Music - CD Catalogue: Pop

Pop CDs I own.

The 'Released' column indicates the year of the album's original release, whether on vinyl or CD. Tracks after '+' are bonus tracks, i.e. added to a CD reissue of a vinyl album, or present only on limited editions.

Ratings are based on a combination of objective merit and personal taste. I don't go in for the Amazon.com convention of giving five stars to anything I like - here, four stars means it's excellent, five stars means it's perfect.

Actively pernicious | Largely dispensable | Has its moments | Life-enhancing | Life-transforming

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

Artist	Title	Rating	Released	Tracks	Notes
A
ABBA	Voulez-Vous		1978	10+3	Abba's disco album. Full of top tunes, and not just the singles. Quality bonus tracks too.
ABBA	Super Trouper		1980	10+2	Lots of classic pop here, but Benny and Bjorn also seemed to have developed a misguided taste for saccharine ballads. The bonus tracks are a bit substandard, too.
ABBA	The Visitors		1982	9+4	The group's last new studio album, permeated by an appropriate sense of melancholy. One or two duffers, but the bonus tracks easily redress the balance.
ABBA	Gold		1992	19	Almost all the UK singles - for "Under Attack" and "The Day Before You Came", get The Visitors. What's here is of course timeless, though over-familiarity perhaps makes it harder to enjoy than it deserves.
ABC	Beauty Stab		1983	12+1	The critics who slated this because it lacked the glamour of 'The Lexicon of Love' failed to spot that it actually has good songs.
ABC	How to be a Zillionaire		1985	10+4	A neglected collection of tongue-in-cheek party tunes. One day its time will come. Perhaps.
ABC	Gold		2006	30	As good a "greatest hits" as you could wish for. Don't get too excited by the track count though - CD2 is all remixes.
AC/DC	High Voltage		1975	9	Some superb no-nonsense riffing, taking up where the Stones leave off. The glam-rock-influenced second half lets it down a bit.
AC/DC	Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap		1976	9	Only three songs really cut it here: the title track, "Squealer" and the surprisingly moving ballad "Ride On". The rest are rather dated 70s chuggers.
AC/DC	Let There Be Rock		1977	8	The first album that's recognisably AC/DC from start to finish: no more glam, just slab after slab of classic hard rock. Were it not for the low-voltage "Overdose", this would be perfect.
AC/DC	Powerage		1978	9	Possibly their most consistently good record, but for sheer exhilaration it's pipped by "Let There Be Rock".
AC/DC	Highway to Hell		1979	10	A full-throttle commercial assault on America. As a generic heavy metal album, it's good, but for all its loudness it lacks something of the wit and fire of its predecessors.
AC/DC	Back in Black		1980	10	Lead singer choked on his own vomit? Then get yourself a new one and make the best hard rock album of all time.
AC/DC	For Those About to Rock...		1981	10	Quality stadium rock, distinguished by expert riffing and Brian Johnson's demented high-pitched squeal. Tails off a bit in the second half mind you.
AC/DC	Flick of the Switch		1983	10	A couple of tracks rise to almost the usual standard, through simple application of a tested formula; but even they are unmemorable and do not truly rock.
AC/DC	Live		1992	11	Assaults your pleasure-centres like a Viking pillage.
AC/DC	Ballbreaker		1995	11	Their sound's a little softened (a very little) by the slick production, but this is a rock-solid collection of tunes and riffs.
The Adventures	The Sea of Love		1988	9	Chiming electric pianos, lush production, tried-and-tested power chord sequences: this was the sound of late 80s Celt-rock. Fortunately a handful of songs transcend the formula, including the gloriously gloomy single "Broken Land".
Air	Moon Safari		1998	10	Pleasant ambient doodlings from French keyboard/multi-instrumental duo. The main problem is staying awake long enough to hear it all.
Marc Almond	The Stars We Are		1989	10+3	High camp with a strong Hispanic influence. Very different from Soft Cell's work, though similarly marked by Almond's ear for a good tune.
Marc Almond	Enchanted		1990	10	Stylistically similar to "The Stars We Are", but more synth-based, and with the camp valve opened to the max. Substandard, though "Waifs and Strays" and "Death's Diary" are superb.
Marc Almond	Tenement Symphony		1991	11	Almond teams up with old bandmate Dave Ball, and producer Trevor Horn, to provide a stomping, synth-drenched 80s retro-fest.
Alphaville	Forever Young		1984	10	Most regard these Germans as New Romantic also-rans, but on the contrary, they were in the first rank of tunesmiths.
Alphaville	Afternoons in Utopia		1986	10	Cheesy Euro-tunes that seem to be in search of a musical. So naff it's cool? Hardly, but recommended for those with no shame.
Alphaville	The Breathtaking Blue		1989	10	The Teutonic synthmeisters get ever weirder. Less NewRo melodrama than in their earlier stuff, but distinguished by lush production and inventive tunes.
Alphaville	Salvation		2000	15	The sad spectacle of a group trying to relive its 80s glory days, but devoid of ideas or enthusiasm.
Tori Amos	Little Earthquakes		1992	12	A mix of irritating sub-Kate Bush oddities and poignant confessional ballads. The latter are real gems.
Tori Amos	Songs from the Choirgirl Hotel		1998	12	Kooky and original but not really my bag, as it were.
Anastacia	Not That Kind		2001	12	The 4 or 5 raunchy tracks work well, but the overrepresented power-ballads are nauseating.
Arcadia	So Red the Rose NEW! (Added 05/09/2011)		1985	9	Atmospheric potboiler by three-fifths of Duran Duran, with some good tunes and all the pretentiousness you could wish for.
The Associates	Wild and Lonely		1990	11+5	Some excellent songs here; the "off-the-shelf" synth backings are sometimes bland in themselves, but have the advantage of throwing Billy MacKenzie's marvellously impassioned vocals into impressive relief.
B
Banderas	Ripe		1991	10	At the dog end of this album of anodyne dance tracks come three gorgeous tunes: "Too Good", "It's Written All Over my Face" and "Never Too Late". None were singles for some reason.
Peter Baumann	Phase by Phase		1996	14	A compilation of solo efforts by the longstanding "guest" member of Tangerine Dream during the 1970s. The pieces are more minimalist in texture than TD's recordings, but many of them are pretty. Others, it must be said, border on the unlistenable, particularly those in which Baumann takes the mic.
The Be Good Tanyas	Blue Horse		2000	12	Kooky Canadian neo-folk. It's fun, fey, laid-back and a bit repetitious. I'm not suggesting these women are dope-heads, although let's face it, it would hardly be a surprise if they were.
The Be Good Tanyas	Chinatown		2003	14	Pleasant, but musically there's no real development from "Blue Horse", in fact it could almost be the same album, which makes buying it rather pointless.
The Beatles	Rubber Soul		1965	14	Some top tunes with a soupcon of darkness, as the Beatles teeter on the brink of psychadelia.
The Beatles	Help		1965	14	Cheery and tuneful - the Beatles' last straight pop album.
The Beatles	Revolver		1966	14	The Beatles start freaking out. Groundbreaking, though not all the experiments have stood the test of time.
The Beatles	The Beatles		1968	30	A massive experimental mishmash. Contains many of the group's best tracks, a few of their worst, and some that are just odd.
The Beatles	1962-1966		1973	26	Most of the tracks here can be found on original albums, but not to own 'I Feel Fine', 'We Can Work It Out', 'Day Tripper' and 'Paperback Writer' would be criminal.
The Beatles	1967-1970		1973	28	A one-stop shop of pop: the classic compilation of the group's late material.
The Beautiful South	Quench		1998	13	Little that's memorable here, except for 'Perfect 10'.
Bee Gees	The Record: Their Greatest Hits		2001	40	Nice to have almost all their classic tunes on one album, even if recordings by other artists were sometimes more characterful.
Big Country	The Crossing		1983	10+4	Guitars resembling bagpipes may sound a stupid idea on paper, but it's a testament to BC's energy and conviction that they filled their whole debut album with them without ever sounding ludicrous. Passionate and authentic, this is massively uplifting Celtic rock.
Big Country	Through a Big Country: The Greatest Hits		1996	16	After a brilliant debut, Big Country lost their way somewhat, no doubt not helped by singer Stuart Adamson's tragic alcoholism. But at least half the tracks here are worthy testament to his passionate spirit.
Blancmange	Second Helpings - The Best of Blancmange		1990	12	Not the catchiest of 80s synth duos, but by some margin the funkiest. A bit mad too.
Blondie	Atomic: The Best of Blondie		1998	19+2	Debbie Harry didn't have the voice to match her looks, but there are some classic post-punk pop choonz here.
Blur	Blur		1997	14	Different, but rather too weird for my taste.
Blur	Think Tank		2003	13	Strikes a delicate balance between weirdness and commerciality - hats off to 'em.
David Bowie	Scary Monsters		1980	10	Some of the Dame's finest singles came from this album, including 'Ashes to Ashes' and 'Fashion'. So if not all of it equals those moments, you can hardly complain.
