500 CDs You Must Own: Alternative Rock

TORI AMOS
Under the Pink
ATLANTIC, 1994
Effortlessly straddling the middle ground between Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush, Tori Amos and her Bosendorfer piano detailed tales of poor-quality sex, hostile waitresses and Amos’s trademark kookiness. She’s not as sweet as she looks, obviously.
Standout track: “Cornflake Girl”

THE B-52’s
Nude On the Moon
RHINO, 2002
Before R.E.M., Athens, Georgia’s most famous group was this cartoonish quintet. On this compilation, their obsessions — the ’60s, beehive hairdos, Yoko Ono, camp and New Wave dance — coalesce to form a very strange, compelling world.
Standout track: “Dance This Mess Around”

BASEMENT JAXX
Remedy
xl/ASTRALWERKS, 1999
Dance music is usually keen to pigeonhole itself, but British duo Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe broke free of genre restrictions with dazzling success on their debut. It’s a giddy trip that devours P-funk, disco, ragga, garage and everything in between.
Standout track: “Red Alert”

BEASTIE BOYS
Licensed to Ill
DEF JAM, 1986
The trio snubs it now, but this album don’t care nothin’ about no one — least of all left-wing milquetoasts such as Adam Yauch, so confident is it in its massive beats, masturbatory fantasies and power-whine rhyme swapping.
Standout track: “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)”

BEASTIE BOYS
Paul’s Boutique
CAPITOL, 1989
No one bought it at the time, but the Beasties’ second CD, Paul’s Boutique, has since been hailed as their magnum opus. After the thuggish simplicity of Licensed to Ill, it’s no wonder the follow-up’s ingenious bouillabaisse of funk, rock and speed-shouting threw a few.
Standout track: “Hey Ladies”

BECK
Mellow Gold
GEFFEN, 1993
Still available in both “clean” and “explicit” versions, Beck Hansen’s breakthrough patented the template for the irony-laden ’90s with its fusion of country, folk and hip-hop and wry, knowing lyrics. It’s no fun without “Fuckin’ With My Head,” though.
Standout track: “Loser”

BECK
Odelay
GEFFEN, 1996
If Beck still felt like a one-hit slacker wonder after Mellow Gold, then Odelay settled all bets. Riding the line between smart-ass and just plain smart, the cut-and-paste wunderkind sings a soulful verse and slings a fair rhyme. Suddenly, rock & roll is fun again.
Standout track: “Where It’s At”

BIG STAR
Third/Sister Lovers
RYKODISC, 1978
Posthumously released, Big Star’s third album was the final gasp of air from one of rock’s most influential cults. However, their power-pop took a chilly detour when Chilton’s inspiration turned erratic and desperate. Best listened to alone.
Standout track: “Kanga-Roo”

BIG STAR
#1 Record/Radio City
FANTASY, 1992
Two albums recorded in 1972 and 1974 — the missing link between the Rolling Stones circa Aftermath and the new wave, with a side order of Dixie soul and chiming, glad-to-be-alive guitars by raggedy-voiced cult pinup Alex Chilton.
Standout track: “September Gurls”

BJÖRK
Greatest Hits
ELEKTRA, 2002
The best introduction to Björk’s fascinatingly diverse catalog arrived to mark her first decade as a solo artist. Compiled by fans, it’s a stunningly inventive collection of alien electro-pop from a one-off talent. She’s Icelandic, you know.
Standout track: “All Is Full of Love”

BLACK FLAG
Damaged
SST, 1981
Before gangsta rap, Black Flag were as street as they came. But while new addition Henry Rollins adds doomed-monster charisma to the band’s everydude wall of thrash, the best moments happen when happy adolescent nihilism trumps existential despair.
Standout track: “TV Party”

BLINK-182
Enema of the State
MCA, 1999
Slack-jawed toilet humor bolted to contagious riffs, Blink-182’s fourth offering is a gift for legions of like-minded teenage fans. Cleverly, though, the porn fixation and fart gags rarely cloud their razor-smart pop-rock.
Standout track: “What’s My Age Again?”

DAVID BOWIE
Low
VIRGIN, 1977
The first installment of the Berlin trilogy (Heroes and Lodger would soon follow). The chemically altered Bowie turns in a masterful first half of minimal, artful pop before confounding everyone with the icy, groundbreaking electronica of the second half.
Standout track: “Sound and Vision”

DAVID BOWIE
Best of Bowie
VIRGIN, 2002
A best-of that actually succeeds in editing a dazzling three-decade career into 39 tracks. Savor the transition as razor-cheekboned ladyboy mutates into bespoke-suited gentleman rocker, with a careful track listing avoiding any possible slip-ups along the way.
Standout track: “Ziggy Stardust”

BILLY BRAGG & WILCO
Mermaid Avenue
ELEKTRA, 1998
Unexpected collaboration between English bloke, alt-country band and Woody Guthrie, deceased lefty folk giant. Guthrie’s daughter invited Bragg and Wilco to write current music for his unrecorded lyrics. Straight from the heart of politics and love, it worked.
Standout track: “California Stars”

