Round the List

The final part of the countdown of alternative album titans salutes the undeniable masterpieces of the form. Part One:  http://roundthelist.blogspot.com/2021/06/my-little-underground-30-essential.html?m=1 Part Two:  http://roundthelist.blogspot.com/2021/07/my-little-underground-30-essential.html?m=1 10 TALKING HEADS Remain in Light (1980) If you had to choose one word to describe Talking Heads’ astonishing Remain in Light it would be hyperactive. From the first second to the last, the plethora of ideas, both musical and lyrical, that pours out of every beat is dizzying and dazzling in equal measure. Never a band to stand still stylistically, David Byrne’s New Wave innovators took a giant leap forward by introducing techniques and motifs from Afrobeat into their eccentric melange of post-punk art rock and linguistic Dada. Making electrifying use of dense polyrhythms to generate a relentless energy and skittish unpredictability, Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On), the mesmerising The

From Mancunian racket to Californian slackers, here’s part two of the rundown of essential alternative music albums since 1980. Part One:  http://roundthelist.blogspot.com/2021/06/my-little-underground-30-essential.html?m=1 Part Three:  http://roundthelist.blogspot.com/2021/07/my-little-underground-30-essential_11.html?m=1 20 HUSKER DU Zen Arcade (1984) In 1984, Husker Du, the darlings of the loud, fast, visceral US Hardcore scene, did the unthinkable and released a concept double album. As every frustrated teen growing up in Reagan’s America knew, grandiose rock operas were the preserve of the bloated corporate rock mainstream and complete anathema to a musical movement that prized brevity and power over grand overarching storytelling arcs. And yet, remarkably, Zen Arcade became a (relative) hit for indie label SST and still stands as the Minnesota trio’s finest hour and seven minutes. Ostensibly the bleak tale of a disaffected youth who leaves his broken home to find himself in the w