1984

Well I made it to New Jersey earlier than I expected and on such a beautiful day!  So what am I doing?  Heading straight down to the basement to write this  and keep my schedule up!  It's still done with less concentration than I would hope, but you gotta move forward.  Anyway, here is 1984.  This is often considered a landmark year, but I have no idea why.  These are some killer records, but no big deal really and there weren't a lot of extras just begging to make the list.  No, just Van Halen.  It is a funny year - both intentionally and unintentionally, and some times hard to tell with an unexpected city making a huge dent.

10.  Cocteau Twins - Treasure
This is one of the Scottish (that country's first appearance here) group's best-known albums mostly for "Lorelei."  It is one of their best songs, but the other tracks with person-names are great too.  Early on the band was pretty much goth and as the album cover would indicate, they still are at this point.  The hair and clothing were also pretty goth, but the atmospheric pop sound that keeps them legendary is growing here as Robin Gurthrie and still somewhat new bassist Simon Raymonde grow as producers.  Their background provides the only suitable for the mythical vocals and bizarre, nonsensical lyrics (best example "Ivo") of Elizabth Fraser.  While it is otherworldly enough to serve as a rare positive example of the "New Age" style the sound is still dark and abrasive enough to keep someone afraid of that label interested.  The band further proves themselves a unique dream-pop voice and you have to give credit for any use of the name "Aloysius."

9.  The Smiths - The Smiths
Though the other versions of these songs are usually better, the debut of one of the eighties best bands is great as more than just a historical document.  I am in the rare school of thought that Morrissey is actually the weakest link in the band, but he sounds great and his lyrics and persona have not yet become what his detractors like to point out.  Some versions (most, but not the original UK) include "This Charming Man," which of course speaks for itself, but "Hand In Glove," "Pretty Girls Make Graves," and "What Difference Does It Make?" stand up as some of their best songs just as much.  The Smiths would only get better from here, but it is always a pleasure to hear material from when they still functioned as four Anglo-Irish men who played amazing music together and did not hate each other.  Moz and Marr are great, but how about that rhythm section...

8.  True West - Drifters
These often-forgotten Paisley Undergrounders may have made their best work before with their  heavier, more psychedelic debut EP, but their first full-length really lives up too their name.  The band and in particular lead singer Gavin Blair always had a flair for the dramatic and these jangly country rockers keep that up in a more subdued and mature fashion.  While the slowed-down new version of "And Then The Rain" may not rock as hard it does evoke the song's powerful imagery a bit more vividly, making it the equal of their Wild West tales in a  modern setting.  Ideal for fans like myself of Back to the Future, Part III as it is a distinctly 80s take on the Western with "Ain't No Hangman" and "Shot You Down," are the most explicit examples of their love for cowboy imagery.  Unlike their beachy brothers and sisters in the Paisley Undergound, this band (and the Long Ryders) never forget the early roots of their home town, though "Look Around" is as much a droney psych-rocker as the Dream Syndicate would provide.

7.  R.E.M. - Reckoning
As far as I am concerned there are two kinds of R.E.M. fans - Murmur fans and Reckoning fans.  I am of the former and the third type - those who don't think of R.E.M. as an 80s band, do not concern me.  Still, I think this is a great album, just not their best.  The opening  track "Harbourcoat" has always been one of their greatest, and this album has a much cleaner and pop-oriented sound than before.  In a good way.  "So. Central Rain," with it's "I'm sorry" chorus (like The Groovies' "You Tore Me Down) and honky-tonk piano also remains one of their most-beloved songs of the early days around with Mike Mills' post-grad lament "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville."  The band is definitely expanding here and their more accessible sound with heightened precision in their previous characteristics definitely got a few more people taking notice, making R.E.M. the up from the underground legends they have been for three decades.

6.  Robyn Hitchcock - I Often Dream of Trains
Hitchock's third album since the end of the Soft Boys and last before reuniting with half that band is one of his simplest and most personal.  On that note, I would like to say leaving out Black  Snake Diamond Role in 1981 was a mistake, a true slip of the mind.  It is mostly acoustic, but has a lot of eeriness and a sense of humor far more advanced than some clown with an acoustic guitar.  His usual obsessions with sex and religion are prominent, but of course trains are the big part.  The nostalgia of "Trams of Old London" and moving English landscape of the title track are some of the artists finest songs, exemplifying the kind of emotion his music can  have despite his twisted whimsy.  The gentle beauty was a wise choice for Hitchcock, distinguishing this album from the harsher work he had done before and preparing for his next step which would blend these elements into what would perhaps be his greatest music of all.

