The Sundays – Can’t Be Sure their debut single, a song I still have right up there in my all time top singles lists. In fact, when Patch brings the snare in at 2:33 and Harriet’s vocals lift that bit, I think it’s pure magic indiethroughthelookingglass

The Lightning Seeds – Pure Because it was Top Of The Pops, I know the exact date I first heard one of Ian Broudie’s songs. Not only do I know the date, but I remember almost everything that happened in the ensuing half hour. It was the first TOTP of August 1989. And, as it happens, Paul McCartney was also on there, albeit via the video to one of his best singles of that decade, ‘This One’. Paul was at number 30; ‘Pure’ by the Lightning Seeds was at number 32. Because The Lightning Seeds wasn’t actually a band at that point, the song was also represented by a video clip. We only got about 90 seconds or so, but that was enough to trigger an emergency of sorts. Everything I longed for in a pop song was abundant in those 90 seconds. The absolute absence of cynicism; the lack of machismo or anything else that flagged up a reverence for rock over pop; the heroically unabashed romantic idealism of the words, words that the singer didn’t seem able to get out fast enough. I was 20 and I wanted to believe in the total, unconditional, forever version of love that existed in songs thequietus

The Stone Roses – She Bangs The Drums The hi-hat tingles with anticipation, the bass builds with hair-raising determination and finally Squire’s guitar soars, coupled with the lovesick opening couplet “I can feel the Earth begin to move / I hear my needle hit the groove.” To call it a simple song is to disregard the beauty of its construction; this song boiled three decades of guitar pop down to the bare bones of the euphoria of meeting someone you desperately want to be with and hearing a song you can’t stop playing guardian

The Stone Roses – I Am The Resurrection “The only thing I did to excess were guitar solos,” joked Squire to the Guardian in 2002. This one is finely honed and perfectly balanced, wringing an abundance of leftover joy from the first album like a sugar-fuelled child racing around the living room guardian

Happy Mondays – Wrote For Luck a song that had the epic duration and peaks of being in a club and on one: it was tune into which you could slip down the rabbit hole in the company of Shaun Ryder’s druggy non-sequiturs arcticreviews

New Order – All The Way The chorus—“It takes years to find the nerve / to be apart from what you’ve done / to find the truth inside yourself / and not depend on anyone”—is a relatable, sad echo of the difficult nature of developing self-awareness and coming into one’s own pastemagazine

Electronic – Getting Away With It it seems odd that Electronic has seemingly been so quickly forgotten, considering that the band’s supergroup status seemed like a marriage of all the most beloved things about the Manchester music scene of the ’80s. A partnership between Bernard Sumner of New Order and Johnny Marr of the Smiths was an exciting thing at the time, more or less forcing fans and critics to pay both attention and respect. Toss in some collaborative work with Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant for good measure, and Electronic seemed like the perfect union of dance-pop genius popmatters

Kate Bush – This Woman’s Work In the 1988 John Hughes movie She’s Having A Baby, the spare ballad “This Woman’s Work” plays when the main character is waiting for news on potential complications while his partner is giving birth… Although tied to a particular movie scene, “This Woman’s Work” transcends its origins; its protagonist acknowledges and gives thanks for the often-invisible physical and emotional labor undertaken by women, a radical gesture then — and now. stereogum

Brighter – Inside Out While this was a band that wrote wonderfully emotive songs that recall the thing we love best about music, they were never destined to rule the world. Casual music fans embrace a different set of ideals than the more rabid ones popmatters

Galaxie 500 – Strange Over a stridently strummed acoustic guitar recalling early R.E.M, Wareham, singing at the very top of his range and barely able to keep his voice from cracking, wonders “Why’s everybody acting funny? Why’s everybody look so strange?” as he waits his turn in line and eats a Twinkie. Is “Strange” about Kafka-esque alienation or just a bad case of the munchies? Hard to say, but the song’s ambiguity suggests that Wareham knows that such things are not mutually exclusive. stereogum

