Top 75 of 1992

The last chart representing 1991 was the one where a whole new world of music opened up, there was something beneath the top 40 that was being fed to me and I dived in, discovering some new bands and sounds in the process.  I bought albums by The Farm, EMF and Flowered Up and dipped my toes into something more guitar-heavy with Extreme.  I taped a whole host of songs from the Evening Session and bought a few 7"s and cassette singles too.

In reality, quite a few of the albums that had songs featuring in the 1991 chart were albums I bought in 1992.  I'm talking Pearl Jam's Ten, Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magik to mention a few, which was more of a representation of where my tastes were going in 1992.  The indie that I'd initially started with in 91 was more me taking on elements of my older brother's developing music tastes, 92 was more me finding what I wanted to listen to.

The first album I bought in 92 was Airhead's Boing, carrying on the indie theme of the previous year.  I then turned 14 in May 92 and I remember receiving Manic Street Preachers' Generation Terrorists on cassette and the white vinyl 12" of Pearl Jam's Even Flow for my birthday.  The Manics had played Middlesbrough Town Hall earlier that year and sadly I wasn't allowed to go as I was too young, my first gig still yet to happen.

Things took a different turn with my next two albums, Nine Inch Nails' Pretty Hate Machine and KMFDM's Money, quite a strange leap into some of the lighter side of industrial.  Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and the Black Crowes followed as American rock bands started to creep into my collection, as well as the latest albums from some of my original crop of bands, The Farm, Extreme and EMF.

My favourite band in 1991 had been The Farm, but their 1992 album Love See No Colour didn't quite live up to expectations and only ended up with one song featured in this chart.  The Senseless Things took over as my favourite band, The First of Too Many cassette that I own may have even been my brother's that he gave to me as I liked it so much,  He definitely gave me his Got It At The Delmar cassette single and his Easy to Smile 12" (complete with Jamie Hewlett art print).  If you're wondering where they are in this chart they only released a couple of singles, which will be counted towards the 1993 chart as part of their Empire of the Senseless album.

I also started recording a rock and metal programme on TV, which was on in the middle of the night, called Raw Power.  On there was a feature about the Red Hot Chili Peppers, What Hits was duly purchased and a back catalogue would follow gradually over the next couple of years.  Raw Power exposed me to even heavier sounds which intrigued me, however I wasn't quite ready to delve even deeper yet.  I saw videos like Sepultura's Arise, Napalm Death's Mass Appeal Madness and Suffer the Children, Carcass' Corporal Jigsore Quandary, Obituary's The End Complete - I kept them on my video (filling the gaps between them with songs from The Chart Show) but they were kind of like weird curios, things I was interested in but not sure I actually liked.

Even though I couldn't quite reach the more extreme bands yet, my tastes got a little bit heavier still over the year.  Purchases of Megadeth's Countdown to Extinction and Faith No More's Angel Dust were important stepping stones.  Nine Inch Nails' Broken and Fixed took it even further, Fixed in particular being especially harsh on these 14 year old ears.

But as you can see from the chart entries, it wasn't all about the pursuit of heavier music.  Peppered with the likes of Mega City Four, The Frank and Walters, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Carter, Blur, Inspiral Carpets and Thousand Yard Stare there was plenty of room for the 1991-style indie contingent.  In fact there were quite a few more among those that made my shortlist but didn't chart, the full list being: The Fall, Electronic, The Shamen, Swervedriver, Young Gods, Ludicrous Lollipops, Eat, Catherine Wheel, Charlatans, Natural Life, Napalm Death, Murder Inc, Ride, Therapy?, White Zombie, Fatima Mansions, Screaming Trees, Skid Row, Extreme, The Cure, 2 Die 4, James and Obituary.

So 1992 ended up being a great year for music, riffs in particular being a massive part of this chart, with Pantera, Rage Against the Machine and Helmet being responsible for a lot of them.  And in their cases not only massive riffs but riffs that groove.  It was also a year where I was properly acquainted with the debut album by the band that would always remain my favourite......although I didn't quite know it yet, that would happen in 1993.......

