Top 60 Music Albums of 1988 by Mercury

I’m doing a tear down and rebuild, a deep dive and dissection, of all I can take for 1988… these 10 are my base, I feel like I am solid enough on these 10s and where I rank them. I will now get to work on the many relistens to albums I love/quite like from 1988, the many many relistens to those I don’t honestly recall much about from same year, and the MANY, MANY, MANY new listens and exploration of those albums and EPs of 1988.

This album will be fleshed out with comments and albums as I go. Peace.

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Following note taken from my diary entry in the forums posted on December 6th, 2021:

Jesus christ, I have seen the light! How could I have come so close to going fully astray?? I am repentant!

What I mean to say is if someone had asked me my opinion on THIS PARTICULAR Slayer "Classic" just week back before I gave it a few spins and revisits, I may have mentioned it and it's classic status with those annoying quote fingers on the word "classic". I would have said that after the unparalleled and unmatched metal genius that was Reign In Blood(truly if I took every single hard rock and metal album I ever heard and put the top 100 in a competition for my favorite, almost assuredly Reign In Blood would come out the winner)and before the genuine power and new decade dominance of Seasons in the Abyss, that this album represented a somewhat significant step down. I would have even said that this album pulled back on the gas far too much and that something massive was lost when they decided to chisel these songs to such a sheen (not that that is how chisels work ... but I digress) and slow things down. Man, what silliness. I am NOT saying this is the EQUAL of Seasons In The Abyss and heaven's not Reign In Blood, but its clear that at this time and during this stretch Slayer was kind of in a metal tier all their own, or at the very least the company they kept was so small as to account for a tiny club you could fit in the small corner at the back of a library. Death? Sure. Bathory? Okay, fine. Metallica? No, I think after the tragic loss of Burton, Metallica was not on Slayer's level. Anthrax? Not close and Anthrax was never the band Slayer was in my opinion. Napalm Death? Yes, I think so but in a radically different way! And Megadeth and Sepultera and Carcass weren't there YET and probably never quite made it. Of course I am ignoring Maiden, and I can't do that even if they never were not one of my personal faves. Slayer were on the mountaintop, playing poker with a small and rarefied few peers. And I, ME, TINY HUMANOID me of all people, had the AUDACITY to question 1988 SLAYER's brilliance?? disgusting and shameful I say.

Okay, so for this album its well known that Slayer slowed it down a bit. They decided quite smartly that it would be silly to try to one-up in speed, aggression and insane intensity Reign In Blood. That said, this is still a Thrash Metal album. It just happens to be a Thrash album more precisely written and performed, dripping with blood and grime and dead-eyed assuredness and momentum. Any album that can begin and end with the twin masterpieces "South of Heaven" and "Spill the Blood", is off to a bloody great start - these bookends really are representative of the whole ominous, powerful, brilliance of the whole album. The fact that in between these 2 are a series of songs which includes classic after classic, such as "Mandatory Suicide", "Ghosts of War", "Dissident Aggressor", "Behind The Crooked Cross" and "Live Undead" to name a few, is absurd. (lol that isn't a "few" - that's almost every song and really there is a case for every song being mentioned as I personally don't hear a remotely average song)

The whole band kills. I mean really really kills. The drumming of Dave Lombardo is so great as to be worthy of descriptions like "Transcendent" and "awe-inspiring" and the fact that his drumming is so consistently crisp, inspired, heavy, groovy, mind-blowing and iconic makes me wish I could go back in time and DRASTICALLY limit my use of such words when describing other albums, musicians and drummers on other posts. He's THAT great. The twin guitar attack and the riffs in particular are their usual chainsaw attacking, body blowing, headbangy selves, but with this album they are even more purposeful than on Reign In Blood and Hell Awaits. They are stellar. The SOLOS are those scary and influential, satanic and sinister, almost atonal air raid siren explosions that any Slayer fan or anyone who has heard Slayer even a little will instantly recognize. They are great. The bass playing kicks ass and the vocals by the bassist/vocalist Tom Araya are more constrained and intense and there are far fewer wailing screams - which is a good thing. If there was one weakness on Reign In Blood it was Araya's vocals (but there isn't any flaw on that album so ignore I said that).

The only things I can say negative in the slightest about this album are 1. the transitions sometimes sound a little wooden and awkward and 2. the production sounds a little too austere and empty, again, only a few times. This issue shows up only a few times and its debatable. But to my ears there are just a couple switch ups that sound...off and there are a couple times when there is a distinct lack of production punch when the production maybe is too dry and the guitars are just not there and these moments are less than ideal.

I see this 1988 album as being somewhat analogous to the Pogues' If I Should Fall From Grace With God insofar as its a great album following on the footsteps of a truly all time great album. Both bands did major changes to their sound while maintaining the genre and thus not going tooooo far astray. The Pogues went BIGGER and more put together, Slayer went slower (with obvious exceptions, track 2 is as fast and hard as anything on their predecessor) and they went a bit more creepy, ominous, atmospheric by and large. Both switch ups in sound were good, Slayer's though was more than fine. It made for a near-perfect album that yet distanced itself from its more famous predecessor.

