Kissing to Be Clever
Artist: Culture Club
Community Score: 5.33

Kissing to Be Clever is the album that put Culture Club on the musical map. Incorporating pop, rock, dance, new wave, soul, and Caribbean rhythms (an amalgamation of "cultures"), the result was a soulful, progressive pop outing that scored several landmark international hits and made a star out of the band's outrageous frontman, Boy George. A... Read More

Safety Dance
Artist: Men Without Hats
Retrospective
Artist: Sniff 'n' the Tears
No Parlez
Artist: Paul Young
Community Score: 6.17

One of the most assured debut albums of the mid-1980s, and one of the finest pop-soul confections of all time, No Parlez was the record that, following on from the stellar success of Young's earliest hits, left him poised to dominate the remainder of the decade like no other vocalist could have.



Three singles laid bare... Read More

Speaking in Tongues
Artist: Talking Heads
Community Score: 6.21

Talking Heads found a way to open up the dense textures of the music they had developed with Brian Eno on their two previous studio albums for Speaking in Tongues, and were rewarded with their most popular album yet. Ten backup singers and musicians accompanied the original quartet, but somehow the sound was more spacious, and the music admitted... Read More

Remain in Light
Artist: Talking Heads
Community Score: 7.98

The musical transition that seemed to have just begun with Fear of Music came to fruition on Talking Heads' fourth album, Remain in Light. "I Zimbra" and "Life During Wartime" from the earlier album served as the blueprints for a disc on which the group explored African polyrhythms on a series of driving groove tracks, over which David Byrne... Read More

East Side Story
Artist: Squeeze
Community Score: 8.00

East Side Story was originally planned as a double album with each side produced by a different "hot" producer -- Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, and Paul McCartney were the proposed lineup. And while only Elvis Costello (along with Roger Bechirian) ended up doing the job, save for one track by Edmunds, Costello's push for decidedly... Read More

Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet
Artist: Rick Springfield
Community Score: 4.50
Scandal
Artist: Scandal

According to legend, the video for "Love's Got a Line on You" cost less than 20 dollars to make and features an unknown Jon Bon Jovi posing as Scandal's guitarist. Columbia signed the band based on the clip and the cut, and Scandal went on to become the biggest-selling EP in Columbia history. But since side one's brilliant one-two punch,... Read More

Beauty and the Beat
Artist: The Go-Go's
Community Score: 9.93

Although the relatively polished production belies the Go-Go's' punk roots, Beauty and the Beat remains one of the cornerstone albums of new wave, bristling with energy, revamped surf rock and girl-group hooks, and an intoxicating sense of fun. The infectious, bouncy "We Got the Beat" and the pulsating "Our Lips Are Sealed," which Jane Wiedlin... Read More