1987

                A surprisingly solid year.  For some reason, I’d thought of ’87 prior to this project as a nadir of the 80s, but it might in fact be the strongest year since ’82.  There are a bunch of big, mostly worthy, albums from a lot of acts that have been active through the decade, both in the alt-rock underground and in the mainstream, but there’s also all of a sudden a whole lot of signs of life in the underground.  ’86 was more or less a dwindling year, as the big scenes on both sides of the Atlantic started to flicker.  Some (most) of the established bands were still doing good work, but it had been awhile since I’d heard new bands to really get excited about.  That changes on both sides of the Atlantic, and in both rock and hip-hop this year.

                But first, big albums from big acts.  A bunch of the old 60s-70s survivors have new albums this year, and they’re generally pretty good but not great.  Bruce Springsteen’s breakup album Tunnel of Love has great lyrics, but the heavy 80s production that kinda worked on Born in the U.S.A. fails him here.  Credit for not trying to duplicate himself, as both Mellencamp and Petty did recently.  Yes are also back, with a record that’s very similar to 90125, but I think an improvement.  Still not a patch on classic Yes, or even as good as Drama, but they’re starting to sound more comfortable with their awful 80s production, which in turn makes them sound a bit more like Rush this year.  Rush, for what it’s worth, are actually scaling back their heavy production this year, returning to cleaner, more ‘classic’ sound, but sounding surprisingly conventional (and dueting with Aimee Mann).  Finally, among the oldsters, George Harrison comes out of nowhere with another solo record, not changing his sound much but scoring his biggest hit with “Got My Mind Set On You,” a song a significant portion of my readership would pick as song of the year, and which was quite accurately parodied as “This Song Is Just Six Words Long”.  Fun, but not exactly substantial or among his best work, which fits as a description for pretty much all the acts just mentioned.

                Far more impressive are the albums from two of the biggest R&B stars of the 80s, Michael Jackson and Prince.  Apparently “Bad” was originally supposed to be a duet between the two, which would have been unspeakably awesome.  Instead, we get a pair of excellent albums from the two of them that nevertheless illustrate their very different approaches to music-making.  Jackson, like the true product of Motown that he is, has a winning formula and will be damned if he’ll deviate from it, so Bad is very much a record in the mode of Thriller, with , I think, as high or even higher highs.  “Smooth Criminal” is my favorite MJ song, and “Bad” trumps “Beat It” in the Jackson doing a rock song category.  However, it’s also a bit less consistent than Thriller, with more tracks that just don’t do it for me.  It is, however, really remarkable just how Jackson was able to dominate pop music for a decade basically on the back of only two albums (and a couple of tracks from Off The Wall).  A big contrast from Prince, who put out an album a year almost every year since his debut.  Prince differs from Jackosn not just in his profligate output, but also in his willingness to experiment and revamp his sound.  Parade was a departure from Around the World in a Day was a departure from Purple Rain, and Sign ‘O The Times may be Prince’s masterpiece just because he’s exploding in every direction at once.  At times it’s a bit overwhelming.  Like Springsteen’s The River, it’s a record where I’ve listened to it for years, but every time discover another song I’d overlooked in the past.  This time it’s “Hot Thing,” an electro-funk number that’s a worthy successor to “D.M.S.R.”

                Moving more into the rock world, we get career-best records from two bands working a stadium-ready post-punk.  I’ve already started thinking of Midnight Oil as an antipodal U2, with the political lyrics and post-punk textures, and this year even their album covers are similar.  Both also sound basically like they did on the last record, but with a slightly more radio-friendly songcraft.  In Midnight Oil’s case, this means they sound more than a little like R.E.M., esp. on “Dreamworld,” while U2 are continuing to make Eno-style pop songs.  The big three hits off The Joshua Tree are far weirder structurally than you generally notice, having been deadened by their constant radioplay, but they’re very much in the tradition of such previous Eno Wall of Sound productions as “Heroes” and “Once in a Lifetime,” esp. “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “Where The Streets Have No Name.”  The Joshua Tree is basically U2 taking the Unforgettable Fire sound and making it more pop, so they’re pretty much just taking early-80s post-punk pop, although with hints on side 2 of their upcoming roots turn (where they sound not unlike Midnight Oil followers).

                U2 are hardly the only ones making radio-friendly post-punk this year (and this is probably the last great year for the post-punk bands).  Public Image mark II, following the solo-album-in-all-but-name that was Album follows very  much in that one’s vein, certainly sounding more like that record than the early experimental PiL.  Also, if Album had a “real” supergroup, with Ginger Baker and Steve Vai, the new PiL is a post-punk supergroup, with former members of the Damned, the Pop Group, and Magazine.  Yet still sounds a lot like the pop-metal of the last one notwithstanding.  Who would have thought Johnny Rotten would have ended up like this?  Pretty good listen, but much more the twilight of a genre than a step forward like the earlier records were.  Which is pretty much the same I’d say for Wire.  I like The Ideal Copy-era Wire well-enough, sounding like they do like a more abstracted and arty U2/New Order type band, but they’re not a patch on the first three records.  If they were just another new band, I doubt I’d give them another listen.  New Order, though, have another year of singles without albums, but do put out probably their finest moment in their remake of “Temptation,” combining the experimental bent of their earlier stuff with the greater polish of their later period.  Still, it’s not exactly innovative or a bold step forward, just a consolidation of strengths, which is pretty much the case for all the post-punks this year.

                Even the Mekons are basically in consolidation mode this year, with the third of their shambolic country-rock trilogy.  This one is, however, probably my favorite, and not coincidentally basically sounds like a Band tribute record.  You understand why they were hardly chartbusters, although I can’t help but wonder to what degree Uncle Tupelo, who start laying down demos this year, were influenced by their punk-country sound.

                Speaking of the US, this is the last year we can talk about the Big Three of American alt-rock.  The Hüskers put out their last album, but finish strong.  Warehouse isn’t nearly as impressive as their last double, but while that was a deliberate epic, this is just a collection of excellent songs in their late-period pop-punk style.  You get the sense that they dumped all these songs to make sure they got released before the band splintered.  Still, if this record had come out just 5 years later, it would have been a Thriller-style monster, with almost every song sounding like it could have been a hit in the post-Nirvana radioscape.  A testimony to the band’s influence, I suppose.  Also, I’m almost surprised to realize how much I’m going to miss Hüsker Dü going forward…

                R.E.M. and the Replacements are also sounding somewhat more radio-friendly this year, but still uncompromised.  Document is basically a consolidation record for R.E.M., building on the more rocking sound of Lifes Rich Pagent, with perhaps a little more confidence in their rock-songcraft.  At any rate, “The One I Love” and “It’s The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” are the earliest R.E.M. songs to get the attention of a wider audience, and both are worthy, still sounding like they’re bringing their folk-rock background to a more Hüsker-like type of rocker.  The Replacements, however, mature in a wholly different way, with the horn-heavy and shockingly polished Pleased To Meet Me.  The early Replacements buried their excellent pop-rock songs under deliberately sloppy performances, but I don’t understand why this record didn’t do better, esp. with its studio-polished but not glossy production (recalling the classic Stones records with a seamless incorporation of a horn section).  Those early records had energy but not discipline, and later Replacements records will have the polish but not the fire, but right here they hit the sweet spot (even if the previous two had slightly better songs and a sound that fit more comfortably among the rest of alt-rock).