It's also kind of cool that within JUST 2 years of the release of Reign In Blood, which had completely raised the bar in terms of metal heaviness and speed (along with, to a lesser degree, Kreator's album of the same year, Pleasure to Kill) there were already HORDES of grindy, deathy insane fucks coming around to take Slayer up on the challenge and mantle for more aggression, gore, speed, heaviness and that utterly uncompromising non-commercial attitude about extreme metal. So what does Slayer do but say "Okay, kids, have at it. That game is yours. You're welcome." and went and did their own thing.

Anyway, I love this album and I can't stop listening! I am finding it hard to move off of it.
[First added to this chart: 02/15/2014]
Year of Release:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,014
Rank in 1988:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Following note taken from my diary in the forums. Post dated May 1st, 2021: ( I did a long deep dive into 6 classic 80s bands' 1980s output. This album of all 36-40 albums in that game was the only one I would consider nearly perfect and the only one I gave a 10. I was a little bit tipsy when writing the following. Apologies for what that alcohol wrought:

Okay, super soulless and mechanical review now of this album which I have WAY WAY too much emotional investment in:

Track 1. Teenage Riot - 10/10 because nothing goes higher than 10 on this scale and i already said i'd be cold and scientific . okay? fuck it.
1. Teenage Riot - 12.<3/10-: omg omg omg... this song, i gotta be honest, it makes me cry. I adore it. some higher power went into this already great band and made them briefly prophets whilst they recorded this.

2. Silver Rocket.... -.... uh, like, 10/10.

3. The Sprawl... holy shit... 14/10 This is TOOOOOO GOOOOOOOD! The fact that the first 3 songs each feature the distinct brilliant vocalists of the group and the music fits so perfectly with their attitudes and vocal styles and also work so good together, its genius. This album is perfect...so far. (Yes this 3 song run blows the first 3 of The Joshua Tree out of the fucking water and here I thought just a week ago that was impossible.

4. 'Cross the Breeze - 10/10 has there ever been an uglier example of a perfect rock voice ever better than kim gordon? I mean like she hits these absurd shouted, no good pitch notes bad bad and yet it gets me... kinda hot and bothered? Kinda makes me want to go tear up the world and reset the universe, also kinda makes me want to go outside and talk to people in the hopes of meeting someone as cool as the way Kim Gordon sounds. Like, I can't describe how much I love her vocals and this song and this album. These songs are long and the long jams all sound sooo impossibly good, if I were to send one rock album into outer space as a representation of what rock music is and to scare and fascinate a potential higher powered alien species it would be this fucking album. ITS SO HUGE!!! SO GOOD! I am in love.

5. Eric's Trip - 8.5/10 - oooh there is Lee again, singing, heard what I had to say about Kim's badassery and tried to present himself like that dorky guy in Groundhog Day when he presented himself at that single men auction, know what I am talking about? anyway, enough of that. This is the first non-perfect song. But on any other album in this project so far I may like this toward the top of any of their tracklists. the beginning is kinda (purposely) awkward, but as the noise and insanely loud guitars continue and it amps up and up it gets better and better. This is great.

6. Total Trash - 9.5/10 - fucking amazing

7. Hey Joni - 10/10 fuucking amaazing!

8. Providence - 10/10 - fuuucking whaaat??? this is so brilliant and beautiful and like better than even when Godspeed does it. Gave me chills.

full disclosure I went out sipped on a beer and smoked and just listened to music this sweet amazing music for those last 3 songs and came back and updated the grades and notes when i finished. Suffice to say this album is making me, like, grow, yaknow?

9. Candle - 8.5 - cool song. like quite cool. The riff is gorgeous. It kinda feels almost idk thoughtful? whatever, its great. not as good as some of the tracks on this Album To End All Albums (at least indie noise alternative rock albums)

i just went and absolutely destroyed my overall chart. this album is making me rethink everything. how can i have so many albums on the same chart as this??? i may a bit buzzed as well. but no not really I already was thinking of fucking with my overall before listening and so there is correlation not casuation there or however that saying goes that people whip out when they wanna sound like intellectuals and which really makes the whole. world
hat.
them.

okay back to the tracks.

10.Rain King - 8/10 - its good. love the guitars. super noisy and abrasive. sounds like a middle finger to traditional rock musicians. you know what tho? I think thurston is my least fave of the vocalist. He's still cool and perhaps the most iconic or synonymous voice in the band but Kim Gordon gets me everytime and i'd say is number 1. Lee Ranaldo is number 2 and most of the time i am smiling when i hear his voice come in. Then 3rd is thurston and i like him a lot, but its just not the same. okay, next song.

11. Kissability - 10/10 - oooh my hawt. my hawt can't take it. Kim is back, babay! fitting name. also this is such a surreal and weird album. "you've got...kissability." well, thank you, Kim! Apreciate it and likewise. Although i know the message of the song is the exact opposite. leave me alone with your make-believe downer "well actually" comments. That solo is so siiiick!

okayokayoakyokayokay here it comes... the fucking trilogy the trilogy the trilogy is almost upon us everyone!!!!