1. Iron Maiden - Fear of the Dark

2. Faith No More - Midlife Crisis

3. Nine Inch Nails - Wish

4. Manic Street Preachers - Stay Beautiful

5. Manic Street Preachers - Motorcycle Emptiness

6. Rage Against The Machine - Know Your Enemy

7. Rage Against The Machine - Killing in the Name

8. Pantera - Walk

9. Brutal Truth - Walking Corpse

10. Manic Street Preachers - You Love Us

11. Bolt Thrower - The IVth Crusade

12. Mega City Four - Stop.

13. Helmet - Unsung.

14. Helmet - In the Meantime.

15. Pantera - Mouth For War

16. Manic Street Preachers - Little Baby Nothing

17. Manic Street Preachers - Condemned to Rock 'N' Roll

18. Rage Against The Machine - Bullet in the Head

19. Rage Against The Machine - Bombtrack

20. Carter USM - The Only Living Boy in New Cross

21. The Farm - Mind

22. Lightning Seeds - The Life of Riley

23. Helmet - Turned Out

24. Rage Against The Machine - Wake Up

25. Nine Inch Nails - Gave Up

26. Manic Street Preachers - Slash N' Burn

27. Faith No More- Everything's Ruined

28. Pulp - Babies

29. Pantera - A New Level

30. The Levellers - 15 Years

31. Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Intact

32. Faith No More - A Small Victory

33. Alice in Chains - Would?

34. Faith No More - Jizzlobber

35. Pantera - Fucking Hostile

36. Manic Street Preachers - Repeat

37. Manic Street Preachers - Love's Sweet Exile

38. Manic Street Preachers - Born To End

39. Frank & Walters - This Is Not A Song

40. Nine Inch Nails - Happiness In Slavery

41. Megadeth - Symphony of Destruction

42. Paradise Lost - Pity the Sadness

43. Alice in Chains - Them Bones

44. Pearl Jam - State of Love and Trust

45. Faith No More - Land of Sunshine

46. EMF - They're Here

47. Manic Street Preachers - Nat West-Barclays-Midlands-Lloyds

48. EMF - Search and Destroy

49. Manic Street Preachers - Another Invented Disease

50. Blur - Popscene

51. Rage Against The Machine - Take the Power Back

52. Helmet - Give It

53. EMF - Getting Through

54. Stone Temple Pilots - Plush

55. L7 - Everglade

56. Stone Temple Pilots - Sex Type Thing

57. Lemonheads - It's a Shame About Ray

58. Mega City Four - Shivering Sand

59. Spin Doctors - Little Miss Can't Be Wrong

60. Ugly Kid Joe - So Damn Cool

61. Pantera - This Love

62. Pantera - Hollow

63. Pantera - Regular People (Conceit)

64. Manic Street Preachers - Crucifix Kiss

65. Thousand Yard Stare - 0-0 aet

66. Airhead - Scrap Happy

67. Spin Doctors - Two Princes

68. Black Crowes - Sting Me

69. KMFDM - Money

70. Ministry - Hero

71. KMFDM - Bargeld

72. Ministry - Jesus Built My Hotrod

73. Bolt Thrower - Dying Creed

74. Bolt Thrower - Celestial Sanctuary

75. Inspiral Carpets - Two Worlds Collide

Top 75 of 1991

All of the previous charts were looking back in a way.  Even though the last one covering 1990 had some songs in it that I liked at the time it was still mostly looking back, even if in some cases it was just a year or two.

