Annual Playlists

1991: All Bound For Mu Mu Land

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If it seems conspicuous that the only 1991 entry in my 100 Albums series was a singles comp (represented below via a mind-melting medley covering U2 and Frankie Valli), note that at times I seriously considered including the following: R.E.M.’s first number one album (which also had their highest-charting single), Seal’s first eponymous release (believe it or not, he was actually interesting pre-Grammys/Steve Miller cover/Heidi Klum), Sam Phillips’ second secular album (I’d write plenty about her third), even PM Dawn’s dreamy, near-unclassifiable debut. In the end, none compelled me enough to want to write about at length, but I’ve made sure to represent tracks from each of them here.

Historically, people love to sum up 1991 as The Year of Nirvana and Nevermind; I respected Cobain and co. but was never much of a fan, preferring my rock and roll to be Anglophilic and danceable. Looking over this curious selection, one might almost get an impression of ’91 as a last breath of optimism/utopianism before grunge and alt-rock’s irony/cynicism took over. Saint Etienne’s landmark early single (still easily one of the five best songs they ever did) sets the tone, and fellow Brits The Orb, The Shamen, Jesus Jones, James, Primal Scream and even Seal all sustain it, although only “Right Here Right Now” really broke through over here. Kirsty MacColl’s vivacious Latin bauble carries the same spirit although musically it has precious little in common with the others.

As with last year’s playlist, this combines top 40 (Roxette, Prince, Londonbeat) with modern rock (Billy Bragg, Electronic, Violent Femmes, Matthew Sweet) and the occasional crossover from the latter to the former (Divinyls, Siouxsie and the Banshees.) The mighty “Unfinished Sympathy” sounds absolutely undiminished, “Love… Thy Will Be Done” is a terrific, long forgotten top ten hit ripe for reappraisal and “Funeral” and “It Won’t Be Long” are obscurities everyone should know. I was giddy with joy when many songs by the KLF resurfaced on streaming in the past few years. A techno-pop hymn about the band’s own “mythology” and their ice-cream van, sung by none other than country-western legend Tammy Wynette(!), “Justified & Ancient” is the most bonkers hit of its time (and perhaps the entire decade.) Thirty-plus years on, I still can’t believe how big it was. Watch the video above and ask yourself, “Did this really happen, and could something so delightfully weird and far out of left field ever become a hit again?”

1991: All Bound For Mu Mu Land

  1. Saint Etienne, “Nothing Can Stop Us”
  2. The KLF feat. Tammy Wynette, “Justified & Ancient”
  3. PM Dawn, “Paper Doll”
  4. Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Kiss Them For Me”
  5. Crowded House, “Fall At Your Feet”
  6. Sam Phillips, “Cruel Inventions”
  7. Alison Moyet, “It Won’t Be Long”
  8. Roxette, “Fading Like a Flower”
  9. R.E.M., “Near Wild Heaven”
  10. Divinyls, “I Touch Myself”
  11. Mekons, “Funeral”
  12. The Orb, “Little Fluffy Clouds”
  13. The Shamen, “Move Any Mountain”
  14. Massive Attack, “Unfinished Sympathy”
  15. Billy Bragg, “You Woke Up My Neighbourhood”
  16. Seal, “Future Love Paradise”
  17. Dream Warriors, “My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style”
  18. Londonbeat, “I’ve Been Thinking About You”
  19. Matthew Sweet, “I’ve Been Waiting”
  20. Electronic, “Get the Message”
  21. Morrissey, “My Love Life”
  22. James, “Sit Down”
  23. Prince & the New Power Generation, “Diamonds and Pearls”
  24. Joni Mitchell, “Come In From the Cold”
  25. Erasure, “Breath of Life”
  26. Kirsty MacColl, “My Affair”
  27. Kylie Minogue, “Shocked”
  28. Martika, “Love… Thy Will Be Done”
  29. Simply Red, “Something Got Me Started”
  30. Lisa Stansfield, “It’s Got To Be Real”
  31. Queen, “I’m Going Slightly Mad”
  32. U2, “Until The End of The World”
  33. Jesus Jones, “Right Here Right Now”
  34. Pet Shop Boys, “Where The Streets Have No Name/Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”
  35. Primal Scream, “Movin’ On Up”
  36. Violent Femmes, “American Music”

1990: What A Swell Party This Is

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A brand-new decade, even though many paint this as a liminal period, a bridge between 1980s flash and what we would come to know as 1990s bellwethers (grunge, alternative rock, gangsta rap, etc.)  Roughly two-thirds of these songs were favorites at the time (mostly anything here that made the top 40); I became familiar with the rest over the ensuing decade, the tellingly named “Obscurity Knocks” being of the few exceptions (my husband introduced it to me not long after we first met.) You can already detect the budding Anglophile within, as more than half of these tracks are from UK-based artists; the Americans run the gamut from superstars (Madonna) to, at the time, super-obscure (Yo La Tengo long before MTV ever played ’em).

