Psychedelic Jungle
Artist: The Cramps
Community Score: 9.00

Here, Kid Congo Powers and Ivy form just as fine a team as she and Gregory did on earlier releases, and if things aren't always as flat-out fried as on Gravest Hits and Songs, the same atmosphere of swampy, trashy, rockabilly-into-voodoo ramalama reigns supreme. The song titles alone show the band hasn't really changed its sights any: the... Read More

Invisible Hits
Artist: The Soft Boys

A collection of lost recordings and previously unreleased tracks, a number of this album's cuts remain Soft Boys classics, like "Rock 'n' Roll Toilet," "Wey Wey Hep Uh Hole," "Have a Heart Betty (I'm Not Fireproof)," and "He's a Reptile." Most of the songs were recorded in 1978-79 during the sessions prior to A Can of Bees and Underwater... Read More

New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)
Artist: Simple Minds
Community Score: 7.60

One of Scotland's finest imports, Simple Minds deliver a strong synth-reared release on New Gold Dream. This album harks the darker side of the band's musicianship, and such material alludes to their forthcoming pop-stadium sound which hurled them into rock mainstream during the latter part of the '80s. They were still honing their artistic... Read More

Volume, Contrast, Brilliance... Sessions & Singles, Vol. 1
Artist: The Monochrome Set

This is another compilation, but back in 1983 this hugely rewarding record acted as a roundup of the group's career to date and was of immeasurable value to fans. It's aged well, too, and worth hunting down for some (quite radically different) radio versions of songs, oddities, and jocular moments, including John Peel introducing "Fat Fun" and... Read More

Love Zombies
Artist: The Monochrome Set

The group's second album (and last for Virgin subsidiary Dindisc), Love Zombies features more accomplished songwriting from main man Bid -- especially the title track and the playful "The Man With the Black Moustache." Fans -- BBC Radio DJ John Peel among them -- had long since recognized the Monochrome Set's supreme compositional agility. This... Read More

This Is the Ice Age
Artist: Martha & the Muffins

It all came together on this album for Martha and the Muffins. Working with a new producer, a young Daniel Lanois, and a new bass player (Daniel's sister, Jocelyne), the band seemed to have the freedom to produce their sound their way. And it worked in a big way. From the first track, the incredible "Swimming," ato the fantastic closer "Three... Read More

Unbehagen
Artist: Nina Hagen Band
Before Hollywood
Artist: The Go-Betweens
Community Score: 8.00

The Go-Betweens were already a good band well before they made Before Hollywood, but this second album is what proved for many listeners that they were great. For good reason -- both Robert Forster's and Grant McLennan's singing sounds much more honestly theirs, finding their own voices, while collectively the trio create a series of intricate,... Read More

More Fun in the New World
Artist: X
Community Score: 9.00

Coming off their 1982 masterpiece Under the Big Black Sun, X offered their follow-up More Fun in the New World one year later. While its predecessor won the band a slew of new fans, it didn't serve as the major breakthrough that it so deservedly should have. Rightfully, they didn't fool with their already winning formula; they issued another... Read More

Call of the West
Artist: Wall of Voodoo
Community Score: 9.83

Wall of Voodoo's second full-length album, Call of the West, was a noticeably more approachable work than their debut, Dark Continent, and it even scored a fluke hit single, "Mexican Radio," a loopy little number about puzzled American tourists that's easily the catchiest thing on the album. But while Wall of Voodoo's textures had gotten a bit... Read More

Second Edition
Artist: Public Image Ltd.
Community Score: 10.00

PiL managed to avoid boundaries for the first four years of their existence, and Metal Box is undoubtedly the apex. It's a hallmark of uncompromising, challenging post-punk, hardly sounding like anything of the past, present, or future. Sure, there were touchstones that got their imaginations running -- the bizarreness of Captain Beefheart, the... Read More