A Very Special Christmas - Various Artists. I love Christmas Music and I felt proud to have this collection. The proceeds went to charity, too. Madonna's Betty Boopish "Santa Baby" is the best thing she did that year. U2's submission was good/could've been a Phil Spector thing. Personal fave was Run-DMC's rap: "It's Christmas time in Hollis, Queens/mama's cooking chicken and collard greens...on the grandstand with a mic in my hand and I'm chillin' and coolin' just like a snowman."
Back to Basics - Billy Bragg. 1984's Brewing Up plus additionals. "The Saturday Boy" and "New England" are simply gems. Bob Dylan with a heavy Cockney accent playing a cheap electric and documenting wonder.
Blow Your Cool - Hoodoo Gurus. The first three tracks are excellent. Brad, the guitarist, was boyfriend to Miss Michael of the Bangles and the girls sing sweet backups on "Good Times." "What's my Scene:" I remember strumming the intro during a soundcheck and 4 guys running up asking were we going to play that song. I was promised the opening spot for the Gurus' Pyramid gig but lost it to The Limit because their sound guy'd become the Gurus' lighting guy. Went to the show, anyway. Painfully loud; walked home a mile in the cold rain feeling plastered and rejected and couldn't hear until the next afternoon.
Bo-Day-Shus - Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper. More rockabilly tales of debauchery and intoxication, this time with a full band. "Elvis is Everywhere" was an all-ages hit. "Gin Guzzling Frenzy"was not.
Bright Lights, Big City - Movie Soundtrack. Michael J. Fox (the evil Anti-Elvis, according to Mojo above): extraordinarily underrated performance. Seriously. The book ruled, updates the whole Holden Caulfield thing. Prince, New Order and others combine for a great club mix that documents that year: New Wave, Soul, Disco and Funk all start to meld together.
Concrete Blonde - Concrete Blonde. Album of Special Merit. Recorded in 1986, but not promoted till winter 1987. Spectacular Chrissie Hynde-type singing. At the gig that March, I stood amidst this group of girls pouring their hearts out to Johnnette about how much this album meant to them. Hung out with the drummer afterwards who thought I should meet her and I really felt like a dumb slut groupie. There is fast hardcore, Stones-type rock, acoustic ballads and introspective almost-Goth here. Whew! The care and fury of "Little Sister" and "Haunted Head" spoke so much to me. Really varied guitaring. "True" was a mid-paced semi-acoustic ditty on MTV and some radios.
Crowded House - Crowded House. Kind of pop-n-roll; more laid-back companion piece to Housemartins (see 1986). Emphasis on melody. Three-piece combo--former Split Enz--sound a bit folkier than previous New Wave lineup.
Cuba - the Silos. 80% Rock/20% Country. Reminded me of Exile on Main Street by the Stones. Yes, we did open for these guys that year. They had the #1 College Radio album but there were maybe 20 folks in the audience. Singer told me they got $50 apiece each night. I remember talking to them at like 2 a.m. as they were loading up their van to drive back to NYC to get up in the morning to wash dishes at a restaurant. Sheesh.
Darklands - Jesus & Mary Chain. Album of Special Merit. Goth goes pop? Well-written simple tunes, some rocking out; reminiscent of Velvet Underground. Semi-dreary, deep almost-spoken singing with many lyrics about precipitation. "Cherry Came, Too" and "Happy When It Rains" are fun rock tunes with blaring guitars. Charles of the Good Guys said that night that he'd never seen such a crappy band live, however. But the record rules.
Dead Letter Office - REM. Yeah, yeah, Document was the big hit that year. I much preferred the quirkiness of the instrumentals and out-takes here. Mistakes abound. Glad to see it. Peter Buck does some nice picking on "White Tornado." There are several Velvet Underground covers that sound way-different but fit REM's style well.
El Bandido Rock - Joe King Carrasco. Good album of ska, Tex-Mex, but more straight rock here. Last album I remember hearing from this guy. Several very good songs. At times, this sounds like a mellower X. I remember blaring the crap out of this with the Jolly Canuck the last time I saw his mom alive.
Electric - Cult. Heavier-hitting than Love a few years before, "Love Removal Machine" and "Wildflower" pack megapunches. Imagine a less juvenile, underground, club-trendy AC/DC.
Everlasting - Natalie Cole. Three different ladies with whom I associated used this album as musical air-freshener in their flats. Some dancey stuff and sweet soul ballads. It grew on me. I must admit, the cover shot is one of the most beautiful pictures of a woman in the history of mankind.
Flashlight - Tom Verlaine. The master of the sixties style guitar. There is psychedelia, surf, angular New Wave and more. He does get experimental with not-too-annoying results. "Town Called Walker" is the "Classic Rock Should Have Been Song of the Year" T.V. managed to pen each album.
Heavens/Boo Boo - Big Dipper. The gig we opened for them was videoed by someone. I felt good about it. A guitarist we had for a few months rode around with these guys looking for dope afterwards. They were a good American-sounding band like the Pixies, Lyres, BoDeans and Lemonheads. Two albums for one on the CD. "Loch Ness Monster" and "All Going Out Together" were very catchy yet still edgey.
