#250 The Best Album of 1989, Round 1 Match #14: The Vaselines vs. Peter Gabriel
Hey folks!
Today’s Best Album of 1989 match is:
#56 The Vaselines, DUM-DUM
(The Spotify link goes to a Vaselines compilation. To hear the album as originally sequenced, listen to the tracks in this order: tracks 8-10, then track 6, then tracks 12-17. The YouTube link goes to the original album.)
vs.
#73 Peter Gabriel, PASSION
To vote, follow this link to the Google Form. You will need a Google login to vote. If you can’t or won’t have one, let me know ASAP (either through this newsletter, my email [kentmbeeson@hey.com] or on the Best Album Brackets Bluesky account) and I’ll see what I can do.
We have one Designated Cheerleader today, it’s from @renamj.bsky.social, and it’s for DUM-DUM! Take it away, Rena!
I listened to many, many albums in preparation for the Best Album of 1989 tournament - obscure and well-known alike, from dream pop to hip-hop and hard rock/metal to experimental (even a Keith Jarrett album!). The Vaselines' first LP Dum-Dum was one of my favorite new discoveries, and it might be the shortest (only 27 minutes!) and breeziest of all the albums in the final 128.
I had certainly been aware of Scottish indie favorites The Vaselines. They were famously loved by Kurt Cobain, who admired everything from The Raincoats to Cheap Trick, and Nirvana covered "Son of a Gun," "Molly's Lips," and "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" (retitled "Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam"). Their cheeky cover of Divine's "You Think You're a Man" had previously popped up on my Spotify Discover Weekly playlist. I played Dum-Dum, the boisterous opening track "Sex Sux (Amen)" came on, and I was in love.
"I was born on Christmas day
And all my people turned me away"Featuring Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee on vocals/guitars, James Seenan on bass, and Charlie Kelly on drums, Dum-Dum is just under a half-hour of irreverent guitar pop. One catchy song after another, highlights include "Monsterpussy" ("Meoooowwwww"), "Dum-Dum," and the chaotic noise of "Lovecraft." It's fun! And it doesn't even have the Nirvana songs! But it’s not hard to see why a gifted songwriter like Cobain adored this quirky band. This is one album in the tournament that I think most listeners would like or at least admire. And if you're reading this and you don't like it? It's over in no time.
The mix of Dum-Dum differs from the remix of the Dum-Dum tracks on the compilation Enter the Vaselines (the only version of this album currently on Spotify and Apple Music), so I have uploaded the album in FLAC and MP3. If you haven't heard this album before, you're in for a treat. Vote The Vaselines!
Thank you, Rena!
Click here to see the current results for the entire tournament, and click here to see the current results for the prediction bracket contest.
Yesterday, #9 Tom Petty, FULL MOON FEVER defeated #120 Negativland, HELTER STUPID 124-32.
Thanks for all your support!
Kent