All Over The Place - Bangles. Album of Special Merit. Most-played album of that year for me. Vicki Peterson was a terrific songwriter and arranger. Four good singers. Five of these songs are my all-time favorites. Part of the Paisley Underground movement, this album came out before the girls became giant Hollywood icons, their heads filled with helium and exploded. "Hero Takes a Fall" is a great 80s dancefloor track, the only tune here that doesn't sound like it was recorded in 1966. If they release this with their 1982 EP on one CD, it would work.
All The Rage - General Public. English Beat remnants release a diverse album that picks up close to "Special Beat Service." Some "toasting" (Jamaican rap); some reggae, soul and rock-steady. Ranking Roger had a tiger-striped freakin' hairdo. Man.
Born in the USA - Bruce Springsteen & the E. Street Band. Seriously hyped, but I think "Dancing in the Dark" was a good song/summation of life past 30 in the Reagan years. I'm not just saying that because my off and on girlfriend at the time resembled a flatter Courteney Cox in the video...Bruce was my age now then. I likened "Glory Days" & "Going Down" to Creedence Clearwater Revival. I really liked "I'm On Fire" though I disliked "Born in the USA" and the whole followup mythical crap. One-semester roommate's dad worked with Bruce's dad in Freehold, NJ and he had some serious bootlegs of Bruce, Costello and Dylan.
Couldn't Stand the Weather - Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble. Album of Special Merit. Stunning Hendrix/Texas Blues guitar playing. A real heavy-duty session and good catchy songwriting, to boot. More rock than blues.
Cypress - Let's Active. Album of Special Merit. Interesting unique guitaring. Singer Mitch Easter produced many bands in the 80s. 2nd most played album of the year. A more surfy REM? A poppier Tom Verlaine? "Waters Part" an exceptional guitar song/spooky. One dude and two girls. Their debut EP was good, too. P.S. I knew a guy in junior high named Mitch Christmas. No poop.
Declaration - The Alarm. Album of Special Merit. Almost like Joe Strummer & Mick Jones play acoustic guitars. Actually, a little more in common with the folk-protestors than the punk-protestors, but loud and fast! Full-chested vocals and very good compositions. "The Deceiver" and "We are the Light" are subtle and forceful at once.
Double Nickels on the Dime - Minutemen. I believe there are 30 songs on this one. Fast hardcore and rock. They even do a slammin' version of a Steely Dan song. Tragically, these blokes died when one of them fell asleep driving the tour van across the desert. Big ol' guy with a Tele rocking the house down; "Maybe Partying Will Help" predates the Chili Peppers and much of the 90s funky-core biz.
How Will The Wolf Survive? - Los Lobos. Band of Special Merit. One of two masterpieces (the other in 1988); these Chicanos knew so much about North American music and legend. That's not enough to make good records. It helps to have two songcrafters and a houseful of joy and talent like they did. I love when a band can create cool intricate interplays on instruments that are easy on the ear.
Human Racing - Nik Kershaw. Our band played "Wouldn't It Be Good" as did many "noo wave" bands of the 80s. Oh yeah, but did they blend it with "Precious" by The Jam like we did? This is wistful yet upbeat techno in the Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode, New Order field. Some experimental weirdness, too.
It's About Time - Pandoras. I believe it was Steve Wynn of the Dream Syndicate (don't quote me) who said this was the only GREAT album of the whole Paisley Underground movement. I don't know about that, but they were rock-solid live. I was a 20-year old wastrel, standing just offstage, ogling that Paula Pierce in awe at Rockitz. Campy, but not as much as the Cramps; tuneful, but not as much as the Bangles (although also all-female). Cheesy keyboards and turned-up tube amps abound. Screaming, moaning, sighing and plenty of "oohs" in back.
Let It Be - Replacements. Album of Special Merit. Paul W is one of the most underrated songwriters of the millenium. And really one of the great rock singers: I put him right there with Ann Wilson, Roger Daltrey, Bono, Rod Stewart and Graham Parker. Some of the thrash was being courted by melody and the romance would produce some amazing results. These guys were super young too and when I started hearing them "underground" I, at that time, couldn't figure out why they weren't on every rock station in America.
