10. R.E.M., Reckoning (1984) R.E.M. got off to an impressive start with their debut LP, Murmur. The quartet from Athens, Georgia made the record with only modest expectations and a keen awareness that their spare, cerebral music wasn’t exactly aligned … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #10
11. Love and Rockets, Earth, Sun, Moon (1987) “After the last tour, which was forty-five dates and a long tour by our standards, we made a decision to make a more acoustic-sounding album and get away from the rock ‘n’ … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #11
12. Pink Floyd, The Wall (1979) The week that Pink Floyd’s The Wall debuted on the Billboard Top 200, the band’s earlier album The Dark Side of the Moon was in its two hundred and eighty-ninth week on the same … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #12
13. General Public, All the Rage (1984) In some ways, it was in an inopportune time to close up shop on the band known in their homeland as the Beat and with the added explanation that they were English for … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #13
14. Talking Heads, Little Creatures (1985) Movies, it turns out, take a long time to make. David Byrne, the frontman of Talking Heads, learned that as he ground his way towards his feature directorial debut. As the band that provided … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #14
15. The Cure, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987) Robert Smith had the whole history of the Cure in his head when he started writing songs for the band’s seventh studio album, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. Of … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #15
16. Pretenders, Pretenders (1979) Chrissie Hynde had every reason to believe that a career in rock ‘n’ roll simply wasn’t going to work out for her. The native of Akron, Ohio had kicked around on the fringes of the music … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #16
17. Thomas Dolby, The Golden Age of Wireless (1982) Upon its initial release, Thomas Dolby’s debut album had different track listings for its U.K. and U.S. versions. This was hardly an uncommon practice in the nineteen-eighties. What stands out all … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #17
18. XTC, Skylarking (1986) XTC were handed an ultimatum from their record label. The trio had all the material needed to record a new studio album, which would be their eighth long-player under the XTC name (they’d also just released … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #18
19. U2, War (1983) “Boy was seen as a big, successful first album, but October didn’t do as well as everybody hoped,” Steve Lillywhite recalled of the initial studio LPs from U2, both of which he produced. “I thought, ‘Of course they’re going … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #19
Coffee for Two 