David Bowie	The Best of David Bowie 1974/1979		1998	18	Wouldn't call myself a fan, but I can see the point of him.
James Dean Bradfield	The Great Western		2006	11	Has the good tunes and the melancholy of a Manic Street Preachers record, but lacks the passion.
Jackson Browne	The Next Voice You Hear: The Best of Jackson Browne		1997	15	Browne's voice is appealing but there's something rather characterless about all this.
Bucks Fizz	The Best of Bucks Fizz		1996	16	I bought this because I like 'I Hear Talk'. There, I've said it.
The Burning Bush	Klezmer and Hassidic Music		1998	17	Wonderful Yiddish folk music that's full of ambiguity: immediate and ingenius, tragic and jolly.
Kate Bush	The Kick Inside		1978	13	First album from the teenage genius. Her mannered, screechy vocals are an acquired taste, but Lordy, what songs.
Kate Bush	Lionheart		1978	12	Rather too much silliness going on here, and also too much bland, lifeless playing by session musicians.
Kate Bush	Hounds of Love		1985	12+6	One of Bush's two classic albums (the other being "The Kick Inside"). Too odd to be instantly appealing, but once you enter her world, it's an interesting place.
Kate Bush	The Sensual World		1989	11	Would be a complete waste of plastic, were it not for 'This Woman's Work', which alone merits an extra star.
C
Cast	All Change		1995	12	Breezy Scouse guitar pop. The persuasive energy offsets the terrible lyrics.
Mary Chapin Carpenter	Come On Come On		1992	12	Some decent songs, nicely sung.
Mary Chapin Carpenter	A Place in the World		1996	12	She sings well and she can write a good tune, but her lyrics are trite drivel.
Mary Chapin Carpenter	Time, Sex, Love		2001	14	I've only listened to this once, and that was once too much. Bland, sentimental tripe.
Cluster	Sowieso NEW! (Added 05/09/2011)		1976	7	Experimental Krautrock. Intriguing, but pipped by Neu! and Tangerine Dream in the atmosphere stakes.
Lloyd Cole and the Commotions	Rattlesnakes		1984	10+4	Some gorgeous tunes whose impact is lessened by very pretentious lyrics and 80s vocal indie-mannerisms.
Ry Cooder	Why Don't You Try Me Tonight? The Best of...		1986	12	Tastefully-performed songs by the legendary Blues singer/guitarist.
Julian Cope	Floored Genius: The Best of Julian Cope and the Teardrop Explodes 1979-91		1992	20	Ever kooky, and yet unlike many icons of indie cool, he never regarded pop as a dirty word.
The Cox Family	Everybody's Reaching out for Someone		1993	12	Sweetly performed bluegrass that consistently stays the right side of sentimentality - quite an achievement given the some of the lyrics.
The Cox Family	Beyond the City		1995	13	Ignore the odd cheesy lyric, and revel in the melodiousness and the quality pickin'.
Sheryl Crow	Tuesday Night Music Club		1993	11	Competent, superficial Californian rock. Many styles of music are covered without leaving much of an impression, apart from the funky single 'All I Wanna Do'.
Sheryl Crow	Sheryl Crow		1996	14	Much better than the first album. Good songs, even if the lyrics are largely meaningless and sung with all the passion of airport announcements.
Sheryl Crow	The Globe Sessions		1999	13	'My Favorite Mistake' is a decent song, the only thing here that hits the mark.
Sheryl Crow	C'mon C'mon		2002	15	Some good songs, all given the dreary Crow chug-chugging AOR treatment.
Sheryl Crow	Detours		2008	15	Illness, mid-life angst and political outrage rouse Crow from her creative torpor. Good tunes, skillful arrangements, and songs sung for once as though she means it.
Crowded House	Woodface		1991	14	A classic of pipe-and-slippers pop.
Crowded House	Together Alone		1993	13	Some good songs, some rather pedestrian ones. A mysterious ambience.
Crowded House	Recurring Dream: The Very Best of Crowded House		1996	19+15	A well-chosen 'best of' that includes some good new tunes. The 15-track limited edition live CD makes this a top recommendation.
The Cult	Electric		1986	10	Overnight, these Goths turned into Rolling Stones/AC/DC soundalikes. They did it fairly well, as it happens.
Billy Currie	Push		2002	11	Synthesised atmospherics and melodrama, much of the latter being in the vein of Ultravox, Currie's old band. Some of the melodies are rather banal, but as a whole this is both a relaxing and an uplifting listen.
D
Daft Punk	Homework		1996	16	French instrumental dance music. Lazy and immensely banal.
Del Amitri	Waking Hours		1990	10	Good lyrics, and pleasant to listen to - possibly a bit too adult for its own good though.
Del Amitri	Some Other Sucker's Parade		1997	15+1	Soft Scottish rock. A bit dull.
Depeche Mode	Speak and Spell		1981	11+5	The first DM album was mostly written by Vince Clarke, and therefore sounds like Yazoo with a yobby bloke on vocals. Naff and dated, though 'Just Can't Get Enough' is still quite fun, and 'Any Second Now' is gorgeous.
Depeche Mode	Construction Time Again		1983	9	Depeche Mode transform themselves from wimpy synthpoppers to Industrial pioneers. Seminal, and still sounds top 20 years on.
Depeche Mode	Some Great Reward		1984	9	The follow-up to 'Construction Time Again' was another Industrial classic - this time with a tauter, more urgent sound.
Depeche Mode	The Singles 81-85		1985	15+2	The early Depeche Mode were always difficult to take seriously, but they did produce some classic pop tunes.
Depeche Mode	Black Celebration		1986	11+3	Some really good songs, and full of original ideas, but the production is gutless.
Depeche Mode	Music for the Masses		1987	10	Not their best collection of songs, but the meaty, satisfying sound compensates.
Depeche Mode	Violator		1990	9	One of the darkest DM albums, with almost guitar-like screeching and weird sampled segues. A grower.
Depeche Mode	Songs of Faith and Devotion		1993	10	The last Mode album with Alan Wilder, and (until 'Playing the Angel') the last one that was half-decent. A solid effort, though the arrangements and sampling lack somewhat the imagination of the earlier work.
Depeche Mode	Playing the Angel		2005	12	"The Mode" finally find their feet again, a decade after Alan Wilder's departure. Some good tunes and an exciting sense of menace - but someone really should tell Martin Gore that no one's interested in his low-tempo introspective dirges.
Destiny's Child	Survivor		2001	18	Most of this album is rubbish but that still leaves a worrying 6 or 7 tracks that I quite like. May God have mercy on my soul.
Neil Diamond	The Greatest Hits 1966-1992		1992	37	For legal reasons, Diamond's songs from the early 70s are represented here by very dodgy live versions. Therefore, 'The Best of Neil Diamond' (q.v.) is an essential complement.
Neil Diamond	The Best of Neil Diamond		2000	20	(Mostly) original versions of Diamond's mid-period songs. Some are classics; all convey an overwhelming sense of yearning and existential ennui, or something.
Dire Straits	Love Over Gold		1982	5	Includes the epic "Telegraph Road" and "Private Investigations", together with three tracks of quite spectacular forgettableness.
La Düsseldorf	Individuellos NEW! (Added 05/09/2011)		1980	9	The most melodic album from Klaus Dinger's post-Neu! project. Good new age stuff, though several tracks turn out to be almost identical.
Duran Duran	Rio		1982	9	Oh admit it - they did write good songs, even if they couldn't play their instruments to save their lives.
Duran Duran	Greatest		1998	19	The group plunged from the public view in 1985 - however, as this compilation shows, a rivulet of top tunes continued to trickle forth.
Ian Dury	Reasons to be Cheerful (The Very Best of Ian Dury and the Blockheads)		1999	18	Cheeky, life-affirming Cockney funk.
Bob Dylan	Highway 61 Revisited		1967	9	I guess I'll just never be a Dylan fan.
Bob Dylan	Blood on the Tracks		1974	10	He can write nice tunes and his voice is evocative - but the songs just go on and on. Perhaps one day I'll understand what the fuss is about.
E
Echo and the Bunnymen	Ocean Rain		1984	9+8	Great tunes, nice production, wacky Scouse lyrics, wobbly vocals. A classic from the non-synth side of the early 80s fence.
Echo and the Bunnymen	Seven Seas		2005	15	A reasonable "best of" from one of the more tuneful indie bands of the 80s. Missing a lot of their best moments though.
Electribe 101	Electribal Memories		1990	9+2	I bought this for the thrilling Canny 12" Vocal mix of "Talking with Myself". Unfortunately, unremixed, the group's sound was altogether more low-key, indeed one might say soporific.
Electric Light Orchestra	All Over the World - The Very Best of...		2005	20	These opulently produced pop nuggets from the 70s and early 80s have aged surprisingly well and in their naff way are really quite uplifting.
Brian Eno	Music for Films		1978	18	10/10 for atmosphere, but there's little of interest going on here compositionally.