BREEDERS
Last Splash
4AD/ELEKTRA, 1993
Ex-Pixie Kim Deal, her sister Kelley, ex–Perfect Disaster bassist Josephine Wiggs and some drummer built a sexy, endlessly charming guitar-pop album out of spare parts left over from Amerindie noise-punk, accidentally ushering in the ’90s’ alt-rock boom as they went.
Standout track: “Cannonball”

BUZZCOCKS
Singles Going Steady
I.R.S., 1980
The A-sides and nearly-as-brilliant B-sides of Manchester, England’s punk romantics. Like Green Day with a brain, like Blink-182 with a heart: from “I Don’t Mind” to “Oh Shit!”, it’s pop with razors from love’s finest punky chroniclers.
Standout track: “What Do I Get?”

THE CARS
The Cars
ELEKTRA, 1978
Boston’s Cars became an instant smash with their chrome-plated debut. Ric Ocasek’s songs offered crisp, catchy snapshots of alienation and romantic distress, all given a smart New Wave sheen by the band’s edgy beats and electronic keyboards.
Standout track: “My Best Friend’s Girl”

CHEMICAL BROTHERS
Dig Your Own Hole
ASTRALWERKS, 1997
Their 1997 Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental proved that no one makes electronica like this British pair. “Block Rockin’ Beats” and “Setting Sun” harnessed the most powerful elements of rock and made them deliriously danceable.
Standout track: “Block Rockin’ Beats”

THE CLASH
The Clash
CBS, 1977
The definitive U.K. punk album, the Clash’s debut was initially denied a U.S. release on account of its lo-fi production. Its roughness, however, was an integral part of its appeal — along with the quartet’s mix of rock attitude and politicized anger.
Standout track: “Career Opportunities”

THE CLASH
London Calling
EPIC, 1979
The Clash could have been just another crash-and-burn class-of-’77 outfit, but the two-album set London Calling changed everything. Cruising artfully through punk, reggae and all-out rock, it cinched their status as “the only band who mattered.”
Standout track: “London Calling”

COLDPLAY
A Rush of Blood to the Head
CAPITOL, 2002
Sensitive, Radiohead-fixated Englishmen, Coldplay found their own niche with their sterling second album. Crammed with exquisite ballads and emotive rock, it surely helped singer Chris Martin thaw Gwyneth Paltrow’s heart.
Standout track: “The Scientist”

ELVIS COSTELLO
This Year’s Model
RHINO, 1978
Costello’s bilious lyrics on this benchmark of disgust and unrepentant rage are aimed primarily at the fairer sex, and he lands a dizzying array of verbal body blows, augmented by bludgeoning musical support from the uncredited Attractions.
Standout track: “Pump It Up”

ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS
Armed Forces
RHINO, 1979
Originally titled Emotional Fascism, EC’s third album refines the pop stylings of This Year’s Model and ratchets up the lyrical heat. Bristling with takes on right-wingers, newscasters and office politics.
Standout track: “Oliver’s Army”

MARSHALL CRENSHAW
This Is Easy!: The Best of Marshall Crenshaw
RHINO, 2000
Casting Crenshaw as Buddy Holly in the film La Bamba was inspired. The Detroit native was the Holly of the ’80s, writing pretty yet invariably punchy pop gems.
Standout track: “You’re My Favorite Waste of Time”

THE CURE
Greatest Hits
ELEKTRA, 2001
Eighteen songs over 23 years, from the post-punk benchmarks (“Boys Don’t Cry”) and Eurodisco (“The Walk”) to melancholy passion plays (“Lovesong”) and ’90s hits (“Friday I’m in Love”), this is the perfect introduction to Robert Smith and the Cure’s pop mopery.
Standout track: “Just Like Heaven”

DEPECHE MODE
The Singles ’86–’98
REPRISE, 1998
Depeche Mode’s Sturm und Drang showed that fey English boys with keyboards really could seduce stadiums full of fans. Their songwriting skills oscillated wildly, but this singles collection shows the band at its brooding best.
Standout track: “I Feel You”

DEVO
Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!
WARNER BROS., 1978
Akron, Ohio’s Devo wore uniforms and sang strange tales of weird sex and unsettling events with a childlike charm. The whole package comes together on this debut with a panache Devo would never re-create. Remarkable still.
Standout track: “Jocko Homo”

DJ SHADOW
Endtroducing…
FULL FREQUENCY, 1996
Shadow’s meticulous, sample-based project introduced us to the movies inside the reclusive record collector’s head. Elegantly hard-hitting, it revolutionized instrumental hip-hop by showing new worlds where samples and beats told their own stories.
Standout track: “Midnight in a Perfect World”

