Visions of Excess
Artist: The Golden Palominos

The first in a long series of about-faces and left turns, Visions of Excess forgoes the noise-funk of the Golden Palominos' debut in favor of more pop-oriented material and staggering lineup of underground luminaries. Built around a nucleus of Anton Fier, bassist Bill Laswell, guitarist Jody Harris, and keyboardist Bernie Worrell, the album... Read More

Hell!
Artist: The Residents

Ryko's companion CD to its Heaven? release compiles a number of the group's more hellish tracks, and this time the title is well served. From the apocalyptic "Coming of the Crow" to their purgatorial cover of "Satisfaction," this is the group at their ugliest. Though the album is not without a strange beauty, as "Loss of Innocence" and "Shut Up!... Read More

Heaven?
Artist: The Residents

When Ryko briefly signed the Residents for their God in Three Persons soundtrack, they quickly released a duo of compilations to take advantage of the groups rather large back catalog and to promote the new lengths offered by compact discs. Heaven? is purportedly a selection of the more heavenly side of the group. This is certainly true of the... Read More

Filigree & Shadow
Artist: This Mortal Coil
Community Score: 10.00

The second album by the 4AD collective headed by label founder Ivo Watts-Russell distills the This Mortal Coil concept somewhat. There's more of a core group now, featuring Simon Raymonde of the Cocteau Twins, producer John Fryer, arranger Martin McCarrick, and Watts-Russell himself, backing a variety of mostly female singers. The double album... Read More

Infected
Artist: The The
Community Score: 8.35

Infected's sound still suggests dance-pop, especially on the title track. But don't get the impression that it's made for dancing. Instead of the light fare displayed on Soul Mining, Infected's songs seethe instead of preen, and Matt Johnson's lyrics are laced with tension. Thematically, he plunges a lance into the exposed midsection of Great... Read More

The Smiths
Artist: The Smiths
Community Score: 8.00

Arriving in an era dominated by synth pop and gloomy post-punk, the Smiths' eponymous debut was the bracing beginning of a new era. On the surface, the Smiths' sound wasn't radically different from traditional British guitar pop -- Johnny Marr's ringing, layered guitars were catchy and melodic -- but it was actually an astonishing subversion of... Read More

Rum Sodomy & the Lash
Artist: The Pogues
Community Score: 9.38

"I saw my task... was to capture them in their dilapidated glory before some more professional producer f--ked them up," Elvis Costello wrote of his role behind the controls for the Pogues' second album, Rum Sodomy & the Lash. One spin of the album proves that Costello accomplished his mission; this album captures all the sweat, fire, and angry... Read More

Project: Mersh
Artist: Minutemen
Community Score: 8.30

"I got it! We'll have them write hit songs!" some nameless record company executive says in the cover painting to the Minutemen's 1985 EP Project Mersh, and that joke covers about half of the record's formula. While the Minutemen had been writing more melodic and approachable songs with each release, the massive barrage of 90-to-180-second songs... Read More

3-Way Tie (For Last)
Artist: Minutemen

D. Boon's death in December 1985 was one of rock's most tragic occurrences. And, a decade later, I find that it still affects the way I listen to this, the "final" Minutemen record. Boon was hitting his stride here; the songs were emphatic, smart, and marked by his increasing sociopolitical awareness. Boon did not suffer fools gladly, and this... Read More

Eight Miles High/Makes No Sense at All
Artist: Hüsker Dü

Eight Miles High/Makes No Sense at All combines two singles Hüsker Dü put out when they were at the height of their powers. Their fantastic rendition of "Eight Miles High" was backed with a live version of "Masochism World," and the marvelous "Makes No Sense at All" was backed by Sonny Curtis' "Love Is All Around," the theme from the Mary Tyler... Read More

Flip Your Wig
Artist: Hüsker Dü
Community Score: 8.45

Spot -- SST's house producer who manned the boards for Zen Arcade and New Day Rising -- didn't produce Flip Your Wig, Hüsker Dü's second album of 1985, and the difference is immediately noticeable. Everything on Flip Your Wig is cleaner and brighter than on its two immediate predecessors, which is appropriate, considering that Bob Mould and... Read More

New Day Rising
Artist: Hüsker Dü
Community Score: 7.52

For New Day Rising, the follow-up to their breakthrough double-album Zen Arcade, Hüsker Dü replaced concept with conciseness, concentrating on individual songs delivered as scalding post-hardcore pop. New Day Rising is not only a more vicious and relentless record than Zen Arcade, it's more melodic. Bob Mould and Grant Hart have written tightly... Read More

Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records
Artist: Chumbawamba

Long before a song about relentless alcohol consumption ("Tubthumping") made them the toast of sports stadia worldwide, a rather different Chumbawamba stalked the toilet venues of England's counter-culture. In 1986, as the rock world congratulated itself on its new, enlightened attitude to world poverty following Band Aid, a refusenik group of... Read More