1991 was a full year's worth of immersing myself in music that I was finding myself.  Me and my brother were listening to the Evening Session on Radio 1, I think I used to listen on a Tuesday evening and he would probably listen to it every other night as well as some other radio stations.  Being the older brother he was into it more and listened to a wide range of indie from baggy to shoegazing and all points in between.  And of course I'd listen to some of those bands too from simply being there when he was playing songs, stuff like the Stone Roses, Charlatans, Inspiral Carpets to others like Lush, Slowdive and Chapterhouse were bands I was hearing second hand.  Some of it I liked, others I didn't (*cough*, Slowdive) and I was on the lookout for bands that I could claim as my own.

Albums number 10, 11 and 13 in my collection would become those bands - namely The Farm's Spartacus, EMF's Schubert Dip and Flowered Up's A Life With Brian, all on vinyl (if you're wondering what album number 12 was it was covered in the 1990 chart - Extreme's Pornograffiti).  Singles by all three of those bands were also added to my collection along with Nine Inch Nails' Sin and The Black Crowes' Seeing Things to bring my collection up to 29 singles and 13 albums by the end of the year.  So while I was listening to a lot of new music, I wasn't particularly prolific in my record-buying during that year (probably because I was still only 13).

There were a lot of bands that missed out due to a huge shortlist this time around and I'll take the unusual step of listing them all this time.  So here we go: The Prodigy, Primal Scream, Ride, Inspiral Carpets, Top, Anthrax/Public Enemy, The Wendys, Curve, Lawnmower Deth, 2 Unlimited, The Waterboys, Chapterhouse, Carter USM, Skid Row, Five Thirty, Napalm Death, Scorpions, Northside, Mock Turtles, Wonder Stuff, Teenage Fanclub, Cicero, KLF and The Shamen.  Many of the songs concerned would have got into the top 50s of previous years and in fact for some bands they did have inferior songs which had been in those charts.  It was just their luck to hit an overcrowded year full of great albums and songs.  One good example of this is in the Senseless Things top 50 I did previously - When You Let Me Down made only no. 48 in the Senseless Things top 50 but was as high as 15 in the 1988 top 50.  However, Ex-Teenager was 25 places higher at no. 23 in their own chart but didn't even get in the 75 here.

Of the bands that did make it, it tended to be the indie ones that I was actually listening to in 1991 itself.  The chart that I compiled at the end of 1991 can be found here and its noticeable that bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers etc. that take up a decent chunk of this chart are absent.  The rock and metal bands mostly caught up in 1992, in some cases because they took that long to become hits over here, but also because I started to search further afield than just what my brother was listening to and find my own tastes.

So 1991 was the year music blew apart for me, but 1992 would end up being the year where I really started finding my pieces in the resulting wreckage.....