DURAN DURAN
Greatest
CAPITOL, 1998
A lethal combination of Andy Warhol enthusiasts and beefy lads who figured a rock career could be the swiftest route into a model’s pants, Duran Duran morphed from swishy synth-pop into video-assisted blockbusters. The sound of Reaganomics.
Standout track: “Hungry Like the Wolf”

ENGLISH BEAT
Beat This!: The Best of the English Beat
SIRE, 2000
Fans of ska-punk are hereby advised to go back to one of its wellsprings: the work of the U.K. band who fused a love of Jamaican music and punk’s iconoclastic intent with a striking talent for commercial pop.
Standout track: “Mirror in the Bathroom”

BRIAN ENO
Here Come the Warm Jets
ISLAND, 1974
Brian Eno’s second post–Roxy Music album remains his best pop effort. His experimental touch turns basic glam-rock into something sick and sinister. The free-associating, posh-voiced vocals are an acquired taste, but there’s method in this madness.
Standout track: “Baby’s On Fire”

BRIAN ENOAnother Green World
EG, 1975
Art-pop ballads sung in Eno’s weirdly affecting deadpan nestle alongside abstract instrumentals that presage his ambient years. Experimental yet accessible, it’s exactly the kind of album that Eno devotees long for from him today.
Standout track: “Over Fire ISLAND”

FATBOY SLIM
You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby
ASTRALWERKS, 1998
Techno with the fun turned up to 11. On his second album as Fatboy Slim, England’s Norman Cook discovered that the sunnier the tunes, the more people danced. The bubblegum hooks and crunchy riffs made it safe for wallflowers.
Standout track: “Praise You”

THE FEELIES
Crazy Rhythms
A&M;, 1980
This New Jersey quartet never broke through, but it did leave us a sterling legacy of pop as sugarcoated icebergs: sweet and sticky as early Beatles on top; as dark and weird as the Velvet Underground beneath. If only they hadn’t been quite so smart.…
Standout track: “Loveless Love”

GANG OF FOUR
Entertainment!
INFINITE ZERO, 1979
Throwing down the post-punk gauntlet, Gang of Four’s debut is a powder keg full of paradoxes: Chilly vocals and jagged shards of guitar keep you at a shivering distance, while Marxist lyrics and a deep-groovin’ rhythm section provoke both action and reaction.
Standout track: “Anthrax”

GO-GO’S
Beauty and the Beat
I.R.S., 1981
L.A. punk meets cute pop in the hands of a quintet of very lively young ladies. New Wave landmarks bursting with melody and mischief, the propulsive “We Got the Beat” and the slinky “Our Lips Are Sealed” still bristle with estrogen.
Standout track: “Our Lips Are Sealed”

GREEN DAY
Dookie
REPRISE, 1994
Without this, there would be no Sum 41. But don’t hold that against Green Day: Their major-label debut remains an invigorating, clever update of punk’s obsession with adolescent frustration. Naturally, in “Longview,” it spawned a hit song about masturbation.
Standout track: “Basket Case”

PJ HARVEY
Rid of Me
ISLAND, 1993
In the wake of her 1992 debut, Dry, England’s Polly Harvey could easily have edged toward the mainstream. Instead, in cahoots with producer Steve Albini, her band created a tempestuous follow-up that proved she was a fantastically singular talent.
Standout track: “Rid of Me”

PJ HARVEYTo Bring You My Love
ISLAND, 1995
Having broken up her original powerhouse trio, Harvey produced what to date has proved her masterpiece. Spaghetti-western inflections (“Send His Love to Me”) sit back-to-back with country laments (“C’mon Billy”) and dark murder-pop (“Down by the Water”).
Standout track: “C’mon Billy”

HÜSKER DÜ
New Day Rising
SST, 1985
Initially, Minneapolis’s Hüsker Dü were pure hardcore noise, until Zen Arcade and then New Day Rising showed their burgeoning interest in hooks and melody. Magnificently, this only served to add to the intensity. Bob Mould has more space to howl here, and he uses it all.
Standout track: “I Apologize”

JANE’S ADDICTION
Nothing’s Shocking
WARNER BROS., 1988
Wildly pretentious art-metal rising out of the ashes of L.A. glitter rock, Nothing’s Shocking layers prog-rock ambitions, druggy ballads and arena-ready riffs over punk shock tactics and Perry Farrell’s drama-queen wail. Sound exhausting? It is.
Standout track: “Jane Says”

FREEDY JOHNSTON
Can You Fly
BAR/NONE, 1992
A mouthpiece of reason for the X Generation, Freedy Johnston sang of the dazed and confused with a decided alt-country twist. He rarely provides answers here, but it doesn’t matter: With his ragged voice and crafty melodies, Can You Fly still rings true.
Standout track: “Responsible”

JOY DIVISION
Closer
QWEST, 1980
The title rhymes with bulldozer, and the morbid Brit post-punkers’ graceful final album sees arachnid synths augmenting pitiless guitars and drums. Ian Curtis does a fine impression of a man abandoned by everyone, including God. Interpol think they sound like this.
Standout track: “Isolation”

