Pazz & Jop 1985: Critical Hindsight Two Decades On

The Ex - Pokherrie
Art Of Noise - In Visible Silence
Yello - Stella
Severed Heads - Come Visit The Big Bigot
The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace
Scritti Politti - Cupid & Psyche '85
Dead Or Alive - Youthquake
The Family - The Family
Love And Rockets - Seventh Age Of Teenage Heaven
Sonic Youth - Bad Moon Rising
New Order - Low-life
Pet Shop Boys - Please
Mark Stewart - As The Veneer Of Democracy Starts To Fade
The Verlaines - Hallelujah All The Way Home
Gauze - s/t(?)
Cabaret Voltaire - The Arm Of The Lord
PiL - album
and many more I'm forgettin'

Oh the singles!

Paul Hardcastle - "19"
Time Zone - "World Destruction"
Ready For The World - "Oh Sheila"
Magazine 60 - "Don Quichotte"
Boys Don't Cry - "I Want To Be A Cowboy"
Falco - "Rock Me Amadeus"
Murray Head - "One Night In Bangkok"
Prince - "Raspberry Beret"
Art Of Noise - "Legs"
Laibach - "Die Liebe"
Tackhead - "What's My Mission Now?"
The Swans - "A Screw"
NoMeansNo - You Kill Me EP
Ministry - "Over The Shoulder"
Butthole Surfers - Cream Corn From The Socket Of Davis EP
Dead Or Alive - "You Spin Me (Round Like A Record)"
Tears For Fears - "Everybody Wants To Rule The World"
Black Flag - "Slip It In"
The Dukes Of Stratosphear - 25 O'Clock EP
Severed Heads - "Twenty Deadly Diseases"
Front 242 - The Politics Of Pressure EP
The Blackouts - Lost Souls Club EP
Sammy Hagar - "I Can't Drive 55"
John Parr - "St. Elmo's Fire"
PiL - "Rise"
The B 52's - "Summer Of Love"
Felt - "Primitive Painters"
and many more I'm forgettin'

http://robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres85.php

probably not the 50 best albums and singles (and/or EPs) of 1985

Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam w/ Full Force "I Wonder If I Take You Home"

as well as..

James Brown "Living In America"
Trans-X "Living In Video"

'85 a la omg@wtf: 1985 MP3 CDR 700MB

Dazz Band "Let It All Blow"
Expose "Point Of No Return"

ABC - How To Be A Zillionare

I always knew 1985 was possibly the best year of the decade, if not the most unique.. It just takes a while to unroll the forgotten gems.

x-psots

the sun city lp sounded great last time i heard it.

my brothers and I
skipped work one day to see them
on 'a.m. northwest'

Flip Your Wig is still totally mediocre. Scarecrow is still good.

Fables was a very hard record for REM to make and it shows.

WHO'S ZOOMIN' WHO IN THE TOP TEN???????? Now that's a bleak indicator. Given that, I'm surprised that Dire Straits was so low.

Xgau put Aretha in his top 10 and I think it's a pretty good record, about which I'll have more to say when I finish a long post-1970 Aretha feature.

top of my head based on lists above and acclaimed list.

1. Husker Du - New Day Rising (25)
2. Meat Puppets - Up on the Sun (15)
3. Kate Bush - The Hounds of Love (15)
4. LL Cool J - Radio (15)
5. The Mekons - Fear and Whiskey (10)
6. The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace (10)
7. Luther Vandross - The Night I Fell in Love (5)
8. Mantronix - Mantronix: The Album (5)
9. John Cougar Mellencamp - Scarecrow (5)
10. Guadalcanal Diary - Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man (5)

1. Madonna - "Into the Groove"
2. Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew - "The Show"/"La-Di-Da-Di"
3. Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force - "I Wonder if I Take You Home"
4. Husker Du - "Makes No Sense At All"/"Love Is All Around"
5. Pet Shop Boys - "West End Girls"
6. Prince and the Revolution - "Pop Life"
7. Tenor Saw - "Ring the Alarm"
8. Double Dee and Steinski - "The Payoff Mix/Lesson 2/Lesson 3 (Promo EP)"
9. Schoolly D - "P.S.K. (What Does It Mean)"
10. New Order - "The Perfect Kiss"

lots of college rock nobody remotely cares about anymore spread thruout

The most accurate description of this in-hindsight-bizarre list as I see it. The Fall and Sonic Youth definitely the most glaring omissions, they are what I was listening to and playing on the radio that year. And Psychic TV were still good back then!