1. Manic Street Preachers - Motown Junk

2. Senseless Things - Easy to Smile

3. Pearl Jam - Alive

4. Pearl Jam - Black

5. Mega City Four - Words That Say

6. Metallica - Wherever I May Roam

7. Pearl Jam - Jeremy

8. Senseless Things - Got it at the Delmar

9. Metallica - Sad But True

10. Metallica - Nothing Else Matters

11. Metallica - Enter Sandman

12. Senseless Things - Should I Feel It

13. Manic Street Preachers - You Love Us

14. The Farm - Love See No Colour

15. Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Happy

16. Pearl Jam - Even Flow

17. Soundgarden - Jesus Christ Pose

18. Senseless Things - Everybody's Gone

19. James - Sit Down

20. Sepultura - Arise

21. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Under the Bridge

22. Pearl Jam - Porch

23. Pearl Jam - Once

24. Soundgarden - Rusty Cage

25. The Farm - All Together Now

26. Chesney Hawkes - The One and Only

27. Senseless Things - Can't Remember

28. New Fast Automatic Daffodils - Man Without Qualities One

29. EMF - Children

30. Nirvana - In Bloom

31. Sepultura - Desperate Cry

32. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

33. Pearl Jam - Why Go

34. Flowered Up - Take It

35. Metallica - Through the Never

36. Metallica - The Unforgiven

37. Temple of the Dog - Hunger Strike

38. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Give It Away

39. Rollins Band - Tearing

40. Smashing Pumpkins - I Am One

41. Smashing Pumpkins - Siva

42. Rollins Band - Low Self Opinion

43. Swervedriver - Sandblasted

44. Smashing Pumpkins - Rhinoceros

45. Carcass - Corporal Jigsore Quandary

46. Paradise Lost - Gothic

47. Nirvana - Lithium

48. Metallica - Of Wolf And Man

49. Paris Angels - Perfume

50. Blur - Bang

51. Manic Street Preachers - Sorrow 16

52. Jesus Jones - Real, Real, Real

53. Catherine Wheel - Shallow

54. Ugly Kid Joe - Everything About You

55. Guns N' Roses - You Could Be Mine

56. Nirvana - Territorial Pissings

57. Nirvana - Breed

58. The Farm - Groovy Train

59. EMF - I Believe

60. Nirvana - Come As You Are

61. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Breaking the Girl

62. Soundgarden - Outshined

63. Pearl Jam - Garden

64. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Suck My Kiss

65. REM - The One I Love

66. Senseless Things - Wrong Number

67. EMF - Unbelievable

68. Charlatans - Over Rising

69. REM - Losing My Religion

70. Red Hot Chili Peppers - If You Have to Ask

71. Red Hot Chili Peppers - I Could Have Lied

72. Ugly Kid Joe - Sweet Leaf/Funky Fresh Country Club

73. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik

74. EMF - Lies

75. Sepultura - Dead Embryonic Cells

Top 50 of 1990

1990 was a turning point of sorts for me.  Previously I had watched Top of the Pops and heard music generally and I had a record collection made up of about 10-15 singles and around 8 albums, but in terms of genre and identity they were all over the place, something I heard and liked - musical innocence in its purest form if you like.

In 1990 I turned 12 and started taping things from the top 40 with the intention of keeping it, I think I had already been doing this before but I don't think anything stuck around for very long.  I still have some of the recordings from 1990.  Me and my older brother also started making charts, our favourite 20 songs from this week's top 40, we would disappear off separately on Sunday night then come together and share them number by number.  You can find my top 40 for the year that I compiled at the time here.

If you look at that chart, it has some of the singles I bought that year (Gazza, Aztec Camera, FAB featuring MC Parker), it has plenty of pop that I couldn't necessarily recall today, but it also has the seeds of where I was about to go with my musical tastes.  My brother was starting to listen to indie music, in particular those associated with Manchester, baggy and associated hangers on for starters, hence the presence in that chart of the likes of The Charlatans and the Soup Dragons.  Within a year The Farm and EMF would release albums that would kick off my record collection proper, they would become "my" bands, but that's for the next blog.  As an aside the EMF and Farm songs featured there are eligible for the 1991 chart I'll be doing next as the albums were released then, rather than being separated out because the singles were released in 1990.

After a while I started to separate the tapes I had into Rock, Indie and Dance.  I had by far the most indie tapes, rock and dance were fairly equal for a time.  As you'll see below dance didn't stand the test of time with me, although my first rock tapes contained some entries in here like Holy Smoke, Thunderstruck and Hangar 18 as well as other songs that didn't quite make it (Poison's Unskinny Bop anyone?).

As with 1989, in particular with the American bands, some of the songs in this chart didn't become known over here until the following year as the world caught up.  So albums like Extreme's Pornograffiti and The Black Crowes' Shake Your Money Maker were two of the first rock albums I ever bought, just not actually in 1990.  Mix in some of the aforementioned indie and rock, throw in some Senseless Things, Pantera and Manics that I caught up with after discovering them in the next year or two and you have a very solid year of songs.  No really classic albums I don't think, but 1991 was poised and ready to change all that in a big way.........