KORN
Follow the Leader
IMMORTAL/EPIC, 1998
On their third and breakthrough outing, over subtle refinements to their pile-driving death metal, frontman Jonathan Davis fashions an impressive kaleidoscope of vocal styles ranging from rap to scat and even proper singing.
Standout track: “Dead Bodies Everywhere”

KRAFTWERK
Autobahn
PHILIPS, 1974
This marks the start of Kraftwerk’s reign as electronic visionaries, as proved beyond doubt by the 22-minute title track, which suggests the Beach Boys reinterpreted by European man-machines. After this album, guitar manufacturers really had something to worry about.
Standout track: “Autobahn”

KRAFTWERK
Trans-Europe Express
CAPITOL, 1977
Radio-Activity (1975) was a difficult effort, but Kraftwerk got back on track with Trans-Europe Express. Afrika Bambaataa’s appropriation of the title track made it legendary, but it’s equally notable for the entrancing “Europe Endless.”
Standout track: “Trans-Europe Express”

LOS LOBOS
How Will the Wolf Survive?
SLASH/WARNER BROS., 1984
This former bar band from East L.A. was the biggest Hispanic rock act since Santana, but they drew inspiration from the Tex-Mex border, not the Spanish Caribbean. Songs and togetherness rather than jams and partying down were their vibe.
Standout track: “Will the Wolf Survive?”

LOVE
Forever Changes (2001 Deluxe Edition)
RHINO, 2001
Nineteen sixty-seven certainly wasn’t the summer of love. Los Angeles’s Arthur Lee was your captain here for a surreal, black-magic carpet ride through the paranoid underbelly of hippiedom. Warped and lovely.
Standout track: “Alone Again Or”

NICK LOWE
Basher: The Best of Nick Lowe
COLUMBIA, 1989
Branded a punk godfather for his mordant lyrics, Lowe was really a proto–rock & roller, sharing more with the Everly Brothers than with Johnny Rotten. Most of this vibrant compilation comes from the late ’70s, with his songwriting genius in full flower.
Standout track: “Cruel to Be Kind”

MAGNETIC FIELDS
69 Love Songs
MERGE, 1999
A stately indie-pop trilogy that views romance from every angle. Funny and fey, self-pitying and literate — “The moon to whom the poets croon/Has given up and died/Astronomy will have to be revised” — it’s an enormous achievement.
Standout track: “All My Little Words”

MASSIVE ATTACK
Blue Lines
VIRGIN, 1991
With this debut, the Bristol, England, trio and guests made a trip-hop classic before the term even existed. Dub bass lines, paranoid rapping and the lush vocals of Horace Andy and Shara Nelson make this a cross-cultural, downbeat treat.
Standout track: “Unfinished Sympathy”

MEAT PUPPETS
Meat Puppets II
SST, 1984
Meat Puppets II is an American guitar melting pot — bluegrass, choogle, folk and hardcore — that helped build the bridge between the indie-rock underground and the rock mainstream. No wonder Nirvana covered three tracks on their Unplugged set.
Standout track: “Lake of Fire”

MEKONS
The Mekons Rock N’ Roll
COLLECTOR’S CHOICE, 1989
On their major-label debut, England’s folk-punk Mekons embrace rock & roll. The erstwhile minimalists seem shocked at what they find, but they succumb to its scale in a festival of power drumming, power fiddling and mordant ambivalence.
Standout track: “Memphis, Egypt”

MINOR THREAT
Complete Discography
DISCHORD, 1988
Their hardcore racket was loud, their mood angry and their songs short. Washington, D.C.’s Minor Threat appeared to have consumed their body weight in stimulants. In fact, the straight-edge movement was named after a Minor Threat tune.
Standout track: “Straight Edge”

MINUTEMEN
Double Nickels On the Dime
SST, 1984
The California trio’s 44-song masterpiece mixes hardcore, jazz and funk, pushing American punk a step further. Switching styles at any given moment, their deadly serious approach is leavened by pokes at Michael Jackson and Ronald Reagan.
Standout track: “This Ain’t No Picnic”

MOBY
Play
V2, 1999
Techno baldie Moby genre-hopped for years before he finally found his niche here. By uniting ancient, sorrowful blues vocals with chilled dance beats, he created a soulful soundtrack for millions of lives — and just as many commercials.
Standout track: “Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?”

