Mentioned by acclamation the best pop year since 1964, the third year of the Reagan presidency brought peak SST bands, peak New Wave-gone-pop, Prince going all over the place, Springsteen allowing dance remixes. I’ll let soberer heads treat this year with the scrutiny it deserves, but let me spare a moment for King Sunny Adé’s best period album (where he treats the synths like his guitars) and for Double Nickels on the Dime, an album full of Wire-length squiggles with epic-sized emotions.
Meh
The Smiths – The Smiths
Neville Brothers – Neville-ization
Sound, Solid
George Clinton – You Shouldn’t-Nuf Bit Fish
Van Halen – 1984
The dB’s – Like This
Laurie Anderson – Mister Heartbreak
Tom Verlaine – Cover
Ramones – Too Tough to Die
U2 – The Unforgettable Fire
Good to Great
Bruce Springsteen – Born in the U.S.A.
Prince and the Revolution – Purple Rain
King Sunny Adé and His African Beats – Aura
Bangles – All Over the Place
Minutemen – Double Nickels on the Dime
Womack & Womack – Love Wars
Linton Kwesi Johnson – Making History
The Replacements – Let It Be
Run D.M.C. – Run-D.M.C.
Cyndi Lauper – She’s So Unusual
The Pretenders – Learning to Crawl
Lou Reed – New Sensations
The Meat Puppets – Meat Puppets II
R.E.M. – Reckoning
Los Lobos – How Will the Wolf Survive
Hüsker Dü – Zen Arcade
Laurie Anderson – United States Live
The Jury’s Out
Rubén Blades y Seis del Solar – Buscando America
Humanizing The Vacuum 