You wouldn’t expect Iggy Pop, of all people, to secure two slots on a 1990 playlist, but here he is with “Candy”, his sole top 40 hit/duet with The B-52’s Kate Pierson,  and “Well Did You Evah!”, a gleefully irreverent Cole Porter cover with perfectly acidic support from Debbie Harry which appeared on the wonderful Red Hot + Blue tribute album (an early candidate for my 100 Albums list that missed the final cut). I could’ve ended and started the mix with Iggy but instead chose Deee-Lite’s immortal “Groove Is In The Heart” for an opener (it arguably sounds fresher today than anything else on this list) and The La’s deathless “There She Goes” to go out on—like Squeeze’s “Tempted” in ’81, can you believe it never made the American Top 40?

In addition to finding room for good artists who never made what I’d consider a great, timeless album (INXS, Sinead O’Connor (both of whom came close)) and quirky one-hit wonders such as Soho, who scored with a genius-dumb lament built upon a Smiths sample, this format gives me an excuse to spotlight weird one-offs that don’t fit anywhere else: Was (Not Was)’s hilariously cruel and cold character sketch (it’d be unimaginable post 9/11), Prefab Sprout’s beguiling bossa nova/samba/end-of-the-world party anthem, DNA’s infamous/genius surprise hit remix of a three-year-old a cappella Suzanne Vega album track, Urban Dance Squad’s leftfield Beck-anticipating earworm.

As with most of these mixes, I posted a putative version long ago that stopped at 25 songs; upon reappraisal, I had difficulty limiting it to 11 more. Among the most notable additions: George Michael’s career-torching but supremely catchy manifesto, Living Colour delving into Afrobeat as if making their own Graceland, Information Society’s inspired, sample-heavy nonsense, and proof that as late as 1990, Brian Eno and John Cale could join forces to produce perfect pop that should’ve topped the charts instead of all those drippy ballads that did from the likes of Michael Bolton, Taylor Dayne and Mariah Carey.

1990: What A Swell Party This Is

  1. Deee-Lite, “Groove Is In The Heart”
  2. DNA feat. Suzanne Vega, “Tom’s Diner”
  3. Iggy Pop and Kate Pierson, “Candy”
  4. Yo La Tengo, “The Summer”
  5. Teenage Fanclub, “Everything Flows”
  6. The Sundays, “Here’s Where The Story Ends”
  7. Sinead O’Connor, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”
  8. They Might Be Giants, “Birdhouse In Your Soul”
  9. Jellyfish, “That Is Why”
  10. Prefab Sprout, “Carnival 2000”
  11. Was (Not Was), “I Blew Up The United States”
  12. Soho, “Hippychick”
  13. The Darling Buds, “It Makes No Difference”
  14. Happy Mondays, “Kinky Afro”
  15. A Tribe Called Quest, “Can I Kick It?”
  16. Madonna, “Vogue”
  17. Cocteau Twins, “Heaven Or Las Vegas”
  18. Michael Penn, “No Myth”
  19. Trashcan Sinatras, “Obscurity Knocks”
  20. Concrete Blonde, “I Don’t Need A Hero”
  21. Pet Shop Boys, “Being Boring”
  22. INXS, “Disappear”
  23. Depeche Mode, “Enjoy The Silence”
  24. Electronic, “Getting Away With It”
  25. Urban Dance Squad, “Deeper Shade of Soul”
  26. George Michael, “Freedom! ‘90”
  27. Stereo MC’s, “Elevate My Mind”
  28. Information Society, “A Knife and a Fork/R.I.P.”
  29. Brian Eno and John Cale, “One Word”
  30. Living Colour, “Solace of You”
  31. Kyle Minogue, “Better The Devil You Know”
  32. Social Distortion, “Ball And Chain”
  33. Iggy Pop and Deborah Harry, “Well Did You Evah!”
  34. Midnight Oil, “Blue Sky Mine”
  35. The Lightning Seeds, “Pure”
  36. The La’s, “There She Goes”

1989: We Do The Dive Every Time We Dance

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A crucial year, for it was when I began listening to American Top 40 on a weekly basis and looking for a posted copy of the Billboard Hot 100 whenever I visited Musicland or JR’s at Southridge mall—not coincidentally also where I bought my first post-“Weird Al” Yankovic albums (on cassette, naturally.) In 1989, I began thinking of pop music (and all its genre-specific iterations) as a cultural force, something to obsess over and actively engage with rather than relegate to background noise from the radio or MTV.

As with most of these mixes, I heard few of these songs in 1989 apart from the big fat hits (Madonna at her peak, Fine Young Cannibals at theirs, Donna Summer’s S/A/W-produced comeback, Elvis Costello’s fluke McCartney co-write crossover); perhaps the least likely smash of them all was Neneh Cherry’s homespun, hip-hop-adjacent “Buffalo Stance” which never fails to mentally transport me back to that summer. Other new sounds from Europe also infiltrated my consciousness: Soul II Soul’s uncommon elegance (and soon widely imitated shuffle beat), Black Box’s straight-up revivalist disco, even wacko-dance novelty “Bring Me Edelweiss”, which I became obsessed with after taping it off the radio (a wise move, since I believe I never heard it there ever again.)

Elsewhere, I’ve included obvious choices (Bob Mould going all jangle-pop, The Pixies going pop, period), a few obscure album tracks (“One Of The Millions”, possibly the best XTC song Colin Moulding ever wrote; the languorous, Sally Timms-fronted “Learning To Live On Your Own”) and a couple of mostly forgotten hits (I’d rather hear “Deadbeat Club” instead of “Love Shack” again, or listen to “Blue Spanish Sky” vs. another round of “Wicked Game”.)

