- Music
- 12 May 01
1986 was a disappointing year for Irish albums, with only Blue In Heaven and Maura O’Connell distinguishing themselves on that front.
1986 was a disappointing year for Irish albums, with only Blue In Heaven and Maura O’Connell distinguishing themselves on that front. It did, however, produce a number of fine home-grown mini-albums, including contributions from Stars Of Heaven, Quarterdeck and Mary Coughlan. Light A Big Fire’s album failed to materialise – a major disappointment to their legions of Irish fans – and Cactus World News’ ‘Urban Beaches’ simply failed to impress. It was, nevertheless, a good year for Irish singles); Dorian Mood, Aslan, Quarterdeck, Tuesday Blue and Flex And The Fastweather all released worthy seven others.
Internationally, The Housemartins were, in my books, band of the year. A superb album, a fantastic gig and – fingers crossed – a Christmas number one, saw Hull’s finest become Britain’s finest, with only Matt Johnson, Elvis Costello, The Eurythmics and The Communards offering any real competition. Those four acts all released – in fact Costello released two – admirable albums, with Matt Johnson and The The in particular finishing ahead of the pack with ‘Infected’, the highly acclaimed follow-up to 1982’s ‘Soul Mining’.
Further afield, Paul Simon made his mark with ‘Graceland’, arguably his finest album to date and one which has astounded critics and fans alike, with its unique synthesis of American and South African music.
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1986 was also the year of the Great Soul Revival and a number of re-issues merit a mention. The ‘Atlantic Rhythm And Blues Box Set’ was a gem, its even albums providing a detailed back-catalogue of soul music’s finest hours. Re-issues too from Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye were well-received, with a final mention going to The Neville Brothers ‘Fiyo On the Bayou’ – an album that, had it been released this year, would certainly have been among my top three.
As it stands though, I’ll plump for ‘Graceland’ closely followed by ‘London 0, Hull 4’, two remarkable discs in an unremarkable year.