ALANIS MORISSETTE
Jagged Little Pill
MAVERICK/REPRISE, 1996
A fierce examination of the modern female condition by — strangely enough — an ex–Debbie Gibson clone from Canada. That she manages to transcend such origins and sound convincing is only part of her monumental achievement.
Standout track: “You Oughta Know”

MY BLOODY VALENTINE
Loveless
SIRE, 1991
A crashing, joyous celebration of what happens when amplifiers seemingly create art of their own. But making guitars sound like butterflies and icebergs had its price: Loveless bankrupted its U.K. label and proved impossible for these Dubliners to follow.
Standout track: “I Only Said”

NEW ORDER
(The Best of) New Order
QWEST/WARNER BROS., 1995
Rather than as a one-stop shop, use this disc as a springboard for further investigation into one of pop’s greatest catalogs. Rising from the ashes of Joy Division, New Order united New Wave and dance with spring-heeled success.
Standout track: “True Faith”

NINE INCH NAILS
The Downward Spiral
NOTHING/INTERSCOPE, 1994
Trent Reznor’s death-dance soundscapes tap into alienation and fury in equal measure. The music may be as clinical as an operating room, but in tandem with the S&M; lyrics, it makes for a work that still feels dangerous.
Standout track: “Closer”

NO DOUBT
Rock Steady
INTERSCOPE, 2001
No Doubt prove their staying power by becoming sophisticated polymaths. Gwen Stefani — Jean Harlow on a skateboard — is as loveable as ever, but of equal charm are her bandmates, who master spongy reggae, twitchy New Wave and Top 40 dance-pop.
Standout track: “Hey Baby”

OASIS
(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?
EPIC, 1995
Their musical standards have slipped ever since, but Oasis’s second album proves that they once had the right stuff: wall-of-sound guitars, awesome rock & roll vocals, and no hesitation about borrowing the best bits of rock’s canon.
Standout track: “Wonderwall”

SINÉAD O’CONNOR
So Far…The Best of Sinéad O’Connor
CAPITOL, 1997
Her near-perfect cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” casts a long shadow, but her broad talent also gave rise to the punky “Mandinka” and a straight version of “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.”
Standout track: “Nothing Compares 2 U”

PAVEMENT
Slanted and Enchanted
MATADOR, 1992
Sonic Youth set the tone for American indie-rock in the ’90s, but Pavement focused that fuzz into pop songs you could hum all the way home. They made irony sound sincere, and proved that guitar bands could be samplers too.
Standout track: “Summer Babe (Winter Version)”

PAVEMENT
Crooked Rain Crooked Rain
MATADOR, 1994
Throwing off the Fall comparisons, Pavement seem prematurely jaded (“Cut Your Hair,” “Range Life” and “Gold Soundz” all address the music industry), while their sound whoops it up, taking ever more eclectic shapes. Oh, the irony.
Standout track: “Cut Your Hair”

PET SHOP BOYS
Discography: The Complete Singles Collection
EMI AMERICA, 1991
Understatedly camp and sophisticatedly danceable, English duo Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe convey urban romance in a deadpan verse, an aching chorus and an arched eyebrow.
Standout track: “It’s a Sin”

PET SHOP BOYS
Very
CAPITOL, 1993
Here they are: the Smiths you can dance to, with their most thoughtfully upbeat album yet. Songs about Princess Diana (“Dreaming of the Queen”) and touring (“Yesterday When I Was Mad”), plus a yearning cover of the Village People’s “Go West.”
Standout track: “Go West”

LIZ PHAIR
Exile in Guyville
MATADOR, 1993
Phair’s debut was intended as a song-by-song riposte to the Stones’ Exile On Main Street. The concept isn’t fully realized, but the ambition and intelligence it implies give rise to a startling record, boosted by both its admirable musical scope and taboo-busting lyrics.
Standout track: “Never Said”

PIXIES
Doolittle
4AD/ELEKTRA, 1989
It took a couple of tries to get the Pixies’ mix of surf riffs, cryptic poetics, off-kilter rhythms and power-chord surges just right, but on Doolittle everything came together like it never would again. A touchstone of the American indie-rock underground.
Standout track: “Monkey Gone to Heaven”

PIXIES
Bossanova
4AD/ELEKTRA, 1990
The indie titans’ third proper album, and the most reflective of songwriter Black Francis’s West Coast surf rock, Bossanova comes on like a David Lynch version of a sci-fi B-movie: all fetish girls and alien abductions. It’s no Doolittle, but then again, few records are.
Standout track: “Dig for Fire”

THE POGUES
Rum, Sodomy & the Lash
WARNER BROS., 1985
This booze-fueled folk-rock band was once one of the planet’s wildest live acts. Producer Elvis Costello not only captures the madness on disc but showcases singer Shane MacGowan’s songs of desperate romance. Then marries the bassist.
Standout track: “A Pair of Brown Eyes”

THE POLICE
Outlandos D’Amour
A&M;, 1978
Three classy prog and jazz-rock musicians grapple punk and reggae, and win. Their fighting friendship produces terrific, spacious trio dynamics splattered with raging frustration. All this and one of rock’s finest monologues about a blowup sex doll.
Standout track: “Roxanne”

THE POLICE
Zenyatta Mondatta
A&M;, 1980
White-boy reggae that works. From throwaway pop (“De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da”) to political sloganeering (“Driven to Tears”), the Police show here that they can do both equally effectively, thanks in no small part to Sting’s sensational voice.
Standout track: “Don’t Stand So Close to Me”