As the decade drew to a close, a potential for something startlingly new was apparent, even if it ended up sounding forever of its time (Kon Kan’s cheeky Lynn Anderson extrapolation, Pet Shop Boys-produced Liza Minnelli (covering Sondheim!)) or drawing considerable influence from the past (Lisa Stansfield merging Philly Soul with Diva House, for instance.) Although “Daisy Age” rap would soon mostly give way to harder textures and crasser temperaments, De La Soul’s sole top 40 hit remains a wonder–ingenuously sampling the past until it becomes a tapestry not so much futuristic as it is timeless.

1989: We Do The Dive Every Time We Dance

  1. The B-52’s, “Deadbeat Club”
  2. Kate Bush, “The Sensual World”
  3. Concrete Blonde, “Happy Birthday”
  4. Soul II Soul, “Keep On Moving”
  5. The Cure, “Pictures of You”
  6. Hunters and Collectors, “When The River Runs Dry”
  7. Indigo Girls, “Kid Fears”
  8. Morrissey, “Interesting Drug”
  9. Kirsty MacColl, “Innocence”
  10. Chris Isaak, “Blue Spanish Sky”
  11. The Blue Nile, “Headlights On the Parade”
  12. XTC, “One of the Millions”
  13. The Beautiful South, “You Keep It All In”
  14. Madonna, “Like A Prayer”
  15. Kon Kan, “I Beg Your Pardon”
  16. Liza Minnelli, “Losing My Mind”
  17. Mekons, “Learning To Live On Your Own”
  18. Dramarama, “Last Cigarette”
  19. Pixies, “Here Comes Your Man”
  20. Bob Mould, “See A Little Light”
  21. New Order, “Vanishing Point”
  22. Fine Young Cannibals, “Don’t Look Back”
  23. Elvis Costello, “Veronica”
  24. Ramones, “Pet Sematary”
  25. Neneh Cherry, “Buffalo Stance”
  26. De La Soul, “Me, Myself and I”
  27. 10,000 Maniacs, “Trouble Me”
  28. Edelweiss, “Bring Me Edelweiss”
  29. Donna Summer, “This Time I Know It’s For Real”
  30. Lisa Stansfield, “This Is The Right Time”
  31. Black Box, “Ride On Time”
  32. Erasure, “Blue Savannah”

1988: What A Life

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As always, these playlists are totally subjective and meant to collect my favorite songs of a single year rather than attempt a record of what 1988 was actually like for me or most listeners at the time. I heard a lot of Guns N’ Roses and Richard Marx on the radio in ’88, but they (mercifully) won’t appear here. Truth be told, this was the year I started to pay close attention to Top 40 radio (having received a dual cassette boombox for my 13th birthday) and MTV’s Top 20 Video Countdown, so I was newly aware of a world beyond “Weird Al” Yankovic and whatever my parents listened to in the car.

On that note, Top 40 doesn’t dominate as it did in previous years, though a few unlikely crossover hits do make the cut: Tracy Chapman’s unlike-anything-else-at-the-time breakthrough single, Erasure’s enduring danceable ballad, sublime one-hit-wonder When In Rome, the incomparable Information Society, also unlike anything else on the radio in 1988–I still marvel that this Latin freestyle techno-pop with sci-fi/Star Trek accents (from Minneapolis, no less!) reached number 3 on the Hot 100 that October. I wish Sade’s refreshing, proto-Trip Hop groove “Paradise” (far less overplayed than “Smooth Operator”, for sure) peaked higher than number 16 on said chart.

Still, other musical worlds existed beyond such mainstream confines: They Might Be Giants’ sui generis quirk-pop, Leonard Cohen’s ballsy reinvention as a sophisticated, smokey-voiced chanteur, Cowboy Junkies’ indie slowcore Velvets cover, Talk Talk’s own transformation from second-string new romantics into ambient-leaning experimenters. There was another world just beyond my reach–British pop fascinated in the late ’80s/early ’90s, from club songs that crossed over to the top of the UK charts (Yazz and the Plastic Population) to sparkling one-shots such as Fairground Attraction (also a UK #1) and The Primitives. The old guard continued to innovate (Siousxie and the Banshee’s craziest, fizziest hit), surprise (The Fall’s sardonic-yet-faithful Kinks cover) and expand its horizons (both newly solo Morrissey and Pet Shop Boys turning ever more orchestral.)

All this plus a guitar-pop triple-threat from Down Under (The Go-Betweens, Hunters & Collectors, Crowded House), early Sam Phillips (assisted by Van Dyke Parks’ super-lush orchestral arrangement), late ‘Til Tuesday and Icelandic weirdos The Sugarcubes, most notable for unleashing vocalist Bjork on the rest of the planet.