12a - trilogy A) The Wonder - LEEEEEE!!!!!/10 (aka 9.5/10, not that i had to clarify it). Lee sounds like Kim on this song if you ask me. which no one, not one fucking time, has asked me that. hell, in real life no one has ever asked me my thoughts on this album, this musician, or this band. i don't have real life friends. not to mention irl friends that like good music or are as obsessive as i am about this fucking hobby.

12b. trilogy B) Hyperstation - i forget what this is about, better be a fucking Voivod-esque sci fi themed tech thrash song about ships and colonizing the galaxy and shit or i give this album a 3/10... lets seeeeee.... in 3, 2, 1, oooh love that transition. love those noises. sounds like Alien (maybe just the name) - okay and so the grade... fudge idk, lets say its 10/10 because of how fucking incredible it is and the fact it name drops the name of the album and the fact that the line that contains the words "daydream nation" is so cool and catchy and the fact that the guitars sound like hell and heaven are making babies. (oh and side note the song isn't about what i was hoping it would be about. but it doesn't matter its amazing.

12c. trilogy C) Z) Eliminator, Jr. - GRADE KIM/10!!!!!! (aka 11-17/10 in that range) - this riff is soo bloody heavy it makes me start speaking and typing in a shitty british accent! The sheer heaviness and intensity of this song could go toe-to-toe with Reign In Blood-era Slayer. (slayer dudes may disagree, i think there's a distinct cultural rivalry between metalheads and noise rock bastards like SY).

okay, and so that just ended and i am stunned. one of the best listening experiences i've ever had. you may have just read my thoughts in real time as I shifted this from being a top say 50 album all time for me to in the running for number 1. Its in that shortlist of impulse place at number 1 because why not with Clsoe to the Edge, Robert Johnson's complete recordings, Kind of Blue, Time (The Revelator), Highway 61 Revisited/Blood On The Tracks, and maybe Blue and Hounds of Love and The Wild Hunt. Okay, yes its a big group, But that is, for me, the greatest and most rarefied of company and I think this album belongs in that group. Its that good. Its stellar, game changing, inspiring, punishing, physically and mentally draining.

This is probably my fave 80s album as of this moment. and its just....i don't understand. Sister was great, like if you had asked me last week, i would say that sister was almost as good as this 1988 masterpiece. But now, despite how great sister and EVOL and Bad Moon Rising and all their albums are, this album blows them out of the water. Its almost too great and too epic and too perfect and too balanced of an album. Its a 1 of 1 unique and powerful artistic statement. I am in love.

based off my ridiuculous notes (and sorry if they were annoying or offensive, i just couldn't process how amazing this was) and all the hyperbole i just heaped on Daydream Nation, I thnink you all know what grade I am giving this... a grade I haven't really felt even remotely belonged on any of the previous 36 albums I heard for this project (36 if you include The Top)... this is the easiest 10/10 e
[First added to this chart: 02/15/2014]
Year of Release:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
17,801
Rank in 1988:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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I have loved this album so long and it has always been on my overall chart. I have no record of a comment pre-made for it. It is essentially the first Post Rock album. And that is cool. But much MUCH more than that, this album does things to me emotionally which is hard to describe. The builds and the explosions and the desolation of the sounds at times and the warmth and love in others, it all just comes together to make me feel good and at peace when ever I listen. This is just brilliant. This little note will have to suffice for now and maybe for all time.

Grade: 9.5/10
[First added to this chart: 02/15/2014]
Year of Release:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
11,297
Rank in 1988:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Following note taken from my diary entry in the forums posted on December 13th, 2021:

Wow. Just awesome. This is splendid. Like, how come I never got into this? Bummer. Maybe 13 year old or 16 year old Ryan wouldn't have loved it, but I'm pretty sure at any other stage I would have seen the light. Voivod are the coolest and most wonky and strange of these "Thrash" bands I've covered thus far. Everything about them from their vocal style here, to their guitar tone, to their jazz and prog elements, to their sci-fi themes, to their almost avant-garde willingness to play with dissonance and some odd-af time signatures, EVERYTHING about them is unique and glorious.

They still manage to take all these eccentricities and meld them around a heavy and unrelenting journey, at no point are you, or rather, was I thinking this isn't a great and heavy thrashy metal album. But while enjoying nominally a classic thrash release I was also mesmerized by the otherworldly guitar breakdowns that get kind of psychedelic and disorienting at times, or the clean almost detached nasally vocals, or the very VERY modern willingness to make dissonant walls of maniacal and dizzying and angular prog-y experimental music.

