The singles-oriented UK weekly New Music Express recently published a compelling list of 50 albums released in 1985 that still sound great today. They nailed most, but far from all, of what I regard as “the biggies” of that fertile year. Without pausing at NME‘s head scratchers, here’s another 50, in no particular order. Let’s make it an even hundred.
Cock Robin (Cock Robin)
Strength (The Alarm)
Fine Young Cannibals (Fine Young Cannibals)
That’s Why I’m Here (James Taylor)
Welcome to the Real World (Mr. Mister)
White City: A Novel (Pete Townshend)
Brother Where You Bound (Supertramp)
Music from the Film Birdy (Peter Gabriel)
Aerial Boundaries (Michael Hedges)
Fables (Jean-Luc Ponty)
Hybrid (Michael Brook)
Power Windows (Rush)
Flaunt the Imperfection (China Crisis)
The Small Price of a Bicycle (The Icicle Works)
Song X (Pat Metheny)
Black Codes (From the Underground) (Wynton Marsalis)
Listen Like Thieves (INXS)
Silvertone (Chris Isaak)
Be Yourself Tonight (Eurythmics)
High Country Snows (Dan Fogelberg)
Macalla (Clannad)
Go West (Go West)
Lone Justice (Lone Justice)
Shaken ‘n’ Stirred (Robert Plant)
Picture Book (Simply Red)
Mosaic (Mark Egan)
Flags (Patrick Moraz & Bill Bruford)
No Rest for the Wicked (New Model Army)
Voices (Roger Eno)
Soul to Soul (Stevie Ray Vaughan)
The Rhythmatist (Stewart Copeland)
Beat Hotel (The Bongos)
Visions of Excess (The Golden Palominos)
Play Deep (The Outfield)
Heyday (The Church)
Open the Door (Pentangle)
Under a Raging Moon (Roger Daltrey)
Good Morning Kiss (Carmen Lundy)
Dangerous Moments (Martin Briley)
Tales of the New West (The Beat Farmers)
Vocalese (The Manhattan Transfer)
25 O’Clock (The Dukes of Stratosphear)
Most of the Girls Like To Dance… (Don Dixon)
The Pink Opaque (Cocteau Twins)
Cielo e Terra (Al di Meola)
The Power Station (The Power Station)
The Dream of the Blue Turtles (Sting)
The Speckless Sky (Jane Siberry)
Across a Crowded Room (Richard Thompson)
Meets the Mothers of Prevention (Frank Zappa)
19 February 2015