1988: What A Life

  1. Information Society, “What’s on Your Mind (Pure Energy)”
  2. Prefab Sprout, “Cars and Girls”
  3. When In Rome, “The Promise”
  4. The Primitives, “Crash”
  5. The Church, “Under The Milky Way”
  6. Sade, “Paradise”
  7. The Go-Betweens, “Quiet Heart”
  8. Tracy Chapman, “Fast Car”
  9. Everything But The Girl, “These Early Days”
  10. Hunters & Collectors, “Back On The Breadline”
  11. Fairground Attraction, “Perfect”
  12. Morrissey, “Everyday Is Like Sunday”
  13. Leonard Cohen, “Everybody Knows”
  14. Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Peek-A-Boo”
  15. The Sugarcubes, “Motorcrash”
  16. They Might Be Giants, “Ana Ng”
  17. Yazz and the Plastic Population, “The Only Way Is Up”
  18. Inner City, “Good Life”
  19. Talking Heads, “(Nothing But) Flowers”
  20. R.E.M., “You Are The Everything”
  21. Cowboy Junkies, “Sweet Jane”
  22. Talk Talk, “I Believe In You”
  23. Sam Phillips, “What Do I Do”
  24. Erasure, “A Little Respect”
  25. Pet Shop Boys, “Left To My Own Devices”
  26. Was (Not Was), “Somewhere In America There’s A Street Named After My Dad”
  27. ‘Til Tuesday, “(Believed You Were) Lucky”
  28. The Darling Buds, “Let’s Go Round There”
  29. Roxette, “Dressed For Success”
  30. The Fall, “Victoria”
  31. Patti Smith, “People Have The Power”
  32. Crowded House, “Better Be Home Soon”

1987: Please Don’t Let Me Hit The Ground

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This year arguably epitomizes the sleek professionalism we now tend to associate with the entire decade. Everything had to sound this expensive and immaculate in order to be a hit, from songs that either topped the charts (“Heaven Is A Place On Earth”, “Father Figure”) or came very close to doing so (“What Have I Done To Deserve This”, “Little Lies”) to unlikely but thrilling Top 40 crossovers from the likes of The Cure and Midnight Oil. Even beyond that, you have The Smiths at their lushest, The Replacements at their poppiest and UK goths Sisters of Mercy getting the hell produced out of them by Jim “Total Eclipse of the Heart” Steinman.

Personally, it’s also a weird year. I was 12 and on the verge of discovering a world beyond “Weird Al” Yankovic. I remember incessant MTV airplay for one-hit wonders such as Danny Wilson (“Mary’s Prayer”, no longer on Spotify) and Breakfast Club (“Right On Track”, recently on regular rotation at my local supermarket and it still slaps) and occasional peek-through appearances like 10,000 Maniacs performing “Like The Weather” on SNL. And yet, I knew nothing of The Cure, R.E.M., Sinead O’Connor or Siouxsie and the Banshees just yet—still too young to stay up and watch 120 Minutes on Sunday nights, I guess.

Obviously, I came to know a majority of these songs after ’87, with some exceptions. George Michael was everywhere at the time and I knew the U2 hits among all the Whitney, Bon Jovi and Heart coming out the radio, which might be why I prefer an album track like the lovingly wounded “Running To Stand Still” or the no-nonsense pub rock of “Mystify” to INXS’ overplayed hits of the era.  While nearly anything from Sign ‘O’ The Times would suffice below, the Sheena Easton duet is an instinctive choice (also, it doesn’t just slap, it slams.)

As for the few tracks that conceivably could’ve come from another year besides this one, we have the ever in-his-own-time Tom Waits, retro-pastiche artists The Dukes of Stratosphear (if you don’t know them, don’t look ‘em up before listening to “Vanishing Girl”), R.E.M.’s jangle-pop classicism (was happily surprised to hear them play “Welcome To The Occupation” on their Monster tour in ’95) and The Go-Betweens’ heart-on-sleeve guitar pop splendor, with a soaring chorus and an oboe (!) solo on its outro. As for New Order’s definitive, near-euphoric 1987 remix/rethink of their 1982 single “Temptation”, well, I did rate it rather highly once (and still do.)

1987: Please Don’t Let Me Hit The Ground

  1. The Cure, “Just Like Heaven”
  2. R.E.M., “Welcome To The Occupation”
  3. George Michael, “Father Figure”
  4. Midnight Oil, “Beds Are Burning”
  5. Sinead O’Connor, “Mandinka”
  6. The Smiths, “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before”
  7. Sting, “Englishman In New York”
  8. Eurythmics, “You Have Placed A Chill In My Heart”
  9. 10,000 Maniacs, “Like The Weather”
  10. INXS, “Mystify”
  11. U2, “Running To Stand Still”
  12. The Replacements, “Can’t Hardly Wait”
  13. Fleetwood Mac, “Little Lies”
  14. Tom Waits, “Hang On St. Christopher”
  15. The Go-Betweens, “Bye Bye Pride”
  16. Alison Moyet, “Is This Love?”
  17. Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield, “What Have I Done To Deserve This?”
  18. Belinda Carlisle, “Heaven Is A Place On Earth”
  19. Prince, “U Got The Look”
  20. Wendy & Lisa, “Waterfall”
  21. The Dukes Of Stratosphear, “Vanishing Girl”
  22. Swing Out Sister, “Breakout”
  23. Breakfast Club, “Right On Track”
  24. Vanessa Paradis, “Joe le Taxi”
  25. Debbie Gibson, “Only In My Dreams”
  26. Alexander O’Neal & Cherrelle, “Never Knew Love Like This”
  27. The Housemartins, “Build”
  28. Siouxsie and the Banshees, “The Passenger”
  29. Depeche Mode, “Never Let Me Down Again”
  30. Sisters of Mercy, “This Corrosion”
  31. New Order, “Temptation”

1986: I’m Gonna Show You What It’s All About

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When I posted my 1985 mix, I indicated the following year was more in line with what we think of as “Peak Eighties”, i.e. state-of-the-art, ultra-synthetic, BIG sounds that evoke bright neon colors, huge hair and millions spent. Roughly half the tracks below conform, often blatantly (Bananarama’s S/A/W-produced Shocking Blue cover, Siouxsie and the Banshees at last embracing the sparkly pop in their goth, Talk Talk bridging the gap between their new-pop past and near-ambient future) but occasionally accidentally as well. Given their timeless melodies, one can easily imagine what songs from The Bangles, Peter Gabriel (with crucial help from Kate Bush) and Eurythmics would’ve sounded like if recorded in another era.

