The top 50 singles from one of the most exciting years ever for pop music, according to the critics at the NME. (At the time, this list meant as much to me as Pazz & Jop.)
Singles, 1981, Brit Edition
The top 50 singles from one of the most exciting years ever for pop music, according to the critics at the NME. (At the time, this list meant as much to me as Pazz & Jop.)
RockCritics.com 
Where’s The Jam?
Surprising, now that you mention it (though were the NME as besotted as the rest of the country seemed to be? not sure), Same time, it wasn’t really a banner year for them with singles, though I could certainly live with “That’s Entertainment” being in there.
Right. In fact, didn’t Weller write “Awful year for songs” or something like that about 1981 in the live album liner notes?
Not a big enough fan to know, but it wouldn’t endear me to him if he did: I sort of consider ’81 the penultimate year for pop music, at least during my lifetime (which is not to say there haven’t been other good years since).