, so IQ served as a good placeholder for most of March and all of April. Spring has already come along quite far.

We haven't discussed Queen much since the seventies, the only exception being that one song from the Highlander soundtrack. Their latest album The Miracle was released one day after my 26th birthday, on 22 May. I had now been working and living in Helsinki for a full year. The songs that were mostly played on MTV and other satellite channels were Breakthru and I Want it All, but instead of them, I really liked the title track. It was actually the only really good song on the album. Sigh.

One more new album before May ends, as does our blog entry. There are about twice as many interesting, worthwhile music releases in 1989 than there were in 1988, so I have had to cut the year into not only two but three separate entries, like 1984 earlier this decade. The next entry will cover the summer months all the way to the end of September, and the last one will be about October to December. There will be a total of 21 new releases discussed, as opposed to only seven in 1990 - those we will once again go through in one sitting.

On 30 May, it was time for Public Image Ltd. to release their seventh album, aptly titled 9. I was perhaps a little disappointed with it (pun intended) since I didn't find too many songs on it that I really enjoyed. But, like on the Queen album, there was one major exception. Disappointed is, despite its title, one of the most exhilarating and fun songs of PIL's entire career and I am really happy to embed it below, thus bringing this blog entry to an optimistic end.

If you enjoyed the official video above, please do check out the album version as well. It is 90 seconds longer. All those seconds are added to the end of the song, making it an even more positive experience as the song just keeps ascending for a much longer time. What a great way to start your summer in Helsinki!