Erasure	Wonderland		1986	11+3	This is really the last Vince Clarke album, rather than the first Erasure album. The production's dated, but with Andy Bell yet to exert his full (dubious) influence on the songwriting, the tunes are all too fab for that to matter.
Erasure	The Circus		1987	10+3	Some good old-school pop tunes and some quality synth-work, but also many foreshadowings of the blandness that was to predominate during the 1990s.
Erasure	The Innocents		1988	11+2	Stephen Hague's lush production makes for a more atmospheric offering than usual. Laden with pop hooks, and even containing a handful of well-crafted songs, all round this is possibly the duo's best album.
Erasure	Pop! 20 Hits		1992	21	With Erasure, Vince Clarke never reached the heights of tunesmithery he did with Yazoo, but let's not let that spoil the party.
Eurythmics	Touch		1983	9+7	Contains a few classic singles, but on the whole this hasn't aged too well - too many clichéd synth motifs, too many pretentious lyrics, and too much "edginess" trying to substitute for good tunes.
Eurythmics	Be Yourself Tonight		1985	9	Annie and Dave at the peak of their success, halfway on the journey from synth pop to yuppie rock. Perhaps too slick for some tastes, but full of musical flair, and without a single duff track.
Eurythmics	Revenge		1986	10	Eurythmics attempting to show that they could rock, and kind of succeeding. Bland on first listening, but it grows on you.
Eurythmics	Savage		1987	12	Eurythmics return to their synth roots. But this is a deeper, darker album than "Sweet Dreams" or "Touch", with the chirpy dance tunes throwing the embittered lyrics into sharp relief. Top marks for Dave Stewart's crisply atmospheric production.
Eurythmics	We Too Are One		1989	9	A rock album, sitting on the other side from "Revenge" of the synth-based "Savage". Like "Revenge", it has atmospheric qualities that don't strike you until after a few listens.
F
Finn	Finn		1995	11	Neil and Tim Finn of Crowded House mess around in a studio. Patchy.
Neil Finn	Try Whistling This		1998	13	Sounds very like Crowded House, which is what you want.
Neil Finn	One Nil		2001	12	Nil nil more like - a real goalless draw of an album. Finn seemed to have lost (hopefully temporarily) his ability to write good tunes.
Franz Ferdinand	Franz Ferdinand		2004	11	A bit art-house, a bit punk, a bit disco: all told, a complete musical pastiche of the late 70s. They're at their best when they give full rein to their exceedingly funky rhythm section.
Franz Ferdinand	You Could Have It So Much Better		2005	13	FF take heed of the critics and broaden their style, adding McCartney-esque ballads and full-on pogoing punk to their sound. At first they seem to be trying a bit too hard, but the more you listen, the more you appreciate their brilliant tightness as a unit.
Franz Ferdinand	Tonight		2009	12	More of the same, really: quite funky but with little to distinguish one track from the next. Towards the end, some tentative synth noises suggest a future direction, if the critics will let them get away with it. I say, go for it!
Edgar Froese	Aqua		1974	4	Early solo album from the mainstay of Tangerine Dream. Pleasant listening, but not up there with the group's best stuff.
Edgar Froese	Pinnacles NEW! (Added 11/09/2011)		1983	4	Lovely minimalist atmospherics inspired by the Australian landscape.
Edgar Froese	Ambient Highway, Volume 1		2003	4	More slick than his, and Tangerine Dream's, earlier stuff, but certainly superior to the group's vapid recent albums. Nice background music.
Nelly Furtado	Whoa, Nelly!		2000	15	She's got spirit and attitude, but not, on this evidence, a great songwriting talent.
Billy Fury	The One and Only Billy Fury		1998	20	I bought this for £3 because it had 'Wondrous Place' on it. I didn't have high expectations of the rest of it, which was just as well.
G
Peter Gabriel	So		1986	8	Without taming his experimental streak, Gabriel produced an album of unprecedented soulfulness. Arguably the high point of his career.
Peter Gabriel	Us		1992	10	An attempt to recreate the magic of 'So' that doesn't really come off, though it has its moments.
Peter Gabriel	Hit		2003	30	A few classics here, but quite a bit of this music is more interesting for what it attempts than for what it achieves.
Dick Gaughan	Handful of Earth		1981	10	Less cheesy than your average folk album. I prefer his rockier stuff, though.
Dick Gaughan	Prentice Piece		2002	21	A compilation from across the folk singer's career. His heart-on-sleeve ultra-Scottish lefty stance isn't of universal appeal, but his voice, both sweet and abrasive, has magic to it, and the production is very well-judged.
Genesis	Turn It On Again: The Hits		1999	18	A bit misreprentative perhaps, as they were going ages before they had any hits as such. So this focusses very much on their more commercial material. I don't care - I only bought it for the title track and "Abacab" (am I the only one who likes that song??).
Goldfrapp	Felt Mountain		2000	9	Atmospheric, if a bit self-consciously kooky.
Martin Gore	Counterfeit Vol. 2				I bought this because occasionally Gore has proved himself a decent songwriter for Depeche Mode. Realising subsequently it's all cover versions, I didn't even listen to it, which is possibly unfair. One of these days I'll check it out. Helpful huh?
Gorillaz	Demon Days		2005	13	Earth-pounding beats, catchy synth hooks, a bit of rapping, and that's about it. Throwaway stuff, but intriguingly weird. Good driving music.
Grand Drive	Road Music		2001	11	There may be good songs on this album, but so awful are the singer's vocals that I couldn't make it past the second track.
David Gray	Sell Sell Sell		1996	12	A nice song, repeated 12 times.
David Gray	White Ladder		1998	10	Fab, wistful, romantic songs. Genuine soulfulness runs the gauntlet of mannered Dylanesque vocals and banal lyrics, and comes through unscathed.
David Gray	A New Day at Midnight		2002	12	Listened to individually, many of these tunes are superb: Gray can do "plaintive" as well as anyone. But here he does nothing else, and the result is ear fatigue.
H
Daryl Hall and John Oates	The Very Best of Daryl Hall and John Oates		2001	18	Laid-back chord sequences, emotion-free vocals, vacuous lyrics: Hall and Oates represented everything that was smug and superficial about the 1980s. Disquietingly though, they represented quite a lot that was enjoyable about them at the same time.
Albert Hammond	The Very Best of Albert Hammond		1988	16	Writer of classics like 'The Air that I Breathe' and 'When I Need You', unfortunately Hammond is an undistinguished performer of his own material. Only 'The Free Electric Band' doesn't cry out for a cover version.
Hard-Fi	Stars of CCTV		2005	11	For all their "disaffected" posturing, these latter-day Middlesex mods have about as much to say as Justin Timberlake. Still, no faulting the good tunes, tight rhythm section and atmospheric production.
Emmylou Harris	Heartaches and Highways: The Very Best of Emmylou Harris		2005	20	Not as cheesy as country music can be, and contains some tolerable stuff.
Heaven 17	Penthouse and Pavement		1981	9	Side 1 is rather contrived "white soul"; side 2 is what the group did best: daft but catchy synthpop. On the whole, a bit overrated.
Heaven 17	The Luxury Gap		1982	9	Heaven 17 added a liberal dose of soul to the standard early 80s electro-pop sound, to produce a subtle but satisfying flavour. The magic ingredient was probably the fab songs.
Heaven 17	How Men Are		1984	9+4	By this time, they were starting to get too clever for their own good, though "Sunset Now", "This is Mine" and "(And That's No Lie)" (sic) continued the stream of classic singles. The bonus tracks are a waste of space.
Heaven 17	The Best of Heaven 17		1992	16	Smug, charisma-free lefty trio purveys track after track of clever, top-quality synthpop.
Heaven 17	Bigger than America		1996	12	They joined the acid house bandwagon rather late in the day, and were a bit old to rave like good 'uns, but this album partakes of the scene's optimistic vibe, and holds the group's best collection of songs since 'The Luxury Gap'.
Heaven 17	Before After		2005	10	The group takes the best dance grooves of the early 00's and polishes them to perfection. The flaws - a lack of great tunes, and Glenn Gregory's straining with the high vocal registers - don't stop this being an addictive and uplifting experience.
Heaven 17	Naked As Advertised		2008	9	Re-recordings of some of the group's early songs, based on the backing tracks from their recent live shows. They rather lack the energy of the originals, but some of them are worth having. The understated cover of the Associates' "Party Fears Two" is excellent.
John Hiatt	Meet the Family		1987	8	Sure, it's got Ry Cooder and Nick Lowe on it, but what the over-enthusiastic critics failed to mention is that the songs just aren't up there with Hiatt's best. Overrated.
John Hiatt	Slow Turning		1988	12	An enjoyable slice of middle-aged rock.
John Hiatt	Perfectly Good Guitar		1993	13	Run-of-the-mill solo rocking.
John Hiatt	Walk On		1995	13	Hiatt's recurrent problem once more in evidence: not enough tunes to fit his excellent lyrics into. A couple of decent moments all the same.
