Before I get to the top 25, I wanted to list some of the artists that didn't quite make the cut, and offer some justifications in order to temper your potential righteous indignation.
The Fall: Too many albums, and I can't distinguish between them.
Leonard Cohen: His 80s work was, how we say, cheesy.
Mission of Burma: A band I've gotten into as a result of their recent reunification; sadly, I haven't gotten the chance to dig into their classic material.
Michael Jackson: Because he doesn't need to be included on any other lists. Plus, I like Off The Wall better.
Talking Heads: Their best stuff was in the 70s (Remain in Light was released in 1980), and no live albums means Stop Making Sense unfortunately doesn't make it.
Eric B. and Rakim: They're not on the list because I'm a cheap bastard and haven't bought Paid in Full yet.
My Bloody Valentine: Isn't Anything is a good album, and that's it.
Prince: Probably the most egregious omission, and really kind of indefensible if you think about it. But then again, he did write that terrible Minnesota Vikings song, so it all works out in the end.
25. R.E.M. – Document: Here is where R.E.M. gets its proper love. It's fun to see R.E.M. evolve over its independent years, and I think this is their early creative peak. Known for the massive hits "The One I Love" and "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)", the album is solid through and through, and just a personal favorite.
24. Roxy Music – Avalon: I'm obsessed with what I like to call "late-night albums", and Avalon is the quintessential example. Lush synths and soothing vocals swirl together to create a romantic album that somehow combines warmth with cold detachment.
23. Kraftwerk – Computer World: Kraftwerk may have done more to influence the sound of the 80s than any other band, with the focus on electronics and a mechanistic style. They embrace the digital revolution with lightness and humor, dictating that they are indeed the operators of their pocket calculator.
22. Public Enemy – It Takes A Nation of Millions...: There's a reason why Public Enemy were a highlight of our trip to the Rock the Bells festival, and that's because they show the full potential of the power of hip-hop. Incisive and incendiary lyrics and production that is modern even by today's standards put Public Enemy a cut above the rest in hip-hop.
21. Violent Femmes – Violent Femmes: I remember first hearing "Blister in the Sun" in high school, and being amazed that what I thought was a brand new song was actually released in 1983. The Femmes style of acoustic guitar, hand percussion, and thumping bass still sounds unique and contemporary today. The album is full of anthems that are heard in rock stations across the country, even today--you've got "Kiss Off", "Gone Daddy Gone", and the brilliant meltdown of "Add it Up" still in rotation everywhere you look.
20. Joy Division – Substance: Here's the big exception to the stated rules--a compilation album. HOWEVA, this is due to the revolutionary impact that Joy Division had, and it was just too much for me to not include something by them in a discussion of the '80s. Their distinctive sound loomed large over the decade, and they're a band that has found increasing relevance today. The band that wrote "Transmission", "Atmosphere", "Dead Souls", and "Love Will Tear Us Apart" deserves all the accolades that it can get. However, in some sense of fairness, I'm only putting it at the number 20 spot instead of number one.
19. Pixies – Bossanova: I remember when Mr. Zhuang introduced me to the Pixies back in high school; he popped in a copy of the compilation "Death to the Pixies", and remember being hooked on the first track, their cover of the surf-rock classic "Cecilia Ann". It took me a while to get used to some of the, well, weirdness in the music or the yelps that Black Francis would employ (yet I would later learn to love these same qualities), but I knew from the instant I heard that song that it would be worth the effort to get into this band. "Cecilia Ann" leads off Bossanova, and as a result this was my first favorite Pixies album. With the benefit of hindsight, I can see that I was attracted to the pop sensibilities of the album, from "Dig for Fire" to "Stormy Weather", a band that was more content to push in the vein of "Here Comes Your Man" than say, "Hey". As a result, you have a fantastic plain old rock album that is still underrated in fan circles; even so, no one can deny the brilliance of "Velouria".