This is the sort of boundary pushing album that requires probably many many listens to unpack. I had previously loved their 1989 album Nothingface. I had previously enjoyed and at least been familiar with their first heralded classic Killing Technology from 1987. Somehow I had never bridged that gap with this excellent 1988 masterpiece. I just love this. The entire album is conceptual, breakneck, inventive and fascinating. Even as I listened to the absolutely brilliant opener, "Experiment", it was one of those times when the opening song was so enticing and so unique and fascinating that I was itching to hear what these musicians had up their sleeves. The fact that for the entire 42 minutes and 9 songs they manage to keep things fresh and utterly unpredictable is fucking badass. I really have no complaints about this record. It could have been released in 1999 or 2020 and I would think that it is a modern classic, and leaps and bounds better than most metal of the time. I'm on my second listen and its so good and it seems to be building in my mind. This is reminding more of stuff like maudlin of the well than it is Anthrax, I think if this generation of nerds that loved to stick "Post" on every popular genre when someone starts fucking with the genre formula back in 1988 or 1989 this would have been like Post-Thrash.... anyway, just a thought (a silly one I had just now that maybe I will regret later lol). This is, for me, so much more invigorating and fascinating than more traditional aggressive Thrash it really isn't "fair" to compare.

I was originally planning on doing a 1-2-3 with this album, Sadus' 1988 album and Coroner's. But now I think I'll hold on those and let the dust settle as I chomp on this avant garde prog technical mind altering master work before moving onto other tech thrash stuff. I think that's only "fair" to those other undoubtedly very cool albums.

Now I'm in the situation where I am wondering..."Is THIS the best Metal album of 1988?" which before listening I thought was silly as I couldn't imagine anything equaling or challenging South of Heaven or Leprosy (for the purposes of this discussion I am considering all Grindcore to be 3 parts hardcore and punk lineage and 2 parts metal of various kinds)
[First added to this chart: 12/14/2021]
Year of Release:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
174
Rank in 1988:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Following note taken from my diary entry in the forums posted on December 29th, 2021:

Yep, I had never heard this before. Can you believe it? I don't know why. I suppose I had some compilations of Leonard Cohen and I loved his early sound and voice. But when the compilation (which was my first intro to this genius) got to his later career highlights I was taken aback and not sure how I felt about the deep baritone vocals and the 80s synth parts. I did think it sounded bad, I will just admit it. I thought "what is the fucking deal with this and why are these tracks and some of these albums loved like at all?". I was 14 and not really a fan of anything of this type at the time. So yeah I will just admit that.

Yesterday I listened to this once and I was kind of blown away. I thought some of the songs were delving into my deepest and most hidden fears and loves and thoughts. I was mesmerized at points and I was itching to call some people at other points. I was in a bit of an explosive state of inspiration. I am having a hard time explaining how some of these tracks (and actually quite a lot of the album) made me feel.

The slick production, the drum machines and the synths and the gaudy back up singers that hit one when you push play and the first track start is audacious and, once I got used to it, kind of amazing. I don't feel that the opener, "First We Take Manhattan", is a highlight here exactly, but it is a very solid opening track at getting you in the mood. It gets your palate ready for the rest of this slick, romantic, broken-up, nocturnal, poetic, alluring, mysterious, journey. By the start of the second track, "Ain't no cure for Love" I am fully in the mood. And that song is where shit gets real and I start feeling some type of way. Even that simple and possibly for some corny line and idea "There ain't no cure for love" fucking wrecked me last night and I am similarly loving it now in the afternoon. Although I will say hearing this album alone christmas night in darkness was maybe a big part of why this whole attitude of tragic romantic something hit me so hard yesterday.)

Track 2 starts a run of songs that sound so luscious and sexy and dark and full of deep wells of feeling and life. Track 3 and and 4 (Everybody Knows, and I'm Your Man) are classics and kick ass. "Everybody Knows" was the song included on that greatest hit compilation years ago that made me think I hated this version of Cohen. But That feeling has flipped and now I just think this song is such a strange and vibrant and seductive masterpiece. His voice! Fuck that is deep and sexy. And that incessant bass groove and those as usual brilliant and evocative lyrics. Etc etc. this song kills, as does "I'm Your Man" and as does "Take This Waltz" actually. That track 2 through 5 run of 4 tracks is nearly perfect.

There is that floating and perfect melody from the keyboard on "I'm Your Man" that I love. As for "Take this Waltz"... it's the cloest to old school late 60s/early 70s cohen on this album I think. It finds Cohen with his classic more nasally vocals, and there are those impossibly sublime and bittersweet poetic words and that refrain and that whole fucking vibe... jesus christ this song is stunning and sublime and it makes me, again and even now with the Bills/Patriots game on in the background during broad daylight, feel that same agitated searching feeling - like I forgot something that I meant to never forget. Something powerful is in this song. Some sort of sorcery. And that female vocalist coming in at the end to harmonize is just toooo much goodness to experience here on earth.

