TOP 10 LIST Tim Kennedy (U.K.)
1. Stone Roses Second Coming (Geffen U.K.) Indie guitar meets the blues and takes a trip down the Nung River circa '69 to find Colonel Kurtz. And shacks up with him! (That's Cambodia, Captain.) Due for U.S. release on January 17.
2. Oasis Definitely Maybe (Epic) Classic Neil Young 'rust' guitar, great songs that will be called classics in years to come, filled with northern pop sensibility and swaggering street suss.
3. Blur Parklife (EMI)- A truly great good time record.
4. Dodgy Homegrown (A&M U.K.) - Pure pop flawlessly delivered, excellent musicianship and songwriting ability with the potential of the Kinks.
5. Julian Cope Autogeddon (American) By turns funny, spooky, bizarre, trippy and soothing. But what does it all mean?
6. Primal Scream Give Out But Don't Give Up (Warner) Contains some heart-rending ballads with lovely guitar passages.
7. Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge (Virgin) Their best since the seventies in terms of numbers of good songs, raunchy, cool and even has a harpsichord on one!
8. Manic Street Preachers Holy Bible (Columbia U.K.) Full of existential pain, not easy to listen to - but we need the Manics around. Will be released in the U.S. in the middle of February.
9. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant No Quarter (Atlantic) Better than we had any right to expect. The old stuff reinterpreted is weird, the new material deriving from the tribal fascinating; we are taken to the heart of what made Zeppelin so arresting.
10. Pulp His 'N' Hers (Island) Still not quite as good on record as they are live but the songs are great and the obsessive sex theme of the rambling lyrics is still pretty funny.
Disappointment: Neil Young Sleeps With Angels Appalling racket, the occasional good song is deliberately ruined by using horrid effects. Neil can do so much better. Why did all the music press unanimously praise it to the skies? Dylan never gets away with a bad album like that.
