#40 "New Day Rising" - Husker Du
Not surprised at all to see this have such a high standard deviation. The harsh instrumentation and packed production make this one an all-out audio assault of punk noise. I found it exhilarating and intense. Others clearly found it unbearable.
#39 "Cry" - Godley & Creme
Just something... "off" about this track to me. The mood here is unsettling, and I'm not sure if it's supposed to be. I ranked it low out of confusion as much as anything else.
#38 "Johnny Come Home" - Fine Young Cannibals
The band was closer to their English Beat roots on this track compared to the more pop-driven hits they would drop a few years down the road. Roland Gift has a very unique voice and singing style (in a good way) and the band settles into a good groove here.
#37 "Skills Of Summer" - Wire Train
Reminds me of a bit of Simple Minds in that it combines '80 alternative with radio ready pop hooks. I like the sheen of the guitar tone here and that chorus is one of the strongest in this countdown in my opinion.
#36 "Would I Lie To You?" - Eurythmics
The band made their shift to R&B influenced pop music work out on this song. Whereas Ball and Chain felt flat and repetitive, this song has a strong beat and some solid vocals from Annie Lennox.
#35 "Whole Of The Moon" - Waterboys
I was thinking this one had a shot at the top 20, but looks like I'll have to settle for top half. While the production has its issues - the synths here sound more intrusive than anything - the wide-open soundscape provides the perfect backdrop for Mike Scott's excellent songwriting. He's got a real talent for making grand, sweeping songs feel intimate and personal. This was the biggest and arguably best hit of their '80 alternative era. The band would depart to more folksky waters on their next album.
#34 "Can't Get There From Here" - REM
Looking back, I may have been a bit too hard on this one. It didn't make a great first (or second) impression, but after a few more listens, that chorus did get pretty catchy. While I still don't love it, it'll be getting a higher finish from me in the mainstream rock countdown, although some of that boost is probably from competition level. Personally, I much preferred their other hit.
#33 "Perfect Way" - Scritti Politti
Not a huge fan of the vocals on this track, but that's not the main reason it's down here. This is one of those tracks that just kind of gradually sank down below marginally better tracks as I was ranking.
#32 "Vicious Games" - Yello
Quirky, but in a much different way than their other big hit. It's a little on the repetitive side, but it packs plenty of interesting atmosphere and an addictive beat. The few vocal bits enhance things as well.
#31 "Lay Your Hands On Me" - Thompson Twins
I'm not a big fan of this group, at least not from the admittedly small sample size of music I've heard from them. This was an alright synth-pop track, nothing more or less.
#30 "Road To Nowhere" - Talking Heads
I'm definitely agreeing with the order of these Talking Heads tracks. Much like Stay Up Late, Talking Heads went all in for David Byrne quirkiness, but he delivers much better results this time around. The marching drums certainly feel appropriate for traveling a road to nowhere.
#29 "Appetite" - Prefab Sprout
I guess I just like my sophisti-pop to be more uptempo. Still though, I liked this one better than my rating indicated; it's got a suave sway to it that I can get into.
#28 "Be Near Me" - ABC
The band's production work is great as usual, and the hooks here elevate this song to heights that "Tower of London" didn't reach. I love the keyboard and piano sound on this song.
#27 "When Love Breaks Down" - Prefab Sprout
I criticized the band's other song for being a bit low-tempo for my tastes, but they make up for it here with an excellent sense of ebb and flow between the verses and chorus. I kept expecting the song to go into some big, more explosive chorus (guess I'd been listening to too much stadium rock/AOR for the mainstream rankdown) but instead, the band kept things relatively subdued and managed the tempo and dynamics of the piece very carefully. Very effective subtle songwriting here.
#26 "Money For Nothing" - Dire Straits
Bruh if Paul Buchanan's singing is "tuneless warbling" then where does that leave Mark Knopfler who sounds like a f**king caveman on anesthetics
Maybe tuneless warbling was too harsh, but I just didn't care a whole lot for his vocals on that track - I'm not too familiar with Blue Niles' music in general. As for Mark Knopfler... honestly I don't have any strong feelings one way or the other about his vocals. His range is certainly limited, but I don't find it distracting. Then again, my taste in vocals can admittedly get inconsistent; for example, I'm fine with Lou Reed and Kevin Rowland and usually okay with Bob Dylan, yet I can't stand Van Morrison and find Bryan Ferry a bit too eccentric at times. At any rate, my ranking for Money for Nothing had little to do with Knopfler vocals and a lot to do with Knopfler riffs. I don't know what it is, but this track's guitar riff keeps me hooked for the entire runtime, and the backing vocals from Sting and the stabs of keyboard give the song variety it needs to stay engaging for its runtime. The fact that the band could write a catchy chorus about repairing house appliances is also pretty impressive.
#25 "Fortress Around Your Heart" - Sting
Sting was fresh out of The Police at this point, and you can still feel a bit of the band's later sound lingering around on this solo album. The guitar sound here is nice, the chord progression in the verses are interesting, and I like Sting's vocals in the chorus.
#24 "Makes No Sense At All" - Husker Du
It's still harsh and packed full but much more melodic than their other piece. Great punk energy here.
#23 "Slave To Love" - Bryan Ferry
Despite having just criticized Bryan Ferry a few reviews ago, I have to say that he sounds fine here. I found the verse music too uneventful on my first pass of the song, but the chorus eventually won me over and elevated this one out of my tank.
#22 "Things Can Only Get Better" - Howard Jones
I didn't think I'd ranked this one so high, but it's a fun slice of synth-pop, so I don't have any regrets.
#21 "Bad" (live) - U2
Took me a long time to rank this one. It's filled with plenty of expected U2-isms, which makes it a bit predictable, but U2 was doing well enough during this era for even their average songs to be solid.