The Field Mice – Sensitive OK. It got into Peel’s Festive Fifty, but did it dominate the nation’s airwaves like it should have? Quite simply the greatest 7 inch ever committed to vinyl. Was there ever such a perfect a & b side? Great sleeve, great band, great label: great God!! Why has this not sold a million? Sheer perfection. howdoesitfeeltobeloved

Popguns – Landslide What really makes the group special is Wendy Morgan’s keening voice, which infuses each track with a wistful sepia-toned longing that nevertheless sounds filled with hopeful possibilities popmatters

Pixies – Here Comes Your Man it was, for all it’s catchiness, still a song that couldn’t have been written by any other band. Although the twangy guitar hook and chorus are what stick most in your head, it’s not for nothing that Frank Black was singing about hobos having their skulls crushed in an earthquake popmatters

Pixies – Monkey Gone To Heaven intoned its way into indie legend with its ominous bass, brooding strings and chords clanging like a brutal sacrifice. Muzzling his inner hyena to allow for an even more menacing tone, Black Francis bestrode the track like an evil mystic summoning demons with ancient numerical incantations: “If man is five then the devil is six,” he howled, more terrifying than any metal gurner, and when it hit The Chart Show’s indie chart it looked for all the world like a party political broadcast on behalf of a hypnotic death cult you had no choice but to hand over your worldly goods to, while offering thanks for your thrashings. guardian

The Cure – Pictures Of You Apparently inspired by a photograph of his partner Mary that he found following a fire, the true meaning behind the song has been left open-ended… The track feels devastating and cathartic, like grieving and moving on. It’s seven and a half minutes of nostalgia and purely The Cure. … Fans can identify with the lyrics about loss and love, while the band eases its feelings with the smoothness of this timeless classic faroutmagazine

Spacemen 3 – Lord Can You Hear Me? A radio-friendly hit it is not, but it still managed to capture the imaginations of an entire generation of maudlin, duffle-coated teens faroutmagazine

Sonic Boom – Help Me Please a phenomenal record, sounding just as fresh as it did all those years ago. Other highlights include ‘Angel’, a song that sees Kember channel the mournful sing-speak of Lou Reed in The Velvet Underground while saturated drones slowly rise out of the gloom, consuming everything in their path faroutmagazine

Lou Reed – Dirty Blvd a scathing critique of the socioeconomic inequality and urban decay that plagued New York City during the 1980s. Reed’s lyrics paint a vivid picture of life on the streets, where poverty, violence, and addiction were rampant singersroom

Bob Dylan – Most Of The Time Dylan envisioned it as a stripped-down folk song, but Daniel Lanois wanted to infuse it with his trademark swamp atmosphere production. Lanois won the battle… The song explores the difficulty of getting over an old lover (“Don’t even remember what her lips felt like on mine/Most of the time“)… Lanois’ slow, swelling track makes heartbreak seem like a real-time revelation rollingstone

Treebound Story – Swimming In The Heart Of Jane  UK 4-track 12″ EP by Richard Hawley’s first band pre-Longpigs, a gorgeous washed-out indie song eil

The Bardots – Sad Anne a UK export who flirted heavily with guitarsy atmospherics while sidestepping dream/Brit pop almost altogether willfullyobscure

Goodbye Mr Mackenzie – The Rattler more recently known as the band where Garbage’s Shirley Manson first became a recording artist and got her first taste of the music industry… how clever, upbeat, and catchy their music is, capturing the spirit of that era bigtakeover

The Jesus and Mary Chain – Head On driving and pulsating, with its rockabilly guitars and chorus reminiscent of Springsteen’s Born to Run. Musically, it’s pulverising, and lyrically it’s emphatic too: “Makes you want to feel / Makes you want to try / Makes you want to blow the stars from the sky.” The Pixies certainly thought so – their cover on Trompe le Monde is arguably more famous.