1. Senseless Things - Tangled Lines

2. Megadeth - Holy Wars....The Punishment Due

3. Pantera - Cemetery Gates

4. Pantera - Domination

5. Inspiral Carpets - This is How it Feels

6. Senseless Things - Is It Too Late?

7. Iron Maiden - Bring Your Daughter....to the Slaughter

8. Charlatans - The Only One I Know

9. Megadeth - Hangar 18

10. Extreme - Decadence Dance

11. Black Crowes - Jealous Again

12. Black Crowes - Hard to Handle

13. The La's - There She Goes

14. AC/DC - Thunderstruck

15. Charlatans - Then

16. Manic Street Preachers - New Art Riot

17. Extreme - More Than Words

18. Black Crowes - She Talks to Angels

19. Pantera - Cowboys From Hell

20. Stone Roses - One Love

21. Manic Street Preachers - Strip it Down

22. Pop Will Eat Itself - 92°F

23. Extreme - Hole Hearted

24. Extreme - Get the Funk Out

25. Senseless Things - Leo

26. Carter USM - Rubbish

27. Happy Mondays - Step On

28. Extreme - It('s a Monster)

29. 1000 Homo DJs - Supernaut

30. Black Crowes - Stare it Cold

31. Slayer - War Ensemble

32. Black Crowes - Twice as Hard

33. Extreme - Song For Love

34. Napalm Death - Suffer the Children

35. Napalm Death - Vision Conquest

36. Extreme - He-Man Woman Hater

37. Black Crowes - Sister Luck

38. Inspiral Carpets - She Comes in the Fall

39. Happy Mondays - Loose Fit

40. Extreme - Pornograffiti

41. Megadeth - Rust in Peace....Polaris

42. Helmet - Repetition

43. Iron Maiden - Holy Smoke

44. Pantera - Heresy

45. New Order - World in Motion

46. James - Come Home

47. Aztec Camera - Good Morning Britain

48. Megadeth - Tornado of Souls

49. Megadeth - Lucretia

50. Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss

Top 50 of 1989

All of the preceding charts were a mixture of childhood pop reminiscence and time-travelling discovery at a later date, but by 1989 the pop had dried up.....or maybe it hasn't stood the test of time particularly well. Perhaps I was also growing out of it as the likes of Stock/Aitken/Waterman were taking over the charts.  All the songs that made it onto my pop shortlist ended up losing out including Technotronic's Pump Up the Jam, Bobby Brown's My Prerogative and On Our Own and the one that came closest, Jason Donovan's Too Many Broken Hearts (perhaps assisted by my later cover), the latter two expanding my ever growing 7" collection.

In 1989 I turned 11, so I don't think I was aware of most of the songs here in that year but I certainly became aware of most of them over the next 2 or 3 years.  Many of these songs and albums were part of my grounding in music even if it didn't necessarily take place in that year, in fact a few of the albums featured here didn't actually break over here until subsequent years, with an accompanying breakthrough single.

So with pop gone and the two bands that dominated the 80s charts, Iron Maiden and Metallica, between albums it allowed other bands to shine.  Bands like Faith No More, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails, Sepultura and Soundgarden produced very good albums in 1989, in all cases they would follow it up with one even better that would further shape my tastes in years to come.  The Senseless Things' Postcard CV in particular was a huge influence on my own songwriting and was another that was to be followed up by even greater songs.

The musical landscape, as well as what would become my musical taste, was starting to change, definitely for the better with a new rock/alternative slant and a healthy dose of indie pushing its way in.  My musical awakening was beginning.....