In the Dark - Grateful Dead. I think there were only 7 tunes on this one; I liked them all. I loved "Touch of Grey." Most Deadheads pointed to that song as the turning point in their masses: "are you pre-Grey?" These girls used to play this, while sitting up on the roof of their 1905 Victorian house across the street. They had hooch and munchies and'd wave me over to hang. Think I resisted?
Introducing the Hard Line According To... - Terence Trent D'Arby. Songs of Special Merit. Very tight minimalist Soul with qualities of New Wave. Hard to define. Unusually catchy melodies and arrangements. "Sign Your Name" and "Let's Go Forward" were really stirring, almost a majestic feel like gospel or reggae. I still like them.
Kick - InXS. Kind of got burned on it; they were really commercial and sounding 1978-83 Rolling Stones at this point. "Never Tear Us Apart" was a mature ballad. "New Sensation" made hips shake downtown.
Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me - The Cure. Album of Special Merit. Their last great record. The ragtime guitar opening to "Lightning Strikes" is the best thing Robert Smith has done. "Just Like Heaven--" mine and many other bands played to pieces. Wonderful song, though. "Catch" is the kind of "small" song I'd like to hear more often.
La Bamba - Movie Soundtrack. Marshall Crenshaw, Brian Setzer and Los Lobos make a very good 50s tribute. Lou Diamond Phillips did a great version of Bill Haley's "Rip It Up" in that garage audition scene. In real life, his old lady hit the road to shack up and munch rugs with Melissa Etheridge.
Long Live the New Flesh -Flesh for Lulu. What were their former bands? This sounds like the stuff Billy Idol and Steve Jones did in the early 80s; 70s Brit punk with less venom. "Postcards From Paradise" ruled.
Lost Boys - Movie Soundtrack. Echo does that Doors cover and Roger Daltrey is respectable. Nice eerie mood music...not bad for Halloween. Hmm.
Louder Than Bombs - Smiths. Re-releases of early British stuff not available in US. Includes entire EP released earlier that year, as I recall. I was the sole straight at this b-day party where everyone had pneumonia. They played this whole double album, then put on Kraftwerk. That'll clear the joint.
Nothing Like the Sun - Sting. Less uptight and scholarly than the debut, but not by much. Great song and video was "We'll Be Together."
One Way - Inner Circle. Good reggae. In the 80s, I discovered all the rock-steady and reggae of the 60s and 70s; didn't have my ear on the pulsebeat of the currents. I believe this is the first effort in 6 years for these guys, whose singer died in 1981. This band got repackaged majorally. I like Bad Boys the album, released mid-90s, with the title track, the excellent "Sweat" and "Rock With You."
Pleased To Meet Me - Replacements. Horns and subtler songs don't detract from the punch of "IOU" and "Alex Chilton," a great ode to the Box Tops/Big Star singer who influenced a lot of the American Underground.
Remembrance Days - The Dream Academy. Album of Special Merit. Doesn't have the hit "Life in a Northern Town." That was on the debut. However, all these songs are topnotch. Mellow Brit-folk with a lot of good singing and a million different instruments contributing, without ever sounding "busy."
Rock the House - DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince. The lighter side of rap. Many caucs liked the humor here and in such acts as the Fat Boys. Enjoyable stuff.
Sign o' the Times - Prince. Song of Special Merit. Spotty l.p., but it has the brilliant "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man." A lot of rock with an incredible sense of rhythm. As good a rock guitar soloist as any.
Strangeways, Here We Come - Smiths. Their last studio l.p. A simpler session, with the combination of romantic loss, longing, sexual violence and devotion elevated almost to campy. "A Rush and a Push" made the FM; "Girlfriend In a Coma" and "Stop Me" were on heavy video rotation and "I Won't Share You" is a syrupy, goofy yet proud ballad.
Substance - New Order. Album of Special Merit. Liked most of their stuff. People said our voices resembled. Well-crafted sensitivity to synth-pop, this is a collection of singles. "Perfect Kiss" is a great song ending with a long involved instrumental like the old school rockers used to do.
The Joshua Tree - U2. I got way-burned on it, but "In God's Country" and "Where the Streets Have No Name" are among their best. I had a great friend in grad school who really understood me back then. The last time I saw her was that year, right after this album came out. We played it and talked all night, till the sun came up then I had to drive over an hour back home to my ridiculous slave job.
Through the Looking Glass - Siouxsie & the Banshees. Sure, it's all covers, but it represents their sweet reckless abandon musically. "The music plays them" somebody said. It's like they're in a trance. Hey, Spellbound, right? I loved their singles, but not nec. albums. This one is very solid, song for song. Both Banshees' hits albums are worth being in any rock library.
Warehouse - Husker Du. They punked out with some thought. I reckon Pete Townshend might've sounded like this if he'd been born twenty years later. Candy Apple Grey and Zen Arcade are also good, but this is the one that felt most familiar. If you like the Foo-Fighters, check out these Minnesota mighties.
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