Still, not everything in ’86 was spandex and synths (to quote another blog.) British-inspired jangle guitar pop was at a shimmering peak, whether crafted by Americans (The Feelies, R.E.M.), Australians (The Go-Betweens, Crowded House) or actual Brits (XTC, The Smiths, The Housemartins.) Meanwhile, ‘Til Tuesday’s “Coming Up Close”, an underrated, pastoral, anomaly-within-the-artist’s-catalog ballad not only transcends 1986, it anticipates Aimee Mann’s subsequent and unlikely (at the time) solo career.

As always, I love the year’s true oddities, from an ingeniously cheeky track off of They Might Be Giants’ debut album to the rise of innovative producers Jam/Lewis via Janet Jackson and The Human League to more sophisti-pop including The Blow Monkeys and Everything But The Girl’s brief but compelling departure into orchestrated Burt Bacharach splendor. Also, actual one hit wonders like Timbuk 3’s goofy/caustic rave-up and the immortal “I Can’t Wait” by the terribly-named Nu Shooz, which both reeks of 1986 and could’ve come out yesterday.

In addition to “Venus” and “Human”, we also had a treasure trove of all-timers topping the Billboard Hot 100. I couldn’t even make room for such undeniable bangers as Whitney Houston’s “How Will I Know”, Heart’s unexpectedly enduring “These Dreams” and Pet Shop Boys’ “West End Girls” (opting instead for their brilliant flop follow-up single.) However, I couldn’t leave off “Live To Tell” (daringly liminal and moody for the time), “Holding Back The Years” (a revelation when it appeared in the TV series Pose a few years back) and of course, “Kiss”—it took a talent as monumentally original as Prince to score a chart-topper so bizarre yet catchy, concise and deliriously out-of-time.

1986: I’m Gonna Show You What It’s All About

  1. The Feelies, “Let’s Go”
  2. Nu Shooz, “I Can’t Wait”
  3. They Might Be Giants, “Number Three”
  4. The B-52’s, “Ain’t It A Shame”
  5. Stan Ridgway, “Drive, She Said”
  6. The Go-Betweens, “Spring Rain”
  7. The Housemartins, “Think For A Minute”
  8. Erasure, “Oh L’Amour”
  9. Bananarama, “Venus”
  10. Pretenders, “Don’t Get Me Wrong”
  11. R.E.M., “Fall On Me”
  12. The Smiths, “Half A Person”
  13. Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Cities In Dust”
  14. The Blow Monkeys, “Digging Your Scene”
  15. Crowded House, “Don’t Dream It’s Over”
  16. The Human League, “Human”
  17. Janet Jackson, “What Have You Done For Me Lately”
  18. Husker Du, “Don’t Want To Know If You Are Lonely”
  19. Pet Shop Boys, “Love Comes Quickly”
  20. ‘Til Tuesday, “Coming Up Close”
  21. Talk Talk, “Life’s What You Make It”
  22. Peter Gabriel, “Don’t Give Up”
  23. Madonna, “Live To Tell”
  24. Everything But The Girl, “Cross My Heart”
  25. Simply Red, “Holding Back The Years”
  26. New Order, “All Day Long”
  27. Prince and the Revolution, “Kiss”
  28. The Bangles, “Manic Monday”
  29. Timbuk 3, “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades”
  30. Cameo, “Word Up”
  31. Paul Simon, “The Boy In The Bubble”
  32. XTC, “Earn Enough For Us”
  33. Eurythmics, “Thorn In My Side”
  34. Hunters & Collectors, “Throw Your Arms Around Me”
  35. Concrete Blonde, “True”

1985: So Far Out Of Reach

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Whether 1985 qualifies as Peak ‘80s is a matter of personal taste (personally, I’d lean towards ’86 or ’87), but mid-decade is by design an ideal place to assess how we think of its music as a whole. This playlist’s run from the greatest up-tempo Madonna single of her imperial phase to the least overplayed of three massive Tears For Fears hits (along with Aretha’s tailor-made driving anthem and Murray Head’s musical-project-written-by-Benny-and-Bjorn-from-Abba oddity (which I remember it sounding like nothing else on syndicated TV series Solid Gold at the time) exhibits the lofty heights mainstream radio could then ascend to.

Sade and Prince also scored pretty neat leftfield ’85 hits too as did (with considerable help from the latter) Sheila E., undoubtedly scanning as Top 40 while reinterpreting the very notion of such in ways that were beyond, say, Phil Collins, REO Speedwagon or Dire Straits. Not as much as Kate Bush, of course—her sole top 40 hit in the US still startles, not least because it doesn’t dilute one whit of her otherness. “Although built almost entirely on era-specific synthetics, it somehow sounds as out of time now as it ever did,” is something I wrote in 2021, a year before its surprise revival in Stranger Things proved me right and the song became the massive worldwide hit it was always meant to be (reaching a new peak of #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, even.)