1. Senseless Things - Too Much Kissing

2. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground

3. Faith No More - Epic

4. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Knock Me Down

5. Nine Inch Nails - Head Like A Hole

6. Faith No More - From Out of Nowhere

7. Senseless Things - Teenage

8. Stone Roses - I Am the Resurrection

9. Senseless Things - Standing in the Rain

10. Nine Inch Nails - Sin

11. Carcass - Reek of Putrefaction

12. Nine Inch Nails- Terrible Lie

13. Faith No More - Falling to Pieces

14. Extreme - Mutha (Don't Wanna Go To School Today)

15. Faith No More - The Real Thing

16. Stone Roses - Waterfall

17. Manic Street Preachers - Suicide Alley

18. Sepultura - Inner Self

19. Sepultura - Beneath the Remains

20. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Taste the Pain

21. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Nobody Weird Like Me

22. Faith No More - Woodpecker From Mars

23. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stone Cold Bush

24. Soundgarden - Loud Love

25. Senseless Things - Girlfriend

26. Senseless Things - Back to Nowhere

27. Carter USM - Sheriff Fatman

28. Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored

29. Senseless Things - Trevor

30. Stone Roses - Made of Stone

31. Nirvana - About a Girl

32. Soundgarden - Hands All Over

33. Extreme - Play With Me

34. Senseless Things - Someone in You

35. Stone Roses - She Bangs the Drums

36. Extreme - Flesh 'N' Blood

37. Nine Inch Nails - Sanctified

38. Faith No More - Zombie Eaters

39. Inspiral Carpets - Find Out Why

40. Pop Will Eat Itself - Def.Con.One

41. Wonder Stuff  - Don't Let Me Down, Gently

42. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Johnny, Kick a Hole in the Sky

43. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Subway to Venus

44. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Good Time Boys

45. Nine Inch Nails - Down In It

46. Bolt Thrower - World Eater

47. Sepultura - Mass Hypnosis

48. Extreme - Kid Ego

49. Extreme - Little Girls

50. Nine Inch Nails - Ringfinger

Top 50 of 1988

In 1988 I turned 10 and at the time I think I owned 4 albums and about 10 singles.  So it's kind of nice that a song from one of those albums managed to make it to number 1 this time around and break the Metallica/Iron Maiden stranglehold of the three previous charts.

This chart is the first year to break out on its own, given the previous ones were 1970-82, 1983-85 and 1986-87.  And to be honest there wasn't a massive depth of quality in my collection to choose from.  As in previous charts the golden years of Iron Maiden and Metallica had seen them dominate and with 1988 being the last year that their big hitting albums coincided in the same year, this (coupled with my expanding record collection in future years) will mean this will never happen again in future charts.

The number of bands included here seems much smaller and as an example of quality I had Senseless Things songs hitting the top 20 here that didn't even make their own top 50!  That's not to say that all the songs included here aren't very good, they are.  But compared to other charts, the pop had kind of dried up and turned into Stock/Aitken/Waterman-type stuff (which admittedly I liked at the time but most hasn't stood the test of time well) and all of the metal, rock and indie bands that I own releases by were really just getting started, dipping their toes into the water, their best work yet to come.  So watch this space for 1989 and onwards, the competition is going to get a lot tougher........

