Nicolas, I hope you don’t mind me taking the liberty to open a 90s recommendations thread.

The first album I would like to recommend from 1990 is Paco Ibáñez’s Por una canción. He is a Spanish singer/songwriter who sings poems by mostly classic poets from Spain (and from Peru and Nicaragua on this album). But to be honest, with that slightly broken but very characterful voice he could sing nursery rhymes and I would probably still like it. Here is Ya no hay locos (poem by León Felipe):



The album isn’t on Spotify (at least not here in the UK) and there aren’t many songs from it on YouTube. But I’ve found a website where you can listen to all the songs, so here they are for anyone interested:

Paco Ibáñez – Por una canción

1. No te pude ver
2. Córdoba
3. Amada
4. Juventud, divino tesoro
5. Ya no hay locos
6. Rosal
7. Tus ojos me recuerdan
8. Canción de la muerte
9. La romería
10. El rey Almutamid
11. Volverán las oscuras golondrinas

Other albums not on AM which I would recommend to folk/roots and world music lovers:

Kevn Kinney – MacDougal Blues: Accoustic folk and roots rock like they used to do it in the 60s and 70s.

Loketo – Soukous Trouble: Wonderfully energetic soukous (a blend of Cuban rumba and other Latin American music with the folk music of the Congo).

Luka Bloom – Riverside: Contemporary Celtic folk from Ireland (but a lot of the songs are perhaps more rock than folk).

David Grisman – Dawg ‘90: Chamber jazz with elements of bluegrass, gypsy music and Latin music.

Alison Krauss – I’ve Got That Old Feeling: A really lovely bluegrass gem with country and pop skilfully blended in. Here’s a song called “Endless Highway” from the album:

Wonderful recommendations, Dan. I haven't heard before that Paco Ibáñez album, I liked it a lot.

Let me follow: going back to my old 1990 list (that I’ll try to update for this poll) those were my non-English choices.
Albums:
1. GORAN BREGOVIC "Le temps des gitans" (my #12 then: the first soundtrack from the great Goran Bregovic for Emir Kusturica and his first release with his Wedding and Funeral Band; an album that includes the amazing "Ederlezi" could be nothing less than great).
2. LOS ENEMIGOS "La vida mata" (my #15: the sound of the barrio, the arrogant and raw sound of the Madrid mean streets).
3. NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN "Mustt Mustt" (my #18: the Western instrumentation did not reduce the intensity of Nusrat voice).
4. PACO DE LUCÍA "Zyryab" (my #19: the last great album from the greatest flamenco guitar player ever, after that the decadence began).

Songs (non-Spanish):
1. GORAN BREGOVIĆ Ederlezi (#6 then, the clip from the Kusturica movie is as outstanding as the the song, sadly we don't have this song on the World Cup Poll)
2. NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN Mustt Mustt (Massive Attack Remix) (#29). This could be probably Henrik’s favourite too but Nicolas probably would prefer the original version. And what about me? Can I choose both?
3. PAQUITO D’RIVERA feat. ARTURO SANDOVAL (the song Reunion that I put on #42 is not available on You Tube despite being available almost every other song from this wonderful latin jazz album, you can listen instead to Friday Morning
4. GORAN BREGOVIĆ Talijanska (L'italienne) (#48, Bregovic's version of a traditional Italian tune for the "Time of the Gypsies" soundtrack).
5. JUAN LUIS GUERRA y 4:40 Ojalá que llueva café (#49, a smash hit in Spain at the time, a nice sample of merengue from Dominican Republic).

And a Top 5 of Spanish songs:
1. KETAMA Loko (#9 then, Caribbean flamenco)
2. RADIO FUTURA Veneno en la piel (#22, mor Caribbean flavours plus Marc Ribot-styled guitars)
3. LOS ENEMIGOS Septiembre (#31, Miguel would have chose "Desde el jergón")
4. CARLOS BERLANGA El ángel exterminador (#34, kitsch and classy at the same time)
5. RADIO FUTURA El amigo desconocido (#37, great lyrics about homeless)

Well, it seems you're right, I always though it was released in 1990 but it's not. But I'm not sure if it was released on 1988 or 1989. According to Rateyourmusic it was released in 1988 but according to Goran official page it was released in 1989. Giving the fact that the movie was premiered on December 21, 1988 both dates are possible. The thing that confused me is that the album Le temps des gitans released in 1990 was in fact a compilation with 8 of the 10 songs of the original soundtrack plus 2 other songs from the soundtrack of the movie "Kuduz".

For how popularish the Modern Lovers are it always surprises me how unknown Jonathan Richman's solo work is despite it being pretty much a continuation of the Lovers a decade later. I think my favorite album of his (including all Modern Lovers albums) is Jonathan Goes Country, eligible in 1990. Here are a couple tracks...


Since She Started To Ride

The Neighbors

Pascal Comelade: 4 roses pour Marie

From the album Cent regards

"Pascal Paul Vincent Comelade (born June 30, 1955), is a French Catalan musician. Comelade was born in Montpellier, France. After living for several years in Barcelona, he made his first album, 'Fluences', influenced by electronic music and by the group Heldon. Subsequently, his music has become more acoustic and is characterised by the sounds of toy instruments, used as solo-instruments and as an integral part of the sound of his group, the Bel Canto Orquestra. In 2007 he did a Take-Away Show acoustic video session shot by Vincent Moon. He has collaborated with many singers and musicians from diverse genres of music including Robert Wyatt, Dani, Faust, Christophe Miossec, Toti Soler, Jac Berrocal, Pierre Bastien and P.J. Harvey to mention just a few."
(scribd.com)