The Wedding Present – Kennedy races along at the speed of light. The guitars are relatively clean but link up to create one mega-noise that spins you around in a captivating climax, with all the colours and sensory delights of the late ’80s washing over you. faroutmagazine

Orbital – Chime The original 1989 debut 12″ single from the brothers Hartnoll lasted an epic 12 minutes radiox

De La Soul – Eye Know it’s the combination of Otis Redding’s whistle from “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” the guitars and horns from The Mad Lads hit “Make This Young Lady Mine,” the drum break off Lee Dorsey’s “Get Out Of My Life, Woman” and the vocal hook from “Peg” by Steely Dan that gives Pos and Trugoy their wings to fly high on a lyrical plane that finds both men extolling the virtues of ascending to De La heaven billboard

The B-52s – Roam Cosmic Thing, a Day-Glo party record fusing 1960s flower power, 1970s drugs, and 1980s pop. While most of the tracks focused on the breakneck eclecticism that was already iconic to the band, ‘Roam’ was something else entirely. Centred around an acid-rock guitar lick, ‘Roam’ features just C. Wilson and Pierson taking you through the jungles, mountains, and hills all in search of wonder and excitement. It’s the most cut-and-dry pop song that The B-52s ever made, and it remains one of the most joyous tracks in the band’s setlists faroutmagazine

Pavement – Box Elder in its sentimental but skeptical outlook, announced just how non-committal and standoffish Pavement was at the very core of its being, grabbing hold of your attention only to become ambivalent about whether it actually cared about that or not popmatters

Korova Milk Bar – Do It Again Sonically nothing innovative here, but their overarching penchant appeals to me, as I’m picking up traces of Mighty Lemon Drops, Family Cat, Echo and the Bunnymen, and various C86 indie and Madchester swill. wilfullyobscure

The Candy Darlings – That’s Where Caroline Lives The classic C86 sound is still around 50thirdand3rd

Nirvana – About A Girl a surprisingly sweet and earnest love song that betrayed Cobain’s love of tuneful-but-rickety British indie pop guardian

Beat Happening – Other Side Beat Happening were a lot of things. They could rock out like the Cramps, be wayward mavericks a la Lee Hazlewood, and of course sound like 60’s beatniks… they always started their records with a splash and this duet between Calvin and Heather is full of wistful beauty finestkiss

BOB – Convenience a joyful slice of indie pop, blessed with an unforgettable chorus, and a joie de vivre about the track that is just about the most infectious thing imaginable backseatmafia

Kitchens of Distinction – The 3rd Time We Opened The Capsule a band whose debut album was released the same week as The Stone Roses’ to better reviews thequietus

REM – Orange Crush anthemic with its propulsive, machine gun groove and signature jangle piercing like a lightning strike. It’s not as didactic or strident as a U2 or Clash song, but it’s direct and personal for Michael Stipe, which is what makes it such a compelling listen. In the track Stipe alludes to his father serving in the war as a helicopter pilot. It was unusual for him to touch on something that overtly personal at this point of his career avclub

The Beautiful South – Song For Whoever Paul Heaton is one of the finest lyricists and observers of modern life that we have ever seen. He has some of the acerbic wit of Morrissey and the observational powers of Davies, yet he is very much different to both musicmusingsandsuch

PO! – Confidence Tributes have been paid to a “loving punk mum” who inspired other women to play music. Ruth Miller, from Leicester, was the founder of The Unglamorous music project, which taught women – even if they had no previous experience – to play instruments and form bands. The 61-year-old mother of two died from breast cancer on 16 October 2023. Her daughter Izzy Cheney says people tell her stories about her mum and how she has changed their lives. bbc

The Cherry Orchard – This Big Love

Strawberry Story – Tell Me Now

Milltown Brothers – Which Way Should I Jump

Morrissey – The Last Of The Famous International Playboys As vicious gangsters who ruled over London’s East End at its seediest, Ronnie and Reggie Kray were natural objects of fascination to Morrissey. The twins’ queerness only added to the glamor. No wonder this tribute is written from the perspective of an especially ardent fan who ponders the stardom granted to those who kill yet is desperate to impress Reggie spin