1. Aha - Stay On These Roads

2. Iron Maiden - Moonchild

3. Metallica - Blackened

4. Metallica - One

5. Bathory - A Fine Day to Die

6. Iron Maiden - The Evil That Men Do

7. Aha - You Are The One

8. Iron Maiden - The Clairvoyant

9. Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

10. Aha - Touchy!

11. Aha - The Living Daylights

12. Aha - Out of Blue Comes Green

13. Aha - This Alone is Love

14. Iron Maiden - Can I Play With Madness

15. Senseless Things - When You Let Me Down

16. Senseless Things - Passions Out of Town

17. Senseless Things - You Don't Want Me

18. Iron Maiden - Only the Good Die Young

19. Metallica - The Shortest Straw

20. Metallica - Breadfan

21. Senseless Things - I Want to Go Back

22. New Order - Blue Monday 88

23. Pet Shop Boys - Heart

24. Metallica - The Frayed Ends of Sanity

25. Metallica - Dyer's Eve

26. Metallica - To Live is to Die

27. Megadeth - In My Darkest Hour

28. Inspiral Carpets - Keep the Circle Around

29. Slayer - Mandatory Suicide

30. Pet Shop Boys - Left to my Own Devices

31. Stone Roses - Elephant Stone

32. Rollins Band - What Am I Doing Here?

33. Slayer - South of Heaven

34. Senseless Things - I've Lost My Train

35. Senseless Things - Where the Secret Lies

36. Wonder Stuff - A Wish Away

37. Carter USM - A Sheltered Life

38. Happy Mondays - W.F.L.

39. Metallica - The Prince

40. Senseless Things - The Only One

41. Metallica - Harvester of Sorrow

42. Metallica - ...And Justice For All

43. Rollins Band - Wreck-Age

44. Iron Maiden - Infinite Dreams

45. Napalm Death - Unchallenged Hate

46. Napalm Death - Mentally Murdered

47. Soundgarden - Flower

48. Megadeth - Hook in Mouth

49. Rollins Band - If You're Alive

50. Rollins Band - Burned Beyond Recognition

Top 50 of 1986 to 1987

Last time out I covered 1983 to 1985, this time it slims down to a two year period, from 1986 to 1987.  During those years I was aged 7 to 9 years old and still had a very small record collection, adding albums by Rick Astley and Wet Wet Wet as well as singles by the likes of Europe, Living in a Box and Hue and Cry.  Some of those artists made it here, others didn't.

As with the two previous charts there are still a lot of albums discovered much later, if you followed the 1970-82 and 83-85 charts the pattern of Metallica and Maiden entries will be of no surprise but there were a few more bands starting to hit their stride from slower beginnings, bands like Faith No More and Red Hot Chili Peppers.  Not to mention the usual selection of chart hits that hung around in my brain long enough to still impress.

There's a distinct feeling here of things starting to get a little more alternative, the aforementioned FNM and RHCP increasing their number, the pop songs included being a little less cheesy and more hard-hitting in places, the metal growing ever more extreme.  The number of releases to choose from in my collection is still relatively small from these years meaning repeats of bands are inevitable, but the sounds within are definitely starting to open out.

1. Metallica - Master of Puppets

2. Slayer - Angel of Death

3. New Order - True Faith

4. Iron Maiden - Caught Somewhere in Time

5. Iron Maiden - The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

6. Metallica - Battery

7. Europe - The Final Countdown

8. Faith No More - Faster Disco

9. Iron Maiden - Heaven Can Wait

10. Iron Maiden - Alexander the Great

11. Pet Shop Boys - It's a Sin

12. Metallica - Damage Inc

13. Iron Maiden - Wasted Years

14. Guns N' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle

15. Iron Maiden - Stranger in a Strange Land

16. Megadeth - Peace Sells

17. Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine

18. Slayer - Raining Blood

19. Metallica - Last Caress/Green Hell

20. Iron Maiden - Deja Vu

21. Guns N' Roses - Paradise City

22. Faith No More - Introduce Yourself

23. Pet Shop Boys - Always on my Mind

24. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Backwoods

25. Cutting Crew - (I Just) Died in your Arms

26. Aha - Manhattan Skyline

27. Napalm Death - Instinct of Survival

28. Faith No More - We Care a Lot

29. Sepultura - Troops of Doom

30. Europe - Rock the Night

31. Faith No More - Chinese Arithmetic

32. Faith No More - R n' R

33. Metallica - Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

34. Pet Shop Boys - Suburbia

35. Europe - On Broken Wings

36. Pet Shop Boys - Opportunities

37. Faith No More - Anne's Song

38. Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up

39. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Fight Like a Brave

40. Aha - Cry Wolf

41. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Me and My Friends

42. Starship - Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now

43. Napalm Death - Scum

44. Napalm Death - The Kill

45. Faith No More - The Crab Song

46. Faith No More - Spirit

47. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Subterranean Homesick Blues

48. Jan Hammer - Crockett's Theme

49. Julian Cope - World Shut Your Mouth

50. Megadeth - Wake Up Dead

The next chart will be the first single year, 1988.