425. Big Country, The Seer (1986) The intent was a return to the band’s roots. Big Country had the sort of hit debut that bands dream about. The Crossing, released in 1983, sold enough copies to earn a gold certification … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #425 to #423
428. The Boomtown Rats, A Tonic for the Troops (1978) The Boomtown Rats were getting big in the U.K. and it was time to conquer the bigger, more lucrative market on the other side of the Atlantic. A Tonic for … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #428 to #426
431. Bow Wow Wow, When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going (1983) The English band Bow Wow Wow were one of the earliest beneficiaries of the upstart cable network MTV. Bolstered by the distinctive look and cool charisma … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #431 to #429
434. Brian Eno/David Byrne, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981) In between making the second and third albums by Talking Heads, David Byrne and Brian Eno took a side trip. Two restless explorers, the Talking Heads frontman and … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #434 to #432
437. Fabulous Poodles, Mirror Stars (1978) For reasons that are hard to discern, Epic Records thought the Fabulous Poodles had the potential to become a major rock band in the U.S. The quartet certainly had the chops, playing tight renditions … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #437 to #435
440. Depeche Mode, Speak & Spell (1981) “When we did Speak & Spell, we were very young and naive,” Dave Gahan said of Depeche Mode’s debut album. “We got slagged off for being teenyboppers because we didn’t care what was … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #440 to #438
443. Santana, Zebop! (1981) Zebop! represented a return for Carlos Santana, in more ways that one. In the simplest, most measurable sense, the album brought the band bearing his name their greatest commercial success in years. The album was the … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #443 to #441
446. Neil Young, Trans (1982) Neil Young was living through a strange time in the early nineteen-eighties, so it makes sense that he made some strange records. A cranky iconoclast often misconstrued as a folksy troubadour, Young simultaneously came upon … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #446 to #444
449. The Allman Brothers Band, Enlightened Rogues (1979) Enlightened Rogues is one of the clearest examples in nineteen-seventies rock of a band rising from the ashes of their own self-destruction. The infighting after the Allman Brothers Band’s 1975 album Win, … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #449 to #447
452. Berlin, Pleasure Victim (1982) No one was really taking the group Berlin seriously at the time they released the album Pleasure Victim, least of all the individuals on the band’s roster. From the time the band formed in 1978, … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #452 to #450
Coffee for Two 