My Favorite Albums Of 1986
This is my first opportunity, listicle-wise, to acknowledge how peculiar I find the music of 1985 to 1987. Blame the fact that my precocious obsession with pop & rock began around the time "Stand" & “Straight Up” came out, while '80s flashback TV & radio shows in my adolescence focused on early '80s multiplatinum monoliths and new wave wackiness. Sure, I knew Licensed To Ill, Control, music from acts MTV never stopped playing into the next decade, but a lot of post-'84 pop was quickly persona non grata as rock, rap and R&B entered the ‘90s, garbage like Glass Tiger neither being cute enough nor contemporary in sensibility enough to merit acknowledgment. While a babysitter got me into Pet Shop Boys' Discography in the early '90s, I didn't grasp some of those songs were legit big hits on our side of the Atlantic until years later, the dance-pop duo already surviving as a alt-cult act by the time that compilation was released.
I mean...why was this a top ten hit?
Despite this emotional uncanny valley, and the sense that a lot of shit was wack even if you were there, I've found 25 albums I'm proud (or would be) to possess from 1986. Less than I'd like, but plenty enough to list!
1. Throwing Muses, Throwing Muses
"...a bracing debut that’s only gained weight from further personal and societal awareness of the experience chronicled."
Anthony Cougar Miccio
2. The Smiths, The Queen Is Dead
I decided not to make an album guide for Morrissey’s first decade, as I’m glad so many people are grossed out by his passive-aggressive, hateful, long-calcified shtick. I don’t want to suggest one should pick and choose winners from his early work to enjoy. But this remains the album that best explains why so many sweeties hoped against hope that he’d outgrow glib xenophobia and the dismissals of black music already creeping up in interviews. “It’s so easy to laugh, it’s so easy to hate/ it takes guts to be gentle and kind.” “Behind the hatred there lies a murderous desire for love.” “Bigmouth Strikes Again.”
Buttressed by Johnny Marr’s expert jangle and a spirited rhythm section, these anxious anthems meant so much to me as a shy shit-talker who really just wanted to feel safe and accepted. I didn’t even entirely grasp how “Vicar In A Tutu,” and a whimsical uprooting of the royal family, might resonate with citizens of the kingdom, not to mentions kids with more reason to be nervous about expressing sexuality than I had (that title track is why I really can’t believe PM Andy Burnham flaunts a gold disc of the album). Nobody owes Morrissey their time, but - for myself - The Queen Is Dead is like a fond memory of a friend who took a road I truly hoped they wouldn’t.
R.E.M., "Fall On Me"
3. R.E.M., Life’s Rich Pageant
"A dizzy, defiant acknowledgment of the contemporary world..."
Anthony Cougar Miccio
4. John Prine, German Afternoons
"German Afternoons is the Diamonds In The Rough to Aimless’ self-titled debut: a little rowdier and less considered, Prine not bothering to edit a hook like 'you’ve broken the speed of the sound of loneliness.'"
Anthony Cougar Miccio
5. Last Exit, Last Exit
There’s a mid-‘80s sound I want to investigate further that I call “scuzz.” It’s a personal shorthand for all that punk/hardcore/indie/metal/skronk that sounds like it’s on cassette even when it’s not. Often poorly recorded or queasily digital, it’s the grody stew from which more salable ‘90s sounds emanated. SST and Homestead acts that will never have the clout to get their rights back. Bands Mike Patton would have skated to before joining Faith No More. People in the Trouser Press album guide that never made the Rolling Stone album guide. Maybe not even the SPIN Alternative Record Guide.
Last Exit is in the SPIN book, as a subset of the Sonny Sharrock discography. The free jazz guitarist was a semi-retired late ‘60s footnote when brought back into action by Bill Laswell, a jazz bassist & producer whose inclusive sensibility defined late ‘80s NYC art-rock. The first three albums released by Laswell’s Enemy label were two live releases by these guys, an improv quartet featuring Sharrock, Laswell, saxophonist Peter Brotzmann and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson, and a wholly solo Sharrock release rightly named Guitar. Last Exit, recorded one night in Paris, is easily my favorite: jazz-rock at its most wild-ass and instinctual, but from performers so experienced that their concept of chaos was still sincerely collaborative. I’ll be really surprised if I find any scuzz that tops it.
Janet Jackson, "When I Think Of You"
6. Janet Jackson, Control
Less Thriller for girls, than the superior blueprint for Bad: lithe, dramatic techno-funk selling the singer’s certitude that proud confidence and sweet, vulnerable sensuality are in no way contradictory, just as control over one’s life is the road to freedom, just as pleasure can be a principle, and a giddy little synth hook can transform a whamming drum track. But where big brother’s upcoming multiplatinum warned of threats from inside and out, Control sought co-existence and harmony, boys only required to be present and decent to stay in her romantic, open-hearted thoughts. Though I do mean required.
