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