The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 46

t2 Midnight Oil Blue Sky Mining (CBS) A richly textured, mature and consistently memorable set that saw the Oils assuming the mantle of the world's most impressive mainstream rock band. Peter Garrett had even learned how to sing. Paul Simon The Rhythm Of The Saints (WEA) Simon's Brazilian album was marginally less accessible but better than Graceland; the melodies more subtle, the rhythms more complex, the moods more fragrant. Julee Cruise Floating Into The Night (WEA) Like a 1950s pop balladeer suspended in a flotation tank, Cruise gave us the year's most perfectly formed album, her innocentsophisticated vocals given a dreamlike ambience by the lyrics of film director David Lynch (the pervert's Norman Rockwell) and the sublime musical arrangements of Angelo Badalamenti. Breathtaking.

91 pp t. by jazz trio The Necks! Earth Wind Fire Heritage (CBS) EWF's rap, hard funk, jazz and pop all coalesced in a dazzlingly executed selection of tunes, their best album in a decade and the year's most shamefully underrated. Its failure to dominate the charts was mystifying. Guest appearances by Sly Stone and M.C. Hammer indicated the breadth of its range.

8 John Zorn Naked City (ElektaNonesuch) Movie and TV theme tunes exploding into machine gun bursts of freeform freakout, Zorn traced the sound of urban collapse. A virtuoso amalgam of rock, country twang, avant-garde jazz and film music, this album took no prisoners. Sonic Youth Goo (DGC) Rock rebellion par excellence: sexily laconic vocals over guitar barrages as dense as a black hole. Appealing, even catchy, Youth's major label debut was also defiantly fierce. Oils' frontman Peter Garrett crusading.

Colin Hay Wayfaring Sons (MCA) With the Men At Work stigma slowly receding, Colin Hay is in the enviable position of being wealthy enough to record what he chooses when he chooses. Wayfaring Sons is acoustic-based, with Hay's mesmeric vocals and wry lyrics complementing the arrangements in a fashion Men At Work were rarely able to achieve. Unfortunately, Hay isn't particularly cool at this moment in time, so "this album was roundly ignored. Public Enemy Fear Of A Black Planet (CBS) Dense, declamatory, superheated, -rap guerillas Public Enemy confirmed their status -in 1990 as comparable to Jimi Hendrix's in 1967: living musical history, uncompromising innovators none of their peers could afford to ignore. Jane Siberry Bound By The Beauty (Reprise) Unpredictable beauties from the idiosyncratic Canadian songstress, a melodic and delightfully personal collection of songs that just kept on growing.

Impossible to pin down, Siberry is a true original. Why isn't she a household name? Ed Kuepper Today Wonder (SurvivalRattlesnake) The former Saint and Laughing Clown's masterpiece a searing, haunting set, just Ed, his acoustic guitars and drummer Mark Dawson. Like John Martyn's Solid Air, which also featured a version of Skip James's I'd Rather Be The Devil, it was a perfect accompaniment to the solitary hours. They Might Be Giants Flood (WEA) Two Brooklyn-based dags piece together an album as traditional as it is innovative. Guitar and accordion provide the base for John's Flans-burgh and Linnell to work over the top of.

Flood is an alternately funny and dark LP, which, it must be said, has left listeners either raving or stone cold. Record of the year. Vas (Not Vas) Are You Okayi (Phonogram) Yes. While the two Wases have always been tinkering away in their "own sphere, this album is as solid as I've heard from them. An album of dance and pop tunes wrapped in layers of funky feels and side-splitting humour.

Also, the playing is immaculate. Feel Better Than James Brown is surely the international song of the year. Midnight Oil Blue Sky Mining (CBS) The music from Head Injuries. Bird Noises and the other early Oils recordings pale almost to joke status in the light of a few of their recent efforts. Despite the fact Peter Garrett's vocals are still on the wrong side of the musicianship and harmonies on the album make for another stunning collection of tunes.

The band is close to perfecting the art of songwriting, with Hirst and Moginie pulling out some magnificent hooks and spine-tingling lyrics. Rock rebels and Sonic Youths. 10 The Necks Sex (Spiral Scratch) This Sydney trio filled the space between jazz and ambient music. Sex was an hour-long piece of mesmerising simplicity, like John Coltrane's early '60s rhythm section drifting past on a cloud. Just missing the list by a whisker (a sign that 1990 was a good year for music) were the following: Neil Young's Ragged Glory (his best in years); Dale Barlow's Horn; Mary Coughlan's Uncertain Pleasures; M.C.

Tunes' The North at its Heights and Elektra's compilation album, Do It Acapella. Of the singles that made the world spin, my first place went to Monie Love's It's a Shame, followed in no particular order by Peter Blakeley's Crying in the Chapel; Nick Cave's The Ship Song; Wendy Matthews' Token Angels; Deee-Lite's Groove is in the Heart; Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus; Sinead O'Connor's Nothing Compares 2 Aztec Camera's The Crying Scene, and The Charlatans' 77k Only One I Know. doing what he does best 10 The Chills Submarine Bells (SlashFlying Nun) Given the tragedy of their debut LP, Brave Words, which was a brilliant pack of songs produced into the gutter, Submarine Bells is stunning. In a frenzy, a colleague described it as New Zealand's version of Sergeant Pepper's. High praise, and a little unnecessary, but it gets the point across.

The guitar is still valid, and this band reminds us why. An undeniably sexy pose 4 Bughouse for Vendetta (Ursula) Possibly the local single of the year. Straight guitar pop that oozes confidence and whets the appetite for more. Lloyd Cole before he grew stubble and started smoking cigars. 5 Ed Kuepper Today Wonder (SurvivalRattlesnake) And then there were two.

In stripping his line-up down to acoustic guitar and drums Kuepper has managed to create a magnificent record, with as much depth as any Saints, Clowns or Yard albums before it His melancholy vocals suit the moody material, with Dawson's imaginative percussive work the icing on the cake. Public Enemy Fear of a Black Planet (CBS) An aural onslaught. Unrelenting drum patterns and rapping that leave the pretenders miles behind. Robert Forster Danger In The Past (Beggars Banquet) A moody, dramatic, passionate album, bursting at the seams with typically lovely Forster melodies. He has penned a marvellous batch of tunes, ably supported in the arrangement department by Bad Seeds' Mick Harvey and Thomas Wydler.

A worthy follow-up to The Go-Be-tweens' last hurrah, 16 Lovers' Lane. 8 Lloyd Cole Lloyd Cole (Phonogram) Many folk go back to the Commotions first LP, Rattlesnakes, and pine for days that were. It's a load of old codswallop. The following LPs, Easy Pieces and Mainstream, were both classy albums, continuing the Cole penchant for writing about six good songs on each record. With the new LP, Cole may be trying hard to become a New York art figure, smoking cigars and wearing long trench coats, but the music hasn't changed much.

Blair Cowan is still playing keyboards, and Cole is still crafting abstract but delightful pop. SMH Metro, Friday, December 21, 1990 1 1s.