604. Green on Red, Gravity Talks (1983) Green on Red formed in Tucson, Arizona, but it didn’t take long for them to head further west, setting up shop in Los Angeles just as the city’s Paisley Underground movement and punk … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #604 to #601
608. Roxy Music, Manifesto (1979) Officially, Roxy Music was broken up. The band’s 1975 album, Siren, was adored by music critics and, but Roxy Music’s modest standards, a commercial success. “Love is the Drug,” a single taken from Siren, scraped … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #608 to #605
612. Frank Zappa, Sheik Yerbouti (1979) Sheik Yerbouti was a new beginning for Frank Zappa. After several frustrating years spent extricating himself from an onerous pact with Warner Bros., Zappa was finally on his own. He’d also been stockpiling material … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #612 to #609
616. Prefab Sprout, Two Wheels Good (1985) Prefab Sprout found out they had a famous fan. During a discussion aired on BBC Radio, Thomas Dolby praised some of the material on Prefab Sprout’s 1983 debut album, Swoon. Connections were made, … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #616 to #613
620. Throwing Muses, House Tornado (1988) Hailing from Boston and famously signed to esoteric U.K. label 4AD, Throwing Muses spent the first chunk of their recording career adhering to a release model more typical of British acts. Over the course … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #620 to #617
624. Alphaville, Forever Young (1984) Initially, the music act formed in Germany by Marian Gold, Bernhard Lloyd, and Frank Mertens was called Forever Young. That name was instead reserved for the band’s first album — and one of their first … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #624 to #621
628. Difford & Tilbrook, Difford & Tilbrook (1984) After the band Squeeze announced plans to dissolve and played an official farewell concert at the Jamaica World Music Festival, there was still a significant amount of interest in the group’s chief … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #628 to #625
632. Santana, Marathon (1979) In many respects, the shifting trends of rock music in the late nineteen-seventies probably felt very accommodating to guitarist Carlos Santana. A master craftsman with his guitar, Santana had major hits with hard rock music as … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #632 to #629
636. Dead Milkmen, Eat Your Paisley! (1986) Any act that nabs a sizable amount of attention with a novelty hit faces a distinct challenge. The fundamental nature of a single that earns airplay because of its comedic uniqueness is a … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #636 to #633
640. Yes, Drama (1980) Drama, the tenth studio album from Yes, was aptly named. Already icons of prog rock and mainstays of FM radio, the English band was coming off a commercial and critical disappointment with 1978’s Tormato. The fallout … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #640 to #637
Coffee for Two 