#367 The Best Album of 1989, Round 3 Match #108: The B-52’s vs. The Wedding Present
Hey folks!
Today’s Best Album of 1989 match is:
#10 The B-52's, COSMIC THING
vs.
#42 The Wedding Present, BIZARRO
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.
Today we have two dueling Designated Cheerleaders! First up, it’s @renamj.bsky.social and she has a double DC for COSMIC THING and the already-eliminated THE OCEAN BLUE. Take it away, Rena!
"Fortunately I am not the first person to tell you that you will never die. You simply lose your body. You will be the same except you won't have to worry about rent or mortgages or fashionable clothes. You will be released from sexual obsessions. You will not have drug addictions. You will not need alcohol. You will not have to worry about cellulite or cigarettes or cancer or AIDS or venereal disease. You will be free." - Cookie Mueller (1949 - 1989)
There are very few 1989 albums that evoke nostalgia for me (I turned 5 in '89). Cosmic Thing is one of them. My parents, both of whom passed away recently a few months apart, loved the B-52's and had this album when it came out. When I listened to it in preparation for the 1989
tournament, a few of the deep cuts were instantly familiar to me. Everyone knows the two big hits, but my parents must have played "Junebug" a lot! And one vivid early childhood memory is seeing the music video for "Love Shack" on TV. I don't hate the song though it is overplayed. It's actuallv kind of charming in its raucousness. I think some people have heard it far too many times at white people weddings but you can't blame the B-52's for that! That said "Roam” is clearly the superior single. I dislike the term "life-affirming" but the song evokes that kind of reaction from me.This is not their best album but it is their big comeback after the tragic death of founding guitarist Ricky Wilson, who died of AIDS at age 32. The recording of Cosmic Thing was a grieving process for the band, particularly for vocalist and Ricky's sister Cindy Wilson. The defiantly queer band addressed political concerns on "Channel Z." And "Deadbeat Club" is a
jubilant tribute to their bohemian days in Athens, GA. All in all it's a fun party record, even if you're sick to death of "Love Shack."One of the very best albums of 1989 is The Ocean Blue's self-titled debut. Listen to the album completely blind and you might guess that the band is English or Scottish. They actually hail from the chocolate capital of Hershey, PA but clearly adore British guitar pop. (I have fond
memories of going to Hershey park as a kid in the '90s.) The music is just as sweet and satisfying as a chocolate bar. The album begins on a high note with “Between Something and Nothing" and never lets up for 45 minutes, one great song after another. It is catchy and accessible and full of hooks. It has an unfortunate low seeding, maybe because the band is relatively unknown though the are highly regarded in some indie/dream pop circles. If you like jangly indie pop, you will love this. Please give it a listen.This is an interesting match because it shows two very different sides of 1989. The B-52's are new wave legends who saw major commercial success with two monster singles that were everywhere. The Ocean Blue, on the other hand, are pure 120 Minutes fare, an underground band with a cult following. The B-52's will win short of a major upset, though I certainly support giving the underdog a sympathy vote here. Last month my family had a celebration of life (don't call it a funeral) for my deceased parents in New Orleans. On the plane ride home, I listened to both of these albums back to back as I came
up with the idea for a double DC and it was fitting. My parents had probably never heard of The Ocean Blue but I was listening to them while flying over the Atlantic Ocean (the ocean blue!). Rest easy, Mom and Dad. One last thing: Julee Cruise, whose debut Floating Into the Night I wrote about a few weeks ago, toured with the B-52's in the '90s. She passed away in 2022 and according to her
husband Edward Grinnan:
"She left this realm on her own terms. No regrets. She is at peace... played her 'Roam’ during her transition. Now she will roam forever. Rest in Peace, my love."
Thank you once again for that, Rena. My condolences to you and your family.
Next up it’s Head Cheerleader @bsglaser.bsky.social speaking up for BIZARRO! Take it away, Brian!
My Gen X Indie Rocker Confession: I do not like The Smiths, and I have never liked The Smiths. Sure, I admired Johnny Marr's guitar sound and playing (who wouldn't?), but even before everyone figured out they didn't like Morrissey as a person, I didn't like him as a singer/lyricist.
I could keep going on about all of the many reasons The Smiths didn't and don't do it for me, but it essentially boils down to: what I wish they sounded like is The Wedding Present. And that goes double for BIZARRO.
When BIZARRO came out in 1989, The Wedding Present was a half-decade into a recording and performing career that's still going on in 2025 (minus a brief hiatus when Cinerama was a thing, but never mind). They'd started out as a singles act that almost immediately caught John Peel's ear, and BIZARRO is only their second real album, after GEORGE BEST in 1987 (TOMMY, from '88, is a singles comp). But it's also their first great album, and arguably one of the highest peaks in the band's discography.
Like their Peel-endorsed contemporaries in The Smiths, The Weddoes have a distinctive guitar sound and a singer/songwriter (David Gedge) with a particular point of view. The sound is maybe best reduced to "very fast jangle-rock" and the songs (with apologies to The Mountain Goats) to "standard bitter love songs." That sound and that POV gel together just right on BIZARRO across tracks that are often very British in their reference points but nearly universal in the feelings they describe and rock out to.
Opening track "Brassneck" is reviewing a relationship that's already over, but Gedge isn't quite willing to let it go yet. He starts by describing a post-breakup letter he sent, which certainly wasn't going to do anyone any good, and in short order the accusations are flying. The chorus goes: "Brassneck! I just decided I don't trust you anymore..." The title word is a UK term for a self-confidence that slides into shamelessness; the total breakdown of trust in the middle of a breakup is familiar to anyone anywhere who's ever fallen in love with someone they shouldn't have fallen in love with.
The rest of the songs follow along the same subject-matter track, with Gedge and fellow guitarist Peter Solowka cooking atop a galloping rhythm section. We get references to British TV shows and The Fall; accusatory kiss-offs ("And if it didn't mean a thing/And you've told him to go/And if you're as sorry as you say/Why didn't you just say no?"); a nearly 10-minute rave-up ("Take Me!") that is a blast at the band's excellent live shows; and finally the short, exhausted closer "Be Honest," which ends with, "And if we're really going to be honest/We might as well be brief."
It's worth noting that although The Wedding Present was very much a British band in 1989, the best version of BIZARRO is the US one. After recording the 10 core tracks and releasing "Kennedy" as a single, the band stopped by Steve Albini's studio to re-cut a new single version of "Brassneck" and record a few B-sides, including a prescient cover of Pavement's "Box Elder," which had only recently been released on the SLAY TRACKS EP. (Gedge & Co. don't do the song better than Pavement, but it's not worse either.) All of this stuff was included on RCA's US edition of BIZARRO, showcasing a band hitting its stride and pointing toward the next high point, the Albini-recorded SEAMONSTERS LP.
The Weddoes, which like The Fall is pretty much Gedge and whoever is in the band at any given point, have tailored their sound and approach around the edges over the years, but the core Wedding Present experience is right here on BIZARRO. Gedge probably isn't any happier than Morrissey, but he's much (MUCH) less of an asshole and, in my humble indie opinion, has the better band and better songs.
Thanks again, Brian!
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Yesterday, #7 The Stone Roses, THE STONE ROSES defeated #39 Jungle Brothers, DONE BY THE FORCES OF NATURE, 126-72.
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Kent