Strong stuff this year.
First – a runner up: Frankenchrist by The Dead Kennedys. The featured art for this post is “Landscape XX” by H.R. Giger, a poster included in the vinyl version of Frankenchrist. This is the album that helped launch the PMRC, and this is the album that put Jello Biafra on the spoken word circuit throughout the late 80s and early 90s. There’s some good music, yes. But there’s mostly notoriety. Much to my chagrin, I once held a used copy of Frankenchrist on vinyl in my hands. It was marked $4. It was 1990, I believe. To this day, I regret not buying it. The poster was neatly folded inside. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Now, the 10 best albums of 1985:
The Cure – The Head on the Door
Tears for Fears – Songs from the Big Chair
Pogues – Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash
Skinny Puppy – Bites
Dead Milkmen – Big Lizard in My Backyard
Einsturzende Neubauten – Halber Mensch
Descendents – I Don’t Wanna Grow Up
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Freaky Styley
Jesus and Mary Chain – Psychocandy
INXS – Listen Like Thieves
A little harder this time, but based on the poll (still up ’til the end of November 2013) over at Slicing Up Eyeballs, here’s my Top 10 Albums of 1989:
Energy – Operation Ivy
The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste – Ministry
Indigo Girls
The Real Thing – Faith No More
Disintegration – The Cure
Allroy’s Revenge – ALL
Mother’s Milk – Red Hot Chili Peppers
Doolittle – Pixies
Paul’s Boutique – Beastie Boys
Pretty Hate Machine – Nine Inch Nails
It was hard to decide on this one, but there are several runners-up:
Pure – Primitives
Peace and Love – The Pogues
3 Feet High and Rising – De La Soul
Start Today – Gorilla Biscuits
Rabies – Skinny Puppy
UAIOE – KMFDM
Bleach – Nirvana
“Lorelei” alone puts Peace and Love on this list, though the rest of the album (often without Shane’s vocals) doesn’t quite make the grade. It’s too bad it took Gorilla Biscuits this long to get their act together. Hardcore like this was pretty much done by the end of the 90s, and Start Today is polished in a way the older songs weren’t, but lacks some of their punch and gusto. Rabies has some excellent songs, among them one of my favorites, “Tin Omen.” But the album as a whole is tainted by Uncle Al (Jourgenson, of Ministry) sinking his fingers into everything in this genre at this time. Bleach would usually make the list, but what it came down to is this: though I hardly ever listen to it, I can tell immediately that Paul’s Boutique is a better album than Nirvana’s freshman effort.
This is the first list, since I started doing this, where I own all the albums in the actual top 10 list.
I missed voting on this one again, but here’s what Slicing Up Eyeballs wound up with as best of 1987.
My list:
Appetite for Destruction – Guns N’ Roses
Joshua Tree – U2
Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me – The Cure
Floodland – Sisters of Mercy
Kick – INXS
Document – R.E.M.
The Lion and the Cobra – Sinead O’Connor
Cleanse Fold Manipulate – Skinny Puppy
ALL – Descendents
Bucky Fellini – Dead Milkmen
If I had to pick a top 5 – GNR, Sinead, SP, ALL, Cure
Honorable Mentions:
Some Kind of Wonderful Soundtrack (I actually listen to this, still, more than any one of the above albums)
That Total Age – Nitzer Ebb
Songs About Fucking – Big Black (not because I listen to it that much… because it exists.)
Surprised myself by including the INXS album on this list, but there are so many good songs on that record and the fact that they were popular in the mainstream is weird and cool. Add to that senior dances to “Never Tear Us Apart” and projects based on “Mediate” and the like… I dig some INXS. (Hutchence R.I.P.)
Lots of other good tunes and such, but not so many whole albums. I could listen to any of the above albums start to finish, though, and sing along with most of the tunes, never wanting to switch to something else.
The Conversation