A Few of My Favorite Things
Ten CDs You Can’t Live Without
by Patrick Smith
1. Sex Pistols Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols (Warner Bros.) – In many ways, the Sex Pistols were the prototype posers themselves, a jerry-built farce conceived by manager/schemer Malcolm McClaren. But that was all part of the joke, and dammit, they were good. Never Mind The Bollocks is a timeless, voracious slap-in-the-face to rock and roll stagnancy. Is it ever time for another.
2. The Clash Sandinista! (Epic) – The Clash are easily the most prolific pioneers of alternative music, to whom all ’90s rockers owe allegiance, and their famous London Calling album proved there was more to punk rock than loud guitars and arrogance. But Sandinista!‘s 36 songs are a slightly more masterful blend of rock and reggae, capped by unforgettable cuts like “Let’s Go Crazy” and the beautiful instrumental “Silicone On Sapphire.”
3. Stiff Little Fingers Nobody’s Heroes (Chrysalis) – Believe it or not, these are the same Rigid Digits that recently reformed and signed with Taang! records. Time will tell if they can rekindle their earlier genius. The bad boys of Belfast layered their sound, however raw and loud, with an uplifting energy. Never quite pop, Nobody’s Heroes maintains a graceful but jagged charge – an attack that brings first-time listeners to their knees. Zapped to another planet, this is the album I’d dig out if asked to define punk rock.
4. Hüsker Dü Zen Arcade (SST) – While the above were all released by big-name record companies, Zen Arcade is arguably the most influential album ever released on an independent label. California’s SST put out this landmark double-LP in the summer of 1984, and its depth and intricacy are beyond elaboration, bridging the seemingly insurmountable gap between American-style hardcore punk and straight-ahead pop. Led by singers Bob Mould and Grant Hart, Minneapolis-based Hüsker Dü were everything that Nirvana and Pearl Jam wish they could be: Loud, brash, and hard, but without a hint of heavy-metal pretension.
5. The Jesus and Mary Chain Psychocandy (Warner Bros.) – Who says minimalism can’t be terrifying? Released in 1985, this is one of the most innovative rock albums of all time: kindergarten melodies cloaked in terrifying waves of feedback and distortion. “The Beach Boys on acid,” fans used to say. Scotland’s JMC have always been posers with their black clothes and sunglasses, but here they transcend all gimmickry with dark and captivating perfection. Sadly, they never kept it up, abandoning their successful sonic novelty for a more straightforward, watered-down approach on subsequent albums.
6. Cocteau Twins The Pink Opaque (4AD) – This is a compilation of the Cocteau Twins’ best older songs, compiling cuts from 1982 to 1985. Elizabeth Fraser’s lullaby voice is yet unmatched among female vocalists, and we are forever indebted to the beauty of “Pearly Dewdrops’ Drops” and “Aikea-Guinea.”
7. Minor Threat (available on CD as part of Minor Threat Complete on Dischord) – In America in the early 1980s, a bolder, faster incarnation of punk rock, called hardcore, had taken hold. Its furious, unwrought style pushed punk’s sound to the very edge of viability. While names like Black Flag, Bad Brains, and Dead Kennedys are perhaps better known, nobody captures the youthful exuberance and sonic recklessness of hardcore as much as Washington DC’s Minor Threat.
8. The Germs GI (IRS) – If you’ve ever seen the documentary film Decline of Western Civilization, you’ve seen the Germs and their colorful frontman Darby Crash. Crash was America’s version of Sid Vicious, a sniveling, inarticulate kid with a flair for drug-induced showmanship. Like Vicious, he was soon wearing a toe-tag in the morgue, leaving behind an infamous legacy and cult following that survives today. The Germs were part of the late ’70s/early ’80s California scene from which most of American punk has its origins. X, Black Flag, and Bad Religion were there too, but the Germs are the most fun to listen to.
9. REM Chronic Town (IRS) – Trivia question: What was REM’s first record, not including singles? Answer: it was Chronic Town, a six-song EP from 1982 featuring “Wolves, Lower,” which will forever be the band’s greatest song. REM’s spiral to the dregs of rock and roll banality is unprecedented in the history of music, but their first three records, up to and including 1984’s brilliant Reckoning, are true classics.
10. Billy Bragg Back to Basics (Elektra) – This is a collection of Bragg’s first 21 songs, a mix of political and love songs taken mostly from the Between the Wars EP and the Brewing Up With Billy Bragg album. One guy, one instrument. No drums, no bass, no backup vocals, no baloney. This is the closest you can come to folk music with an electric guitar.