This is a bit of a weird Christie as it’s shot on location and has a partially famous cast but the audio seems like it might have been added in post. (Or maybe it was just the streaming service.)
Category: 1988
Mac and Me (1988, Stewart Raffill)
This movie is infamous for being a transparent E.T. rip off that, for some reason, came out six years after its inspiration. But it’s a lot more than that. Because, I’d like to think that, even if this wasn’t so clearly a rip-off of one of the most famous movies of the 1980s, we’d still …
Working Girl (1988, Mike Nichols)
This is a pretty funny romantic comedy with ridiculous hair (and some insane eye shadow) and more craft than I would have ever guessed when I was younger.
Heathers (1988, Michael Lehmann)
At some point when I was younger, I told myself I had watched Heathers though I either confused it with some other ’80s movie featuring Christian Slater and/or Wynona Ryder or I saw five minutes of it and decided that that counted. Anyway, I had definitely not seen Heathers.
Cinema Paradiso (1988, Giuseppe Tornatore)
There is a genre of film that is basically someone remembering their life growing up in a small town. (As opposed to the genre of going home to a small town.) For reasons beyond me, most of the movies I’ve seen in this genre have been Italian -maybe they are better reviewed? – so it’s …
Cocktail (1988, Roger Donaldson)
Can I review a movie I missed the first 20 or so minutes of? And which I cooked pastitsio through? Well, I’m doing it anyway!
Mutations (1998) by Beck
I can imagine that, had I paid attention to Beck more when he first became popular, and only heard Mellow Gold and Odelay, and not his earlier “anti folk” records, this record might have knocked me on my ass. In retrospect it has far more in common with Sea Change than it does those records …
Travels (1988) by Michael Chricton
This is a frustrating book for someone like me. The cover pictured on Goodreads suggests it is basically about international travel. The cover of my edition should have hinted to me that it would not be specifically about that, given the stars on it. Anyway, this book is about three separate things: Crichton’s training as …
Bummed (1988) by Happy Mondays
I know of Madchester from 24 Hour Party People and from the unfortunate legacy of its approach to percussion which infiltrated into so much ’90s music. But I don’t really know any of the bands. This is probably my first proper Madchester record though now that I see it’s lumped in with Baggy I’m not …
American Water (1998) by Silver Jews
Pavement were such a big deal – or seemed like they were such a big deal – that I think it’s really easy to understand why they inevitably come up with this band, even though, according to some sources, this band existed prior to Pavement, and certainly in some iteration or other. But even if …
The Land of Rape and Honey (1988) by Ministry
This is my second Ministry album but it’s an earlier one. As with so many other bands that I’ve approached backwards, this one doesn’t quite do it for me in the way that the later one did, but…
Fisherman’s Blues (1988) by The Waterboys
I listened to the Waterboys’ debut a while ago, and grudgingly acknowledged it was probably a pretty big deal in the UK music scene at the time – it might have been the first record you could call “alternative” instead of post punk for all I know – but I didn’t love something about it, …
Ultramega OK (1988) by Soundgarden
Chris Cornell apparently didn’t like the production of their debut and I must say that, as someone who is really familiar with their ’90s efforts, this doesn’t sound like Soundgarden to me. Even Cornell himself doesn’t quite sound like himself. I’m not sure how much that can be blamed on the production, how much it …
The Serpent’s Egg (1988) by Dead Can Dance
I always find myself coming at bands backwards. This is another band where I’ve heard a later album first so my impression of them is distorted by what they did later. In this case, the band sounds pretty much the same which is both a good thing (I knew what I was getting into this …
Copperhead Road (1988) by Steve Earle
I have a weird bone to pick about records that weren’t recorded with the same group of musicians throughout. This doesn’t necessarily apply to guest vocalists, but it does apply to guests on other instruments. I guess my argument would be that I want a record to have a consistent sound and recording with different …
Land of Dreams (1988) by Randy Newman
Full disclosure: I do not like Randy Newman. I have yet to hear more than maybe two or three songs of his that I think are really, truly great. (One of them is on this record.) Sure, most of them are above average, but his reputation far exceeds what I’ve heard, in my opinion.