18. Dead Kennedys – Frankenchrist: With Frankenchrist, the Kennedys pushed themselves in directions beyond traditional hardcore, composing instead five minute multi-part suites. At the same time, while the instrumentation was not always FastFastFast, the anger and dry humor was still there. And "MTV Get Off the Air" seems even more relevant today--"To call yourself a pioneer when you're too goddamn conservative to take real chances".
17. Metallica – Ride the Lightning: At a certain pint we have to admit that Metal does not age particularly well. If you're still blasting metal out your car stereo on the wrong side of 30, you may need to take a quick stock of your life. On the other hand, just because a genre is best left to your high school years doesn't mean it lacks merit; it's still difficult to write a good song that captures that time period. And nobody captured the angry-teen schtick better than Metallica during their run in the 80's.
Why is Ride the Lightning better than Master of Puppets? They're both 8 songs that follow pretty much the same formula, though Puppets shows a greater diversity of styles and moods, while Lightning sticks closer to the thrash roots. But it has two things going for it: "The Call of Kthulu" is one of the best instrumentals of all time, and "Fade to Black" is the best song that Metallica ever wrote. Sure, it has all the elements of a cheesy power ballad, but the fact that it succeeds DESPITE this proves just how great it is. Try not to get pumped after listening to it.
16. The Clash – Combat Rock: There's the self-titled album and London Calling that stand head and shoulders above the rest of their catalog, but that's more of a testament to the brilliance of those albums than the lack thereof elsewhere. That being said, the drop-off is not so steep to the third best Clash album, Combat Rock. It does have their two most recognizable songs, "Should I Stay or Should I Go", a brilliantly stupid end-of-the-night song, and "Rock the Casbah", which injected a little Middle East politics in a dance setting. There are a few missteps on the record, but songs like the seething and sarcastic "Know Your Rights" and the haunting "Straight to Hell" tilt the balance back towards great.
15. Public Enemy – Fear of a Black Planet: While most critics prefer It Takes a Nation of Millions..., I'm an ass that likes the hits, so I'll take the album with "Welcome to the Terrordome", "911 is a Joke", and "Fight the Power". Call me crazy. Also, it's good to remember once in a while that Flavor Flav was once legitimately good.
14. Jesus and Mary Chain – Psychocandy: An album that created a whole new genre of music, seemingly the result of an experiment of "what would happen if I had 8032 guitars playing at the same time". Add in a wall of feedback, toss in some pop melodies, and we're good to go. That's the thing--even though these guys were redefining what a "wall of sound" meant, they never lost sight of writing good songs. Listen to the simple melody of "Never Understand", which warps what is essentially a children's rhyme. That, and "Just Like Honey" is one of the best songs ever written.
13. U2 –The Joshua Tree: What the fucking fuck?!! How could you rank U2, the greatest band on the Earth, and their greatest album, so low?! Please, take no offense. Dozens of pages have been written about how excellent this album is, and I can't dispute them. It's fantastic, even though it's a little top-heavy. No offense, it's just that there are some albums that are better.
12. Beastie Boys – Licensed to Ill: There's nothing like the Beasties' debut album--a genuine rap-rock that feels like the two genres were made for each other. There's a reason why the group crossed over to rock audiences, and it's not a simple answer like race--it's riffs as big as Zeppelin with raps that channel pure id in tales of debauchery and teenage frustration, but all done with a grin. Sure, it makes sense for the guys to distance themselves from this album, but you're still going to crank the radio up when you hear "Fight For Your Right" on a Friday night. Just recently I was at a party where the dancefloor was pretty dead until the DJ threw on "Girls"--then everybody began jumping, and the night hit a new level. Sometimes, you just can't overvalue "fun".
