Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1986…
#4 – Lifes Rich Pageant – R.E.M.
Few bands had as a good a run in the 80s as R.E.M. Lifes Rich Pageant was the band’s fourth album in as many years and every one was a masterpiece.
Following up the murky folk rock of Fables of the Reconstruction, Pageant found the band in full rock mode, putting the muscular sound of their live shows on record for the first time.
Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1986…
#5 – So – Peter Gabriel
My top five albums of 1986 are all-timers. Each one would be on the long list of my favorite records. It’s pretty crazy that they all came out the same year.
English singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel had modest U.S. success with his first four albums (all self-titled), but his fifth release — given the throwaway title So after the record label asked for something easier to market — was his breakthrough.
Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1986…
#6 – Blood & Chocolate – Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello had such a good 80s run that my #6 album of 1986 was just his second-best release that year. I’ll get to the other one next week.
After a series of genre exercises (country, baroque pop, 60s soul, New Wave, Americana), Blood & Chocolate was a muscular rock-n-roll album, Costello’s first since 19878’s This Year’s Model. When Costello snarls out the album’s title in the opening moments of first track ‘Uncomplicated’ to the strains of an aggressive electric guitar, you know you’re in for a wild ride.
Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1986…
#7 – The Bridge – Billy Joel
Billy Joel’s 10th studio album was his last truly great one. I find a lot to love on 1989’s Storm Front and 1993’s River of Dreams, but this album is special from start to finish.
OK, maybe ‘This is the Time’ is a bit of a speed bump among the album’s nine tracks, but you can’t beat up on the guy for writing a prom theme.
Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1986…
#8 – Especially For You – The Smithereens
I didn’t hear The Smithereens’ debut studio album until several years later when the band played a free concert during my freshman year at the University of Florida. I liked what I heard at that show so much I picked up this CD the next day.
Especially For You is an alternative pop rock masterpiece, featuring one absolute banger after another. Lead singer/songwriter Pat DiNizio called the album “a greatest hits collection from a band nobody’s heard of” because they’d been writing and playing for five years before recording the album.
Meet Me In Montauk 