PRETENDERS
Pretenders
SIRE, 1979
Ohio’s Chrissie Hynde was part of the same London circle as the Sex Pistols, but her band’s debut proved she was no punk. The Pretenders’ calling card was a new kind of classic rock: virtuosic, deeply commercial and full of Hynde’s alluring sass.
Standout track: “Brass in Pocket”

PRETENDERS
Learning to Crawl
SIRE, 1984
It was always a struggle between Hynde the leathery rocker and Chrissie the SIREn of heartbreak. On their third album, she achieves a fine balance, song after song hitting where you live. Posterity might settle for the soft center over the hard nut.
Standout track: “Middle of the Road”

THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS
Talk Talk Talk
COLUMBIA, 1981
Richard Butler would soon move to New York, and on this, the Furs’ second album, the Brit’s Americanization begins. Includes plenty of sexual energy (“Into You Like a Train,” indeed) and lyrical dexterity (“Pretty in Pink”).
Standout track: “Pretty in Pink”

PULP
Different Class
ISLAND, 1995
Parochial English pop’s mid-’90s heyday offered a batch of records obsessed with social class. Pulp’s was the funniest, on which single mothers and rich slummers interact against a shabby backdrop of thrift-store glam-pop. Strangely, still compelling.
Standout track: “Common People”

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE
Rated R
INTERSCOPE, 2000
An opening song that listed favored drugs was bound to cause a stir, but Rated R is more than a cheap gag. Expansive and even fuzzily mellow at times, the motto here is “people who mash their brains will sometimes make great music.”
Standout track: “Feel Good Hit of the Summer”

RADIOHEAD
The Bends
CAPITOL, 1995
“Creep” had turned them into a 10-legged karaoke machine, but The Bends showed that Radiohead were in it for the long haul. Thom Yorke’s paranoid, anti-modern worldview dominated, especially in the rattling title track and the plaintive beauty of “Fake Plastic Trees.”
Standout track: “Fake Plastic Trees”

RADIOHEAD
OK Computer
CAPITOL, 1997
The world still hopes they can match it, but Radiohead’s third album left ’90s guitar rock behind three years before the new decade. By turns angry, paranoid and stunningly beautiful, it’s a masterpiece capable of competing with rock’s greatest moments.
Standout track: “Karma Police”

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
Evil Empire
EPIC, 1996
A very, very angry album indeed from a band of Los Angeles oddballs dedicated to holding up a mirror to America while rocking like bastards. An odd combination, like Jell-O and burgers, but it’s amazingly potent all the same. Listen with a straitjacket.
Standout track: “Bulls On Parade”

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS
BloodSugarSexMagik
WARNER BROS., 1991
Where the once-merry pranksters move into something more interesting than whitey funk. Flea’s twanging bass still abounds, but here it’s allied to real songs, and suddenly the band outgrows its socks-on-cocks persona.
Standout track: “Under the Bridge”

LOU REED
Legendary
BMG INTERNATIONAL, 2002
Exhaustive overview of the former Louis Firbank, the quirks (not enough Berlin, but the wretched “I Love You Suzanne” is here) outweighed by the itchy delights. As one of Reed’s fellow New Yorkers once noted, too much of a good thing can be wonderful.
Standout track: “Perfect Day”

STEVE REICH
Music for 18 Musicians
RCA, 1978
With its shimmering waves of strings, marimbas, vocals and clarinets, the rhythmically intoxicating Music for 18 Musicians sounds more like art-rock than avant-garde classical music. Radical in its day, it influenced Brian Eno and put minimalism on the map.
Standout track: “Pulses”

R.E.M.
Murmur
I.R.S., 1983
Embracing the Byrds’ jangle until it became as blurry as the album’s cover and aping Patti Smith’s poetic punk vision, R.E.M.’s impossibly enigmatic debut effectively spawned college rock. While remaining of its time, it has aged impressively well.
Standout track: “Radio Free Europe”

R.E.M.
Document
I.R.S., 1987
The first indication that R.E.M. were mainstream contenders, particularly with the Dylan-cribbing “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” and the out-and-out pop of “The One I Love.” Their breakthrough.
Standout track: “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”

R.E.M.
Automatic for the People
WARNER BROS., 1992
Twinned with its predecessor, Out of Time, this shows the foursome peaking mid-career with lush tunes long on reflection, Andy Kaufman name-checks and half-submerged hooks that grab the thinking rocker’s sensitive underbelly.
Standout track: “Man On the Moon”

THE REPLACEMENTS
Let It Be
TWIN/TONE, 1984
College rawk (a poker-faced Kiss cover) plus college rock (cue mandolins), plus Paul Westerberg embracing the fact that misery loves melody: 11 songs that seemed destined to fill up a stadium. Scandalously, it never happened.
Standout track: “I Will Dare”