The six best songs are the six singles, and all can be found on Design Of A Decade, along with the seven best from the bloated Rhythm Nation 1814. I might stick with that compilation if it was in chronological order, the token ‘90s hit - and outtakes turned “new” singles - stuck at the end. But for now, I let the best chart-pop of 1986 stand on its own.
New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"
7. New Order, Brotherhood
New Order would never quite be chart-pop in America, its sane synth programmers stuck behind a determinedly inane frontman, and a Lemmy lite playing his bass like a lead guitar. But their knack for grand chord progressions and love for dance-club euphoria turned these quirks into sonic signifiers, each album more assured and professional despite themselves. Brotherhood, their 4th, hypothetically puts the guitars on one side and the keyboards on the other, but with Bernard Sumner babbling and Peter Hook noodling over everything, it’s really that there’s more strumming on the A (best track: “Weirdo”) and less on the B (best track: “Bizarre Love Triangle,” which conveys romantic anguish so deliciously it’s treated like chart-pop today). If you can hook into Hooky, the froth is infectious throughout.
Sonic Youth, "Shadow Of A Doubt"
8. Sonic Youth, EVOL
"...explosive fuckfests where irony exists but doesn’t get in the way of a goth-adjacent good time."
Anthony Cougar Miccio
9. Motorhead, Orgasmatron
Last Exit’s bassist produced this divisive disc, also helming Public Image Ltd’s 1986 album (he did Mick Jagger’s solo debut with Nile Rodgers the year before, so you see the logic). Orgasmatron mostly sounds likes Motorhead (a good thing), with a little more industrial clatter, guitar shriek and digital mud (not for everybody, but I dig it). The opening “Deaf Forever” says war is nothing but a meat grinder, and the closing title track says religion, government and war (again) are all just meat grinders. Bandleader Lemmy (a far heavier Peter Hook) swears he never saw Sleeper, which only makes the title more confusing. I’m also confused if the “Claw” is Lemmy’s sexual charisma or an erotic Vulcan pinch. Maybe Orgasmatron symbolizes how he sees life as cruel machine where you go in, bust nuts if you’re lucky like him, and then leave. Wait...except he sings that religion is the Orgasmatron. Hmm. How about we say that Orgasmatron is Motorhead at their most ambiguously sinister. Well done, Laswell!
The Wipers, "Land Of The Lost"
10. The Wipers, Land Of The Lost
A downside of ‘80s indie rock being reduced to its biggest success stories, by books like Our Band Could Be Your Life, is that it’s easy to forget how many bands got fucked over by the dubious economics of small labels. The Wipers were basically wrecked from such woes after 1983’s Over The Edge, until a pal at Enigma/Restless threw bandleader Greg Sage a bone and got him out of debt, Land Of The Lost being their righteous return. Where the trio was a little more spacey and surf-influenced than their peers initially, they now sounded tighter than the hardcore acts who’d swung into stoner rock since, the Wipers’ beat more pogo than mosh-friendly. Old-school FM heads who find Dinosaur Jr too indulgent might thrill at Sage’s sharp solos and echo-laden arpeggios. They probably won’t even begrudge his taste in melodramatic lyrical tropes (“Nothing Left To Lose”! “Way Of Love”! “Just A Dream Away”!!).
Normally, I only share my favorite compilation from a year after the Top 10 albums. Both of these are so good, though, that they can share the shine.
The Clean. "Tally Ho!"
The Clean, Compilation
Two brothers and a buddy in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1981, kinda sorta inventing indie rock (with all due respect to Human Switchboard, Swell Maps, and any other Velvet Underground fans who made transcendently ramshackle new wave at the time). The feat earned them national success - an opening spot for The Fall! - before they broke up in 1982. Thanks to bassist Robert Scott’s The Bats and other more ambitious acts on Flying Nun, the rest of the world got this Compilation in 1986: two EPs, the supremely silly single “Tally Ho!” and extra ephemera. Seemingly effortless and forever fascinating garage fun, right up there with the Kingsmen. (“Anything Could Happen,” “Oddity”)
The Cocteau Twins, "Pearly Dewdrops' Drops"
The Cocteau Twins, The Pink Opaque
Feverish flailing, flange and fireworks from another dimension. This relic of the 4AD import age - the label’s first CD and the band’s first US release - was based on their standard setlist (crucial, as the drums were on tape). It stays in print because none of their full-lengths sound so consistently rapturous. (“The Spangle Maker,” “Lorelei”)
And now...the Xgau-esque honorable mentions, in descending order!
