Anti-Climacus

ESSENTIAL NON-OBVIOUS ALBUMS OF THE 80s

The Queen is Dead and Hatful of Hollow, The Smiths: impossibly Baroque pop creations, where the first is Ruebens and then second is Caravaggio. You probably have to have been a 16-year old boy who'd been dumped by his first girlfriend to really get them, but if you did, they were a world unto themselves.

(I'm also not sure whether I should be offended at Joe's insistence that The Smiths is the "soundtrack of future metrosexuals," or embarrassed because he pretty much got that one right)

Closer, Joy Division: not the happiest album you'll ever own (Ian Curtis killed himself a few weeks after finishing it), but the most complete cataloging of human faults you'll ever find. Breathtakingly heartbreaking.

Chronic Town, Murmur, Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruction, Lifes Rich Pageant, Document, R.E.M.: there is nothing on this earth so wonderful to listen to as a good R.E.M. album. Too bad they've decided they don't need to make good ones anymore. (Does this qualify as obvious? I'm not so sure it does)

Let It Be, The Replacements: listen to "Favorite Thing" to see where Kurt Cobain stole half of his ideas.

3 Feet High and Rising, De La Soul: The most welcome trend of the late-80s/early-90s (flower-power hip-hop) reaches its apotheosis here.

The Stone Roses, Stone Roses: singlehandedly keeping alive the flame of British Popular Music ('Britpop,' if you will) with ridiculously good guitar work and just the right hint of mystery (the US version, with "Fools Gold" on the end, is even better)

It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Public Enemy: pioneered the "Bomb Squad" style of production (on "Prophets of Rage") and contained the best prison-related song since "Jailhouse Rock" ("Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos"). Sure, Chuck D and Flava Flav had a lot of... ummmmm... 'controversial' opinions on various topics, but mostly worth the listen.