11. U2, Rattle and Hum The swirling stars have barely settled into place above the snowy mountain peak in the Paramount logo before Bono announces, “This song…Charles Manson stole from the Beatles. We’re stealing it back.” In no time at … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 11
12. Mission of Burma, Forget Among the things that characterize the typical college radio experience for a student programmer, it’s possible that the most frustrating is a melancholy longing for the music that was released sometime in the five to … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 12
13. Michelle Shocked, Short Sharp Shocked I’m going to flip the script for this week’s entry. Usually, I track through where I was at in my musical growth when I first encountered the record featured, talk about the actual merits … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 13
14. They Might Be Giants, Lincoln When I arrived at the campus radio station in the fall of 1988, I was a relative neophyte when it came to college rock. I certainly put on airs that I knew more than … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 14
15. Game Theory, Two Steps from the Middle Ages Like most of their contemporaries, the band Game Theory was headed towards the practically inevitable reunion. There were plans afoot to record a new album (the working title was Supercalifragile), which … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 15
16. The Dream Syndicate, Ghost Stories As the title implies, Ghost Stories is a fairly gloomy record, at least lyrically. That surely stems from the uncertainty the Dream Syndicate endured on the road to their fourth studio album. Each of their three previous full-lengths had been on a different label, and they had gone through at least one aborted break-up precipitated by the heavy disappointment over their music business struggles. If other bands sometimes filter their own discontent to forecast the imminent demise of the group on what proves to be their final album, the Dream Syndicate wrapped up their … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 16
17. The Primitives, Lovely Certain as I am that the following statement can be refuted many times over by countless music fans with their own predilections, I’m still going to put it out there: No debut album begins in better … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 17
18. The Smiths, Rank Here is the sound of contractual obligation in the college rock world. By the fall of 1988, the Smiths were over as a going concern, the longtime fractious relationship between lead singer and Morrissey and guitarist … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 18
19. That Petrol Emotion, End of the Millennium Psychosis Blues In my memory, End of the Millennium Psychosis Blues sounds a little different. That’s because I have one particular track off the album that I faultily use to define the … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 19
20. Joy Division, Substance In the fall of 1987, New Order released a compilation entitled Substance. Designed as a collection of all of the band’s singles up to that point, including the B-sides, the album served as a means for the band to provide greater distribution for some tracks that were fairly hard to get, especially on this side of the Atlantic. It also provided an opportunity for some light revisionism, with the band remixing or even full-on rerecording several of the songs, making the album a different sort of “greatest hits” release. It wasn’t merely an appraisal of who … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 20
Coffee for Two 