The Wonder Stuff – Don’t Let Me Down, Gently fun track that packs a punch in a very short time frame. High energy and ammo for doing the pogo. Right? Right. mylifeinmusiclists

Inspiral Carpets – Joe

Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine – Sheriff Fatman When BBC4 next retells the history of rock’n’roll and the story reaches the 1990s, after namechecking Madchester it will, with weary predictability, hymn grunge and then move straight on to Britpop. If you’re lucky, it might manage a brief shoegazing montage. But something just as momentous happened in the early 90s that refuses to fit neatly into this narrative. And this movement is exemplified by Carter USM, a band I hold close to my bosom, have followed since 1989 and whose final shows fill me – and thousands of others – with a certain generational sadness. theguardian

Husker Du – Charity, Chastity, Prudence, and Hope Never had a band so spectacularly fallen apart the minute they were given the opportunity to succeed… Husker Du had drug problems, personal antagonism, internal tragedy, and pure exhaustion to blame for their own implosion, right as the world was beginning to embrace the exact kind of music they were playing.

Warehouse: Songs and Stories showed a band that certainly wasn’t lacking in quality material. Both Mould and Hart had so enough amazing songs to fill out full albums each, so Warehouse became a double album featuring alternating song credits. The two were so controlling of their material at that point that they would occasionally rerecord Norton’s bass parts themselves.

What followed the album’s release is a sad and bizarre string of events that spelt the end of the band: their manager David Savoy took his own life right before the supporting tour kicked off, leading Mould to take control to the consternation of Hart. Hart was in the throes of a heroin addiction that made his playing and behaviour unpredictable. The band played on The Today Show and The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers, for inexplicable and unexplainable reasons. When Hart and Mould came to blows over Hart’s abilities to play clean, the three parted ways and permanently closed the door on Husker Du. It was a sad ending to an amazing band, but the joys and triumphs of a legendary band could still be heard, and if you want to find that joy for yourself, it’s hard to find it in a better place than Hart’s ‘Charity, Chastity, Prudence, and Hope.’ faroutmagazine

Hey Paulette – Commonplace got them the attention of John Peel who played it regularly and gave the band a session, after the playing of which, he memorably stated ( memorable to the band anyway ) that he thought there would be ” a big yes to Hey Paulette.) Unfortunately, there wasn’t and the band succumbed to the usual personal and musical differences, sometime in 1991. twee.net

The Onset – Sun And Moon For years, Liverpool’s the Onset played the clubs and toured the continent, piling up glowing reviews but never inking a deal — thus, the group left behind little more than fond memories. What a waste! allmusic

The Church Grims – Mr Watt Said C89 is full of these rare treasures by bands that put out just a handful of songs on tiny labels. They may have only ever made an impression on their own local music fans, but that doesn’t say anything about their value. The Church Grims never even had a record of their own. Their song Mr Watt Said was the only thing of theirs that ever came out, on an Egg Records compilation record. This is a quirky, brightly melancholic number, perfect for a warm, sunny day; which is unfortunate since they were from Scotland. 50thirdand3rd

A Riot of Colour – Swallow Every band has a place where they say it all started. Ours was Aberdare Gardens, a leafy street in North London’s Swiss Cottage. Having moved ‘up to the smoke’ from Sevenoaks to start a band, A Riot of Colour (name pinched from a newspaper headline about the Queen) was born in this enormous Victorian house, shared with between 7 and 19 others, depending on who’d been to The Blenheim that night!

London’s permanent drummer shortage led to our enlisting a Sequential Circuits DrumTraks for our debut two-song 7″ Lyntone flexi-disc. Twenty years of hindsight has shown this delicate black sliver of plastic to have been the perfect ambassador, opening some interesting doors including the biggest, John Peel’s. It couldn’t have been simpler. Waiting outside the Beeb for a couple of nights at ten-past-midnight and handing it over to him in person. In our naïvety, we keenly listened to his show the next night and, lo and behold, he actually went and played the thing. tweenet