’87 and ’88: Albums You MUST Hear?
Week 31: 1001 Album Challenge
I’m listening to 1001 albums in a year from the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die by Robert Dimery and documenting the journey on Medium and in more depth (with costumes and characters!) on Youtube. If you want more information on the rules, check this out. For my channel and to watch the latest videos, click here.
Let’s talk about what I listened to, shall we?
Some Takeaways From This Week:
- The Triffids’ “Calenture” has spiritual lyrics that those with an English or Theology degree would enjoy more deeply, but if you don’t have one, don’t let that stop you from listening! The album has great guitar backings and fantastic melodies too. This is surprisingly great album I hadn’t heard about before.
- “Bad” by Michael Jackson is probably his most consistent album, at least to my ear. All the songs are good, from the hits to the deeper cuts. This album is a favorite of mine by him.
- “Actually” by the Pet Shop Boys is deceptively intelligent although it doesn’t feel so at first glance. With creative songwriting and striving to make the bleak beautiful, this is a wonderful synth pop album that isn’t afraid to be satirical.
- Although I wasn’t the biggest fan of “War”, I found U2’s “The Joshua Tree” to be a lot better. Bono often gets a lot of flak for being preachy, but I felt it was a great listening experience overall, capturing the subject matter of America well.
- Terence Trent D’Arby’s “Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D’Arby” is a fantastic album from phenomenal production to a wonderful singing voice. Although the artist’s personality overshadowed his musical career, this album is one of the highest points in it.
- Speaking of high points, The Pogues’ “If I Should Fall From the Grace of God” is considered by many to be the apex of their commercial success. Although they continue with their Irish folk punk sound, the band also experiments with world music from Spain and Turkey. It’s an eclectic and fun listen.
- Leonard Cohen’s “I’m Your Man” features cynical and critical tone, including a song “Everybody Knows” describing the end of free love because of the AIDs crisis. This wasn’t my favorite album by Cohen, but I still found it to be a good listen, especially the track “Jazz Police.”
- Fishbone’s “Truth and Soul” starts out with a Curtis Mayfield cover “Freddie’s Dead” that brings the house down. Although the album is a mish-mash of sounds that caused many critics at the time to complain about its cohesiveness, the album does have some really great guitar and a hard rock edge to every track.
- Living Color’s “Vivid” is a phenomenal album that I can’t believe I hadn’t heard. This all-black band is much more than “The Cult of Personality.” Instead, they play bring in all sorts rock influences in a way that is both humorous and essential.
- Mudhoney’s “Superfuzz Bigmuff” could be considered one of the “first” to the grunge movement, but that doesn’t mean it’s great. You’ll hear proto-grunge elements mixed with 80s rock conventions. It makes for a great history lesson, but it wasn’t my favorite. I’d be interested to hear others’ thoughts.
- REM’s “Green” changes up the sound of the band again. They go into major keys on this album and add all kinds of string instruments including mandolin. The album is split into two sides: “hard rock” and “acoustic.” Although the hard rock side feels a little dated to me today, it was still a great listen.
- Happy Mondays’ “Bummed” is one of the first albums to be made while the artists were on Ecstasy. It sounds like it too: drug-addled dance pop with some shoegaze tinges. Check it out to listen to something different…and trippy.
- Tracy Chapman’s s/t is a moving album with great songs. She pulls together a beautiful album here and it’s always nice hearing a great singer-songwriter in the 1001.
- Pixies “Surfer Rosa” can best be summed up by Billy Corgan: “It rocked without being lame.” This album can be abrasive and a bit over the top at times, but the loudness is part of its charm.
- If we’re talking about loud guitar, it’s worth mentioning My Bloody Valentine’s “Isn’t Anything?” I felt that sometimes I was trying to find the vocal melodies inside the walls of distorted guitars, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Instead, it was intriguing, as I haven’t listened to a lot of albums like this. It ended up being a fun experience.
- Metallica’s “…And Justice For All” bridges the gap between the band’s earlier thrash roots and their path to greater commercial appeal. This album has both the tracks you’d expect on their earlier albums like “Blackened” and “One”, but then also has songs that feel like they’re getting closer to “Black Album” territory. Many bring up production as an issue on this album pointing to “clicky drums.” I definitely know what they’re talking about, but it certainly didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the album.
- Dinosaur Jr.’s “Bug” was a more distorted and heavier album than “You’re Living All Over Me.” Although I liked the latter better, I still enjoyed how the band is able to mix older classic rock elements with a new, angry angst ridden sound.
To Sum It All Up…
Here’s the Spotify playlist for the music I listened to this week. Check it out to discover new music!
And just so you know…I talk about music all the time on my Youtube Channel. From video essays to creating sitcom-style impression videos that cover every album in the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, all music is treated equally, as well as analyzed and criticized with humor elements thrown in.
If this seems like your thing, give it a shot and check it out here!
I’m Bill. I write about music. A lot.
Give me a follow if you like my vibe.