John Hiatt	Crossing Muddy Waters		2000	11	Pared-down, largely acoustic roots music with fantastic mandolin and guitar playing by David Immerglueck. Absolutely brilliant - why can't all Hiatt's albums be like this?
John Hiatt	The Tiki Bar is Open		2001	11	Hiatt and his band The Goners in bland radio-rock mode. A shame, as there seem to be one or two decent tunes in there struggling for life.
John Hiatt	Beneath this Gruff Exterior		2001	12	Features some nice slices of the rootsy rock that Hiatt does so well, but when he tries to sound more "modern", he isn't half boring.
John Hiatt	Master of Disaster		2005	11	Good lyrics, predictable tunes and arrangements - a trend bucked only by the excellent "Find You at Last".
Mark Hollis	Mark Hollis		1998	8	Continues where his band Talk Talk left off - introspective and mellow, but perhaps lacking the instrumental subtlety of the group's late work.
Horse	The Same Sky		1990	10	A little-known band that produced mostly bland unmemorable power-pop, but the one wonderful melodramatic classic "Sweet Thing".
Hot House	South		1988	10+2	Somewhat pretentious soul with M People's Heather Small on vocals. 'Hard as I Try' is a classic, though, and the cover of 'Crazy' is also good.
Human League	Dare		1981	10	Classic tunes, and - unusually for the time - unpretentious lyrics. A loveable period piece.
I
Billy Idol	Whiplash Smile		1986	10	Awash with synthesisers and without a real drumkit in earshot, this album showed that rock could be high-tech - as long as you have the right producer (Keith Forsey), a mad guitarist (Steve Stevens) and a singer passionately committed to the Elvis/Jagger ideal.
Billy Idol	Greatest Hits		2001	16	Unpretentious cartoon rock. I still think all his best stuff is on 'Whiplash Smile' though.
INXS	The Swing		1984	10	In their early days INXS presented an original blend of funk, rock and electronica. It was a lot more intriguing than their later music, even if the production was all over the place.
INXS	Listen Like Thieves		1985	11	Their best album, I reckon: they'd finally decided they were a rock act rather than a New Wave one, their songs were catchy, and in their unashamedly commercial way they genuinely kicked arse.
INXS	Definitive INXS		2003	21	Oddly disappointing. There's too much from the overrated 'Kick' album and not enough from their slightly quirky earlier days. Of the later tunes, why the rockin' 'Heaven Sent' isn't included mystifies me, as it were.
J
Joe Jackson	Night and Day		1982	9	A high concentration of classic singles here. Pretty good all in all, let down chiefly by Jackson's misguided vocal attempts to convince us he's from New York rather than Portsmouth.
Michael Jackson	Off the Wall		1979	10	Yes, once he was genuinely funky, even if he didn't always hit the heights of the title track and 'Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough'.
Michael Jackson	Thriller		1984	9+3	If you were alive in 1983, you already know every song on this album - but a good handful of these slices of pop-funk remain classics.
The Jam	Sound Affects		1980	11	Nice 'n' angry, though doesn't contain any of their classic tunes.
The Jam	The Very Best of the Jam		1997	21	Tuneful nuggets of bile.
James	The Best of James		1998	18	I can't decide if I find this depressing or uplifting. One thing's for sure - it's choc full of good songs.
Japan	Exorcising Ghosts		1984	11	The arty new-ro outfit's finest moments. Seen now, the best track is the funereal, almost synthless 'Nightporter'.
Billy Joel	An Innocent Man		1983	10	I'm not convinced you need anything here that isn't on "The Ultimate Collection".
Billy Joel	The Ultimate Collection		2000	36	He's not hip, but he's never needed to be: he writes great tunes and great lyrics.
Jon and Vangelis	The Best of Jon and Vangelis		1984	9	Pretentious synth-pop that is irritating and uplifting in equal measures.
Howard Jones	Human's Lib		1984	10	Jones, huge for a couple of years, is now is a largely forgotten figure of the 80s. Despite the catchy hooks, it's easy to see why: the production's dated and his singing is woeful.
Quincy Jones	The Best of Quincy Jones		1998	16	Pleasant funk from one of the great dance producers. "Ai No Corrida" is easily the best thing here.
K
Kasabian	Kasabian		2004	13	If you crossed the Happy Mondays with early Simple Minds, and you were very lucky, you might end up with something like this. Atmospheric and loud - though they may need to learn some new chords at some point.
Kasabian	Empire		2006	11	A bit more experimentation with rhythm than on their first album, and somewhat fewer catchy tunes, but otherwise it's more of the same druggy, menacing melodrama. Not bad.
Keane	Hopes and Fears		2004	12	No guitars, dramatic piano flourishes, anthemic choruses - it's just like the 80s! Too often, however, the line between sensitive and wet is overstepped; and anyone expecting an album's worth of classics on the strength of 'Bedshaped' and 'Everybody's Changing' will be sorely disappointed.
Kelis	Kaleidoscope		1999	14	R&B with a veneer of 'hardness' and plenty of swearing.
Carole King	Music		1971	12	Unobjectionable, but not a patch (so to speak) on 'Tapestry'.
Carole King	Tapestry		1971?	12	Here King made her own recordings of songs she'd written for others in the 1960s. Classic follows classic.
Kiss	Revenge		1992	12	Lairy heavy metal with pretty bad lyrics. Still, does what it says on the tin, and in a few cases, considerably more.
Mark Knopfler	Golden Heart		1996	14	One can't help but feel making music comes a little too easily to Knopfler. This smooth roots music is never less than pleasant to listen to, but rarely more than that either.
Kraftwerk	Radio-Activity		1975	12	Atmospheric and, for an experimental album, very listenable - especially the melodious title track.
Kraftwerk	Trans-Europe Express		1977	7	Contains much repetitious, tuneless experiementalism. But 'Europe Endless' is 10 minutes of sheer melodic bliss, and the best thing the group ever did.
Kraftwerk	The Man Machine		1978	6	One of the group's most consistently tuneful albums. Includes their most famous song, 'The Model', but the other tracks are easily equal to it.
Kraftwerk	Computer World		1981	7	Funky yet relaxing. There's something about the combination of simple, sweet melodies and metronomic beats that is immensely soothing, and can't help but put a smile on your face :)
Kraftwerk	The Mix		1991	11	Somebody seemed to think these synth tracks from the dawn of time would be good contenders for an acid house upgrade. Not really: where minimalism is of the essence, more can only mean less. The exception is the upbeat, post-Chernobyl reworking of "Radio-Activity".
Alison Krauss and the Cox Family	I Know Who Holds Tomorrow		1994	12	Religious bluegrass and gospel efforts from a team-up of two quality country acts. Some of the renditions are sublime, some make the best of dull material, while "Loves Me Like a Rock" is spoiled by Sidney taking the mike.
Alison Krauss and Union Station	Live		2002	25	A bonzer collection of bluegrass, country and blues songs, that mostly avoids sentimental excess.
Alison Krauss and Union Station	Lonely Runs Both Ways		2004	15	Another mix of sweetly sung folkish songs, and more upbeat bluegrass stuff. Nice, but could use a bit more bite.
L
Led Zeppelin	Led Zeppelin III		1970	10	Favours the folky bluesy Zepp over the rockin' one.
Led Zeppelin	Led Zeppelin IV		1971	8	Rocks, in a most satisfactory fashion.
John Lennon	Lennon Legend		1997	20	Possibly all the solo Lennon you'll ever need. Faintly depressing.
Lone Justice	Lone Justice		1985	10	Spunky garage/country rock. Best song is Tom Petty's 'Ways to be Wicked' - an unregarded classic.
Nick Lowe	Basher: The Best of Nick Lowe		1989	25	Some fine songs here, in a variety of styles. What's missing is the mellow singing voice, and the emotional depth, that he surprisingly acquired in the 1990s.
Nick Lowe	The Impossible Bird		1994	13	Ageing pub-rocker loses lover and expiates grief in once-in-a-lifetime gush of totally rocking R 'n' B grooves. Moving ballads are thrown in for variety, and the result is nigh-on perfect.
Nick Lowe	Dig My Mood		1998	12	Lowe further investigates his late-found talent as a crooner, keeps the songwriting up to scratch, and delivers another top disc. Lower-key than "The Impossible Bird", but good stuff.
Nick Lowe	The Convincer		2001	12	A good collection of laid-back songs with witty lyrics, sung in Lowe's appealing, emotive late-period voice.
Nick Lowe	At My Age		2007	12	More pretty good songs in a style you might call "English country". That said, some tracks are a bit too easy on the ear, and his persona of lonesome ladykiller is starting to wear a little thin.
Shelby Lynne	I am Shelby Lynne		1999	10	Smoky blues from troubled Alabama belle. The songs are a mixed bag, but brilliant at best.
M
Manic Street Preachers	Generation Terrorists		1992	18	Sometimes exhilaratingly punky, sometimes exhilaratingly anthemic, but more often just bog standard teenage indie-rock, this is largely an affair of quantity over quality.
Manic Street Preachers	The Holy Bible		1994	13	Juvenile, pseudo-political punk, irritating but musically competent.
