1. The Feelies, Only Life I will likely never be able to accurately identify the first song I ever played on the radio. For one thing, it was probably a jazz song, grabbed at random from the stacks by someone … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 1
2. Cocteau Twins, Blue Bell Knoll Most of the albums on this list are imprinted on me deeply enough to hold a deluge worth of water, sitting as they were in the various tiers of the new music rotation when … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 2
3. Jane’s Addiction, Nothing’s Shocking In the fall of 1988, prevailing opinion held that Perry Farrell was the next great artist emerging from the realm of off-center rock ‘n’ roll. His band Jane’s Addiction was just out with just its … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 3
4. Siouxsie and the Banshees, Peepshow When Peepshow arrived in the fall of 1988, it was seen as something of a resurrection for Siouxsie and the Banshees, touched with a little welcome reinvention. The post-punk and goth-rock pioneers hadn’t exactly … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 4
5. Billy Bragg, Workers Playtime Billy met Mary in 1986. Specifically name-checked in the song “The Short Answer” (“Between Marx and marzipan in the dictionary/ There was Mary/ Between the deep blue sea and the devil/ That was me”), Mary … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 5
6. Fishbone, Truth and Soul Fishbone decided to open Truth and Soul, their second full-length release, with a track that signaled a clear understanding of their forebears. Their ferocious take on Curtis Mayfield’s “Freddie’s Dead” is a clarion call to the rock ‘n’ roll faithful. Fishbone is going to do right by the mélange of genres in which they traffic. “Freddie’s Dead” is steeped in funk authority, but it also blasts forward like a headlong hard rock anthem. Their earlier releases sometimes got Fishbone pigeonholed as an empty party band, maybe in part because it was all too easy … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 6
7. Let’s Active, Every Dog Has His Day Back around #15 on this particular countdown, I noted the elevated stature of North Carolina-based producer Mitch Easter at the end of the nineteen-eighties, at least within the aspirational, twentysomething Neverland of … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 7
8. Screaming Trees, Invisible Lantern When I was flipping through albums on the new releases shelf in my college radio station twenty-six years ago, the potential longevity of the artists before me was hardly at the forefront of my mind. … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 8
9. Tom Waits, Big Time By now, Tom Waits is so solidly ensconced in the canon of cool music-makers that it can be difficult to remember that the man is something of an acquired taste. I once asked a deejay … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 9
10. Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Nothing Wrong Nearly two years ago, my old online home away from home, Spectrum Culture, assembled a small panel of writers and music critics to hash out a list of the 13 Best Goth Albums … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 10
Coffee for Two 