My Top 50 Albums of 1989
About a decade ago, I started working my way back chronologically making lists of my favorite albums and singles of each year. But then I got to 1990 and stopped there for a while, partly because I became a music lover in the '90s and those lists were easier to make, and partly because my deep album cuts series started that year and sort of became my vehicle for listening to and appreciating albums from past decades. But I've been slowly getting my '80s lists together and am happy to finally back into these. Here's a Spotify playlist with one track from nearly all these albums.
1. De La Soul - 3 Feet High And Rising
2. Janet Jackson - Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814
2. Janet Jackson - Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814
3. Madonna - Like A Prayer
4. Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
5. The B-52's - Cosmic Thing
6. Kool G Rap & DJ Polo - Road To The Riches
7. Michael Penn - March
8. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
9. MC Lyte - Eyes On This
10. Aerosmith - Pump
11. Babyface - Tender Lover
12. Fugazi - 13 Songs
13. Big Daddy Kane - It's A Big Daddy Thing
14. John Mellencamp - Big Daddy
15. EPMD - Unfinished Business
16. Biz Markie - The Biz Never Sleeps
17. Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever
18. Camper Van Beethoven - Key Lime Pie
19. The D.O.C. - No One Can Do It Better
20. The Cure - Disintegration
21. Tears For Fears - The Seeds Of Love
22. Pixies - Doolittle
23. Queen Latifah - All Hail The Queen
24. Motley Crue - Dr. Feelgood
25. Chris Isaak - Heart Shaped World
26. Kate Bush - The Sensual World
27. The Replacements - Don't Tell A Soul
28. The Geto Boys - Grip It! On That Other Level
29. Neil Young - Freedom
30. Prince - Batman
31. Nirvana - Bleach
30. Prince - Batman
31. Nirvana - Bleach
32. Soundgarden - Louder Than Love
33. Boogie Down Productions - Ghetto Music: The Blueprint of Hip Hop
34. The Jungle Brothers - Done By The Forces Of Nature
35. Ice-T - The Iceberg / Freedom Of Speech...Just Watch What You Say!
36. The Blue Nile - Hats
37. Gang Starr - No More Mr. Nice Guy
38. "Weird Al" Yankovic - UHF - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff
37. Gang Starr - No More Mr. Nice Guy
38. "Weird Al" Yankovic - UHF - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff
39. Bonnie Raitt - Nick Of Time
40. Elvis Costello - Spike
41. Lemonheads - Lick
42. The Meat Puppets - Monsters
43. Warren Zevon - Transverse City
44. Todd Rundgren - Nearly Human
45. The Rolling Stones - Steel Wheels
46. LL Cool J - Walking With A Panther
47. Don Henley - The End of the Innocence
48. fIREHOSE - fROMOHIO
49. Eric Clapton - Journeyman
50. Willie Nelson - A Horse Called Music
I was 7 in 1989 so the only albums on here that I actually heard at the time were the ones my parents played around the house: Aerosmith, Todd Rundgren, Rolling Stones, Don Henley, and Eric Clapton. So I have some deeply ingrained affection for the dad rock of that era. The conventional wisdom is that the late '80s were one of the worst times for popular music in the last few decades, and I don't know if I would argue against that -- even some of the very best albums on this list sound a little dated, like all the '80s production trends had sort of culminated to this really overblown sound even on a lot of indie records. But I've come to love that sound. And while there are alt-rock and hip hop albums in 1989 that point the way towards what the 1990s would sound like, there are some sounds that reached their apex in '89, like the sampledelic patchworks of 3 Feet High And Rising and Paul's Boutique that would soon be litigated out of existence (literally -- it's pretty aggravating that you currently can't easily stream or purchase the #1 album on this list).
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