Best of '88

Pop

% RUBEN BLADES: NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH (Elektra). The Panamanian-born singer- songwriter's first album in English: definitive proof that great music has no language problem.

TONI CHILDS: UNION (A&M). In a year of auspicious breakthroughs for women writer-performers, Childs' was the standout.

JARVIS: WHATEVER WORKS (MCA). Jazz, rock, pop, country and New Age smoothly reconciled by an adept keyboardist with a knack for graceful melody.

LYLE LOVETT: PONTIAC (MCA). Quirky, haunting roadhouse tunes with an underhanded comic flair.

RANDY NEWMAN: LAND OF DREAMS (Reprise). Lacerating spiritual autobiography and unsparing social wit. Pretty good whorehouse piano too.

THE O'KANES: TIRED OF THE RUNNIN' (Columbia). Revisionist country music, featuring unassuming instrumental virtuosity and a spiritual affinity for the sounds of the distant hills.

THE TRAVELING WILBURYS: TRAVELING WILBURYS, VOLUME ONE (Wilbury). In transparent disguise, some rock heavyweights -- including Bob Dylan, George Harrison and the lamented Roy Orbison -- turn out the most infectious lightweight pop of the year.

U2: RATTLE AND HUM (Island). A diary of the band's discovery of a mythical musical America. A concert album like no other.

THE WATERBOYS: FISHERMAN'S BLUES (Chrysalis). Watch your backs: it's another Irish rock band, poised for greatness.

BRIAN WILSON: BRIAN WILSON (Sire). Anthems from 'round the bend and supernal pop craftsmanship.

Classical

JOHN ADAMS: NIXON IN CHINA (Nonesuch). A waltz across the Great Wall with Dick, Pat, Henry and Mao: the year's best new opera recording.

BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONIES NOS. 1 AND 6 (EMI). Roger Norrington and the London Classical Players re-create on original instruments the lusty sounds of Beethoven's time.

GERSHWIN: AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, RHAPSODY IN BLUE, CONCERTO IN F (Arabesque). A player in Gershwin's 1934 band, Mitch Miller conducts with love and gusto.

HANDEL: MESSIAH (Archiv). A definitive performance from Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert. Hallelujah!

KERN: SHOW BOAT (EMI). The landmark American musical just keeps on rollin' along in a bravura operatic version with Frederica von Stade and Teresa Stratas.

MOZART: THE COMPLETE PIANO SONATAS (Philips). Crisp, elegant pianism from Japanese-born Mitsuko Uchida.

MICHAEL NYMAN: THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT (CBS). The first neurological opera, a dazzling minimalist display based on a case history from the Oliver Sacks best seller.

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: THREE SYMPHONIES, CAPRICCIO ESPAGNOL, RUSSIAN EASTER FESTIVAL OVERTURE (DG). There is much more to Rimsky than Scheherazade, as Neemi Jarvi and the Gothenburg Symphony prove.

SONGS OF AMERICA (Nonesuch). From Foster and Ives to Copland and Carter, a tour de force by mezzo Jan DeGaetani and pianist Gilbert Kalish.

WAGNER: DIE WALKURE (DG). With Hildegard Behrens, James Morris and James Levine, the Met's new Ring cycle is off to a rousing start.