One of my life’s greatest regrets was having been born in a loser decade for music, 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 and Richard Thompson reviews from that bleak period (accessible in the menu bar above), I’ve covered the following albums:

• Pretenders – Pretenders
• Pat Benatar – Crimes of Passion
• Robert Palmer – Clues
• Joan Jett and The Blackhearts – I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll
• Billy Idol – Greatest Hits
• Devo – Freedom of Choice
• Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers – Long After Dark
• Michael Jackson – Thriller
• Pretenders – Learning to Crawl
• Prince – Purple Rain
• Bob Marley and The Wailers – Legend
• The Replacements – Let It Be
• Tanita Tikaram – Ancient Heart
• The Replacements – Tim
• The Police – Every Breath You Take (The Singles)
• The B-52’s – Cosmic Thing
• Pixies – Surfer Rosa
• Pixies – Doolittle
• Tom Petty – Full Moon Fever
• Richard and Linda Thompson – Shoot Out the Lights
• The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses