June 1985 offered up so much great music that we could have listed a dozen or more albums that made an impressive mark. For example, we had to leave hit albums by A-Ha, Heart, Mr. Mister, Corey Hart, and Mötley Crüe off this list for lack of space.
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Instead, we went with five albums that, in some cases, didn’t hit the charts with the same impact as the ones we mentioned above. But we’re guessing that they’re still spinning on a ton of turntables today, 40 years after their release.
‘Fables Of The Reconstruction’ by R.E.M.
The Georgia quartet kept their impressive career-opening hot streak intact with their third album. Churning guitars and locomotive rhythms propel the bulk of the songs. Michael Stipe’s lyrics are at their most inscrutably compelling on tracks like “Can’t Get There From Here” and “Driver 8”. Just when you think you have this album pegged as a somewhat unrelenting rush, the band drops two off-kilter but quite touching ballads at the end of the line in “Good Advices” and “Wendell Gee”. Even as they were inspiring lo-fi bands everywhere with their approach, R.E.M were setting an unreachable standard with albums like this.
‘Little Creatures’ by Talking Heads
On the one hand, this album departs from the Talking Heads of previous critical triumphs like Remain In Light. Unlike those earlier records, the band didn’t work this material up from scratch together. Instead, David Byrne came in with demos of most of the tracks. The band had to work their way into them. You sacrifice a little bit of weirdness and rhythmic spark in the tradeoff. But you also get Talking Heads at their most accessible, as they try on everything from country (“Creatures Of Love”) to baroque pop (“And She Was”). The album also wins points for “Road To Nowhere”, a colossal closing track best described as galloping apocalyptic gospel.
‘Empire Burlesque’ by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan’s most underrated album? There’s not enough space to debate that here. But we’re here to contend that Empire Burlesque gets unnecessary grief for its era-friendly production techniques. If you can put that aside, you end up with perhaps Dylan’s best collection of songs since Desire. He hits in straightforward fashion on the ballads “I’ll Remember You” and “Emotionally Yours”. “Clean Cut Kid” is wonderfully idiosyncratic, while “Tight Connection To My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love)” should have been a hit. To top it off, there’s a haunting closer in “Dark Eyes” that brings him back to the acoustic confessional days of the 60s.
‘The Dream Of The Blue Turtles’ by Sting
Having conquered the rock world with The Police, Sting decided to take a somewhat drastic turn on his first solo album. Much of The Dream Of The Blue Turtles traffics in jazz-oriented song structures. The fact that he employed Branford Marsalis as a crucial instrumentalist should tell you all you need to know about where Sting’s head was at. That said, his pop sense hadn’t departed him. And you get to hear a lighter side of him on tracks like “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free” and “Love Is The Seventh Wave”. That allows him to get into his brooding comfort zone on tracks like “The Russians” and “Fortress Around Your Heart” without it seeming like overkill.
‘Boys And Girls’ by Bryan Ferry
Ferry decided that Roxy Music had run its course in 1983. That made this more of an official solo debut, even though he’d already recorded several albums under his own name by that point. Around the time he released the record, bands were popping up everywhere playing the sophisti-pop that Ferry had mastered on the last few Roxy albums. Boys And Girls proved that the innovator of that style could still bring it better than any of the followers. “Slave To Love” stands out as the slinky, romantic hit. Meanwhile, spikier, more elusive tracks like “Sensation” and the title cut prove just as captivating.
Photo by Anton Corbijn/Courtesy of the Songwriters Hall of Fame
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