11. Dinosaur Jr. - Bug: I've told the story about how I became such a fan numerous times before, so I'm not going to repeat myself. The band runs the gamut from the fun punk of "Let it Ride", to the groovy slow burner "No Bones", to the heartbreaking "Don't"--over a wall of guitar squeals and pounding drums, Lou Barlow screams repeatedly "Why don't you like me?", which captures in one line and one song what teenagers had tried to express for decades. Also, consider the song "Freakscene", a minor hit that should be a standard today, and it will always boggle my mind how it never became big.
"Seen enough to eye you
But I've seen too much to try you"
10. Nine Inch Nails – Pretty Hate Machine: The album can sound dated at times, but that's more of a recent phenomenon; the shelf-life of nursery rhymes done menacingly is notoriously short lived (marring an otherwise excellent "Down In It"). While this album pissed off many within the Industrial music scene, Trent Reznor awakened the mainstream to the genre's existence, and with this album it marked him as a musical force that would influence dozens of other bands, pushing music into darker places and experimenting more with electronic instrumentation. "Head Like A Hole" and "Terrible Lie" still capture our attention, and "Something I Can Never Have" still burns.
9. The Replacements – Let it Be: It took me a long time to get into the 'Mats, and I'm going to blame it on the entire '80s and its shitty production. I had always felt there was this weird sheen that covered most of the Replacements' work, and it made getting into their work a chore for me, I admit. But once it happened, I couldn't get enough and I began spotting bands that were influenced by them left and right (I'm looking at you, Gaslight Anthem). A mix of the tender ("Androgynous"), the brash ("Black Diamond"), and the angstful (the especially wrenching "Unsatisfied"), Let it Be showed the 'Mats at their most versatile. And it ends with the best concept for a final track of all time, a rambling message left on an answering machine...except the phone call was never connected.
8. Pixies – Surfer Rosa: The Pixies broke the mold with their debut, and bands ever since, if they're smart enough, have been looking to ape all the best parts of this album. It's hard to capture just the innate weirdness that spanned Black Francis's obsessions, but who doesn't love a song about BBC (the ode to big black cock, "Gigantic")? I still get a kick out of listening to songs like "Something Against You", and damn right this song is about a superhero named Tony, and it's called "Tony's Theme"! And that doesn't even get to the amazing "Vamos", with its magical guitar solo (watch it live--it's practically alchemy, with all pedals and drumsticks), or the transcendent "Where Is My Mind?".
7. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Mother’s Milk: Though the Peppers' commercial fortunes would change with their breakout Blood Sugar Sex Magick, this was the group at their artistic peak. Their unique mix of funk, punk, and rock gelled into something great on this album, with Frusciante's guitar and Flea's bass standing above the rest of the music scene. Their scintillating cover of "Higher Ground" is only but one of many highlights on this album, which kept the tempo up and the grooves funky. Rarely would the Peppers be as pure to their original style as they were here, and rarely would they be as good.
6. Jane’s Addiction – Nothing’s Shocking and 5. Jane’s Addiction – Ritual de lo Habitual: Jane's Addiction is a band that suffers these days from having two massive radio hits that make you never want to listen to anything else in their catalog. Sure the songs are pretty good, and when you're in the right mood, they can provide that nice pick-me-up, but at the same time they show some of the most undesirable traits of the band that make you want to avoid further contact; it doesn't help matters that often it feels like "Jane Says" is running on a three hour rotation at your local radio station.
But to dismiss Jane's Addiction because of those two songs would be a terrible mistake. Dave Navarro took the theatrics of the butt-rock style of the Hair Metal era and created beautiful melodies ("Up the Beach") and thunderous riffs (try not to bang your head to "Mountain Song"). Jane's Addiction were masters of setting the mood and creating tension-and-release, allowing the music to lull you into complacency and bliss while bringing you back to the edge of your seat a minute later. The epic back end of Ritual is one of the high points of Alternative Nation, especially in the 18-minute span of "Three Days" and "Then She Did..." That's why Ritual gets the slightest of nods over Nothing's Shocking, but they're both essential records for anyone's collection.
