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. However, there were a few bright spots and plenty of seeds planted that would bear fruit in the 90’s.

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:

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