                But even with a series of good record from established bands, what’s really exciting about ’87 is the rise of a whole bunch of promising new acts.  The ones to attract the most attention chart-wise were Guns ‘N Roses, who have the most striking debut I’ve heard in awhile.  Possibly this is because the punks and their followers favored releasing stuff as soon as they had songs, in dribs of singles and EPs and half-baked debuts, rather than burnishing their material into a single cohesive debut statement.  Regardless, Appetite for Destruction is a very strong record, esp. for a first release.  Also what’s surprising is how poorly it fits with what’s around it.  There’s some touches of the LA funk-metal scene, but this isn’t really a metal record, and it’s certainly not a punk record.  It gets grouped with the hair-metal bands, and while GnR share a glam influence with those bands, that doesn’t really fit either.  What GnR really sound like is, essentially, an Aerosmith fronted by Rob Halford.  It’s interesting that Aerosmith’s sound could basically be reduced to “Zeppelin playing the Stones,” but while GnR has a very strong Aerosmith influence, they don’t sound really so much like those constituent elements.  It is fitting, anyway, that Aerosmith make their comeback this year as well, since the two bands sound so similar to each other.

                I did mention that GnR sound vaguely like the LA funk-metal scene, and this is especially true insofar as new act Jane’s Addiction sound a lot like a not-very-good more arty GnR on their debut.  GnR and the alt-rockers will end up basically hating each other, but certainly sound a lot like Jane’s Addiction this year.

                If Jane’s Addiction is one major sign of things to come, by far the biggest is that ’87 really is the birth of grunge as a subgenre.  Pearl Jam got a lot of flack for not being as “pure” grunge as the likes of Nirvana or Soundgarden, but Pearl Jam (and Mudhoney) precursor band Green River puts out their debut before either of those bands are even formed.  Truth be told, they sound a lot more like Mudhoney with better guitar-playing than Pearl Jam, and there aren’t great songs yet, but it’s still a bracing debut.  It’s just refreshing to hear a band with a strong Stooges influence again after all the production and polish, or the frantic thrashing of hardcore, which dominated post-Sex Pistols.  Certainly Seattle grunge starts here.

                One thing that becomes clear, however, is that while Seattle was an epicenter, it was far from the only scene incubating a grunge-type scene.  The Flaming Lips have been mining their distortion-heavy garage-rock sound for awhile now, but it certainly fits with the grunge bands.  In New York, Sonic Youth have started moving from being a guitar-heavy art band into being an art-rockin’ guitar band, meaning they’re starting to learn the joys of writing songs instead of just guitar-noise compositions.  I understand why people prefer the earlier Sonic Youth, but they’re wrong: here’s where Sonic Youth start to get good (and also influential for things to come). 

                But this year especially it seems like Boston can make as much a claim to be the birthplace of grunge as Seattle (maybe the genre just thrives in places where it’s frequently grey and rainy).  Challenging GnR for best debut of the last few years are the Pixies, who put out their first EP this year.  It’s remarkably fully-formed, showcasing a band that sounds like it can explode in any direction at once.  It also, listened to in context, sounds basically like an experimental band working in the hardcore tradition.  They have too good production to sound like an SST band, but sentiment-wise the Pixies are weird enough to fit somewhere between the arty songcraft of the Minutemen and the sheer power of Black Flag.  Not grunge, but clearly a link.  More clearly grunge are Dinosaur Jr., who crack their formula on their second album, which is basically Hüsker Dü-style songs with Neil Young-esque guitar heroics on top.  So that’s basically grunge, right there, if not as aggressive as, say, Green River (or the Pixies). 

                Neil Young himself, by the way, puts out his most straightforward album in a long time.  Life still has an ill-suiting 80s production gloss, but is pretty much a collection of straightforward Crazy Horse rockers.  Maybe too straightforward, though.  There are some decent songs here, but not really any great ones.  Possibly some songs would be better with better production, but this is Young’s most conventional record since at least Comes A Time, and consequently, while not his worst, his most forgettable record in awhile. 

                So if grunge is starting to form in the US underground, the next big thing in the UK underground is also starting to bubble to the surface, and it’s pretty diametrically opposite to grunge.   Where grunge is dour and downtempo, Madchester is colourful (deliberate UK-style spelling) and upbeat, music for dancing.  Like grunge, it’s percolating in the underground rather than bubbling to the surface, but the Happy Mondays basically have their sound down already, borrowing heavily from the funk sounds of Big Audio Dynamite and acid house (of which I have little in my collection), but adding a more Iggy Stooge-like element in their thuggish frontman.  On their debut, they’re not exactly “competent,” sounding kinda like a group of thug who love BAD and stole some instruments and tried to play them, but it’s a fun sound, and they’ll get better soon.  The other big band of Madchester, the Stone Roses, aren’t as close to there yet, still mired in a beatless jangle-pop sound, though their songcraft is getting better.  Still sounding a lot like the Smiths, who break up this year, just in time for the next big sound to break in the UK.  The Fall, on the other hand, as befitting a Manchester band, have already discovered the Madchester sound, and are starting to play  around with it (and simultaneously mock, as they do).

                Finally, a major breakthrough in hip-hop as well, with the debut of Eric B. & Rakim.  Rakim is basically the Jimi Hendrix of rapping, radically transforming the technique of rapping in a way that everyone else will spend years trying to follow, and doing so in a way that has never been bettered.  His lyrics aren’t especially remarkable, but his flow is a breakthrough.  Even previous greats like Run-D.M.C. relied on a stomping, heavily rhythmic cadence in their rhymes, but Rakim twists and weaves almost like a jazz singer.  Eric B. is a breakthrough himself, with a minimalist rhythmic sound that points to hip-hop beats as innovative in their own right, as opposed t0 simply chopped-up samples of existing funk or rock tracks.

                And I’d just like to close this year with a post-script on 1983:  I just recently picked up the Meat Puppets’ II, and it really deserved some mention in ’83.   Not only would it have been a real sign of life in an otherwise rather dim year, but their acid-fried country-punk sound goes a long way to explaining the early influences on the Flaming Lips, even if the Mekons still sound like a bigger influence on the later alt-country stuff.

Song of the Year:  Two nominations this year.  Guns ‘n  Roses, like so many mid-80s bands, are a band I respect more than I love, but they had one undeniable moment of greatness, and it’s “Sweet Child ‘O Mine,” not coincidentally the song on their debut that sounds the most original and least indebted to Aerosmith.  My other pick coincidentally features a future GnR bassist, but otherwise has nothing in common.  Still, even if Pleased To Meet Me isn’t the Replacements’ best album, “Alex Chilton,” a tribute from one unjustly ignored cult band to another, is probably their best song.  Of course, if it were December now, I’d pick the Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York” over either of these.

Album of the Year:  A lot of big records this year, but several of them are much weaker on their second side than their first (i.e. The Joshua Tree, Appetite for Destruction).  And Document is basically just a consolidation from Lifes Rich Pagent.  So I’ll give the edge to Sign ‘O The Times, possibly Prince’s best moment, and certainly his most ambitious; and remarkably ambitious to be basically the product of a single man.

Artist Most Benefiting from Reevaluation:  Possibly Eric B. & Rakim.  I didn’t realize how radical a leap forward they were in both vocal and instrumental technique.

Artist Most Diminished in Reevaluation:  The Stone Roses, but only a little.  For all they get credit for being at the cutting edge of a scene, the Mondays were there well before them, and even the Fall started incorporating acid house/funk beats before the Roses. 

               

Album List

Aerosmith - Big Ones

Big Black - Headache

Big Black - Heartbeat

Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic - Between Fires

Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic - Sonic Geology

Bob Dylan - Live 1961-2000: Thirty-Nine Years of Great Concert Performances

Bruce Springsteen - The Essential Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen – Tunnel of Love

Camper Van Beethoven - Popular Songs of Great Enduring Strength and Beauty

Chuck Brown - The Best Of Chuck Brown

Classic Ruins - Lassie Eats Chickens (bonus)

David Bowie - Best Of Bowie

Dead Kennedys - Misc.

Devo - Pioneers Who Got Scalped: The Anthology

Dinosaur Jr. - Ear-Bleeding Country: Best Of Dinosaur Jr

Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me

Dio - The Very Beast Of Dio

Elvis Costello - Out Of Our Idiot

Eric B. & Rakim - Paid In Full

Fleetwood Mac - The Very Best Of Fleetwood Mac

George Harrison - Best Of Dark Horse 1976-1989

Green River - Dry As A Bone

Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction

Happy Mondays - Double Easy: The U.S. Singles

Hüsker Dü - Misc.

Hüsker Dü – Warehouse: Songs and Stories

Jane's Addiction - Up From The Catacombs: The Best Of Jane's Addiction

John Lee Hooker - The Ultimate Collection 1948-1990

Judas Priest - Metal Works '73-'93

Michael Jackson – Bad

Michael Jackson - The Essential Michael Jackson

Midnight Oil - 20,000 Watts R.S.L.: Greatest Hits

Midnight Oil – Diesel & Dust

Neil Young – Life

Neil Young - Lucky Thirteen

New Order - Retro

New Order - Substance

Ozzy Osbourne - Tribute

Pet Shop Boys - Discography: The Complete Singles Collection

Primal Scream - Children Of Nuggets IV

Primal Scream - Shoot Speed (More Dirty Hits)

Prince – Sign ‘O The Times

Prince - The B-Sides

Prince - The Hits

Public Image Ltd. – Happy?

R.E.M. - Document

Red Hot Chili Peppers - What Hits!?

Run-D.M.C. - Greatest Hits

Rush - Chronicles

Sonic Youth - Sister

Steve Earle - The Best Of Steve Earle

Stevie Ray Vaughan - The Real Deal: Greatest Hits Vol. 2

The Cure - Galore (The Singles 1987-1997)

The Cure - Wedding Songs

The Fall - 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong: 39 Golden Greats

The Flaming Lips - Oh My Gawd!!!

The Grateful Dead (live incomplete) - Postcards Of The Hanging: Grateful Dead Perform The Songs Of

The Jesus & Mary Chain - 21 Singles

The La's - The La's

The Mekons - Honky Tonkin'

The Mekons - I Have Been to Heaven and Back..., Vol. 1

The Mekons - Where Were You?

The Pixies - Come On Pilgrim

The Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace With God [Bonus Tracks]

The Ramones - Mania

The Replacements - All for Nothing

The Replacements - Pleased To Meet Me [Expanded Edition]

The Smiths - Louder Than Bombs

The Smiths - Singles

The Stone Roses - The Complete Stone Roses

The Style Council - The Singular Adventures Of The Style Council

The Vaselines - The Way Of The Vaselines

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Playback II: Spoiled & Mistreated

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Playback IV: The Other Sides

U2 - B-Sides 1980-1990

U2 - The Best Of 1980-1990

U2 - The Joshua Tree

Uncle Tupelo - No Depression

V/A - 12 Classic 45s

V/A - '80s Hits Back

V/A - Children Of Nuggets I

V/A - Children Of Nuggets IV

V/A - Samba Soul 70!

V/A - Sub-Pop Sampler

V/A - Trainspotting

Wire - 1985-1990 The A List

X - Beyond & Back: The X Anthology

Yes – Big Generator

Yo La Tengo - Prisoners Of Love

1986

                I’m not sure I’ve got much to say overall about 1986.  It’s the least-represented year in my collection in a while, with only 18 hours of digital music and under a dozen LPs, mostly some form of alt-rock.  A bit of a step down from the mini-resurgence of ’84-’85.  The 80s so far aren’t bad, per se, but just not all that exciting.  There’s a bunch of worthy alt-rock, but a lot of it (esp. things like New Order and Big Audio Dynamite) are things that I respect intellectually (in that it’s clever, well-performed, and good on-paper) but that doesn’t really resonate with me emotionally.

                That said, I do love all three of the Big Three of American alt-rock (R.E.M., the Replacements, and Hüsker Dü), although they have something of a mixed year this year.  The Replacements take the year off, represented only by some outtakes (the same is true for Tom Petty, who also has a mediocre live album).  The Hüskers and R.E.M., however, both advance their sounds incrementally but clearly this year, and oddly seem to be moving closer to each other.  The Hüskers start adding acoustic and piano-driven ballads and quieter, folkier numbers into their mix, generally with good results.  Actually, the better songs on their major label debut, Candy Apple Grey, are generally in this more folk-rock vein, and the rockers, “Don’t Want To Know If You Are Lonely” excepted, are weaker than on the last few albums.  Ironically, their major label debut has their weakest production to date, and it robs the rockers of some of their power.  R.E.M., meanwhile, rock harder than they have since their debut, in a garage-punk manner that definitely recalls Hüsker Dü, even if not nearly so hard, and with a still-very-prominent folk-rock element.  I don’t know if it’s their strongest album to date, but it’s certainly one of their strongest, and the most pure rockin’ fun to be had on an R.E.M. album at least until Monster. 

                Elsewhere in the 80s US underground, there’s other good stuff to be had, and it’s still pretty eclectic, although to be honest my collection is again a little thin.  The Flaming Lips kick up an entertaining psych-rock noise on their full-length debut, which recalls Saucerful-era Floyd, remembering the garage beat but with an amateurish sense of experimentation.  Also working in experimental territory, though considerably more grounded, are bands like the Violent Femmes and Camper Van Beethoven, who are both worthy this year.  Camper does better, with stuff that’s pretty much the epitome of college-rock in a positive sense: clever musically, intellectually-minded lyrically, and more than a little smart-ass in its sentiment.  Also very much in the college-rock vein are Phish, whose quasi-debut, The White Tape, is this year.  Surprisingly, it sounds at times like the Minutemen to me, although given that I hear virtually no Minutemen (or other punk) influence on their sound afterwards, I’m inclined to chalk this one up to the fact that they’re both poorly-recorded funk-rock bands with thin vocals.  Basically they sound like what they are at this point: an above-average campus band that managed to get some studio time.  They’ll get better (and not coincidentally more Yes-like) soon, though.

                Over in the UK, we get a couple of career records from a couple of the major UK indie bands, both fitting more or less in the jangle-pop tradition.  XTC’s Skylarking owes more probably to post-Pet Sounds 60s Beach Boys, but still fits in the 60s revivalism of that scene.  It’s also a good example of my take on ’86, and the 80s in general: I respect it, and it’s clever, and there’s nothing wrong with it, but I just don’t really care about it.  Except “Dear God;” that smug little sermon is just straight-up terrible.  The Smiths, however, do quite well this year; like last year, they’re pulling from a surprising amount of what’s going on in the UK, this time even with hints of U2-style big stadium-ready post-punk layered in with some almost funky bass and their usual heavy dose of jangle-pop with morose crooning.

                Still, my favorite stuff out of the UK this year is from a group of bands that aren’t all that connected, but all are working in a folk-rock vein.  Billy Bragg puts out three of my favorites of his this year (the downright heartbreaking “Levi Stubbs’ Tears,” the poppy “Greetings to the New Brunette,” and the excellent political rocker “Help Save The Youth of America).  I can’t really say why I like Bragg so much better than the NYC folk of the early ‘60s that he clearly draws heavily on; maybe it’s just that I don’t feel like he’s confined by external rules, and that his minimalism is purely of his own choice.

                Emphatically not exploring minimalism, but still basically folk-rock-based, are the revived Mekons.  They expand their sound with both accordion and female lead vocals, but otherwise continue on the country-rock path of last year’s Fear & Whiskey.  Prior to this project, I never heard too much connection between them and the Pogues, but now it’s kinda hard to miss, both in shambolic attitude and sonics.  The Pogues don’t have a new album this year, but their Poguetry in Motion EP is still a sonic advance, adding a horn section and some soul elements, recalling the now-defunct UK soul-pop scene, but with a grit and drunken swagger that those bands never had.  So more Stax than Motown, if you like.

                One artist who was a part of that soul-pop scene who has emphatically left it behind, perhaps inspired by his work producing the Pogues last year, is Elvis Costello.  Elvis releases a pair of “roots” records this year, the first (King of America) an exploration of American roots-rock, and the second (Blood & Chocolate) an exploration of his roots, and a return to the raw, almost punk rock of This Year’s Model.  It’s not a complete return, as it’s the difference between an angry young man and a bitter old man, but on this listen, I think it’s his best record since at least Imperial Bedroom.  Prior to this listen, I’d always said I’d preferred King of America, but that one’s a little stilted in comparison.  King of America, however, does sound an awful lot like Richard Thompson this year, although obviously Costello emphasizes the lyrics more and Thompson the guitar.  After the over-produced mess he put out last year, Thompson is back to sounding like a folk-rocker.  Odd that this involves ditching his producer since his Fairport days in favor of the guy who made his name producing Crowded House, but Mitchell Froom does a fine job here, at least, foregrounding (for instance) the accordion instead of processed drums.  Certainly a more sympathetic production job than last year’s U2-echoing mess…

                Of course, there’s plenty going on in the UK (and elsewhere) with a more synth-heavy sound.  Most surprising at the time, probably, was the return of Wire, who have abandoned the brevity of their earlier work in favor of a more repetitive, danceable, New Order-influenced sound.  It’s interesting to hear them back again, although their reunion work isn’t half as compelling as their first run.  New Order, however, have developed an impressive run of albums that are both good and push their sound forward.  This year they split their LP between a more jangle-pop side 1 and a more synth-heavy side 2.  So on the one hand they sound like Smiths peers, and the other like a superior version of the electro-pop of the like of the Pet Shop Boys (though better in no small part due to their underproduction, unusual in a synth-driven band).   Since I like them better than the Smiths (if for no other reason than that they’re not half as pretentious), New Order at this point have to be considered my favorite UK band of the period.  And their influence is certainly in evidence.  Not only Wire, but even Neil Young, who puts out a synth-pop album himself this year.  Landing on Water is by no means a classic, but it is probably his truest follow-up to Rust Never Sleeps yet, insofar as Young is once again meeting the cutting edge of rock music on its own terms, experimenting with New Order (or Big Black)-style synth programming much like he dabbled in punk rock on Rust Never Sleeps.  Obviously punk was more simpatico with Young’s own style, and the songs were better too, but at least it’s an honest attempt to stay current for artistic reasons, rather than commercial ones.  And he does a damn sight better than Dylan, who continues to wallow in overproduced faux-soul sounds….

                Elsewhere in dance-heavy sounds, Big Audio Dynamite’s 2^nd album is a worth follow-up to their debut; less fun but arguably more substantive (plus lyrics by Joe Strummer, making this as close to a Clash reunion as you’ll get on record).  Big Audio’s sound is more hip-hop than Eurodisco (unlike New Order), at times even recalling DC-style go-go funk.  It also sounds like a clear precursor to the Madchester sound that’ll come out of the UK in the coming years, mixing as it does alt-rock guitar & melody with hip-hop drumbeats.  It also means that BAD sound closer to the Talking Heads than any of their UK peers, as both are interested in getting their rhythmic base from hip-hop or funk.  The Talking Heads rebound nicely this year with True Stories, which is only slightly less insubstantial than Little Creatures, but 1) shows a bit more variety and 2) gets judged less harshly because it wasn’t 3 years in the making.  (also not too far off from Talking Heads is Peter Gabriel, who also is basically making prog-pop songs this year).

