NME Top Singles of 1986

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Sycamore slaughterhouse sensation

Kiss - Prince
16
22%
Word Up - Cameo
17
24%
Into The Groove(Y) - Ciccone Youth
6
8%
Walk This Way - Run Dmc
9
13%
Bang Zoom! Lets Go Go! - The Real Roxanne
1
1%
Ain't Nothin' Goin' On But The Rent - Gwen Guthrie
5
7%
Pain - Betty Wright
1
1%
Kiss - Age Of Chance
3
4%
Levi Stubbs Tears - Billy Bragg
11
15%
Still Smokin' - Trouble Funk
3
4%
 
Total votes: 72

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naughty boy
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Re: NME Top Singles of 1986

Postby naughty boy » 28 Jun 2018, 22:34

Anita Baker's ALBUM made their top ten for the same year. Above many of their typical faves.
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Georgios
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Re: NME Top Singles of 1986

Postby Georgios » 28 Jun 2018, 22:36

I stand corrected then. It's a fine record as well.

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Re: NME Top Singles of 1986

Postby Bent Fabric » 28 Jun 2018, 22:49

ORORORO wrote:25. Starpower/Expressway To Your Skull - Sonic Youth


Probably their finest five minutes. For the ages.

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Re: NME Top Singles of 1986

Postby naughty boy » 28 Jun 2018, 22:53

Yeah, it's a blast.

I bought EVOL on the strength of it (and the NME review) and played that a lot that year. I think it's their finest album - there's more magic there than on Daydream Nation. Wonderful sounds.
Matt 'interesting' Wilson wrote:So I went from looking at the "I'm a Man" riff, to showing how the rave up was popular for awhile.

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Re: NME Top Singles of 1986

Postby Bent Fabric » 28 Jun 2018, 23:05

I don't play them anything like as much as I did at the time, but...that period (up through Goo, really) is pretty great.

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Re: NME Top Singles of 1986

Postby pcqgod » 29 Jun 2018, 03:49

Ciccone Youth actually got played on the radio in the UK? Hmm.
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Re: NME Top Singles of 1986

Postby The Modernist » 29 Jun 2018, 06:07

pcqgod wrote:Ciccone Youth actually got played on the radio in the UK? Hmm.


Only on things like Peel. Not on daytime commercial radio.

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Re: NME Top Singles of 1986

Postby Darkness_Fish » 29 Jun 2018, 08:51

Yeah, you have to remember that a lot of what's in these lists would have been nowhere near mainstream radio. John Peel's show was the only place to hear things from outside the top 40 charts, and there also wasn't that much of a correlation between his and the NME's taste. I've no idea if there was a more NME-friendly show, like Steve Lamacq or someone at the time. I was largely tuning in a year or two later, for the grindcore.
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Re: NME Top Singles of 1986

Postby Darkness_Fish » 29 Jun 2018, 08:55

Those Swans singles look really out of place in that long-list, Sonic Youth are obviously from the same background, but amongst all the dream-pop and horrible 80s chart-soul/funk, the clunky misanthropic sludge stands out like a goth at a rave.
Like fast-moving clouds casting shadows against a hillside, the melody-loop shuddered with a sense of the sublime, the awful unknowable majesty of the world.

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Re: NME Top Singles of 1986

Postby Polishgirl » 30 Jun 2018, 11:18

Prince
Gwen ( I really love this track )
Run DMC.
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Re: NME Top Singles of 1986

Postby naughty boy » 30 Jun 2018, 12:06

There are the makings of a good song there (I'd forgotten about the 'bits' he adds between verses - sweet) but as usual he sounds like a Billingsgate fish packer after someone's dropped a cargo of cod on his plates.
Matt 'interesting' Wilson wrote:So I went from looking at the "I'm a Man" riff, to showing how the rave up was popular for awhile.

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Re: NME Top Singles of 1986

Postby KeithPratt » 30 Jun 2018, 19:48

Darkness_Fish wrote:Yeah, you have to remember that a lot of what's in these lists would have been nowhere near mainstream radio. John Peel's show was the only place to hear things from outside the top 40 charts, and there also wasn't that much of a correlation between his and the NME's taste. I've no idea if there was a more NME-friendly show, like Steve Lamacq or someone at the time. I was largely tuning in a year or two later, for the grindcore.