Manic Street Preachers	Everything Must Go		1996	12	The Manics' first album after Richie James' disappearance. Critical goodwill caused it to be overrated on its release, though it has its share of decent songs.
Manic Street Preachers	This is My Truth Tell Me Yours		1998	13	Mostly low-key and depressing, but one of the Manics' most consistent albums. Good songs, executed with passion.
Manic Street Preachers	Know Your Enemy		2001	16	A lot of filler here, but when it rocks, man does it rock.
Manic Street Preachers	Forever Delayed: The Greatest Hits		2002	20	Even though many of their best tracks haven't been singles, that's not to say that a collection of the latter - plus some decent new songs - isn't a jolly fine investment, Sir.
Manic Street Preachers	Lifeblood		2004	12	Starts off drearily, then halfway through comes a slew of atmospheric classics.
Manic Street Preachers	Send Away the Tigers		2007	10+1	One of their best, with a good number of massively rousing songs and none that are awful. (If you didn't think John Lennon's original of "Working Class Hero" could be equalled, make sure you stick around for the hidden bonus track.)
Manic Street Preachers	Journal for Plague Lovers		2009	13	The band put some lyrics bequeathed them by former member Richey Edwards to music. As a whole, it's a bit raw for my taste, though as usual there are some decent songs.
Aimee Mann	Whatever		1993	13	The melancholy of 'Everything's Different Now' (see 'Til Tuesday) starts to stew into the sludge of dreary self-pity in which Mann remains stuck to this day. But at least back in 1993 she still knew how to write good songs.
Aimee Mann	I'm With Stupid		1995	13	Arch, bitter and in many cases rather naff songs about being miserable. It grows on you, but as her work with 'Til Tuesday showed, Mann could do better than this.
Aimee Mann	Magnolia		1999	12	Music from the film. Only 'You Do' matches the songs Mann wrote with 'Til Tuesday.
Aimee Mann	Bachelor No. 3		1999	14	Contains many of the same tracks as the 'Magnolia' soundtrack; the others, sadly, are no better.
Aimee Mann	Lost in Space		2002	11	Mann cruelly opens this album with one of the best songs she's ever written ("Humpty Dumpty"), then punishes the listener with slab after slab of forgettable gloom-mongering.
Aimee Mann	The Forgotten Arm		2005	12	A higher concentration of good tunes than on her previous outings, but she might have tried a bit harder with the arrangements - the overall style is somewhat monotonous.
Mansun	Attack of the Grey Lantern		1997	11	Intriguing - they seemed a band with promise at the time.
Maria McKee	Maria McKee		1989	11	Anguished, country-tinged songs by former Lone Justice singer.
Maria McKee	Peddlin' Dreams		2005	12	McKee writes some excellent songs, and gives her all in singing them. The only complaint here is a certain saminess of style, but all told, it's good stuff.
Sarah McLachlan	Touch		1989	9+1	New Age Canadian folkiness. Screechy yet at the same time rather bland.
Joni Mitchell	Clouds		1969	10	Excellent songs, let down by occasionally naive 'hello trees' lyrics.
Joni Mitchell	Ladies of the Canyon		1970	12	Pretty dull except for a couple of tracks.
Joni Mitchell	Blue		1971	10	Introspective, intense, wistful - an all-time bedsit classic.
Joni Mitchell	For the Roses		1972	12	Mitchell matures, mellows and gets slightly into jazz. There's little of the old angst here, which is nice for her - but a bit boring for the rest of us.
Alanis Morissette	Jagged Little Pill		1995	12	First proper album from kooky rock chick. Full-on.
Alanis Morissette	Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie		1998	17	More introverted than 'Jagged Little Pill'. Some terrible lyrics.
Alanis Morissette	So Called Chaos		2004	10	It rocks well enough, but someone should really have a word with her about those lyrics.
N
Peter Namlook and Klaus Schulze	Dark Side of the Moog, Vol 8		1999	6	Quality, spooky ambient music from a team-up of first- and second-generation German synthmeisters. Somewhere between 70s Tangerine Dream and The Orb, and every bit as tasty a trip as that sounds.
Neu!	Neu! NEW! (Added 11/09/2011)		1972	6	Psychadelic, hypnotic early Krautrock. No vocals, which is all to the good. A grower, and excellent driving music.
Neu!	Neu! '75		1975	6	Uplifting early synth rock - unusual without being perversely weird. I prefer the instrumentals to the punky vocal tracks, though both styles were very influential on later bands.
New Order	Power, Corruption and Lies		1983	8	New Order's preferred method of composition was to create a sequenced dance rhythm, leave it running for five minutes, and then switch it off. Still, there's no faulting the rousing "Your Silent Face", except to say that it's meaningless and incompetently sung.
Gary Numan	Strange Charm		1986	8+5	A dance-flavoured album from the dog end of Numan's 80s career. It's quite dated, especially lyrically (check out all the "Whatcha gonna do?"s), but he still had the touch. "My Breathing" in particular will send the blood rushing to the head of any synth-obsessive.
Gary Numan	Premier Hits		1996	18	Best known for his first-generation electro anthems "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "Cars", Numan actually had surprising musical range, as evidenced by his funky early 80s material and the odd, sinuous "Stormtrooper in Drag". Full of classics, this.
O
Mike Oldfield	The Platinum Collection		2006	46	Listen to some of the arrangements, melodies and key sequences on this collection and you're forced to acknowledge that Oldfield is not just an original, but a true genius. Unfortunately though, he's a deeply misguided one, as the sickly late New Age work, and the frequently terrible lyrics, make manifest.
OMD	Architecture and Morality		1981	9+7	The defining moment of their career, containing three classic singles. Surprisingly weird in places.
OMD	Dazzle Ships		1983	12	Atmospheric and highly experimental; strangely pleasant listening. Andy McCluskey's offkey vocals are at their anguished best on the excruciatingly miserable 'International' and 'The Romance of the Telescope'.
OMD	The Best of OMD		1988	15+3	Required by OMD completists who own 'The OMD Singles', because it includes the chirpy, oft-overlooked 1985 single 'Secret'.
OMD	The OMD Singles		1998	18	Varied, inventive tunes from one of the best 80s synth bands. The early songs are all classics; the later tunes are less arresting but have an appealing romantic melancholy.
Roy Orbison	Mystery Girl		1989	10	The guy can't half sing, but only 'She's a Mystery to Me' really grabs me personally.
Orbital	Orbtial II		1992	10	Agreeable instrumental acid house, though without the aid of drugs, it doesn't stand up to much scrutiny.
P
Passengers	Original Soundtracks 1		1995	14	U2 go ambient, under the direction of Brian Eno. An interesting experiment.
Pet Shop Boys	PopArt: The Hits		2003	35	Cynically formulaic synthpop by smug, opportunistic duo who dominated the UK charts in the late 80s. You knew their game but couldn't help occasionally yielding - ooh, the tarts.
Tom Petty	Greatest Hits		1993	19	Tom Petty is one of rock's most resilient also-rans. He's no genius, but there's something appealing about his wistful American rock.
Pink Floyd	The Dark Side of the Moon		1973	10	Seminal maybe - but not big on tunes and, being brutally honest, pretty dated.
Pink Floyd	Wish You Were Here		1975	5	Full of fab atmospherics and plank spanking.
Pink Floyd	The Wall		1979	26	Apart from 'Comfortably Numb' and one or two other tracks, I find this pretentious and much overrated.
Pink Floyd	Distant Sound of Thunder		1988	15	Live album, with Dave Gilmour's competent vocals making it hard to regret Roger Waters' absence. Check out the extended guitar solo on 'Comfortably Numb - bliss, man.
Placebo	Without You I'm Nothing		1998	12	Brian Molko has a good voice, but this is mostly quite depressing stuff.
Placebo	Black Market Music		2000	12	Brooding, grungy student music. OK for certain moods.
Robert Plant	Now and Zen		1988	10	A rather incoherent collection of songs, as Plant tries a little too hard to show his range; also, there are too many keyboards. However, 'Ship of Fools' is a song that the world should know about.
Pulp	DIfferent Class		2006	12	Feeling arty, angry and alientated? Get this.
Q
Queen	Greatest Hits		1981	17	Classics of camp-rock, if there is such a thing.
Queen	Greatest Hits II		1991	17	Several classics, but in their latter years the band lapsed rather too readily into self-deprecating camp.
R
Gerry Rafferty	Baker Street		1998	16	Should soft rock be made illegal? The jury's out, and both sides have presented this compilation as evidence.
Bonnie Raitt	Nick of Time		1989	11	Competent blues, though only 'Have a Heart' really does it for me.
Dave Rawlings Machine	A Friend of a Friend		2009	9	Gillian Welch's performing partner takes the mike, with Gill in the background. It's quite good, but very derivative of various 60s folk-rock acts: unlike his partner, Rawlings has yet to find a real voice of his own.
Razorlight	Up All Night		2004	13+1	21st-century yoof discovers the Boomtown Rats. Some OK songs here, but it sounds as though it was recorded in a garage (and not in a particularly good way).