So... track 1 is like a 7.5 or 8, track 2 is an easy 8.5 or 9. Track 3 and 4 and 5 are all 9.5 to 10. And then... Jazz Police. Jazz Police show up... and I honestly don't know even what this is. I don't mean that in a negative or positive way. this is a weird fucking tune. The drum sounds are terrible to my ears. But the synth/keyboard chords are solid. The piano solo, those eerie as fuck female back up singers, and more than anything else the fact that this song manages to create such an alien atmosphere out of nowhere, make this a memorable song. I don't know how I'd rate it. It is either an absolute standout great song or its a bit of a strange and moderately successful but whiplash inducing momentum killing piece of strangeness. The previous 4 tracks all were different but they all put me into a mysterious and emotionally vulnerable and romantic state-of-mind. This song just completely shifts shit out of that mood. Then the fact that the very next song goes RIGHT BACK to that mood makes the whiplash even more close to absolute.

Not gonna lie, last night when I heard the last 2 tracks after the weirdness of "Jazz Police" ("I Can't Forget" and "Tower of Song" that is) I thought it was a bit of a let down of an ending, not bad by any means and actually pretty cool, just not as touching as the first 5 tracks. Now as I listen again,. I am warming up to these 2 songs. "I Can't Forget" is just good ol fashioned vaguely romantic yet deeper Cohen greatness. And "Tower of Song" is weird. Like its an interesting if a bit tooo poetry-reading-ish track. Sometimes the pure literary tendencies of Cohen lose me. Sometimes he will have a very interesting poem idea and yet it just stretches a bit too far into the arena of untraditional to lose me. This may be one of them. The track is a lazy, relaxed and dreamy thing. The words are interesting I guess. But honestly this closer may be my least fave song here. Still quality and certainly interesting and deserving of further listens and dissection. But yeah a bit of a drop in personal enjoyment to close this album out.

In closing, I love this album. I didn't expect I'd love it so much. Damn, this is just soooo good. It has its own sound, its classic Cohen lyrical genius, its got some incredible back up vocal work, some songs that on their own are new favorites but within the album add up to even more. Its... amazing.
[First added to this chart: 01/04/2016]
Year of Release:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,445
Rank in 1988:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Following note taken from my diary entry in the forums posted on December 6th, 2021:

Perhaps it doesn't come through in my internet persona/presentation, but I'm something of a furious, hateful, raging mad man. Mostly not, but not going to lie and say I don't moments when every muscle is tensed and I am in a rage about the disposition of EVERY person on EVERY topic in EVERY way. There are times when I want to tear the whole thing down. Actually as someone with a particularly anarchic worldview, this isn't uncommon. But when that anarchy is raging and not logical, I turn to Napalm Death and Pig Destroyer and Wormrot and Nasum and other great prophets of Grind. But, last night I revisit this and I was tired so I laid down, closed my eyes and turned this up as loud as possible and I enjoyed myself immensely not being angry at all. Actually, weirdly, this absurdly loud and fast and cartoonishly unhinged Grind classic relaxed me as I rested my eyes. wtf...? Anyway, it did and I just wanted to say that so you understand my love of Grind and the godfathers and kings of grind, Napalm Death, doesn't come exclusively from a place of deep-seated hatred of authority and society.

This album... I placed it on my overall chart and I think I did because its a stand in for what Napalm Death represents to me and music and my music tastes. They are, again and it should be clearly stated, the absolute kings of this most profoundly awesome of genre of extreme metal and hardcore pushed to its logical extreme. They are special. That said, Scum isn't one of my fave albums - but maybe I need to revisit that debut now that I have so much more stuff under my belt. But I remember that album sounding more like a call to arms and a new abrasive, extremely brazen intro statement more than a great album. Okay, so their second album is this album here - with a badass name and a badass sound. Is this a great album? Yes. Is it better than Scum? I think so. Is it as pure of an expression of Grind as their debut? Not at all, as there are death metal jams thrown in and lots of more crust/hardcore punk passages, and *gasp* some 2-3 minute songs here. So then you have what many consider the definitive statement of intent and the peak of Napalm Death, The Peel Sessions of 1987-1988. These are more clearly recorded than their debut, and more unhinged and more purely grindcore than this sophomore LP. And... they are incredible. I may add them to my chart to replace this album.

That last paragraph was utterly shit and pointless. The point is this album, which I'm listening to again now, is so fucking great. The guitars and the bass are absolutely disgusting and evil and bad-intentioned. The vocals whether the warbly ridiculousness or the growly ridiculopusness are all ridiculous and the weakest aspect of the sound... and yet, Idk, I kind of love'em. They sort of make me smile and feel at home in a way. I don't know why but they are great. The drummer is doing his best and his best is great. He is mostly keeping up the whole way and sometimes its the guitars that struggle to keep up. The whole sound especially when truly raging and in a groove sounds like 5 fucking wild people running at top speed, wearing themselves down to death or near-death, trying to keep up with each other and all are mostly going the same absurd reckless speed and wometimes one of them will get a burst of speed and go a little ahead and the rest see this and just somehow dredge up a little more energyu and push extremel;y hard to even out the race... and this goes on and on and on for 27 tracks and 35 minutes. Its glorious. I am evben feeling the same effect as i listen. I am typing gfaster and notcie all the typos? that is just the result of me, not a trained typist, doing my best to keep up with 1. my thoughts icoherent as they may be and 2. this absurd fucking music! Thje aburd, rejuvenating, lovely, gift of an album is making me very happy.