Other faves from the year: Foetus' Nail, 2nd Rhythm & Noise album Chasms Accord, Cocteau's Treasure, Shriekback's Oil And Gold, Halber Mensch.... jeez. A lot.

scarecrow is way better than little creatures, which i can't stand. urgh, just thinking about "and she was" gets my panties in a bunch. fuck, now it's gonna be in my head all night. la! la! la! la! out you piece of shit!!!

Indeed. Rhythm & Romance is fuckin' great.

Are we speaking about critics here or artists?

Can someone give me a bit of perspective here: in the alt-y circles I ran in around this time, people listened to New Order and the Cure but the Smiths didn't seem to break until Louder Than Bombs. (And we're talking provincial US). Is this how it really was, or is this just a weird local idiosyncracy?

Although there's admittedly some dubious stuff on the list (Jason and the Scorchers?) there's certainly more than five worth hearing. My favorite coffeehouse in Moscow has the cover of "Lost in the Stars" painted on the wall. Shocking when I first noticed it.

1 Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
2 Sam Cooke - Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963
3 The Replacements - Tim
4 Iron Maiden - Live After Death
5 Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
6 The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy and the Lash
7 The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace
8 Hüsker Dü - New Day Rising
9 The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy
10 Marillion - Misplaced Childhood
11 Exodus - Bonded by Blood
12 Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen (UK) / Two Wheels Good (US)
13 New Order - Low-Life
14 The Cure - The Head on the Door
15 The Smiths - Meat is Murder
16 The Cult - Love
17 Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion
18 Possessed - Seven Churches
19 S.O.D. - Stormtroopers of Death - Speak English or Die
20 The Sisters of Mercy - First and Last and Always
21 The Waterboys - This Is the Sea
22 Butthole Surfers - Psychic...Powerless...Another Man's Sac
23 Suzanne Vega - Suzanne Vega
24 Hüsker Dü - Flip Your Wig
25 Einstürzende Neubauten - Halber Mensch
26 Camper Van Beethoven - Telephone Free Landslide Victory
27 Ry Cooder - Paris, Texas [OST]
28 The Chameleons - What Does Anything Mean? Basically
29 Foetus - Nail
30 The Legendary Pink Dots - Asylum
31 Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms
32 Meat Puppets - Up on the Sun
33 Anthrax - Spreading the Disease
34 D.R.I. - Dealing With It
35 Slayer - Hell Awaits
36 Propaganda - A Secret Wish
37 Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair
38 R.E.M. - Fables of the Reconstruction
39 Yello - Stella
40 IQ - The Wake
41 Stevie Ray Vaughan - Soul to Soul
42 Hoodoo Gurus - Mars Needs Guitars!
43 Christian Death - Ashes
44 Death in June - NADA!
45 Sting - The Dream of the Blue Turtles
46 Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - The Firstborn Is Dead
47 Prince - Around the World in a Day
48 John Cougar Mellencamp - Scarecrow
49 LL Cool J - Radio
50 Scorpions - World Wide Live
51 CCCP - Affinità-divergenze fra il compagno Togliatti e noi - Del conseguimento della maggiore età
52 Mekons - Fear and Whiskey
53 Magnum - On a Storyteller's Night
54 Scritti Politti - Cupid & Psyche '85
55 Sonic Youth - Bad Moon Rising
56 Beat Farmers - Tales of the New West
57 Bathory - The Return...
58 "Weird Al" Yankovic - Dare To Be Stupid
59 The Dead Milkmen - Big Lizard in My Backyard
60 Sade - Promise
61 Robert Wyatt - Old Rottenhat
62 Dexys Midnight Runners - Don't Stand Me Down
63 Killing Joke - Night Time
64 Allan Holdsworth - Metal Fatigue
65 John Fogerty - Centerfield
66 Talking Heads - Little Creatures
67 Bryan Ferry - Boys and Girls
68 Wynton Marsalis - Black Codes (From The Underground)
69 a-ha - Hunting High and Low
70 Half Man Half Biscuit - Back in the DHSS
71 Run-D.M.C. - King of Rock
72 Rush - Power Windows
73 Big Audio Dynamite - This Is Big Audio Dynamite
74 Amebix - Arise!
75 The Descendents - I Don't Want to Grow Up
76 Shriekback - Oil and Gold
77 Dead Kennedys - Frankenchrist
78 Brian Eno - Thursday Afternoon
79 Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians - Fegmania!
80 Richard Thompson - Across A Crowded Room
81 Mantronix - The Album
82 Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party
83 Kreator - Endless Pain
84 Love and Rockets - Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven
85 Steve Reich - The Desert Music
86 7 Seconds - Walk Together, Rock Together
87 Sielun Veljet - L'amourha
88 Overkill - Feel The Fire
89 Jason & The Scorchers - Lost & Found
90 Minutemen - 3-Way Tie for Last
91 INXS - Listen Like Thieves
92 Dinosaur Jr. - Dinosaur
93 Wang Chung - To Live and Die in L.A. [OST]
94 Yngwie Malmsteen - Marching Out
95 Beat Happening - Beat Happening
96 Eurythmics - Be Yourself Tonight
97 Arcadia - So Red the Rose
98 Radio Futura - De un país en llamas
99 Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Southern Accents
100 James Taylor - That's Why I'm Here