TERRY RILEY
In C
CBS, 1968
An ensemble of musicians weaves through 53 cyclic repetitions, creating a spontaneous pulse lasting 42 minutes. This pioneering piece of minimalism resurfaced in the synthesizer loop driving the Who’s “Baba O’Riley” and hovers above today’s techno.
Standout track: It’s all one track

ROXY MUSIC
Avalon
WARNER BROS., 1982
The reconvened Roxy Music of the early ’80s were far removed from the art-school dilettantes of Brian Eno’s day. But their later music had its own languorous, sexy, exquisite melancholy. Avalon is the acme of this style, and practically removes brassieres by itself.
Standout track: “More Than This”

ROXY MUSIC
The Best of Roxy Music
VIRGIN, 2001
Stitching together their two careers — ’70s art-rockers, dapper ’80s pop band — this cleverly runs the songs in reverse chronological order: Bryan Ferry and band begin as chart-friendly lounge lizards before slowly and wonderfully weirding out.
Standout track: “Virginia Plain”


SEX PISTOLS
Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols
WARNER BROS., 1977
Ferocious, sneering anger seeps through every minute of this cast-iron classic. It’s not musically innovative — the pub-rock roots of Steve Jones’s guitar playing are plain — but Johnny Rotten’s spiteful vocals still inspire fear.
Standout track: “Anarchy in the U.K.”

SLAYER
Reign in Blood
DEF AMERICAN, 1986
Bile spews out at ferocious speed, which was just the way these heshers wanted it. Produced by Rick Rubin for maximum noise and maximum shock value, it achieved its aim with ruthless efficiency. For moments when you want a musical assault course.
Standout track: “Angel of Death”

SLEATER-KINNEY
Dig Me Out
KILL ROCK STARS, 1997
This post–riot grrrl Olympia, Washington, trio delivers vital, mood-swinging guitars plus lovelorn indie-girl fretting par excellence. And it’s that spoonful of New Wave sugar that helps the gender-agenda medicine go down.
Standout track: “Words & Guitar”

THE SMASHING PUMPKINS
Greatest Hits
VIRGIN, 2001
On an album as expansive as Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness, the Pumpkins’ gothic neo–prog rock paled. Here, however, they’re delightfully accessible, helped by Billy Corgan’s underrated ability to write accomplished pop music.
Standout track: “1979”

THE SMITHS
Singles
REPRISE, 1995
Arguably the greatest British singles band of the ’80s. From the sublime (“How Soon Is Now?”) to the faintly ridiculous (“There Is a Light That Never Goes Out”), these 45s remain some of the most intoxicating and original songs committed to vinyl.
Standout track: “How Soon Is Now?”

SONIC YOUTH
Daydream Nation
GEFFEN, 1988
The crucial transition for the still-insular New York outfit: the point at which melodies coalesce amid the primordial noise of the Lee Ranaldo/ Thurston Moore guitar assault, and sex shimmers in the shadows of Kim Gordon’s bass throb.
Standout track: “Teen Age Riot”

SONIC YOUTH
Dirty
GEFFEN, 1992
With shorter songs, punchier riffs and production from Nevermind’s Butch Vig, Dirty found New York’s artiest dealing with the alt-rock scene they fathered while trying to be a part of it. An enthusiastic grope at commercial success, and as grungy as they got.
Standout track: “Sugar Kane”

THE SPECIALS
Singles
2-TONE/CHRYSALIS, 1991
In the wake of the Clash’s punk-reggae fusion, these fellow Brits prove that the combination is a winner. Lyrically, they bemoan England’s late-’70s drabness. Strange, then, that they were the inspiration for the happy-happy late-’90s ska craze.
Standout track: “Ghost Town”

THE STROKES
Is This It
RCA, 2001
They look so right, it’s almost a surprise to discover that New York’s future (and past) of rock sound just as good. Angular riffs, lo-fi production and Julian Casablancas’s studiously bored vocals make for a short, spiky, brilliant debut. Their imitators are already among us.
Standout track: “Hard to Explain”

SYSTEM OF A DOWN
Toxicity
AMERICAN, 2001
Serj Tankian, surely one of rock’s most extraordinary voices, is just one of many reasons why these Armenian-Americans soar above their nü-metal contemporaries. Toxicity sets standards of musicianship, depth of thought and political awareness.
Standout track: “Chop Suey!”