Is this my fave Napalm Death now? nevermind, fuck that question and answerr shit, i already did that! Thsi IS my fave Napalm Death release as of now. This is NOT my fave grindcore album (Pig Destroyer and Wormrot are up there with this being 3rd or 4th or so). This is indeed a marvelous album that needs to be heard by all, especially old old grandmothers and fathers with heart issues asap!

Oh and listen to the genius of the track 1-2 punch of "Your Achievement" followed by "Dead" to get a clear idea of how rich and genius this album is! Well worth your time. Mr. Green
[First added to this chart: 11/18/2021]
Year of Release:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
127
Rank in 1988:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Following note taken from my diary in the forums. Post dated May 12th, 2021:

This album is soooooooooo fuckinggggg classssssicccc! Also so heavy and so good and so rough and rowdy and brutal and excellent! INow that I have given it its much deserved revisit 2 times over I can confidently say that despite how classic and solid Scream Bloody Gore is (and it really is essential listening) this features better more smoking hot and harsh production, more biting and satanic and rabid guitar solos on the level of classic Slayer badassness, more crunchy riffage with more variety and menace, more excellent and punishing drumming, more full throated vocal performances, more memorable Hooks or change ups and just better songwriting, a better flow and some of the most iconic and most vicious old school death metal ever! It fucking slays and kills and other synonyms of violence all the way through. The double bass assault that hits your ears at the start of "Open Casket" is God-tier stuff. Really almost all the songs are perfect and classic, but I mean come on does it get better in the genre than "Born Dead"? or "Pull The Plug"? or "Choke On It"? or "Primitive Ways"? or or or ? No I don't know that it does. This is an 8 track, 38 minute tour-de-force of utterly intimidating harsh HEAAVYYY death metal glory. There isn't a weak moment or song, and none of the instruments are low points, even the bass which I mentioned on their debut sounded a bit strange to me, on this album has this sinister melodicism that just hits some part of my mind in the best possible way. And is there a more iconic vocal delivery or voice than Chuck? ever in the history of metal? His voice is so sick, so gnarly, so emotive and nasty and nuts.

I know I'm about to listen to Altars of Madness released just a year later than Leprosy, and I am excited to give that Morbid Angel debut a new listen after my extreme metal come-to-jesus-moment a few months ago, but as far as OSDM I can't imagine it getting better than this. I mean Morbid Angel very well could match it, and I wouldn't be surprised. But this album also has the advantage of being the first death metal album I loved way back in like 2013 and I remember hearing this and thinking "Finally, something that hits me as hard or almost as hard as Reign In Blood." As many of you may know Reign in Blood is a top 10 all time album for me and is kind of my benchmark and example for extreme metal. I think its perfect or as close to perfect as any metal album has ever been in my eyes. So the fact that 23 year old me all those years ago was gushing over this album and playing it on repeat and comparing it to Slayer was a big deal. Listening to this again after all these years and kind of re-acquainting myself with my love for it has been awesome! This album hits hard. There were later Death albums more technical and maybe more polished. There were later death metal albums in general more extreme and vicious, but I have yet to hear a Death Metal album that slaps as hard as this and taps into that primal part of me as well as this fucking master class in heaviness and speed. LEPROSY IS KING! ---- 9.4/10 (I know its a high score right, but when it comes to this sound and style I can't see how almost anything can match it. It seems to be a near-perfect old school death metal album. Let's see how its main competition does next...)

(updated Grade 0-10 scale as of today as I make this chart, not much change, but...? I will say 9.2/10. A GREAT and worthy number 3 of year. So far. Maybe the greatest old school Deam Metal album I've ever heard and I think the most REPRESENTATIVE first listen to this genre. That I have heard anyway.)
[First added to this chart: 02/15/2014]
Year of Release:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
401
Rank in 1988:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Following note taken from my diary entry in the forums posted on December 9th, 2021:

yep, I have verified I still love this album. It's so harsh, complex, bombastic, brash, rebellious, unrelenting, and YET also dunny (thanks largely to Flavor) and its complexity doesn't take away from how intense it is. It's in-your-faceness doesn't negate its thoughtfulness. The Slayer sample and the great snippets from Farrakhan speeches, those horns on "Show 'em Whatcha Got", those squeaky noises in some of the beats have aged soo damn well (to my ears at least), the delivery of Mike D and Flavor Flav are incredible. Some of the lines on here are so poetic and so direct and catchy I honestly had forgotten how MANY legendary lines came off this album...for one example, "Who gives a fuck about a Grammy?!?" - amazing. And... the songs, the sheer QUANTITY of great songs, CLASSIC songs with not a one dud. "Bring The Noise", "Don't Believe The Hype", (personal fave perhaps not considered a classic) "Cold Lampin' With Flavor", "Terminator X to the Edge of Panic", "Louder than a Bomb", "Show Em Whatcha Got","She Watch Channel Zero?!?". "Night of the Living Baseheads", Black Steel In The Hour of Chaos", "Rebel Without A Pause", "Prophets of Rage", and of course "Party for your Right to Fight"! Fuck fuckin YEAH! What a great GREAT album.