It looks like Chuck Eddy wrote a metal book about 1985 alone... Except he hates Iron Maiden...

Okay, I kid. But it is quite... Loud... Does that site always skew so Hessian?

some things change, some stay the same...

I know what you mean Scott, I was in college from '79 to 83 and got into all kinds of exciting stuff. I think I first contributed to P & J in 83 or 84. Yea, after I sent the Voice a copy of my zine Thrillseeker and complained in the letters to the editor one year about the lack of votes for the Fall's 'Hex Enduction Hour' (I think?) I got added.

8. Husker Du - New Day Rising
6. Husker Du - Flip Your Wig
40. The Minutemen - 3-Way Tie (for Last)
36. Professor Longhair - Rock 'n' Roll Gumbo
23. Meat Puppets - Up on the Sun
12. The Velvet Underground - VU
25. The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy
1. Talking Heads - Little Creatures
16. Bob Dylan - Biograph

Ones that meant a lot to me as the '80s went on:

37. LL Cool J - Radio [my first CD]
2. The Replacements - Tim
32. Run-D.M.C. - King of Rock
11. Sam Cooke - Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963

"I Wonder If I Take You Home" Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam
"Set it Off" Strafe

1985 was also the year of ROXANNE: UTFO's "Roxanne, Roxanne" and its answer records including Ms Shante's immortal "Roxanne's Revenge"

Damn, I seem to be losing control of my grammar this week.

making lists and keeping track of dates etc was always my least favorite part of the critics game. wouldn't want to see my orignal ballots now cause I'd always do em at the last minute and include some current enthusiasms that looked ridiculous a few months later.

it'd be intersting to see veterans like frank & xhuxk rate the last 25 years in order of musical preference. I subscribe to the "great year" theory, believing that certain years are pivotal in terms of quality and influence, esp in regard to chart pop, like say 1984 and 1988 and 1992...somewhere around 1998 I stopped giving a shit tho.

Ah, thanks. Of course, this was back in the good old days of the American underground, where an album could be released and you might not hear/see it for 1-2 years. Nowadays Lady Sovereign passes gas and it's up on a thousand blogs in a forthnight...

But 1999 was absolutely one of the best ever! How could a fan of "Roxanne's Revenge" not like "Nann Nigga"?

I voted Metallica's "Whiskey in the Jar" number one and proceeded to get into complex arguments with Andrew Palmer, who considered it far inferior to the Thin Lizzy version. If I were to vote all over, "...Baby One More Time" would be my number one (I somehow managed not to vote for it at all, even though I loved it; further proof it was such an amazing year). I also somehow didn't include "Back That Azz Up," maybe because I didn't yet own it, though I'd heard it on the radio enough. Anyway, tremendous year: Mannie Fresh turning into Schubert, Swizz Beatz simultaneously at his most popular and most extreme ("What Ya Want," "Down Bottom"), Max Martin delirious and gorgeous, Christina and Beyoncé and Pink spreading their wings (and Blaque better than any of them), Trina opening her trap, Natacha Atlas finally putting together a consistently good album, Arling & Cameron cracking me up, Europop novelties charting in the U.S. and cracking me up ("Mambo No. 5"), my relationship with my girlfriend cracking up (er, that wasn't so good)... well, anyway, the crests of a whole bunch of waves.