There wasn't really anything like that until 1990 or so. Mark Goodjer (sp) was Lamacq's predecessor in the 7pm indie slot on Radio 1, taking its cue from the Madchester explosion.

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Re: NME Top Singles of 1986

Postby toomanyhatz » 30 Jun 2018, 19:55

Tonto Papadopoulos wrote:
Goat Boy wrote:C
Nice to be reminded just how much of a useless talentless cunt Bragg is.


:o

Surely, a masterpiece? I don't care for all of his output but Levi Stubbs' Tears packs a huge emotional punch. Silly boy.


Griff talks sense in rare shocker! :D

Nice to have some dang backup on this finally. I don't love him, and get all the cunty accusations (though as I may have mentioned a few times he was perfectly lovely to me) but a great song is a great song.
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Re: NME Top Singles of 1986

Postby naughty boy » 30 Jun 2018, 20:02

You know the worst thing about it? when he sings the title - that's the chorus, right? supposedly the memorable part, the part you take away with you?

try humming that now
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Re: NME Top Singles of 1986

Postby Deebank » 30 Jun 2018, 20:34

Somewhat light on artists featured on their own iconic C86 tape that top 10. Only Age Of Chance.
Makes me think that one of two camps had gained the upper hand in King’sReach Tower maybe.

I put the Bodines on at the Freshers’ Ball I organised (I loved Therese) supporting The JB’s!

It wasn’t quite as jarring a match as it looks on paper, The Bodines were a proto Madchester loose-limbed funk outfit - ahead of their time - within a year it was all the Roses this and the Monday’s that...

It could have been The Bodines!
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Re: NME Top Singles of 1986

Postby the masked man » 30 Jun 2018, 21:16

Darkness_Fish wrote:Yeah, you have to remember that a lot of what's in these lists would have been nowhere near mainstream radio. John Peel's show was the only place to hear things from outside the top 40 charts, and there also wasn't that much of a correlation between his and the NME's taste. I've no idea if there was a more NME-friendly show, like Steve Lamacq or someone at the time. I was largely tuning in a year or two later, for the grindcore.


There was. Janice Long's show immediately before in the evening dealt with the more tuneful side of alternative music, the stuff more likely to cross over.

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Re: NME Top Singles of 1986

Postby Deebank » 01 Jul 2018, 07:25

the masked man wrote:
Darkness_Fish wrote:Yeah, you have to remember that a lot of what's in these lists would have been nowhere near mainstream radio. John Peel's show was the only place to hear things from outside the top 40 charts, and there also wasn't that much of a correlation between his and the NME's taste. I've no idea if there was a more NME-friendly show, like Steve Lamacq or someone at the time. I was largely tuning in a year or two later, for the grindcore.


There was. Janice Long's show immediately before in the evening dealt with the more tuneful side of alternative music, the stuff more likely to cross over.


Andy Kershaw too.
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Re: NME Top Singles of 1986

Postby Moleskin » 01 Jul 2018, 11:49

Tonto Papadopoulos wrote:
ORORORO wrote:You know the worst thing about it? when he sings the title - that's the chorus, right? supposedly the memorable part, the part you take away with you?

try humming that now


Easy. *sings in head*

"When he world falls apart, somethings stay in place.
Levi Stubbs' tears run down his face."


God, that song is so ace in so many ways. I might start a thread about it.

It'll be full of twats playing the man not the ball.
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Re: NME Top Singles of 1986

Postby Goat Boy » 01 Jul 2018, 15:00

It’s a horrible, tuneless little thing with some rubbish sounding scratchy guitar and Braggs stupid fucking voice completing the horrorshow.

I genuinely find it puzzling how anybody can like it but I’m assuming the appeal is lyrical because it sure as hell ain’t the tune.

The man is charlatan and a fool.
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Re: NME Top Singles of 1986

Postby naughty boy » 01 Jul 2018, 15:17

and a cunt!
Matt 'interesting' Wilson wrote:So I went from looking at the "I'm a Man" riff, to showing how the rave up was popular for awhile.


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