Treble’s Best Albums of the ’80s : Part One

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Best of the 80s - part 1

1984

U2 - The Unforgettable Fire 10. U2 — The Unforgettable Fire
(Island)

For their fourth album, U2 looked to Brian Eno, who had just formed a partnership with Daniel Lanois, for guidance. Eno had previously produced the legendary ‘Berlin’ trilogy with David Bowie, a series of landmark albums by the Talking Heads, and the first albums from art-pop new wave band Devo. Lanois had played guitar and pedal steel on Raffi records. But together, they emerged as the pre-eminent production duo who produced not only The Unforgettable Fire, but also Peter Gabriel’s So, and U2’s gargantuan hit, The Joshua Tree. – Terrance Terich

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Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense 9. Talking Heads — Stop Making Sense
(Sire)

In the movie, there’s superb cinematography, a performance-art style of stage choreography, and one really big suit. In the movie soundtrack, there’s absolutely amazing recording quality and perfect representation of the Talking Heads at their peak of ’80s success. We all enjoy live recordings, and we enjoy them even more when they capture the best performances of one of the best bands of all time. – Anna Gazdowicz

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Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA 8. Bruce Springsteen — Born in the USA
(Columbia)

Born in the USA was a strange evolutionary turn for Bruce. In 1982’s breathtakingly amazing Nebraska, he seemed to abandon his brothers in the E Street Band and set out on a path of stark minimalist beauty. But the boys in the band come roaring back with the polished Born in the USA and it’s their power that gives Bruce’s stories strength. Every song on the album sounds as if there is an army behind it and you can almost feel the band’s sense of camaraderie, which is only bolstered by Born in the USA‘s squeaky clean production.

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REM - Reckoning7. R.E.M. — Reckoning
(IRS)

You’re the brightest young band in the country. You’ve just come off of a year promoting a murky and artsy post-punk masterpiece. You’re a college radio sensation. You’ve received Rolling Stone‘s prestigious honor of “Album of the Year.” So how do you follow it up? With another ten classic songs of Rickenbacker jangle, among them some of the most accessible and crisp of your career, and all of them featuring cryptic and garbled yet articulately sung lyrics courtesy of Mumbly Joe Stipe. That’s how. – Jeff Terich

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Echo and The Bunnymen - Ocean Rain 6. Echo & the Bunnymen — Ocean Rain
(Sire)

The cover, as Spinal Tap would put it, could be none more blue, immediately setting a tone for the music within. Then you have Les and Pete each manning an oar, propelling the boat, as they do the band with their tight rhythm section. Then there’s Will, arms crossed, pensive, sitting in the middle of the boat. He is somewhere between the artistic vision of Ian and the musicianship of the other two, wanting to be adventurous, but also keeping it reined in. Finally, there’s Ian, leaning over the bow, one finger touching the surface of the water, ever inquisitive, trying to glean something from the blue. – Terrance Terich

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The Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime5. The Minutemen — Double Nickels on the Dime
(SST)

Perhaps the most precise definition of The Minutemen is given within the first twenty seconds of Double Nickels: the first sound is D. Boon’s car starting and the first lyric is “Serious as a heart attack.” No doubt, this is a group that was, in one sense, serious as a heart attack, both in the content of their lyrics and in the distinctive music which they produced—music steeped in a broad curiosity and playful disregard for the boundaries, more and more leaden at the time, which punk rock had built around itself. – Tyler Parks

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Husker Du - Zen Arcade4. Husker Du — Zen Arcade
(SST)

Zen Arcade was a concept album of sorts, which revolved around an adolescent who runs away from a home life where he felt disenfranchised only to find out that the outside world is a much harsher place. Zen Arcade is one of the most influential albums of the past 25 years and has had a ripple effect soar all the way through most underground, independent, punk/alternative music since. It was also their last that displayed their most soaring solid hardcore knack that blended melodic pop distinctions and other psychedelic elements at times. – Chris Pacifico

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The Replacements - Let It Be3. The Replacements — Let It Be
(Twin/Tone)

People love the Replacements. Some of them mildly and with a knowing smile, others desperately and without cessation. All of those characteristics responsible for this love can be found in one shape or another on Let it Be. It is one of those rare albums which, though a departure from a band’s previous work, seems to at once define them more accurately and more completely. That is, it does not feel like experimentation or the band getting away from its itself, but a more accurate distillation of what The Replacements are, of what they sound like. – Tyler Parks

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Prince - Purple Rain2. Prince — Purple Rain
(Warner Bros.)

Prince battled off derisions about his height, sexuality, religion, appearance, race and just about everything in between, still vaulting himself into super stardom, not waiting for people to recognize his talents, but telling them, with Purple Rain in particular, that he was a star. Prince also shared a similar career ideology and path as my other favorite solo artist, David Bowie. Besides all of the comparisons that could be made due to the various slurs and criticisms heaped on each of them, on Bowie’s album, The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, he created an alter ego, someone who could express everything he was thinking through a mask of sorts. So too did Prince on his fifth album, essentially a distilled soundtrack to the breakthrough musical film, Purple Rain, in the character of ‘the Kid’ and his backup band, given title credit for the first time, the Revolution. – Terrance Terich

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The Smiths - The Smiths1.The Smiths — The Smiths
(Rough Trade – Sire)

One of those stuffy British rock magazines, be it Q, Mojo or Uncut, I can’t really remember, called “This Charming Man” the birth of the indie rock single. That could have been said about a lot of songs that came before it, but The Smiths took a decidedly unconventional approach. Power chords and stadium anthems were off-limits. The working class joe and the rebellious, destructive punk were nowhere in sight. This wasn’t just rock music, it was art. And since then, for better or for worse, every college kid in the US and the UK since this album’s release has been using it as source material for mix tapes. – Jeff Terich

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Personal Best

The Alarm - DeclarationThe Alarm – Declaration
(IRS)

The Welsh band The Alarm, a handful of singles in hand, had been heavily influenced by punk and native folk, but were suffering the slings and arrows of comparisons to another fiery and bombastic Celtic outfit, U2. So, when their debut album finally hit, it was bound to suffer the same fate, loved by many and blasted by critics as derivative. Declaration was the perfect name for the full-length debut, as it announced the arrival of a band with just as much passion, just as much politics, and far more hair than their critical counterparts. – Terrance Terich

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Spinal Tap - This is Spinal TapSpinal Tap – This is Spinal Tap
(Polydor)

Spinal Tap represented everything that was right (in a kitschy way) and wrong (in the wrong way) with heavy metal. Garish, immature, misogynistic and poorly dressed, the big-haired guitar gods strutted around, vamping in leather or spandex pants while plowing mysticism and pseudo-religious mumbo jumbo for a hint of artistic or magical legitimacy. This is likely what led Michael McKean, David St. Hubbins’ civilian alter ego, to proclaim that their metal music caricature band represented everything that a 14 year-old believed was sexy (i.e., things that weren’t all that sexy). – Hubert Vigilla

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Go to 1985-1989

 

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