No Rest for the Wicked (1988) by Ozzy Osbourne
I was really tempted to think of Ozzy as an anachronism by 1988, as metal had changed one hell of a lot in the last 20 years. But the opening intensity of the guitar gave me hope that maybe he wasn’t! Then that talk box kicked in, and I wasn’t so sure.
Lincoln (1988) by They Might Be Giants
I have heard so much about They Might Be Giants over the years that I was bound to be disappointed by what they sound like. So count me disappointed by this record.
Watermark (1988) by Enya
“Orinoco Flow” floated around my aunt and uncle’s house every time I was there in late 1988 through 1989. In my memory, that song is playing every single time I visited their house as a child. I had no idea how to spell the title, and didn’t understand what it meant. All I knew was …
Blue Bell Knoll (1988) by Cocteau Twins
In my mind, I had confused the Cocteau Twins with the Thompson Twins, so this record was a surprise. (Such a surprise, the moment the first track came on, I had to google them to clarify what was happening.) So instead of getting synthpop, I got dream pop!
How Will I Laugh Tomorrow If I Can’t Even Smile Today (1988) by Suicidal Tendencies
This is one of those records which, had I found at the right time in my life, I might have really, really liked. It’s not that I don’t like it now, but I know too much now to be as impressed as I would have say, 5-10 years ago.
Power (1988) by Ice-T
Something seems to have happened within hip hop, between this record and the music that was everywhere during the 1990s (and everything that’s come since). To me, someone who doesn’t know hip hop at all, this sounds considerably older to me than N.W.A or Wu Tang, and even significantly older than Public Enemy. I think …
Eazy-Duz-It (1988) by Eazy-E
When I was younger and more of a music snob than I am now (still a snob, though), I used to dismiss singers who didn’t write their own songs as lacking talent. I’ve come to realize that’s pretty dumb, as most singers are not great songwriters and many if not most great songwriters are not …
Suffer (1988) by Bad Religion
My first impression of Bad Religion was from a significantly later record, when what they may have helped pioneer was everywhere. I thought, “Great, another skate punk band.” Sure, they’re a very literate punk band, but I’ve heard a lot of these bands and they pretty much sound the same.But if I try to put …
Hangin’ Tough (1988) by New Kids on the Block
I had turned 7 just a few days earlier when this came out so, though I am aware of NKOTB, and I’ve heard two of these songs way too many times as a child, this isn’t really the boy band that annoyed me. Sure, my step-sister had the tape, and I guess that was annoying …
Peepshow (1988) by Siouxsiee and the Banshees
The opening song “Peek-a-Boo” really threw me for a loop – those samples are a massive departure from what I’m familiar with from this band. My initial impression of it was that they were trying to piggyback on the emerging sound of hip hop and electro which they didn’t understand and were failing terribly. That …
Sunshine on Leith (1988) by The Proclaimers
If you’re my age, or a little older, you’ve heard “I’m Gonna Be” more times than you could count. Depending on how you feel about this song, you may be pleasantly surprised by the rest of the album or severely disappointed.Because the thing is, there’s maybe one or two tracks on this album that come …
Danzig (1988)
This is not the first Danzig record I’ve heard. So I worry that my reaction to it comes from the fact that I’ve heard a more “mature” version of the band, and this debut, which may have seemed relatively unique at the time – given the state of metal – sounds like something lesser to …
Two Nuns and a Pack Mule (1988) by Rapeman
Is it possible to talk about this band without talking about their name? Let’s try.
Straight Outta Compton (1988) by N.W.A
Though I do not generally enjoy listening to Hip Hop, and still lack a frame of reference for most of it, if not all of it, I vowed to myself a few months ago that I would listen to more of it, at least to give myself some frame of reference – both for my …