Flashback 1990

Sometimes, it’s nice to rediscover the albums you loved when you were younger — to remind yourself of how you became such a fan of music in the first place, to reaffirm the power and validity of the album form itself, and, simply, to enjoy some damn good music. These are just a few of the albums that I loved from the year 1990. For those of you familiar with them, this may be a nice little nostalgic trip; for others, I’m hoping to spark enough curiosity that you go and seek them out. It’ll be worth it.

Pet Shop Boys, “Behaviour”

AZTEC CAMERA: “Stray”

Some misguided people still think that the Pet Shop Boys are merely purveyors of disposable dance-pop. This is the album that proved conclusively that they were so much more. With songs of lush subtlety, classy catchiness and heart-rending understatement, you could say that this is the Pet Shop Boys album for people who don’t like the Pet Shop Boys. Except that people who do like the Pet Shop Boys love it, too.

Highlights: Being Boring, My October Symphony, The End of the World

Aztec Camera, “Stray”

“The title is a reflection of both the lost romantic elements that lyrically grace the album and the fact that the record never seems to stay in one place musically from track to track,” points out one of my favorite music blogs, Aquarium Drunkard, citing “slow-burning jazz,” “big, righteous rock and roll,” and “smoothly produced pop” as some of the styles the album adopts. Oddly enough, I never felt the disparity of styles hurt the album’s cohesion, back when I was first listening to it a lot. I guess that lost romanticism really tied everything together.

PET SHOP BOYS: “Behaviour”

Highlights: The Crying Scene, The Gentle Kind, Good Morning Britain

Cocteau Twins, “Heaven or Las Vegas”

I know someone who was a Cocteau Twins fanatic, who tracked down every obscure EP and compilation the band ever appeared on, in the days long before torrents (I remember he didn’t even hesitate to snap up the Judge Dredd soundtrack on CD because it had “Need-Fire” on it). For those unfamiliar with the band, this may very well be the best introduction/explanation for why they could inspire such devotion. Chiming guitars, unearthly vocals, impeccable and skyward-yearning tunes: this is the music made by dazed angels.

Highlights: Cherry-Coloured Funk, Iceblink Luck, Heaven or Las Vegas

The Sundays, “Reading Writing and Arithmetic”

THE SUNDAYS: “Reading Writing and Arithmetic”

“This album will change your life,” said the British store manager of the HMV in Hong Kong, who sported the name of (but probably wasn’t the same person as) the Boo Radleys’ guitarist. I was building a CD collection — a notion that seems quaintly funny now — and this was one of my first, and best, purchases. Bittersweet, soaring guitar-pop songs, shot through with a sense of loss and improbable joy, little celebrations of the mundane and the ineffable. The Sundays could do no wrong, for a while. I miss them.

Highlights: Here’s Where the Story Ends (of course), Can’t Be Sure, My Finest Hour