The Bears
Artist: The Bears

The debut album from the Bears is a solid slice of great guitar-driven pop tunes. Although Adrian Belew was seen nominally as the frontman, this was truly a band; four friends who had known each other for years, playing for pure joy. Songwriting duties were shared, with each member contributing at least one track, and they also wrote several... Read More

Truth and Soul
Artist: Fishbone
Community Score: 8.25

By 1988, alternative/college rock was becoming a recognizable force in the mainstream. Several bands were big enough to play arenas, and many even earned gold and platinum albums. The tide was clearly changing for such previously misunderstood bands such as Fishbone. Their second full-length release Truth and Soul was issued that year, and... Read More

Hard Volume
Artist: Rollins Band
Community Score: 3.50

A vastly looser affair than their debut album, Hard Volume is the first glimpse of what Rollins Band would become with 1992's The End of Silence. The songs here are based more on the groove than they are on Life Time. The opener, "Hard," may seem a little over the top lyrically, but it has a swagger unmatched in the Rollins Band's catalog. This... Read More

Eponymous
Artist: R.E.M.
Community Score: 6.64
Document
Artist: R.E.M.
Community Score: 8.21
Cloudland
Artist: Pere Ubu
Community Score: 4.00

It's funny, this might be the most controversial recording Ubu ever made. After years of brilliant chunks of avant-garde garage rock tomfoolery, they release a pop record, one with smooth corners, and production help from Stephen Hague (Pet Shop Boys). It's not as if Ubu is unrecognizable; the familiar idiosyncracies are here and in full effect.... Read More

Huevos
Artist: Meat Puppets
Community Score: 6.60

Recorded and released just a few months after the experimental Mirage, 1987's Huevos was a return to the Meat Puppets' earlier, more straight-ahead direction. The band (guitarist/singer Curt Kirkwood in particular) had always voiced their admiration of ZZ Top, and Huevos contained Billy Gibbons & Co.'s influence more than any other Puppets... Read More

Rehab Doll/Dry As a Bone
Artist: Green River
Community Score: 4.50

Collecting Green River's second and third releases, plus three rare tracks, Dry As a Bone/Rehab Doll is a near-definitive look at the Seattle band that, along with the Melvins and Soundgarden, virtually invented grunge. Out of all the bands that branched out from the Green River family tree, the originals sound most like Mudhoney upon first... Read More

Bent by Nature
Artist: Glass Eye

Very edgy, angular pop. Deconstructed? Visionary! ~ Robert Gordon, All Music Guide Read More

Echo & the Bunnymen
Artist: Echo & the Bunnymen
Community Score: 7.70

This fine release (not to be confused with the self-titled 1983 EP) is the Bunnymen's best since their debut, Crocodiles. The album catches the group at a fortuitous career juncture; the clutch of songs here is among the hookiest and most memorable the band would ever write, while the arrangements are noticeably clean and punchy, mostly... Read More

You're Living All Over Me
Artist: Dinosaur Jr.
Community Score: 7.42

A blitzkrieg fusion of hardcore punk, Sonic Youth-style noise freak-outs, heavy metal, and melodic hard rock in the vein of Neil Young, You're Living All Over Me was a turning point in American underground rock & roll. With its thin, unbalanced mix, the album sounds positively menacing and edgy -- Lou Barlow's bass barrels forward over Murph's... Read More

Boylan Heights
Artist: The Connells

Their second album shows a great improvement over its predecessor. With help from producer Mitch Easter, the band effectively combines Southern rock's jangly guitars with Celtic influences. One of the more distinctive, though generally overlooked, college rock albums of the late '80s. ~ Chris Woodstra, All Music Guide Read More

Fuck
Artist: The Leaving Trains

With a new lineup anchored by the band's sole returning member, singer/guitarist Falling James, the Trains begin to solidify around the atavistic paeans to dissipation and alienation that quickly are becoming James' stock-in-trade. The roaring guitars still rumble, but many of the last album's softer moments are lost in a preference for... Read More