                Elsewhere in the world of US beat-heavy music, industrial music is really starting to take shape.  The Fall mess around with this sound, but as with all styles they attempt, it’s just a new way for the band to riff underneath while Mark E. Smith spits his fractured lyrics.  Big Black put out their first (I think) full-length, and I enjoy it quite a bit for what it is, but they’re definitely what I think of as a classic “producer’s band” (they’re Steve Albini’s band).  Albini makes sure the tracks are always sonically interesting, but with the exception of the portrait of a small-town arsonist “Kerosene” these are not really fully-formed songs.  Brian Eno had a similar problem on his pop records: all sonics, but weak songs.  Still, a damn sight better than Swans, whose Greed is one of the weakest albums in my collection: all droney goth with darkness and “experimentation” covering for lack of talent.  As an experiment, I tried listening to this LP at 45 rpm, and when your songs still drag at 150% their intended playback speed, you’ve got a pretty dire record.  Swans were part of the same NYC scene as Sonic Youth, and this record is so terrible that it’s actually dissuaded me from getting Sonic Youth’s contemporary albums.  Also, shocking to discover that an NYC band is overrated, I know.

                All these various alt-rock synth or industrial sound actually fit surprisingly well next to Judas Priest’s oft-denigrated synth-metal experiments.  Songs like “Turbo Lover” recall Neil Young’s contemporary attempts to fuse his own traditional sound with the cutting-edge of synth sounds, and that’s probably the only time in this project that I’ll directly compare Judas Priest & Neil Young.  It’s also not too far from Public Image Ltd., which at this point is just John Lydon and session men (including Ginger Baker!).  Having lost the last of the original PiL-men, Lydon also abandons the last of his anti-commercial instincts, and puts out a more or less conventional metal record, right down to Steve Vai playing lead guitar.  It’s not bad, but it’s not half as innovative as his earlier work.  Also basically a one-off between the collapse of the original Public Image and the formation of the new Public Image next year.

                Also abandoning punk for metal this year are Bad Brains, who sound very close to PiL in their clean metallic sounds, and also basically provide the template for Living Color later on.  Probably Bad Brains’ best album, although it has none of the hardcore or reggae they actually made their name on.  The Beastie Boys too foreswear their hardcore roots, in favor of their first hip-hop record.  License to Ill is a lot of fun, but borrows its sound so heavily from the (at this point) superior Run-DMC that it’s easy to see why the Beasties were dismissed as a novelty act at the time. 

                Of course, the biggest development in metal is the peak of thrash.  Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth all put out records that, if not consensus picks for their masterpieces, are at least in the conversation.  Basically thrash combines the virtuosity and prog ambitions of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands with the speed, aggression, and crappy vocals of hardcore punk.  Done well, it’s tremendously fun stuff, but done poorly and its technique-for-the-sake-of-technique time-wasting.  For what it’s worth, I rank them Metallica > Slayer > Megadeth, since Metallica makes far better use of space than Slayer, who too often are just a wall of sound (plus Slayer have deliberately “brutal” (read “piss-poor”)vocals, presaging the whole Cookie Monster-voiced death metal trend).

                Finally, just because he fits nowhere else, Prince puts out another in his series of endlessly inventive albums, once again having nothing to do with the predecessor’s sound.  This time Prince has moved into a much more minimalist funk sound, exemplified by “Kiss.”  It recalls more than anything the Dirty Mind sound, albeit with more fully-formed production.  Yet another excellent record for Prince.

Song of the Year:  Don’t really have one this year.  A lot of very good songs, but no standout pick.  Contenders would include Billy Bragg’s “Levi Stubbs’ Tears,” which is an excellent fusion of his political and personal songwriting, and Elvis Costello’s “Tokyo Storm Warning,” which recalls the frantic word-spewing lyricism of both his early period and Dylan’s mid-60s stuff, but with a bitter intensity both precursors lack.

Album of the Year:  R.E.M. – Lifes Rich Pageant.  R.E.M. have arguably the most consistent run of albums in the history of rock, with not a dud to be found between Murmer and New Adventures in Hi-Fi.  (I know some don’t like Monster, but I’m not one of them).  I don’t know that I’d say Lifes Rich Pageant is their best, but it’s definitely their best attempt at rocking (as opposed to the moody folk-rock sounds of their earlier and later records). 

Artist Most Benefiting from Reevaluation:  New Order.  Much as with XTC and Big Audio Dynamite, they’re a band I respect more than love, but New Order deserve credit for consistently putting out solid and innovative records without repeating themselves.  Also, there’s a very appealing amiability and lack of pretention about them that probably diminishes their mystique but makes them tremendously likeable.  See the closing track on Brotherhood, where Stephen Morris actual laughs at how ridiculous his own lyrics are…

Artist Most Diminished in Reevaluation:  XTC.  I think I hoped that listening to them in context would raise my opinion of XTC, but they remain a band that I can respect without really enjoying.  They’re good at what they do, and what they do is put out the kind of pop music I like (at least on paper), but I just cannot get excited about this band, and listening in context just made me realize how much better Prince was at psychedelia and R.E.M. were at folk-rock.

Album List

Bad Brains - I Against I

Big Audio Dynamite – No. 10 Upping St.

Big Audio Dynamite - Planet BAD: Greatest Hits

Big Black - Atomizer

Billy Bragg - Must I Paint You A Picture?: The Essential Billy Bragg

Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic - Beat of the Mesozoic

Bob Dylan - Greatest Hits Volume 3

Camper Van Beethoven - Popular Songs of Great Enduring Strength and Beauty

David Bowie - Best Of Bowie

Devo - Pioneers Who Got Scalped: The Anthology

Dio - The Very Beast Of Dio

Dogmatics - 1981-86

Electric Light Orchestra - Strange Magic: The Best Of Electric Light Orchestra

Elvis Costello - Best Of

Elvis Costello – Blood & Chocolate

Elvis Costello – King of America

Elvis Costello - Out Of Our Idiot

Hüsker Dü - Candy Apple Grey

Iggy Pop - Nude & Rude: The Best Of Iggy [Explicit]

Joe Strummer - Misc.

Judas Priest - Metal Works '73-'93

Lou Reed - Collections

Megadeth - Greatest Hits: Back To The Start (Digital Only)

Metallica - Master Of Puppets

Neil Young - Landing On Water

Neil Young - Lucky Thirteen

New Order - Brotherhood

New Order - Substance

Ozzy Osbourne - The Ozzman Cometh

Pet Shop Boys - Discography: The Complete Singles Collection

Pet Shop Boys – Please

Peter Gabriel - Shaking The Tree: 16 Golden Greats

Peter Gabriel - So

Phish - The White Tape

Primal Scream - Shoot Speed (More Dirty Hits)

Prince – Parade

Prince - The Hits

Public Image Ltd. – Album

Queen - Classic Queen

R.E.M. - Dead Letter Office

R.E.M. - Lifes Rich Pageant

Richard Thompson – Daring Adventures

Roger Miller – No Man Is Hurting Me

Run-D.M.C. - Greatest Hits

Run-D.M.C. - Wedding Songs

Slayer - Reign In Blood

Steve Earle - The Best Of Steve Earle

Stevie Ray Vaughan - The Real Deal: Greatest Hits Vol. 2

Super Furry Animals - Ffa Coffi Pawb - Am Byth

Swans – Greed

Talking Heads - Sand In The Vaseline

Talking Heads – True Stories

The Beastie Boys - Licensed To Ill

The Fall - 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong: 39 Golden Greats

The Flaming Lips - Hear It Is

The Flaming Lips - The Fearless Freaks

The Jesus & Mary Chain - 21 Singles

The Mekons - The Edge Of The World

The Pogues - Poguetry in Motion

The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy & The Lash

The Police - Every Breath You Take: The Singles

The Ramones - Mania

The Replacements - Nothing For All

The Smiths - Louder Than Bombs

The Smiths - Singles

The Style Council - The Singular Adventures Of The Style Council

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Playback II: Spoiled & Mistreated

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Playback V: Through The Cracks

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Playback VI: Nobody's Children

V/A - '80s Hits Back

V/A - Back In The Day Jamz

V/A - Children Of Nuggets I

V/A - Children Of Nuggets II

V/A - Children Of Nuggets III

V/A - Children Of Nuggets IV

V/A - Post Punk Chronicles: Left Of The Dial

V/A - Pure 80's

V/A - Pure Funk

Violent Femmes - Add It Up (1981-1993)

Wire - 1985-1990 The A List

X - Beyond & Back: The X Anthology

XTC – Skylarking

1985

                1985 is one of those years where I suspect that my own personal music library may not be really representative of the actual general output.  My 1985, for instance, is generally not terribly overproduced, but I have little reminders (“Axel F”, “West End Girls”) of just how incredibly synthetic the pop charts were at the time.  Similarly, I’m fairly certain that my music collection is missing a whole bunch of things happening in music that I’ve just never cared for that much as genres (New Order, for instance, is basically the only example I have of UK synth-heavy alt-rock, missing the likes of Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, and whoever, who I know were important in UK alt-rock but I’ve never felt persuaded to get any records by).  Regardless, in my collection, after years of the UK dominating, this is a year where most of the excitement is happening Stateside.

                In the UK, my music divides pretty much into two camps: the soul-pop that’s generally the purview of acts coming out of the by-now years-past New Wave scene and the jangle-pop that dominates the newer bands.  This soul-pop is a genre I don’t particularly love (although it’s got some worthy singles – probably there’s a fantastic mix cd to be made out of it), but that I have a surprising amount of, largely because of my curiosity about what some of my favorite bands of the late 70s/early 80s ended up doing.  This year, though, the style’s starting to fade.  Madness put out their last album (early 00’s reunion notwithstanding), but it’s starting to feel more than a little formula.  The only action out of the ex-Specials camp is the Colourfield (which Terry Hall broke up the Fun Boy Three to form) and they’re the weakest spin-off yet: basically a garage rock band, but Hall doesn’t have the voice to pull it off or the knack for writing in this style.  So that leaves of the Second Wavers the Beat successors, and this year we get the Fine Young Cannibals, who sound very close to the Style Council in approach (all soul, no ska), with a  love-or-hate vocalist who sounds vaguely like a frog-voiced Otis Redding.  Not bad, really, but not particularly exciting either; worse than General Public anyway.  The Style Council, however, rebound somewhat.  This is the only LP of theirs I own, and it’s pretty good, if not great.  They even have their second actually great song this year – the socialist soul “Walls Come Tumbling Down.”  Still, the Style Council, even moreso than New Order, are a band that sometimes I love and sometimes I’m almost embarrassed to be listening to.  For the Style Council it’s because when they’re bad they’re the cheesiest lounge-pop you’re gonna find, and New Order at their worst is a dance band you don’t want to dance to.  On the other hand, in the plus column, they’re sporadically quite inventive, and even if I don’t buy them especially as a club monster, they can write a decent pop song, and when they’re on their game, they can write a dance song that works as a pounding rocker.  Probably one of the bright spots in the UK this year, with their best record “as themselves,” meaning escaping the shadow of Joy Division.  If nothing else, they’ve got much more of a sense of humor than the dour JD; the peeper-frog-effect keyboard solo on “Perfect Kiss” always amuses me, at any rate. 

                The other major camp in the UK is the jangle-poppers, where a surprising amount of the UK alt-rock scene fits.  The Smiths obviously are the dominant band of this scene, and they are probably the best at it, even if, like New Order, I think of them as a good band that got elevated to greatness by people at the time because they were certainly among the best bands active, if not the equal of some bands that came before or would come after.  A sure sign of their dominance, at least, is how many bands apparently wanted to sound like them.  Some of these bands (Primal Scream, the Stone Roses) would grow up to form their own identities, but right now sound like Smiths clones.  Even bands that sound quite different on the surface fit the general sonic template of mid-tempo arpeggiated lilting pop songs.  U2, who only have an EP to their name, don’t sound terribly out of place here, and the Jesus & Mary Chain, once you listen past the layers upon layers of guitar distortion, are also drawing on the same Phil Spector/Byrds template as the Smiths.  Even New Order have their moments in this camp.

                Emphatically not fitting in this camp, however, is Mick Jones’ new band, Big Audio Dynamite.  I have a lot of mediocre records by successor acts of bands I love (see the Style Council), and while a bunch of BAD’s later albums emphatically fit in that category, this one definitely does not.  It’s one of the earliest efforts by alt-rockers to really engage with hip-hop’s sample-collage technique, as opposed to the limp-rapping-over-Chic-style-funk that dominated earlier rock-rap crossover.  Also worlds better than the Clash’s last album, also released this year.  About the most accurate review of Cut The Crap I’ve read is to simply replace the first two words with “piece of”.  It’s just bad.  Not the worst album by a formerly great band in my collection (that’s probably Gang of Four’s Hard), but they don’t even sound like their former selves.  They sound like a Sham 69 rip-off, with football hooligan chants and synth parts that sounded dated even in ’85.  People will say that “This Is England” is the one keeper off this one, but even that sounds like a weak rip-off of Dave Davies’s stadium-rock-era Kinks songs (not a compliment).

                On the other hand, a couple of other bands put out records that feel very Clash-like this year, both in more of a roots-rock vein.  The Pogues put out the first of their two masterpieces, Rum, Sodomy, & the Lash, and it’s a phenomenal piece, with great songwriting, great playing, and an approach that constantly threatens to go off the rails into drunken abandon.  Nothing they didn’t do on their debut (although they rely more heavily on folk-style originals than actual old folk songs), but a step up in every way.  And very similar to the reunited Mekons.  The original ’78-82 Mekons were fun in their amateurism, but basically a punk-rock also-ran.  The reunited Mekons, however, arguably invent alt-country.  There were precursors, obviously, with 70s country-rock and Elvis Costello’s country covers album, but this feels different.  Stonesy in a way (esp. Exile-era), but also Pogues or Clash-like, with a clear leftist political anger and a real willingness to bring manic punk energy to a more country set of songs.  Plus, “I was out late the other night/fear & whiskey kept me going” is about as great a first line on a rock & roll album as you’re likely to find.