Uh, really easily?

[Taterhead]
I'm saying though
What you got a playa back there just trying to say what's up

[Trina talking]
Hell no
I don't wanna holla at him
That's alright

[Trick Daddy talking]
Hold up bitch
Hold up bitch
Hold up hoe
Check it out

[Trick Daddy]
Hoe you don't know nann nigga uh-uh
That'll represent like me
Who'll say some shit like me
One who'll lay the dick like me
Bitch you don't know nann nigga uh-uh
Who do the shit that I do
Run through yo whole lil' crew
Pay for it if I got to
Hoe you don't know nann nigga uh-uh
That'll run off in yo house
Put the gun off in yo mouth
Blow yo motherfucking brains out
Bitch you don't know nann nigga uh-uh
Who'll fall off in the club
Free drinks for the show some love
Take the bar home for the thugs
Bitch you don't know nann nigga uh-uh
Who know mo' niggas than me
Who do mo' killings than me
And weigh mo' dope dealings than me
Bitch you don't know nann nigga uh-uh
Bitch you don't know nann nigga uh-uh
You don't know nann nigga
That dress fresher than me
And you don't know nann nigga that wear mo' Polo shit than me
Bitch you don't know nann nigga uh-uh
Who do mo' freaky stuff
Eat the coochie wit the legs up
Then I blow it all in yo butt
And I don't know nann hoe uh-uh
Who liked the dick like you
Who'll bite the dick like you
On a dikey bitch like you
And I don't like a bitch like you
I'll fight a bitch like you
Ol' trifling bitch like you
Ain't no telling what you might do
Bitch you don't know nann nigga uh-uh
Hoe you don't know nann nigga uh-uh

[Trina talkin]
Uh-Uh-Uh
Hold up who the fuck this nigga think he is
I ain't ashamed of nothing I do
Hold up check this shit out

[Trina]
You don't know nann hoe uh-uh
Don' been the places I been
Who can spend the grands that I spend
Fuck bout 5 or 6 best friends
And you don't know nann hoe uh-uh
That's off the chain like me
That'll floss the thang like me
On a awful thang like me
You don't know nann hoe uh-uh
That sell more ass than me
You know nann hoe
That'll make you cum like me
Nigga you don't know nann hoe uh-uh
That don' tried all types of shit
Who quick to deep throat the dick
And let another bitch straight lick the clit
Now you don't know nann hoe uh-uh
That'll keep it wet like me
Make it come back to back like me
Lick a nigga nut sack like me
Now you don't know nann hoe uh-uh
That'll ride the dick on the dime
Who love to fuck all the time
One who's pussy fatter than mine
Bitch you don't know nann hoe

[Trick Daddy]
Hold up baby hold up
What you said you'll do bitch
[Trina]
Nigga you heard what I motherfucking said
[Trick Daddy]
Well baby if you gon' be doin' all this
You need to be on my team
Cuz I'm the realest nigga you motherfucking know
[Trina]
Well if you want me you know how to find me
Taterhead got the number
[Trick Daddy]
Tater boy bet they help Tater boy
Ha ha ha hah

[Trick Daddy]
Bitch you know nann nigga
That keep it knocked like me
That keep it hot like me
One who'll chop the chops like me
Bitch you know nann nigga
Wit connections wit the mob
Money millions for stars
And the Lexus flexin hard
Bitch you know nanna nigga
Who representin they grill
In Miami is where I live
And this is how I pay my bills
I love livin here
It be straight thuggin livin here
And all my thug niggas here
We be ballin'up in here
Bitch you know nann nigga
Bitch you know nann nigga
No no bitch you know nann nigga
Oh you know nann nigga
Bitch you know nann nigga
Bitch you know nann nigga
No no bitch you know nann nigga

thought about listening to current hits yesterday but rain makes me think jazz so I played Donald Byrd, Freddie Hubbard, Eddie Harris.

If anyone owns a copy of Unsophisticated Time by Marti Jones and would be willing to burn me a copy (it is comepletly out of print), I would be greatful, plus I won a lot of oop stuff myself, so I would happily trade.

The results don't impress, eh?

The singles are better.