This thing is just under 1 hour of almost impossibly audacious, pure, creative anger and protest. This is just amazing. I recently placed this BACK on my overall chart after years off of it for some reason. It just felt right beside all the recent grindcore and punk albums added. And this relisten has proven me correct in this action and addition. And it really does look great beside Napalm Death and Bad Brains.... there is that same irrepressible FUCK. YOU! energy. This actually may be THE exemplary and quintessential album to express what that aforementioned "Fuck. YOU. Make me, motherfucker."-energy. Goddamn classic.
[First added to this chart: 02/15/2014]
Year of Release:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
7,056
Rank in 1988:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
9. (10) Up1
Bug 
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Following note taken from my diary entry in the forums posted on December 29th, 2021:

Peak Dinosaur Jr was special. That mix of those fragile and weak sung notes with those incredibly loud and muscular guitar riffs. The way the melodies float and feel like pop gems and the way they meld with some seriously noisy and abrasive guitar screechies. Just glorious. When they were really buzzing this band was special.

This whole album (almost) is a great example of this. There is nary a bad song here. The guitar parts, it must be said again, are so sick. The way the album starts with Freak Scene is glorious. The way the melodies and fist pumping choruses keep on coming is brilliant. And there is an emotional core to this sound and this album that sets it apart. I feel these tunes. There is a sense of sorrow and sadness and lostness that comes through these otherwise exuberantly celebratory guitar-god showcases that just makes me love it. The sound of this album is like an Indie Rock old sweater, one with its own fit and smell with its own myriad of attached memories and associations. When I listen to this (or Green Mind and ESPECIALLY You're Living All Over Me) it feels like coming home, this is the attitude and aesthetic I kind of wanted for so long to give off. Masculine and massive and tough, yet fragile and deep-thinking at my heart. Of course I never was remotely as cool as this sound, and I am sure I never successfully gave off that concept in the way i looked and acted. Still, for a time this was the sound I was trying to embody.

And maybe, just to give more on what I was trying to give off when I was younger, I was actually tryting to give off Built To Spill, Pavement, Sebadoh, Guided By Voices, Grifters, etc vibes. I forgot how much this sound by this band was all over those 90s bands. This despite this and You're Living All Over Me being very definitely 1980s classics, this sound is incredibly present in 1990s indie. And maybe even more than the sound, the whole attitude, that slacker, saddened punk aesthetic that I generally associate with the 1990s Gen X music really seems to be started and perfected to a great degree with this band. It's really awesome what they worked out and created with these Dinosaur Jr LPs.

Back to this album, well it is what I expected from peak Dino Jr despite it being so long since last hearing it that I forgot the specifics. These are pop gems, rock gems, the riffs are so in the red and so overwhelming they can't help but bring a certain bliss. The solos are so biting and emotive and godly. The choruses and the melodies and the 2 lead singers each have their own distinct and beautiful styles and sounds that each work for their respective songs/lines. There is an exuberant freedom that the band seems to find in these MASSIVE tidal waves of noisy rock songs. It puts a smile on my face when they really get down in to a specific rock groove (listening to the rapid fire wah wah excellence of "Yeah We Know" right now and that is a perfect example of what I just mentioned.

This isn't exactly a one note album, actually its really not at all. I mean of course they have a sound and they do it well and often. But after the heavy pounding rock and roll glory of that pristine 1-2-3-4-5(!) hard rock punch that they start with, they slow it and quiet it down a bit with the delicate and quite beautiful "Pond Song". ... before, of course, going back to some ugly/beautiful sheer heaviness with track 7 "Budge".

The album has 2 songs that I don't love. The most noisy song by far "Don't" is just too grating and purely noise rock. Not my fave is all. And the song "The Post" doesn't quite live up to the near-perfect 7 songs that precede it. Still, the album closes with a nice tune with "Keep the Glove.". (although fuck that last 45 seconds is headache-inducing)

Overall I loved listening to this a few times over the last couple weeks. I think I may rank this above even the classic You're Living All Over Me. I'm not sure about that because its been a looooong time since I heard it (i'll listen to it now whilst taking a walk and I will see.) And yeah I love this album. Its just my style and sound and it felt right listening to almost every second. This will be high on my 1988 chart.
[First added to this chart: 01/04/2016]
Year of Release:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,240
Rank in 1988:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Following note taken from music diary entry in forums, 4 December 2021:

Okay, so I lied. I have heard this. A couple times actually. But... I have never listened to this absolutely ICONIC Ep in isolation. I bought on day of release (like a good little music snob) that release a "few" years back of all the MBV EPs on CD and I listened to it. But in that format I would be lying iof I could tell ever when one release ended and another began. So, listening to this EP and this release AS its own thing in isolation is important I think and I am glad I listened to this newly in such a way.