4. The Replacements – Tim: The Replacements still had a brash fuck-you attitude with Tim--from giving an anthem to the disaffected youth in shouting "We are the sons of no one, Bastards of Young" to reminding those flight attendants that they "ain't nothin' but a waitress in the sky". The energy was raucous on the album, and there were hooks all over. And to cap it off, the song "Here Comes a Regular", which captures a melancholic and world-weary soul that belied singer Paul Westerberg's 25 years, a singularly devastating song that nonetheless keeps you hopeful, even when you identify with the narrator. Not only is this a better album than Let it Be, it's one of the best albums of all time.
3. Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation With the release of Daydream Nation, Sonic Youth became more than a band, they became a descriptor of a whole new style of music--any band that incorporated noise and feedback into their music to a significant degree had their sound described as "Sonic Youth-like". The track "The Sprawl" is a good signifier of what's on the album, as it can be difficult to navigate through the 70 minutes of the album without any help. I've spent countless afternoons getting lost in the songs, only to periodically re-emerge and begin pressing the rewind button to delve more deeply into the music. The album also contains perhaps their greatest moment, as Sonic Youth was able to create a genuine pop tune built around spoken word and atonal guitars, while imagining life under Slacker President J. Mascis. To tell you the truth, I can't imagine anything like "Teen Age Riot" ever being made again. Listen to that song today, and it's still weird, and it still just fucking rocks.
2. Dinosaur Jr. – You’re Living All Over Me: Now here's the album that inspired Thurston Moore to write "Teen Age Riot", so you know it has to be ranked higher than Daydream Nation. Dinosaur Jr. proved that it's cool for garage bands to learn how to play their instruments, and that it's ok for songs to have brilliant, yet non-wanky guitar solos. Make no mistake, while Lou provides innovative bass lines and Murph keeps it all together with his drumming, the guitar drives the band, and Mascis was at his best here.
1. Pixies – Doolittle: Just a few months ago, Mr. Zhuang and I had the good fortune to pick up a couple of tickets to see the Pixies at the Hammerstein Ballroom, an event that I should give a write-up one of these days. Black Francis could still scream like he used to, and Joey could still play those delicious leads, and the band as a whole sounded as tight as ever. But what made the concert special was the fact that it was built around the 20th anniversary of the album Doolittle, and they were going to perform the album in its entirety--which meant we were guaranteed to hear fucking gems like "No. 13 Baby" and "La La Love You", as well as the usual killer "hits".
And take a look at the track listing for the album, and you'll see several of the highlights of the Pixies' career--"Monkey Gone To Heaven", "Here Comes Your Man", "Wave of Mutilation", and "Gouge Away", to name but a few. It's a goddamn murderer's row, a lineup more intimidating than the '27 Yanks. Black Francis explored subjects as diverse as Japanese murder-suicides, ocean pollution, and showing your friends that really weird but totally awesome surreal film that you saw in class. The band veers from fast and raucous to a more contemplative and melodic take--I mean, let's face it, "Here Comes Your Man" is a perfect goddamn pop tune, a song that wouldn't be out of place stylistically with a set of 60's oldies. At the same time, there are no bands that could write a song like that and one as aggressive as "Tame" without sounding like they were trying too hard, except the Pixies.
But for me, it all comes down to one song which distills the essence of the Pixies into just three minutes, and that's the opener, "Debaser". The lyrics are simple--got me a movie, I want you to know, slicing up eyeballs I want you to know--the energy is infections, the leads are shimmering, mixing treble riffs with surf-guitar licks, and it's all built around a simple chord progression that only reveals itself if you dig it out. It perfectly captures the excitement of showing your buddies something really cool, and it's a damn good time. I've listened to that song hundreds of times (and the album as a whole only a few less times), and I could listen to it hundreds of times more, and it will never get tired.
And there you have it, the winner is Doolittle. The other guys will post their lists soon enough, but admit it, they're not going to come up with anything better than this.