In addition to Tears For Fears, punchy singles from New Order, Big Audio Dynamite, The Cure and OMD would suggest 1985 was the year of Brit postpunk bands making big pop moves; however, I detect a more novel trend in guise of a cool, crisp, slightly jazzy subgenre dubbed Sophisti-Pop: Sade for sure, but also Prefab Sprout, Everything But The Girl, Fine Young Cannibals (to a lesser extent) and even a few old(er) souls like Bryan Ferry and Leonard Cohen (transforming his sound from monochrome folk to Casio keyboard pastels.) I’ve also slotted in some Sci-Fi Sophisti-Pop: The Rah Band’s daffy but strange and charming “Clouds Across The Moon”, a UK top ten hit I’d never heard of until a few years ago.

If the sublime INXS album track doesn’t particularly sound like 1985 while the Oingo Boingo one couldn’t possibly come from any other time, the late, great Kirsty MacColl’s “He’s On The Beach” splits the difference—while steeped in era-specific production, its sun-kissed yet melancholic view of an ex-lover from afar is, like nearly everything else the British singer-songwriter recorded, the most perfect pop song you’ve likely never heard. It was released as a stand-alone single that year and it didn’t seem to chart anywhere; it deserves some “Running Up That Hill”-like rediscovery.

1985: So Far Out Of Reach

  1. Prefab Sprout, “Bonny”
  2. Sade, “The Sweetest Taboo”
  3. Kirsty MacColl, “He’s On The Beach”
  4. Suzanne Vega, “Marlene On The Wall”
  5. Fine Young Cannibals, “Johnny Come Home”
  6. Everything But The Girl, “When All’s Well”
  7. Tom Waits, “Clap Hands”
  8. Felt, “Primitive Painters”
  9. Madonna, “Into The Groove”
  10. Aretha Franklin, “Freeway of Love”
  11. Murray Head, “One Night In Bangkok”
  12. Tears For Fears, “Head Over Heels”
  13. Oingo Boingo, “Dead Man’s Party”
  14. Camper Van Beethoven, “Take The Skinheads Bowling”
  15. Prince, “Raspberry Beret”
  16. R.E.M., “Driver 8”
  17. Kate Bush, “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)”
  18. Big Audio Dynamite, “The Bottom Line”
  19. Echo & The Bunnymen, “Bring On The Dancing Horses”
  20. New Order, “Love Vigilantes”
  21. Leonard Cohen, “The Law”
  22. INXS, “Shine Like It Does”
  23. Grace Jones, “Slave To The Rhythm”
  24. Bryan Ferry, “Slave To Love”
  25. Commodores, “Nightshift”
  26. The Jesus and Mary Chain, “Just Like Honey”
  27. Talking Heads, “Road To Nowhere”
  28. The Smiths, “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore”
  29. The Cure, “A Night Like This”
  30. OMD, “So In Love”
  31. Sheila E., “A Love Bizarre – Pt. 1”
  32. The Rah Band, “Clouds Across The Moon”
  33. Mekons, “Last Dance”

1984: Love Never Ends

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The Los Angeles Olympics, the Apple Mackintosh Super Bowl commercial, Reagan’s landslide reelection and Clara “Where’s The Beef?!” Peller–1984 only lived up to George Orwell’s dystopian novel of the same name depending on where one stood with such (no matter how dubious) cultural touchstones. As for the year in music, given Purple Rain, Born In The USA, Private Dancer, Make It Big, Let It Be (Replacements, not The Beatles, naturally) and This Is Spinal Tap (which I couldn’t resist including a track from here), I don’t need to further the argument for 1984 being a bit special. Even beyond those LPs, the year was flush with classic hit singles, from Chaka Khan’s transformative Prince cover to the beginning of Madonna’s world-conquering run to era-defining anthems by Thompson Twins and General Public to, well, “Weird Al” Yankovic capturing the zeitgeist with his so-obvious-it’s-almost-brilliant Michael Jackson parody.

As with any year, the stuff that missed the Billboard Top 40 but lingered on in the collective unconscious is just as noteworthy. Nine years old at the time, I didn’t even hear these selections from The Smiths, Echo & The Bunnymen, Bronski Beat, The Nails and Hoodoo Gurus until at least a decade later when I was a college student and the local Alternative Rock station aired their daily “Retro Flashback Lunch” hour dedicated to post-punk new wave gems.

However, it’s in the margins where ’84 truly fascinates. Billy Bragg’s electric but spare folk music sits next to Kirsty MacColl’s big pop cover of one of his songs. Rubber Rodeo reinterprets the Pretenders’ jumpy rock with a western twang. Cocteau Twins seem to beam out from their own planet with a sugary wall of sound and pleasantly indecipherable vocals. Everything But The Girl (and to a lesser extent, Sade) subsist on their own jazz-and-bossa-nova-suffused plane. XTC continues to craft perfect pop music while defying nearly everything about it the rest of the world describes as such.

