One of my life’s greatest regrets was having been born in a loser decade for music. I’ve written fewer reviews of 80’s music than any other period, an era of appalling overproduction, empty soundscapes filled with badly-played synthesizers and wide sound fields designed to imbue significance to music that had very little. With a few notable exceptions, rock during this period was particularly weak, dominated by the superficial sounds of arena rock and bands projecting “cool” without the depth to back it up.

I’ve noticed that 80’s music is experiencing something of a revival, so if my readers want to delve into that era, there are plenty of options elsewhere.

In addition to The Clash reviews from that bleak period, I’ve covered the following albums:

• Pretenders
• Clues by Robert Palmer
• I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll by Joan Jett and The Blackhearts
• Long After Dark by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
• Learning to Crawl by The Pretenders
• Purple Rain by Prince
• Let It Be by The Replacements
• Ancient Heart by Tanita Tikaram
• Tim by the Replacements
• Cosmic Thing by The B-52’s
• Doolittle by Pixies