5.  Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain
My birthday bro's most obvious record is also his best.  The soundtrack to the most unintentionally funny movie of all time is far more effective than the Revolution's acting, though maybe not as much as their costumes.  The movie would lead you to believe that the title track is the best, though its promotion was a bit more accurate in suggesting the enigmatic "When Doves Cry."  While those songs may be slow and heavy, the opener "Let's Go Crazy," is everything fun about the micro-Minnesotan in one 4 1/2 minute orgy of sound.  "I Would Die 4 U," despite its unfortunate abbreves, is the perfect singalong with hand signs that really showed MC Hammer's declining sanity in  his attempt to outdo it.  This album achieves the rare feat of sounding like the female rhythm guitarist and keyboard player are groping each other while the other keyboard player is dressed like a surgeon and still being respectable music.  Also, Prince is the list's first example of this city's penchant for producing metal guitarist who wisely do not play metal.

4.  The Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
Attempting, and arguably succeeding in outdoing label-mates Hüsker Dü in the creating of a double album San Pedro's favorite band of brothers forever changes the landscape of the American Underground.  On these 43 tracks they experiment with just about every style there is, from country, to funk, to jazz to flamenco on the beautiful "Cohesion."  They even perform unexpected covers of both CCR and Steely Dan all while providing Jackass with its theme song.  The Minutemen were one of the most technically proficient bands on the hardcore scene and had no interest in keeping limited in the loud distortion of the style or keeping the bass in the rhythm section with the great Mike Watt slapping better than any of his followers on "Three Car Jam" and "Viet Nam."  The unsung hero is always drummer George Hurley whose wild tom-heavy style has made many fans briefly consider "The Unit" an acceptable hair do.  Though that is still up for debate, what is not is that the band's talents deserve all the name dropping of members (i.e. "Mike Watt") in addition to all the intelligent political rambling.  Even better than the politics is the landlord letter of "Take 5, D." and the nostalgia of the tear-jerking "History Lesson, part 2."

3.  Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade
The American Underground makes its first first double album and Hüsker Dü make their first masterpiece.  Singer/songwriters Bob Mould and Grant Hart put together their skills and life of torment into this expansive concept album about... someone's life.  It begins with the still speedy blasts of "Something I Learned Today" and "Broken Home, Broken Heart," but quickly moves into the folk of "Never Talking to You Again," and controversially psychedelia in "Hare Krsna."  Songs  get longer, slower, and weirder as the album progresses, even having piano appear on the pretty little aside "Monday Will Never Be The Same" and the unusually hopeful "Newest Industry."  The production may be rubbish, but the songwriting and playing is flawless ranging from the trippy hardcore of "Indecision Time" to their famous debut as a poppy "modern rock" group "Turn on the News."  It ends with their boldest, though not best move, the 14 minute heavy psych jam "Reoccurring Dreams," perhaps the final signal that they were leaving predictable hardcore behind with its accompanying short hair and clean shaves.

2.  The Replacements - Let It Be
If the government functioned correctly they would provide a copy of this album to every teenager in the country.  The adolescent themes of "Gary's Got a Boner" and "Sixteen Blue," have a humor and sincerity on top of Paul Westerburg's songwriting that keep them timeless far beyond that age.  "I Will Dare," goes far beyond that though, as does the undisputed standout "Unsatisfied."   The Mats' drunken hardcore rage is still in full effect on faster numbers like "Favorite Thing" and "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out."  This album is also an example of the phenomenon of great albums having one cover and one (near-)instrumental in the mix.  The former "Seen Your Video" is the first of their tasteful kiss-offs to MTV and the latter the shockingly enjoyable take on Kiss' "Black Diamond."  The yearning "Answering Machine" ends the album and while you might not crave it as much as whoever Westerburg craves it is not far off from how much you want more at the end of this album hat easily outdoes the Beatles' collaboration with a certain murderous psychopath.

1.  Butthole Surfers - Psychic... Powerles... Another Man's Sac
The thudding, droning acid rock of these Texas lunatics  finally makes its debut on my list.  Though you will see their name many more times, I have always felt that this album was the group's finest.  All their deranged vulgarity is at its prime with all their best aspects in the front:  vocal manipulation, dual standing drummers, Paul Leary's rabid twang, and even Gibby's bleating saxaphone that sure inspired the then-popular term "pigfuck."  Oh and they're funny too, if you can handle the toilet sounds of "Lady Sniff" and can see the humor in a line like "I've always got a knife in my back!!!!!!"  Titles like "Negro Observer" surely put the more politically correct, but as much as this group embraces the redneck image, their science fiction tale has not a single shred of racism, observation maybe.  Their taste for a heavy drone is even more vital than their psychotic subject matter with the overdriven bass leading the goth-influenced tracks "Concubine" and "Dum Dum."  By now it should be clear this band was no joke even with the tongue-in-cheek tribute to the flamboyant heavyweight front man of the Dick that closes this concise Texan nightmare.