“Sexcrime (1984)” by the Eurythmics obviously sums up the year (and when else but in ’84 would one soundtrack an adaptation of Orwell’s novel with this?); slightly less on-the-nose, however, is a sweet techno-pop movie theme (about a love triangle between a man, a woman and a computer voiced by Bud Cort from Harold and Maude!) from the lead singer of The Human League and the electronic music pioneer whom seven years before gave us Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love”.

1984: Love Never Ends

  1. Chaka Khan, “I Feel For You”
  2. Alison Moyet, “Love Resurrection”
  3. Bananarama, “Robert De Niro’s Waiting”
  4. Kirsty MacColl, “A New England”
  5. Billy Bragg, “Between The Wars”
  6. XTC, “Wake Up”
  7. R.E.M., “Harborcoat”
  8. The Go-Betweens, “Bachelor Kisses”
  9. The Psychedelic Furs, “The Ghost In You”
  10. The Replacements, “I Will Dare”
  11. Bronski Beat, “Smalltown Boy”
  12. Cocteau Twins, “Lorelei”
  13. The Smiths, “What Difference Does It Make?”
  14. Prince, “Take Me With U”
  15. Spinal Tap, “Big Bottom”
  16. Madonna, “Material Girl”
  17. Phil Oakey and Giorgio Moroder, “Together In Electric Dreams”
  18. Echo & The Bunnymen, “The Killing Moon”
  19. Cristina, “Smile”
  20. General Public, “Tenderness”
  21. Rubber Rodeo, “Anywhere With You”
  22. Everything But The Girl, “Fascination”
  23. Sade, “Hang On To Your Love”
  24. Tina Turner, “Better Be Good To Me”
  25. INXS, “Original Sin”
  26. Cyndi Lauper, “Time After Time”
  27. The Nails, “88 Lines About 44 Women”
  28. Eurythmics, “Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)”
  29. The Go-Go’s, “Head Over Heels”
  30. “Weird Al” Yankovic, “Eat It”
  31. Wham!, “Freedom”
  32. The Style Council, “My Ever Changing Moods”
  33. Thompson Twins, “Hold Me Now”
  34. Hoodoo Gurus, “I Want You Back”
  35. The Icicle Works, “Whisper to a Scream (Birds Fly)”
  36. The Specials, “Nelson Mandela”

1983: When Things Fall Into Place

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Just as New Wave completes its mutation into New Pop (more on that next year), 1983 reveals just how much the former could evolve before being superseded by the latter. Across this spectrum, you have post-punk stalwarts such as The Cure, XTC and Siouxsie Sioux at their most accessible to-date and old souls like Tom Waits and Joan Armatrading at their spikiest and also most contemporary sounding.

And yet, much of what’s included here comes from artists making their debuts/breakthroughs: Violent Femmes and R.E.M. representing new regional Americana, Billy Bragg reinventing electric folk for the post-Dylan era, Heaven 17 and The Blue Nile respectively adding soul and atmosphere to synth-pop, The Smiths and to a lesser extent The Three O’Clock and The Go-Betweens kicking off the ‘60s revival through slightly askew lenses and of course, Madonna basically (and rather shrewdly) updating what would’ve been called disco a few years previously (now under the safer guise of “Dance Music”);  Melle Mel’s “White Lines (Don’t Do It)” does essentially the same trick only as Hip-hop.

In many cases, I chose the less obvious hits: “Your Silent Face” instead of “Blue Monday”, “Church of the Poison Mind” but not “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me”, “Love Is A Stranger” over “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”, “This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody)” proving more timeless than “Burning Down The House”, etc. While there’s nothing by The Police, Michael Jackson or one-hit wonders Nena, Taco and Kajagoogoo, I still made room for Chaka Khan and Rufus’ enduring “Ain’t Nobody”, the deathless “Electric Avenue” (its original hit version finally on Spotify as of 2024!) and sole number-one-hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart” which you’d want in a time capsule for future generations to effusively understand what the year sounded like at its loudest and most expensive.

As for 1983 at its weirdest, look no further than “Shiny Shiny”, which asks the question, “What’s more inexplicable, the band’s name or the song?” (Answer: its music video.) For those seeking a little extra substance with their style, you can’t go wrong with The The’s “This Is The Day”, which grafts jubilant fiddle and accordion onto an electro-exoskeleton and sports a melody that blooms and resounds with each passing minute—an anthem both melancholy and bright that feels neither faceless nor cheap.

1983: When Things Fall Into Place

  1. Joan Armatrading, “Drop The Pilot”
  2. Culture Club, “Church Of The Poison Mind”
  3. The Go-Betweens, “Cattle and Cane”
  4. Heaven 17, “Temptation”
  5. Was (Not Was), “Knocked Down, Made Small”
  6. Eurythmics, “Love Is A Stranger”
  7. Peter Schilling, “Major Tom (Coming Home)”
  8. XTC, “Great Fire”
  9. The Cure, “The Lovecats”
  10. Marshall Crenshaw, “Whenever You’re On My Mind”
  11. Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Dear Prudence”
  12. Talking Heads, “This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody)
  13. Billy Bragg, “The Milkman of Human Kindness”
  14. Yaz, “Nobody’s Diary”
  15. Tom Waits, “16 Shells From A 30.6”
  16. Melle Mel, “White Lines (Don’t Do It)”
  17. Chaka Khan & Rufus, “Ain’t Nobody”
  18. Violent Femmes, “Prove My Love”
  19. Haysi Fantayzee, “Shiny Shiny”
  20. The B-52’s, “Legal Tender”
  21. R.E.M., “Perfect Circle”
  22. New Order, “Your Silent Face”
  23. The Smiths, “This Charming Man”
  24. Madonna, “Burning Up”
  25. Bonnie Tyler, “Total Eclipse of the Heart”
  26. David Bowie, “Modern Love”
  27. Eddy Grant, “Electric Avenue”
  28. The The, “This Is The Day”
  29. Echo & The Bunnymen, “The Cutter”
  30. The Blue Nile, “Stay”
  31. Brian Eno, “Always Returning”
  32. The Three O’Clock, “Jet Fighter”
  33. Funy Boy Three, “Our Lips Are Sealed”