Live Alchemy - Dire Straits. Songs of Special Merit. "Telegraph Road" is like Mark Twain learns to rock. This live performance of "Tunnel of Love" ranks up there in my memory as one of the Best Ever. "I love a drummer who works his ass off," a late-40s bass player noted, listening to this afterhours in the supermarket where I worked. If you like the Mark Knopfler clean guitar sound, this is the album for you.
My Everchanging Moods (U.S.) - Style Council. Album of Special Merit. Wow...Paul Weller, formerly of The Jam, sings like Marvin Gaye and writes a bunch of Philly Soul tunes. Guests like Tracy Thorne highlight an incredible blend of cafe jazz, soul and ballads. We played "Solid Bond" in a band. Memories flood me about this multi-cultural babe that changed my world who didn't even think she was cute. The next fall and winter, we listened to this tape repeatedly in the dark; fully clothed....I hear she's in a convent in Montreal. There's something about that weekend weather lady on NBC that reminds me of her, too.
New Sensations - Lou Reed. I sat outside the Mosque listening to the gig with this girl Sherri. "I Love You Suzanne" was great. Lou had spotty stuff in the 80s, like a lot of the "dinosaurs." This one's pretty consistent.
On Fyre - the Lyres. Band of Special Merit. They got their name for the look of their guitars. Awesome cover shot of a lyre on fire. Fun almost-60s party rock. Easy to like for 80% of the population. Also some of the best recorded rock'n'roll...snares sound like gunshots and the organ/guitar mix is sweet and crunchy. Indie label cuts culled to make this one; "Help You Ann," with its vibrato guitar, is a Single Of The Eighties type-thing. Saw them at the 9:30 in DC, where my friends got tossed for cutting eight-splits of acid.
Purple Rain - Prince. The movie sucked and the album was way-hyped, but "When Doves Cry," "I Would Die 4 U," the title track and "Let's Go Crazy" feature both interesting rhythmic melodies and serious Hendrixian rock guitar. One roommate's mom was friends with Tipper Gore and the PMRC: it was priceless to hear Tipper on television reciting the lyrics to "Darling Nikki" about the girl in the lobby "masturbating to a magazine"
Reckoning - REM. Never an REM "freak," I liked a lot of their stuff. This one is the most "Americana." "Don't Go Back to Rockville" is the closest they came to country, and for my money, the best track they did the whole decade. Solid small-club-like performances here. A less grand, stripped-down view than their debut. They sucked big ones live when I saw them the previous year opening for The Police.
Repo Man - Movie Soundtrack. California post-hardcore, pre-funk-punk tracks, by the Plugz, etc. If you haven't seen the flick, I recommend it for a Friday Night. (Get a carton of cheapass beer first.)
Stop Making Sense - Talking Heads. Jonathan Demme made this film about this band who helped define New Wave (especially legitimized strange singing and previously unpoppy subjects). Emphasis on rhythm, with starkness and darkness aplenty. Movie is annoying at times, but the music is propelling and compelling.
System of Grooves - Good Guys. To me: absolutely no other band better live. Period. Totally an honor to play on stage with Harry Gore (really like Hendrix) all those times. Ska, soul, hard-rock and reggae in decently-sung, extremely well-played, slammin' EP worth 20 LPs of any 90s Hard-Ska bands you can find (okay, excepting the Bosstones). Jimi Gore should've been a bigger star than Prince, Terence Trent and C+C Music Factory rolled into one. Also jammed/almost formed band with their bassist "Cheese" in the early 90s.
The Unforgettable Fire - U2. Sure, it's spotty, but "Bad" is to me, one of the most emotional pieces of rock singing ever, up there with Nazareth's "Love Hurts," Roger Daltrey in The Who's "Love, Reign O'er Me" and "Piece of My Heart" by Janis Joplin. Literally screaming in key. The spacey, Eno-produced instrumental that led into it provided incredibly mystical moments lying alone in that apartment summer nights when the roommates were back home with their 'rents.
28th Day - 28th Day. EP of Special Merit. We called it a Post-REM winner. Female harmonies accent stripped-down, raucous, almost rockabilly approach to the quirky, chordish, folky, heavy-rhythmed music popularized by the Athens scene. Song titles include "Where the Bears Are" and "25 Pills." Good luck finding this one in print. I have recently lost my tape of these guys, Big Dipper, Pixies and Blasters. What a slack idiot! P.S. "Funky Kingston" by Toots & the Maytals was on side two.
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