The 1980s, as a decade in rock music, was maligned for quite a while, mainly by rock critics. As time passed, the impressions started settling down, and the music created then became compared to the one before, and after it, it became clear that that first opinion just might have been a bit too harsh.
No exception there with the decade’s mid-year - 1985. Sure, MTV was in full swing, and looking good in your videos was often more important for some artists than what their music sounded like. It was also the year when various streams of alternative rock were taking hold, and the popularity of some big artists and the albums they created then still persists, whether it is Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The U.S.A., Direr Straits Brothers in Arms or the Cure’s The Head on the Door.
Yet, there are quite a number of other rock albums that were released then, 40 years ago, that had the same level of importance, some gaining cult status, others, forgotten and then rediscovered, and still others never gaining the attention they really deserved. Here are 18 such albums that still matter 40 years on
These albums from 1985 still matter
Meat Is Murder – The Smiths
Forget all the controversies and idiosyncrasies Morrissey creates these days; back then, he, Johnny Marr, and the whole band were in full swing at creating some of the more inventive alt-rock out there.
Tim – The Replacements
Paul Westerberg was becoming too good a songwriter and the band themselves were becoming, well, more polished, but their sound was turning into something quite special for their first release on a big label.
Flip Your Wig - Hüsker Dü
Another Minneapolis band like the Replacements, whose sound was moving away from hardcore to more sixties-influenced sound, but the cleaner sound only showed how good songwriters both Bob Mould and Grant Hart were.
Around The World In A Day – Prince
It was somewhat inevitable that when you follow one, if not your most popular album like Purple Rain, with an album that sounds like your tribute to sixties psych-rock, it will be bashed by both critics and some of your fans. But as it turns out, it just might be one of the best such tributes around.
Fables of the Reconstruction – R.E.M.
R.E.M. were becoming sort of alt-rock spearheads at the time, and while this album was overshadowed by some others in their canon, it includes some of the best material the band came up with in their first phase.
Hounds of Love – Kate Bush
Prog rock was not that big at the time, and even the great songwriting and vocals Bush came up with here didn’t make such a big splash at the time. And then, decades on, came Stranger Things…
Centerfield – John Fogerty
The times when Creedence Clearwater Revival was one of the rulers of rock were gone, but that didn’t mean that John Fogerty, the band’s mastermind, was done and out with great songwriting, which he proved with this, probably his best solo effort.
Rain Dogs – Tom Waits
With this album, it was quite clear that Tom Waits’ beatnik days were truly over, that he was fully immersed in some left-field experimental rock, and that he was possibly coming up with some of his best work on this album.
This Is the Sea - The Waterboys
Mike Scott and The Waterboys went through a number of phases in their career, but it is this first phase and this, their third album where they came up with their most renowned work, and all for the right reasons, with that multilayered, expansive sound.
Steve McQueen - Prefab Sprout
Forget all the legal trouble this album had in the U.S. with its original title (Two Wheels Good there at the time); it was, and still is, a prime example of what a great sophisticated pop/rock should sound like with a band’s songwriter Paddy McAloon at his best.
3-Way Tie (For Last) - Minutemen
The Replacements and Hüsker Dü might have moved on elsewhere for hardcore, but late D. Boon, Mike Watt, and George Hurley were still there, but they were just getting better at it in every sense, something that was cut short by D. Boon's premature passing.
25 O'Clock - The Dukes of Stratosphear
Many have passed by this one at the time, not realizing that it was just a moniker for XTC, who decided to create another tribute to sixties psych rock as a pastiche. For a pastiche to work it has to exhibit a full exhibit of understanding the originals, and this one surely does.
Low-Life - New Order
By this, the band’s third album and Joy Division’s days behind them, the band present in full how the fusion of rock and electronics should really sound like, placing them at the forefront of what became electro-pop/rock.
Hallelujah All the Way Home - The Verlaines
What were you to expect from a New Zealand band led by a guy who did his PhD on the music of Gustav Mahler (Graeme Downes) and had an expansive complex sound to match? Well, it seems the wider audience didn’t do much, so this album mainly passed by it, only forming a solid cult following for the band.
Boys and Girls - Bryan Ferry
For good, smooth, sophisticated pop to really work, you really have to know what you are doing, and on this album, Bryan Ferry showed how it should be done with songs like “Don’t Stop The Dance,” “Slave To Love,” and the title track leading the way.
Valley Of Rain - Giant Sand
This, Giant Sand’s first album is still deep in the hearts of the band’s (and How Gelb’s, its mastermind) longstanding cult following, with all its loud and rowdy nods to Neil Young’s most electric stuff.
Psycho Candy - Jesus & Mary Chain
If you are looking at the roots of shoegaze and/or dream pop (its louder side), you have to look no further than Jesus & Mary Chain’s first album, with its opener, “Just Like Honey,” an absolute classic for either (or both) genres.
Exploring The Axis - Thin White Rope
This one is possibly the most overlooked album in this whole batch. Maybe it was the very dark side of Guy Kyser’s lyrics, but the band’s intensity and brilliant guitar work were possibly the spark that created what we now know as desert rock.