This is the first post in an on-going music series. Sometimes, it'll be lists. Sometimes, those lists will have commentary. It's music from each year of my life, up until the current year, and then restarted back at 1979. It is a celebration of each year. Maybe it'll keep growing into something else. Maybe there will be some history. This blog will maybe have more booze on it if I can keep doing this too.
For this first batch, there wasn't much process, just looked up the best albums of that year, and picked one that intrigued me or tickled a nostalgic funny bone. Anyway, here's 1979 - 1991.
1979: Talking Heads - Fear of Music
I can't fully decide which Talking Heads album is my favorite, but this might be the best whole album with only one or two of their best ten songs.
1980: The Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
1981: Gang of Four - Solid Gold
I think their first two records are best things in this genre, period.
1982: The Cure - Pornography
I forgot how dark they were before they injected more pop into their sound.
1983: Echo & The Bunnymen - Porcupine
1984: Metallica - Ride the Lightning
This record is still really good, if you can divorce it from the arrogant assholes Metallica became eventually.
1985: INXS - Listen like Thieves
Not my thing. I am not sure I ever loved INXS anyway, but this record just didn’t leave much of an impression.
1986: Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring
This isn’t the Talk Talk album that does it for me but you can see how they get to the future records from here.
1987: Dinosaur Jr - You’re Living All Over Me
Did anyone do guitar sounds remotely like this before this year? Who? I need to find out.
1988: Galaxie 500 - Today
“Flowers” is a beautiful opener. It’s a mood. I'd love to hear a band cover that song or more Galaxie 500 in general.
1989: Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
1990: Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet
This isn't actually a historical project, but I wonder if this is the album that set me up for all those instrumental hip hop records with great beats and samples. I probably first heard this in the back of a car belonging to a friend's older brother, on speakers that made all the cheap car plastic rattle. This record is relevant in 2020 in ways I don't think I need to put here in this post.
1991: Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
A lot of the lead guitar speaks to the sounds Helmet made and really reflect a whole lot of late 80s hardcore noise, but Cornell is such a metal vocalist on this record, and the riffs are occasionally bluesy even, when they’re not a slowed down car crash into a wall. I’m always impressed how there are hidden pretty moments on this record too, that foreshadowed their next two records.