But, in the event you walked onto a school campus within the mid-’80s, these bands had been all over the place, blaring out of dorm home windows, spinning in heavy rotation on college-radio stations on the left of the dial.
Listed here are 10 nice albums of the college-radio period. The checklist might go on ceaselessly, so we’ll restrict ourselves to LPs that got here out between 1983 and 1986, that figured in Robert Christgau’s influential yearend Pazz & Jop polls (a measure of influence), and that symbolize the artist’s greatest work.
(And in the event you get pleasure from this piece, take into account studying our earlier entry on nice albums of the brand new wave period.)
White males dominate the next checklist, simply as they dominated the college-radio underground. Prince, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Run-D.M.C. all launched traditional albums in these years. They achieved huge, speedy business success, and fairly rightly so. The discs under didn’t.
Murmur – R.E.M., April 1983.
The discharge of the primary R.E.M. album feels, in hindsight, just like the second school radio arrived. Right here was a document stuffed with sensible songwriting, infectious hooks, top-drawer vocals and a completely accessible sound, the qualities that might reliably propel a pop act to fame in prior many years. And the album bought nicely sufficient, peaking at No. 36 on the Billboard 200 album chart and yielding a (very) minor hit with “Radio Free Europe.” However you were not going to listen to R.E.M. on pop radio, nor see them on MTV. Therefore, school radio. Murmur went into heavy rotation on campus radio stations and blasted out of dorm-room audio system. For a big quotient of mid-’80s school college students, there was no greater band.
Additionally advisable: Every of the three subsequent R.E.M. albums, in gently descending order: Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruction and Lifes Wealthy Pageant; and the marvelous Continual City EP.
Violent Femmes – Violent Femmes, April 1983.
The Violent Femmes debut dropped a day after Murmur, and what per week for younger hipsters with stereos. “Blister within the Solar,” “Add it Up, “Show My Love” and “Gone Daddy Gone” are immortal folk-punk anthems, completely irresistible. Violent Femmes could have been the third-best album of 1983, after Murmur and Michael Jackson’s Thriller, though the annual Pazz & Jop ballot put it at 26.
Double Nickels on the Dime – Minutemen, July 1984.
The thought of a double album from a band known as “Minutemen” is humorous in itself. (What’s that, 80 songs?) However the Minutemen drew inspiration from a pitched inventive battle with their gifted SST Data labelmates, Hüsker Dü and the Meat Puppets. (See under.) The San Pedro boys had been essentially the most down-to-earth of the bunch: Once I arrived at Mike Watt’s home for an interview, years later, he actually lobbed his bass at me. God assist me if I hadn’t caught it. Each Minuteman album is sweet, however this one might be the most effective. You get the deathless classics “Corona,” “This Ain’t No Picnic,” “Jesus and Tequila” and, in fact, “Political Music for Michael Jackson to Sing.”
Additionally advisable: What Makes a Man Begin Fires?, from 1983, kicks off with “Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs.” 3-Method Tie (For Final) is the tragic swansong, launched shortly earlier than the demise of the nice D. Boon.
Let It Be – The Replacements, October 1984.
The ‘Mats had been America’s reply to the Intercourse Pistols, elevating hooliganism to an artwork kind. They had been additionally one of many best bands of the faculty radio period, and Let it Be was their masterpiece. Tim, launched the next yr, was extra musically mature, however Let it Be brims with songcraft and uncooked emotion. “Seen Your Video” is as violently cathartic as something by Hüsker Dü, their Minneapolis rivals. “Unhappy” is the last word Gen-X anthem. Paul Westerberg was the Springsteen of ’80s lyricists, and “Sixteen Blue” reveals him as a chord-smith on par with Grant Hart and Bob Mould and whoever wrote R.E.M.’s songs. Let It Be might need been the most effective album of 1984, if one other fellow Minneapolitan hadn’t launched Purple Rain.
Additionally advisable: Happy to Meet Me, from 1987, the final nice ‘Mats album.
New Day Rising – Hüsker Dü, January 1985.
Hüsker Dü was arguably the best SST band and one of many three or 4 most important artists of the faculty radio motion, together with R.E.M., the Replacements and the Smiths. I believe New Day Rising is their inventive peak. I might place it simply above Zen Arcade, the sensible double album of the earlier yr, which New Day rivals in power and exceeds in songcraft. The Hüskers had been a double risk, boasting two nice songwriters in Hart and Mould. They commerce blows right here, from the sonic blast of Mould’s title reduce to the backwoods lunacy of Hart’s “The Lady Who Lives on Heaven Hill” to the home fury of Mould’s “I Apologize,” and so forth. Put it in your turntable and cling on tight.