REM	Eponymous		1988	12	Some good songs but I prefer the meatier sound of their mid-90s records.
REM	Automatic for the People		1993	12	REM at their folkiest, and, by the critics' consent at least, their best. Haunting, and with only one duff track (the dreary rocker 'Ignoreland').
REM	Monster		1995	12	Loathed by the critics because it wasn't Automatic for the People Part Two. In fact, a top rock album, both angry and atmospheric.
REM	New Adventures in Hi-fi		1996	14	No-nonsense rock - powerful but with a twist of widescreen melancholy. Like 'Monster', underrated.
REM	Up		1998	14	REM go for a more slick, keyboardy sound, but it doesn't work.
REM	In Time: The Best of REM 1988-2003		2003	18	Covers the band's most successful and (in my opinion) best period. Includes some decent new songs.
REM	Around the Sun		2004	13	Michael Stipe's melancholy vocals improve as the years go by, but unfortunately the band's songwriting shows the opposite tendency.
Robbie Robertson	Robbie Robertson		1987	9	Nine excellent rock songs, some of them rather let down by the fussy production and Robertson's feeble vocals.
Rolling Stones	Let It Bleed		1968	9	One of their best - even if, let's face it, it can only be downhill from "Gimme Shelter" which opens it.
Rolling Stones	Hot Rocks 1964-1971		1986	21	All the classics from the early years.
Diana Ross	Diana		1980	8	'Im Coming Out' and 'My Old Piano' are OK, and 'Upside Down' may be the best dance tune of all time, but the remaining 5 tracks here are utterly forgettable.
Michael Rother	Flammende Herzen		1977	5+2	Simple instrumental tracks from the mellower half of Neu!, that build up from quiet beginnings to exhilarating futuristic swirls of synth and guitar, against backdrops of hypnotically pummeling drums. Produced by Conny Plank, whose later protegés Ultravox were clearly, and quite rightly, inspired by it.
Michael Rother	Sterntaler		1978	6+3	The style of Rother's second solo album is similar to "Flammende Herzen", but less overtly dramatic - the guitar playing has some of the mellowness of Mike Oldfield about it. Not remotely edgy, but there is something quietly heartfelt about it that ends up grabbing you.
Michael Rother	Katzenmusik NEW! (Added 05/09/2011)		1979	12+3	Another nice album by the "Neumeister", though it borders on the saccharine at times.
Roxy Music	Manifesto		1979	10	'Dance Away' and 'Angel Eyes' are available on Roxy's Greatest Hits album. The other 8 tracks here, which are useless, aren't. Go figure.
Roxy Music	Flesh and Blood		1980	10	Plusses: 'Oh Yeah', 'Same Old Scene', 'Over You' and the nice ladies on the cover. Minusses: everything else.
Roxy Music	Avalon		1982	10	A yuppie classic - intoxicatingly romantic, if you like that kind of thing, which I most definitely do.
S
Johannes Schmoelling	Wuivend Riet		1987	6	Quirky synth tunes written for some bizarre Dutch play about reeds.
Johannes Schmoelling	The Zoo of Tranquillity (original)		1988	7	Imaginative, poppy instrumentals inspired by Paul Spooner's cute automata. This original CD is almost impossible to get hold of for sensible money, but if you're lucky enough to find it, it's much superior to the later re-recording.
Johannes Schmoelling	White Out		1990	7	Seven superb synth instrumentals inspired by a TV documentary on Antarctica. Proof that melody and atmosphere need not be mutually exclusive.
Johannes Schmoelling	Songs No Words		1995	9	A collection of trite piano tunes. The implicit comparison with Mendelssohn is rather a liberty.
Johannes Schmoelling	The Zoo of Tranquillity (re-recording)		2003	9	Re-recording of the 1988 record, with many of the old synth sounds replaced by piano, all but ruining a couple of tracks. Still, worth having if you can't get the original. The new pieces are OK if hardly essential.
Johannes Schmoelling	Instant City		2006	11	Certainly pleasant to listen to, but really pretty unadventurous compared to his early solo work.
Scissor Sisters	Scissor Sisters		2004	11+2	The knowingness of this hyper-camp New York rich kid outfit makes them difficult to love, but this is still a lot better than most of the pap from the mid-"noughties".
Scissor Sisters	Ta-Dah		2006	12+1	The group expand their range a little beyond Elton John and Bee Gees pastiches - now they can do doo-wop, New Romantic and Prince as well. Despite their refusal to attempt anything remotely original, it must be said this album really contains some quite splendid songs.
Scritti Politti	Cupid and Psyche 85		1985	9+4	Smartarse postmodern dance tracks. Catchy and uplifting summer music.
Scritti Politti	Provision		1988	9+2	Underrated follow-up to 'Cupid and Psyche'; if anything, the production is even slicker, making for a superlatively funky experience.
Scritti Politti	Anomie and Bonhomie		1999	11	A disappointment. Green drafts in rappers in a wasted attempt to appeal to yoof; worse, the songs are just useless.
Scritti Politti	White Bread Black Beer		2006	14	Green offers a new, mellow take on the old 80s Scritti sound, showing the surprise influence of late Simon and Garfunkel. While a smattering more funk wouldn't exactly have gone amiss, this is a splendid return to form on the songwriting front.
The Shamen	Hits and Mixes		2006	39	Slightly tongue-in-cheek but expertly executed acid house from the early 90s. Includes excellent nonsensical rapping by Mr. C.
Carly Simon	Coming Around Again		1986	11	Simon largely put the songwriting on autopilot for this 80s commercial smash - yet as bland and soppy as she can be, her voice works magic. For certain moods, this sort of stuff can't be beaten.
Carly Simon	Have You Seen Me Lately?		1990	11	Wry songs that reveal Simon as a intelligent, philosophical thinker and a first-rate tunesmith.
Paul Simon	Paul Simon		1972	11	Contains 'Mother and Child Reunion', 'Me and Julio', and a host of far less memorable efforts.
Paul Simon	There Goes Rhymin' Simon		1973	10	Simon takes on board many musical influences but spews out something uniquely his own. Includes the fab 'American Tune'.
Paul Simon	Live Rhymin'		1974	12	OK, but marred by gimmicky gospel arrangements that show neither the songs nor Simon's voice to best effect.
Paul Simon	Graceland		1986	11	Simon's evocative voice set off by slick South African rhythms. A very adult album, with all that implies; a grower.
Paul Simon	The Rhythm of the Saints		1990	10	Simon's jungle jaunt. The emphasis is on rhythm, making the songs some of his least memorable. But after a couple of listens the atmosphere gets to ya.
Paul Simon	You're the One		2000	11	Simon certainly hasn't lost his touch, but as he reaches the end of middle age, his songs get ever more melancholy. No 'Kodachrome' here, kids.
Paul Simon	Surprise		2006	11	Paul Simon and Brian Eno might sound an unusual and creatively potent combination, but listening to this you get the feeling they just don't understand each other. And to be honest, Simon's way with a tune isn't what it once was.
Paul Simon	The Essential Paul Simon		2007	36	Very little to complain about with this compilation, which includes pretty much all his solo classics.
Paul Simon	So Beautiful or So What NEW! (Added 05/09/2011)		2011	10	A welcome return to form, with Simon contemplating spiritual themes to interesting rhythms.
Simon and Garfunkel	Sounds of Silence		1965?	12	Naive perhaps but less pretentious than their later albums.
Simon and Garfunkel	Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme		1966	12+2	Smug, pretentious songs with lovely tunes.
Simon and Garfunkel	Bookends		1968	12+2	A bit weird in places, but conveys with amazing vividness the mood of late 60s New York. (Maybe.)
Simon and Garfunkel	Bridge Over Troubled Water		1970	11	Self-conscious and posturing - but every song a classic.
Nina Simone	Blue for You: The Very Best of Nina Simone		1997	20	Any song could sound like a classic when projected by Simone's haunting voice. As it happens, lots of these songs are classics in their own right. A double recommendation, then.
Simple Minds	Empires and Dance		1980	10	Interesting to hear where the group's roots were, but they didn't yet have much to offer that distinguished them from other experimental synth bands of the time.
Simple Minds	Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call		1981	13	At first the weirder tracks disappoint next to 'The American', 'Love Song' and 'Theme for Great Cities', but slowly they have their trippy way with you. Naughty!
Simple Minds	New Gold Dream		1982	9	Atmospheric, intoxicating, celebratory - sounds like nothing else.
Simple Minds	Sparkle in the Rain		1984	10	Simple Minds' first rock album, with only the odd, ghostly splash of synth recalling their earlier sound. It made more sense in 1984 than it does now, but the visionary optimism and Mel Gaynor's rhythmic fireworks still make it an uplifting listen.
Joyce Sims	Come into my Life: Her Greatest Hits		2008	12	Late 80s funk soul from a diva of short commercial shelf life. Most things here sound like lesser versions of her quality hits "All and All" and "Come into my Life".
Sisters of Mercy	Floodland		1987	8+2	The apotheosis of Goth.