                Also keeping a mutant form of punk alive in the UK is the Fall, who continue to move in a direction that’s probably best described as an attempt to make Can pop.  Still, in their willingness to follow their own muse and not worry about fitting into an overall trend (plus their surf-rock guitar), the Fall sound much more like a US-style alt band than a UK one.

                In the US, perhaps befitting both its bigger size and a mainstream music press more willing to completely ignore the underground, alt-rock is much more a philosophical approach than an actual genre.  A lot of these bands have punk roots, but there’s not a lot else connecting them.  A band like Camper Van Beethoven, for instance, is clearly an alt band, but one pursuing its own muse, as for that matter are, say, the Violent Femmes.  As a consequence, this is the first year I hear the Grateful Dead as an alternative band.  They haven’t changed their sound in any dramatic fashion, but their willingness to continue to just pursue their own muse and ignore the mainstream around them means they seem to make much more sense sandwiched between, say, the Pogues and Camper Van Beethoven than next to Mick Jagger, who’s desperately chart-hit-hungry solo debut I purchased for $1 still-sealed, and probably got ripped off on…

                Not that there aren’t scenes in US alt-rock, or bands that loom large over the rest.  R.E.M. continue their phenomenal run of albums, emphasizing the folk end of their folk-rock/post-punk mix, and adding just a hint of surf rock in the guitars.  R.E.M. obviously are working a jangle-pop sound not too far from the Brits, but 1) do it much better and 2) do it with a somewhat more aloof & enigmatic approach that recalls Wire at times.  Michael Stipe also quite appropriately appears on the second Golden Palominos record with Richard Thompson and John Lydon (on the same tracks with Thompson, but not with Lydon), which makes a lot of sense, as R.E.M. split the difference quite well between Thompson’s guitar-heavy folk rock and the post-punk of PiL and the like.  Also on that record (which is fun but somewhat slight) is former P-Funker & Talking Heads associate Bernie Worrell, which is as good a segue as I’m likely to get to the other big band of US alt-rock, the Talking Heads.  They, however, have a bit of a step down this year.  Back in ’83 I mistakenly said that Speaking In Tongues was Eno-produced.  It wasn’t, but it was as inventive and worthy as those records.  Little Creatures, however, is downright slight in its straightforward pop tunes.  Not bad, but considering this was ~2 years in the making, it’s hard not to feel a little let down.

                Of course, churning out solid pop-rock tunes is hardly a bad thing, and we get a host of them from the revived US garage-rock scene, which has been going for awhile now (pretty much since punk).  I haven’t talked about it too much until now, as it really blended into punk, but as punk fades and garage endures, it becomes clear that it’s worth mentioning.  Not a lot of nationwide acts (as one would expect), but some that will be (the Flaming Lips) and some really excellent regional acts.  By the very nature of regional acts, I obviously don’t know a lot of them, but I’ll give a shout-out to Boston’s the Lyres.  Their debut last year was phenomenal, but their second album is almost as good.  Plus, their excellent single “She Pays The Rent” gets a slow-groove remake…

                As I mentioned before, punk is dwindling somewhat in a number of places, not least of which is LA, which had been one of the hotbeds of hardcore.  But both the Minutemen and Black Flag meet their ends this year.  For the Flag, it’s just as well; you only need so much of the semi-ironic party-Sabbath sound, and the band is sounding tired.  For the Minutemen, however, it’s a downright tragedy, stemming as it does from the death of D. Boon.  Their last releases from this year show a band moving toward a big evolution in their sound, branching into actual 2-3 minute song lengths consistently.  At this point, it’s not all good – the longer form emphasizes the band’s weaknesses, esp. on vocals – but there was every reason to expect great things from them as they went forward. 

                X’s original lineup also reach their end, although a post-Billy Zoom version will continue (to the present day, I believe).  Unfortunately, they end their classic period badly, with a blatant attempt to follow the Cars’ lead last year, glossing up their sound with a pop-metal producer.  It’s a terrible fit, making them sound less like a vital act and more like washed-up 60s survivors in a desperate bid for a commercial hit (like, just to rag on him a bit more, Mick Jagger).

                If we’ve reached the end of the old, SST-centered LA scene, we also have the early signs of the new funk-metal LA scene, the one that’ll spit out Jane’s Addiction soon.  Right now, the big bands are Fishbone and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  They both owe something of a debt to the Minutemen, for sure, and in RHCP’s case, Black Flag as well, but their bigger influences are probably a mix of Zeppelin and Parliament.  So not especially punk, for sure, but at times pretty fun…

                If the old LA scene is fading, Minneapolis has a second excellent year in a row.  For the alt rockers/punks, probably even better than last year.  The Replacements’ Tim is certainly as worthy as Let It Be, with stronger songs (I think) but less of the shock of a band reaching a new plateau of greatness.  Hüsker Dü, however, probably have the best year of any act on either side of the Atlantic, not just following up their breakthrough, but in my opinion bettering it.  The inspiration is clearly side 3 of Zen Arcade, but the new Hüsker sound is (to get slightly reductive) ’65-style garage-pop songs played with hardcore intensity at classic punk tempos, with a splash of the experimentation that follows on the psychedelic lead of last year’s “Dreams Recurring.”  New Day Rising is every bit as worthy a classic as Zen Arcade (probably moreso), and Flip Your Wig (their 2^nd album this year) has arguably higher highs, but suffers ever so slightly from simply repeating the sound on New Day Rising rather than expanding it.  Still, the Hüskers are pretty clearly the most exciting band in the US (and probably everywhere) this year, increasing their accessibility without compromising their integrity even a little bit.  Worthy heirs to the Buzzcocks’ progressive pop-punk throne, even if they sound nothing alike. 

                Of course the biggest star out of Minneapolis is Prince, who gets credit for rapidly following up his breakthrough with an equally ambitious record that sounds nothing like Purple Rain.  Around The World In A Day, while it contains a pair of his classic singles (“Raspberry Beret” and “Pop Life”), is the first real indication that Prince will, in the 90s, follow a Zappa/Fall-like path of chasing his own muse without regard for the world around him.  This year, though, his baroque psychedelia once again echoes what’s happening in the rock world, especially the similar Sgt. Pepper-recalling work of contemporary XTC.  Bowie, by the way, for what it’s worth this year sounds like a Prince follower rather than vice versa.