TRICKY
Maxinquaye
POLYGRAM, 1995
Brooding trip-hop from its finest practitioner. The whispered “Hell Is Around the Corner” succeeds in being both soothing and unsettling, while the propulsive cover of Public Enemy’s “Black Steel” twists the original into something thrilling and unrecognizable.
Standout track: “Black Steel”

U2
Boy
ISLAND, 1980
U2’s debut still bursts out of the speakers with vitality and originality, twinning the Edge’s minimalist guitar figures with Bono’s shamelessly impassioned vocals. Wide-eyed wonder and skyscraping ambition: In many ways, U2 would never stray far from Boy’s blueprint.
Standout track: “I Will Follow”

U2
The Joshua Tree
ISLAND, 1987
Their first American chart-topper saw U2 slide away from chest-beating toward softened atmospheres and worldly politics. That there is no “best” U2 album is to their credit, yet The Joshua Tree is an anchor for a band who remain engagingly adrift.
Standout track: “With or Without You”

U2
Achtung Baby
ISLAND, 1991
Or: how U2 got modern. Ditching their obsession with Americana to embrace European electronic and dance vibes should have been embarrassing for Bono and crew. But not a bit of it is. Beautifully produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, it’s an inspiring mid-career shift.
Standout track: “One”

U2
All That You Can’t Leave Behind
INTERSCOPE, 2000
With this album’s predecessor, Pop, U2 started sliding down to the recesses of their own irony, a trip their fans hesitated to share. Here U2 successfully reapply for their old jobs with their most sincerely uplifting album.
Standout track: “Beautiful Day”

VARIOUS ARTISTS
24 Hour Party People — Original Soundtrack
RHINO, 2002
From 1977, Manchester was Britain’s most significant musical wellspring, and this soundtrack takes in both the local legends and the stuff that inspired them.
Standout track: Joy Division, “Love Will Tear Us Apart”

VARIOUS ARTISTS
The Best Bootlegs in the World Ever
NO LABEL, 2002
Bedroom PC pirates play Dr. Frankenstein, splicing pop vocals with instrumentals until Eminem fronts Depeche Mode, Beyoncé sings Nirvana and “Get Ur Freak On” turns metal.
Standout track: Freelance Hellraiser, “A Stroke of Genius”

VIOLENT FEMMES
Violent Femmes
SLASH/RHINO, 1983
Geeky on the outside, twisted but (sort of) religious on the inside, there was nobody quite like Milwaukee’s Violent Femmes. Gordon Gano’s whiny voice simply makes things stranger. Alas, they never bettered this tuneful debut, but what a start.
Standout track: “Blister in the Sun”

TOM WAITS
Beautiful Maladies: The Island Years
ISLAND, 1998
The world awaits a compilation bringing Waits’s ISLAND output together with his earlier Asylum period, but this illuminates most of the darker corners of the human psyche via his classic songwriting and avant-garde doodling.
Standout track: “Downtown Train”

WEEZER
Weezer
GEFFEN, 1994
Absolute geek-rock, out and proud. Mistakenly reviled by hipsters and critics at the time as mainstream Pavement, “the blue record” has become a touchstone for smart kids who had trouble talking to girls and loved power-pop guitars that played metal riffs for laughs.
Standout track: “Buddy Holly”

THE WHITE STRIPES
White Blood Cells
SYMPATHY FOR THE RECORD INDUSTRY/V2, 2001
Husband/wife preachers of the primal power of rock & roll, Jack and Meg White even thought a bass player unnecessary, and the potency of this third album proves that three would have been a crowd.
Standout track: “Fell in Love With a Girl”


WILCO
Summerteeth
REPRISE, 1999
With 2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco took a sharp left turn, but its predecessor found them making more accessible music: melody-strewn delights that made reference to Big Star and the Beach Boys. It’s arguably a shame that the fun didn’t continue.
Standout track: “I’m Always in Love”

WIRE
Pink Flag
RESTLESS, 1977
Wire were the British pioneers of art-punk, and their angular, unsettling songs often did their work in little more than a minute. A quarter-century on, their debut still sounds contemporary: Those who adore the Strokes will find much to please them here.
Standout track: “Three Girl Rhumba”

X
Wild Gift
SLASH, 1981
On the Los Angeles punk band’s seedy second album, junk-store poets Exene Cervenka and John Doe mine their relationship for perfect deadpan melodrama, set to a ’65 Rolling Stones backbeat. Marital stress has never sounded so romantic.
Standout track: “Beyond and Back”

X-RAY SPEX
Germ Free Adolescents
SANCTUARY, 1979
Obsessed with the modern world and plastic in all its forms, Poly Styrene was one of punk’s most intriguing bandleaders. X-Ray Spex back her witty, phlegm-laden singing here with British punk’s most cartoony riffing.
Standout track: “The Day the World Turned Day-Glo”

XTC
Fossil Fuel: The XTC Singles 1977–92
VIRGIN/EMI, 1996
Although they emerged from the tumult of U.K. punk, XTC inherited a tradition of English eccentricity from the Kinks, early Pink Floyd and psychedelic-era Beatles. This cream of their output justifies such comparisons.
Standout track: “Senses Working Overtime”

YO LA TENGOElectr-O-Pura
MATADOR, 1995
Yo La Tengo perfect epic indie-rock on Electr-O-Pura. Guitarist Ira Kaplan and his wife, drummer Georgia Hubley, had already demonstrated their pop chops, but here they build melodies into intense climaxes, ably aided by the occasional lyrical gem.
Standout track: “Tom Courtenay”