Having enthused about what a good year for music 1991 was, I now have to admit that 1992 was equally good. You wait ages for a vintage year and then two come along at once!

How good was it? Well just the dance singles make it a good year – Ebeneezer Goode and LSI by the Shamen, Rhythm is a Dancer by Snap!, Jump Around by House of Pain, Free Your Mind by En Vogue, Connected by the Stereo MCs, Would I Lie To You by Charles and Eddie, It’s My Life by Dr Alban, all the tracks on Erasure’s Abbaesque EP, and the classic Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-a-Lot, and that is just some I personally like.

Arrested Development appeared from nowhere, releasing three brilliant singles (Tennessee, People Everyday and Mr. Wendal), Crowded House released Weather With You, The Cure released Friday I’m in Love and Right Said Fred appeared on the scene with I’m Too Sexy and Deeply Dippy.

My really tenuous link to Right Said Fred is that I shared a barber with them, although at that time I still had hair. I think they had an interest in a dance studio/gym above the barber shop that was near my workplace. I never saw them around there, so it is a very tenuous link indeed.

The list of some of the albums I bought in 1992 is even more impressive. Automatic for the People by REM, Rage Against the Machine, The Chronic by Dr. Dre, Vulgar Display of Power by Pantera (does exactly what it says in the title), Angel Dust by Faith No More, Us by Peter Gabriel, 1992 The Love Album by Carter USM, That What Is Not by Public Image, Your Arsenal by Morrissey, and Dirt by Alice in Chains. Not a bad set of albums for one year, but it doesn’t stop there.

I picked up an album by a new band called Manic Street Preachers and it blew me away. Generation Terrorists is one of those rare debut albums where you just know it is special on the very first listen. There was also Tubular Bells II by Mike Oldfield, a remake of an equally impressive but very different debut album. It was billed as a sequel, but I always see it as an alternative version. It doesn’t replace the original but sits alongside it very nicely.

I see that I also bought Le Voyageur by Papa Wemba. By this time I had started to get interested in music from further afield than Europe and was dabbling in what became known as ‘world music’.  Thi was one of the first CDs I bought as part of that habit. It isn’t anywhere near being one of my favourite African albums but it did get me into the whole scene so I like it for that reason.

With so much to choose from, I picked the track Covered from Public Image Ltd.’s album as my track of the year. I have another very tenuous link to this one – when I lived in Putney the bloke upstairs had a band and the bass player from this version of PIL was in it, although I never met him either. I really liked this album and played it to death but especially this track. It had a driving bassline, thumping drums, John McGeoch’s trademark guitar and even some harmonica that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Nine Below Zero record. And on top of all that John Lydon’s distinctive vocals. I still feel that PIL are a much more interesting band than the Sex Pistols ever were. A famous Alan Partrighe quote is “Wings – the band the Beatles could have been” and I always think “Public Image – the band the Pistols could have been”. Even 27 years later this track still excites me.