In the year when New Wave started crossing over The Clash, Elvis Costello, and Talking Heads created the holy-shit-the-second-album template whereby a band realizes on the promises of a debut, often with songs written at the same time as the debut’s. This puts them in a most uncomfortable position the third go-round, although The Clash and Talking Heads didn’t suffer (Costello did).
To quash the croakings of despair from my readers, I’ll repeat that Street Hassle boasts a magnificent title tune and a lot of oh-sweet-nothings besides the splendid title track.
For this chart, I ranked everything.
Meh
Patti Smith Group – Easter
Lou Reed – Street Hassle
Generation X – Generation X
Sound, Solid
Van Morrison – Wavelength
Al Green – Truth ‘n Time
Bob Dylan – Street Legal
Ramones – Road to Ruin
Ian Dury – New Boots and Panties!
The Who – Who Are You
Good to Great
Talking Heads – More Songs About Buildings and Food
Brian Eno – Before and After Science
Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band – Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)
Willie Nelson – Stardust
Wire – Pink Flag
Funkadelic – One Nation Under a Groove
Blondie – Parallel Lines
Elvis Costello and the Attractions – This Year’s Model
The Rolling Stones – Some Girls
The Cars – The Cars
Warren Zevon – Excitable Boy
Television – Adventure
David Johansen – David Johansen
Neil Young – Comes a Time
Nick Lowe – Pure Pop for Now People
The Clash – Give ‘Em Enough Rope
Cheap Trick – Heaven Tonight
Pere Ubu – The Modern Dance
Devo – Are We Not Men? We Are Devo!
Bruce Springsteen – Darkness at the Edge of Town
The Jury’s Out
Dave Edmunds – Tracks on Wax 4
Humanizing The Vacuum 