Okay, so another thing, this EP, its so famous. Like I think maybe if we did some big poll or game amongst BEAers and got top 10-20 EPs ever from them and scored it I am pretty sure this would be number 1. When I personally think of classic EPs a few come to mind: This, Jar of Flies (Alice In Chains), Chronic Town (REM), Kindred EP (Burial) and maybe Fugazi's first EP. Actually, the first thing I think of is the greatest EP ever made Sometimes The Blues Is A Passing Bird by The Tallest Man On Earth, but that a ME thing methinks. Anyway, just a thought I had as I heard this massively influential and cool piece of music.

As for my thoughts on the EP... its fantastic. This is coming from someone who generally does not vibe with Dream Pop, Noise Pop or Shoegaze. It took a dozen listens to earn a well-deserved grudging respect for Loveless for chrissake. That said, this EP ain't Loveless. Like the bones of Loveless are here, and this for sure seems like a bridge between Isn't Anything and Loveless in the MBV discog, but yeah this release has parts that rock in a near-traditional way, with discernible riffs and clear and up-front vocals and melodies. Everything isn't utterly swamped in OCEANS of layered guitars to even a 10th the degree every song on Loveless is. The first song, the title track, for example... HOLY SHIT! At first I was thinking maybe I wasn't digging it. Then second time through this 17 minute release I was blown away and the melody and the explosive noisy burst which sounds like pink and pruple glass shards raining down from the heavens above, absolutely overtook me. An easy all time song in the genre (based off the admittedly small amount of this genre I have heard.). It is stellar.

"slow" has that very Loveless-reminiscent back and forth, rocking from sidfe to side, guitar riff that stays the whole way through... but whereas on Loveless this same sound would be overlayed with 57 other sounds and the vocals would be 19 feet beneath sea level coming through in vaguely intelligible, smoky wafts, here the vocals and the melody they carry are right there.

"thorn" has a bubblegummy melody and a free-ing vibe,and for some reason it sounds like some kind of lost theme-song to my mostly forgotten first true love, I can almost see her face and I can almost pronounce her name, but never quite and yet this song is just a (noisy) breeze. That is another thing about these songs... they are noisy and they are jagged and they are rough in many ways and yet never does the noise sound bad and never does the static convey the emotions i usually associate with staticy noisy music - namely, seething hate, death, death , decay, more death etc - instead they work for these pristine pop songs and I don't know exactly why they work so well.

"cigarette in your bed" is a sweet song, the most lowkey and least noisy or rocking here. I think it will grow on me more but for now this is ONLY very good and a nice vibe. But the EP ends with the fabulous "Drive It All Over Me". fuck this song kicks ass! The female vocals (I think they are, not the same vocalist as the first few songs) is mesmerizing and the whole groove and melody of the track kills and that damn explosive eargasmic pay off is stellar.

OVERALL I am floored and won over. One of the great things about EPs especially great and consistent and challenging ones such as this, they are a small dose of greatness, with no filler and yet lots to chew on emotionally and mentally. I am now listening to this for a 3rd time, and yeah it just gets better. Perhaps I will "penalize" this a little in the rankings due to it being an EP, but I'm thinking I won't punish it much. Is it my genre of choice? Well, before pushing play a little under an hour ago I would have said no. But at some point and at times there are releases that are just so damn transcendent as to basically make you forget about scenes and music genre descriptions. This is one of those times. Fucking classic.

Looking forward to FINALLY giving Isn't Anything the time and consideration it deserves. Certainly one of the first LPs I think of first when I think of 1988.
[First added to this chart: 01/04/2016]
Year of Release:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
961
Rank in 1988:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 60. Page 1 of 6

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Top 60 Music Albums of 1988 composition

Country Albums %


United States 35 58%
United Kingdom 11 18%
Canada 4 7%
Australia 2 3%
Ireland 2 3%
Mixed Nationality 2 3%
Italy 1 2%
Show all
Compilation? Albums %
No 58 97%
Yes 2 3%
Soundtrack? Albums %
No 59 98%
Yes 1 2%

Top 60 Music Albums of 1988 chart changes

Biggest climbers
Climber Up 2 from 8th to 6th
From Enslavement To Obliteration
by Napalm Death
Climber Up 1 from 22nd to 21st
Blood Fire Death
by Bathory
Climber Up 1 from 18th to 17th
Surfer Rosa
by Pixies
Biggest fallers
Faller Down 10 from 48th to 58th
Down In The Groove
by Bob Dylan
Faller Down 10 from 49th to 59th
You Walk Alone
by Jandek
Faller Down 10 from 50th to 60th
Open Up And Say...Ahh!!!
by Poison

Top 60 Music Albums of 1988 similarity to your chart(s)


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Top 60 Music Albums of 1988 ratings

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02/15/2014 20:07 PauloPaz  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 1,76689/100

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