Beastie Boys, "Hold It Now, Hit It"
Beastie Boys, Licensed To Ill
Three NYC goofballs, in love with music, and at the right age to bring a rap-rock pioneer’s lowest common denominator vision to vibrant life (“Rhymin’ And Stealin’,” “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”)
The Mekons, The Edge Of The World
1985’s Fear & Whiskey was the agit-country breakthrough of political punkers once too arty to survive. On the follow-up, they’re understandably giddy over the accomplishment (“Big Zombie,” “Bastard”)
The Go-Betweens, Liberty Belle & The Black Diamond Express
For many fans, a favorite, hitting that sweet spot between ambitious expression and commercial consideration. For me, another good (if archly artsy) one by two great singer-songwriters with a great rhythm section (“The Wrong Road,” “Apology Accepted”)
Husker Du, Candy Apple Grey
Once you accept their commitment to a thin, trebly racket - which I do (though radio was never gonna) - this major-label debut stands as their pop peak. Even if almost every song concerns painful loss or a drug meltdown (“Crystal,” “Sorry Somehow”)
Neil Young, "Pressure"
Neil Young, Landing On Water
"...imagine Miami Vice if Crispin Glover was cast as Sonny Crockett." (“Pressure,” “Touch The Night”)
Anthony Cougar Miccio
Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians, Element Of Light
Syd Barrett’s spiritual (and functional) little brother, over fretless bass and gated drums. Loud, proud, lovely, and ready for the majors (“Winchester,” “The President”)
Poison, Look What The Cat Dragged In
Power pop so trashy and fun, most won’t call it power pop (“Cry Tough,” “I Want Action”)
Cameo, Word Up
Gated, mechanical drums get a lot of hate, but they worked wonders for these funk troopers (“Word Up,” “You Can Have The World”)
Ministry, Twitch
My goldilocks choice for their finest full-length: Jourgensen and company no longer a twerpy, if fun, synth-rock joke, and not yet an aggro, if fun, industrial one (“Just Like You,” “All Day Remix”)
Camper Van Beethoven, II & III
More wise-ass sociology and ethnomusicology jokes from a UC party band putting off grad school (“I Love Her All The Time,” “(We’re A) Bad Trip”)
Here's five more compilations I love from 1986!
The Monkees, "That Was Then, This Is Now"
The Monkees, Then & Now…The Best Of The Monkees
The first pop cassette I owned - a birthday gift from my Grandma! Probably why any other compilation of their post-Rubber Soul pop-rock feels like too much or too little in comparison (“Last Train To Clarksville,” “Daydream Believer”)
The Cure, Staring At The Sea: The Singles
"...does a terrific job of capturing The Cure at their most radio-ready and whimsical." (“Jumping Someone Else’s Train,” “Close To Me - Single Mix”)
Anthony Cougar Miccio
Minutemen, Ballot Result
A 2LP live casserole of classics, perfect for reveling in the art-surf-jazz-punk gestalt of San Pedro’s finest corndogs (“Ack Ack Ack,” “Tension”)
Misfits, Collection I
More crucial before the belated release of Static Age, but it still takes the bronze after that and Walk Among Us. Assuming you need three albums by New Jersey’s shlocky, swaggering answer to the Ramones (“Where Eagles Dare,” “Teenagers From Mars”)
A Flock Of Seagulls, The Best Of A Flock Of Seagulls
Featuring the finest flights from albums two and three (don’t mention four), the very best getting an “extended mix” encore! (“The More You Live, The More You Love,” “Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You) - Extended Mix”)
Finally, five more “real” albums!
They Might Be Giants, "Don't Let's Start"
They Might Be Giants, They Might Be Giants
One of those exuberantly self-possessed, self-titled, aesthetic defining debuts a group will be lucky to match again, let alone top (“She’s An Angel,” “Don’t Let’s Start”)
The Housemartins, London 0 Hull 4
If the Smiths were nice boys who loved soul, and got angry about the right things - but had far less gift for riffs (“Happy Hour,” “We’re Not Deep”)
Prince, Parade
A musical genius in his prime, distracted by the whims of amateur movie director (“Sometimes It Snows In April,” “Kiss”)
Genesis, Invisible Touch
I’m not sure why their first album as a retroactive supergroup is so angry, but I’m Patrick Bateman-level impressed when they cop to the bile (“Land Of Confusion,” “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight”)
Talk Talk, The Colour Of Spring
Once my goldilocks choice between the early new wave and later soundscapes, now I wish the filler tracks were soundscapes (“Life’s What You Make It,” “Living In Another World”)
I'll admit it: I still need to check out Please in full.
Are there are albums you're surprised weren't included? Neither Elvis Costello & The Attractions nor The Costello Show, Anthony? Have I not heard them? Do I think they're unworthy? Do you want to recommend some scuzz? Ask away, via anthonyisright at gmail dot com.