1982: Before I Talk, I Should Read A Book!

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We’re at a crossroads, a convergence of competing subgenres. I could’ve easily put together an all-post-punk/new wave collection of tunes, or an all-Brit edition or even an American Top 40 variety; I’m sure a solid indie/underground representation of 1982’s out there somewhere, curated by a soul with more firsthand knowledge of it than myself.

What I’ve ended up with, naturally, is a blend of all of the above that nonetheless more often than not leans towards post-punk/new wave because there’s just so goddamn much of it: The Cure entering their goth-pop phase with a newfound emphasis on the latter, The (English) Beat ever more sophisticated and expansive with “Save It For Later”, quirky one-offs like Haircut 100 and Wall of Voodoo claiming their moment in the sun, synth-pop now officially a chart-worthy thing, as witnessed by Yaz’s venerable ballad and Missing Persons’ El Lay take on the genre; even relative “veterans” like Sparks and Kate Bush bending their sounds and styles to fit into and, at least in Bush’s case redefine the genre. There’s also a bunch of R&B/rock mutations: Kid Creole and The Coconuts sharpening their bon vivant take on new wave, Prince swaggering his way  into the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time and even Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott, a black rock pioneer going unapologetically, disarmingly pop (complete with baroque, “Penny Lane”-style trumpet solo!)

Predictably, I couldn’t ignore those mainstream hits that made an indelible impression on my seven-year-old brain. I’ve spared you such cheese as “Key Largo” and “Ebony and Ivory” (the latter: two legends reduced to mush!) but have made room for Bee Gees-produced Dionne Warwick (Gibb a much better Barry for her than Manilow), the smooth, hook-laden reassurance of The Alan Parsons Project, Stevie Wonder’s last great single, another sterling Christine McVie-written Fleetwood Mac one, and of course, “Goody Two Shoes”, Adam Ant’s only early 80s American Top 40 hit (in this case, us Yanks chose the best, most endearing one.)

Despite the abundance of Brits represented, I’m more intrigued by that American-indie contingent I was far too young to know at the time. Some days, “Mesopotamia” is my favorite B-52’s song, riding texture and an electro-groove unlike any of their other standards (Fred Schneider’s inimitable, exuberant vocal hook, which provides this playlist’s title is just the icing on a multi-layered cake); other days, I hear “Wolves, Lower”, the opener from R.E.M.’s first EP Chronic Town and it’s as fresh and exciting and enigmatic as it ever was, even compared to all of their era-defining output over the subsequent decade.

1982: Before I Talk, I Should Read A Book!

  1. A Flock of Seagulls, “Space Age Love Song”
  2. The Cure, “Let’s Go To Bed”
  3. Indeep, “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life”
  4. Prince, “Little Red Corvette”
  5. The Alan Parsons Project, “Eye In The Sky”
  6. Kid Creole and The Coconuts, “I’m A Wonderful Thing, Baby”
  7. The Psychedelic Furs, “Love My Way”
  8. Roxy Music, “The Space Between”
  9. The B-52’s, “Mesopotamia”
  10. Kate Bush, “Suspended In Gaffa”
  11. Split Enz, “Six Months In a Leaky Boat”
  12. Phil Lynott, “Old Town”
  13. Wall of Voodoo, “Mexican Radio”
  14. David Bowie, “Cat People (Putting Out Fire)”
  15. Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Fireworks – 12” Version”
  16. XTC, “No Thugs In Our House”
  17. Adam Ant, “Goody Two Shoes”
  18. R.E.M., “Wolves, Lower”
  19. The Dream Syndicate, “Tell Me When It’s Over”
  20. Chic, “Tavern On The Green”
  21. The English Beat, “Save It For Later”
  22. Fun Boy Three and Bananarama, “It Ain’t What You Do, It’s The Way That You Do It”
  23. Dionne Warwick, “Heartbreaker”
  24. Carly Simon, “Why (12” Version)”
  25. Yaz, “Only You”
  26. Missing Persons, “Destination Unknown”
  27. Sparks, “Angst In My Pants”
  28. The Waitresses, “Square Pegs”
  29. Fleetwood Mac, “Hold Me”
  30. ABC, “The Look Of Love, Pt. 1”
  31. Stevie Wonder, “Do I Do (Single Version)”
  32. Haircut 100, “Love Plus One – 12” Version”
  33. The Associates, “Party Fears Two”
  34. The Jam, “The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had To Swallow)”
  35. ABBA, “Under Attack”
  36. Richard & Linda Thompson, “Wall of Death”