Ten Great Songs from 1989

Are you discovering a pattern already? That's right, last week we had 1988, now 1989, guess what next week is going to bring. The playlist's page is here. Click on the "play" icon next to the first song to start. Alternatively, use the player below, but some songs are going to be faded out at 0:30.

1. Nine Inch Nails: Something I Can Never Have: I don't mind whining if it's done this competently.

2. The La's: There She Goes: Better than the Velvet Underground song of the same name. And you won't read this kind of sentence from me very often.

3. Lou Reed: Romeo Had Juliette: New York is quite possibly the best-produced album in the history of rock music, so get a vinyl copy instead of listening to this through your crappy computer speakers.

4. All: Carnage: It's surprising how much a thing of the past All seem to be - by which I don't mean to say that the song hasn't aged well. Strangely, "Carnage" didn't even make the vinyl version of the album. It's almost as though the band didn't agree with my assessment of the relative merits of their songs!

5. Kolossale Jugend: Bessere Zeiten klingt gut: Angry young men, Hamburg 1989 version.

6. Sugarcubes: Planet: Alternatively, try the Icelandic version.

7. Ramones: Pet Sematary: Which song was responsible for the most misspellings in pupils' English tests? I nominate "Pet Sematary", which also spawned this never-ending thread.

8. Red Hot Chili Peppers: Knock Me Down: Hey, convergence of form and content, or whatever you'd properly want to call it. It's fitting that in the lyrics of their most commercially promising song that far the singer the lyrical I would express concern about the psychological consequences of becoming famous.

9. Pixies: Hey: The best song from the best album of the decade.

10. The Stone Roses: I Am The Resurrection: Starts out like not much, turns into an anthem-type britpop song and then goes somewhat funky. Great.