                The other artist with a massive record last year, Bruce Springsteen, follows up his commercial breakthrough with a 5-lp retrospective live set (which is excellent but exhausting, much like (I imagine) an actual Springsteen concert), but no new studio material.  Not that there’s any shortage of people trying to follow in his footsteps.  This year John Cougar Mellencamp and Tom Petty both reinvent themselves as heartland rockers, which in both cases involves singing about their childhood homes (the Midwest and the South respectively) to songs that show a clear mix of Stax & Springsteen influences.  For Mellencamp, this produces his career-best record, Scarecrow, even if the best song on it (and in Mellencamp’s entire career) is the slightest, the Mitch Ryder-esque “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.”  Petty’s heartland excursion, however, is probably a better record than Mellencamp’s, but his worst album to date.  To his credit, he does a credible Stax homage, and his approach is more Ray Davies than Springsteen (slice-of-life vignettes, not political economic laments).  Demerits, though, for infusing everything with such a ponderous sense that this is important music.  None of this is really bad, per se, just disappointing.  I liked Petty a lot better when you could mistake him for a New Waver.  Although the most New Wave song of Petty’s career, “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” was the single off this, and a real example of 80s overproduction at its worst.

                Also getting dragged down by overproduction are some 60s singer-songwriters.  Richard Thompson has good songs, but I don’t really need my folk rockers to sound like U2, thanks.  Dylan, on the other hand, is really bad, with an absolutely retched pop-soul sound that’s even more desperately chasing a commercial sound than Jagger.  Like Jagger, Dylan’s adopted a barking speak-singing style, also.  Infidels, although like Thompson’s record bogged down by terrible production, at least had some good songs underneath.  The same emphatically cannot be said about Empire Burlesque.  Also, by all means check out the unspeakably awful video for “Tight Connection To My Heart”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nheBN2UWAaM&ob=av2e . Neil Young, at least, has a decent if unremarkable year, with a straight-country album.  It’s good, not too far from his classic country-rock sound, but nothing to get too excited about either.  Which may be a good summary of a lot of ’85: good, not far from bands’ classic sounds, but not anything to get too excited about (Hüskers & Mekons & Pogues excluded).

Song of the Year:  If I were to go by ‘most representative,’ it would be the Smiths’ “How Soon Is Now?,” which captures a lot of the various strands of UK alt-rock (jangle-pop, dance, post-punk) and is probably the best thing the Smiths ever did.  Still, if I were to go by ‘favorite,’ it would unquestionably be Hüsker Dü’s “Makes No Sense At All,” the culmination of their hardcore-intensity-garage-pop sound.

Album of the Year:  Probably the Mekons’ Fear & Whiskey, a country-rock masterpiece that recalls the best of both the Clash & the Stones while being entirely the Mekons’ own.  But a special shout-out to the pair of Hüsker Dü classics, New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig.  Side one of Flip Your Wig is probably as good as the Hüskers ever got…

Artist Most Benefiting from Reevaluation:  Big Audio Dynamite.  They sound incredibly dated today, and their other albums had some serious diminishing returns, but on their debut, Mick Jones’ new band sounded cutting edge at the time, and like worthy Clash successors.

Artist Most Diminished in Reevaluation:  The Talking Heads.  I always felt their latter, more pop records were a step down, but it’s still disappointing coming after such a phenomenal run of classics from More Songs About Buildings & Food through Speaking In Tongues and Stop Making Sense to hit the trifle that is Little Creatures.

               

Album List

AC/DC - AC/DC

Big Audio Dynamite - Planet BAD: Greatest Hits

Big Audio Dynamite – This Is Big Audio Dynamite

Black Flag - The Last Two Years

Blue Öyster Cult - Workshop Of The Telescopes

Bob Dylan - Vol. 3: Rare And Unreleased, 1974-1991

Camper Van Beethoven - Popular Songs of Great Enduring Strength and Beauty

Cheap Trick - The Authorized Greatest Hits

Chuck Brown - The Best Of Chuck Brown

David Bowie - Best Of Bowie

Devo - Pioneers Who Got Scalped: The Anthology

Dinosaur Jr. - Ear-Bleeding Country: Best Of Dinosaur Jr

Dio - The Very Beast Of Dio

Elvis Costello - Out Of Our Idiot

Fine Young Cannibals – Fine Young Cannibals

Golden Palominos – Visions of Excess

Hüsker Dü - Eight Miles High/Makes No Sense At All  (Single)

Hüsker Dü - Flip Your Wig

Hüsker Dü - New Day Rising

John Cougar Mellencamp – Scarecrow

Madness - Total Madness: The Very Best Of Madness

Malcolm McLaren – Swamp Thing

Mick Jagger – She’s The Boss

Midnight Oil - 20,000 Watts R.S.L.: Greatest Hits

Minor Threat - Salad Days

Minutemen - Project: Mersh

Mission of Burma - Peking Spring

Mission Of Burma - The Horrible Truth About Burma

Neil Young - Lucky Thirteen

New Order - Low-Life

New Order - Retro

New Order - Substance

Nick Lowe - Basher: The Best Of Nick Lowe

Pet Shop Boys - Discography: The Complete Singles Collection

Primal Scream - Shoot Speed (More Dirty Hits)

Prince – Around The World In A Day

Prince - The B-Sides

Prince - The Hits

Queen - Classic Queen

R.E.M. - Dead Letter Office

R.E.M. - Fables Of The Reconstruction

Red Hot Chili Peppers - What Hits!?

Richard Thompson - Across A Crowded Room

Rick James - Motown Legends: Give It to Me Baby

Run-D.M.C. - Greatest Hits

Rush - Chronicles

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Greatest Hits

Stevie Ray Vaughan - The Real Deal: Greatest Hits Vol. 2

Talking Heads – Little Creatures

Talking Heads - Sand In The Vaseline

The Beastie Boys - The Sounds Of Science

The Cars - The Cars Greatest Hits

The Clash - Clash On Broadway

The Fall - 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong: 39 Golden Greats

The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace

The Flaming Lips - Oh My Gawd!!!

The Grateful Dead - Dick's Picks, Vol. 21: Richmond Coliseum 11/1/85

The Jesus & Mary Chain - 21 Singles

The Jesus and Mary Chain – Psychocandy

The Lyres - Lyres Lyres

The Mekons - Original Sin

The Mekons - The Edge Of The World

The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy & The Lash

The Replacements - All for Nothing

The Replacements - Nothing For All

The Replacements - The Shit Hits The Fans (Speed Corrected)

The Replacements - Tim

The Smiths - Singles

The Stone Roses - The Complete Stone Roses

The Style Council – Internationalists

The Style Council - The Singular Adventures Of The Style Council

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Playback II: Spoiled & Mistreated

U2 - B-Sides 1980-1990

V/A - 12 Classic 45s

V/A - '80s Hits Back

V/A - Children Of Nuggets I

V/A - Children Of Nuggets II

V/A - Children Of Nuggets III

V/A - Children Of Nuggets IV

V/A - Old School II

V/A - Pure 80's

V/A - The Indestructible Beat of Soweto - Volume One

Violent Femmes - Add It Up (1981-1993)

X – Ain’t Love Grand

X - Beyond & Back: The X Anthology

Yo La Tengo - Prisoners Of Love