Sisters of Mercy	Some Girls Wander by Mistake		1992	19	Early songs by the Godfathers of Goth. Largely lacks the irony and grandeur of 'Floodland', though the growling cover of 'Gimme Shelter' is good for a laugh.
Patti Smith Group	Easter		1978	11+1	Contains the classic 'Because the Night' and various other punk-influenced rock tracks of limited interest.
The Smiths	Singles		1995	18	Miserable and yet somehow (at least in parts) uplifting.
Soft Cell	The Singles		1986	11	Unashamedly commercial synthpop on sleazy themes. For me this is the sound of the early 1980s.
Bruce Springsteen	Born to Run		1975	8	Reasonable but in my opinion, he hadn't yet acquired the depth to carry off slow stuff, or - except for in 'Born to Run' and 'Jungleland' - fully got the hang of rocking.
Bruce Springsteen	Darkness on the Edge of Town		1978	10	I've yet to listen to this properly, but on first listening it sounds like a 3-star job to me.
Bruce Springsteen	The River		1980	20	20-track monster with a consciously "live" feel. Some great music here at the loud and quiet ends of the spectrum, but the mid-paced stuff in between doesn't quite cut the mustard.
Bruce Springsteen	Nebraska		1982	10	Simple acoustic yarns about Yankee drifters, loners and losers. Engaging, if gloomy.
Bruce Springsteen	Born in the USA		1984	12	Mostly upbeat, though the songs are always tinged with melancholy. That ambiguity is the essence of Bruce and why he's strangely inimitable.
Bruce Springsteen	Tunnel of Love		1987	12	Favours the introspective Bruce; a bit more rockin' wouldn't have gone amiss.
Bruce Springsteen	Human Touch		1992	14	A generous helping of Bruce, with rockers and ballads carried off with equal conviction. Many felt he was past it by this stage, but I won't have that.
Bruce Springsteen	Lucky Town		1992	10	An afterthought from the recording of 'Human Touch', but every bit as good as its companion album. Raw, passionate and bleeding sincerity.
Bruce Springsteen	The Rising		2002	15	Songs about the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Well-intentioned, but a bit trite.
Bruce Springsteen	Devils and Dust		2005	12	A return to the depressing territory of "Nebraska", with some top moments but its share of filler.
Bruce Springsteen	We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions		2006	13	Covers by Springsteen and a huge posse of other musicians of songs made famous by Pete Seeger. Very rough and ready, and not really my thing, but good of its kind.
Squeeze	East Side Story		1981	14	A slew of hit singles justifiably issued from this album. The tunes and lyrics are excellent - but the cool-headed archness, and Glenn Tilbrook's uninvolved vocals, make this a less likeable record than it perhaps should be.
Rod Stewart	The Story So Far		2001	34	Rod has the ability to make any song his own - unfortunately, some would say, but I say respect to the gravel-throated old romantic.
Barbra Streisand	Guilty		1980	9	Say what you like, but (a) the woman can sing; (b) the Gibb brothers wrote some corking songs; and (c) 'Woman in Love' in particular is musical gorgeousness of the highest order. The undeserved naff image of this album simply doesn't do its content justice.
The Style Council	The Style Council Collection		1996	20	Much-derided at the time, 'The Council' did produce some top songs.
Donna Summer	Endless Summer: The Best of Donna Summer		2004	19	All the great diva's finest moments but BE WARNED: the version of 'I Feel Love' here is not the full 5-minute version. Therefore you MUST get that somewhere else, such as on 'The Very, Very, Very Best of 70s Disco" (q.v.).
Alicia Svigals	Fidl		1997	16	Violin-based Klezmer pieces, haunting and played with ferocious spirit. Brilliant.
T
Talk Talk	The Party's Over		1982	9	Dated sixth-form synth rock. 'Today' is OK I suppose, in its ludicrous melodramatic way.
Talk Talk	It's My Life		1984	9	The adult side of New Romanticism. Imaginative arrangements, excellent songs. Needs a couple of listens to get into.
Talk Talk	The Colour of Spring		1986	8	Ou sont les synthesisers d'antan? Talk Talk throw off their New Romantic garb for good, bring the tempos down, and produce an album of introspective fabness.
Talk Talk	Spirit of Eden		1988	6	If Mark Hollis got any more introspective, he'd disappear completely. As remote as this album is, it is a strangely soothing experience - a communication, one feels, from the very edge of life. (That's rather pretentious - Ed.)
Talk Talk	Asides Besides		1998	28	Two CDs: one of bloated 12-inch singles; the other capturing one of the best B-side canons in pop.
Tangerine Dream	Alpha Centauri		1971	3+1	Very early synthscapes by the Teutonic hippies. Intriguing, but you'd surely need to be in a very strange state of mind to actively enjoy it.
Tangerine Dream	Phaedra		1974	4	Odd, almost inhuman electronic soundscaping. A good way of leaving civilisation behind for a while.
Tangerine Dream	Rubycon		1974	2	See notes for 'Phaedra' - it's pretty similar.
Tangerine Dream	Ricochet		1975	2	Live electro-weirdness. No album takes me into the "Zone" like this one.
Tangerine Dream	Stratosfear		1976	4	The group moves on from the amorphous doodling of their earlier albums, and adds a few acoustic sounds into the mix (Ennio Morricone is a clear influence). The result is odd and rather intriguing, though less of a total chill-out experience than normal.
Tangerine Dream	Encore		1977	4	A meaty 80-minute helping of the group, recorded live in the USA. Fantastically atmospheric.
Tangerine Dream	Force Majeure		1979	3	Another solid effort, though 'Thru Metamorphic Rocks' isn't easy listening.
Tangerine Dream	Pergamon		1980	2	A live album that uses much of the same material as 'Tangram'.
Tangerine Dream	Tangram		1980	2	Relaxing, though for me it has a chilly, slightly depressing feel.
Tangerine Dream	Exit		1981	4	This is the album that introduced the group's pop phase, with the exhilarating 'Choronzon' the stand-out track. But it's not short on atmosphere, either. Cool!
Tangerine Dream	Logos		1982	3	Pleasantly trance-inducing electro-doodling, interspersed with catchy pop tunes. Recorded live.
Tangerine Dream	White Eagle		1982	4	The 'Dream's most rhythmical album, almost sounding like dance music at times. It's a far cry from the otherworldly 'Phaedra', but it's no less enjoyable, on its own terms.
Tangerine Dream	Hyperborea		1983	4	An atmospheric evocation of the Arctic wastes that for some unfathomable reason includes lots of sitar-like sounds.
Tangerine Dream	Poland		1984	4	A live album consisting of upbeat pop melodies connected by atmospheric doodlings. A good introduction to the group's Johanness Schmoelling period work.
Tangerine Dream	Le Parc		1985	9	This is the TD album for Jean-Michel Jarre fans: replete with pop tunes, lushly produced and without a segue in earshot. Despised by purists, but liked by most casual listeners. It works.
Tangerine Dream	Underwater Sunlight		1986	6	For me, this is the last really good TD album. Classically-trained keyboardist Paul Haslinger adds compositional know-how to the group's synth sound, with convincing results.
Tangerine Dream	Livemiles		1988	2	Has its moments, but much of this album lacks either atmosphere on the one hand, or good tunes on the other.
Tangerine Dream	Mars Polaris		1999	10	Comeback? Schmomeback. The band spews out grandiose electro-chords ad nauseam, never once looking beyond the obvious compositionally or sonically. Still, offensive it ain't.
Tangerine Dream	The Bootleg Box Set Vol. 1		2003	9	Recordings by punters of some of TD's mid-70s concerts. Recording quality is mostly surprisingly good, and even where it's not, that only seems to enhance the music's remoteness. A must for "Dreamheads" - especially the Bilbao concert, quite unusual with its pseudo-jungle sound effects.
Tangerine Dream	The Bootleg Box Set Vol. 2		2004	26	Late-70s and early-80s bootlegs of the group's live concerts. Some of the material is more or less duplicated from studio albums, and lots of "Encore" is here too. Therefore not quite as good value as Volume 1, but again, fans shouldn't think twice about acquiring it.
Tangerine Dream	Jeanne d'Arc		2006	9	See notes for "Mars Polaris". As far as I can tell, it's the same album with one of the tracks lopped off. (I don't know which.)
Tangerine Dream	Live in Preston, November 5 1980		2006	14	Another bootlegged live recording of the "Dream". Don't be put off by the less than glamorous venue - this is another classic collection of electro-doodlings.
Tangerine Dream	Hyperborea 2008		2008	5	A surprisingly good re-recording of one of the group's most accessible 80s albums, which wraps the atmospherics of the original in a smoother, more subtle sound. Top job.
Tangerine Dream	Tangram 2008		2008	7	A woefully misjudged, dancified reworking of the first Schmoelling-period album. The cool, enigmatic sound of the original is pumped full of steroids, to grotesque effect.
Tears for Fears	The Hurting		1983	10+4	Catchy pop songs about child neglect. Hardly a barrel of laughs, but top stuff nonetheless.
