Joan Armatrading, Show Some Emotion (A&M)

I only heard Show Some Emotion; properly for the first time about a week ago and the fact that it upset my previous selection and promptly scored My No. 4 vote is testimony enough to the rare beauty and warmth with which all Joan Armatrading's songs are infused. Anyhow, I'm still getting into it at this stage, so I can only reiterate what Niall said in his original review: buy two copies, one for yourself, one for your lover, and listen to the lady speak.

Ian Dury, New Boots And Panties (Stiff)

Ian Dury - gammy leg an' all - saunters over the line in my 3rd place with New Boots And Panties, easily the most positive re-emergence of the year and an album which - not before its time - brought sex, drugs and rock'n'roll from the Old Kent Road to the Irish sittingroom. Wit, great tunes (sorry, I mean "chewns") lots of Cockney panache, a modicum of good ol' vulgarity (if 'wit') plus, in 'Sweet Gene Vincent', a rock'n'roll tribute of such stature that someone is bound to eulogise it in yet another tribute, if there's any justice in the world at all! Hear it.

The Rolling Stones, Love You Live (Rolling Stones Records)

Absolutely no apologies on my part for including year Stones as my number five. The live album is deemed something of a rock'n'roll pariah by many, with the result that Love You Live might just be overlooked in the rush for heavee studio recordings. However, contrary to many reports, rock'n'roll isn't always about radical musical innovation and profound lyrical insights y'know. Nope, just sometimes it concerns itself with old fashioned craziness, sweat, excitement, dancing, power, and fun, fun, fun! And if you've forgotten what that is, then get Stoned and have yourselves a ball. They may be old, they may even be farts, but they sure as hell isn't boring.

Television, Marquee Moon (Elektra)

Television's Marquee Moon is still the one album which, on ever occasion I return to it, seems fresh, distinctive and invariably reveals yet another quirk, another charm, which had escaped me the last time round. there's an indefinable 'something' (or a je ne sais quoi, as our multi-lingual editor is wont to say) which defies conventional labelling, while simultaneously transcending the obvious bonuses like the memorable melody of 'Venus de Milo', the eerie clockwork precision of 'Prove It', the vintage Stones feel of 'See No Evil', and best of all, Tom Verlaine's breathtaking, soaring guitar, scaling hitherto unassailable heights on the incomparable title-track itself.

When it comes down to it,Marquee Moon is simply the most innovative, the most meticulously conceived and executed, and by far the most convincingly complete body of music I've had the pleasure of hearing in the last two or three years.