Additionally advisable: Hüsker Dü’s journey was all about power. It faltered with Flip Your Wig, in 1985, and dimmed steadily from there, however the guys dropped some nice songs alongside the way in which.
Up on the Solar – Meat Puppets, March 1985.
I am going to get flak for recommending this document above Meat Puppets II, the one Kurt Cobain lined in his well-known MTV Unplugged live performance. The Meat Puppets had been the third nice SST band, and all three grew by leaps and bounds within the mid-’80s. With Meat Puppets II (1984), the Arizona post-punkers reveal a dizzying vary of artistry, from slam-dance hardcore to virtuosic instrumentals to jam-band psychedelia. With Up on the Solar, the band finds its groove, reeling off a stream of melodic, light-psychedelic guitar-boogie classics. Heat guitar riffs anchor many of the songs, and the Kirkwood brothers adorn them with their distinctive model of hypnotic, vaguely off-key harmonies: that is school radio’s reply to Disraeli Gears.
Additionally advisable: Huevos, from 1987, Curt Kirkwood’s homage to ZZ High.
Fegmania! – Robyn Hitchcock, March 1985.
Robyn Hitchcock has had an extended and illustrious profession, first main the legendary Delicate Boys after which as a remarkably sturdy solo artist. Not many others on this checklist have put out nice albums within the new millennium. Later releases earned Hitchcock extra fame, however Fegmania! might be his inventive peak – or half of it. Hitchcock alternated between electrical and acoustic albums. Fegmania! got here a yr after I Usually Dream of Trains, an acoustic assortment that’s in all probability his strongest single outpouring of songs. However Trains barely registered within the States. Fegmania! made an impression, touchdown on the Pazz & Jop ballot. All 11 tracks are great. My favourite is “My Spouse & My Lifeless Spouse,” the type of tune solely Hitchcock might dream up, not to mention pull off.
Additionally advisable: Underwater Moonlight, by the Delicate Boys; Black Snake Dîamond Röle, the solo debut; the stunning Ingredient of Gentle; and the enigmatic Eye.
Rum Sodomy & the Lash – The Pogues, August 1985.
With the songs “The Previous Most important Drag” and “A Pair of Brown Eyes” and “Sally MacLennane,” the Pogues‘ Shane MacGowan reeled off new (or new-ish) Irish folks songs that gave the impression of centuries-old requirements, conjuring reminiscences of Fairport-era Richard Thompson and pre-electric Dylan. You will hear them now in each Irish bar, however in 1985, you principally heard them on school campuses.
Additionally advisable: Crimson Roses for Me, the primary LP, is sort of nearly as good. The third, If I Ought to Fall from Grace with God, is stupendous.
Rain Canines – Tom Waits, September 1985.
After a decade of smoky piano ballads, Tom Waits reinvented himself as a boho pirate, exploring dozens of devices, particularly percussive devices, and writing little sea shanties that completely match his guttural Captain Beefheart growl. The primary album on this vein was Swordfishtrombones, in 1983, however Rain Canines was the larger achievement. Supposedly an idea album about New York, Rain Canines sounds extra just like the travelogue of a seafarer who’s sailed ‘around the world. Temper items like “Singapore,” “Clap Palms” and “Cemetery Polka” – the entire album, frankly – play just like the soundtrack for the Pirates of the Caribbean journey in a darker Disneyland.
Additionally advisable: The whole lot Waits launched from the start by means of Bone Machine (1992) is value listening to. A variety of the later stuff, too.
The Queen Is Lifeless – Smiths, June 1986.
Some Brits suppose The Queen Is Lifeless is the best rock document ever made. It is definitely the excessive level for the Smiths, Britain’s premier college-radio band. Morrissey and firm launched a string of extraordinary (and terribly constant) singles between 1983 and 1987, admirably collected within the Louder Than Bombs double album. That document and this one had been completely important to any respectable indie document assortment. The opposite Smiths albums had been uneven. The 1984 debut is riotous enjoyable; Meat Is Homicide (1985) appears extra fats than meat. Morrissey was Britain’s most interesting lyricist of the period, and on this album, collaborator Johnny Marr serves up music worthy of his phrases.
Daniel de Visé is a frequent AllMusic contributor and creator of King of the Blues: The Rise and Reign of B.B. King.