Tears for Fears	Songs from the Big Chair		1985	8+7	This yuppie favourite seemed so "of its time" in 1985, it's a surprise now to hear how good it is, and how well it's aged. The songs are all top-notch and executed with passion and precision.
Tears for Fears	Tears Roll Down (Greatest Hits 82-92)		1992	12	Hits from the first three "Fears" albums, plus the rather good 1992 single "Laid So Low". Can't say fairer than that.
Tears for Fears	Everybody Loves a Happy Ending		2004	12	Curt and Roland reunite. Everything about this 60s/early 70s-flavoured album is tasteful and competent, but nothing about it is at all exciting. The passion is all gone.
10CC	The Very Best of 10CC		1997	18	'I'm Not In Love', 'The Things We Do For Love' - classics. But if you're wondering why so many of the other tracks here are unfamiliar, a quick listen should offer clarification. When the 70s were bad, they were terrible.
Richard and Linda Thompson	I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight		1974	10+3	One should be open-minded about everything, even folk music, but when when one finds it irritating as heck one should say so. Even "Does He Have a Friend for Me?" is far surpassed by Maria McKee's cover version.
'Til Tuesday	Voices Carry		1985	11	Good tunes, naff lyrics. A talented AOR band finding their feet.
'Til Tuesday	Welcome Home		1986	10	Fortunately, 'Til Tuesday performed their songs with infinitely more taste than they dressed.
'Til Tuesday	Everything's Different Now		1988	10	Catchy, upbeat pop tunes about real-life heartbreak. Slick yet deep, and every song top quality.
U
U2	The Unforgettable Fire		1984	10	Quite atmospheric, but has dated surprisingly badly. And the youthful Bono's vocals have little to recommend them.
U2	The Joshua Tree		1987	11	Undeniably pretentious, but the yearning melodies and The Edge's shimmering fretwork save the day.
U2	Achtung Baby		1991	12	The 'irony' is laboured, the lyrics are dire, and even the tunes barely register in the memory. So why is this album a classic? Dunno, but it is.
UB40	The Best of UB40, Volume 1				Buying this album made me realise I liked UB40 less than I thought.
Ultravox	Vienna		1980	9	Po-faced, pretentious, nonsensical and almost totally irrelevant to the 21st Century. Nevertheless renderered essential by the title track and the brilliant instrumental 'Astradyne'.
Ultravox	Rage in Eden		1981	9+3	Ultravox's most consistent album. It makes no sense at all, but it's rousing stuff, full of synth-rock classics. The quality bolted-on B-sides compensate for a couple of substandard tracks on the original album.
Ultravox	Quartet		1982	9	'Hymn', 'Reap the Wild Wind' and 'Visions in Blue' are good enough songs to rise above George Martin's lacklustre production (one senses he wasn't really a fan). The lesser tunes certainly suffer for it, though.
Ultravox	Lament		1984	8	The last decent Ultravox album. As usual, risibly pretentious, but saved by pounding rhythms and good tunes.
Ultravox	Original Gold		1998	30	An incoherent collection of singles, album tracks and B-sides from the Midge Ure years. No neglected classics here, but Midge's solo cover of 'No Regrets' and a couple of the instrumentals are worth having.
Ultravox!	The Island Years		1999	16	Only one group was more preposterous than Midge Ure's Ultravox, and that was the John Foxx-led Ultravox! (sic) that preceded it.
The Undertones	Teenage Kicks - The Best of the Undertones		2001	20	Feargal Sharkey's vocals add something weirdly soulful to the punk sound. Needless to say, the best-known songs are also the best, but there are a few hidden gems here too.
Midge Ure	The Gift		1985	11	The pointy-sideburned one's first solo effort. Quite similar in sound to Ultravox, if a little more reflective and with slightly less pretentious lyrics.
V
Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons	The Definitive Frankie Valli and the Four Seaons		2001	26	Only a superlatively irritating voice could spoil such a treasure trove of classic pop tunes as this. Sadly, Frankie rises to the challenge almost every time, only just curbing his falsetto excesses in time to make 1975's "December 1963" a good reason for owning this collection.
Various	The Best of James Bond (30th Anniv. Collection)		1992	19	Original versions of all the Bond themes up to 'The Living Daylights'. Every one's a winner!
Various	20 Greatest Western Themes		1994	20	Arggh! NOT the original movie/TV themes, but disco-muzak recordings of the type that any sane person can see should be illegal.
Various	Ambient Acoustic		1996	30	The sound of snails crawling across keyboards (Disc 1) and guitar strings (Disc 2).
Various	Shaken not Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project		1997	11	New versions of some Bond themes by guest artists. Some are unrecognisable and some are unimaginative retreads, but most get top-notch treatment. (Pulp's version of 'All Time High' is notable for being better than the original.)
Various	The Very, Very, Very Best of 70s Disco		1998	34	Many excesses of naffness here, but boy is it a nostalgia-fest.
Various	The Best of Dance 98		1998	44	I can't remember why I bought this.
Various	Rave Anthems		1998	41	Naff but uplifting dance tunes from the early 90s.
Various	Dance Anthems Vol. 2		1998	40	A few classics, but a lot of things you presumably need to be on drugs to enjoy.
Various	O Brother, Where art thou? (Music from the Motion Picture)		2000	19	This film did the impossible and made bluegrass music hip for 5 minutes. That could only have happened with top-notch material that undermines country's sentimental image.
Various	House Classics		2004	54	A nice selection of old school and early 00's tunes, all for £3.
Various	Funk Soul Classics		2004	39	A quality selection of lightweight disco choons from the late 70s and early 80s.
Various	Electric 80s		2005	46	Some of the best-loved synth tunes of the 80s - several in 12" versions, which aren't always as pointless as you might expect.
Various	Funky House '06		2006	42	Utter throwaway rubbish, with barely anything resembling a song. Who cares though? It's House, and it's funky.
Various	100 Hits: Disco		2007	100	A good value compilation, centred on the genre's 70s heyday but with some later stuff thrown in. There's something here for everyone to love, something for everyone to hate.
Visage	The Damned Don't Cry		2000	16	One of the most ridiculous of all New Romantic acts: no irony should be inferred from Steve Strange's dress sense. For all that, the opening bars of 'Fade to Grey' still send a shiver down my spine. Oh God.
W
Jennifer Warnes	Famous Blue Raincoat		1987	9	Leonard Cohen's songs are better than his singing, which admittedly isn't saying much. Getting Jennifer Warnes to sing them instead is therefore a good idea. Shame about the lyrical pretentiousness, though.
Gillian Welch	Revival		1996	10	Haunting folk/blues with an undercurrent of dreamy strangeness. Every song beautifully written, beautifully sung, beautifully arranged.
Gillian Welch	Hell Among the Yearlings		1998	11	Similar to "Revival", but with more banjos. It's pleasant, but doesn't have the same magic as the earlier album: the tunes tend to the throwaway and the lyrics are sometimes daft.
Gillian Welch	Time (The Revelator)		2001	10	Old-school folk-pop with good tunes and generous helpings of both irony and emotion.
Gillian Welch	Soul Journey		2003	10	Welch expands her sound, with ambivalent results. On many tracks both Welch and the backing musicians play like an ME sufferers' collective; and despite some good songs, an equal number get by on a great deal of repetition.
Paul Weller	Wild Wood		1993	16	Weller's 90s comeback album. Can't say I listen to it much.
Paul Weller	Stanley Road		1995	12	Weller on a songwriting roll. However, his voice gets irritating.
Paul Weller	Illumination		2002	13	Warning: If you see a CD on offer for £3 on the home page of the HMV Web site, DON'T BUY IT.
Steve Winwood	Arc of a Diver		1980	7	Less polished than his later solo albums, but the songs are compositionally more ambitious. Includes possibly the only instance of the phrase "My rock 'n' roll is putting on weight" ever recorded.
Steve Winwood	Back in the High Life		1986	8	Some classics, some rather forgettable efforts, but nothing that's less than tasteful.
Steve Winwood	Roll With It		1988	8	Winwood at his best: he could almost give white soul a good name.
Steve Winwood	Refugees of the Heart		1990	8	Another reasonably solid Winwood outing, though it peters out towards the end.
Steve Winwood	Junction Seven		1997	11	A couple of classics, but much of it is 'Winwood-by-numbers'.
Steve Winwood	Nine Lives		2008	9	Latin-influenced rhythmical intricacy that's a bit short on memorable tunes. "The Raging Sea", mind you, is as funky as it gets.
The Wonder Stuff	If the Beatles Had Read Hunter... The Singles		1994	18	Punchy lyrics, integrity and some good songs... though not quite enough of the latter.
X
Y
Yazoo	Upstairs at Eric's		1982	11	The beeps and gurgles sound very dated now, but that's probably part of the charm. And the catchy tunes, of course.
Yazoo	You and Me Both		1983	11	Further adventures in catchy but melancholy synthpop. Both Vince and Alf are on top songwriting form.
Z



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