Critics Roundup 1989

The final installment of this most undistinguished musical decade cast up a heartening haul of quality cuts in a year when The Single regained much of its status as a vehicle for creativity and innovation.

Personal favourite 45’s are far to numerous to mention but top marks go to releases from De La Soul, The Beatmasters, Inner City, S’Express, Soul 11 Soul, plus left-field gems from the Pixies and Malcolm McLaren, Black Box’s ‘Ride On Time’ and Sire’s brilliant failure ‘Eardrum Buzz’.

In contrast to the singles market, which fairly bubbled with new, young blood, the long-playing successes of ’89 ended to come from more tried and tested sources – in part reflection the trend for singles to become more and more the exclusive domain of the teenage consumer while album rock continues to grow older with its audience. the LP’s which spent most time on my turntable were Malcolm McLaren’s ambitious ‘Waltz Darling’, the Pixies exceptional ‘Doolittle’, De La Soul’s side-splitting ‘3 Feet High And Rising’ plus Win’s glam revisitation ‘Freaky Trigger’.

On the home front there was nothing to equal the thrill of Scale The Heights’ live attack. Giant also emerged as an outfit of great promise, cementing their reputation towards the year’s end with their double-A sided single ‘Put yourself In My Shoes/Bittersweet’. Even better was the debut 45 from elusive Dublin duo, Brian, entitled ‘A Million Miles’. The Fat Lady Sings ‘Arclight’ shows them shaping up to become on of the acts of the ’90s, even though it wouldn’t have been my choice of single from a live set showcasing impressive strength-in-depth of material Stano, meanwhile delivered the goods with his debut Mother long-player, the impressionistic ‘Only’.

The other personal highpoints of an encouraging year included the sheer audacity of Prince taking the Byzantine, utterly undanceable ‘Batdance’ to the summit of the planet’s charts; Rep. of Ireland 3: N, Ireland 0; Wiseguy on RTE 2 and Sky and The Joshua Trio’s Paul Wonderful parading through the crowds at the Baggot, casting flowers from the back of a mule.